Archive for September, 2010
A lot of people don’t realize it, but there is a huge difference between passive and non-passive income. With non-passive income, the second you stop working, the money stops coming in. With passive, you can do whatever you want and the money keeps on coming.
Most people have the “job mentality.” In other words, they believe you always have to work to make money. Nothing could be further from the truth. Money is only half the equation. The other half is time. Somebody who is making one hundred dollars a year and works eighty hours a week is much less powerful than someone who makes the same amount but only works four hours a week. This is because the second person has far more time to be able to spend their money. So passive income should be the goal. This will free up your so you can spend it living your dreams, instead of doing mandatory income-producing work.
What’s the best passive income strategy? There are a number that work. Here are three of the best:
#1) Stock investing
This is one of the most famous examples of passive income. Here you simply invest a certain amount of money in stocks. All the profit that comes from that is achieved entirely without effort. However, not all stock investing is passive. For instance, day trading requires you to constantly be buying and selling to earn money. Fundamental analysis does not. This is where you invest with the intention of holding that investment for a long time period. It requires much less effort, and is therefore more conducive to the passive income goal.
#2) Real estate investing
Some forms of real estate investing are better for passive income than others. Renting is the way to go if you want your money to work for you. This is where you would buy some property with financing. As long as you can rent it out for more than you are paying per month, that’s a long-term passive income stream. Then you just keep finding more properties. Flipping is similar to day trading. This is because the only way to keep earning is to continually find more houses to sell. That’s why renting is the best passive income strategy.
#3) Online marketing
The internet is hands down the best place to get passive income. Why? This is because there are so many different ways to achieve it. Think about it: once you find a profitable steam of traffic, you just set it and forget it. That will continue making you money indefinitely. What’s the best way to make money online? It really doesn’t matter what strategy you use, because there are many ways to make passive income. This could be from Google AdSense, affiliate marketing, drop-shipping, selling information products, and so on.
So as you can see, there are a number of ways to make money without lifting a finger. All these methods will require some effort at first. However, as long as you are willing to put forth the initial work, you will benefit for years to come. It’s much smarter to spend your time now investing for the future than to look for the quick buck now, and have nothing down the road.
Deanna Maio, Business Development Strategist & Speaker, teaches women business owners how to grow their business significantly while still having time to live a great life. For FREE tips on how to get more results without working harder, attract more clients, and grow your profits, visit http://www.savvygals.com/
How do you have a successful opt-in email campaign? There are a number of strategies that work. However, here’s a common question: Should you focus on the sale or the opt-in? It’s well known that the vast majority of people won’t buy from you on the first contact. It takes multiple tries. For this reason, your main focus should probably be getting them on your list. So how do you get people on your list, and then convert them to paying customers? Here are two tips that work:
#1) Have a “squeeze page”
Having an opt-in page means that nobody but your most serious customers will see your sales page. Some have even seen great success with double opt-in rates. The problem with putting the opt-in form on the sales page is that it doesn’t require anybody to sign up for your list. Therefore, you are losing a good amount of potential subscribers. Since most people won’t buy until you’ve contacted them multiple times, you are likely leaving money on the table. So the key is to test a number of formats first, and see what works the best. Whichever format pulls the best response is the one you want to keep. Then you can start focusing on driving a lot of traffic. Focus on conversions first, and then getting the traffic. Many people do it the other way around, but this is less likely to be successful.
#2) Give good information
It’s not enough to just get people on your list. You also want to make sure you have an effective auto-responder. In other words, it should be one that converts your prospects to paying customers. How do you achieve that? One thing that often works is to give away a certain number of steps for free. For instance, there might be five steps separating your prospect from the main result they want to achieve. You might give away two or three for free, and then leave the remainder for the product itself. Of course, this would only work with an information product. However, no matter what you are selling, if you focus on educating your customers, profits will be the inevitable results. Be generous. Many people don’t want to give away any good information for free. They think that if they do, people won’t pay for the product. However, the more free value you can create, the more you are going to wet the customers’ appetite for the paid product. If they take action on the first few steps and see good results, they are going to be chomping at the bit to get the whole story. However, if they get no positive results from your free information, they aren’t going to be very motivated to buy the paid product. There is probably nothing better you can do for your business than have an auto-responder.
Implement these two tips, and you will see great results shortly.
Deanna Maio, Business Development Strategist & Speaker, teaches women business owners how to grow their business significantly while still having time to live a great life. For FREE tips on how to get more results without working harder, attract more clients, and grow your profits, visit http://www.savvygals.com/
It's no secret that work life can be stressful, especially for entrepreneurs who are often solely responsible for their own and their family's livelihood. When stressful business situations arise, a few simple steps can keep the stress at bay and help you keep your cool.
First, identify the source of your stress. Are you worried primarily about a rude email you have just received, or about the presentation you have due tomorrow? Try to pinpoint what is really bothering you.
Next, choose your response. Even if you are powerless to change the source of your stress, you can choose how to respond to it. You can face it head on or ignore it, depending on the answers to several questions:
- Does it matter? A potential bankruptcy could haunt you for years, but you will soon forget about the idiot who cut you off in traffic. Consider how much the stressor will affect you in the long term.
- How much control do you have over the situation? You cannot control a traffic jam that's causing you to miss your meeting, but you can control the quality of the report you're writing.
- Is the stress's source in the past, present, or future? Let go of stressors rooted in the past, respond to present stressors, and prepare for future ones.
If the situation is beyond your control, you need to find ways to shake it off. Try one or several of these calming methods:
- Practice deep-breathing exercises: inhale deeply through your nose, count to five, and exhale slowly as you again count to five. Repeat until the pattern feels comfortable.
- Redirect your thoughts: think about something that makes you happy, such as your family or a vacation you have planned. Or concentrate on your plans for the day.
- Visualize relaxing things: imagine a beautiful beach or mountain view. Picture even minor details of the scene, and imagine yourself there.
- Escape the source: If you can, put physical distance between yourself and the stressor. Go somewhere else to gather your thoughts and put things in perspective.
- Get some exercise. Take 10-20 minutes to run, stretch, do calisthenics or yoga, or simply to walk around. Go outdoors if you can. Getting plenty of exercise can help you respond better to stress in the long term, too.
Now when you're finally ready, face your stress head on. Procrastinating will only prolong or intensify your stress. Facing it is the only way to shake it off or resolve the situation. If you can change the situation, overcome your fear by taking action as quickly as possible. If you feel paralyzed, start first by making a plan for tackling the situation. Include attainable goals and a time line for reaching them. Then take them on - one step at a time.
If your stress continues because you cannot seem to achieve your goals, revise your plan and lower your expectations. If you can't, the situation falls into the uncontrollable category. Learn from your experience and let it go.
Most important in alleviating or avoiding stress is looking at the big picture. When you find yourself getting bogged down in the negative details, take a step back and think about what really matters: your family, your faith, and other intangibles you value. A broader perspective will reveal how little a daily stressor really matters in the grand scheme of life.
Deanna Maio, Business Development Strategist & Speaker, teaches women business owners how to grow their business significantly while still having time to live a great life. For FREE tips on how to get more results without working harder, attract more clients, and grow your profits, visit http://www.savvygals.com/
Let’s face it; networking is very important for having a profitable business. It’s hard to make money without having good relationships with other businesses. This will help you benefit from each other’s customers. Many people have the mistaken idea that you shouldn’t do business with your competitors. While it is true that some amount of competition is necessary, you are unlikely to achieve your full potential without joint venture partners. And the only way to get them is to network. However, networking isn’t just for getting JV partners. You need it to get customers as well. The reason social networking sites are so effective for businesses is that they enable businesses to connect with their customers much more easily. So how do you find new customers and JV partner through networking?
First, here are two tips to help you use networking to get more customers:
#1) Show you care
“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”. The businesses that make money are those that provide a valuable service. Get-rich-quick schemes don’t work because the focus is on making money, and not helping others. When you really want to help others, money is usually the inevitable result. People can immediately tell the difference between somebody who’s just in it for the profit, and somebody who wants to make a difference.
#2) Give free advice
This is one of the best ways to show you care and generate interest in your product. Often times, the more free information you provide, the more you will sell of your product. Some of the most successful product launches have been done by giving away lots of free advice. This might seem counter-intuitive. After all, shouldn’t you save your best information for the product? While it is true you can’t give everything away, you need to provide a lot of good information. This is how people decide whether to buy from you or not. If your free information isn’t that good, they will assume your paid information must not be great either. Where should you give free advice? There are many places online you can become active. Forums and blogs are great examples of social networking sites where you can give away lots of free information. Don’t just look for a one-way link. Instead, genuinely aim to contribute value to the site, without seeking any benefit in return. So the above two tips involve networking for finding customers. However, what if your aim is to find JV partners? Here are two tips to help you achieve that:
#3) Explain benefits
You want to clearly demonstrate how you can benefit the other business owner. If you come across as needy, and that you need them more than they need you, you won’t be very successful finding JV partners. Instead, explain why they would benefit from doing business with you. For instance, if you have a list of fifty thousand customers eager to buy, say that! Always put your best foot forward.
#4) Get offline!
While the internet is a great way to meet potential JV partners, offline offers a lot of opportunity as well. And many internet marketers ignore it because they are so focused on the internet. Attend seminars, and join organizations and associations related to you business. Here you will meet potential JV partners, while learning at the same time.
The bottom line is, networking is crucial. Implement these tips, and your profits can increase dramatically.
Deanna Maio, Business Development Strategist & Speaker, teaches women business owners how to grow their business significantly while still having time to live a great life. For FREE tips on how to get more results without working harder, attract more clients, and grow your profits, visit http://www.savvygals.com/
If you’re like the hundreds of thousands of online business owners, you are using the social networking tool, Twitter, to connect with your prospects in a new and beneficial way. However, like many business owners you’re busy and social networking can consume a large amount of your precious time. This is where TweetLater can come in handy.
What Is TweetLater?
TweetLater is a social networking tool that helps you manage your social networking time. It’s now known as SocialOomph. It enables you to:
- Schedule your tweets in advance
- Send welcome messages to new users who follow you
- Draft tweets offline
- Automate the following process
- Create a status feed
- Manage unlimited Twitter accounts from one location
- Track keywords on Twitter
- Add your blog RSS feed for automatic updates
- Shorten URLs
- Track clicks
And unlike many other Twitter applications, there is a free option and a paid “professional” option that costs $29.97 a month. There’s a free trial period if you’re interested in checking out the professional option.
So How Does Tweet Later Benefit You?
Because you’re able to create offline drafts, reuse them and schedule your Tweets in advance, you’re really able to create a Twitter campaign. You can plan your tweets in advance and lead followers to the best posts, content, and promotions you have to offer. TweetLater also helps you plan your conversations with other Twitter followers so you can craft well thought out and productive conversations, rather than spur of the moment tweets you may later regret. And TweetLater/SocialOomph enables you to track not only popular keywords, but also your click-through rate so you can fine-tune your Twitter campaign for the best results.
Finally, because time management is an issue for just about everyone, TweetLater enables you to spend a focused amount of time on your Twitter marketing strategy, say 30 minutes a day or 60 minutes once a week, and then set it aside without worrying that you’re missing something or not participating enough. It helps you make sure you focus on the right things at the right time because you’re able to manage your Twitter profiles at any time of the day or night.
Twitter is a growing social networking tool, and business owners can take advantage of its popularity to connect with their prospects and build a larger awareness and a larger audience. Yet, people can spend hours of their valuable time on Twitter thus losing time they could be spending on more profitable tasks. TweetLater/SocialOomph solves this problem. If you’re a Twitterer, consider checking out this valuable time management tool today.
Deanna Maio, Business Development Strategist & Speaker, teaches women business owners how to grow their business significantly while still having time to live a great life. For FREE tips on how to get more results without working harder, attract more clients, and grow your profits, visit http://www.savvygals.com/
How do you improve your networking skills? This is a very important skill to have for business and life in general. Networking is basically having a conversation with others. This is very important, whether your objective is getting a job, a JV partner, or customers. The best example of this is the network marketing industry. If you get on the phone and reel off your sales pitch, you likely won’t do very well. People want to buy from someone who cares about them. They won’t buy from someone whose main objective is to make money for themselves. The same goes for networking. The more you show you care about the other person, the more likely you are to get a satisfactory result yourself.
“It’s not what you know, it’s who.” For instance, if you want to be an author, getting to know other top authors will be very beneficial. This is because they will help promote your book for you. So whether you are looking for a job, JV partner or more customers, being able to network is crucial. How do you improve your networking skills? Fortunately, even if you are introverted, becoming a better networker isn’t that hard. Here are five ways to do it:
#1) Have a plan
If you are going to a trade show or seminar, make sure to figure out what you want to achieve because of it. Do you want to get ten numbers from other business owners? If you are going to be using social networking sites, this is even more important. It can be very tempting to spend the whole day forum browsing instead of getting real work done. So make sure you have a clear objective, or you might find yourself wasting a lot of time.
#2) Know your skills
Nobody is good at everything. Everyone has unique skills. This is what you want to focus on in your interactions with others.
#3) Join the right group
First identify your target person, whether it’s a JV partner, customer or company to work for. Then you need to find out where they will hang out. If you don’t first identify who you are targeting, how will you find them?
#4) Provide tons of value
The more value you provide, the more you get in return. Don’t just expect to show up to a group, contribute nothing, and come out of it with a JV partner. When you focus on helping others with no personal agenda, good things will come out of it.
#5) Have a quick introduction
Make sure you can quickly and accurately explain what you do. It should take no more than half a minute. This is often how long you get to introduce yourself at events, so make sure you can do it proficiently.
The bottom line is, the key to successful networking is to first identify who you want to network with. Once you know that, you just find the best groups, and give a lot of value. If you can do these steps, you will become a very effective marketer quickly.
Deanna Maio, Business Development Strategist & Speaker, teaches women business owners how to grow their business significantly while still having time to live a great life. For FREE tips on how to get more results without working harder, attract more clients, and grow your profits, visit http://www.savvygals.com/
How do you become a motivational speaker? This is one of the best jobs out there. The hours are reasonable, the pay is great, and you can really make a difference. There is nothing like seeing people’s lives changed because of a speech you give. But how do you become a speaker? That’s the hard part. No matter how much you want to make a difference with others, you have to take the right steps. If you do it wrong, you will soon be back at the old nine to five. Here are five tips to make it happen:
#1) Determine your target market
You need to have some topic you are an expert in. This is critical. You aren’t an expert at everything, so picking one particular crowd to focus on is crucial. For instance, you might focus on motivating sales people or business owners.
#2) Take a course
Some speakers actually sell courses on how they became a motivational speaker, and how you can do the same. Why not learn from someone who’s already done it? Otherwise your only path is via trial and error. This will take a long time. By taking a course, you will learn from others and hasten your path to success. These courses will teach you how to do the presentation, and how to market yourself to conference planners beforehand to ensure you get the job.
#3) Promote yourself
The reality is, you have to be more than just a great speaker. More than anything, you have to be able to sell yourself. This will make or break you. The top speakers are not always the ones that get the jobs. Instead, it’s those that can sell themselves the best. Therefore, focus on marketing yourself. Never stop promoting yourself. This might sound selfish. However, it’s the only way to get jobs. You aren’t really in the business of speaking, you are in the business of marketing.
#4) Have a strong back end
Like any business, the real money is in the back end. Most speakers just limit themselves to what they earn for the speech. While this can be a substantial sum, it is nothing compared to what you can make with a good back end. You want to have back of the room products you can sell at every speech you give. Otherwise, your income is going to be limited to how many times you can speak. For this reason, you will probably have to spend a lot of time speaking. However, if you have a strong back end you can earn passive income that keeps earning you money even when you aren’t speaking.
#5) Never stop improving
The main way to measure your success is by determining how much money you make for the speech and the back end. For this reason, continually tweak your speech and test it. You never know what’s going to get the best results, so constantly revising your presentation is how to make more.
The bottom line is, being a motivational speaker is one of the best ways to earn money while making a difference. Hopefully this information will help you get started.
Deanna Maio, Business Development Strategist & Speaker, teaches women business owners how to grow their business significantly while still having time to live a great life. For FREE tips on how to get more results without working harder, attract more clients, and grow your profits, visit http://www.savvygals.com/
When content marketing is a large part - or even a small part - of your business marketing strategy, it pays to learn to write articles fast. With this five-step process you can write educational, value driven, and informative content quickly and easily. Here’s how to write articles fast!
Step #1 - Choose your article topic or keywords and form it into a question.
So for example, let’s say your keywords are “dog training tools” and you want to write an article about dog training tools. These keywords formatted as a question might look like this: “What are the most useful dog training tools?” or “What are the top three dog training tools?” This is an extremely writer-friendly technique because it’s much easier to answer a question quickly and succinctly. And when you perform your keywords search, you’ll often find the phrases are already formatted as questions.
Step #2 - From that question, add three additional questions that relate to your main topic.
For example, * What are the benefits of dog training tools? * Where can you find dog training tools? * How do you choose the right dog training tool?
Step #3 - Answer each question with a four or five sentence answer.
This is where the true writing begins and you’ll find that writing a paragraph, or two, to answer your question is quite easy. The best online content is easy to understand and written conversationally. This question and answer technique facilitates conversational writing. The question and answer format also helps create articles that are easy to read online. Short paragraphs with subheadings are easy to scan and absorb the value quickly.
Step #4 - Write a quick introduction.
Once you’ve answered the three main questions in your article, it’s time to go back and write the introduction. Again, this will be a four to five sentence paragraph, only this time you want to introduce the problem you’re addressing in your article and provide a benefit for reading the article. You want to motivate people to continue reading.
Step #5 - Write your conclusion.
Your conclusion is merely a re-emphasis of the benefit in your article and a quick summary of your key points. You’ll also want to include a call to action here, like “Visit my website for more information.” (Be sure to include a link.)
By formulating your article as a series of questions, you’re able to write the answers quickly and provide valuable information to your prospects. It’s a useful technique for just about any article type or subject matter. Give it a try; chances are you can cut your article writing time in half with this simple five-step technique.
Deanna Maio, Business Development Strategist & Speaker, teaches women business owners how to grow their business significantly while still having time to live a great life. For FREE tips on how to get more results without working harder, attract more clients, and grow your profits, visit http://www.savvygals.com/
It seems like everyone and their mother (and grandmother!) has a website these days. That’s why it’s important to be able to build a quality website to help promote your business and sell your products. Here are ten quick tips to help even a novice build a quality site.
1. Know your audience
If you watch the latest hot cartoon and then watch reruns of shows from the 60s, you’re probably going to see not only commercials for different products, but they’re going to be totally different styles. In the same way, a website whose audience is older shouldn’t have things that will appeal to teens or a younger generation. Knowing your audience is the first step to meeting their needs.
2. Keep it simple
Simple websites are not only easier to navigate, they also load faster so your customers don’t get frustrated waiting to find what they’re looking for.
3. Ask for feedback
Always have a way for your users to send you feedback. This will help you make changes your customers want to keep them coming back, and even recommend you to their friends. You can put feedback boxes or questions on different pages, or you can add a message board with a feedback section.
4. Don’t branch out too much
It's best to focus your website on one area or product. If you offer several different products or types of products, you need to have several websites to promote them so visitors aren’t bombarded with things they don’t want.
5. Be consistent
Make each page the same format, font, color, etc to keep visitors from getting confused at where to find what they’re looking for.
6. Be readable
Not only do you need a font that’s readable and colors that don’t hurt the eyes, but it’s also extremely beneficial to have correct spelling and grammar. Customers aren’t likely to stick around if they think you’re lazy or don’t know what you’re talking about.
7. Add RSS feed
Many people keep themselves updated by using RSS feeds instead of checking websites constantly. By adding a RSS feed, you can not only catch these users, you can also tailor feeds specifically for their interests.
8. Keep it current
Besides the danger of having out-of-date information, pages that are updated more often get visited more often, and give you a better chance of keeping more customers.
9. Make things easy to find
Everyone wants things fast, and adding a search box or an easy site map will help them find what they’re looking for quickly and easily.
10. Have fun
Ultimately, if you do everything right, but your site is just like every other well-made site, you still may not be able to make money off it. Your site needs to have something unique that reflects who you are and what you can provide.
Deanna Maio, Business Development Strategist & Speaker, teaches women business owners how to grow their business significantly while still having time to live a great life. For FREE tips on how to get more results without working harder, attract more clients, and grow your profits, visit http://www.savvygals.com/
The problem with many small business owners is that when they get started they’re all gung-ho and working hard, but after they reach some disappointment, they lose sight of their vision and often stop trying as hard and peter out. To run a successful business, it is essential to keep your vision alive.
The first step in keeping your vision alive is to have a clear vision in the first place. If you haven’t already, try sitting down and writing a clear vision statement, for your business and yourself. Think about why you started your business, and what you hope to achieve. While it’s important to have a vision statement, you have to keep it in mind if you’re going to actually achieve it. Having an idea of what you want doesn’t really matter if you throw it in a drawer and only think about it once every six months. Try posting it somewhere in your office or having it written down where you will see it regularly.
It might also help you to do more than just post your vision. Most people know the phrase that a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, why not use this to your advantage? Find pictures that make you think of what you want and what your goals are in life, and post them in places you’ll see. If may be posters around your office or even just your computer desktop. They’ll serve as a constant reminder of what you’re working for.
To keep your vision going, it’s important that your work reflects your vision. That means not only working towards your goals, but associating with people who feel the same. Sure, you’re not always going to be able to choose who you work with, but you can still try to make business contacts who have similar vision and beliefs as you. These people will help you stick to what you want and become successful. It’s a generally accepted fact that if you’re surrounded by negative people, you’ll probably start thinking negatively eventually. Attitude is something that permeates to the people around us. To help keep your vision on track, surround yourself not only with positive people, but with those that share your vision, or a similar one. They will help keep you on track when you get discouraged.
If you’re having trouble focusing on your vision statement, maybe it’s not you that needs help, maybe it’s just your vision. You are not the same person you were when you opened your business, so why is your vision statement the same? If your vision statement doesn’t reflect what you want anymore, considering reviewing and revising it. Just be sure not to do it too often, or you’ll find yourself going from focus to focus without actually accomplishing anything.
What’s most important is not to lose faith in yourself and your business. Great businessmen aren’t the ones who have never failed, they’re the ones who failed and kept on going.
Deanna Maio, Business Development Strategist & Speaker, teaches women business owners how to grow their business significantly while still having time to live a great life. For FREE tips on how to get more results without working harder, attract more clients, and grow your profits, visit http://www.savvygals.com/
