Six ways to keep your business alive

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Starting your own company is a big challenge, but staying positive could be an even bigger struggle.

No matter what kind of business you have, if you are not committed to a "failure is not an option" mindset, you are setting yourself up for failure, says Neil Anderson, president of The Courage Group, a consulting firm for entrepreneurs.

Indeed, only two-thirds of new small businesses survive at least two years, and just 44 percent survive at least four years, according to a study by the U.S. Small Business Association.

To avoid becoming another start-up casualty, the right mental state is crucial.

So when the bills begin to pile up, and clients or customers are few and far between, don't be tempted to throw in the towel. Instead, keep your mind and mission on track.

Anderson offers these tips to help stay out of the failure trap:

Go mental. One of the most important elements to starting a successful business is being mentally prepared. Of course, skills, actions and good old-fashioned luck are also important factors, but it all begins with the right frame of mind.

To that end, stay away from people who are negative and may try to bring you down. Anderson admits that he fired his own girlfriend in the early stages of building his business, because of her pessimistic attitude (the relationship didn't work out either).

She would say things like "you used to make so much more money working for someone else," Anderson explained.

People can be negative simply because they are jealous that you had the courage to follow your own dream, not just talk about it, Anderson asserts.

Virtual reality. Although there will be many ups and downs, a light does exist at the end of the tunnel, and it is bright. By visualizing success, your actions will become more confident. And increased confidence breeds success.

Anderson advises entrepreneurs to think about why they started a business in the first place. Perhaps going back to work for someone else is not an option. In that case, just reminding yourself of the alternatives: being at the mercy of others controlling your life, playing corporate politics or reporting to incompetent bosses should be sufficient motivation to keep your mind right.

It's all about sacrifice. A big component of the "failure is not an option" mindset is knowing that certain personal or financial sacrifices will need to be made along the way in order to achieve your dream. Entrepreneurs who have made sacrifices and prospered did so because they realized early on that starting and building a great company comes with a price.

Risk is not a four-letter word. Keep in mind that success comes to those who recognize risk, are unafraid of it, and will execute on their ideas. If you are risk-averse, your chances of business survival will probably be slim.

"I cashed in all my chips, my 401(k), whatever I could... I was willing to bet it all," Anderson said of his consultancy firm, which he got off the ground in 2001.

A hungry dog hunts better. "My father said that to me at the outset," Anderson said. When clients or customers are few and far between and money is tight or nonexistent, successful past and future entrepreneurs will always find a way to drum up another sale.

When times get tough financially, you really have only two choices: decrease your expenses or increase your revenues.

A roadmap will lead you to success. A business plan, which is a written description of what you are going to do and how you are going to do it, is the entrepreneur's roadmap. It forces you to think about the entire operation and come to terms with the businesses strengths and weaknesses. Entrepreneurs who do their homework increase their chances for business success.

"Don't look at it as a hassle or burden, look at it as an opportunity to survive," Anderson said.

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Microbusinesses find huge benefits in outsourcing

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By Jim Hopkins, USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO — Fed up with rising labor costs, a new generation of entrepreneurs is launching millions of tiny companies differing from business in the past: They don't want employees.

The trend, building since the late 1990s, hit a milestone this year when the number of these microbusinesses reached 20 million — one for every six private-sector workers, a new analysis of government data shows.

In place of paid employees, owners harness new technologies to outsource work, often linking up with other like-minded entrepreneurs to get jobs done in a virtual assembly line spanning the globe.

Last year, Lisa and Mark Solomon started The Billable Hour, a specialty wristwatch and greeting card maker and retailer, from their home near New York City. They rely on a far-flung network to produce their goods: A graphic artist in Utah, a watch designer outside New York City, a San Diego cartoonist, a website technician in Buffalo.

Like many microbusinesses, Billable Hour is a part-time venture for Lisa, 38, and Mark, 48, attorneys with two young children. Depending on holiday sales, they hope to turn their first profit this year. "We're both professionals, but it's nice to have another income stream," Lisa says.

For legions of other owners, tiny businesses are a full-time source of growing revenue. Near Nashville, Mary Ferrin expects to sell $150,000 in party games this year, a 50% jump from 2005. She outsources work to other entrepreneurs in Greece and Canada.

Microbusinesses' receipts rose to $887 billion in 2004, the most recent available; 7% annual growth puts it on track for $1 trillion in sales this year.

The rise of microbusinesses comes as corporate giants shed workers and fight for revenue. "The big guy is going away," says marketer Seth Godin, author of this year's Small is the New Big.

Wal-Mart, the biggest private employer, with 1.3 million workers, is now struggling to jump-start sales; November revenue fell for the first time in a decade. Ford Motor, steamrolled by foreign competitors, is aiming for 60,000 hourly workers by 2008 vs. 100,000 at the end of 2005. Hewlett-Packard slashed 15,000 jobs — about 10% of its workforce — to bolster its stock.

Meanwhile, microbusinesses are surging. There were 19.5 million in 2004, up 27% from 1997, when the federal government began publishing annual data on non-employer firms. The number of firms with employees rose a far smaller 7.3% during the same period, to 5.9 million.

Non-employer firms are often home-based ventures with no paid employees and generally at least $1,000 in annual revenue. In an analysis for USA TODAY, the Small Business Administration estimates the number of these firms reached the 20 million mark for the first time this year.

Technology edge

New and cheaper technologies are flattening the business landscape, spurring entrepreneurs to launch companies in their spare time without employees. Most are in service industries such as retailing, accounting and public relations. The technologies include websites powered by free software, Internet phone services and powerful $1,000 laptops.

The Solomons spent just $5,100 on Billable Hour's website. The name reflects the novelty of their product: watches showing time in six-minute increments, which is how many attorneys bill hourly rates.

Lisa was already familiar with entrepreneurship. She's been a self-employed attorney for 10 years, doing research for law firms. Mark, an attorney for insurance giant Chubb, dreamed up the watch idea. The Solomons added to their business line clocks and humorous greetings cards, also aimed at attorneys.

Lisa, more adept at technology, turned to the Internet to find designers, manufacturers and others to get the goods. Among them: Stu Rees, 37, in San Diego. He's a self-employed attorney and cartoonist, creating illustrations for Billable Hour's cards.

Like the Solomons, Rees doesn't employ anyone. Instead, he's turned to other self-employed artists as far away as Argentina and India for cartoons when he has more work than he can handle. "I would rather have a slightly smaller business and not have the headaches of personnel," he says.

The Solomons are seizing a niche that wouldn't be profitable for traditional small businesses or, especially, big corporations, says Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. "You need these smaller companies to fill in the holes," Zandi says.

Billable Hour is small enough that Lisa can run it alone. But even if it grew, she'd resist hiring. She cites a litany of reasons, including workers' compensation insurance, health benefits, federal and state payroll taxes, and complying with workplace regulations.

Those are many of the same gripes mentioned by other micro-entrepreneurs, says Gene Fairbrother, a consultant to the National Association for the Self-Employed. The group has about 250,000 members.

Employers of all sizes have a certain amount of overhead for legal advice, bookkeeping and other expenses to comply with federal employment regulations. The smallest employers pay more per worker than big companies, says economics professor Mark Crain of Lafayette College in Easton, Pa.

Those with fewer than 20 workers spend an average of $2,224 a year per worker vs. $1,621 for companies with 500 or more workers, Crain found in a study.

The Hollywood model

Eliminating those costs, the new microbusinesses follow Hollywood's model. Film producers assemble teams of actors, writers, set designers, electricians and other craftspeople to create movies.

"They come together, do the work and then disperse," says Terri Lonier of Working Solo, which advises self-employed professionals and big companies working with them.

Microbusiness owners work together using new collaborative software to share and update text documents, spreadsheets, videos and other files on remote computers. Some of the software, such as Google's growing documents-management suite, is free.

In Houston two years ago, John Whiteside started Squarevox, a one-man business consultant in marketing, communications and strategy. Although he works from home without employees, Whiteside doesn't work alone. He joins four other self-employed workers in the same industry, bidding jointly for new business and to complete projects. The others are in Syracuse, N.Y., Alexandria, Va., and the Boston area.

Whiteside, 41, says his start-up costs for a computer, laser printer and fax machine were no more than $4,000. He expects to earn as much this year as he was paid when he worked for his last employer.

Rock-bottom communication costs for phone calls, swapping e-mail and documents also make their virtual team viable, Whiteside says. That's a switch from the pre-Internet days of a decade ago. "Everything was phone, fax, face-to-face meetings," he says.

Whiteside and two of his quasi-partners hold conference calls every Monday morning to keep up with business such as a recent project to create a marketing campaign for business groups in the Syracuse area.

Go where the talent is

As microbusinesses gain customers, their owners' resolve to avoid workers gets tested. Sometimes, they can only outsource so much. Near Nashville, games-maker Ferrin recently hired a temporary worker to handle the crush of holiday orders at her Dinner and a Murder business. It sells eight party games she created and began selling in 2001 from her home.

Ferrin, 44, also pays her mother to do about six hours' bookkeeping some weeks, "just enough to keep me from going nuts."

Other than that, she outsources all work developing games in which party guests assume the roles of mobsters and other characters to solve a murder.

A freelance writer, Andy Boxall, outside Athens, develops characters. Boxall, 33, works from home without employees. "I use the Internet extensively for finding new markets," he says in an e-mail.

Ferrin says an artist "somewhere in Indiana" who she's never met creates game artwork. A freelance technician near Toronto helps fine-tune her website.

She found them by posting requests on online forums and surfing the Internet, expanding her pool of potential talent far beyond Tennessee. "Got to go where you can find the talent," Ferrin says.

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Mother Entrepreneur Pitches Invention to QVC

How To Find Products To Sell For Your Online Operation

Chino Hills, Ca -- Apr 23, 2007 -- /prbuzz/ -- Have you designed a new product and are now stuck wondering about the next big step? Jasmine Thompson, owner of The Sack Rack, wondered this too; but on March 26th she presented her idea to QVC executives in Los Angeles, California, along with thousands of other inventors. If The Sack Rack is chosen as one of the top ten finalists, Jasmine will head to Chicago to present her product to the Oprah Winfrey Show, who is in search of the next big idea. If Oprah’s studio audience decides that The Sack Rack is the next big idea, Jasmine will have the opportunity to sell her product on QVC. Not bad for this busy mother of three, whose children include a three month old baby and a three and a five year old.

Why did Jasmine take this route for getting her product out into the hands of the public? “We wanted to try QVC since the channel is known for selling unique items, and a large demographic of the QVC audience are moms.”

The Sack Rack is a plastic, lightweight device, small enough to fit into a purse but strong enough to carry up to 50 pounds of groceries. The design of The Sack Rack keeps the grocery bags closed even when the bags are set on the ground, making it a perfect item for mass transit or for use in the back of the car: No more chasing after runaway fruit. The Sack Rack also frees up the second hand, allowing the user to hold on to keys, stair railings, or a child’s hand.

Originally designed by a friend of the Thompson family, The Sack Rack remained dormant due to lack of funds until Jasmine and her husband Bill came along. Jasmine’s family believed so much in The Sack Rack that they used the money that they had in their bank account and invested. Their first step was to hire a patent attorney; a patent is pending at this time. The time has now come to begin marketing the product, and Jasmine feels the QVC pitch was the perfect platform on which to start.

Winners of this portion of the contest will be notified on April 27th, and if Jasmine is one of those chosen, the first thing that she plans to do is to contact her husband’s brother so that he can plan a family reunion in Chicago.

You can check out The Sack Rack on the web at www.thesackrack.com. Special discounts apply for multiple purchases, and The Sack Rack is also available for both wholesale and fundraising opportunities.

[via prbuzz.com]
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10 Steps for Increasing Visibility Online

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Most small businesses that run a website today don't have the insider knowledge to optimize their content and overall visibility online. I personally handle internet marketing issues--SEO, PPC, e-mail marketing, copywriting--every day, and I'm always surprised to see how many businesses have no understanding of what SEO means, let alone know how to approach it.

In the vast sea of websites--from e-commerce, media and informational websites to blogs and wikis--most site owners use a basic approach to search engine optimization. They submit their site to more than 200 search engines and blast these with some domains and keywords that may be related to the site. Some go to blogs and forums--related or not--and start "fishing" for links (making random, non-intelligent forum comments and submitting links back to their site). Even worse, they'll pay companies to undertake this useless exercise.

Next, if that doesn't work, they will purchase a marketing book, apply all the techniques and sit back, hoping that something will take. Often this will be done by an IT person who has been told to optimize the company website, which isn't part of their daily routine or knowledge space.

Rather than these slapdash attempts, you need a strong, long-term commitment to SEO and must always stay on top of the search engines and their ever-changing, underlying landscape.

Google, the top search engine--and the one to optimize for--handles more than 50 percent of search traffic and utilizes more than 100 algorithms to track and manage HTML content ("on-page factors"), external profiles ("off-page factors"), link architectures, popularity and reputation, as well as PageRank calculation (a complex site voting system) and web bots. The content gathered from spidering search-friendly sites gets stored into huge databases (called the "index") on a powerful grid of network computers.

Google weighs all of these elements into an overall score, and if you have optimized well in all areas and have reviewed your competition and their strategy (I'll talk about how to do this in an upcoming article), you can and will rank well for fairly competitive key terms. You must realize, though, that the more competitive your term is, the longer it will take--but you can get there.

Here's a 10-step plan to improve site visibility and increase search-friendliness. The first five steps address parts of your website's HTML code, while the final five are more abstract. Together, they add up to a "must do" SEO list.

1. Title tag (SEO Gone Wild – microsaw.com)

• This is most important of all. If you have the title tag set up right, and it's a unique enough phrase, you could rank on page one for this alone.
• Write your keywords early in the title, and place your company name last--unless you are Coca-Cola, or have a huge brand.

2. Meta tags

• Description--. Place your page content description between the blank quotes with a call to action statement like, "Sign up here," or "Call us at 800 XXX-XXXX."
• Keywords--. Place keywords between the quotation marks after "content," separated by commas. Google ignores this, but it appears that other search engines still review it.

3. Header tags

• H1--This HTML tag should contain your core keywords, one per page.
• H2--This HTML tag should contain derivatives of the keywords.

4. Body

• Content--Use content that matches the keywords on your site. You should ideally have 400 to 800 words on a page.
• Bolding--Include bolded keywords that match your topic/theme on the page.
• Create a blog--Wordpressis an amazing blog that is free and can easily be optimized via plug-ins. Then, write entries twice a week.

5. Linking

• Use links and anchor text to create popularity and reputation around keywords (example: don't link to just "click here," but create a better link like, "download the digital camera white paper").
• Internal links (link to other pages on your site)
• Outbound links (you link to another authority site on your topic)
• Reciprocal links (join link exchanges and contact partners to exchange links)
• One-way links (when other sites link to your blog, press releases or articles) are typically more effective than outbound and reciprocal ones.
• For some internal links, use "rel=nofollow" in the code to avoid losing PageRank to less important pages like "about us," "contact us" and "privacy policy."

6. Domains

• If starting a new site, try to get an established URL (purchase it if you have to).
• Use keywords in an easy-to-remember domain. Google recognizes domains that have been around and establishes credibility; you can avoid the Google Sandbox (where you don't show up in the index for months, potentially).

7. Users first, then search engine

• Make sure your sites have valuable and readable content. If you've optimized for search engines only and no users stick around your website, you haven't been successful.
• Navigation, directory structures and file names should be well defined. An easy way to solve this is to use breadcrumb navigation and linked navigation, not flash or JavaScript or image-based links. Develop a flat directory structure (no more than three levels deep) and name your keywords in the file name (ex: content-management-system.htm)

8. Keyword research

• Keyword development is one of the first places to start. Two to three keywords per page is possible. Combined with the items listed in the first five steps above, you will have a high success score.
• Use tools like Yahoo! Search Marketing/Overture, Google's Keyword Tool and SEOBook keywords tool.
• Try to shoot for keywords that have higher search counts; over 20,000 searches for your keyword are good, but it all depends on your industry.

9. Competition

• Find out what the competition is doing. Type in your search term into a search engine and locate three to five of the top results. Look at these sites and see what they are doing in the HTML (on-page) and linking (off-page) areas. I'll discuss this more in a future article.
• To find out how many sites are linking to your competition, type "link:http://www.competitorname.com" into Google. Do the same in Yahoo!, and you'll see a higher count because Yahoo! is more all-inclusive.

10. Be cool.

• Don't let this business get to you; it's frustrating at times. SEO is a long-term commitment. Some weeks are great, others are not.
• It's a serious investment of time, sweat and staying the course. The best success factors I've seen: Approach content and website design in a natural way; be ethical (don't spam); and keep it real--it's a business, and nothing comes for free.

Don't forget that search/internet marketing is multi-faceted. Traditional Marketing 101 teachers would say to build a comprehensive plan for marketing. Don't just work the online factors, but create a sound strategy around offline marketing, using ideas like postcards, trade magazines ads, phone/sales work, word of mouth and additional tactics that can help create a "buzz" around your products and services. Search engine optimization applied correctly will create better visibility online, but it's just one part of your overall marketing strategy.

Jon Rognerud is a recognized authority on the subject of search engine optimization and has spent more than 15 years developing websites and marketing solutions at companies like Overture and Yahoo!. His website provides a wealth of informative articles, resources and complimentary e-mail courses on everything you'll ever need to know about SEO and search marketing.

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Newest Fad In Farming: The Internet

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Tucked away in the den of his 127-year-old farmhouse, Ed Winkle huddles over his computer. The screen's soft glow lights up his eyeglasses, reflecting messages about tractors, corn hybrids and crop insurance.

Winkle is checking the latest postings on his favorite Internet farm forum. Advice from fellow farmers around the country has enabled him to increase his corn and soybean production, better market his crops, learn how to rebuild engines and get good tires for his tractor.

Online forums, message boards and chat rooms are replacing rural coffee shops and feed mills as places for farmers to talk farming and trade tips as more of rural America goes online.

"You get the best thinkers in agriculture," Winkle said of the forums. "You're mixing such a diverse group of people — from different areas, from different backgrounds, different experiences, different ways of farming."

Fifty-one percent of U.S. farms have Internet access, according to a July 2005 report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, up from 48 percent in 2003. More than two-thirds of them still use dial-up access.

The popularity of online farm forums has grown as well, said Mack Strickland, an agricultural engineer at Purdue University and farm-computer expert, with some forums claiming to have as many as 30,000 registered users.

The Internet division of Farm Journal Media, www.agweb.com, says user traffic doubled between October 2005 and October 2006, with the forums on the site enjoying similar growth. Traffic on the Des Moines, Iowa-based www.agriculture.com has increased 20 percent to 25 percent over the past year, said editor John Walter. Both sites are funded by ads and free for users.

Enthusiasts say the forums have improved farm production and saved farmers precious dollars by helping them avoid costly mistakes in planting, fertilizing, equipment buys and maintenance. And forums have enabled farmers — many of them miles from their nearest neighbor — to educate each other and build community.

"We all like to talk to folks like ourselves who have the same problems," said Stan Ernst, a marketing instructor at Ohio State University's department of agricultural economics. "We have so much riding on many of our decisions economically that you've got to find people with experience."

A farmer can spend as much as $160,000 on a combine, for example. If it breaks down during a critical harvest time, that could mean the difference between a profit and a loss for some farmers.

Walter said the average visitor to www.agriculture.com spends 11 minutes at a time on the site.

"It's enough time to have a cup of coffee and a conversation and learn something," he said. "It's just rearranged who their neighbors are in a sense. You can't help but think that has changed farming to some degree."

Rural America has lagged behind the cities in Internet usage — especially broadband — because wiring the population-rich cities is more profitable and wiring the countryside more expensive due to long distances and natural barriers such as hills. In addition, rural businesses haven't needed the Internet as much to compete.

However, farmers and existing rural businesses are becoming more reliant on the Internet to be competitive, and rural communities are becoming more aggressive in seeking Internet access. They see it as a way to attract white-collar jobs, and urban dwellers who have moved to the country are demanding it.

Paul Butler, who grows corn and soybeans on 260 acres in Macon, Ill., returned to farming four years ago after 25 years in the computer business. He doubts he would have made it without the Internet and online advice from fellow farmers.

"I would have made a lot of expensive mistakes," said Butler, 39, who logs on using broadband. "Purchasing seed is a pretty complicated decision. It was nice to have 20 unbiased people that weren't selling seed that could give me an opinion on it."

Eric Neer, 24, of Davenport, Iowa, discovered farm forums from fellow students when he was in college.

Although he seldom posts a question, Neer — who works for a farm equipment manufacturer — devours the information he sees on precision farming, using the forums to shop for equipment and information about tractors and combines that are steered by computers linked to global positioning satellites.

Machinery — the universal language of farmers — is a hot topic in farm forums. So is when best to take crops to market to get the best price. Sometimes the talk veers away from pure farming.

In a recent exchange on www.newagtalk.com, a popular farm forum, an Illinois farmer complained that the starter on his pickup truck was acting up. A fellow farmer replied that the electric solenoid atop the starter was probably worn out and the contact sticking in the closed position.

"I would put a whole new starter on it," he wrote. "Fix it now before it ruins the flywheel teeth."

An Ohio farmer wondered if he should replace his fuel-oil furnace with a geothermal heating system. The idea got high marks from a farmer in Indiana who said a geothermal system leaves no smell or residue, makes less noise and leaves no hot/cold spots. Then he offered tips on insulation and heat distribution.

Farmers have to decide themselves whether the advice they get is sound. Walter said he tries to screen out the hokum, blowhards and occasional shyster. Strickland said some users give opinions not based on fact or research.

And some farmers still rely on the neighbor they know.

"You can get some good ideas from people in other states, but they're dealing with different circumstances," said Jim Meimer, who raises corn, soybeans and wheat on 900 acres.

Meimer, 28, goes online to get market data but prefers to get advice from friends and neighbors. He often sees them at the feed store and fertilizer plant when he goes into nearby Mount Gilead, Ohio, to pay bills.

Glen Feichtner, 48, who raises 300 head of cattle near New Washington, Ohio, prefers to get his tips from fellow farmers at the stockyard and grain elevator because he knows they have been successful.

"I get face-to-face interaction," he said. "I know these people. I know their story."

Winkle, 57, became a believer when a tip from an Iowa farmer prompted him to change his no-till farming technique. Winkle increased his yield by about 30 percent.

During the winter, he spends about two hours a day wading through the forums from his farm, about 40 miles northeast of Cincinnati. Since April, he has posted 1,738 messages on one forum alone.
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MomsWINS - Awesome Home Business For Women

Network Marketing - Lifetime Residual Income

When MomsWIN started five years ago I was just 21 years old. My family grew from two to five youthful bundles of energy called children and my income exploded exponentially. The crown jewels in my business are Addison, Ashton, Avery, Aiden and Amara. Starting at 21 without experience would seem to be a recipe for failure. Hopefully, this helps you to understand why we say not having traditional markers to set our course was a blessing. It should also demonstrate that you to can set a successful course by breaking the traditional rules.

At the time we started, they say the personal computer was 20 years old if you agree the IBM 5150 launch date set that mark. MSN was selling a one ad only for 24 hours on their home page for $20,000. Today that ad is $500,000 for the same 24 hours, according to the USA Today August 2, 2006. Most experts say technology is advancing at a rate that exceeds 100% in that same 5 year period. That brings me to The Adventure Continues. The only constant in business at today's pace is change. Who moved my cheese? LOL

We are refitting the ship to capitalize on new opportunities, emerging trends and tackle the challenges of today's new landscape. It's not question of adapting or changing to meet the market demands - its survival. When it's us against the world, the world is a prohibitive favorite to win. So we all have to refit our ships to continue the adventure. It's not optional. If your partner, mentor or coach is telling you there's only one way to be successful or you will only succeed face to face or leads don't work, maybe it's time to look for a new coach.

You simply can't say there's only one way to network or succeed in a home based business. That's so yesterday and dangerous in that it bets against the world and almost every major trend not only in the home based business industry but business in general. In fact the best model is a multi-faceted approach that ties in to major trends. Remember a few years ago when brick and mortar retailers said the internet wasn't a threat? Virtually every one has long since eaten those words while rushing to learn how to capture their place on the tsunami wave called the Internet. Learning how to utilize technology, the Internet and expand your horizons beyond yesterday's business model will be crucial in the next five years.

[Via - MomWINS]

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The Single Greatest Copywriting Success Secret

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I was born cocky.

When I was 17 years old, running a Baumfolder in a printing plant for $1.60 an hour ($64 a week; $3,328 a year -- before taxes!) – I was absolutely convinced I could write more compelling copy than I saw in the direct mail packages they had me working on ...

At 23, as I slaved over a hot IBM Selectric at an L.A. agency for $15,000 a year, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that my sales copy was by far the strongest stuff in the mail – probably the hottest copy anybody had ever written in the entire history of the direct response industry, period ...

And when I was 30, earning $300,000 plus overrides each year creating promotions for a $250-million-a-year financial newsletter and rare coin retailer – I was just too cool for school.

Sure – I had heroes; The stuff I saw Gary Bencivenga, Jim Rutz and Bill Bonner cranking out never failed to blow my mind. But with those exceptions, I was always the smartest guy in every room.

According to me.

And so, when a client offered me a bit of constructive criticism, I’d just smile and politely ignore him. And when I received invitations to attend seminars or conferences on copywriting or direct marketing, I just smirked, rolled my eyes and tossed them into the nearest “round file.”

After all – I was THE guy. I knew it all. Nobody could tell me anything about how to create blockbuster products or premiums or world-beating promotions. Nobody’s ideas were as good as mine were.

I was, as they say, a legend in my own mind.

Pretty dumb, huh?

Of course when I think about it, that youthful cockiness got me a long way.

It gave me the nerve to call total strangers, tell them their promotions were stinking up the room and offer to save them from their dismal mediocrity for a reasonable fee.

And it gave me the backbone to survive failures and to keep pluggin’ when a sane person would have just quit.

But more recently – in the last decade or so – I’ve noticed a subtle but significant change in my attitude. And that change has led me to many of the biggest winners and the biggest money of my entire career …

I Mellowed.

Maybe it’s the combined effect of the lessons I’ve learned from getting my butt whupped in the mail a few times a year over 35 years. Maybe it’s being married to a redhead who’s always right.

Or maybe, it’s because after seeing 55 summers, I am now officially older than dirt, and this “mellow” thing just comes with age. Like inflatable prostates, insomnia and the rheumatiz.

… But over the last decade or so, I’ve learned something astonishing: Other people have ideas, too!

In fact, LOTS of people have ideas. And believe it or not, some of them are actually good … a few are really great … and every once-in-a-while, one of them is truly spectacular.

Not only that: Other people are willing to share their ideas with me. All I have to do is maintain a modicum of humility … keep an open mind … listen carefully … think a while … write a while … and VOILA’! some of those ideas turn into money.

Sometimes, huge money.

Did you know any of this? I mean – how long has this been going on?

I can afford a lot of things;
Arrogance is NOT one of them!

I only mention this because lately, I’ve noticed that some folks don’t seem to have learned this lesson.

You see them all over the ‘Net. Some are self-appointed gurus with huge egos, abrasive attitudes and an insulting way of addressing you.

Others are just poseurs who haunt the forums and blogs like so many vultures, yearning for the opportunity to inflate their own egos by talking down to you or ridiculing your ideas.

You know the guys I’m talking about: They’re arrogant, obnoxious, churlish, a real pain in the patootie. And the last thing they’ll ever do is admit that they don’t know it all, or that there’s anything they can learn from anybody.

Like dogs trying establish who’s leader of the pack, they go around humping everything that moves.

Problem is, some poor, naive folks mistake their arrogance for authority – or worse, for knowledge or actual experience.

And that’s a shame. Because the true experts in this industry are some of the sweetest, most unassuming guys and gals on the planet.

Spend a few minutes with Gary Bencivenga, Arthur Johnson, Parris Lampropoulos, Kent Komae, Carline Anglade-Cole, Kim Krausse, David Deutsch, John Carlton – or any other of the real-deal copywriting champs out there and you’ll see what I mean.

Every one of them is a prince or a princess – and for good reason: Month after month, they hang it all on the line to challenge a client’s control: Their reputations, their egos, their future income, the whole shebang.

The ones they win keep them going. The ones they lose keep them humble.

The phonies haven’t learned humility because they don’t, won’t or can’t compete at these levels. And so they just promote themselves – and in a transparent attempt to mask their own incompetence, they strut and cackle like so many banty roosters.

My advice? The next time you see a promotion, or an article, or a forum or blog posting from an arrogant or insulting fool, do yourself a favor: Shine him on. Maybe if we all ignore them, they’ll just go away.

Now, that advice alone is probably worth about a billion times what you paid to subscribe to The Total Package.

But that’s not why I’m writing this. My real point – and I do have one – is …

A good idea is still the most powerful
thing on Earth.

This direct-response selling thing of ours – this “Cosa Vendere Nostra” – is fueled by ideas.

Product ideas. Premium ideas. Theme ideas. Headline ideas. Copy ideas. Offer ideas. Marketing strategy ideas. Media selection ideas.

In fact, the formula for direct response success can easily be boiled down to two, simple equations:

Good Ideas = Money.

Great Ideas = Beaucoup Money.

OK – so it’s not exactly “E=MC2” and I’m definitely no Einstein – but it’s true, nonetheless: The more good and great ideas you have, the more money you can make.

So how do you collect these ideas?

Well, staying humble, keeping an open mind and rejoicing in every opportunity to learn (e.g. the times when your promotion executes a flawless face-plant) is a great first step.

The second step is to get close to people like you who eat, sleep and breathe direct marketing, copywriting and design … who slug it out in the trenches day after day … and who have amassed an impressive record of amazing successes.

These are the guys and gals you need to get on a first-name basis with … to listen to … and to learn from.

Meet my Marketing Masterminds …

Over the years, I’ve surrounded myself with a handful of people I trust to bring me big response-boosting and money-making ideas: People I respect as being the very best at what they do.

These are the folks I call on when I need a fresh set of eyes on my copy … a breakthrough idea … or to solve a problem. And over the years, they’ve made me a bundle.

I’m talking about geniuses like Boardroom’s Brian Kurtz – the marketing brains behind the most successful soft-offer publisher in America and without a doubt, the best product developer I know.

And there’s on- and off-line marketing whiz Mary Ellen Tribby -- who created the most effective marketing division I’ve ever seen at Weiss and who’s now the boss lady at AgoraLearning’s superstar web company Early to Rise …

Then, there’s best-selling author and copywriting superstar Bob Bly – who helps me create kick-butt winners in the health market and also helps me help you, both in The Total Package and through our EasyWriters live events.

And there’s former copy cub and current copywriting superstar Kent Komae with whom I’m creating a promotion for a major client right now – and whose interview in these pages drew rave reviews.

For graphics help, I lean heavily on my friend Rob Davis -- hands-down, the most gifted, successful and sought–after direct mail designer in the business.

And although you may know Julie McManus and Daniel Levis through The Total Package, what you don’t know is that each one of them earned their place here only after earning their stripes (and making me a ton of money) in the direct marketing trenches.

When I need help with web strategy and copy, I speed-dial Daniel – the best web copywriter I know. And when I need to structure online campaigns, media buys and affiliate programs for my clients, I give Julie a ring. Julie and Daniel have so many hugely successful online campaigns between them – including a current customer acquisition campaign that’s generating ROIs of up to 450% -- it boggles my mind.

Then, there are my new friends: Tony Flores – who, in addition to editing The EasyWriters Marketing Club’s highly acclaimed Screaming Eagle print newsletter, is also a crackerjack copywriter I’m convinced will soon be a crackerjack seven-figure writer.

And veteran “A” level copywriter David Deutsch, who may also be the single most creative guy I know.

And of course, Troy White – the international management and marketing coach whose knack for transforming small businesses into big ones impressed me so much, I invited him to join my team.

Each one of these experts is creating hugely profitable promotions on the Web and in print – and exploding clients’ sales -- right now. Each is hard-wired into the strategies and tactics that are working best for our clients right now. Each one of them makes me money every day.

And if you get to know them, they can do the same for you.

Of all the questions I get asked by Total Package readers, one of the most popular ones goes something like this:

“They say you’re the highest-paid copywriter in America.

“How can I make the big bucks, too?”

My answer: “Surround yourself with experts who are best at doing the things you can’t do.”

I know – easier said than done. And that’s precisely why I hope to see you at Power Marketing Summit 2007. I want to share my team of marketing masterminds with you … and to help you form your own mastermind alliances with other attendees.

And even if you can’t make it to Washington DC in March, why not make it a point this week to begin building your marketing mastermind alliance? Make a list of the people you can call for advice … to brainstorm new product and promotion ideas … to critique your sales copy – whatever would accelerate your success.

Be available to help them if they’ll agree to help you.

Sure – to do that, you’ll first have to admit that you don’t know it all … that you’ll reach your goals more quickly with a little help from your friends.

But that’s a good thing.

Yours for Bigger Winners, More Often,

Clayton Makepeace, http://www.makepeacetotalpackage.com

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Claude Hopkins Prophetic Insights

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In 1918 Claude Hopkins published the book "Scientific Advertising." This book was so revolutionary - and so fundamentally correct - that I can say the following with a straight face:

Every person who is successfully selling online in 2007 is following Claude Hopkins' advice from 89 years ago, whether they know it or not.

In fact Bryan Todd and I consider Scientific Advertising such a landmark text that in our own book "The Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords" (now at your local bookstore), each chapter has a segment called 'Advice from Uncle Claude' where his sage advice applies to today.

At the end of Scientific Advertising, he makes a statement that for decades appeared to be tragically, almost dangerously wrong:

"Most national advertising is done without testing. It is merely presumed to pay. Such methods, still so prevalent, are not very far from their end. The advertising men who practice them see the writing on the wall. The time is fast coming when men who spend money are going to know what they get. Good business and efficiency will be applied to advertising. Men and methods will be measured by the known returns, and only competent men can survive.

Only one hour ago an old advertising man said to me, "The day for our type is done. Bunk has lost its power. Sophistry is being displaced by actuality. And I tremble at the trend."

Little did Uncle Claude know that TV would come, and with it, stupid slogans and talking socks and hundreds of billions of dollars of ads that nobody ever bothered to measure. Surely he was rolling in his grave.

But then the Internet came... and Pay Per Click, an auction where bids in every niche would be different... and 89 years later Uncle Claude turned out to be exactly right.

In 2007, the nonsense is being pounded out of advertising at breakneck speed.

This is bad, bad news for the bunk and sophistry guys. And media queen ad reps who persuade with mini-skirts and succulent cleavage. But it's good news for you and me. And the thing that Hopkins couldn't have forseen was how entire niches and new markets are now created almost overnight, just by understanding your customers and responding to their needs.

At the beginning, this whole PPC game looks really easy. ("Loookeee here, honnnnny, we're gonna get riiiiiiiccchh with thiiiiiiis!") Then you do it for awhile... and fork over your tuition at the School Of Hard Knocks.

Fun, fun, fun.

Those who persist, though, begin to break through. With competent mentoring, it takes about six weeks to 'get it.' You begin to see through the haze... Oh, it's about the conversation inside the customer's head. It's about matching your offering, your message, your story to their desire, then following through and delivering satisfaction.

Once you get it to work, it's addictive. You can't get enough.

Perry Marshall, perrymarshall.com

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How To Make Money Creating Corporate Theme Songs

The Microcredit Boom

http://enthem.com/

Don't come to Enthem if you're looking for your average ten-second jingle. The San Francisco company writes and records full-length corporate theme songs, some running longer than three minutes.

Founder Stan Oleynick, 23, a Russian immigrant with a head for business and a penchant for aphorisms, creates the songs with a motley crew: a composer from his church, a teenage virtuoso, and a country singer who lives in New Jersey. He initially intended to go it alone, but the admonitions of friends convinced him otherwise.

"I love music, and music loves me back," he says. "Except for the singing part."

Enthem.com has attracted the attention - "and the hearts," Oleynick intones with a thick accent - of more than 100 small companies.

He hopes to use the business to raise $1 million for a future startup; as of January, he was 5% of the way there.
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Earn Residual Income Through Different Payment Methods

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If a person is going to earn residual income then one of the first things they should understand are the payment methods used for paying a residual income. Nobody gets into residual income opportunities that is not interested in making money, so it is only smart for a person to understand how they will be paid that money. There are seven ways generally used to pay out residual income. Some ways have been very successful, but others have not. That is why it is so important that a person has some idea about these methods before getting started in any residual income opportunity.

In the beginning the main payment structure for residual income was a uni-level matrix plan. This was also known as a pyramid. This method hinged on getting people to sign up in multiple levels. The original person would be on top of the pyramid and rely on those below them in their pyramid to make them money. If all worked out then the person at the top would make a great income, but this type of plan is hard to build. It relies on people to keep recruiting and building that down line. It rarely works out because the person at the top is usually the only one making money, which is why newer payment methods were developed.

A forced matrix plan is the most common. Forced matrix plans also have some other additional payment methods associated with them that makes earning potential much greater. The basic forced matrix plan is like a uni-level plan, but each level has a limit of people. For example, the people the person recruits are limited to only 5. Then if they recruit more they fill a new level. This ensures everyone is making money. Under a forced matrix a person may also earn bonuses. There is a fast start bonus where a person earns an incentive to get as many recruits as possible within a limited time. They then receive a nice bonus pay out. There is also a sponsor bonus where a person gets a little extra bonus for every person they sign up. Matrix plans are also set up so that once a person recruits enough people they can then leave their original sponsors team and start their own. To prevent the original sponsor form losing out they earn a breakaway bonus where they still get a commission from the team that became independent. This helps everyone to work together and help each other instead of trying to keep those underneath restrained so they can not recruit too many people and break away.

The type of payment in a residual income opportunity can be confusing. There is always a lot of talk about down lines and commissions. It is really important for a person to make sure they understand the payment method. It is the bottom line of any residual income opportunity. Many opportunities have fallen by the wayside because they did not have a string payment method. By making sure the payment method is understandable and logical a person should be able to feel comfortable with their chosen opportunity.

By: Diep Tran

Diep Tran is Internet marketer, owns a Plug-In Profits Site and webmaster of Internet Home Business Opportunities. For An Internet Home Business Opportunity To Make Money Online, Visit: www.internet-wealth.biz

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Whats it like to get paid big bucks in a bathrobe?

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Ever wonder what it would be like to get paid really big bucks and still be in your bathrobe?

Man think about it, no getting up early, driving to work through bumper to bumper traffic. Not to mention having to listen to your [ Dare I Say it] BOSS.

My stomach hurts just thinking about it.

I hate, no despise having to get up, get dressed , and head out to the same old job. While at work I often day dreamed about getting paid while drinking coffee,still in my bathrobe. Ahhh! what a life...

Back to reality! Boss wants to see me. [ Well not any more]

So one day while working [ Really Surfing the Internet ] I came across a web site that talked about getting paid big bucks in your bathrobe.

No seriously that's what it said. After reading the article it talked about making money online by using a service offered by Google.

The article when on to say that you can really make money by just writing a few lines of words, and when in to detail step-by-step on how to do it.

It appears that Google offers a service that allows you to write small ads and these ads are plastered all of the internet. Then it goes on to tell you how to get paid big bucks doing this.

My mind when numb thinking that if I took the chance , I could say goodbye to my mean old BOSS! It also meant that I could get up late and get paid some big bucks while in my bathrobe.

In short I signed up and I'll be the first to say....

"Life ain't so bad when you have no BOSS!"

I really would like to explain how this is done, but I don't think I will have the room to talk about it all here.

To get all the details to how to get paid big bucks in you bathrobe , you can get them here. http://get-paid-at-home.com/recommends/bathrobe.php

Sam Johnson is a contributing editor at http://get-paid-at-home.com For helpful tips and reviews visit Sam.

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