Sen Ze’s Business In Your Pajamas! Blog

I’ve recovered fully from a smashing 3-day Digital Heaven Boot Camp (No.2) held last weekend. And what an event it was!

Instead of telling you what happened, I’ll let you in on some of the things I covered right on the first day. The following is how I started off (although not in that many words, as there are tons of other things to reveal). If you’re a participant, here’s the expanded version. If you’re not a participant, read the following very carefully if you’re planning to be an Internet Entrepreneur:

1. You must believe that it’s possible to make money online
You must believe it’s possible to make lots of money using the Internet. This is where it all starts.

If you believe this, you’re well on your way. If you don’t believe this, it doesn’t matter what else I say. You mind will simply shut the words out.

2. You must believe that YOU can do it too
Making money via the Internet is difficult only when you don’t know what to do. People with less education and intelligence than you have done it, because they simply follow the proven methods of those who have done it. So can you, if you’re willing to do the same thing.

The mind wants to prove itself right, so if you think YOU can’t make money online, it simply shuts out all the possibilities. Ideas that have made OTHER people millions of dollars, are dismissed by you in the blink of an eye, because you believe that YOU can’t do it.

In other words, it’s EASIER to say “I can’t do it” because after that is said, you don’t have to do anything, to prove yourself right.

Doing nothing is super easy. Just keep on doing what you’ve been doing all along, with nothing new added to the mix, and you’ve done nothing extra. Nothing new happens, of course - but if that’s what you want, that’s what you’ll get. There’s nothing easier to achieve, than nothingness itself.

It’s harder to say “I CAN”, because you have to set into motion the things that will prove it can be done. This takes some effort. So, compared to doing nothing - “I CAN” doesn’t stand a chance.

The resistance to taking action is so great that most people can’t overcome it, except when they’re fighting to live. For example, if you don’t do the work, you don’t earn a salary at the end of the month. If you don’t earn a salary, you’ll starve to death. With death being something you don’t want to experience right now - you’ll work to avoid it. Unless, of course, you have a better alternative to working that is easier to do, that also achieves the same objective of not starving to death. Until you happened to know what it is, you’ll continue to work the way you’ve always worked.

Unfortunately, you can be so used to working to “earn a living” that you don’t even want to get out of your comfort zone to explore other stuff. Doing what you’re doing works in feeding you so that you don’t starve to death, and you’re already an expert in what you’re currently doing - so why bother?

You’ll want to be bothered because usually what you’re currently doing isn’t bringing in the returns that you deserve. What if you could double or triple your bank account without having to do more work than you’re currently doing in terms of time or effort? Would it be something you’ll at least consider doing?

If you think, “I CAN make money online”, your mind will set out to see WHICH METHOD it can use to fulfill that objective. If it doesn’t know of a method yet, it will start to seek out some, to start off.

Once again, the mind wants to prove itself right - and so it explores all the possibilities, and it then commands the body to take the action for things to happen.

Because the rewards for believing that you CAN do it is so much greater than if you believe you CAN’T, believe that you CAN - and then do WHATEVER is necessary to achieve what you believe you can do.

3. You must believe that there’s ALWAYS a way to achieve your objectives
You can’t know everything, so there’s always some things you don’t know about YET that can help you achieve your objectives. Can’t get to the top of the Search Engines’ listings for the keyword of your choice? Well, who says that’s the only way to market your Internet Business? There are many more methods that are used by Internet Entrepreneurs that you would never think of doing because you never knew they existed.

Know that certain methods of marketing on the Internet are popular, but it doesn’t mean they’re the most effective. Most people focus on them because they don’t know better, or chose to shut themselves off from the rest, because they fell in love with what they’re seeing in front of them.

Well and good - but that’s being very short-sighted. And in the case of top search engines listings, you’re depending on Google to list you at the top for you to earn your money.

Think about the following very carefully:

Google, or any other Search Engine, for that matter, doesn’t owe you a living. They couldn’t care less if you’re listed at the top in their search results, or not at all. They set their rules, most of which are top secret stuff (or else you can manipulate them at will) and they will change their rules to suit THEIR OWN good.

Not yours.

And you want to build your Internet Business around Search Engines alone? Can you see how dangerous and/or futile this approach can be, where you’re relying on somebody else to make your money for you where there’s no motivation for them to do so, other than your content - which they can obtain from your other competitors’ web pages that number in the millions?

It’s a completely different thing if you’re able to optimize for the Search Engines AS you’re doing your other marketing activities. This way you’re killing 2 (or more) birds with a single stone. You’ll benefit even if the Search Engines don’t list you at all, and if they do within their top 10 results, you’ll benefit even more.

4. You must believe that there’s always ANOTHER WAY to achieve your objectives
There is always more than 1 way to achieve the same thing – you just haven’t found it yet. Believing this means that you will never give up when you’re stuck, or stick to just one way of doing things when there ARE other ways available for you to achieve the same objectives.

I’ll say it again:

There is always ANOTHER way to achieve the same thing. If you’ve done math in school before, you’ll know this to be true. Some ways are shorter, some are longer, some are easier, some are harder, some cost less, some cost more. Regardless, you’ll be able to find more than one way to do what you want to do.

Knowing this makes you expand your scope and gives you more options. This can be useful when you’re stuck or are sick of what you’ve always been doing.

5. You must THINK and ACT like a Merchant
This means you must take on all the characteristics of someone who is rewarded for giving value to others. You’re selling something that your Customers want to have, so you must act as that vendor.

This is different from being an Affiliate where all you do is to refer Prospects to the Merchant’s web site for the selling and delivery to take place. You do all you can to get that traffic there, and thereafter it’s the Merchant’s responsibility to close the sale and follow-up with them.

A Merchant thinks and acts differently from an Affiliate. A Merchant always thinks of creating another product or keeping his Customers happy with his products. He always thinks of giving the best value he can give, so that not only are his Customers happy with his products, his Affiliates are happy to be referring Prospects to him too.

6. You must take your Internet Business SERIOUSLY
One of my Boot Camp participants said this:

If you treat your Internet Business as a hobby, it’ll pay you like a hobby. If you take it seriously, it’ll pay you seriously.

He should know. He went from being a serious stock trader to being a serious Internet Entrepreneur, and he tells me it’s much better being an Internet Entrepreneur following the model he has chosen than to be a stock trader due to the almost non-existence of stress in his Internet Business compared to trading in stocks. He mentioned that he couldn’t even go to the bathroom when he was trading stocks just in case the prices changed as he had to have his eyes fixed to his computer screen all the time. His Internet Business liberated him and he’s so much happier as a result.

He likes keeping a low profile and simply concentrates on running his Internet Businesses and creating new ones. He has been an Internet Entrepreneur since 2003 and he’s simply loving every moment.

Note that an Internet Business is after all a business. Just because you use a medium for entertainment that the Internet is frequently used for (e-mail, checking out reviews, e-zines, movie clips) to make your money doesn’t mean that you should treat it any less seriously. Make a commitment to put in WHATEVER time and effort and money as are required for you to make your Internet Business succeed - and you can’t help but succeed eventually.

7. You must always deliver the BEST VALUE you can to your Prospects and Customers
This is the starting point. If you’re not going to provide them with the best value you can come up with, it’s better not to start. I’ve bought some really awful products online before and I wonder exactly what made the Merchant sell them in the first place.

Always check to see if you’re proud to be selling the product you’re selling. Does it add value to your Customers? Does it work? If you were your own Customer, would you be happy with your own product? If you’re not, don’t sell it!

8. You must run your Internet Business with INTEGRITY
You must be HONEST and SINCERE when delivering that value to your Prospects and Customers. Contrary to what you may think, most Customers are honest. The majority of them are not out to cheat you, but to get value from you that they’re willing to pay for. They will appreciate you for giving them the value that they want to get - and if your offers are right, they will reward you handsomely in return.

However, the starting point isn’t whether your Customers are honest or not. It is YOU, and you must be honest and act with integrity. Always give what you say you will give, or do what you say you will do. It’s okay to over-deliver, but it’s not okay to under-deliver. If your mindset is such, you’re on the right track, no matter what some of your Customers do that are not to your liking. You can take measures to counter the undesired actions, but you can’t properly run a business without being an honest Merchant to begin with.

9. Your list of Prospects and Customers are your GOLDMINE
Treat them with the utmost care and respect, and you will be in business for a long time to come. Communicate frequently with them to make them keep you at the top of their minds at all times.

Sure, some Customers are from hell, and suck up a lot of your time and energy without appreciating anything you’ve done for them in return. So “fire” them as politely as you can, and focus all your energies on your other Customers, some of whom will be your best Customers who will continue to buy from you again and again.

10. Aim for NEVER-ENDING improvement
Your Internet Business can always be improved to make you more profits, do less work and reach out to more people. There will always be progress in technology, and there will always be smart people who add value to Entrepreneurs’ lives by creating new products and services that make them achieve more with less.

If you’re always on the lookout for these products and services that will help you do better, you will eventually achieve your goal to do better. This includes increasing your conversion rates for your Squeeze Pages and Sales Letters, your marketing reach, your Customer support level, your outsourcing level - in fact, anything and everything that has something to do with your Internet Business in some way.

When you look out for them, you WILL find them. Never be happy with your current level of success, and you’ll be rewarded with even MORE success, because your mind wants to be proven right.

Sen Ze

P.S. You can link to this post with the following URL:

http://SenZe.com/business-blog/internet-business/the-internet-entrepreneurs-creed.htm

Technorati Tags: internet business, internet marketing, internet entrepreneur, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship

You’ve got to see this to appreciate what a POWERFUL Internet Marketing tool this is.

There is NOTHING ELSE on earth that can beat this.

Wait for it to load and see for yourself!

When you’re a one-person Entrepreneur (which you would want to be, if you can, especially when you’re starting off), you would want to minimize your expenses and maximize your profits as much as you can.

I’ve managed in mega corporations with hundreds of people on its payroll working in huge business premises. And I’ve been on my own as a one-person Entrepreneur (where you basically take care of everything on your own).

There are advantages and disadvantages to both - but if you’re not planning on working for an organization any time soon, you really have only one choice.

As a one-person Entrepreneur, you’ll want a business model that doesn’t require a huge capital outlay, or any employees. You can outsource some parts of your work which can be on an ad-hoc basis (like doing up your accounts, for example), but by and large, you’re in charge of everything, and you’ll be doing all of them.

Internet Businesses appeal to individuals without a huge appetite for risks since a lot of leverage can be achieved with a computer, software and the Internet. Many of your tasks that you have to do to run your business can also be “delegated” or assigned to specialized software, like following up with your Prospects, for example.

Not only that, if done properly, Internet Businesses can also bring in HUGE returns which make the costs of running them quite laughable by comparison with other types of businesses.

Well and good - but what Internet Business should you start?

My recommendation is to sell products on the Internet, as a Merchant, not as an Affiliate for other Merchants.

Yes, even when you’re starting off, with absolutely no experience.

For it is only when you’re a Merchant that you can spot good Merchants that you can be an Affiliate for.

In other words, if you don’t know what’s involved in selling - how do you know the Merchant you’re an Affiliate for knows what he’s doing? You’ll want to maximize your efforts in referring Prospects to the Merchants so that you have the highest possible chances of success in earning your commissions.

The other reason is that once you’re a successful Merchant, other Merchants will be flocking to you to offer you their Affiliate or Joint Venture opportunity so you don’t really have to seek every single Merchant out to partake in their Affiliate Program (unless you wish to, of course).

Thus by becoming a Merchant, you’re really making yourself both a Merchant AND an Affiliate at the same time, with the Affiliate role being an automatic option.

Compare this to becoming an Affiliate first, where you seek out Merchants to refer Prospects to. You simply focus on referring, instead of building up your own range of in-demand products that are your ASSETS.

So the vast majority of Affiliates remain Affiliates, with just a fraction of them becoming Merchants themselves, because being a Merchant isn’t an automatic option for Affiliates, as Affiliates don’t learn the skills or acquire the knowledge on building up their own ASSETS that can generate a fortune for them for many years to come.

You may say that an Affiliate’s asset is the LIST of Prospects he builds up, on his way to referring them to the Merchants - and you would be right. However, a Merchant has to build up his own list too - so why not get 2 streams of income as both a Merchant and an Affiliate, instead of just becoming an Affiliate only?

Best of all - a Merchant can have Affiliates marketing FOR HIM too - whereas most Affiliates work for themselves only since most Affiliate Programs only pay on 1 level directly to the Affiliate where he can’t recruit other Affiliates to help him market for the Merchant.

Know what I mean?

To fit within the low-cost, high-profit boundaries you’re setting for yourself as a one-person Entrepreneur, I very highly recommend that you sell DIGITAL products as a Merchant.

Specifically, digital products that can be DOWNLOADED directly from your web site.

Downloadable digital products are automatically duplicated and delivered to your customers once they click on the link that leads to your digital product on your server, which also hosts your web pages selling your digital products.

This is different from selling digital products on CDs or DVDs where you’ll still have to deliver the physical CDs/DVDs to your customers through the mail. This means handling, packing and physical delivery at the post office - all of which will take up your time, and certainly add to your costs.

You can of course outsource the handling, packing and physical delivery to another outfit, with the costs being borne by your customers. But this will increase your customer’s cost of getting your product, and you’ll still have the usual customer support headaches associated with selling physical products. They could say that they “didn’t receive product, please send another one”, or the “product is damaged, please send another one”, or “one CD is missing from the set of 3 - please send it over”, etc.

With downloadable digital products, especially information products (which is what I suggest that you start with) - what’s your headache?

1. Customer couldn’t download product
Give him a direct link to your product in your e-mail to him. Or attach your product to your e-mail. End of story. Will take a minute or two. This happens only a fraction of the time.

2. Customer thinks your product is crappy. He wants a refund
Log into your PayPal account (assuming you use PayPal to accept payments online), and effect a refund. End of story. Will take you a minute or two. This happens only a fraction of the time, unless your product REALLY is crappy - in which case it’s time to make it better until you get very few refund requests. Refund requests will happen, whether your product is digital or otherwise, and no matter how good it really is. You can deal with it and move on quickly.

Is there anything else as far as customer support for downloadable digital product (information based) is concerned?

Right. There is NOTHING else.

Best of all, downloadable digital products can be taken delivery of by your customers even as you’re lazing around in your Pajamas at home, or you’re at the cinema watching the latest blockbuster in the middle of the day (when you’re escaping from the maddening crowd, and when most of your friends are at work in a conventional job) since a CLICK by your customer on the download link is all that is required to complete the sale.

Your web pages do the selling, your host server serves your web pages to anybody with a browser and an Internet connection and your domain name, your PayPal account accepts payment directly from your web site (via credit card or other PayPal accounts), and your host server automatically duplicates and delivers your downloadable product to your customers.

It’s the PERFECT business to do.

Lest you think selling digital products via a web site is for techies - relax!

I’ve figured out ways to make it possible for complete dummies who have only ever used e-mail up to now, to quickly create downloadable products of his own (sometimes this happens instantly!), quickly write a sales spiel for it, quickly set up this sales spiel and download page on his web site, quickly integrate his web site with an online payment system and finally quickly marketing his web site so that the selling can take place - all within A FEW DAYS!

Yes, it is NOW within the reach of MOST people with an interest to become a Merchant of downloadable digital products, FASTER THAN EVER BEFORE - whereas previously the majority of people can’t do it, no matter how much coaching they’ve received.

This isn’t a pipe dream. I’ve spent the last 4 or 5 years of my life trying to crack this code - and I’m proud to say I’ve finally done it.

Which is extremely good news for you, if you’ve always thought of making money online, but never got started, or never succeeded.

More in my next post!

Sen Ze

P.S. You can link to this post with the following URL:

http://SenZe.com/business-blog/digital-products/the-perfect-business.htm

Technorati Tags: internet business, internet marketing, digital products, affiliates, affiliate program, merchant, business strategy, e-commerce, make money online