| ETR's Info-Marketing Bootcamp started last night. And for those of you who couldn't make it, we'll be publishing breaking news throughout this week from the conference. Writing those Bootcamp dispatches will be Jason Holland, ETR's Managing Editor. He'll be playing the part of roving reporter. (His first dispatch is below.) Jason will give you the skinny on the big-picture strategies being revealed in the presentations from the dozen experts joining us. But you'll also hear about those little nuggets and "aha!" moments that pop up. We don't let any of our experts "rest on their laurels" when they come to Bootcamp. They must promise to reveal up-to-the-minute techniques they are using in their businesses right now. So you can be sure Clayton Makepeace, Rich Schefren, Scott Martineau, Joe Polish, Chris Chickering, and all the rest will be bringing their "A" game. And you'll hear all about it. But you won't just get the scoop on what's going on "on stage." Jason will be interviewing these experts personally... talking to attendees... filling you in on the cocktail conversations and those deals that always seem to be made in the hallways. It's between sessions and after hours that much of the business of Bootcamp goes down. What ties it all together is Info-Net Marketing. That's what I write about in my essay today... and it's the great love (business love, that is) of my life. It really is the best business in the world. And it takes advantage of three forces coming together right now. Combined, they add up to explosive profit potential for start-up Internet businesses... like those being started at Bootcamp right now.
Bootcamp Dispatch By Jason Holland What do you really need to start building a life-changing amount of wealth? Your 401(k) ain't gonna do it. Neither is your day job. The 200 aspiring Internet entrepreneurs at Bootcamp know. It was the subject of Michael Masterson's keynote speech: The Special Theory of Automatic Wealth. It all starts with the true nature of wealth. "What is wealth?" asked Michael. First, let's consider what wealth is not. Wealth is not income. Even having a huge income is not wealth. Wealth is not a lifestyle with fancy cars and a huge house. Or investing in hot stocks. Anything rented, borrowed, or mortgaged - anything that can be taken away from you – is not wealth. Those are the trappings of wealth. Wealth is stored, unencumbered value. That means retained income, savings, tangible investments, and financially-valuable and timeless skills. Anything with true value. So how do you get this wealth? Why is it that some people, no matter how privileged or how much income they have, are unable to really accumulate long-lasting wealth and others can? It all boils down to the decisions you make. Every conscious moment is an opportunity to become richer or poorer. Whether you'll work on a project now... or later. Whether you'll act on what you learn at a seminar... or get too busy and put it aside. Whether you'll spend your "off" time gaining new skills... or watching game shows. A person with a rich mind understands this concept. He is aware of these enriching opportunities. He can assess their value instantly. And he has the internal, emotional capacity to act on this information. A person with a poor mind think the world is unfair. He believes in luck. He thinks there is a limited amount of wealth in the world – and he wants his cut. He feels powerless over his fate. He uses his energy criticizing, complaining, and condemning. This is someone who will never become wealthy. Not all the decisions we make have to make us richer, said Michael. But when you make enough of these little decisions you start getting momentum. All these little decisions build and accumulate. Once you start making enriching decisions they will come easier and easier. And you will find more opportunities, accumulate more assets. Eventually, you'll discover you're very confident that you can build as much wealth as you want. Here's what it boils down to: Every situation is an opportunity. Every person you meet... every conversation... every book you read... every speech you hear... every meal you eat... every spending decision... every chance you are given... every problem you face... is a chance to become richer or poorer. And if you have a poor mind... or are just skeptical... or find it hard to "take action" all is not lost. You can change and develop your own rich mind in eight simple steps: 1. Forgive yourself for being imperfect 2. Educate yourself out of ignorance 3. Practice yourself out of incompetence. 4. Develop rich skills: - Think well (have capacity to ask questions, gain an ability to trust your gut instinct)
- Speak well (speak from the heart and with enthusiasm, have purpose in your conversation, learn the art of persuasion)
- Write well (a combination of being persuasive and being able to identify great ideas)
5. Recognize opportunity in everything 6. Take action (start right away) 7. Take profits and save them (don't spend more than you have. As your income increases, keep your spending reasonable. When you make money, pay yourself first – always put money in savings.) 8. Continue to learn. Be an avid learner, be interested in everything. Michael continues to develop his Special Theory of Automatic Wealth. And you'll see his thoughts in future issues of ETR. But this is the core idea – and what you can take away today: Every conscious moment we all have the capacity to make these decisions. This gives all of us enormous potential power. You have this capacity if you just allow yourself to be aware of these opportunities, recognize their value, and take action. As Michael said, "Right here, right now is your opportunity." -----------------------------------------------------Highly Recommended ----------------------------------------------------- Earn $10,000 a month in online revenues by May 2010 If you've ever tried building your own internet business from scratch... but always wound up quitting in frustration because you didn't make any REAL progress... ... then today could mark a big turning point in your life. That's because I'm going to show you a REAL way to bring in as much as $10,000 a month in online revenues by May 2010... ... even if you've never made a single penny online before. And the best part is, our elite team of internet marketing experts has already done ALL of the hard work for you. All you need to do is "follow the lead" and you'll be well on your way to big-time internet wealth. Here's how to get started...
"The Internet is a powerful way to make lots of money." Sumner Redstone It was a tough assignment. I was asked to speak to Agora's top people about "everything we had learned in the last nine years about selling our publications through the Internet." There was so much to cover. So many new tricks, techniques, and protocols. And most of it had been discovered by the same people I was talking to: the 40 people who headed our 20 divisions. I made a long list of all the "new things" we had learned. It was overwhelming. So I put it down and forgot about it for a week. When I picked it up again, I sorted the items on the list into "very important, "important," and "not-so important." Then I put it away for another week. The next time I picked up the list, it was no longer so discombobulating. I realized that I knew all the "very important" secrets quite well. They were the same ones we used back in the days when we did direct marketing through the mail. But that raised some questions. If all the important secrets were the same, why had Agora's revenues and profits soared? Why had Agora's competitors not grown as much? What were they not doing that we were doing? After some thought, I realized that it all came down to the business model Agora has been using. I don't know whether I coined the term or borrowed it, but I dubbed it Info-Net Marketing. Info-Net Marketing is a combination of information publishing (our industry), direct marketing via e-mail (our primary marketing method), and the Internet (our medium). And in the years since 2000, these three elements have converged in a very powerful way. Looking back at it now, it's clear that our getting involved with Info-Net Marketing 10 years ago was a good move. And although some of the bloom is off the rose, it is still a very good business to be in today. In fact, it is probably the best way for newcomers to get in the game. By newcomers, I mean young people fresh out of college, middle-aged people who want a career change, and retired people looking to make extra income working a few hours a week. You can understand why I say Info-Net Marketing is the "best business in the world" for newcomers by looking at the main advantages of each of its three elements. Information Publishing You can keep dozens, even hundreds, of digital products in "storage." And you can sell them to your customer base, a little at a time, indefinitely. Direct Marketing You can start out small and keep testing new products and promotions cheaply. When you find something that works, you can "run it out" quickly. The Internet Because of the low cost of customer contact via e-mail, you can communicate with your customers daily -- and thus significantly increase (even quintuple) the lifetime value of each buyer. If you want get into a new business without spending a ton of money, you should definitely consider Info-Net Marketing. If you come to one of ETR's Bootcamps, you will meet dozens of people who have already done it -- the "chicken entrepreneurship" way -- starting with very little and moving cautiously. It's the Info-Net Marketing model that sets Agora apart from its competitors -- especially, the direct-marketing component. Most people who have started online businesses in the past 10 years have used models based on affiliate marketing and advertising. These sometimes work, but they are more costly and much less efficient than direct marketing. Plus, they don't give you the chance to "run" with your winners. Let me give you a quick example of how Info-Net Marketing works: Let's say you write a book or have one written for you. From the book, you create a special report. The special report focuses on one of the best ideas the book has to offer. You sell that report inexpensively online -- maybe even give it away for free. The report is used to draw in prospective customers, to develop your own house file. Essentially, you use the report to capture names and e-mail addresses. As they come in, you give those folks more stuff -- good stuff -- for free. You give them a free e-mail newsletter. You send them occasional news alerts. You start to build a relationship. How often do you communicate with your house file? Daily. Why not? Thanks to the Internet, it costs next to nothing. And this has radically changed our business. In the old days, when we communicated with our customers through the mail, it cost about 50 cents per contact (for printing costs, postage, etc.). If, on average, each customer was worth $30 in sales to you over the course of a year, how often could you afford to do a mailing? Maybe once a month. Tops. But now, as I said, you can "talk" to your customers on a regular basis. And before long, they recognize your name. Not only that, but because of all that good free stuff you've been sending them, they think of you as a source of reliable, useful information. That's when you can begin to sell them things -- starting with the book you used to create that original special report. Then, based on that same book, you sell webinars, teleconferences, live seminars, and thin-sliced reports. For each thin-sliced report, you take one of the chapters of the book and make it bigger and deeper. And you sell those reports for $50 apiece, $100 apiece, $500 apiece. And then they themselves can develop into personal coaching programs you sell for thousands. Your fixed costs for all of these products -- the book, the reports, the webinars, the teleconferences, the seminars -- are extremely low. But the profit potential is huge. This is the dynamic model Agora uses. With Info-Net Marketing, direct marketing meets information publishing meets the Internet. It really is the best business in the world. P.S. Agora's Info-Net Marketing model is what I (and a dozen other Internet, marketing, and business-building experts) am teaching right now during ETR's Info-Marketing Bootcamp. If you're not here with us... you can still attend the conference "virtually." Check out the Bootcamp Home Study Program here. -----------------------------------------------------Highly Recommended ----------------------------------------------------- The Simple Six-Figure Marketing Strategy - Paul Lawrence spent less than $100 to start his first business. He used just one marketing plan. Soon he had so many customers, he hired someone to do the work. He went after new business. He used his marketing plan again. Almost instantly, he was making $4,000 a month. The people he sold the business to (so he could finish college -- paid for by the sale, by the way) used the same plan. They are making $100,000 a year. Read more...
If You Want To Become the Boss One Day...
By Michael Masterson
If you want to become the boss one day, think like a customer and act like an owner. How do you think like a customer?
Let's start with the obvious. Your customers are interested in what's good for them, not you. They don't really care how hard you work or how much more complicated your business is from those of your competitors. They don't care how much you spend on overhead or what regulations you suffer through. The only thing they care about is what you can do for them and how much it will cost them.
To think like a customer, you have to be able to put yourself in his shoes. Here are two questions to ask yourself: - What do our customers want from us? (Go beyond the obvious.)
- How can we give them more of that? (In other words, in what ways can you reinvent, replicate, reproduce, renovate, refine, and renew the fundamental benefits of your business?)
How do you act like an owner? What is the difference between the actions of a boss and the actions of an employee? The short answer is this: The boss's rewards are tied more directly to the future of the business. So that's what concerns him.
If you want to be the boss one day, focus on what he worries about. What are the problems he deals with on a day-to-day basis? How can you help eliminate them? Show him that you are ready to take the stress out of his life and make him richer by making his business run: - more smoothly
- more efficiently
- more quickly, and more profitably
As an employee, you have one distinct advantage over your boss: You are closer to your customers and can, therefore, think more like them (if you try). When you come up with ideas on how to provide them with more and better products and services, you will be creating new and supplementary streams of income for the business. Your boss will see you as someone who can make his dreams of having more and worrying less come to fruition.
The Worst Thing You Can Do When You're on the Road
By Michael Masterson
When you're traveling on business, it's tempting to skip exercise and grab fast food to save time. Bad idea. You're on the road for a good reason: There's something important that requires your attention -- and you need to stay mentally alert. The best way to do that is to maintain as healthy a routine as possible. So make it a point -- not just as an option or afterthought -- to schedule in exercise and healthy meals. If you do, you'll be sharper and make better business decisions. I recently came across another wrongheaded "business success" article. It advised up-and-comers to "read the same magazines as your peers." Certainly, you must keep up on what's going on within your industry. But you won't get very far if all you have is the same information as everyone else. You should be constantly looking for breakthrough ideas by going outside your field. Identify hot trends in other industries. Then think about how they might be adapted to yours.
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"Beginning my day with good ideas." "First of all, thanks for all the great tips in your newsletters. It took a while, but I now love the new ETR format. By the way, I read it first thing in the morning. I'm a firm believer in beginning my day with good ideas and good thoughts. It sets a pattern for the rest of my day."
Bruce Weir
Lake Stevens, WA -----------------------------------------------------Highly Recommended ----------------------------------------------------- Who Do You Listen To? - When it comes to financial news... who do you trust? The cable news talking heads? Newspaper and magazine columnists? Well, guess what? They're biased at worst. Incompetent at best. Why not try an independent voice?
To discombobulate (dis-kum-BOB-yuh-late) -- a fanciful alteration of "discompose" or "discomfort" -- is to befuddle, perplex, or frustrate. Example (as used by Michael Masterson today): "The next time I picked up the list, it was no longer so discombobulating. I realized that I knew all the 'very important' secrets quite well."
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