Gain credibility and authority for you and your business by publishing a book. It’s not as hard as you think!  At the Self-Publishers Online Conference (SPOC), you can learn the ins and outs of the book publishing business from 16 expert speakers — including IMC Marketing Director Chuck Anderson — right from the comfort of your own computer, wherever you happen to be located.

The third annual conference is May 10-12, 2011 and all you need is an Internet connection. With our unique online conference software, you can attend seminars live or via recording, learn about useful publishing resources in the Exhibit Hall, and interact with speakers and other attendees through the live discussion areas and Q&A sessions. Visit www.SelfPublishersOnlineConference.com for more info.

Take advantage of Early Bird pricing now and get an additional 10% off by using the special coupon when you register. Just enter “Chuck11″ as the coupon code to receive your discount.

Live Long and Publish at SPOC!

Yeah… they drive us crazy, too.

Today we’re going to go against the grain and say what no other Internet marketer has ever said before:

You CAN’T make millions of dollars on the Internet overnight.

You won’t be making millions in your first month… or your first year… or even your first five years — unless your best friend is a leprechaun and your pockets are full of lucky pennies and four-leafed clovers and you’ve got the proverbial golden horseshoe you know where.

Okay, it *can* happen… we know a lot of online success stories who made their first million within the first year of owning their online business.

And yes, some of them didn’t have any real computer experience before they started.

But we want to make this clear: They are the exception, not the norm.

So how much CAN you expect to make with your first online business?

Well, that depends on you.

No, we’re not trying to jam out of giving you a *real* answer — your success really does depend on YOU, and how much time and effort you are willing to devote to your business.

When we work one-on-one with our mentoring clients, the more determined ones usually make their first few sales within the first month of starting their business.

That means if you fully devote yourself to your business, you should see a few hundred dollars in sales that first month.

BUT if you keep at it, the money will continue to grow — so by the time you’re at the six-month mark, you’re making a thousand a month instead of just a few hundred.

And by the time that first year ends, you’ll probably be making a lot more than that — anywhere from three to ten thousand a month, if you’re like our more successful mentoring clients.

That means you’ll probably be making anywhere from $36,000 to $120,000 a year.

… It might not be millions, but it’s still not a bad pay-off for a year’s worth of work, wouldn’t you say?

But to make this kind of money, you MUST be prepared to pour your heart and soul into your business and do all you can to ensure its success.

Because if you’re the kind of person who would rather sit on the couch watching TV than put in the time required to build a better future for yourself, then the Internet probably isn’t for you.

So how about it?

Are you willing to roll up your sleeves and create a real online business that makes real money?

Or would you rather buy into the lie of the “millions made while you sleep!” and spend hundreds of dollars on “instant cash machine” offers that never live up to their promises?

… The choice is up to you.

(And if you ARE interested in making real money online and don’t mind getting your hands dirty while you’re at it, check out our new StartUp guide to online success — the first issue is free!)

I’ll spare you a rehash of all the gory details — I’m sure you’re WELL aware of them already — but suffice to say that the stock market and economy took a pretty sound thrashing this week.

And MANY people are worried.

I’m seeing it in the emails I’ve been getting from nervous customers… and in the urgent phone calls I’m been receiving… and in the comments on my blog…

There are a whole lot of people out there who are concerned about what the present economic climate will mean to their Internet businesses.

Well, I’m no economist, so I’m not about to make a prediction about the markets or the stability of the economy…

… but I am an Internet marketer, and what I can say — with confidence — is that a downturn in the current economy does NOT have to be a major roadblock for YOUR Internet business!

One key to surviving (even thriving) during this period of uncertainty is to know your customers!

It’s more critical than EVER for you to understand EXACTLY who they are… where they’re coming from… their interests, goals, and desires. This will allow you to create laser-focussed marketing copy that speaks DIRECTLY to them and solves their specific problems, as well as offer products that you know for sure will make a difference in their lives.

You’ll be rewarded with continued customer loyalty, and ongoing sales!

So if you don’t already know all you can about your customers and visitors, NOW is definitely the time to find out…

… and the easiest and fastest way to do that is with a survey.

Here are the SIX STEPS you need to follow to create an effective and informative survey that will help you connect with your customers — and continue to profit — during the current financial turmoil:

Step #1: Plan Your Survey

As with everything else you do with your business, you’ll have the greatest success with your survey if you do some advance planning.

Without a solid idea of what exactly it is you hope to learn from your results, you can easily end up creating a survey consisting of fairly random questions that ultimately don’t lead you anywhere.

So make sure you take the time to sit down and do some brainstorming and list making.

Decide what your goals with the survey are. Are you trying to learn more about specific products you offer? Looking for ways you could give everyone a more positive customer care experience? Trying to gather demographic information so you can segment your list better and send out tailored offers?

Be clear about what you’re hoping to accomplish with the survey, and you’ll be in great shape when it comes time to writing the actual survey questions.

Step #2: Choose Your Weapon

One thing I like about surveys is that they’re super simple for pretty much ANY business owner to administer, no matter how small your budget, or limited your technical knowledge.

That’s because there are lots of web-based services out there that will host your survey for you… for FREE!

You just design the survey using their simple point-and-click interface, enter the text for your questions, and then email a link to the survey to your customers and subscribers.

When your customers show up, the automated survey is online and ready to take!

And best of all, many of these free services offer a reasonable number of reporting features, too, making it easy to interpret your results.

Of course, most of these services offer paid upgrades as well, which allow you to create more complex surveys and get more sophisticated reports, but for a typical small survey, the freebies work just fine.

Here are a couple that I’ve used and like:

• SurveyMonkey
• Survey Pro

Step #3: Design And Write Your Survey

Designing your survey takes a bit of skill, but with a small amount of planning (there’s that word again!), you’ll have no problem putting an effective one together. Just be sure that you’re putting the questions in a logical order, and not exhausting your customers by asking for too much detail.

Here are a few tips to help you design a better survey:

• Start with the good stuff – To ease your customers into the survey, start off with some simple questions they can answer without a lot of thought.

  This can be something as simple as basic demographic information (age, location, etc.), which also happens to be useful information.

  But don’t load up the front end with all of the easy questions. Save a few for the end of the survey. That way, it won’t get increasingly difficult throughout, which can cause some people to bail before they complete it.

• Avoid asking too many questions — 15 minutes is about the maximum length you can reasonably expect somebody to spend answering a survey, so be sure to limit your questions.

  At the same time, be sure to let your respondents know up front how much time will be required to complete it… and be honest! People will begin to drop out if it starts to take longer than you say.

• Give your survey an introduction and ending — It’s a good idea to include an introduction to the survey, to clearly explain what people are required to do.

  At the same time, it’s a nice touch to end the survey with a "thank you" page, just to let people know you appreciate the time they spent taking the survey.

• Respect people’s privacy – You may want to collect personal information like age, income, and occupation. If you do so, make sure to reassure your customers beforehand that you have a strict privacy policy, and remind them that their answers are all confidential.

When it comes time to write the actual questions, make sure you write in a relaxed, conversational voice, and avoid things like abbreviations, acronyms, and double negatives. You want to be sure that EVERY person who takes your survey clearly understands all of the questions.

Here are a few tips to help you write compelling and effective survey questions:

• Avoid asking leading questions – Be sure that your questions don’t sway your customers towards answering them in a particular way, or giving an answer that’s not actually true.

  For example, don’t say: "How quickly did we resolve your problem? " This assumes that the problem was indeed resolved.

  The question you should ask is, "Was your problem resolved?"

• Avoid questions that rate more than one thing — Avoid asking questions that require people to rate more than one thing at a time.

  For instance, don’t say: "How fast and accurate did you find our customer service representative?"

  While the service may have been fast, it may not have been accurate (or vice versa) so this question is impossible to answer accurately.

• Focus on asking "close-ended" questions — In a survey, a close-ended question is one that can be answered with a simple yes/no or other specific piece of information, or a selection from multiple choices.

  This makes the survey faster and easier for your customers, and the results more simple for you to manage.

  So instead of a question like "What did you think of your customer service experience?" try something like "Did you enjoy your customer service experience?"

• Be consistent with your questions — If you ask your customers to rate certain things on a numbered scale, make sure to use the same scale each time.

  So if they need to rate something on a scale of 1 to 5 in one question, avoid using a scale of 1 to 10 elsewhere.

• Watch out for long questions — If your questions are too long, your customers will soon get tired of answering them, and abandon the survey. Look for questions that can be broken into two or more parts.
• Don’t test your customers’ memories – Try not to ask your customers to recall a lot of information that happened far in the past. They’ll soon get bogged down trying to recall specific details, and if they’re in a hurry to complete the survey, will often abandon it.

Step #4: Test Your Survey

You all know by now that I’m a HUGE advocate of testing EVERYTHING before you email it, make it live on your site, or expose it to your customers in any way.

So take the time to carefully review the survey, to make sure it has a logical flow, and that it all makes sense.

If you can, it’s a good idea to ask a few people (customers, if possible, or co-workers, friends, or family) to take the survey ahead of time, and actually WATCH them while they do it.

Do they hesitate while answering a question? Backtrack? Skip over a question? It could be a sign that your questions aren’t clear enough, and you’ll need to work on making them more simple.

Once you’re done, ask about the experience. Was there anything you didn’t understand? Were you confused at any point?

You want to make sure the survey is easy to understand and follow BEFORE you make it available. Once it’s actually live — and your customers have started answering it — you DON’T want to have to start tinkering with the questions. That will skew your results.

Step #5: Administer The Survey

Okay, the moment of truth is upon you: It’s time to invite your customers to take the survey.

The easiest way to do this is to email them, and ask them for a few minutes of their time. And make sure you tell them what’s in it for them if they take the survey.

If your goal is to improve a certain product, for instance, tell them that by taking the survey, they’ll actually be helping you to help them, because you’ll use their comments to fine-tune the assistance you can offer them.

And don’t be shy about offering your customers a "bribe" for taking the survey. You’re asking them to do a big favor for you, so it’s not unreasonable to reward them for their time.

Consider sending everyone who responds a gift (like a free ebook that they’ll find valuable), a coupon for discounted products, or enter them in a draw to win some a prize.

Finally, make sure you build some urgency into the email. If you don’t ask people to take the time right away to answer the survey, they’ll often put it aside to answer when they have more time… but then never return to complete it.

Step #6: Interpret Your Results

As you review the results of your survey, remember that, more than anything, you’re looking for trends. Did the majority of respondents answer specific questions the same way? Are they often expressing the same frustrations, etc?

At the same time, look for any surprising answers. Your survey is likely going to tell you things about your audience that you had no idea were true.

By finding out EXACTLY who your audience is, what they like (and dislike), and what their goals and experiences are, you’ll be able to tailor your salescopy, your email marketing efforts, your website, and even your products, to perfectly suit them.

The results should be improved customer loyalty, and ongoing success with your business, even during these turbulent economic times!

On Monday morning, hurricane Gustav blasted across Louisiana and surrounding states, leaving behind a trail of destruction estimated to be in the billions of dollars

But despite the extensive damage, the one thing people feared MOST never happened…

New Orleans was spared.

Gustav made landfall 100 miles to the south, and the city avoided a repeat of the devastation that Katrina brought three years ago.

But it’s not like the city wasn’t ready for the worst!

In the days leading up to Gustav’s arrival, over a million people were evacuated, and massive emergency shelters were set up in surrounding areas.

Drawing on everything they learned from Katrina, New Orleans planned for the worst… hoped for the best… and were rewarded with the best possible outcome.

Now, without minimizing in any way the human and financial costs of Gustav, it’s a lesson we can ALL take away for our own businesses.

Plan for the worst. Hope for the best.

You’re probably already planning for success, right? We all spend a LOT of time projecting our future sales and revenue, figuring out how to improve our business processes, and generally making sure we continue to profit.

And obviously, that’s good! Hoping for the best is what makes us successful as entrepreneurs.

But how much time do you spend preparing for unexpected surprises?

Do you have a plan in place for things that could go wrong? When the market you’ve been successfully selling to suddenly dries up? Or there’s another major change in the search engines and your traffic DIES?

Here are FIVE things you can do to make sure YOUR business is prepared for the worst… and sails through nearly any crisis:

1. Pursue Multiple Markets Using Small Niche Websites

Say you own a website, and with it, you’ve pretty much cornered the market for your single product. Sales are excellent, and the money is rolling in day and night, without you barely needing to lift a finger.

You’re in the perfect position, right?

Well, assuming that nothing EVER changes, then yes, you’ll be fine…

… but what if there’s a sudden shift in the market, and the product you’re selling, which was HOT just a few months ago, is suddenly something you can barely GIVE away? (Think it can’t happen? Just ask anyone who sells large SUVs for a living!)

So how do you prepare for the worst?

I always tell people that the BEST way to protect yourself against fickle markets is to have MULTIPLE small niche sites up and running.

Get one started, and once it’s converting, use everything you learned from that process to start another. And another.

Before you know it, you’ll have multiple sources of income, so if one of your products goes out of fashion, or falls out of favor, you won’t take a BIG hit to your revenue.

But remember: slow and steady wins the race. Don’t try to put together five different websites for five different niches all at the same time.

Work on one, get it converting, put it on "auto pilot," and then move on to site number two.

2. Target Multiple Markets Within Your Niche, Using Custom Landing Pages

Just as it’s a good idea to have multiple niche websites in place, it’s ALSO a good idea to make sure each individual website is targeting many different keyphrases using custom landing pages.

Don’t just create a single landing page for your best keyphrase, then call it a day!

You may get good traffic initially, but some day, that particular keyword or phrase is no longer going to be popular, or competitors will move in and start targeting that same keyword… and your sales will be LOST.

But if you do your research, and understand ALL of the main keyphrases your visitors are using to find you, you can create custom landing pages for each of the main phrases.

That way, if one of the keyphrases stops being productive, you’re still getting plenty of traffic to the other pages.

So to prepare for the worst, stay on top of your keywords — they often change over time — and make sure you’re always targeting as many as possible.

3. Make Sure Your Traffic Is Coming To Your Site From Many Different Sources

Are you getting most of your traffic (and sales) thanks to one or two #1 rankings on the search engines?

There’s NOTHING like free traffic from the search engines, right?

But have you considered what would happen if Google (or one of the other big search engines) suddenly decided to make significant changes to their algorithms (the formulas they use to rank websites), and, without warning, you found yourself on page 37 in the search results?

It would literally be the END of your traffic!

And if you think that will never happen, it already has! Not that long ago, Google made some significant changes to the way they rank sites, and there were a LOT of websites that literally fell off the radar!

So if you’re depending solely on the search engines to drive an endless stream of traffic to your doorstep, right NOW is the time to diversify.

Of course, you can always turn to pay-per-click advertising if there’s a sudden change in your free traffic, but that can be costly, and to be honest, you won’t get as many visitors with a paid listing as you would from a top ranking in the natural search rankings.

So make sure you’re always thinking about other ways to drive FREE traffic (both online AND offline).

Submit your site to as many relevant web directories as you can… participate in online forums (and make sure there’s a link back to your site in your signature line)… give away LOTS of free content (again, with links back to your site)… issue press releases… and so on.

What’s really cool about all of these strategies is that, not only will they help you get traffic from other sources, they’ll actually help you in the natural search rankings, too, so now you have TWO good reasons to do it!

4. Actively Recruit Multiple Affiliates

Got a super-keen affiliate who is responsible for a BIG chunk of your sales?

That’s great, but what happens if that affiliate decides to retire, or try her hand promoting someone else’s product.

You could see your sales dry up literally overnight, and it can often take a LONG time to find another affiliate with the necessary skills (and customers) to replace the lost income.

Don’t wait until you NEED another good affiliate to find one!

Instead, start recruiting a stable of affiliates, so you’ll always have a few solid earners, no matter WHAT happens.

And while it can be tempting to open your affiliate program to anyone who’s interested, you may find that you’ll have more success hand-picking specific candidates.

That’s because a wide-open affiliate program can often draw a LOT of people who don’t really have experience selling online.

So to make sure you always have TOP affiliates working for you, start with a web search of sites that cater to your target market.

Focus on the sites that appear right at the top (or near the top) of the results. These are the savvy marketers, and chances are, they’ll have what it takes to sell for YOU, too.

From there, it’s just a matter of contacting them personally to discuss the possibility of promoting your product.

5. Find Multiple Suppliers For Your Product

What would you do if you discovered one day that the drop shipper or wholesaler who supplied you with your top-selling product could no longer get it? Or they’d gone out of business altogether?

If you haven’t been planning for the worst, chances are you’ll sit there in disbelief, as your revenue drops to zero within DAYS!

But if you had been preparing for the worst, you’d be fine…

… because you’d have backup suppliers for these same (or similar) products. so that the transition from your old to new supplier would be seamless.

Your customers will never know the difference, and your revenue will continue to flow uninterrupted.

Hoping for the best AND preparing for the worst is actually something POSITIVE you can do for yourself and your business. It’s the BEST way to prevent surprises, stay calm when potential disasters hit, and react to income-threatening situations quickly!

To your success,

Derek Gehl

I’ve been feeling bad all day, because yesterday I may have broke a woman’s heart (don’t worry, Coralynn, it’s completely innocent!

You see, I was chatting to a woman while waiting for my car at the service center, when our conversation turned to business…

… and when she found out what I did for a living, she hit me with THE question (the one SO MANY people ask):

"I’d LOVE to make money on the Internet, but I really don’t want to waste any time on it…

What’s a FAST, EASY way to get online and making money – without doing any work?"

It’s my answer that broke her heart:

"There ISN’T one, and if you don’t want to do ANY work, then an online business isn’t for you!"

 I admit it… I was pretty blunt about it, but I just tired of people assuming that you can start an Internet business while sitting around watching television!

When I got back to the office, I began to regret being abrupt…

… and then I started thinking about the ways you actually CAN make money online quickly, without doing too much work (though you still have to be motivated, apply yourself, and spend a reasonable amount of time on it). (I need to say this again – you need to make sure whatever you sell has a market. That’s why a staple of my BeBiz business builder is the research tool.)

So here are THREE ideas for a FAST and EASY online business!

1. Have someone ELSE store and ship the products FOR you

One option for getting online and making profits FAST, is to sell products using a drop shipper.

Here’s how it works…

You choose a drop shipper who carries the kinds of products you want to sell on your site. Then, when you make a sale, you charge your customer, and send their shipping information to the drop shipper.

The drop shipper sends the product to your customer, then bills YOU for the order, at LESS than what you charged your customer. Your profit is the difference between what you charge the customer, and what the drop shipper charges you.

Drop shipping is one of the quickest and easiest ways I know to start selling online, because, with no stock to buy or store, there’s very little advanced setup required.

And there are other GOOD reasons to consider drop shipping:

• Affordability — There’s no product to develop, so no costs involved there, and because there’s no stock to buy, there are also NO storage costs.
• Flexibility — You can sell products you otherwise wouldn’t be able to stock yourself.
• Better customer service — Your buyers are still your customers, and you remain their point of contact.
  

Really, the only time-consuming part of setting up a drop shipping business is actually finding a good drop shipper where you can get the kind of products you’re looking for, at a price you can profit from.

Here are some resources I recommend to get you started:

• Worldwide Brands: www.marketingtips.com/worldwidebrands
  
• Doba: www.marketingtips.com/doba

There are also many companies online that provide extensive listings of drop shippers, like Aid and Trade (www.aidandtrade.com), and The Thomas Register (www.thomasregister.com)

2. Earn commissions recommending other people’s products

Recommending other people’s products is another great way to get started online quickly and easily.

As an affiliate, you promote another company’s product or service on your website (or to your opt-in list using email marketing), and for every paying customer you refer to the company’s site to purchase, you get paid a percentage of the profits in commission!

And the BEST part is that once you’ve done the research to find a solid market, it only takes SECONDS to set up an affiliate relationship, and start earning commissions!

Other reasons to consider starting an affiliate site?

• It runs itself — Once you’ve completed the setup, you can automate the entire process, so you can earn commissions day and night, year round!
• You can earn MULTIPLE commissions — Because there’s no customer service or payment processing required, you can get away with spending very little time working on the site, so you can easily set up MANY affiliate sites to MULTIPY your earnings.
• As with drop shipping, you have to do your research and find a good program (or programs) relevant to your business.

There are a number of web-based resources for locating affiliate programs. The best include:

• www.associateprograms.com
• www.refer-it.com
• www.affiliatematch.com
• www.cj.com (Commission Junction)

Of course the more traffic you send, the more money you make, so you do need to put some work into creating a site that gets lots of visitors.

3. Join the world’s LARGEST online marketplace

If you REALLY want it FAST and EASY, there’s no better way I know of to start making money online (potentially thousands of dollars each month), than to start your own eBay business!

$2,000 worth of merchandise changes hands on eBay every SECOND, so you’ve got a built-in market just waiting to buy what you’re selling! This is actually my FAVORITE way to start making money online as quickly as possible, because, unlike drop shipping and affiliate programs…

… you don’t even need a website to start making BIG profits!

There are other reasons to consider eBay if you’re looking to start making money right away:

• No start-up money required — You can easily create an account with eBay, get your first listing up, and start making serious profits, for just a few dollars
• No business experience necessary – You don’t need to know ANYTHING about running a business to get started on eBay, so it’s perfect for people who are just beginning to work for themselves
• You don’t need to be computer savvy — If you know how to check your email, you have all the computer skills you NEED to start making profits on eBay!

ANYONE can start making money quickly and easily on eBay…

… but to make really BIG money, it helps if you understand the more advanced strategies (the ones that very few other "eBayers" actually even know about).

I’ve been working with my in-house team of elite eBay mentors to develop a three-step system that anyone can follow to start making money on eBay…

… and I’ve put them into an online video training series that you can watch FOR FREE!

In the videos, I’ll show you how to AVOID the number one profit-killing mistake that nearly every new eBayer makes… my secret three-step formula for determining if ANY product will be a HOT seller… and review how to use eBay’s new rules to outsell even your TOUGHEST competitors!

You can get instant access to the FREE videos right here.

To your success,

Derek Gehl

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been talking a LOT about the positive impact change can have on your business, and encouraging you all to look at areas where a quick (or not-so-quick) "tweak" can help your bottom line.

Well, apparently some of you remain unconvinced that change is always good, because I’ve been getting feedback from people who are quaking in their boots at the thought of touching a THING.

So today, I’d like to make my point (and reassure you ALL) with a pretty darn good example…

I’m talking about eBay: a company who already had a clear track record of success, but recently made some BIG changes anyway!

With over 84 MILLION active users spending almost $2,000 a second (that’s $60 BILLION a year, folks!), eBay is one of the true success stories in the short history of the Internet.

Clearly, eBay wasn’t broken. So why fix it??

Well, they’re smart enough to know that resting on their laurels isn’t the way to keep growing, or reacting to the needs of their customers.

So over the past few months, they’ve been making some pretty radical changes.

The biggest change?

They’ve revamped the way their customer feedback system works… and if you know anything about eBay, you know that having an impeccable customer rating is like GOLD, so it was a pretty risky change for eBay, right?

But that’s just the beginning!

They’ve also changed the way some listings get ranked during a search, played around with minimum bid amounts, changed the way you qualify for coveted "Power Seller" status, and a bunch of other things.

And to be perfectly honest, there was a bit of an outcry at first from regular eBay sellers, who accused eBay of no longer caring about the "little guy" who made them successful in the first place.

But here’s the thing about all of this change…

We have a team of in-house experts who provide personal, one-on-one eBay mentoring for people who want to start full-time eBay businesses, and what our mentors have been noticing lately is that these major changes that seem to have upset so many people are turning out to be HUGE WINS for everyone!

We’ve seen that, by fine-tuning their system, eBay is slowly discouraging the mountains of "hobby" sellers who list one lousy, two-buck item once in a blue moon just for kicks…

… and making it MUCH easier for serious professionals who want to use eBay to build a solid, full-time business.

It’s a SMART move on eBay’s part, because they know it’s these pro’s who make them the most money!

(Oh, and just as a side note, this is ALSO an excellent lesson about the value of focusing your efforts on your best customers!

So if you’ve been thinking about making changes to your business, but you’ve been afraid of any negative fallout, remember that change (even change that ruffles a few feathers at first), can usually bring opportunity for you AND your customers!

To your success,

Derek Gehl

P.S. If you’re interested in learning more about these changes at eBay, I’ve just finished putting together a FREE video that walks you through the biggest ones, and explains how to use them to your advantage.

It’s part of a brand-new series of three free training videos I’ve created to help everyone cash in on the $60 BILLION that exchanges hands on eBay every year!

You can access all three videos here: http://www.auctiontips.com/

And not only did it all go off without a hitch, I’m already seeing the benefits of this BIG change.

And I think YOU are going to enjoy the benefits, too!

The entire company has a new energy that you can FEEL the minute you walk through the front door and past our shiny new reception area.

Everyone is refreshed, and more motivated to succeed than ever!

Like I said last week, change really does do a company good!

Positive change can be something as simple as changing your customary approach to a typical problem or situation.

Is there something you’ve been doing for a long time because "that’s the way it’s always been done," even though you haven’t been getting a good result from it for ages?

Consider letting go of what’s familiar or comfortable, and move on to a NEW solution or approach that has a better chance of providing a good result!

You’d be amazed how much MORE productive you can be if you actually switch things up, and start taking some time off to have a bit of fun!

But BEFORE you start throwing out the old and bringing in the new, remember that change — even small change — can be a bit scary, unless you’ve prepared yourself beforehand. Successfully managing change is all about your attitude and expectations.

So if you ARE thinking about making some changes to your business to shake things up break away from the same ol’, same ol’…

… here are THREE things to consider before you take the plunge…

1. What will it cost NOT to make the change?

I’ll bet that whenever you consider the possibility of making a change, the first thing you think about is what it’s going to cost you to do it.

And if you’re like a lot of people, that potential extra cost is a deal-breaker.

First, turn that around: how much money are you LOSING by sticking with the comfortable or familiar, even though it’s no longer really working for you?! 

2. What’s the WORST thing that could happen?

Many people let fear of the unknown stop them from making changes. After all, nobody can really say for SURE that a particular change will be as successful as you think it’ll be — and it could be a downright failure!

So before you make your change, ask yourself: what’s the worst thing that can happen if the change goes south?

Be realistic in your answer! Often, even if things do go off the rails a bit during a change, the net benefit STILL outweighs the short-term problems it presents, and any glitches can usually be a lot more easily managed than you might think.

3. Who can you count on for help and support?

Let’s face it: some changes can be scary…

If you’re prone to feeling worried or stressed out by change, then you’ll definitely want people you trust nearby, to "talk you down" when you’re feeling anxious about what’s happening to your business.

Knowing you’ve got a solid safety net beneath you can make it MUCH easier to commit to implementing your changes.

Change can often turn a stagnant business into a more dynamic (and profitable) one, but it can also be a time of uncertainty. By spending a bit of time BEFORE you make any change preparing yourself mentally for that period of instability, you’ll successfully manage any change, and enjoy the rewards of an invigorated business!

Do you have a story about positive change you’ve made in YOUR business (or perhaps a cautionary tale about a change that didn’t go the way you’d planned)?

Why not tell us about it? I’d love to hear from you…

To your success,

Derek Gehl

Next week, we’ll be packing up our computers, rolling up our cables, and boxing the piles of stuff we’ve accumulated during the 10+ years we’ve been in our current downtown location…

… and when the dust settles next Friday, we’ll be happily set up in our shiny new "home."

Yes, I’m excited to report that we’re moving to a hi-tech office complex, which features a campus environment and all of the the latest gadgetry to make our systems run super smooth!

It’s a BIG change for us!

After all, we’ve been doing business from the same downtown office since we were a small (but wiry!) Internet marketing company with just a few staff members…

… and it was while in these very offices that we grew to occupy two floors and become the industry leader.

But, while I confess that I’m feeling a bit apprehensive about the move (they’re always a bit stressful, right?), I’m feeling really excited about the change.

I know that once the initial "pain" of moving is over, the benefits are going to be HUGE!

And that’s the thing about change: while many people fear it, it’s actually something you should WELCOME, because it’s usually the BEST thing that can happen to your business.

Change can provide you with a much-needed "kick in the pants," bringing energy and excitement back into a business that may be getting predictable (and suffering as a result).

And when you learn to accept change, you’ll be able to bring a fresh and exciting vision to your company, and open yourself up to brand-new opportunities.

Best of all, when you’re open to change, you become a much more confident entrepreneur, and you also become more flexible, which will allow you to evolve along with a changing market.

So I’d like to encourage all of you, not just to grudgingly accept or tolerate change, but to EMBRACE it, even SEEK IT OUT!

No, I don’t mean you all have to pack up and move your businesses across the city! Change doesn’t need to be quite that drastic to be effective.

Sometimes, it’s as simple as paying attention to your customers, and being open to making changes that will benefit them.

For example, we recently did a BIG overhaul of our Internet Entrepreneur Club website, rebuilding it from the ground up in response to our members’ comments and questions.

Sure, it was scary to be messing around with something that was already working really well, but in the end, the changes have made a BIG difference, so it was WELL worth that period of uncertainty (if you haven’t had a chance to see what we’ve done, check it out).

And there are plenty MORE changes on the way…

Next up is Search Marketing Labs, our members-only resource for all things search engine – and PPC – related. Again, we’ll be adding more content and tools that we know our members will find very useful.

I like to think that it’s that willingness to make changes that has allowed us to grow into the company we are today!

So I know that change can seem intimidating, and downright scary sometime, but to paraphrase that pop song from a few years ago, a change really will do you good!

To your success,

Derek Gehl

P.S. Oh, and by the way, I’d love to lighten our load before the move, so we’re trying to reduce our stock of "Insider Secrets" courses (just a single course weighs over 10 pounds, if you can believe it)! So for this week ONLY, I’ve reduced the price by $50 to let you in on an immediate benefit from our move.

If you’d like one, please go get yours before they’re gone.

If I had a nickel for every email I received from a customer asking how to get better results from the search engines, I’d have… well, I’d have a WHOLE lot of nickels!!

In fact, it seems I’m constantly being grilled about the latest, greatest strategies for driving the MAXIMUM number of FREE visitors to your site.

But honestly, I’m really glad so many of you are paying attention to the search engines…

… because you’re SEVEN TIMES more likely to get a visitor through the organic (free) search engines than through a pay-per-click ad!

You can’t afford NOT to spend as much time as possible improving your site’s overall search engine performance.

With that in mind, here are my TOP THREE recommendations for improving your free traffic using the search engines…

Search Results Strategy #1: Speak your visitors’ language

No, I don’t mean English, Spanish, or Russian!

When I say you should speak your visitors’ language, I mean you should use the exact words and phrases they use to search for your products or services!

I can’t TELL you how many times I see people building their sites around the words THEY themselves use to describe what they’re selling, even going so far as to optimize their sites using the name of the product!

Why is that a problem?

Well, let’s say you sell the "GutterClear 3000," a tool that comes in pretty handy to clean out all the gunk in your gutters without ever having to get up on a ladder.

Now, let’s say there are thousands of people out there looking for a really cool tool for hands-free (and ladder-free) gutter cleaning.

Do you think they’re all going to sit down in front of Google and type "GutterClear 3000"?

Not likely, right? Chances are, they’re going to describe what they’re trying to accomplish, or what problem they’re trying to solve ("gutter cleaning tool," "clean gutters without ladder," etc).

So even though you’ve got the #1 spot on Google for "GutterClear 3000," the product remains unsold, because nobody is using that word to find it!

And please, never assume. Use a good keyword research tool, like Wordtracker or Keyword Discovery, to be sure you’ve identified the EXACT words your potential customers are using to find you!

Search Results Strategy #2: Make sure your pages are search engine friendly

Once you’ve done your keyword research, and understand how your customers are searching for you, you can use that information to create a site that will appeal to the search engine spiders, which, in turn, will improve your rankings.

The higher your site appears on the results page, the GREATER the chances that people will click on it!

So be sure you use your keywords in your:

• Title tag — This is the title of your site that usually appears in the actual search engine results. Search engine spiders often look at the title tag FIRST to understand what your site is about.

  That makes the title tag one of the best ways to appeal to both potential visitors and search engines at the same time!

• Headline and subhead — By including your main keywords in your headline and subheads, and wrapping them in <h> tags, you’ll be tipping off the search engines that the site’s content reflects what’s in the heads and subheads, which is an SEO plus.

  At the same time, by displaying your best keywords in the headline and subheads, your visitors will see that they’ve come to the right place the second they land on your page… and be more likely to stick around.

• Salescopy — Because the search engines "crawl" your site looking for information about how to categorize your site, and also check to see how relevant your copy is, you want to make sure you include your keywords in the site’s copy.

  But don’t get carried away! Search engines can tell when you’re cramming your site full of words JUST to get better rankings, and will penalize you for it… and you want to be sure your site actually makes sense to your visitors!

• Meta tags — Your description meta tag normally contains the "blurb" that appears with the link to your site on the search results.

  Your keyword meta tag contains your strongest keywords relevant to each page.

  Neither of these, on their own, will be enough to improve your site’s rankings, but when done properly, they help give the search engines a more accurate ‘snapshot’ of what your site is about.

• Image (alt) tags — Search engines can’t "read" images, but they can read the text that you use to describe the images.

  This descriptive text, called an "alt" tag, is one more way to add multiple strong keywords to your site, again increasing your overall chances of being categorized for that particular term.
  

Another way to use your keywords is in the way you ORGANIZE the pages in your site.

Make sure that all of the information or products on a page are related or relevant. The LAST thing you want to do is confuse the search engine spiders with a mish mash of words on any given page that don’t make any sense together.

At this point, it’s pretty clear that it’s the WORDS on your site that give you the overall competitive edge when it comes to your search engine rankings, so resist the urge to "fancy" sites by using Flash, tons of graphics, or other unnecessary elements.

The more clearly you spell out what your site is about by using your keywords, the better your chances of raising to the TOP of the results page!

Search Engine Strategy #3: Keep your site up-to-date

Like death and taxes, it’s INEVITABLE that your site optimization will change… and what’s working today may not get you ANY results three months from now.

That’s because, over time, people, markets, search trends, and even keywords change…

… so it’s crucial that you constantly monitor your top keywords, and make changes to your site as necessary, in order to maintain your dominant position in the search results.

You should be setting aside time every WEEK to make sure that you’re still optimized for the best keywords!

And if you CAN’T seem to find the time each week to do this, then consider hiring someone to help. Trust me: it’s an investment that should MORE than pay for itself with increased traffic and sales!

By following these three strategies for maximizing your search engine traffic, you’ll not only improve your search engine rankings, you’ll be able to send more qualified traffic to your site.

To your success,

Derek Gehl

P.S. There’s MORE to them than I’m able to cover in this brief newsletter…

… so this month we’ll be releasing the SEO Whiteboard Series videos, that Kevin Carr from imc{search} has put together to help you with your SEO efforts.

Here’s the first in the 10 part series… SEO Antics. Stay tuned for the rest of the series.

Can you believe I’m still being inundated by comments and questions about my free "Prerequisites to Success" report, a full TWO WEEKS after I released it?!

Interestingly, what’s got most people buzzing is the list I included of the 20 MOST important character traits you need to have — or develop — in order to succeed with your own online business.

(Click here if you haven’t downloaded your copy of the report and self-evaluation yet).

In short, it seems many of you didn’t agree with a couple of the points I put on the list!

Take this one, for example:

"You recognize that perfectionism can be the worst enemy of progress, and you don’t always need to be perfect."

"But Derek," many of you asked, "what’s the point in trying to start a business, if you’re just going to do things half way, or if you always settle for second best? Don’t all wealthy entrepreneurs aim for excellence every single day?"

So let me just clear up one thing…

When I talk about perfectionism, I’m NOT talking about the healthy pursuit of excellence. I’m talking about the unhealthy fear of making even one tiny mistake!

See, perfectionists are typically SO concerned with being "wrong," or making errors, that they waste HUGE amounts of time obsessing over tiny details that, in the long run, aren’t that important.

And you might be surprised to hear that perfectionists are also some of the biggest procrastinators I know!

That’s because they’re literally PARALYZED by the fear of not doing something perfectly. In order to avoid failure, they just keep putting off doing ANY of the things they need to accomplish…

… and inevitably, just sit there spinning their wheels, never getting anywhere with their businesses!

Now I think you’ll agree now that those are NOT good traits, right?

But the good news is that, if YOU happen to be a perfectionist, it doesn’t mean you can’t be successful online! Here are five strategies you can use to overcome your perfectionist impulses, and become a more balanced (and happy) achiever…

Strategy #1: Be realistic about what you can achieve

Many perfectionists set themselves impossible deadlines, or take on tasks they can’t reasonably hope to complete on their own.

Then, when they inevitably fail, they beat themselves up for not being perfect, which just makes them procrastinate further, or be even MORE obsessive with the next task.

So take a long, hard look at what you want to accomplish during any given day. Ask yourself if your goal is reasonable and realistic. Is it something somebody else would be able to accomplish?

If the answer is no, then break the goal into smaller "chunks," and focus on completing one small piece at a time.

Strategy #2: Set strict time limits for each of your projects

A great technique for heading off the endless wasted hours working on trivial things is to give yourself a limited amount of time to complete any given task.

Decide how much you want to spend on a certain project, and then STICK to those limits. Be firm!

This will keep you from burning up an entire day hunting for that "perfect" image you want to add to your site, when you could have been doing something with that time to complete tasks that would add considerably more value to your business.

Strategy #3: Think of failure as a learning experience

It’s inevitable: some of the things you try with your site simply won’t work!

So instead of thinking about a salesletter that didn’t convert the way you wanted it to as a sign that you’re a failure at writing salescopy, look at the "failed" letter as the perfect opportunity to understand your market better.

By evaluating why the letter didn’t work, you’ll gain a better understanding of your audience, which will help you in many other aspects of your business as well.

Strategy #4: Celebrate your successes

When you’re a perfectionist, it’s easy to focus on the fact that you haven’t yet achieved some of the goals you set for yourself, which can feed into your fear of failure.

So, rather than taking a negative view of what’s NOT done yet, take some time to look at all of the smaller things that you HAVE accomplished while working toward your goals.

Remember that it’s not just the end goal that matters. The smaller milestones you complete along the way are successes in themselves.

Strategy #5: Don’t be afraid to admit you need help

Believe me, YOU are the only person who expects you to have all the answers!

I know from personal experience that taking advice and direction for your Internet business from people who have already figured it out, is a HUGE advantage…

… and NOT a sign that you’re a failure!

By recognizing that YOU are your biggest critic, and understanding that ‘good enough’ is BETTER than perfect, you’ll be well on your way to a stable, successful — and more importantly — HEALTHY and HAPPY business!

To your success,

Derek Gehl