It’s been a while since I made a blog post, so pardon the big numbers in the post title – it’s really more to get your attention and give back than to brag.

Feel free to comment and ask me anything in this post and I’ll try to help you.

So yes, according to my publisher and my royalty checks , I’ve sold 1.1 million books and ebooks since 2009.  This was split between 3 books  with a fourth one coming out in August.  You can reference them here.

For those who know me, you know that I started out as a newbie in 2001 just trying to find a niche for an ebook to put on Clickbank.  I was working full time for JP Morgan Chase back then and the only time I had was my lunch break, nights and weekends.  I taught myself everything from scratch (html, photoshop, copywriting, niche marketing, SEO, Google Adwords, email marketing, etc) while working in a one bedroom apartment on an old refurbished computer that I bought from a used computer store for $300.

I was a one man operation when I first started but I was super motivated.  Nobody knew my name Online and I didn’t give two sh*ts about failing.  There weren’t many long indecisive planning sessions – I was just indiscriminately throwing all my ideas against the wall to see what sticks.  I didn’t care what anybody thought of me (except my customers) and had that determined newbie energy that I wish I still had LOL.  I didn’t have a coach or big name mentor and I didn’t buy many training courses – I just watched what other successful marketers were doing and I took lots of action.

Eventually I figured things out, starting making a full time income Online, left the corporate world in 2007, and then got a big break signing a book deal with Simon & Schuster with a multiple 6-figure advance in 2008.

So enough about me, let me share the top 3 lessons I’ve learned:

1) Getting a book deal is just like getting JV partners – they will want you more when you’re already successful and don’t need them.

Book publishers are really struggling.  Their margins are very low and their business models are outdated.  Add to that the fact that most of the authors they sign don’t even earn back their advance.  Consequentially the big publishers are taking on less and less risk.  They want books that are a sure bet to sell well.

What made me stand out was that I was already an established brand Online.  Before signing with them, I had already sold over 50,000 self published books and ebooks and I had an email list of over 150,000 subscribers.  When I hired a literary agent to submit proposals, we got a deal signed within a few months.

The lesson here is – build a list and a brand.  Establish yourself as an expert on a topic first.  With all the resources you have today – social media, guest blogging, article syndication, video marketing, etc., it’s now easier than ever to share your expertise to the masses.  Success leaves clues and when decision makers can find those clues Online, you have a much better chance of getting a deal.  And even if you don’t – you can make still a killing by self publishing.

2) All you need is one good idea.

When I first started self publishing physical books, I didn’t know that there were print on demand book printers and fulfilment services.  We eventually figured it out the hard way – out of a desperate necessity lol.  But before we smarten up, we used to sell a spiral bound cookbook that I’d actually have photocopied at Staples.  And we would manually take the books to the local post office to ship the orders.  It got to the point that the post office clerk hated to see us coming because we’d hold up the line for like an hour lol. You’d think that they would appreciate all the money we were spending, but all they were concerned about was keeping the line moving and finishing their shift.

During Christmas, we would get so many orders in that we’d go to the 24 hour post office in midtown Manhattan at like 1 am with a car full of boxes.  After a while we hated to see new orders coming in because of all the manual labor and stress involved.

One day while printing books at Staples, a lady probably in her late 50′s standing next to me noticed my cookbook titled “America’s Most Wanted Recipes” and asked me what kind of recipes were in the book.  I told her it was a book featuring copycat recipes from restaurants like Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Cheesecake Factory etc.

All of a sudden her eyes lit up in excitement and she asked me to let her see the book.   I told her that we sell the book on our website if she’s interested in getting a copy.  She looked at me in disbelief and wouldn’t take no for an answer – “just let me see it, I just want to see the recipes!”  She then kinda snatched it from me and proceeded to look through the book.

I couldn’t help but laugh at how bold she was, but part of me was flattered that she was so interested in my book.

The lady gave me $20 on the spot for a copy of the book and thanked me for letting her buy it.  Right then and there I knew that I had a winning idea that I should focus all my efforts on.

So how do you know if your idea is a winner?  If it has a such big amazing claim that when you show it to a regular person they immediately become curious enough to ask you questions about it.  As long as you can actually deliver the benefits of your claim, you have a winner.

Now in no way am I telling you to lie or be sleazy.  But at the same time, you can’t be subtle in communicating the main benefit and value of your product.

Just look at the headlines of some of the top selling products Online and you’ll see that they all have that big claim.  And it’s not as difficult as you might think to find a winning idea.  You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, you can just put your own spin on an existing idea to make it even better.

Build a better mouse trap.  It doesn’t matter if an idea has already been done, just do it better.  For example – Yahoo was around before Google, MySpace before Facebook, Network Solutions before GoDaddy.  That didn’t stop them from starting their business and eventually dominating.

3) Focus your efforts on maximizing the potential of one niche.

Once you find a winner, stop everything else and just focus all your efforts into marketing it.  Go hard like you want everyone on the planet to know about it.  Turn every stone with your marketing campaign – jv partners, affiliates, SEO, PPC, media buys, press releases, social media, viral marketing, article marketing, etc.

While everyone else is jumping from one idea to the next without maximizing to potential of any one, you’ll be way ahead of them by focusing your efforts.  If everyday you just focused on building a list in one market and giving value to that list, after a year you’ll have more than enough loyal subscribers to make a full time income.  All you really need is 500 dedicated customers paying you just $8.50 a month to earn over $50k a year.

The bottom line is, if you have something that people really want, you’ll have the motivation to get it in front of everybody.  That is the power of having a big idea and focusing your efforts on it – you can’t help but succeed.

Anybody can put up a blog these days using simple resources like WordPress.  And with all the competition on the Internet, you’d be hard pressed to throw up a few blog posts every now and then and expect to earn big from Adsense or affiliate marketing.  Hey, just being honest.

However, you absolutely can earn a full time income from your blog IF you:

- Pick a topic that has mass appeal.
- Turn your blog into an authority site for that specific topic.
- Learn how to syndicate your content to get more traffic from each post.
- Use the blog to build an email list of loyal followers.
- Open it up so that guest bloggers can post content to your blog.
- Post “link bait” content that people in your niche almost have to link back to.

It might seem like a lot, but there is an easy way to do this in your spare time without doing much of the work yourself.  And authority blogs are being sold for $100,000 and up depending on the niche.

Just look at Arianna Huffington who sold her blog (Huffington Post) to AOL for $315 million.

Or Johns Wu who sold Bankaholic to BankRate.com for $15 million.

If you’d like to learn how to build an authority blog, I haven’t found a better training course than this one I reviewed last week (and it’s under $30!):

http://rondouglas.com/blog/go/blogpreneur/

Kevin Riley has a talent for breaking down complex topics into individual parts that anybody can understand.  He’s a newbies best friend because his training starts at the very beginning and then strategically progresses into advanced topics after you’ve learned the fundamentals.

Honestly, I think every serious Internet Marketer should have an authority site, so I highly recommend that you grab this before he raises the special introductory price:

http://rondouglas.com/blog/go/blogpreneur/

Don’t be like most people.  Instead of taking action to improve their situation, most people are just hoping for the best.

But HOPE is a 4 letter word!

- You hope you don’t get laid off.
- You hope for a promotion or raise.
- You hope for a better economy.
- You hope to come up with an idea that makes you millions.

The problem with hope is – YOU can’t control the outcome.  You’re
putting your destiny in other people’s hands.

I gave up on hope a long time ago LOL.  I make my own darn hope by
actively offering value to the marketplace in exchange for income.
Each ‘Order Now’ button I have on the Internet gives me hope.  Each
product that affiliates can promote for me gives me hope.  Each
source of traffic that I’ve built to my sites, gives me hope.

If you make your own hope like this, you can not fail.  You only
fail in this business by not trying, by not building, by sitting
back and hoping for it to happen for you instead of going out there
and making it happen!

Do you have your own ‘multiple-streams of hope’ out there working
for you on the Net?  If not, watch this recorded training workshop
right now:

http://www.webinarswaps.com/r/2/612

I guarantee that presentation will inspire you and open your eyes
to how easy this stuff can be, whether or not you get his offer
towards the end (completely optional).

Watch that presentation instead of the 6pm news and fill your mind
with positivity tonight instead of bad vibes.

Talk soon,

Ron

P.S. A subscriber contacted me the other day and said that I
shouldn’t assume that people know as much as I do and I should
teach more basics.  I referred her to that recording and she
couldn’t thank me enough – check it out CLICK HERE

That being said, I’m about to tell you the real difference between earning $300 a month vs earning $30,000 a month.  But before I explain this to you, let me tell you where I learned it…

This is the club that I’m personally a member of and this guy’s business strategies have had the biggest impact on my Online earnings: Click Here

If you do one thing for your business this year, be sure to get
the report and watch the training videos inside the membership
area.  It will change your mindset and simplify for you what it
really takes to succeed.  It’s really the best value you can get to
be trained by one of the elite teachers in the industry:

http://rondouglas.com/recommends/foundersclub

So, what’s the difference between $300 and $30k?

Scale and Magnitude

Let me explain…

It’s easy to find out what people want to buy Online.  Just look at
what is selling well and create a better product with your own
unique spin on it.  Don’t try to invent something that hasn’t
already been thought of by the other 6 billion people on the planet
because it’s next to impossible.  If you wait for a unique idea,
you could wait your whole life and never make a dime.

It doesn’t matter if an idea has already been done, just do it
better.  For example – Yahoo was around before Google, MySpace
before Facebook, Network Solutions before GoDaddy.  That didn’t
stop them from starting their business and eventually dominating.

So lesson 1 is – get your idea out there and don’t let competition
deter you.

So once you have a product that people really want, it all comes
down to scale and magnitude.

Scale affects how many people you can get to see your product.  For
example, a $300 a month scale is creating an information product
and just throwing up a website and writing a bunch of articles to
promote it.  A $30,000 a month scale is:

- Opening it up for affiliates to promote and actively recruiting
JV partners

- Targeting the main keywords your potential customers search for
and building satellite sites that you actively build links to to
rank for each of those keywords

- Creating a webinar to promote your product and contacting all the
marketers in the niche that do webinars

- Testing different paid advertising sources on a small scale until
you find one with a positive ROI and then ramping up your
advertising budget for as much and as long as it’s profitable

- Partnering with or using a distributor that can get mass exposure
for your product.  Think Amazon.com, Clickbank, or getting a book
deal with Simon & Schuster .

Magnitude refers to how much you can earn per sale.  You can
increase your magnitude by:

- Making your product more valuable and increasing the price.  For
example, turning an ebook into a home study course with multiple
training videos.

- Increasing your credibility, brand awareness, and perceived
quality/value which enables you to justify charging a higher price.

- Adding upsells, downsells, and cross-sells to increase the
average customer value.

- Adding continuity by offering a related product or service that
customers will be willing to pay monthly for.  You could even
partner someone who already has a continuity offer.

The bottom line is, you need either scale (lots of customers) or
magnitude (a high profit per customer).  If you have both, you can
make millions.

Hopefully this gives you an idea of what it takes to get to the
next level.  However, this is just scratching the surface of what
you need to know.  I highly recommend that you join me as a member
of the Founder’s Club and get the same training that I’ve been
privileged to receive:

http://rondouglas.com/recommends/foundersclub

Talk soon,

Ron

P.S. Please leave your comments. I’d love to hear your feedback…

Is fast cash really possible?

Here was my response to him:

I feel your struggle.  Lots of people are struggling right now.

When you say “fast cash” you have to keep in mind that there are real people on the other side of every transaction.  You have to focus on what value you can provide to make them give you their money fast.  It’s not an easy thing to do.

How can you create value for others?  Start by asking yourself:

- Do you have assets or valuables?
- Do you have any skills?
- Do you have any experience?
- Do you have any specialized knowledge?
- Do you have existing relationships?
- Do you have any money to invest?
- Do you have a product to sell?

Here are some possible ways to earn fast cash:

1) I tell people that the fastest way to earn money is to either sell something you own (on Ebay for example) or to provide a service that people are ready to buy right now (for example – place an ad in the WarriorForum services section).  That means you either trade assets or time for money.

2) Create an information product (videos, reports, mind maps, etc) that people want to buy and get some affiliates to promote it.  Obviously this works best if you have a good product idea, existing relationships and some way of reciprocating.  Alternatively, you can create a good product and then partner with someone who already has an email list or the means to promote the product.  You do all the work and they can put their name on the product and split the profits with you.

3) You can put deals together and earn fast cash.  For instance, you can find people who have a high converting webinar and match them up with people who have an email list to promote their webinar.  You will typically get 10% of the gross sales from the webinar by doing this. However, this requires you to make contacts with people and it helps if you already have a recognized name or existing relationships.  However, with all the social tools available today, this has never been easier – think Skype, Facebook, Twitter, forums, etc.

You could be a broker or middle man in any market and match up buyers and sellers.  How about checking the “Wanted” section of Craig’s List and trying to broker a deal with someone selling what they’re looking for?

How about searching Flippa.com for people listing sites and domain names for sale and then contacting webmasters in the same niche who might be interested in buying?  You can broker a deal with the sellers really easy if you can bring buyers to the table.

4) If you have some money to invest (or time to spare), you can pay someone to write PLR (private label rights) content or create PLR videos on niche topics and then sell that PLR to people who need it.  Or you can do it yourself if you have the time.   You can then list it for sale in the WSO section of the WarriorForum or you can contact publishers in that niche directly and offer it for sale.

For example, if you have a package of 50 high quality articles on Organic Gardening, you can contact 100 bloggers, newsletter publishers, and information product owners and tell them that you’re only selling 15 packages for $100 each.  You’d earn a quick $1,500 with that example.

5) How about tudoring elementary school students in math.  You could place an ad on the supermarket bulletin board, in the library, in the school newsletter, or even hand out flyers at the school.  You can also place ads on free classified sites like Craig’s List, etc.

Those are some ways off the top of my head I can think of to earn fast cash.  Again, it’s not an easy thing to do – and it’s not supposed to be.  Desperate times require you to get off your arse and make things happen.  You gotta hustle.

Personally, these days I can just send emails to my lists promoting a high quality affiliate offer and earn fast cash at any time.  Seems easy right?  This is why I teach list building as a primary focus because it’s an asset that you can earn money from on demand.

Hopefully this helps you.

Regards,

Ron

Are you an entrepreneur or just an opportunity seeking sucker who needs the security of hyped up promises from others? 

Press play and leave a reply below:

In that presentation, I spend 90% of the time giving high quality content and 10% making an amazing exclusive offer at the end.  The audience really gets rewarded for their time with some killer content.

Being that it’s set up as more of a training session, it’s super easy to get JV partners to promote it to their email list.  Soooo much easier than asking them to promote a product directly.  All they have to do is send out an email invite and jump on the 60 minute presentation to introduce me.

It’s really a win-win-win event.

- The JV partners get fast and easy lump-sum commissions for just 60 minutes of their time
- Their subscribers get great content and an amazing opportunity
- I get to build my customer list and increase my income

If you can put together some Powerpoint slides and are not afraid to have a live conversation, you can make a killing with webinars.

Here’s a presentation I just did on Wednesday where I talk about more advanced stuff like sales funnels, publishing a book, and getting publicity:

http://theworkathomechallenge.com/bizmodels/7figurestrategies/

Speak soon,

Ron
P.S. Have you added me on Facebook yet?: CLICK HERE

I’ve been using this strategy with Kindle books and plan to extend
it to other information product types.

You can buy PLR or create a product on a generic topic such as
Internet Marketing, Fitness, or Dating and then brand it to be
attractive to niches within that market.  Here are some examples:

- Real Estate Agents
- Painters
- Roofers
- Contractors
- Restaurant Owners, etc

- Women, Post Pregnancy
- Men Over 40
- Those with little time to workout
- Obese Children
- Athletes Looking to Gain Muscle, etc

- Seniors
- Divorced Moms
- Single Dads
- Introverts / Shy People
- Women over 40, etc

Do you see how you can take a generic product and re-purpose it to
sell in multiple niche markets?  The information usually applies
with very little customization required.  But people would rather
buy specialized information.  For example, a women over 40 would
buy the guide with dating advice for women over 40 instead of the
generic dating advice guide.

I hope that gives you an aha moment and you see the potential in
this.

Good business is putting yourself in the shoes of the customer and
understanding how to create the most positive experience for them.

That’s easier said that done because each customer has different
needs and opinions.  But one thing that is true for 99.9% of
customers is they want instant gratification.

I’m using this concept right now on two of my sites to give new
subscribers a good first impression of my offers.

For example, when someone signs up to my list, I immediately give
them what they signed up for.  Previously, they may have seen a
one-time offer or be asked to confirm in an email.  But now, I just
give them what they signed up for first before making any offer.

This positive experience of me delivering what I promised helps
them to believe that if they buy something they will have a similar
positive experience.

So instead of:

Freebie then One Time Offer then Thank You Page

I’m now getting better results with:

Freebie -> Thank You Page -> Buy And Get More

This works especially well when the free offer is a teaser for the
product you’re trying to sell.

Test that out for yourself and I think you’ll be happy with the
outcome .

Talk to you soon,

Ron

By now you should know the formula: content + backlinks = traffic.
Forget about Google updates and everything else, it’s really as
simple as that.  If you want even more traffic, you have to have
quality content and get high PR backlinks.

I have a bunch of sites that I tested last year which now do $100
to $200 a month.  Here’s my system:

1) Pick an evergreen niche topic with a relevant domain name and
put up a WordPress blog.

2) Post 10 unique articles on each wordpress site and let it get
indexed naturally.

3) Order profile backlinks from this site:
http://rondouglas.com/blog/go/linkblaster/

4) After a month or so, set up auto-content from the UAW plugin and
SEOLinkVine and let it run.

Rinse and repeat.  The key is to start off your autoblog with
unique content so that Google indexes it as a good content site and
then have steady backlinks coming in using this service:

http://rondouglas.com/blog/go/linkblaster/

Seriously, that’s it.  Give it a try.

Talk to you soon,

Ron