Hello,

I hope you are all keeping well. I spend a good bit of my time working on my niche sites. Niche marketing is being talked about all over the internet these days and for good reason.

Some of the niches that I operate in are related to my hobbies and while it isn’t essential that you enjoy the niches that you decide to do business in I believe it certainly makes a big difference.

Operating any business online or offline requires a lot of determination, persistence and hard work. When the going gets tough, maybe you have things going on in your life that need urgent attention or you may be feeling off color physically, if you don’t have a real interest in your niche it will be a lot easier to let things slip.

One of the keys to success in internet marketing is putting regular effort into your business. A little regular activity beats going mad for a day or two and then doing nothing for weeks every time.

There was a time when for me the biggest obstacle I had to grapple with was time management. We all have the same amount of time in the day and yet it seemed to me that some people were just able to do so much more with their time than me.

I realised that I needed to get to grips with how they did this and set out to put a routine in place that I could work to. I found a coach to help with it and together we identified where the time was going to and put a schedule in place to correct it.

The biggest time stealer for most people is email, and it was for me. I just couldn’t resist checking my emails every few minutes. Now I spend 30 minutes at the start of the day, 15 minutes around midday and don’t look again until the end of the day just before I finish to sort out any urgent issues that I need to attend to.

This one simple change has really opened up my day and made such a difference. My second biggest time waster was not being able to find things because I hadn’t filed them away properly.

In the rush to get on with the next project it’s too easy to stack things up in a pile until ‘later’, especially when you are starting out and need to make some money. Doing something that might generate some money always seems so much more important than filing.

Over the years I’ve discovered that this attitude is actually doing us more harm than we realise. You see, although we maybe don’t think consciously about the piles of filing, it works away on our sub-conscious holding us back. In the back of our mind we know we still have that clutter to sort.

Worse still often when we need something to refer to, yes you’ve guessed it, it’s in one of those piles and we have to spend even more time finding it.

Incidentally I mentioned there that I got myself a coach. I coach lots of people myself now but still work with a coach myself. I think it is very important to work with someone else that can stretch you and help you grow no matter how good you are at what you do.

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Thought for the Day
“The shortest distance between two points is a straight line”.

How often do you start to do some work on your current project, maybe some keyword research, accidentally stumble across something way off topic and before you know it are going off in a completely different direction to the one you wanted to go.

The fact is that all of the time you are following this tread you are away from your straight line and adding time to the day when you will reach your goal. Successful people keep as close to the straight line as possible and reach their goals in double quick time.

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Making money online, isn’t it too late now?

The Internet Marketing niche is one of the most competitive online. When I started online over 10 years now there were very few people sending out newsletters, a lot less offers arriving in your inbox, no mega launches like Mass Control that you will have received from every corner of the net over the last few weeks.

It is little wonder then that many of the new people starting out say to me that it was fine for me back then but it’s too late now. The Internet is too crowded, the big boys have been there a long time and have it all sown up so there is no point starting now.

It is a big mistake to think that just because you may have been made aware of the potential of making money online from someone selling Internet Marketing tools and books that you have to work in that marketplace too.

Nothing could be further from the truth. There are millions of small niche markets that can each bring in $200 – $300 (£100 – £200) a month. On their own they may be nothing to write home about but you don’t have to stop at one.

Imagine having 10, 20, 100 of these. It wouldn’t be difficult to have 20 of these small niche ‘sites’ set up and running on auto-pilot in the course of a year each bringing you in an average of $250 (£125) a month.

By the end of the year that could easily be $5000 (£2500) a month and much more. There are profitable niches everywhere when you learn how to look. Check out the magazines in newsagents or at the airport if you are going away. It is very difficult to make a magazine pay. Those that appear regularly on the shelves must be satisfying a hungry niche otherwise they would go broke.

A good start when looking for a possible niche opportunity is to think ‘How to…’. People are always looking how to do something. Topics like How to speed read, How to write a book, How to manage your time better, How to be more romantic, How to attract the opposite sex … the list is endless.

Remember people buy what they want not what they need so concentrate on wants, that’s why gadgets are so popular. Nobody needs a gadget, they think it would be nice to have it.

Too many people make the mistake of thinking that making money online is a get rich quick business. It is get rich, but get rich more slowly. Having said that 12 months isn’t that slow if you take action.

Action really is the key here. You could just read all about this stuff, feel positive about it, imagine it but not get up off the sofa and in 12 months you will be right where you started. Or you could do a little bit each day for 12 months and may be able to say goodbye to your boss for ever.

Long term thinking and planning is the key to success but long term thinking is hard for many people. We are emotional beings, we want things fast and when someone sends us an email promising that they can get us there fast the temptation is very strong to abandon what we are doing and jump on the new opportunity.

I can speak from experience when I say that all that will get you is broke, disillusioned and way off your straight line. If you can change the perception of thinking short term and instant gratification great things will start to happen.

Look at it this way, if you put aside 2 – 3 hours a day to work on your business you would have spent around 1000 hours by the end of the year. We could learn another language in 1000 hours, just think how your business will benefit from 1000 hours.

Think about doctors and lawyers. They study for years and hardly earn a penny along the way. But when they qualify, they really start to earn. You only have to spend 12 months, even less if you have more spare time and you would be there.

To go back to my earlier point about the Internet being too crowded now, let’s think about that. There are still millions and millions of people who are not online yet. There are billions of people on the planet and more being born every second, there are only millions online, not billions.

Out of the millions online how many are involved with Internet Marketing, in fact, how many are just surfers and not marketing online at all? By just being online and starting to learn your trade, reading newsletters like this one, you are already way ahead of the game.

Think and plan long term, do something everyday and you’ll stay ahead of the game and before you know it you will be financially independent.

I cover a lot of information about getting started online in my book (http://www.easyinternetstartupguide.co.uk) The Easy Internet Start-up Guide and am working on a new coaching course specifically about niche marketing which I will let you know about as soon as it is ready.

If you asked me what the ‘key’ to success was I would say one word – Action. It is no coincidence that this newsletter is called Action Today. Without action we stay where we are. It doesn’t have to be massive action, although that helps a lot.

It is a bit like keeping fit. Doctors tell us that just 30 minutes walking everyday will do it. It’s the same with our business. Plan long term and schedule something to do everyday. Make it a habit and you’ll get there.

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Your Mental Muscle Workout

Are you sabotaging yourself?

I have believed for many years that we are spiritual beings inhabiting a physical body. Now I’m not talking about religion here, it doesn’t matter in my view whether you are Christian, Buddhist, Catholic, Muslim or whatever we are all working with the same laws, the laws of the Universe.

Wallace Wattles, Napoleon Hill and others discovered over 100 years ago that we become what we think about and do it by attracting to ourselves results that coincide with our dominant thoughts. We are energy fields in a larger energy field, the Universe and thought energy is the strongest form of energy. As spiritual beings we send out that thought energy which in turn attracts matching vibrations to us.

It is easy to forget what the implication of this is if we are not careful. You see from what I’ve said above it is easy to see that if we think we want a certain level of income hard enough and consistently enough we will attract it to us. We think positively and it will happen.

The problem is the same thing works with negative thoughts. Unfortunately, we are surrounded by more negative vibrations than positive, it’s everywhere. Just listen to the news or read a newspaper and you’ll see good news doesn’t sell.

Fortunately it is said that research has shown that a positive thought is 100’s of times more powerful than a negative thought. So being positive most of the time will overcome the negative times. It is normal to have some negative thoughts, things happen, we just learn to spend less time with them.

As I said I have worked with these principles for many years and for a long time couldn’t understand why, when I was thinking of earning a certain income level, my income didn’t go up.

Despite listening to the material over and over again it just didn’t seem to happen. I remember Brian Tracy telling a story about a salesman who if he hit his target in September would kick back until January when he felt he could start again.

He had an income concept that was fixed in his subconscious and he couldn’t seem to break through it. Like me he probably didn’t realise that he did have a concept about his earnings.

It’s very difficult to analyse ourselves, we think we know ourselves pretty well and don’t have such things as self concepts that may be holding us back. Then one day it suddenly struck me, I did have an income/financial ceiling and was sabotaging myself.

I looked more closely at myself and finally saw that when I made some extra money over and above what I would normally earn, I spent it. I didn’t save it or invest it or just let it build up in the bank, I spent it.

I normally just dismissed this habit as wanting to treat myself but I was really sabotaging myself. Successful people take that money, see a bigger horizon and use it to make more money.

They raise their game, aim higher and achieve more. I have an old cassette tape (many of you possibly don’t know what a cassette tape is) by Charles F Abbott entitled the Millionaire Mindset. He talks about millionaires who if their businesses collapse and they end up bankrupt start again and become millionaires again in very quick time.

Some of them, like Donald Trump, have a billionaire mindset. He would probably think he was broke if he got down to being just a millionaire.

It’s really down to changing our thinking, raising our ceiling and attracting higher and higher incomes to us. When we start to replace can I with why not me, should I with I will, I couldn’t do that with who can I get to do that for me we lift the roof off and see a very different horizon.

Winston Churchill, one of the greatest leaders of all time was asked to address a graduating class as the keynote speaker. The students assembled, eager to hear what the great man had to say.

Finally, Winston Churchill moved up to the rostrum, paused for a few moments and said, “Never give up, Never give up, Never, Never, Never”, and then he sat down.

Maybe some of the audience felt let down, I’m sure some sat completely blown away by the profoundness of his words. There are times when a few words speak volumes, for me that was one of those times.

Until next time….

Trevor

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Welcome to your new issue of Action Today.

In this issue:

Lead Article – Beware Burn-Out

Also including;

Thought for the day

Exercise your mental muscle

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Hello,

I hope you are all keeping well. This time of year, especially in the UK, is considered to be the most difficult time for many people. We are coming to the end of the dark winter months and even though winters here aren’t as cold as they used to be we long to feel the warmth of the sun.

It is also that time, after the expenses of the festive season, when the need to earn extra income or finally get out of the rat race becomes a more urgent requirement.

My eldest Son has just joined a US organization to head up their European operation and needed to form a new company. He told me that there was a longer than normal delay in getting it set up because more people are registering new companies at this time of year than at any other time.

As information marketers that is interesting news. It reinforces the view that the first few weeks and months of the year can be the most profitable. This is the time of year when more people are open to opportunities than at any other time.

Of course, experienced marketers both offline and online have known this for years but it is good to get some supporting evidence. It is also a timely reminder that if you weren’t ready to catch the tide this year to put a date in your diary for early autumn (or fall for our US friends) to begin putting a new year campaign together for next year.

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Thought for the Day

“If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything”.

Having a clear focus of where you want your business to go will mean that you avoid the many tempting offers that come your way and take you off course.

Beware Burn-Out

Although in many ways running a business on the internet is not too different to running a traditional brick and mortar business, there are some differences, some of them quite significant.

I’ve been marketing online now for a over 10 years and during that time I’ve seen many changes. The internet is a very different place now to what it was when I started out. The most significant difference is in the number of people online now.

As the internet has matured it has become much harder to get people to join your list, and the activities of a few mindless spammers has made doing business much more difficult.

On the plus side we now have the whole new world of Web 2.0 with the growth of the community sites and the tremendous marketing potential that they offer.

There is one thing that I have seen happening over the years that we all need to beware of and that is what I’ll call burn-out.

Doing business on the Internet is generally a very solitary business. One of the bonuses is that we don’t need large premises and lots of staff to run an Internet business. What that tends to mean though is that we spend a lot of time on our own staring at our computer screens.

This can mean that life can become a very lonely existence. In the early days when you are just getting going, not making any money and working long hours at your business to hopefully speed up the time when the money comes rolling in, you can become so obsessed with your business that you block out everything else.

It is not obvious to you most of the time because you have your head down working away. However, over time the constant struggle to make your business work begins to wear you down. You get tired, frustrated and before you know where you are you begin to lose faith that this thing will ever work.

That is one instance of the burn-out that I’ve seen. There is another variant that I have seen that happens when you finally become successful.

You’ve stuck to your goal and worked hard on your business and at last you do start making some money and life starts to come together. So you ‘rinse and repeat’ if you will. In other words you get one thing working and repeat it over and over. You get a good list of subscribers, put a newsletter together and start sending it out regular as clockwork.

Everything is great – right? Not always. After a while if you are still spending most of your time on your business at the exclusion of a private life you start to feel the need to slacken off. You just need a break from it. You may have been doing it for years by now and again you’re getting tired.

Then if you aren’t careful the frequency of your newsletters drops off, you start to neglect your loyal subscribers and they go away.

I’ve seen this happen to quite a few people, even some of the top people. It can happen to anyone, it’s happened to me on a couple of occasions. I’ve been a subscriber to some newsletters for the whole of the time I’ve been online.

Over that time I’ve noticed that the same thing has happened to them. There have been long gaps between issues at one stage then after a break they have come back stronger than ever.

One of the reasons for this can be lack of focus and I’m going to write about that in a future issue but mainly it is because we just keep going at our business so full on that we don’t allow time for rest and relaxation.

The key lesson here is to build a lifestyle, not just a business. It is vital to have outside interests, a full and happy family life and special time to relax and just think of where you are going with your life.

If you think of nothing but your business and spend all of your time working at it you become too blinkered, your thinking and vision become too narrow and you become much less productive in the process.

If you get out and ‘smell the roses’ now and again, go to the movies or have a nice meal with your partner or family you’ll maintain your enthusiasm and keep your edge and your business will grow faster.

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Your Mental Muscle Workout

What is your passion?

I listen to Bob Proctor a lot. Some of you may have come across him on the Secret – the DVD that is breaking all records for a non-fiction DVD all around the world. However, Bob has been teaching success principles for many years now and when I saw him at the end of last year he looked fitter and more enthusiastic than ever.

For those of you who haven’t come across Bob, he is in his 70’s now and has more energy than many people half his age. I find listening to Bob keeps me on track when life decides to throw you an awkward catch as it does very regularly.

I was listening to one of his messages recently where he was talking about what we wanted to achieve in life. You have no doubt been told that you need to set goals if you want to achieve anything in life. That you need to identify every detail of your goal whether it be a new car, house or wealth.

The problem I have found with this type of goal setting is that it is very difficult to get really excited about these things sometimes. It becomes easier if you put yourself in a feeling place for these things, like test driving the car or looking round the house for example. These experiences go a long way to helping you feel what it would be like to actually have these things.

Something Bob said on the CD really brought home to me where the difficulty really lies. You see, goals are great and we should have them but they can only take you so far. What is far more important is your passion, what Napolean Hill described as your worthy ideal.

As Bob put it a new car is great but would you be prepared to give your life for it? Now if that shocked you as much as it did me listen to his explanation for saying it. Whether we realise it or not we are already giving our life for what we are doing now.

Time doesn’t stand still for any of us and we all have the same 24 hours in every day. The question we should be asking ourselves is what do we ‘really’ want? Deep down inside what do we ‘really’ want? When people look back at your life what would you like them to say about you and your achievements.

If you think about it for even a short while I’d guess it wouldn’t be that you drove nice cars or had a nice house would it?

Think about your passion. Think past making money and get to what your real passion is. Start putting your effort into achieving that and the cars, houses and everything else will arrive as a by product.

I think it was Zig Ziglar who said that if you help enough people get what they want, you’ll get what you want as a result.

Until next time….

Trevor

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