Why am I saying this?

Because in this blog I want to talk very briefly about your list and your list-building and that you should also be inviting people to subscribe. If this seems familiar… it is. I have blogged about this before. I believe that list building is so critical to business success – especially online. Your list is your customer base, your fans, your hungry crowd… You’ll find extensive teaching on this in my  ….

Business Building Bootcamp Videos – which you can get here…

The simple point I want to make this time though is that it’s not just important to build a list and then stop. You must always be building your list, refreshing and renewing with new prospects and leads.

Sometimes I even ‘clean’ my list. I actively encourage those who never open my emails to opt out if they don’t want to receive my information or hear about my products and services. Or if they haven’t opened an email for over 2 years then I may just remove them from my list. I don’t want to bother people who don’t want the info. I’m totally fine with that.

But the main problem with list building that I want to talk about is that not everyone who ever joins your list will be there forever. People change, they move on, they get bored, their priorities change and so on. So you constantly need to be refreshing and rebuilding that list with new people and new prospects.

No matter what your business or business model – whether you are in products or services, consulting, training, coaching, management – whatever, you always need to be adding new prospects.

You know what it is like at school or at work when someone new arrives? It adds a new excitement or dynamic to your activity, there’s a new conversation to have and fresh set of ideas and needs. You’re curious, interested, and want to help or welcome them.

Well it’s the same thing and new prospects coming on board should excite you in the same way.

Eventhough I can be busy with sales appointments, giving training sessions (12 this year so far…and 8 more to come before the end of the year – phew!) consulting, meetings etc., I still try to spend at least 10-15% of my time generating new members to my list.

How much time or energy do you spend – is it enough? Are you getting new blood in as much as you can?

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1. It saves you time. Ever wondered about, tried to think through, searched around and fumbled your internet marketing strategy only to find that you are no further on than you were when you started.  I don’t know about you, but time is now my most precious commodity – not only in my business but in my life too. As far as my business is concerned this is spent helping clients and users of my content to save their time so I’ve developed knowledge and systems to do this and this is what they buy from me, but I still need to market this!
So I still invest time, energy and money in getting specialists who know more than me to help me. As far as life is concerned – with a young family I don’t want to have to spend ages running my business, I want to spend time them too – so I outsource things that take too much time. You can see our own ‘DONE FOR YOU’ offer when you CLICK HERE

2. It saves energy. Finding out what to do to market your activities online can be exhausting, especially if you don’t really know what you’re doing. I remember when I first started building my own websites back in the 1990s – the Jurassic period of online development! And even with some of the developments through the 2000s that made things easier, I’d be worn out just trying to figure out the solution to a particular problem until I consulted someone who could help – quickly. Thankfully, I now know enough not only to solve online marketing problems myself (very effectively and quickly) and to know what works and what doesn’t I also know where to find the answers to problems I may still come up against today…

3. Internet Marketing done for you saves money. Getting your internet marketing done for you will save you a lot of money.  Sure, it will cost you money to do this (as well as some time and energy) but not any where near as much as it would if you invest nothing. I find a lot of people try to learn online techniques themselves thinking it will save them money. But when there is so much to learn and know about and so much to do, many find that they would have been far better off getting someone who knows how to do it for them – quickly and easily. Don’t get me wrong, you have to spend money and I’ve spent a lot of money on learning and training in the latest techniques in internet marketing and through trial and error but those investments have paid me back big time!

4. Internet Marketing done for you means better decision making. Getting a professional internet marketer to help and advise you means that you will make better internet marketing decisions from the start. Usually a professional is better positioned to know what works and what doesn’t. If they are experienced they will be able to tell you what is most likely to work in your sector or niche. This can be strange …  just because a tool, technique or strategy works in one market, sector or niche doesn’t mean it will work in another the same (if at all) in another.

5. More knowledge. Getting your internet marketing done for you will also most likely mean that the person you hire will know more about the range of online tools, services and techniques you can use. Just to use one example: there are literally thousands of support websites and tools available to help you to market more quickly and efficiently than you otherwise would. Some of these are really amazing and can seriously mean the difference between success and failure online. Even if you are aware of some of these like: pay-per-click, email marketing, traffic techniques, social media, list-building, banner advertising, blogging, high performing conversion pages, webinars, etc. etc, (that are all widely used by the best online marketers) a professional internet marketer will help you get the most from these techniques without you having to learn what will and won’t work in your sector. Having someone who knows where these tools are and how they can be used is invaluable.

6. Internet marketing done for you is about better interpretation of results. Because a professional internet marketer is likely to have worked in many different niches, selling a range of products and services online they will be able to offer a better interpretation of whatever traffic or conversion results you get and what decisions you can make to improve these. Trying to make interpretations about what works in your market online only works if you have a lot of experience of trial and error trying different techniques and strategies and knowing what to do when they don’t work out. Often it is just a small tweak here or there, or it may mean a wholesale reconsideration of your entire strategy. Feeling your way in the dark is not only dangerous and can cause you to fall – it can also injure you and seriously shake your confidence, causing you to compromise and be over-fearful of ever trying again … find someone with a light and get your internet marketing done for you!

For our special ‘DONE FOR YOU’ INTERNET MARKETING SERVICES CLICK HERE

It is true that you don’t need a huge number of website visitors to make a living online. And I often instruct my clients and students not to get too obsessed with website visits. However, I would never say that numbers of website visitors aren’t important. They are, and generally, the more you can get the better. There are lots of ways to get more website visits and I have provided just a few of the more effective ones here:

1. PPC Website visitors can come from ‘free’ source or from paid sources and as some of you already know, one of my favourite ways of generating traffic is thought pay-per-click. Yes, this costs money but there is no such thing as free traffic. If you’re not spending money then you are spending time or energy. PPC allows you to get targeted visits to your site through very carefully worded adverts and keywords. Google, Yahoo and Bing all have their own versions. The secret to this is keywords and selecting the right ones to use. You can start by going to Google’s Adword tool – just type in keywordtoolexternal in a search and you’ll get a result link at the top of the page.

2. Yahoo! Answers Yahoo! aren’t the big daddy of the internet anymore but they are number one when it comes to question and answer forums. People ask a lot of questions every day in almost every niche and industry you can imagine. I used this when I started driving traffic to a site. I didn’t get mass traffic but I did get very targeted traffic. Getting traffic from Yahoo! Answers is to give genuinely helpful answers to the questions that are posted. Don’t just try to give an promo or ad for your business – be genuine and you will be taken more seriously as an authority in your industry. This

3. Social Bookmarking Website visits can also be increased with social bookmarking. If you produce content or information that people like it can go what we call ‘viral’. But the important thing is whatever you put out there make sure people are already looking for this kind of information. Get it to show in front of people already looking. This means using keywords correctly so that it gets found and using social bookmarking. Social bookmarking is an easy way to do just that. Social bookmarking sites allow users to bookmark their favorite websites that others can view and vote up or down. If you bookmark useful content other people will find it, share it, and vote it up so others can enjoy it. The two most popular bookmarking sites are Digg and Delicious. You can start here.

4. Guest Blogging Website visitors will go to other sites before yours, so to be seen on others content increases the likelihood that they will come to yours. Being a guest blogger means offering your content to other bloggers. They get content for their site, you get visits. Contact those associated to your industry and ask if they’ll let you write a guest post. Most will have little objection as it saves them and ads to the value of their site. (ask Michael how I know…wink, wink) If you don’t know where to start go to www.myblogguest.com – they have a full community of bloggers that are ready and waiting for your content.

5. Forum and Group Posts There are group and discussion forums set up for almost any niche, sector or topic you can think of. The internet is a prime place for people to talk to each other. Mostly, you can find a forum or group for your industry just by typing in to a google search the name of your industry followed by the term – Choose the forums with big lists of users and that are active. Post regularly so people become familiar with you. Most forums will allow you to leave a link to your website in your post signature, so this is a good source of quality traffic.

6. SEO or ‘search engine optimization’ – yes the old ways are among the best ways. Website visitors most often do a google search to find what they are looking for. Ideally, you want to rank highly in the organic search results to increase the likelihood of them clicking to your site. SEO is setting your site up to rank high in the search engines so that you will be found by your prospects. There are lots of things you can do. But first you must find out what people are typing in to find you. What are you keywords? Find these then create content around them by using the keyword or keyword phrases numerous times in your text (don’t over use it). This is how the search engines judge the relevance of your site in response to a search – by registering the appropriate frequency of your keyword phrases in your content. There are lots of SEO tactics but this is one you can easily do now.

7. Squidoo ‘Lenses’ Personally I don’t use Squidoo – I just haven’t had time to set up an account! But I know from colleagues that it can be really useful as a source of website visitors. There is a lot of good content here and you are invited to set up what they call a ‘lense’.  A lense is a page about a specific topic that you choose to write about (usually something you’re knowledgeable in). When you create a lense other people can find it as a result of a search. Google loves Squidoo because of it’s rich content so any good stuff you put there will rank well.

8. Facebook Account A Facebook account is the new ‘must have’ in internet marketing. About 1 in 13 people on the planet have a Facebook account so there’s really no excuse not to be there. Large a small businesses have all benefited as a result of having a fan page. Making a fan page is quick and easy and will give you a lot more exposure to people looking for your kind of products or services. It is possible that your Facebook page can out rank your main website so you could end up getting more website visitors than your main site – but it doesn’t matter so long as it’s you they are coming to, right?

9. Twitter Every time you write new content you should post it to twitter with a link back to it. If you use the right keywords and make your tweet is interesting you can get a lot of visits just from people searching for key terms. For example, if I write an article about SEO or landing pages I can tag the end of my tweet with what is called a hashtag (#) #SEO #landing pages. Then anyone who searches for those keywords on Twitter can see my tweet about the post that I wrote. Write enticing post so people feel compelled to click.

10. Article Marketing This is another one of my absolute favourite ways to get traffic. Many of my website visitors come from the articles I publish. Publishing articles to article directories is an very effective way to get traffic. If you write content and publish it to websites like Ezinearticles.com Article Base, Article Dashboard website owners will pick it up and post it. This idea is similar to guest blogging except that you only have to write one piece of content that can end up on hundreds of even thousands of blogs and websites. The same rule applies here: don’t be boring – be creative and interesting and use common keywords in your article and title so website owners can find it!

Don’t forget to put your name and email into the boxes at the top of the page for more updates. Also, don’t forget to ‘like’ this on the Facebook link below:

1. Get attention. The primary thing to achieve on your site is attention. You have about 5 seconds to do this. Strictly speaking it’s your add (or the place where they clicked in order to arrive at your page) where the attention-grabbing starts but it must continue on your landing page. On a landing page your headline and sub-headline should perform this function – try also to make this headline the same or similar to keywords used by someone searching or using them – it will help you get found by them.

2. The next thing is to generate their interest. You have another 5 seconds to do this. This can be achieved by empathizing (connecting with the problem they have) so that they feel they are in the right place. Enhance this by encouraging them that you have the solution to the problem they have. People always arrive at a website with a ‘problem’ that’s why they there.

3. If you have got your visitor to this stage the next step is to engender desire in them. That means to entice them into accepting the solution you have so that they ‘desire’ it. There are many ‘power’ words and devices you can use to create this desire and lots of highly skilled copy writers who can do this for you. This is a real talent – the problem is most people think they can do it easily and cheaply themselves – they can’t. My advice is either take courses and learn the skills or outsource it.

4. The most important aspect of a landing page is to get your visitor to take action. The most useful action you can get them to take is to give you their name and email address and permission to market to them. This is the most valuable function of 95% of landing pages

5. The problem of distraction. Don’t think that you have to fill your landing page with lots of stuff. Words, pictures, colours, links etc etc. It’s not that these are unimportant in and of themselves, but it is critical not to distract a visitor from the action you want them to take. You don’t want to overwhelm a visitor but that confuses them and as the internet and our use of it matures we are becoming less and less tolerant of anything that confuses us. When that happens we click away. Keep it simple. Less is more.

6. Your ‘call’ to action. Action is what you want your visitor to take. But your ‘call’ to action is what will persuade them to finally take it. Are you offering a solution to the problem they have arrived at your page for? Can they get hold of that solution easily? Will they be grateful for having received it? Consider these in your call to action – don’t just expect people to take action with minimal invitation. They won’t and you could lose them forever.

7. Kinds of page. I want to throw in a caveat here. There are different kinds of landing pages that perform different functions. At one end of the spectrum you get  fully-branded, multi-featured, big company pages, at the other end you get simple one page sites which are oriented towards generating leads – often called ‘squeeze pages’ or lead-generation pages. The fully branded site will help, inform, offer and make visible who you are and what you do in the fullest sense but generally won’t generate leads. In terms of taking action, in the vast majority of cases, squeeze pages outperform the fully branded sites by an average of around 8 to 1. For every one person taking an action on the former, 8 will take action on the latter. Decide what you want your page to do before you start. You can of course do what I do and have both kinds!

8. Squeeze pages . These are the high performing landing pages of the kind I have already mentioned and I thought they merited a word of their own. Why? Because they are simple, straight to the point for the reader and oriented towards them taking action or leaving. This is exactly what you want. A squeeze page allows visitors to raise their hands and register their interest with the minimum of fuss. Once you have their name, email and permission to market to them you can always introduce them later to your all-singing, all-dancing branded website.

9.Whatever action you have enticed your visitor to take on your site you need to follow up with them. Set up a series of autoresponders that will be sent to their email box on a regular basis. Not to bombard with sales talk but to give them helpful information so that they can decide for themselves that you are a good person or company to do business with

10.Test Test Test. I’ve said it on lots of other online marketing topics. Don’t take my word for these things and don’t assume that you have to change your whole site/s just because of something I might have said. The main thing is to test. Change a single feature and see what the result is. Have similar sites running side by side – one slightly different from the other, and see which one out performs the other. The only way to know what really works in your business niche is to try and test.

If you want to massively improve your landing page techniques and a whole load of other aspects in your internet marketing campaign, please take a look at my Business Building Bootcamp

I hope this helps you make some good decisions in 2011 in your internet marketing strategies if so, don’t forget to ‘Like it’ below.

In this post, I want to give you 10 tips on internet mail marketing or otherwise known as email marketing. Whether you sell products or services this is fundamental to your online campaign.

If you have a list of people that you have generated by their signing up on your website and you want to communicate with them regularly about your products and services etc., then you certainly need to be emailing them regularly (once a week or month) otherwise you are seriously missing out on business opportunities. This is internet mail marketing.

But this is not as easy as it seems. And it certainly is not just about an internet ‘mail-merge’. It is one thing to email a potential lead or customer, another thing to get them to open your message. That means you absolutely must have the right subject heading, or as best you can get.

Learn from this season of gift-giving (and receiving) and ask your self why we why we wrap gifts in the way we do. If you want to interest your audience, think of your subject headline as the wrapping paper. A nicely wrapped present is much more fun to open than a badly wrapped one or one that’s not wrapped at all. It entices and attracts. As a man, I know I am guilty of wrapping presents badly and some marketers are the same, they don’t put much thought into their emails – subsequently they don’t entice people and they don’t get opened!

Notice how some shops offer to gift wrap your purchases for you. This is because they are marketers too and they want to present their products in a way that flatters what’s inside and raises expectation.

This is exactly what you want your email subject heading to do.

Tip 1: pay attention to what lands in your own email box, and pay attention what you open and what you don’t open. What is it about the emails you are tempted to open? And what do you dump?

Tip 2: One thing is for sure – the internet mail you open have enticed or really interested you in some way. One way to communicate this is to tap into the reader’s curiosity. You can do this by making your subject headings into promises: Certain  How to…? When to ? Why you should… headings tap into our natural curiosity and so tempt the reader to open so their curiosity can be satisfied.

Tip 3: Try using question marks (?) at the end of your subject heading even if your heading is not strictly a question. Research show that something that looks like a question has the same impact as an actual question.

Tip 4: Avoid ‘factual’ subject headings, such as those of the ‘My product is available to buy’ kind of thing. This is merely a fact and rarely excites people. Instead, tease the reader by saying 20 things you need to know about (topic). This way you communicate the benefits and the immediate value a potential buyer could get from your product. Avoid  ‘my ebook on photography is aviailable’ and go for 20 ways to improve your photographic techniques?’

Tip 5: Avoid ‘message blindness’. What often happens in email boxes is ‘message blindness’. This is where you message just looks the same as all the other promos and marketing messages. The term suggests that people don’t ‘see’ your message as different from everything else that is trying to grab their attention. Make you message look different. For example, using the phrase ‘Is this correct…?’ is much more likely to be opened than a blunt promotional statement. You can always create a message that corresponds with the subject heading so that it doesn’t look incongruent.

Tip 6: Once your message has been opened be sure to grab the attention of your reader with another line that keeps them reading.  Again, you can use the same principles but now you have more space to get a message across.

Tip 7: Respect the time and space of your audience. We are all becoming increasingly intolerant of what appears on our computer screens right. So unless you put effort into creating something that is valuable, interesting or entertaining for your audience then they will not open your messages

Tip 8: Don’t spam. This is basically blind, unsolicited mass mailing. It’s wrong and annoying and will win you no friends. You only receive this email because you have either signed up to one of my websites or have been added to my mailing list as a result of being on one of my workshops. And you always have the option of unsubscribing. Spam is the absence of these.

Tip 9: Keep learning, practising and testing. I am still learning new techniques about email marketing and eventhough I feel I know quite a lot, I still make mistakes. I never ever assume I know my audience or their needs perfectly. This would be arrogant. Your audience’s interests and demands will change over time. Some will come and go so the ground is always moving. Move with it or risk falling down!

Tip 10: Take action – try these tips now and start learning what works and what doesn’t in your particular business niche. Test a mailing on a proportion of your mailing list and see what the result is. Tweak it and test it on another small proportion and so on.

Yes, I know there is a lot more to say about email marketing – for example, what about the main message? Sure this is important too, but only once your emails are opened. Get this right first and you can concentrate on the body of your message once you have their attention.

Email marketing is a real art and is becoming a more detailed specialism all the time. So if you are serious about marketing online this is absolutely something you need need to be working on. You won’t get it right first time and if you’re like me then you will always be able to do it better. But if you don’t pay attention to it’s importance, your internet mail campaigns will not serve you as they should.

I hope you all have a great Christmas and New Year and thank you for reading my posts in 2010 – I hope they help in your business. And for those who don’t celebrate this time of year – have a wonderful time anyway.

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1.       First of all, decide why you are going from the outset – that way if anyone asks you know why you are clear as to your reasons. For example, I knew I wanted to go to Carrie Wilkerson’s Business Online Success Summit (BOSS) in London recently because Carrie is one of the top female internet marketers in the world and we have worked together before and I wanted to connect up with her again. I knew her content and our conversations would impact on my business.

2.       Decide what it is exactly you want to get out of the event or meeting – there should be at least 3 quality reasons: For example:

a) to meet at least 3 potential clients that I could work with,

b)to have at least 4-6 quality conversations with people my business could work with

c) agree to follow up with at least half of them

d) if it’s a bigger social networking event (ie larger than a 2 or 3 person meeting) then you should be able to take a least 3-5 actionable things away from the event – ie things I can implement in my business within the following week.

e) If it is a one-to-one networking event then I should be able to name at least three steps that either take that relationship further or 3 ways as to how it will impact on my business

3.       Think also about how much of your time it will take up. Cost out your time (ie how much is your time worth per hour/day) and decide whether attending the event will make up for this and how it could profit your business. Your time is the most valuable commodity in your business and you and your employees need to be held to account on how you spend it. If you are not willing to do this then treat the networking event as just a ‘social’ or ‘day off’. Don’t leave the meeting until your objectives are fulfilled.

4.       Make every minute of your attendance count – get your money’s worth I made sure I heard all the people I wanted to including Jenny Flintoff who is a great mindset trainer. I learnt from Jenny the importance of getting your head straight in your business and the need to cut out all of the stuff that is unnecessary. She is so enthusiastic in the delivery of her content it is impossible not to be re-invigorated by her style.

5.       Before you arrive, try to get a list of the attendees (if appropriate) and find the people you’d really like to meet – make yourself known to them. You’ll get a list if you contact the organizers. I found that Brander Simon Jordan was going to the event so I made a point of hearing what he had to say and chat with him…

6.       Don’t wait for people to come and talk to you – make an effort to interact, or an excuse to overtly listen in on a conversation. State your reasons and excuse yourself then come in with a pertinent question

7.       Only take the cards of people you intend to contact again – likewise only distribute your cards to those you think are interested in your information, products and services. A scatter-gun approach stops you from focusing on who your genuine prospects are.

8.       When you return from the event, take your notes and do a quick 10 minute review or what went well and what didn’t

9.       Find someone you can feed your notes back to – someone you can be accountable to and to help you decide whether it was worth it.

10.   Follow up on your new contacts or the conversations that were held and take action on them. I made sure I followed up on Amy Harrison who  is a copy-writing consultant from London. She gives amazing value in her content and works closely with some outstanding marketers.

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The point is, does your marketing communicate to people what you actually do and who you are, or not? If you set up your marketing and it isn’t doing the job you need it to do (i.e. bring in clients) then you are not communicating effectively and it is like creating one thing to do something it is not designed to do. This goes for online or digital marketing as much as for other kinds of marketing.

The Eisenbergs’ scenario likens the situation to having a cat that you are trying to teach to bark! Obviously cats don’t bark and no matter how much you try to train it to do so it just isn’t going to happen. You either help improve its ‘miaow’ or you get a dog.

In other words, whether you are just promoting yourself or your business it is easy to miss the point that the way you communicate obviously helps prospective clients and customers understand exactly what you are and what you can do for them. If you miss this (and it’s very common to do so) then you are, in the words of the authors of the book, waiting for your cat to bark.

The online equivalent of this is to have a website or blog or a page that doesn’t immediately communicate the benefits of working with you and doesn’t immediately communicate a way of getting access to these benefits or taking action.

When I suggest this to people in respect of their online marketing some react in one or more of several ways, here are some:

1.       They aren’t interested, as most of their business comes from non-online sources anyway (they give little thought to the possibility that any source can dry up) and don’t believe it is or will be a problem – ostrich approach!

2.       If they are interested they either get defensive and deny this could be an issue (until I tell them that most businesses are guilty of this in some way at some time and it’s quite normal), then they start to see where it may apply to them. As a reuslt their marketing improves.

3.       They are interested but confused and think if they are guilty of this then they are going to have to figure it out and don’t have the time or inclination so just ignore it until they realise how much business it loses them – another ostrich approach!

4.       They believe that a mere visitor to their site is ‘action’ enough (without their taking action) – and that their cat’s barking is just fine. Ignoring the fact that how ever good the barking is cat’s aren’t supposed to bark!!!

So take a brave decision and ask yourself if you are waiting for your cat to bark? And if you think you might be then this is a great book to consider getting as a gift for yourself –

You can get it here

Alternatively contact me with a question or comment on this issues at support@sellmyknowledgeonline.com and either my or one of my team will respond.

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS REVIEW PLEASE ‘LIKE IT’ HERE FOR YOUR FACEBEOOK CONTACTS

Well the reason I wrote this Kindle review or try to interest people to buy the Kindle is that I just got one and think they’re amazing. You can get it here

But hang on a minute, what does this have to do with what this site is normally about? Promoting and selling your knowledge online. Well firstly, it means that if you promote your knowledge online then people can consume it even if they don’t have a computer. Secondly, it means you can read all the books you want to inspire, instruct and help you without needing a wheelbarrow to carry them all in.

Apart from other obvious reasons to buy the Kindle (eg: that it is a very portable device that can be carried in a handbag or a large pocket, and that there are lots of e-books you can download to it and it saves paper so you save trees too! Etc., etc), there are plenty of other reasons why you might be interested to buy one. Here are a few other reasons why you might want to buy the Kindle…

10 reasons why anyone should buy the Kindle

1. Apart from the fact that you can read books on it, you can also get the internet which means that you can also read blogs, newspapers, and magazines, e-books that are available, or whatever else interests you. It’s bigger than an iphone, smaller than a laptop or netbook making it perfect for this.
   Downloading is quick. By using WhisperNet you can start reading the book or electronic content of your choice in under a minute in most cases.
2. A particularly great feature on the Kindle is called ‘Read to Me’. This converts text to speech is really fun –especially if you are doing something else that requires your attention – like driving or walking down a busy street. Listen while you go!
3. The electronic ink (or eInk) is easy on the eyes, and when combined with variable font sizes it really makes a big difference. This is one of the reasons I decided to buy a kindle when they first came out.
4. The storage means that when you buy the Kindle you will have storage for up to 1500 books. A virtual library! I like to dip in and out of books so this is perfect for me.
5. There are loads of free Kindle Book sites you can visit where you can get tens of thousands of free Kindle books. Amazon, which created the Kindle, has around 7000 free books you can download.
6. The Kindle is great for aeroplanes and travel – no need to plug in anywhere as the kindle has a really long battery life. Sit in the park or the coffee shop and read all day long.
7. The Kindle has a pretty comprehensive dictionary already built in
8. You can read the Kindle without having to hold down the pages and cause damage to it
9. Great for taking on walks as it weighs just 10.2 ounces
10. You can also  send your own electronic files to the Kindle for review…

But if this doesn’t convince you that you should have one one then how about buying a Kindle for someone else as a gift? GET IT HERE

Doing what you love and the knowlege economy

It’s been said by many that we live in a ‘knowledge economy’. That means the most important commodity on the planet is knowledge. Whether it’s about people, engineering, celebrity gossip, computers, coaching or knitting, knowledge and information is the most valuable thing around and we all want it. We all want to learn something about something. People pay for knowledge, information and skill. Question is, what’s yours and how can you use it to make you a living? In truth, most of us settle for a job and sell our knowledge on a contract basis to an employer. That’s fine, and suits most people most of the time. But others (perhaps you?) are thinking how great it would be running a business by talking and advising people on what I love talking about and doing.

Yes, I know! It’s best to start a business with what sells rather than a sentimental passion for something that won’t. But with the internet it is now possible to do both.

If you have been following my blog posts over the last couple of years you will have noticed that I write about what I love. Internet marketing has been a passion of mine for over 10 ten years. So I make money with what I love doing. I used to do it as a trainer and coach too. As you know I now work a lot with consultants, trainers and coaches, small businesses – people who do what they love and who’s businesses are ‘knowledge rich’. But I have also worked with cheesemakers, gardeners, programmers, booksellers, builders and teachers to help them get their information and knowledge out there online. Most of these love what they do, have a passion for what they know about and make a living from it because they learned the importance of the following points:

Starting a business doing what you love

Most people have knowledge and information that they love to talk about, share, teach and learn more about. But we often miss the point that it is possible to make money with it. However, insignificant you think your knowledge is we now have a global community to share it with. We are no longer limited to the small population in our geographical area but have almost the entire planet to talk to about it.

Starting a business that interests and that you love is exciting because you get to choose something that gets you excited. How? Ask yourself what do you like talking about. What excites you? What could you talk about for an hour to another person and not get bored? This could be the start of your information or knowledge business.

You don’t need to be an ‘expert’ on your area knowledge

I hear often from people (even those who are really smart – with degrees) that they ‘don’t know enough’ about a subject to tell other people about it. There are three responses I have to this.

1. You don’t need to be an ‘expert’ to make money with what you know and love (consider this- the most valuable person to the school 2^nd grader is the 3^rd grader, not the 5^th or 6^th grader!). Be the 3rd grader to those who are only 2nd graders!

2. Even if you were an expert there will always be someone who knows more than you.

3. Never stop learning – you can always grow and develop your knowledge. I knew plenty of consultants who were better than me – but I still made a good living. I know plenty of internet marketers who know more than I do, but their customers sometimes come to me.

Get over yourself and believe that what you know is enough.

Is it marketable?

Knowing who will buy your knowledge and information is the biggest question of all. It is possible to find this out if you have internet access. Not only is it possible to find people who are looking for precisely the kind of information and knowledge you can provide and what it will take to get to them, it is possible to know the likelihood of them buying it, who your competition will be, and even roughly how much you can make. And it can tell you all this before you go down the expensive route of creating the product – so you know if there is a market beforehand!

Create the right platform, product or service to sell your knowledge on

Of course, it’s not knowledge alone that will make you money. It needs to be channeled into a product or service or something that someone can buy. Music is great but unless it’s on a tape or a CD or I can download it then I can’t buy it. So what can you create with your knowledge and information in it? Online you can create e-books, audios, videos, DVDs, teleseminars, webinars, or even a subscription membership site. You can even promote your face to face events – courses, workshops, seminars, coaching, group coaching. There are no end to the possibilities.

Connecting with enough people who want your knowledge and information

There are now so many ways of connecting with a hungry audience for your knowledge that I’m not sure where to begin. There are paid ways and free ways, there is social media and organic search, there are banner ads and forums. The list is almost endless. The skill is in knowing where your hungry crowd is hanging out. But it isn’t too difficult to trace them and I can help you do it!

Be inspired – what do you love to talk about?

I recently re-launched my Business-Building Bootcamp system which basically shows you how to run a business online doing what you love. This was a really popular set of DVDs, audios and e-book I sold on how to start and run your information business (selling your knowledge and expertise) on the internet. But this time it’s fully ONLINE and with some great bonuses.

Take a look here