About Steven AitchisonA lot of people on the internet, and offline, dream of creating a business and finally give up that dreary old day job. I am definitely in that category and have been trying for two years to make money online with internet marketing. Recently I had a mindset change which has changed things for me in a dramatic way.
As most of my regular readers will know I have been making money with affiliate marketing and producing my own ebooks, writing for other blogs and selling them via adwords, article marketing and banner ads etc. In 2007 I made around $1000 profit, this year I have made around $5000 profit so far. However in the last 3 weeks I have produced another product for clickbank which will be the start of a new business venture for me and it has already brought in around $500 on top of earnings of $1000 for other products I promote and writing I do for other blogs.
Me at the centre
The trouble I had in starting a business was that I was doing every single thing myself which included designing web pages, sales pages, opt in pages, graphics for banners, learning about and installing scripts on websites, videos, adwords, affiliate promotion, writing articles, writing sales materials, copywriting, answering emails, troubleshooting, every single little thing you could think of in a business and I was doing it. This is on top of a full time job and spending as much time with my family as possible. I wasn’t the business owner, I was the business! without me nothing would happen, if I fell ill nothing would get done and the money would start drying up pretty quickly. So, in effect I was creating another job for myself and not a business.
Now my mindset has changed from creating a new job for myself to becoming a business owner where I have other people helping me do the most time consuming jobs. Yes, I have to pay them but it frees up a lot of my time to concentrate on producing my own products. This has only happened in the last few weeks and I can see a difference already. No longer am I worrying about all the things I need to get done and ultimately falling behind schedule as I have other people around the world helping me produce web pages, sales pages, my writing etc. I can concentrate on building a business up rather than being the business.
I have started to outsource a lot of the work using a service at www.elance.com for my sales page design and for my writing. In the next few months I hope to pass most of my work to people I come to trust from elance this will include, graphics, writing, adwords management, cd production, email screening etc. don’t get me wrong it will take some time to find people to trust and who can work well with my work philosophy but it is a start and will make a huge difference.
I am already seeing a difference in my energy levels. I still get up at 5am to wok a few hours before getting the children ready for school and then going to work and still work in the evenings but I work on producing more products rather than dealing with other more time consuming issues like sales page design and writing emails for autoresponders ad all the other little jobs that are so time consuming.
Mastermind group
I have even created time to join a mastermind group with Brian McElroy and Rachel Rofe to drive the business forward. This will last for 10 weeks and I will report back here with progress, it’s the first mastermind group I have joined and am really looking forward to it. I am hoping the lessons i learn and the contacts I make will more than outweigh the initial investment.
The reason for this change in mindset from creating a job for myself to becoming a business owner was down to a video I watched a few weeks ago from Rich Schefren. I have posted the video below so you can watch it. It’s 90 minutes long but if you are looking to create a business online or offline it will be 90 minutes of pure gold.
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I haven’t seen the video yet, but I’ll look at it when I have the time. I think it’s a very good thing to look at things from a different perspective, and funny to see how you didn’t see certain opportunities for a long time even if they seem so obvious.
Bravo. Great post. I know exactly how it feels to BE the business. I am a loner by nature, so it was extremely difficult for me to make the transition to business owner.
Yes, finding the right people is a little time consuming. Before hiring a professional, I ask them to send me a short message describing how they can assist in growing my business.
This little tactic has proven invaluable and is much more effective than any number of stars or positive reviews on a pros profile could ever be. Keep up the good work.
I think the most important principle here is that you can create a job for yourself — it’s not about relying on someone’s good grace and wishing they would hire you, wishing they would give you a raise and acknowledge your skills. Freelancing and/or outsourcing is a great way to work and make money.
Congratulations for doing a great job in internet marketing. Thanks for sharing the video, I learned something from it.
It’s encouraging to see how well you are doing, you deserve it.
I like to have a hands on approach with certain parts of what I do online and if I need help I tend to use a core group of three people to help me with my projects. This has helped me build an e-commerce site that I have had complete control over but never actually coded. I for one think outsourcing work to people who can do a job better than you is definitely the way.
This is a wonderful diary of progress. I wish you all the best in your online business! It sounds like you have been working really hard and juggling all of those demands that are so hard to tackle with an online business.
I remember hearing so many times from the household clan: “again? But it’s Sunday!!” and having to put away the PC. You know what I mean.
I wish you the best of luck i building your business. You deserve it.
P.S. I can hardly wait to watch the video (again? but it’s 9 pm!!)
You make some excellent points. It is so easy to let yourself get bogged down with the little stuff which will in turn take you away from what you should be focusing on – the big stuff.
Good for you for looking outside yourself to find the help you need to really get things going.
I haven’t seen the dvd but definately interested, I like the way you have decided to make it a business decision. I think this will be a good move. Freeing up more of your own time to make informed money making decisions.
Yea, you are right! It is great to hear that you had achieved everything, and now you delegate your job to others. However, if we set up our own business, it is easier because we be our own bos! on the other hand, we need to do everything ourselves and also bear the risk too!
Yea, you are right! It is great to hear that you had achieved what you want, and now you delegate your job to others!! However, if we set up our own business, it is easier because we be our own bos! on the other hand, we need to do everything ourselves and also bear the risk too!
Great write up. Thanks for all your valuable input. Internet Marketing is very time consuming. I think that I will start looking into hiring some freelancers foor future products myself.
Wow…It sounds amazing! Interesting story, it gives inspiration. Thanks for sharing it.
good post you definitely want to intelligently manage your time and resources. Especially with graphic design, that stuff can be outsourced for low prices. I’m actually surprised you’re not making a lot more with such a high pr site.
I can totally relate to this article. It was extremely difficult to hire people for our online business since we didn’t really want to trust anyone else. In addition, we didn’t want to sacrifice our profit potential either. In the end though, hiring help allowed us to focus on other more important aspects such as growing the business and pursuing other sources of income. Great post!
Finding the true group is a slight time consuming thing. Previous to hiring an expert, I inquire them to mail me a little message telling how they can help in raising my company.
Good advice and so true, i must remember to take this advice, keep up the great work!
You did a great job.Our friend our having a part time business in the net that we offer a lot of things to do.It was enjoy while having an extra income for us.it could help us a lot in time of needy time.
Making money online can be a very difficult feat – but also very rewarding if you do it the right way. It can take quite sometime to be successful so it pays to be patient, and also to stake stock of where you are now and what is actually working. Changing your strategy and taking stock I would say is a vital component of being successful. Its often surprising how much more successful you can be just by making a few small changes
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This is a huge list of great tips. Some great advice for a good job.
Excellent post – you make a great point. Sometimes it’s so hard not to get caught up in the technicalities of it all and miss the big picture. I thought I might also add oDesk as a resource for those who are looking to outsource some of the technical work (like web design or programming) and free themselves up to run their business. Just another avenue to consider.
Thanks!
Many thanks, especially for the tip about e-lance.