OK.  I am on lesson 5 of the Internet Marketing Kickstart Course.  One of the longest lessons, it is actually one of the easier ones, truth be told.  It mostly has to do with signing up with Clickbank and gives great tips on pitfalls to avoid.

I have to admit, this is where I get hung up though.  While I have a strong creative bent – it is easy for me to write and design web pages – I come up short with self confidence.  I begin to wonder do I have anything really worth, say, $27 to someone else?  So taking the Clickbank step is not an easy one for me simply because I have these voices telling me “make it bigger, make it better.  Don’t do it – it isn’t worth it…”

But I have a monkey on my back that is goading me on; no, two monkeys.   Tony Shepherd and Sara Brown.  They are my cheerleaders.  Then there is my husband that believes in me and my kids, too.

So get yourself a support team.  Whatever is keeping you from taking the next step, take my advice (which comes from Tony)

Just do it! (and clean up the mess later)

While you don’t want to offer cr** to your customers, stop with the analysis paralysis.  Just Do it!

Chill on the details and whether the formatting looks right – Just do it!!

You can’t sell it if it isn’t out there connected to a Paypal button.  Just get it out there and let your customers tell you how to “fix” your report.

OK. Now on to Clickbank!

The Internet is here to stay.  From its small beginning as a medium of communication between government departments and research facilities it has exploded to be a worldwide transcontinental network upon which most business is already using as it’s life’s blood or will soon.  It seems a fact that if you are not on the ‘net you will not “be” at all, in the future.

What is more is that Internet marketing is the way of the advertiser.  Marketers love it as it gives them a huge, no, monstrous crowd to market to and the store never has to close.  This spells nearly unlimited opportunity for those who know how to tap into it.

And that is where marketing to Internet marketers and other businesses plays a big role.  Many may say that the make money online or Internet marketing niche is too saturated – that there is no chance for the new marketer to get a piece of the pie – but it simply isn’t true.  While some have been in the game a bit longer and have an established piece of ground, there is always room for the enterprising entrepreneur who is willing to add his or her slant to it.

The key is to learn how to do some aspect of the process – maybe web design, or make creative headers or other graphics, retell in your own way how to get traffic to your site, or some short cut to article writing… the key is to do it yourself and then tell others how to do it, too.  I call it “selling shovels” and for good reason.  Offer the tools and systems for other marketers and they will pay you for them.

Be helpful.  Go the extra mile. While I understand you are “hungry” and want to make that fabled thousands of dollars online, now is the time to give and give and give.  Be known for giving great info – info others might even charge for.  This will help you establish a reputation and a relationship which is the key to success in this highly competative economy.

In order for you to understand better how to sell shovels, I wrote a report you can get free if you sign up for my blog.  I promise I won’t write junk.  So why not give it a try?

!OK.  I am nowhere near retirement age myself but even if I was I would never consider “retiring” – EVER!

Want to know the quickest way to die?  Retire!!  I have watched two very vital, intelligent men slowly die over the past 10-12 years.  All because they bought into the “turn 62 and retire” thing.  While most men and women may look forward to their retirement years as a reward for their long years of service, if they don’t have some sort of occupation planned, they will wither.

Why retire?  Why not just take planned sabaticals or long vacations if your company allows it.  Perhaps your company “forces” retirement so in that case, plan to occupy yourself as a volunteer or as a consultant in your field of expertise.

All I know is that these men and many countless others like them, may start out enjoying their freedom.  But very quickly the doldrums hit them.  My dad and father-in-law both in their own way have shriveled in health and mind.  Even with constant RVing activity as in my dad’s case, he just is depressed much of the time.

Did you know that retirement is a relatively new phase of a person’s life?  FDR invented retirement back in the Great Depression to make way for younger breadwinners when times were tight.  He then had to invent Social Security and  pension funds to help tide these newly unemployed oldsters.

Before that people just worked until they couldn’t.  Retirement was not even thought of.  But now we think retirement is the expected thing for a 55 – 65 your old worker and many companies still force it.

Well, there is a new paradigm taking shape and that is to not retire but taper off or even take on a new employment.

Being self-employed is ideal: you never really retire you just shift management to someone else and keep your hand in it as you see fit.

For those who still love their job but plan to retire someday, think about how you will spend that time off.  Plan to take time to travel if that’s what you want but more importantly think about how you will spend the rest of the time.  There are some great books that come to mind and one is Why Retire? Rewire!

As promised, I am going to record my progress here on the Internet Marketing Kickstart Course.  I won’t go into specific details as to what is in each lesson, per se, simply because Tony and Sara do a better job of explaining than I do.  So I won’t reinvent the wheel, as they say.

But I will tell you that instead of getting one lesson a week I have gotten 5 in the past two weeks!!

Week 1 is a general overview and picture of things to come just to get the creative juices flowing.  Even they say that those of us who are familiar with Internet Marketing can get going sooner than, say, a total newbie which I found to be the case with me.

The Week 2 lesson helped me to get a good idea of what to focus my niche on and for the first time I have a very really confidence to attack my plan.  The smaller steps and guidance were/are just the very thing I needed to see this thing through.

A surprise bonus report came  a few days later.  Worth the price of the course just by itself.  “How to make your report outsell the competition!!!”  Folks, it just doesn’t get any simpler and more straight forward than this!

What I did was to buy some really awesome PLR, as they advised.  I did some tweaking and reformatting so it is ready to “go public” ASAP.

By now I am putting my plan into action and while waiting for the next lessons I kind of get a jump on it by subscribing to Aweber and preparing my autoresponder series.   Then came lesson 3 AND 4!!

Do you want to know the one thing that made all the difference in my own business so far?  it’s this:

TAKE ACTION!

Stop planning and analyzing and just do it.  Get it done and fix it later.  Now some of you perfectionists are squeamish on that one.  I know I was.  But here is the sound reasoning behind it.

The sooner you get your product done “good enough” and then published, the sooner you will know if you have a winner or a dud.  Believe me, if it is done “good enough” your customers will let you know how you can add to or “fix” your product.  If something isn’t clear or thoroughly explained, they will let you know and you now can “update” your product which makes it even more valuable. But f it is a dud, then you will know not to spend anymore time on it.

Well, I am getting on with it – how about you?  See you next week when I tell you how I am coming with the next lesson #5!

Take a look at the Internet Marketing Kickstart Course here.

I am here to point the way to one of the best lists of List Building Ideas at Terry Dean’s Internet Marketing Coach.  Head on over for some inspiration:

http://www.terrydean.org/21-ways-to-add-more-subscribers/

There are only a handful of marketers that I keep subscribed to for solid, useful advice and Terry’s is one of them.

Have you been floundering in your online business, not knowing where to go… what to do?  Yes?  Well, so have I.  True confessions time.  I have been in the IM game for over two years now.  I call them my “learning” years.  I dabbled and designed and sold a few things.  But never really got a good ripping start.

At the same time, I had been eyeing Tony Shepherd’s and Sara Brown’s Internet Marketing Kickstart Course.  But I put off joining as I thought, “I know what to do; I just need to do it!”  So, I didn’t join.  But then I didn’t “just do it, either”.

I finally knew what I had to do.  You see, even we creative entrepreneurial types need a mentor – someone who will direct you and advise.  And I knew  Tony and Sara would do just that.

I “joined” over two weeks ago and have never regretted it!!  It was just the “kickstart” I needed.  Already I have gone through the first 4 lessons and am chomping at the bit to get on with the next ones.  This is nothing but solid gold.

So, I thought I would record my progress here for anyone else who is thinking about trying out the Course. Just look for the category to see what I have been doing.

For you totally new to Internet Marketing, a resounding YES you will never regret your choice.  I have participated in a half dozen courses and webinars before and, well, Tony and Sara’s course is the most user friendly.  I would not hesitate to recommend it if you are new and want to see progress on a regular steady pace.

But if you are like me, and really need that kick in the pants, this is perfect.  While many of the lessons are stuff we already know, the simple progressive layout offers the nudge and guidelines I needed.

Yes, I am a Tony and Sara fan but for good reason.  They are “real” – no false fronts with them.  Head on over to the Internet Marketing Kickstart Course and meet them today!

Are you ready to toss in the towel on your Internet business?  Do you see your dreams of succeeding fading.  Are you tempted to think,  “I’m too old;  I am too plain, fat or past my prime…”

Have you come to the end of your hopes to ever come out on top?   Well, think again.  This story is inspiring for anyone in any pursuit that you just keep your dream and see it through.

Who is it that I am talking about?  Susan Boyle who recently shocked the judges and audience of Britain’s Got Talent (their version of American Idol) with her stunning performance.  The faces of all who saw her as she first walked on stage was to say the least, unimpressed, even cynical.

Did she make the house “rock”?  Watch the video.  And think again — I don’t know who said it first, but, may I say, JUST DO IT!  Ignore the scoffers and pursue your dream.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY