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!

I sit here shaking my head because I have been in this business for well over two years and well, I have learned a thing or two about how people operate.

Did you know some people just like to gripe?  They do!  Somehow they just think that everything is a scam or designed to steal money from their pocket.  Well, I am here to tell you no one is taking that credit card out of their wallet and entering it into the order form (now I am not talking about identity theft which I know is a problem).  I am talking about those who knowingly fill out the payment form and press buy it.

Then they get the e-book or e course and find out it won’t make them rich like the guy said in the ad.

Hmmm, I wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that you are not that guy.  The person who wrote the ad most likely did make that kind of money in that short period of time.  They also said they would show you how to, too.

Now, think of this scenario:  Here is someone who doesn’t know how to swim.   He buys a book that says this is how to swim.  He jumps into the pool and well, drowns (nearly).  He jumps out of the pool, dries off, goes home and immediately tells everyone he knows that Sam’s Simple Swimming technique is a scam!

Silly, I know.  But really, how many of us read an ad, buy the product and jump into the deep end and nearly drown learning how to do it.  Then come out sputtering it’s a rip off.  Now I may be preaching to the choir here as most of us marketers know how to read the marketing hype and merely buy the product to add to our library [at least that is the excuse I make ]  But for those of you who are new to this game, just use common sense.

Internet marketing is a business and don’t let anyone ever tell you anything else.  You will not get rich overnight.  None of the people who wrote the sales letters got rich overnight.  They started in the shallow end of the pool and learned how to “swim” in this business.  Some take many months; some take longer.  Hey, it took me a year and a half to figure out that I like to write and then asked for my first ghostwriting job.

Tip of the day:  Use common sense.  There is nothing that is truly free.  Hey, I even ask for your email address to get my “free” report.

Have you ever gotten so busy with your business that you forget what you are all about?  I have.  I have gotten involved with Tiffany Dow’s 30 day Article Writing challenge.  Take a look here if you are interested. I know it has been a week since the beginning but she encourages all comers!

So needless to say I am writing for that.  I do ghostwriting, too, so I have my hours taken up writing like a maniac!

On top of which I have committed myself to using Jason Fladlien’s Internet Millionaire Recipe – head on over to look at his site here

Being profitable is what we are here for, right, and Jason really makes it all very clear.  I have been “doing” this biz for over two years now, learning the ropes and taking it all very seriously.  But I just didn’t quite get the whole picture, till now.  All of Jason’s products are over the top best bang for the buck ever.  I have been using his Instant Product Creation – 48 Hour Report as well as his 7 minute Article (although I am still working on getting it down to 7 minutes) both of which are cutting edge.  You will not find anything else like them ANYWHERE!

Check out the Instant Product Creation – 48 Hour Report – you won’t be sorry.

I have never had to do it before, personally, but I have heard that the best way to learn a new language is to immerse yourself in it.  You have to go so far as to live and interact with the people who speak their language natively.

The same goes for Internet Marketing.  And within that, web design, with all its technical “language”.

Two years ago, I was like an American visiting, say, China with not a lick of knowledge of the language.  Can you imagine on your first day, you have to find a bathroom fast and you frantically look for someone – ANYone – who is willing to listen to you in the first place and secondly take the time to show you the way.

Internet Marketing is like that.  There are lots of courses out there – great ones.  But until you immerse yourself in the “land of Internet Marketing” and learn the language and web design dialect, you could be as frustrated as a person with a full bladder in the middle of Chinatown!

Take PHP, for instance.  I have no idea how to get around in it.  Now, HTML I managed to figure out OK.  But PHP is like Russian, to me.  But I know that if I want to navigate the “land of Internet Marketing” I need to at least master the basics.

It really is my responsibility to learn my craft, to at least manage a bit of it so I can communicate to someone who does know how to do it, just what it is that I want.

Someday, I will outsource the technical stuff.  But until I can, I am determined to learn the language of web design and Internet Marketing, well, at least just enough to get to the bathroom

(thanks to Mark W. for the inpiration of this message!)

Today was a very educational day for me.  I learned how to use Snagit while I wrote out my report, “Create A Cool Looking Opt-in Box with a Red/green Submit Button”.  Yes, just like the one on my opt-in box on the right sidebar.

Snagit was surprisingly easy to use and it took less time than I thought to put it all together.  It is 11 pages long so I put in a pdf.  Get a free copy of the report here:  http://thehinessite.com/blog/redgreensubmitbutton.pdf

I am anxious to hear what you all think.  Did you find it useful?  What improvements can be made?  You technical types, any suggestions?  I am all ears!

If you have been in Internet Marketing or any business for that matter, for long, you realize how important communicating with words is.  Without marketing, our economy as we know it today would come to a standstill.  Whole segments of Business are dedicated to communicating to prospective customers – it’s called Marketing.  Apple, Microsoft, Nike, Ford, Cheerios, Band-aids…all depend on marketing.

Why?  Because marketing is the art and science of making your product or service “wanted”.  It is all about creating desire through curiosity plus benefits (why are Band-aids better than Curad?  Or Ford better than  a Chevy or one politician better than another). Desire is created by showing benefits to the individual and at least grabbing their curiosity.  “Look like so and so if you use X brand shampoo; you look tough in a Ford or whatever.  Anyway,…

I think the history of Marketing is fascinating.  Did you know that Marketing as a profession did not exist till the 1920’s or so?  Marketing became the means to get the word out to folks that you had a product that was great, but word of mouth wasn’t enough to get it shouted far and wide.

The early 20th century saw big changes in industry.  Until then, you had one kind of “something” on the store shelf available for sale.  One type of glue; one kind of peaches; one line of tools.  That was due to local economies.  Stores carried what the locals had to sell plus a limited amount of shipped in items.  It was expensive to bring in store goods.  Advertising was as simple as neighbors telling neighbors about the goods they liked.  Store keepers might put up a sign to advertise some new thing but nothing like it is today.

Then came the industrial age.  Due to the production of steel, cheap coal and oil, combined with entrepreneurial spirit, inexpensive manufacturing processes came on the scene which made it possible for business men to make 1000’s of a widget in a day – not just 10 that his local economy needed.

At the same time another development made distribution possible – trucks and trains.  Mass distribution became possible by rails and roads.  As the world became more accessible, manufacturers figured out they could make more money by mass producing their product or service and sell it far and wide.  So he learned to get the word out through sales and marketing.

But then as one would expect, other entrepreneurs wanted a share of the pie too.  After all, their widget was green, or it was made of lighter materials or it was less expensive.  So, now there were two or three or more somethings to compete with one another.  (Ever looked at the shampoo aisle?  Just what really is the difference between them.  They all clean your hair, right?  That goes for the frozen foods, or pop or chips…you name it there is always more than one brand)

Once there were more than one something, you needed to set your “something” apart – make it seem better some way.  That is what Marketing is all about – making your widget special.

Taking it a little further, within marketing came another specialized field – the copy writer.  Writing copy to sell a widget to make it “better” than the rest, is an art and science.  Men and women who are good at it can practically command any price for their “magic” with words.  Because business owners know that if there is anything their business needs, it’s buyers.  And most folks usually don’t just buy, they need to be sold – especially if it is a new idea.  There are just too many choices out there. Too many voices clamoring for your attention.  The Copy Writer’s job is to get your attention.

Hence, Internet Marketing.  So, now you know where it all began.  And you now know why it is not an easy business to be in.  But with persistence, good product or service and excellent copy, it is only a matter of time before you find your business taking off.

OK, maybe love is too strong but maybe you can understand why in a minute. You see, I have only been in Internet Marketing for maybe two years now. In that time I have come to have a love/hate relationship with it. I love the free enterprise aspect of Internet Marketing, don’t you? It is a place where all it takes is desire and action and anyone – young or old – may succeed and earn a living.

But there is the other side of the coin and that is the ability to “hide” on the ‘net and make a load of money. Sites where you have no way to reach customer service (if they had it). These sites are full of great promises of what their product or service will do and when it doesn’t work that way for you, you try to get a refund. Well, I don’t need to tell how awful that can be. We have all been left holding a white elephant.

Not with Aweber. The other day I was signing back up with them after a short time off and inadvertently added a year to my account rather than the month to month plan. Ooooops! That would spell all kinds of disaster in my bank account. I began to sweat as I looked for the Contact Us info. And you know what? They actually have a real working phone with a live person answering the phone. Nervously I explained my predicament and the gal on the other side calmly handled the credit in a matter of seconds.

Not only that but since it was a re-sign, I got the usual friendly follow-up call (thanks, Jason) asking if I had any questions or problems with my new account. I told him the happy story of the day before and he was genuinely glad, too.

I don’t know about the other auto responder services out there. They may be super, too. They may even be less expensive. But Aweber is going to have this customer for a long time to come.

Maybe I should say is there anything wrong with it! Blogs and blogging are the website of the future. They are friendly to both people and to search engines. They are relatively easy to learn how to “do”. And now more than ever folks who want to work at home have access to the simplest way to get started earning money on the Internet. Until now though even I was mystified as to just which plugins were best, just how to manage the SEO in a blog and most importantly, how to make money with a blog. Enter Expert WordPress!

You are looking at it! This is an Expert WordPress template is professional looking. It is search engine friendly. And most importantly, easy to use!! Everything you see here I did in 2 hours including posting the first 10 articles (if the dates seem weird it is because I tranferred them from the older theme). That means from uploading the appropriate files, configuring the “techie stuff” (Alex holds you by the hand all the way so you just can’t mess up), adding audio, images, and video clips.

I used to be mystified by SEO. But not with Expert WordPress’s guidance. But let me back up a bit. I have ached for a “soup to nuts” course on how to make money using blogs. There are some great mentors and you will read about some of them here in other articles. But when I got the email to look at Expert WordPress, I have to admit that I was a bit wary. But not for long. The website gives a short demo on how easy their 3 step installation is. I took the plunge and got the Platinum package which, my dear readers IS the soup to nuts on making money with blogs! Worth every penny in the time it saved me figuring out all the plugins in needed to get, all the preconfigured pages with Adsense already to go, and SEO neatly handled in the back room.

As a matter of fact, I am only part way through the videos and I feel like I went from Internet noob to Internet pro. I strain to find a gripe about it too. The only thing I had trouble with is that Alex has a strong accent which I admit threw me for a bit. But after following him for a few lessons, I quickly learned how to interpret the accent. As For Alex knowledge, he knows his way around Wordpress like he designed it himself.

I can’t say enough about it.  If you need an all in one video course on how to make money on the Internet – this is the one. Visit Expert WordPress here.

What is it about is buying every new “deal” that comes along and trying it for a time and then seeing another ‘deal” and buying it and trying it…  jumping from one new money making plan/scheme to another!

Next!  Will this one be the one??

Most of you reading this have been there done that.  We just can’t seem to help buying the next new whatever that comes out, hoping maybe something will do the trick, right.

 I have spent maybe $2500 ?? (what can I say, I am on a budget!!;-) ) on software, ebooks, memberships, in the two years I have been doing this and really have nothing to show for it – yet. And that is minimal compared to some folks who spend many thousands.

This is NOT a gripe!  It is stating cases.  All education costs.  Anything worth doing costs to prepare for.  Instead of going to the university, though, we are buying lessons and courses and software from our Professors (gurus) all toward the end of earning a nice living, whatever that means to me.

It’s like a treasure hunt.  You start out all starry-eyed, pumped up with hope and certain there is a marvelous “chest” at the end of it.  Every treasure hunter will prepare him or herself by aquiring tools, maps, hiring guides, planning the trip, etc.

Some maps lead to a dead end (like a waffled out ebook on list building).  Other maps all but give you the money!

Some guides really know their stuff and share it generously (thanks to mentors like Sara Brown, Terry Dean, Lee McIntyre, Martin Avis, Andy Williams, Tiffany Dow, to name just a few off the top of my head – all solid gold Profs, in my book). And others I won’t mention here that sell – sell – sell and give you a crumb…

Some equipment is designer priced while other equipment is more useful and priced to fit the budget – hey, lots of software is Free!

One thing all treasure hunters have in common – a burning desire to see it to the proverbial pot o’ gold.  Internet Marketing is no different.  You will go through hours of reading ebooks, learning web design, refining SEO, learning to blog or Squidoo, niche hunting,… because you KNOW that there is treasure there waiting for all the work and sweat and tears.

I am in this for the long haul – how about you?  See you in the trenches!