The guaranteed way to make yourself better

 

If there's one thing that any person can go do that will make them a better marketer, without question, it's putting your OWN money on the line.  When you start your own business (online or 'offline'), the difference between success and failure is basically a pretty thin line.  And when the decisions you make, and the risks you take, directly impact how well your business performs, you tend to look at things differently than when you are spending someone else’s money - or joining as many free programs as possible.  It's a powerful lesson, and too few people dare to learn it.  Being properly motivated is the very foundation for doing what it takes to succeed.  But it's an entirely different feeling when you are the investor in your start-up business.  Using your own hard-earned cash to fund ad campaigns will teach you in a hurry what works and what doesn't.  You can’t learn those lessons in college, from a book (or ebook), or even at a company that’s giving you a budget to manage responsibly.  If you think that you’re ready to become a better marketer by paying your own way, then I suggest following the outline below. 

1.)  Define your product and/or service and who your target audience is.

The very first thing that you need to do is to define what you are going to sell and who your are going to sell it to.  Assuming that you're going with an online business (highly suggested!) can market just about  anything.  It can be your own freelance or consulting service, a product you you've created, a training that you developed, an ebook you’ve written, or anything else that you feel that you can sell.  If you don’t have anything of your own to sell, then you can market other peoples' products and services.  Once you nail down what you’re selling, you'll need to start putting some content online that you can steer potential customers to.  If a landing page, membership site or blog hasn’t been set up yet, you’ll need to create one (either by your own effort or by part part of your budget.)  If you'll need a web host, autoresponder, etc., you can get all of that through Global NPN. 

2.)  Take a deep breath... and then take the plunge

Now you need to commit to a budget with your money.  A reasonable place to start would be a commitment, of say 5% of your total salary as the budget for your online marketing project.  You can't sell out of an empty sack and trying to do everything on a shoestring and a prayer will get you nowhere.  By the way, if you don't have a salary or if you are basically penniless, then I don't believe that online business is for you.  All business (of any kind) requires using and risking money.  But if you are thirsting for an online opportunity - i.e. something, 'anything', that is super, super cheap - then you can start with a really cheap online MLM.  For that, I would recommend something like 3x6surf.  Develop your marketing skills, build up a little monthly income and then parley it into bigger and better things.

3.) Create your business plan

Now it's show time.  This is when you need to plan out your strategy & tactics to generate online sales.  Once you start thinking, you’ll notice that you think a lot harder when it's your money on the line. Will you run ppc ads, aggressively use social networking, concentrate on building organic search traffic, use email marketing, or perhaps leverage assets that you already have in place?  Stay calm, think it through and then stick to the plan.

4.) Project how much you need to sell, and at what pace, in order to have a decent return

People will open a taco stand without ever thinking about how many tacos they are going to have to sell every day in order to turn a profit.  It's no different online.  You should do a few calculations based on various performance scenarios involving unit sales, time and expense.  Running the numbers helps generate goals - goals that you can write on the big white-board calendar beside your computer. 


Here is some of what you're going to learn along the way...

You'll figure out what 'ROI' means in a hurry.

"Hey, where did all my money go?"  If you're asking that question and you've made no sales, then your first lesson will be understanding what an ROI of 0% is.

You will come to understand why testing, split-testing, tracking and web analytics are so important.

Once you start getting some web traffic, it is critical to know where it's coming from, because what WORKS is where you want to concentrate your precious budget!  Is the traffic any good - i.e. targeted?  How many visitors are converting in sales?  How much are you earning per sale, compared to the cost of generating the page hit?  How much time are visitors spending on your site?  All traffic sources are not created equal and you’ll want a way to identify poorly performing efforts in order to cut them out of your business plan.  Do not fly blind when it comes to spending your money in the most efficient ways possible.  Make a study of this.  When it’s your own money at risk, you’ll want to track, test and rate your results in every way.