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We are almost done the overview stage of this series of posts on business building. Already you have gotten the proper mindset, gotten your self organized, picked your niche, created a killer offer, drove traffic and have been improving your results by testing and tweaking.

Now it is time to ramp things up. If you were using free traffic sources it is time to spend money buying that traffic if for example you are using a traffic exchange.

You should already have the beginning of your matrix and be able to answer how many pages for a sign up on average and what each signup generates in the warm up series. If you don’t then you are not testing and tweaking yet.

These are the figures that allow me to create a post like the one that started this whole series about why you should not surf traffic exchanges. Use them - definitely. Waste time surfing them -NOT.

If I can get a return or profit quickly from buying traffic I can now ramp up what I am doing and grow my business much quicker.

Now if you were using other sources like article marketing, blogging, etc that can also be time consuming you can spend money buying that content or higher someone to actually do the submissions, create the posts, do the RSS submissions etc.

If you are using PPC you can look at raising your spend or if you have just been using Google you could add Yahoo and MSN. Maybe try some of the smaller PPC services. Anything to get as much traffic as you possibly can because you have the hard work done and have created a profitable system.

The big reason for doing this is so that you can take a lot of the time you are spending and start a new system. Now that you know the process you just need to manage your current system and have the time to start building a new one.

Now you have the over view of the whole process we will be going back into more detail on the various parts to flesh this out.

Your comments and questions are welcomed.

Mike Paetzold

Technorati Tags: automate, duplicate, know matrix, offer, testing, testing and tweaking, traffic, traffic exchanges

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Today we are going to discuss the piece of your business that makes the difference between success and failure most of the time. You will rarely if ever get it perfect the first time. This is where you take the disappointment and make it profitable.

Before we get into that though I ran across a good post that fits into the mindset category which is very important. It is by Jonathan Leger and called Finding Motivation In Your Business. Take a few minutes to read it but more importantly to start applying it.

The big reason for setting up tracking as you build your system is to allow you to see exactly how well each piece works. More importantly you can keep tweaking those that don’t work as well as you want them to.

A little secret:

You should never be satisfied and should be constantly trying to improve each piece of the equation and improve it.

You created your bait (squeeze page with a mouth watering offer) now how well is it doing? Are you getting 1%, 5%, 10%, 50% of the visitors to sign up? If you are on the low end of that list and you make a change what happens? Did it increase or decrease? If it increased keep it if not then you can try something else.

You want to do the same thing with each piece of the puzzle. How well is the offer you added during the signup process working? You don’t have an offer in the process? Get over and check out Soren Jordansen’s How To Set Up Your Squeeze Page and Monetize The Process. I add these things not because Soren is a great guy (he actually is) but because this is information that will help you grow your business.

You also want to be testing and tracking your traffic sources. Each piece of this puzzle that you can improve adds money to YOUR bottom line.

So the summary for today is you is to understand that this is an ongoing process. You most likely won’t get it right the very first time. You should always be looking to improve things.

Once this summary of the whole process is finished we will go back into specifics for each section.

As always your question and comments are welcomed.

Mike Paetzold

Technorati Tags: process improvement, split test, test, test and tweak, testing, tweaking

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Now that you have an offer and know the customer that you are looking to attract it is time for traffic. Notice how most people focus on this first before they have ever created a system.

On that note my good friend Soren Jordansen has a great post today on How to put up your squeeze page and monetize the process. If you are still working on this take the time to see the various ways he shows you to monetize this process.

Now to traffic.

The fastest way to generate traffic is probably pay per click. Not always the best but you can set up an AdWords campaign and generate traffic in 15 minutes to your site.

This costs money and the learning curve can be a bit steep but if you do it properly this can be a very good traffic source.

Other paid methods would be buying ads, buying credits in good traffic exchanges or credits in credit based safelists.

You can also earn traffic. This way you swap your time for your money. If you are in the make money niche these can be very effective. They would include good traffic exchanges and credit based safelists.

You can also generate traffic through article marketing and blogging. All of these take time but the last two especially can bring ongoing traffic for one time effort.

Finally you can borrow traffic.

The best way is by having an affiliate program. With my affiliate programs lots of people send me traffic and in turn I pay them a percentage of any sales they generate. Having your own product makes this a great way to get additional traffic to your offer.

You can also do swaps with others in your market place. If you read Soren’s article above you can use your thank you page to promote my list for your new signups and in return I would promote your list to my sign ups. This can be a very effective way to get extra traffic and be a win - win for both parties.

That covers the basics on traffic. We will be going in more detail on a lot of these topics once we have covered the full plan for building your business.

As always your comments and questions are welcomed.

Mike Paetzold

Technorati Tags: free traffic, paid traffic, squeeze page, traffic, traffic generation

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Okay we are back on track after a week end away and a big thank you to Charles for his guest blog post yesterday. Time to get back on track with building a real business.

It is a necessity that you have decided and done your niche research at this point. You could have skipped the mind set and the organization sections (although I strongly recommend against that) but you need to have the research on what you are going to promote.

The first question you need to answer is who is your ideal customer. This is important and I can’t tell you how many people can’t answer this question and then wonder why they don’t make money.

If you can’t draw a picture of your ideal customer how can you possibly build a system to attract them? Luck? Maybe, but I really doubt it.

The second step is to figure out what that ideal customer would want enough to give you a chance to build a relationship. If you don’t have a clear picture of step one you are not very likely to get this one right. Even with that picture you won’t get it right all the time. (Yes we have a fix for when that happens we are building a system here not shooting in the dark.)

Depending on the area of interest this item may be a book, an e-course, a video series, a piece of software or even a free sample of some type.

Ever go through a Sam’s Warehouse store and not have the chance to try various products. My son would go for the variety to have lunch when he was younger and never complain unlike when he went shopping other places.

How many of you that have tried those have bought something that wasn’t on your list because you enjoyed it? Me!

Offline they have the product right there to purchase and taste but online you need a mechanism to deliver the sample. You aren’t there to ask them how they liked it so it is best to set it up to get permission to continue the conversation after they have “tasted” it by creating a squeeze page.

Now you need to create that follow up and automate it with your autoresponder. My personal preference is AWeber because in my opinion they are simply the best.

There is one more step while we are preparing this and that is to set up some type of tracking system to see how well each piece is working. That is how we will know if we got the bait right, or if it is something else that is breaking down in our system.

This part will never be totally built but will always be under construction. It will always need to be improved.

It is much easier to improve it when you build the structure properly first.

As always your questions and comments are welcomed.

Mike Paetzold

Technorati Tags: ebook, ecourse, offer, optin, software, squeeze page

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This is the next section in the series on building an actual business. This came about because of the results of the survey I ran as to what people wanted. The results showed that if this was going to be of value to the majority it would need to be more comprehensive than I originally thought.

The first part will be an overview. We started that yesterday with the mind set post.

Time is absolutely the most valuable asset I have. It is all too easy to waste time creating an on line business. Mapping out what you need is the best way to make sure that you actually accomplish things that are necessary. No planning and you will not be likely to succeed.

There are a number of tools you can use for organization like Outlook and Google calendars for reminders. A desk calendar is a necessity for me.

I use a white board to keep track of current items. Having it in my face shows me what I need to get done. Makes the list hard to ignore and even better if it doesn’t change my better half tells me about it.

The final piece for me in getting organized and one I use all the time is a free piece of software called Free Mind. It handles my to do list and I use it for every project. Below is the start of the map for this series.

Any time I am starting a project I start with a mind map. Even something as simple as an article or complex blog post I map out before I start. This allows me to move the pieces and resort things easily.

Each week Steve Roye and I use a mind map to set up the topic of discussion over at Amplification Marketing. This way we make sure we don’t skip steps and keep the podcast going.

Now it took me quite a few tries to get comfortable with using this software but Bob Jenkins has a great course on using it called Discover Free Mind. I strongly recommend it because it will save you time in maximizing your use but that is a decision for each person to take.

Finally, the mind map gives you an idea of where this series is going. It will start with the main topics then drill down more as we go into each area. (See the mind map isn’t finished and will continue to evolve.)

Now to finish packing and head to Philly for JV Alert. Be back with the next lesson Tuesday.

Mike Paetzold

Technorati Tags: bob jenkins, calendar, discover free mind, mind map, organization, planning, white board

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This is going to be a series set up to provide quality content to get you going as a result of the survey I did earlier this week. You can see the results at Survey Says.

Now this was not a topic that was included or that anyone asked about but…

It is the most important first step. You need to get focus and a business mentality. This is not hard but takes a bit of discipline.

First lesson - Forget what you like and use what works. Test it to make sure that it does. Don’t think like a consumer.

Here is an example from the real world. This blog even ;). You will see a slide in ad. I don’t really like them. They can be annoying as h%%% but… it gets subscribers for what I am promoting. More than I can get with other types so despite the fact that I think they are annoying I use it.

That doesn’t mean that is THE BEST way but you should test and let results be your guideline not your feelings.

Second lesson - Get organized and don’t mistake being busy for getting things done. What do I mean?

Take blocks of time that you are going to work on a specific project. This does not have to be huge blocks either. 30 minutes twice a day can give you a huge return if…

You turn everything else off and focus on one thing and do it.

• No email
• No messenger
• No forums
• No phone
• You get the point?

Lots of times I have found myself spending hours on line but not getting anything of value done. Yep I was busy the whole time and working hard but not smart.

Third lesson - You will need to sell some thing at some point. No sales - no money. Figure out what it will be NOW before you surf any traffic exchanges, place any ads, post in a forum.

You need to be able to answer the question of what you are doing as a business on line first.

Fourth lesson - Decide on your niche. There are lots of things you can do on line and you can find a series of posts on doing niche research over at Amplification Marketing.

Go through and do that series of steps. Next we will discuss how to get started from there.

Your comments and questions are welcomed.

Mike Paetzold

Technorati Tags: build business, focus, organization, time management

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