You flip on the TV, skip through a couple channels, you’re bound to land on a reality TV show of some fashion. Between finding the next greatest chef to matching bachelors to bachelorette to wilderness survival…it’s a pretty “real” world. Actually, it’s not necessarily as real as portrayed but what is it that keeps us coming back for more? Why does someone else’s experience draw us to be entertained?

There’s one thing I know for a fact; you’re not getting any younger. Is there really enough value in watching reality TV shows that you spend a few hours (or more) in front of the television? Now of course some of the shows can be informative but the majority? Definitely not worth the time.

Instead, I challenge you to take an hour, grab a book, and read. I’ll be the first to admit that reading is not my thing. Heck, if I could have everything in video or audio form, that would be sweet! Let’s not kid ourselves – somethings are better in text form anyway. But lately I’ve began doing the unthinkable – picking up a book and swallowing up the content. And I must say that I’m actually enjoying it.

You’re probably wondering what exactly it is that I’m reading, right? As this probably isn’t a shocker, I’m not really reading for “fun” per say but instead for motivation, keeping up my drive, staying connected with other entrepreneurs, and trying to remain up-to-speed.  A couple months ago the book I picked up and read through in a couple days was Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuk, and you can read my Crush It review if you’re interested in hearing about the book. Currently, I’m reading Rework by the co-founder of 37Signals, Jason Fried, and Partner, David Heinemeier Hansson. Seeing as I’m only about 50 pages into the book thus far there isn’t a whole lot I can share, but what I’ve read up to this point is awesome. For the early entrepreneur, the enthusiastic go-getter, the type of person who loves making this happen and seeing the results, this book is  a perfect fit. Generally speaking it’s a testament to those who are trying to build a product, service, and/or business with little money, a team made up of 1-3 people, and even those who think spending 80 hours a week working is crazy. If you fit any of those molds…get this book and then let me know what you find most interesting.

Spending that extra 2 hours a week, flipping open those pages in a book such as Rework or Crush It can absolutely change your life. It’s not about some grand ole’ plan to determine your path but instead get your off your butt, moving towards what you want to accomplish. Life is short and the TV can certainly be put aside.

Boy has it been a long time since I’ve written a post. I openly admit to my failure of posting regularly; completely my fault. Keeping on top of everything is tough, real tough. In the grand scheme of things it only takes 15 – 30 minutes (sometimes less) to write a post…but it’s really more than just writing something. There needs to be thought, decent grammar (hey, I’m not some professional editor), good flow, etc.. On top of that you really need to get your head in the game – it’s a serious challenge to switch gears entirely sometimes.

Anyway, I didn’t come here to spew excuses or anything of that nature. Lately I’ve been shifting my focus. Internet Marketing is a great industry but my direct path I was looking to tackle is slightly different than originally intended. There’s good reason, and no, I’m not going “away”.

Here’s the exact truth: the potential is endless on the web. You can take a small niche idea and turn it into a very successful business. I’ve seen so many awesome start-up products turn widely successful, and it’s mind-boggling. The thing is, I like to stick my hands into lots of projects; that’s me. If I wrote out a list for you…let’s just say you would think I’m nuts!

The point of this message is to share with you that I’m shifting my overall focus. No longer am I just targeting network and internet marketing projects. My interests are pretty wide and, well, I’m not getting any younger. My friends that know me best would agree that I try to tackle a lot, and honestly that’s the only way I want to go.

You’ll see my blog here shift. My refocus effort isn’t a here today gone tomorrow scenario. Instead, my posts will vary quite a bit. You’ll read more into what I’m doing, what I think, what I’ve experienced, and other related areas. As I thought more about this the past couple weeks there were far more good reasons, and thus…I hope you continue to read.

Lastly, I am going to try very hard to write a post at least four times a month. It may be two posts in a given week – let’s see how this goes.

Thanks for checking in here. Feel free to comment and message me.

Do you pay people as “affiliates” of your products or services after they’ve made a sale? That’s great – a good way to get your sales moving! Though you must be cautious and take the right steps if you ARE paying anyone. You are responsible for keeping a record of those commissions and claiming that you’ve paid those people by filing the proper tax documents.

Whenever you generate a sale for your own products, you claim it as income/revenue in your accounting process. After you’ve made the sale, there may have been an affiliate who “made” the sale for you and thus earned a commission. You would ethically record earning X dollars and paying out Y dollars from that X dollar amount, thus lowering your “profit”. In this case you would record paying that affiliate Y dollars as an expense, profiting the difference between X and Y.

At the end of the year it is important to file the tax paperwork for each of those affiliates to you can inform the IRS where that Y dollar amount went, and why you are not claiming it in your profits. So, why is this important? Imagine if you were audited or contacted by the IRS saying “Where did Y dollars go?” You’d then want to say “Oh, I gave it to so-and-so.” But if you didn’t fill out the tax documents at the beginning of the year, how will the IRS know?

In the case of not filing for those individuals…you’ve got a big problem on your hands. The IRS would hold YOU responsible for all those commissions, requiring you to pay taxes on them – yup, you would pay taxes on money that you didn’t end up claiming as profit.

Imagine paying out 100,000 dollars in commissions and having to pay taxes on them? That’s like throwing money into a fire.

Long story short…collect tax info from your affiliates before you pay them, and file the right paper work during tax season to save yourself a potentially devastating experience.

And, if you think the IRS will say “Oh sure, give us the names of those people you paid, we’ll hunt them down!”…think again.

By human nature we get frustrated easily. It’s a quite common characteristic of being human. Each of us has goals (at least I sure hope you do) which we strive to achieve in a certain time of our lives. Maybe it’s buying a fancy car, paying off your credit card debt, road tripping across country. Whatever your goals are, keep pushing forward to reach them.You will hit obstacles, challenges, bumps and road blocks but if you act like a cockroach (as Diane Hochman explained), you’ll find a way around to get to the destination. And, Diane has also helped teach that you don’t have to make it complicated or have it perfect to get it started.

The main point I want to make is ‘Don’t give up before you start’. What I mean by that is to realize your business, goals, dreams and success take time, plain and simple. You could work for 24 weeks on your website, spreading the word about the service for sale only to make a handful of actual sales. Do you give up? No. All that time you’ve spent for 24 weeks would be a waste, right? How do you know the success of the site is not simply 2 weeks away because you haven’t advertised on a certain website yet? You don’t.

Someone I’ve loved listening to, Gary Vaynerchuk, spent a couple years building his internet-based Wine show before it picked up steam. Now…he’s doing extremely well with a huge book deal, thousands and thousands of fans, speaking at events, and so on. You see, all the hard-work he continually spent on his brand for those initial years is and will continue to pay off for the rest of his life and business.

That being said, please make your own judgement calls. Maybe a certain business is simply not worth spending 2 years trying to build – that I can’t tell you without knowing lots of details. However, do not give up too easily or too early. There is no doubt in my mind that Gary smiles when he goes to sleep thinking to himself “I knew my hard work would pay off”. OK, maybe not that thought exactly…but you get the picture.

Personally, I’ve seen some great things happen with my business. Had I given up after a few months of trying to grow them, I’d continue to struggle and struggle…and struggle. Whatever you do, be passionate and ready to give it plenty of time, and hard work. Set your mind. Focus. Do whatever you can to make it happen.

Read my posts. Lead/list building is very important to maintaining AND growing your business. Each day I am building my list without physically doing the work to do so. Don’t believe me? Think that’s not possible? Hear me out.

When you build a website that allows people to download, purchase, read, access or use a service/information, you’ve set yourself up for a great list building process. The difference is whether or not you’ve created an incentive for those people to share your website, such as a sale commission. The easiest way to get your website growing on a daily basis is by allowing other people to share it as well, giving them value back for their efforts.

Depending on how you’ve built your website, this may be a challenge. One simple way to build in a “referral” system is by adding a field to your signup/registration form that lets people add the name of who sent them to the website. Of course this would be a very manual process to track…but it provides a simple integration of incentivizing your customers/members.

Lead generation is important. If you’re not doing it every day, you need to as an affiliate and/or network marketer. Contact me if you need help and I’ll assist in any way I can.

Think I’m crazy? Actually I’m awesome and smart, and so are you. What separates you from me is that I know when something smells fishy.

In network marketing there is this notion you need to sign up a TON of people yourself but the reality is that in most MLM’s you don’t have to personally recruit 150 people to make good money – it’s called duplication, the single most important thing in any MLM, period.

That’s right, I said it. When you are building a team in your MLM there will be “duds and studs”.

A dud is someone who joins the business under you excited, motivated, pumped up. They spend some time learning more detailed information and getting knowledgeable…and eventually getting out there to build the business. However…they spend a month or two “trying” (just talking to people when it’s convenient) with little to no success. They begin to ask you for help, for advice. You provide them some tips and tricks spending a couple hours of your time assisting them, great! That dud goes out re-energized, ready to take on the world…and PLOP…nothing to show for their “work”. Then they come back to you asking “why can’t I make this work?” and similar questions. This is the type of person in your organization that makes you little to NO money. They can suck out a ton of time from you but it doesn’t grow your business. This is a situation where you need to prioritize with people who ARE growing.

There are also the “studs” who take need only a small (if any) amount of help from you. These are the people that are go-getters, passionate and driven to succeed. They’ll do whatever it takes to grow their business without nagging you every week or few days.

You’re team is going to be made of both of these types of individuals BUT YOU need to dedicate time to the people who are growing your team. It’s tempting to let anyone join directly through you but can you give each person the time they might need? It’s impossible and unproductive. This does NOT make the best use of your time, unfortunately.

At some point you need to look in the mirror and say “I am looking for quality entrepreneurs – studs, not duds.” It’s OKAY to say “Get lost” (although I wouldn’t use THOSE two words) after you’ve got some basic questions answered from the prospect.

Are they afraid to invest money? WILL they put at least an hour a day towards the business? WILL they dedicate 2 years to build a team? Are they coach-able, trainable and duplicatable? WILL they follow instructions?

Please notice I said “Will” not “Can”. We all CAN do it but that doesn’t mean diddly squat. Ability verse action – keep that in mind.

So…don’t be afraid to say No. You want a strong, passionate team who is absolutely on board for themselves and your team (and their team).

I’m always looking for these people, and only these people. It doesn’t matter if I personally bring in 50 duds. If I bring in 10 studs, my business will flourish in comparison…same goes for you.

Are you a stud? Ready to do something great? Will you be a leader? You don’t have to have the experience because it’s really not hard in the right network marketing business.

….and if you’re looking for a network marketing business, tired of being burned…send me an email or use my contact form. Let’s talk – no catch or strings attached.

You should be aware that building a list is an essential to any business. Whether it’s a list of leads, prospects, clients, customers…they are part of the equation. If you haven’t started building a list, get going! Give your list tender loving care and you’ll be rewarded.

Tip 1:  Offer Free VALUABLE content, constantly. There’s a difference between offering a free eBook download and continually giving free advice, tips and ideas.

Tip 2:  Create capture or squeeze pages. One of the easiest ways to get someone’s information (name and email) is by offering something free if they just submit their information. The capture page should be related to what you’re giving away. If you’re page targets people who are looking for a work-at-home business then your free offer should be content about work-at-home subject matter.

Tip 3:  Use MANY different advertising channels. There are a vast number of ways to advertise directly and indirectly that you could do it 24/7, no joke. Some ideas are PPC, Website banner ads, Traffic Exchanges, List Builders, Forums, Classifieds, Article Submission sites and social networks.

Tip 4:  Purchase qualified leads. Of course this is an easy way but if you have a budget to spend on QUALITY leads, this may be a way to go. And, don’t just buy any leads. You could get 100 leads a day for $10 but I will bet you those leads will be garbage.

Tip 5:  Share your story. People want to follow genuine, experienced individuals. If you’ve been in internet or network marketing for 6 months, you absolutely have a story. It could be as simple as “When I started ____ and now ____.” …of course with some depth. You have to give people a reason to listen to you, and a story is a necessity to being a marketer.
I’ve kept these tips pretty generic. Have no fear, I DO plan to go into detail on these tips in coming posts so stay tuned. Better yet, subscribe via RSS or join my newsletter so you’ll find out when I make an update.

Have a wonderful day!

You have a powerful vehicle in front of you. No, I’m not talking about a four-wheel type but rather the world wide wide. Blogs, videos, forums, articles, and so on.

Click here to view the embedded video.

There are thousands of people who join a home-based business or network marketing business every year. Many people simply want a side income while some people want to work the business as a full-time income. Whatever your interest level may be, it doesn’t make a difference. What DOES make a difference is your time and attitude.

Many years ago when I first got into network marketing it was simply because I wanted to make money. Now of course the majority of people want to make money in their business – kind of silly to think otherwise. My drive was to make a bunch of money even though I didn’t really know what a “business” was at the time. My mind was focused on the wrong thing. I was not seeing the overall picture of the situation.

At the time I was in college, trying to get through classes I really didn’t want to attend, doing homework I wasn’t excited to do, etc.. But when I could, I spent time advertising (probably spamming), calling cold leads, emailing people that I had networked with, and so on. While I was doing that my mind was in the game of “Come on, I want to make some money!” and “Dude…please buy this stuff so I can get paid!”.

The unfortunate side to it all is that…it really didn’t work out too well. I made a few sales but I worked FAR more than I should have for the results I got. It wasn’t the products (directly) nor that I wasn’t spending enough time (that’s for sure). It was me, and partially the training I had been through…if it can be considered training.

Please please please…before you jump into a home-based business or network marketing business, ask yourself these following questions:

1. Do you want a full-time, part-time or passive income?
2. Will you dedicate 2, 4, 8, 12 or more hours a week?
3. Would this be a business or a hobby for you?

Those are three simple questions you need to know your answers to BEFORE you start. Why? It’s important to plan ahead, not to fool yourself into thinking “I want to have a business too!” when in you’re only fooling yourself.

People who really build a network marketing business well spend 3 to 4+ hours a day doing so, and for many people it’s hard to get 30 minutes to themselves just to relax after a long day at their job.

So…my question to you is…are you interested in a business or is your goal just to try making some extra money? A business takes work, lots of it. You need to provide support to your customers and to your team members/organization. You will want to constantly be building leads, finding new customers and new distributors. It may involve some light traveling and even attending corporate events. You may also want to attend house parties or organize meetings.You see? These are things you should be thinking about.

Building a home-based business doesn’t happen over night. It may take you a few months before you have more than a dozen new members or you could be very successful and grow at 20 new members a month – both are very possible situations.

Be realistic with yourself. Get excited but don’t think that by joining a business you will suddenly make a bunch of money with little work – it simply doesn’t happen like you may believe.

Questions? Ask me and I’d be glad to help you out.

We live in a world of fast-paces, ever changing technology. Before you realize it, what you thought was the latest technology or cool feature is outdated with something even better. In some cases it is certainly overwhelming to try staying on top of it all, and I say that from experieince.

There are things you can do NOW that make technology less important to your success. It’s called…building relationships. Believe it or not, you can make such an impact on your business by having connections and building relationships with like-minded people.

When I started out there was more uncertainty in my mind because…I didn’t know ‘John’ from ‘Sally’. Along with those relationships builds trust. In my case, I thought it was safe to trust the people I came in contact with along the way. Truth: Trust your instincts and follow your heart. There are amazing people in this world and in the business/marketing community, you just have to find them. I’ve made friends with some incredible people – some of which I met years ago and still work with, it’s awesome.

When you launch a product, what is the easiest way to get it spreading like a wildfire? JV Partners. But you can’t have quality JV Partners without first building relationships with people.

As you’re trying to build your network marketing business, who are the types of people in your organization that are the most helpful? They are those with who you’ve built that relationship.

And…it’s far easier now than it was years ago.

Use Facebook. Use Twitter. Connect on blogs. Use Forums.  …and so on.

If you build those relationships now, you’ll change your odds of success, positively. Look at successful network marketers and you’ll see they have built a large number of quality, long-lasting relationships.

And yes, this can work in traditional business too. Don’t worry, you’re covered!