I’ve talked to a few people in the last couple of days who attended Affiliate Summit West and they had a very productive few days. They met potential JV partners and some people that they found were working on very similar projects. It seems that talking to like minded people stimulates the creative juices.

Having people you can talk with also helps to keep you accountable. Trust me if you tell someone that you are going to create a new site or a new product next month, if you know that they will ask you how it went you are far more likely to follow through.

I always find that after I’ve spent time with other established Internet marketers or people who just want to make money online but don’t actually know what they want to do yet I am full of ideas. Those are two totally different groups of people but they both produce similar creative results, let me explain.

When I talk to established marketers we discuss what we are testing out how different types of emails worked, tools that generated traffic or tools that just don’t work etc. Sharing that knowledge saves a lot of time and it gives each of us ideas about what we can test. A prime example is the facebook app in the sidebar of this blog, that’s there because one of my IM friends had a lot of success getting his posts read via facebook, so I am testing it.

When I talk to people who are just starting out I need to really refine and distill my ideas and methods into easily understood and easily implemented steps. This also helps me focus on what really matters. Sometimes they’ll say something like “Would doing ABCD work” This is usually something I’ve never thought about and quite often it’s something that works.

So how do you find like minded people to Interact with. I find there are 5 distinct groups of people I get great value from. I believe if you aren’t interacting with other marketers in a least 3 of the ways below then you are missing out.

1. Marketers who live locally:

I try to have breakfast with some of these people at least once a week, over coffee and Cheese and Ham Toasties we chat about stuff we’ve read or problems we’ve encountered and what we are currently working on. It’s taken time but once you meet one or two they’ll know others.

2. Forums:

Forums are great for sharing views and ideas. The downside is if you choose the wrong one they can be full of negativity and a fair few “haters”. A good forum can help you buld your business rapidly. Try to find a Forum with a “Pay it Back” mentality that’s one where the people who have been helped in the past then help the next group of new members. Avoid Forums with any level of negativity, you should be able to ask for help or give your views without fear of being made to feel stupid.

Compulsory Product Placement… If you want to see what a good forum can be like check out WordPress Goldmine (The banner at the top will give you a $1 trial)

3. Online friends:

I have a group of friends online who started working online about the same time that I did. If I have an idea or a problem I know I can go to them and ask their opinions, I also know that they will tell me If they think the ideas are bad. Skype and email is the main way we keep in touch.

4. Mastermind Groups.

This works really for some people. The premise behind mastermind groups is that you get coaching and access to more advanced Internet Marketers. You get one to one consultations and advice and someone who actually cares about your success. No Internet marketer knows it all and mastermind groups is how many marketers broaden their experience in specific areas. I can guarantee you that almost every well known Internet marketer (especially the ones we all love to hate) are part of a mastermind group.

Mastermaind groups range in cost from about $67 to $100,000 a month but are usually worth every cent. You need to choose the group you join depending on the targets you have. I recently Joined a mastermind group run by Brad Gosse because I want to broaden my customer base and run several WSO’s this year and I know that it is something he is very good at doing. In that group I am surrounded by people with similar goals and ambitions.  Already I’ve spoke to several potential JV partners and been given a superb idea that I am now developing. If I wanted to create more mass market products then I would have seen if someone like Jason Fladlien or Lee Mcintyre had a mastermind group running and joined them.

5. Meeting Fellow Internet Marketers at Seminars.

I attended 2 seminars last year (OK I was running them so i had to go!) but I learned so much from just chatting over a coffee or a beer to like minded people. I was planning on attending a 3rd networking event but the weather conspired against me. This year I’ll hopefully try to get to at least 5 events. Affiliate Summit West next year will definitely be one of them.

It’s often said and it’s usually true, most of the value from seminars is derived at the bar. Just 1 tip someone mentioned to me at a seminar last year increased one small income stream by over 400%.

So get out there and build yourself a network and talk to like minded people it will help you build a stronger business.

1. If it sounds to good to be true..then it most probably is.

I got an email yesterday about a webinar where someone was going to show me how to make $300,000 a month for 30 minutes work per day. The copy was very pursasive but I know from experience that it’s it’s probably the finest grade bullXXXX.

I saw an auction on Flippa last week, a 5 day old site making … wait for it… $1500 a month (proof of income included) and page Rank 5. Now do you think that was possibly a scam? The sad thing was it had 15 bids and sold for $200. Anyone want to buy London bridge?

There is one thing that works in this business and thats hard work, get something that works then rinse and repeat and scale it up.

We have more and more people at wordpress goldmine getting really excellent results every month and without exception it’s been because they are working on the things that they know work.

If you doubt that, take the $1 trial (banner is at the top) and read the income update threads from last month and the month before and see how people make steps forward each month.

2. If you buy a $2000 course expect to be overwhelmed.

I read a brilliant comment last week about one of the recent $2000 courses, a Guy said in a forum ” I bought (name removed to protect the not so innocent!) course but it had so much stuff in it I don’t have time to go through it.”

Trust me thats not unique. If you create a $2000 course then you are going to fill it so full of fluff that most people won’t look at it.

If you aren’t making $200 or more a day then it’s unlikely that you’ll get any value from an expensive course, You’ll get much more value form cheaper courses written by people actually doing what they teach on a day in day out basis. Do you really think the Guru’s do what they teach rather than just do Million Dollar launches?

3. Stop wasting your time..

I know people who claim to have been “Internet Marketers” for 5 years and have yet to make any money online. That’s Like me claiming to be a Tour De France Cyclist because I just happen to own a bike, shave my legs and have and way too much Lycra.

How can I say this politely… Money isn’t going to land in your lap, if you have yet to make money online and you’ve been trying for a year then find another hobby or something else to pass the time.

Internet marketing is easy it’s just a matter of taking a few simple steps and repeating them, don’t try to reinvent the wheel you don’t need to.

Some times I get so frustrated at some of the stuff I read I want to grab people by the throat and shake them. Stop researching, stop buying tools just TAKE ACTION

Ask anyone who has made some money online and they’ll tell you stick them in a room with nothing just an internet connection & a laptop and an empty paypal account and within a few days they will have made money. (many will have made money by lunchtime).

So commit to making money in the next week.

4. Set Realistic Targets

At least once a month I get an email asking me if they can make $10,000 a month in a few months (why is it always $10,000?? )

My reply is usually along the lines of , People have done it but it’s very unlikely why don’t you try to make $10 a day to start with.

If they ever bother to reply it’s usually but (insert name here!) says that I can.

Set targets by all means but make them achieveable and realistic. I walked up a hill here in spain last year that was over 10% gradient all the way up for about 5 KM and I did it by repeating the mantra “Baby steps, Baby steps 1,2,3″ all the way up to the top. I passed a lot of people much fitter than me who had to stop for a break as they set off way to quick..

And that my friends is probably the best advice i can give you for 2011 … Baby Steps Baby Steps 1,2,3.

Have a great year….make it happen

Every Time I’ve done this I’ve come away knowing far more than I did before I sat down. If you get a chance to network with people take the opportunity you won’t regret it. You’ll learn more about Internet Marketing and how to make money online that in any guru’s $2000 POC (Pile of Crap).

(If you are a member of WPG or Beyond Commission check out the forums for an invite to have a beer with me in London in December, I hate drinking alone )

One topic I always like to ask about is why it’s so hard to get people to take action even when you give people all the tools and information they need to make money. Bear in mind that some of the people will have made a lot of money online and others will just be starting out, and a few will have been doing it for a year or more and not made anything.

The reply that most people came up with was “I didn’t believe it was possible for ME to make money until I saw people I know do it”

This was reinforced to me a while back when I got an email from a subscriber after I sent out the link to Mark Lings Free Affiliate Marketing Report asking me “Why are you sending me this XXXX”

My reply of “well because it works and it’s free and if applied will help you make money” elicited a long conversation with the guy who emailed me (“Would that be the 5 minute argument or Full half hour”…. A free membership to WPG, Video Creation Mastery or Beyond Commission to the first person who posts a comment telling me where that quote comes from!)

Once again it became obvious that people don’t believe that they can make money. They are happy to spend $97, $197 on a product but still don’t want to take action so what chance does providing free information have!

Listen, Now pay attention you.. yes you can make money online, If I can anyone can! I knew nothing when I started, I couldn’t set up a blog , and I couldn’t ftp, within 6 months I was earning a full time income… how… work.. working day after day and not allowing myself to ever think I wouldn’t do anything apart from succeed.

Every one I know who has succeeded has worked hard and not been distracted or given up. There is a thread in the WordPress Goldmine Forum at the moment by one of our members called George. Last November he made $219 from AdSense this November it’s going to break $3000. How do you think he did that? He worked at it. How many people who read his post do you think will be inspired to try just that bit harder to make it happen? Quite a few I bet because they can see it’s working.

The basics of Internet marketing are simple T=$ Traffic = Dollars you get traffic to a site that’s monetized and you’ll make money, once you get that traffic you can tweak and test your offers and find the most productive offer. How do you get traffic? By getting your site to rank high in the search engines and that’s where the real work comes in. Most people give up at that point because they don’t believe it will work.

Nearly there!!.. I am getting to the point of this rambling blog post…

Don’t try to do this alone, it will make it 10 times harder

Surround yourself with people who are positive about Internet Marketing, Talk to successful marketers, we aren’t ogre’s and we love to share our experiences. Find places where peaople share what works for them.

If you get a chance to meet up with like minded people do it. Join Forums that give you a positive outlook and try to help people succeed. Leave ones that are full of negative people. A lot of people think that all forums are like the Warrior forum or some of the other famous forums where you dare not say anything for fear of offending people. They aren’t all like that there are some great forums and I am not just talking about WordPress Goldmine, find one that suits you and it will drive you to success!

BTW This was my 199th post on this blog, let me know what you’d like the 200th to be about!

So why was my week so busy? Well I decided to do a major update of the WordPress Goldmine front end. Sales Pages are so 2009! So I’ve created a new blog style front end and added features like a weekly round up video and relevant articles. Got some more ideas but they can wait a while until I finish off the other projects I am working on.

Another project I completed last week was something I have had in my mind to do for a few months but never got around to it finally I decided to just work as many hours as I could last week on it and get it live. Thanks to clickbank who approved it in 18 hours , a veritable record, it used to take a week Video Creation Mastery went live last week.

The idea behind the course is simple,  I make most of my affiliate income from short videos that either demonstrate how products work or do reviews of products. I drive traffic to some of my sites by creating videos and linking from them.  I get top page rankings in Google by creating short videos.  see the common thread there… Videos work.

I’ve had 5 minute videos earn me $5000 in the space of a weekend and one video and 4 page report has generated about $500 on average every month since September 2007 (Over $18000 in total) and none of them actually did any selling they just showed a solution to a problem and demonstrated that the product could provide the solution.

So the course is all about how to create simple sales videos that sell, but we also look at advanced techniques like green screen video.  The unique selling point of the site at the moment is that you can get lifetime membership for  a one time payment and  videos are constantly added and updated every week . Obviously when there are 50-100 videos in there it will be converted to a subscription style site. At present there are 20 or so videos, articles and interviews that should be up to 30 next week when the latest ones are uploaded.

As if that wasn’t enough It was suggested that I could create an affiliate training course and teach people how to promote Clickbank products … Good idea , like I don’t have enough work to do

So I spent today designing a 7 day course that will teach you how to sell products of all types but in particular Clickbank and Amazon products. This is going live on Monday and will run for the next 7 days.  Each days videos will be between 10 and 20 minutes and will cover specific subjects.

If you’d like to take part please sign up at;  http://videocreationmastery.com/affiliates/ there should be a signup form at the top of the page. (if it doesn’t appear then just refresh the page)  All I ask is that if you take the course and find it useful you consider promoting  http://videocreationmastery.com

Roll on normality…..but it is a bit boring compared to a week like the one I had

Would you be happy to pay 1 cent a word for a great quality native English speaker to write your content? Our members are!

Would you be happy to pay $5 for someone to build your site for you?

How about a Voice over or a salespage these are all offers that out members have access to within the forum.

Add that to the helpful members who are happy to share their successes and failures… you won’t believe what Paul did last week! and you have an Internet Marketing forum that I am convinced give the best value available.

Why not check out what we have to Offer you’ really won’t regret it.

Special Offer $1 Trial

Join through Clickbank

Oh and members get 50% affiliate commission so 2 sales and you’ve covered your $19.97 costs

But none of that really matters despite being an abject failure he should still be a role model to us all. He never gave up and when people said , you can’t sail west wards around the world he said, “Just watch me try”.

One of the new members in the Forum inspired this blog post, she said that she’d been trying to make it at IM for a long while but as soon as she had researched a topic and decided to start (I’m Paraphrasing here) she’d read a Forum post which said xxx doesn’t work and she’d give up and look for something new.

I am sure some of you can relate to some of that, the over analysis of a method or the hoards of people who say XXX doesn’t work. Some forums are full of crap like that. I regularly go to the warrior forum and every day I see people write total bull and write it as if it’s fact. The trouble is some people actually believe them and if you point out what the say is wrong you risk getting flamed and banned.

Generally I find there are 2 types of people in IM Those that actually knuckle down and work day after day at making an income and those that study and analyse and find reasons not to work. I’ll give you one guess who earns more!

Go and get that spirit of Columbus get out there and do something today.

In last weeks podcast I challenged everyone who listened to it to outsource 1 task that day, even if it was only getting 10 backlinks from Fiverr.com for $5 (if you haven’t checked it out yet do so!). So today i am going to issue another challenge…

If you are one of the people who over analyses things, today buy a domain and add a blog to it. It doesn’t matter what the blog is about don’t even bother doing any keyword research just find a keyword based domain and build a blog.

Finally a small gift for you: I’ve dramatically up dated my “Quick and Easy Site Promotion” Guide you can get it for free from http://automatedsitepromotion.com/guide/ nothing to subscribe to just download it.

Ohh and one other thing. I have a small survey running at Click here to take survey It will only take 30 seconds to complete I would really appreciate if you could have a look at it and complete it.

So far I’ve had some really interesting ideas and comments left there Click here to take survey

AS ever I welcome your comments

Murphys Law:- Why You have a network error that takes your sites down 5 minutes after sending an email to 7000 people… it only took 26 hours to fix!

Marketing Morons:- The people who have come up with a “loophole that guarantees you a 10 google position”… hmmm ok that “loophole” been one of the keystones of the system we teach in The WordPress Goldmine forum for 2 years. On top of that it’s not a loophole just commonsense. But then I don’t suppose you can sell anything based on commonsense.

However I decided to stick with something positive and touch on what I talked about in a recent email that I sent out the difference between dreams and goals.

Do you have a dream that drives you? I think most people do, a nice home, a fast car and great lifestyle etc . The problem with dreams is that they tend to always stay just that a fantasy, unless you do something about it. The something you have to do is to take your dream and turn it into a set of goals.

Goals are achievealbe and dreams are just a notion you have of something you want. Once you convert your Dream to a goal you can then work out the method to achieve the goal.

You will be very suprised at just how easy those dreams are to attain once you convert them to goals. It might take a while to actually get your dream but it will happen.

Here are some examples:

Dream : I want a BMW x6

Goal : I will generate an extra $600 a month to pay for the leasing costs on an X6

Daily Target: $20

Method: Write 2 articles a day and generate an extra 1 clickbank sale each day

Dream: I want a Villa overlooking the sea.

Goal: I want to generate $6000 per month to pay for a $1,000,000 mortgage (or you could rent)

Target $200 per day ($8.33 per hour)

Method: I will build a network of 50 adsense sites averaging $4 a day

The next step is the hardest for most people…actually doing it.

The key to this is to surround yourself with positive people who are actually working towards their goals and sharing the sucesses and most importantly not dwelling on setbacks. If you go into forums where there are loads of people being negative then leave, don’t let their negativity and neurosis hold you back.

If you can honestly answer yes to these 3 questions then you are just a few steps away from success.

1. Do you really want to succeed?

2. Are you really prepared to work

3. Will you really Focus on Your goals and not give up?

If you answered yes to those 3 questions you are welcome to download my Report called “I can”. There nothing to subscribe to , no hoops to jump through. It was originally released in 2008 but I gave it a quick update recently. http://mjthompson.net/ICan/

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WordPress goldmine is now a forum based format that gives members the opportunity to have their questions and problems answered quickly and more importantly correctly. I had several people ask me why they should pay for a forum when there are free forums available such as the warrior forum and digitalpoint. The answer to that is simple…

Everyone who joins WordPress goldmine share a common goal ..to create an online income. They have decided to do something about it unlike many of the people who frequent free forums they want to succeed. The problem with free forums is that a lot of the people are very negative and take great pleasure in spreading incorrect information and starting arguements. If you want an environment conducive to learning then choose a forum with a fee.

You really can’t believe much of what you hear in free forums, hardly a day goes past that someone doesn’t start a question to me with…My friend has been told that….. invariably what they have been told is half thruths and speculation.

Another reason why WordPress Goldmine is worth far more than the cost is that it is at the cutting edge of internet marketing. Within wordpress goldmine members are discussing ideas and coming up with solutions to problems that many people haven’t realised exist yet.

Finally being a member of wordpress goldmine saves you money. Where else can you find top quality articles written by highy qualified writers for 1 cent a word, where else do you find products being sold by the creators for a fraction of what non members pay.

Myself and the members strongly believe that WordPress goldmine is the best Internet marketing Forum bar none. So here is your chance to find out.

Why not grab the Special $1 trial and see just how a forum can help you succeed online whether you are new to internet marketing or experienced you’ll be welcome.

Find Out More at http://wpgoldmine.com/SpecialOffer/

Internet marketing is a business if you want to make money online then you need to think like a businessman (or business woman!). Take responsibility for your actions, get a business plan together, play to your strengths and outsource your weaknesses. By doing this you will maximise your chances of succeeding. If you fail there is no one else to blame but yourself. However there is no reason why you should fail if you take a systematic approach to things and don’t expect to be buying that yacht in a few months time.

While you are doing this don’t lose site of the big picture… you’ve developed a very valuable talent. A talent that you can use to make money from areas you wouldn’t normally expect.

If you’ve been in internet marketing for more than a month you should know how to build a site that will sell. You also know how to promote it what it takes to get it to the top of the rankings. You now know more than 95% of the people you meet every day!. Use this to your advantage, I regularly get asked if i can help people with their websites, one thing that is abundantly clear is that these people know nothing and i mean absolutely zero about website promotion. If they do any promotion what so ever it’s throwing a few dollars a day at an Adwords campaign.

I’ve mention this before but one of the members of WordPress Goldmine has become very successful by applying what he has learned to the “Real World”, and has so much business he has to turn work down. Several other members have followed his advice and are also making money from this area.. I was talking to one today who is currently working on a deal that could bring in seriously big bucks.

If you want to create a real business from what you already know then I seriously recommend that you check out Chris’s Crossroads Methodology. If you are a forum member check out the thread where you’ll get a big discount.

Anyway I sort of went a bit off track there a bit but If you read his book I am sure you’ll thank me!! Right back to business….

Here are a few simple rules that will help you to become more successful this year…

1. Concentrate on what you do well.

We all have things we are good at and things we hate doing, I love keyword research and writing but hate the promotion side of things.. so i outsource my promotion for a few dollars and hour and concentrate on the bits I like.

If you are just starting out and you feel you can’t afford to hire outsourced staff, then why not do what you like doing, writing 2 articles will probably pay for 5 hours of outsourced backlink building.

2. The 80/20 Rule (Thanks Heather!)

You should spend 20% of your time researching and building your business and 80% promoting it. This is a bit of a pain if like me you hate promotion but it’s got to be done. This way you drastically increase your chances of success.

3. Spread the Load

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. try to give yourself 3 or 4 streams of income then if one dies you have others that can be built up to fill in the gap. I would always recommend starting with AdSense as your first stream, it’s easy and you learn a hell of a lot that will be useful when you start to build up your other income streams.

Finally, 2 bits of information for you…

Firstly if you got the Leverage Your Articles report I did a few months back (it’s included as a bonus if you sign up to my mailing list using the form in the sidebar) then you really should check out Jonathan ledgers The best Spinner. I tested this a few months back and thought it was one of the worst spinners I had ever tried. But I now hapilly take all that back. He worked on it and developed it into a really awesome tool. It’s currently free while it’s in beta so you can see if it’s something you would use before it becomes a paid tool on February 1st.

Secondly I am going to be offering a limited WordPress Goldmine Special Offer You can get in on a $1 Trial so if you want to check out the forum now is the time. Affiliate Promotion is only open to current members so if you are a member grab your links from the members area and check out the videos I’ll be adding to the forum giving you ideas how to promote the offer.

WordPress Goldmine has had some great additions in the past few weeks. First off several of the members are now providing writing services at a fixed rate of 1 cent per word, this has benefitted everyone. All the writers are hightly qualified and producing some truely excellent content quickly and on time.

We also have a member producing some of the best converting adsense themes you’ll find anywhere.In the few weeks since he launched them the thread has become one of the businest in the forum.

In additon one of the real sucess stories of the forum Chris has produced his first book Called the Crossroads Methodology it’s an excellent book and completely without hype or BS. I don’t recommend much but this is one book I think everyone should read. Chris only joined in July and in the few months since then has built a substantial business from what he’s learned. This isn’t your typical IM book Chris takes things you already know and turns them on their head.   His Confessions of a Newbie Internet marketer is also a much read thread in the forum and should be a must read for anyone who lacks motivation.

Recently we’ve also been looking at creating various tools and products for use of the members, 2 are still in the planning stage but one has made it to fruition and is being made freely available to the public.

Is My Site Indexed serves three purposes

1. It checkes if your site is indexed and shows you what google can see, which can be very useful for spotting errors

2. It gets new sites Indexed Quickly

3. It provides a number of anchor text back links to your Site.

Finally we recently passed out 1300th member and 18,000 post. Each month WordPress Goldmine Is going from strength to strength and redefining the meaning of over delivery and value. If you haven’t checked us out yet why not see what you are missing.