How to add 25,000 members to your forum-case study

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Leslie implemented a clever growth strategy for his online business by purchasing a large forum. After making the acquisition, he immediately went to work to grow the forum and had some pretty amazing success, more than doubling the membership base.

In this article Leslie reveals how he was able to grow his forum to 25,000 members and facilitate a solid community.

Owning a forum for a year was a very interesting ordeal – one where I was able to see the power of the online community experience firsthand. Forums can do so much to add value to your brand and, if done well, can make a huge difference in your bottom line.

For a number of reasons, I left the industry I was once a big part of, but the lessons I learned were extremely valuable. In a previous post, I shared Ten Tips To Ramp Up The Success Of Your Online Forum. In this post, I want to share with you exactly what I did to add over 25,000 new members to my forum. However, before I go into the exact steps, let me share with you why I believe adding a forum to your blog can be a great thing.

Reason #1: Create a sense of community

Before owning a forum, I had used my blog as my main method of communicating with my readers. Blogging really provided the foundation for what I was going to experience as a forum owner. However, when I added the forum to the mix, it added a whole new dimension to my online brand.

I was no longer the main source of content. My subscribers were. As a result of that, something that became fairly obvious rather quickly is that the forum members began to see the forum as their own. It became their “online home”, so to speak. If they saw something they didn’t like (i.e. Spam), they would immediately report it to the forum staff. When decisions were being made, they would give their input. Suggestions were given on a regular basis as to how we could make our forum community better.

Based on Google Analytics, the average time spent on my blog on a daily basis was somewhere around 3 minutes. However, the average time spent at the forum was around 20 minutes, with many members spending hours in the forums, interacting with each other. At any given moment, there were as many as 100+ unique visitors browsing the forum for a significant amount of time.

Reason #2: Content is added on a regular basis

Because of the nature of the “forum beast”, you don’t have to worry about adding content on a regular basis. Your members take care of that for you. Forums thrive on discussions, and active members are more than willing to keep the discussions going. If you have your forum SEO optimized, the value this adds is phenomenal. Your index count goes through the roof and Google seems to see you as a major force (and I like Google very much).

Reason #3: Members are willing to volunteer

This is the part that amazed me. Because there was such a strong sense of community, many members wanted to do their part to make the forum better. When I took over the forum, I was in need of moderators. I knew a few key people who had been active in other forums online that I knew would make an excellent team. When I asked them, they were more than willing (if not ecstatic) to help out for free, because they were usually in the forums anyhow.

This provides significant leverage because you are then able to free up your time to work on marketing and enhancing the forum.

I wanted to deal with those reasons above first because they give you the background as to what steps I took. Now let’s get to the juicy stuff. Here is what I did to add 25,000 members to my forum…

When I realized that the community aspect of the forum was so strong, I decided that I needed to use that to help bring new members into the forum. This was done in the form of a 6 week internship program.

First, we announced to the members that we were going to start an exclusive internship program, where we would teach them to drive traffic for free in exchange for them using the methods we teach them to promote the forum. We received over 50 applications from members that were excited to learn how to generate traffic and decided to accept them all into the program.

As a part of the internship program, they received one video lesson weekly, covering one aspect of traffic generation. The topics included:

Blog CommentingForum marketingMarketing on twitterDoing keyword researchArticle marketingSocial bookmarking

Along with the videos they received an assignment and had to report back to us in one of the private forums with their results. We would give them feedback and they would move on to the next lessons.

This was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had since starting internet marketing. To see members of the forum community banding together and doing the work that was necessary to help grow the forum was just amazing, and the feedback we received was just awesome. Here are two of the comments that were left in the private forums:

“I’ve taken other online courses in internet marketing before, so a lot of this stuff isn’t new to me, but with this internship program, I am finally able to say that I completely understand what all the numbers mean, and how I should interpret my keyword research.”

“I thought I knew my stuff, but I was wrong, the internship has turned out to be a big help, and I need to do it some more.”

It was a win-win situation because they were getting value by learning all of that content and we were getting value because new members were added to the forum on a daily basis as a result of what the interns were learning. At any given moment, we had a number of members tweeting about the forum, writing articles and submitting them to directories and doing a number of other things based on the guided instructions they received.

When I took over the forum, I had already established relationships with some of the main websites in my industry. These sites had large membership databases that were directly related to the purpose of the website. A few weeks before the relaunch date, I started contacting these owners of the sites, informing them about the fact that I had purchased a forum, and letting them know what my plans were.

I was very specific in asking them if they would consider sending a message to their members letting them know about the changes that were happening, that the forum was under new ownership and that it was going to be the next best thing since sliced bread. I even provided them with the exact content I wanted them to put in the email, and tailored it to their specific website.

Every site owner I contacted was more than willing to send out the message to their database of members, and the buzz spread around the industry pretty rapidly.

As a member of Blog Mastermind, I learned how to build a blog and set my blog up for success. As a result of all I learned, my blog became THE blog in my industry. Yes, there were others, but none of them had the gained as much traction as mine did.

I was able to build my list using my blog, and on the day of launch, I sent out an email to my list, and the news spread like wildfire throughout the industry. This caused a huge influx of new members that were already a part of the industry, but not a part of the forum.

Without my blog, and the success that was achieved in growing my blog, I doubt that I would have been able to grow the forum at such a rate.

In addition to the article marketing that was done as a part of the internship program, we wanted to make sure that there was always a constant stream of articles posted to various article directories.

To accomplish this, we outsourced the writing of 100 articles on a monthly basis for about 3 months. These articles were to be written and submitted to the top 5 article directories. It’s interesting to take a look at the stats and see that many of those articles were still ranking well for the keywords we were targeting and still sending a constant stream of traffic to the forum even up to a year after they were submitted.

When we first took over the forum, we tried to have contests on a monthly basis that encouraged participation. Some of the contests were in the form of referral races, which oftentimes resulted in an increase in incoming traffic. Other times, random giveaways would be given where they received an entry for each post in the forums.

These giveaways were usually for something relatively small like a $10 amazon gift-card or a gift from the Something Store. The Something store prizes made the members really excited because although they only cost $10, they were random gifts that could range from a simple pen to an ipod. A few of the members got nice watches, and were very proud to take pictures and post it in the forums for the members to see.

It would be great to be able to write this and tell you that everything we did was just awesome. However, that would be a lie. What I mentioned above were the things that we did and considered to be successful. There were things we did that were epic failures (as my students put it).

Our Youtube Contest

One day we had the bright idea of having a rather unique Youtube Contest. I posted a video to our YouTube channel and we held a commenting contest. For every comment a member posted on the video, they would receive an entry into a raffle and would win a cash prize at the end of the contest period. The goal was to make it one of the most commented videos, which would result in more exposure for the forum. It was our newest and “greatest” idea.

We made a big deal about this in the forums, hyping it up and getting the members super pumped to get out there when the contest launched and start commenting like crazy. Within an hour of posting the video, there were thousands of comments, and within a few more hours, the video was shut down by YouTube. Evidently, that was a violation of their terms. We learned our lesson and never did it again.

Traffic Exchanges

This is something I’d heard a lot about in the past and wanted to test it out. Epic Fail! It resulted in a spike in traffic, but the conversion rate was so low that the only thing worse would have been a negative conversion rate.

Mismanagement of the Internship program

The internship program was a great success and resulted in everything we wanted, in terms of driving traffic and adding new members quickly. However, there was one problem – At the end of the 6 weeks, I was exhausted.

Our plan was to relaunch the internship program every 2 months. However, after the first round, we never had a relaunch. What we should have done was outsourced the management of the program so that we wouldn’t have been as burdened with it.

All in all, it was a tremendous journey. You’ve read about our successes and some of our failures. Do you run an online forum? What have you done that has contributed to its success? What are some of your challenges? Have you thought about adding a forum to your blogging?

Share your thoughts by leaving a comment. I’d love to hear them.

Leslie

Leslie, The Freebie Guy is a blogger who teaches people how to grow their online business at www.TheFreebieGuy.net. He has recently started a 7 Day Bootcamp to take people from Beginner to having a fully functional Online Business in 7 days.

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How to become the authority in your field

Leigh Peele was one of the first students participate in my Blog mastermind and membership site mastermind programs and all of the steps in start your own blog and information products. Now She has to create a lifestyle freedom thanks to its online business help other people to lose fat.

I've been invited to share some of their experiences, Leigh your online business running and she starts today with the analysis made it possible for the State, to the authority in their place, and manner of execution of the same ...

People have a fear of thinking different. While it may, that we want the popularity and attention, it is easier to feather Blending can mean less. impact or an older version of life, but it also means less ridicule and decisions.

"For the achievement of irreplaceable one must always be different."-Chanel

Authority is a means and to sue and may differ from the crowd with the head of State is an expert in the learning and their craft. Notice I say is not, it means to be an expert of his craft.The first rule that the expert is to acknowledge that one will never be. any person who sometimes is trying to educate themselves on their vessels as small bias and show what.

My health and fitness area, I am constantly regarded as an expert and authority on various topics that go beyond the "eat a handful of almonds and your sit-ups."Each user is performed. Anyone for a small rate, read a few of the magazines or Web page and create a couple of articles that will get lost in the shuffle of blog madness.

Now, it is now two billion Internet users in the world. There are almost 300 million Web sites with more than 100 million of these are blogs.This is your competition, and will only grow, because the online world is still as new toys.

The Internet has been used even close to what will be in the future. Yes, they are outliers and persons-according to one lucky connections or the rest of us a good idea. cannot be average in passion. Cannot be the average of the knowledge. Not to be average in their skills. I think in order to survive;must be authority in the field.

"To punish me for my contempt for the Office, the fate of the authority itself to me."-Albert Einstein

1. Smile for the knowledge

Different fields are going to propose a variety of tasks.In my field, it means taking the time to dive into the mounds of research on the complex topics. You can use It on anything, for example, if your niche is knitting may indicate whether this extra miles to read at a different technology or design that has become popular, you know you may not know. nothing about knitting, but hopefully you'll see my point.The continuation of their education and received the "set your ways" shows on the work.

Don't be afraid of the distance and in various other guy unwilling or unable to perform.

2. the interruption of the bands for your comfort

Most distressingly, some can be easily to the other. I like my work (and I mean LOVE My work) does not mean that I'm always pleasant. what causes unpleasant should be with the new technologies or to speak with the people and the creation of networks. There may be a turn off TV and placing your attention something quiet and confirmed. Change takes time, and often change is not pleasant, but will give you the extreme growth in the field and person.

3. in the event that is not afraid to voice your opinion

It is important to understand (and this is said to be simpler than) that people are not always feel like going to like you more popular State, the surface of the more people who don't like what you say we do not have the same faith all or opinions.

Personally, I don't understand how someone does not believe that Felix Da Housecat mixture of Nina Simone Sinnerman is one of the biggest musical creations in the world – but that's me.You are wrong, but it may be your opinion and I have mine.

If your topics and opinions from the normal conversation, you may find yourself the target made comments.Should you try to find the controversy, but should not be your mind and you are afraid.

4. care of the quality control than that money or other Merry management more

If you believe that there are moments that make up the road or you want something easy to remember that again.

I do not always offers big money or easy following the printed. I have literally told the Sun in the past year to easily 100 000 euro in the pipeline.I come from a silver spoon are not even close. "– this is more than my family in four years, when I was growing.

Finally, their integrity and authority is one of the few things is that you apart.Sometimes saying "what others will say yes to no, you can also gets in the long term.Hopefully I'm not in, eh?

Building relationship is extremely important, but not for the price of your morals or belief.

5. be respectful and tact

It is not going to lie to you-I have a bit of a debater.People who know me may think and work, this is the understatement.My moments from the hiring Honest my preferences to get the best of me problem.When there is nothing wrong or means of its opinion on the matter, the way you decide this is important.

If you can see the leaders such as Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa-Gandhi or these people to the extreme impact on our lives and the world Will find currently rozmenování. jerks to other users so that their point. homage to the Tact and others have their strong suits.

People are not screaming in their face, or trying to make sure that they need something without change by opening its users think of the new options when they feel to do so.

Respect your passion and respect the people you work with.

6. Reach for assistance from other

Presidents and Kings have AIDS and advisers – you don't have to think you're above it.

No one there always and all know as entrepreneurs sometimes we live "I'll do it!" way of thinking.

I was very guilty of this, until last year, I am slowly learning to let go of control and my ego. you know what I found? I was quieter thing, others are better for the very poor! Perhaps do I know that my research, but I'm a terrible Organizer. points will connect you to the better, when you come to the hands help.

From a personal assistant, the theologian or competitor in the field-there is never a bad side to gain knowledge of, or exemption from other people. Information that you cannot do yourself. information that cutting corners, almost always leads to sent the results.

Leigh Peele

Leigh Peele is a nationally published author and expert in the field of the loss of fat. at present, She has two successful ebooks, membership in the society and endless options for clients and business opportunities. "She now receives its time for further growth in the area of the placing on the market and use of blogs for more information, visit http://www.leighpeele.com/biz

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Content management system That is appropriate for selling information online?

Three years ago I began a search for technology of Setup on the market and deliver my first product information online. Although the adoption of the decision and finally launched my product would continue to change systems, as I ran against problems with technology.

Gideon Shalwick and I had a conversation over and over again, lack of truly robust nárkem software tool for Internet marketers sell information online.

The ideal system would be able to ...

Handle management of transactions, including paypal and merchant, with various pricing options, including a one off payment and incremental paymentsOffer affiliate management utility that is seamlessly integrated, including easy to implement tools branch; multiple landing pages for affiliate links and track which goes beyond just manage full launch campaign cookiesAllow, including delivery of video, audio and text content, commenting and sharing via twitter and facebook (etc.) built inDeliver very easy configuration, multi-layered upsell and downsell process with one-click/one payment functionalityGive customers access to products, including several levels to incrementally type customer access other content and seamless control upgrades, dírám and cancellation (plus integration with payment system automatically cancel accounts payment failure) enable distribution, testing, sales pages and opt-in form without additional third-party email autoresponders and softwareIntegration with customer relationship management tools

… And etc.

There are so many features that you need and the service is easy to use tool that is very difficult, at least so far, nobody has succeeded it even nail recognition.

Recently, several packages have a Transportable, that applicants and aren't perfect, they offer some pretty amazing features I'll introduce you to three of them at the moment.

Currently I am using a combination of Clickbank/PayPal with WordPress and my AWeber. Gideon products added to the list of Member wishes its latest product plugin to increase the functionality of WordPress Administration site membership.

I'm gearing do brand new start for the first time I have taught a new course for several years now, and as such, I'm going through the process of deciding what software to use to deliver what I'm going to teach.

Here are the tools looking, one of which will be used, or I will stick with my current system; hopefully my decision decision-making process will help you come to a decision about what technology to use for the product for more information.

You have received a few emails recently from marketers Internet promotion launch new platform called Kajabi. is the brainchild of Andy Jenkins, who with the development team have been putting the final touches on what looks like a potentially very good system.

You can watch a video about it right here-what is Kajabi?

John Reese(External load), Mike Filsaime (affiliatedotcom.com), Jeff Walker (Formula product execution) and Frank Kern (access control list) is in beta testing the software during a very busy year 2010 launch I experienced all these runs to the front and back-end experienced suppliers of forces, so I can see what software I do from the user perspective.

What I don't have experience with the system administrator of yet is so cannot be assessed precisely what it does.Give away a lot of Video, so rather than me explaining, let Andy Jenkins, you can see how good the software is by watching this-

What is Kajabi?

In early 2010 recommends Nanacast me when I said I needed something that would let me take payments over 1000 dollars, James Schramko handle affiliates offering upsells and downsells. James praised Nanacast, says he has made nearly half a million dollars in transactions using it already, so I was keen to see.

The chance to play with the live product yet Nanacast haven't had yet I see the admin interface and how it was James use.From what I know is not the best presented tool, so it may be difficult to picture how it (there's an extensive support and training, however).Suspicious as most software, once you get a feel for the basic functions, you will need to use, it becomes much easier.

This tool is now available and has been on the market for a while, so it is the most widely tested product three I'm talking about in this article. caused suspicion that has fewer bugs, and other support materials, such as other people have certainly already experienced problems and acting on it.

If you want to try it for yourself, visit – www.nanacast.com

Need some improvement While Nanacast in terms of usability, looks to set sales funnel FusionHQ processes point and click easy — as easy as drawing a mind map of the sales process to finish.

It also offers WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor style for all pages, should be of value in theory even beginners can use it to set a fairly complicated process upsell/downsell.

Problem, as I see, is the idea that we are talking about ... some in times of complex processes, so giving people power to set up and configure variables across the different systems and keep it simple enough for beginners to use is a challenge.

FusionHQ may be able to achieve this, but like it was predominantly Kajabi, tested according to the public because it was not open to the public yet (at the time of writing this).

You can learn more about FushionHQ here – www.fusionhq.com/

I haven't had a chance to play with these systems yet, so I haven't gives in-depth review what you have now is my first impressions of three platforms, I'm considering my own product.

On top of these options you can consider tools as Infusionsoft or 1ShoppingCart (see my 1shoppingcart review), when I have ruled from my judgment at this time.

I lean toward simplicity that I've tried from the beginning of my time selling information online and has served me well, because it allows a faster and less complicated execution process even if they miss out on some features.

Unless I'm blown away by what I see in Kajabi or FusionHQ, or choose functions, I need Nanacast will probably stick with currently I am using is difficult for me ... go beyond, since Clickbank would that pay affiliates for me from all three mentioned above all systems require paying affiliates with mass pay (well I'm pretty sure Kajabi and do FusionHQ, I know not Nanacast), which is not a bad choice, but I still prefer the method Clickbank.

With this writing and executing Kajabi FushionHQ coming out next month, we will have some interesting options when it comes to deciding how to deliver our information products. "Whether any of these products will become a tool must use delivery for selling information products is yet to be seen.

Yaro Starak
Testing technology

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5 Tips for building profitable Online Business, you still have to work

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Leslie Samuel has contributed this article on a topic I know nothing about because I’ve never had a full time job in my life. Leslie on the other hand has been an incredibly productive guy, starting up an Internet business on the side while he maintains his full time job. Here’s his advice on how to juggle the two roles…

One of the most common entrepreneur dreams I hear deals with being free from the “9 to 5”. The term “9 to 5” almost seems to carry a certain stigma. It almost seems as if it’s looked at as a curse word in certain circles of entrepreneurs – a term that you definitely shouldn’t say if the kids are around.

As appealing as this “lifestyle of freedom” may be, for many of us, it’s just not a current reality. There are bills to pay, kids to feed, significant others to wine and dine, and the list goes on. Not only that (and forgive me for saying this), but some people even love their jobs. Yes, it’s true! I’m actually one of those crazy individuals that enjoy what I do and I’m not really looking to leave my job at the moment (although I do see that changing in the future).

I’m a High School science and Math teacher who enjoys teaching and interacting with my students. However, I’m also an entrepreneur at heart, and as a result of that, I’ve found myself blogging (with two active blogs), running a network of 6 Incentivized Freebie websites and a forum with over 35,000 members (recently sold), among other things.

Because of my situation, I usually receive the following questions on a regular basis.

How in the world do you manage to run a profitable online business while having a full time job?Is it even possible to do both effectively?Does your family suffer?Are you insane?

Well, to tell you the truth, I’ve never done this perfectly. There have been times where I’ve completely mismanaged my time and was very unproductive. However, in an effort to achieve balance in my life, I’ve managed to come to a point where I feel as if I’m able to manage my time well, get lots done and still have a significant amount of down time.

What I’d like to do here is share 5 tips that I’ve learned to help me achieve balance.

Tip #1: Focus on the important stuff and get rid of the excess fat.

While growing my online business, I came to a point where I was extremely stressed out. It seemed as if there wasn’t enough time to accomplish my goals. My family suffered and so did my job. My wife started complaining that I wasn’t spending enough time with her, and my students started complaining that their grades weren’t being updated fast enough.

I then decided to take inventory of EVERYTHING I did on a daily basis. When I did this, I received the shock of my life. Yes, I was busy, but a large majority of what I did was unnecessary stuff.

The next step was to establish priorities. I realized that there were a of things that I did in my business that actually resulted in increased profits. At that point, I decided to focus only on those things and work on eliminating the rest.

What also surprised me was the amount of things I did at work that didn’t contribute to my productivity on the job. Yes, some of those things were necessary evils. I decided to eliminate the unnecessary things I did on my job and delegate some of the other tasks to my student workers.

The end result was that I started spending less time working, but ended up being more productive.

Tip #2: Have 1 goal at a time

There’s a common myth that has been spreading like wildfire. It says that in order to accomplish a lot, you have to multitask. I used to think that I got a lot done when I did a lot of things simultaneously. In fact, I tend to suffer from what I like to call entrepreneurial ADD, where I’d constantly jump from task to task.

In the past, when I start up my Internet browser, 6 of the websites I regularly check would pop up instantly, My facebook alerts would instantly turn on, my instant messenger program would automatically connect and within 2 or 3 clicks, I’d be ready to “take on the world”. As you can imagine, the result was constant information overload and high levels of inefficiency.

Yes, it’s important to get rid of the excess fat. However, even with all that stuff gone, the remainder can be quite overwhelming. The solution is simple – Do one thing at a time, until the one thing is complete. At that point, move on to the next.

Shut down instant messenger. Stop checking your email every few minutes. You aren’t getting anything done. Decide on a goal and spend the majority of your time focusing on that goal alone. You’d be surprised at how much you can get done when you intentionally try to do less.

Tip #3: Learn to give up control

Yeah, I know – If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself, right? WRONG!

I’m a very picky guy when it comes to attaching my name to a product, website or anything else. Because of that, I tend to be the kind of person who wants to oversee everything, and if possible, do everything. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), time is a very limited commodity. It’s necessary to give up control and let others share the load.

After running a forum with tens of thousands of members for a few months, I finally decided to bring a community manager on board. Guess what happened as a result! Many of the things that were once overlooked due to lack of time started happening. I also had significantly more time on my hands.

When I made the decision to stop designing all of my websites and graphics, I came to the realization that there were many individuals out there that were able to do a much better job than I could at a very reasonable price.

Tip #4: Automation is your friend

One of the things I LOVE so much about the Internet and running an online business is that, if done well, automation can be an effective tool for nurturing relationships with your followers and growing your online business. In some ways, automation can make things seem more natural, as contradictory as that might sound.

One of the best decisions I’ve made since starting my online business is starting newsletters using Aweber. However, I didn’t use it to just send content. I used it to nurture relationships with my subscribers to where they felt as if they were getting to know me as a real person. Before using this method, I had a bunch of template emails that I would send out to my followers. That switch ended up saving me a TON of time and ended up allowing me to offer better support.

Tip #5: Know when to cut something loose

If you implement the above 4 tips effectively, you will save lots of time. However, it’s very possible that there will come a point where you need to cut something loose. For me, this was when I made the decision to sell my forum and network of Freebie Sites.

I realized that I was spreading myself a little too thin and a decision had to be made. The forum had started doing very well. I had grown it from 10,000 members when I purchased it to over 35,000 members within a year. However, my interest started shifting to other projects I was working on and cutting it loose allowed me to focus more on those things and accomplish more.

Bonus Tip: Make sure you enjoy what you are doing. Why are you doing what you are currently doing? I imagine that for many of you, financial freedom is high on your list of priorities. However, if what you are doing is more a chore than something you love, then you might as well be working a “9 to 5”, and I mean that in the derogatory way that I started this post talking negatively about.

Because I love what I do, it doesn’t seem like work to me. I get paid to have fun and to help others. Can it get any better than that? In my opinion, absolutely not!

I’m not perfect, nor do I claim to perfectly implement all of the above-mentioned tips. However, the more I move towards implementing those steps, the more I accomplish while not being overwhelmed with what I’m doing.

Are there things you have implemented that allow you to be more efficient in your online business? Please share them by leaving them in the comments section below. We can ALL benefit from shared wisdom

Leslie, The Freebie Guy is a blogger who teaches people how to grow their online business at www.TheFreebieGuy.net. He has recently started a 7 Day Bootcamp to take people from Beginner to having a fully functional Online Business in 7 days.

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As Erica Douglass sold her Business hosting for 1.1 million CZK

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Erica Douglass came on my radar years ago, when I first heard the word of her story and that she million dollar blog about the online business, We would append. but only finally had the chance to do this interview for you now.

Erica went on a wild ride with a Web hosting company she began from executives who almost stopped going Scratch and just months later was sold for US $ 1.1 million dollars one story is that it is a roller coaster ride, but as with all successes, it is a lot here, you can take away from the good points and bad points.

Web hosting is extremely cut throat business.It is interesting to learn that Erica business eventually profited targeting small hosting accounts, but renting space on the server to larger companies; in good end customer service and relationship to the difference.

If you are interested in running the company's Web service, this is definitely a podcast interview worth listening to. Erica .biz blog learn more about Erica.

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7 Tips To help in the shacks And is

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Back during the early days of this blog I used to write income reports on a semi-regular basis. John Chow made the idea of reporting your blogging income popular, and before him guys like Darren Rowse and Shoemoney would show pictures of checks they had received from advertising programs like Google AdSense or affiliate programs. Today guys like Pat from Smart Passive Income keep the trend going, though most of the other guys have stopped reporting now.

There’s no doubt people are inspired by seeing how much money others make (I certainly was before I started earning much online), and for the person sharing their details, it’s great for the ego to talk about how well you are doing. It’s also beneficial as a practice to report income to monitor your trend growth rates and also see if you can sustain a level of income significant enough to live off long term.

I’ve often had people, especially those who work “normal” jobs, question the practice of revealing your income online. How much money you earn is considered one of the most private things you don’t tell even your friends or family, let alone the entire planet through the Internet. I personally don’t think income levels should be hidden, it could be a force for better wages if the knowledge was public, so I’ve never had a problem talking about how much money I generate. Plus it’s fun to report back your successes when you have them, even if it does seem a lot like bragging, which I think it is, but it’s great for social proof too.

It’s amazing for me to write this, but during the last two years I’ve generated over a million dollars in revenue online. What’s even more amazing is I did this without any full time staff and only one regular contractor.

In Australia the tax year runs from July to June, and in the 2008-2009 tax year I made over half a million dollars in revenue doing what I do online. I was expecting the next year to be less because I wasn’t launching as many new things, but it turned out that I actually surpassed the previous year (just), though the profit was less (I bought a new BMW – that tends to hurt your profit a bit!).

Obviously profit is different from revenue, so I didn’t keep the million dollars I made over the last two years. For my business, tax compliance (the cost of setting up a new tax structure), outsourcing to contractors and affiliate commissions are the largest “expenses” I incur. In general I make about 70% profit (and tax comes out of that), which is incredibly high compared to most offline businesses. That’s what is so good about online business – the low cost structure.

Before the last two half-million dollar years I was making a solid six figures a year, so I actually surpassed a million dollars earlier. I feel comfortable saying now that I’ve made more than a million in sales and kept more than a million in profit in the last five years running my current online business.

Obviously it’s nice for me to be in this situation and I’m incredibly grateful I can live the life I do, working on a few hours a day, make what I make and do it by helping others through sharing words, but I know what you really care about is how can you replicate my result.

There’s no simple answer to that question, however I’ve met enough millionaires to notice what they do differently, not to mention had my own experience becoming a seven figure blogger.

Here’s some key points as I see it to help you reach your own million dollar result –

7 Tips To Help You Make A Million Dollars

1. Although I don’t have staff, I couldn’t get this result without some kind of leverage generated by other people. The best two examples I can give you from my experience is my partnership with Gideon Shalwick, who co-created the Become A Blogger program with me, which is responsible for a fairly hefty junk of my income in the last two years, and my affiliates, who have helped me reach a much larger audience than I could alone.

2. Repetition of what works. Although I’ve done many different things over the last ten years, when I found something that worked and I enjoyed doing it, I stuck to it long enough to get a result much higher than the average.

3. Choose a business model that has the potential to make you rich. This might seem obvious, but many entrepreneurs are smart enough to know that working a job won’t make them rich, but then make the mistake of choosing a business model that won’t do it either. If you can’t see how your business could make you a million dollars, then you might want to think about changing your model.

4. Isolate your core strengths and then build on them. I mentioned it’s important to find something you enjoy, and what you enjoy is always a strength, so if you can find a business that allows you to express your strength, develop it through repetition and reap financial rewards from it, you’ve hit the holy grail.

5. Tap significant sources of traffic/audience/customers. Most people I meet who are millionaires have access to large amounts of people. Yes you can make a million dollars without needing distribution (like through property or shares), but for those who do it with a business, they generally have a means to access lots of people. It might be having lots of physical stores in retail, or a large email list or popular website online, or affiliates/joint venture partners, or money to spend on advertising, or some kind of media like a television or radio show, or magazine or newspaper. Whatever the case, you need thousands of customers to make millions of dollars, unless you operate in a high profit-margin market (see below).

6. Pick an industry with significant profit margins and high demand. Profit is a function of how many sales you make and the money you keep from each sale after the cost of providing the goods or service. Obviously the greater your margin, the fewer sales you require to make a million. While you might have trouble starting a business where selling just one or two items can make you millions (for example, selling jumbo jets), it is possible to be calculating when you choose what you are going to sell, so your path to millions is quicker and more likely.

7. When something is not working or won’t take you where you want to go, quit. This is probably the biggest reason most people will never make a million dollars – they are too afraid to change. If today as you read this you have no potential to make a million doing what you do – and you want to make a million – then start making changes so you can.

You don’t necessarily have to quit your job or close your business, but you will need to tap on some kind of potential million dollar system to what you are doing. For example, investing in property with your business profits, or starting a business on the side if you’re still working a job, or finding someone to partner with to start a business so it doesn’t require all your time. If you can’t see how it will happen then how on earth will it ever happen?

And one last tip –

Bonus Tip: Many millionaires are created when one significant event occurs - you sell your business.

You might spend the entire life of your business making a low and steady income, but if you can turn your business into a machine that keeps that income coming without much input from the owner, then you’ve got a sellable asset.

Create a business that makes a few hundred thousand a year using a smart, hands-off business model, and you’ve got yourself a million dollar asset. If that’s daunting, consider starting by creating a five figure business and then selling it for six figures. Do that a few times over a few years and you’ve made your million.

The options are there for you to take any time you decide to go after them. Just spend a little time reading the archives of this blog for a blueprint of a million dollar blogging business, if you’re willing and able to do the work. If blogging is not your thing, then keep researching and testing until you find what works for you.

If you enjoyed this article, please tweet it, you can share it on Facebook or on your preferred social network. And of course, if you haven’t done so already, please join my email newsletter on this page (enter your name and email at that link to join).

Yaro Starak
Million Dollar Blogger

View the original article here

7 Tips To Help You Become A Millionaire

Back during the early days of this blog I used to write income reports on a semi-regular basis. John Chow made the idea of reporting your blogging income popular, and before him guys like Darren Rowse and Shoemoney would show pictures of checks they had received from advertising programs like Google AdSense or affiliate programs. Today guys like Pat from Smart Passive Income keep the trend going, though most of the other guys have stopped reporting now.

There’s no doubt people are inspired by seeing how much money others make (I certainly was before I started earning much online), and for the person sharing their details, it’s great for the ego to talk about how well you are doing. It’s also beneficial as a practice to report income to monitor your trend growth rates and also see if you can sustain a level of income significant enough to live off long term.

I’ve often had people, especially those who work “normal” jobs, question the practice of revealing your income online. How much money you earn is considered one of the most private things you don’t tell even your friends or family, let alone the entire planet through the Internet. I personally don’t think income levels should be hidden, it could be a force for better wages if the knowledge was public, so I’ve never had a problem talking about how much money I generate. Plus it’s fun to report back your successes when you have them, even if it does seem a lot like bragging, which I think it is, but it’s great for social proof too.

It’s amazing for me to write this, but during the last two years I’ve generated over a million dollars in revenue online. What’s even more amazing is I did this without any full time staff and only one regular contractor.

In Australia the tax year runs from July to June, and in the 2008-2009 tax year I made over half a million dollars in revenue doing what I do online. I was expecting the next year to be less because I wasn’t launching as many new things, but it turned out that I actually surpassed the previous year (just), though the profit was less (I bought a new BMW – that tends to hurt your profit a bit!).

Obviously profit is different from revenue, so I didn’t keep the million dollars I made over the last two years. For my business, tax compliance (the cost of setting up a new tax structure), outsourcing to contractors and affiliate commissions are the largest “expenses” I incur. In general I make about 70% profit (and tax comes out of that), which is incredibly high compared to most offline businesses. That’s what is so good about online business – the low cost structure.

Before the last two half-million dollar years I was making a solid six figures a year, so I actually surpassed a million dollars earlier. I feel comfortable saying now that I’ve made more than a million in sales and kept more than a million in profit in the last five years running my current online business.

Obviously it’s nice for me to be in this situation and I’m incredibly grateful I can live the life I do, working on a few hours a day, make what I make and do it by helping others through sharing words, but I know what you really care about is how can you replicate my result.

There’s no simple answer to that question, however I’ve met enough millionaires to notice what they do differently, not to mention had my own experience becoming a seven figure blogger.

Here’s some key points as I see it to help you reach your own million dollar result –

7 Tips To Help You Make A Million Dollars

1. Although I don’t have staff, I couldn’t get this result without some kind of leverage generated by other people. The best two examples I can give you from my experience is my partnership with Gideon Shalwick, who co-created the Become A Blogger program with me, which is responsible for a fairly hefty junk of my income in the last two years, and my affiliates, who have helped me reach a much larger audience than I could alone.

2. Repetition of what works. Although I’ve done many different things over the last ten years, when I found something that worked and I enjoyed doing it, I stuck to it long enough to get a result much higher than the average.

3. Choose a business model that has the potential to make you rich. This might seem obvious, but many entrepreneurs are smart enough to know that working a job won’t make them rich, but then make the mistake of choosing a business model that won’t do it either. If you can’t see how your business could make you a million dollars, then you might want to think about changing your model.

4. Isolate your core strengths and then build on them. I mentioned it’s important to find something you enjoy, and what you enjoy is always a strength, so if you can find a business that allows you to express your strength, develop it through repetition and reap financial rewards from it, you’ve hit the holy grail.

5. Tap significant sources of traffic/audience/customers. Most people I meet who are millionaires have access to large amounts of people. Yes you can make a million dollars without needing distribution (like through property or shares), but for those who do it with a business, they generally have a means to access lots of people. It might be having lots of physical stores in retail, or a large email list or popular website online, or affiliates/joint venture partners, or money to spend on advertising, or some kind of media like a television or radio show, or magazine or newspaper. Whatever the case, you need thousands of customers to make millions of dollars, unless you operate in a high profit-margin market (see below).

6. Pick an industry with significant profit margins and high demand. Profit is a function of how many sales you make and the money you keep from each sale after the cost of providing the goods or service. Obviously the greater your margin, the fewer sales you require to make a million. While you might have trouble starting a business where selling just one or two items can make you millions (for example, selling jumbo jets), it is possible to be calculating when you choose what you are going to sell, so your path to millions is quicker and more likely.

7. When something is not working or won’t take you where you want to go, quit. This is probably the biggest reason most people will never make a million dollars – they are too afraid to change. If today as you read this you have no potential to make a million doing what you do – and you want to make a million – then start making changes so you can.

You don’t necessarily have to quit your job or close your business, but you will need to tap on some kind of potential million dollar system to what you are doing. For example, investing in property with your business profits, or starting a business on the side if you’re still working a job, or finding someone to partner with to start a business so it doesn’t require all your time. If you can’t see how it will happen then how on earth will it ever happen?

And one last tip –

Bonus Tip: Many millionaires are created when one significant event occurs - you sell your business.

You might spend the entire life of your business making a low and steady income, but if you can turn your business into a machine that keeps that income coming without much input from the owner, then you’ve got a sellable asset.

Create a business that makes a few hundred thousand a year using a smart, hands-off business model, and you’ve got yourself a million dollar asset. If that’s daunting, consider starting by creating a five figure business and then selling it for six figures. Do that a few times over a few years and you’ve made your million.

The options are there for you to take any time you decide to go after them. Just spend a little time reading the archives of this blog for a blueprint of a million dollar blogging business, if you’re willing and able to do the work. If blogging is not your thing, then keep researching and testing until you find what works for you.

If you enjoyed this article, please tweet it, you can share it on Facebook or on your preferred social network. And of course, if you haven’t done so already, please join my email newsletter on this page (enter your name and email at that link to join).

Yaro Starak
Million Dollar Blogger

View the original article here