In fact, I make an effort to brand my websites and myself.

But just why is it so effective at making you money?

Branding means that people know who you are when they see it. And that is 90% of advertising! You WANT people to stop and look when you have something to say.

Building a brand means the spotlight is always on you whenever you show up to the party. It doesn’t matter what you tell people if no one is paying attention! One of my first websites, Elite Safelist, is advertised all over the place. I even see it when I’m doing work on other websites sometimes. If you’re new to internet marketing, you may ignore those ads at first. But when people see it every day or every week without fail, they inevitably start to pay attention to it.

Once people begin to pay attention, your voice begins to be heard… and THAT is your opportunity to turn your brand into something special.

“How do I turn my voice into a powerful message?”

Easy! Offer people something unique and tell them what you can honestly provide them, if they subscribe to your mailing list and pay attention to you.

Some examples:

• “I’m an experienced marketer who has accomplished ______ using ________. Join my list and uncover my secrets!”
• “I’ve been joining and reviewing all the hottest new websites. Save yourself the time and money, and let me reveal the sites that are designed to make you money, versus the sites designed to TAKE your money!”
• “I’m an average ______ (ex. mom, dad, student, construction worker, office lackey, etc) who discovered how to make some extra cash online in my spare time …. from the comfort of my own home! If that sounds interesting to you, I invite you to claim my free profit-making newsletter.”

Take some time, get creative, and market yourself or your business as something special!

What can you offer that is unique? Have questions or need feedback? Got a cool or interesting success story? Leave a comment below and lets brainstorm!

BUT there is a dirty little secret that not many people share…

You must pay your dues to reach success!

Of course there are some exceptions if you’re extremely lucky, but for 99% of people it will take some effort if you want to live a new and improved lifestyle.

One thing I’ve never shared with you is the amount of effort I put in my first few months before launching my first site, Elite Safelist. At the time I was in college, working a part time job, and trying to build my online business. This is literally what my schedule was like:

Mon-Fri

5:30 AM – Wake up (or at least try to!)

6 AM – Leave for School

7 AM – 7 PM – At School, In Class, Working, Driving  Home, Working On Biz Between All That Other Stuff!

8 PM – 2 AM – Working on my business

Weekends

All Day – Working on my business as much as humanly possible, with exceptions made for family, holidays, events, etc.

Yes, I was only sleeping a few hours a day at best – no exaggeration. Of course there were the occasional days where I had other stuff to do, but this was literally what I was doing on a daily basis. And there were many times I stayed up until 3 – 5 in the morning.

Today, I can say I live in a way that most people would probably be envious of. Most of my day belongs to me, while my business works for me.

But please do not misunderstand me, I am not asking you to put this much effort daily into your own business. I understand you probably have your own responsibilities and you don’t need to be crazy like I was to succeed. In fact what I did was borderline insane and quite unhealthy too! However, I would like you to realize that if you are not yet achieving the success you had imagined, the odds are you may not have paid your dues yet.

How many hours have you actually worked on your business so far?

And I’m not talking about looking at the computer deciding what to do, where to go, or searching online for another product to buy. But actually working, such as doing research, learning from experts, discovering new strategies/skills, building squeeze pages, getting traffic, brainstorming, etc etc.?

I probably put more effort in 3 months than the average person would do in 1-2 years.

BUT…

That is perfectly fine!

If it took you 1 year to be able to make a full time income online, would that be ok for you? Would you be happy even if it took you 2 years? Or even 5 years to get out of your job and actually get to spend time doing things you enjoy on a daily basis? A college education is roughly the same amount of time, and all that gets you is a j-o-b!

Success is not a race. I don’t care if you see success in 3 months or 5 years from now, but I want to see you succeed.

So understand that while you do have to pay your dues, and it is all worth the effort in the end. That’s the dirty little secret, but actually it’s not that bad if it means you can wake up with a smile on your face everyday!

Source 1

Source 2

• Have you read a book lately? A couple of my personal faves are “Think and Grow Rich” and “How To Win Friends & Influence People”

• List Joe has been adding a lot of new features lately. I like what I’ve been seeing.

• Seems a particular traffic exchange hasn’t been paying out commissions lately. You can read it all here.

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I actually think I’ve talked about this before, but I think this is one of those “magic” keys to success. So even if I did tell you about it before, I’m telling you again…

If you want to be successful, follow the people that are already there!

Making money online isn’t as hard as it seems.

All you truly need to do is find someone successful, latch onto them, and listen to everything they say.

Sometimes they might say something that you aren’t sure about. Maybe you think it just sounds flat out dumb and it can’t possibly work.

But if they are succeeding where you aren’t, then it’s important for you to listen.

Would it make sense to listen to me about weight lifting advice? Or does it make more sense to listen to a body builder?

Same goes for business!

I wanted to make money online.

When I wasn’t making money online, I listened to the people making money and I started to too. When I was just making a little bit, I found people who made a lot more money than me, and I started making more too!

It really isn’t rocket science, and that’s the real beauty of the Internet. You really don’t have to be some genius or go to school for years, yet you can make an income and live a lifestyle that other people dream of.

YOU could wake up with payment notifications sitting in your email accounts.

YOU can make money every time you send out an email to your list.

YOU can set your own schedule, determine your own income, and live the lifestyle that you desire!

All you really have to do is…

1) Find the marketers that you like, trust, and are making money.

2) Follow their advice. So if you like me, you might wanna to follow my advice. If you aren’t too fond of me, then I have no idea why you’re reading this! (haha just kidding!)

3) Looking for more advice? I recommend you start at Affiliate Funnel and attend their weekly online conferences. It’s FREE and you get advice from real marketing experts. It’s the same guys I listen to. Join Affiliate Funnel here.

1. Bottom line, Twitter is hot. If you want more Twitter followers, check out Travis Millward’s new site.

2. Wow, I just found out my blog has been looking HORRIBLE in Internet Explorer for months! Should look a lot better now.

3. Daily Niche Idea has been converting great for me and I always seem to be making commissions here. If you’re looking for a good affiliate program, you should check this one out
4. Paypal just got a new look inside the member’s area. I haven’t gotten a good look at it yet, but you might wanna check it out.
5. So apparently there was a major issue at ThePlanet.com recently, which is a major webhost. This caused a TON of websites to go down for awhile. The lesson? Back up your sites regularly!
6. Bought Mike Filsaime’s LaunchTree this week. Haven’t gotten a chance to go through everything yet, but I’m very excited to see what secrets I discover.

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Building Your List? Don’t Make These Tragic Mistakes!

13 Deadly List Building Tragedies

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So awhile back I got my Butterfly Marketing Software and I am very excited and grateful that I have it.

Mike Filsaime is one of the biggest marketers in Internet Marketing, with an entire team of people and years of experience.

But even someone like Mike can run into problems!

If you were around during Filsaime’s promotion, you may have heard that SO many people rushed into the website to get their free copy of the software, that the website was down for several hours.

The reason is because he was giving away his Butterfly Marketing Software for free, and it was going to be limited to only 5,000 copies!

I was literally sitting there watching the live broadcast as his team tried to resolve the issue.

The truth is that anyone can make mistakes, even the best.

I just want you to know that it happens to everyone! What separates the average person from the successful is not what happens, but rather how we react.

The next time you run into problems, don’t get mad, don’t panic.

Sit back, take a deep breath, and a moment to relax. It’s ok to be frustrated.

Just don’t let that frustration keep you from finding a solution and blind you from achieving success.