What happens when you find your niche?

I’m having interesting days at the moment, well more than that, I’ve had an interesting 2011. Things have really taken off in my niche area and that’s partly due to a steep learning curve from October 2009. For some 15 months I was learning a great deal about the way Internet Marketing works and those months have turned out to be truely valuable. I suppose in some ways it was my training. That’s why those who think this is a get-rich-quick business can think again, you have to do your training!

All the way through those months there were key marketeers, such as Keith Everett and Chris Farrell telling people to focus on a niche, “don’t go off in all different directions” they’d say. I didn’t exactly go off in all directions….well okay, yes I did, but in doing that I learnt what a huge number of other people learn, that it doesn’t work to try all those different directions at once. However I did learn a lot about the world of Internet Marketing which I was then able to apply to my niche, so that’s why it was valuable.

Towards the back end of last year I began to realise that I didn’t have enough hours in the day to keep it all going, so I sat back and thought about what I enjoy doing – apart from talking to you lot that is!

The answer was very simple, my main occupation, Hypnotherapy. I love it with a passion. It can change people’s lives and it’s given me a huge amount of satisfaction working with the lovely clients that come my way. I’ve always said that no matter what happened with my internet marketing, I’d always want to do my hypnotherapy. The problem is that there’s only one of me and there are only so many hours in the day to see clients, so my income is capped by those two facts, hence my journey into IM.

Now I’m enjoying the fact that the two careers dovetail together, I can work online and offline, one area will feed inspiration for the other. It works very well and was there under my nose all the way along.

So here’s a very big message. Focus down to one thing. I know, I know, I know… already I can hear you say you’ve heard it all before. But why have you heard it all before? Possibly because there’s a quite a few people out there who know what they’re talking about.

Have a read of a brilliant interview with Keith Everett (and no, there’s no affiliate link as you go through to this – it’s just good info that you should read). Keith Everett Interview. Then find your niche area.

To find your niche area:
1. What do you already do in your job or previous career?
2. What hobbies do you have that you enjoy and know a little about?
3. What rocks your boat?
4. Think about all of the above. What do you know that others who’ve never experienced those areas don’t know?
5. There is a niche area that you could work in, you simply have to drill down into your everyday life to find it. It’s probably staring you in the face!!

Contact me via the blog if you’re stuck, I’ll start to ask questions that will shift you rather quickly into a more positive frame of mind (it’s what I tend to do with my clients!).

Right, I’m off to make a few people cluck like chickens – because apparently that’s what some think I do, if only they knew! Actually I’m off to write a letter to a Gastroenterologist to update him on a patient he referred to me. Doesn’t sound quite as entertaining as clucking chickens does it? It’s a darned sight more rewarding to fix someone’s body though!

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Getting my mind to work!

I needed to get my car booked in for service, I knew in advance that it needed its first service at 18,000 miles, so I had approximately 17,500 miles notice that it was going to happen.  Of course it was only when the mileage hit 17,700 that I was galvanised into action.  

I’m also reading a book called Procrastination.  The hilarious thing is, I work with clients to change their patterns of behaviour, yet there are still things I put off doing myself!

Did you know that the word Procrastination first appeared in the dictionary in the 16^th Century?  1548 to be precise!  So way back then people were procrastinating.

If you’re new to self-employment or not, whether that’s internet marketing or any other business, it’s important that you don’t put off what is truly important to driving your business forward. 

The problem is that there are many distractions in this world and procrastination is, apparently, at pandemic proportions.  You take Facebook, which is marvellous for gathering friends and followers for your internet marketing business.  BUT, it’s so easy to get distracted into conversations and puff, two hours have gone before you know it and if this pattern continues then the key jobs to get or keep your business heading in the right direction can be thrown off course.

Mind, Facebook is great for driving traffic to your website.

So what’s the key?  Well it’s to change the part of your brain responsible for patterns of behaviour.  Let me give you an example.  This week I saw a lovely lady about her massive phobia of butterflies.  Now some may think this strange, but phobias are indeed frequently about something irrational.  Within three sessions of clinical hypnotherapy, she reported that she’d come across “loads of butterflies and been fine”. 

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Another case this week was of a 16-year old boy who really couldn’t cope with a needle coming towards him and would simply run for the nearest door – with my help he was actually laughing whilst the nurse was doing a blood test.  What has happened here is that there has been a change in the pattern of behaviour and what was perceived as life threatening by the subconscious has been altered to being acceptable.   

When it comes to working on a self-employed basis, especially with something like internet marketing, there needs to be a shift in emphasis with regards to time management. 

Timing is everything.  Literally.  So consider this, put a timer on your desk (maybe one on your phone) and set it for 45 minutes.  Then focus properly on the most important thing you want to do that day, so for me: write this article!

Use this principle for other things too, such as Facebook or Twitter.   Set your timer for 15 minutes for each and see what happens – you focus on what truly needs to happen rather than being distracted by the little things that, if you’re honest, aren’t helping you in any way.

Why is it we decide we’re going to achieve something and at the end of the day we’re frustrated because we’ve done everything but achieve what we set out to?

Instant gratification can be rewarding but it rarely gives you a long-term benefit.  It’s lovely to read all those emails and get them out of the way, but are you not simply responding to other people’s post?  Has it actually achieved anything for you?  Or has it, contrary to popular belief, simply answered other people’s questions so they can further their careers whilst you’re left dawdling behind?  Or possibly even worse, are you simply idly chatting and not actually achieving anything?

Start changing the pattern.  First thing in the morning take 10 minutes to think about the most important thing to be achieved that day and then do it first (with that timer ticking) – you might find your life changing for the better, certainly your business will make giant strides forward!

You’ll certainly be starting a pattern that will then become a pattern matching change in your brain, making it easier and easier to do the more you do it.

My own behaviour baffles me. For I find myself doing what I really hate, and not doing what I really want to do. (St Paul)

This post is nothing to do with Internet Marketing. It’s to do with cars!!

Last night saw me up at a local service station with my reflective green jacket on (very attractive I can assure you) and camera in hand. Why? Because I’m part of the local car club and they wanted some snaps for the local paper as a stream of cars and motorbikes came through on the Exeter Trial.

By the way, we’re nowhere near Exeter, that’s the other end near the finish line.

As I watched an amazing assortment of ancient and slightly less ancient cars and bikes come through, it was explained that it wasn’t quite as easy as it looked. You don’t just get into a car and drive from the start of this 24 hour event to the finish – there are a few hills to climb I was told. Given I live at the top of one of Gloucestershire’s biggest hills this didn’t seem to be any great shakes to me. But they went on to explain these hills weren’t necessarily on tarmac roads…..there’s a few mud tracks that come into the equation.

It's a steep climb for a little old car

All of a sudden my admiration for these people went up a fair way – especially given it’s a 24 hour event and some of these muddy tracks are attempted in the early hours of a pitch black morning. That in itself wasn’t so bad, it was more the fact that the headlights on some of these older cars were no more powerful than two candles!!

I managed to chat to some of the competitors who were only too delighted to talk about the event. Some had been competing in this event for well over 20 years. I couldn’t find a competitor who’d taken part in the first ever Exeter Trial, but then that was 100 years ago! Some were, however, a lot older than my 50 years of age, even their cars were older than me.

It’s inspiring to go out and help at such an event, to do something totally different. I get involved with motorsport quite a lot and they’re a lovely bunch of people. It does you good to see people enjoying themselves and as one of these little darling cars was going through I thought it would be great to take part in an event like this. So there’s something else to add to my list of Christmas presents from my other half. My only dilema is should it be this one…

Lovely colour - that's a female comment I know!

or this one?

Sweet! (Yes I know that's a typical female comment too)

I’ve enjoyed my indulgent post today. My blog is usually focused on Internet Marketing or making money online, but because I’m self-employed and this is my Blog, I love the fact I can write at whim on anything I wish to. Being self-employed really does have its advantages doesn’t it?

Now I’d better be off and write the article for the newspaper otherwise I’ll be missing a deadline!

Catch up soon.

Griff.

A different viewpoint

This morning I’d been booked to have my acupuncture, but she’s not well (we have a lovely flu bug doing the rounds).  So plans changed and I decided to make use of the time to get busy on the Internet Marketing projects I’ve got on the go.  It was simply a matter of re-adjusting and focusing on which project to shift into gear. 

However, because I wasn’t expecting this free time, I didn’t re-adjust and two hours later I’m only just getting wellied into something productive.  Admittedly I’ve been on a few forums and contributed my bit, I’ve updated my Facebook Like Page with today’s tip, I had a sausage sandwich and I accepted some nice friend requests – all stuff I love doing, but not in itself a massive achievement.

Sometimes we have to shift our viewpoint?  We need to get a different focus and then positive things start to happen.


Afternoon In Paris
Poster
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(By the way, at this point you may be wondering why I have the affiliate AllPosters link? Well I don’t anticipate making my fortune via AllPosters, however by putting an affiliate link in I get a free image to post on my blog or website – if I earn a few pence extra then cool, but it’s the free image I’m after.  Neat trick eh!)

Back to viewpoints. How do I get that different viewpoint?  Well personally, I talk.  Actually, I can talk rather a lot!!

If I talk to Dave (my better half) or one of my Facebook buddies – and I do mean talk, as in verbally, not virtually via a keyboard - I can get a shift in perspective that can be healthy.  It refocuses me on what I need to achieve today in order to arrive at the goal I want for tomorrow.

But what happens if you can’t lay your hands on that constructive buddy?  How about you imagine you’re employed, imagine your boss is about to arrive in 15 minutes for a report on what you’ve achieved today?  That boss also needs to know what effect your actions from today will have.  Does that concentrate your mind? :0)

When you’ve completed what you need to do in order to report back to your imaginary boss with a confident tone in your voice, that’s when you can put the kettle on for that cup of tea (well I am English) or accept those friend requests. 

Remember, it’s your goal, your life, don’t get railroaded by a computer telling you what to do.  Don’t blindly go from one link to another, one website to the next.  Make sure your steps are in a forward direction.  Steps that if you had to report to a boss, that boss would be well satisfied with your progress!

STOP AND GET FOCUSED!!

Make a plan, write it down, THEN DO IT.

Right, I’m off to put the kettle on then I’m off to the hairdressers.  Well a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do!!

Griff x

And now for something different!

Griff a bit warped!

I decided that 2011 is going to be different. This isn’t a New Year’s Resolution, it’s simply a statement of fact.

How’s it going to be different?

Well I’m not going to work harder, because I already work very hard indeed. However there’s going to be more fun when I work.

I think it’s about time to bring in a bit more humour to network marketing, don’t you?

There was quite a broad grin on my face when I was mucking about with the software that created warped images of me!!

Using this Dumpr software, it allows you to put your photo on mousemats, museum portraits, even Rubik’s Cubes.

Could make all the difference to your blog or website and get you noticed?

Just Google ‘Dumpr’ to see the free software and have a giggle.

Happy New Year!!
Griff x

The 5 Most Common Mistakes Affiliate Marketers Make (and How You Can Correct This)

Welcome to Guest Blogger – Julie Atkins

Look, I know you’re smart and I know YOU know that affiliate marketing is no walk in the park – but then, no online business is.

And if anyone tells you that you can make a million dollars in 48 hours, run – and run as fast as you can because it’s not true, never has been and never will be. So please, please take the time to educate yourself and learn from the mistakes of others. And with that said, here are the 5 most common mistakes affiliate marketers make.

1) Picking A Bad Affiliate Product

This has to be the all-time winner! So many aspiring affiliate marketers choose a lousy affiliate product to promote and this is really due to not doing your homework and taking the time to check things out.

Most people head to ClickBank to find products, which is the smart thing to do as it’s probably the most well known source, but remember that not all products are created equal. Just because it’s at ClickBank doesn’t mean it’s a great product.

Many people see a product that’s offering a very high commission and decide to promote it. Hey, that’s great but if no one’s buying it, the commission could be 100%, but 100% of nothing is still nothing. Do your diligent research and make sure people are buying the product. With Clickbank, the gravity rating will give you this information.

The other thing you want to do is choose a strong niche. The three evergreens are:

* Health
* Wealth
* Relationships

Everyone wants to be healthy and know how to stay that way, everyone wants to know how to make money and everyone wants to be in a relationship or know how to fix the one they’ve messed up.

2) Picking A Low Converting Product

Don’t get this mixed up with a bad product. This may be a fantastic product but if the sales page that is selling the product sucks, then the conversion rate will suck too. You could be sending thousands of people to this site but if the page doesn’t convert, you’re wasting your valuable time and resources. It’s vital you go to the affiliates sales page, and when you do, go there as a potential buyer.

How does the page look to you? When you read the copy does it make you want to click the buy button? How are the graphics? Do they look cheesy?
Are there copy errors, like spelling and grammar?

All of these factors can make or break a sales page. Also remember most people do their own copywriting. Why? Because it costs so much money to have good copy written for you. A good copywriter can set you back around $3000, a great one can cost $25,000.

If the page sucks, find another product with a better sales page.

3) Picking A Low Commissioned Product

You’d be surprised how many people pick a product that has a low commission offer. My question is, why? It takes a lot of work to build your business, so why would you want to get a small payday?

Don’t worry too much about the price of the product as unfortunately, you’ve no control over that, but you DO have control over the products you choose to promote, so make sure you’re getting the biggest possible payday. Check around for similar products and compare them.

Here’s a tip: promote affiliate programs that offer recurring commissions. You get these from membership sites where people have to pay a monthly fee. This is how you can build a residual income. To find these in ClickBank, just look for the Future$ symbol. If there’s a dollar amount beside it, then that affiliate offers recurring commissions.

4) Tracking Your Sales

If you’re like me, number crunching and doing all that kind of stuff is boring as hell. Maths was NEVER my thing! However, it’s a necessary evil of any online business. It’s VITAL that you track your sales.

Many online marketers don’t do this, and my question is – if you don’t know where your sales are coming from, how on earth do you know what’s working and where the money’s coming from? Or worse yet, if you are not tracking your numbers, how do you know what you’re throwing your money away on?

With each and every campaign you embark on, you MUST know the numbers, good and bad.

5) Lack Of Action

The biggest reason people fail is simply not taking action. I’m not here to promise you that building your business is going to be a bed of roses, because it’s not. You’re going to have bad days along with the good ones, so accept that fact right now. It’s happened to me enough times and it will surely happen to you too!

The biggest reason why you WILL succeed is simply by TAKING ACTION. Get educated and then take massive action. And that goes with anything you decide to do. Taking any amount of action and just getting into the game will provide more results then just PLANNING to take action.

Also if something fails (and trust me it will) learn from it and move on. Don’t let that one small failure derail your whole business. When you fail, it’s how you cope with it that’s important. Do you quit? That word doesn’t exist in my book and it shouldn’t in yours either!

For help and resources in building your business, head over here and check out the outstanding information available to you!

Failing’s not a bad thing; it makes you better, smarter and more successful. Embrace your failures. It’s only a failure if you haven’t learned anything from it.

 

You can learn more about Guest Blogger, Julie Atkins, on her website: http://www.reachsuccess-online.com/

Would you prefer to be…

Would you prefer to be NEGATIVE or POSITIVE?

Which do you prefer?

Next question…

If you’re thinking negatively about the year ahead – of what benefit is that to you? What are you achieving by thinking negatively?

It could be that there is a very positive reason for thinking negatively, in which case fine. But if it’s not achieving anything then you may want to rethink your thinking!!

Thinking positively helps produce Serotonin. Serotonin is powerful – it’s a neurotransmitter in your brain which plays an important role in numerous ways, one of which is your mood.

So think about this. If you’re concentrating on what is good in your life it’ll make you feel happier and produce Serotonin which will motivate you. This makes you feel more confident, and guess what, confidence is a critical factor in determining success.

When I’m working with athletes in my hypnotherapy business, I know that confidence allows these athletes to convince themselves that if they put in the necessary hard work they will be successful. They have self-belief. That self belief is not simply inherited, it can be learned and they do that by visualising their success. Subtle hint here…got it?

Lack of confidence is restricting, it stops you in your tracks. If you surround yourself with negative people, your brain will start absorbing that negativity and you find yourself slowing down in the pursuit of your dreams, possibly even stopping completely!!

So how do you get confident? In a way it’s simple, although not necessarily easy. You need to imagine yourself as having succeeded already. Simply picture what that is like to have succeeded. Then repeat the process as often as possible. There is a large element of your brain that doesn’t understand the difference between imagination and reality, if you think positively and confidently enough, it will have you believe you’re positive and confident.

That’s why successful people tend to be surrounded by positive people. People who inspire and encourage. By having positive and confident people around you, your brain absorbs that positivity. However, if you don’t have those sorts of people to hand, simply imagine. Your imagination is a powerful tool that many forget to use!

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I’ll leave you with some final thoughts.

Your brain is like dough, it can be moulded and changed, it’s not like porcelain that is rigid and can crack.

So when you are contemplating 2011, do so with a positive mind and reap the rewards.

Griff.

P.S. There are some more positive ideas and tips on my Facebook page – check out www.facebook.com/griffworld

P.P.S. Forward this on to anyone you know who is negative

Time to forget your passwords!!!

Today has been a day of cooking and there might have been a little swig of Jamesons involved too. So when I came back to plonk myself down in front of the computer, the mind went all of a blank and I was struggling to remember my own name – let alone the password to the account I recently signed up for!

It was coincidental that at this particular moment, my partner Dave Green (he’s into Online Marketing too) was checking out Steve Dutton’s site and came across a Free Password Manager.

Now I have to say that I’ve seen so many things in my time that I’ve got all excited about, only to find they’re not worth it, that at first I was dubious. However, I was proven wrong and it was very good to see something that was so simple yet so valuable.

The other thing is, both Dave and I have a healthy respect for Steve. He’s got the technical know-how that we rely on. So we duly downloaded the software and WOW big time. It’s completely free, no opt in’s etc, and it’ll download pretty much all your regular accounts you log into automatically if you let it. I couldn’t believe how easy it was to just click one button and I was in Aweber.

As Steve says, “With the increasing intrusion of keylogger viruses it can be a real problem in having a solution to remembering all of your online passwords.”

So do check it out: http://lastpass.com/

It’s a little Christmas present from me to you, albeit it came from Steve. Thank-you Steve!

Griff.

Happy Christmas…

HAPPY HAPPY CHRISTMAS

TO ALL MY FRIENDS, FOLLOWERS AND FANS!!!

Feathered Friends Buy at AllPosters.com

 

Here’s wishing you a very very

healthy, happy, prosperous

and successful 2011.

I look forward to working with you all and

enjoying our journey forward.

Griff xx
 

What’s Squidoo???

My good friend, Keith Everett, sent out a blog recently in which once again he mentioned a Squidoo lens. I’d seen this word Squidoo a few times but for some reason hadn’t even wondered what it was. However, it made me think “what is this Squidoo thing” and I duly set off to investigate.

Once I’d landed on Squidoo’s site, I found they described themselves as “an incredibly easy platform that allows you to build a lens, all by yourself, in less than five minutes. Don’t build a lens instead of your website. Build a lens to help your website.”

I think I was even more intrigued at this point than ever…and also wondering what on earth a lens was!

What caught my eye next was that on this platform there are over a million other lenses (webpages to you and me) so just like sending articles out via Ezine, your page benefits from being part of a huge site which attracts more traffic. As soon as the word traffic was mentioned I was switched on!!! Next Squidoo tell me I can generate money from my lens. So, this is getting better the more I read.

The pieces are beginning to drop into place, one keyword phrase search on Google, and Squidoo is yet another way for my info to appear, in addition to my blog, Ezine articles etc etc. And traffic is always good isn’t it?

I’m thinking there’s obviously a lot to discover about this Squidoo thingie and then I read you can have your royalties sent to your charity or to yourself; you can sell things via your Squidoo page, you can even sell stuff via E-bay.

As the New York Times noted “Squidoo….The idea is to harness the knowledge that bloggers typically offer the world, but which average readers might struggle to find on their own.”

Whilst typing this blog I’ve decided this is something I must do. On signing up, something else I discovered is that Squidoo have a marvellous sense of humour! In their verification email to me, they’re chatting on about cupcakes – it really does make a difference when you have humour chucked in you know. My only problem is the whole cupcake reference reminds me of the stack of lush food I have crammed into the cupboard for all the Christmas visitors at the end of this week…stay focused Griff, stay focused!

Trying to stay focused, but cup cakes keep coming to mind!

Halfway through typing this blog, I’d signed up and was discovering the delights and complications. For instance, there’s a nice page which shows me the royalties I’ll be earning (always good to see a page like that). There’s also a Request Page … currently Crunk and Punky want to meet me. Mmmm, will have to investigate that one further I think???

Before I knew it, I had my profile page done, my photo uploaded and I was writing my first lens. Admittedly I was feeling completely lost at this point but their intro video helped and I quickly realised it was no different to typing this blog. In fact this blog became my first lens on ‘my first ever Squidoo visit’. So I cheated in some ways, but hey, give a girl a break, I was learning at the time!

So far I’ve been impressed. I really like how easy it is to upload links to relevant books to your article via Amazon and earn affiliate commission, the quick way you can simply search on a topic and it populates the page with the links is what I found so good. It looks like Ebay would be the same.

Later today I’ll be checking out the rest of the Squidoo site, getting to know it a bit better. One of the things I’ve learned on my Internet Marketing journey is this:

With any new journey you only need to learn it once.

Being patient with yourself is important, you don’t need to take it all onboard in one go, it’s not a race. Step by step is good! It only seems like a few weeks ago I was typing my first blog on WordPress – on looking I discovered it was nearly 3 months ago. What I said in that first blog was “I’m pretty certain that this will get easier as I get used to it. In fact just getting on and typing this is easier than sat looking at a blank screen. Once you start something it’s always much easier than simply contemplating isn’t it!”
Now I just blog away merrily without thinking about it (yes, I can hear you saying, we know!!!) and I’m viewing Squidoo in the same light. Confusion is reigning now, but I know quite rapidly with some practice it’ll become part of my everyday life…probably.

Shall we see? Maybe we’ll compare notes so go and have a look for yourself and let me know what you think: www.squidoo.com By the way, this takes you to entering what your first lens will be about, which totally threw me. Make it anything you want, you don’t have to publish it, but it gets you into the site where you can then have a little look around!

Griff.

P.S. For anyone wanting to give me an early Christmas present, would you visit Griff’s World on Facebook and click on the ‘like’ button for me? Thank-you!!