If
you’re trying to sell products and services online, you’re probably looking for
that one magic key to make your business work.
You
buy CDs and DVDs that will tell you the secret.
You
subscribe to sites like Copyblogger to study the secret.
You
look at mega-successful sites in your market and try to reverse engineer the
secret.
After
all of this searching, you may be tempted to believe there is no
secret. But the secret is real.
Actually,
there are three secrets that work together. To be blunt, these three magic
success secrets separate the winners from the losers. Master them and you’ll
start to move forward. Slowly at first, then you’ll pick up momentum and things
will start to move amazingly quickly. No baloney, no tricks. These three
secrets are . . .
Success
secret #1: Take action
Every
year, hopeful entrepreneurs buy millions of dollars’ worth of “how to succeed”
or “how to start a business” products. The market isn’t limited to doing
business online, but the idea of working at a computer making “six-figure
incomes in our pajamas” is especially irresistible.
95%
of the customers for these products will spend thousands of dollars, then turn
around looking for the next magic pill before their credit card gets a chance
to cool off. So are online marketing products all garbage? Are they just hype
and spin?
There
are some junky products out there, but the truth is that many of them are
excellent. The “gurus,” as they’re (not always affectionately) called, have a
lot of sound advice to give. Their advice can make you lots of money, if you
know the success secret:
You
actually have to do something with the advice.
Most
customers for “business opportunity” products value the dream more than they do
the result. They want to get out of the cubicle, out of their crummy apartment,
out of credit card debt. They might even want it desperately. But they don’t
take action.
I’m
not saying this to be flippant or harsh. It’s not actually all that easy to go
from advice to action. If you don’t have a good track record for that, if
you’ve spent a lot of time or money on how-to products but never really done
anything with it, you may believe you’ll never master it.
That’s
BS.
Your
new productivity methodology
Get
a little notebook. This is your to-do list for your project.
If
you’re a content marketer, most of your actions will revolve around creating
content, creating products, or delivering services. Be sure and maintain a long
list of content ideas, so you’re never at a loss when it’s time to knock out a
post or a podcast.
Write
down all the actions you must take to get you to the next step. Add more
actions as you think of them. Cross them off when you’re done. When the list is
a mess, rewrite it.
You
don’t need an elaborate system that wastes more time than it frees up.
Your
system only needs to help you know what to do next.
Work
every day (7 days a week, no exceptions), even if some days you only have 15
minutes. Working every day will increase your productivity by spurring
your unconscious mind to come up with more ideas. This is helpful for
entrepreneurs, and critical for content marketers.
Make
a daily habit of one hour of action on your biggest goal. You’ll be astonished
at how quickly you start to make progress. Ready, Fire, Aim author
Michael Masterson recommends an hour of work on your dream goal every morning,
as a way to start your day with a terrific rush of productivity. I’ve been
doing just that for the past few months, and I’m starting to get used to the
“whooshing” sound as the pieces fall into place. Not only does it work, it
feels great too.
You
can spend that hour all at once, or divide it into two or three pieces. Make it
work for you. And once you develop the hour-a-day habit, you’ll actually find
yourself making excuses to do more work on your project.
Success
is built on lots of small steps. Start taking them. You’ve built this up in
your head to be 1,000 times harder than it is. The fact that you have
historically been terrible at getting stuff done is not relevant at all.
Just
start taking action. It honestly is that simple.
Success
secret #2: Have a plan
The
down side of “just taking action” is that if you do a lot of random tasks, you
tend to get a lot of random results.
You
need to put together a simple, reasonably logical plan. If you want
notoriety and attention for its own sake, put together a Paris Hilton sort of
plan. If you want credibility and trust from your customers, make it more of a
Copyblogger kind of plan.
There’s
an old saying that when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem tends
to look like a nail. Fight that kind of thinking as much as you can. Your plan
may call for expertise you don’t have, or actions you aren’t very good at. So
make some room in your plan to partner with someone else. If you’re great at
connecting with customers but lousy at technology, find a partner whose
strengths and weaknesses perfectly complement yours. Believe me, that person is
out there and wants desperately to work with you.
Making
too many plans can be the enemy of success secret #1. Be sure your plan has
plenty of room for “actions I will take.”
For
most of us, grandiose plans don’t get implemented. It’s great to have
spectacular goals, if that inspires you. But put together plans for relatively
simple, manageable projects. A dumb, simple little project that gets done is
infinitely more valuable than an impressive one that gets 99% done.
The
reason “back-of-the-napkin” project planning is a cliché is because simple,
compact plans tend to get put into action, while 1,000-page strategies to create
business empires tend to gather dust.
Keep
your project plan in your little notebook. If your plan doesn’t fit into a
small notebook, make a smaller plan.
If
you want to make a million dollars online, start with a project to make $10.
Figure that out, then scale it. It sounds simplistic and even silly, but it
works.
Success
secret #3: Your secret sauce is you
This
is the one that’s going to take #1 and #2 to a completely new level. Success
secrets #1 and #2 can make you a decent living. Add #3 to those and you’ll
start to create an extraordinary business that supports a meaningful life.
As
a content marketer, you’re going to need to create interesting, useful and
compelling content pretty much every day you’re in this business. Your blog
posts, free reports and email newsletters all contribute to one goal:
to establish you as a trusted authority on your topic.
If
you’re just going to regurgitate the usual stuff in a lame me-too blog, you’re
not going to find too many customers. You’re betting off spending your time
surfing or skateboarding — at least with those, you’ll get some exercise and
you might meet somebody cute.
You
have a unique view of your market’s problems. You have a unique set
of techniques and approaches to solve those problems. You have a unique set of
experiences to put the problems in a fresh light. Share those unique
perspectives in your content.
If
you need more expertise to establish yourself as a credible authority, get out
and start asking questions. Be a reporter. Look for case studies. Look for
real-life examples, even if they’re tiny. Look for lessons in your own life.
Make connections no one’s made yet. Bring someone else’s expertise to light in
a new way.
If
you’re a Franciscan monk, write about the Franciscan monk’s guide to brewing
better beer. If you’re a doting parent, write about the toddler’s guide to
success. If you’re an indentured servant for a big corporation, write about how
to avoid doing all the really dumb stuff your company does.
There
will always be people — often thousands of people — who know more than you do.
Acknowledge that so you stay humble and open. Then put it to one side and speak
up anyway.
Keep
whittling down your topic until you’re speaking with an authentic voice about
something you genuinely know and care about. Stay curious and you’ll find the
path that works for you and only for you.
The
real secret
Nearly
everyone will read this, feel inspired for about 45 seconds, then go off to hit
Starbucks and check out what the hottie on the 2nd floor is wearing today.
But
you’re going out at lunch today to pick up your small notebook. As soon as you
get back, you’re going to scribble a simple plan and a good handful of actions
that will make the plan happen. You’re going to put some thought into how you
can execute this plan in your own inimitable way.
You’ll
make 10 minutes and take an action today, even if it’s small. Tomorrow morning,
you’ll start working for an hour every day, 7 days a week, toward your biggest
goal. And just like that, you’ll be on your way to true, meaningful success,
however you define it.
Send
me a postcard when you’ve reached your dream. I’ll be very jazzed to hear from
you.
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