I’ve preached for years that frustration is a function of expectations. In the ideal case, the provider (company, service provider, government, employer, etc) will manage/set expectations. If they fail to do so, then the recipient will establish expectations, often far above what the provider intends to deliver. ( The iPad does X, why doesn’t this device do that? )

Managing outcomes, whether they be in a retail environment, dealings with bureaucracy, or at work… is VERY important. Failing to do so will lead to frustration and, as Seth points out this morning, frustration is a soul killer. It sucks the very life and motivation out of anyone unfortunate enough to encounter it.

Take Aways

In your dealings with others set expectations, don’t allow them to be set for you. That way you are both operating from the same page and there won’t be surprises in the end. For example, if you run an oil change business and a customer bring their car to you, tell them how long it will take. Instead of, “We’ll get to it as soon as possible.” try, “We’ll get to it as soon as possible, that looks like 30 minutes. Is that ok?”

If you are on the receiving end of an exchange and the other party doesn’t set expectations for you, try setting them yourself. Same example…

Mechanic: We’ll get to it as soon as possible.
Customer: So within the next 30 minutes?

See, now everyone knows what to expect and no one’s soul is drained from their body!

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If you have, did you do it? If you did, how did it work out? If you didn’t, why not?

I’m looking for feedback, questions, comments, success stories, whatever… around individuals who have taken the plunge and started a business and people who have thought about it and are not quite ready to pull the trigger yet.

It doesn’t matter what kind of business it is. Doesn’t matter whether it is full-time or on the side. I’m most curious about the thought process that goes into striking out on your own.

If you have started a business, what were some of the unexpected aspects that came up? If you’re thinking about a business, what are some of the unknowns that worry you?

I have a ton of people in my network and hopefully I can get a pretty good response from a wide variety of people.

Please leave a comment below and tell us about your experiences and dreams! I have a ton of people in my network with a very wide variety of experience and expertise. Who knows, maybe you’ll be able to connect with someone here that can help your dream become a reality!

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Leadership is a funny thing. We all “know” what it is… but have a hard time explaining it. We expect it from our boss… but it’s probably not in their job description and almost certainly not in their job title. So what IS leadership, who shows us how to do it, and why is it such a hard concept to wrap our heads around?

I suppose the precepts of leadership were first impressed upon me during my stint in the army, and as any good veteran can tell you, the first place to look is to the regulation…

The Army defines leadership as influencing people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation, while operating to accomplish the mission and improve the organization.

Army Regulation 600-100

For the non-military types out there, lets look at the complete compendum of human knowledge for a definition…

the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task”

Wikipedia.org

Do you see the common element? That’s right, its influence. But its more than that, it is influence toward accomplishing a task.

Ok, great. Now we have a book knowledge of what leadership is… now for the hard part. How do we apply that knowledge to our vocation, advocation or the task at hand?

But I’m Not In Charge

Funny, I don’t remember seeing that as a requirement in any of the definitions. It didn’t say, “influence of the person in charge to accomplish a task,” did it? Too often we limit ourselves by believing that leadership is reserved for those with some sort of “leadership” position. We assume our managers, directors, or VPs will be the leaders and that we are just here to follow their instructions.

The reality is many managers simply don’t understand leadership and the ones that do can’t do it by themselves. They depend on members of the rank-and-file to “step-up” and “get the job done,” euphemisms for leadership. Think about it for a second. Think about work and who has the greatest influence over the members of your team. Truth be told, its probably not the first line supervisor. If you can’t figure out who it is, ask some of your co-workers… the answer may surprise you!

Ok, But Why Me?

So if that previous exercise pointed a finger back at you, guess what… you’re a leader. (I’ll pause here so you can complain about “not asking to be a leader” and how its “unfair”…). You are a leader if you make things happen. If people come to you for your opinion, you’re a leader. No, you never ran for the position of leader… it wasn’t pinned on you like a name tag… but everyone knows it, even you.

I think its one of the great ironies of life that most leaders don’t (or didn’t) want to be leaders. On my Kindle right now I’m reading the Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S Grant. Wow, talk about a reluctant leader. And yet, when it comes to influencing others in the accomplishment of a task, you’d be hard pressed to find an example of someone who was a greater leader than Grant. (In the interest of equal time… I’m reading Robert E. Lee next…)

You may not have asked for the role, but you have it. You have it because people respect your opinion, value your input, and most importantly, because you will make a decision. See, the vast majority of people out there are followers. They’ll be more than happy to fall in line behind anyone who is willing to lead the line. Its safer that way. You, on the other hand, are frustrated following the lead of others, feel stifled by indecisiveness or a lack of direction. You’d rather make a wrong decision than no decision at all. One of the great philosophers of all time once said

Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”

Roy Rogers

Embracing The Leader Within

So before you run off to change the world, excited that you’re a leader, I have one more thing for you to think about. If people value your input, respect your opinion and follow your lead, where does that leave you on the responsibility scale? Yes Spiderman, its true… with great power comes great responsibility! You’ve been a leader for some time now, you don’t have to change a thing. Accept your role, be confident, and lead.

HaHa, You’re Wrong

Ok, maybe I was. Maybe those fingers didn’t point back at you as a leader. Why not? So what if you weren’t put in charge, we already established that being in charge doesn’t matter. (BTW, you don’t have to have a single person who “works for you” to be a leader either… nice try). Who cares if you’re not the boss’ favorite, you will be if you start getting thing done! Oh, you must be afraid that your co-workers will make fun of you for being a “company man.” Remember the part about wanting to feel safe by following someone else?

The bottom line is you owe it to yourself, not your employer, to do the best you can at your job. Would you be proud to reply to your kids, nieces or nephews, or the kid next door when they ask you what you do, and you have to answer, “I do a half-hearted job at filing widgets for the Acme company… you know, the bare minimum.”? I hope not.

Step up your game. Whether you’ve accepted the role of leader or you’re putting on the mantle now, be the best you can be at what you do, encourage others to do the same, and get things done! It will put you in front of the pack, and quite possibly make you your boss’ new best friend!!

Your Turn

What do you think a leader is? Why do some people emerge from the crowd while others remain safely in it’s midst? What obstacles do you see holding you back from being a leader? Let me know what you think in the comments below.

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I am NOT a status quo kind of guy! Not because I have anything against stability or because I’m an anarchist. I challenge the status quo because it lulls us into conformity, stagnation, and mediocrity. It almost silently robs us of our creativity and motivation to innovate, our wanderlust and curiosity. The idea of doing something, anything, because someone else expects me to is just insane.

Enter The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillebeau and the very first passage I underlined in the book, “You don’t have to live your life the way other people expect you to.”

For me, this book was more of a confirmation of the way I’ve been looking at life recently than any kind of revelation…. but it will totally be an eye-opener for almost everyone who reads it.

The general theme of Non-Conformity is actually pretty straightforward, Instead of living your life by the rules someone else defined (work hard, save up, retire when you’re old), decide what is important to you today and orient your life and lifestyle around that. For Chris, that means travel. He has decided to visit every country on the planet within five years. To accomplish that he has made decisions about where to live, what work to take on, whether to buy a car, buy a home or rent… all driven by his goal of world travel. He includes a quote from D.H. Lawrence that sums it up nicely, “Life is something to be spent, not saved.”

For me, its not about travel. I’ve been to several countries that I don’t care to return to and I still have a few I’d like to see, but I don’t really care about seeing them all. For you, it is likely to be something else as well. The point is pick your passion, figure out what you want to do, be, or accomplish and make a plan to do it now. Why do you want to wait till you’re old and grey to start traveling, or learning to hang glide, or make custom jewelry? Do it now! Chris can help you get started!

If you’re interested in the book, I would certainly appreciate it if you can use the (affiliate) link at the top to get The Art of Non-Conformity today from Amazon.

Chris also has a blog, not surprisingly entitled The Art of Non-Conformity. Check it out as well.

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When you are one of thousands even millions swimming in the social media pool… how do you get noticed? What makes your posts, your Tweets, or your Facebook updates more special than the next guy? Why should anyone pay any attention at all to you?

This all started with a post over at Leoville ( see Buzz Kill ), a tweet by Brogan and the flood of comments that followed, including an exchange with @trchandler on Twitter. He asked me the question about getting noticed and it just begged a longer form response than 140 characters would allow… so here goes.

If you don’t read the comments, this post by Leo Laporte is awesome. I think he’s spot on.

Chris Brogan

If you’ve ever read anything I’ve written, you know I have an affection for analogies. We spend a lot of time trying to figure out things in the on-line world that have already been figured out off-line… we just need to connect the dots. Getting noticed on-line is no different.

What Do You Do?

So you’re at the big game with your significant other and the camera guy is coming around taking shots of the crowd. You want to get on the big screen. What do you do? In a stadium of thousands, in a section of hundreds, what do YOU do to get on TV?

Simply, you do something attention worthy. For either its shock value, humor, or whatever other reason, you have that makes you stand out. You catch the guy’s eye, he takes the shot then moves down the line.

On-line, you make a brilliant comment on a popular blog post. Maybe in a moment of wit you post a Twitter message that gets RT’ed all over the Internet. Or maybe, just maybe, you get really sucky service and you make an awesome YouTube video that gets a million views over night ( ie United Breaks Guitars! ).

Now Run With It!

Now that you have the world’s attention, what are you going to do with it? Well, the simple truth is, not much. See, in the end,its not up to you whether they keep listening to you or not. Its not up to you if they like what you have to say. The ball is in their court.

What’s going to keep them listening is whether you produce content that is meaningful and relevant to them. If they think your funny, or smart, or insightful… or they just need someone new to stalk… they will notice you and they will listen.

Of course, you could always buy followers too… but that’s no fun!

So Now What?

Well, now that you know the process, what can you do?

1. Have a history. You produce a steady stream of good content so when you do snag someone’s attention, they have something to consume.

2. Be prepared. When you do get the opportunity to shine, give it all you’ve got!

3. Participate. When was the last time the lotto lady rang your doorbell, reminding you to buy a ticket because tonight was your night to win? Huh? Never? If you don’t participate in the conversation, its virtually guaranteed that no one will ever notice you!

Have more tips? Think I’m so far out in left field that I’m in the parking lot? Love it and want more? Leave a comment and let me know what YOU think!

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When we do business online, sometimes we forget that we are dealing with something that is global, something so huge and so potent. We forget that we are not just buying milk from the local grocery store or that we are not just selling lemonade from a lemonade stand. We always need to be reminded that the online business is a real business. It deals not with paper money, but real money. It has the complete potential to support you and give you the power to become an independent entrepreneur. Just because your business is online doesn’t mean you shouldn’t treat it like a real business. This is the second post in a series looking at some of the most important elements of a strong online business model.

Build A Smart Model

Building a smart business is easier than you think. All you really need is some basic knowledge of the internet and some business common sense. The rest will all follow easily. How do you do this? Just follow some of the tips below and you will soon realize the potential of your online business to be a fully automated and smart model that could easily earn you extra money without giving it much effort.

Tip # 1. Diversify Income Streams.

Everyone know putting all your eggs in one basket is a bad idea. The internet is a very potent source of income and you should optimize it by diversifying the way you make money in the internet. One method or one source is not enough to keep your income steady and flowing. You can easily add to your income if you use different methods ( such as having adsense on your site, hosting ad banners, etc) and add multiple streams of income from diverse sources. Why should you do this? Here are a few reasons:

• Doing this can protect you from losing everything when advertising terms change or a partner decides to pull out. By having more than one source of income, you could have the option of pulling out when you need to or have a steady source of income even if one source fails or does not perform up to your standards.
• Doing this, will require a lot of work, however, the security is worth it! By having multiple sources of income it also means that you double the work. You check more things, it requires you to answer to more people but the financial security of doing this is worth it. The double work pays off especially when you realize that it gives you double the income for a bit more of your time. Soon, if you work hard enough, the rewards will be greater and you will be earning more than you expect with a few clicks.

Tip # 2. Build auto-pilots to fund future projects

We all know that in order to make money,we have to spend a little money. However, if you do not have the capital at the moment, and you have a project in mind, it would be great to build capital for your next project by finding easy ways to make more money on the net. You do not have to spend a lot of time on the net for it. You could do this by building muse projects.

In the 4-hour Work Week, Tim Ferriss talked about muse projects. Muse projects are simple, single problem solutions, that once started, could run on their own yet provide some income. It doesn’t have to be a lot. What could you do with $500 a month to put toward your Internet Business? Adsense sites, affiliate products, hosting ad banners and similar avenues, any of these could be turned into auto-pilot projects. Add enough of them, and they may become your whole income model!

Tip # 3 Think global

Do not forget that the internet is not only a local network. It reaches every part of the globe at all times and it is a 24 hour money making network that never sleeps. When you’re developing your projects, remember that some of your potential customers will be outside the US. Many of the products sold online are not bought by local buyers, you will find that when you have an online business most of your customers and market would be outside the country. In fact, you may even want to target prospects outside the US and make money by offering products and services targeted for these audiences.

Never limit your target market to a certain region geographically if you are in the internet. It is smarter and wiser to remember that in the internet, you have the whole world at the palm of your hand and within reach.

Also remember to take advantage of global arbitrage when it comes to talent and labor. There are thousands of well educated, well qualified people around the world willing and able to help you build your online businesses. Look at sites like oDesk.com to find one that can help make your project a global success.

Tip # 4. Always keep your flagship.

I tend to believe that you should solve one problem with one solution. This manifests itself in my online business as hundreds of web sites, each intended to address and solve one problem. If you focus on addressing the needs and wants of a single market, you can effectively find out and be an expert on their needs and wants and anticipate the market demand easier than by solving many problems and addressing many markets at once. Though others may disagree and your experience will vary, this is just the way I’ve chosen to structure my business.

One reason is for ease of sale. That’s right. I structure my business so I can sell any part of it if the opportunity presents itself. It is easier to present and design a website if you have a single market in mind. You can singly attack and attract your target market this way and you can build a brand name for yourself that way. Being known for a flagship name could help make you a household name in the market you choose and easily bring more people to your online business.

And as of today, I don’t see any reason why I’d ever want to get rid of my flagship property, jtrigsby.com. I mean, lets face it, I’d pretty much have to change my name for it to become useless for me! Keep your home base just like a manufacturing business would keep their headquarters. No matter what they make or sell, the headquarters remains the same. Your flagship would identify you, no matter what you sell or what service you provide to different markets, people would always find you there and would bring business to you if you are known by that single name.

Building a smart model with the tips above could be easy for some and a challenge for some. Why don’t you try and write a one-page online business plan and see if it is possible to apply the aforementioned tips to your online business. In that business plan you should identify your objectives, and state why you are starting an on-line business.

Then, you should identify your market or the people who are you trying to reach and sell to. Give them a name, describe them, and make a list of where they spend money online today. Ask yourself what they need and what you could provide them as well.

Identify your competitors. Start with the big players then work down to the second and third tier. How do they reach their customer base? What can they do that you couldn’t? What do they do that you could do better? Identify your strengths and weaknesses against them.

Finally, think about how you’re going to get out. An exit plan is a great way to ensure that you will not lose everything when you close down shop. Will you sell to someone else or just close up shop? What will you do when you reach your objective? What are the determining factors that would make you close up shop?

By answering these questions, you would have created a solid plan of action that you could apply to your own business. Hopefully, you have built a smart model that could generate you money easily and could gain profit from the very rich and potent online market that you choose.

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Like any business, the online business needs careful planning, preparation and operation to make it successful.  Just because you’re business is online doesn’t mean you shouldn’t treat it like a real business. This is the first post in a three part  series looking at some of the most important elements of a strong online business model.

Your Online Business Is Still A Business

It is important to remember that once you start doing business on the internet that you are actually being entrepreneurial and starting your own online business. Whether it is an online shop to sell your arts and crafts or you offering your services online to other people – it is an online business. For this business venture to succeed and start earning, you have to learn how to view it as if the business was real and not virtual.

To do this, you must start business planning and some market research which are the foundation of any business. However, if you are not a big business person, you can also achieve success in your business if you know the four basic business factors that are important in any business online or not. These factors include:  objectives or goals, market, competition and exit strategy.

Know your objectives

Before starting any business you must know your objectives. Of course, the ultimate goal of any business is to make money or gain profit. However, while that’s a good enough reason some times, more often there is a reason you want to make more money.  It could be to pay off bills, buy a new boat, or just quit your day job. Understanding WHY you are starting your online business makes decision making a lot easier later on.

Before you start your business, you have to start with by knowing what your business goals are. To effectively do this, it is important that you ask the following questions:

• Why are you starting this online business?
• What does your business do?
• What is this business for?

These three questions will help you formulate your Mission and Vision Statement. The mission statement articulates a company’s purpose. It announces to the world why your company exists, what it does and what your business is for. The mission statement will serve as your guide to achieving your ultimate business goals.

Alongside this, most business people put together a vision statement which is a statement of your company’s goals and what it wants to achieve. Together, the mission-vision statement defines the purpose of your online business.
Know your market

Once you get know what your purpose the next step is to know your market. There is only one way to make money, on-line or off-line… You have to sell something. It may be tangible goods or just your time. If you are having a difficult time figuring out what to sell, think about it backwards and ask yourself what people want to buy. Knowing your market makes product development a lot easier.

Once you get a general idea of what you are going to sell (whether it is a product or service), you have to find out who you are selling to. It is difficult to make money online if you do not know who to channel your marketing energies to. To do this, ask yourself the following questions:

• What is your product/service?
• Who will benefit most from your product/service?
• Who else would benefit or could use your product/service?

Once you answer these questions then you have discovered your Target Market. Remember that, Selling is easier if you have a target in mind. You cannot expect to put a website or products in the internet and they would sell instantly if you do not channel your energies towards marketing to the right people.

Focus your energies on trying to attract these people and knowing what they want or need.  This knowledge will help you develop or create better things that these people may want or need that you can provide. This innovation that is specifically targeted for them could help you get an edge in the dog eat dog world of online business.

Know your competition

Another way to succeed in the Online business world is to know your competition. Just like in an off-line business, taking on the biggest competitor in your on-line business niche is going to be pretty hard. When you’re just getting started, look for the second and third tier players in your niche and target their audience. Then with success, aim your sights a little higher. Taking smaller bites of the pie makes getting started a lot easier.

By studying your competition, you could learn from them. What they did right, what they did wrong, what they can improve and what you can do to get the edge and steal a portion of their market. Learning from your competitors would help you avoid the mistakes they did and make your business much more successful and profitable.

When doing the competitor analysis, you must answer the following questions: (SWOT ANALYSIS)

• What are my business’  internal strengths?
• What are the weaknesses?
• What opportunities are there for me to grab?
• What threats are there in the market that I should avoid or get over?

In addition, you could also answer the following:

• What things can I do better than my competition?
• What things did they do that I should avoid?
• What can I improve on their strategy to give me the edge?

Know your exit strategy

Finally, it is good to know that each business has its own cycle. It is good to know when to quit and bail out while it’s still good. What would you do if the business is already in decline? How would you exit the market?

In the early days of any business its easy to imagine that it will go on forever. Its important however to consider how long you will be willing to run your business and under what conditions you will consider selling or ending your business.

You have to be realistic and prepare for things that may come if your business is unsuccessful.

These four elements are also the four basic elements or factors in business planning and development. The knowledge of these four elements will help you write out a business plan that could be your roadmap to the success of your online business,

Have you started planning your online business? Or if it is existing does it have a business plan? Maybe the best thing to do to improve your business or start it out, is to write a one-page online business plan.

To this you have to:

• Identify your objectives, why are you starting an on-line business.
• Identify your market, who are you trying to reach. Give them a name, describe them, and make a list of where they spend money online today
• Identify your competitors, start with the big players then work down to the second and third tier. How do they reach their customer base?
• Finally, think about how you’re going to get out. Will you sell to someone else or just close up shop? What will you do when you reach your objective?

I hope that this article would help you create that perfect business plan for your business. Remember that planning is one of the best keys in strategic online business success. Good Luck and Happy Planning!

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The basic Skype service is free and allows you to make voice and video calls with excellent call quality to any other Skype user, anywhere in the world.  Think of it as an interactive email or instant message.  Skype allows you to conduct conference calls with three or more Skype users for free as well.  There are more features available for those who are willing to pay a nominal fee.      

For a small fee each month ($2.95 USD as of this writing) you can get a Skype-In telephone number.  This will allow regular telephone users to dial a number and reach you via Skype.  Not only can you accept incoming calls from regular telephone numbers, but you can also make outgoing calls to regular telephone numbers as a Skype-In subscriber.  This could eliminate the need for you to get a dedicated telephone service for your home-based Internet business.  Telephone service through traditional providers can be expensive and come with contracts and early termination fees.  Skype is a no-hassle and inexpensive service as an alternative to traditional telephone service for your Internet-based business.  A great benefit of being a Skype-In subscriber is the availability of using your Skype number with various other services and devices.

As a Skype-In subscriber, you can forward your Google Voice number to your Skype number.  That way you can still take advantage of Google Voice’s features (i.e. voicemail transcription, SMS to email, conference calls, personalized greetings and more) while using Skype.   For those of you on the go, Skype has a killer iPhone app that makes free calls over a 3G network.  There are also apps available for Blackberry and Android devices that make it easier to do business remotely.  The Skype apps are definitely some of the best cloud apps available.

Home-based Internet businesses would greatly benefit from using Skype.  You can set up accounts for your employees, make international calls without worrying about the price per minute, enhance your conversations with video capability, integrate existing telecommunication services and mobile devices, perform conference calls, and more all for a nominal monthly fee. 

If you have not already, take a few moments and sign up for a Skype account to see how your business can benefit from its endless features.  You can do so by clicking on the Skype logo to the right. 

For those of you who do use Skype, what do think about it?  Do you use it for personal purposes, business purposes, or both?  How has your business been impacted by using Skype?  Have you used Skype with Google Voice or used any of the mobile apps?

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Google Voice is a great new telecommunications service from Google. It is not a phone redirecting service. It’s not VoIP or Voicemail. It is a combination of all of the above and more. Google voice allows users to register a new phone number and direct it to call multiple phones. It could also collect messages and act as your personal switchboard operator and it also tracks, records and transcribes communication for easy recording and safekeeping on the cloud.

It is currently one of the best cloud apps in the market today. However, it is still just limited to the United States. You can get a telephone number for any US Area Code (sorry, only works in US) no matter how far or remote the area that you would like to be in. Google voice service also now allows you to choose words or witty phrases that your phone number spells out. So you can easily personalize and have fun choosing the number that you want such as (773)824- LOVE. The downside is that sometimes you cannot use an existing number of yours or have to pay a switching fee to allow it to switch to Google Voice which can be a sad fact for those who are married to a longtime cell number or the like

Another great thing about Google Voice is that you can forward incoming calls to ANY phone, to even more than one phone. This protects your privacy since you don’t have to give out your actual cell phone number and if you change phones, you don’t have to worry about missing calls.  This application forwards your calls to as many or as few numbers as you like, and you can even redirect calls to different phones depending on who is calling. This makes it easier for you to organize your call list, avoid unwanted callers and get the calls that you actually want.  Just like gmail, you can even set certain groups (or individuals) to be sent directly to Voicemail, to the Spam folder, or block the call altogether.

With Google voice, you are not stuck at home with a computer. It is portable and could even be used with ANY phone. It forwards the calls to wherever you are and you can check your messages from all the phones anywhere using the service. The Iphone has even launched an official application for Google Voice users.

If that’s not enough, Google Voice also allows you to thread incoming calls differently for different groups of callers. For example, unknown callers go straight to voicemail while family callers go to your cell phone and business callers only go to your cell during business hours. You can take that total holiday without fear of losing and missing any important calls. You can take your business anywhere with you and gives you freedom and allows you to organize contacts into groups for easy tracking and recording.

Google voice allows you to either have the calls sent directly to your phone with no filtering, or you can have Google ask them to say their name first so you can screen callers and choose the people you want to talk to or avoid. The service will call you, tell you the name of the person who is calling, and give you the option to take the call or send them to voicemail. This is a great way to protect your privacy. You can also customize the behavior of the service at anytime depending on a group (Friends, Family, Work, etc.) or an individual basis. This eliminates the guesswork and even gives you the ability to listen in on voicemails as they are being left.

This service also has a great voicemail system with transcription and email forwarding. Incoming voicemails are automatically transcribed and can be configured to be emailed to you. It could also be sent through SMS and is recorded and kept in the cloud forever. There is no fear now of losing a call record because you will all have them organized and permanently stored in the cloud.

Now for the best part, Google Voice gives you all of this for FREE.  It’s all free. And we all love free! How could you even compare to that?

So, this leaves me to ask: Do you use Google Voice? What do you think? What’s the good, the bad, and/or the ugly from your experience with Google Voice? Is it worth it or is it just another waste of a perfectly good cloud?

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If you are into marketing and sales, you’ve probably heard sayings like “Always be selling” or “Always be closing (the sale).” If you intend to have a successful online business, you should really “Always be list building.” It’s an online marketing basic. Everyone knows that having a well-targeted and responsive list of people is the key on how to make money blogging.  It is essential that you understand that the success of an online business comes from building relationship with a big subscriber base. It is also important that you build good relationships with people who are generally interested in the same subject area as your product or service is.  This will allow you to enter their niche and help you sell the product to them. You have to remember that the most successful online business knows that they can only succeed when the subscriber succeeds or is satisfied.

“Your List” is the list of readers, subscribers, or followers who have given you permission to offer them products for sale. Seth Godin coined the term Permission Marketing to define the practice of asking someone’s permission before hitting them with a marketing message. The concept is simple, permission marketing is basically the privilege and it is not a right of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to know or hear about it. This list allows the person to choose which marketing messages to allow and which to filter out.

If you want to know more about it, here is a link to Seth Godin’s book below

To tell it simply and in a more straightforward way it is basically this: People hate SPAM. If you use the older technique of using mass e-mails to market your product, more likely than not, you will not get your message across. Your message will fall into the vortex called the SPAM folder (or stuff that we don’t ever read) and eventually get deleted along with the other e-mail garbage. An average person will never sort through SPAM and read through all of it.

Online consumers are very selective of what messages they want to read. They only read things that are interesting to them. That is why it is important that you give them the ability to choose whether or not they want to read the message that you are offering them. By having an opt-in subscriber system, the consumer now has the power to choose if they want to be on your list or not. If they are interested, more likely than not, they will subscribe and therefore read your messages and eventually patronize your business.

Most often, your List is thought of as you email subscribers, but you can also include your Twitter followers, Facebook fans, anyone who has opted-in to relationship building with you. You have to capitalize on the power of social networking in helping you build your list. Remember, that in order to catch their attention, you always have to post meaningful messages that will interest them in adding you to their friends list. By doing so you can effectively build relationships with your list and eventually have them patronize whatever it is that you are selling. This is an effective way on how to make money blogging as well.

So, how are you building your list? Do you use social networking sites such as twitter and facebook to do so? Do you only friend people so you could add them to your list?

If you are interested in further building your list, you can use this link to sign up with Aweber and learn how to effectively build your list even further for the success of your online business.

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