Internet Marketer, Graduate Student, Radical Dude.
Archive for October, 2008
Sell Something on eBay This Year
Oct 30th
Back with an easy tip that can get you started toward a new chapter in life. Let’s imagine you get into a tough financial bind – maybe you come up short for a utility bill. If only you had a couple hundred bucks to pay your bill, you could avoid falling behind in your payments.
With your credit on the line, what can you do?
Well, my favorite way to raise funds has always been to sell off old possessions. Lots of people quickly resort to borrowing money from somewhere, and I sincerely advise against it. If you just need a quick injection of cash, you don’t always need to borrow it! Instead, take a look around your house. You see all that crap lying around that you don’t use? You probably don’t even remember it’s there. Maybe those old school textbooks gathering dust. Maybe it’s the iPod you had to have, but never use. How about that birthday present from mom that just missed the mark? All of these things are sources of quick cash.
In the old days, people would throw together a quick garage sale or try to sell to their friends. Now, you don’t have to do that. In fact, you can usually get a better price for your junk by selling it on eBay. Of course, you probably know that by now. This is 2008! Everybody knows about eBay!
But do you actually use it? Are you a rabbid eBay buyer? Then why are you not an equally rabbid eBay seller? It’s so easy that once you’ve done it, you’ll never go hungry again. Go check out eBay’s seller info right now and see how simple it is to list something for sale.
Your new eBay selling skills will come in handy in the future, too. When I want a new guitar, how do I quickly raise funds to buy it? I sell some old gear on eBay to pay for the new guitar – and my wife smiles knowing that I’m not emptying the checking account. Instead, I’m de-cluttering the house by getting rid of useless stuff.
Try it out this year and you’ll see just how valuable this skill is. Raise quick cash, never be without!
Never “Too Young”
Oct 28th
In continuing with my sage advice this week, I’d like to discuss a topic important to myself and to my same-age peers. The idea that you are ever “too young” for some things can be the biggest obstacle to life success. Today, you need to make a change in mindset.
Most likely you have heard that “failing to plan is planning to fail.” Boring, right? Well boring and true, as it turns out. You may think that 20, 21, 22, 23 is too young to be worried about retirement accounts, or savings, or property investments, or any of those “adult” issues. You would be wrong. And you better learn that now, while you still have time to fix it!
Being young doesn’t mean that being old won’t happen. And you need to plan accordingly. Start saving YOUR money right now – because otherwise it will never really be YOUR money. It will slip through your fingers one dollar bill at a time, until you have nothing to show for it except a bunch of stuff. And that stuff won’t make you any richer. If you start socking away a portion of every paycheck now, it will be your money for years to come. And it can make money while it’s sitting around. Consider your savings account (you have a savings account, right?). That money sits and earns interest, and more money earns more interest. So don’t be a lamer – put money in a high yield savings account and let it sit around. In ten years, those bits and pieces of your paychecks will still be there – and they will have invited their $$ friends over to hang out.
Go check out T Rowe Price right now and consider opening an account to invest in a mutual fund. Yeah the economy is in the dumps right now, but that’s how good investors work, right? Buy low, sell high. Well right now it’s low – real low. And it will go back up. And when it does, your cheap shares in that mutual fund will be worth the spare change you spent on them. Trust me.
Also, invest in yourself. Do you have an education? Are you getting one? If earning a college degree can make you 20% more per year over a high school diploma, then you should cash in. It’s not just 20% more this year – it’s 20% more for 30 years (or however long you work). That’s a lot of money waiting for you!
Finally, take yourself seriously. Being young doesn’t have to mean being stupid. Spending senselessly and never saving a penny will make you a loser when you finally get old. And that’s never a good thing – you old bum. But don’t take yourself so seriously that you forget to enjoy the ride. Save, invest wisely, and have a good time doing it. A bottle of champagne every once in a while just to celebrate your wise decisions is okay. And I highly recommend it.
Go get em, tiger!
The Winning Formula
Oct 27th
This week I’ll be turning 23 years old. And in celebration, I would like to impart some advice throughout the week. Twenty-three years isn’t a long time, but it’s all I have – and I’ve done some cool stuff along the way. So without further blabbing, let’s get started…
As you build a business, you inevitably end up with your own formula for success. Mine came from several people’s gameplans and some first-hand experience with a guy that knows how to make a buck. It’s simple, it works, and anyone can replicate it… with a little effort, that is. Here’s the outline:
- Solve a problem
- Be different
- Rinse & repeat
I told you it was simple. Let’s talk details now… If you want to sell anything to anyone, you need to solve a problem for them. It can be any kind of problem. People have hundreds and thousands of problems, and they shell out cash for solutions. Here are some examples:
- “I need to get to work” – sell me a car, bicycle, taxi service, etc.
- “I’m hungry” – sell me some Taco Bell
But most of these problems already have solutions on the market, right? So how are you supposed to squeeze your way in and make some $$$? You can create a new problem, and then offer the solution (this is tricky, and not for the beginner). Or you can solve a problem in a better (or at least different) way. The last option is my specialty.
So you have x problem, huh? Well you could go with solution A, or you could use the revolutionary new solution B – it’s 2x concentrated, all natural, and can solve world hunger!
The key is to be different in a way that makes you appear better. You should also try to actually be better, but we can settle for appearing better at first. This difference between you and your competition is your USP (Unique Selling Point). It’s what sets you apart and makes customers lust for your product.
Now, unleash your magic and sit back. When your results come in, see how you did. Did you lose some money? Well, too bad. But don’t give up. Try some variations. Most ideas can be manipulated into money-making machines, you just have to give it the right spin.
If you made some money, then you can move to step three – rinse and repeat. Your idea made you money, do it again for a related problem. Did you fix somebody’s hybrid Prius battery? Can you also fix a hybrid Camry battery? Or a hybrid Escalade? Move from problem to problem and vary your solution to fit the circumstances. The same great idea can be used again and again to increase your profits. Go ahead, give yourself a raise.
Now you have my winning formula – use it wisely. And don’t forget to send me a “thank you” check (make it out to Reuben Rock).
Best of luck!
Close Your Wallet – Open Your Eyes (Get More Educational ‘Bang’ For Your Buck)
Oct 23rd
One of the more disturbing trends I see in Internet Marketing is what I call the “perpetual learner.” If you’ve spent any time talking to supposed IMers, whether @ a seminar or on WarriorForum, you have probably met people that fall in this category. Let me break it down for you:
“3 Characteristics of a Perpetual Learner”
- A truckload of IM products. This can include piles of books, shelves full of binders, CDs of audio/software/etc., and an external harddrive packed w/eBooks.
- Comprehensive knowledge of upcoming product launches, as well as an archive of every past product in the industry.
- Complete lack of personal results (they don’t make $$$)
I know – not everyone w/a bookshelf of material is a perpetual learner. Some of the best marketers I know have tons of resources in their office. I have tons of books/audios! But the difference lies 100% in the results and the application of that knowledge.
So why are so many people buying, buying, buynig all the time – and never applying? Because IM has become such a buzzword, such a golden parachute, in the last ten years. You want to learn how money is made online? There are millions of products out there offering you manure by the pound!
And people buy it – all of it!
So today I’m going to reveal my #1 technique for cutting the bull and picking up marketing knowledge. Here it is:
STOP buying products now, start analyzing how these gurus are selling you their brain waste.
That sounds harsh – and there are marketers out there w/genuine gold to offer you. But a lot of it is BS. The real knowledge can be plucked freely from a good marketer’s materials – the same sales letters they send you to in every email. And here’s the kicker – often times the advice they sell you isn’t even used in their own materials.
Prime example: 42 Split Tests
At the top of this sales letter, you find a quiz question: Which bg color converts 31% better than the others? The answer is at the bottom of the sales page.
If this bg color was the golden ticket you and little Charlie were looking for, wouldn’t it be used in the very sales letter you were reading? After all, they have the secret – why not apply it?
Well the funny thing is, this marketer chooses white for his BG – not even on the list of quiz answers! So what color is “the best,” performing 31% better than the rest? Robin’s egg blue! So where is the robin’s egg blue on this page? On any of this marketer’s other pages?! On anyone’s sales pages?!
It’s not – so what’s up?
What real lesson can you pull from this sales page? Well for starters: he prefers a white table BG and a white page BG. If it didn’t convert well for him, he wouldn’t use it. You see, the best marketing lessons on the web are right in front of you – for free.
So quit buying all the step-by-step, launch formula, whatever crap – you’re doing more to support the guru lifestyle than you are creating your own income streams. Open your eyes, print out some popular sales letters, and pull some real knowledge out of all the hype.
It costs less and it makes more ($$$).
Automate or not?
Oct 18th
There was a time when I thought preserving profits was THE key to my success. I don’t hand out cash to have my sites built, my sales letters written, or anything else. There were a couple ebooks I outsourced way back when… but that’s it.
In my mind, doing everything myself was the way to go. If I didn’t know how, I learned. Simple. And besides – nobody cares about your success more than you.
Well times are a changin.
As my time becomes stretched thinner and thinner, I’ve had a change of heart. After some careful calculating and contemplating, I know that automating my business will cost very little and free up my time.
So if you have been working yourself into the grave, stop and think it through. How much would it really cost to have this work done for you? Write it down:
- List out every responsibility that you have to your business
- Break those responsibilities into the basic tasks that make them up
- Now decide which of these things can be reasonably handled by somebody else?
- How much time will it take each week to do these things?
- How much would somebody expect to be paid for this amount of work/time?
Now the realization may hit you – it probably isn’t that much $$. For me, it was under $100/week to take care of everything.
So enjoy your weekend, and don’t forget how valuable your time is.
Best of luck,
Reuben D. Rock
