I am compiling an internet marketing course aimed at helping people start their work from home online business, or helping them get back on track if they have already started but aren’t achieveing the results they desire yet.

May I ask you a favour? Please let me know what is the biggest challenge facing you right now in your work from home internet marketing online business. This will help me ensure that my course helps as many people as possible.

You can let me know by adding a comment below or, if you prefer to let me know privately, you can send me a private message. 

I appreciate you taking the time to help me out on this.

To your success and happiness

Martyn

I promised to share the results with you so here they are:

39% stated that “information overload” and where and how to get started was their biggest challenge.
13% stated that lack of technical knowledge was their biggest challenge.
13% stated lack of focus was their biggest challenge.
9% stated the inability to select a niche was their biggest challenge.
9% stated a lack of (or inability to maintain) motivation and self-belief was their biggest challenge.
5% stated lack of traffic was their biggest challenge.
5% stated not knowing how to successfully monetize a site or an inability to convert traffic into sales was their biggest challenge.
5% stated lack of time or poor time management was their biggest challenge.
1% stated not knowing which business model to use was their biggest challenge.
1% stated trying to “get rich quick” instead of building a genuine and sustainable business was their biggest challenge.

Reading the comments, a very common picture emerged, one that is very familiar to me …

You decide that you want to set up a work from home internet marketing online business and are full of excitement, motivation and anticipation because you’ve found an internet marketing course that will teach you how to make “squillions” of dollars online quickly and easily.

You devour the course and try to implement what you’ve learned but it assumes a level of technical knowledge that you don’t have and there is no support to answer your queries.

You can’t make it work but it’s OK because someone has very kindly emailed you about another internet marketing course that will show you how to make “squillions” of dollars online even more quickly and easily. So you buy it but you don’t have a list of customers or any joint venture partners so it doesn’t work for you.

But its OK because someone else has very kindly sent you an email about an even better internet marketing course …

And so it goes on.

You end up flitting from course to course, half-heartedly trying each one, failing to achieve the results you were hoping for and then getting distracted by something better, easier, quicker. Very soon you have information coming out of your ears and don’t know what is worth focusing on.

You are investing loads of time and money but are going nowhere fast. Time is passing, your bank account is emptying and all you seem to be learning is just how little you know about internet marketing.

Does this sound familiar?

Another trend that emerged from the comments from those who responded to my survey was that they only really made progress once they found a mentor – someone they trusted who showed them, step-by-step, exactly what to do and provided on-going support to help them along the way.

Only then were they able to focus on one workable system which took their business to the next level.

In fact, I don’t know of any successful people who don’t have a mentor.

So, the moral of this tale is stop buying course after course after course. Find someone you trust who provides mentoring and invest your time and effort with them!

I intend to provide a step by step course to help newbies start their work at home internet marketing online business but it isn’t available yet. You can be one of the first to receive it when its ready by filling in your name and email in the box on the right of this page.

What are your thoughts about using a mentor? Waste of money or the best way to succeed? Please share your thoughts by adding a comment below …

To your success and happiness

Martyn

I’d like to come back to that question in a moment. But first I’d like to share with you where I am up to in my internet business …

This blog has been somewhat neglected, partly because I’ve been building other websites in various niches, and partly because I wasn’t sure in what direction I wanted this blog to go.

It was always my intention that this blog would help people develop in some way, either mentally, spiritually, financially or perhaps a combination of all three.

Having learned how to build websites, drive traffic to them, capture visitors’ email addresses, convert visitors to buyers and make repeat sales to existing customers, I’ve decided to use this blog to teach others what I’ve learned about internet marketing and starting an online business working from home.

I intend to produce a comprehensive step-by-step internet marketing online business course. I will compile the course in my “spare time” while I continue to build other sites in other niches.

If you already know how to build a website, build a list and sell products online, my internet marketing course is likely to be too basic for you, at least initially. But if you’d like to see how it develops over time, feel free to subscribe to it using the box at the top right of this page.

And that brings me back to my original question …

It would be very helpful to me if you could let me know what was the greatest challenge to you when you first started your work from home internet marketing online business.

Perhaps it was finding the time … or finding a niche … or finding a product … or finding the will to live with all the information overload!

Whatever it was, I’d be very grateful to you if you could let me know by leaving a comment below (or emailing me if you’d prefer privacy).

I’ll then compile the results and share them with you in a post on this blog . You may find the results useful in your own internet marketing online business!

To your success and happiness

Martyn

But it doesn’t have to be that way. It IS possible to set up and run an eBay business that MAXIMIZES your income while MINIMIZING your effort. Maximizing your income will give you a HIGH standard of living. And minimizing your effort will give you a HIGH quality of life. All you need is someone to SHOW you how.

So if you are thinking about starting an eBay business, or you already have an eBay business but aren’t getting the results you desire yet, then I have the answer for you …

Before I set up my own eBay business, I spent a small fortune acquiring EVERY ebook, CD and DVD that I could find on how to make money on eBay. But I didn’t just want to make a living on eBay – I wanted to make lots of money for very little effort!

So I also studied the “secrets” of Direct Response Marketing which many, MANY ordinary people used to quietly amass huge fortunes, long before eBay – and even the internet – were ever dreamed of. Incredibly, most of the authors of all those ebooks that I read didn’t seem to know anything about these direct response marketing secrets, even though eBay is the PERFECT market to apply them to.

I spent months and months applying and testing everything that I learned to discover what does – and what doesn’t – work on eBay today to maximize your income while minimizing your effort. And now I’ve crammed all that research I did in to “The Lazy Way To Wealth On eBay” which is probably the most comprehensive eBay Business Manual that you’ve ever seen!

“The Lazy Way To Wealth On eBay” doesn’t just include EVERY single hint, tip, secret, strategy and tactic (that actually work) from all those ebooks, CDs and DVDs. It also includes the Direct Response Marketing secrets that work so well on eBay.

So now EVERYTHING you need to know to set up and run a SUCCESSFUL and PROFITABLE eBay business to maximize your income while minimizing your effort today is packed in to one convenient resource. And you can get INSTANT ACCESS to it all for an INCREDIBLY SMALL investment.

To find out more, just click on the link below …

www.TheLazyWayToWealthOneBay.com

Oh, and I nearly forgot … “The Lazy Way To Wealth On eBay” is backed by a 60 Day No Quibble Money Back Guarantee. So you really do have nothing to lose by downloading your copy TODAY.

www.TheLazyWayToWealthOneBay.com

Martyn Boaden

These keys to success apply as much to your success in business as they do to your personal life. Here’s another key to achieving success, particularly with regard to your business …

It’s a fact that most SUCCESSFUL people don’t try to “re-invent the wheel”. Instead they have a MENTOR – someone who has ALREADY achieved the success they desire. They just COPY their mentor who SHOWS them how. This saves them time and effort and enables them to build a successful business QUICKER and EASIER.

And often, taking such a short-cut puts them on the “fast-track” and builds such momentum that the “student” goes on to achieve much greater success in business than their mentor.

Unfortunately for most of us, we don’t know anyone personally who can act as our mentor in the field we wish to excel at.

But ALL successful business people invest in their most valuable asset – themselves! They invest their hard-earned money and precious time improving themselves by studying and acquiring the knowledge and skills they need to achieve the success they desire.

So if you don’t know anyone who can personally act as your mentor, you have to invest your time and/or your money acquiring the knowledge that you need.

You may be able to discover everything you need to know by searching the internet. This will involve a considerable investment of your time.

Or you may be able to obtain all the information that you need by investing your money (and time) in courses, workshops and seminars. In fact, I have invested thousands of pounds and dollars in seminars and courses teaching me practically every aspect of how to have a successful business working from home by interent marketing.

So, DON’T try to “re-invent the wheel”. Invest time and/or money on your most valuable asset – yourself – and acquire the knowledge you need from a mentor. It might cost a lot less than you think!

Martyn Boaden

P.S.

If you want to learn how to set up a profitable and successful business QUICKLY and EASILY, working from home, then just join me by entering your name and email in the form at the top right of this page and lets get started …

So one of the keys to success is don’t “try” to succeed. Decide that you WILL succeed and DON’T give up until you DO.

But many people are busy running around in circles. They are taking loads of action but keep changing direction. The result is they fail to achieve the results they desire. So another key to success is: you must stay FOCUSSED.

Imagine 2 gold-diggers digging for gold. They know there is a seam of gold somewhere underground because other people have found it. They’ve been told that it’s about 100 feet down. So they start digging. They dig and dig and dig until they get to about 100 feet deep. But there’s nothing there. They dig a bit deeper – still nothing.

Eventually one gives up and says: “There’s no gold here! I’m going to start digging somewhere else”. So he goes off and starts another hole. He digs down 100 feet. Again nothing. So he starts another hole somewhere else.

The other digger has the strength of his convictions. He believes there is gold and keeps digging. After 150 feet he strikes gold. There was a fault in the seam so it was deeper than 100 feet. He didn’t give up. He kept going UNTIL he succeeded.

The other guy was nearly there but gave up. He keeps trying new things (digging new holes) but always gives up too soon. He is looking for a “quick buck” rather than committing to building a sustainable business.

Success is like this seam of gold. Success DOES exist. Others achieve it and YOU can too. But if you try and then give up when it doesn’t work straight away – you’ve failed. But you may have been 90% there.

If you try and don’t get the success you want immediately – try again. If that doesn’t work – try again. Keep trying UNTIL you succeed. Staying FOCUSSED is a major key to success.

In my next post I’ll explain another key to achieving success, particularly with regard to having a successful business …

Martyn Boaden

But whilst programming your mind to focus on the positive is an important step to achieve a successful life – it isn’t enough on its own. It doesn’t matter how positive you are, if you don’t take ACTION, you are going nowhere fast!

Most people don’t achieve the success in life they are capable of because they don’t even try. And the main reason why they don’t try is that they fear failure. After all, if they don’t try – they can’t fail! So they don’t take any action.

This is why programming your mind (as described in my previous post) is SO important. A positive person is so focussed on achieving their goals that they will find a way to overcome any barriers and hurdles in their way. If they try and don’t get the result they desire – they don’t see this as failure and give up. They try again … and again … and again UNTIL they achieve success in life.

How did you learn to ride a bike? How did you learn to drive a car? How did you learn to use your computer? You didn’t know exactly how to ride a bike, drive a car, use your computer the first time you attempted it. You learned through DOING. If you had waited to be an expert driver before you attempted to drive, you would never have become a driver.

Most successful people “fail” more than unsuccessful people. They “fail” their way to success. They take ACTION and if it doesn’t work straight away, they take MORE action.

So don’t fear failure. Decide on the result you want to achieve and keep taking action UNTIL you succeed in life.

In my next post, I’ll explain another key to success …

Martyn Boaden

Did you know that the MAIN difference between those who are successful and those who don’t boils down to HOW THEY THINK?

It’s VERY difficult to be successful if you have negative thoughts. It’s a FACT that you are more likely to be successful if you have positive thoughts.

Most people have a natural tendency to worry about failing. This means they are focussing on failing, rather than focussing on how to be successful. So as soon as something goes wrong, they think: “I knew it wouldn’t work for me” and give up.

To overcome this, SUCCESSFUL people VISUALISE the result that they want to achieve as if it has ALREADY happened. This means that they are focussing on succeeding. So when something goes wrong, they don’t give up. They just try again.

Visualising success is a very powerful tool that many successful people in all walks of life use to great affect and you can use it too. Here’s how to be successful …

First decide what your life will be like WHEN you achieve success. For instance, if wealth is your aim, what income will you have when you are successful? What house will you live in? What car will you drive? What holidays will you take? How much leisure time will you have? What will you do in your leisure time? What charities will you support? Write everything down to describe YOUR dream lifestyle.

It is very important that you ONLY write down what’s important to YOU – what really EXCITES and MOTIVATES you. If you don’t care what car you drive – don’t mention it. After all, wealth might not be your aim. You may just want to be able to work from home so that you can care for your children or an elderly or infirm relative and earn enough to pay the bills. It is YOUR dream lifestyle that you are describing.

Now decide on a realistic time scale to achieve each part of your dream lifestyle. Without a time scale, there will be no sense of urgency. Putting a time scale on your DREAMS turns them in to GOALS. Then re-write your dream life as goals, stating the date that you will achieve each goal, in the PRESENT TENSE, as if you have ALREADY achieved it. Here’s an example for someone who wants to achieve a high standard of living and quality of life:

1. It is 31 December 2012. I have paid off my $10,000 credit card debt and am earning $5,000 a month from my website and have just handed in my notice at work.

2. It is 31 December 2013 and I have repaid my $100,000 mortgage.

3. It is 31 December 2014 and I have an annual income of at least $100,000. I work just 3 hours a day Monday to Friday. I live in (describe your house) and each year I go skiing and spend the summer in …

Remind yourself of these goals EVERY DAY by reading them to yourself, preferably out loud. After reading each one, close your eyes and PICTURE yourself actually achieving that goal. Concentrate on how that success makes you FEEL. SEE yourself living your ideal life. This is what will keep you focused and make sure that you don’t give up.

Everyone is motivated by pleasure or pain. So once you start using this how to be successful technique, each time you hit a hurdle you will deal with it because you will realise that the pain of having to cross that barrier is less than the pain that not achieving your goals will bring, or is less than the pleasure that you will get when you succeed.

I don’t know of ANY successful people who don’t have well-defined goals that they are committed to achieving, as described above. You can ignore the above if you want to, but if EVERY person who knows how to be successful does it, you are LESS likely to succeed if you DON’T do it!

In my next post I’ll continue this thread on how to get success in life …

Martyn Boaden

I’d like to say that I took a month off to spend all the money I’m earning from my internet business to go on a  luxury World Cruise …

I’d LIKE to say that …

But the truth is I’ve actually been VERY busy putting the final touches to

The Online Auction Resource Centre

Followers of this blog will be well aware that I believe that eBay is the EASIEST way for ANYONE to launch an internet business and that a properly set up eBay business can drive HIGHLY-TARGETED traffic CHEAPLY and EASILY to your non-eBay website.

So I’m VERY pleased to finally be able to announce that you can now get a copy of my eBay Resource Report – 13 pages PACKED with ALL the tools you need to set up and run your SUCCESSFUL eBay business – completely FREE at

The Online Auction Resource Centre

But that’s not all …

Now you can ALSO get “How To MAXIMISE Your INCOME For Minimum Effort On eBay” – a 53 Part Course that builds in to a complete eBay Business Manual – also FREE at

The Online Auction Resource Centre

The FREE Course will show you how to get the best use out of the resources listed in the FREE Report.

I hope you find the Course and the Report useful.

To visit The Online Auction Resource Centre, just click on the image below …

Martyn Boaden

Firstly,  every business should have an internet presence (otherwise they are LOSING potential customers) and eBay makes it very EASY for ANY business that doesn’t yet have a website to start selling online (by providing a READY-MADE website and all the TRAFFIC that you will ever need).

Secondly, if your business already has a website, a properly set up eBay business can be used to drive HIGHLY-TARGETED traffic cheaply and easily to your non-eBay website.

I’ve mentioned in previous posts how The Online Auction Resource Centre provides you with more than enough sound, proven information to enable you to make as much money as you want on eBay.

But, if you’ve never sold anything on eBay, where do you begin? How do you get started?

Well, I’m pleased to say that I have the solution for you …

Clint Herman has produced the DIFINITIVE guide for eBay newbies. “How To Get Started Selling On eBay” is an EASY to follow step-by-step guide which includes SCREENSHOTS and VIDEOS.

So I’m afraid that you no longer have any excuse to put off starting your eBay business!

You can find out more by clicking on this link:

How To Get Started Selling On eBay

And remember, eBay is the IDEAL way to launch your internet business or to drive extra HIGHLY-TARGETED traffic cost-effectively to your existing website.

To visit The Online Auction Resource Centre, just click on the image below …

Martyn Boaden

But, if it’s SO easy, why isn’t everyone making millions on eBay? You may even know people who have tried making money on eBay with an eBay business and failed. The reason is because they weren’t doing it right AND, when they didn’t get the results they wanted, they gave up instead of changing what they were doing to change the results they were getting.

Whilst it’s very easy to set up an eBay business, it’s not so easy to set up a SUCCESSFUL and PROFITABLE eBay business that provides you with the QUALITY OF LIFE you desire and enables you to MAXIMISE YOUR INCOME whilst MINIMISING YOUR EFFORT – unless you know how.

More and more people are realising that they can make MORE money selling on eBay than they could EVER earn working for their boss. But, sadly, the vast majority will fail, or achieve only mediocre results, because they don’t invest in themselves – they don’t take the time to find out how to run an eBay business properly.

The Online Auction Resource Centre provides you with more than enough sound, proven information to enable you to make as much money as you want on eBay. You will know what the majority of eBay Sellers don’t know because they haven’t had the foresight to invest in themselves.

By using the resources available at The Online Auction Resource Centre, you will know more about running a SUCCESSFUL eBay business than many PowerSellers.

To visit The Online Auction Resource Centre, just click on the image below …

Martyn Boaden

With an eBay business it’s a very easy to make money because it’s easy to do all your market research in advance so you minimise your risk because you will have a good idea how your product will sell before you auction it.

eBay is not only EASY and virtually risk free, it can also provide you with a great QUALITY OF LIFE (if you do it right!) You can work from home – which means NO commuting – and you can live ANYWHERE in the world (as long as you have access to a computer connected to the internet). If you’ve got a laptop and wireless internet connection you can even run your eBay business from a beach or a ski lodge!

eBay enables you to achieve a lifestyle balance. You can choose what level you want to work at: as a paid hobby; as a part time occupation to fit around your full-time job or to fit around domestic responsibilities (such as caring for children or elderly relatives); or as a full time business.

With an eBay business, you DON’T have to employ any staff with all the hassle and expense that involves (although you may decide to employ people to do the mundane tasks for you as your business grows).

You can also turn off your eBay business at any time (just stop listing) so you can have UNLIMITED free time. Or better still, you can set up your eBay business so that it runs on AUTO-PILOT so you can take as many holidays as you like.

You can get ALL the information you need to set up YOUR eBay business and start making money on eBay at The Online Auction Resource Centre. Just click on the image below …

Martyn Boaden

But there are many other reasons why eBay is a GREAT opportunity for ANYONE to start an internet business quickly and easily …

eBay makes it so EASY. You just set up a FREE account and within MINUTES you’ve got a business open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week all over the world!

Running an eBay business is VERY easy to learn. You don’t need special skills. You just need to copy the techniques that the few in-the-know are using. This is what makes eBay the EASIEST way for the average person to set up a SUCCESSFUL business today.

eBay is not only easy, it also MINIMISES the risks involved in setting up a business. There are virtually no start up costs. You don’t need equipment, inventory, premises, staff, etc. You can start by selling the stuff around your house which involves no cost at all. Your only risk is eBay’s minimal listing fee for each item you list!

You can easily start your eBay business on a part-time basis in your spare time and build it to whatever level you want. So you DON’T have to give up your day job until you can afford to.

In my next post, “Why eBay Is Easy Part 2″, I will explain more reasons why eBay is the EASIEST business.

In the meantime, you can get ALL the information you need to set up YOUR eBay business at The Online Auction Resource Centre. Just click on the image below …

Martyn Boaden

Reason One: The Internet

The internet enables ANYONE to set up their “shop” (website) for very little cost. You DON’T need to pay for a physical office or shop. Your market is NOT restricted to just those people in your local community who happen to walk past your shop. You can sell products or services to the WHOLE on-line world. It doesn’t matter WHO you are or WHERE you live.

But you need technical knowledge to be able to set up a commercial website that is capable of processing customer orders (or you need to pay someone else a lot of money to do it for you).

And if you don’t get any traffic (visitors) to your website you won’t make any sales, no matter how good your website is. And as the internet expands and develops, getting traffic to your site is becoming more and more COMPLICATED and EXPENSIVE to achieve.

Reason Two: eBay

So the second reason why it is now much easier and less risky for anyone to set up and run their own business is eBay …

eBay provides you with a READY-MADE commercial website – so you DON’T need the technical knowledge to set one up from scratch (or pay someone thousands to do it for you). eBay is also one of the most visited websites on the internet and ranks high in the search engines results.

So eBay REMOVES the two main problems of starting up an internet business by providing you with a ready-made commercial website AND as much traffic as you will ever need!

In my next post I will explain more about why eBay is such a great opportunity for ANYONE to start an internet business quickly and easily.

In the meantime, you can get ALL the information you need to set up YOUR eBay business at The Online Auction Resource Centre. Just click on the image below …

Martyn Boaden

Unfortunately most people put their hopes and dreams ON HOLD in return for a job. They SQUANDER their life by “renting” it to their employer for two or three thousand dollars or pounds per month. They trade 8 to 10 hours of their lives each working day, perhaps working evenings and weekends as well, for a few thousand a month.

Most people accept that to make money they have to do what someone tells them to do and pays them to do it. They spend their lives making someone ELSE rich. They work for their employer’s best interests, rather than their own. They can’t have goals because they have no way of achieving them.

So they just have daydreams about the house they’d like to live in “if only”; the car they’d like to drive “if only”; the holidays they would like to have “if only”, etc, because they will NEVER earn enough to achieve them.

What do you dream of? What house would you like to live in? What car would you like to drive? What holidays would you like to take? What would you spend your time doing? (I bet it’s not working in your current job!) Who would you spend your days with? (I bet it’s not your boss and your work colleagues!) Can you achieve any of your dreams if you continue doing what you are doing now?

To earn REAL money and have the quality of life you desire you need to have your OWN business. Your daydreams CAN then become your goals because YOU are now IN CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE.

But there are many risks involved in setting up your own business. Most conventional businesses involve some investment of capital to get them started (to buy equipment, stock, etc) and high on-going costs such as renting a commercial property (such as a shop or office), advertising, staff costs, etc. Lack of cash-flow to pay these bills causes many businesses to fail before they get a chance to succeed.

Most people are not prepared to take these risks. They perceive their employment as risk-free. But, unfortunately, in the current troubled economic climate, it is becoming more and more apparent that relying on someone else to provide you with a job is far from risk free.

As I write this, we are in the midst of a deep and worsening economic recession. The banks are being baled out by tax-payers’ money. Every day the news informs us that more and more businesses are going bust and more and more people are sadly losing their jobs.

But in these times of economic doom and gloom, the good news is that it is now MUCH easier and less risky for YOU to set up and run YOUR own business.

There are two reasons why it is now much easier and less risky for you to set up and run your own business. I’ll explain what they are in my next post …

Matyn Boaden

1. First, find a niche market – a voraciously hungry crowd of highly targeted buyers who desperately WANT (not need) a product. You need a market with relatively high disposable income (don’t waste your time trying to sell products to people who can’t afford them).

2. Next, locate a line of connected products, ideally with massive profit margins to fulfil the niche’s wants. You need a product LINE. If you only have one product, you won’t have any back-end products to sell (don’t forget that the real profits are in the back-end products).

3. Then offer a very tempting low-cost, QUALITY product that members of the niche will buy to develop customer confidence in your business and your products. NEVER offer a poor quality product. If you do, no one will buy from you again. Always offer at least a 30 day money back guarantee to remove the customer’s risk. This will generate a much higher response. The aim of the front-end product is just to get as many people on to your list as possible. You don’t necessarily need to make a profit on the front-end product if you are confident that you will make high profits on your back-end products. Some marketers give away the front-end product for free or offer free samples to get people on their list.

4. Then offer your first back-end product within a week of selling the front-end product. The back-end product must be closely connected to the front-end product, must represent good quality and value for money, but should be higher priced and so generate higher profit. This is where your real profits are made.

5. Continue to offer higher and higher priced QUALITY products to your growing list of happy, loyal customers. As long as the back-end products continue to offer good value, and you offer good service, they will be happy to continue buying from you. They won’t all buy every product that you offer. Some will buy some of the back-ends, others will buy other back-ends.

I cannot over-emphasise the importance of building a relationship with your customers to get a “customer for life”. So NEVER offer a poor product or give poor service. Only ever offer high quality products, provide EXCEPTIONAL VALUE FOR MONEYand EXCELLENT SERVICE.

By growing a list of happy customers, you will have a SUSTAINABLE business that is not dependent on continually selling new products to new customers. Your database of customers will acquire a value which can enable you to sell your business eventually should you wish to.

In my next post, I’ll explain why it is far EASIER for ANYONE to make money NOW than it has ever been …

Martyn Boaden

It would be very difficult to earn £30 MILLION in ten years just by selling cheap products through direct response adverts. If the profit of your product was £50, you would have to sell £600,000 products during those 10 years. That’s 164 products a day – EVERY day – 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, with no time off at week-ends nor any holidays.

That’s a lot of products to produce, pack and ship! Whilst not impossible to achieve, it would involve a lot of hard work and you’d probably have to employ staff to do it for you which involves hassle and expense.

You want a system that maximises income whilst MINIMISING effort and selling 164 products a day, 365 days a year sounds far too much like hard work to me!

So a fundamental fact about marketing that you have to grasp is that it is easier and cheaper to sell your products to your EXISTING customers who have ALREADY bought from you than it is to sell your products to new customers who haven’t bought from you before.

People tend to go back to where they bought before, provided that they had a good experience. Think about your own buying habits. Do you tend to buy your groceries from the same supermarket each week? Do you tend to go to the same hairdresser/barber each time you need a haircut?

We are creatures of habit. We find familiarity comforting. Unless we experience particularly bad service or poor value for money, we tend to give repeat business to the suppliers of the goods and services that we want.

But the opposite is also true. People won’t buy again if they’ve had a bad experience. If you went to a restaurant and the waiter was rude, the food was tasteless and the bill was expensive, would you go there again?

So if you give your customers EXCEPTIONAL VALUE FOR MONEY and EXCELLENT SERVICE, the next time they need a product that you sell, they will have no reason to go to someone else. They know what to expect from you but they don’t know what to expect from someone else. They will feel more comfortable buying from you than from someone that they have no experience of. And if you have given good service and value for money, they will want to reward you by giving you more of their custom.

Someone who hasn’t bought from you yet doesn’t know that you provide exceptional value for money and excellent service so they will be reluctant to spend a lot of money with you. But they will be willing to spend a small amount of money. Then, if you don’t deliver, they haven’t risked much.

Once they have bought something cheap from you, and discovered that you OVER-DELIVER – because the first product they buy from you is better quality than they were expecting at that price – they will have the confidence to spend more money with you next time.

So the “secret”, if you can call it that, to MAXIMISING income whilst MINIMISING effort, is to build a list of happy customers – a “databank” of people who have ALREADY bought from you and who will be happy to buy from you again because you provide exceptional value for money and excellent service.

You sell a cheap front-end product first to get as many people on to your list as possible. You then sell higher and higher priced back-end products to these same people. Fewer people will buy your back-end products than bought your front-end product but someone who doesn’t buy your first back-end product might buy your second back-end product. And someone who doesn’t buy your first and second back-end products might buy your third back-end product. Some people might buy ALL your back-end products!

Although fewer people buy the back-end products than bought the front-end product, the real profit is in the back-end products for two reasons. Firstly, you are marketing these products direct to your existing customers without having to pay for advertising so your costs are lower. And secondly, these back-end products are higher priced and so have higher profit margins.

In my next post, I will summarise this direct response marketing system that is the EASIEST and BEST work from home business model …

Martyn Boaden

Well, throughout the last century many, many people quietly made their fortune by using direct response marketing. Over the years, the “art” of direct response marketing was honed into a “science” – a proven system that is now without doubt THE easiest work at home business model that ANYONE can copy to achieve the financial freedom that they seek.

Direct response marketing is simply advertising that is designed to produce an IMMEDIATE response from the consumer. That response might be to buy the product NOW or at least request further information about the product NOW.

Compare that to most advertising that you see on TV and in glossy magazines. Most of these adverts are designed to build brand awareness. The advertiser is NOT expecting you to jump out of your seat and rush to the shops to buy their product immediately.

They want you to become FAMILIAR with their brand. This familiarity builds CONFIDENCE. So the next time that you want to buy a new car (or whatever it is they are advertising) you will feel more COMFORTABLE parting with a large amount of cash for a brand that you are ALREADY familiar with.

A typical “brand awareness” advert in a magazine will take up one or two whole pages and will predominantly consist of an artistic image designed to evoke a specific feeling or emotion with the intention that the reader will then associate that feeling or emotion with the brand that is being advertised. There is usually very little text in the advert other than the brand name and perhaps a slogan. Seldom will you find an order form on such ads, so you CAN’T buy the product there and then even if you wanted to!

These brand awareness adverts cost $1,000′s. Plus the advertising agencies that design them charge exorbitant fees. As a small business you do NOT want to get involved in this type of advertising. You will go BUST long before you earn a return on your advertising budget.

As a small business, you want to get an IMMEDIATE return on EVERY dollar that you spend on advertising. You want someone to read your advert and then respond STRAIGHT AWAY by placing an order or requesting more information about your product.

You will find typical direct response adverts in the Classified Ads section of magazines and newspapers. These are the complete opposite of “brand awareness” adverts. They are small, often just one print column wide and a few lines deep, and tend to be all text and no graphics. They are NOT designed to build brand awareness. In fact the advertiser’s business name and even the name of the product may not be mentioned in the ad. Compared to “brand awareness” adverts they are very cheap. They might only cost a few tens of dollars or a few hundred dollars at most.

Direct response adverts have one purpose and one purpose only – to get the reader to read the advert and respond. Larger direct response adverts might contain an order form but most just provide a ‘phone number that you can ring to get further information sent to you or a website address that you can visit to get the further information you need before deciding to order the product.

It would be very difficult to sell a high priced product, such as a luxury car, via a direct response advert. The person buying the product isn’t familiar with the seller or their business. They haven’t built confidence in the seller and so will not be comfortable parting with a large amount of their hard-earned cash in response to a tiny advert in the back of a newspaper.

So the product being sold through direct response adverts is usually relatively cheap. It is unlikely to cost more than $100, probably a lot less. So you may be wondering how anyone can make any REAL money selling cheap products from direct response adverts. I’ll explain how in my next post …

Martyn Boaden

1. Be an entrepreneurial position, i.e. self-employed or your own business (so you  keep 100% of the profit rather than having to share profit with an employer)

2. Have minimal start up costs (so you don’t have to risk investing your own capital and you don’t have to borrow capital with costly interest payments)

3. Have minimal on-going costs (which reduces risk and increases your profit)

4. Have minimal regulation (to avoid bureaucracy which costs you time – or you have to employ someone to deal with it)

5. Require no employees (which avoids the cost and hassle of employing people )

6. Earnings un-related to time spent working (otherwise you will only be able to make a lot of money if you work long, long hours)

7. Generate income automatically, on “auto-pilot” (so you can earn money 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year – even while you are asleep or on holiday)

8. Require no specialist skill or qualifications

9. Require no specialist premises or equipment (so you can operate from home)

10. Was tried and tested and proven to work

Fortunately I discovered that such an opportunity does exist. It is easily the best work at home business idea I have ever seen. And the man I learned it from has earned £30,000,00 over the last 10 years! (No – that’s NOT a typing error – that’s THIRTY MILLION POUNDS (not dollars) IN TEN YEARS!) by using the work at home business idea that I am about to reveal to you.

And he won’t mind me telling you that he had a VERY humble working-class background with little formal education. He is just an ordinary bloke. If he can do it, ANYONE can. In fact, even if you only achieved 10% of what he has achieved, that’s still £300,000 a year! Not bad for a business idea that you can run by yourself from home!

And what’s more, he is NOT unique. He didn’t come up with this business idea. He learned it from someone else who had learned it from someone else, etc – so ANYONE can learn and apply this work at home business idea (and that includes YOU!).

So what is it? It’s direct response marketing and I’ll explain what it is in my next post …

Martyn Boaden

In theory I had unlimited earnings potential because the more I sold, the more I earned. But in reality there was a limit to how much money I could make because, to get paid, I had to make a sale – and to make a sale I had to talk to a customer. So I could only make money whilst I was talking to a customer.

So the amount of money I could make working from home was limited by the amount of time I spent working. And not every person that I spoke to bought from me. So even when I was working I wouldn’t necessarily make any money.

Furthermore, Finacial Services is very highly regulated. There is a lot of bureaucracy and paperwork to deal with which is very time consuming. If I dealt with it myself, I would waste time that I could have spent selling which reduced my earning potential.

So I had to employ someone to deal with the administration for me. So then I needed an office. I also needed professional indemnity insurance and there were many other regulatory fees and expenses I had to pay. In fact, I had to earn about £40,000 a year just to cover all my overheads and staff costs before I could pay myself a penny!

As I had my own work at home business, I could take as much time off as I wanted. But I couldn’t afford to take time off because if I did, I wasn’t earning anything. I became tied to being an entrepreneur.

So my time as a restaurant manager taught me that to make a lot of money I needed to do something that was low risk, that didn’t involve a lot of capital up front, that didn’t have massive overheads, and didn’t involve employing a lot of staff.

And my time as a financial adviser taught me that I needed to do something that had unlimited earning potential whereby the amount of money I made was NOT limited by the amount of time that I spent working. I should also avoid heavily regulated industries with all their bureaucracy and red tape, such as financial, legal or medical advice.

I now had a list of criteria that would enable me to MAXIMISE my income whilst MINIMISING my effort. I knew what the best work at home business idea looked like …

Martyn Boaden

When I left full time education, the LAST thing I wanted was a “boring” 9 to 5 office job where I had to conform by wearing a suit a tie. But having spent 3 years working long, hard, unsocialable, stressful, poorly-paid hours as a restaurant manger, ALL I wanted was an office job where I could wear a smart suit and only had to work 9 to 5 Monday to Friday instead of evenings and weekends.

I still wanted to be an entrepreneur and make loads of money and my time as a restaurant manager taught me that I needed to do something that was low risk, that didn’t involve a lot of capital up front, that didn’t have massive overheads, and didn’t involve employing a lot of staff.

I also knew that a “conventional” employed job would put a ceiling on my income. I would only get paid the going rate for that position. I might be able to work my way to the top – but that would probably involve many years of hard work, long hours and sucking up to the boss!

I knew that sales people could make money - a lot of money – if they received commission for each sale they made. The more they sold, the more money they made. In theory, there is no cap on the amount of money they could make.

So I became a commission-only Financial Adviser, selling financial products such as pensions, investments and life assurance. I started as an employee of a large company so I could get all the techinical and sales training I needed. My employer also provided me with an office and support staff. But as an employee, I only received a percentage of the commission I earned. My empoyer kept the rest.

So, when I felt that I was experienced enough, I took the plunge and set up my own business as a financial adviser working from home so I didn’t have to pay for an office and all the overheads that involves.

I was now an entrepreneur in an industry where, in theory, I could make a lot of money working from home. But as I will explain in my next post, this was not an ideal work at home business …

Martyn Boaden

When I was still at school, a friend of mine said that he wanted to be an “entrepreneur”. I didn’t know what that was. He explained that it was someone who worked for themselves, rather than being employed, and made loads of money. I was hooked! I didn’t like the idea of being bossed about by an employer and I definitely fancied having loads of money!

I had many jobs as a teenager, but mainly worked in catering. I started washing up in a restaurant, then became a waiter and barman. So when I left full time education and wanted my own business, the only business I knew anything about was catering. So I decided that I would have my own trendy cafe-bar.

Although I’d worked in catering as a teenager, I didn’t know anything about managing a restaurant, so I got a job as a trainee manager at a chain of restaurants.

Sure enough, I learned how to manage a restaurant. But I also learned that owning a restaurant was a VERY high risk business. The overheads are HUGE. You have to pay for your premises, ideally in a prime location, and you need to employ a lot of staff – which involves a lot of hassle and expense.

Much of the time, your restaurant is shut, i.e. at night, so it’s not making money. But you still have to pay overheads like rent, bills, etc. But even when the restaurant is open, if you are not busy, you will struggle to earn enough to pay your overheads, let alone make any profit.

It’s also VERY stressful. If there is a problem, it has to be resolved NOW – not tomorrow. Your customers want good service there and then or they won’t be your customers for long.

And of course the hours are very unsociable – you have to work when everyone else you know who isn’t in catering are enjoying their leisure time.

Of course, if you OWN a restaurant and employ someone to manage it for you, you don’t have the stress of the day to day running of the restaurant and you don’t have to work the unsociable hours. But I was NEVER going to earn enough as a restaurant manger to ever be able to afford my own restaurant. I would have to go cap in hand to a bank for a loan and I could see that I would probably spend the rest of my life working hard just to cover my overheads and pay back the bank.

I spent 3 years as a restaurant manager learning that owning a restaurant is NOT a good way to make money. It is high risk as you have to invest – or borrow – a lot of capital to get started and your overheads are very high. You are very dependent on other people – your staff. And you can only make money whilst your restaurant is open.

I realised that if I was going to be an entrepreneur and make a lot of money without working myself to death in the process, I needed something that was low risk, that didn’t involve a lot of capital up front, that didn’t have massive overheads, and didn’t involve employing a lot of staff.

Then I found a way to make money working from home …

Martyn Boaden