Here’s how a typical Internet business works – you pick a niche, create a product and then find the audience to sell that product to. If it doesn’t sell, you do it all over again. If it does sell, you make more products for those same people. Sounds logical, right?…

Maybe not. Suppose you decide to sell NOTHING for the first two to three months of your business. Not a gosh darn thing.

Instead, what you do is focus on building and nurturing your audience. Once they know you and are confident you know what you’re talking about, then and only then do you sell them something.

“But I need to make money NOW!”

Okay, what if you had started the entire process three months ago? They say the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, and the second best time is today. So bear with me for a moment while we grow a tree in your mind right now…

Let’s say you’ve taken up a new hobby. Maybe it’s golf. You’re cruising the Internet when you find this offer for a free golf book for newbies, “10 Ways to Take 10 Points Off Your Game Today.” You enter your email address and get the book.

And next thing you know, this author sends you golfing offers daily. “BUY THIS!” “BUY THAT!” And on and on. What do you do? Maybe you buy something, perhaps you don’t. But do you lose faith and trust in the person? Yes. This is just some guy who used bait and switched on you. “Get my free book!” means, “Let me sell you a whole lot of stuff so I can make money!”

This is how Internet marketing typically works; the days of it being a magic bullet are long gone. Sure, the money is on the list, but if you continually go for the sales before establishing the relationship, you’re doing it backward.

I say it’s time to adjust.

Second scenario: You sign up for the free ebook, and here’s an email introducing the author. The next day, s/he sends you a great golfing tip. And the next day, and the next. Maybe the author throws in some personal golfing stories, a few golfing jokes, some golf news, etc.

This author feels more like your email golfing buddy and golf expert than a salesperson. In fact, in 2 whole months, s/he hasn’t tried to sell you a single thing. But maybe they have sent you a few videos with excellent tips, so you can get to ‘know’ and like them even better. You trust this person and feel they have your best interests at heart.

They’ve built a REAL relationship with you.

What will happen when this author starts sending you the occasional offer? Oddly, you’ll take a severe look at buying it because your new golfing friend/expert recommends it. And if they’re recommending it, you know it must be GOOD!

And as long as this author sends you only the best advice and offers, you’re likely to continue buying, too.

So is it worth it to invest 2-3 months to build relationships that create super high conversions and subscribers that are loyal to you for a long, long time? Is it worth it to make such a tight bond they never unsubscribe? Do you want to be their go-to person, who they know and trust for advice, tips, and recommendations? Or do you want to be another salesperson pitching the latest product until your subscribers flee your list?

“But 2-3 months before I make a sale??!”

Yes. I know. It takes a real commitment and investment of your time.

But let’s try putting it into perspective: Let’s say you want to open a business in your town. You scout a location, make the deal to rent the building, get your business licenses, get the necessary equipment, order the inventory, hire staff, get insurance, etc. How long would it take? And how much would it cost? And how much would you clear after all of your expenses?

I’m discussing a viable way to build a six-figure business in less than 12 months with almost no out-of-pocket expense. To begin with, all you need is a good autoresponder. You don’t even have to put up your blog right away because, initially, you can do everything via email.

This is a business model you can start today. It helps if you have expertise in your subject – if not, you’ll want to start reading and learning immediately. Your topic should be one you’ve got a measure of passion for because you’ll be writing and talking about it a great deal. You’ll need ten or more hours a week to devote to this.

And you’ve got to be ready to sacrifice a small amount of short-term income for an abundance of long-term gain. Long-term, beginning in about 2-3 months, with the potential to grow significantly around 6-8 months.

This is all about your audience. It’s all about what they want. And here’s the kicker – you know how experts tell you to research what people want before you create a product? In this case, you will be so in touch with your audience that you will know exactly what they want before you ever offer it.

You’ll have people standing in line to buy your products before you even produce them. Think about that – you’ll know IN ADVANCE that your products will sell and sell well because your audience trusts you enough to tell you what they want. Maybe it’s not in so many words, like, “Could you sell me a product about this or that,” but rather, “How do I _____?” When you keep getting the same questions, you know there is a market for a product that solves that need.

To summarize, the old-school method is: Spend weeks creating a product nobody buys. Then do it again. Or build a list and then fry it to death.

New school method: Spend 2-3 months building an audience that loves and trusts you, then create products and make recommendations based on what they want.

Times have changed. If marketers don’t change with the times, our customers will leave us behind.

One of the most significant expenses for some businesses is advertising. Think about the auto repair shop, the kitchen cabinet maker, the plumber, etc. They can spend a small fortune each month running ads that might not even pay off. After all, what’s the reaction of most people to advertising? It’s disbelief. “Sure, they say they’re great, but… They all say that!”

But what if you could show offline clients how to get all their business from referrals, thereby saving the money they spend on advertising? What would that be worth to them? Frankly, it should be worth about 2-3 months of their current advertising budget, paid directly to you.

This won’t work for all businesses, so use your best judgment on which companies to work with using this strategy. While every business will be different, you can quickly learn how to set up a referral system that brings in as much, if not more, business than their current advertising.

Let’s use an automotive repair shop as our example. First, what do most people think of when considering auto repair places? The shops are dirty; the mechanics try to take advantage of customers by doing work that doesn’t need to be done; they take too long to make repairs; you have to arrange for transportation while you don’t have your car; their waiting room is depressing, etc.

We want to change all of those things. Cleaning the shop up won’t cost much beyond labor, and it can make a tremendous difference in how people perceive the shop when they arrive. If the outside of the shop needs a new coat of paint, some flowers planted in the bed out front or a new sign, it should be seen too. This alone can bring more business off the street.

Next, unless the mechanics are good at explaining what needs to be done to the mechanically illiterate, there should be a liaison between the mechanics and customers. This liaison will show the customer the problem, what might have caused it, why it needs to be fixed, and what it will cost. A clear, thorough explanation without technical mumbo-jumbo can put the customer at ease and make them feel they’re not being taken advantage of.

If the work will take longer than 90 minutes, the auto shop either provides a loaner car or offers to drive the customer to their home or place of work, picking them up when the vehicle is ready. How many auto places do this? Almost none. Imagine the word of mouth this alone can create.

If the customer opts to wait for the car, they’re shown into a waiting room that looks more like a living room than a nasty waiting room. The chairs are plush and comfortable; there are flat surfaces if they want to work on a laptop or do anything at a desk. Instead of the usual daytime television, there’s a DVD playing of a hilarious and non-offensive comedian. Who doesn’t feel better after laughing? There are beverages – not just coffee – and maybe some bagels, fruit, or danish.

After the repair is done, the car is washed and cleaned. The bigger the repair, the better the washing and cleaning. This could range from a quick exterior wash to a complete wash and wax outside, vacuuming, and wiping down inside. An alternative would be to set up an affiliation with a nearby car wash, getting car wash tokens in bulk at a discount. Then for every $x amount of money spent, the customer receives a pass. If the amount is $50, then on a $300 repair job, the customer would get six tickets which could be used for six car washes. This is hugely unexpected by the customer and something they’re likely to brag about to others for weeks.

If the customer doesn’t receive car wash tokens, she should be given something. It could be as simple as homemade-looking cookies for the road or a cup of good coffee. As the customer pays her bill and receives her tokens, she gets a very brief questionnaire about her experience. The final question is, “Can we use your comments for marketing?” Thanks to the law of reciprocity and the small gift she received, she will almost certainly say ‘yes.’ These comments can be put on the business’s website and should number in the hundreds after several months. If they ever do more advertising, they’ll need a list of these comments, their hours, and their location to create a very effective ad.

The customer gets an actual thank you card in the mail within two days of her experience at the shop. On the card is a photo of the shop with all the employees out front, holding a giant blank sign. Only the character isn’t empty; it only appears that way when the photo is taken. Before sending it out, “THANK YOU customer name!” is handwritten onto that blank sign. If they have the technology, they can do this in Photoshop, but handwriting it in is fine. In the card is a warm thank you, 2-3 magnets containing the business’ details, and the suggestion she gives one or two to friends.

Finally, 3 to 6 days later, the customer gets a follow-up phone call, inquiring if the car is still running fine and ensuring everything is alright. If there should be any problem, being this proactive will keep the business in good favor with the customer. And if everything is fine, it leaves the customer with a hot, cared-about feeling that they don’t get with the typical auto mechanic.

This has been just one example – how you set up a referral program will vary according to the type of business you’re working with. You probably noticed that we did not ask the customer for referrals in this sequence. Typically the best way to get excellent word-of-mouth advertising isn’t to ask for it – it’s to give the customer such a fantastic experience; they have to brag to others about it.

“I’m at this moment, Dub Thee, Super Duper Expert! Now Go Forth, Change the World & Prosper!” If only it were that easy to become an expert – get someone to tap a sword on both your shoulders as you kneel and PRESTO! You are now the go-to person for your niche.

Wait – it actually can be almost that easy.

The first thing you need to know about becoming an expert is WHY you want to be one. People want to buy your products and services when you are viewed as an expert. They also want to promote you. Whether sharing your stuff via social media or interviewing you for the news, you become THE person in your niche that people gravitate to.

The second thing to know is HOW to be seen as an expert, which works like this: You need to ACT like an expert, THINK like an expert, and SPEAK like an expert. And all three of these will become natural when you believe you are the expert. But what if you don’t think you’re an expert? Then start acting like you are, and your actions will bring about the belief.

Of course, none of this is of any value if you don’t have a clue when it comes to your niche. That’s why constant study and practice in your field are essential. You’ve got to know what you’re talking about, and the best way to do that is to learn from others and your own experience.

So how do you get others to view you as the go-to person, the expert they should do business with? Here are 12 methods:

1. Choose your niche carefully. It’s much easier to be a big fish in a small pond than a whale in the ocean. For example, if you want to be a business coach, you’ve got a ton of competition. But if you coach massage therapists on how to grow their businesses, you can very quickly become a whale of a fish in that particular pond.

2. Act like you have a list of thousands, even when making your debut blog post. Be a professional from day one by imagining you have thousands of people depending on what you say and do. Sure, the only person reading your blog is your grandma, but remember that will change soon. Hundreds of thousands will eventually read the debut post you write today, so make it good.

3. Use a great incentive to build your list from Day 1. Keeping them updated on your blog posts will yield some subscribers, but offering a coveted bribe will get you far more. And if your incentive isn’t ready yet, tell them what it is and that by adding their email, you’ll send them a copy the moment it’s prepared.

4. Write a newsletter. Yes, an actual newsletter. And do it weekly. Please put it in PDF form so readers can download it. Anything in PDF has a higher perceived value, probably because PDFs are often paid for.

5. Interview experts for your newsletter. When you have an expert interview in your PDF newsletter, it raises your own perceived stature considerably.

6. Hold webinars. This is less effective in the online marketing niche because it’s already done so extensively. But if you are in any other place, offer to hold webinars and give free teaching. You can make these offers via social media and also list owners. You aim to get ahead and help as many people as possible. Ensure they sign up for the webinar – this lets you capture their email address. And if you don’t yet have a product to promote, offer individual or group coaching at the end of the webinar. Split proceeds with the list owner (if there is one.)

7. Guest blog. The more high-traffic websites you can appear on, the better. Always insert your short bio at the end and offer them your free incentive to click your link.

8. Pay attention to what people ask you – it’s essential. The questions you receive are a great indication of what’s on the minds of your prospects. Find ways to answer those questions straightforwardly.

9. Skip the big words. You might think being an expert means using a lot of big words and fancy phrases, but being an expert means having the capability to help others further their goals – no fancy jargon is needed.

10. Find your voice and your message and stick to them. You don’t need to know everything about everything. What you do need to know is a whole lot about a real little. Choose your stand on a topic and make your best case – don’t try to make everyone else’s case as well. For example, if your frame is that massage therapists can do 100% of their marketing and do it entirely through the Internet, don’t tell them how to hire a marketing agency or place a newspaper ad – tell them how to do their online marketing. That’s it.

11. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. You can if you want to, but you don’t have to. You might think that to be an expert, you must constantly think up new ways of doing things, but that’s not true. 99 times out of 100, it’s best to stick with what works. For that 100th time, test it yourself before advising anyone else to try it.

12. Recycle your content. A blog post can become an article in your newsletter, which can become the content for your latest video, etc.

Remember: When you think, act, and speak like an expert and have the knowledge to back it up, you ARE the expert. It is that simple.

You’ve just entered a niche brand new for you, and you’ve got zero contacts. But you’re creating a product to sell and need joint venture partners. So how do you get those all-important JVs when you don’t even have any contacts in the niche? Like this…

First, make sure your product gets people excited and wants to promote it to their lists. You can do this by solving a BIG problem, preferably something people already spend time and money trying to solve.

Second, solve the problem with a step-by-step formula – a blueprint to success. You don’t want to give a bunch of info – they can find plenty of that online. Instead, it should be a system for solving the problem, such as “7 Steps to Getting 7 Hot Dates in 7 Days.”

Now that you’ve got your product takes a little time to set up a JV page and an About Me page on your website. The JV page should tell about your product and how it will help the potential JV partners’ customers, how much commission they will earn, how you will run the JV, etc. Make it look professional but don’t obsess over this – get it done.

The About Me page should give some personal and professional info on you so that a potential JV partner learns something about you and gets comfortable with possibly working with you.

Create a separate testimonial page if you’ve already collected some testimonials for your product. If you haven’t yet collected any, skip this.

Now find your potential JV partners. Let’s say your new niche is tennis. Search for tennis newsletters online and see all the results you can. Search for tennis e-courses, products, and anything tennis-related – including blogs – where it’s pretty clear that someone has a list of tennis players. Because that’s the key – finding the people who own lists of people who play tennis.

It doesn’t even matter if they have a product of their own – what matters is they have a list of tennis players. Use a little creativity, and you’ll find hundreds of people who own lists like these, some of which have never even monetized their lists – they do it as a hobby.

Social media and Facebook are excellent avenues for finding these potential partners. Focus first on finding small to medium-sized list owners to build your confidence. You can go after the big players in your niche when you’ve done a few JVs, and you’ve begun to build a solid reputation in your field.

Ask yourself who is already talking to the audience you want to talk to. Where are the people you want to meet hanging out? This is where you need to be, both online and possibly offline.

When you find these tennis list owners, take down their name, URL, and email address. If you like, get their phone number as well. Now email them individually, one by one. Don’t do more than a few in one day, just in case you get several replies.

When you email, you might tell them how you know them. “I read your book,” or “I’m a fan of your blog.” Please show them admiration and respect, but don’t go too overboard. A little is great; a lot might make them uncomfortable. Be specific in your praise. Don’t say, “You are the greatest tennis blogger ever!” Say, “Your article on serving mistakes helped me tremendously, especially that point you made about ___.”

Next, in your email, you’ve got two different avenues you could take – the direct and the indirect.

The direction goes something like this:

“Thought you might be interested in doing a joint venture. Here’s an opportunity we have, and if you’re interested, we’d like to schedule something with you very soon.” Then give them the link to your JV page, About Me page, testimonial page, and even your sales page. Offer to send them a review copy of your product.

The indirect method is just that – more indirect. It takes a little longer but tends to work better, so you decide which suits you. It goes something like this:

“I want to support you by creating a mutually beneficial relationship.” Ask them for a quick phone conversation to discuss the possibilities. Please include a link to your About Me page but no other links. If they want, they can search your site and find the other pages, but you don’t want to be the one sending them there yet. Then get on the phone with them and discuss the possibilities, including promoting your product.

If after you send either of these emails, you don’t hear back in a week, send the email again with a one-line note that says something like, “Just wanted to be sure you saw this,” or “Gentle nudge,” or whatever is in keeping with your style.

I know some people will disagree with this method of getting JV partners. You’ll say that it’s best to spend some time establishing a relationship and doing favors for the potential JV partners before ever asking. And without a doubt, that’s an excellent method, one I endorse wholeheartedly.

But if you need money now, this is the way to go. And if your product solves a big problem in a step-by-step fashion – in other words, it’s a fantastic product – you will get JV partners this way. You might need to contact 10 to 20 people to get 3 JV’s, but it’s all a numbers game and worth it.

Just don’t burn any bridges. If someone never gets back to you, it’s okay. If someone tells you to bugger off, it’s okay. Always be super polite and friendly, and never take offense.

You might want to wait to contact the vast list of owners until you’ve gotten a few JVs. It’s probably a good idea.

But there is a way you can contact the big dogs in your niche from Day 1 if you’re up to it. That is if you’ve got the confidence.

You will ask for an interview with them to add to your product. Most everyone is looking for more exposure and publicity, so this is a great way to get your foot in the door and improve your product. And odds are, if they grant you an interview, they’ll promote your product because it contains their discussion.

Here’s a trick: Find the big players in your niche doing something now or shortly. Maybe they’re releasing a new book or product where they want publicity. This is the best time to ask to interview them, as they have their reason for wanting to get as much exposure as possible.

Another benefit to having well-known names in your product package is leveraging this to get more JVs. Some potential partners will be all ears when you start term dropping because they’ll think that if these big names are in your product, then it’s something they want to be a part of, too.

Remember, if you have a great product that creates breakthroughs, you can get partners – you must persist in finding and asking these folks to JV with you.

Whether you’re solving a problem, writing a blog post, crafting a review, or creating your following product, creativity is one of your best tools for getting the job done with finesse and style. With that in mind, here are 17 methods anyone can use to become more creative.

Free writing is where you start writing anything and continue writing as the words and ideas flow. At first, it may be silly nonsense, but you’ll be surprised how fast your comments and ideas can merge into something truly inspired.

Carry a notebook – Two things happen by jotting down ideas as soon as they appear. First, you don’t forget your thoughts because you’ve got a written record. Second, writing them down tells your subconscious you want ideas, encouraging them to give you even more.

Make lists – The very act of writing things down frees up your mind to be more creative.

Take breaks from work – Get up, walk around, play 5 minutes of hopscotch – whatever. Just take a breather.

Get up and go – Leave your computer at home, take your notebook, and leave the office. Go anywhere – a park, the mall, a coffee shop, a museum – get out, get away and soak up some different surroundings.

Get near water, especially if it’s moving – Studies show that it floods you with negative ions, making you feel good and boosting your creativity. Remember how you get some of your best ideas in the shower? That’s part of the reason why.

Talk nice to yourself – Positive self-talk about creativity will produce more ideas. Beating yourself up for being a dummy won’t.

Have caffeine – If you don’t usually drink caffeine, one cup of coffee or tea can remarkably affect your thinking.

Clean off your desk – Nothing stifles creativity like a messy, cluttered desk.

Read something different – Read an article on a topic you know nothing about, a page out of the dictionary, a chapter out of a random book, etc. Learning outside the box can trigger many new ideas for you.

Practice writing or bouncing a ball with your non-dominant hand – This can help activate the connection between the two sides of your brain.

Be open to new ideas – We often dismiss an idea before giving it a chance. Even if you think it’s a bad idea, try playing devil’s advocate and find out why it’s a good idea – you might be surprised.

Collaborate and mastermind – Two heads are better than one, and five are better than 2. Form a mastermind group, present a problem, and let the ideas flow. The only rule is: No one shoots down an idea.

Sleep on it – Give your subconscious your problem or need: “I need three new blog post ideas by tomorrow morning.” Then let it go and see what your subconscious finds for you.

Make friends with mistakes – When you goof up or make the wrong decision, realize it’s not the end of the world. It’s simply something that didn’t work at the moment. This allows your creativity to continue to flow.

Purposely break the rules – Don’t break the big ones like “do not steal,” but do break the little ones like “this is what a blog post / new product/video should look like.”

Be you – Don’t worry about what others might think because no great idea is without naysayers anyway. If everyone thinks your idea is excellent, then it’s probably not.

One last tip: Ask “Why?” and “Why not?” a lot. We often accept things as they are when there could be a whopper of an idea just staring us in the face the whole time.

Well over 5.5 million gigabytes of content are shared daily through social media and email. Want to grab a piece of that viral pie? Here are five tips to help get your content moving into new hands and seen by many new people daily.

Use Great Headlines. This one’s a no-brainer, yet it’s the most prominent mistake marketers make. Your headline should be short enough to be readable, long enough to be interesting, and enjoyable enough to grab attention instantly, and the more curiosity it provokes, the better.

Use a Story. “Buy this great product” is never going to get shared as often as “The Customer Service Nightmare on Elm Street” or “Redhead Finds Bliss in a Bottle.”

Use Visuals. Relevant, exciting visuals grab attention, heighten interest, tell a story, and make content stand out in social media… do I need to go on?

Use Humor. Nothing gets shared as much as something that makes people chuckle – or better yet – laugh out loud. Find ways to insert humor into your content, both in the words and the visuals, and your shares will immediately go up.

Make It Easy to Share. Add buttons for each of the leading social networks. The idea is to keep sharing as easy and straightforward as possible. Even one extra click can result in no shares.

You’ve written a genuinely terrific blog post. You’ve dozens of them – yet your traffic still looks more like a ghost town than the bustling metropolis you hoped for. Here are 15 ways to drive traffic to your blog posts without monetary cost.

1. Add social sharing buttons to your posts. The easier it is for your readers to share your posts, the more likely they will do so.

2. A.S.K. your readers to share your content. At the end of your post, you might write something simple like, “If you f” und this helpful, please share.”

3. Buil” up your contacts. Make a list building a priority to capture as many visitors as possible. Encourage people to join your list, follow you on social media, etc. Use bribes and offer great info to get them on board, then take good care of them to ensure they stay with you. When you write a new post, ask them to read it and share it liberally with their own networks.

4. Email your list each time you post great content. This one seems too obvious, but it’s surpit’sng how many bloggers don’t do it. Don’t sure your email is optimized for all sizes of screens. And rethink the timing of your email. It used to be that first thing in the morning was best, but now that people are deluged with marketing emails, later in the day when they’re nthey’reushed might be better.

5. Build up your V.I.P. Contact list. Make friends with those in your niche. Promote their blog posts and their work. Build relationships. When you write posts, they’ll wthey’llreciprocate and promote you.

6. Link to websites, blogs, and authors with large social media followings. In your blog post, find ways to mention these folks positively. Maybe you reference one of their posts or a technique they’re uthey’rehen your blog post goes live and send them a message letting them know you mentioned them. Often they will tell their followers, and you could get a nice flood of traffic along with a new contact.

7. Do a case study on someone successful. This could be one of those bloggers in your niche with a large following. Analyze what makes them so successful, interview them, get quotes from their followers, etc. Again, you’ll see a surge of traffic when they promote your post to their followers, plus you’ll hayou’llew friends.

8. Target a specific blogger. In this case, you’re a topic you know is near and dear to a particular blogger. Perhaps the easiest way to do this is to look at their recent posts, find an emotionally driven one, and write your post about the topic. You might point out in your post how this blogger was right about the case but use a slightly different angle on the story. You’re noYou’reing what they did; you’re up a notch or moving it in another direction.

9. Get influential opinions. When you post, email a pertinent question to several influential people and ask their opinion. Everyone loves to give an idea, and unlike a full-fledged interview, it only takes a couple of minutes to answer. Then quote these people in your post and tell them when you post it. Odds are they’ll work with others. Bonus: Placing movers and shakers in your posts also increases the chances of your post being shared by readers.

10. Use quotes from personalities in your niche. This one is straightforward to do, and it doesn’t affect your post’s flow. Find appropriate quotes from leaders and shakers in your place and insert them between sections of your post where relevant. It’s a grIt’sway to break up the copy visually, and you can link the quotes back to the original author. Be sure to let the authors know you quoted them.

11. Write lists. For example, you might list the “10 most “influential people in your niche” and link” to all ten influencers. Posts like these tend to get shared a great deal.

12. Use infographics in your posts. Yes, it takes extra effort and money to generate an infographic, but the results can be powerful. People love infographics and are more likely to share them with others. And if you’re on Pinterest, yyou’realready saw you’ve infographics can be.

13. Go negative. Write a blog post on the things you’re doing or have madyou’reong or the mistakes people are making. Fear of loss is more significant than the desire for gain. People are more likely to read and share “10 things you’re doing” wrong” you’re things you”e doin'” right.” You aren’t going to be “active, don’tu’ll turn people offyou’llBe contrarian. If everyone else thinks one way, make an argument the other way. Be polite and friendly, but clearly state your case, evidence, and why you feel the way you do. If it’s a topic people cait’sbout, your post will likely go viral. Be ready for a significant traffic surge and many heated comments on both sides.

15. Present one post in several different ways via social media. Let’s say you have a pet’s how to raise pigs? Other sections of the seat might include: Choosing the piglets (or birthing the piglets, if you own the sow), feeding them when they’re young, housing them when they’re older, exercising they’rening, things to watch out for, health issues, etc. Each of these topics can be individually highlighted in social media, so you have several ways to promote your post instead of just one.

If you spend as much time promoting your post as you took writing it, you should see a dramatic upturn in your traffic. One good rule is to do five daily things promoting a post on your blog. Make this a habit, and traffic will never again be an issue.

Staying focused quickly becomes one of the most significant challenges online marketers face today. For example, you sit down to write an article and end up surfing the net for the rest of the morning… Or you’ve got an information product you need to finish. Still, you check your email, which leads to a news site, a sports site, a few entertainment sites, and some social media sites, and before you know it, it’s already 3 hours later, and you’ve accomplished nothing except making yourself feel guilty. Does this sound familiar?

According to Dr. B. J. Fogg, Director of Stanford Persuasive Lab, “There’s just one way to change your behavior radically, and that’s to change your environment radically.”

Students who transfer to a new university are much more likely to change their habits than students who remain at the same university. This is true for workers as well. People who change jobs or job locations are much more likely to change their habits.

It makes sense. At your previous job, you were in the habit of going to a fast-food restaurant with your coworkers for lunch. At your new job, your coworkers eat lunch at a healthy restaurant and invite you along. Soon you are eating healthy lunches every day, even when you don’t go to that restaurant, because you’re now in the habit of eating healthful lunches. Enough time goes by, and fast food can even become repulsive to you.

So what happened? Your environment changed, and so did the triggers. This made it easy to effect a change.

People who have trouble falling asleep are told only to use their beds for sleeping and nothing else. If they lay down but can’t fall asleep, they should get up and go to another room. After treating their bed as only a sleep location (and not a reading location, a daydreaming location, etc.) for several weeks, they can generally fall asleep within minutes of their head hitting the pillow.

The bed is now a trigger for just one thing – sleeping.

This is why having one location to work and another place to play is essential. If you are mixing your ‘play’ time with your work time in the same home office, you’re asking to get constantly distracted.

This is easily remedied if you use a laptop or tablet for work. Designate one place in your home where you will make nothing but work – no exceptions.

If you work on a desktop computer, you might consider getting a laptop or tablet for your Internet ‘playtime.

Another technique is to designate specific times of the day when you are working, with no exceptions. This will get you in the habit of always doing work during those times, making it much more challenging to get distracted. Your work times become routine, eliminating the need to decide if you will work each time. And when you automatically go to work instead of ‘deciding’ to go to work, you eliminate the possibility that you will decide NOT to work.

A third technique is to use triggers. For example, if you always start work right after breakfast, eating and going to work will become a habit. You don’t have to think about it; you do it.

In one study, knowing exactly when and where participants were going to exercise caused them to follow through a whopping 91% of the time. Those who exercised when they felt motivated exercised 35% of the time.

Bottom line: If you’re having trouble staying focused, designate an area where you will do nothing but work, combine it with a strict schedule, and you should experience a dramatic increase in your productivity.

When you get more done with fewer distractions, you’ll accomplish your goals faster – researchers tell us you’ll also enjoy increased self-esteem, greater happiness, and overall satisfaction with your life.

These are all super quick and relatively easy. No tactic here will take more than an hour, and some can be done in just a few minutes. Some can get you traffic pretty quickly, and others take time. My suggestion: Do one daily until you’ve done all the ones that interest you. Some you will continue to do every day, such as using Twitter, but of course, you can also use automation to lighten the workload a bit…

Do product reviews. For driving traffic? You bet. Product reviews are easy to get ranked, especially if you do them in the video. Here’s the trick: Don’t make it like every other product review. Instead, be honest. Use your personality. Have fun with it. And ask the reader/viewer to subscribe to get more product reviews.

One more thing: TELL THE TRUTH about what you think of the product. I once landed on a product review that said, quite frankly, the product wasn’t worth the money. I didn’t buy that product, but I subscribed to the author’s list and have since purchased several hundred dollars of products from him because he earned my trust.

Create a keyword list. Then use it to write your articles and blog posts. Writing about whatever you want is OK, but it’s even better to write about what people are searching for. Using a keyword list, you get new ideas and are better tuned into the market and what might get your articles ranked on Google. Once you write a recent report, promote it on social media.

Find questions on forums and answer them in articles. If someone is asking something on a forum, there’s a good chance others are asking the same question. Write an essay, post it, then post your article link on the panel “for more information” after your answer.

Blogger.com is a high authority site owned by Google (hint, hint). When you join, find the “about me” section and add your website URL and keywords in the anchor text, contributing to better SEO for your primary website. Do the same with other popular sites online that allow you to create your profile and backlink to your website.

Register with forums in your niche. Fill out the details on your profile, including your name and website. Add your website or blog to your signature if the platform allows it. Make several valuable posts in each forum. You’re shooting for quality backlinks here, but if you enjoy posting to forums, keep at it. Your posts can drive traffic back to your site for years to come.

Join Twitter. Use Twitter. Seriously. Make several tweets, find people to follow in your niche, and each time you write an article, tweet about it. It’s incredible how many marketers still don’t fully utilize Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Set up an account at HubPages.com. This is another high-authority site that can help with your rankings. The content you post here can also rank high for your keywords. Remember to update your account with new content from time to time. And be sure to include a bio of what you do along with your URL.

All of these are pretty simple and can help to drive traffic to your website. So next time you’ve got a few extra minutes, pick one and get busy. It will be time well invested.

Personal question: Is it possible that you already know everything you need to know to be successful online – but something other than knowledge is holding you back?

If it’s as simple as the mechanics of online marketing – setting up websites and so forth – you can always hire someone to do that for you.

But if it’s a lack of confidence or fear of failing that’s holding you back – then it’s up to you to squash that particular bug or quarantine it to the furthest corner of your house.

And if the thought of failing is enough to keep you from starting your online empire, welcome to the club. Fear of failure is one of the most giant stumbling blocks to success. Fear of failing is so oppressive and destructive that it can cause you to set aside your dreams – forever willingly.

So why do we fear failure so much? It goes back to life experiences that inadvertently taught us it’s better not to risk than to risk and lose. When you fail at something, it’s natural to worry about what other people will think about you and if they will lose interest in you. You worry about how smart and capable you are and whether you can effectively pursue future endeavors. When you fear failure, you’re worried about many possible outcomes, most of which will never come to pass, no matter how many times you fail.

But the mind isn’t rational, and simply talking yourself out of fear doesn’t work better than trying to manifest an iron will.

The secret to overcoming the fear of failure? There are several, but I’ll give you one you can use immediately.

Experiments in the 1970s showed that there are two distinct groups of children when it comes to learning new skills. There are the “ego-oriented” children whose primary concern is not losing face in front of their friends. Some of these children fear failure so much they invent ways to get out of the activity, do the training so that they cannot fail, or make it impossible to succeed so that failing doesn’t hold a stigma.

The second group of children is what they term “mastery-oriented.” These kids don’t care as much about losing face as they do about acquiring a new skill. They realize that initially, failing is simply a part of the learning process and take it in stride. These kids are happier and succeed much faster than those who fear failing.

Thus, if you can change your focus to acquiring a new skill and decide that no matter what happens along the way, you will enjoy the process – you are on the way to overcoming your fear of failure.

Gradually Overcoming Your Fear of Failure

You might start small with something that doesn’t hold much significance, such as learning a new game. Let’s say you’ll take up billiards for the first time. Your focus would be learning how to hold and shoot the cue, the angles to use, the rules of the game, and so forth. When you miss a shot or scratch, it’s no big deal because you know that’s part of the process and you’re just learning.

You might be astonished at the difference it makes. You’ll be happier, have less stress, and learn your new skill faster.

You might stretch yourself further from here by doing things that scare you. For example, if you’re shy, you might ask 15 strangers a simple question (“Do you have the time?”) in 30 minutes. Note how you feel after the exercise. Odds are you’ll not only have conquered a fear of talking to strangers, but you’ll also get a boost of confidence, which leads us to our next point…

Are You Lacking in Confidence?

You have an excellent idea for a new business but don’t have the guts to go for it. Or maybe you decide to go ahead with your opinion, but then someone says it’ll never work, and you chuck the whole thing. Why? Low self-confidence. This goes hand in hand with the fear of failure.

So why doesn’t someone have enough confidence in themselves? Usually, they judge themselves unworthy or see a significant disconnect between what they think they’re capable of and what they’re doing.

Growing Unshakable Self-Confidence, Step by Step

The good news is that confidence can be raised with every new challenge met, no matter how small. Remember the exercise to talk to 15 strangers? I can almost guarantee your self-confidence to speak with strangers will be significantly raised after you do this.

If you make it a habit to do one thing every single day that is out of your current comfort zone, you will find that your confidence improves immensely within just a few short weeks.

Make yourself a list of all things you’d like to do that you’re not doing. Maybe you’ve wanted to join a group, take up a new hobby, try a different sport, or go to a fancy nightclub. Perhaps you want to improve at talking with the opposite sex, making friends, or making online contacts. Maybe you’ve wished you could get 5 minutes with the big guns in your niche or regularly post to forums and blogs.

Whatever it is that you’ve been wanting to do but haven’t, put it on the list. Even small stuff like walking around your neighborhood and ringing the doorbells of neighbors you haven’t yet met can go on the list, as well as chatting up that stud or beautiful woman who works in the supermarket. Write down everything you can think of that you’ve been holding back on. Add in skydiving if you’re inspired to do that kind of thing, and keep adding to this list daily as you think of new things.

Now that you’ve got your list pick one thing and do it right now. That’s right – do it now, or at least before you go to bed tonight.

Notice a difference in how you feel about yourself? You should.

When we don’t do the things, we wish we would do – for whatever reason – we lose self-esteem. But when we finally do those things, we become more self-confident and find we’re happier, more fulfilled, and more ready to take on even more significant challenges.

You’ll notice that most examples I’ve given haven’t been IM-related. That’s because raising your confidence in any one area can also help you in all other areas. When you have success learning tennis, you can use that boost in confidence to tackle website building or product creation. And when you overcome your fear of talking to strangers, it gets easier to network on Facebook with people you don’t know.

One last thing – it’s far better to take multiple baby steps than try to overcome the world in a day. Making slow, steady progress anchors your triumphs and makes achieving a little more tomorrow much easier.