Donna Knight’s Internet Marketing Tools and Reviews

Secrets of Using Virtual Help, releasing stress, getting things done and overcoming frustration

By Marlon Sanders

Why do some marketers burn out and others keep on keeping on?

Why do some marketers come out quickly with two or three products that are “hits,” then dissapear?

Why do some people get products and web sites out — even when they have poor computer skills?

The difference lies in help. Getting help. Early on in this business, I began using independent contractors to help me get the work done.

That’s mainly because I have the ability for attention to detail of a pet rock! If I don’t have others proof read stuff, there are ALWAYS typos, misspelled words, and omitted words — if not worse.

I also suck at html. I mean, I can do the basics of Dreamweaver or Front page and DID stuff myself in the early days. As soon as I had cash flow, I hired people to help out.

The hardest product you’ll ever create is your FIRST. The hardest sales letter you’ll ever write is your FIRST. The hardest email you’ll ever send out is your FIRST. And the hardest person you’ll ever hire is your FIRST.

That’s why I recommend you START with independent contractors. Meaning they aren’t full time and you aren’t locked into the regulations you have with an employee.

Really, if you can hire someone part time to come into your home and file things, handle paperwork and do basic bookkeeping,that alone is a BIG help.

Your customer service can be handled virtually. I like to hire people from other countries, so I have NO possibility that our government will consider them an employee and charge me for back taxes.

You have to be careful hiring independent contractors that come into your home on any schedule. Because your government might classify them as an employee and make you responsible for back taxes. That’s a good way to go out of business fast.

Here’s the thing: It’s hard to feel you have the MONEY to hire help. But you don’t have the MONEY to hire help until you free up your time to do more productive things.

It’s the chicken and the egg. Which comes first?

You should focus on doing the things you’re best at and then hire others to do the rest. You can use elance.com, rentacoder.com guru.com, and scriptlance.com to name a few.

Why would someone work for you or with you if you can’t pay them a big salary and benefits like the big corporations do?

In my business, I can tell you that people who work with me over the period of two years learn more than they ever imagined. For example, Matt has been with me almost a year now. And in one year, he’s almost turned into a marketing guru. No bull. There’s no area of this business I haven’t let him work in.

From graphic design, to affiliates, to writing, to email promos.

Now, I ONLY do that with people who are really fast thinkers, and fast learners. The faster someone learns, the more I can teach them and have them do. The person literally sets their own pace.

When I hired Lisa 6 years ago, she could only do a few things in Photoshop. Now, she’s one of the most talented designers on the web.

In the February issue of this newsletter, I posted for some positions I needed people for. I’m already working with a writer who I feel is very talented. And will expand that relationship and assign additional areas of responsibility as long as it works in both our self interests.

To give you an example of how you can use talent to expand your business, I hope to find someone who is a WIZARD at starting up GROUPS. You know, clubs like AA meetings or Toastmasters. I need someone to do that. I have this vision of Milcers groups that I need someone to implement who is really a great organizer, motivator and doer.

I plan on finding someone who is a PRO at recruiting, screening and hiring people. I’m not very good at it. (Like many other things!).

I need a writer to write articles every single day that I can submit to directories.

I need someone who really ROCKS with Adobe In Design to lay out our monthly newsletters, so I can free up Matt to do other things. If they’re good, they’ll get to expand into doing magazine concepts I have that no one in this industry does.

I need someone to interview our customers and write up 1-2 page success stories monthly. You should have someone like this also. So you have success stories being churned out each week or month like clockwork.

I really, really need someone to handle parts of operations. You know, those pesky web hosting problems you run into. Those database back-up issues, troubleshooting on stuff that isn’t working correctly.

I need SEO people who have a proven track record of getting results. Finding GOOD SEO people is an illusive task. If you’re looking to find your niche online, there’s always demand for people good at SEO and pay-per-click stuff.

I need someone who can mimic our style and write killer email promotions that aren’t hype or hokey. That’s such a fine line. And takes a really good writer to do. I’m not sure I can find anyone who can do that. But I’ll try.

I really, really need someone who can assign tasks to our freelancers, volunteers and virtual workers and follow up to receive the completions and make sure they’re done. Then check the work to make sure the person did what we asked them to do! That doesn’t sound important. But you get what you inspect. Not what you request.

Remember that when you get your own people. Look don’t listen. It’s NOT what someone says. It’s what they do. Anyone can talk a good game. But can they produce? Can they get a stat and make it keep going up? Can they get things done without causing MORE work from others than it’s worth?

How can I afford all those people? Well, I can’t. And you may not either. So you may want to do what I’m doing: Find people who need a chance to grow, learn, and do things. Who need a chance to spread their wings.

In my case, I’m looking for people who want to work with our crack team and have the chance or opportunity to grow, expand and learn different aspects of my business without having to pay to do it.

I figure people are paying $10,000 for protege programs and coaching programs where they’ll quite frankly learn a fraction of what they have the potential to learn working with me.

However, you have to be careful in hiring people this way. If people come on JUST to learn and NOT to work hard, DO and contribute, they’ll just suck up your time and not produce anything.

You know you’ve made it in my business when I give you a production statistic that you are responsible for increasing weekly.

I expect production.

But what I DO is when someone is producing and doing a great job without requiring much oversight, training or management, I give them a chance to expand, learn, and do more and more things.

We don’t have a lot of time to train. So that’s why I need fast learners. I’ll often give someone a book or ebook and basically say, “Do this.” We’ll give some feedback and guidance. And if the person catches on fast, and can produce, we’ll expand their responsibilities.

You can do the same thing. There are retired people who LOVE learning and contributing. The are college students and graduates who would give anything to sink their teeth into real projects where they can learn 10X in a year what they would shoved away into a corner at a corporation.

I can guarantee Matt has learned in almost 1 year 50X what he would have in a corporation. Ditto for Lisa. So it’s this odd balance.

You need people who are hard workers and fast learners. But you probably will have to do training. And yet, you can’t let their motivation be to learn and not produce or your time will get sucked up and NO PRODUCTION will happen!

Been there. Done that.

The challenge I ran into is that I used to ask people to apply on our web sites for positions. Man, it was crazy. Every single person who applied listed $75,000 to $150,000 as their salary!

They assumed that because we’re high visibility, we also pay a fortune!

Then, one day, it dawned on me that there are people paying HUGE bucks for protege and coaching programs and not really learning “in the trenches.” I thought, why can’t I plug in people like that?

Maybe you can do the same thing. Did you know TONS of people volunteer around the world for different causes? It’s true.

So what I did was put together our “Marketing Practicum” program, where people work with us for 10 or more hours a week. The emphasis is on production, not learning. But in producing a stat, you’ll learn more than you ever dreamed of!

Crazy how that works.

I tell people there’s a chance what they do will result in a paid position. But that should NOT be the motivation. It is what it is. And if something more develops, that’s just a bonus.

In YOUR business, you can do the same. Find students who need either official “practicums” or work experience. If you can offer them 10X the valuable experience they’d get anywhere else, you’ll likely have takers.

You can find retired people who want to plug into a vision or use their time in a worthwhile way.

You can find people beginning careers where learning and production and doing things is more important than money.

You can hire volunteers or pay minimal money. Or, possibly, in some cases more money. There are no rules. It’s whatever is win/win.

The other issue is once you find people, how do you SCREEN them and select the best?

What I do is give people an assignment that’s really simple. If they can’t do that fast, accurate or without asking a lot of questions and needing help, forget about it!

I’ll sometimes even give a totally nonsensical task and see if the person does it or complains.

Like if someone wants to be in sales for me, I’ll ask them to send me an email selling me a pen or a pencil. As stupid as that sounds.

Or I’ll make up a sequence of activities that have no purpose whatsoever other than to see how quickly and accurately someone can do a task with no meaning at all other than to see if they can complete a sequence of activities without mucking it up.

Or even complete a project AT ALL.

One third of the people will not even COMPLETE a simple assignment. Another third will muck it up. A few more will ask high maintenance questions about the simplest task, sucking up my staff’s time. Can you imagine what would happen with a halfway complex task?

Others will do the task. Someday. But speed counts. An internet business moves at light speed. You need people who can produce at that speed. Not slow pokes!

And I’ve learned the really, really hard way that if someone can’t get things done and produce right off the bat, it isn’t going to get any better.

There will be some people who you don’t use immediately just because you don’t have the manpower to manage them. I have one person like that right now. I’d like to use them but I don’t have anyone to assign tasks, check up, train a little, and so forth.

Does that help you open your eyes to the possibilities? I wanted to take you into the inside of my business and show you what we’re doing to give you some ideas on what YOU can do.

Here’s what I CAN tell you: You can’t do everything yourself. You can’t. And even if you could, you’d burn out like others. And if you don’t get help, after 2 to 4 successful products, you’ll get inundated with customer service and end up in a major cash flow crunch that could put you under.

One of the most crucial turning points for you will be when you start finding and using talented people in your business, whether that is on a volunteer basis, practicums, or paid.

I hope this article gave you ideas and is useful to you.

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Marlon Sanders is the author of “The Amazing Formula That Sells Products Like Crazy.” If you’d like to get on his mailing list and receive tips, articles and information about online marketing, visit: http://getyourprofits.com/z/240/CD23206

By Donna Knight

Every business owner knows that setting goals is crucial to business success. If you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know when you’ve arrived? More importantly, how will you know when you’re heading in the wrong direction?

If you’re the owner of a small business, what is your goal? To make it to the end of the month with enough money in the bank to cover the payroll? To take a holiday for the first time in five years? To make X amount in sales this month? To acquire X amount of new customers?

Here’s one goal that every business owner should have right from the start — to become independent of the business. Small businesses turn into big businesses only when they are able to operate smoothly without the owner being present. When you can stay away for a week, or a month, or a year, and return to find the business running better than before you left, you now have the opportunity to follow your dreams - sell the business and start a new one, retire, buy a yacht and sail around the world or even think of more ways to expand the business if strategizing is your idea of fun.

True financial independence is the ability to live your life doing what YOU want to do. Do you really want to show up for work an hour early every day, leave late at night and never take a holiday for the rest of your life? I certainly don’t.

What is the solution that will allow you to build a business you can walk away from?

It’s simple. You need a system in place so that everyone in your business knows exactly what is expected of them.

When you take on a new employee, how do they learn what they’re expected to do? Does an existing employee take around and explaining how things work? How can you be sure that the new employee is learning what you want them to know?

As the owner of the business, it’s your job to ensure that a system is put in place as the business grows. The system will ensure that everyone knows what they need to know to do their job effectively. To start with, this system will include job descriptions and a training plan for each job.

Let me give you an example. How do you think companies like McDonald’s are able to manage thousands of restaurants across the planet? McDonald’s Head Office doesn’t sell hamburgers. They sell franchises, and their customers are the franchisees. The most valuable asset they have is their system. It regulates everything from what employees wear, the words they say to customers, how many seconds a patty is left on the grill, to variables within their business. Every single detail is dictated by the system.

The system makes it possible for new employees to fit in. They are educated on ‘how we do things around here’. They are taught the specifics of their job.

This is not to say that there is no flexibility in this system. In a well-designed system there is still room for individual creativity. Better ways of doing things should always be encouraged, and then and written into the system in the future after a trial run.

The system provides the framework for ensuring that the business is never entirely dependent on any one person, including you. As a business owner, your future satisfaction with your business depends on the quality of that system.

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Donna Knight is a Computer Trainer and Website Promotion Specialist. She has built over 200 websites and helps new site owners promote their site cheaply. For tips that will help you save money and save time when marketing online, visit her Internet Marketing Tools and Reviews blog at http://www.DonnaKnight.com
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Copyright (C) 2005 Donna Knight. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted to post this article in newsletters, free ebooks or websites as long as the article and resource box remain intact. For product reviews, you may substitute your affiliate referral link for the product URL.

By Donna Knight

15 years ago there were only two ways to learn a new subject. You could go to a trade school, college or adult education school. Or you could study a book on the subject on your own. If you didn’t have time to travel back and forth to school, especially after a long hard day of work, the first method was too time-consuming. If you weren’t very disciplined, learning by book wasn’t right for you either.

With all the technological advances in the last decade, including but not limited to the internet, you now have a bevy of ways to learn something new. In addition, you can now learn more subjects than ever before. One cutting edge way to get an education or even teach others is via teleseminars.

Teleseminars are classes that allow a room full of people to learn over the telephone. What’s more, each teleseminar attendee can attend without leaving the comfort of their own home. You can even stay in your pajamas! How it works is that each participants is given a phone number to dial at a specific time. This allows them to listen to and even speak to the teleseminar holder and others attending. Teleseminars usually last anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours. If you’re looking for a business to start, this is a great business you can run right from home.

There are also classes called webinars which are more of a website-based classroom. The disadvantage of webinars over teleseminars is that they require technical savvy both from the person who holds the webinar and from the attendees. With teleseminars, the only equipment attendees need is a telephone. Everyone knows how to use one of those, right?

Starting your own teleseminar business does have some requirements. Here’s what you need to know to start your own teleseminar business:

1. You must have access to a teleseminar system that will allow multiple parties to connect via a single line. There are lots of companies offering this service that you can search for online.

2. You need a subject that people would love to learn about. Examples of popular topics include starting a business, making money online, offline marketing, as well as highly specialized skills that require expert knowledge, such as taking care of pets or plants.

3. You should prepare an outline of all your lessons ahead of time. This outline will allow you to practice the teleseminar and determine how long it will take, how many individual sessions it would require, and how much time per session.

4. You must prepare each lesson beforehand. You can list everything you want to discuss. Make sure it is interesting and easy to understand over the phone. Remember that attendees don’t have the benefit of visual material as they would in a classroom. There are two alternatives though. You could mail handouts to attendees before the teleseminar starts. Alternatively, you could direct attendees to a website, where there are links to different graphics to illustrate your points.

5. You don’t have to be the expert on the subject of the teleseminars. You could simply interview others who are well-known experts in your chosen field. You could even have the interviews pre-recorded and then use the teleseminar to discuss them and answer questions. Attendees will like it more if the teleseminars are interactive.

6. You will need to determine how to price your teleseminar series. The answer is simple: The price should be what you think the information is worth. Using the internet, you can look for eBooks or classes on the subject and see what their pricing is.

7. Like any business venture, you will need to advertise your teleseminar in order to gain attendees. You can market both online and offline and you should. If possible, advertise in places where your target market is most likely to be. For example, if your teleseminar is related to children, pass out flyers at a PTA meeting or little league game. Make enrollment as easy as possible for attendees. If you make it difficult, potential attendees won’t sign up even if they’re dying to learn what you can teach simply because they’re turned off by the sign-up process. The easiest sign up process would be a simple opt-in form on a website.

8. Integrate a simple payment process that accepts multiple forms of payment. I recommend PayPal (http://www.paypal.com ) or ClickBank (http://www.clickbank.net ) both of which I have used extensively. Both allow you to accept echecks from people who don’t have a credit card. Both are secure payment systems using encryption so that credit card information can’t be viewed by hackers.

9. Decide if you want to conduct each teleseminar live or by playing a recording. A live teleseminar will allow for interaction with students having the ability to ask questions and discuss the subject further. Interactivity is an added value that will allow you to charge more for the teleseminar. If you are insecure about your speaking abilities, you may not want to do it live. Besides, you can ask students to send in their questions ahead of time and then record the answers when recording the teleseminar.

10. When it’s time to go live, be sure to start on time. If you’re charging a high price for your seminar, that’s all the more reason attendees will expect you to be a professional in the delivery of your teleseminar.

11. You must have a good quality phone. A cordless phone or cellphone may be convenient but the sound quality isn’t good enough for a teleseminar. For maximum comfort, you might want to try a headset with a good quality microphone that plugs into the phone. Your neck will thank you!

That’s not all. There’s more than one way to make money from your teleseminars. You could record the teleseminar with a recording device that hooks onto the telephone and convert it into mp3 format. You can find this device at Radio Shack. You can sell the mp3 files as a download. You could have the whole teleseminar transcribed and sell the transcriptions along with the mp3 recording at a higher price. You can print out the teleseminar into a book and sell it offline as a printed course. You can charge even more for this course than for the previous options. You can include mp3 recordings of the teleseminar on CD or DVD.

Teleseminars allow you to get into the information product business using a device everyone has, the telephone! You can start doing teleseminars as a part-time business, and if you get really good at it, it can become profitable enough to become a full-time profession. =============================================
Donna Knight is a Computer Trainer and Website Promotion Specialist. She has built over 200 websites and helps new site owners promote their site cheaply. For tips that will help you save money and save time when marketing online, visit her Internet Marketing Tools and Reviews blog at http://www.DonnaKnight.com
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Copyright (C) 2005 Donna Knight. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted to post this article in newsletters, free ebooks or websites as long as the article and resource box remain intact. For product reviews, you may substitute your affiliate referral link for the product URL.

Below is an article by Jim Edwards who was at the Internet Marketing Superconference 7 which I recently attended (and had a blast! despite a severe allergy attack :)). Jim was one of my favorite speakers there. If you ever get the chance to see this very funny and informative speaker in person, don’t miss it. For more details about the bombshell that was dropped at the conference, read on…

Software Patent Debate Rages Online

• by Jim Edwards

© Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved http://www.thenetreporter.com -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

I recently attended a conference in Las Vegas where 3 presenters got on stage and said that consumers, software developers, and website designers risked massive fines and even criminal charges for using MP3 audio online.

After I recovered from my initial shock, I realized they were talking about a software patent held by a French based company, Thomson, which enables them to charge licensing fees for anyone using their MP3 audio technology.

Upon opening this proverbial “can of online worms” I discovered that a whole world of what many consider unenforceable software patents exists online.

From my research, much of the online software patent debate stems from patents issued in Europe that may or may not get enforced. Did you know that someone patented the process of an online shopping cart?

Sun Microsystems patented the “shopping cart” process and could try to collect a royalty from anyone who uses a similar system (which rates as anyone selling anything online). http://l2.espacenet.com/espacenet/viewer?PN=EP807891

Another company patented paying with a credit card over the Internet, which would definitely shut down the vast majority of all ecommerce if they could enforce that patent! http://l2.espacenet.com/espacenet/viewer?PN=EP820620

Log on to www.nosoftwarepatents.com and http://webshop.ffii.org for some startling information.

I contacted an attorney specializing in Internet law, Bob Silber of www.InternetLawProducts.com, to get his opinion specifically on the debate about MP3’s.

“The mp3 licensing issue is not new, but recently resurfaced after an Internet marketer did a ’scare tactics’ campaign for his own marketing purposes. Thomson is the company holding the portfolio of patents related to MP3… Currently Thomson doesn’t require an mp3 license for non-commercial activities or for businesses generating an annual gross revenue less than US $100 000.”

So, unless you’re making MP3’s or software that creates MP3’s and making over $100,000 a year doing it, it doesn’t appear you need to worry about this particular patent issue.

Even then, it appears the owners of the MP3 patents would find it very difficult to enforce their patents with so much new technology emerging that builds on, and fundamentally changes, the original technology.

But this does open up a greater debate about what should and should not get patented when it comes to software.

I’m fully in favor of people protecting their rights when they create any intellectual property (software, audio, written material, etc.), but that’s a copyright issue, not a patent issue.

“Copyright” means nobody can do it the way you did it (with exact words, computer code, etc.).

“Patent” means nobody can do it at all without paying someone else a fee / royalty or “TAX” because they patented the “result!”

That makes a big difference when you talk about fundamental elements necessary to make the Internet and computers run.

It was fine for Bill Gates to copyright DOS, but what if he patented “computer operating system?”

Would that give him dominion over every computer that booted up for next 50 years? Impossible!

Unless the courts want to shut down the Internet or computers in general, software patents are, by their nature, unenforceable.

With so many different computer languages, methods, and means to do anything with computers, it’s not fair or practical for one person or company to own a “result” or a “process” like online “shopping carts” or “online audio.”

That would be just like allowing someone to patent “bottled water,” and charge us all every time we took a swig from a plastic bottle.

– Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the creator of an amazing course that will teach you step-by- step and click-by-click how to finally create your own money-making mini-sites…

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