Tales From The Bootcamp 2 - August 2008
Hi and welcome to the August 2008 APD Newsletter.
Wow, August already, and for those of us in the U.K summer still hasn’t really
started! Now if ever there was a reason to get your own auto pilot income business up
and running and profitable (so you can run it from beside a Spanish beach)…surely
the British weather has to be a major motivator!
O.K, if you’re not reading this from somewhere in the U.K, you might need to find
other motivation, but for Brits…I would suggest the weather is one of the best
motivators around. Most of my leisure time this summer has been spent in this green
and pleasant (and very wet) land, but I am now at breaking point so I’m off for some
sunshine in a couple of week’s time!
Anyway, enough of my weather rants, back to business as I take a further look at
some of the ideas that came out of the Andrew Reynolds bootcamp a few weeks back.
http://www.cash-on-demand-workshop.com/bootcamp/
I know many of you took up the DVD offer (link above) and I know you’ll be starting
to reap the benefits, but do still read this newsletter as I’ll be highlighting areas of
special interest.
One area that came through loud and clear was regards product development. I have
to admit I was cringing when I heard this! This was me when I first started!
Most people who are looking to develop a business, be that online or traditional,
develop the product first and then look to market it…wrong!
The first thing you MUST do is find a hungry market…before you do anything else! I
know I’ve said this before, but it still amazes me the number of people who approach
me with a product they have spent years developing without doing a scrap of research.
It seems blindingly obvious to me now, but when I think back…I had my idea and I
was totally blinkered. The rose-tinted glasses were on and my product was the best
thing out there and was going to sell by the thousand.
My first experience of this was as a very young and green twenty something. I spent a
fortune getting a range of sepiatoned photographic prints made up and expertly
framed. I then spent a lot more buying a stand at a huge craft fair which ran over three
days in Milton Keynes.
I then sat there on the stand for those three days and sold….wait for it…
TWO pictures. Did I learn my lesson?
Of course not!
When I first went online I read all of the books, watched a load of video tapes and
proceeded to get it wrong again.
Now I have learned my lesson. If I have an idea, I research the market first.
I look for competitive products (these are good by the way), I look for forums where
the subject is discussed, I do Google searches, I use keyword research tools to find out
how many searches are being done online. I look at the magazine racks…in short, I
make sure there is a market before I even think about launching a product.
And, when I first test a market, I do it as an affiliate. I find a product in that market on
Clickbank and I promote it. I set a small budget and I test ad variations and I see if I
can make money.
If I can make money in the niche, then…and only then do I look to develop my own
product.
As it happens, watch this space on this subject. A good friend of mine has developed a
product and I am going to teach him how to market online. At the moment he knows
nothing…and I mean nothing! Adwords got a completely blank look from him! So, I
am going to show him, top to bottom, how to go about marketing online.
Did he do his research? No, he didn’t! However, he was very lucky as he had picked a
very, very hungry market. As soon as he showed me the product I knew. There are
rare occasions when you do just know. And, when I did the online research it did
confirmed what I thought, so…we’ll be sitting down in the next couple of weeks to
market this product.
I’ll be filming the entire process and I’ll be making it available…this will be one you
won’t want to miss!
Anyway, the point is simple…before you spend anything on product development (be
that your time or money) make sure you KNOW for sure that there is a hungry market
waiting to buy.
One of the other things that I got at Bootcamp was a massive injection of positive.
Now, normally I am the most positive person around. Many people have been known
to hate me as I’m one of these annoying people that wake up in the morning and start
flying around at 100 miles an hour, singing and generally being noisy.
However, every now and then it is good to get a new injection of positive to keep you
on the right track and motivated. With the best will in the world, even positive people
sometimes have the odd dip here and there and…there is nothing like an influx of
positive input every so often.
Pat Mesiti was the PMA guru for the weekend…a real bundle of Aussie energy!
Hyper doesn’t describe him, but what great ideas he delivered…I’ll cover just a
couple of the main themes.
In short he said that if you want to have the money, lifestyle and everything that goes
with having a successful business, then your mind has to evolve to the level where
you can deal with wealth.
He cited the example of a very famous American heavyweight boxer who earned over $400 million during his career but was now flat broke and in and out of prison.
$400 million blown on nothing!
The essence of this is that you have to control your own attitude to life and show the
discipline needed to grow and develop with your business.
You do this by making sure you read and watch the right stuff, and set goals and
priorities for yourself.
For example, if you want to build a lifestyle for yourself where you have numerous
autopilot profit streams and you need to learn, say Google Adwords, to help generate
profits…would you give up the “game on TV” to learn what you need to learn?
I talked last month about going that extra mile. I’ve talked before about sitting there at
9pm on a Friday night writing this newsletter. I gave up a weekend to be at Bootcamp.
In short…I have my priorities right and it’s why this week I have spent a day out with
my eldest son, I’ll be off for a luxury week in Spain soon, I’ll be spending three
weeks in Vancouver soon and I got up at 9am this morning and walked the three yards
to “work”!
You see I took the hit a few years back. I put in the hard work, I got my mind focused
the right way and I did what it took to get me to where I am now.
What else did I do to get here?
I set goals. I know, I can hear the collective sigh from here “Yeah, we all know about
goals”.
Do YOU have your goals written down? Do you even have any goals set?
Every positive mental attitude book, DVD or CD will tell you the most successful 5%
of the population are those with written goals! It’s true so please get your goals
written down…ideally with pictures to support.
Andrew did a brilliant session on goal setting and it was an area I had let slip a little
(at least I’m honest with you).
However, after Bootcamp, I was re-invigorated and have re-set and massively
“upped” my goals.
You see…it’s that injection of positive again!
As it happens, Andrew still has the bootcamp DVDs available, and if you haven’t got
yourself a copy yet, I seriously suggest you invest. Click on the link below…
http://www.cash-on-demand-workshop.com/bootcamp/
Invest in yourself, was one of Pat’s main themes. If you want success and you haven’t
got it now, then it follows you will need to do something different in future to get you
to where you want to be. Simple stuff.
Investing in the “right stuff” for yourself (and your loved ones) is one of the main
support pillars of all successful people!
I’ve got some really interesting stuff coming up for you during the course of the next
month, so you will hear from me a little bit more often over the coming weeks, but it
will all be designed to help you really move your business and life to where you want
it to be.
So, stop making excuses and just “DO IT”…start doing something to secure your
financial independence and future lifestyle…NOW.
http://www.cash-on-demand-workshop.com/bootcamp/
O.K, that’s it for now, do read this newsletter again and think about what you really
want. Final word…I am nothing special, I spent 20 years as a recruiter (it pains me to
think about it now)…if I can do it – so can YOU!
As always…to YOUR success.
Cheers now, and have fun!
Derek
Internet Marketing from APD
If you feel anyone else would benefit from this information, please feel free to pass it on.
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