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Whoa, color me surprised - this has been a great two months! Really …

Just a few month ago, and throughout the summer, we were noticing that things were getting quite rough. Sales were down across the board, advertising costs were way up, and we were questioning … well, just about everything. The news was filled with negativity, yes, everyone spoke of the rebound coming …

I’ll be honest. I didn’t believe it! I still don’t believe it. We are simply NOT turned around. We are NOT over the hump, and I predict things are going to get a whole lot worse. I see the entire rebound we are currently experiencing as entirely irrational, and I urge great saving, and even greater caution, in the coming year.

That being said - I have to admit when I’m wrong. And, based on our own results, I have to say … We sold a lot of stuff this last two months. It’s like all of America seemed to buy into the “hype” of the ending recession, and started spending like mad. It’s out of control, and we did very, very well. I’m shocked (but very happy) …

And believe you me, this has a great impact on our upcoming January, where I predict things will continue to go gangbusters on the web … We are currently refining our strategies, and predict a stellar January! Beyond that though - we think the irrational exuberance is going to wane, and we see some tough times in 2010. While I can’t argue with our exceptional November and December results, I also, can’t really say we saw it coming. How long can this kind of spending continue?

No, I am not complaining. Just making note of the fact that the country has not dealt (at ALL) with the housing issue, foreclosures, or bank financing (like my small business maybe being able to get a LOAN to expand even faster). These are troubling problems, and stand in the way (I believe) of any true recovery.

That being said - to the victor go the spoils, and in this instance, as we’ve “figured out” internet business, we’ve been strong victors. So ends a crazy 2009, and what will almost assuredly be a crazier 2010 …

Lessons Learned: Spend Less!
-> We went crazy with adwords and landing page testing, and paid the price. I am an avid tester, and PPC buyer, but we overdid it, and we paid a heavy (six figure) price. 2010? We’re going to do LESS, but more targeted, PPC. Think … hand done SpeedPPC campaigns.

-> Focus, Focus, Focus … We’re going to greatly trim our niches, and where we focus our energies. We cut down 100 sites this year, and we plan to trim 200 more in 2010. That’s right. 200 sites, bye-bye. In fact, we’re going to give MarketingCrazy members first crack at buying these sites and domain names (for very cheap).

-> No More Buying Internet Marketing Courses! Ha - I’ve promised this before, but this year - no way. We’re going to create one, that’s going to blow everything else out of the water. To do that, we’re going to need to stop reading everyone else’s for a moment. Yep, that means I’m going to drop out of the 100+ email marketing lists for the following year. Yay!

In my next post, I’m going to detail the top 3 game changers of 2010, with regards to internet marketing, and I’m going to tell you our plans of how we’re preparing to deal with them. What are you three things you’re planning for 2010?

What have I done in 2008 (not 2009), that really impacted my business - either at a core profit level, or a core efficiency level. Here’s my Top three things I’ve done that have had a huge effect on my business. If you’re starting a business, or growing your business, these might make a big difference!

1) Apple, Gmail, and the Ultimate Shift in my tools and resources…

Ever seen those Apple commercials? Ever wonder if maybe they were right? 2008 was the year of the Apple, and while I still use my PC for certain things, my switch to Apple, and Apple products, proved hugely beneficial to my business!

I can get into specifics about why Apple versus PC, and why, and what tools I use on each, but I’ll save that for a longer, specific post. Suffice it to say, this was a huge time saver, and my business works better on Apple. now have 3 Imacs, 2 Powerbooks … and no headache.

2) Gmail and Google’s paid suite of business tools.

I may live to regret this, but since I was on PC, I used Outlook. Outlook is a horrible program, but I was so stuck in it. So many years wasted… so many emails lost…

Outlook is… quite possibly, the devil.

With my switch to Mac, I made the switch to Gmail, which was very difficult, laborious, and to my way of thinking, a waste of time. Yet, no single thing has catapulted me in productivity than switching to Gmail, and Google Docs, spreadsheets, etc…

Yes, I may live to regret this, putting so much faith into one company, but the paid version (pay the paltry $50 per person), is amazing beneficial to me, my employees, my company, and our productivity.

They simply work, and they work anywhere.  I can travel, and be completely connected to my business. Does anyone still actually use Outlook? I feel like I was a late adopter of Gmail, but it has catapulted me to a better Internet Lifestyle (work and play together).

3) Focus on fewer sites…

We have hundreds of websites. Yes, hundreds. Sometimes it feels like even more!

In 2008, we trimmed it down. Fewer, larger sites were the word of the day, and guess what? It’s working! Follow our lead … this is the wave of the future.

Ever notice how hard it’s getting to rank in Google? Yep - big sites win. Focussed sites win. I’m not saying the ocassional sales letter site can’t garner an easy 20-100k, but if you’re around for the long run - think big, and think, single or small group of sites.

What about link farms? Blog Farms? Etc…  Been there, done that!

Save those for the people whom want to work harder than you do!  You simple won’t need them if you work on creating a big site, with big content, and big community. That’s a fact!

What’s your top 3-5 business changers? What have you done in your business to blow up your productivity or bottom line? We’re getting our 2009 list ready, but would love to get your thoughts and insights first.

What are your game changers?

Here I sit, at my favorite hotel (one of them at least), the Moana Surfrider, in Waikiki. They have large, wooden rocking chairs, where I can relax, have a cup of coffee, and write a great blog post (ok, so maybe it won’t be great, perhaps just good … It’s early). Internet Marketing Time!

Hold on, forget that, Just saw the most amazing sunrise! Absolutely fantastic. Last night, I was out late, dancing the night away at a local club. I’m always amazed at the insane ratio of men to women on some of the islands. Coming from San Francisco, where I’ve heard the ratio for the entire area might be 1.5 men to each woman, it’s rereshing to go to areas where the tables are turned.

Anyway, I’ve been traveling now for another month. Just returned from a Mexican Riviera salsa cruise, and headed straight to Hawaii (to recover from the excessive eating…).  From here? It’s back to San Francisco, for a little real work.

And yes, I do real work.  I think it’s so easy to concentrate on the dollars we make, versus the work we put in, but it’s naive to believe that people at my level (or really any level of success) are not working at all. Especially internet marketers. They love to sell the dream! They love to speak of their millions, and not of the hard work used to create it.

Yes, I have worked hard. I really loved what I did, but I worked very hard at it. I now reap the rewards, and have for many years, but it’s only because I put in the real time early on.  Are there shortcuts? Oh yes. Yes there are. But to long term wealth - and not flash in the pan “good months” - you have to lay a foundation. I laid that foundation, and now … well, now, I indeed work less than any other internet marketer I can think of.

Then again, I’m not a guru (self styled). My aim is to teach people, yes, but not to be in the spotlight (unless required). I’ve never been much of a spotlight person (although… I do shine regularly). :)  I’m going to teach people how to build an online business, and how to profit from it in the long term.  I’ll teach the shortcuts, yes, but I’ll mainly teach the foundation.

We’ll save the self-created recession speeches for another day. Rest assured, the bankers and wall street exces have squandered your taxpayer money, and those that didn’t, are merely hoarding it to weather the storm that is brewing. There is no one using the supposed “bailout” money to help anyone else. It’s the biggest scam, money grab, I’ve ever seen (and perhaps, will likely ever see). Go Paulson - the guy is a genius, and sold the package to Congress much like the Iraq war.

There is so much we can learn from this, it’s astounding. However, for now, I’ll just rant. The articles about how we can use all this to our benefit will appear on Basement Empires.

I know, a bit negative for a guy sitting in a rocking chair on a beach in Hawaii, but you probably already knew all that. The point is … help is not necessarily coming. It’s up to you to take action! I always preach action, but now, I really believe it’s necessary. Weathering this storm will not be easy for those simply starting out, but acting on (our) good advice, there are real businesses to be created out there, and hopefully, you’ll be starting one.

In the past, I’ve preached this lifestyle of running an automated internet business from one’s passions to everyone. Lately, I’ve had a change of heart. I’ve come up with three pre-requisites. Each of which is suitably vague, but required at some level -

1) You must be an entrepeneur at heart.

I struggled with this one, but in the final account, you must want to run your own business.  You may never have pictured yourself as a business owner, but that’s exactly what Basement Empires are all about. Taking your passions, and turning them into an automated business empire.

2) You must like your computer…

You’ll be spending a lot of time with it. If you are a complete newbie. Hate technology. Don’t want to sit in front of your computer, at all - this isn’t for you. I came across this issue with some coaching students, and now, I see that I need to state that this is part of the lifestlyle. You must like computers, and at least be interested in becoming very literate about them.

Some internet business models don’t require this at all. I’m leaning towards Basement Empires having this as a pre-requisite.

3) You must be an action taker…

The “winners”, time and time again, are self motivated “do-ers”. You give them one task, they come back with five, and two dozen questions. They want it, and will work tirelessly to achieve it (whatever “it” is).  We make the process of taking action easy - by laying out a game plan, and a set of detailed steps.

However, in the final account, if you don’t actullay act on them, nothing will get accomplished.

Now, the good news? It takes only a minimum amount of action to put you head and shoulders above the multitudes. Most people will not take any action at all. They’ll visit a website like http://www.BasementEmpires.com, and they’ll move on.  Perhaps shockingly, only 1 in 10 will even join! Crazy eh?

This is true across the board. To be in the top ten percent of businesses in your niche, likely, is very easy. To be in the top one percent is harder, but likely far simpler than say … holding a day job. To be in the top of that one percent - well, that’s really tough. Really, really, tough. Because no one gets to that level without being a daily action taker … and those guys, they’re hard to beat!

So, what am I? I am a daily action taker (of course). I do one thing, everyday. I do, literally, one thing to move my business forward, every day. Most days, it’s only one thing that gets done.  On rare days, it’s more (no, email is not what I’m talking about - but actual real work). My entire process of taking action boils down to doing at least one thing, every day, to move the business forward.

This puts me in the top one percent.

Can you do one thing?

Signing off from the beaches of Hawaii, with a rambling rant of a blog post! Anything I didn’t cover in there? Global warming perhaps?

Keep it Crazy!

MC

Actually, it was closer to 8k dollars, but the interesting part of the story is not that I made that much money in a day. It’s not that I was going to the movies in the middle of the afternoon (Hancock, not that great). It’s not even that I woke up at 11am, made myself a hot Coffee Press coffee, and didn’t even turn on my computer before heading off to the movies…

So, what is the interesting part?  It’s simply that, until looking at my blackberry, I had no idea (nor, crazy enough, really cared too much) about how much money I had made that day. I admit, when I looked at my phone, and saw the dollar number, I did do a double take.  That’s a nice day’s work for anyone right? Even more impressive in that I hadn’t actually done any work that day.

I was happy! But the interesting part is that my business runs in such a way that, regardless of my individually daily plans, and regardless of how I choose to spend my freedom and free time, I am always making money.

I remember the days where I would actually sit glued to my computer for every sale. I would be ecstatic over every single one. $10 a day was great, then $100 a day, then $1000 a day. After a while (ok, it did take me a few years), you eventually get over it. You simply don’t check every day. It takes greater and greater amounts to even make you interested.  Don’t worry, we’ll get you there eventually … If you want.

Because the point of this email is not what you think. It’s not me gloating over a good day and it’s not me telling you about the freedom this kind fo life provides, it’s actually quite the opposite. As I went to this movie downtown, as I enjoyed my lunch outside, I saw the enormous number of workers. Office workers. They are everywhere. They get a paycheck every week, and they don’t need to worry about their jobs from month to month. I’m fairly certain I could have offered this lifestyle to each and every one, and actually had the knowledge to give to them to make it happen, and yet I couldn’t get over the fact that likely only a fraction would even want it.

They might not believe me. They might not believe they could actually do it. They might have excuses or ideas of why it wouldn’t work for them.

Even more than that, conventional society, and those that work within it, don’t ever have to worry about what they’re going to do everyday. They’ll be at work right? So easy. All the days of their week are spoken for. All their hours are determined. They have their free time after work right? It makes life… structured!  Structure …

Some people need this structure. They simply can’t, or don’t know how, to live without it. I find it excpetionally interesting. As you’ll hear me say shortly, I think that everyone can do what I do. I believe that everyone can turn their passions into businesses, if they are shown how, As i’ve told you before, I’m going to show you just that.

However, just because I believe that people can do it, doesn’t mean I think they will, or that everyone will even try. In fact, I think only a small portion of the people around me, and the people that I reach, will even try to create a business online. I think those that try, and those that follow in my footsteps, are in for an amazing life, and a thoroughly rewarding experience, beyond anything they can possibly conceive, especially from the vantage points of their 9-5 jobs.

So, it’ seems only right that on July 4th, we should talk of freedom. Because one thing you find in the MarketingCrazy lifestyle is freedom. What you’ll find is freedom … freedom of your time, freedom of your money, freedom in every way imaginable.

However, with freedom, comes greater responsibility, and that’s what people rarely see, or even want to talk about. 

Yes, I’ll teach you how to build a business online.Yes, you’ll likely find freedom, in many, many ways. Yes, it’s great to have ten dollar days that turn into hundred dollar days, that turn into thousand dollar (or 10k, 20k or more dollar) days…

It’s also extremely difficult to keep focus, to plan your days, to manage your time, to find your passions and keep them strong, to be disciplined, to manage your money, to be solely responsible for your business and your finances…

All those things that convential "jobs" do for you will be gone. What’s left is your time, your family, your days, your passions, and your freedom. So what’s so hard about it? Well, I hope one day to discuss it with you. I couldn’t imagine that I’d be in the position I am today, as I left my last 7 day a week, 24 hour a day, corporate job - but here I am, living a life that’s in many ways unimaginable, and all I can say is … why wouldn’t everyone want this?

Yet many don’t. They simply don’t, regardless of the reason. So I ask you, do you?

We’ll take it one step at a time, let’s get you that business first…Let’s prove to you that yes, you can actually do this too.

Happy July 4th! Enjoy your free time…