Apna Sapna Money Money

There’s no denying it. This is a VERY hot topic right now. You want proof, just mosey on over to the Warrior Forum and look at all the posts, WSO’s, etc.

But you know what? There’s a good reason this is a hot topic right now…

Many off line businesses have been hit by “slow” times and are actively looking for ways to increase business. So opportunity knocks.

My partner Jim and I have been in this arena now for more than a year and we have been seeing first hand how much we have been able to help our own clients. And with our system, we launched Easy Local SEO to help OTHER people market similar services to businesses all over the U.S. and Canada.

I have discovered though, that many people who want to market in this arena have one fatal short coming. They really don’t have any idea how to approach potential clients and get them to listen to what they have to say. My partner and I had this same issue when starting out. Jim used to drive around visiting local businesses for a few hours every day – saying hello, dropping off fliers and business cards, etc. And the people he spoke to were always nice.

However, we made exactly ZERO sales doing this. I learned the hard way that they simply saw us as nothing more than another salesman hawking some product or service. Not what they wanted to deal with, and who can blame them? They have a business to run.

There are a lot of ways to properly approach prospects, get them to listen and perhaps hire your services, but I am going to talk about just 2 things here…there’s a lot more to this, but I don’t want this post to be too incredibly long:)

• “You’re an internet guy?”

The first thing you need to do is very simple. Don’t bill yourself as an “internet marketer”. For one thing you don’t do yourself any favors. If you talk to business owners in a casual environment and ask what they think about internet marketing, many won’t really even understand exactly what that is… and many others think “just some other fly-by-night company selling me a bill of goods about SEO or something.”

Bottom line is, you are looking to help a business increase their revenue. And you are educating them about the power of advertising on the internet. And giving them new ideas on how to get more people to look at their products and services.

In other words, you are a Business Consultant.

Say that to yourself until it is second nature. Because (if you are doing this right) that’s exactly what you are. You just happen to specialize in the many ways the internet can help.

• Show them how they can do it themselves!

Business owners like nothing better than to find other ways to increase their revenue while saving money at the same time. Well, who doesn’t?

So, why not show them how they can use the internet themselves? Show them the power of capturing emails, proper S.E.M., a well-optimized website, the power of social media…you get the idea.

What I am talking about are workshops. Very simple.

Hold a workshop in the area you market to. It’s easy to get the word out (how about the Chamber of Commerce, or local paper – even Craig’s List). And you can actually make money holding them. But there’s an even bigger benefit…

Structure a workshop environment, schedule it for 6 – 8 hours on a Saturday. Charge for attending (anywhere from $97 to $997 – or more if the market will bear it). You need to at LEAST cover the cost of the workshop – most likely for a room at a local hotel to hold the workshop in, perhaps coffee and doughnuts…that kind of thing.

Understand the power here…you will now have business owners coming to you. You are now NOT a sale person, but a potential solution to a problem. They will be MUCH more willing to listen.

The workshop itself MUST be good stuff. Real usable, actionable things these people can do. Focus on just a few things they can do. You want them to have their “light bulb moment”, seeing the potential of what you’re teaching them. But at the same time, you want them to understand just how much time and effort it will take if they take it on themselves.

That’s where the “selling without selling” takes place. They will start asking YOU if you can do this for them. Which of course, you can.

Once you break it down for them in terms they can understand (cost benefits, etc.) the will see that it is simply another advertising avenue. Something they already spend money on – and something they can also write off at the end of the year.

All of this can lead to new clients. Many of them. Hiring you to do everything from website design (or redesign) to SEO to reputation management to social media marketing, to customer database management – and much more.

So now I hear you saying – “A workshop? I never held one of those. I have no content, etc. for this. What do I do?”

Man I hear that. I said the same thing over a year ago when this idea was first presented to me. The answer can only be one of two things: 1) Create the content or 2) BUY the content.

I did number two. And I can tell you it’s the best thing I could have done. Who has the time to write up all this content for the business owners to learn from and keep after the workshop is over?

• The answer to my prayers…

I met Rachel Rofe a couple of years ago at a small marketing lunch. Very nice person and also very talented and a keen marketing mind. While doing some research on line for this niche, I came across a package she and her partner, Jaime Mintun, put out that is the answer to my prayers…

Their package is everything you need to hold a workshop for off line businesses. Everything from the marketing and sales materials to get the business owners to attend, to a slide presentation, a workbook for the attendees – and so much more.

It’s called “Make 10k In A Weekend” and you really need to grab it if you want to hold workshops of your own. You can literally brand all of the material with YOUR business name and logo and be holding workshops next week. What a time saver!

As I said earlier – there are other ways to sell your services. But none will have the conversion rate that this one does. Think about it – all you need to market is a workshop teaching them how to help themselves. By the end, once they see the power of what you teach, many will seek YOU out asking how much you charge to do all this work for them.

To me, that beats cold-calling any day!

Enough is enough. Yet another thread over at the good old Warrior Forum starts bitching about how this or that or whatever is not coaching, mentoring, whatever you want to call it. Hey, can we at least agree on the terms? Well, that’s the problem. Seems we can’t agree on anything when it comes to this subject. And therein lies the problem. Everybody has a different definition. And as long as that continues, a solution to the problem will never come about. This article explains.

First problem, when it comes to coaching and/or mentoring is that people can’t even agree on the difference between the two. Is there a difference? And if so, what? If you ask 100 different people, you’re going to get 100 different answers. Who’s right? Got news for you, it doesn’t matter who’s right. You heard me. See, the only thing that matters is the perception of the person who is seeking the coaching and/or mentoring. It’s whatever is in THEIR mind that matters. And that’s where the whole problem lies. It’s called expectations.

For starters, what degree of participation is required to be considered mentored or coached? How in your face does the mentor or coach have to get? Is email correspondence enough? Does the person have to get on the phone or on Skype with the student? Does the person have to fly to the student’s house and actually live with the student for a period of time? At what point is it coaching or mentoring and at what point is it, well, NOT coaching or mentoring?

What about the amount of information that is taught? Does it have to be everything involved with one particular subject? Does it have to be more than one subject? What about the amount of time spent with the student? Is one day enough to be considered coached or does it have to be a week, a month or even several months to a year? If I get on the phone with you for an hour and answer a bunch of questions, is that coaching?

Okay, before I start to drive you crazy with all these questions and a whole lot more that I could ask, let me give you MY definition of coaching, mentoring, whatever you want to call it, based on the expectations that I see from my own students. Here it is.

Coaching or mentoring, from the student’s point of view, is taking that student by the hand and walking them personally through whatever it is that they need to learn. That includes giving them the instruction that they need and THEN going over their work afterward to make sure that they did it correctly.

That’s the overall expectation, whether you want to agree with it or not. It isn’t just giving somebody a book to read or a video to watch and call it coaching. The student expects PERSONAL attention. And whether it’s via email, Skype or in person doesn’t matter to them. As long as after you’re done working with them they know what to do and know they’ve done it right, they’re happy.

As far as whether this is coaching or mentoring, don’t even get me started on that. Essentially, they are the same thing in the minds of the students. They expect personal attention.

Get that right and the semantics won’t matter.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Not too long ago I found myself in a tight situation. I needed some money and I needed it right now. I had to figure out a way to get it. Of course I could have borrowed it from my parents or took out a loan, but I didn’t want to do that. I just don’t like the feeling of being in debt to someone. So I sat down for a second and had a quick brainstorming session. It quickly came to me that I could use the warrior forum to make some money really fast.

What Is The Warrior Forum

The warrior forum is a place where webmasters and other online business owners from all over the world go to for advice and information about making money online. Its a place where people can share ideas and learn from one another. It is also a place where online business owners search for people to do various tasks for them. Some of those tasks include writing articles, creating graphics and keeping websites updated to name a few.

How To Make Money Today

The way I made money quickly from the warrior forum is by writing articles. Articles that are very similar to the one you are reading right now. You see writing articles is big business. Article marketing is probably one of the best ways an online business owner can drive traffic to their site and ultimately start to make money. The problem is that writing articles is a very boring task. Probably more than half of all online business owners don’t like to do it. They would rather hire someone to do it for them.

So I went to the site and placed an ad offering to write articles for people. I offered my services for only 48 hours. If they didn’t order before the 48 hours was up, they couldn’t take advantage of my offer. This created a sense of urgency with made people jump at the opportunity to get articles written at such a great price. When all was said and done, I had made about $200 in 24 hours and another $400 the next day. So all together I made $600 in just 48 hours.

Know what drives me more crazy than anything else? When people make blanket statements about things as if they were law. Just recently, a member of the Warrior Forum made a blanket statement that if you didn’t have any marketing books by people like Dan Kennedy and Joe Sugarman, you weren’t serious about your business. Well, this article is my rebuttal. Read it at your own peril.

Let me start off by saying that knowledge is power. And certainly reading is going to help you more than hurt you, provided that you read things worth reading. But a requirement for being serious about your business? That’s a blanket statement that I just can’t let go by unchallenged.

I am, admittedly, self taught. At least for the most part. I got a couple of ebooks early on that were okay, but nothing earth shattering. They are, by today’s standards, outdated…badly. They didn’t contain any of the topics that have helped make me successful today such as article marketing (didn’t even exist back then), list building or product creation. They helped me make a few bucks, but nothing to write home about.

My success came from rolling up my sleeves and getting to work. It came from going to forums and reading articles online. It came from trial and error…a lot of it. I admit, I had a lot of failures in the early days. Had I bought some of those books, maybe I would have learned sooner. And like I said, I’m not arguing that buying books can’t help you. It can.

The problem I have is when people assume that just because you DON’T go out and stock your library with all the “must have” books of the experts, that you’re not serious about your business. Let me tell you something. I would rather take somebody who has no book smarts but is willing to bust their butt and work hard over somebody who owns every marketing book in creation but refuses to get their hands dirty.

In my opinion, the ONLY requirement to be considered serious about your business and to be successful is to work at it every single day without fail and put in the time and effort required. By pure brute force, if you’re determined, you can be successful.

Having said that, if you feel like you’re missing a piece of a puzzle somewhere and a certain book can fill that piece in, get it. But for crying out loud, if you DO get it, don’t let it sit on your bookshelf and collect dust. Because that’s just a sin.

Books don’t make people serious and successful.

Only a solid work ethic does that.

And you can’t get that out of a book.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim