I've decided I'm really, truly going to do it, right here and right now.
I am going to reveal the closely guarded and highly coveted secret to online success.
Yes, I'm going to get a lot of hate mail from the 6 and 7 figure earners for doing this. After all, we are sworn to absolute secrecy. Odds are they will even throw me out of the club, but it will be worth it.
You see, I've been dying to tell you this for years now. You know how they say there are no magic buttons, and then they try to sell you magic buttons? And then when the magic buttons don't work, the remind you yet again that there are no magic buttons?
Gosh honest truth, there is one magic button.
Just one.
And it works every time. EVERY time.
When the Internet marketing guru gods got together, they wondered where they should hide this magic button.
"If it's found, everyone will know the secret."
"That's why we should hide it on the tallest mountain."
"No, hide it in the deepest sea."
"No, hide it away in an electronic vault that not even Anonymous can crack."
Finally one young guru stepped forth and quietly said, "Better still, hide it in plain sight."
Everyone gasped. "It will be found!" they cried.
The young guru just smiled. "Everyone knows if you want to hide something, place it in plain sight. This way even those who do see it will not recognize it's true value, and will pass it by in search of the hidden treasures."
And so it was decreed that they should place this secret where everyone could see it and no one would recognize its worth.
Thusly this magic button sat, ignored by all but a small number of marketers who quietly used it to build their fortunes.
Have you guessed yet what it is?
Do you know the secret?
Or would you pass it by on the street, thinking it was too ordinary to account for the fortunes made by others?
Even now, as I pass the secret on to you, you are likely to miss it completely. A monkey voice in your head will shrill, "But I already know that!" The secret will be forgotten before your next meal and you will continue on, searching for that holy button of wealth, ever plodding forward, ever wondering why you are not yet earning the 6 and 7 figures you yearn for.
But never the less, I shall attempt to impart the secret to you thusly:
Focus only on that which furthers your business.
There, you see? Already your monkey mind is dismissing this advice. In fact that little chatter box in your head is probably telling you to go check email and Facebook right this instant. “Go!” it screams. “There is nothing here for you, run to email, run to Facebook, go play a video game or watch House of Card on Netflix, go go go!”
Are you still here?
Then I shall impart onto you the very foundation that goes with that magic key. You will already surmise that when I say, “Focus only on that which furthers your business,” I am telling you to focus on those things that directly impact your bottom line. The most important of those are of course creating products and getting buying traffic to those products. In fact, if you simply drop everything else and focus on those two things, you will be successful.
But if you want to build a solid 6 or 7 figure business that grows year after year, we need to go just a bit deeper.
After all, you don't want to create just any product. You don't want just any traffic. And you don't want to throw just anything together and see if it somehow adheres to the wall.
Perhaps the best explanation of how to build a thriving, ultra-successful business comes from the book, “Why 5% Succeed: The 5 Principles of Predictable Profit” by Elaine Starling, and it goes like this:
Become Relevant to your future customers. Your customers have a problem. They will only notice and work with you when you offer a relevant solution. This might be by helping them accomplish things faster, cheaper, easier, etc. Perhaps you're solving a critical business or personal challenge for them. Or you could be creating products that are unique, cool, differentiating and compelling.
Being relevant is not enough. The adage, “Build a better mouse trap and they will come” is malarkey. They won't come if they don't know about your mouse trap, or if they don't trust you. So your second task is to...
Foster Relationships. In the case of online marketing, you're fostering relationships with your readers, your visitors, your list, etc. You're also fostering relationships with your affiliates and JV partners, too. The better you are at building relationships, the more successful you will be. In fact, if you could be good at only one thing, it would be to build relationships. You could always promote other people's products, but only if you have customers who already know you, like you and trust you.
The more your relevance and your relationships intersect, the more successful you will be. In other words, the more people you have relationships with who can see how relevant you are to their needs, the higher degree of...
Results you will experience. If you imagine being relevant as one circle, and fostering relationships as a second circle, the area where they overlap is where you are making your sales and getting your desired results. If you want more results, you need to first make sure you're on the right track, and then increase your relevance and/or increase the quantity and/or quality of your relationships.
Lastly, the speed of establishing your Relevance and fostering more and deeper Relationships depends on two skill sets:
First, how Receptive you are. The more Receptive you are, the more you understand your clients needs, wants and priorities. It's all about knowing your customers inside and out, listening to them, and making them a part of the solution process. You've got to be completely open to discovering what they want and then fulfilling those needs and desires.
And the second skill set that determines how successful you are at this process is...
How Resilient you are. The one constant in life is change. What worked yesterday doesn't work today. What your customer wanted yesterday is what they are ignoring today. You've got to recover quickly from adversity and move fast to take advantage of new opportunities.
As the author states, “The more ways you can win, the more often you can win.
So to get back the the essence: Focus your time on those activities that further your business. Talk to your customers to find out what they want, and then create those products and services. Build relationships of trust and respect with both customers and affiliates. Be open and receptive and agile in change.
And that's all you need. It's really rather simple, and it's been staring you in the face this entire time.
The question is, are you going to say, “Yeah, I know that stuff?” Or are you going to start to live it?
Because if you're not consistently earning a bare minimum of $100,000 a year, then I guarantee you are not living it. And until you do, you will be hopping from one thing to the next, always looking for that big score, that one-hit wonder that makes you money today and leaves you wondering why it didn't last tomorrow.
I've given you the magic button. What you do with it is up to you.