It’s only for people who want:

• A systematic, simple way to get a good grasp of the power of effective online marketing.
• Easy-to-navigate tutorials on the “Copyblogger method” of creating a profitable online business or marketing your offline business online.
• An organized reference guide to the “best of the best” that’s appeared on Copyblogger over the years.

Internet Marketing for Smart People is a free 20-part course and ongoing newsletter that’s delivered via email. Each week you’ll get a new lesson on one of the four essential pillars of effective Internet marketing.

You don’t have to be a genius to master Internet marketing. You just have to be smart enough to take us up on this free offer.

Sign up here.

In the last post, we talked about creating websites and staying focused on turning them into a profitable online business.

Many of you commented about how difficult it’s been to stay on track, and to keep yourself focused on just one website or project at a time.

Today, I’ll share with you 5 very specific tips that I use myself to stay focused, that I have been using for years as I created my successful online business with multiple websites in a variety of niches, and multiple streams of income…

1. Patience. You’re in it for the long term.

The first order of business is to get yourself in the proper mindset. Realize that success is not going to happen overnight. You are building a successful online business, not getting involved in a get rich quick scheme.

Your expectations should be in the right place. You can’t expect to study, research, and piddle a bit with a new blog – and be earning a 6 figure income in a few short weeks, or even a few short months.

I have confessed plenty of times in the past that I worked up to 18 hours a day, 7 days a week back in the beginning. I have heard other successful marketers say the same – Rosalind Gardner on our recent webinar with her, for example. Of course, the amount of time you invest is relative to how fast you want or need to succeed.

Are you waiting for success to arrive, or are you going out to find where it is hiding? -Napoleon Hill

2. Create a plan, and stick to it.

Even when it’s not fun or glamorous or even particularly engaging, you have to follow through with that plan to completion. Business is work, so be prepared to stick it out to the end – or outsource the things you don’t enjoy. If you can’t invest money for outsourcing, be prepared to invest time to get the tasks done yourself.

Your plan is going to be a loose outline in the beginning. The more you learn through experience, the more you’ll be able to fill in the details. Dedicate yourself to your one website, or one project, and commit to seeing it through to profit.

Stay focused. Treat it like a business.

Take the initiative, and you will create your own opportunities. There is no substitute for action backed up by a well-thought-out plan. -Napoleon Hill

3. Avoid the pitfall of unnecessary distraction.

Distraction is a major issue with an online business. It’s the nature of the internet with a constant barrage of incoming messages, new products, new ideas and methods.

Here are some of the ways that I avoid distraction and stay focused:

I keep an Idea Notebook and a Master Task List. New ideas should be jotted into the notebook and researched later – not distracting you from your original idea. One major project at a time, until it is running smooth and reaching it’s profit potential. Then you pop out the notebook and start on the next great idea.

Your Master Task List should be prioritized. List tasks in order of priority, then start each day by doing the top 3 from the list. I create a mini list with my 3 tasks every morning, and start my day by completing those.

Cool new plugins, programs, updates, themes, etc go on the master task list – in the proper order. Nothing new gets to jump line in front of the 3 daily tasks. Ever. Discipline yourself to work on priority tasks.

When I open my Master Task List to update, re-prioritize or pull my 3 daily tasks I spend a few minutes to scan the list and consider what I can automate or outsource. I’ll often pluck 3 tasks for myself, and 3 tasks to outsource..

Also:

• Turn off the sound when you’re working. It’s distracting.
• Turn off instant messengers while working on priority tasks.
• Close your email program. Open it when you’re ready to check/reply to email.
• Create rules/filters in your email program, and organize directories.
• Newsletters, offers and other emails get filtered into their own folder as they come in. You can search that folder to find things you need, when you need them.
• Don’t buy products (themes, software, ebooks, etc) that you don’t need. Buy what you need, when you need it, to accomplish what you’re working on right now. Period.

Drifting, without aim or purpose, is the first cause of failure. -Napoleon Hill

4. Stop looking for the Holy Grail of Internet Marketing.

You’ll notice that every mentor or marketer has their own methods and tools. The fact is, there is no one right way to start an online business that will work for every model or every market – or even every keyword.

This is the reason there are very few complete blueprints our outlines that teach you step-by-step how to start an online business. And of the few that are available, none of them will work for everyone. They are simply guides to further your understanding of the processes and concepts.

Commit yourself to research and to testing, tracking and tweaking in your own unique online business until it reaches it’s full profit potential. Learn the methods of research and testing, instead of simply copying models that may or may not work for you – or in your market.

Use the tools and resources, but be prepared to inject your own unique ideas and go the extra mile to figure out what will work in your own online business.

Good intentions are useless until they are expressed in appropriate action. -Napoleon Hill

5. Know when to admit defeat.

Even after 12+ years in business, I don’t have all the answers – and I don’t have all the skills. When in doubt, ask for help. There are literally hundreds of forums and communities where people are willing to share their resources or point you in the right direction. My own SSWT Forum is a good place to start.

What if you’re not sure if your business or website idea will be profitable? The only way to know is to keep at it and see it through. You can’t admit defeat if you haven’t completed all of the necessary steps. And if you quit before you do, you are not in a position to say the idea was worthless.

That said, the risk with an online business is generally very low. Most mistakes can even be easily corrected. A lot of people ultimately end up with something completely different than what they started with… so a few practice runs is no big loss. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Keep at it.

There is also the issue of skills – and of identifying your strengths. You’ll learn what you are good at, and what you are not. The things you are not good at, or don’t prefer doing (and therefore don’t do at all) are things you should outsource. You may have to do them yourself in the beginning, but make it your goal to reinvest in your business through outsourcing.

The bottom line is: ask for help, or outsource tasks you can’t do. Don’t assume failure or defeat if you haven’t truly given your all to the project. That includes correcting mistakes, or exhausting all of your options.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

These are my own methods for staying on track, and staying focused to see a project all the way through from start to profit. Figure out what works best for you, in your environment or with your unique strengths and weaknesses.

It takes self-analysis, self-discipline, self-motivation, etc. But that’s all part of being self-employed. You are in control of the outcome, good or bad.

Never mind what you have done in the past. What are you going to do in the future? -Napoleon Hill

Best,

p.s. The Napoleon Hill quotes came from Positive Action Plan: 365 Meditations For Making Each Day A Success.

A personal favorite along with Law of Success, Think and Grow Rich, and other works by Napoleon Hill…

There’s no delicate way to put this. If you’re a regular Copyblogger reader, you’re just . . . well . . . smarter than most people looking to market online.

You’re not interested in lame “get rich quick” schemes. You’re not trying to build a business with no work, no time, and no sense. You’re not chasing after that magical silver bullet that will solve all your problems.

Mainly, you’d just like some solid, smart advice on online business that actually works.

In other words, you don’t have to be an Einstein to “get” this stuff. But you’d have to be an idiot to believe some of the stuff peddled by traditional Internet marketing “gurus” (many of whom have never done what they’re “teaching” before).

Copyblogger has been delivering solid, smart advice for nearly four years now, and starting this week, we’d like to take it up a notch.

Oh, and one more thing: we’ll be doing that for free.

Introducing Internet Marketing for Smart People

Brian and I have been kicking around the idea of a focused email newsletter for months, but we wanted to make sure we put something together that reflected the high standards we always try to set for the site.

We wanted to create a systematic, simple way that you could get a good grasp of the power of effective online marketing.

We wanted you to have an easy-to-navigate tutorial on the “Copyblogger method” of creating and marketing a profitable online business.

And we wanted a way to make sure that you got a chance to see all of the “best of the best” that’s appeared on Copyblogger over the years.

The four pillars of online marketing success

Thinking through what this would look like, we found four themes that kept coming up.

So we created an introduction to the newsletter that works through these four themes, systematically introducing you to the most important concepts we think every online marketer must know about. It’s like a course in Internet marketing that prepares you for the more in-depth stuff newsletter content that follows (still all free).

These are the cornerstones of how to build a business with the Copyblogger model, using everything we’ve learned over the years. Ready?

Pillar 1: Relationships

Creating strong relationships with an audience is critical to everything we do here. Rather than constantly hunting down new customers, we’d much rather create a valued environment that benefits our existing readers and customers and keeps pulling them back. We don’t advertise in the traditional sense; instead, our readers do a great job of “spreading the word” for us.

It’s about having consummate respect, always, for your audience and your market.

It’s about focusing almost obsessively on their needs, over and above your own (and getting what you want, almost magically, in the process).

It’s about making a commitment to creating a quality experience for your readers and subscribers.

Pillar 2: Direct response copywriting

We certainly stay abreast of the latest social media trends (and sometimes create them), but underlying everything we do here is solid copywriting techniques.

Starting with a killer headline and moving strategically through the copy to a stirring call to action, traditional copywriting technique works amazingly well in social media.

“Old-fashioned” copywriting advice can make all the difference between a business or blog that limps along and one that truly thrives.

We’ll show you precisely what we mean in the initial issues of the newsletter.

Pillar 3: Content marketing

What’s backbone of the Copyblogger formula?

Deliver great content. Deliver more great content. Deliver still more great content.

Keep doing that in a strategic and focused way.

Every once in awhile, make a great offer that benefits the reader and involves the exchange of cash money.

Of course, we’ll give you some more specifics on how to do that once you’re on board.

Pillar 4: Have something worth selling

Everyone is selling something. It might be a service, a product, a download, or simply an idea.

Whatever you’re selling, it’s got to be worth the price. (And never forget that reader attention is a valuable commodity that’s in strictly limited supply.)

Whether you’re asking for dollars, euros, yen, or valuable time and attention, you’ve got to deliver something that towers above your asking price.

Bringing it all together

Each of these four pillars enhances the others. Together, they’re much stronger than they would be if any of the pillars were missing.

Internet Marketing for Smart People is a free course and continual newsletter that’s delivered via email. Each week you’ll get a new lesson on one of the four pillars.

You’ll get lots of pointers to archived Copyblogger content, but with a new frame that will help you “connect the dots” and start putting this advice to work in your own business, web site, or blog. It’s much like the approach Brian took with Authority Rules, but ongoing and ever-evolving as the Internet marketing space does (which is fast).

To make it work even better, we’ll also be including “behind the scenes” lessons that show you how we put our own marketing systems and launches together, and the role each piece plays.

What you need to do next

Enter your email address here to sign up for the Internet Marketing for Smart People newsletter: 

It’s very important to us that everyone receiving Internet Marketing for Smart People truly wants the course, so we’ll need you to confirm that you want to receive it by clicking a confirmation link.

So check your inbox after you sign up (and put us on your white list… we’re not spammy at all, but thanks to scuzzball internet marketers, our topic is often viewed that way by the major email services).

And of course we’re never going to rent, sell, or otherwise share the information we collect. That would pretty much be a violation of everything we stand for.

Think it’s the lack of advanced techniques that’s been holding you back?

Think your blog isn’t finding readers because you don’t have the coolest plugins? Or that your sales page doesn’t convert because you couldn’t afford the 1,999 Secrets of Ninja Marketing Masters product that got released last month?

Think the secret to successful marketing and running a profitable online business is some piece of Jedi mastery that you would need to study for years to learn?

Not even close.

Most businesses (online and off) just get the basics wrong.

So here’s what works. Get these right and you’ll be ahead of 98% of your competition.

And if you’re just getting started, you’re in luck, because you don’t have a lot of bad habits to unlearn.

Describe benefits, not features

I know you’re rolling your eyes. This gets covered on the first page of Marketing for Blithering Idiots, but we don’t do it.

We get wrapped up in what we do, and we forget to translate that into what our customers get out of it.

The insanely simple and direct way to handle this is just to put a bulleted list on your sales page (or About page or Hire Us page, wherever it’s relevant) under the title:

Here’s What [My Product] Will Do For You

List out the seven most important wonderful things that your customer will experience as a result of doing business with you. Make sure this list can be seen “above the fold” on the screen — in other words, without the viewer needing to scroll.

Make them a nice mix of logical and emotional benefits.

Benefits are the little black dress of marketing: always appropriate. Try tucking them into your headlines, or writing entire blog posts around key benefits.

Don’t forget that testimonials and case studies are a great way to show benefits rather than just telling people about them.

Make your advertising too valuable to throw away

I got this from copywriting legend Gary Bencivenga, and it’s even more applicable today than it was when he used it. Since he made millions of dollars as one of the most successful copywriters in history, I pay special attention to what he has to say.

Advertising is, almost by definition, junk. Direct mail, infomercials, billboards — we see these as garbage, even though they do sometimes influence us to buy.

Bencivenga instead positioned his direct mail advertising as valuable content. He perfected the art of the “magalog” — a commercial mail piece that looks like a magazine. His magalogs contained valuable stock tips, health information, or expert financial advice.

Many of the products Bencivenga promoted were early versions of information products — specifically, books and newsletters. He didn’t pull the “B” material from those books and newsletters to give away in his marketing. He found the very best tips, the juiciest and most beneficial advice, and sent it to prospects for free.

Sound familiar?

(What can I say, I only steal from the best.)

Bencivenga’s technique works perfectly with content and email marketing. The more genuine value you create in your marketing materials (which includes your blog, your Twitter stream, and your forum posts), the tighter relationship you build with your customers.

Address objections

It’s hard to keep your cool when you create a business. You put so much work and care into it, the idea that anyone doesn’t love it as much as you do can be hard to fathom.

You need to get over this.

Most people who see your marketing messages won’t buy from you. But many of those would buy from you, if not for some unanswered question in their minds.

Objections are all the reasons prospects think your product might not be for them.

Objections boil down to fear — fear of feeling dumb, fear of making a mistake, fear of wasting money. Give your copy enough time to address those fears and overcome them.

And one super-secret technique

OK, this one really is a ninja trick. Check out this Copyblogger post on the sneaky, ultra-advanced sales technique that most marketers miss.

But shhhh, don’t tell anyone. Otherwise any newbie could do it.

About the Author: Sonia Simone is Senior Editor of Copyblogger and the founder of Remarkable Communication.