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Achieve your goals in 2010 with MindMapping

Dirk Tietjen — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:01:54 +0000

Have a Fantastically Fulfilling 2010 and Goal Set!

Goal setting is fundamental to success in any aspect of your life – be it in personal pursuits, health, work or financially. Now that we have arrived at the foothills of a new decade, in the midst of widespread social and economic change, it is the perfect time to reflect on your own situation in life and consider your ambitions and dreams. Now is the time to decide how you WILL make these a reality, and become a more confident, happy and successful individual.
Constructive goal setting using Mind Mapping can help you get back in control of your life in a time when many are having to re-evaluate and adapt in order to stay afloat. It can create the clarity you need to find new direction for the future. By allowing you to explore yourself innermost wishes, Mind Mapping can help you resolve any internal conflicts and establish clearly defined priorities for all areas of your life. By knowing exactly what you want to achieve, you can focus your time, energy and resources accordingly.

iMindMap is the perfect tool for goal setting. Not only can you create an organic, visual representation of your goals, that stimulates your mind, but you can also enjoy the flexibility of the software – editing, adjusting, and expanding on ideas with just a few clicks of the mouse.

Let’s find out how you can do this!

(1) Brainstorm Your Main Goals
Spend as much time as you need brainstorming your key goals. Use the iMindMap Goal Setting template and base your goals around these main themes:

‘ Career/Business ‘ What aspirations do you have for your career? What could you do to improve your performance? Do you want to change careers? If you are running your own business, how do you want it to progress?
‘ People ‘ How do you want your relationship with your partner to develop? Do you have any aims in relation to being a parent or improving your parenting skills? If single, do you want to find a relationship? Do you want to improve relations with your extended family and friends?
‘ Wealth/Finances ‘ What are your goals regarding your personal finances? How much do you want to earn by a particular stage? Is there anything in particular you want to save for? Do you have any debts to pay off?
‘ Physical/Health ‘ Do you have any goals in regards to your health or fitness? Do you have any aims in terms of weight loss, or a specific physical training programme or sport?
‘ Growth/Personal Development ‘ Are you interested in pursuing any further education or training? What information and skills will you need to achieve other goals? For instance, you may want to learn a language or develop your abilities at public speaking.

2) Make goals SMART
Once you have outlined your goals for 2010, you need to get a little more specific. Ensure that each of your goals follow the SMART guidelines (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-based).

It is important to be precise and include dates, times, targets and amounts so that your achievements are measurable. To do this, add the following branches to each goal:

‘ Now ‘ Your current situation in regards to the goal
‘ Target ‘ What exactly do you want to accomplish?
‘ When ‘ Establish a time frame.

(3) Actions
Now you can outline the steps and actions that you will take to achieve your goals. Add a new branch entitled ‘How’.

Break down the tasks that you need to carry out to achieve each goal. If you want to go into further detail, you can set time-frames or milestones for your tasks, allowing you to measure your progress.

(4) ‘To-Do’ Mind Maps
You can also create a daily/weekly ‘To Do’ Mind Map outlining the tasks that need to be done within that timeframe for each goal. This will improve the practicality of your goal setting as you can quickly identify any changing priorities, as well as progress. You can then adjust your main ‘Goals’ Mind Map to reflect these changes, boosting your motivation along the way. What’s more, as Mind Mapping encourages a free flow of ideas and associations, you could end up discovering new, innovative ways to reach your goals.

REMEMBER
Every time you reach a goal, update your Mind Map to show your achievement. You should also review your Mind Map and adjust it to match any changes in your perspective. For instance, if you reached the goal too easily, make your next goal in that area more challenging. However, if the goal took a disheartening amount of time and effort, make the next one a little more attainable.

If you fail to meet any of your goals, do not be discouraged. You can learn from your experience, and feed this knowledge back into your Mind Map. Likewise, if particular goals no longer hold any attraction, then simply remove them from your Mind Map and focus your attention on goals that you are eager to achieve. Your Mind Map should work with you and for you, making the goal setting process more enjoyable and rewarding.

GOOD LUCK! Dirk

Online business – developing products on a “vision” or pre-testing?

Dirk Tietjen — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 16:56:56 +0000

The traditional way of having success in any industry with an invention was always kind of guessing what the customer wants. Or maybe it was such a revolutionary tool based on the needs of society that the inventor or enterprise people could be pretty sure to succeed (the birth controll pill may serve as an example).

And though it seems that in most cases all brilliant idea were rewarded by the buying prospects we have to admit the fact that we don`t know about the countless failures on the path of shattered dreams.

So the possible reward for every entrepreneur and innovative founder to get rich was always in good company with the chance to be a total failure with all the ridicule. Well, that`s life – we might hear ourselves say.

But what about today?

Even nowadays we still hear about those ”crazy” inventors who take all the risk and endanger all of their assets and in many cases the assets of their families, too. And even today we hear about success stories as here close to my city an entrepreneur was getting tired of sorting his socks for hours after having washed them.

He simply invented a clip to keep the socks together in the washing machine and even gave them different colors. Looks neat. Was a big success. Brilliant. But there was risk for him, too.

So how does the story sound if the entrepreneur is not as happy with the ending as in the sock clip story. It is something like this:

1.You have a “brilliant” idea for a product, that everyone on the entire planed will buy.

2. You develop your idea and figure out details of the product.

3. You look for a company or factory able to to manufacture the product.

4. You have a bank financing this great product.

5. You have the products produced or ordered.

6. You do an expensive marketing campaign with sales letters and negotiations.

7. Your expectations of sales are not even close to the reality.

8. You get problems paying your credit rates and have to offer the product with bargain.

9. The inventory cost pressures you so you start thinking about giving the stored products away.

10. The financing bank panics and cancels the loan with sudden pay back obligation for you…

I think I don`t have to explain the remaining steps…you got the idea:-).

So what does it tell us?

David Ogilvy is quoted with the following statement: “In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create.”

I worked for many years for an issuing house for closed end funds, financing ships and hotels. Many years it went well but lately with the crisis some problems emerged. But many of these companies went on in the crisis with an attitude “we know what the customer and the market needs” and kept structuring the same products which sold excellent before. But the problem is, because of the crisis the people changed….they wanted different products, something else with less risk.

So we can learn out of this that we should never try to launch a product with an attitude like illustrated above.

If we think a product or idea is great it doesn`t mean the market and the customer thinks the same. So before we do an expensive product launch we should find out what the customer thinks.

In these times with high speed internet connections finding out what the customer thinks has become easier than ever before in history. We can split test two different alternatives of products or headlines with pay per click campaigns and find out which is one finds more customer interest by counting clicks. The same works with email- marketing or banners.

Even if we dont have the product ready while we are testing for 5-10 days, we can still explain potential customers that we are building a ”list of interest” and will contact them as soon as the product is manufactured.

So instead of investing thousands of dollars in manufacturing costs based on our hope that the customer discovers the greatness of our product we can find out about their needs and wishes right away as a cheap possibility to test market needs. At the same time we even growe our customer list.

Ok, in case you invented Mr. Spock`s “Beamer” of Startrek it might be a different story. But even then testing can`t hurt:-).

2 your learning success, Dirk

The 6 Stages of Growing an Internet Business

Dirk Tietjen — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:54:57 +0000

When you’re building an Internet business, it’s useful to step back and evaluate your progress every now and then.

You will be at one of the following levels …

Level One: The “getting ready to start” phase.

You are spending a lot of time and money buying and studying Internet marketing courses. But you aren’t selling anything yet.

Level Two: You dip your toe in the water.

You take some actions that let you generate a few sales online. The volume of these sales is small. It puts just a few extra dollars in your pocket each week.

Level Three: You start making a modest number of sales on a regular basis. Your online revenues are about $1,000 a month.

You’re not getting rich at this level. But for most of us, an extra $12,000 a year isn’t chickenfeed. In essence, you have a highly profitable hobby. You are having fun by making money in your spare time.

Level Four: You start making about $1,000 a week.

That translates to around $50,000 a year — a significant, though not life-changing, amount of money. At Level Four, you are earning more than the average American makes at a full-time job. And you’re doing it in just an hour or two a day.

Level Five: You start making $1,000 a day.

At Level Five, your Internet business is making you well over $300,000 a year in passive income. That’s in the ballpark of what the President of the United States makes.

You have reached the enviable position of being able to quit your day job if you so desire. You are making enough money online to support your family in a comfortable lifestyle.

Level Six: Your Internet marketing business grosses $1,000,000 a year or more.

Now, you are starting to become rich, not just “comfortable.”

The reason most people never end up making that kind of money on the Internet is that they get “stuck” at Level One for way too long. They buy every Internet marketing course they see advertised — and spend much of their spare time absorbing the material.

They become the type of person who’d rather be reading about starting a home business than actually doing it.

To overcome inertia and break through to the next level, you need to stop reading and studying … and do something.

So take action now!

If you’re at Level One, begin small. Reserve a domain name. Then set a deadline for creating your first info product. And start writing your landing page copy.

You get the idea.

Do a little bit every day and within a few months you’ll have your first product. As soon as your landing page is up, you’ll start getting orders (mostly from organic search results if you haven’t yet done any other marketing).

At Level Two, making money on the Internet becomes a reality, not an abstract concept. Once you get those first orders in your shopping cart, you’ll taste blood. You’ll be hooked. You’ll be a real Internet marketer, not just a wannabe.

Once you reach Level Five — with $1,000 of online income a day — you will enjoy a degree of financial security and freedom that most folks only dream about. You won’t be super-rich. But you’ll have the money to buy most of the things you want — and quit your day job, if that was your goal.

When you are at Level Five, you have to decide whether you want to take the next step — and grow to Level Six.

You might not.

Reason: Most Internet entrepreneurs who reach Level Six have to make the transition from a small one-person business to a “real” company.

They get office and warehouse space … set up a studio for video production … hire salaried employees … get insurance plans for them … have company picnics. In short, they become managers.

For me, the best part of being an Internet marketer at Level Five is the serenity. No meetings. No whining employees. No red tape, office politics, or management hierarchy.

Level Five allows you to lead a simple, quiet life, earning a handsome six-figure income working at home — without a boss.

For me, that completes the dream. I am content. I would not give up my Internet marketing lifestyle — not even for a million dollars. It’s just like being retired — with steady money coming in from an annuity, while you are free to spend your days as you please.

By Bob Bly

P.S. With my help, you can transform from an Internet dreamer to a doer actively marketing and selling products online. With the Internet Cash Generator program, you’ll discover the same tactics and techniques I use in my own part-time, $25,000-a-month Internet business.

[Ed. Note: Bob Bly is a freelance copywriter and the author of more than 70 books. To subscribe to his free e-zine, "The Direct Response Letter," and claim your free gift worth $116, click here now.]

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, a free newsletter dedicated to making money, improving health and secrets to success. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.

YouTube Can Bring Video Profits

Dirk Tietjen — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:51:11 +0000

I wanted to buy a how-to video for a partner-dance called the West Coast Swing, so I went to Google and did a search. As you’d expect, I instantly found 2,480,000 results, including quite a few sites that looked like they might have the professional-level show dancing that I was looking for.

What you wouldn’t expect was that a number of those websites were actually extension pages for YouTube.com.

Unless you’ve had your head buried in the sand for the past few years, you’ve probably heard of YouTube. It’s a website where anyone can post a video on almost any subject and make it available for the world to view.

At one end of the YouTube spectrum, you’ll find videos posted by silly teenagers to show off their pranks and shenanigans. At the other end, you’ll find serious “audition” videos posted by folks who are hoping to break into the entertainment industry. I know of many struggling actors/dancers/singers/comics who posted a video that became wildly popular – and, as a result, wound up with a deal with a major network or studio.

Based on my own experience, I can tell you that YouTube also has the potential to turn producing instructional or specialty videos into a fun and very profitable business for you. In my first video venture (where I was a partner), we began with under $100. Now, 10 years later, that business still makes over $250,000 annually.

If you are an expert in almost any field, you can produce a video to teach others some of what you know. You can star in your own video – or, if you’re camera shy, hire someone else. One of my most profitable videos features a certified exercise trainer teaching back stretches.

Almost anything that people might be interested in – from cooking to fishing to chess – can be a possible subject for your video. All you’ve got to do is produce it, market it, and reap the profits.

That’s where YouTube comes in. This free Internet phenomenon is a perfect marketing tool for instructional videos.

When I was searching for that West Coast Swing video, I assumed I would find a site where I could buy one. But, on a lark, I decided to take a look at some of the YouTube postings.

To my surprise, I found some excellent footage of the kind of thing I was looking for. Several of the postings had links to websites where I could then buy the full-length video. And because I’d seen samples of the material, I was confident that those videos would have what I wanted, so I ordered one.

It didn’t take me more than another 10 minutes to realize that I could be using YouTube to promote some of my own videos. I have several – including a basic instructional ballroom dance video – that I market. I posted a clip from that video on YouTube and, to my pleasant surprise, it immediately started getting views… and a few sales.

I don’t expect to get an avalanche of sales from this marketing strategy, but I do believe it will continue to be a steady source of extra income for me. Sweetest of all, these sales cost me nothing. There are no pay-per-click fees or profit-sharing deals. All the profits from YouTube-driven sales are mine to keep.

If the idea of using YouTube to market instructional or specialty videos interests you, here’s how you do it:

1. Go to YouTube.com.

2. Register yourself, and create a user name and passcode.

3. Upload a clip of your video. (YouTube provides easy-to-follow instructions. I did it myself – and I’m not very Internet savvy.)

4. List some keywords or search terms that are applicable to your video.

5. On your profile, write a little something about your credentials and put in a live link to your website (so interested viewers can learn more or buy the video).

Using YouTube as a marketing tool is a fabulous way to earn some extra cash. Take a few minutes to try it out and see how it works for you.

By Paul Lawrence

[Ed. Note: Paul Lawrence is a produced screenwriter, direct-mail copywriter, and business author. He is also the creator of the HERE

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, a free newsletter dedicated to making money,

2 your learning success, Dirk

How to Produce an Expert Video When You’re Not an Expert

Dirk Tietjen — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:06:40 +0000

A few years ago, I suffered from terrible back pain. It was so bad that I was taking steroid injections and trying every other pain-relieving method I could find. Looking online, I discovered that millions of others were going through the same ordeal. That’s when I had a brainstorm: If I could find a way to rid myself of my own back pain… maybe I could create a little side business by helping other people get relief at the same time. How was I going to do that? I had no idea. Then one night I was talking to an acquaintance, Jamie K., about my back. It turned out that Jamie was a certified physical trainer – and she had some stretching techniques that she was sure would help me. She taught me a few of her stretches on the spot, and it felt good. After performing those stretches for just a few weeks, I felt noticeably better. And after a few months, I felt better than I had in years. A light bulb went off in my head. I would produce an instructional video to help people use stretching to ease their back pain! I’d already produced a successful ballroom dance instruction video, so I had experience doing it. And that video was pretty easy for me to make. After all, I’d been a dance teacher for years, so I was qualified to teach the material myself. I was totally unqualified to teach others how to do stretching exercises – but Jamie was the perfect person to do it. That was the first instructional video where I hired an outside expert to be on camera. It turned out to be a bonanza that profited me over $5,000 within 48 hours of putting out my first ad. Three years later, I still regularly fill orders for that video. Realizing I could use outside experts in my instructional videos opened up a whole new world of opportunity. I no longer had to stick with skills I was personally adept at. My next video featured a very fit senior who had created his own exercise program for middle-aged and older men. That video brought in over $30,000 in 30 days. Now you might think it costs an arm and a leg to hire an expert to star in your videos. Sure, if you asked Tiger Woods to star in a golfing video for you, you’d need to shell out big-time. But it can be surprisingly inexpensive. For instance, I paid Jamie only $100 to do the back-stretching video. The instructional video business is an easy and fun way to make extra income. There’s a demand for how-to videos in just about every area of interest. So the opportunity to make money is practically unlimited – especially when you realize you don’t have to star in your videos yourself. Here are some guidelines to help you…

Here are some guidelines to help you…

* Choose a subject that you believe will fill a need in the marketplace.

Like I said, there’s a demand for videos in almost every area of interest. Just be sure the market isn’t too obscure. Let’s say you want to produce a video teaching people how to do magic tricks. Based on the fact that there are plenty of books and videos on the subject, you could guess that the market would be large enough for you to earn a reasonable profit. On the other hand, a video that teaches people how to identify the nest of the North American Spotted Owl would appeal to too small a market. You might find a handful of customers, but not enough to make the venture worthwhile.

* Figure out what you’re going to pay your expert.

When I was working with Jamie, she was employed by a spa where she made $15 an hour. I offered her $25 an hour for the time it took to shoot the video, which made her quite happy. But if, for example, you wanted to hire a lawyer to be your expert, you’d probably need to pay quite a bit more.

You can also go the royalty route by offering your expert a low upfront payment as well as a percentage of the video’s sales. This is often the better deal for both sides. It keeps your out-of-pocket costs down, and eases any worries he may have that he’ll get a piddling amount for his time… and then your video will wind up selling 100,000 copies.

I’ve found that offering a royalty of something like $1 per sale is usually well received. Even if your video ends up selling only 500 or 1,000 copies, your expert would still be getting a pretty good deal for a few hours’ work.

* Recruit your expert.

I’ve had a good deal of success advertising on Craig’s List for a variety of different experts. Those who responded to my ads were all well-qualified and willing to work for a reasonable fee.

You can also find experts in special-interest chat rooms on the Internet, via local newspaper classifieds, or sometimes through simple word of mouth.

* Get an agreement in writing.

I’m not an attorney, so I’m not able to offer you legal advice. But I can tell you that having a contract in writing is a good way to protect yourself and your experts. In my contracts, I always spell out very clearly what the compensation will be. In fact, I write in big, bold letters that this is the only compensation the expert will be getting and that no other promises have been made. My agreements also include a statement that says I own the full rights to the video, and can do whatever I please with it. And I include a clause that says I’m allowed to use the expert’s image, name, and material in any way I choose to promote the video.

You can find templates for contracts in the library or online that you can adapt to your purposes. But if you want to be sure you are fully covered, you should consider having an attorney write up a contract for you. Yes, this may cost a pretty penny. But you can use the same basic contract for every expert, so the cost won’t be that great in the long run.

Producing specialty videos is one of the best low-capital businesses you can get into. And by using outside experts, there is almost no limit to the number of subjects or markets you can appeal to.

By Paul Lawrence

[Ed. Note: Paul Lawrence is the creator of the Quick and Easy Microbusiness System, ETR’s program for starting a business for under $100. Learn more of Paul’s video-business secrets HERE.

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, a free newsletter dedicated to making money,

2 your learning success, Dirk