When you know, respect and live the fundamental truths of life, your journey becomes easier and your load much lighter.
Here are the fundamental truths of online marketing, of life, and of the universe. Okay, maybe they’re not so grand as all that – I’ll let you decide.
Golden Rule #1: You are responsible for your own success. Daunting, isn’t it? When you fully realize that you and you alone are responsible for your success or failure – that you’ve no one to blame or congratulate but yourself – it can almost take your breath away. However, this can also be the most empowering realization you will ever have because you realize that your destiny is in your own hands. It is up to you to make this the life you choose, not the life you settle for.
Take this a step further and you’ll find that you are also responsible for your own happiness as well. You can choose at this very moment to be happy or unhappy, regardless of your circumstances. You can choose to reach out to others or not, you can choose to get up early to work on your business or not – everything is in YOUR hands – it’s up to you to take full responsibility for your life and your success.
And if you’re saying to yourself, “I already knew this,” then allow me to ask you a question: Have you blamed anyone else in the last 48 hours for your own failure or shortcomings? Have you thought something like, “If only my spouse would ____, then I could _____?” Or “If only my parents had ____, then I could have ____?” It’s human nature to want to place the responsibility on others, but it’s the mark of someone destined for great success to take full and complete responsibility for their own life.
Golden Rule #2: Do what you’re good at and you’ll unlock the door to personal and financial success. (And if it’s also the thing you love doing, so much the better.) We all have our own talents and aptitudes, and when we follow those instead of trying to be what we’re not, we’re already halfway to success. When you do what you’re good at and what you love, you naturally enjoy more energy and more happiness, which propels you further and faster down the path to success. And the passion you demonstrate for your area of expertise is contagious – your readers and customers will sense it and want very much to be a part of it.
Imagine 2 people entering a niche – one because he knows there’s money to be made in it, the other because she loves it. It’s rather obvious who is likely to experience more success, isn’t it? Personal and financial success are far easier to access when you’re doing what comes naturally to you.
Golden Rule #3: If you’re not improving, you’re falling behind. Staying ahead of your online competitors isn’t difficult – you simply need to improve one aspect of your knowledge or business every single day. And it’s in this constant improvement that you will find pride, confidence and security. Not to mention the fact that you will become the go-to person in your niche.
Golden Rule #4: Give to receive. No, I’m not necessarily talking about giving away your knowledge or products, although there are times when this can add greatly to your business. Rather, you want to always be on the lookout for ways to add value to people’s lives, especially the lives of your customers. Dedicate yourself to solving their problems or making their lives better, and you’ll be rewarded many times over. As Zig Ziglar says, give enough people what they want and you’ll get what you want.
Golden Rule #5: Be really really good, or possibly even great – but forget perfection. You’ve heard that money loves speed, and that’s especially true on the Internet. So while you want to put out great products, well written emails and so forth, never expect them to be perfect. Get them done and get them out, not sitting on your computer waiting for the day you perfect them.
Golden Rule #6: To succeed you MUST believe in yourself. The belief you can and will succeed always proceeds progress and success. In other words, to achieve it you must first believe it, and that goes double for believing in your own abilities, self-worth, creativity and perseverance.
Golden Rule #7: The fastest way to increase belief in yourself is to make immediate progress. You might not yet believe that you can build a multi-million dollar empire on the net, but do you believe you can take the first step in that direction? Then don’t hesitate – take that first step and then the next, and with each subsequent step your belief in yourself will continue to grow.
Golden Rule #8: Focus on accentuating your positives. If you’re really good at writing content but you don’t like the technical side of online marketing, find someone to handle that aspect for you so that you can concentrate on content creation. If you’re working in three niches but you only enjoy two of them, sell the third website and just focus on what you love doing. And if you’ve got a bad habit like spending too much time on forums, replace that habit with something you like equally as well, such as writing emails to your list. When you focus on growing the positive rather than eliminating the negative, you’ll make progress much faster.
Golden Rule #9: Embrace failure, frustration and rejection and keep going. You can’t have success without failure, and the sooner you come to grips with this, the more you can succeed. People who enjoy massive success have almost always had massive failure as well.
An integral part of finding out what you’re good at and what you can succeed at is discovering what you’re not good at. Each failure can move you closer to your goal, if you keep going. A paradigm taught to sales people to help them deal with rejection is to find their closing ratio. For example, if it takes 20 phone calls to get 5 appoints, and 5 appointments to get 2 sales, then that sales person knows that on average they’re going to get 15 no’s on the phone and another 3 no’s in person to get 2 sales.
Now instead of dreading no’s, the sales person looks forward to them because each no gets them closer to a yes. And so it is with anything you do – you are going to get “no’s,” frustration and failures on your way to getting your successes, and that’s more than okay, it’s great. It’s the person who never fails who also never succeeds.
So resolve to fail your way to top. The more you try, the more you will fail AND the more you will SUCCEED. Turn your frustration into self-motivation and view each failure as both a stepping stone and a learning tool and your success will become inevitable.
Golden Rule #10: Strive for real, tangible results every day. Who do you suppose is happier and derives more job satisfaction – a typical potter or a typical accountant? Unless the potter is unusually renowned for his/her pottery, the accountant almost certainly earns more money. Yet it’s the potter who is nearly always happier in their work, because each and every day they get to see real, tangible results from their efforts. Accountants deal with numbers on spreadsheets, and so no matter how important their work, they’re never able to derive the same satisfaction of achievement as the potter who holds their finished product in their hands.
So what’s the point? To be successful you’ve got to stay motivated, and one of the best ways to ensure you stay motivated day in and day out is to see real results at the end of each day. Write your blog post and then post it. Work on your new product every day, so you can see the new pages you’ve written or watch the new video you’ve created. Everyday do SOMETHING that shows you’ve been working. Even answering your emails can give you a sense of satisfaction when you see there’s nothing left in your inbox to answer, but it’s not the same as creating.
But what if your work is more conceptual than hands on? Make “to-do” lists and post them prominently. Then each time you do something on the list, mark it off. If you start to feel motivation waning, look at the crossed off items on your list and know that yes, you can do one more right now.
Golden Rule #11: Be super-efficient in your decision making. You’re checking your email and you’re not sure how to respond to 2 of them, so you decide to answer those later. Result? You forget, and the senders get annoyed, email you again, and the you have to reread the original emails and then decide how to respond. Better – respond immediately so you can put the task behind you.
Or what about this scenario: A new business idea comes across your desk. You spend an hour researching it, but can’t decide what to do so you decide to deal with it later. But later you’re busy, so you put it off until even later, and of course forget all about it. Two weeks down the road you see the same idea, it still sounds good so you start the process all over again.
Do either of these sound familiar? When you have to re-examine everything that come across your desk, you’ll become overwhelmed and things will fall through the cracks. Instead, learn to make immediate decisions and move on. This way you don’t miss opportunities and your desk and your mind are clear to move forward towards success.
Golden Rule #12: Success leaves a trail. No matter what you want to do, someone before you has already done it or something very similar. Forget trial and error – find those who went before you and see what they did, and then model their success. Focus more on why they were successful than the exact steps they took. Once you know the why’s, you can adapt to almost any situation and get the same positive results.
Golden Rule #13: It might sound cliché, but be an eagle, not a turkey. Turkeys roam the woods and fields, searching for bits of food here and there. For a turkey, whatever happens, happens. An eagle, however, isn’t focused on a microcosm of area, but instead soars high above taking in a broad view of everything that is happening. Based on the information he receives, the eagle then chooses a smaller area to focus on. He circles patiently, waiting for his opportunity. The eagle plans his attack, takes into account all of the relevant factors, and when his/her opportunity comes s/he moves into a 100% committed all out dive straight for his/her prey. Nothing distracts it from its mission as it gives everything it’s got to succeed, because it knows another chance may not come along for some time.
An eagle uses planning and massive action – a turkey hopes something good somehow falls in his lap. Be the eagle.
Golden Rule #14: Be acutely aware of change. All around us things are changing. Old industries are dying while new ones are being born. While you don’t necessarily need to be on the cutting edge, you do need to be well ahead of the curve. Find out what people will want tomorrow and start offering it today.
Golden Rule #15: Focus your efforts. You can’t be all things to all people, nor would you want to try. And you can’t run 5 different businesses at the same time (unless you’ve got the resources to hire 5 different managers.) Choose what it is that you do – whether that’s being the best source of info in your niche, providing answers at steep discounts, interviewing the giants in your industry, etc.
You’ve heard the old adage about a laser beam and a light bulb. Both use the same electricity, yet because it focuses its energy, the laser beam can cut steel.
I guarantee you can be mediocre in 5 or 10 different businesses at the same time. But to be truly great, focus all your time, energy and resources on just one business that you are truly passionate about
Golden Rule #16: You are responsible your own destiny. Remember that Doris Day song…
“Que Sera Sera,
Whatever will be, will be.
The future’s not ours to see,
Que Sera Sera.”
With all due respect to Ms. Day, that’s pure poppycock. If you play the part of passive observer of your life, thinking that you will somehow eventually become whatever it is you want to become, you’re in for disappointments and death bed regrets.
You get the life you make. Stop daydreaming and wishing, and instead begin planning and writing down your goals. Then get committed to taking action. It’s your commitment backed by action that will create the life you want – not waiting for destiny to strike.
There was a popular movie that told people all they have to do is believe they’ll get what they want, and they will. Again, it’s poppycock. You create your destiny through your actions and your in-actions.
Don’t believe it? Then just try to get the people on your email list to buy a product through your affiliate link by thinking and believing with all your might that they will, without sending them the link.
As we’ve said before, you and you alone are responsible for what you get out of life – you can be the master of your destiny or the victim of your inaction. Your choice.
Golden Rule #17: Take decisive, consistent action. Is something scaring you into inaction? There’s only one remedy – just do it. Now. The longer you wait, the harder it will become. If I tell you to defend yourself, how do you feel? Now if I tell you to attack, do you feel differently? Attack your fears, attack your tasks and attack your day with decisive, consistent action.
Golden Rule #18: Improve your communication skills. The better you are at communicating, both verbally and in writing, the easier it is to be successful. In fact communication skills rank higher as a prerequisite to success than almost any other factor. So join a public speaking group like toastmasters, make it a habit to write everyday, and study what makes for great communication.
Golden Rule #19: Walk a mile in their shoes. Whether you are dealing with customers or employees, the more you can understand their thoughts and feelings, the more successfully you can communicate and persuade.
Golden Rule #20: Gain a working knowledge of every aspect of your business – then outsource the mundane tasks. As an Internet marketer, there are many facets to running your business. By knowing how each works, you’re better able to spot talent when you’re outsourcing the work to others. And yes, this is your ultimate goal – to know just enough about each job to be able to find just the right person to do that job for you. You’ll discover that by outsourcing many of your more mundane tasks, you are free to work on your business, rather than in your business. And only when you’re working on your business can you take it to the six and seven figure levels.
Golden Rule #21: Eat smart, eat sparingly and exercise. What good is wealth if you don’t have your health? Eat only clean, nutritious foods free from pesticides, herbicides and chemical additives. Stop eating long before you’re full, and only eat when you’re hungry. Excess need for digestion takes energy and a toll on your longevity. And of course exercise. You should engage in enough physical exercise to make you sweat at least three times a week. If you haven’t been exercising regularly, you’re in for a treat: Exercise gives you energy, makes you feel better emotionally, and enables you to think better and work faster.
Golden Rule #22: Spend Wisely. Before you spend money, ask yourself if there is a more economical way to achieve the same goal. For example, do you really need that expensive computer desk when you can get one that serves the same purpose for half the price? More businesses fail for lack of capital than for any other reason. Don’t waste yours.
Golden Rule #23: Build relationships with others in your field. No one succeeds alone – and the person with friends is a person rich indeed. In “It’s a Wonderful Life,” George Bailey was considered the richest man in town because he had so many friends who happily came to his rescue when he needed help. What about you? When you need help online, do you have a small army of friends you can turn to? If not, maybe it’s time you found some, and the easiest way to make a friend is to become one.
Golden Rule #24: Build a mastermind group, then meet weekly. Two heads are better than one, and 5 to 8 heads are better than 2. You’re not building a committee, you’re building a group of like minded individuals who help each other succeed through sharing ideas, support and resources. Remember, some of the most successful people in history attribute their astonishing feats to their mastermind group.
Golden Rule #25: Never stop learning and progressing, and you’ll never get bored with life. If you’re leaning something new every single day, life is exciting and interesting. You’re either growing or dieing, there is no in between. So choose to grow, and have the best life and most successful Internet Business possible.
Golden Rule #26: Start small, think big. Know what it is that you want (you’d be surprised how many people don’t have a clue what they want!) and then devise a plan and take action. Pay attention to whether or not what you’re doing is moving you closer to your goal. If it’s not, you need to change what you’re doing until you’re on the right track, always checking and adjusting along the way. It’s like a pilot flying a small airplane – most of the time he’s not headed exactly in the right direction, but if he keeps paying attention to where he is and where he wants to go – and corrects along the way – it’s just a matter of time before he gets to exactly where he wants to be. And by starting small you’re making it easy to take action. No one eats an elephant in one bite, but if they just focus on one small piece at a time, they can do it. And so can you.
These were the third and final set of Golden Rules of Internet Marketing. Follow these and I can practically GUARANTEE an insane amount of success for you, not only in Internet Marketing but in every area of your life. Of course, reading them is the easy part – incorporating them into your life takes work, time and commitment, but I assure you it is well worth it indeed
