The intent of leverage is to return the best advantage with the lowest effort.  Specifically, for internet businesses, that means most profit with minimum personal involvement, and we can accomplish this via outsourcing.

Preceding articles discussed increasing leverage by 1) re-using, and 2) re-purposing content.  In this article, we’ll address developing leverage by outsourcing routine, or non-value-add work, and any work that simply isn’t a match with our individual skills, experience and/or character.

Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman have reported some interesting findings from more than 25 years of research by the Gallup organization – initially in their book, First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently, and then elaborating on those findings in several subsequent books.  Two of their most important findings for internet marketers and home-based business owners are these:  1) Improve your strengths, not your negatives, and 2) Acquire staff for talent.

Affiliate business has a rather large learning curve and requires many diverse skills.  But, few people are personally skilled in all of them – and even those who multi-skilled, probably are not applying their available effort and other skills should they focus on their weaknesses.

William of Occam, noted for “Occam’s Razor,” has noted:  “It is vain to do with more what can be done with less.” As affiliate business owners, Occam’s Razor has a big lesson for us in terms of our own time management.

Tim Ferriss, who wrote “The 4-Hour Workweek” is a terrific proponent of the use of virtual assistants to handle recurrent, low prioritiy tasks or those for which he does not have either the time or inclination to perform.

Contrary to popular opinion, outsourcing is not restricted to large corporations, but given the low cost of international VAs, even small, home business organizations can afford to delegate many activities to virtual assistants.

One task that many internet marketers choose to outsource is writing articles.  Many see the importance of writing articles, but either can’t write well, or simply don’t want to write, so they turn over article authoring to ghost-writers. 

Another task you might consider outsourcing to a virtual assistant (or call center) is the telephone and email follow-up required for lead generation and sales closings.

If you improve your areas of strength, you gain the benefits of leverage and multiply your results, whereas, focusing on improving areas of weakness will, at best, result in only an incremental improvement in results. 

Which would you rather do – multiply your results, or simply see incremental improvements?

If you would like to learn how to leverage your efforts, sign up for the Online Success for Beginners course.

Challenge Your Anxieties

We all have dreams and most of us have dreams about living the good life, having plenty of time to spend with our families or being able to retire in comfort.

If you’re like me, you’ve tried a lot of things in the past that haven’t worked, and that makes us hesitate to take any further risks.  Because some of us are intimidated by the internet, we don’t go all out to realize our dreams of success with our internet businesses.

Change happens so rapidly that it’s very difficult to keep up with the latest internet marketing strategies.  So how do we find the wisdom and the courage to take the next step on our journey to realizing our dreams?

Mindset Is Critical

Sir Winston Churchill once said, “Success is measured by your ability to maintain enthusiasm between failures.”

Every day my inbox is filled with advertisements for newer and better ways to perform internet marketing.  However, finding the legitimate ones and eliminating the scams?  There’s no substitute for actually trying the product you’re considering.

Success Personality

One Gallup organization in-depth study of the “success personality” explored the attitudes and traits of 1500 randomly selected individuals from Who’s Who in America. The three most significant traits they found were:

1) Common Sense – the ability to simplify a complex subject by getting to the core of what matters

2) Knowing One’s Field – first-hand knowledge as well as support from experienced coaches, and

3) Self-Reliance

Noted author, Brian Tracy, has stated, “All successful men and women are big dreamers. They imagine their ideal future and then work very hard to realize that future.”

Success Formula

If you want to achieve your dreams, apply the following success formula:

1) Determine your desired outcome(s)

2) Be proactive – meaning, do something!

3) Notice and feedback results

4) If the results are not what you want, change your strategy

For home business owners, the ability to maintain enthusiasm between failures (or more likely, between massive sales) will, indeed, separate the successful ones from the unsuccessful ones.

And one of the best ways to maintain your enthusiasm is to associate yourself with successful people – teachers, mentors and other gurus who’ve “been there and done that” and are already successful.

A excellent starting place for gleaning all the knowledge about internet marketing that you will need is to enroll in the Online Success for Beginners course.

Technology is essential for any affiliate marketing company, but frequently beginning internet marketers don’t have a good knowledge of what kind of technology is necessary or how it will impact their organization.

These ten suggestions should help you get started well. Whenever possible, try to establish systems and processes that work together thoroughly, and are available 100% of the time to support buyers and prospects.

Look for an automated system if you want to make your work trouble-free and your bank account fat.

1. Computer & Printer

If you’re going to do internet marketing, you’ll clearly need a computer of some sort – preferably one that you own, either a desktop computer or a laptop. You’ll need one with plenty of memory and speed. A broadband internet connection is faster than dial-up. You’ll also want a printer. If you can, get both with wireless capabilities.

2. Your Unique Domain Name

Be sure to get a website name that you own, so that you can set off~start} to create your own brand name. Moreover, some providers won’t permit you to reference an affiliate website, but only a website name that you own. A high-quality domain name will be concise (30 characters or less), meaningful to the eye and the ear, and indicative of your product or service. The preferred names end in “.com” and such names are ideal for many affiliate marketing small businesses, provided they’re obtainable.

3. Communications

Another indispensable tool is telecommunications, including an Internet Service Provider and a phone – either land-line, cellular, or VOIP, with or without headset. It ought to have both local and long distance capabilities, and if you intend to hold teleconferences for your downline, the ability to handle conference calls. If you’re going to do workshops, etc., you’ll doubtless want to invest in a teleconferencing service that can operate many, perhaps hundreds or even a thousand, calls simultaneously.

4. Web Hosting

You’ll have to have a hosting service to serve as a “home” for your website. There are many web hosting services available to help small businesses and internet marketers. Their services do vary somewhat, as do their prices, so be sure to comparison shop before reaching a decision.

5. Systems & Info Precautions

You’ll also need good safety measures for your systems and data. This can take the form of physical security, plus programs such as firewalls, and security programs like McAfee or Norton.

6. Applications & Data Backup & Restore Programs

One more requirement is for backup of your locally stored applications and information. Despite other security measures, there will eventually come a time when you undergo a system crash, with either partial or complete loss of data and crucial programs. So you will also require a robust backup and restore capability.

7. Goods

You’ll have to have one or more services to sell – products that you have developed yourself, or ones that have been created by other people. If you develop your own products, then you’ll also have to worry about all the associated back office capabilities. If you get your products from other vendors, then you’ll have to work at maintaining the relations with those vendors, ensuring that required products get shipped on time, customers are satisfied and receivables and collections.

8. Affiliate Program Network

If you’re planning to offer various affiliate products, you’ll doubtless also want to join one or more Affilate Program Networks (APNs), such as ClickBank, CJ, or LinkShare, etc. to handle your commissions, sales statistics, and other back office functions for you.

9. Web 2.0 Capabilities

The Net is very dynamic, so if you want to succeed in today’s internet world, you’ll want websites and services that support blogging and interactive communities (i.e., ones that use Web 2.0 to support a whole host of collaboration, using the web as the network platform).

10. Technical Support

And finally – again a often overlooked requirement – is the need for reliable technical support – for both your local hardware and software, but even more importantly, for any of your customer-facing websites and product systems.

If your systems go down and you are powerless to get prompt technical support from any/all your suppliers, the resultant downtime can influence your marketing campaigns, you can lose or alienate potential customers, and ultimately, your profit margin will suffer (and your brand, as well).

Technology is the lifeblood of an internet marketing business, and given Murphy’s Law, you ought to arrange for the eventual downtime and system crashes that take place as well. Applying all these necessary technologies will help the success of your affiliate company.

I’m taking this advice to heart and operating my own affiliate marketing company. Take control of your future and your financial security by starting an affiliate marketing business.  Acquire the FREE MaxPro Report and CD to discover how.

There are countless different business opportunities available online, but you must be always ready for make-money-online scams. Even though the “get-paid-to” programs (including reading emails, clicking banners, shopping, filling out paid surveys, and chatting) may sound easy, around 90% of them are scams.

Even more pervasive is multi-level marketing (MLM). This model provides “opportunities” for people to engage in businesses with simple MLM websites, MLM directories, MLM companies, online training courses, and investment clubs. Work at home scams are another type of online racket, and one of the most commonly advertised, both online and offline. You may be required to pay a registration fee upftong, and after collecting the fee, the company may simply close up shop.

The variety of online scams and frauds preying on those seeking to make an honest living online is nearly limitless, and trying to sort out the worthwhile opportunities that can actually work from the ripoffs and cons that fill your e-mail inbox can be a frustrating task.

Because of this, many people have developed the misconception that all Internet businesses are scams, and that the only people making money are the ones selling them. This is simply not true. While there are quite a few at home business scams, convincing yourself that they are are all scams is limiting both your thinking and your income potential.

Online business is a lot like any other industry: You have the good, the bad and the indifferent. There are some not-so-nice people on the internet doing some not-so-nice things, but there are also programs out there that teach lucrative (and honest) ways for beginners to start making a real income. You will just have to spend some time finding them, and then follow what they do.

When you find them, then just follow them and do what they tell you to do, and soon you will actually make your first dollar online. And you will later laugh at yourself and wonder why you ever though the Internet was only a place where scammers hang out.

If you want to be successful and make money online, you are going to have to be willing to grit your teeth through a lot of hard work and a ton of trail and error. There are going to be times when you feel like giving up, and there are going to be times when you feel like you are being weighed down by information overload, because there is a ton to learn. But if you stick with it, you will become very successful at making money online, probably to the point where you could make this your main source of income.

What you really need more than anything in the beginning is a clear set of directions to follow from someone who started from scratch just like you, and managed to find a legitimate way to full-time online income. Zero Friction Marketing can give you just the kind of perspective you need to take your mind off all the endless e-mail sales pitches and start working toward concrete, achievable goals.

To Your Success
Richard & Cheryl
815-299-2917