Why Start a Business using a Blog?

Almost everyone has heard of blogging these days. Simply put a blog is a web page that is made up of posts and is updated regularly. That is the simple definition however, a blog can be much more then that. If you are starting a business with a small budget then there are so many ways blogging can help.

First, with a click of your mouse you can put your thoughts, sale pitches, articles and various web page links out to the world by publishing it on your blog. This is especially great if you have started your business using any type of affiliate marketing. The blog owner registers with any affiliate program of choice and then puts various links, banners and products on the blog site. When visitors click on these links and purchase a product, the blog owner is paid a commission for generating the sale. How much easier can that be?

The second way a blog can help in starting your business is that it is a whole lot cheaper then getting a web site. You can usually set up a blog site for free. Compare that to buying a domain name and paying for the cost of designing a web site. Add to that the monthly cost of web site hosting and the cost starts adding up real quick. A blog is a great alternative until the money starts coming in from your business.

Third, less technical knowledge is needed so it is easier and faster for the beginner to start on the web. There is no need to learn html or programming because the software is already there for you to use. Also most successful marketers agree that to get traffic to your site you must update the content often and consistently. With a blog you can add or update the content whenever your want without hiring someone else to do it for you.

Also, blogging can give your business an edge over the competition because it is in real time and there is no waiting. Customers and visitors of your blog can easily join in and post their own comments and suggestions to your site and your products. It is a good tool to have testimonials about your product or service on your blog. Also be sure to post answers to any questions or problem in a quick and complete manner. It shows that you like to reach out to prospective customers and you will quickly gain repeat customers and acquire a following. Customers always prefer personalized attention.

In summary, blogging should not be overlooked as a great business tool. It is especially helpful to the beginner Internet marketer because it is cheap and it has no boundaries. Add to that your own creativity and you are well on your way to establishing a successful business.

The Master Skills

The ability to set written goals and to create action plans are the 'Master Skills.'

These are far more important than technical skills, selling skills or speaking skills, because they bring into effect the "cybernetic goal seeking mechanism" of the brain. This mechanism means that once you impress on your mind the goal, then your mind moves unerringly towards making your goal into a reality in every situation.

The oil millionaire E.L.Hunt, when asked what the secret of success was, said there are only two things you need to know:

1) What it is that you want...

2) Determine what price you have to pay for it, and then resolve how to pay that price.

We all have a built in failure mechanism, which for want of a better description we call 'the comfort zone'. We tend to stay within our comfort zone in order to avoid the risk of failure. We tend to move towards things that give us pleasure and away from things that cause us pain or which are threatening. This is the 'Pain or Pleasure Principle' that we read about in psychology textbooks.

The only way to override this failure mechanism is to activate your success mechanism, through a goal. When you focus your mind on a goal you activate the success mechanism, which then releases a lot of positive energy. This builds up your Desire and Drive. It gives you persistence, clarity of thought and intensity of purpose. You must move out of your comfort zone in order to improve any aspect of your life. One of the best ways to do this is to write down progressively higher goals and keep working towards them. This is how every successful person works. This keeps them alive, motivated and successful.

And remember that successful people are not people without problems. Successful people set their goals to solve their problems. The problem is not in achieving goals but in the setting of them in the first place, because once you have set your goals your mind automatically keeps working towards them.

Once you learn this secret, happiness and a sense of fulfillment usually follows.

Write the goals down!! If your goals remain unwritten they are borderline on being wishful thinking and can soon be lost from view. If you are not sure of what your major life goals should be, here is another secret...use 'creative visualization'.

To do this find a quiet place where you can sit undisturbed, close your eyes and relax. Once your mind is at rest focus your thoughts on the kind of person you would like to be. Visualize everything you can about that person, how you would speak, how you would dress, how you would act in all kinds of situations.

As you are watching this 'minds eye' video of yourself, intensify you feelings towards this person. See and feel the changes becoming real and how much better your life will be when that person 'The Ideal You' becomes a reality.

If you do this every day for twenty days (the time it takes to establish a new habit) by the end of that time you will have changed so much you will never want to go back to the old you.

You have used the Master Skills.

Keeping Focused - How to Avoid Internet Marketing Ad Overload

You have come up with an idea for a way to make money on the net or you have decided which program you would like to promote online. You have built a terrific website that is informative and entertaining. Do you know what will be the biggest obstacle to your online success? It happens every day to millions of marketers online and no one is saying anything about how detrimental this problem can be to your marketing efforts.

Has this happened to you? You've joined a program or built a site and you know that your most important task every day is to drive traffic to that site. Even though you know that you must drive traffic to that site, that the very survival of your enterprise depends on that traffic; you waste countless hours every week opening the offers that flood your inbox every day instead of promoting your own site or program. Come on admit it. Everyone does it, but the really successful marketers are able to focus their energy like a laser on their single most important marketing task.

It's hard to not look at all the offers that you receive every day. After all, marketers everywhere continue to use email to get their message out and some of them are very creative people. The subject lines in your inbox are screaming, "Open Me" as loud as possible. As an intelligent person you are naturally curious to find out what's inside that message. Don't do it!

As enticing as those subject lines are, don't waste your time opening them up. You have already built your site or chosen your program. You need to be promoting only that site or program. The time that you waste looking at someone else's offer can never be recovered. Each of us only gets 24 hours per day. You need to spend as many of those 24 hours promoting your site or chosen program. Until your site ranks high enough to get natural traffic from the search engines, your primary task is to drive traffic to your site - nothing else.

One way to stay focused on your online enterprise is to protect the email addresses that are linked to your offer. Never use these addresses to join lists or subscribe to newsletters. If you do, in no time the mailboxes will be filled with offers instead of messages pertinent to your enterprise. For example, use sales@yourdomain.com, support@yourdomain.com and info@yourdomain.com for the payment, customer support and general information requirements of your site and never use them for anything else. That way you can get through your daily email chores quickly and have more time for traffic generation.