The best advice I’ve gotten in building a profitable business online or offline, is to find a market that already EXISTS, make sure people are already buying in it, and then offer them something similar to what they’re spending their money on… and make YOUR product BETTER.

If it’s a highly competitive market, or there are serious barriers to entry, reconsider.

If there are NO players in that market, the thinking will be that it’s a huge opportunity, and you’ll feel giddy as a school girl at the possibilities.

However, it’s a big red flag…

Chances are, there’s a reason why no one is competing in that market. It’s counter-intuitive thinking, but it makes sense! The false notion is that you have to create something new or something no one has ever thought of to go make millions with it. TV shows like “The Big Idea” feed into this misconception.

But statistically speaking, your chances of making it big with a brand new, fresh invention are close to 15%… VERY low.

Granted, the payoff is huge if you get lucky and offer something that people actually fall in love with and want to spend money on, but that’s rarely the case. You might as well go to Vegas.

Inventing something fresh is trying to create a brand new market that doesn’t already exist, which is extremely difficult to do. That’s why the Thomas Edisons and the Henry Fords of the world are rare.

If there’s a market niche that already exists with only a handful of competitors, the barriers to entry are low, and the competitors are making a lot of money… bingo. You got yourself a potentially big opportunity in front of you.

It’s also counter-intuitive to think about what people in any market are already asking for. What’s coming up in people’s conversations? What are they already frustrated with? What are they buying and using right now that’s satisfying them, but is lacking something that could satisfy them MORE?

Fill a gap that’s already there. Don’t try to create one.

Learn more about building a successful online business, and get our million dollar blueprint for FREE at http://www.nitroblueprint.com

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Tonight we're having our first ever webcast in 2 years. In it, you'll learn how to make $450 a month using the easiest 45-minute online business plan on earth!

If you haven't registered yet, there is still a little bit of time left to do so.
Go to: http://www.nitrowebcasts.com

AFTER THE WEBCAST

Leave a comment on this post with your biggest takeaways from the call, and be sure to check out what the biggest takeaways are for other people.

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Have you ever done something that worked really well, then you stopped doing it one day… and 2 years later wonder why in the world did you ever stop?

Well, we did that with http://www.NitroWebCasts.com

Every month we would put on a huge webcast. (Our biggest one had more than 6,500 people at the same time). And we would deliver awesome free-of-charge, step-by-step training on a new topic each month.

Then one day we stopped doing them… and it’s been so long I have no idea why!

To this day people still talk about some of our legendary webcasts.

Crazy, huh?

But there’s good news. We’re starting them up again this month. In fact, the first one is next Wednesday, December 17th. If you want to make it, you can register right here and lock in your seat before our grand re-opening webcast fills up.

http://www.NitroWebCasts.com

This month we are going to teach you step-by-step for free the…

“45 Minute Online Business Plan To Making $450 A Month."

Who is this for?

If you haven't made ANY money over the Internet yet…

If you are feeling frustrated and overwhelmed…

If everything you've looked at so far ends up being overly complicated and complex…

If you just want a simple, easy to follow method that works, doesn't take a lot of time and you can actually DO it…

Then join us on the live call and you will learn step by step what this is, why it works and what to do.

By the end of the call, you can be up and going to see results in less than 45 minutes of time invested. It only takes at most 45 minutes a day (some days takes as little as 15 minutes, and over time can take no time at all), and you can make an extra $450 a month.

Check it out to see what I’m talking about:

http://www.NitroWebCasts.com

We're also giving away a gift just for showing up because we feel kind of embarrassed for having stopped doing these monthly free webcasts!

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As an online marketer you’ve probably heard the phrase “The Money is in the List” – it’s absolutely true. It’s not uncommon for your customers to not buy from you the first time they land on your site.

Most people think about things and have to be contacted at least several times before they make the decision to buy. By building a list of targeted prospects, you’re greatly improving your chances of affiliate sales.

Once you have a database of subscribers established, your list will be like gold to you. Imagine the ability to send an email to a few hundred or thousand people with a product promotion and then watching your sales come in… this is what a targeted list of subscribers can do for you.

However, it’s not just about building a list; you also need to take the time to establish a relationship with that list. If you never email your list and out of the blue send them a promotion email the chances are you’ll have more “unsubscribes” from your list than sales.

To build a good relationship and rapport with your list will take a little time but it is so worth it once you get the balance right. Try sending out an email at least once a week (any longer and they may forget who you are). In your emails try to achieve balance between promotions and providing information.

You don’t need to promote a product with every mailing. Give value to your list, valuable tips, valuable information, case studies, and other tips to help them; once you do this your list will grow to trust you and will gladly purchase items through you because they feel like you have taken the time to establish a relationship with them.

Now you know why you should build a list, but how do you start building? Here are a few tips:

Create a free special report, eCourse or eBook to give away in return for your visitors signing up to the list.

Create a separate page for your newsletter subscribers. In a time of increasing SPAM, it’s getting harder and harder to get people to give you their email addresses. Even if you’re giving something away for free, you’ll still need to sell that “free gift”. Build a simple opt in page which clearly explains the benefits of subscribing to your list.

Promote your mailing list through articles. Write and distribute articles to the online article directories and in your author bio, include a link back to your newsletter page. If you write good quality articles, you’re increasing the chances that person will want to click over and learn more.

Those are just a few tips for helping you start building your list. No matter which way you go about it, having a list of targeted customers is a great way to build your affiliate marketing business.

Looking for quality products to promote online? Check out the Nitro Affiliate program, where you receive lifetime customers, residual monthly commissions, large commissions (up to $300 per sale) and a tested and fine-tuned marketing system that works 24 hours a day for you.

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Many people dream of starting their own franchise from home for little to NO cost, and building a 5 figure a month income within a year.

It’s possible to do, and that possibility creates a lot of ‘hype’ to get people sucked in.

This hype is most rampant in the network marketing/MLM industry. They’re all legitimate businesses that work, if done properly. Up until a few years ago, internet marketing strategies were relatively unknown to many Network Marketers.

However, all that is changed and it’s no longer a secret that you can build a MASSIVE network marketing or MLM company for yourself using the internet pretty quickly.

So… the question becomes what’s a better home based business? Network Marketing or information marketing?

First, let’s identify the difference. In network marketing, the product could be something physical or digital (although very rarely), and money is made by the sale of a product AND also by recruiting other sellers of the product, forming your “downline”. You then produce a residual income each time your downline members make a sale.

In information marketing, there is no “downline”. It’s just you and your online system making money from the sale of your product, and that’s it. Sure, you can find affiliates to sell your product that make money for you, but they usually pay you nothing up front to become an affiliate. Unlike network marketing, you ONLY make money if your affiliate sends you a buyer.

Considering these advantages of network marketing, you would think that it’s a far better business model than information marketing. Right?

Not really.

In fact, here are the reasons why information marketing is a MUCH better solution than network marketing.

First, the network marketing company owns the product, NOT you (the member). If the company decides to change the product, discontinue it, or change the price, there’s nothing you can do about it.

Second, you have NO ownership in the company or its brand. If the network marketing company closes its doors (which is VERY common), you’re out of luck. It’s time for you to look for something else to make money with. The same goes if they decide to kick you out of the company for any reason.

Third, once you begin recruiting other sellers to work under you (forming your downline), you have to train them! They are fully depending on YOU to teach them the ropes and deliver on the massive promise you and your company made to them in becoming financially free “overnight”.

Then it all depends on you, your knowledge, your system, and your experience to deliver on that promise to them. You can only imagine the problem this creates when complete “newbies” sponsor their first downline member and have NOTHING to teach that person, after he or she has forked out their hard-earned money to join them.

Other issues involve complaining members, those that pester you non-stop, and those that do absolutely nothing and disappear, ultimately blaming YOU for their failures.

These are all the drawbacks of joining and running a network marketing business.

Now don’t get me wrong, it’s still a very good solution for complete beginners in business. The cost to entry is extremely low and there’s very little risk in network marketing. You don’t even need to create the product and you don’t need to carry the inventory.

But you must consider the major drawbacks I just discussed.

Information marketing, on the other hand, offers the same exact benefits of network marketing or MLM. It’s direct sales, and it offers a way to build a passive income stream for you very quickly (if you put in the proper work initially). The sky truly is the limit on how much you can make and how fast you can make it.

On top of that, you’ll have REAL ownership in your company, it will be your brand so no one can “fire” you or kick you out, you don’t have to depend on dead-beat downline members to make money for you, you NEVER have to put with any complaining, blaming or creating headaches for you, and you don’t need to train anyone.

Customer service issues can always be handled painlessly because YOU are the decision maker and owner of the company.

Affiliates typically want to sell your product for themselves and they already have an idea of what to do. There’s no agreement that you have to train them or teach them anything.

Information marketing is a home based business model that gives you true ownership of a real asset, unlike MLM. Any of the disadvantages associated with it can be overcome, and products like the Nitro Blueprint System aim to eliminate them completely.

The biggest hurdle is often creating the right product to sell, but even THAT can be done almost effortlessly, and the Nitro Blueprint System teaches you exactly how.

Learn more about how to build the wisest and most effective home based business anyone can build here: http://www.NitroBlueprint.com

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In the Nitro Blueprint System customer forum, a member (Ron) was asking the best way to reach his target market.

One of the answers from another member was, because his product had a geographic aspect, he could use Google Adwords to target people in those locations for his keywords.

Ron loved the idea but because he is new to online business said he was already overwhelmed with thought of taking action on the idea.

My advice to him instantly got him out of "overwhelm" mode and feeling confident he could do it and immediately into action mode.

Keep reading if you would like to be able to do that yourself, with anything that you find overwhelming.

-Kevin

A helpful tip, it can be easy to become overwhelmed with all the things you can be doing.

The best strategy is follow the Taking Action Training that comes with Nitro Blueprint System.

Let's see how it can apply to you.

First figure out the major action items you want to accomplish, and then break those down into the smaller minor steps it will take to accomplish it.

So, for example, you have your PPC campaign. That is a big step made up of dozens of individual action items. If you look at it as "create my first PPC campaign" it will immediately overwhelm and shut down your brain, it is too much to process.

But if you write down the steps it will take to accomplish it (key is writing it down, or typing it up, just getting it out of your head and into written word) then it instantly becomes more manageable and doable.

So it might look something like this…

First is picking the keywords you will use and the locations it will be located in. Then combining the keywords and locations to create your cluster of keywords. So you have maybe a dozen keywords and a dozen locations. So you end up with a dozen keyword ad groups with 12 keywords in each. (This is just an example.)

Next is creating your ads you will start with (your main ad and a few you will split test). One way to do that is doing searches for your main keywords and see what the other top advertisers are doing to get ideas as well as study the ad writing section of the Blueprint as well as a PPC specific training product such as the PPC training in the All Stars of Traffic, or the PPC issue of Trafficology, or Perry Marshall's or MindValley's programs.

Next is setting up your adwords account, adgroups and getting your campaign ready to go live.

Next is going live and tracking the results.

Each of those steps might take an hour or two to complete. And within 5 to 10 hours you have completed all of the steps and successfully created your first PPC campaign and seeing results.

That's the power of breaking it down, you first see it is doable and possible in less time and hassle than you first thought. And second you are then able to go out and actually do it!

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Any good coach or mentor, from one of our Internet Business Coaches, to every mentor and coach I've ever had start at the same place.

Your "Why"

Why do you want to commit your time, money, focus and blood, sweat and tears to being successful online?

Only you know the answer for yourself, but I'll share with you my why.

I grew up on a farm in small town Iowa. And in the 1980's farming was not a good profession to be in and my parents struggled financially.

And I saw what that financial struggle caused… the constant conflict, frustration, stress, arguments and more. It eventually lead to them losing the farm and getting divorced. In fact, research has shown that financial challenges is the #1 cause of divorce.

I also saw my mom having to take a second job working every week night and being away from us kids and my dad.

And I experienced life as a child growing up in that environment. Seeing what it did to my parents and also as a child knowing we couldn't afford the things I saw everybody else around me taking for granted.

Ever since then I knew I never wanted that for myself and the family I would have as an adult. I wanted to provide myself and my family with the financial security and freedom I didn't see around me growing up.

And, somehow, I knew the solution was to take control of my future by having my own business.

I even started my first business when I was 13 years old, selling used golf balls out of the backyard of our farm!

The local community golf course just expanded and several holes ran through the woods behind our house, the perfect opportunity for a motivated entrepreneur. Every night I would walk through the thorn bushes and head high weeds in oppressing heat and humidity to pick up all the golf balls hit into the woods or into the pond they created. Then clean them up, and get them ready to be sold the next day.

I even started outsourcing… by hiring my little brother to be the sales man. He was the cute little kid that wouldn't let anybody go past our stand without asking them to buy golf balls. (I was way too shy to go within 100 yards of the golf stand, so good thing I had my brother to partner with!!)

It was also my first time to "test and track" by tracking which balls were the best sellers so I could price them higher, while also only putting out a limited number of those balls to create scarcity. Not to mention the buy 4 get 1 free special and more.

In total we sold more than $2,000 each summer in used golf balls we got for free with just a little "elbow grease" to go find them.

At one time I even created a plan to collect balls from lakes on other golf courses and turn my little operation into a nationwide used golf ball empire.

Fast forward to today. The one thing that drove me in my early years after college, when I was struggling to figure out this online business stuff, was my unshakable reason why I wanted to be successful.

I was willing to do whatever it took and make any sacrifice I needed to create the success and financial security for myself and the family I wanted to have.

Yeah, being able to buy a really nice car, living in a great house, owning a dream vacation home on the water, getting to travel around the world, wearing fancy clothes and all the other "bling" that success provides is "nice"… but not motivating over the long-term.

Whatever your WHY is will be unique to you.

Mine may resonate with you, especially if you already have a spouse and children.

Or for you it may be your burning desire to fire your boss, leave behind the office hell, and mind-numbing and meaningless job you're stuck in.

Or maybe its allowing your spouse to quit their job and stay home and raise the kids.

Or maybe making enough money to save for your future retirement.

Or to put your kids through college and have the experience and opportunity that was never possible for yourself.

One thing I do know…

In today's economic environment where job security can disappear overnight, your entire lifetime of investments can vanish before you can say bailout, and the only job you may find available despite your excellent resume is asking somebody if "you want fries with that."

It's never been more important to take control of your financial future and security.

If you agree, here's the best recommendation - get a mentor or coach.

There are only two options I can recommend. The first is where I turned to be coached at Strategic Coach (and yes, the very first session was about the "why", where I wanted to be in the future.) However they will only accept you if you are making at least half a million a year in net income. Most likely that is not going to work for you - if it does then go for it.

Your other option…

We have an amazing team of business success coaches who will first work with you to discover that laser focused, burning WHY that will give you the energy and motivation to move mountains to achieve your success.

Here's a secret, something nobody ever mentions, are you listening… if you find yourself not motivated, or procrastinating, or avoiding taking action on your business or not seeing any results… then you either don't have your "why" yet or you are following an effective system to build a business.

When you discover that why inside of you, coupled with a system that let's you achieve your why, you will find yourself always motivated, always excited and always making progress every day because your success now has the highest level of meaning possible to you.

Then, your Nitro Blueprint coach will provide you the guidance, accountability, encouragement, experience, problem solving and creative thinking as you build your online business so your WHY happens faster and with much less frustration than trying to go through your journey isolated and on your own.

And, because you read my story and have the same dedication to your success as I have, I want to do something really special for you.

First go to this page and fill out the application form.

Then, when you talk to a member of our team to see if you are a good fit for one of our coaches, and if you are accepted for one of the spots we have open right now, mention you heard about it from this post and they will give you a $500 discount on our coaching program!

-Kevin

P.S.
After you fill out your application, come back here and share your thoughts about this blog post and what it means to you.

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When it comes to copywriting, the one rule of them that’s taught everywhere is to think “WIIFM”, or “what’s in it for me?”

In other words, you should go back and read your sales letter or your squeeze page from the mind of the prospect. Don’t just read it to make sure it sounds cool and catchy… but read it as if you ARE the prospect.

However… I think the whole “WIIFM” concept totally misfires for a lot of people.

After reading people’s headlines and content for their marketing, I notice they often don’t dig deep enough for the benefit. It becomes pretty clear after a while why they can’t convert visitors to buyers.

They simply don’t get it when it comes to understanding what the prospect already knows and doesn’t know by the time they get to the sales letter.

So a better and much more powerful concept than “WIIFM” is to think “why THIS?” In other words, why should I use YOUR product to get in shape? Why should I use this particular technique to find a date? Why should I not continue doing what I’m already doing to make money online instead of using YOUR method?

This falls into the category of knowing what your prospects have already been exposed to in the past.

Ask yourself, what’s the competition like in your market niche, and how well aware are your prospects of other products or services? What are most of them already doing or using?

These are very crucial questions to ponder over when you’re building your business and writing your sales copy. I can’t tell you how many times people miss this boat, especially after they choose to go into a highly competitive market.

When you think about this concept, you naturally begin to brainstorm ways to separate yourself from the competition by offering them something unique.

Offer your prospects the benefit of using your stuff versus your competitor’s in a tough market, and sell them on how your product or service gets them to the underlying benefit much quicker, faster, and MUCH easier.

Make sure your prospect can’t help but think, “Why am I WASTING my time using this other stuff, and why did I NOT learn about this before?” He or she could achieve the dream far more painlessly.

You can learn more about creating irresistible offers, as well as the 10-steps you need to follow to build a successful business online, by going to http://www.nitroblueprint.com

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Ever been "in the zone" as you do something? Could be something as common as brushing your teeth, taking a swing in golf, or driving a car.

Doing any of these things seems nearly impossible the first time you think about trying them.

So many steps involved. So much that could go wrong.

Driving a car for the first time is an overwhelmingly complicated task. You've got pedals to work with your feet, controls to work with your hands, mirrors and windows to check and recheck, signs and signals to obey… and forget it if there’s anyone else on the street.

I recently read a great article in Men’s Health called "The Science of Swish" by Christopher McDougall, and it got me thinking. Christopher interviewed three guys: one throws tomahawks with freakish accuracy. One performed delicate surgeries with incredible speed - until he retired and landed in the record books for the most successful consecutive free-throws (2,750 without missing a single one). The third was a professor who’s drawn some pretty interesting connections between primitive man’s ability to throw stuff and the nature of being "in the zone."

Tomahawks, surgery, basketball, and survival of the species.

Yeah, that’s a lot of ground to cover, but it’s all tied together by a couple of concepts that could make all the difference in having an online business that’s actually successful.

Let’s look at this - but first a question:

What do you think works better?

1) Focusing on the end results you want
2) Focusing on the process that produces the end results

(Hint: Think of Nike’s slogan.)

Saying you'll get better results by thinking about the end result rather than the process seems counterintuitive. I mean, look at how many "How to" books are out there alone!

Process seems to be the king. Performance is supposed to be the guarantee, right? Look at sports, business, even school, and you can see this hard-wired drive to perform, to get results by following a process.

It’s called a performance orientation. And while it beats just sitting there with no drive, motivation, or action, when it comes to getting results, it comes in a distant second to something much more powerful:

A mastery orientation.

This is how people get extraordinary results, experience extreme levels of personal growth, and live with more satisfaction, happiness, and peace than you might even think is possible.

Let’s see what these guys in the article had in common:

The tomahawk guy’s technique was basically to look at the target and throw. Fast.

The surgeon basically did the same thing in surgery - sounds a little scary, but it was mysteriously far more accurate and ultimately safer for the patients.

When he retired, he used the same process to get good at throwing free throws. Really, really good. In fact, he made 2,750 throws in a row, and ended up in the Guinness Book of World Records. Again… the same basic process: fast, instinctive, focused on the end result.

Of course, it didn't start that way.

Just go out and start throwing sharp objects in your backyard and see what happens. Or try using some of those sharp objects to do a really quick surgery on someone, for that matter.

What came before the "don't even have to think about it" mastery?

A system.

These guys learned every step of a winning system, practicing over and over until it was second-nature to them. They got so good at what they did that it became instinctive.

How’s this apply to having an online business?

It’s really the same thing.

If you focus on learning and mastering the system then results will come.

If you focus on results only, you might achieve them, but you may never be able to duplicate your success.

As a bonus, with mastery, you'll also usually get much greater results now and long into the future along with a high level of personal satisfaction and happiness because you see the growth you went through and achieved.

Getting into this mastery zone involves moving quickly from your conscious mind to your subconscious. The conscious mind has its place, but not in the zone. It likes to stop and ask questions, point at problems, analyze stuff to death. The subconscious is raw power, instinct, speed.

In fact, that’s what Dr. Joe Vitale’s talking about when he says, "Money loves speed."

In mastery, results seem effortless, fun. You look back on what you accomplished and it’s satisfying because you brought it all and created success from thin air. It’s the ultimate satisfaction.

Of course, all this assumes you have a proven system to follow and master. If you don't, then check out Nitro Blueprint System. It not only gives you the system, but also the simple strategies you need to get into mastery mode when using it.

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It’s funny how many internet marketers will use the same type of ads, content, and sales funnel for every type of traffic they get. I realized that this will actually hurt your conversion rates if you’re not aware of the “mindset” your prospects have before they visit your site.

For instance, in pay-per-click, it’s better to drive your traffic to a more content-heavy page and then offer them your product afterwards.

If your traffic is coming from an article or press-release, you don’t have to give them as much content once they get to your site. It can be a simple squeeze page, or sales letter offering them your product directly and you will convert at a high rate since they’re already “pre-sold”.

The whole idea is to “pre-sell” your prospects before they have to make a buying or opting-in decision. The absolute best way to do this is to focus your advertising on content rather than “ads”.

When you do that, it’s no longer about being “sold” in your prospect’s mind to buy your product or to opt-in. It’s about getting value from you before hand, so they’re much more convinced and willing to take action.

If you make all or most of your marketing content-based, ALL of your conversions will increase drastically. I’ve YET to see this otherwise, so I can pretty much guarantee you that that’s going to be the case every time.

Focus on writing articles to share tips, press releases to educate your prospects, and “how to” videos on YouTube. Blogs are also great at generating content-based traffic. The best part is that it’s all free, so it’s mind boggling to me that less effective and MUCH more expensive advertising is still alive today.

The only advantage of expensive, “ad-based” advertising is speed. It can be faster to throw up a pay-per-click ad to generate traffic, than it is to have your article written and distributed all over the net, or your video to really pick up steam. But in the long run, it really doesn’t have an advantage over content-based traffic.

Try focusing ALL of your traffic generating efforts on delivering content instead of ads. Watch your conversions skyrocket.

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