Today I am going to discuss how to prepare yourself
mentally for business.

You may have heard some people saying that starting your
own business is difficult. Guess what? They’re not kidding.

Starting a business, in many ways, is a lot like having a
child and before you get started there are lots of things
you need to think about and discuss with anyone you can.

Can You Afford to Fail?

You might have heard the old saying ‘only gamble what you
can afford to lose’. Well a large percentage of online
businesses fail in their first year, so if your financial
situation is such that you will agonise over every small
amount you spend, starting a business is probably a bad idea.

Put it this way: Expect that you will not to make any
money in the first few months as very few people achieve
success immediately. Most often it takes anyware from 3 to
6 months before you start to see a return for your efforts.

Note that this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t believe in
yourself and your business - simply that you have to
realize the kind of odds you’re up against and stay
realistic.

Will You Stick at It?

You can’t get halfway through all this and have a sudden
change of heart, or feel like you’re doomed to fail. All
successful business spend plenty of time doing badly before
they start to pick up. You need to prepare yourself for a
steady stream of failure being slowly replaced by success.
Don’t expect the world all at once.

Could You Take the Stress?

Starting a business is one of the most stressful things
you can do. It will affect you mentally, physically and
emotionally. You need to be strong to deal with this kind
of stress, and you need to have someone to turn to for
support.

Are You a Survivor?

There are some people who always seem to make it in the
end, regardless of what life throws at them. You need to be
the kind of person whose response to things going wrong is
to work harder and get it fixed, not someone who cries and
goes into hiding.

Many entrepreneurs say that this, more than anything, is
the secret of success. You need to be a ‘never say die’
kind of person. You need to be always ready to try again,
no matter what gets thrown at you. Remember that it’s not
when things start to go wrong that you fail - you haven’t
failed until you’ve given up.

Be Prepared to Work Hard.

If you’ve been doing a standard nine-to-five job, you’re
probably used to a world where it’s someone else’s
responsibility if the work doesn’t get done - you work as
fast as you can for the hours you’re told to, and if it’s
not done on time then it’s the manager’s fault for not
hiring enough people.

When you work on your own, though, there’s no-one to blame
- the buck stops where it starts, with you.

You Need to Satisfy Every Customer.

When you run an online business, you can’t afford to lose
your customers. You need to always be nice to them, trying
to meet their needs. You have to remember that you’re the
most senior person they can talk to in your organisation,
so you have to act like it.

When there’s no-one other than you to handle complaints,
you have to either give in to customers at every
opportunity or watch them take their business elsewhere.

Do You Really Love What You Do?

If you don’t love what you do, then sooner or later you’re
going to want to stop doing it - and when you run an online
business, that’s difficult. Besides, you can’t run a
business if you’re always sitting and thinking about how
great it’ll be when it’s the weekend.

Think of it this way:

Could you run up to someone on the street with a leaflet
about your business and tell them all about it in a way
that would really leave an impression?

It doesn’t matter whether you actually could or not - if
you think everyone will be interested, then, believe me,
they will be.

All the best and good luck

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Russell Brunson has just released a new viral software and
for a short time he’s allowing me to let you get it for
free (valued $147).

You can download your copy at…

==> http://www.LinkBrander.com

I’m sure you will find this very useful.

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For your enjoyment (and information), here is this week’s
quick trivia question…

What is a machinima?

As usual the answer can be found later in the newsletter.

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Featured Article
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What Really Sells Online?

The success of an online business depends on a number of
things. The way the business was branded plays an essential
role, of course, and so does traffic. The contents of a
website will attract the visitors, and the marketing
strategies will keep them coming. These things can never
be undermined.

But there is one factor that is of utmost importance,
without which the business is as sure as dead. We’re
talking about the products which are to be sold.

Most definitely, an online business should sell products
that the market actually needs. There should be a high
demand for it, otherwise your online enterprise would just
experience poor sales.

As much as possible, you would want the need for the said
product to be constant, because only such could guarantee
consistent sales, and correspondingly, consistent earnings.

Here is a method that is quite popular for determining the
profitability of a planned product:

1. Know the subject of the product you have in mind.

2. Run a search for the subject in
www.inventory.overture.com or www.nichebot.com. If you
have some funds to spare and if you desire more
comprehensive statistics, open an account with
WordTracker.

These sites offer tools that would allow you to check how
many searches were made for the subject of the product you
are considering. The more searches there are, the higher
the demand there is.

3. Run a search for your subject in any of the search
engines in the net to determine the amount of supply. The
more results there are, the higher the supply for the needs
of the subject.

4. Naturally, you would want to follow the most basic law
in economics: the law of supply and demand. A market is
said to be profitable if there is a high demand for it (in
our case, a high number of searches) and a low supply that
caters to its needs (in our case, fewer number of results
in the search engines).

This is a trial and error method that may take some time
to master. It would require a degree of patience on your
part as well, and some supplemental knowledge of current
market trends.

If you want to know what really sells online, here are
some ideas that could help you out:

* Information products such as eBooks and special reports
will always be hot sellers.

People use the Internet to acquire information on a matter
they need. If you will be able to supply this information,
then you’re in business!

The fact that information products can easily be delivered is
a plus to their marketability. On your part, it wouldn’t require
a lot of financial investment to come up with your own
information product.

* Actual books will also always be a hot commodity in
online trading.

Books require no sensory guarantees. They need not be
smelt, felt nor heard to determine their quality.
Descriptions and reviews would be enough to entice
potential customers into actually buying them from your
business.

* Travel packages are also good sellers.

People prefer the convenience of having their itineraries
arranged for them, and the comfort of merely having to
choose and arrange a deal with the click of a button is
easier than going to a travel agent. People will always
travel, so this field will always be profitable.

Hard to find items have also carved a niche of their own
on the net. Out of print publications, and items which have
gone out of circulation are blockbusters in auctions sites.
The Internet is an avenue where collectors converge, and
collectibles will always have a place in the web.

* Health products, especially those that are not usually
carried by most pharmacies, also experience brisk sales in
the online world.

None of these items, of course, are guaranteed to be
hot sellers forever. As the market trends change and as
the internet further defines itself, the things that people look
for will shift. Good business practice dictates that you study
the flow of the industry so that you may keep abreast of what
people really want.

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This Week’s Trivia Answer
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Here’s the answer to the trivia question I asked earlier…

What is a machinima?

A machinima (muh.SHEEN.uh.muh) is an animated short or
movie created entirely on a personal computer and “filmed”
in real-time using computer graphics rendering software or
computer game technology.

In other words, Machinima is a blend of machine and
cinema. The cinema connection is clear, but why “machine”?

Computers are machines, of course, so that’s an obvious
influence. On a more subtle level, the software that
creates machinima’s scenes, lighting, and actors is called
an engine.

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Healthy Body… Healthy Mind
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Motivators for Success!

Keeping yourself motivated during a fitness program can be
challenging, even for the most experienced exercisers.
Working out can get dull and your routine can seem endless
when you’ve been on the same route forever. Avoid the
pitfalls of discouragement and disenchantment by planning
ways to reward yourself for a job well done.

This is the only body you’re going to have, so you must
take care of it to have the best life possible. You need to
follow a regular workout program but it shouldn’t be a
punishment or something you have to force yourself to do.
That’s why it’s important to build in regular rewards to
maintain your motivation.

The best forwards to incorporate into a fitness program
are ones that do not involve candy or any kind of food. A
common method of “treating” yourself or making yourself
better after a tough day is to buy a candy bar or box of
cookies because “you deserve it.”

Nobody deserves 300 extra calories to get rid of! Calorie-
laden treats are not the way to motivate yourself because
those kind of “rewards” will only involve more exercise
later down the road.

Instead, sit down and make a list of activities, music and
books you enjoy. Choose the things that appeal to you the
most - try to have a variety of small, medium and large
rewards to correspond with small, medium and large
accomplishments.

If your goal is to lose weight then plan appropriate
incentives for smaller goals. If you wait until you’ve lost
20 pounds to give yourself a pat on the back then the
journey seems much harder. Plan to give yourself some kind
of reward for every five pounds lost - buy a new CD or a
DVD of a recently released movie.

Another method is to keep track of how many calories you
burn each day and when the total reaches 3500, reward
yourself by buying a magazine off the newsstand that you
normally wouldn’t purchase.

Incentives for your mind and soul are better for you than
rewards for the stomach. When your goal is simply to
increase fitness and build muscle strength, set up reward
points for lifting or pressing heavier weights, for running
two miles instead of one, and for being able to exercise
for longer periods of time.

Use the same type of incentives - magazines, books and
music. Simply the knowledge that you will reward yourself
can make workouts feel easier.

Exercisers who partner with friends or family to reach
goals can use this method with a slight variation. Each
person should write down his or her own reward ideas -
things that you would like to receive as a gift to yourself
for caring for your body through fitness.

Partners should then exchange lists and whenever one
person reaches a goal, the partner chooses one of the items
from the list to reward the accomplishment. This introduces
an element of surprise into the routine and can encourage
you to press on to more accomplishments in order to earn
the incentives you like the most.

An important note to keep in mind is that incentives
should match the size of the accomplishment. Buying
yourself a new piece of expensive jewelry in return for
losing a few pounds will lead either to dissatisfaction
with your other incentives or bankruptcy, since you buy
more and more jewels.

Instead of going overboard on smaller incentives, reward
yourself with an item that you like and enjoy but rarely
buy or take yourself to a movie (but skip the concessions
stand).

If you meet a mid-size goal like running five miles when
your ultimate goal is ten, buy some new fitness clothes or
take a day off work to relax.

Accomplishing your ultimate goals calls for the biggest,
splashiest incentive you want. If you have worked and
sweated your way out of thirty pounds or more, take a spa
weekend to pamper your beautiful new body!

Or if you prepared for a marathon for months and then
completed the 26 miles, take a mini-vacation to a nearby
scenic retreat and spend your time relaxing and reveling in
your accomplishment.

Keeping your motivation high can be challenging with the
demands of everyday life. Adding incentives to encourage
you along the way will not only help you reach your goals
faster but will make your life a little sweeter as well.

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Have You Got Any Comments?
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This is your chance to speak out.

Comment on articles I’ve run in the newsletter, give me
your thoughts on changes or your ad testing results or
questions relating to your business, etc.

In other words, just talk to me about what you think I
need to do to improve the newsletter.

Be sure to include your website address too, because if
I use your comments in a future issue of the newsletter,
I’ll thank you by posting your address so that you can get
additional free traffic to your site!

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That’s a Wrap for this Week
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That wraps up another week’s newsletter and I hope you
enjoyed this issue.

Don’t forget to send me any comments or questions you
may have to the Feedback Loop. I would be only too happy to
help you in any way that I can.

From time to time I’ll send you important updates
that will provide information that has the potential to
greatly improve your online business… and of course
your profits!

However, you can rest assured that I will only ever
recommend products that are considered to be of HIGH value
and will provide indisputably benefits to help you grow
your business… that’s my guarantee!

Your friend,

Gilles Rais

Categories: Newsletter Issues