Steve Wagenheim’s Home Business Blog

I really needed to compose myself before writing this article because this is something that has been bugging me for a long time, but today, thanks to yet another Warrior Forum thread, I finally decided that it was time that I opened up my big mouth and tell everybody what I think of this arrogance. And yes, it is just that…even though I was very respectful with my thread response. Okay, what am I talking about? Keep reading and you’ll find out.

There are a number of marketers out there who have been doing this a lot longer than myself (7 plus years as of this writing) who seem to feel that because something is not new and wonderful to them, it is of absolutely NO use to anybody else and therefore, should NOT be promoted as some great thing. Well, I have just one thing to say to these people.

It’s time to come down from your ivory tower folks because your poop stinks just like everybody else’s.

A little over 7 years ago I had lost my job and needed to find some way of making a living. So I turned to the Internet. I can honestly say that I knew NOTHING at the time. Now, somebody who was already marketing since, oh say 1997, knew a lot more than me. And if I had seen a sales page that said, “Amazing Secret That…Whatever,” I would have probably not only believed it but actually got some value out of the product, even if it was something that a seasoned vet already knew.

Why is it that once these people get an education and achieve some success, maybe even a lot of success, that they think that the only thing worth promoting has to be some holy grail of Internet marketing? In fact, I wonder if they believe that any such thing even exists? The way they talk, EVERYTHING is common knowledge and NOTHING is new. Well, guess what? Maybe nothing IS new. But to some poor schnook out there who is just trying to make heads or tails of all this, EVERYTHING could very well be new.

This is one of the first things I’ve learned since marketing online. There is a market for every skill level.

Now, having said that…and this is where I draw the line…to make statements like, “I guarantee this is something you’ve never seen before” is arrogant on the other extreme. It assumes that this thing that you know, whatever it is, is known ONLY by you. Now THAT is arrogance at its highest level. Okay, I hate pure hype like that. I’d much prefer the marketer said something like, “This MAY be something you don’t know.” Not only is that more believable, but it has a better chance of being true.

But you pro marketers (you know who you are), it’s time to come down from your ivory tower because not everybody out there is a seasoned pro like you are.

And that’s saying it as nicely as I can.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

If you want to discover the REAL truth about Internet marketing and get some solid tips to take your business to the next level…get my free report at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/realtruth.html and subscribe to my REAL Truth newsletter where you’ll discover more than from all those high priced ebooks combined.

I’ve been getting involved in quite an interesting discussion over at the Warrior Forum and it got me thinking about our marketing message. Is it coming across the way we want it to? It’s so easy for us to think that our words will be understood by everybody. Unfortunately, that is not always the case. I think you’re going to find this article interesting reading…even if ITS meaning isn’t 100% clear to you.

First, let me briefly touch on the discussion in question. Essentially, the gist of the whole thing is when somebody says something, the person on the receiving end, if they don’t get the intended meaning, it’s not the fault of the person sending the message but the fault of the person receiving it because they are adding their own feelings to the message being conveyed.

Okay, let me first comment on this. Yes, people receive messages from others and do add their own baggage to those messages. But this is human nature and it’s not going to change any time soon. And for a marketer to insist that they DO change or that the person on the receiving end is an “idiot” because they didn’t “get it” is just ridiculous. We are not robots. We have feelings, and thus, we WILL interpret things the way WE want to interpret them.

Having said that, we as marketers, shouldn’t just toss our words out there willy-nilly and let the chips fall where they may. We should still try to construct out marketing messages as clearly and succinctly as we can so that the majority of the people reading it WILL get the message that we intended to get across. The key word here is “majority.”

You are NEVER going to make everybody understand you. You’re always going to get people writing to you and asking you what you meant by “xyz” or whatever it is you said in your sales letter. It’s human nature and no matter how hard you try to be perfect, it’s never going to happen. This, however, does not make the person on the receiving end stupid. Just human.

So the next time you put together an ad campaign and it bombs out on you, read your copy again and see if MAYBE you didn’t put some words in their that were misunderstood by the person on the other end.

Believe me…it’s more than possible.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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A member of the Warrior Forum asked a very good question about marketers the other day. He asked if they had no shame. Well, this is a question I’ve been asking myself for years after seeing some of the garbage that I see on a daily basis. Well, this article is going to probably rub a lot of Internet marketers the wrong way. So, if you think you’re one of those folks who have no shame, you might want to skip this one. You might not like what you’re about to read.

Essentially, the gist of the forum post was this…Internet marketers selling services to off line businesses when they really don’t have the expertise or knowledge to make any real difference to those businesses. In other words…they’re just taking their money. My only question is this.

So what’s new?

If you think this is confined just to off line marketers, think again. The number of people trying to teach other people how to make money online when they haven’t made a dime is a joke. And the funniest part of the joke is this. They get a book on how to make money online and the book tells them to write a book on how to make money online. Think these people ever made a dime before they wrote that book?

But it gets worse. Then you have the marketers who sell products that don’t work. You know the ones I’m talking about. Most of them are these phony health cures that don’t do a darn thing. But they hawk them like they were the greatest thing since sliced bread.

And then of course you have these marketers who promote these CPA offers with their hidden continuity. These guys don’t blink twice when it comes to ramming these down unsuspecting prospects’ throats. Thank goodness the FTC is starting to crack down on these offers. This is one of the reasons I won’t touch CPA stuff because you really can’t tell the good from the bad.

What I’ve commented on above is just the tip of the iceberg. The stuff that I see going on each day is enough to make you sick. So again, I have to ask…have you no shame?

Maybe you don’t. Maybe all you care about is the paycheck at the end of the month. Maybe you don’t care how many people you have to take advantage of to get it. But if you have any conscience at all, you’ll sit down right after reading this article and take a look at your business model. And then take a look in the mirror and tell yourself what you see.

For your sake, I hope it’s a pretty picture.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to see more of this series? Watch my REAL Truth Videos at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/downloads.html and get the REAL truth about making money on the Internet.

Let me start off by saying that this article was inspired by my daughter’s college graduation ceremony the other day. The keynote speaker said something that really hit home with me and I’d like to share it with you in this article. Yes, it DOES apply to making money online. In fact, it applies to everything we do in life. I think you will find this interesting reading.

President Sheeran says that in life, you can boil down philosophy to two questions.

- Are you for yourself? It not, then who will be?
- If you’re only for yourself, then what good is that?

Let me touch on the first one.

If you’ve been trying to make a living online, you have probably noticed that you are pretty much on your own as far as getting things done. Oh sure, you can hire people to do some things for you, but unless you’re very wealthy, it’s unlikely that you’re going to get somebody to run your business for you…nor should they. After all, it’s YOUR business. Nobody is going to care about it as much as you do. So, if you’re not for yourself, meaning, if you’re not looking out for your own interests and doing everything YOU can to better your life, nobody is going to do it for you.

On the other side of the coin, if you’re only for yourself…what good is that? The point the keynote speaking was trying to make is this. Sure, we can go about trying to make money online just for the sake of making money. But if we’re not actually making somebody else’s life better in the process, what good is it? What kind of real satisfaction can we get out of a few dollars? Personally, I need to know that what I do makes a difference, because if it doesn’t…there is no point of me doing it.

I know that not everybody feels this way. Some people are only concerned about the almighty dollar. And as long as they’re making it by legal and ethical means, there is nothing wrong with that. But imagine how much richer and fuller your life would be if you actually did something that made a difference in another person’s life.

What I want you to do now is look at your business model and honestly answer this question. Are you making a difference to others? If not, maybe you might want to rethink what you’re doing to make those few dollars each month.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to make money TODAY without spending a DIME? Check out my site at http://www.hottrendsdaily.com/ and find out how.

Every once in a while, a great debate pops up over at the good old Warrior Forum. Today, it’s about blog comments left by other marketers. And believe me, I use the word “marketers” here very loosely. Some of these people, in my opinion, are nothing more than robots. But that’s another issue altogether. Point is, what exactly IS a legit blog comment? Everybody has their opinion. What you are about to read is mine. Take it for what it’s worth to you.

But first, we need to backtrack just a little bit to understand why this is even coming up now. Seems that there are these services and software programs that make it very easy for a person to take one comment and plaster them all over the Internet onto thousands of blogs. These comments range from “Nice article” to “Really love your blog” and everything in between. You can usually tell the auto posted comments because they are very generic and add nothing to the overall conversation of the blog itself. In my opinion, these are NOT legit comments.

Now, there are some who would argue that since they are no outright spam, like “Buy this here” then there is nothing wrong with them and should be allowed to remain on the blog as long as they don’t link to sites that one would find offensive. I don’t agree. These comments, as I stated, add nothing of value to the blog. Why should I reward somebody with a backlink when they most likely didn’t even visit my blog in the first place? If you want link juice from MY efforts, then the least you can do is visit my blog and post a comment that reflects that you actually read my article. Is that so much to ask?

No doubt this battle will go on between those who want to preserve some integrity on their blog and those who simply want to exploit those blogs for their own needs. I’ve even see people argue that posting these comments is no different from submitting an article to hundreds of article directories. The difference is this. The article directories WANT your article. The blog owner does NOT want your irrelevant comment.

Anyway, those are my views on this subject. What side of the fence are YOU on?

I’d really like to know.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim
CLICK HERE to discover how to put together an authority site that will ultimately bring you in a steady income for years and years to come with very little upkeep

Okay, so you want to create a product and you have all these great ideas for whatever niche you happen to be in. Problem is, you don’t know where to start. Well, you might want to start by making an outline. That way, you can narrow down the things that you want to include in your product. This article, by way of example, is going to show you exactly what I mean.

I’m going to use as my example the “make money online” niche for two reasons. One, it’s my specialty and can actually write about it with some authority. Two, there are so many ways to make money online that it’s one of those niches where product creators really DO have trouble narrowing their product down to just one thing. So I feel it’s a perfect niche to use as an example.

For this example, let’s focus on pay per click advertising because it is one of the more common ways to promote and one of the best ways to see results quickly. Great…where do we begin with our outline? Well, for starters, you might want to begin with a brief forward, maybe explaining why pay per click advertising is so popular and how it can benefit a person. You might want to list all the pluses to using it.

After that, your first chapter will probably be on how to set up a pay per click account. You’ll probably want to take some screen shots of the process so you can actually show people what it’s like. Sometimes pictures do a much better job than just plain text explanations.

Once you’ve completed the set up process, you will probably want to go into the main parts of a pay per click campaign, such as choosing keywords and creating three line ads. In relation to the ads, you’ll probably want to go over landing pages and how to optimize them so that when a person clicks on an ad, they end up at a page they actually expect to find.

You’ll probably want to then go into some tactics such as how to spy on the competition to see what they’re spending on ads. You’ll probably also want to include other little tricks that you won’t find in a typical book on this form of advertising. At the end, you’ll want to have a list of resources that people can use, such as keyword tools. Anything that is useful to using a pay per click service. You might also want to include a list of all the pay per click services currently available.

There you have it…a nice simple outline for a product. Now all you have to do is fill in the details. Point is, if you start with an outline, the product practically writes itself and you don’t have to sit there scratching your head wondering what the heck you’re going to write about. Try it sometime. You might be surprised at how easy it is to create your next product.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of creating products that nobody wants and don’t sell? Check out my Complete Guide To Product Creation at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/productcreation.html and create products that actually sell.

Never say never. How many times have you heard somebody say that to you? Back in my younger days, when I was a stubborn mule, I heard it a lot. As far as I was concerned, my position on things would never change…no matter what they were. Well, as I have gotten older, I have found that you CAN change your position on things…especially when it comes to running a home business. This article explains.

First off, you need to understand and be aware of all the aspects involved in running a home business. There are many things to consider such as type of service or product, work hours, partnerships, expenses and so on. When you first start out, you may have some definite opinions on what you may and may not want to do. Do not think that those opinions will never change. They very well might.

For example, when I first started running my own home business, I was absolutely sure that I would never want to work with another person. In my opinion, the only person I could really count on was me. And therefore, I was going to do everything myself. But as time has gone on, I have come to realize that sometimes we need help and it’s in our best interest to seek out other people to work with. That’s one example of changing your position on things.

Another example is with expenses. When I first started out, I spared no expense, which is actually not the norm. Most people are very frugal when then first begin because most people don’t have a lot of money to spend. But I was determined to make this work, so I threw money at just about everything I could. Today, now that I am somewhat successful, I am more discriminating. I only spend money if I am certain I am going to see a return from it. I don’t just throw money at a problem. This is another area where you can change your position on things.

Finally, at least for this article anyway, there is the actual product or service that you promote. When I first started, I’d promote anything at all as long as it was legal. I had no preferences as far as what that product or service was. Today, I am much more discriminating about this and will only promote things that I have a love for and feel can really benefit another person. This is why I promote so few products of others. If I make something, I know it’s something I believe in.

So you see, things can change and you can change along with them IF you allow yourself to change.

But that’s another can of worms in itself.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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Everybody is so concerned about content when it comes to the SEO game that they completely forget about something as simple as a photo. Think photos aren’t important to search engine optimization? Think again. This article is going to explain exactly why photos are important and how you can use them to not only get your site to the top of the ranks but enhance your visitor’s experience as well. Keep reading to find out more.

Okay, so what’s the big deal with photos? Certainly they don’t get indexed, right? Wrong! Head on over to the Google search engine and look up anything at all. Heck, let’s look for Betty White. There are something like 13 million results. Well, take a look at the top left hand corner of the search engine page. See where it says “Images”? Click on that.

You will, notice something very interesting. If you look at the URLs of the top sites where the top images are found, you will notice that they are different from the URLs of the top sites for the regular search. What’s this? You mean to say that you can appear nowhere on page 1 of Google’s search engine for a term and yet appear on page 1 of the images search? That’s exactly what I am saying. And do you know why?

Go back to my original statement at the top of this article. Most people are so concerned with just regular text content that they don’t even bother with images on their site. So many of the top sites in the regular search won’t even show up in the image search. This is where you can get an edge over other sites, by including relevant images on YOUR site.

Now, I know what you might be thinking. Nobody actually looks for photos. Well, you couldn’t be more wrong. Betty White photos get about 1,300 searches a month and have very little competition. You could easily rank at the top of the image SERPs if you had a page of relevant photos on your site like a photo gallery.

Make sure that the photos you put up are as relevant as possible. Also make sure that you have the rights to actually post these photos. There are some serious copyright issues involved with putting up photos of people where you don’t own the rights to them. So make sure you’re not in violation.

By optimizing your site for photos, this is a great way to get around the mass amount of competition in the regular search engine and get some extra people to your site.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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Without revealing too much in this article, I’m going to show you how, by just putting a unique spin on a product idea, you can turn it into a monster hit. All it needs is a little imagination and a solid idea to start with.

A little while ago, I got a request from a friend of mine to look over a new product of his. I said sure. So he sent me his PDF. I saw the name, “Zombie Blogging” or something like that, and I just had to read this thing to see what it was all about. I was absolutely intrigued by the title.

Well, when I read the PDF, it was really just a very clever way to monetize blogs. I’ll leave it at that. The info was solid and the system was simple enough that anybody could do it with very little work. But that’s not what this article is about. It’s not the system. It’s the way it was presented.

Each step of the way was compared to something to do with zombies. That was the theme of the whole manual…and it was brilliant. The system itself could have easily been explained in a more straight forward and boring way and still got the same info across. But the unusual spin (the zombie theme) made this a very delightful read.

And if you go through the history of Internet marketing, and even non IM products, you’ll find many products with themes that probably sold more than they would have had the author gone about it in a more mundane way. Take Mike Filsaime’s “Butterfly Marketing.” That was just a very clever way to say “go viral” which, at that time, was a very overused term. Mike made it more appealing with his script and book.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying it’s easy to come up with unique slants like this. I for one am not the most creative person in the world and freely admit it. Most of my products are pretty straight forward with very little glitz. But if you can come up with a unique spin to an old idea, you’ll see sales like you’ve never seen before…provided you know how to market. But that’s another subject.

So, the next time you come up with your next product idea, think about how you can incorporate zombies, or vampires or whatever into it.

You just might find that sales are better than ever.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Tired of creating products that nobody wants and don’t sell? Check out my Complete Guide To Product Creation at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/productcreation.html and create products that actually sell.

Do you know what your EQ is? Do you even know what an EQ is? I know that for many people, the term is a bit of a puzzle. So this article is going to explain what it is and how to figure out what yours is. Not knowing could be detrimental to YOUR home business.

Okay, so what exactly is EQ? Well, it stands for “Earning Quotient.” Great, so what exactly is an earning quotient? Well, it’s a measure of your actual earning level, potential or whatever you want to call it. It’s not a raw dollar number but more a measurement. It’s measured with the following formula.

EQ = D / H x R

Let’s take each of the variables one at a time.

D is the number of dollars you’re currently making per day in your home business. It’s not the number of dollars you WANT to make. That’s how we figure out our optimal EQ. No, this is the real dollar income on a daily basis. No cheating on this. In my case, it’s about $300 per day.

H is the number of actual hours that you work in a day. Most people who run their own home business work anywhere from 4 to 8 hours daily. At this stage of my life online, I work about an hour a day. That’s because most days I don’t work at all and on the few days I do work, it comes out to about 30 hours per month. So if you divide by 30 (an average month) that comes out to an hour a day.

R is the rate that you feel you are worth per each hour that you work. Where D is a real number, R can be any number that you like. But please keep it realistic. I feel, after over seven years of running my own home business that my time is worth at least $100 per hour.

If you plug in the values above, my EQ would be this:

EQ = 300/1 x 100

EQ = 30,000

Great, we have an EQ of 30,000. What does this mean? Is this a good or bad EQ?

Well to get an idea of whether or not this is a good or bad IQ, let’s compare it to somebody who makes $100 per day, feels there time is worth $20 per hour and works 4 hours a day at their home business. We could have the following equation.

EQ = 100/4 x 20

EQ = 500.

As you can see, this EQ is much lower than mine. The person makes less money, works more hours and their hourly worth is less.

If this person worked just one hour a day to make that $100, then their EQ would be 2,000, a little better. If they felt their hourly worth was $100 per hour, and worked just 1 hour a day, their EQ would be 10,000.

Ah, and therein lies the rub with this formula. Anybody can jack up their EQ by simply jacking up their hourly worth. And that’s fine, if you want to delude yourself. But if you want to get an accurate gauge of your EQ, use a number that is realistic for your years of experience.

For that, I have found these values to be pretty close.

First year of business, $20 per hour.
Second year of business $30 per hour.
Third year of business $50 per hour.
Fourth year of business $75 per hour
Fifth year of business and beyond $100 per hour.

To increase your rate after that, you will need to do a bit of outsourcing. The big boys have EPH of about $1,000 to $10,000 per hour worked. I don’t even want to know what Donald Trump’s EQ is.

To increase your EQ, you have to do one of three things…increase your dollars earned per day, decrease the number of hours worked per day while keeping the same income level, or raise your dollar worth per hour worked.

There you have it…what EQ is, how to calculate it and how to increase yours.

So, do you know what YOUR EQ is?

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Looking for a solid 4 step plan to building your own business…FREE? Pick up my free report at http://www.stevewagenheim.com/4steps.html and get started TODAY!