Dan’s Blog

Well I’m sitting here in my brand new home office on the first day of my new career as a full time internet marketer.

I wanted to show you where I’m working from, so I grabbed my camera and took the pic you can see on the right. It’s a pretty cool office, even if I say so myself, although I’m not quite sure for how long it will stay this tidy

I’m not even fully set up yet – the printer you can see on my desk isn’t actually plugged in and behind where I’m standing with the camera are several empty boxes and a space where I plan to put a sofa (if I ever get round to ordering it that is.)

First thoughts of working from home? Well, I’ve only been working for a couple of hours but so far it’s been great, if a little strange.

The first thing is that I didn’t have to face the normal commute this morning. Instead I started the day by making myself a rather large cup of coffee and some toasted hot cross buns, before walking down the driveway and opening the door into my office (it’s converted from what used to be one of our garages, so it’s not actually connected to the house, although I kind of like that because it removes the temptation to keep popping into the kitchen every 5 minutes!)

Our house is situated in a beautiful location overlooking the hills but it’s also on a rather busy main road. So I’m sitting here watching the cars go by, people rushing around on their morning commute, and I’m already thinking to myself – ‘isn’t this a much more civilized way to work?’

I’ve even found myself a radio station which seems to play the sort of music I like.

The only problem is I don’t feel as though I’m at work, which is good and dangerous in equal measure. I need to be careful and make sure that I actually get stuff done and don’t just sit here all day bouncing around to tunes from The Wombats and The Killers.

Going full time with my online business has involved a massive change in my life. Not only have I given up my full-time job, I’ve also moved nearly 200 miles from London and moved back in with my parents. I’ve decided to do this because it lessens the financial risk for me – so if I have a bad month at some point I don’t have to worry about having a massive outlay of rent and bills to pay.

Despite all the changes I 100% believe that this is the right thing to do. I simply can’t wait for the next few weeks, months and years. It’s going to be a massive adventure and I’m going to try and enjoy every single minute of it.

Time for another coffee I think! Comments welcome…

I can’t tell you how excited I am to be writing this post because it’s one I’ve been wanting to write for some time……

I’ve handed in my notice to my employer and from the end of this month I’m going to be working for myself, full-time from home, doing this crazy thing we call internet marketing!!

This is going to be one hell of a journey guys and I’m going to absolutely love every single minute of it, through the highs and the inevitable lows

So how did I reach my decision to go full time with my online business?

Quite simply it just feels SO right…

I’ll be honest with you here – the amount I’m currently earning from my internet marketing business doesn’t yet match my job salary, so I am going to be taking a hit in income, but do you know what? I just have to do this!!

Things have been going pretty well for me over the last few months and I just 100% know that this is the right thing for me to do….

I’ll be continuing to work on what I’m doing now, only scaling it up MASSIVELY. That means creating and selling PLR, doing niche blogs, email marketing and lots of other stuff I do now and also things I have planned for the future. I’m also going to be doing some freelance writing work, which will top up my income and is something I love doing.

This is a massive change in my life and there ARE going to be some downsides. For one thing I’m slightly scared I’m going to get lonely (so please stop by this blog and say hello!!) and I will miss certain things about my current job. Since I graduated from university two years ago I’ve been lucky enough to have been working in a job which on the whole I’ve really enjoyed and through which I’ve met some fantastic people.

Things I won’t miss about my job? My current commute (which is an 80 miles round trip and takes around 1hr 15 minutes in the morning and the same again for the commute home) would be a good start! Instead my new commute will last all of about 10 seconds, as I stroll into my newly fitted out home office….

I just can’t wait and I want to share with you how things are going right here on this blog.

I hope you’ll stick around to follow my journey…

Comments welcome, as always

I did this interview with John about two years ago now but I thought that it was worth re-posting here on my blog because in it we talked about some really interesting stuff which even I had forgotten about!

John was one of the first internet marketers I ever came across online and he is someone I have looked up to for many years, so it was an absolute privilege to have the opportunity to pick his brains.

As I say, the interview was done some time ago and I know that John’s business has changed since then, but some of this info is still very relevant and it gives you an insight into how a successful marketer got started online.

So, without further ado, here’s the interview….

DF: Hi John – thanks for agreeing to do the interview.

JT: No Problem Daniel, it’s a pleasure.

DF: We’ll start on JV’s if I may. What do you look for in a potential JV or interview partner?

JT: While I try to help out as many people as I can, if I tried to help everyone I would not have enough hours left in the day. You can usually tell how determined someone is just by their approach in their email. It also helps if the person contacting me knows about me and my business. So I tend to look for someone who is confident and knows about me. If it’s an interview request, I also look to see what’s in it for me as while I like to help it helps if I will get something from doing it.

DF: How did you first become interested in internet marketing?

JT: In 2002 I discovered eBay, and this is when I realised there was a lot of money to be made from selling products online. I started out selling mobile phone accessories. While I made money it was hard work and there was so much competition (there still is). Then 2 years later by chance I discovered eBooks and I started selling those on eBay, at first I was simply selling resale rights eBooks other people had created, then I started to create my own eBooks and inside these eBooks were links to my other products and services. I granted resale rights to these products and this created a viral process that has brought me most of my success, and since then I have never looked back.

DF: When did you first make money online?

JT: Like I already said I first got started selling mobile phone accessories. I bought in bulk and sold individual items. While this was ok it was nothing compared to selling my first info product. I was getting paid for sending out a download link, and I couldn’t believe how easy it was. To this day it still amazes me how anyone can create a product out of nothing and make thousands of dollars.
This is the beauty of the information age.

DF: Could you tell us a little about what you were doing before you started online, and also if there was anything specific that happened which made you decide to quit your job?

JT: I used to work in a car plant. This type of work is very hard, boring and repetitive. When you have a job like that you are always looking for a way out, and this was the way.

DF: A lot of people are interested to know what other internet marketers spend their days doing. Could you go through with us what you’ve done in the past 24 hours?

JT: Most of my days are different. The best thing is I choose when I start work and when I finish. But most days will be spent doing emails and working on future projects. The best way to see how I operate is to check out ‘a month in the life of John Thornhill’ on my blog:

http://planetsmsblog.com/category/a-month-in-the-life-of/

This will show you how I ran my business for a full month.

DF: If you had to, how would you go about making $1000 in 7 days?

JT: I would email my list with an offer :- )

Never forget that there is nothing more important than building a list and building a relationship with your subscribers. If you are not building a list you are not building a business.

DF: How do you generate your traffic?

JT: Most of my traffic comes from my resale rights products. This method of marketing still works as well today as it did back when I got started. Create a product and give someone the incentive to distribute it by telling then they can resell it and keep 100% of the profits and you have a very very powerful marketing tool indeed.

DF: If you had to choose one aspect of your business, such as your mailing list, blog, or JV’s, which do you believe is your most important asset?

JT: My mailing list, you can take away everything I have but as long as I have my list I can make money on demand. With my list I can attract JV partners, with my list I can launch new products, with my list I can create money on demand by simple sending an email. Like I have already said there is nothing more important. Never forget that.

DF: You’re well known for your success with information products on eBay. Do you believe that being known as a ‘specialist’ in this particular area is a key aspect of your success?

JT: Yes, definitely. If you are considered an expert in one field you will have more chance of success. As an example if I tried to create a product showing you how to make money from AdSense it would probably fail because I am not seen as an expert in this field. Even though I do make money from AdSense.

DF: What do you believe is the single biggest reason why you’ve become successful?

JT: I can answer that in one word. eBay.

DF: Finally, is there anything else which springs to mind that you think people who read this might benefit from?

JT: Start building a list and creating your own products. Do this and you will be fine.

DF: Thanks John – that’s it for now :- D

JT: It was a pleasure.

Those of you who have been following my progress will know that I’ve been having quite a bit of success over the past few months. In fact things are looking up so much I simply can’t wait for the next few months to see where my business takes me. Internet marketing is one HELL of a journey guys and I’m absolutely loving every minute of it!!

I’ve got lots of exciting plans for the future – but today I want to tell you a little about something I’ve been doing which has played a massive part in getting me to the point my business is at today…

and that thing is Building a Mailing List.

I know it gets said all the time that “the money is in the list” but it’s absolutely true. As a newbie it’s easy to get sick of people telling you this, especially if you’re trying to do it yourself and for whatever reason it’s not quite happening for you yet – BUT  building your list really is the number one thing you should be concentrating on as you build your business. It has been THE main reason behind the success I’ve started to have online.

Here’s a strategy that’s working for me. There are many other ways to build a list and I’ve tried lots of those too, but the method below has been amazingly effective for me.

What am I talking about?

Building my list using Warrior Special Offers – WSOs.

If you don’t already know the Warrior Forum (www.warriorforum.com) is an internet marketing forum where marketers from all over the world come together to talk about making money online.

The WSO forum is a section of the forum where members can post offers (they must be special offers) to other forum members.

It currently costs $40 to post a WSO but it’s well worth it.

Basically what I have been doing is posting WSOs to drive traffic to my squeeze pages. You post a WSO advertising a free product and then within the post you direct people to your squeeze page where they can opt-in to your mailing list to get their hands on it.

I’m primarily operating in the PLR market at the moment – so I’ll use that as an example of one of the offers I’ve been running.

The product I am giving away for free is a great quality PLR report, complete with graphics, sales page etc.

This is something I could easily charge money for, so people are getting a fantastic deal to get it for free (even if I say so myself .)

I spent quite a while creating this product and paid a professional graphics designer to produce the graphics for me.

Actually I think the reason I’ve been doing so well from this is that when people see my offer it’s simply too good for them to refuse. If you can do this too people WILL grab your offer.

Within my WSO post I ‘sell’ the product and show people exactly what they are getting – and then I include a link to my squeeze page.

On the squeeze page I re-sell the benefits and then include the opt-in box.

The WSO forum gets LOTS of traffic so you should start seeing people opting in to your list within literally minutes of posting your offer.

Behind my squeeze page is an upsell where people can join my PLR membership site. Before that was up and running I upsold people to a paid PLR package I had put together. Your offer MUST be related to the thing you are giving away for free if you want a decent proportion of them to buy.

You only need a couple of people to buy your upsell and it has paid for the cost of posting your WSO.

I’ve ran several different WSO offers over time, each promoting different products and I’ll say now that each and every one has been a success.

After a few days you’ll find that the number of people joining your list starts to slow down – but all you need to do is bump your post back up to the top (you’ll need to pay $40 again to do this but it’s definitely worth it).

That’s it really. Nothing especially groundbreaking but it works for me!

The first time I tried this I added I think around 200 people to my list in the first couple of days. Each and every time I bump my WSO back to the top of the forum I generate at least 40-50 new subscribers.

The key is to:

1. Give away a great quality product (something other internet marketers want)

2. Make it look really professional (something people would buy)

The great thing about the Warrior forum is that the traffic is really targeted. Combine this with a great offer and you should see a pretty good conversion rate. My squeeze page is currently converting at more than 50% which I’m really happy with.

Once you’ve got people on your list you can start mailing offers to them. Make them related to what your subscribers are interested in and you’ll make sales.

There – you have a real internet marketing business!

The last promo I sent out resulted in over 20 sales. Not massive but it soon starts to add up.

Seriously guys – if you want to build your list I highly recommend you try this. You won’t believe how effective it is!!

Comments welcome…

Things have been pretty damn CRAZY over the last few weeks. It’s mostly due to (and I’m SO excited to announce this) the launch of my first ever monthly membership site…

FirstPLR.com – First Rate, 100% Unique PLR, Each and Every Month

I’ve been creating and selling PLR for a while now. If you’re on my mailing list you’ll have seen the PLR packs I put out from time to time.

I first got into the market because I knew I could create PLR which was better than 99% of the PLR you’ll find being offered on the net.

(If you’ve ever bought PLR and been astonished at the lack of quality – ie. information which is just downright incorrect, poor grammar and a lack of flowing content – then you’ll know where I’m coming from when I say that a lot of PLR is very poor )

I knew I could do better – so I started creating PLR and selling it.

It’s sold bloody well too and it’s the reason I’m building the business I am today (I don’t want to blow my own trumpet too much but people evidently recognise quality when they see it!)

I want to keep this post ‘to the point’

…So to cut a long story short a couple of months ago my friend and mentor Tony Shepherd emailed me and asked me if I’d be interested in taking over his PLR membership site.

Tony’s been doing some amazing stuff lately and his business has sky rocketed, so his time is getting more and more squeezed – hence why he asked me if I’d be interested in taking the site from his hands and relaunching it.

(If you’re reading this mate I can’t express how thankful I am to you – I want everyone reading this to know what a great guy Tony is – if you’re not familiar with his work I’d highly recommend you go check him out)

Truth be told I’d been thinking about launching my own monthly PLR club for a while – so when Tony presented me with this opportunity I just HAD to take it.

So there’s a little background on how the site came about.

Here’s why YOU should be interested in it:

1. As a member, each and every month you’ll receive a top quality PLR report, including all professional graphics, PSDs, a hand-penned sales page and all source files.

2. It’s virtually unrestricted PLR (you can do ANYTHING you like with the PLR packages apart from pass on the private label rights to others)

3. If you check it out now you can grab a FULL YEARS MEMBERSHIP for just $97 – that’s an 83% discount on the usual price.

Click on the link below for more details…

http://www.firstplr.com/yearly.html

I think you’ll like it.

Cheers

Daniel

Comments welcome as always…

I won’t be alone in having started 2011 by making the promise to myself that this will be “my” year to achieve my goals. Of course I’m talking about my online business and where I want it to take me. Since your reading this there’s a pretty good chance that yours will have been the same, but for many people it will have been to lose weight, excercise more, drink less, stop smoking, work harder, stop procrastinating or one of a million of possible New Years Resolutions which people make every year.

Yet here we are and it’s now February. Already a month of 2011 has passed us by and it’s time to take stock and think about ‘what have I done since January 1st that has moved my dream forward a step?’

In my case:

I have added a hundred or so people to my list and I’ve also had my most successful mailing to my list to date. I made 15 sales for a promo I did – which is the first time I’ve made more than 10 sales from a single email. I was absolutely delighted with this result and I think that is excellent progress.

The bad news? I have only done one promo in the entire month (this really needs to change and massively so!), and I could have added many more people to my list if I had promoted my main squeeze page a bit more. Btw I’m going to be showing you the method I’m using to build my list in a blog post very soon.

What else?

I’ve been working hard in preparation for the launch of a new site I am bringing out in the next few weeks. I’ll let you know more about it very soon but there is a hell of a lot to organise!

I have also relaunched my blog (well duh, obviously so since you’re reading it right now ) but this is something I was meaning to do for a few months but somehow never got around to.

This week I have also been writing articles for a new PLR article pack I am launching (all being well) on Sunday. Nothing major but it’s another promo and should bring some money in.

All in all it’s been a good month and I can’t wait for the things which are going to be happening over the next few weeks and months.

On the downside I could have done more. I really MUST catch up on Alex Jeffrey’s excellent coaching program – it’s no excuse but I haven’t had the time so far to devote as much time to it as I would like. Alex is going to play a massive part in the growth of my business, of that I am 100% sure.

What about you? What have you been up to so far this year? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.

Also if you’re new to my blog don’t forget to read my last post to find out a little about who I am

Speak soon

Daniel