Khoa Bui - The Online Entrepreneur

One of my favorite Internet Marketing Experts I know today is Andrew and Darryl Grant AKA “The Grants”. In case you have never heard of them, they started their Internet Business (selling eBooks) a few years ago which as a result of this, they earned over $250,000 on their first year online. The funny thing behind this story is that they were complete newbies to the computer world, they didn’t understand much about the Internet and they were definitely computer illiterates.


I had the privilege of meeting with Andrew and Darryl Grant in a Millionaire Phenomena Seminar a few months ago and chat to them in person. They are a very down to earth couple and I can tell that they must of went through hundreds of failures to get where they are. Their success is definitely NOT an overnight success but was comprised of many tests, measuring and failing themselves forward.


If there is one thing you can learn about Andrew and Darryl Grant, is that they learned a business model that made them money. They went out there and tried it… many times until they succeeded. Many people would say that both of them must of had a computer degree to earn a decent income online… which is completely false. They simply applied their knowledge.


Imagine if you were presented with some information about how to make money online however, each time you tried it, it didn’t work and it costs you a few hundred dollars in the process? Would you try it again? Imagine if you KNEW your future and that in order to make $250,000 online, you would need to fail 100 times and loose $10,000 in the process, would you do it?


One thing that inspires me about Andrew and Darryl Grant is that they are great implementers and that they failed forward. It’s incredibly easy to just say “Fail Yourself Forward” but when you’re actually loosing money in your pocket in the process, maintaining a positive attitude and getting back up and attempting it again and making slight tweaks and failing again, it can start to hinder your spirits.


If there is one thing you can learn from their story is that they simply decided to never give up.

Whenever you are building a website, there are certain parts of a webpage that will give you the most effective result.


A recent study was conducted that analysed over 500 people’s eye movements whenever the person would view a web site. What they did was they presented a typical two column website that contained content and a few pictures. As a result of 500 tests and infrared anaylsis, they found that people’s eye movements usually go from left to right and then scan downwards.


People usually scan a web page … not read the entire web page in one go.


So what can do you to take advantage of this? It’s important to place all of your most important assets near the top of the web page and a few going down. So take for example, the goal of your website is for them to contact you. You can place a small contact banner or form near the top of every web page, by doing this, people are highly guaranteed to click on your contact form.


Think about your most favourite website? How do they place their content? Is it full of content with no pictures? or do they sprinkle the content and make it easy for you to read? You will find that most News websites, they have good positioning of their news, pictures and content.


People these days are very busy and don’t have time to digest alot of information. Always keep this in mind when presenting your site to the audience.

One of the most frustrating things you can ever do is simply have too many projects to do, starting them and never finishing them. Also, when you have too many projects, you jump from one project to another and end up repeating the cycle. As a result, you never finish the projects and end up where you started from… but a list of incomplete projects that costs alot of time and money in the process.


But there must be a better way to keep track and stay focused right? Yes there is. It’s called The One Page Business Plan.


This particular type of planning I believe is very important to setting goals and achieving them. Since I’m a big fan of goal setting, I’m always on the lookout for new ideas and techiniques to get me where I want to go faster.


I admit that one of my limitations is not that I don’t have any ideas, but that I have too many ideas to implement. So far, all of the projects that I have achieved and finished is only a minute fraction of all the ideas that I conjured up over the years. However, one of the biggest drawbacks of having too many ideas is that you can really get lost in the mist of things and you get busy chasing after the next shiny object.


You become an excellent starter but a terrible finisher. I’ve been there… many times. However, one thing I realised is that an idea that has been started and never finished is the same as an idea that never existed in the first place. The true antedote to this is focus!


The One Page Business Plan is a very effective way of keeping you focused and on track. To describe the one page business plan, there are three boxes:

• 1. Where am I now?
• 2. Where do I want to be?
• 3. How will I get there?

In the first box, “Where am I now” you describe exactly where you are at this current time in two separate headings “Strengths” and “Weaknesses”. For example, you can say you have excellent computer skills and know how to generate income online but in the weaknesses heading, you can write you don’t know how to build a website.


In the second box, “Where do I want to be?” you describe exactly where you want to be in 3 - 5 years. You also need to write down critical things you MUST have in place within 12 months. For example, you can write, I wish to live in a four bedroom, two bathroom, house only 5ks away from the beach, swimming pool where I can practice to become a professional swimmer. Critical - Need to get internet business up and running by the end of the year.


Finally, in the third box, “How will I get there?” you write 5 different strategies in which you believe will get you there. In each strategy, you have a separate box and write down the steps in which to achieve each of those strategies. For example, strategy 1: start an interenet business that generates income for me. Step 1. Research my passions. Step 2. Decide what I am good at. Step 3. Ask someone to build a website on what I am good at. Step 5. Write everyday to generate traffic to the website. Step 6. Setup affiliate products and my own products.


The great thing about the One Page Business Plan is that it’s all on one page and you can pin it up at your office or where you can see it often. Most importantly, it keeps you focused and on track to achieving your goals.

This is one of my favourite speeches of all time by Steve Jobs at Stanford University. I think it’s inspirational and keeps you on track to following your passion. I hope you find it inspiring as much as I did.


Enjoy!

Now this one is a biggie. Before I explain to you what constitutes effective website branding, let me ask you a question:


What colours do you see when you think of:

• Google
• Coke
• McDonalds

Now close your eyes for a moment and see those colours that belong to those brands.


What you just saw in your mind is worth hundreds of millions of dollars in a split second. Those companies spend millions of dollars to get you to remember those colours and their brand.


The reason why branding is so important is because it sets you apart from everyone else. It defines YOU, it makes YOU rememberable and it sells YOU. That’s it!


Lets say you build a website and your main choice in colours is green. Now lets say you build a product and make it red. If people see your product and go to your website, they become slightly confused about you. This also applies to your style and design of your products.


For example, Apple. Think of all of their products and how their design and colours are very similar to each other. Yes, they change colours on their iPods but their design is the same, with slight variations to their iPod collection.


When you spend years building your brand, people come to remember you and respect you in your industry. Eventually, your brand becomes a quality standard and people will pay alot for it and your competitors can’t steal it from you (well, not that I am aware of these days)


Think of Bill Gates, how he dresses, notice how strikingly consistent he wears his clothes. This is no accident, your style, your website brand, your choice in colours is what defines you. People want you. What about the Harry Potter books, a book series that maintain the same brand, how else can you identify it with? What if there was one Harry Potter book that had the correct title but different font, different positioning, different wording and style, this would confuse you. You may begin to think “what’s going on here?” and JK Rowling may begin to loose a fan…. millions more were that came from tho!


If you’re just starting out in the buiness world, it’s worth the effort to focus some attention on what choice of colours you are comfortable with to brand your products and services.


If you brand your website effectively enough, your brand will have it’s place amoungst the many other companies who spend millions to sit in the mind of others.

One of the most powerful ways in which you can generate a good revenue stream online is through Blog Advertising. If your blog becomes very successful by having thousands of new website visitors going to your blog every single day, then you’re in a great position to monetize that traffic. One way is through Blog Advertising.


So what are the different Blog Advertising methods? There is many, however the most popular blog advertising revenue streams today is using Google Adsense, Affiliate Products and Banners. When you recieve a large amount of traffic, a certain percentage of those people will click on your advertising areas on your website. Everytime when someone new clicks on your ads, you get paid a certain commission, it could be between 10c per click or 30c per click.


I know that may not conjure up images of you retiring in a far away island off the coast of Porto Fino but if you were to work out the maths, advertising using your blog is a very powerful path to financial freedom. Let’s say your website gets 5000 visitors per day. Out of those 5000 visitors, 5% of those people click on your ads. Therefore, you get paid (5% of 5000 = 250 x 30c) = $75 per day.


If you’re in business, you know that cashflow is king. $75 per day is complete passive income, meaning you don’t work for it, it doesn’t matter whether your in the mood to work or not, it doesn’t matter if you’re sleeping, you’re partying, you’re travelling, you’re sick or you’re at home watching tv, you’re going to get paid regardless! By having that incredible freedom to do whatever you want and still get paid covering all you’re expenses including the mortgage, bills etc, you are in fact Financially Free.


Blog Advertising helps you put your financial freedom goals into full swing.


If you would like to know more about getting free website traffic to your blog and also how to generate more traffic to your site, download my free eBook and Audio CD here on my blog (www.khoabui.com.au).

Welcome to the new world of Podcasting, where people can record their voices and speak their mind. So what is Podcasting and how can you use it to increase your website effectiveness? First of all, a podcast is simply a recording of a speech made beforehand, a user would create a podcast and convert it to an audio format such as mp3.


Mp3s (Mpeg Layer 3) which is simply an audio file type, there are many different audio file types out there but Mp3s is currently the most widely used online and offline. When a person records an audio, they simply convert it to Mp3 format and upload it to their website. Visitors to that website can download the audio file (podcast) and begin listening to it using their own software such as Winamp or Windows Media Player. Some websites have a built in function where it displays the player controls so that you don’t need to download the podcast, you can simply listen to it straight off the website.


If you’re thinking of creating a Podcast for your website, a great tool I use on the PC is “Audacity” This free tool enables you to hook up your headphones with a mic and begin recording your audio. It’s very simple to use and easy to apply. Once you finish recording, you can listen to the new recording and trim certain sections if you wish. Once you’re happy with the final recording, you can then save out the file to Mp3 format. Done!


When you have finished creating your podcast and converting it to mp3, you can upload it to your website for the world to enjoy. There are many great podcasts out there, some of my favorites are Steve Pavlina and Yaro Starak.


So how can you use Podcasting as a means to effectively market your website? The power behind podcasting is that it can help you become an authority in your field of work. You position yourself in your industry and many people can connect with you online. Since you can not see your visitor and talk to them, you will need to do everything you can to bridge the gap between you and the visitor.


In my previous post, I talked about Viral Marketing. Podcasting (if created interestingly enough) can be a great form of viral marketing. If you record a super podcast that people MUST share with others and you mention your website link in the podcast, then your podcast will be spread fast… like a virus! Pretty soon, you will get more traffic to your site through the power of podcasting and viral marketing combined!

Lately I’ve been absorbing lots of material by an incredible and inspirational mentor named Joel Bauer. He is by far one of the best marketing geniuses and persuasive people I’ve seen present on stage. I can honestly say that only applying a few of his principals, I was able to add additional income to my businesses.


Joel Bauer is known as the man who knows how to persuade people, he’s written a book entitled “How To Persuade People, Who Don’t Want to Be Persuaded” and was generous enough to donate the sales of the book to various charity organisations. So a big pat on the back!


Many people have commented that he has a hypnotic ability that will get you hanging onto every word and keep you engaged. If you ever wish to be on the path as a successful professional speaker, I would highly recommend following the wise advice from mr Joel Bauer.


Here’s Joel Bauer in action:

Affiliate Marketing. Whether you’ve never heard of it before or you’re just starting out in this lucrative revenue stream online, affiliate marketing is a great source of generating extra sales to your bottom line.


So what is affiliate marketing anyway? First of all, lets say that you have a website that sells a particular product, for example, an eBook on training your dog. Your website currently has targeted traffic going to your website and your visitors are mainly interested in the realm of dog training. Therefore, the more traffic you get to your site, the more sales you will make from selling your eBook.


Let’s say that you sell your eBook for $27 and 10 people purchase your book a day, that’s $270 per day. So far, you have a few options to increase your sales from your website:

• Increase your conversion rate (the sales percentage of the total number of visitors)
• Increase your website traffic.
• Introduce Affiliate Marketing.

When you introduce Affiliate Marketing into your website, you’re really giving someone the opportunity to sell your product for a certain amount of commission. So, lets say that you offer to split a commission of 50% to your Affiliates (people who sell other people’s products). If your affiliate sells your book on their website, they get 50% and you get 50%, for example your eBook at $27, they get $13.50 and you get $13.50.


Those numbers may not make your pants catch on fire but if you look at it from a bigger perspective, lets say that your affiliate partner has a high traffic website that brings in over 500 visitors a day and they sell 20 of your eBooks. So your 10 eBook sales from your website combined with their 20 eBook affiliate sales is a total of $540.00. That’s only with one affiliate. Why not help another affiliate… and another… and another?


Of course, there are always pitfalls, sometimes affiliates can not sell your book because they may lack the marketing skills or traffic generation skills. So affiliate marketing is really depended on the affiliates marketing skills in order for you and them to make a profit. However, the great news is, how much does affiliate marketing cost you? $0


By simply placing a section on your website entitled “Affiliates” that contains your commission rate, links, photos of your product, additional information they may help them sell the product, you’re offering other people the opportunity to make money.


Affiliate Marketing is a great way to make those additional sales to your website and help you move closer to financial freedom.

For the past few days, I’ve had the flu, I’ve been coughing, having massive headaches and the sniffles and for some wierd reason, I feel as if I need to blog about Viral Marketing. To me, this is a very interesting topic. Firstly, what is viral marketing?
Let me ask you, have you ever received an email, whether it is an interesting article or joke and then you forwarded it to someone else? That is viral marketing! It’s something that has been created and passed on and on and on. It’s like the flu, it just keeps moving from one person to another.


So what does it take to get your product, website or service viral? I’m anaylsed various viral marketing campaigns and I must say, some of the powerful viral marketing elements are the use of:

• Sex (yep, that got your attention didn’t it)
• Shocking Content
• Damn right hillarious

Think about it. Have you ever watched the video of David Crocker on youTube telling everybody to “Leave Britney Alone!” To me that was quite shocking to watch… however, I just had to share it with my friends. There was also the Paris Hilton Sex Tape that was passed around online, I believe it costs her exactly $0 to market that to millions of people online. There was also various videos of the olympics, people trying to make the jump but they somehow miss and do a hillarious maneuvers.


Those are some of the ways in which you can make your business viral. The great thing about it, it’s completely automated, it runs forever and your name is attached to that viral piece! Thus your name gets spread worldwide!


*cough cough*