How To Start An Internet Business & Grow Your Business Online + Entrepreneur Interviews

A Post Of Gratitude: South America Here I Come!

September 3 - 10:28am by Sean

I am setting off for South America tomorrow with my girlfriend. We are spending 3 weeks in Argentina and Chile.

During this time I will be away from the computer as much as possible. So this post is partly to let you know that I will be replying to emails once per week.

The other reason for this post is to show gratitude for everything we have available to us.

Up until 10 years ago long term world travel while making great money was only for rock stars and corporate sales puppets… I mean sales people. Now you can start an internet business for as little as $15 and set yourself free.

A number of incredible tools and resources have been developed to make this business – travel lifestyle that I love possible:

I talk with family and friends over video Skype as though I am right there with them. I use the same tool anywhere to record the entrepreneur interviews that make Startup Freedom so popular.
I can set up a toll free 1-800 phone number through grasshopper for $9 per month. This will forward customer calls to any phone number that I have in the world. It also allows me to hear voicemails in my email.
EarthClassMail gives me a postal address in a prime location of the USA and any mail that is sent there gets scanned and emailed to me anywhere in the world. I can then store mail in their vault or have them shred it for me.
WordPress allows me to schedual in posts so while I am gone you will still receive regular blog posts (for free).
My aweber autoresponder builds relationships with new subscribers. Visitors sign up for the newsletter and aweber sends them a series of pre-programmed email messages that give out free content and introduce them to my products
In the last month I have Googled things such as “how do turtles have sex?”, “what is the difference between a muppet and a puppet?”, “what causes thunder and lightning?”, “can another site in another language use my translated posts without it being duplicate content?”, “why are my Amazon S3 hosted videos being stretched?” and “how do I link lower in the page?” to name a few. Every time I found the answer I was looking for. We can find answers for any questions we have.

With everything listed above, living the dream of galavanting around the globe while making money is actually a lot EASIER than working a job that you dislike in your city.

The only thing holding you back from growing a business while traveling is the story you made up for why you can’t do it.

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intenret business gratitude south america trip

Posted in Startup Online | Related: gratitude, lifestyle design, tools and resources, travel | 1 Comment

What The Hell Does Focus Mean Anyway?!?

August 31 - 9:56am by Sean

When I was growing up my dad told me that I needed to focus on school. I didn’t understand why I should focus or how.

Its not just our dads, a lot of successful internet business owners also talk about focus. If you’re anything like me you probably think “what do they mean by focus?” or “how do they focus?”.

This is what successful internet business owners mean when they talk about focus:

Focus is working in time blocks without distractions (phone, email, Skype, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube). This allows you to get a lot more done. Going into your “alone zone” makes you a much more effective business person.

Focus is putting all of your time and energy into 1 project. You only have so much time each day to get things done and it takes a lot of time and energy to get your business to the point where it starts to get traction in the market. To add to this, 1 big authority site will make a lot more money than multiple little sites each making a little.

Focus is getting the important things done. Generating traffic, creating new revenue sources, setting up a financial system, creating an auto responder series for your buyers, creating products and setting up joint ventures are all examples of important things. The more important things you get done, the more your business grows and the more money you will make!

Focus is prioritizing your “2 Dos” the night before with the important tasks prioritized first. You wake up and get important things done before the urgent tasks (emails, Skype calls, etc).

Focus is eliminating time wasters. Everyone knows the common time wasters (TV, YouTube, Facebook etc). BSing about business with other business people is another HUGE one. Sharing ideas, getting feedback and putting together deals with other business people is great. Going for sushi to “talk business” is nothing more than using your business to justify hanging out and wasting time. Moving to Mexico eliminated all of my BS meetings and my business is thriving because of it!

If you can apply just 1 or 2 or these focus principles to your business you will get more done, your business will grow and you’ll make a lot more money!

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Posted in Startup Online | Related: business meeting, distractions, energy management, focus, time and energy, time management, time wasters | 4 Comments

Ugliness – The Key To Internet Business Success?!?

August 28 - 6:40pm by Sean

When I do my entrepreneur interviews I ask a lot of questions about how they start out their successful internet businesses.

One of the questions that often comes up is “how did it look when you first launched it?”.

The reply always makes me laugh! Most times he or she will respond with a look of pure disgust, as though they smelt something foul, and will use words like “terrible”, “ugly” or “you don’t want to know”.

While this is funny, it is also something worth noting.

Every single internet business success story that I can think of involved launching an ugly first version of the site. Why?

A few reasons:

There is no point in wasting time and money designing a site to look pretty before your really know what your visitors want.

Seeing real usage and sales stats will give you the facts of what your visitors really want. Buyers talk!

Cashflow is extremely important to a new business. Cash coming in funds growth. Even if you charge less because its ugly, you will have cash coming in to pay for advertising, the designer that will eventually make it look pretty and even some Kraft “mac & cheese” for dinner (startup entrepreneur staple food).

Don’t hold your project back from launching because its not pretty or perfect. You’re going to have to go back and make tweaks and improvements as you get feedback from the market. Having some cash coming in wouldn’t kill you either (in fact, quite the opposite)!

Instead of holding back, you should look forward to – and have fun with – your projects being born ugly!

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Posted in Startup Online | Related: cashflow, internet business launch, internet business success, market research, ugly website, website design | 8 Comments

How To Start An Internet Business The Easy Way: Record Interviews!

August 26 - 4:44pm by Sean

I have met many successful internet business owners that use interviews to start and grow their business. The power of interviews is incredible!

I started interviewing successful internet entrepreneurs on how to start an internet business because I thought it would help people like you that are starting an internet business. Since then I have realized that doing the entrepreneur interviews is having an increasingly positive impact on my business.

Here is why I would recommend using interviews when starting your new online business:

After you record an interview you can get an outsourcer to transcribe it to text and post it under the interview. The search engines will eat up all of the high quality content. A typical 20 min interview will be 3000 – 5000 words. It would take you 8 hours to write that much high quality content yourself!

Everyone loves to be interviewed. Knowing that you can go out and get some high profile experts in your niche. When people see or hear you talking about your niche with the expert, it automatically gives you credibility.

Most of the experts you’ll interview wouldn’t promote your site to their friends even if you offered them a big briefcase of cold hard cash. But they will gladly send an email out to their newsletter and tweet their followers directing them to your interview. This is an incredible source of promotion and traffic that you can’t buy!

It doesn’t matter if your interviews are audio or video. Lots of people use audio and make a lot of money from their interviews.

You make great connections just by setting up and going through the interviews!

Its a natural progression to put the interviews into a membership site or an interview of the month subscription.

If you’re not yet using expert interviews in your business, how could you?

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Posted in Startup Online | Related: business ideas, how to start an internet business, interviews | 8 Comments

From A Job In The Hotel Business To A Booming Email Newsletter: Ben Lerer – Thrillist.com

August 22 - 9:53am by Sean

I saw an enterpreneur interview with Ben Lerer a few months ago. I instantly decided that I had to get him on Startup Freedom because he is full of energy and isn’t afraid to be honest!

In 2005 Ben was working a job in the boutique hotel industry in New York but he soon realized an opportunity to create a New York city guide for guys. That city guide – Thrillist.com – now spans 15 cities, has 2 million subscribers and is set to generate over $10 Million dollars in revenue in 2010!

Ben and I sat down and went through the first steps starting Thrillist.com and his secret to building up Thrillist without a marketing budget!

This is one of the best entrepreneur interviews that I’ve done so far. Don’t miss this one:

You can see Part 2 of this entrepreneur interview by clicking “read more” below.

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Posted in Entrepreneur Interviews | Related: ben lerer, email, entrepreneur interview, newsletters, partnerships, thrillist, video | 8 Comments

Is Starting An Internet Business Too Much Work? Are Your Timid 9-5 Friends Right?!?

August 19 - 9:55am by Sean

As an internet business owner you have to juggle a lot of different balls: marketing, accounting, hiring, managing your hires, product creation and more. This can make for some long work days.

A lot of people are turned off by the idea of putting in extra hours because they think about it in the context of their job. It makes them shy away from starting an internet business.

But these people are missing out on a few key points:

It does take a lot of work to build your business machine. After the machine (products, payment processor, website, marketing etc) are setup the business won’t demand nearly as much time or energy from you to grow. Its short term pain for long term gain!
It is such a huge rush to start a business. You are so excited to setup and grow your business that you don’t even notice the longer hours you’re working.
Despite what your timid 9 – 5 friends may say, there are lots of ways to automate and hire for your business so that you don’t have to work 80 hours per week.
I would rather work around my life, than live around my work, even if it means working more hours. Next week, for example, I am flying to Argentina and Chile. I will work on the plane and from cafes in Buenos Aires. Last month I did the same from Mexico City. Right now I am writing this post from my hammock overlooking the beach near my place in Mexico. Do you think a few extra hours are bothering me?

What seems like more work to you?

Waking up excited every day to build something that you love, knowing that every hour of the 10 hours you put into your business each day gets you closer to where you want to be?
Waking up hating the fact that you have to go to a job you don’t like that dosen’t challenge you but only working 8 hours a day.

The answer is obvious (the job is more work)!

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Posted in Startup Online | Related: energy, hours, starting an internet business, work | 4 Comments

3 Steps For Monumental Momentum In Your Internet Business

August 18 - 8:20pm by Sean

Most people trying to figure out how to start an internet business are focused on driving traffic, product creation and sales. While these are important, whats most important for your business is momentum.

You gain momentum by consistently doing the important things in your business. The challenge is that we internet entrepreneurs are borderline handicapped when it comes to managing our momentum.

You try to do too much and you burn out. Maybe you hit a roadblock thats killing your motivation. You’re on a roller coaster of productivity. Some weeks you get things done and others you fall behind. This results in a continual game of “catch up”.

Here are 3 steps to help you consistently contribute to your business:

Manage your energy. This will stop you from burning out. Build 10 min relax breaks into your work day and change channels mentally after work. This is the best video I’ve found on managing your energy: How To Manage Your Energy
Control your state. When you feel down, frustrated or discouraged you aren’t effective in your business. Find something that changes your state. For me this is rolling around with my dog, listening to some happy music or going for a run.
Quit. Not for good. Quit for the day or for an hour to rest. Slogging it out through tough times is admirable but it can burn you out. Sometimes its better to leave, recharge and come back fresh. If I am having a rare “bad” day I will go have a nap. I will wake up and pretend like its a new day; shower and all! I come back into the office refreshed and ready to get things done.

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Posted in Mindset | Related: getting things done, managing energy, momentum, progress, state | 4 Comments

How Asking Questions Can Fast Track Your Startup

August 17 - 9:52pm by Sean

While starting an internet business, successful business people hunt down other successful people and pepper them with questions. You should too!

Why?

Asking questions is the fastest way to learn something. You get facts from the mouth of the person who’s been there and successfully done what you want to do.

Who do I ask questions to?

It doesn’t matter if they are in a different market, have a different business model or live in a different city.

A friend of mine just messaged me on Skype. He told me that he wanted to start a consulting company in the “shipping logistics” market.

It didn’t matter that I know nothing about his market. Just one 30 minute conversation taught him so much more than 2 weeks of researching by himself. He was blown away!

Why would they talk to me?

Everyone loves giving advice and sharing stores. Successful internet business owners are no different.

One example is my entrepreneur interview with Scott Fritz who’s company generated $170 Million per year and he only worked 45 minuets a month. If I hesitated sending that email because he is more successful than me I wouldn’t have received such awesome advice.

Give and you will receive.

Always offer to help the successful person you want to pepper with questions. Genuinely ask “How can I contribute to one of your projects or passions?” Nobody likes a leach!

Don’t over-think it!

If you see someone that you want to talk to just fire away. Email to set up a time for a call or for lunch! Post your rookie question on an active message forum.

Its a numbers game.

Some are too busy. Others don’t care. But if you play the odds you’ll get your answers. Email 5 business owners and you’ll find at least 1 or 2 eager to help!

I’m eager to answer your questions. Email me and we can talk over Skype!

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Posted in Startup Online | Related: advice, asking questions, internet business, market research, networking, success | 6 Comments

How To Tackle Your Big, Scary “2 Dos”

August 15 - 9:46am by Sean

Big, scary “2 dos”. We all have them and we all put them off.

Its no coincidence that these big “2 dos” that you have been putting off are also the ones that grow your business the most.

Right now you may not be able to see how getting these big tasks, like setting up a bookkeeping and accounting system, can help make you more money, but they do.

So why does anyone that is starting a business put these important tasks off? Is it laziness? Fear?

It doesn’t matter…

If you put off creating your product because you’re afraid its too much work, your product will never launch. If you delay your cold calls for selling advertising on your website, you will have zero money coming in.

By putting off these big important “2 dos”, WE are guaranteeing our failure! We sabotage our success!

So how do you avoid putting off the big, important 2 dos?

In a recent post on getting things done I told you to allocate the first undistracted (“alone zone”) block of your day to the most important task that you can get done.

The challenge here is that it is easy to convince yourself that other things are more important than that big, scarey, looming task.

So maybe you should re-phrase the question that you ask yourself every night to:

What is the biggest, scariest thing that I need to do for my business to grow?

Then do that task in your “alone zone” first thing every morning.

When you tackle the big tasks (the things you fear) in this way, the momentum you build is incredible. You feel unstoppable, you get more things done & you make more money.

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getting things done important tasks 2 dos

Posted in Mindset | Related: 2 dos, getting things done, growth, important tasks, momentum, procrastination, urgent tasks | Leave a comment

The Technical Side Of Membership Sites Made Easy

August 13 - 9:42pm by Sean

Aside from becoming a cell phone carrier (which is the largest rip-off continuity industry ever!) the best way to set up recurring income is with a membership site.

In the first post on membership sites we covered how to research your membership. Thats the important step where most membership sites go wrong.

The second biggest sticking point for setting up a membership and tapping into that sweet continuity income is actually setting up membership site, aka the technical side.

To simplify your options I will break down what you will need for your average membership site:

An area for content
A way to post content
A payment processor
Software to manage memberships so that when someone buys they are automatically added and if someone cancles they are restricted access
A login page for members

There are also a few features you may want but aren’t essential:

Affiliate program (borderline essential)
Feedback mechanisms (borderline essential)
Dripping content over time

You really only have 2 options:

Build your membership site out of WordPress
Purchase an “all in one” membership package

The 3rd option is to get a site custom build in Joomla or PHP. This is too expensive and time consuming considering that either one of the two “off of the shelf” options mentioned above will work fine.

1) Building Your Membership In WordPress

WordPress is free to set up and it is built to manage content and memberships. A lot of the world’s top memberships are built in WordPress including mine for my DJ business and for Startup Freedom’s upcoming membership site.

So you install WordPress and then what?

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