I have grown up with the concept of business. At 10-years-old, my younger brother and I baked (with some of mom’s help) and sold banana breads (as well as blueberry, pumpkin, and zucchini) door-to-door. We also had a “distributor”, Grandma, who worked at a large office building with many of our subsequently happy customers.

At 16, I began an active pursuit in a growing area of interest, web development. By 18, I had written an article for a local newspaper and landed one of my first web development projects – I barely knew what I was doing and $600 seemed like a lot of money.

I continued my “career” in web development, constantly adding new skillsets and stretching myself from project to project. My maturing talent for writing and my desire to communicate as effectively as possible played a critical role in my success.

Today, at age 24, I have continued in the web development industry – and I am greatly enjoying it. My abilities have increased exponentially, as has my realization that there is so much more to know. The scale of the projects I work on has also increased greatly in size and complexity as well as in influence and impact.

I share all that for a reason. I have been in the business I am now, working with three of my closest friends, for almost four years. We have enjoyed a lot of success, especially by the standards of those on the outside looking in – yet we are keenly aware that its not yet what it could be.

Something hasn’t been what it could be. A lot of the “pieces” have been in place – the talent, the passion, the determination, the sticktoitiveness (its a word) – the components were in place, yet the success seemed to be more of occasional bursts than the desirable (and essential) steady stream.

I’ve had time for reflection these past few weeks. I’ve also taken the time (though I haven’t “had it”) to read. The reflection and reading, combined with a host of leading circumstances, have drawn me to a conclusion that my lack of success to the degree that I know God has given me the capability of has been through no fault but that of my own.

Tonight, that came to a head as I realized that somewhere along the line, I’m not sure where, I had lost sight of the nobility of business. I always knew that business was a part of who I am – yet I often wrestled with it. Being in web development means that I am often working with “intangibles”. You can’t “touch” a website. You can’t pick it up and turn it over in your hand. Consequently, for a time, I had allowed myself to put less of a value on the work that I do and that, in turn, consciously and subconsciously, impacted my ability to sell and deliver on my work.

No longer. Business is a noble profession that, I am realizing increasingly, is under heavy attack. When was the last time you watched a movie where the business man was the good guy? When you think of large, highly successful businesses – do you think of them as honest, full of integrity, and fully deserving of their success? I didn’t, and most people don’t. It wasn’t a conscious idea in my mind – yet it was an idea. That idea, the concept that business is something less than noble is a major inhibitor to success in business.

Think of it. We consider the hard-working American and the labor that he or she produces with his or her own two hands as “noble” – and rightly so! When, though, did that hard-working American become limited to the factories, fields, and mechanic shops? What about the men and women who build the businesses that employ many of these hard-working noblemen? Are the owners any less noble? Without a conscious consideration, I found myself thinking those thoughts and, subsequently, thinking less about the importance and nobility of my own work as a businessman.

That is changing, though. I am realizing that I have not valued the opportunities of business as I should. God has given me two eyes to see, hands to work, ears to listen, a mouth to speak, and a mind to think. He has given me the ability to work with those hands, to work hard and to do work that will bless others and be a blessing to me and my family in return.

The past 3 1/2 years of business have been the best and most challenging years of my life. I’ve undergone a lot of character development and as I have experienced those fires of growth and made choices for good, I have noticed and am continuing to notice a corollary increase in business success.

Business is noble. If you are working, you are in business, and I applaud and encourage you for that decision you made. Now, take a sanctified pride in your work. God has given you the ability to work – Do it with all your might. Put your heart into everything you do and focus on blessing those you work with – be they your drive-through customers, your lawn owners, your consulting clients, your large businesses, your government, your church, whomever – focus on blessing your customers.

I am excited to be in business. I am looking forward to what this year brings as I continue to grow, by God’s grace, in favor with God and man.

Jonathan Wold

P.S. The thrust of these thoughts came after reading the first chapter of Thou Shall Prosper by Rabbi Daniel Lapin. Thanks to Joshua for pointing me in the book’s direction.

What I’m sharing now is an answer to my prayer to God that day for His help. May it bless and inspire you as it has me.

The 3Cs of a Successful Website

1. Context
2. Credibility
3. Call-to-Action

Let’s dive right in.

Context

When a visitor lands on your website, you only have a few seconds to get their attention before they’re gone. You need to give them an immediate context that says, “I have exactly what you’re looking for.”

Here are a few ways you can do that:

• Business/Project Name – Oftentimes, your business or project name will convey a basic sense of what it is you do. If this is the case, make sure you’ve made the most of it and you introduce your website with the right name.
• 3-Second Speech – You need to be able to convey what it is you do in three seconds or less. Work on it until you’ve got it down. Once you have it down, use the text in a prominent place on your website to give context.

Credibility

After you’ve established context, you need to give your visitors a clear and obvious reason to believe that you’re a credible authority and that you can help them.

Here are a few tips for establishing credibility:

• Testimonials – Share what others have said about you.
• Photos – Share a personal photo, a photo of your office location, photos of your products. Avoid using stock photography.
• Endorsements – “As Featured On”, “As Seen On”, “Recommended By”- Seek after and feature relevant (think back to “context”) endorsements
• Videos – Show the product in use, give a quick tour of your office, share a brief message from the president. Keep it simple and well done.

You’ll recognize a consistent theme here: let others establish your credibility.

Call To Action

This is where many websites fail. As you’ve established context and credibility, you must follow through with a clear call to action. To make it clear, your “call” needs to answer three basic questions:

1. What do you want me to do? – Tell your visitors, very clearly, what it is you want from them.
2. How do you want me to do it? – Don’t assume they know what the next step is, guide them clearly and let them know exactly what they need to do next.
3. What’s in it for me? – Why should they care? What do they get for doing what you’ve asked them to? This is the “benefit”. Don’t talk about the features of your great product or service, outline clearly the benefit they will receive.

Now, let’s pull it all together with an example.

I’ll pick on our own business, Sabramedia.

At the moment, it falls under the “bad example” category. Take a look: Sabramedia.com

The website, while beautiful, doesn’t offer a clear sense of what exactly it is that we do. Unless you’re a personal referral, you’re left wandering the site and uncertain about what to do next.

Here’s a good example of a “3 Second Speech” that explains clearly what it is that we do:

“At Sabramedia, we create and invest in ecommerce businesses.”

Here’s how we’ll be answering the 3 C’s for ourselves. Use it as inspiration for your own business.

1. Context – We’re marketing to business owners and entrepreneurs who are already in or are ready to break into the world of ecommerce. When they visit the website, we want to give them an immediate context that says, “Hey, we speak your language. We understand business, we’ve been there, we’ve had success, we want to help you and share in your success.”
2. Credibility – The majority of our business comes through personal referral. We’ll feature client testimonials and case studies that continue that work of referral.
3. Call To Action – Our call will start out as an invitation to a special report offering a step-by-step behind the scenes look at the launch of one of our ecommerce businesses. To get the report, we’ll ask for their name and email and, in exchange, they’ll be receiving a detailed look at some of our best work. We’ll use that report to generate leads for future ecommerce businesse ventures.

There’s some food for thought. Now, go look at your own website or business idea. Ask yourself the questions:

• “Who am I sharing my message to?” (Context)
• “How can I connect with them in less than 3 seconds?” (Context)
• “Why should they believe what I’m telling them?” (Credibility)
• “What am I asking my audience to do?” (Call to Action)

Call to Action: Let me know what you think about what I’ve shared. Did it inspire you? Can you apply this to what you’re working on now? Write a comment and let me know what you’re doing with what you learned.

Hey guys! I’m looking for writers!

I’ve got a number of blogs/content sites/etc, that are all starting to pick up traffic (or haven’t even been built yet!) and in all cases, I no longer have the time to do the writing. I’m looking for smart, talented, individuals, willing to work with me and provide or manage content for the websites I’ve built (and am building!) in a bunch of different niches.

If you’ve had experience in writing or even NO experience but a willingness to put your very best into a project, I’d love to work with you! My projects range from small single site blogs to multiple site networks.

As for compensation, I’m open to working a number of things out! I’m willing to pay for content on a ‘per article’ ‘per post’, basis, etc.. or share a percentage of the site revenues, or a number of other things! I love to make deals.

Interested? Send me off an email to sirjonathan(at)gmail(dot)com! If you’ve got any samples of your writing, send them on over. Give me as much information as you can, keep it to the point and let me know that you’re serious. If you’ve got a particular topic you know a lot about or would just like to write about, let me know! I may already have a site in that niche or may just build one!

Be warned that not all the topics I have are ‘fun’ to write about. It’ll be a challenge!

And that’s just about that. Serious inquiries only. Send your emails on over and I look forward to hearing from each of you!

-Jonathan Wold

So, with that, we’ve got some incredible stuff to go over! The following ‘traffic strategies’ are a culmination of my personal experiences and the experiences of the amazing people I’ve worked with over the past few years. I’ve got 14 main strategies to share with you guys as well as a few sub-strategies here and there and explanations. Ready? Let’s get to it!

14 Traffic Strategies

1. One-Way Links – These are the heart and soul of traffic. The more quality one-way links, the better. Best of all are one-way links from sites that are ‘relevant’ to what you have to offer. If you have a website about dogs, getting links from a popular dog magazine’s website is going to be a big deal. Getting a one-way link from a siamese cat website is good, just not as good ; ). Here are some quick strategies for getting one-ways:

• Ask for them – The magic words! There’s nothing like sending someone a nice little email and watching the one-way links pop up. Yes, there is a lot more than just ‘asking’ yet sometimes that’s really all it takes. Remember, nothing happens if you don’t take action. The worse they can say is no and you can always ask why, ask what might change their mind, if anything. Learn from it and ask again : ).

• Write Hot Content – Write the stuff that people will want to link too. Articles are a good start, tutorials are even better. How about a few really good blog posts? (Be sure to write good comments on others and get some new readers!). Controversy works, just make sure that you think it through.. the internet has a very long memory ; ).
• Post Offsite Content – This includes blogs, forums, guest books, you name it. Look for places where you can contribute and.. contribute! On forums, be sure to have a signature with a one-way link back to your own website. On blog posts, add your URL under your name. Look for places to contribute and add something your mother would be proud of.
• Buy Them – Yes, when all else fails you can always buy links. Though generally frowned upon by search engine purists, link buying is a strategy that can work well. Invest in quality links, focusing on building relationships with people you buy from within your various niches.

2. PPC (Paid Traffic) – While buying links may be frowned upon by search engines, buying traffic from them definitey isn’t ; ). One of the fastest ways to get traffic to a brand new site is to buy it! AdWords is the big player in the PPC game right now as well as Yahoo’s Overture.com. Look forward to more on PPC in the future ; ).

3. Link Exchanges – For a good while, link exchanges were the way to score big on the search engines. These days, they still work but not quite like they used too. Focus on link exchanges within your niche when you do go for them. Also, consider giving ABC linking a shot ; ). Get together with 2 friends, link to friend one from your site, have friend one link to friend two, and friend two link back to you. One-way links through a link exchange and you’ve got 3 winners! That’s tough to beat ; ).

4. Content ‘By Lines’ – This is really just an advanced ‘one way’ link strategy, but it was big enough to warrant its own category. Tagging an author’s blurb at the end of your content can be a powerful way to drive highly targetted traffic to your niche websites. Here are a few tagging strategies:

• Write and Submit Articles – Write articles (or have them written) and submit them to article directories. Head over to places like goarticles and ezinearticles.com or just start searching. The cool thing about this is that other webmasters will often pick your articles up and ‘republish’ them, along with your author blurb.

• Write and ‘Submit’ Tutorials – This is a bit trickier than articles and, at the same time, often much more rewarding. Find a good subject and write a tutorial (or, again, have one written) and look for relevant places to submit them. If it’s a photoshop tutorial, you’re in luck (and competition!), head over to some of the big photoshop tutorial sites and just start submitting. Not a big market for your tutorial? That’s ok! Look for relevant websites and offer to share your tutorial with them.
• Write and Submit News Stories or “Hot Scoops” – One of the ultimate examples of this is to get ‘slashdotted’ ;). Submit news stories and offer your name and a link to your site for credit.

5. Friend Sending – This is what we call viral marketing or what my good friend Paulie Sabol would call, ‘fractal’ marketing. It’s the concept of creating something that people absolutely want to send off to the people they know. One way or another, they have an incentive to send, whether it’s sentamental value, a financial reward, or the knowledge that they’ve just scared the heck out of their buddy, people send things on for a reason. Here are a few ways you can encourage ‘friend sending’:

• Scare-A-Friend – There’s nothing like watching an apparently innocent little move clip, suddenly leaping a few feet back out of your chair as you get the noodles scared outta you, and then immediately sending the clip on to your friends. Create a site with something scary and have easy ways to send it on, perhaps even ways to personalize the scare!

• Quiz Show-Off – People love taking quizzes and when the results are good (or even bad!) they love showing them off! Share quizzes through your website and once they’ve got their results, include ways for them to post and share their results with others, including a link for their friends to take the same quiz! This stuff spreads fast.. really fast :). Make the quiz good!
• Tell-A-Friend – Ever seen those little scripts? Believe it or not, people actually use them ; ). Put tell-a-friend scripts up on your websites and encourage people to use them! It helps to have something that people want to tell others about ; ).

6. Contest Traffic – Similiar to friend sending, contest traffic is traffic stemming from an often much more incentivized individual. An obvious application of this is a contest focused on.. yup.. sending traffic ; ). Less obvious ways are contests that encourage people to share their results with others. Perhaps a contest that requires ‘voting’, which sends contestants off in search of as many voters as they can get. Be creative, the traffic will flow : ).

7. Organic Search Engine Traffic – Ahh, the holy grail of traffic, being ranked in the top 10 for a popular search term.. there’s not a much like it ; ). There is a LOT you can do to help improve your rankings and sometimes, it just happens. The most important thing is that in the long run (sometimes it seems like the very long run) good content wins out. Focus on providing quality and keeping it up. Keep those links coming in, keep adding in the fresh stuff. Keep your site clean and focused.. the organic goodness will follow : ). Here’s a quick tip:

• Submit Your Sitemap – Generate an XML sitemap and submit it! Google has a great little submission process which I’ve had some extraordinary success with in my brief experimentations. Check out Google Sitemaps for more!

Wow! And that’s only 7! It’s getting late and I’ve got a few more projects to work on, so the next 7 will have to wait a bit ; ). Look forward to them and I look forward to hearing from each of you!

Have any of your own strategies to share? I’m always up for making the next post more than 7 ; ). Send ‘em on over! I look forward to hearing from you!

-Jonathan Wold

It took 2 Weeks of Spending

Less than a month ago, after the recommendations of several good friends, I joined a community of internet entrepreneurs over at the Warrior Forum. On November 19, 2005, I made my first purchase through the forum, buying my own copy of a member’s WSO (warrior special offer) and thus beginning my buying addiction.

I’ve bought 13 other products since then, have spent hundreds of dollars, and will spend thousands more, and.. it’s all been worth it :). With each new product I’ve purchased it’s given me a chance to learn new things, impliment new strategies, bring in new ideas, build onto existing ideas, and, most importantly, a chance to build relationships. Those are the most important. The success you achieve is greatly influenced and impacted by the people you associate with.

One product in particular sparked an idea. The offer was a chance to buy one of 50 exclusive copies of ’5 gold niches’. For $47 you’d be given a list of 5 niches that the product had made money in. You’d also be getting a list of the keywords he used, as well as some bonuses.

It was a new idea and it intrigued me. I bought it.

On Wednesday, the 31st of November, as I went to bed and slowly began falling asleep, my head started spinning with ideas. I thought about the offer. I thought about the action I’d taken.

After recieving access and deciding to build a site around one of the niches, I created a text file and kept track of my expenses. $47 for the product, $14.19 for the domain, time spent building the website, and a list of my notes. My goal was to measure whether or not it had been a good investment.

All these thoughts were making there way through my head when the idea hit me..

Why not create my own product? I sat up in bed, reached over, grabbed the index card and pen I always keep handy, and took down a note.

The next morning, after starting my day and going through some emails, I stopped for a few moments to figure out what to do next. Then I saw the index card with my note on it. I thought over it for a few moments and decided.. ‘Why not?’.. Matt and I had each budgeted $1000 in expenses for our upcoming snowboarding trip and this would be a great way to cover that. I was convinced and I got busy ;).

Several hours and a lot of work later, I’d finished writing up my offer and posted it up in ‘special offers’ section of the Warrior Forum. I learned and implimented some powerful little tricks as I wrote my offer and I’ll share those with you guys just a bit later.

I submitted the offer for approval.. and waited.

It was painful. 8 hours passed by and it was just about bedtime. My offer was in ‘moderation’ and had to be approved before going live. I recieved an email from one of the moderators letting me know that I had to make a quick change before it was approved. I submitted the change and then it was time for bed.

In the few hours leading up till bedtime I’d begun work on fulfillment. My offer, for those of you who haven’t had a chance to read it yet, was to provide ’7 Hot Niches and Bonuses That Would Melt Snow’.. *grins*.. I had a lot of fun putting it together and that made a difference. In the downtime while I waited for it to be approved, I worked with a good friend of mine to build a high quality keyword list for each of the 7 niches.

Early Friday Morning, December 2nd, 2005..

Still unapproved. I whined about it to my good friend Matt who encouraged me and reminded me to be patient. I cleaned up around my house, talked with my girlfriend, who also encouraged me to be patient, and kept checking back on the forum to see if it’d been approved it. I wasted a lot of time. It was something I had to go through though :).

At almost exactly 8 AM, the offer was approved. Less than 15 minutes later, I had 3 sales at $57 a piece. I went crazy! Suddenly I was laughing, grinning, and jumping around all at the same time. I called up my girlfriend and she couldn’t help but laugh and smile too. Another sale! I called my mom and told her and the rest of my family the good news. ANOTHER sale! 30 minutes later as I got out of the shower and checked back I’d just recieved 3 more sales! I was happy, really happy :).

Then it was time to start working

Now that my product was a hit, it was time to deliver! I’d given myself a 24 hour time slot in my offer, which was more than enough to make sure I was able to fulfill. I worked hard all morning and afternoon long. Each bonus was looked over and tested several times. The product page was created with a lot of thought going into the presentation. I reviewed my list of ‘deliverables’ and went through each one, making sure that I fulfilled exactly what I promised. And then.. I overdelivered. I threw in bonuses that I didn’t even list in the offer.

Around 2 PM, just before heading out to lunch, I began delivery. It was a success! I got some really positive feedback and a lot of encouragement. My customers were happy and I was happy. I’m hooked. I’ve made some good money in the past, but never that fast and never for selling information. It was an awesome experience :).

And as we know, with every great experience there are lessons to learn. This was no exception and I picked up a LOT of lessons. I’ll start by sharing some of the lessons I learned through this experience and then wrap up with some tips.

• Look For And Fill An Existing Demand – That’s really what niche marketing is. Looking for a need in a particular market and meeting that need. Internet Marketers are always looking for new niches to get into and with SO many out there you really want to focus on your efforts on the ones that you KNOW can work. Once you find one that works, you’re very reluctant to share it! That’s the appeal of ‘revealing’ the niches that you’ve made money in. One of the niches I revealed had several $100+ days in AdSense earnings, ALL the niches I revealed were niches I’ve made money in.

  Finding a great niche takes a lot of time and when someone is willing to test them out, prove them, and then share them to others through a clear offer, it’ll sell. The other thing that made a difference is that I provided ‘bonuses’ that were syncronized with my offering. I provided a blogging template, a guide to making money with blogs, a basic niche website template, and more. Everything was added in to support and build up my offer.

• Have A Clear Plan Of Action and Prepare – As I created my offer, I kept a clear focus on exactly what I was going to be delivering. As I kept that focus, I moved it on into a solid plan for ‘What happens next’. As soon as my product was completed, I began delivery, following a clear system I’d set in place. Each person who purchased my product was added to my ‘customers’ spreadsheet with their name, email, and a column marked ‘yes!’ or ‘no’ for whether their copy of the product had been delivered.

  I wrote an email ‘template’ which contained their access information for the ‘thankyou’ page and space for any personal notes. I would then use that template to individually email each customer, adding in extra notes and thankyou’s where I wanted them. Having everything planned for and prepared in advance eliminated a LOT of stress and gave me peace of mind, knowing that my customers were well taken care of.

• Work With Others! – One of the things that made a HUGE difference for me was working with others! I sent copies of the offer and the thankyou page to several of my trusted friends and they gave me EXTREMELY helpful feedback. From proof reading to new ideas, the product wouldn’t have been nearly as good and well thought out if not for the brilliant minds that were involved along the way. Working with the people you trust is VERY important. They sharpen you, help keep you focused, encourage you, and support you. Thanks guys, couldn’t have done it without you :).

And finally.. some tips!

1. Keep A List of Deliverables – As you put together your offer, keep a list of all the things that you’re promising to deliver. This will help you stay focused and ensure that you don’t miss anything.

2. Sell It and Then Deliver – Write up your offer before you make the product. The KEY thing here, though, is to make SURE that you absolutely can deliver. You’ll gain a reputation for what you do and don’t do. Write up your offer and see if there is a demand for it and have a CLEAR plan of action to fulfill that demand once you find it. Writing up your offer in advance and then reviewing it can put the whole project in a clear perspective. It’ll show you where the challenges are and help you be prepared.
3. Overdeliver – Go above and beyond what you promised and take the extra step. Throw in the extras, send out that extra email, overfulfill. Your customers will take notice and appreciate you. It may not always show on the surface, but it’s there. Create a reputation for yourself and let people know that when you deliver a product, they’ll be getting more than their money’s worth.
4. Keep Track of Everything – Every challenge that comes up, every successful delivery, every happy customer, track it all. Document your process cleanly and clearly. Save records of all that you do and keep it organized for easy access. This will save you a TON of trouble if any challenges come up and will give you peace of mind knowing that things are taken care of.
5. Create a Memorable Experience – As I put together the finished product and after I had the solid content good and ready to go, I focused a lot on the presentation. How you present your product is important. I put together a good looking page designed to be clear, inviting, and focused. Things were cleanly organized and spread out. Presentation is very important once you’ve got a solid product finished up.

And that’s that! Within 24 hours of my first sale I’d profited over $1000. I only made 35 copies of my product availible and as of this writing, just over a week later, there are only 9 left. It’s been a tremendous success and I look forward to creating more products and taking it up a level! I also look forward to hearing about YOUR first products! Most people will get great ideas and never take action on them.. the ones that make a difference are the ones that DO. Take action.

-Jonathan Wold