Contrary to Western traditions, I don’t believe in waiting for New Year’s Eve to make my “life changing” resolutions.

My philosophy is that if I see the need to change something and it is within my means to do so, I make the resolution on the spot to make it happen. No waiting for that once in a year moment.

It’s like getting to celebrate New Year’s Eve every day of the year. Pretty cool, huh?

Think about it: If we all lived to be a 100 and started making New Year’s resolutions at the age of 10, we all would get to make a resolution approximately 90 times in our lifetime.

Miraculous things have happened to people who made a one time monumental resolution (that they followed through with), but the treasure of a great life lies in the small resolutions people make and follow-through with on a day to day basis.

It might be a little too philosophical for the average person, but when I study historically “great” people, I find this to be true.

Another way of looking at it: A ship on open waters does not need to make drastic changes in the direction it is headed once the course is set, but it does need small adjusting every so often to successfully arrive at the intended destination.

The Ultimate New Years Resolution

My challenge to you is this: If you haven’t done so already, make this New Year’s Eve your last New Year’s resolution. And may that one be to make and to act upon new resolutions daily.

In my case, 2012 was the best year of my life – in my personal life as well as for my business. I made some major changes at the end of 2011 in regards to my business and the new direction I was taking it. It was quite challenging at first – but it turned out to be a really wise move.

In case you were not on my list at that time, I got rid of all search engine marketing services I had provided up until then and focused primarily on affiliate marketing. I also did a handful of my own product launches (guides, plugins, etc) – which is probably how you came to know me.

Either way, discontinuing to provide SEO services was – for me – a monumental decision at that time because that is where 80% of my income was coming from. No regrets though!

Big changes hit the SEO industry just a few months later (in 2012) – at which point I was SUPER happy that I followed my gut instincts and got away from providing services. Talk about perfect timing.

Since then, my main obsession – as I already noted – has been affiliate marketing – with SEO being my main marketing vehicle/source of traffic.

This move was especially rewarding in the sense that it gave me a LOT more flexibility and time freedom. I had periods where I worked like a maniac (I sometimes can’t help myself when I get into the “zone”) for a week or two, but for the most part I can’t say I ever work more than a few hours a day (when I actually work).

In fact, my wife and I had family members and friends visit us – here in Krabi, Thailand – at different times throughout the year. Meaning that while they were around, I didn’t do a whole lot more then check my emails once or twice a day – and that was for a total of over 6 weeks in 2012 alone.

I could have never separated myself to that degree back when I provided those SEO services. So again, getting away from providing services was a good move on my part.

And just for the record, that does not include all the time my wife and I take off to do cool things all across SE Asia. Like tanning on the beaches of Thailand, snorkeling the coral reefs of Bali, or going shopping in Malaysia, etc, etc.

Let me get back to my point though: I believe I set my business boat in the right direction last year, so all that I need to do this year (2013) is to continually re-adjust the sail.

Increasing Life by Focusing More

If there was just one thing I would take away from 2012, it would be this: to focus most of my time on the few tasks that bring about the biggest results.

I am sure you have heard of the 80 / 20 rule. It basically says that 80% of the results will come from just 20% of the work being done. As basic a concept as it is, figuring out how it applies to business (and personal life) allows one to scale for massive improvements very quickly.

For my business this means that I sit down about once a month and look at what brought in the most income the month before, and once I figure that out, I resolve to focus 80% of my time on that and leave the 20% to the other tasks that are – really – secondary.

Naturally there are limits to everything – but it is a solid exercise I like to go through at least once a month.

Another (similar) exercise I have gone through a couple times in 2012 is this: writing down everything I am doing in my business right now. Once done, I go through the list again and put a check-mark next to everything that is proving to work, and put a line through everything that didn’t work. Once done, I resolve to stop doing the things that don’t work anymore, and commit to putting more energy and resources towards the things that do work.

These exercises might sound silly, but I DARE you to try them. Sometimes the best way to figure out what works is to figure out what doesn’t.

Increasing Leverage Through Knowledge & Experience

I make it a habit to continually educate myself in the areas of my business that interest me (like affiliate marketing, SEO, etc) and always keep an open mind to trying new things/new approaches/new techniques.

If they work, super. If not, I move on to try something else. Not everything will work, but imagine having a list of 20 – 100 things that have proven to work for you. Making money online becomes easier and easier.

Again though, it is important not to get sidetracked by new/shiny ways of doing things. It is critical that we scale what has already proven to work for us, while – on a small scale – we try out new things.

New Projects for 2013

Aside from continuing to build my existing business, I will be venturing into some new territories in 2013 as well. One of them being a “how to get blogging” video series (planned for January some time) and I am contemplating to create a mastermind group to go with it. Ideas? Suggestions?

“How to become a blogger” wasn’t really an area I had much interest in teaching, but I have been getting an overwhelming amount of emails from people asking how they can get started (must be the tough economy? I don’t know), so I got some good stuff coming out soon.

I have also been getting a number of people asking for one-on-one coaching (beginners and experienced marketers alike), but I am not sure I am ready for that just yet. I have done some basic coaching in the past but aside from that it’s an area I have never given much thought. Let’s see what 2013 brings though.

There are dozens of other projects on my list as well but I will keep them for another time. This post is already a thousand words longer than I intended it to be so… I will stop typing now.

I hope you got some golden nuggets out of it and may 2013 be your best year yet!

The post May Every Eve of 2013 be New Years Eve! appeared first on Kobra Dynasty.

The main thing that line of thinking is lacking – in my opinion – is an emphasis on the importance of marketing.

Without some form of marketing, it is near impossible to gain worthwhile traction in a competitive marketplace with the ever decreasing span of attention. And so today I want to share with you a few effective platforms to market yourself online, to promote your business, to build a niche brand, etc.

#1. Google

When I first got started in internet marketing (nearly 20 years ago), I was intrigued by the idea of ranking top 3 on Google for my desired search phrases. I figured I’d be rich if I managed to do so.

One thing I did not know at the time was just how competitive (and consequently expensive) trying to rank on top of Google can get. I also did not realize just how long it can take. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) definitely is something worth pursuing if you own a website, but keep in mind that it will take time, energy, and a bit of know-how.

To learn more about SEO and how you can immediately implement some basic strategies to start ranking better on search engines, check out an article I wrote – here!

#2. Twitter

“Every business must have a twitter account” they say, and therefor most bigger businesses do. Even if for no other reason than for damage control. Nothing worse than negative publicity getting out of hand on social media, right?

But what if you could also leverage twitter to grow your business? I know most small business owners would argue they don’t have time for twitter, but in the words of Elon Musk “5 minutes here and there” is all you really need.

Install the twitter app on your phone and set up your account. Search for issues you or your business provide solutions for, and leave a short but thoughtful comment. And – 0f course – make a (niche related) thought provoking tweet as often as you can.

For example: If you own a plumbing business, maybe hint at how often hot water tanks need to be checked, replaced, etc. Or how a pipe upgrade in older homes can save fortunes from potential water damage, etc.

Of course make sure you have your website, email, or phone number listed in your profile so you can be reached by your preferred contact method.

Here are 11 more twitter marketing tips to get you started!

#3. Facebook

Facebook is another hugely under-utilized marketing platform. Although I find people tend to be more reserved on Facebook than on twitter, you have the added benefit that you can create groups or pages dedicated to your business. So there is definitely an added sense of community in that!

Similar to any other marketing platform, the key to winning at Facebook marketing is consistency. That goes for both: sharing new content as well as engaging with the people commenting on said content.

If you want to learn more about how to drastically grow your business using an engaged Facebook audience, I HIGHLY recommend you check out this Grow Your Audience course.

My wife took the course for her business and was quickly able to grow her Facebook page audience to over 100,000. You can read her review here!

#4. Instagram

Just about everyone carries a cellphone with them these days that has a half decent camera. If this is you, Instagram might be one of the easiest marketing platforms you can use with minimal effort. Just snap a picture or two while working, and post it on Instagram when you have a minute to do so.

One thing I might recommend for Instagram is to keep a list of the top used #hashtags (for your niche topic) on your phone somewhere that you can quickly copy paste into your description when posting the pictures. This greatly speeds up the posting process and helps you reach more targeted people.

The main thing here? Post something consistently (daily). Don’t worry about trying to make professional looking pictures. You get better over time. Just keep at it and you will start building a community that is attracted to what product or service you’re offering.

#5. TikTok

The thing I love about marketing on TikTok is that you can share short video clips. These videos can be of you talking, showing off work you’re doing, etc. Literally anything!

I know it can feel weird getting in front of a camera, but honestly it’s not a big deal. Just do it. Aim to get to 100 posts and you’re pretty much guaranteed to start seeing some traction.

TikTok is probably one of the best places to market on if you’re trying to target a younger audience, but these days just about everyone is on it… and the reach potential is absolutely humongous!

Things to Keep in Mind

No one starts out as an expert marketer. So don’t let a lack of skill, tools, money, etc. hold you back. You can only get better with practice. So the sooner you start your marketing journey, the sooner you’ll master the craft!

As with anything, you won’t see results overnight. So keep showing up – daily – doing what you can, and the results will start compounding before long.

Also, if you’re going to be marketing on multiple social media platforms, remember that you can often repurpose the same content for all (or most) of them.

Hire Professionals

More often than not it’s easier to just hire professionals to take care of the marketing for you. Especially if you have zero interest in doing it yourself and have extra cash to put towards marketing.

If you have a clear idea of what you are looking to do or get done, you just might be able to find someone on UpWork. Heck, there are even social media management companies on there that would be happy to take your business.

If outsourcing to a marketing company is the route you’d like to go or if you have any questions before you get started, hit me up. I’d do my best to point you in the right direction!

The post Best Online Platforms for Marketing appeared first on Kobra Dynasty.

Have you ever felt like you were holding on to something that distracted you from doing what you really should and wanted to be doing? I am not at all talking about things like facebook, twitter, TV or other small things like that (though those can be the ultimate distraction).

These last few months I have been giving my whole online business some thought and concluded that I needed to get rid of a lot of things that keep me “busy” but are not helping me get to where I want to be 1 year from now – or even 6 months from now.

My Profitable Distraction

One prime example is the search engine marketing services I used to provide to website owners. It was a great service – customers loved it – and I had great success with it. In fact, providing these SEO services is what allowed me to quit my offline business and start working full-time online.

I had systematized the entire service to a point where I had a virtual assistant manage the entire system for me with about 1 hour worth of work per day. And that included customer service (responding to emails, etc). It was going pretty solid – with my highest month being around $6,000 in profit – JUST from selling the SEO services.

It doesn’t really matter where you live in the world, $6,000 per month is a decent income to have coming in whether you work or not. Especially if – like in my case – it came in month after month without me really having to do anything. In fact, if I had walked away from it, it would have continued to bring me in a half decent income for months and years to come.

But getting back to what I was saying earlier: It was nothing more than a distraction to me – keeping me from what I wanted to be doing online. Sure the money was alright, but providing generic SEO services is not something I wanted to continue doing – even if it meant minimal work on my part.

Knowing Your Limits

Google was starting to make some major changes to it’s ranking algorithm and my once overnight miracle service wasn’t quite as powerful as it used to be. The service was still great, but I just did not want to continue providing a service if I didn’t full-heartedly believe in it myself anymore.

So at the beginning of this year (January 2012) I got rid of the generic SEO service completely. I cancelled all subscriptions of incoming payments and shut down the entire system – retiring it for good.

I still do a lot of SEO and probably forever will be known as “the SEO guy” but I mainly do it now for my own sites and a select few clients who have bigger budgets to work with.

It would take a few posts to explain in detail why I stopped providing SEO services, but the short version is: as long as I have customers, I will put their sites as top priority (before mine). Now that I have less than 5 client sites to work with, I have plenty of time, energy and resources to focus on my own sites.

Setbacks are Setups for Comebacks

Was letting go of a medium-range 4-figure a month income stream really a wise decision on my part? I like to think so. Here is why: If I keep pushing my own sites like I have been these last two months, I should be in the 5-figures a month range before the end of the year – and that from just a handful of my many sites.

Oh and get this: it would be without staff (or some of the other expenses that came with running the SEO services for customers) – which means more cash stays in my wallet.

So here is my challenge for you: is what you are working on today getting you to where you want to be a year from now? Are you holding on to an ultimate distraction just because it gives you a sense of security for the time being? Maybe it’s time to cut loose the safety boat you are dragging to conserve your energy, time, and resources, and bring the big boat to the shore.

The post Letting Go of Distractions appeared first on Kobra Dynasty.

Starting out as an entrepreneur is not always easy – we all know that!

Aside from not having friends and family on board with what I was pursuing, my greatest stress was meeting my needs financially so that I would not starve myself to death.

And by starving myself to death, I really do mean that there were days where I went hungry – because I honestly did not have any crackers or rice left and had no money to go buy myself some.

It is embarrassing to admit this, but it is the truth. Besides, a humble beginning generally always makes for a good story if one pulls out of it and reaches beyond average heights so… I don’t mind sharing it!

You see, the foolish mistake I made was that I immediately relied on my new entrepreneurial venture to pay all my bills as well as feed me. The savings I had accumulated before starting out were quickly gone and here I was: dead broke with not two pennies to rub together.

I had lit the candle on both ends.  I had backed myself into a corner.  I had burned the bridge behind me.  There was no going back for me – I had to make things work somehow. And I did!

Entrepreneurial Ambitions

I had determined to become an expert in SEO.  I read 1 to 3 ebooks/guides on SEO every day (yeah, there are that many out there), listened to all the audio training I could get my hands on, watched every video on SEO that I could find, and was hitting it hard with xRumer, Bookmarking Demon, and other SEO tools like it.

What I did not take in to my calculation, was that: SEO takes time!

You can not wake up one morning and say “today I will rank my website #1 on Google for make money. Starting tomorrow I will get 100,000 visitors a day and will make $10,000 a day selling high converting ClickBank products.”

It just doesn’t work that way. SEO is tedious work and it takes days, weeks, and months to rank for worthwhile keywords IF you know what you are doing. If you are a complete newbie (like I was) you don’t stand a chance in the competitive niches.

Obviously it was harder than I had thought. SEO was hard and tedious work. Maybe my friends and family were right: I should just go and get a job like everyone else.

Well something inside me (I think it’s called pride) told me to keep pushing. I was so convinced this would work out sooner or later. And it did!

In my quest to master SEO, I had learned a thing or two about it and used my savings to invest in some pricey SEO software. I then offered backlink building services to websites owners and before you knew it, I was starting to make more money than I ever made at a job.

The Problem

I got so busy making money from selling my SEO services that I completely forgot to do SEO for my own websites.

You ever have that? You get so busy helping people that you forget to help yourself?

A very wise man once said “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” and though I agree with that saying 100%, I also think that we sometimes do more for others than we would do for ourselves.

As an example: When an order came in, I would be all over it and try to go above and beyond to make sure the customer got more than he or she paid for. Yet on slower days, I could not get myself to build a single backlink to my own site.

Looking back, this was one of my greatest mistakes as an entrepreneur and fact is, it is a common struggle among start-up entrepreneurs.

You see someone offering to do your graphical work, and yet their website needs it more than yours. You find a copywriter who offers to write you a very high converting sales letter and yet when you read through theirs, you are not at all convinced that it is for you.

I guess the question to be asked: do I take the same medicine I prescribe to my patients?

It is a lot easier to sell what we have to offer if we are our #1 customer. We want to be different from all the wanna-be’s by actually living what we preach.

The post Lead by Example & Take Your Own Medicine! appeared first on Kobra Dynasty.

A few weeks ago I made a post entitled “Building an Income Empire – One Brick at a Time!” and I got a lot of positive responses to it.  If you haven’t read it yet, I encourage you to take a few minutes and read it.

It’s basically about the fact that it takes time and active labor to build an online business – just as it would to build an offline business.  If you have not read it yet, I would strongly recommend you check it out.

Anyway, moving on to today’s blog-post topic, I want to talk a little bit about focus.

Am I Really Focused?

I always thought I was pretty focused in my business but I am slowly realizing how that is not at all the case.  I always have 5 to 10 full-time projects going at any given time and though that is not necessarily a bad thing, it does have it’s disadvantages.  

It is something most entrepreneurs struggle with and what I have come to realize is, unless one “systemizes” each project and sees one project through at a time, one quickly burns out. As a result, over ambitious entrepreneurs leave a lot of “could be made” money on the table.

I think we all understand that. Spreading ourselves too thin is never a good idea.

Taking the Blinders Off

What if you are too distracted with “one” project?

Example:  this site is my number one money maker and has been ever since I started working online full-time back in 2009.  Be it commissions from promoting quality affiliate offers, sales of various SEO service packages, or services for offline clients, this site has done exceptionally well and has been my bread and butter for over 2 years.

Sure, I have other projects, sites and products in various niches that bring in steady incomes as well, but when it comes to the big money, this site outperforms them all.

But… this site has been – and still is to this day – costing me a ton.  I put more money in to it than I care to remember and I probably spent a few thousand man hours on it as well.

Which leads me to my point: I need to cut the expenses and focus on the things that will bring this site to the next level.

What does this mean?

1. I will be getting rid of all custom SEO services. Sure they have made me thousands, but they have also robbed me of a lot of freedom.  Custom orders are tailored to meet each customer’s needs, which can get extremely time consuming for myself and my staff.
2. I will focus all my “service” energy towards my famous “27+ backlinks a day” service.  Why offer a handful of different services when you can offer one exceptionally good service at a fraction of the cost and a fraction of the labor?  My focus will be to continuously improve on the current “27+ backlinks a day” system.  Since it is systemized, I can very easily train staff on various parts of the system and get a powerful outcome for my customers at a low cost to them.
3. I will try to make at least one educational blog-post each and every week.  Yes, this will remain a SEO blog, but I will also touch on various other aspects of online marketing. How’s this: I will do my best to provide training on everything worthwhile teaching.

There is a saying we have here in Canada: a jack of all trades is a master of none.  Essentially, why not focus on one service and make it the best out there?

My goal is to provide few – but exceptional services.  That way I can commit more of my time to creating free SEO training videos and step-by-step SEO guides.

In short, sometimes you have to focus within your existing focus to find out what really is worth your while and what is keeping you from reaching the new heights in your business.

Have you ever had to “micro focus” on something? I would love to hear your thoughts/feedback!

Konrad

The post Micro Focus: Eliminating Dream Stealers appeared first on Kobra Dynasty.