In that post I said I'd tell you why I made it.  It's important.

With me, it was my trial through depression and the recovery time that followed that bought me to the place where I realised it was time to strike out on my own.  In my case I thankfully had no choice in having to do my own thing as following my depression I effectively became unemployable.

I can take advice, and I can learn stuff just like I've always done, and even ask for help.  But what I can't do is have anyone tell me what to do.  I can't help that side of it any more, the barriers just go straight up and whoever's doing the telling is wasting their breath.  It's quite different if I want the advice or knowledge.

When I finally moved into the digital products market place (in my case software) I believed for a short while all the nonsense I was told about how easy it was running an online business and how you didn't have to do any work, ha-ha.  I say "nonsense" because it really is.

Running your own business takes work and determination no matter what the business type.

There is no "short cut", no "magic bullet", no "loophole", no "weird solution" or "ancient remedy" that many of the methods sellers would have you believe.  You just need to choose something you're happy with and work at it until you get better at doing whatever you do.

Obvious really isn't it?

If you've been going through this yourself, or trying to get started at it, then you'll have found that to begin with many of your days bring new problems to go with the pile of existing ones and the need to discover ways of solving them.  And you find yourself "working" long, unproductive, pointless days when what you really need to be doing is focussing on the money that will drive your business forward.

More than 60% of people give up at some time in the first 6 months for whatever reason, and I suspect the biggest reasons to be a lack of focus and just plain not knowing what to do.  This results in trying out lots of different things – "thrashing about" – until finally throwing the towel in.

I'll repeat it again in case you weren't paying attention further up the page, you need to choose something you're happy with and work at it. 

Usually and in my experience, whatever that something is, then you'll find there's always going to be a core set of requirements.

From my own perspective, I chose to sell software.  Some days I wish I'd just gone into ebooks as I'd have total control of my own product creation process, but I don't see that as being as much fun as working in software.  I've always liked computers, but that's just me.  Something else might light you up in your case, or you may be similar to me.

Whatever it is, you need to do something you enjoy, or at the very least feel confident and determined about.

And I can help if you let me.

In a few days time I'll be opening what might be my last ever personal coaching programme which will run through January and February 2012.

I say might be last ever because I have a project starting in March that will consume a chunk of my time and may eventually take me in a different direction (still with software).  We'll see, it's very early days yet.

The last coaching I did was four years ago so you can see it's not the kind of thing I do on a regular basis and that's why I think it's a bit special.

I won't be pushing you through a one-size-fits-all sausage machine.  I know that more than a few of the coaching programmes I've seen tend to operate on a "come one, come all" basis, but that's not how I do it.

This will be personal coaching, tailored for you.  The way I think coaching should be done.

There are some provisos that come with it though, and these are only there to make sure you're not signing up for something that isn't appropriate for you.

#1 – The coaching will be in the IM (Internet Marketing) niche.

#2 – The coaching won't attempt to cover things I don't do myself such as CPA and PPC, or network marketing.  I have very little knowledge of those and I'm not really inclined to find out, it's just not my bag.

#3 – The coaching will cover things like product creation, traffic, list building and automation by outsourcing.  The stuff I personally see as vitally impotant to most online businesses.  I'll give you more information on what I will cover with this personal coaching in my next post.

#4 – You're prepared to work hard at it and work under your own initiative with my guidance.  Yes as your coach I'll do some hand holding and pointing you in the right direction, but the sooner you take responsibility for your performance the better.  I can help you achieve that very useful attribute.

#5 – You commit to the ethic of product creation.  To be in the "game", you need your own products to either give away (to list build) or preferably sell, and I can't see any reason why you shouldn't be able to create or have one created for you after 30 days or less.  Once you know what you're doing and you're really cooking with some useful outsourcers, a week or less for product creation is completely do-able.

On that last one, having your own product(s) is vitally important as from that point on you can start list building.  The size of your list bears a direct correlation to the size of your business.  Simple isn't it?

That okay for starters?

More information on personal coaching in my next post.

-Frank Haywood

Unlike some marketers who only make their money by coaching others, I'm the real deal.  I'm like you.

On Wednesday 7th December I'll make an announcement as to how you can sign up for coaching with me.

This will be a little different to the usual "run-of-the-mill" progammes as you'll be getting direct access to me via Skype or phone. And I'll also expect you to be open to doing other projects with me under my guidance, as a joint venture partner.

It will be an ongoing 12 month programme, although you will have at least one product and web site at the end of the first 60 days coaching.  Depending on how fast you can work, there's no reason why you couldn't have at least two products and web sites (it's up to you), and you'll soon learn how you can create one per week with a bit of effort.

One per week?

Well, long time readers of this blog will know that's almost exactly what I've been doing over the last couple of years.  And I also know there are people reading this that have bought pretty much everything I've ever released.

You'll learn how you can move fast and achieve the same kind of results as I do.  There have been many times where I've had the idea on Monday and delivered the product on Friday.

The focus will be in the IM niche and will be on product creation, traffic, list building, outsourcing and earning lots of money.

Due to the very personal nature of the coaching, you will be one of only 10 people that I'll be working with. I don't believe I can offer you the kind of attention you need to succeed with any more than that.

I know that some people will want to know how much the personal coaching will cost, and my first (and experienced) response to that is if you're serious about succeeding online it shouldn't matter.  You're simply coming at it from the wrong point of view.

This is NOT an expense, it's an INVESTMENT.  In you.

There's never been anything more true than "you have to give to get", so just put it on your credit card and pay it back out of the profits.

Let me put this into perspective.  A few years ago I paid something like $10,000 for coaching, and although I didn't get everything that was advertised (shrugs) and a lot of it was unnecessary (shrugs again) I still consider that the BEST investment I ever made.

I paid for it on my credit card and maxed it out.  The credit card company being the evil swines they are then upped my limit, but that's another story.

All I want to say here is, I'm NOT going to be asking you for anything like the $10,000 I paid.

This is SERIOUSLY affordable if you're SERIOUS about making a go of it online.  I don't know, maybe you've had a bit of a skirmish already with creating a product, but it didn't go anywhere?

We can fix that.

On Saturday I'll tell you something very personal about me that I've shared with maybe two or three people over the last few years.

I'll publicly explain how and WHY I got into marketing, and what drove me to do what I now do, and why my options became limited and why I HAD to do what I do.

Who knows?  You may have a similar story.

Please leave a comment with your thoughts.

-Frank Haywood

The coaching won't actually end for them, they have my Skype address for one on ones any time I'm around, and we'll still do call ins every 4-6 weeks.

And I fully expect to do business with all of them eventually as we're now good friends.

This is what one of them has just said to me:-

Now that we've come to the end of the coaching calls, I just wanted to say thank you very much for all of them, and for being so genuine and honest!

Yesterday's call I believe was the most crucial, and I take on board what you said about documenting everything – great tip. It feels like I've done loads already and in fact I haven't even started yet! So I can only imagine the headache for those who are successful to have to re-think how they got there."

And another one…

Frank,

You are an absolute STAR. Thank you from the bottom of my heart."

The 10 guys and gals who got the $997 deal have really got the best of me and I won't be repeating that deal ever.

They are now amongst the 2 percenters, the people who take action and make money online instead of dreaming about it.

In two posts in February, I said I would take on just 10 more people starting in April.

This new programme will be by email only, Monday to Friday.

Like the other 2 percenters, you’ll get all my business tools and processes for free as they’re released, for as long as you remain on the programme.

You can ask me any question about setting up and running a profitable internet business, and I’ll answer it for you.

The cost for the programme is $300 / month, and under my guidance you may well be earning your full time income from home in 12 months or less. There’s no way I can guarantee that, because you may not take action, but I know that it’s achievable if you apply yourself.

For your money, you’ll get access to me by email Monday – Friday, and I’ll answer your questions within 2 business days.

Join my email coaching programme.

There are 10 slots with 14 people already on the waiting list.

When I announce the programme is open this coming Thursday 24th April, it will be first come first served.

If you are one of the first 10 people to subscribe to a $300 / month payment, you will get a slot. Anyone else will have their money refunded.

As part of this deal, you will also receive all of my business processes as they become available. These business processes alone may well be worth several thousand dollars to you over the coming 12 months.

When the ten places are gone, I may release a further coaching package later in the year.

That later coaching package will be priced at $10,000 / year, again by email only, and probably only answered once a week. I may not include my business tools, or at least only include a smaller selection of them. I will include all my business processes.

This is what Alex Jeffreys of Post Launch Profits has said here on this blog:-

For anyone reading this comment,

I’ve been lucky enough to have had email support from Frank throughout 2007

and the results has added thousands of dollars into my bank.

he has taught me a lot about making money online…

…so if you get the chance to be one of the 10 lucky members GRAB IT WITH BOTH HANDS,

Thanks for your support Frank.

Alex Jeffreys"

If you’re serious about working from home and running your own profitable internet business, then fill in the form below to stand a chance of getting one of the slots.

-Frank Haywood

Want to be one of the 2 percent?

Sign up below to get first notification of when my ecoaching goes live this coming Thursday 24th April.

I also read a short report on a study by (I think, not sure) the London School of Economics that said if all the estimated world wealth were to be divided equally, then it would amount to about £10,000 ($20,000) for every man woman and child alive at the time.

The report went on to say that if the money were actually given out in that way, ie level the playing field for everybody, then in 10 years or less, 2% of the worlds population would own the best part of it.

Stunning isn't it? Even if it's not completely accurate, it's certainly food for thought.

Why would that be though?

My guess is that it's because only 2% ever actually do anything to achieve that. The rest are too concerned with "entertaining" themselves and occupying their minds with gossip and drivel.

I used to be like that. I said to one of my offline friends just a few months ago how I thought I'd been walking around in a foggy dream all my life. And how things are clearer to me now than they've ever been.

I know he didn't get it.

To be fair, I think he became concerned about my mental health when I said it. But I believe that's because he's so used to living the way of life that 98% of people live, that anything else just isn't "normal".

I know for a fact that when people ask me what I do for a living, they just don't understand. It does not compute.

They've been programmed so well by their parents and by observing the social proof of all the other sheep in the world doing the same things, that they have little chance of ever becoming wealthy themselves.

Here's what I believe is the fundamental difference between the 2% and the 98%.

The 2% watch, think, learn, and then they act on what they've learned.

The 98% watch and watch and watch.

Have you watched and taken action? Have you taken any steps towards building or even starting your internet business today?

Or do you just prefer to watch?

If you've decided to take action, then why not join my email coaching?

My current coaching programme is full, and is the best deal I'll ever do for anyone. Those 10 people have access to me by Skype to ask for assistance any time they like, and they get a weekly call in where we cover a business topic.

They also get all my business tools and processes for life for free. I have a lot of new software coming out this year and you'll start to see some of it this coming few weeks.

It was the ultimate deal, and they acted on it. I'll never repeat it.

But it's not too late to get the next best deal.

In April, I'll be taking on just 10 people for an alternative coaching programme. It's not as good as the first one, but still incredible value.

This new coaching programme will be by email only, Monday to Friday. Again, you'll get all my business tools and processes for free as they're released, for as long as you remain on the programme.

You can ask me any question about setting up and running an internet business you like, and I'll answer it for you.

The cost for the programme will be $300 / month, and under my guidance you may well be earning your full time income from home in 12 months or less. There's no way I can guarantee that, because you may not take action, but I know that it's achievable if you apply yourself.

Join my email coaching programme.

There are 10 slots with 9 people already on the waiting list from a post I made three weeks ago.

When I announce the opening, it will be first come first served.

The first 10 people on that list to subscribe to a $300 / month payment will get a slot. Anyone else will have their money refunded.

I may do further coaching by email at a later date, but that will be a $10,000 / year subscription.

If you're serious about working from home and running your own internet business, then fill in the form below to stand a chance of getting one of the slots.

-Frank Haywood

Want to be one of the 2%?

Sign up below to be notified when my email coaching becomes available.

[SORRY THIS IS NOW CLOSED]

It's particularly relevant to me, as I reckon I must have spent hundreds of hours last year just answering email from customers. This is one of the key reasons my business "freewheeled" for a good chunk of 2007.

It's also why one of my next products to be released is a full support desk, knowledge base, and live support system. Yes, I'll be handing day to day support over to an assistant.

The bulk of the issues and questions I get asked are the same ones over and over, simply because people won't or don't read the more than adequate documentation. Many of the questions I get asked have nothing to do with the products I sell, and up until now I've even tried to help people out with things that have nothing to do with my core business or products.

Clearly that can't continue.

In order for my business to grow, I must cut back on email. To do that, I've decided that a support desk manned with people who can handle the day to day questions for me is the way to go.

I realise that for the many people I've helped over the last year, this will be a disappointment as I will no longer be communicating in that way. Instead, this blog will be a good place to contact me, as you'll be able to leave comments on posts like this one.

However…

Because I know that some people who take their businesses seriously will continue to want to discuss their business with me, I've decided to take a limited number of email only coaching students.

That number will be ten.

For your money, you'll get access to me by email Monday – Friday, and I'll answer your questions within 48 hours. You'll also receive all of my new business tools as I release them, and in some cases before they go on general release.

I intend to release a lot of new software this year (I have three new tools now complete and in countdown to launch), as well as many business processes which you'll be able to put in place to automate your own business as it grows.

The 10 places will be allocated on a first come, first served basis, and will open in April.

To highlight the extreme value for money you'll be getting from this programme, I'll first tell you about the coaching I'm currently running.

At the beginning of 2008, ten people signed up for 60 days coaching where they get my full attention, my Skype ID, and my phone number. I've essentially given up 60 days of my life to dedicate to them, and to be available whenever they want me, as long as I'm online, which is most of the time at the moment.

They can contact me to talk any time they like, and even after the 60 days is complete and they have their products complete and on sale, they'll still be able to contact me any time they want as they're now my friends.

They also get almost all my business tools that I release, forever. That was their unadvertised bonus that they learned about after they signed up.

They got that package at the bargain basement price of just $997. I said when I launched it that I would likely never repeat it, and I certainly wouldn't do the same thing again at that price.

After just 3 weeks, I've had most of them say to me privately that it's already worth every penny they spent. Put simply, they would not have achieved the accelerated level of learning without my coaching programme.

At the end of this next 12 months, they will all be earning at least as much as they are today in their day time jobs. I expect it of them.

If you want that same deal, well I'm sorry, it's too late and you can no longer purchase it.

The coaching package for the next 10 people will be by email only, and it will be at $300 per month. You will get almost all of my business tools as they are released for as long as you remain on the programme. You will also receive all of my business processes as they become available.

This may well be worth several thousand dollars to you over the coming 12 months.

When those ten places are gone, I may release a further coaching package.

That later coaching package will be priced at $10,000 / year, again by email only, and probably only answered a couple of times a week. I may not include my business tools, or at least only include a smaller selection of them. I will include all my business processes.

Under my guidance, you may well be earning your full time income from home in 12 months or less. I can't guarantee that as I don't know you or your capabilities, but I know it's achievable for most people who apply themselves, once they know what to do.

If you're even remotely serious about working from home and running your own internet business, then please fill in the contact form below to be notified as soon as places are available.

They will be on a first come first served basis, and when all ten places at $300 / month are filled, coaching from me will only be available at $10,000 / year.

-Frank Haywood.

Sign up below to be notified when my ecoaching becomes available.

[SORRY, THIS IS NOW CLOSED]

A couple of weeks ago, we did a session on focus and the importance when you're starting out in your internet business, to give yourself very focussed 30 day projects.

Thirty days to complete a project and end up with your own saleable product is more than enough time to do everything.  In fact, I proved you could actually do it in a day, and have a sales page and autoresponders set up without a problem.

That is, once you've done it a few times and it becomes second nature to you.

Giving yourself 30 days to begin with is a good idea, especially if you have a day time job and have to fit in your product creation time in the evenings.  However, you shouldn't spend much more than the first seven days to create your product.

You should spend another 5-7 days writing your sales page, setting up your site flow, and making sure your autoresponder sequence is set up correctly.

Then you should think about traffic.  If you don't have your own mailing lists, or a regularly visited blog like this one, then you will need some time to find and write to potential JV partners.  You will probably get a ten percent response with a well worded email.

Any remaining time after that would be well spent working on your blog, and in the process doing things like linking to other related blogs, visiting other blogs and making relevant comments.

And blogging aside, generally setting things up for launch.

But the first thing you should do is make the decisions to see it all through, and set a deadline.

If you have a deadline, it will focus your thoughts as you get closer and closer to it, and realise that there are things you still have to do.  The basic list I've outlined above will get bigger as you get nearer to the date, and start getting contact from JV partners.

If you don't have a deadline, then you'll find yourself putting things back "just a few days", which then turns into a week, two weeks and more…

Back to Jan Evensen.  He now deeply understands the importance of making a plan and sticking to it.

Jan has made a wonderfully ironic post which shows that without focus, how quickly your precious time and money can disappear, just by checking your email.

I've done it, you've done it, everybody's done it.

A quick read through your email, and suddenly you're on a sales page clicking the order button before you even know what's happened.

Take the time out now and stop for a few moments to ask yourself how you can stop this from happening to you again. It's not hard, it just takes a little self-discipline.

-Frank Haywood

Your business, your success, is like a big steel ball.

I'd like you to take a few moments and imagine your business is a big steel ball, it's as big as you, and it's incredibly heavy. It's so heavy that it won't roll on the slightly uneven ground underneath it. It's just completely stuck.

Most people give up and walk away. They're the 98 percenters who will forever be the employees, the worker bees that our society needs, and they will never do anything "great" with their lives.

The other 2 percent – that's us right? – well the other 2 percent try to push the ball anyway. Success depends on it.

It won't move. It just will not budge. But you keep at it regardless.

Pushing, sweating, straining, and suddenly, it gives just a little and rocks back into place. Now you've seen it move, you've had your first success, so you strain against it again, pushing, pushing, and eventually it rocks again and you push harder and it starts to move.

Gradually, the huge steel ball that's your business starts to move. Now that it's moving, it's easier to keep it going, but it's still taking a lot of work. But you keep at it relentlessly, because you've seen that you can do it.

As the ball picks up speed, it's now easier to keep it moving, and it starts to go faster and faster. Now it's moving as fast as you can walk, and all you need to do is give it a slight tap now and then to keep it on track.

Eventually, you have to run to keep up. The steel ball is off on its own. It doesn't need you any more, because along the way, other people (employees, contractors, friends) have joined in, and they're pushing your steel ball for you.

It's still your steel ball, it's just not your responsibility any more. And you have the freedom to go do whatever you like with your life, knowing the steel ball is being well looked after by other people.

That's your goal, that's what you'll achieve, just by being relentless and not giving in at the first resistance.

Isn't that worth it?

Isn't it worth making that first decision to push and then getting someone to show you how to push your steel ball to begin with?

Well, that's part of what my personal coaching is about.

It's not for everybody, and I no longer advertise it.  But if you really want it, then there's your first pot hole.  Can you get me to coach you?

- Frank Haywood

What's the difference between coaching and mentoring? Let's take a look at the dictionary definition.

Mentoring: Serve as a teacher or trusted counsellor.
Coaching: Teach and supervise (someone); act as a trainer or coach (to).

As you can see it's very subtle, and one of my friends says that a good coach mentors and a good mentor coaches. I think the defining word between the two here is "supervise".

I really could have done with some supervison when I first started. I had lots of false starts (wasted a lot of time), and I made lots of mistakes (not such a bad thing as you might think) and didn't really know what I wanted at the end. I had no definition.

Another one of my friends says "begin with the end in mind" – if you know what you really want and have a clear definition of it, then it affects the way you do everything. You feel excited, invigorated and motivated.

When you feel like that, it doesn't feel like work. You have a clear goal, and it becomes simple to dismiss those things that don't achieve that goal, and simple to pursue the things that do.

What I intend to do with you when you join the programme is first have a chat and find out what it is that you want. In that process, my guess is I'll help you get to the point where you realise that what you want isn't really what you want.

Example: I thought I wanted just to be able to work from home.

Well, it's really nice to be able to do that, but I later realised that what I really wanted was freedom from being told what to do. I also realised that what I wanted was to be able to control my own income.

True story time. One December more than a decade ago (when I was an employee), at the end of that year (a grueling year for me as I'd really put my heart and soul into the project I was working on), I was called into my boss's boss's office. This guy was two levels up from me, he was middle management, one step down from a director, just so you know.

I was told that it was performance review time. I was told that I wasn't going to get a pay rise because there wasn't enough in the pot, and it had been decided to give more to other people, and so some people weren't going to get a rise, and I was one of them.

I was upset.

I asked what it was that I had done or hadn't done that meant I wasn't going to get a pay rise, so that I could make sure it never happened again. He couldn't answer me.

I also asked why it had been left until the end of the year to tell me that I wasn't performing and so didn't get a pay rise. He couldn't answer that either.

I asked if there was any point in continuing the conversation because he didn't seem to know anything about what he'd called me in to discuss. He said no there wasn't and so I walked out.

When I talked to my own boss about what had happened, he said it was a totally arbitrary decision and had no meaning other than it was a directive that had come down from the CEO. Yes, my boss actually knew something about it. He also said there wasn't a damn thing either of us could do about it – the same thing had happened to him.

Neither of us had any control over our income. It didn't matter how hard or smart we worked (or didn't), it had no effect on our earnings.

Isn't that insane?

And yet that's the situation that the majority of people are in BY CHOICE.

Now of course it's all different for me. I get to make the decisions, and my actions decide how much I'm going to earn.

It's scary, but it's exhilarating.

So the first thing I'll do when you sign up is arrange a one on one chat with you to find out what it is you really want, and where your skills are. We'll outline a plan of action, and then we'll put something together for you that's more detailed.

Real simple stuff, nothing complicated, nothing scary. And we'll take it from there.

Okay?

***

I also said I'd mention the marketing funnel today, so let's have a quick run through that.

Picture a funnel with the widest part at the top. The people that are outside that funnel are "suspects". They may or may not be interested in what you have to offer, and they may or may not become your customer.

Now imagine that the "suspects" are entering that funnel by signing up to your mailing list. Once they sign up, they've now become your "prospects". Now the chance of them becoming a customer of yours has greatly increased. It may be that no money has changed hands yet, or maybe a token amount such as less than $5.

Once they're in the top part of the funnel, you can make them an offer. It's a good idea for it to be a low cost, high perceived value offer, somewhere between $17 and $37.

If they buy this, and other similar items from you, then you now know you have someone you can make larger offers to, say $67 – $127, and have a good chance of them being accepted. They're now your customer and they've moved well into the marketing funnel.

It's a lot easier to sell to an existing customer than a new one. They now know you and they know your products are excellent. The price starts to become irrelevant to them. But there are much fewer of those people than there are of your prospects.

The funnel is getting narrower to accommodate them. And you can make even higher value offers to them.

If they take those larger offers, then you can now be certain that you have a customer for life, although of course you can blow it completely if you're not careful!

The higher priced offers must have tremendous perceived and actual value behind them. The benefits must be clear and must outweigh the cost by a large margin.

This continues on, down and down, until you have just a trickle of customers buying the very high value items, at the very bottom of the funnel. You may now be in the $10,000 to $20,000 price bracket.

Does it sound so hard to do that? Does that seem to be so daunting? It shouldn't do. You don't have to do it all over night.

You can build up to it over several years if you want to, there's no rule that says you shouldn't start if you don't have the bottom of the funnel ready.

The problem is, many businesses don't get past the first offer. They either have only one product to offer, or continue to make similar value offers for other products and don't go to the next step.

That's fine to do, and by all means have several products in the same price bracket, because the wider your funnel, the more higher value customers will move down it and purchase your bigger products.

But don't get stuck at the low end products and think that people will only ever buy low value items. You'd be doing yourself an extreme disservice.

There are a lot of people out there with wads of cash in their pockets, more people than you might think, and what you need is a plan to get yourself to the point where you can make those large value offers to them.

***

Right! That's today done.

Tomorrow I'll give you a quick glimpse inside my Aweber account. When you take a look, I'll point out how quickly you can build your list if you know what to do, and how I've been a bit slow on that front, and what I'll be doing in 2008 to fix it.

Remember: more prospects = more customers = more money.