Not to long ago I signed up for a 9 week course that a friend of mine was putting on. I had all the best intentions to download the course and follow along…but I didn’t. Over the weekend I finally finished downloading all the materials …and…then nothing. I got sidetracked again.

I realized this wasn’t the first time for me. I did the same thing with Mark Joyner’s Simpleology. I also never finished listening to all the CDs from Nido Quebin (they got kind of boring so that’s my story on that one.) And I’m sure there are a few more somewhere that got started and never finished. And its not like this is a $25 book I buy from Barnes & Nobles on a whim that never gets read. These programs can be quite a chunk of change!

And then it occurred to me.

This is what happens to 90% of people who invest in some kind of self-study or virtual learning. We invest with all the right intentions but then we get busy with life and forget to follow through. 17 binders of information products later, they sit, stacked on a shelf or in boxes in a corner of our office, waiting for that day when we actually have time to do something with it.

The funniest story I ever heard was from a woman who had invested in my Virtual Team Building program. She was feeling “buyers remorse” with yet another purchase. She explained that she had invested in over $20k worth of programs in the last 2 years and recently just put them all on ebay and sold them. After helping her see some ways to break that pattern by actually implementing our program…she agreed not to put mine on ebay. =-)

Why do people invest in programs they never use? What is this compulsion we have to learn more stuff? What keeps people from following through on their commitments in an online program?

What I realized is that most self study type programs are not designed to keep people engaged. When you consider the avalanche of emails that we receive daily to the constant fires that we encounter that must be handled immediately, spending time on a self guided program tends to fall by the way side.

So what can you do as a participant to keep yourself engaged so you actually get a good return on your investment? Here are 4 insights I discovered by running my own experiment:

1. Get reconnected to the why. Why did you originally invest in it? What was the problem you wanted solved? I’m sure that didn’t go away magically.
2. Create a schedule to complete the program. If you paid $10k for an MBA would you not go to class? Well, if you went to San Diego State you might not but that’s not the point. Treat it like a class you have to attend live every week in order to “pass” and you’ll create a stronger connection to completing it.
3. Set up accountability. Too often the program shows up in the mail but there is no guidance or support for it. Get a business or success coach to hold you accountable or get a buddy to support you with weekly commitments. One of the ways we support our clients is we include a membership in our coaching community so they can get access to live support.
4. Delegate it. Just because you bought it doesn’t mean you have to learn it. I’ve given members of my team different programs that I want them to learn. If they are responsible for the strategy they might as well benefit from your investment too.

The most important thing is to not let too much time go by. The more time that passes the less painful the cost of not completing it. Its too easy to forget that you wasted that money. MAs the Nike commerical says, “Just do it!” Get going. Take yourself to coffee for an hour and just start the program. You’ll be glad you did later.

The Dollars and Sense Behind Selling from the Platform
by David Newman and Steven Rowell

** NOTE FROM MELANIE ** Because so many of my clients are building a speaking business around there products and services, I thought this article might be interesting. I’ll be one of the speakers at their Book Camp, April 9 - 12 in Orlando, FL. Be sure to register for the teleclass preview series where all the experts will be dishing their knowledge!

Because you share a common (and incorrect) belief that “selling from the platform” is cheesy, unprofessional, and pushy, you may be leaving HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of dollars in revenue on the table!

Here’s some news: you rightfully deserve this money for bringing your expertise, proven strategies, great information and time-tested experience to your audience. And when you provide high quality information, people actually WANT to give you their money, because you have added real value to their lives.

What do we mean by you’re “leaving money on the table”? Let’s say you’re a moderately successful professional speaker and you keynote 50 times a year. Your average audience is 100 participants. (Yours may be much higher or even a lot lower – stick with us and we’ll show you the numbers…)

If you spoke 50 times a year to 100 people, that’s 5000 prospects. With ZERO high-pressure sales gimmicks or pushy “selling from the platform” tactics (we’ve all seen ‘em and we don’t like ‘em), you could reasonably sell 10% of your audience on some sort of follow-up package. As a point of reference, seasoned pros can close between 26-58% of any given room if they’re in front of the right audience with the right message.

Stop the tape, here, folks. Before we go on, it’s VITAL to make clear that these “seasoned pros” DO truly have great quality material, are comfortable sharing their expertise, and know how to get people to go for their wallets with the utmost in professionalism and a genuine spirit of sharing valuable information.

OK, let’s finish the math - that’s 500 people buying your package. Now, the package consists of your book, some special reports, two audio CD’s, and a pair of follow-up 1-hour consulting calls. It sells for $149.

The math on this is 500 x $149 = $74,500. Are you SURE you don’t want to learn how to sell from the platform with integrity??

And for many experts and speakers the actual numbers are 500 x $297 = $148,500. Did you know the average profit margin from these information products ranges from 52-68% depending upon your industry or target audience? Now these are numbers worthy of taking serious action!

====Steven Rowell and David Newman are co-founders of The BookCamp(tm), the only professional-grade, anti-pitchfest conference aimed at entrepreneurs, authors, and experts who want to build a booming business around their books. Download their f.ree 44-page special report loaded with more strategies, tips, and tools at Bookcamp Info.

“Recycle Your Articles to Gain Tons of Traffic and New Subscribers”
by Alexandria K. Brown, “The E-zine Queen”

Note from Melanie….
My good friend Ali Brown recently posted a great tip on getting more traffic through article posting. Since I’m working on this right now, I wanted to share these great tips with you guys. By the way, Ali is not only a good friend but also one of my personal success mentors. You can bet I’ll be one of the 150 people on her party boat to help her celebrate her 34th birthday (and really live like a freedom-based entrepreneur!!) Wanna join us? Check it out.

While there are many effective ways to get more traffic and build your ezine list, the one I’ve had the MOST success with is to submit articles for use on other people’s websites and in their ezines.”But wait a minute,” you say. “Aren’t I supposed to be creating great articles for MY OWN e-zine?”Yes, you are! And after your article appears in your OWN e-zine, you should then submit it to others. Over the past few years, I’ve found this to be the best way to get traffic, build my list, and increase my sales, for five reasons:

1) You can quickly gain FREE exposure to TENS OF THOUSANDS (or even HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS) of untapped prospects at a time. There are many high-traffic sites and ezines with high readerships that are looking for content from people like YOU.

2) Articles let you educate and share good information with your prospects. They also position you as an expert in their eyes, so they’ll think of YOU as the most respected resource in your field. (Traditional ads don’t do that for you.)

3) You have the right to promote yourself, your business, and whatever else you want at the end of every article. And anyone using your article must keep this information intact. (More on that in a minute.)

4) This is a tried-and-true method that will NEVER stop working, unlike the latest and greatest gimmicks to spoof the search engines. (Try one of those and see how quickly your traffic halts once the bottom drops out.) Search engines love real content and will always love real content.

5) It’s EASY, and anyone can do it!HERE’S HOW TO GET STARTED…

1. PICK A WINNER
Browse through your archives and pick an insightful article that really showcases your expertise. Or, if this is new to you, write a basic article on your subject of expertise. (Not a good writer, or need help? Hire a writer from Elance.com.)

2. POLISH IT ‘TIL IT SHINES
Publishers will not be interested in your article if it contains typos, misspelled words, grammatical errors, or inactive Web links — these goofs would compromise the integrity of their publications. So make sure it’s Kosher!

3. ADD A COPYRIGHT NOTICE
At the end of the article, insert a copyright notice, dated when you first published the article. Example: © 2005 Alexandria K. Brown

4. WRITE A JAZZY “RESOURCE BOX”
In exchange for your letting other publishers reprint your article, it’s customary to require they include the contact information you provide. This is usually called the “resource box” and it should come RIGHT after your copyright notice. Here’s where you can ham it up.Don’t waste time promoting your actual business in the resource box. Why? Remember your #1 goal is always to get prospects on your LIST. You’ll gain MORE clients and customers by FIRST getting them to subscribe to your FREE e-zine or special report. THEN you’ve got them! You’ll be in front of them regularly, and that’s when they’ll understand why they should hire you or buy your products.

5. SUBMIT YOUR ARTICLE TO ONLINE CONTENT DIRECTORIES
There are hundreds of ‘free content’ Web sites and announcement lists where you can submit your articles for other publishers to use. Some even let you include a picture and other information about your website. One of my favorites is EzineArticles.com.

6. SUBMIT YOUR ARTICLE DIRECTLY TO APPROPRIATE PUBLISHERS
For best results, take the bull by the horns and contact publishers directly. But not just any publishers — ones with e-zines that accept articles AND whose readers are your ideal clients and customers. A great place to start your search and build your own list is Charlie Page’s Directory of E-zines.

7. AUTOMATE THE ENTIRE PROCESS
I know you’re probably thinking right now, “OK Ali, this sounds great, but isn’t this going to be time consuming?” The answer is most definitely YES. In the past, you’d have to spend several hours a week just to get one article out there. It’s a lot of administrative work, requiring time that you probably don’t have.But my friend Jason Potash has just released his brand new “ARTICLE ANNOUNCER” software that does all this work FOR you. It blasts out your articles to hundreds of directories, publishers, and other sources to help generate a slew of web visitors to your site, month after month. My staff and I have tested Jason’s “Article Announcer” product and wholeheartedly recommend it. I urge you to see Jason’s information page NOW, and grab your own copy before the price goes UP in just a few days. Remember also that if you don’t want to do any of your own article marketing yourself, it’s a perfect task to pass on to an assistant, intern, or freelancer. The key is getting it down to a SYSTEM, which is what this software helps you do.
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Online entrepreneur Alexandria K. Brown, “The E-zine Queen,” is creator of the award-winning ‘Boost Business With Your Own E-zine’ system. To learn more about this step-by-step program, and to sign up for her FREE how-to marketing articles and FREE audio class, visit http://www.ezinequeen.com/

The Power of Leverage

Today I had the best experience of leveraging the power of other people. You see my mastermind buddy and neighbor, Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero of Red-Hot-Copy.com, turned me on to the perfect solution to a problem I’ve had for months.

I’ve literally been suffering from copy & print trauma since early 2004.

I tried Kinkos, Staples, Vistaprint.com and much to my frustration, I ran into quality issues, missed deadlines on orders and complete screw ups. It was a waste of my time and a real problem for our business when we launched the Unstoppable Goals Method.

Then one day last week Lorrie found THE PRINTER! Not only did they have a quality guarantee, provide a really good discount, but they pick up AND deliver.

It was the best day I’ve had in weeks - I had a problem that I didn’t have to solve on my own. My associate shared a great resource and we both profited from it (he was so happy with her he gave her an even better discount and we have a great resource for all of the information products we produce for our clients.)

That is the power of leverage. If you have not yet aligned yourself with a group of associates who can share resources, tips, ideas and tools, it is the best success strategy you can invest in right now.

One way to instantly gain access to a six-figure rolodex of entrepreneurs is through the Mastery of Success Mentoring Program. To find out if you qualify to join this mastermind of top-notch business owners starting in May, visit www.successconnections.com/mastery.html.

But don’t delay, there are limited spots for this in-demand program — and you want to be one of them!

To your success,

Melanie