Work Smarter Not Harder

In order to run a successful Online business and have the freedom that you want, it is critical that you learn to “work smarter not harder.”

Strategy #23

Set up Recurring Income Models:

One of the challenges for a fledgling Internet business is building momentum month after month. You may have an outstanding month of sales; but, struggle to repeat and exceed the results in the following month. One way to build a steady income that continues to grow is to incorporate more recurring payment products/services into your business. These can be your own products and/or products that you promote as an affiliate.

Some recurring income options include:

Memberships
Newsletter and magazine subscriptions
Monthly coaching and other services
An online service like picture hosting, web hosting, etc.

Put your creative thinking cap on and find some recurring business ideas that will work for you.

Strategy #24

Stop Chasing Fads:

The Internet is full of opportunities and ideas. There is a continuous stream of marketing ideas offered on a daily basis that promise fantastic results – some are good, some are OK and some are worthless. Unfortunately, most of them are being promoted by people trying to make a quick buck. Their offerings may work for a while, use questionable methods, or are simply products or services that would be best to avoid.

Eliminate the temptation by reducing the number of newsletters you are subscribed to and eliminating most of the internet marketing related groups/forums you’re a member of. Most of it is just noise, and it is important to eliminate as much noise as possible. You don’t need the distraction or the additional expense of purchasing products and services that your do not need or will not use .

Strategy #25

Build Passive Income:

If you have a service-based or an otherwise labor-intensive business, find ways of replicating yourself and reducing the number of man-hours that you must personally put into each project.

Find ways to make your work pay many times over.

Example #1: If you are a freelance writer who writes for others, consider using your talent for writing your own materials that can be published across multiple platforms (a series of articles, Ebooks, paperbacks, audio, video, etc.) This can be far more lucrative as the publications generate recurring income from a variety of sources, rather than selling your work to other people who will use it in multiple ways to generate income for themselves by packaging and selling your writing over and over again. Don’t sell your work for minimal cash flow – become the person who “makes the money.” Earn what you deserve!

Example #2: If you are marketing a product, consider selling digital products (information, software) or use a fulfillment center to process and ship your physical product orders. You don’t need to be spending time packaging and shipping products. Remove yourself completely from the time-consuming task of product delivery.

Strategy #26

Choose Passive Ways to Increase Traffic to Your Website(s):

There are many ways to generate traffic to your website. Some methods allow you to do the work once and then continue to generate traffic for a long time to come. We call those passive forms of traffic. Other methods are more labor intensive and require continuous work on your part to remain effective.

Examples:

Passive: Search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, content-creation and publishing, word-of-mouth (Note: Some of these will require maintenance, but not continued labor-intensive work to keep going).

Labor Intensive: Posting to forums, social networking, offline networking. These are the types of things you need to keep doing in order to keep them effective.

Put more of your efforts into the passive traffic category, so you can sustain your traffic more easily.

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