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this year’s PIGs

Hi everyone.

Well as it is not quite the third month of the year I can make this post and have it still count as a new year post right?

Last year was awesome for our PIGs as our business expanded (actually tripled) over the course of the year, we set up 2 LLCs (our first companies!), and started a new Network Marketing organization.

January was a little big of a mess though as I scrambled to make sense out of my personal accounting and present all the necessary information to our CPAs in a way that would make sense to them.  Good book-keeping may be boring but you’ll never become financially free without it!

This month has been a mess also as we have been snowed in, I haven’t been able to golf (boo hoo!), and I finally had to take my trusty old Gateway PC to that big geek farm in the sky.  After spending a week struggling with a brand new Gateway running Windows 7 I finally took the plunge and switched over to Mac.

The iMac is great but the switch required a different kind of scramble as I had to recreate or replace all the software I was using with Windows.  Well actually I didn’t, but I didn’t realize that until later.

The hardest program to replace was my Microsoft Money.  It’s not the best product in the world but it was certainly the best I have ever found for what I needed.  Not only was it able to make sense out of our multiple accounts, but it had a cashflow forecasting feature that I depended on.  That also turned out to be the toughest feature to replace.  Most of the finance software out there lacks this critical feature.  I finally found a program called moneyGuru for Mac.  It’s not perfect either, but I LOVE the cashflow forecasting features in it.

Here’s a secret.  I enjoy playing with the financial software.  I admit it.  My wife Amanda outed me this week when she said I enjoy playing with the financial software more than I enjoy playing my computer games!

Remember, I am on a quest for Passive Income Generators that will increase our passive income, our monthly cashflow, and therefore our lifestyle.  Without having Cashflow charts in an easy to read format I would have to resort to spreadsheets or (gasp!) budgeting to keep track of how our spending impacts us.  Any software can tell you what you’ve done.  I don’t care about that, that is in the past!  The Cashflow forecasting tells me how the decisions we make today will affect us next week, next month, and next year.  As the kids say, that’s whats up!

So that brings me to the title of my blog post, this year’s PIGs.

One of the things we learned last year is that spreading ourselves too thin, trying to do too many things at one time, is counter-productive.  So we have streamlined a little bit in what we are focusing on for this year.

Our main PIG is still our Second Life land business.  We are striving to increase our profits this year by a little more than double what we did in 2009.  This will get the business to the point where we can hire a full time General Manager at good wages, and put the P back in the -IG.  (If you have trouble following my abbreviations just let me know in a comment and I will break it out for you further.)

Not only will this free up some time, but it will also get the business spitting out extra cash that we can use to create or expand other PIGs.

Along with our Second Life expansion, our Open-Sim based world, Segarra Open Grid, is starting to take off as well.  Our goals for this year is to get that business to become a proper PIG in its own right by the end of the year.

Those two income generators are awesome but they are both in the realm of what we like to call Virtual Real Estate.  For true wealth-building we seek multiple PIGs from different areas.  That way if for some reason one PIG dries up, gets slaughtered, or we sell it for cash, we still have other PIGgies bringing in cash for us.

So our second primary PIG for this year is our GDI Power Team.  We will build this over the next few months until it becomes a very nice PIG in its own right, with room for massive growth in the years to come.

Finally, we have our eyes set on purchasing rental real estate before the year is out.  This will add to our passive income but also give us the opportunity for additional tax breaks which we will certainly need!

All told, our goal is to increase our PIG revenue by $10K/month by the end of the year.

Even if we fall short of our goal, we fill have a mighty fine year!

Be on the look-out for Passive Income Generators that you can add to your own portfolio.  These can be anything from cash producing real estate, profitable businesses, even interest income from savings.

The PIGs shall set you free!

Our Week in the Poconos

Hi everyone.

Once again the weeks are flying past and oops I skipped all the way through September and here we are a good way into October and I haven’t even posted a little peep about what we have been up to!

Before I get to far into this post I want to say Hello! and Welcome! to all of my new Facebook friends, Twitter followers, and of course to new subscribers to my blog.

August turned out to be a tight month for our Second Life land business so after some house-cleaning we rebounded and had a very satisfactory September.  So far in October we are taking off like a rocket but like all businesses ours has its ups and downs.

Last month Amanda and I celebrated our one year wedding anniversary by taking a week off. We went up to the Poconos for our 2nd honeymoon and had a fantastic time.  It was great to take a break from our businesses, reconnect with each other, and also to reflect on the past year.

And when I say we took a week off, I mean exactly that.  I did not turn on a computer, take a phone call, check email, or send a text message the entire week.

OK I know at this point some of you are saying – James took a vacation, what’s the big deal?

Well, it may not be that big of a deal for you, but without being too dramatic I will say it was a definite milestone for me.  Our GRN membership allowed us to stay in a nice one bedroom condo, with a view of Lake Wallenpaupack, all for about $300 for the entire week.  This meant we had plenty of cash left over for what we like to call “mad money” and we were able to do everything we wanted to do while we were on vacation!

We went to Bushkill Falls and hiked the 2 hour “red” trail hike.  It was beautiful but some fellow hikers laughed in appreciation when on our way out I said the Exit sign was the most beautiful thing I had seen all day. Ha.  It was kind of like being in a sauna, it is enjoyable, but you enjoy it even more when it is over.

We went to Kosta’s Family Fun Park for a day.  We played mini golf (Amanda won), laser tag (Amanda won), and even did the go-kart track (Amanda won).  Can you sense a pattern?  I really enjoyed that go-kart track though, we went around the loop three times I think.

We went to Woodloch Springs Golf Course and played the back nine.  It was a beautiful but humbling course.  There were many elevation changes and every single hole had a forced carry, most of them over thick rough.  I foolishly forgot to buy more golf balls before we started.  We had three or four holes left to play when we were flat out of the golf balls we started with!  Fortunately Amanda was good at scavenging and found some strays that we used to finish our round.

We went horseback riding through forests and fields, and negotiated with the owner of the Bed & Breakfast in an attempt to structure a deal that would allow us to take over the 200+ acre grounds.  The horses were nice, and the owner was nice, but I think for now the purchase of the land and business is going on our wish list.

We were so sore after the horseback riding and the golf, that we were grateful to have booked a massage mid week.  That was my first time getting a massage and while I was a little freaked out I have to admit I felt much much better afterward.

In addition to those activities we also did a bunch of driving and exploring the area.  We had a couple of nice restaurant meals, but we mostly enjoyed Amanda’s cooking thanks to the full kitchen in the condo.  We watched some movies on the flat-panel TV.  We read books.  We went on walks.  Amanda finished 50% of a 1000 piece puzzle.

In short, we had a wonderful week, and returned rested and rejuvenated.

The icing on the cake was when we finally checked in on our businesses, we discovered that our Second Life land business brought in $4700 USD worth of revenue while we were gone. Some of that we even got to keep!

Coincidentally or not, since our vacation I have had a few conversations with aspiring entrepreneurs about life, goal setting, and business.  It is fun to share the successes, but our week in the Poconos was, truth be told, years in the making.

By know most of my readers know that I am a big fan of Robert Kiyosaki.  Years ago I had a chance to go to a Cashflow 101 game meeting in Syracuse, New York.  I had never played the game before, and I only knew about it from reading Robert’s books.  Well as it turned out I didn’t play that day either, as aside from the host I was the only other person to attend the meeting.

We didn’t play Cashflow but we did have a nice chat about the game and about Robert’s books and teachings.  I don’t remember this man’s name, so for the sake of the story I will call him Tom.  Tom was a truck driver and real estate investor.  He bought residential rental properties for cash flow.  He also drove truck.  All week long while he was driving truck, he listened to Robert Kiyosaki tapes.  When he took his meal break, he would sit for a half hour or hour and read one of Robert’s books.  And when he wasn’t driving truck or studying the Rich Dad philosophy, he was taking action and increasing his passive income.

We talked a bit about the land lord business.  He told me how foolish it was that people strive for +$100/month on their properties, when something as simple as a broken window will kill your cash flow for the month.  He told me how to improve a property and collect more rent by installing ceiling fans, pretty much in every room.  He told me about negotiating for properties by including people’s personal possessions in the negotiations.  He told me about getting someone to include their motorcycle and their sofa along with their house.

He told me a lot of things that day, but there is one piece of advise he gave which is the same advise I give today.  At the time I was starting to dabble in internet marketing and building websites, but had not yet achieved any level of success.  And the advise he gave to me was this:

Whatever you choose as your wealth vehicle, whether its websites, real estate, stocks, network marketing, building businesses, make sure it is something you enjoy.

That sounds simple, but without following his advise, I never would have been able to enjoy my 2nd honeymoon in the Poconos while our internet businesses cranked out cash.

Pursuing the path of financial freedom isn’t easy.

But if you choose something you love, you will get there.

It is too easy to quit, to get discouraged, to get negative, to give up.

But if you chose that thing you love to do, whatever it is for you, you will get past that.

Becoming financially free is hard work.  Anyone who tells you otherwise is telling you a fairy tale.   But if you chose something that you love, the work won’t seem that hard.

You will get into the zone where you can put in those 12 hour days and get up the next day eager to do it again.  You will have that energy that allows you to quack like a duck and let all the (excuse the language) bullshit roll right off your back and you can keep on keepin on.

You will be able to survive those lean months while your business is getting off the ground, and overcome the inevitable ups and downs.

You will get to that point where you can enjoy your own week (or more!) in the Poconos while the cash keeps rolling in.

Have fun, and good luck!

What do you do?

Hi everyone. Yes, this month has turned out to be nearly as hectic as last month.  Please accept my apology for the lack of new posts!

One question that keeps coming up over and over again, that I struggle with, is the simple inquiry: “What do you do?” This is a natural question and back in the days when I worked a J-O-B it was a little bit easier to answer.

These days, and for roughly the past three years, my answer tends to be: “As little as possible!”

I know that may sound kind of funny, but it really is true.  I have posted before about how we structure our businesses with the goal of placing them on auto-pilot, but the reality is we still do quite a bit of work.  Partly because we need to to keep everything going, partly because we don’t like to rest on our laurels so we are constantly expanding, and partly because, well, I like to work.

Working from home, owning multiple corporations, marketing on the internet, for most people who ask me “What do you do?” – what I actually do on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis is so far removed from their reality that it is too complicated to try to explain.

So I simply say, “As little as possible!” If I am pressed a little more, I will say Internet Marketing.  Depending on the level of interest I may go further and attempt to explain about one of our businesses.  Actually, if someone asked me what did my corporations do it would be easier to answer.

The question came up again yesterday when I was on the golf course.  Now that I think of it, it comes up quite a bit on the golf course, I guess because golfing is a big time commitment in and of itself.  I gave my standard answer, but in reality my day went something like this:

9AM woke up and showered etc.
10-11AM Skype chat with our girl in the Philippines.  She needed some guidance.
11A-3 PM breakfast, reading, emails, and started to list one of our websites for sale
3-7 PM golfing!
7-8 PM catching up on our Second Life business and Segarra Private Grid business, dinner
8P-12:30 AM listed our website for sale, forum marketing

So, what did I do?  I slept in until a comfortable hour.  I went golfing.  I got some reading done.  And I worked for something like 6 or 7 hours while keeping multiple businesses going.

The point I’m trying to make is this: to me, time freedom is everything.  I have posted about this before but it is worth repeating.

Another example: on Tuesday Amanda and I had to get up at 5 AM to travel to Baltimore for a medical appointment.  The drive is about 2 hours each way, so by the time we got back home it was about 3 PM in the afternoon and we were physically and emotionally drained.  So we did a little bit of this and that but for the most part took the entire day off from work.

I didn’t have to schedule it in advance.  I didn’t have to request time off with my boss.  I didn’t have to call in sick.  Our businesses kept on earning. Without checking every income stream, I know we brought in over $400 that day, and neither Amanda nor I were “on duty” while this happened.

Sometimes lately I am reminded of an old Beetle Bailey comic that I saw, where they say that Beetle works real hard at being lazy.  That’s me to a T!

I encourage you to join me in doing “As little as possible!”

Have fun, and good luck.

Hectic Month

Hi everyone.

Taking a glance at my blog for this month should give you an idea of just how hectic things have been this month!  I haven’t posted all month aside from posting about our Mastermind Webinar series.

Here’s what’s been happening.

Last month we had our Cashflow 101 meeting where one of my friends suggested I read the book The Four Hour Work Week.  I had heard about the book before but didn’t think much about it.  I have pretty much been waiting for it to come out on paper back.

Well the following weekend Amanda and I went down to the beach, spent some money, and had some fun.  While we were down there I picked up a couple of records (the vinyl kind) (that you listen to) (oh nvm), and Amanda picked up yet another book on gardening.  We wandered into a bookstore and I happened to see The Four Hour Work Week there so I thought what the heck.  I have $20 in my pocket, the book costs $20, I need a new book to read, let me go ahead and get it.

Now at this point you may be thinking – wait a minute.  Why is it that he gets a book called the 4 hour work week and then gets too busy to post on his blog?!  hehe fair question.  I read the book as quickly as I could absorb the information, and I think it is absolutely fantastic.  It covers a lot more information than just “outsourcing” which is what I thought it was all about.

I followed up my reading by subscribing to Jon Jonas’ program called Replace Myself, which is kind of a practical, hands on, step by step guide on how to multiply your income by hiring workers from the Philippines.

See what happened was this.

I’ve been thinking a lot about outsourcing in different ways.  Our “bread and butter” internet business is thriving, but some of our other businesses have been somewhat stagnant.  Partly it is because our main business was eating up too many minutes (time), and partly it is because, frankly, the work involved in the other businesses is tedious.

To be successful in those businesses you have to do certain things every day, day in and day out, for weeks and months on end.  Kind of like having a job.  I don’t mind doing the work to learn the business, but at some point to get what I need out of life I have to hire other people to do the grunt work.  Or what Amanda and I like to call Post Monkey stuff.

I also realize that for this to work well there are some things that I am going to have to do myself.  That’s just the nature of internet marketing, or in particular Network Marketing like Amanda and I are doing.

So all of these things have been happening at the same time, which has made for a very hectic month!

1. We started hosting our Mastermind Webinar series.  This takes up a lot more time and effort than you would think.  I have new respect for people who are able to do this every week!

2. We hired a General Manager for our Second Life land business.  This has meant spending time training at nights when I’d rather be goofing off.

3. We spent time interviewing and hiring our first workers from the Phillippines.  This has meant training, plus making videos and documents etc than can be used for future training.

4. We have been working on our expansion of Segarra Estates to include Open Sims.

All of this has added up to a lot of working minutes this month, with the goal of increasing our income, and free time, in future months.

Everything we do is for the goal of getting paid multiple times for the same efforts.  The effect of it is sometimes we work a whole bunch, and sometimes we play a whole bunch, and we keep on earning while working or playing!

When you understand the difference between being a business owner and being stuck in a self-created job, you can start enjoying the life of your dreams.

Have fun, and good luck!

WAKE UP!

Hi everyone.

This is going to sound like a bit of a rant but a couple of recent events have me concerned about the future of our country.  I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but I love my life, don’t have to answer to a boss, and am in active pursuit of living my dreams.  Part of the journey for me is being able to connect with like-minded people, and helping everyone who wants to understand that they can become financially free.

As you may have noticed from earlier blog posts I am a big fan of Robert Kiyosaki’s work, and enjoy playing and learning from his board game Cashflow 101.  We recently started playing at the country club, where I encourage anyone within a reasonable shouting distance to join in the game and learn how to Escape the Rat Race.  I firmly believe that anyone who wants to can Escape the Rat Race and become financially free. Its not necessarily easy to do this, but anyone who wants to can do it.  Period.

We live in the Land of Opportunity which is why in spite of the political climate, global events, or the state of the economy, people continue to flock to the USA.

Last night we were playing Cashflow101 and our favorite waitress was checking on us.  Before we started the game she told Amanda and I how she wasn’t meant to be there that night for whatever reason.  So we invited her to join us in playing the game that teaches you how to Escape the Rat Race.  Her response was “oh I’ll never get out of the rat race.”  Later on during the game she wandered through, and we again extended the offer, and she again stated without hesitation that she will never get out of the rat race. This is what is known as a self-fulfilling prophecy folks.

This morning I got an email from one of my blog readers who was expressing interest in our Daba Cashflow Solutions website. He expressed the typical concerns about being scammed, losing money, etc. and included this line that really gave me pause:  “I really am fed up, but don’t really want to try for another full-time job until I’m sure this financial freedom thing isn’t for me.“  This has me really concerned.

Why would anyone who lives in the USA ever think that financial freedom is not for them? Why would a grown hard working woman with good command of the English language be so convinced that she will never escape the rat race?!

This is the USA.  The Land of Opportunity.

WAKE UP PEOPLE!

What happens is our school system, our parents, our peers, the Television, all train us to be Employees.  That’s ok as far as it goes, because without Employees most businesses wouldn’t exist either.  But as the economic events of the last year or so have shown us, being an Employee is only going to get you so far.  Your job security, your livelihood, the food on your table, the roof over your head, all become dependent on someone else (the Boss).

Becoming financially free means waking up. You have to scrub your brain of the employee mentality, the entitlement mentality that has been all you’ve known your entire life.  It doesn’t happen over night, but it can happen, and it all starts with a choice.

Its kind of like The Matrix right?  I’ve been fighting against making this comparison but its a pop culture reference that most of us understand.  You can keep living the fantasy of the employee, trade hours for dollars, buy more doodads, live paycheck to paycheck, get time off for good behavior, a gold watch at retirement, and stay plugged into The Matrix while the Machines (Bosses) harvest your energy.

OR you can WAKE UP and face the cold, hard, beautiful reality and start living the life of your dreams.

The choice is yours.

Have fun, and good luck!

I fired my (2nd) best customer!

Hey everyone.  Haven’t posted in a bit but its been hectic.  Not only did we go on vacation to beautiful British Columbia, but we also completed another merger in our Second Life land business.

That business is coming along like a lemonade stand on a hot summer’s day, and one reason why is, as obvious as this may sound, we make sure to stay into profit.   I have posted before about the ROI of our business and how we are able to use Other People’s Time and Money to generate profits.

The key to our business is taking care of people.

We have two managers who look after the business for us, and a pile of cash came in while we were on vacation.  Its a beautiful thing.  For instance, the day we were travelling our business brought in aprox $560 in sales and we didn’t do a thing but enjoy our vacation!

But going back to the customer I had to fire.  I tell my managers that we need to Train our New Customers and Take Care Of our Old Customers.  See, in our Second Life land business we have a large overhead that we have to cover to keep the lights on.  And it all comes from the payments that our customers make to use our land.

This one particular customer was renting five islands for us, paying us roughly $1700 USD per month in rent.  He had been with us for a couple of months but was having issues paying his rent on time.  Most of our customers pay weekly, its just the nature of the business.  Well, all of our systems and having our managers in place only works up to a point – that point being whether or not we can train our customers to pay on time!  This one – we couldn’t.  Not only was he not paying on time, but he was making it hard for our manager to do her job properly as he wouldn’t even tell her when he was going to pay.

Something I learned from my days in the Rent-to-Own business is the next best thing to a Payment is a Commitment.  If someone’s rent is due at 5 PM and they are running late, my manager’s job is to get a Commitment from them.  In other words, yes I know I was due at 5 PM, but I will be able to pay at 10 PM.  This allows the manager to not have to bother the customer again until 10 PM, or not at all if they pay rent first.  Well this customer who was paying us $1700 USD per month just didn’t get it.  So I had to get personally involved and fire him.

At that point in time he was past due on two of his islands, which we then reclaimed and I told him to make sure to pay on time on his remaining three.  He took offense to that and asked for a refund of his remaining rent on the other three, which I gave him.

The happy conclusion was we were able to fill all five islands with customers who pay on time!  My managers can go back to doing their jobs, I can spend more time on the golf course, and we are able to keep expanding the business.

Whatever business you run, whatever systems you have in place, keep your ultimate goal in mind.

Yes, we take very good care of our people.  We take care of our realtors, our managers, and our residents. We are able to do that because we take care of our business first!  By making sure our bills are paid, we are able to continue to profit and provide great service month in and month out.

Take care of your people, and (most of them!) will take care of you.

Have fun, and good luck!

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What kind of Mob Boss are you?!

For some reason I got to thinking today about a certain episode of The Sopranos.  I’m not a big TV watcher in general but I got hooked on that show and ended up watching the entire series on DVD.

Yes, even something from pop culture can have implications for your internet marketing business if you open your mind a little bit.

One of the common themes in the show was Leadership.  What it means to be a leader, how to be a leader, how to train your soldiers, etc.  Of course the stakes for those characters were a little bit higher than our stakes – or were they really?

In the world of The Sopranos if you were a successful leader your crew got bigger, you established fierce loyalty among your followers, and of course you got paid more and more cash.  Not really too different from network marketing if you stop and think about it!

If you were a bad leader you ended up dead or in jail and your family would suffer.  Well it sounds extreme to say that if you fail in your business today you will end up dead or in jail, but in another sense that’s true too!  How many failed businessmen have we heard of over the last few years who ended up in jail?  Some of them have ended up dead too!

In a more general sense though it is unlikely that your business failures will actually kill you.  It is more likely that it may kill your dreams, your hopes, your aspirations, your lifestyle.  Don’t let that happen.

Being a successful entrepreneur is kind of like being a mob boss in that way.

You have time freedom, the risks and rewards of being in business for yourself, and a lifestyle that others only dare dream about.  You escape the Rat Race of trading hours for dollars week after week and desperately trying to make ends meet between paychecks.  You develop a team of people working together for a common goal, and everyone gets rich together.

Once you have a taste of that lifestyle, that freedom, you will never want to go back.  Trust me on that.

My wife and I have been studying and applying some of the principles of attraction marketing lately, which is really just a new term for relationship marketing.  I was talking with one of my team mates about this yesterday, and I couldn’t help but use the old adage about pigs who get fed being smarter than hogs who get slaughtered.

I guess that’s what got me to thinking about The Sopranos today, because one of my favorite scenes from the series is about just this topic.

See, when I structure my business and concentrate my marketing efforts I have to decide: Do I want to be a hog who gets slaughtered or a pig who gets fed?

I can concentrate all of my efforts on generating quick sales for big bucks, but that kind of marketing is a grind.  It ultimately doesn’t add up to much but an endless chase for dollars.

I prefer to generate steady income over time, by building relationships with my colleagues, team mates, partners, and customers, so we will do business together again next week, next month, and next year.

Going back to The Sopranos, when the old man Junior Soprano became mob boss he was greedy and many of his followers became disgruntled. Tony Soprano had to talk some sense into him by relating a story about Augustus Ceasar.  Unfortunately that tale went right over Junior’s head, so Tony had to give a better example for Junior to understand.  He related a barnyard tale involving bulls and cows, which I won’t repeat here….

The upshot of it was – take care of your people, and they will take care of you.

Think long term, and the actions you take today can benefit you for years to come.

Have fun, and good luck!

How to avoid a $5,000 marketing mistake!

Hi everyone.

I’m trying to think of an easy way to get into this topic without wandering all over the place with a back story so I’m just going to cut to the chase.

To be a successful internet marketer – you need to track your results!

What does this mean?

It means every time you get a lead, customer, or sale, you want to know how did your customer find you?  What was it that they saw that brought them to your website?  If at all possible track them all the way through to the sale.

I know this sounds simple and obvious but it is something so many people miss out on.  Stick with me through these examples and you’ll see what I mean.

Our network marketing company has a big price tag and pays a big commission, so we have seen a bunch of different and expensive schemes out there to promote it.  Its almost like gambling.  People will spend $5,000 or $6,0000 or $10,000 on these big expensive campaigns, hoping for the pay off. They know that it only takes a handful of sign ups for them to make their investment back plus more.

The schemers who prey on these inexperienced marketers make it seem oh so easy. “Just cough up six grand for our Super Mega Advertising Co-op and you’ll make back twelve grand before you know it. And the best part is – you won’t have to do anything but write the check!”

You ever hear the expression there’s a sucker born every minute?

Now don’t get me wrong. I have a lot of empathy for the new marketer. Everything can seem so confusing, and the schemers make it seem so easy.

It’s not that I think that new marketers are suckers, well not exactly.  Its just that when you have the ability to charge a large amount on a credit card, and you are lazy, inexperienced, fearful, or a combination of the three, you need to be cautious.

Believe you me folks I am doing my best to be careful and compassionate about what I’m saying here.  I’m the last person who likes to use the S word (SCAM) indiscriminately.  But some of the things that I have seen really make me wonder how some people sleep at night.

For example, lets say you market a product that pays you $1,000 in commissions for every sale that you make.   Someone tells you you will get great results using Postcard Marketing.  They will send out 20,000 postcards for you for $5,000, and each postcard will have your website url on it.

Sounds great right?

You will only need to get 5 sales from the 20,000 Opportunity Seekers who get your postcard, and then you will make your money back.  All the extra sales on top of that will make you RICH RICH RICH!

So you reach into your wallet, pull out your trusty lender Mr. Visa, and put yourself another $5,000 in debt.

And then you wait.

And wait.

And wait.

Oh look you got a lead.  It didn’t put money in your pocket yet but its just a matter of time right?

Your postcards must be working!

Oh look you got another lead.

YAY you got a sale!  Cha-ching!  $1,000 back in your pocket!

Everything is going great.  Maybe you make your investment back, plus more.  But the thing is this – how can you track those sales back to your Postcard Campaign?

In case you haven’t guessed it by now, when we saw this particular madness going on, there wasn’t any way to track results!  People were spending thousands upon thousands of dollars on marketing campaigns that they had no control over, they couldn’t track, and lo and behold they weren’t getting any sales either.  Bummer!

Those same people saw Amanda and I getting leads, sign ups, and sales, and wondered what it was we were doing?!

The answer is – a lot of little things.

We do a lot of little things every day, every week, every month, to build our business.  And we track nearly everything we do.

The most basic form of tracking is through the use of a Tracking ID.  When you click to join our MLM marketing system, I will track the sale back to this blog.

Different websites will use different formats for this, but they all work basically the same way.

Another way to track is by registering a domain name for a specific marketing campaign.

This is especially useful when you are doing video marketing.

I wanted to create a video series that points back to our MLM marketing system.  When I finish the video I want the viewer to visit my website.  Expecting them to type in the url plus a tracking ID is way too much to hope for. I could try to use the same domain name with a Tracking ID such as /?t=video, but odds are it isn’t going to be very effective.

Instead, I register a new domain name with Go Daddy. A .com domain name costs about $10 for the year, while a .info costs $1. So for as little as a dollar I can track the results of my video campaign for an entire year!

Now when someone views my video they will see the url I registered, which actually points to the main site with the /?t=video tracking id added.

I know this may sound a little bit confusing, but make the extra effort to track your results. Do a lot of little things to build your business, and track your results. You will get a better sense of what is working, what’s not working, what you should concentrate on, and what you should just leave alone.

Instead of losing $5,000 on one campaign that may or may not work, you can chop that up into, say, 50 campaigns of $100 each.  You track the results of each campaign, then concentrate your money and efforts where you will get the greatest return.

This is one of those little things that makes a big difference.

Have fun, and good luck!

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