Hi there everyone - Just a very quick post to apologise for my current lack of blogging action! I am so busy putting together my niche membership site that it’s consuming all my time. But I will reveal much more about this and great tips for membership sites once it’s launched and I’m seeing results … should be in early 2009. Until then … Take it easy!

John

When I first started in niche marketing about 3 years ago I was “sold” the idea that the grand plan to riches was to build a website in a certain niche, and get the profits rolling in … Then duplicate the system again and again in different niches until you have 5, 10, 15 or 50 different cash-pulling websites. The “go wide” theory of internet marketing.

Now I tried this approach in several niches with good results but then found that it’s actually a lot harder than you think; to be able to be “expert enough” in loads of different niches to sell products. Particularly if you’re a lone marketer like me.

The other part of the problem is the sheer volume of work that you can quickly make for yourself in answering emails, keeping on top of new developments in your niche, and trouble shooting problems that you get in your mini-site empire etc.

Someone actually asked the other day me how many websites I have - and I genuinely didn’t know! I think it’s about 9 or 10 which is a whole lot to think about and keep on top of. And to be honest I’ve been honing that number down from more like around 15 previously.

So my marketing is now much more focused on drilling down within a niche rather than chasing niche after niche like some crazed website collector! What this means is that I largely my spend my time in just 2 arenas - my main niche topic (let’s just call it X!) and the internet marketing niche.

And that’s what I would advise you to do in your online business - drill down and don’t go too wide. So instead of going for a parrot site, a hobby craft site, a magic side and a vintage cars site - take just ONE of those topics, such as parrots. Then start off with a basic digital information product (like an ebook/MP3).

After you’ve tweaked and tested that site to make regular profits and started to build a list then look at another related product. Maybe another eBook or a physical product this time like a DVD, CD Rom or Home Study Course (such as DVD’s and Printed Workbook). Then consider a membership site for a regular monthly subscription fee.

By keeping to just one niche you’ll keep the work down and become established as an “expert” in your niche much quicker. And it also helps you to be much more laser-focused too. I wish I’d done this several years ago as I know my income would be much higher, and my work load much lower, if I’d stuck with just one or two niche topics.

Have a great day and remember to go deep and not wide in your marketing.

John Hillage

PS There’s been a slight change of plan in the free eBook that I’ve been promising to give you in response to the questions you’ve sent in. That’s because so many people had general “how do I make money online” questions. So I’m just working on a product that I was actually going to sell, that teaches a very specific way of making money online.

So I’m going to give that product away to all you faithful readers on my list. PLUS I’m going to give you complete Master Resell Rights with it too. Which means that you’ll get the eBook and a sales letter so that you’ll be able to sell it for profits! So watch out in the next 7 days as I’ll be sending you an email with all the details on this great FREE offer.

As a reader of my blog/newsletter you will probably know that I am busy working away on my latest Internet Marketing project, to be ready for the end of this month.

So on Sunday night I began brainstorming domain names. Then I picked one, looked to see if it was available and then registered it. And this whole process took about 5 minutes from start to finish.

How cool is that - to have your next business venture registered and ready to work on in less than 5 minutes?

Now I’m sure that none of this is astounding at all for people in the online marketing world as it’s a quick and easy process when you know how. But I for one am guilty of taking this simplicity for granted.

I remember registering my own offline company in the UK when I had the idea of selling Ipods on Ebay a couple of years ago. I had to request a form through the post, book an appointment with a solicitor, visit the solicitor and fill in some paperwork.

And pay both the solicitor and the government quite a bit of money for the privilege!

It took a whole lot more than 5 minutes - and so I am so grateful for the instant world of Internet marketing! But it gets better …

After the domain registration I decided that I had better get some graphics for the site.

I remembered a guy on the Warrior Forum offering such a service out in Romania. So I skyped him and he replied instantly.

We had a quick chat about what I wanted and then he was off designing my graphics for me - hundreds of miles away in Eastern Europe.

After sitting down to eat some dinner and watching a little crap TV (some extreme dieting show from Australia - the joys of cable!) - I clicked back on my pc and my new found friend from Romania had completed the graphics and sent them to me.

I checked them out and was pleased with the results so paid him instantly by paypal.

Job done in a couple of hours (most of which I wasn’t even working) with the few clicks of a button on a Sunday night from the comfort of my own home.

Now what other business in the world (except maybe online trading) can you get so much done, in so little time, at very low cost from your own home?

So if you’re fairly new to Internet marketing; welcome to this amazing ride and you have truly found a “make money opportunity” that can fit in with your lifestyle.

And if you are a more experienced marketer then occasionally takes 2 minutes of your time to be grateful.

Yes your ftp may not work one day, your blog my go down or the code on your site may go a little weird for no explicable reason - but hey you’re working from home and using technology that allows you to do more effective, efficient and profitable work than you could ever imagine in the more “traditional” business world.

So keep smiling!

John

PS – If you need some good quality web graphics creating at a reasonable price just drop me an email and I’ll pass on the guy’s name and contact details.

I wanted to share with you my own recent painful tax experience and why you should treat your online marketing ventures as a serious business; no matter what you’re currently earning. Because I recently got back from my summer holidays to find a tax bill that was around $14,000 more than I was anticipating – ouch!

Now after a fair amount of swearing and cussing and then some financial juggling, all is fine again in my business (well except the CRAZY amounts I have to actually pay the damned tax man)! But the point that I want to share is this - that I have spent a lot of time ignoring the basic fundamentals of any good profitable business, much to my peril.

For example I’ve not been ensuring that every last penny is accounted for, that I am on the best tax deals possible, or that I cut costs wherever appropriate. Mainly because to be honest I find this side of my business as dull as dishwater, but now I am suddenly finding it more exciting…

Because my real passion is doing the creative things like producing new products, writing sales letters, putting emails together and planning promotions. As a result I have left myself exposed to serious amounts of money flooding out of my business.

Now I’ve had this breakthrough that I’m actually losing money unnecessarily each month; suddenly I’m finding the idea of filing receipts correctly, going to see my accountant, and seeking the best deals on stuff as much more exciting!

Obviously I still need to do my creative stuff to keep new streams of income coming in each month, but there is also a “secret river” of money flowing out of my business that I never even thought too much about before.

And when you look at it this way it’s crazy to work so hard on making extra money when you are dropping so much unnecessary money behind you on the pavement (sidewalk for my American friends!) behind you.

So the idea of this blog post is to check if YOU are doing all you can do to maximise the profits of your business with those little “behind the scenes” activities that may be leaking money.

Are you subscribed to expensive membership sites that you no longer use?

Do you have a big bundle of receipts somewhere in a bag that need filing?

Are you putting off that appointment that you need to make with the bank or your accountant?

Are you shopping around properly for the software, hardware and other stuff that you need to purchase for your business? (An example this week in my business was that I had my printer’s ink cartridge re-filled in a local store for $16 - for the past year I’ve been buying new cartridges of the shelf for $30!)

So look you don’t need to become Ebenezer Scrooge obsessing over every last penny - but think about where you could tighten up on your business, and plug that “secret river” of cash. Whatever you do can only add to your overall profits.

Until next time….

Happy Marketing.

John Hillage

PS – Things are going well on my new website project which will take marketers just like you on to bigger and better online profits. So keep looking out for more updates and a release date which should be late September.

PPS - Thanks to all those who submitted marketing questions to me last week on email, only 1 person used the blog! I am about to start the report now but if you have 1 last little question - drop me an email or a blog comment and I’ll try and answer it too.

Hi - Thanks for coming here from my newsletter today.

Like I said in the newsletter I want to help you by answering your most difficult question at the moment in your online marketing.

Then I’ll compile it into a 100% FREE Special Report with the questions of other readers too - and you’ll get exclusive access to the report.

If that sounds helpful then just add your question below this blog post in the “Comments” section and I’ll get to work.

Thanks

John Hillage

PS - If you want to remain anonymous in the report just let me know that you don’t want your name adding.

As I’m sure you know I released a free report last week called which reveals exactly how I made $638.68 in 60 Minutes online - if not you can still grab a copy at http://www.nononsensejohn.com/638.html

I just wanted to feed back to you the power of publishing such free reports.

I have had the report out a week now and already gained 205 opt-in subscribers and made 7 sales of the plr version of the report already.

In addition I have sold several more copies of my Proven Internet Profit System

through a link in the report, have had several sub-affiliates sign-up under me for a natural health company that I promote, and even had a subscriber interested in translating it into German for the online market out there.

Now I know I am not exactly Donald Trump as a result of releasing this free report but already within 7 days it’s putting cash in my pocket and building my opt-in list, with virtually no cost except my own time.

And all that I have done to promote it is make it available on the Warrior Forum, emailed my own list and had a mention from Martin Avis in Kickstart Daily.

But that’s just the beginning…

I’m currently researching the best ways to utilize this report in free ebook directories and using other free viral methods for even greater results.

And rest assured John Hillage blog readers will get the low down on these strategies when I’ve worked on them.

Just imagine though for a second if you were able to put up a few of these enticing little free reports all over the internet.

How quickly do you think you could build a list of 200, 500, 1000 or more subscribers which can help form the basis of you online business.

And 1000+ subscribers is a great number to get started with in such a relatively short space of time.

This is possible because the reports are pretty quick to write and as you can tell if you’ve visited the website; you don’t need the most amazing looking site in the world for it to work (as long as your “copy” is compelling enough).

Now I would love to boast that the whole system was dreamed up by me from start to finish…

But if I did I’d be lying!

I just followed a system as set out by Tony Shepherd and Sara Brown (who are an excellent duo of No-BS Internet Marketers from the UK).

Their Licensed To Quit system is really easy to follow and shows you step by step how to set it all up.

You can read all about it at www.johnhillage.com/ltq.html

That’s all for this week.

Happy Marketing

John Hillage

Hi this week I’ve got an exciting freebie for you.

I’ve just finished working on a brand new Special Report that you can pick up as a blog visitor for absolutely nothing!

It’s an in-depth 14 page report which shows you exactly how I made $638.68 in 60 Minutes (and am actually still using this technique to make even more than that month after month).

You can get hold of your own personal copy for free at:

http://www.nononsensejohn.com/638.html

I would love it if you could comment on how you found the report, ask me questions etc.

Come on let’s start some dialogue here!

Have a great day

John Hillage

Hi Fellow Marketers – Here’s this week’s blog post coming all the way from sunny Portsmouth in the UK!

And apologies as it’s my 2^nd contact with you today – following my earlier email about today’s free site launch which you should definitely check out if you want some great freebies:

www.johnhillage.com/viralmarketinggiveaway12.html

So far today’s been a great day for me – my baby (Honey’s) first birthday so we’ve been unwrapping presents and playing by the sea all day.

And as with all kids that age the wrapping paper and envelopes are just SO much more fun that the actual presents!

But anyway we’ve got chocolate cake tonight so today just gets better!

This post follows on from the newsletter last week on the subject of networking; where I gave a few examples of how important it’s been to my online business.

Now last week’s newsletter was my first in the internet marketing niche (although I have been doing newsletters in other niches for nearly 2 years now!)

And I got one or two people moaning that it was just too long for them.

For me personally I like a newsletter that I can get some real value out of – not just a few lines of hype followed by “click here to buy!”

But let me know – because if many of you are in the “short is good” camp then I can change the format for the next one.

Anyway on to networking…

As many of you know I launched The Proven Internet Profit System last month and did it largely through a select few JV deals.

And the JV partners that came through for me and ran promotions that actually sold product – were all folk that I had met in person.

The main one being Mr. Martin Avis (of Kickstart daily fame) whom I met about 2 years ago – and have been in sporadic contact with via email over that period.

I have had little joy with contacting other marketers “cold” via email – so face-to-face contact is so important (ironic when you think of the whole “work at home alone on your pc” nature of online marketing).

So I plan to get to more offline events this year as they are just so valuable, and you should too.

In fact if any of you live near the South Coast of England I have been trying to set up an online marketing group for a little while via The Warrior Forum.

If you are interested go to the post at http://www.warriorforum.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=250081 and add your thoughts – so that I can look at getting this off the ground.

And whilst we are talking about the Warrior Forum – it’s a great place online to go and network and “meet” people.

I am really into the Warrior Forum and regularly post on there – both to help others and also get a little bit of direction myself at times.

I am also building up contact with some great marketers which I know will pay dividends further down the line for them and me – with cross-promotional activities.

But if you do check it out, remember that forums are places to give and receive information first and foremost.

A great by-product of this is that you can build contacts with people and build your list through your signature file etc.

But DON’T go there looking to just “sell” to people as you will quickly (and ruthlessly) be exposed, especially in the Warrior Forum!

The basic rules that I use for successful networking and marketing on forums I learned from George Katsoudas who is one of my favourite no-BS online marketers.

If you want to learn more about his very inexpensive guide to forum marketing you should check out http://johnhillage.com/forummarketing.html

But even without this guide - just be respectful, polite , offer genuine help to people and add an effective signature file, and you won’t go far wrong (it’s not rocket science!)

Well that’s all for now, and I’m about to start giving away my latest internet marketing product for free this week.

So be sure to watch for an email on how you can get your copy in the next 7 days.

Happy marketing

John Hillage

One thing that I find more and more in my online marketing career is that time is so darned precious and hard to come by.

It’s a constant struggle to juggle family and online work commitments on a daily basis.

And I’m quite a workaholic with my online business so find myself constantly trying to squeeze more time out of each day.

The birth of my daughter almost a year ago now has helped me greatly to get a bit better life-work balance.

But I’m still a bit rubbish at it if truth be told!

The thing is though that working harder and harder is a bad trap to fall into.

You end up exhausted and actually you can become less productive.

I can remember numerous occasions where I’ve worked on a project tired – made mistakes and it’s actually taken twice as long.

And wasted so much precious time that could be spent with my family or doing other “fun” stuff.

In the long run constant “work, work, work” online can make you pretty unhappy and can mess up your whole life balance.

I know I’m not alone in this as I started a thread in the Warrior Forum asking other marketers if they ever uttered those fatal words to their family members “I’ll just check my emails for a minute…” and I got a big response.

You can read the thread at: http://www.warriorforum.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=249473

The key to beating this is to give yourself at least 1 whole day off the computer per week as it really refreshes you – something I try to stick to (but am not always successful).

Also outsourcing is a great way to cut down on the tasks you have to do – I have just begun to outsource the writing of one of my niche newsletters and my number crunching stats work (which I hate!)

So far the results have been good and for about $70 I have bought back about 3-4 hours of my life each month – which feels great.

Now I wouldn’t outsource my online marketing stuff as that’s my own know-how and another writer couldn’t replicate it.

Plus it’s my real passion and so writing it comes naturally.

But my other niche stuff – sure I outsource and plan to do more of it.

If you’re not in a position to outsource yet – at least do yourself a favour and tackle your most important tasks.

Spending hours messing around with email, Facebook, buying e-books and reading forum posts will not build your online business.

Writing sales copy, researching niches, developing products, making web pages etc. is what will drive you forward.

So try to do something today to get a bit of your time back and make your online business more effective.

Happy Marketing

John Hillage

Hi there – this week’s blog post may be a little shorter than most as I’m pretty pushed for time tonight.

I’ve just been playing football (sorry soccer for those reading across the pond) and need to go out and pick my son up from work soon (he works part time at a local store stacking shelves at night).

Anyway I just wanted to tell you about a great e-book that is really helpful for anyone blogging, or anyone thinking about it.

It’s been written by a fellow Brit Rob Benwell and is called “Blogging To The Bank 2.0” and has been out a little while but I only got a copy last month and have devoured it several times, and applied the great and easy to follow advice on several of my blogs.

In the tradition of really good e-books it’s not packed with pages of “filler content” and gets down to the nitty gritty of running your own successful and profitable blog online.

Rob takes you right through from finding a niche, setting up a blog, getting great content, optimizing the blog for SEO (in really simple ways), getting traffic to the blog and most importantly PROFITING from your blog.

Now for me the optimisation section was worth the small investment for the e-book alone (oh and by the way keep on reading and I’ll share with you the sneaky way I got a copy at nearly 50% discount!)

The optimisation section showed me EXACTLY where I was going wrong!

And I’ve been quickly able to rectify that so that the search engines are much happier with my blog now.

For the beginner Rob lays out his “5 Blogging Commandments” that any wannabe blogger needs to know in their quest to become a successful blogger.

And Rob also covers great traffic strategies for your blog of which I have started using a few already.

Overall it’s a well written guide that will appeal to those already blogging, and those who want to.

It’s around 60 pages long which is good news when it comes to keeping the cost down of printing it off (which is what I like to do with any good e-books that I get).

Oh yes and the sneaky trick…

Go to the site which I will give you below and then when you have read the sales letter and still want to buy a copy then click off the site.

A window will then pop up where an “operator” will offer you a copy at $20 cheaper!

Just click that link and you get it for $27 instead of $47.

Here’s the page to go to:

http://johnhillage.com/blogging.html

Happy Marketing

John Hillage