Staying Paid

Today Is Your Day To Begin Staying Paid, and Here’s How To Do It

Posted on July 27th, 2008 in Breaking Fear, Business, Creation Station, Empowerment, General, Marketing, Rant, balance, life, work Blog Song, Niche Research, Niche Tactics, Strategy, The Art of Staying Paid

It’s my usual situation - I’m sitting in the laundry waiting for clothes to dry, or I’m in the cafe waiting for a client or a friend. And I can’t forget my favorite - waiting downstairs for the elevator to go see The Date. I run into a friendly stranger whose eyes light up when we get to talking about occupations and professions. You know, that career stuff. Cos you know they’re excited to hear that I make money online with that there Internet thingy. And since I’ve technically been permanently out of the (corporate) office for about 3 months and 10 days, they tend to wanna know how I’m staying paid (ha, get it? OK, sorry…)

Being the friendly person I am, I usually give every person who talks to me, regardless if it’s by email, phone, or in person, a little tip, trick, or strategy to help them on their online journey, if they’re really serious about making money online.

Sometimes, I’m actually rewarded with a thank you … but lately, whatever I pull out of the file cabinet of ideas in my brain is met with a “Oh…well…that sounds hard …” and another round of “But Isa, I need more money, I want to work less and enjoy life more for the long haul … but if it weren’t for Excuse 1, Excuse 2, and can’t forget Excuse 3 …”

Nope, sorry. Today is your day. Not tomorrow. Not “someday”. Right effing now, and that’s the point. Stop watching the news about a recession - you don’t need that crap. Actually, let’s do you another favor: turn that glass thing off. Save it for another day, because all it’s doing is bringing you tragedy that isn’t yours. And the excuses? I got news for you - if you’re truly serious about something, you do whatever it takes to pull it off.

Funny … remember when you wanted to go down to see the family for Christmas and you did whatever it took to make that happen? I didn’t see you mention those tasks as being hard … or when your kids wanted something, or when your special someone’s birthday was coming and you knew they had their eye on that shiny red widget set? Yeah, I went there. Bite me later.

I will suffer your wrath if you’re willing to hear my points out.

Most people online have only one part of the Formula instead of all three: belief, desire, and seriousness.

It’s not enough to just want to make money online. That’s desire, but you’re missing belief and seriousness. It’s not enough to even think you can make money online. You’re missing desire and seriousness. It’s not even enough to take action, because the moment your actions do not lead to success, you will quit and there will be much gnashing of teeth. Why? You had seriousness (taking action), but not enough belief or desire.

Only when you have all three will you actually see progress online. Seriously.

I talk to a lot of people online and offline. I talk to single mothers in public housing who wish to God every night they could be anywhere but in their current situation. I used to spend my breaks as a Wal-Mart cashier (yes, I used to be one!) teaching those who were willing to listen  about the entrepreneur mentality and small steps they could take online to make their lives change for the better.  I have held the hands of men who ache inside because they can’t seem to figure out how to have that little extra for their families so their kids could grow up and have more than they did.

You would think these folks I just mentioned would be happy and hungry to learn what I had to spend over 15,000$ and 11 years of my life to learn, right? Unfortunately, this usually isn’t the case. There’s a piece of that 3 part formula  they’re missing in one way or the other.

I’ve been observing that most people’s focus is on this so called “recession” and high gas prices.

What if you could write an article that gave you 5 gallons of gas? I recently sold off an article for $105. For my car (1999 Audi A4, love it to death) that’s not just 5 gallons of gas - at $3.48/gal (that’s what it is right now) that’s roughly 30 gallons of gas, or 2 tanks worth of gas for my car. Gee, I wonder all the places I can go with 2 full tanks of gas? :)

What if you could build and sell a website that completely took care of your groceries for that week?

What about a salesletter? *grins* Get good at writing those and you could eat a mortgage … laugh at utility bills … chuckle at gas pumps …

What if I told you that you could lead a nation with a microphone… would you believe me? No? When you turn on a news channel and flip over the recession, the economy, and all things negative, that is exactly what you’re allowing the newscasters and reporters to do just that. So why them instead of you?

Writing articles isn’t difficult, nor is writing a salesletter when you stop allowing negative forces to tell you what you can’t do and start letting to that quiet inner voice that’s been trying to tell you about your greatness all along.

So for the people that stop me when I’m on the way for my morning souffle from Panera or even the up and coming that want to figure out where to begin in their own personal “Staying Paid” journey, here’s my suggestion:

Find a Niche!

Yes, niches are everywhere. Open up your phone book and take a long hard look at all those categories. Guess what? Those are niches! We scored an awesome local domain in a high transaction niche - lead generation, anyone? :) On the serious side, I’m not kidding with you here - phone books, the magazine and book section at your local b-store or even your local WalMart can lead to some pretty awesome finds.

Generally, if someone is spending good money to put a book out there on the subject, you can bet your child’s college fund that there’s at least some sort of market for that niche. Dead tree ware (read: books and magazines and phone books) cost serious money to print and serious money to distribute.

Oh, and you know those penny classifieds, like The Thifty Nickel and etc? Nichey goodness right there too. Classifieds can add to some major dollars - don’t be afraid to break out a highlighter and highlight anything that leaps out at you. There’s a lot of great ads to be found and generally, the bigger the ad, the more expensive it is.  And again, if people are spending good money in a niche, it’s a sign that yes, that’s a product or a service that’s worth advertising for, in a category that people generally have money to spend.

Here’s another one that you should think about - direct mail. You know those junk mail letters you throw in the trash? You might want to save those and take a look at them. Direct mail is my favorite - do you know how expensive a direct mail campaign can be? People have spent millions to send those puppies out. Why not save a few, and with so much direct mail floating around, you have plenty of choices to choose from. Read first, swipe the best of the best, then toss if you like.

See if It’s Valid - 2 Step Formula Here

Part One is figuring out whether or not you’ve got enough search traffic (read: people actually frantically searching for this topic). It’s not foolproof - high numbers are great, but I’ve seen deeeep niches pull in a startling amount of cash. Wander over to this keyword research tool - it’s awesome, and the guy who owns the site is pretty awesome too.

Type your main term in the little box and click submit. Look down in the column marked “Google” for at least 65 searches a day. You could go down to 60 or even 50, but I like to have at least 750-1500 people searching everyday for a topic before I really jump in and rock out. More is always better!

Part Two is figuring out if it’s really something you can jump into easily and right away - the only way to do that is to check the competition. I’m using Google here for obvious reasons - it’s the biggest, but don’t count out Yahoo or MSN - I’ve found MSN folks on my site and they (on the whole) seem very receptive to purchasing things!

Wander your way over to Google and type in that handy phrase you looked up in Part One, but put quotes around it. So “homemade yogurt” instead of homemade yogurt. It’s not a perfect method, but it’s just a way of knowing what you’re really up against.  Check out that little number in the upper right corner of the screen - the lower that number, the better. Generally, I won’t dive too hard into niches that have more than 25,000 competing pages, but if I find something that has 15,000 results or less, I’m all over that like a cheap suit.

Create something!

Ah, the monetization part. *grabs you a notepad* Pulling money out of the internet, once you do it, is one of the most addictive activities on earth. It’s like everything turns into a nail, and you have just the right hammer to keep ‘em all in line :)

You could:

•  build a pack of articles around your niche topic and sell it as Private Label Rights articles (meaning that the buyer can take them and put their name on them and alter them for their own private use!)
• build a website around your niche topic and grow it over time AND sell it to a happy marketer like myself
• build a website on the fly and then sell it as fast as you can (startup websites can still net anywhere from $50-$500+)
• become an authority in that niche and sell audio, video, and digital reports (generally PDFs) to buyers
• become an authority in that niche and LICENSE  your authority-ness to other hungry entrepreneurs like yourself :)
• become an affiliate of a site related to your niche topic
• teach other people in that niche how to sell to other people in that niche ;)

There. 7 different tactics to take - you should be able to find one that fits your unique personality!

But you see I still don’t know where to begin and I … 

OK. Today … TODAY… write an article on your niche topic. Hell, write an article on anything remotely interesting. Even if you don’t have someone willing to buy it, you can always sell it to AssociatedContent.com - they tend to buy articles fairly often. They’re not my first choice, but if you absolutely cannot think of anyone else, it’s always a “saving grace” in the hole ;)

I’m asking you to write just one. As soon as I hit send, I’m going to produce a piece of content as well, just for you readers here. I’ll link it back to this article.

But whatever you decide … do it TODAY. Do it while you’re angry, if you’re upset at what I said. Do it while you’re bouncy and excited, before the tan wears off and you’re stuck with the non-sunny reality that this will require thinking, and given the level of “reality tv” in the last couple of years, I’m starting to worry that people just don’t want to do much of that anymore.

As always, I’m here for you. Please, please, please: if you are banging your head against the wall, don’t know where to start and you’re ready to get started - contact me (nichelady@gmail.com). I offer one-on-one coaching at a super affordable price and if I have free time, I’m always available to at least look at what you’re up to and offer my best guidance. :)

I’m done now :) I’ll go back to being nice Isa now … so remember: work hard, play hard, LOVE EASILY!

Isa “Niche Lady Murphy, The Staying Paid Diva

“Helping people make payday come everyday through strategy, not chance!”

The Early Morning Blog Song: Usher - Let It Burn (which is exactly what you should do to your NEGATIVE THOUGHTS - LET THEM BURN!!!)