Yesterday I confessed that I was one of the “failures” in life, until I re-assessed my life laws! I have never shared these with anyone before, and it’s taken me years to get them shaped into the 6 laws I want to show you now. These are the laws that turned my life around.

So here goes, as promised – Ian Greenwood’s 6 Laws for Wealth.  I have distilled these from my own life experience of going from a broke no hoper to a successful online business owner… so they must mean something!

1. Doing is more important than thinking! By this I mean that all the thinking in the world will not progress your life one little bit. You need to BALLANCE your thinking with the right actions based on your thinking, decisions and goals. They need each other. Actions, need thinking, need actions! And life rewards action! You must actually do stuff to progress your life. That is, take action!

2. Life rewards completion. I’m amazed at the number of people I talk to that would like me to look at half completed projects, ideas and products. There is no point. Life will only provide the reward when you have completed the process. Half finished products don’t sell. Half finished websites don’t attract traffic. Half completed sales letters don’t make money. Life only rewards completion.

3. What you do today dictates what you are tomorrow! This is called ‘causality’. What you do today causes your life tomorrow! Every day, where you don’t actually do anything to progress your goals, business, or life, is another day wasted! You must actually take action. Thinking about it doesn’t count – you must actually do something every day to progress your life. Your life tomorrow depends on what actions you take today!

4. Your life will move towards your predominant focus! This is not “the secret” in another form. This means you need to focus on a plan to completion! Without focus you’ll never complete anything. You need to focus on one path, one project, or one plan – then you will experience success! Hopping from one half completed project to another will never get you anywhere. It’s a recipe for failure.

5. Time – you need to use it, or loose it! I lost nearly 15 years of my life trying to “make it big” through following dubious get rich quick schemes and biz ops.  I know I will never get that time back. I wish I could. I wish I had learned all this when I was 18! But I didn’t. We all walk our own path in life, and we all only have one life. Every minute you spend progressing your life towards your focus is an investment in your future. Don’t waste another minute!

6. Educate yourself! It amazes me the number of people I come across that want to sell online, but have never even bought anything themselves online. They want to start a business on eBay, but have never bought anything on an eBay auction! They want to run a multi million dollar business on the internet, but they don’t even know the basics of putting up a simple webpage online! Educating yourself will never be wasted time, money, or effort.

And this brings me full circle really. My big break came when, at aged 43, I went back to university to learn Multimedia Computing and Web Development. I left all the “get rich quick” nonsense behind, and concentrated on educating myself in the area I wanted to work in.

I had focus, and knew where I was going. I took action and stopped thinking, planning, wishing, and hoping.  I worked for 3 years to the completion of my degree and what I did then  has dictated the rewards that I enjoy now!

At the time could I afford to become a student again? No, probably not, but I got by! At the time was I supported by my family and friends? No, they all thought I was crazy to go back to university and change my career. Did I become instantly wealthy and successful? No, but I had focus and could see where I wanted to end up!

Am I saying that this is what you should do? Of course not! We all have completely different circumstances and lives. You need to decide for yourself where your path is and what you need to achieve. You need to choose your own path to wealth and prosperity!

But you now have my laws to guide you. Remember:- ACTION, COMPLETION, CAUSALITY, FOCUS, TIME, EDUCATION.

These will progress you towards your goals faster than all the schemes, scams, systems, strategies, techniques and tactics, programs, plans and processes put together!

So, get to it – and thanks again for reading.

Ian Greenwood

Well, what is My Big Confession!

I have been thinking for some time about the real reason that some people become wealthy and some don’t. Why some can start a business online, and some try – but fail. Why some talk, wish, and dream about getting their own business up and running – but somehow never do.

I really need to confess something to you all, right here and now. I was one of the failures! For years I bought all the schemes, scams, systems, strategies, techniques and tactics, programs, plans and processes going. And not one of them made me a penny.  But I believed that by positively believing, and reading these manuals, I could bring about big changes in my life.

For almost 20 years I really believed that I was going to succeed. But it never came true. When I was over 40 years old, I was so poor that I had to move back home with my elderly parents because I just couldn’t afford a place of my own.

I was so much in debt that I had to take a horrible part time job in a filthy and dangerous workshop that paid just £5 per hour, just to keep from going under financially. For more than a decade I never had a holiday because when I didn’t work, I didn’t get paid – and I couldn’t afford not to get paid!

In the recent big film “The Secret” wealth gurus Bob Proctor, Jack Canfield and Rev. Michael Beckwith explain “the secret” of The Law of Attraction. The law goes something like this. If you think about becoming wealthy – you will. If you visualise the wealth you want to have, you’ll attract it into your life. What you think about will become real in your life.

Well, now you’re probably thinking that I’m going to tell you that my life turned around when I began practicing this law. Actually, if that’s what you’re thinking,  your completely wrong! Positive thinking like this does not work! Full stop, end of story.

Positive thinking will never bring about a big change in your life. This has been proven. Optimism is not the “golden ticket” to wealth and prosperity. The universe just doesn’t work like this.

In the natural world, like does not attract like. In the physical world, like forces repel – opposites attract! The natural world is in balance. Cold cancels hot; Light cancels out dark; positive cancels negative; high pressure cancels low pressure. The whole world is in balance.

The eastern philosophy of Yin and Yang is more accurate than “the law of attraction!” Newton’s third law of motion states that “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction!” In other words, the universe is in balance! All the forces of the universe tend towards equilibrium!

Optimism, or positive thinking, has it’s sweet spot. You can be too optimistic, and this can be as bad as being a negative thinker! You need to balance optimism with reality, common sense, and good facts! So what ‘s the real way to get forward in life?

Well, all I can do is tell you where I managed to get my breaks.

Tomorrow I will tell you my 6 Laws of Wealth. These have worked for me, and they will work for you. BUT they may not be what you expect!

See you then

Ian

Coincidently I got this from a friend and fellow internet marketer today.

“Saving Money on eBook Security
 Hi, this is Phil.
If you sell, or hope to sell information products such as eBooks, reports or even courses, then very soon the dreaded word – Piracy – will raise its ugly head.
In this two-part blog I would like to share with you what I do to help prevent my books being downloaded for free, and save you a whole heap of money by avoiding solutions that look good, but don’t work. Please keep in mind that this is just my personal view. Other publishers may well differ, but I hope it gives you some insights that will help you make the right decisions and save money at the same time.
Before I start I need to make a bold statement.
It is not possible to make any book – electronic or paper – free from illegal distribution on the InterTwitter.
It’s like protecting your home against burglars…”

If you want to read the rest of this great post go to:-
http://www.homepublish.com/newsletter/004/index.html

It’s  great read… and a complete eye opener!

Hope you enjoy it.

Ian

Well here we are at Christmas again!

I wish all my readers a Very Merry Christmas and a very happy, productive and profitable 2012 when it comes.

I really can’t believe just how quickly the years seem to pass now. No sooner is it New Year than we are looking at Christmas again.

But 2011 has been a year of big change in the internet marketing arena.

One big change was that we saw the Kindle become a big player in the publishing world and almost on it’s own reinvent and reinvigorate the world of ebooks for the masses. It also gave new life to many of the paper books ebooks that were already out there, but had had their day in the lime light.

Add to this the rise of tablet computers and the iPhone and all the android devices – well the market for ebooks is bigger than ever!

All these together make 2012 the perfect year to start looking at ebooks again as a method of marketing your online business.

I love ebooks because they are super fast to produce, practically free to publish, easy to deliver and have huge profit margins.

This means that, after all those new ways to view ebooks, there are now several new channels right onto the screens of those who never even knew what an ebook was a couple of years ago!

Talking about new things. In the new year you will see several new areas appear on the site here at Greenwood central. I will be posting some exciting new video training, and you’ll be able to download a new series of podcasts on all manner of internet marketing strategies, techniques and tactics. So look out for that, as well as several other new and exciting additions!

And of course you’ll have the usual mix of great, useful, and profitable content through the blog here, and through the Greenwood Letter. And some great news as well – there will be a totally new look for the Greenwood Letter next year, along with some very exciting new original content and some great offers and free give away gifts.

So if you don’t currently receive the Greenwood Letter then sign up for your free lifetime subscription in the box at the top right hand corner of this page.

So once again – Lots of happiness, peace, joy and prosperity for you and yours this Christmas – and I will be back in 2012.

Ian

One of the most important steps is that you pick the ones that go well with the product/service you’re offering .

One that I love is using Ezines to promote products and services. I think it’s a fantastic way to hit the right audience because there’s an ezine for practically every niche possible. There are even ezines about ezines! If you want to save a lot of time doing your own research for the possible ezines to fit your niche, you can use ezine directories.

In case you’re unfamiliar with ezines, it’s basically a newsletter that’s sent out as an email to a subscriber list who are interest in receiving it. If you find one that matches what your business offers, you are guaranteed a qualified audience to advertise to.

The best way to reach this audience is by placing what is called an Ezine Solo Ad. This basically means that the producer of the ezine will send out your ad to his/her audience for a price. A solo ad is usually a text based ad so you don’t need to get very creative with the graphics!

To find the right ezines, you can go through ezine directories and do a search for the business area that represents your business.  Here are a few of the directories that you can take a look at:

New-List (http://new-list.com) offers a wide variety of general categories and thousands of thousands of specific newsletters to choose from within these categories.

Best Ezines (http://bestezines.com) displays thousands of ezines along with reviews and complete information about each ezine including the target audience, frequency of the newsletter, tags and how many times the ezine has been viewed. You can even find The Greenwood Letter here:-)

Ezine Directory (http://www.ezine-dir.com) offers an impressive list of ezines within a fair number of topics but doesn’t provide you with the details on each. In any case, it is always better to contact the publisher of an ezine directly to verify statistics, price, etc. of the ezine.

The Directory of Ezines is actually a paid service but well-worth the investment necessary. Not only does this site offer you an extremely detailed profile of all the different ezines, the owner, Charlie Page, actually also offers you one on one consulting on how to use his service as well as other ezines.

I’ve been a member of the DOE for years and can really recommend it. Click the banner below to go right through and see if it’s for you.

Hopefully these Ezine directories will hold some of the information you’re looking for!

Ian

Last weekend I was speaking at the Internet Marketing Review Gold Event. This is a 3 day event that stands right up there as one of the top Internet marketing events in the UK. Really, I was quite proud to be asked to participate!

In my slot I was talking about the product creation process, and all the resources you can use out there to make the process quicker and easier.

You know, that’s really the secret to internet marketing success! Having the right resources. The right tools as it were!

It’s important because the right resources are the difference between:-

•     Difficult or Easy
•     Quick or Slow
•     High or Low productivity
•     Focussed or Frustrated

Even the difference between…

SUCCESS or Failure!

For example, when I was looking on line for a solution to build my first membership site I found a list of 34 possible solutions to building your own membership site. That’s a lot of decision making for anyone to do! So, how do you know what resources to go for?

How do you know:-

• Who do you follow?
• What services to invest in?
• Where are the best services?
• Which blogs are worth reading?
• Who creates the best products?
• Which products to avoid?
• Where to get the best WP plugins?
• Which software to use for best results?

There are 1,000 questions just like this that you need the answers to if you are going to make it in internet marketing. So what can you do about this?

Most people just muddle through! You know – taking advice – asking friends – reading testimonials, asking on forums, etc. Eventually you just sort of flip a coin or randomly go for something. OR you end up not doing anything, because you just have too many choices. You end up with paralysis of analysis!

Let’s face it, no one can know everything, and the problem is not lack of information. In fact the opposite is true. We have more information now that ever. The real question is – how do you find your way through it all?

Tomorrow I will tell you about the solution I have come up with and I think you’ll want to know about this!

Call back in 24 hrs to find out how I developed a solution to this problem!

Ian

Hi All

Next weekend I will be speaking at the UK Internet Marketing Review Gold Event in the UK. This is one of the BIG Internet marketing events on the UK calendar!

This is the first time I’ll have been on stage at this particular event, and I’m so excited to be included in the line up this year. Especially,  as this is the last one ever! This year the organisers are going all out to make it one to remember so that makes it doubly special to be asked to contribute.

The great thing about the IMR Gold Event is that it’s not just another IM pitch fest. The speakers are all active Internet marketers and all have there own businesses on line. Hardly any of them are in the “make money on line” market which makes a refreshing change at these events.

I will be talking through the product creation process, and presenting some of the resources I use in my own business, to help create my products like the CWTS video course.

Because of this, my mind has been on my presentation.  I’ve been thinking hard about resources, and the part they play in your success on line. The conclusion I came to was that we really need this information! That’s right! You NEED it!

You need to keep up to date with what is happening. You need to know what is effective right now, and what’s now outdated nonsense. You need to know who to follow, and what resources to buy! Right?

The big question is how do you keep up with all the changes, new products and new services? Do you put in hours of time every week, like I do, and just hope you spot the good stuff? Or, do you just blindly trust 1 or 2 gurus to follow. And then slavishly buy all their new products, courses, and coaching programs, like a pointless, unthinking zombie!

Let me ask you a serious question. How much more could you get done in the week if you could let someone else do all this sifting for you? If you could just lay back and have a single source tell you the good from the bad. What if you could get this information every week? It would be such a relief wouldn’t it.

Well, at the last ever UK Gold Event next weekend I will be revealing what I consider to be the most significant breakthrough in resource management for the IM world in a long time.

Unfortunately, I can’t reveal anymore right now! But if you wait till I come back from the Gold Event I will tell you about it right here! So, check back in a weeks time and see what the BIG news is!

Ian

P.S. If you want to see the promo video for the gold event go now to http://www.ukgoldevent.com/ and have a look at what you could be missing! If you attend please come over and say hello! I would love to meet some of my blog readers in person!

If you are new to internet marketing then one potential sticking point is generating ideas for products. This is a kind of “writers block” but there are ways around it. This is my own idea generating method! Hope you like it.

First, pick up a copy of the Argos, Littlewood’s, GUS or Gratton’s catalogues. You can use any big mail order catalogue but make sure it contains multiple product categories – not just a single product range e.g.’ toys fro example.

Start at the beginning and look at the things they are selling. They would not be selling the lines they are unless there is a market out there and people are buying the items listed! This proves there is a market of buyers.

There are then 2 ways to do this.

1. Look through the catalogue until you come across something that grabs your interest and attention. This could be computer games, clothes, garden tools, fishing equipment, whatever. The list is endless. The point here is that, if you have an interest in something, then you already have an idea to build at least some sort of website / product around. The fact that you’re interested in that subject could give you the motivation to research it and produce a product.

2. Use each category as the base for more ideas for information products. Say the first category is fashion! Clothes – well…  let’s see. “How to dress for success!” – An ebook or online course on how to pick your work clothes for successful sales staff. “How to dress for success for women in business!” A product telling women how to get success, better pay and better promotion through dressing for success. “How to get into the fashion world !” A method of starting your own business in the fashion industry using independent designers, craft workers, and eBay to start your own designer fashion label.

I could go on, and on (and on, and on, and on, and on!!!!!!) but you get the idea, I hope

You can do this with any product category. Take computers. Not only are there 1,001 things to learn about the hardware, but there are 1001 software products out there, every one giving  you the opportunity to compile a product around how to get the best out of it, or how to do a specific thing with it.

e.g. How about “How to launch your own business newsletter with MS Word” or “How to launch your own church newsletter… / club newsletter… / family newsletter… / society newsletter… / professional practice newsletter… / hobby newsletter… / sports club newsletter with MS Word.

By doing this you can recycle the information in one product into the others to target different markets and increase your stable of products with the minimum of work. By the time you have done all these products you are the “expert” in the business newsletter niche.

There are people out there who have who have made successful businesses out of the most obscure niches. Three that I recollect are

“How to build and maintain your model N gauge (I think) steam locomotive!”

One lady made a living consulting on “How to organise your home for more time and happier living!” (who doesn’t want that?) and

“How to build your own designer furniture from scrap and dumpster finds!”

One word of warning – don’t launch into the “how to make money” market. I would advise that you  steer clear of this particular subject until you have at least gathered some experience and knowledge.

Ian

I hope everyone is having a super spooky Halloween!

Just today I answered a question on a forum that I hang out on.

The question was

“Opt in page – I know I should test my opt in pages but I’m getting so a can’t see the woods for the trees. Does anyone have what works best for them (I know it’s different for every market)? I’m trying text only, video only and a mixture of both. Do you feel that bright in your face colours work best or a different approach.”

This is a problem for lots of people in the internet marketing business. They want the definitive, kick @ss,  right on, power way to do things right out the gate. But this forum user in fact answered his own question way before I got to read it! He said “I know it’s different for every market.”

Basically, the truth is, you need to test your market and there is really no excuse not to.

You should seriously consider A/B split testing your pages as an ongoing process. There is no definitive look, feel, design, modality or media that out performs all others. If there was then 2 things would happen at once.

1. Everyone would be using it, and
2. The Internet public would get used to it and it would quickly lose it’s power.

I have had great success with both text alone, text and video and video alone, on a landing page. But, equally, I’ve had text alone and text and video and video alone disasters!

My advice – Get to grips with Google Website Optimizer and do some A/B split testing to see which comes out on top for your audience. Start with a text only page and exactly the same text page but with video as well.

This will give you a reasonable account of what your market likes. Then test the best one against video only. Then start to test different headlines etc. But only ever test one thing at a time. (until you feel capable of tackling multivariant testing which requires significant traffic)

Go here for Google Website Optimizer to get started.

www.google.com/websiteoptimizer

Ian

If you run any kind of internet marketing business you’ll quickly discover it’s not all lying on the beach and smelling the roses. Tim Ferris’s 4 hour working week is a dream but rarely reality for most with a marketing business online. So, what can you do to make it easier and take the pressure off a little. Well, why not embrace automation?

Automation tools ideally allow you to get business tasks done in a “set it and forget it” kind of way. As I say – this is the ideal, but doesn’t always happen. Some tools require more baby sitting, and end up soaking up more time than if you never used them in the first place!

Look at it this way. Say you’re writing a letter to a friend. You have 3 choices.

1) Write it long hand on paper with a pen, then post in the mail

2) Type it on a computer and then print it out and mail it.

3) Type it on your computer and then email it.

From a convenience and speed (and probably expense) point of view the last option of ‘email’ is the preferred choice – all things considered. By using the email route you can bash out a message, mail it, and get a reply, all in the time it takes to walk to the post box with a conventional letter.

This is a tool in action. The tool is of course email. There should be no surprise then that email has become one of the big business tools on the internet. But how do you harness the power of email?

Email is essentially communication, and by communication I mean such activities as following up after purchases; sending out your newsletter; giving customer support; and following up with prospects. All these areas lend them selves to the use of email auto-responders and email communication.

In my opinion the best autoresponder services out there are aweber.com, getresponse.com, and constantcontact.com. All these are dedicated autoresponder services for running your customer lists, prospect lists and so forth. All have there own features and you need to pick the one that will best serve your own needs.

In fact, using email like this this has become so powerful that it’s sort of become the unofficial industry standard for internet marketing, and those in the industry. So, if you’re not using email follow-up via auto-responders then you are flying in the face of tried and tested fact. You really need to get on board now!

Ian G