How to Nail that First Million Dollars

My blog posts of late have been rather technical in nature – how to find a profitable niche – how to make sure you found gold – what you need to do to rank for a keyword and so on.

Not surprisingly the “how to find profitable niches” was one of the most popular.  That got me thinking.

You need more than just technical “know how” to be successful.  And it’s a common “biz op” mentality to keep seeking the next big break.  Chances are, if you haven’t made your first million yet, you’ve had at least a dozen “big breaks” slip through your fingers.  You’ve known what others who make money know.  You’ve watched as people new to this industry come in and pass you by in terms of income.

Why?

It’s not hard.  In fact it’s very simple.   But it’s not “shiny” and THAT is where the rub is!

In an email I got today, they steps to success were outlined as this:

* Commitment
* Focus
* Determination
* Courage
* Follow-Through

These are the standard ideas.  Most of us fall down in at least one of these areas.  In fact most nearly everybody, even the highly successful have an issue with one of these.  But they have learned to over come it.  They have found a way to “psych themselves out”, because the end goal is where it is at.

“Biz-op junkies” fall apart somewhere between commitment and focus.  Actually they are focused on the next deal, the next opportunity in that unopened email, that next promise of hitting it big and not the making money part at all.

You know who you are.  You are subscribed to dozens of lists and get hundreds of offers a day.  It’s the offers that actually excite.  It’s all in the possibility of the potential.  You have tens of these opportunities that you’ve invested in, sitting on your bookshelf or hard drive, collecting dust.

So check that out – what’s going on here is that you have the WRONG goal.  That’s the problem with everybody who is still working on their first million.  You have the wrong goal.   You might want to take a moment to stop and evaluate your goals.  Maybe your first million (or even $100,000) is not a goal you want!  Shocking, but true for some.

At this point I’m going to assume that you’re still with me and working on that first million.  So let’s begin.  It’s easy to start.  Just pick one!  Any one will do for starters.  Chances are high that if actually followed all the way through, it will make you at least enough money to net back your initial investment.

Be wary of anything that is wanting more money as it goes along – of course you have to host a website, but I’m talking about some kind of training or mentoring that is going to run you big bucks.  Make sure you understand the entire investment required before you start and that you have a reasonable understanding of what the earning potential is, and the earning potential should be substantially larger than the investment, or it’s not a good investment.

Don’t be vague about this.  If you anticipate making $5/day on a website, what does that come out to in a month?  What are your costs for that website? What is the program overhead? What does it take to break even? What does it take to make a nice profit?  How much work is involved in that?  Are you willing to do that much work to make it happen?  Are you willing to commit to that?

Good.  Then, and here is the first hard bit:  START.  (this is actually the first place where you need courage – the list above is not actually progressive)

Start.  Be willing to make a mistake.  Be willing to be all wrong.  Maybe this program will not work at all – that’s ok.  Start anyway.

Go buy a domain, get a template, install your software or build your website and get going.  Now you have started.

Set some goals.  Short term, medium and long term.  Short term is “today”, “tomorrow” and “by the end of the week” – you want something for all three.

Mid term is at the end of month one, month two and month three.

Long term is 6, 12 and 18 months.

Don’t be too optimistic.  What ever you THINK you can make, cut the number in half.  That’s called adding realism to the marketing hype that got you to buy this program.  And it makes it easier to reach your goals.  Success in reaching your goals will help to spur you on; it aids focus and determination.

Get a big piece of paper and put 18 squares on it – 3 rows of 6 – put $$$ amounts in the 1,2,3, 6, 12 and 18 month squares.  (should mesh with the above goals)

Post your paper on the wall.    Now you are committed.  That’s a check on #1.

Every time you walk in the room look at that paper and ask yourself what you have done TODAY to help get to those goals.  That will help a LOT to maintain your commitment as well as help with the Focus, Determination, Courage and Follow-Through bits.

At least this is what works for me – you might have to find a different method for what works for you, but if you don’t have one yet, borrow mine.

It might be that you are less than a week into this program you realize that it’s bogus.  There are a lot of bogus programs out there in biz-op land.  That’s ok – pick another one and start again.  Do not get discouraged.  The next time you pick, you’ll choose with a lot more experience than you had the first time around – and in short order you’ll get really good at smelling the bad ones.

But you’ll never know the bad from the good until you try something.  Just START.

For those of you who are looking for a “where to start” I thought I’d do a few blog posts on “the basics” of making money online.  Things like ‘how to pick an affiliate program / product’, ’setting up a blog’, ‘what’s the skinny on plugins’,  ‘getting your blog indexed in 24 hours’, ‘getting traffic to your blog the first day’…  That kind of thing.  If that’s something you are interested in, ping me in twitter and let me know.  (themezoom_sue)

Sue and the Theme Zoom Team

Theme Zoom Krakken is an integrated application suite that radically combines Market Analysis, Competitive Analysis, Keyword DNA Creation, Automated Silo Structured Blueprint and Website Development.

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