Who Knew Amazon Reviews Could be So Useful?!

I got a brilliant tip from Paul Elliott, an Internet Marketing Ninja! He led an expert session at a 4Networking Make It Happen Monday event earlier this month.

He shared with the group how powerful Amazon Reviews can be and not in the way you might think! He explained the power of them in helping you find out where demand is for your products and/or services.

I'm a huge advocate that every business owner should be creating products based around their business. You should write books, create DVDs, host workshops, and hold seminars all based around your area of expertise.

Paul shared a huge nugget of gold with us. If you are wondering what to write about or which particular area of your expertise to focus on, then check out the reviews on Amazon.

Let me explain. Search on Amazon for books which have been written about your industry or chosen subject and scroll down to the reviews. You're looking for the detailed reviews; not the ones which just say "This is a great book, buy it!" What you want are the reviews which give detailed feedback.

For example: Nick Dougan's review of Inbound Marketing goes into some detail. Nick is a Top 1,000 reviewer on Amazon so you can take it his reviews are always pretty good and spot on. Have a read through and you'll see him highlight some areas which he found interesting:

1. Using social media along with search engine optimisation and customer conversions
2. Explaining the different social media platforms
3. Converting customers
4. Using landing pages on your website
5. Sing up forms so you can get customer contact details
6. Autoresponders & email marketing
7. Focusing on strategy
8. Negative about quality of paper used in printing book - so think about this with yours

So from just 1 review of a book about Internet Marketing I've found 7 points worth focusing on and a great tip to avoid - make sure your book is published professional using quality paper.
And I love Nick Dougan's final comment: "If there is a better book covering this subject matter in such an integrated way, please use "comment" to tell me about it."

That tells me if I was an Internet Marketing person and I wrote a book based around these points, then it would be worthwhile, because if Nick Dougan is interested in a similar book to Inbound Marketing, then I'm sure there will be plenty of others too.

So if you're considering writing a book; holding a seminar or webinar, or launching a new product or service, before you do get yourself onto Amazon and check out some of the relevant reviews of products in similar markets to yours. You'll find out what others like and dislike and this useful feedback might just be really useful to you.

See also - Have You Productised Your Business Yet?

This System is Worth over £175,000 to Your Business

I was listening to a brilliant audio CD presented by Mike Litman called Greatness Held Hostage.

One of the chapters on the CD is the story of Ivy Lee and Charles M. Schwab of Bethlehem Steel.

It shares a really powerful lesson and idea of how to ensure you focus on the important things you need to do each day in your business, to really help and grow and drive your business forward. It's about doing the important tasks and not getting bogged down with all the daily distractions.

Ivy Lee, shared with Charles Schwab of the Bethlehem Steel Company his secret of writing a list of things he needed to do each day. He told Schwab to write on an index card the six most important things he must do the next day. "Tomorrow morning start on number one, and stay with it until you have completed it. Then go on to number two and then number three and then number four… Don’t worry if you don't complete everything by the end of the day. At least you will have completed the most important tasks. Do this every day."  

"Try it out as long as you wish and then send me a cheque for what YOU think it's worth".

The whole meeting lasted about twenty-five minutes. Two weeks later, Schwab sent Lee a cheque for £16,000! He added a note saying the lesson was the most profitable from a money standpoint he had every learned.

£16,000 in 1910 would today be worth over £175,000!!

Did it work? In five years it turned the unknown Bethlehem Steel Company into the biggest independent steel producer in the world; made Schwab a hundred million dollar fortune, and the best known steel man alive at that time.

So get going today - start using Ivy Lee's system.

At the end of each day:

• Write down the 6 most important things you need to do the next day
• Number them in order of importance 
• Do the tasks from the most important to least important and in order, starting at number one 
• After you've finished the first task, cross it off the list and move on to the next task
• Any unfinished tasks are rolled over to the next day
• Do this every day for the next fortnight

Please let me know how you get on; add your comment below.

Have You Productised Your Business yet?

I'm constantly looking to stretch myself and learn more from life. I think this is one of the ways we grow; become better people; become more successful. I'd hate to stagnate. I'm never going to be someone who accepts life as it is. I believe there are people who go through life accepting the cards they have been dealt; accepting mediocrity. This is a crying shame.

I'm the opposite - I strive to further myself and to grow and become the best I can be. Thanks to this way of thinking I chose to attend one of Peter Thomson's brilliant seminars in London in September 2010. It was a product creation seminar.

Every Business Should Have Products
Peter spent the day explaining how important it is for every business to have products which it can sell and what he means by products is physical products such as books, CD Audios and DVDs with content based around your business and your area of expertise.

My Book
My book "31 Mistakes Every Online Business Makes" is a great example of a product which I created to share my knowledge and help other people. I've already had it turned into a Kindle version so people with a Kindle and people with an iPhone or iPad can download it via the Amazon Kindle website. And thanks to Phil Clarkson, a Bristol based business trainer, I'm now creating an audiobook version of it.
Phil saw my book and congratulated me but explained he would never buy it. At first I was a tad upset, but Phil immediately explained that he doesn't like to read books, but he loves to listen to books in his car! So one product very quickly turned into three products!

Leverage
Brad Sugars, the CEO and Founder of ActionCoach shared with me at one of his seminars the secret of "Leverage". Brad explained the beauty of leverage was only doing the work once and getting paid over and over and over again! Brad's written over 14 books on business and he gets paid each and every time somone buys one of his books. Compare this to any consultantcy or training based business where you get paid for your time. Sure, the money can still be good, but we only have 24 hours a day and most people only work a maximum of 10 hours so you only really have 10 hours to bill out your services. So you have to keep on keeping on!

Every time you get paid, you have to do the work all over again. If you run seminars you have to keep doing the same seminar over and over again. However, instead, you could record a video of your seminar and then sell it on DVD. Now wouldn't that be cool? Think how many times people have said to you, "I'd have loved to come to that but I can't make that date." If you had a DVD of your seminar you could sell them a copy to watch at their leisure! 

What Products can you Create?
So think about your business - what products can you create? When I ask people this question I usually get the standard repsonses of "I can't write" or "I don't have anything worth sharing" or "I don't want to share my secrets; my competitors will copy me" etc.

Lucky for you Peter Thomson says you can; you do and you should share! Each and every one of us is unique with a wealth of experience, advice and guidance we can share with our target market. If you're a business coach, your experience of life and business and coaching is completely different to any other business coach out there.

So get your thinking cap on and start creating products for your business. No matter what your business is, you can create a product or products which will provide useful advice to your target audience.

• If you're a car valeter, you could sell DVDs showing people how to polish a car properly.
• If you're a personal fitness trainer, record your exercise sessions and create a DVD.
• If you're an estate agent, start using video to market your client's houses.
• If you have a blog and been writing it for a while now, use your blog posts and turn them into a book!

What products have you created for your business? Please share them by adding a comment below.

Why You Should @Reply on Twitter

Did you know that if I start a Tweet with the @ symbol when I reply to somebody, for example:

@jamieforster Yes let's do that; good plan mate.

only people who follow both Jamie Forster and I will see the tweet in their Twitter stream.

A lot of people worry about being "too noisy" on Twitter and so don't want to reply to people or carry on a conversation with people on Twitter for fear of filling other followers' streams with the tweets.

By knowing this, more people will engage with each other in conversations on Twitter without having to worry about drowning the streams of their other followers.

You can watch the video below on this by Gary Vaynerchuk - "The @ system, do you understand it?" where Gary explains that most people he speaks to had no idea about this aspect of the @ reply feature.


You'll see that Gary is very passionate about this!!

So start to use the @ reply and don't worry about drowning your followers with your conversations. Actually, it's quite important that you do @ reply to people - one of the criteria I and many others use when choosing to follow people on Twitter is whether they have conversations. The @ reply in your timeline shows me that you engage with others and I like that.

If your Twitter feed is just full of broadcast message then I won't follow you back.

The screenshot below shows you what I mean:

However, if your Twitter feed has @ reply messages as well as content then I am way more likely to follow you back. 

The screenshot below of @thebrandbuilder shows you a good mix:

So don't worry about replying to your Twitter connections with the @ reply. In fact, I suggest you should do it more often. Not only does it show to potential followers that you'll engage in conversation with them; it will make your Twitter connections deeper and more enriched.

4 Steps to Help You Develop Persistence

As many of you know, I'm a huge fan of "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill.

If you would like a copy of his book you can enter my FREE prize draw here -

This was me finishing the Windsor Triathlon!

www.thinkandgrowrichoffer.co.uk

The following is an excerpt from the book which I hope you'll find useful.

How to Develop Persistence

There are four simple steps which lead to the habit of persistence. They call for no great amount of intelligence, no particular amount of education and but little time or effort.

1. A definite purpose backed by a burning desire for its fulfillment
2. A definite plan, expressed in continuous action
3. A mind closed tightly against all negative and discouraging influences, including negative suggestions of relatives, friends and acquaintances
4. A friendly alliance with one or more persons who will encourage one to follow through with both plan and purpose

These four steps are essential for success in all walks of life. The entire purpose of the thirteen principles (from Think and Grow Rich) is to enable one to take these four steps as a matter of habit.

There is a magnificent reward for all who learn to take these four steps. It is the privilege of writing one's own ticket, and making life yield whatever price is asked.

I speak to hundreds of business owners in the UK and most of them don't have a definite of purpose, or a goal of where they are heading. Without knowing this how can you back it with a burning desire?

I have had huge success from applying many of the 13 principles in Napoleon Hill's book and the 4 steps laid out above are one of the key "secrets" to success.

I urge you to get your hands on a copy of "Think and Grow Rich" and begin applying Hill's 13 principles as soon as you can. I'm giving away a FREE copy of a beautiful, hard back version of the book, every fortnight until the end of next year, 2012! Go to www.thinkandgrowrichoffer.co.uk to enter your chance of grabbing your FREE copy.

It's Easy to Do and It's Easy Not to Do

We all have dreams and goals of the things we want in life; the things we want to achieve both personal and business related.
I'm the most positive person I know and I love life and grab it with both hands every single day. Life is truly wonderful and the things we can achieve as humans never cease to amaze me.
To get whatever it is you want in life is easy! To totally transform your life from where you are today to where you really want to be is easy!
It's easy to have everything you ever wanted out of life. It's easy to become fit and get that body you've always wanted. It's easy to get out of debt and become financially independent.

So why is it that so many people are unhappy, unfulfilled, unhealthy, obese, and financially on the bread line? It's because every action that is easy to do, is also easy NOT to do!

It's the simple, small steps and actions taken consistently on a daily basis which over time will transform your life. But these steps and actions are easy NOT to do.

Why? Because if you don't do them nothing bad will happen - today!

If you're trying to lose weight but you sneak a Krispy Kreme donut - you won't put on very much weight - today. In fact, you won't really notice the affect at all - today. You won't suffer or fail - today!
If you add more debt to your already over burdened credit card by buying the thing you want today; it won't bankrupt you - today. You won't need to pay it off - today. Again, you won't even notice the difference - today.

Something is easy NOT to do if it has little affect on you - today. Also, NOT doing something is normally far more comfortable than doing it would be. Like NOT going to the gym today and staying slumped on the sofa watching the football.

But those simple NOT doing things, over time, compounded, result in you being over weight; up to your eye balls in debt etc. It will ruin you, destroy you and ruin any chances for success.

You have two choices each and every day on every single action.

1. A simple, positive action, repeated day after day
2. A simple, negative action, repeated day after day

Anyone who's been watching the X Factor will have noticed how good Gary Barlow looks. He's lost loads of weight and has toned up and is looking fitter than ever before. On a recent interview with Jonathan Ross, Jonathan explained that Gary just says no to any food offered to him which is unhealthy or fattening. Gary Barlow's simple, positive action of resisting those foods which are bad for him, repeated day after day has helped him shed the weight. It would be so easy for Gary NOT to resist and to just have some chips or slice of cake. But by resisting and consistenly saying no to temptation it's been easy for him to lose weight.

What easy things can you start doing every day to help you reach your dream or goal? Start today - stop making those things you need to do, easy NOT to do and start making them easy to do.

My New Business Book!

I justed wanted to share with you this video blog which is a quick plug for my new book - 31 Mistakes Every Online Business Makes.


You can register your interest today by going to www.31mistakes.co.uk