Successful Entrepreneur

Copywriting is one of the most profound skills that you can have when you’re working as an Internet entrepreneur. Your product sales will sky rocket. There are multiple factors that go into good copy that truly converts well. To improve your copywriting skills here are three basic tips which can help.

1. Your Headline

The headline surely has the most importance. Yes, once your headline is not up to mark the rest of the copy would not matter. On the Internet, browsing is done very quickly, as people are viewing page after page. Your sales letter should have a catchy heading to stop the user. So how exactly do you know your headline is good and really worthy? By testing different headlines and rotating them, you see which one converts better.

When creating a headline there are no hard rules. All that matters is your ability to pull their attention long enough to get them reading the rest of your copy. In fact, there have been instances where copywriters have used absurd headlines, yet received outstanding responses. An attentive headline is not necessarily what words you use but how you use them. To move past your competition thinking outside the box will help. While this is the strongest reason for a headline being weak or strong, there are also other variables which can affect it. Yes, your headline would not be effective once it is too long, preferably under 17 words for a good headline.

2. Keep Your Language Simple

As a successful entrepreneur, simplicity in communication is one of your best friends. When you’re writing a sales copy, you don’t write like an English professor. You are merely attempting to tell your prospects that your products are necessary and that it what they need. You should never try to show off your vocab, just talk to them as you normally would if they were sitting in front of you. You should just create copy that talks to them like a friend or relative. If you as an entrepreneur, can be confident and comfortable at the same time, your readers will respond to it much more easily. You want your prospects to form relationships with you. The more clear you can make the product seem, the better people will respond to your copy. Think of your sales copy as your own sales person. Sales copy that’s written dryly won’t be well received by your prospects and they are less likely to purchase what you’re selling, be it a product or service.

3. Long Or Short Sales Copy? You Decide!

Internet entrepreneurs have divided opinions on whether you should write long copy or short copy for the best results. For better results, studies have shown that a long copy is better than a short copy but at the end, it is really only up to you. People want as much information on a product before buying and this is why a long copy is more likable. But having a short copy can still be useful for those prospects who don’t wish to read as much.

It’s a good idea to aim at making people feel secure about doing whatever you want them to do. When he reaches that level of comfort, it’d be easier for him to make the purchase without actually having to worry about anything. Then you are in a position to sell them something.

Initially you may find that writing a good copy seems to be complicated. However, with practice you would be able to master this essential skill. As an Internet entrepreneur with great ideas, one of the best ways of mastering the art of writing a killer copy is to learn from someone who has been there and done it. You have that opportunity right here with you today and I would love to hear from you.

Ever since I became Mrs McLaren in 1976, when I’ve told people my name they’ve often jokingly asked me if I was related to the Formula One motor racing Team McLaren.

Until about a year ago I would always reply along the lines of “I wish”. Meaning, of course, that I wished I had that kind of money.

But I recently realized that for some time now I’ve no longer been saying that.

Of course I’m nowhere near the “other” Team McLaren in terms of fame or wealth but nor do I want to be.

What I AM is wealthy beyond the wildest dreams of someone who used to be a freelance translator struggling to make a living.

I’m a proud member of the world’s top home business which not only provides a college standard online marketing course but also its own private wealth group.

I still can’t believe my luck at finding this fantastic community.

And now it’s YOUR turn. I’m looking for ordinary people, just like me, who want to earn an extraordinary income working from home.

All you have to do is enter your name and email address in the box to the right and I’ll see you on the inside.

Welcome to Team McLaren!

Take This Simple Quiz To Find Out.

1. How self-confident are you?

There’s a famous saying, I think it may have originated from Henry Ford (but don’t quote me on that), which goes,

“Whether you think you can do something or not, you’ll be right either way”.

What it boils down to is that if you don’t believe in yourself, why should anyone else?

Don’t mistake self-confidence for being loud and outgoing, though. You can be fairly quiet and reserved like me and still be a success if you have an inbuilt belief in your own ability to learn the new skills you’ll require in business.

If you’re someone who’s very unsure of themselves, either by nature or negative experience, don’t think that you this is something you just have to accept.

My own biggest breakthrough was realizing you don’t have to live with the hand life deals you and there’s lots you can do to increase your self-confidence and self-belief.

Once I stopped feeling like a pawn (or to put it harshly, a helpless victim) in the game of life was when I started to succeed.

A great place to start in learning to feel like an entrepreneur is by reading the book  by T. Harv Eker  called “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind”.  I got a used copy on Amazon and it’s a great, fun read, yet highly effective in helping you identify the unconscious thoughts that may be holding you back.

2. Are you a sticker or a quitter?

Are you the kind of person who starts something filled with excitement and enthusiasm but soon runs out of steam or do you see things through to the end?

If you’re a quitter by nature, it doesn’t matter what your replies are to any of the other four questions in this quiz because you’re just not suited to being an entrepreneur.

Of course, I know that if you’re reading this quiz the chances are slim to none that you’re honest enough with yourself to say “Yep, I’m a quitter” because we all like to find reasons or justifications for giving up on things.

Just know that your path to becoming an entrepreneur is going to be filled with obstacles and hurdles. So if you’re a quitter by nature, especially if that’s coupled with a lack of self-confidence, you’re going to give up the race at the first hurdle saying to yourself, “See, I knew I couldn’t do this”.

Sometimes though, circumstances can change the habits of a quitter and that’s what happened to me. I wasn’t what you’d call a “hard-core” quitter – I managed to stay with the same man for 18 years and I never go more than a week without going to the gym but I do have a low boredom threshold.

In my case it took the jolt of losing my biggest translating customer and the very real threat of poverty to wipe out my quitter tendencies overnight and make me put my whole heart and soul into this business.

3. How much time do you have?

Don’t underestimate the amount of time it will take to run your business. I would suggest that 20 hours per week is a realistic amount of time, spaced out to suit yourself.

If you don’t have that much time available you can substitute time for money, by paying to outsource the tasks you can’t or don’t want to do yourself.

If you’re already working a job and trying to become an entrepreneur in your spare time this is perfectly possible provided you’re clear that at first you’ll have to make sacrifices.

Many people look at starting their own business as a way of freeing up time and getting away from the long hours spent at a job and the daily commuter grind.

But you need to be aware that things will have to get worse before they get better because you’ll still have the same old daily grind of a job but now you’ll also be faced with running your new business in your spare time.

So self-discipline is another important quality you’ll need.

4. How much money do you have?

How much money you’ll need for start-up costs will depend on the type of business you’re getting into so it’s impossible for me to put a figure here.

Even if you were thinking of joining the business I’m in I still couldn’t give you a hard and fast figure because there are a number of different levels to choose from, ranging from under $1,000 up to $20,000 (even the higher figure is still extremely low in terms of starting a serious, lucrative business).

But as a general rule of thumb, the higher the start-up costs the greater the rewards and it’s unrealistic to have a budget of just a few hundred dollars and expect to make hundreds of thousands in your first year of business.

Also, if at all possible have a second source of income while you are building your new business so that all your eggs aren’t in one basket.

Although it’s quite possible that your new business may start producing income for you in a very short space of time, it’s better not to be reliant on that happening.

If you do, you’ll be putting far too much pressure on yourself. You’ll have enough on your plate learning to become an entrepreneur.  If you can avoid it, you don’t need the extra worry of wondering where the next meal is coming from.

What is your attitude to risk?

Becoming an entrepreneur involves a certain amount of risk. If you’re entering a proven business like mine in which people are already making money then obviously the risk is much less than in a business with no track record, but you need to be aware that in business there are no guarantees.

Having said that, in this day and age, having  job no longer carries with it the same certainties as when I was starting out in the early 70s. Back then it was the norm for people to join a company and stay with that company until they retired and collected a gold watch.

Those days have gone forever and now there’s risk involved whether you’re working for yourself or someone else. So personally, I would rather be in control of the risk and with it, my own destiny.

Just be aware that as an entrepreneur there’s no such thing as “as fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay”. At the outset you’ll be working for nothing, putting days, weeks and even months of work into your business before you see a penny.

If that’s not acceptable to you then you need to rethink your thoughts of being an entrepreneur because it’s not going to suit you.

Personally, as far as risk is concerned my own attitude varies greatly. Just as I’ve been a sticker in some things and a quitter in others (see Question 2), I’ve taken huge risks in my life such as giving up everything to follow my heart and move from my home in England to Germany, yet I’ve been to casinos in Vegas several times and never spent a single penny gambling.

I suppose what that means is that if I view something as being a calculated risk then I’m happy to go for it, but I’m not someone who gets a thrill out of taking risks just for the heck of it.

There are no right or wrong answers to this quiz, I just want to give you some food for thought. so you’re clear in your own mind whether being an entrpreneur is the right way forward for you.

If you think it is and you want to cut down your risks by working with someone like me who’s already made it as an entrepreneur then I’d love to hear from you.

I think the reason there aren’t more famous women entrepreneurs is because the definition of entrepreneurship is someone who takes on above-average financial risks when setting up or operating a business.

And in the main, women aren’t genetically programmed to be risk-takers.

Whether we like it or not, we still have much in common with our cavemen (or if we’re being politically correct, that should probably read “cavepeople”) ancestors.

So while men were out risking their lives on a daily basis hunting for food; a woman’s primary role was keeping the home fires burning and looking after the kids.

With their menfolk away for much of the time and facing a constant threat of attack from wild animals and marauders from other tribes, women in charge of small children and babies had to adopt a “safety-first” attitude and avoid unecessary risks at all costs.

And that aversion to risk is so deep, so primeval that it still runs through the veins of many women today.

The interesting thing here is that despite this in-built aversion to risk, a woman who can sense some form of danger, particularly if a child or something or someone she loves is under threat, can become totally fearless and willing to risk anything and everything to avert that danger.

As a famous woman entrepreneur (in the online community) myself, I very much fall into this category.

You can read my story in my personal page on this site but in a nutshell I’ve never been a risk-taker. I was a translator by profession so that about says it all. You can’t get much more serious, academic, dry and dusty than that!

The fact that I was bored out of my skull is beside the point. I’d had my own business for 18 years and would never have sacrificed the job security for a life as an entrepreneur.

But losing my biggest client, and half my income, put me in danger of losing my comfortable lifestyle and suddenly, in my early 50s, I was staring an old-age in poverty in the face.

And THAT was the jolt I needed.

For me, that was the cavewoman equivalent a herd of wild animals prowling around my lair ready to steal my food supply and leave me starving.

Suddenly, I didn’t see getting involved in an entrepreneur opportunity as a risk – now it was a necessity.

The consequences of NOT taking action were going to be much worse than anything that might happen if I DID.

And that’s actually a great starting point for success as a woman entrepreneur (or a male one) because if you simply can’t afford to fail then you’ll do whatever it takes to ensure you don’t.

The fear of failure was like an injection of rocket fuel in my rear end and I’ve never looked back!

Just the same as anything in life, the best way to achieve success as an entrepreneur is to learn from someone who’s already successful.

That sounds like common sense, and it is, but it’s amazing how often people who have no real experience of what they’re talking about, set themselves up as top entrepreneur experts and make promises about guiding new business owners down the road to success. And yet that’s a road they’ve never even travelled down themselves.

If your car breaks down and you need someone to fix it, I don’t even have to ask whether you’d prefer to hire someone who’d read a bunch of books about fixing cars or someone who actually got their hands dirty fixing cars for a living.

In an example like that it’s obvious who’s the best man or woman for the job, but in areas like business or even politics, where the results aren’t as immediately apparent, it’s much easier to be seduced by rhetoric and promises.

That’s why when looking for profitable business ideas or entrepreneur ideas it’s important to look beyond the sales hype and the glossy website and find out if the people you’ll be working with have actually achieved the kind of income they’re promising you themselves.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that the person who introduces you to the business needs to be a top income earner themselves already. If that were true then what chance would you have as a new starter?

No, what you need to discover is whether the team you’ll be joining is successful, and whether you’ll have access to and training from people who are walking the walk instead of just talking the talk.

Remember, great business ideas are just that, ideas, until they have been proven to work and make money for the people behind them.

An online marketing degree, with an official certificate,  graduation ceremony and a recognized qualification as an online marketer, doesn’t actually exist.

And even if it did, it wouldn’t be worth the paper it was written on and I’ll tell you why.

Of course there’s such a thing as a degree in marketing, but that concentrates on the science of marketing and the methods it covers are mainly offline methods.

The reason there isn’t a degree in online marketing is because online marketing changes so quickly that by the time the degree syllabus was compiled and then taught to the students, when they’d finished the course and were ready to graduate, most of what they’d learned would already be obsolete, like last week’s newspapers!

Unlike long-established professions such as medicine, dentistry or law, where the pace of change is much slower – online marketing is still in its infancy and, as a result, is constantly growing and changing just like a growing infant, almost on a daily basis.

That’s why if there were such a thing as an online marketing degree, it would be a waste of time acquiring the qualification.

But there’s another, equally important reason why acquiring an online marketing degree wouldn’t be worth your time or money and that’s because online marketing is one of those professions where you rise or fall on your abilities, not on your paper qualifications.

Online marketers are self-employed so you don’t have to submit a resumee or curriculum vitae to a potential employer and there’s no nerve-wracking job interview. It doesn’t matter whether you have any paper qualifications or not, you can get started right away.

The downside is that there’s no fixed income, which means your earnings are directly related to your skills as a marketer. The better you are as an online marketer, the more you’ll earn. You set your own limits.

That’s why even if there were such a thing as an online marketing degree, it wouldn’t be required, but what IS required is online marketing education.

Online marketing education never stops, because to be a successful online marketer you have to keep on the cutting edge of the latest trends and techniques.

The best way to do that is by means of an online marketing course which will give you an ongoing marketing education and the skills you need to become a top Internet marketer.

I belong to a business with its own online marketing course which provides the equivalent of an online marketing degree but without the stress of exams!

If you are planning a career in online marketing then I invite you to complete the form below for more information.

A real work at home business allows you to sit naked at your desk without being arrested, just like this guy here. It’s not something I tend to do myself (even though I hope I look a lot better naked than this guy!) but I love the fact that I COULD if I wanted to!

How do you tell a real work at home business from a scam?

The first sign of real work at home businesses is their age. Obviously that’s not to say that all brand new home business opportunities are scams but the longest lifespan of a scam is usually a year or so at most.

That’s because nowadays, in the Internet age, if something is a scam you’ll find enough people shouting it from the rooftops, writing home business reviews on forums, message boards and blogs about how they’ve been taken for a ride.

Be wary though, because lots of Internet marketers play on people’s natural desire not to be ripped off by crying scam about perfectly legitimate home business opportunities.

It’s just like the school yard all over again – a grown up version of “Don’t play with Billy Bob, he’s horrible and he’ll steal all your toys. Be my friend instead”.

Same as in the school yard, do the good guys need to run down others to make friends? Of course not.

So every time you read something negative about a company you’re researching, ask yourself if there’s an ulterior motive. Is the writer using the “riding on the backs of giants” tactic to gain your attention and scare you off the business you were originally looking at so you’ll join their supposedly top home business instead?

As a rule of thumb, if a company has lasted three years or more then the odds are extremely good that it’s a legitimate business opportunity and you have nothing to worry about.

As the old saying goes “you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time”.

In fact, three to five years old is probably the ideal time to join a homebased business because statistically speaking, most companies enjoy their biggest growth spurts between years 3 and 5.

The hardest period for any company is the start-up phase which is the equivalent of getting a Jumbo jet off the ground.

This is followed by the first couple of years which you could liken to the aircraft gaining height and speed, before reaching its optimum altitude and then it’s travelling at full throttle, or in business terms, its momentum growth period.

That’s the period when there’s a buzz around the business, it’s making news and attracting attention (which can also be negative attention, the “riding on the backs of giants” I talked about earlier) and is nowhere near market saturation so it’s still very easy to generate leads and recruit new members.

Clearly, no business can sustain rapid growth indefinitely and what generally happens is that by year 7 the business has reached its plateau. Still growing but no longer at full throttle.

That’s why if you’re looking to replace your income fast and make a full-time income from home, you’ll find it easiest to do with a company at that all-important “buzz stage”.

Do you want to experience the buzz of a real work at home business in its momentum growth phase?  Then all you need to do is add your name and email address to the form below to gain insider access.

The first time in 24 years that this man has ever said he was proud of me  - and I captured it for posterity!!  Happy New Year one and all!!

If you’re looking to make a full-time income online from home in 2010 there are three important things to look out for, and that’s what I want to talk about in this article.

Without these three things it’s going to be nigh-on impossible for you to fulfil your ambition of working from home online whilst earning a full-time income.

Firstly, how much is a full-time income for you? Depending on your outgoings and xpenses that can vary greatly from one person to the next and one country to the next. You can live like a king in some countries and a pauper in others, all on exactly the same income.

As a guide I would advise setting a goal of your current gross income (or whatever you used to earn before you lost your job if you’re unemployed) plus 20%.

Working from home in an online business your income will never be exactly the same every month, like you may be used to, so it makes sense to aim for more than you’re accustomed to in order to balance out any lean months.

Obviously your next step is to begin researching various income opportunities, which is probably the stage you’re at now, because your research has led you to this article.

Whatever the business you’re looking at, you first need to calculate the earning potential.  It’s amazing how many people miss out this first, crucial step.

How many sales will it take you to achieve your monthly income goal? How many new customers? How many leads will you need to make a sale, on average?

Is it even possible to achieve your monthly income goal on your own production, or would you need a whole team of people under you? If the latter, how many people would you need in your team?

I know from experience and my own research that the answers to the above questions can vary greatly. With some business opportunities you may need to make literally hundreds of sales each month to generate a full-time income from home and with others, just a handful.

It all comes down to the compensation plan of your home business so this is something you need to study carefully. Once you do that it’s very simple to calculate exactly how many sales you’ll need each month to reach your target.

I’ve been generating more than a full-time income from home with my online business since 24 January 2008, which was the day I wound up my translating business for good. This wasn’t my first online business so I’ve had my share of failure before finding the world’s top home business.

If, like me, you’re looking to achieve a full-time income reasonably quickly (it took me 3 months), the best business opportunity for you is one where you can achieve your income goals purely on your own sales, without being dependent on a team.

Think about it. Do you want to put your livelihood in the hands of your downline? If you’re not able to earn as much as you need to live on by your own efforts, that’s exactly the situation you’ll find yourself in.

I don’t know about you but that’s far too risky for me. For me the ideal scenario in an online business is where I can earn a multiple 6-figure income on my own sales, and whatever I earn on top of that from my team is just the icing on the cake – a nice extra bonus.

What do you think? Do you agree that it’s better to be able to earn enough on your own sales? I’d love to read your comments in the box below.

And to learn more about my business just complete the form on the right of the page and I’ll see you on the inside.

With so many different forms of marketing available, choosing the right one for you can be confusing when you’re just starting up in business.

One thing is certain though, the “caveman” approach to marketing is never an option. Metaphorically clubbing your prospects over the head and attempting to drag them into your business is the worst thing you can do!

The single most important thing I’ve learned about marketing a home business opportunity is that you can’t create desire.

The only people worth marketing to are those who are already interested in starting a home based business.

That’s why the old marketing tactics preached by so many MLM companies don’t work.

It’s just common sense  that if your marketing campaign consists of making a list of your friends and family or speaking to everyone you meet, chances are that none of them were thinking to themselves “I want to start a home based business” at the very moment  you approach them.

And that puts you in an impossible position with your prospects. You’re faced with the uphill battle of trying to arouse their desire to start their own business.

(Of course, most MLM companies bank on some of your friends and family joining you out of solidarity and sympathy, which is why they want you to approach them).

But it stands to reason that anyone joining you for those reasons doesn’t have any real desire to start their own business and if their heart isn’t in it, they’re not going to put in the time and effort involved in getting a business off the ground.

So chances are they’re going to fall by the wayside very quickly and, worst case scenario, they’re going to blame YOU for their failure. Because YOU were the one who encouraged them to get involved!

Consequently, the only sensible way to market a business is to put yourself in the direct line of sight of people who are ALREADY looking. People who are actively seeking information about starting their own business.

They may not yet know exactly what kind of business they’re looking for but what they do know is that they want to earn extra income, give up the job they hate, gain financial freedom or be able to retire more quickly.

There are literally millions of people out there looking for a home business and so as a marketer your task is to enable them to find you at the very moment they are looking.

Doesn’t that make a lot more sense than clubbing half-hearted prospects over the head?

The best way to market a business is with an online marketing course which will give you proper marketing training in both offline and online marketing methods.

Your online marketing course should preferably come with an automated follow-up system which allows you to present your opportunity to unlimited numbers of people all day, every day.

What you need is a system which sifts and sorts your prospects for you and eliminates the time-wasters and “tire-kickers” so you only spend time with those people who are genuinely interested in what you have to offer.

Apart from being a much better use of your time, doesn’t that sound like a much more pleasant way to do business?

If that’s the way you’d like to do business, I’d like to invite you to learn more about my online marketing course by filling out the form below, and I’ll see you on the inside.