If you market to Internet marketers, you might consider the following: 60-80% of your prospects are currently going through or have just gone through a major life change.

Maybe they were downsized, fired or retired. Maybe something at their job changed and now they want out. Maybe they’re going through a divorce or mid-life crisis. Maybe they have money problems or the opposite – They’ve come into money and want to invest it into an online business.

People who are suddenly looking for ways to make money online have experienced a major shift in their life. They’re probably unhappy with the way things are. They’re looking for guidance on how to make a change. Many of them want money FAST – as in yesterday. They want solutions now. They want to push a button and have it done for them. And if that’s not possible, they want to be told EXACTLY what to do to make it happen.

You can use this information to better communicate with your prospects, to let them know you know what they’re going through, and to show them that it can indeed be done.

And you CAN offer them “push button” solutions, too. The legitimate kind. As an example; “We’ll set up your WordPress site, create your first product in 3 different formats, build your squeeze page, write your autoresponder series and so forth, all for “x” amount of money.” That is truly a push button solution, because they push the “buy now” button and you do everything for them.

Of course, it will be too expensive for many, so you can also offer a downgrade, like this: “Too expensive? Then we can teach you how to do it yourself.” By offering two dramatically different price points, you can appeal to both the people who can afford the real push button method, and those who will have to invest their own work to make it happen. In fact, by wording your offer this way you will often get more sales. Your second option will look so low in price compared to the first option, they will find it difficult to say no.

Another great way to market to new Internet Marketers is to offer micro-continuity products that anyone can afford. For example, instead of charging $100 for your product, charge $9.99 a month. Then give them the option of receiving the entire course now for $89 more. Most will opt for the monthly charge, and a percentage will go for the $89 option because they don’t want to wait.

Once they’ve signed up as members, market other affordable products to them inside your members’ area. Plus, make an offer of a big ticket coaching program where you work with people personally.

You might use the Pareto principle when marketing to the Internet Marketing Community. 20% of your prospects are knowledgeable and perhaps even making money online. The other 80% are new, don’t know a great deal and haven’t yet made their first Dollar, Euro, Pound, Yen, Franc or Rand.

Which brings up my last point – unless you specifically target one geographical area, your market is GLOBAL. Yet the needs are very much the same. People who lose their job in China or Switzerland or Brazil or The United States all have the same concerns and fears – “How do I pay the bills and provide for my family now? What if I can’t? What if I fail to land on my feet?”

It’s scary for them, and what they want most of all is someone to take them by the hand, alleviate their fear and show them the way out of the dark and into the light.

The need for money is universal. Your target market is in distress, and they’re desperately hoping you can provide the very real and legitimate guidance that will see them through their financial crisis. Do so, and you will never want for business or income yourself.

Even the smallest changes can sometimes result in the biggest increases to your conversion rate. Take the headline split test, for example. Headlines A, B and C are tested against each other. Headline A converts at 1%, Headline C converts at 2.5%, and Headline B converts at 4.9%. Hmmm, which one should you pick? The choice is obvious, you go with Headline B.

But what if you hadn’t split tested? You would never have known. Just imagine: You write a terrific headline, which happens to be Headline A. It looks like a sure winner, so you don’t bother to test. And sure enough, it converts at a respectable 1%.

BUT, if you had tested, you would have chosen Headline B. And for every 100 people who hit your site, you would have made 3.9 more sales. If your product sells for $47, that’s another $183.30 you would have earned for every 100 visitors. But you didn’t test, and so you didn’t know, and so you lost thousands of dollars. Ouch.

Testing might seem like an irritation, but there are few things that can pay off as handsomely as a simple split-test.

That’s why I’ve made a list of things you might want to test in your next sales letter or even in your next email. I’ve left out the common things like headlines, pre-headlines, sub-headlines and calls to action. You already know about those. But have you thought about testing these?

• Various bonuses tested against each other and against no bonus
• Person next door tone versus formal business tone
• Header versus no header
• Placement and look of testimonials
• Adding more images, arrows, underlining, etc.
• Adding/changing the text underneath the images
• For low priced items – Placing the price at the top (beginning) versus at the bottom (end)
• A soft sell versus a hard sell approach
• Adding more call to actions throughout
• The design of the page itself
• Wording directed to your best customer versus more generic copy
• Changing the color scheme
• Changing the color or text on the order button
• Variations on your product image(s)
• Variations on your product image size
• Variations on your product image location(s)
• Renaming your product
• Focusing on benefits versus focusing on the pain of no solution
• Placing bullets closer to the beginning versus further into the page
• Focusing on one major benefit versus a laundry list of benefits
• Having all copy or video on one page, versus using steps with a progress indicator
• A trial offer versus asking for the entire sale up front
• Sales – a percentage off versus a dollar amount off
• Coupons versus sales
• And perhaps the most interesting of all: Using dark emotions like jealousy or revenge to get the sale [“You know that snobby woman at your child’s school who thinks she’s so terrific? Right now she is praying you NEVER get this program, because if you do you’ll lose that weight and look ten times better than her. Imagine how envious she’ll be then!”] Heh heh.

Mind you, this list is to get you thinking and moving in the right direction. There’s no way you’re going to test all of these things unless you’re a compulsive profit-seeking entrepreneur who can’t rest until you’ve got the most finely tuned sales presentation in the history of the world.

For the rest of us, pick and choose what you test. If you haven’t already, start with the basics like your headlines and calls to action. Then choose something from this list and see if you can’t boost your conversion rate even higher.

To stay motivated, do the math to find out how much more you will earn on every 1,000 visitors for every tenth of a point you increase your conversions. Write this number down and post it where you’ll see it. Then every week, or every day if you’ve got the traffic, test something new. There’s no easier or faster way to give yourself raise after raise than continually split testing.

You’ve probably heard that commenting on other people’s blogs is a good thing to do. But do you know why it’s so important?

Yes, it can get you traffic. People see your blog comment, like it, and click on your name to go to your website. But that’s not the biggest reason to comment on blogs.

Leaving blog comments might also give you backlinks, which could potentially increase your standing in the natural search results. But again, this isn’t the biggest reason to leave comments on other people’s blog posts.

Leaving blog comments also gets you seen by others in your niche. Leave enough great comments and people might start to remember you and your brand.

But again, that’s not the biggest benefit to leaving well-thought-out, interesting blog comments.

The biggest benefit? Whether you realize it or not, consistent blog commenting builds relationships with other bloggers.

Think about it – you go to Joe’s blog once a week and leave a well-thought out comment on Joe’s latest post. Joe keeps noticing you, and pretty soon the two of you are building a relationship that can eventually lead to:

• Guest posts
• Product endorsements
• Joint ventures
• Introductions to other movers in your niche
• And so forth…

Here’s how to be effective at blog commenting:

• Post on blogs in your particular nicheRead the entire post thoroughly before commenting
• Share your specific thoughts and opinions
• Don’t be general or vague. “Nice post” doesn’t cut it
• Use a great avatar – a photo of your smiling face is usually best
• Use your real name, not “Mary6504”
• Never be rude and never be mean
• Be genuine and thought-provoking – Add value to the conversation
• Use Google Alerts to be alerted to new posts so you can be one of the first to comment – more readers will see your comment this way
• Subscribe to RSS feeds and to email lists of your favorite bloggers – again, this helps to alert you when someone makes a new post
• If you’re not the first to leave a blog comment, then scan the other comments to make sure you’re not repeating a thought or comment
• Use personal stories where applicable
• Quote the post itself in your comment – for example, “When you said ____ it gave me a great idea”
• It’s okay to disagree if you do it in a way that totally respects the blogger’s opinions and thoughts
• Ask questions of the blog owner. This will get you more engagement and shows you’re interested in their opinion – very effective for relationship building.
• Always double proofread your comment for spelling and punctuation before submitting

And remember to be patient – you don’t develop a relationship with a blogger over one blog comment. Continue to come back and comment on new posts and you will gradually build real relationships with these bloggers.

Here’s an experiment for you to try. If you don’t already, get a year’s worth of issues of any one magazine. If possible, make it a business magazine such as Entrepreneur. Now go through each issue of the magazine and see which full page and half page ads repeat month after month, and which ads are only there for one month before they disappear.

Notice the difference between the two types of ads. The ones that appear once and never appear again tend to be feature based and devoid of emotion. The ones that appear month after month are benefit and emotion based.

Why is that? Because ads that run month after month are working. Those that run once and never run again aren’t working. And ads that only highlight features without benefits or emotions do not work.

Now then, there are hundreds of different emotions and you can’t hit every one of them in your ad. So which are the very best to target? According to author Robert Imbriale, you can’t go wrong when you include as many of these 5 motivators as possible into your sales process:

Fear. Fear of missing out, fear of making a mistake, fear of loss, fear of failure – all of these things can work in your favor to get the sale. Show your prospect what will happen to them if they don’t buy your product. A life can completely change and take an entirely different course simply by making the right decision at the right time. Let them know how your product can make that difference, and then show them how awful it would be if they didn’t take that next step.

Every market has a set of fears that is shared by a large percentage of your prospects. If you have the solutions to those fears, or even to just one of those fears, you simply need to tap into the fear and use it to market your product.

For example, use news stories to tie your product in as the solution to a fear. You might use the story of a man who once had everything, got laid off and is now homeless. “Don’t let this be you. Buy our course on how to start your own business today and never worry about your future again.”

Love. Are you surprised? Real, genuine social contact is at an all-time low. Most people don’t even know who their neighbors are. Families are no longer living close to each other. Television and the Internet have become a poor substitute for human contact.

More than ever people need a sense of connection, and you can provide that connection in a myriad of ways. Have a video blog (vlog) where you speak directly to your audience. Host calls and interviews. Create a community around each product, through a Facebook page or forum. Do live calls where people can ask you questions. Become the expert in your niche that your prospects feel they KNOW, and you will get their business.

Example phrases to use:

• Join us
• Meet people just like you
• Be a part of
• Connect with others

Want to take it even further? You’ve heard it a million times – sex sells – and it does. Incorporate a sexy message into your marketing and sales will go up.

Words to use:

• Join us
• Meet people just like you
• Be a part of
• Connect with others

Free Things and Hot Sales. This one needs very little explanation – everyone loves to get a great deal. So for example, if you can offer your latest product on sale with an older product thrown in for free, you’re probably going to make a lot of sales.

Give something away to build your list. Give something else away to get referrals. Give away tidbits of good info. But don’t give away the store. Offer special deals that are time limited – if they snooze, they lose. Your customers will learn to buy quickly or miss out – a good way to combine hot sales with the #1 motivator above – fear.

And one of the most potent of all freebies – the free (or nearly free) trial. Let them try your $197 product for just $10, and then 3 easy payments of $67. Or your monthly membership for just $1, and then $39.99 a month starting in 30 days. Yes, you’ll get cancellations, but you’ll also get a great many sales, too, as more people get to experience your product and decide they want to keep it.

Easy Money. You’d think this powerful motivator couldn’t be applied to every business, but if you try, it’s nearly always possible. For example, if you’re selling a dating book for guys, you might talk about how much more confidence they’ll have when they’re able to date beautiful women – confidence that will greatly enhance all aspects of their lives, including their ability to make money, get a promotion, etc.

If you’re selling an organic gardening guide, you might mention that with their greatly increased yields they’ll have tons of produce to sell beyond what they need for themselves. And of course organic produce is in high demand, so it’s a money maker. If you’re selling a weight loss product, you might talk about how much more energy and confidence they’ll have, leading to more productivity and better opportunities, and so forth.

Be their fairy godmother and make wishes come true. Everyone has dreams. Everyone wants something. Show your prospects – better yet, prove to them that you can grant their wish when they purchase your product, and you’ve got the sale.

Don’t believe it? Think of the one thing you want more than anything else. Now imagine I can prove to you that you can have that very thing, and the way to get it is to simply purchase and use my product. What’s it worth to you to make your dream come true? Probably just about every cent you have.

Here’s your task: Find a way to incorporate four or all five of these motivators into your next sales piece, and watch your response soar!

Quickly now – why do people buy from you? “Find a need and fill it, and you’ll be rich,” right? Probably not. People rush to buy what they want, they often delay to buy what they need. Think about it…

Look at food – does anyone need spicy nacho corn chips? No. They need fruit, vegetables, grains and meats. They don’t need corn chips or snack cakes or cookies or candy. But what do they buy? Junk food. LOTS of junk food.

No one needs fast food, either. 5 minutes of planning in the morning and you can pack a nutritious lunch that’s actually GOOD for you. But what do millions of people do? They stand in line or sit in a drive-thru to buy a meal that is likely to make them feel bad, both after they eat it and again when they step on the scale, all because they WANTED the fast food. They didn’t need it. They would be better off without it. But that doesn’t stop them from going out of their way to get it because they WANT it.

Now then – are you selling to people’s wants, or their needs?

They need to brush their teeth, they want to have a sexy smile. They need to add gas to their car, they want to get to work without being stranded by the side of the road. They need to make money, they want to be rich without working. They need to lose 50 pounds, they want to have the energy to keep up with their kids during the day and still connect enthusiastically with their partner at night.

Are you in the Internet Marketing niche? Marketers need to get traffic, have products to sell and maintain an outstanding reputation online. But marketers WANT to make more money, have more time, worry less, work less, stress less, and be the envy of their ex-coworkers and a hero to their family.

See the difference?

Success is found when you sell what people WANT, not what they need.

You’re about to Skype into a potential JV partner, or talk to a big affiliate on the phone, or meet your fellow marketers at a conference. Making this connection is important – it can mean the difference between years of working together to build your businesses, or not. So, what can you say or do to make them trust you?

Should you try to impress them and wow them with your expertise? Should you be funny and outgoing? Or act like you’re extraordinarily successful?

Really, the answer is none of the above. That’s because the first step in getting people to trust you is to show them how interested you are in them.

Let’s say you’re about to speak to a business prospect. Decide in advance how you’re going to feel about this person. Before you even meet, choose to find them interesting, intriguing, loveable and kind. When you do, you’ll be making them feel as important as they are.

Ask to hear their story. “So tell me how you got to where you are.” Let it come across in your words. “That’s fascinating, tell me more about that.” “I love hearing your story, tell me what happened next.”

Make your energy and your words positive because no one likes to be around negative people.

Another example: When you see who’s calling on caller ID, get happy and think how fascinating they are before you answer the phone, especially if you’re initially annoyed at the interruption.

Creating a positive experience for the other person will naturally lead to the connection you seek.

Connection occurs in those moments when someone else feels understood by you. When they feel that you “get” them. You might use phrases such as, “Me too!” “I thought I was the only one!” “I didn’t realize you enjoy that, I like it too!”

In that “me too” moment, you help that person remember that they are not alone in this world, and that there is at least one other person that “gets” them.

The more “me too” moments you can create, the more points of connection you create.

Here are more tips for creating connections that get people to trust you:

Get permission before offering them your advice. They might be simply telling you their story and not looking for your feedback, so don’t assume. Invite them to consider whether they want you to participate. You might say, “That’s really interesting. I have an idea that might be helpful to you, would you like me to share it?”

In sales, the word “no” is seldom respected. So ask permission before making a presentation of any kind: “It will only take 5 minutes, if you don’t mind my taking that time to share this with you.” Asking permission shows respect and indicates that you think of them as an equal, not someone to be dominated.

Ask for feedback. When offering them information, ask what they think and how they feel about it. “I’d love your thoughts. “Can you tell me your opinion?” “I feel strongly about that, how do you feel?” “What would you do in a situation like that?” “Have you ever done something like this before?”

Be helpful, even if they’re not ready to buy right now or do a joint venture or promote your product right now. Share resources with them, introduce them to people who can help them, and find ways to be an asset to them, not a liability.

Using these methods you’ll build connections, trust, and you’ll grow your network exponentially, thus growing your business.

There’s only one thing you need to sell as an online marketer, and it’s not your website or your blog posts or your products. It’s you.

Why do more people buy products from another list owner or blogger than you?

Because those people trust that person more than they trust you.

This doesn’t mean you’re not trust worthy – not at all.

It just means they don’t know you. They don’t know your name, or if they know your name they don’t know what you stand for or if you’re just like them.

To get someone to trust you, you have to get them to like you.

To get someone to like you, you have to be like them. People like people who agree with them.

Just look at politics and you’ll see what I mean.

But don’t get confused – I’m not saying you should take a poll, see what people like and then try to be that person.

It won’t work because you cannot and will not please everybody. It’s impossible, and you shouldn’t even try.

Instead, you should be a bigger, brighter and BOLDER version of yourself.

Form your own opinions. I don’t mean read an opinion you agree with and then be a parrot – that’s what everyone does.

Instead, start thinking for yourself and forming your own opinions. Then vocalize those opinions in your emails, your blog posts and your videos.

When you do, here’s what will happen:

Some people will think you’re annoying as can be. They’ll even tell you this. They’ll stop reading your blog or they’ll unsubscribe from your list. This is good. This is what you want.

Because at the same time, other people will take notice and say, “Hey! That guy or gal is right! What else do they have to say?”

These are your followers, your tribe, your customers for life. These are the people who will buy a product simply because you point to it and say, “Buy this.”

They will buy because they like you. They will like you because you are like them. And they will trust you because they like you.

Be yourself. Don’t be aggressive or arrogant, but be vocal about your opinions. Build your tribe. Your tribe will LOVE you. Ignore those who don’t love you.

This is how you sell yourself. And once you can sell yourself, you can sell anything you want to sell.

If you already sell your own products, you can double your income in no time at all by adding new price points to your marketing funnel. You don’t even need to create any new products – just new services that take very little of your time. Here’s how it works…

Let’s say you’ve got one or more products in the $20-$50 dollar range that teach something you’re good at. And for this example, let’s say that your product is a book on how to make a website super user friendly so that people stay and buy, rather than getting lost and confused and leaving. (This is a major market, by the way. Hint hint.)

In addition to your book, you can add a personal 1 hour consultation for $97 to $197 to look at and give feedback on one of their websites.

You could also offer to be on retainer for a certain fee per month to check each of their websites monthly and point out the changes they need to make. This fee would depend on the number of sites they have and are adding each month.

You could further offer a coaching service in which you train people to be usability experts and charge others for their services. In this case, you might charge $1,000 or even $2,000 a month for 3-6 months to make them experts.

Whatever your niche is, odds are you can add additional service-type programs that will easily double the amount of money you’re already making.

If you sell just 5 $97 one-time consultations a month, that’s another $5,820 a year.

If you sell an ongoing service at $297 a month and you’ve got 12 clients, that’s $42,768 a year.

If you take 4 new coaching clients for 6 months at a time, twice a year at $1,000 a month, that’s another $48,000 a year.

And none of these services have to take a lot of time. In the case of the 1 hour consult, obviously it’s an hour. And your real money here will be derived from upselling one of your more expensive consulting or coaching packages.

If you’re a consultant, you might be spending a couple of hours a week on each client. If you’re a coach, you might spend an hour a week on the phone, and answer their email questions 3 to 5 days a week.

And notice that you didn’t have to create any new products to do this. You’ve already got the knowledge and expertise – you’re simply offering more of it in a highly personalized manner. Your clients get tremendous benefit this way, much more so than they could by simply buying your book.

You’re happy, your clients are happy, and here’s a bonus: Anyone that you personally work with – even if it’s only for an hour – is far more likely to buy your products in the future, regardless of price.

Do you plan to release a $997 product in six months? Offer your customers personalized attention that greatly benefits them, and you will hit the ground running with sales when you launch your expensive product, guaranteed.

Take a few minutes now and think about what you can offer your existing and future customers that A) Provides them with a tremendous amount of value and B) You can perform in a minimal amount of time. Then quickly write up a page explaining your new service, send it to your existing customers and add it to your sales funnel. You could be making new sales in less than 24 hours.

Alright, some of you are going to say I’m over simplifying and others will simply disagree, but after years of being super serious about my business, here’s what I’ve discovered:

Everything in life – EVERYTHING – is actually a GAME.

You know how you sit down with a few friends to play cards or a board game, and there’s always that one person who takes the whole game WAY too seriously? They’re getting mad and frustrated when things don’t go their way, they’re celebrating like it’s New Years when things go right, and half the time they can’t even follow the conversation because they’re too busy concentrating on the game.

Yeah, that person.

Well guess what? I’ll bet you that when it comes to Internet Marketing, you are that person.

If you’re taking every decision so seriously, then it might as well be life or death. Exactly how should you word this email? What color should your header be? Should you promote this product at 6a.m. on Tues, or at 9a.m. on Wednesday? And so forth.

These are choices that should take seconds.

Yet I was agonizing over each one like it was a declaration to declare war.

I thought I had to nail every decision and make it all perfect. Nothing could be left to chance. If it took me a week to decide something, it’s because that’s how long it should take.

Wrong.

Now I flip a coin. Seriously. If I need to make a decision – but based on all the facts I have I can’t decide – I flip a coin. Sort of like rolling the dice in a game. Because you know what? It’s better to take the wrong action than no action at all.

Sure, fast decisions can turn out to be bad ones. But guess what? So can slow decisions. But no decision at all? That will get you nowhere, fast. Every kid who rides a bicycle can tell you that it’s far easier to change direction once you’re moving. But if you’re sitting still on that bike, you’re not going anywhere.

And the long term difference between good and bad decisions isn’t even in the decision itself, or the results it produces. Instead, the difference is in how you react. If you make a bad decision and then confine yourself to bed for a week, that’s not going to help.

But when you play marketing like a game, a bad decision is simply telling you to move in another direction. You shrug off the bad choice, glad that now you have more information to head in a better direction this time.

Laughing at your bad choices is a good idea, too, because it’s a game. It’s all a game. LIFE is a game.
If you’re down two goals in football, do you over think what to do next? No. You get the ball and start moving it down the field. If you encounter something new and surprising in a video game, do you shut it down? No, you try different things and see what works. At most you pause the game, go online and find out what to do. It takes you 5 minutes at most before you’re back in the game, fully armed with the knowledge you need to win.

Any difficult obstacle you face can be thought of as a game. And just shifting your mindset to game mode can make all the difference.

I had a friend years ago who went to military boot camp. He looked at the whole thing as a game, and afterward he reported that boot camp was one of the easiest things he ever did. Other people in his camp took the training so seriously, they were literally getting sick from fright. Same boot camp, two different mindsets.

I had another friend in the U.S. who was facing an IRS audit. Scary stuff, and let me tell you, he was deeply frightened and ready to do anything – including signing over a big check – to make it go away. Then he changed his outlook. Now instead of quaking in fear, he declared, “It’s a game, me against them. Let’s see how we can win this.” His fear vanished, he took action, and at the end of the audit the IRS paid HIM.

Do you want to start an online business? Launch a new product? Approach 25 gurus in the next 25 days? Make it into a game and 4 things will happen:

First, you’ll relax – and people do their best thinking when they’re relaxed.

Second, you’ll have fun – and people do their best work when they’re having fun.

Third, you won’t feel stressed – at least not the negative kind of stress – and you’ll literally live longer and be happier.

Fourth, when it’s all done and regardless of the outcome, you’ll be eager to do something else because you’ll want to have even more fun in your game.

“Yeah, but this is serious business and I’m a serious person!”

Really? Or is that simply how you choose to look at things and who you choose to be?

Life is a series of choices, and one of the biggest choices we make is deciding how to frame what we’re doing.

Me, I choose to make it a game – one I can’t wait to get up and play each morning. A game that just happens to also make me money. Lots of money.

How about you?

Regardless of what people might think of the Walmart we know today, there is a lot to be learned from Walmart’s founder Sam Walton. In fact, if Sam were starting in business in 2020, he would almost undoubtedly be starting that business online.

So what can we glean from the guy in the old pickup truck who loved retailing?

Don’t worry about what others say about you. At JC Penney’s, his first full time job out of college, the personnel director told Sam, “Walton, I’d fire you if you weren’t such a good salesman. Maybe you’re just not cut out for retail.” No one remembers that man’s name, but Sam built an empire no one is likely to ever forget.

If people are telling you that you’re not cut out for online marketing, just remember Sam and smile.

Go with your strengths. Sam wasn’t good at accounting, he had poor organizational skills and he was hopelessly disorganized. But one thing he could do really well was build a team of people who could handle these things for him.

Focus on your strengths and outsource the rest.

Build relationships. In college, Same wanted to be student body president, so he discovered a trick that he would use for the rest of his life:

Sam made friends everywhere he went, and you can do the same thing online. Talk to everyone in your niche because you never know who is going to be your next customer, your ally, your promoter, your affiliate or your next joint venture partner.

Be a learning machine. Sam never stopped reading books and taking courses because he understood that the next great idea could come from anywhere.

Choose 5 or 10 proven online marketers to follow, and then read everything they write. Read a marketing book each week, and develop a curiosity for everything related to your field. Keep an open mind and know that your next great idea is hidden right in front of you – you just have to uncover it and act on it.

Learn from your competition. When Sam bought his first store, he realized the store across the street was doing twice as well. So Sam spent time everyday checking out his competitor to see what he was doing, right and wrong. Later he checked out Kmarts, who were ahead of him at the time. Then he visited the headquarters of other retailers who didn’t consider him to be serious competition. Little did they know…

Carefully watch and analyze what other online marketers are doing right and wrong and learn from them. Make friends with them. Ask questions. Bribe them, buy their courses and do whatever it takes to find out what’s already working.

Continually experiment with your business. Sam was continually applying what he learned elsewhere to his stores. Said Sam:

Learn something and apply it. Make it your mantra: Learn something – innovate. And test, test and test some more to see what is working best. In no other business model in history has it been easier to innovate, test and discover exactly what is working and what needs improving than in online marketing.

Don’t reinvent the wheel – adapt it to your own use. According to Sam, “…most everything I’ve done I’ve copied from somebody else…”

There are plenty of proven online marketing business models you can choose from, so don’t think you have to invent the next revolutionary thing. Instead, take what’s already working and make it even better.

Make mistakes and then move on. Sam didn’t understand the terms of his first lease or how to buy a business. He borrowed money and went into debt to overpay for a failed Ben Franklin store in Newport, Arkansas. After 5 long years of grueling work and long hours, he had quadrupled sales and he had the most successful Ben Franklin store in the region. That’s when the landlord booted him out to give the store to his son to run. There was nowhere else in town to locate Sam’s store, so he drove across four states looking for a new location. He found one in Bentonville, Arkansas and started over.

It’s okay to get it wrong the first time. In fact, you’re probably going to make mistakes and that’s terrific, because it means you’ve started. You’re moving, you’ve got momentum and you’re making progress. Mistakes aren’t roadblocks, they’re bumps in the road to success.

Don’t dwell on your mistakes. Says Sam about being thrown out of his own store, “I’ve never been one to dwell on reverses, and I didn’t do so then…. I know I read my leases a lot more carefully after that, and maybe I became a little more wary of just how tough the world can be …. But I didn’t dwell on my disappointment.”

Every moment is a fresh beginning and an opportunity to take what you’ve learned – good and bad – and use it to your advantage.

Enjoy the process and your victories. In his autobiography, which was written on his deathbed, Sam wrote, “Walmart No. 18 … opened in 1969, and it marked our return to Newport … nineteen years after we had basically been run out of town. By then, I was long over what had happened to us down there, and I didn’t have revenge in mind…. As it happened, we did extraordinarily well with our Newport Walmart, and it wasn’t too long before the old Ben Franklin store I had run on Front Street had to close its doors. You can’t say we ran that guy—the landlord’s son—out of business. His customers were the ones who shut him down. They voted with their feet.”

Sometimes success can be a long time in coming, so remember to enjoy the process and the victories along the way. There were 17 successful stores prior to No. 18 and no doubt Sam enjoyed them all. At first, even your smallest successes should be celebrated, whether it’s your first website, your first sale, or your first $10,000 day.

When it comes to success, Sam Walton may have said it best:

Expect to succeed, act as though you are already successful, do the things you need to do to succeed, and the rest will take care of itself.