Why I Was Successful in 2001 and Why You Could Be Too

It is the end of another year and I am thankful for the many blessings. This last year was the best year ever business-wise. How many can say that? I am not in the same league as people like Robert Blackman, Terry Dean, Cory Rudl among others. At least not yet. How about you? By the sheer volume of email I received during the year, I know there are many frustrated people trying to make a few bucks in the hottest, latest affiliate, network marketing, home business idea launched during the year. I've read about the frustration on home biz forums and in the group clubs. I even started recognizing the same names of people promoting the newest programs. I've been tempted several times to write and ask how they are doing and what's happened with the programs they've joined. Before looking forward to next year, it's important to look back and analyze what worked for me and what didn't. One of my favorites quotes is by Albert Einstein who said, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting the results to change." One of the things that most sticks out in my mind that contributed to my successful year is learning new skills. I believe learning is never done so one of my goals last year was to read books by successful people. Two books that had the biggest impression on me were Robert Kiyosaki's "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" and Richard Brooke's "Mach II With Your Hair on Fire." I also learned new skills by subscribing to and reading several good newsletters. Phil Wiley's All My Secrets - http://www.ozemedia.com Cynted Chronicle - http://www.cynted.com/subscribe.html Boogie Jack's Almost A Newsletter - http://www.boogiejack.com Jim Rohn's Weekly Ezine - http://www.jimrohn.com Big Al's Recruiting Newsletter - http://www.fortunenow.com GROKDotCom - http://www.grokdotcom.com Slight Edge Newsletter - http://www.yoursuccessstore.com Dirtsmart Netrepreneur - http://www.dirtsmart.com Achieve USA Home Business Journal - http://www.achieveusa.com I attribute my successful year to the ability to track my advertising campaigns to find the ones that worked. Having a limited advertising budget, it was critical to get the "most bang for my buck" when it came to advertising. To that end, one of the most useful suite of web promotion tools is ROIbot (http://www.roibot.com/r.cgi?R33095_2002). Because of the quality of the program, the ROIbot reseller program also contributed to my profitability. Running ads in newsletters was my most successful form of advertising. However, not all newsletters are created equal. My most effective ads were run in newsletters that focused on home businesses. I was the least successful running ads in newsletters that were primarily ad sheets or those that run separate classified ad issues. The following sites provide lists of newsletters that can be searched for advertising opportunities: http://www.homeincome.com/search-it/ezine/ http://www.e-zinez.com/cgi-bin/hyperseek/hyperseek.cgi http://www.list-city.com/ezines.htm http://www.site-city.com/members/e-zine-master/ http://bestezines.com/ http://www.lifestylespub.com/cgi-bin/directory.cgi http://ezinecentral.com/ http://ezine-universe.com/ http://ezine-tips.com/ http://list-a-day.com/ http://list-resources.com/ Mike Hill runs a very successful ezine classified ad service that has brought in results. Advertisers can get their ad placed in 20 newsletters sent to 25,000 readers for $10. Visit http://hop.clickbank.net/?glenpalo/cashgalore for more information. The least successful form of advertising for me in 2001 was the use of "safelists" of opt-in email addresses. Usually, the safelist operators let you email to their database of email addresses for a nominal fee. The fee is either an annual or monthly fee. Some people say they have been successful using safelists. While I did not get the same results, I found that the use of safelists was a good way to test ad titles (email subject). MyLISTmaker proved to be an exception. Because of the cost of joining MyLISTmaker Gold and, I believe, the quality of the program, the revenue generated from promoting my products more than made up for the upfront cost of MyLISTmaker. Also, MyLISTmaker has the ability to generate a separate stream of revenue for those that actively promote the service. When planning your advertising for 2002, MyLISTmaker is worth a look at http://www.mylistmaker.com/?460019 A number of clickthrough or click exchange programs brought additional visitors to my websites. The basic premise is if you visit websites, you will receive visitors to yours in return. The click exchange programs take several different forms such as popup windows, exit windows, start pages etc. The best collection of these free advertising programs can be found in a downline club called MyECom. I joined and use MyECom because of the extensive list of free places to advertise. There is extensive support through one of the associated groups. For more information, visit http://myecom.net/members/builder7/ In summary, to improve your results, review what you have done in the past. Focus on the methods that bring in the best results. If you did not try different advertising methods in 2001, try new ones in 2002. That way at the end of the year, you'll be able to compare results.