Why Working Hard Is Not Enough by Yanik Silver
Copyright 2006 SurefireMarketing.com
As I was sitting here writing out this newsletter we had a
chimney repairman and a landscaper come out to the house. Out of
my window I could see both of them doing their jobs. Let me tell
you these guys work *hard*.
Both of them get up very early in the morning and put in a full
day's work. The chimney repairman is dangerously perched at
least 50 feet above the ground for most of the day. And our
neighborhood landscaper is breaking his back carrying heavy bags
of mulch all day.
The point is these guys put in an honest day's labor for honest
day's wage every day. They aren't sleeping on the job or goofing
off. They're working their butts off - but that's not enough!
Do you know the big secret neither one of these fellows (or most
other people) ever figure out?
It's so simple once you understand and it can have a profound
effect on your wealth. Here it is...
Your income cannot be limited by the amount of hours you can put
in. Each one of us are given 24 hours and it doesn't matter if
you are a chimney repairman, landscaper, CEO, homeless bum, or
Internet entrepreneur. We all have the same 24 hours to work
with. Most people simply work - get paid, work - get paid, work
- get paid. You put in 8 hours on the job - you get paid for 8
hours. You put in 40 hours a week - you get 40 hours in salary.
That's the way we've been taught to do it - and the sad truth is
you'll never get ahead doing what everyone else does (that's a
lesson in itself).
You need to think about how you can turn more and more of your
activities into ongoing revenue seeds. First you build one
ongoing income stream and then another, and another and another.
Let me give you a real example from my business to illustrate
this.
I created Instant Sales Letters (www.instantsalesletters.com) in
February 2000. Every single day we get orders for this product
and at $40 - $55/pop it adds up. Last year this one site brought
in Six Figures for me. I created the product once and now get
paid over and over again (Though I have added to the letters and
revised them several times.) Now think about that. Work I did
once keeps paying me every single day no matter what I do.
That's a good deal.
Once that first stream is rolling - you can expand into another
stream. For me, it came from people asking me how I grew Instant
Sales Letters and made it so successful online so fast. That's
when I started teaching Internet marketing based on what I did
not just reading about it or talking about it. So my second
stream was a product called "Instant Internet Profits"
(www.instantinternetprofits.com). This was a complete guide I
created that documented everything I did. That sold well and
kept selling. And just a few months ago I totally revised it
based on everything new I've learned in the last few years.
After "IIP", I went to work on creating additional products. Of
course, some sell better than others but together they are
responsible for bringing in millions and millions each year.
My thinking is squarely on how can I get the most leverage and
ongoing income from any activity. For instance, if I do a
teleconference series (like www.webcopysecrets.com) then I will
sell the LIVE calls for "x" amount and then have the calls
recorded to turn it into a product I can keep selling for "y"
amount. Then going even further, I could take excerpts from that
product and use them as articles or free ebooks to be passed
along to get additional business. Do you see how it works? Try
to get paid over and over again for activities done once. Make
that your mantra.
One more example. Instant Sales Letters is one of our hot
products so now I've started selling it on CDrom at Amazon. Just
last month it brought in an extra $386. Nothing too crazy - but
for doing the work once of putting it up there - it's not bad.
To take this further I have also licensed one section out of the
Instant Sales Letters to a company selling CDroms with consumer
mailing addresses and they pay me $1,000/month for this.
Now here's the warning. With all this said, don't get fooled by
the idea nearly everyone gets. It goes something like this -
"Well, if I can create 10 different products each making
$1,000/month - I'll make $10,000 every month." Yes, that's a
great thought but what happens is you get sidetracked and lose
focus working on more than one project at once.
Believe me, I fall for this trap also. Your best bet is to focus
on product #1 first and *only* after you have that securely in
place move along to product #2. Trust me, I realize there are so
many opportunities available online that you want to grab each
one - but the only thing you'll do is run around like a headless
chicken.
You can see from my examples my multiple revenue streams
consists of information products. I love info products because
of all the incredible advantages.
But this advice will work just as well for any kind of passive
revenue stream. I hope you spend some time to think about this.