Why?

Because he sells good products and promote good products.

Anyways Andre made a damn good point at http://imade500faster.com/ (his promotion about Anik singal’s new product, it’s closed now).

People remember milestones.

Though his argument was he didn’t remember his first sale, but I do mine.

I also remember my first $100 a day, then $500 a day too… Heck I know the name of the person who I sold when I reached 500 dollar for the day. Granted I do have sharp memory.

Why these milestones matter?

Photo by parislemon

In Neuro Linguistic programming, we learn how our brain focuses on key emotions and anchor the feelings associated with it. It doesn’t matter if the feeling is positive or negative.

The anchor is created and then we chose to live with this anchor (good or bad doesn’t matter at all). It pretty much takes “living in the past” to extreme level.

If you are positive oriented person, you’ll remember most of your successful anchors and emotions. Same for negative oriented people.

These emotions can help you succeed or become a miserable failure, if you don’t have authority over them.

That’s one of major reason for skills like NLP, Sedona and EFT are there to help people succeed.

If you want to succeed, add emotions to your goals.

My mentor used to say this a lot about goal setting. When you do that, you are ready to jump into unknown and go that extra mile to achieve your goals.

Ask yourself Why do you want to achieve this goal?

If you want to make money to impress your girl friend or show off your car to your friends then the reason you have isn’t going to make you go that extra mile.

But when you want to make money because you want to make sure your kids get that education that you didn’t, you are highly motivated.

Remember marketing saying, People do things to feel good or to get away from bad.

In this goal setting you are implementing both of them at same time. Giving more power to your decisions.

How to add emotions to your goals?

1. Make a goal (duh).
2. Ask yourself, What’s my reason for this goal?
3. How will I feel if I don’t achieve my goal (say in next 6 months or 1 year)?
4. How will I feel If I’ll be able to achieve my goal (time frame)?
5. What actions I can take now to take my step towards success?
6. Do it NOW.
7. Celebrate every single small success or Completion of every single step towards your goal.

Wow, I was talking about Andre’s promotion and ended up talking about goal setting. Remember like I said, These mile stones matter, The more success mile you have, more you’ll succeed and easier it’ll become to succeed next time in next project.

And boys and girls, men and women, that’s how you’ll learn how to be successful person.

PS: Mike Filsaime Just converted his Butterfly marketing script into GNU Licensedhttp://butterflyopensourcecode.com/ (means it’s free and you can add your own code to it). It’s good tool for every marketer to have.

You know when I got out of school at the age 17, I wanted nothing to do with 9-5 job with no job security, fixed income and blah blah (typical American dream, though I am an Indian).

I decided to start up my own business. For next 12 years (till date), I’ve worked harder than anyone I know. I’ve worked smarter than anyone I know. But It still burned me out regularly.

I started noticing few trends in my life. I was working over 100 hrs per week (that’s around 16 hour per day). Most of my that time I spend in front of my pc.

( Kill Me now by emme-dk)

I ended up getting fat, screwed up my eyes and knees in this process.

This made me take a look at my life seriously. What was I doing it wrong? I am making money but at what cost?

I started journaling everything I was doing (god knows why I stopped journaling when it was one of my main habit) and realized something mind boggling.

“I was pretending to be working”

This shook me to the core. I was spending 15 hr a day in front of computer but my productive hours were only couple of hours per day (even less sometimes).

Remember Tim Ferries 4 Hour Work Week guy?

I was technically living the 4 hr work week while screwing up my life working for 15 hrs.

Can you believe it?

It was then I made decision to not be the guy who pretended to work for 15 hours a day.

I asked myself…

How Can I Avoid pretending?

by showmeone

I made a simple list of things I should be doing and started planning my day in complete detail.

It was at the same time Eben Pagan Launched his product called Wake Up Productive.

One of my major break through idea from that course was

“Multi-tasking kills productivity”.

Getting focused on the one task and make sure you see it to be completed gives you better result. The best part is that you get things done faster.

Trust me it does load of good for your confidence, your ego and saves you lot of time.

So when I am working I normally switch off my mobile, phone, lock my doors and try to focus 100% on my work.

What changes it made to my life?

First of all, I am working for less than I am used to.

Second I get things done faster.

Third because of this obsessively focused routine you add quality to your work.

Fourth, GF is happier.

Fifth I am healthier and enjoying my time practicing martial arts (one of my love).

Sixth, I am planning and expanding to do far more business in this year. For those who don’t know I jumped offline last year and started my business there.

Seventh, No More procrastinating and then feel like shit because you haven’t done anything.

So How can you start making a massive change like me?

By starting small.

It’s counter intuitive but if you try to make a massive change in your life, you brain will go ‘Phlethhhh’ and you lose all the momentum. Your brain resist change because it has become your habit. If you try to do much, you’ll feel little scared and it makes you procrastinate.

1. Start by fixing 30 minutes for today. Make a commitment to write a simple article for your blog or website. That’s it.
2. Get a Timer.
3. Every day, add 5 minutes to previous time.
4. Take break after every 1 hour of focused work.

Like I said, start today by focusing on small task first. If you want to put a time on your computer then you can use Action machine to help you with.

Photo Credit Japokshee

In last 6 months, if you haven’t

1. Turn your computers off – Most of us (so called internet marketers) spend way too much time in front of our computers doing almost nothing. We are always “In process” or “in creation” mode which gets done nothing. So switch your computer off for now.

2. Make a list of all things you have done so far and failed – Take out your pen and paper and make a list of all things you have done online whether they were successful or failed. It doesn’t matter, you need a list of things out there to get a real time understanding of the situation.

3. Reboot Yourself – John Reese talked about this few years ago. You write down everything related to you, your goals, your debt, your health, wealth, spiritual and get it out from your head on to the paper. It’ll get all the junk out of your mind and make it feel relaxed.

4. Fix and schedule your “Internet marketing” time – Schedule your internet marketing time. I got this idea from my fitness routine. Everyday when clock starts 5:55 pm, I automatically change my clothes and at 6:00 I start working out. This is a habit. Make your internet marketing a habit.

5. Save Your money to put it in business – Save your money to put it in the business. Do not think about buying products for now. Just save it, get a few extra jobs to get cash flow in the business. If you don’t treat your online business like a business, chances of your succeeding goes way low.

6. Make Your goal – how much action you take completely depends on your goal. If you fix your goal, schedule your time and start taking massive action, you’ll succeed. It’s about either doing it or not doing it at all. There is no middle road, only road kills, remember.

7. Understand which markets you can jump into – You cannot jump into every market you think are profitable. Answer completely honestly, Can you really survive in the market you chose? Can you answer to the readers, client’s question related to the market?

8. Understand your clientele or readers – It comes down to knowing your market profile. Like they say in marketing, “get in bed with your client”. You have to intimately know your market. You have to know their fears, their hope, their failures, their successes.

9. Develop relationships with everyone – It always comes down to who you are connected. Developing relationship with people will go long way. You need that elusive PR 7-8 link or may be get your product promo all over the web? Relationships with your readers, your friends, your business partners is going to help you.

10. Work, focus and then work some more – Time and time again, I’ve found there’s no substitute for hard work and focus. If you focus 100 percent on the task for next 60 minutes, you’ll get better results rather than spending 4 hrs with 80% focus.

Heck I personally belong to the list, who is likely to spend 5 hrs with 100% focus. Is it easy? heck no… Does it product result? Hell yes.

11. Make Your own product – Regardless of the monetization methods out there on internet, the fastest and surest way to make money online is to have a product. I have said it on this blog time and time again about this. If you are worried about your writing skills. Break the project down in small chunks.

12. Write your own blog – Starting your own blog is going to get connected with people. This is a platform where you’ll build relationships. This is a platform where you’ll find joint ventures. So get started.

13. Take a Break 1 day per week. Following from John reese’s reboot yourself theory. One thing I learned was that you need to reboot yourself regularly. Think of it as a computer. If you keep your computer on for 24/7 for next few weeks, how’ll it effect its performance?

Chances are it’ll slow down, programs may not work properly, even with the latest technology. Taking a break 1 day per week will allow you to gather yourself, gather your thoughts and get focused for the upcoming week.

14. In crunch offer services.  When you are in financial crunch, you should not hesitate to offer your services. It’ll get you cash in the hand very quickly. There was time when I designed websites for peanuts. Remember, you are not supposed to supplement income this way for long term.

15. Only 3 things you need to remember in online business. Online marketing is simple. You only need to work on 3 steps.

1. Find a market
2. Create a product
3. Promote he heck out of your product and website.

16. When you are overwhelmed, yell out loud, pound the boxing bag, do something physical – Your body demands physical attention. If you do not let it out, stress will kill you slowly. I workout and do martial arts. Some people do surfing. Some go out and play for neighborhood teams. Do something physical. Let the stress out.

17. Traffic is quite important, but don’t spam 1000 sites for that. – This one is simple, stop spamming your website to 1000 website. I know a webmaster (who is great friend) who literally opened account of 50+ forums on his market. Though he is still respectable member of that society, but we still remember it.

People have long term selective memory when they want to remember.

18. Don’t try to be everything to everyone. – I’ve personally tried to do it and failed. Trust me, if you do things certain way, people will talk and you can’t please everybody. So stop trying to be everything to everyone.

19. Don’t run after every new, shiny and loud objects. There are tons of marketing launches happening at any current moment. Do not get distracted. Do not run after every new thing.

This is a list of things or suggestions I’d give to anyone who haven’t achieved the success or the success they wanted. It does come from last 6 years of experience.

This discussion was all about Pro’s and Wannabe. I was telling him pro takes charge in his life and every step of the way. Wannabe’s sits there and wait for stuff to happen.

Pro is serious about his work and its value. Wannabe is unsure about it.

Pro is dedicated about it 7 days a week, 30 days a month and 365 days a year. Wannabe is a weekend warrior.

My thought was, “If you love your stuff, you should not hesitate to sell. If you are selling, do not hesitate to name your price. It’s your work, create the value for it by yourself”.

And this is exactly the biggest difference in most beginner internet marketers.

They do not take the business of building business online seriously.

They do not think in terms of Profit and Loss in monetary value.

They are buying stuff, expecting things to happen.

So what you can do things differently to make things happen in your favor?

1. Create a Product in your market (I don’t care if you create 10 page ebook, Just do it. On other note I just finished 16 page ebook in 3 hrs)

2. Set advertisements (PPC/PPV/CPA) to bring immediate traffic to your website sales pages.

3. Test your sales letter and find out ways to improve conversion.

Next Steps can be optional.

4. Create content to promote your content.

5. Create more ways to get traffic (blog comments, article marketing, forum comments, SEO, affiliate system etc).

6. Make a goal to at least sell 1% conversion of your sales letter.

If you just do the first 3, you’ll be better than 95% of other marketers. If you do the next 3 steps, you’ll be rarer less than 1% who acts and gets results.

I dare you to try it and see if it doesn’t change your life in next 30 days.

When we are kids, none of our parents says “OK Varun, no need to even try and get up and walk, you’ll never do it”. Do they say that? No… they don’t. They say “C`mon once more, get up, C`mon… just a step, YES, that’s the way”.

And things starts changing as we starts growing up. People starts telling us “NO, you can’t do it”. Of course often it’s meant to help us be safe from harmful stuff. But our mind doesn’t understand that, it gets programmed anyway.

It’s a matter of courage

When you are setting your goal today, you are going to add an extra ounce of courage to that. Because it often comes down to that. There’ll be time when people around you won’t support you at all. At that time, you have to…

Believe in yourself and take a leap of faith.

You’ll be surprised how much things change when you just add a dab of courage to your step.

I remember when I first wrote the sales letter for my book and posted it. I just couldn’t handle the butterflies in my stomach.

I remember when I first created an email list and wrote a newsletter, it was mind boggling pressure.

I also remember when I wrote an email selling a product.

I also remember when I got my first refund request.

Yes all of times, I was pressured by some invisible force crushing me. But I had to stand up, handle it because I made a decision, decision to change my life.

Its just a matter of courage. Times, events, people will change no matter what. The only thing that’ll remain unchanged is your courage.

Your courage to take a step towards unknown. 

Your courage to push beyond your limits.

Your courage to face your own fears.

That’ll be unchanged forever.

Varun Pratap

Aim for That Peak Like Mad.
Shadow Such people and Cheer Them On.

The essence of the article was to “Un-complicate things”. Like he said, most internet marketers are chasing after the new shiny tool like dog chases its tail.

Like I always talk about “Mastering one way of doing things before you move on”. Often Doing it One way produces far better than spreading out in many different fields. Again, Do not complicate things.

People often equate simplicity = Not advanced enough = Bah, I am an expert, this thing is below me.

For anyone who ever practiced martial arts knows, “Basics properly executed often wins over advance technique”. In MMA UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), Royce Gracie+’s (Elite Fighter) most victories came from simple arm bar.

1. Streamline
2. Systemize
3. Stick

Are the simple formula Jimmy Uses in his life and marketing.

I also use simple formula to explain my philosophy.

Product + Targeted traffic + conversion = $$$.

Then I talk about 1 way of doing things. 1 way to create product, 1 way to increase traffic, 1 way to improve conversion. It starts with just 1 way.

And folks, that’s how you do things.

Varun Pratap

Aim for that peak like mad
Shadow Such people and Cheer Them On.

Aristotle once said “Man by nature desire knowledge”.

To understand, this is part of nature of a man. We want to understand something. Notice he never said “man by nature desire information”.

There’s difference in both of them.

Knowledge = applied information + experience.

In my blog I’ve given you complete system from start to finish. The information that I shared with you is my knowledge but not yours unless you start working towards it.

It took me
13 months to understand conversion and blogging
3-5 months to learn and implement SEO & get traffic.
3-5 months to learn article marketing & get traffic.
6-8 months in learning PPC.
6 months in web 2.0 & get traffic.
12-13 month in email marketing

I tackled all my problems one by one. I didn’t try to do all the things in one go. That’s a recipe for disaster.

There are things I never tried (am just bad) in learning.
Things like…
using ebay.
copywriting (I am just so-so in this field).
Product launch (though I do have successful launches under my belt, none of it in internet marketing field, One product offline. I wouldn’t call myself an expert)
and few more things that escapes my mind.

If you problem finding a niche.
Keep at it, until you can use at least one way to do it.

If you have problem creating a product
Keep at it, until you can use at least one way to do it.

If you have problem getting traffic.
Keep at it, until you can use at least one way to do it.

In my last email I talked about focus. In today’s email I want you to focus your attention to your biggest strength and channel it to success.

Tackle Your Problems One By One.

and this goes for every small detail that builds an online business.

If you have a single burning question that you want serious answer for… just hit the reply button and email me.

Best Regards
Varun Pratap Singh

Yup, that’s what I was saying to myself just half an hour ago.

Just 1/2 hr ago, I decided I’ll write this email and update my blog since I decided to be more active on my site.

I opened my email processor….

Blink..

Blink..

Blink..

WTF…????

I kept staring at my screen, wonderind what the hell happened to me?

I realized I was hit by most people’s nightmare.

Writing block…

WHOA…

Now for a guy who shouts at the top of building, that there’s no such thing as writing block.

It’s freaking embarrassing.

Now the negative side in me was cursing me, my skills and what people will think if they find out..

Positive side kept telling me to calm down.

Now I got a good excuse for myself not to be able to do this…

I got ADHD. I found out couple of years ago.

Do you know, there’s no system in indian Schooling system to recoganize ADD/ADHD. Often people don’t
realize this. No wonder I didn’t do well in school Until I figured out how brain works and stuff…

Now I am disctracting from the main issue here…

I kicked by chair and then just walked down my building, took few deep breathes and asked myself this question.

“Varun, what’s your advice that you are not following yourself right now?”

JUST WRITE DAMN IT…

Yes, that’s what I am supposed to do. Just write.

I came back, sat down and started writing.

And now you are recieving this email which might end up as a blog post too. Why? Because I am sharing this idea of gettting rid of your mental blocks.

“NOTHINGS MOVES IN LIFE UNTIL YOU GIVE A PUSH”.

That’s what I learned early in life. Being a kid with ADD I always had to work extra hard and then some more to get So-So (below average) grades.

That’s true for life.

That’s true for writing blocks.

That’s true for marketing your business.

That’s also true for success in your life.

If you aren’t succeeding, ask yourself this…

“When did you stopped pushing and Quit because things didn’t seem to be working for you?”

Napoleon Hill talked about this in his book “Think and Grow rich”. He talks about “Stopping 2 feet from the gold”.

How many times have you stopped 2 feet from the gold?

When I realized this, I decided, to not stop unless I achieve the success I am looking for…

From ADD to Ranking 4th nationally in mathematics (that too in country full of geeks )
Becoming top rated programmer when I was 17
Starting my own business at 18
Starting & succeed online business at 23
Becoming a pro blogger at 24
Succeeding offline with my marketing skills at 27.

The list goes on and on…

The reason?

“NOTHINGS MOVES IN LIFE UNTIL YOU GIVE A PUSH”.

Best Regards

Varun Pratap Singh

Secondly, let me give you the reason behind all this. I’ve been writing to you after a long time and there is a reason behind this. You see, about 8 months ago I shifted my focus on building my business offline (after succeeding online).

I’ve been consulting business locally and started working on my dream project (YAY me).

Anyways, one of the business owner I was working with, just started expanding his business abroad. Now this guys is already in Europe & Asia, now he’s aiming for US.

Now I know you are wondering why the heck I am talking about some random guy expanding his business?

What’s it got to do with you?

If you are bit careful, then you can realize that the time period I am talking about is all about bad economy. This guy is expanding while everyone else is bitching n whining about bad economy.

I am telling you this, because I want you to differentiate between all the nay-sayers and winners.

He’s a savvy guy, he understood that if you are going to succeed, you better be immune to all the what losers says and think.

Focus on success to succeed. Let the Losers cry about falling sky.

Though I’ve been missing from my own site, but I’ve been keeping tab on what’s going on all around. The things I see boggles my mind.

You know the drill…

Launches – I lost track of how many relaunches of the relaunch of the launch was happening. There has been never so much of garbage floating around on the number of launches.

Talk about prices tags and offers… Just Buy my shit and you are covered with my special ultra platinum honest to goodness 100 year refund offer with a matching price tags. That’s all you gotta do folks… just buy it and then even your grandson return it for a refund.

Let’s not forget their affiliates. Do these guys even have imagination? Every one of them copying and pasting same emails, same reviews, same bonus offers… sheesh… talk about lazy.

Now I seriously pity the guys who are starting now (or just started recently). I mean, you don’t have to put much efforts to get distracted by these launches. And every product, every offer look better than the other ones.

I remember when I started in 2004, the only distraction was myself. Even then it took me 13 freaking months from losing money to successfully get into profitable figures.

Do you remember my story? My first ever 5 months netted me $21.50.
Utter failure… I jumped to $200 a day 8 months later.

but today with all the distractions, you’d be damn lucky to get my kind of results (that include my failure too).

The difference is all about me focusing on getting good results.

FOCUS. That’s the foundation of this game.

Now I know, in between all these launches few are good ones…
for example Any stuff by Eben pagan is diamond.
Any stuff by Rich Schefren is Diamond.

But Their stuff will give you better results if you have experience.
Though their sales letter will not tell you that…

Rest of the other guys?

No website, no list, no traffic, no knowledge of html, no knowledge of marketing etc etc…. WTF are those people claiming these days?

Lots of them dropped their quality of material they are publishing. And I am hesitating in dropping their names cuz I personally know them & friends with (though I don’t stop bashing them on their faces).

I am backtracking again… Like I talked about focus. You should be focusing on getting results. Spend time daily working on your business.

Think How you can improve your quality of site, content, product, or services.

Remember my 2 Golden Rules - & Trust me I don’t have that many.

1. Traffic. = Content + 3 X Promotion
2. Super Success. = Content + Traffic + Conversion

If you want to get traffic. Improve your promotional efforts.
If you want to improve results, improve your conversion.

Only 2 Rules… Print it Out and paste it in front of your PC.

Remember – In Business, nothing moves until customer buys.

Well I’ll wrap it up here for today…

Best Regards
Varun Pratap

PS: Write back to me about problems you are facing. May be I can Write another big newsletter issue for you. Who knows.. Just write

You know I was reading Dr Mani’s blog post on Intelligent vs Wise.. Now this topic is pretty darn close to me. As I was quite low IQ (dumb stupid) guy. I was the guy who slammed his head on the walls cuz it took me few days to understand a dumb joke.

According to Dr Mani

‘Intelligence’ implies innate ability or potential. However, it does not guarantee performance. That’s a limitation of the scope of application of I.Q. test results.

Applied ‘intelligence’ results in wisdom and experience. And in the real world, that is more valuable – just as results will always outweigh promise or projections

And this is what exactly I believe in… You see I have ADD, and When I was kid, ADD wasn’t very common term. So people just thought I was naturally dumb.

For first 8 years of schooling I had hell lot of problem putting together a structured content(writing essays/answers) in english. Heck I still have that problem. It didn’t stopped me becoming the guy I am today.

It didn’t stopped me from starting my own business when I was 18. Though I have to say, It was hard for me initially. I was slow dumb guy (low IQ)for first 14 yrs. In 15 yr (in my 10th standard) I took the bull by horn . I did everything I could to make myself more smart, intelligent (so to speak).

In next few years I learnt NLP, hypnosis and everything under the sun to become better than normal people…Right now I can read more than 5 times than your average person. I rarely have to read anything twice. I can write articles faster than most people

Frankly speaking It doesn’t matter where you lie on intelligence scale… Nature doesn’t work that way. It all comes down to what you learn from your experience. When I was kid I decided I will not be the loser. There was one quote from the book “You can Win” by Shiv Khera. I am paraphrasing it.

Losers are part of the question or creator of the problem… Winners are part of the answer or creator of solution.

Now you can chose where you want to be… Do you want to be part of problem or solution?

I am proud guy who believe he have answer to everything, every question. Everything came down to just one fact… I didn’t wanted to be the same.

Now What High IQ guys have to lose?

Frankly speaking people with too much intelligent are too proud to be wrong… They just can’t stand themselves being wrong… This is where they’ll always lose. Because they’ll stagnate their growth.

You can be either growing or dying… Not both at same time… So if you are not growing, guess what… you are dying…

Another possible problem that High IQ guys have is “paralysis analysis”. They are stuck too much with possible solutions… As they hate to be wrong… it’ll be hard for them to take that first step…

Whereas Slow guys often take the idea and run with it. Because that’s the best thing they can do…. In fact that’s the ONLY BEST thing slow guys should do… Take an idea and run with it. If you are proven wrong, well you’ll still remain a slow guy… if it works… darn you are genius.

Again In last 10 days, I gave you ideas and process for affiliate marketing, Internet marketing strategies with your own products and creating web site traffic. They are all proven ideas that I have worked together… nothing so smart or intelligent about them… They are pretty darn boring and basic. But They Work. Works like any $1000 product out there..