It is extremely rare that a new blog comes along in the Make Money Online world that doesn’t simply repeat everything you and I and everyone else has already heard.

In fact, I’d say that originality and innovation are pretty much at the core of Vic Franqui’s Blogger Unleashed.

I come across a lot of new sites and typically never read more that 2-3 posts before moving on.

This one was different… very different.

The first thing I noticed was Vic’s laugh in his videos. That laugh is from someone with a heart of gold. The humor and that laugh got me to watch more and the video content got me to read more.

Long story short… I spent a LOT of time on his blog and I’m currently going back and reading every single post since the beginning.

Look…

We are all here to make money so that we can have time and financial freedom to enjoy our lives more. I’ve tried to cut through the B.S. and hype as much as possible but I’m just a little flame compared to the blow torch of truth that is guiding huge crowds to Vic’s make money online blog.

I’ll go so far as to state that visiting his site is a REQUIREMENT. Go do it know.

I want you to reach your freedom as fast as you can. I can help with that but I think Vic has some amazing ideas to dramatically speed up the process.

Click here now!

-Richard Lee

When I posted last week about being #1 for the brief time that I was up there, The PR for my Website was at 2.

Earlier today I saw on Cort’s site: Internet marketing that he was seeing waves of PR updates occurring.

I just check and my PR has jumped to a 4.

That’s a pretty big jump for me and is further proof about the affects of a linking campaign and the results.

-R

p.s. Blog Content Roadmap is on indefinite hold for now.

Do you think I might know a thing or two about search engines?

[The image that was here wasn’t displaying well in IE7. Check it out here: http://richardlee.com/pics/GooNumberOne.jpg]

Truth be told, I have some major house cleaning planned on the back side of my blog. This may very well knock me down due to the extent of the changes but I can always build it back and I just wanted you to see that I know how to get ranked even for a ridiculously competitive term such as Internet Business.

I’ve learned more about rankings and how to get there in the last 3 months than in the last 3 years. It’s amazing how different the process really is compared to the “widely held beliefs.”

If you will allow me a little lee way (no pun intended), I’ll grossly over simplify it as:

• some real basic on-page stuff
• content
• links

No smoke and mirrors. No Voodoo. No black magic and certainly no black hat. But… a whole lot more work and PATIENCE than I ever imagined.

Your thoughts and comments appreciated.

-Richard Lee

“Motivation And Distraction Management 101″ returns as a digital product in the form of MP3 files and a full PDF transcript. If you’re already familiar with the product grab your copy for only $20 by clicking on the link at the bottom of this post. If you’re not familiar but you’d like to explode your motivation… read on.

I get a LOT of feedback from readers talking about their struggles with perfectionism and fear of failure. These two demons cause them to not complete projects, lose motivation and fall prey to frustration.

If you’re currently frustrated when working on your Internet business, feeling less than motivated and constantly getting side tracked by distractions, I can help.

You see… I completely understand because I used to feel the same way.

I felt like quitting several times because I was frustrated with my progress… very frustrated.

But I found a fix for low motivation and nasty distractions and I’d love to share that with you.

Now you can learn the system I used to end my personal struggle with motivation as well as eliminate distractions permanently.

Here’s the deal…

When originally released, “Motivation and Distraction Management 101″ was a physical CD that you had to wait on while it was shipped to you.

You can now download it and listen to the MP3s on your computer or portable MP3 player. You can also burn them onto a CD for your car. If you’d rather read through the transcripts, I’ve included them as well in a PDF that you can print out.

Why $20?

I believe in rewarding action so… the $20 special is limited to 24 hours only. After that, the price jumps to $47.

-Richard Lee

Click on the button below.

I’m using PayPal to process the payments but you DO NOT have to have a PayPal account to purchase this product.

Finally… a Kunaki-style manufacturing and delivery process for makers of physical goods.

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-04/bz_instapreneur

Read the article first then… my thoughts for those of you who want to explore this business model.

Stay away from commodities:

Due to the current high cost of manufacturing, don’t look for this to replace mass-produced items but this may very well turn out to be the holy grail for sellers of physical goods that don’t fall into the “information product” market.

Lean more towards high end specialty items:

There are many items that don’t fit into the mass produced category that sell quite well and at very high profit margins. Additionally, there is a growing trend toward customizing the experience your customers have during the purchase process as well as in the post-purchase “consumption” phase. This is where the instapreneur will shine.

Ideas:

Hopefully you can see the incredible potential these types of “instant manufacturing” services will provide and that will intern spark a flood of product ideas. If you get stuck, just think of “functional artwork” such as furniture and jewelry and you’ll come up with many marketable ideas.

-Richard Lee

Up until now, affiliate marketers were unable to direct traffic from article marketing directly to their affiliate link.

All of the major article directories required links be directed to a Top Level Domain (TLD) such as www.yourdomain.com

If you, as an affiliate were trying to monetize article marketing, you would have to register your own domain and the redirect the traffic to their affiliate link.

Although I would strongly encourage you to still redirect from your own domain, you can now utilize article marketing and put your affiliate link right in the article and the resource box.

Additionally, this article directory is just coming out of BETA so it isn’t filled with a lot of garbage like most other directories.

Check it out here: http://affsphere.com/

As well as a couple of videos to help you get started:

The technique of using article marketing to direct straight to an affiliate link should only be done by those absolute beginners with no money to invest but time to write and submit articles. As soon as you can, step up to sending article generated traffic to your own Web site.

-Richard Lee

This video inspired by 2 videos created by copywriter Ray Edwards: http://rayedwards.com/

Part 1: Road Trip Marketing

Part 2: Truck Stop Marketing

p.s. Subscribers to my blog announcement list know WHERE I’m headed on this road trip and WHY.

Thanks again for the positive feedback on Wednesdays post.

For those of you who are afraid to put yourself on video… could it be any worse than this?

-R

When creating your business system procedures, consider using a section based system that is standardized over all your procedures. This makes is easier for someone already familiar with one of your tasks to rapidly pick up all the rest and any new ones creates in the future.

Here’s a suggested example. Adapt it to your needs.

10 Sections of a specification (SPEC):

The name of the procedure with brief description of what it covers
Skills required to perform it / prior training required / cert level
Materials that need to be gathered before beginning
Access required to perform it
Estimated length of time
The actual procedures itself
Revision date stamp
Frequency that it needs to be performed
How to submit suggestions for correcting or updating the document
Who owns the document

It’s perfectly acceptable to include references to other resources or procedures within any procedure. A series of procedures may all require accessing a file system for current information such as the login information. In cases such as that, just refer to where the other info is located or consider including it in the “materials needed” section to be gathered before starting the procedure.

There is no need to supply a medium for asking questions about a procedure. That’s what the initial training is for. Once you’ve completed their training and they’ve been “certified” to perform a group of tasks, they fully understand how to perform them. That’s the whole point of training: to teach people how to perform the tasks and then have them demonstrate proficiency.

Training doesn’t have to be done in person. You can record a series of training videos to be used by the trainee. After they have completed the videos, they can easily demonstrate that they will be able to do the tasks unassisted from there on.

Strive for simplicity when writing the completed revision. You must include all necessary information but nothing else. Slash the non-essential information out of the documentation.

-Richard Lee

Reward your creative muse by acknowledging the creative ideas that flow from it.

Capture any and every little spark of an idea that pops into your head by writing them all down.

Do not filter or judge them in any way. Capture them all; the good, the bad and the ugly.

Ensure that you have the ability to capture them where ever you might be. This is usually accomplished by always having pen and pad nearby. Experiment with different systems such as digital voice recorders within quick easy grasp to find what works best for you.

Regardless of your system, start today capturing those flashes of brilliance that come your way because there’s something wonderful that happens when you do; you’ll get more and more of them.

You’ll have more ideas for products and businesses than you could ever act on. This allows you the luxury of being able to filter these ideas and pick only the best to work on.

With this simple process, you will never struggle with ideas for markets or products again.

-Richard Lee

p.s. That’s your assignment for this week. Start by placing extras pen and pad around you house and in your car. Work it from there. No more than once a week, consolidate all you notes / ideas into one written or digital file as you incubator.

I want to talk with you about the different phases of Task Responsibility as it applied to creating business systems. I’ve taken a pass at describing the phases that you’ll pass through as you build your system.

Do it yourself

Phase 1 is where you do the task yourself. Even if you plan to delegate or outsource the task in the future, I’d recommend you learn to do it yourself first. This will allow you to document the procedure through writing as well as video. Knowing how to do it yourself also allows you to directly teach someone else if need be.

The exception here is if the task is fairly technical, you have no desire to learn it and plan to outsource it from the start. An example might be Website creation. Although I strongly encourage everyone to learn how to create simple Websites, I know there are some who will delegate this task right from the start.

Outsource tasks, groups of tasks

In the second phase, you will have full documentation on at least some of your tasks and start to outsource them. You will most likely still be doing some of the daily operational stuff but this phase represents your first attempts at finding competent contractors.

Outsource all operations tasks for an entire site or group of sites.

In the third phase, you have found competent people and companies through trial and error as well as referral and you’ve outsourced all if not most of the operational tasks. Operational tasks are those things that have to be done but that don’t necessarily grow your business.

The big picture here is that you want to offload all of the operational tasks so that you can focus your time and efforts on growing your business through new markets, new products and ongoing marketing efforts. These areas, especially the marketing, are where you time will best be spent.

Manager for specific chunks of business operation tasks - manager periodically reports to you but must be able to operate on their own for extended periods of time while you spend your free time any way you want; anywhere you want with no requirements for staying in touch.

In the final phase, you are using a manager either as an actual employ or a contractor to handle all of the operational tasks either themselves or through outsourcing. One of the best ways to pay managers is on a percentage basis. Always pay for performance. One of the best places to find a manager is on your existing email lists.

Did you notice how the progression is designed to move you closer and closer to your freedom of time?

-Richard Lee

Announcing: The April Business System Challenge

The Goal: I want to move you closer to freedom by providing a blueprint for creating and outsourcing all the operational tasks of your business; both current and future.

The Payoff: You’ll be amazed at how business systems will rapidly carry you to freedom. I’m talking financial freedom, time freedom and relaxing on the beach freedom. You’ll achieve the payoff by capturing your business tasks throughout the month of April starting tomorrow: April 1st. At the end of the month you will have a complete REV1 of your entire operational tasks which you can outsource immediately or simply use to increase your own efficiency.

7 Steps To Business System Success

Desire for freedom
Achieve self-proficiency at task
Document task procedure
Test documentation on novice
Finalize based on testing
Outsource task
Assign owner to task for periodic review

Step one is the desire for freedom. Why would you want to create these systems? Why would you want to outsource any part of a business that you love?

Well, do you ever find yourself wasting time looking for a useful but simple piece of information such as the login information to a site you seldom use but need to access? With a business system, you could find that information in seconds. You see, the initial reason to create business systems is not for delegating or outsourcing. The initial purpose is to remove inefficiency in the way you operate day to day. Freedom in this case means, at the very least, freedom from inefficiency and wasting your time. But I think you will see how business systems are the key to absolute freedom from being tied to your source of income as well.

You’ll be working on self-proficiency and documentation at the same time. Don’t wait until you’re an expert at something. Document what you already do and edit as you learn more.

Let’s go over the starting point of task capturing.

Start by thinking about tasks in the way they naturally group together based on the frequency they’re performed.

Some tasks will be done multiple times a day such as checking email or moderating blog comments. Some tasks will be done once a day. Other are performed less frequent

Maybe bin out two topics such a business operation tasks: check email, blog, moderate VS business building tasks such as market research etc.

Become an observer of your actions not just a participant (Matrix). Be deliberate in documenting your observations.

For me this would mean taking out a new 70 page single subject spiral notebook and dedicating it to capturing business systems. The kind I use have perforated pages and holes already cut so I can carefully pull out pages and transfer them to a 3-ring binder. You may prefer to use index cards or a text file etc.

Use whatever works for you.

As a suggestion, you could gather some notebook paper and a 3 ring binder at the start of this process. This physical model allows for easy editing, sorting, deleting, adding and re-arranging of your notes and systems.

Initially, you could just capture a simple note such as “Check business email at 11AM and 4PM.” But keep in mind that your end goal is to be able to hand any single task or group of tasks to someone and have them be able to perform with no problems.

You may have to record screen capture videos if the tasks is easier to explain or understand with visual presentation but since you will be the only person seeing this work for a while, just focus on capturing the details as written notes.

I use Camtasia for most of my screen captures primarily because I have been using it for years and I’m very familiar and comfortable with it but I know not everybody has the $299 that it costs. Well… I’ve been playing around with a free little program called WINK that will probably do everything you need when recording business operation systems tasks. Grab a free copy of WINK here: http://www.debugmode.com/wink/

Some tasks may require decisions to be made based on variables that change. In this case you will build the decision logic into the tasks details. Simple logic choices can be represented with just text. As the logic choices progress, you may get to a point where an actual logic tree works better than plain text.

I use SmartDraw to create the decision trees and then put the graphics into my business system documentation. You can find it here: http://www.smartdraw.com/

Subscribers to Terry Deans Monthly Mentor Club newsletter saw him using this same process in the March 2008 edition of that newsletter. I recommend his newsletter and you can find it here: http://www.monthlymentorclub.com/

At the end of April, you should have a complete REV1 business operating system manual. You will have a pretty good outline within the first few days and after a week; you will be well on your way to completion. If a video is required, create it, upload it and put a link in the written instructions.

Start capturing your business system procedures today and continue to capture, edit and refine the information throughout all of April.

This is a multi-part series. I’ll post more about it either tomorrow or Wednesday.

-Richard Lee

I’ll soon be re-releasing Motivation and Distraction Management 101

The original product was released as a physical audio CD.

The new version includes the re-recorded CD audio as well as MP3 versions of the same audio and a PDF transcript.

I’d like to know if you want it released as a physical CD or digital download. Leave your vote in the comments for this post.

-Richard Lee

I’m willing to share my personal system for creating an unlimited flood of profitable product ideas.

If you think you have little or nothing to offer or that people won’t buy what you do know, I am about to totally change the way you think with an explosion of ideas you can offer as products right now.

Most people can describe the strengths, weaknesses, skills, interests and knowledge of their close friends but they have a hard time describing the exact same things about themselves.

That’s just good old human nature caused by several reasons not the least of which is that many of us were taught not to brag about ourselves. Fear not. I’m going to chisel that outdated programming away to reveal the valuable knowledge you already posses.

PROOF!

I have never failed to identify marketable and salable products based on the knowledge and skills of a complete stranger after talking to them for no more than 5 minutes; having never met them before.

In many cases I was able to do it in 90 seconds or less!

I’m able to do this by applying the exact same techniques in this system.

I’m also going to give you WAY more than your money’s worth with a powerful results multiplier, my most guarded secret for business success (works for all businesses both online and off in every field and on every topic) and an incredible discovery I made about how to tap your creative brain in a very unusual way along with proof that I what I’m presenting works.

Here’s 2 comments posted on this blog for the previous Special Report:

That $10 special was the best $10 I have ever spent.

A strong message - well communicated.

I feel very enabled

Thanks from New Zealand

Andrew

Richard,
That was the best $10 I’ve spent in a long time!
While technically there wasn’t anything “new” in the report, it put things in a new perspective, and lined them up in a way that makes taking action a no-brainer.
Thanks!
-Nick

Click On This Link: http://richardlee.com/SpecialReports/SR2/

-Richard Lee

Here’s 3 traps people have fallen into with me so far.

1. SPAM me with something like this:

Hi,

We’ve seen your website at http://richardlee.com/
and we love it!

We see that your traffic rank is 99406
and your link popularity is 4.
Also, you have been online since 5/5/1997.

With that kind of traffic, we will pay you up to $4,800/month
to advertise our links on your website.

If you’re interested, read our terms from this page:
http://www.___spamtraplinkwenthere________________

Sincerely,

Spammers name was here
Company that sold the spamming software

This is an actual email that I get almost every day.

2. Call me on the phone and tell me you want to talk to me about a JV deal.

3. Send me a personal email to my PayPal address telling me your specific idea for a JV

So… what’s wrong with the above 3 things and why are they deal killers for you?

Every time I get these messages I ask myself “Who is this person?” I don’t know them and they obviously don’t know me.

I have NEVER done a JV deal on this blog. I sell my own products. I do some affiliate marketing and I occasionally promote the products or services of a handful of my friends with no expectation of anything in return other than good will.

I’m not opposed to doing Joint Ventures at all. In fact, I fully plan to pursue them in the future but not until my list and traffic and much bigger than they are now.

If you want to do a joint venture with me or anybody else, the best advice I could give you is to start networking.

I’ve persuaded people who didn’t know me to take a particular action but it took more work and time in the form of research.

Here are two good examples:

1. I persuaded Warren Buffett (yes, THE Warren Buffett) to help me play a practical joke on a friend of mine.
2. In another case, I got a very warm and personal email from Joe Vitale thanking me for a tiny favor I did him that had nothing to do with making money.

How was I able to pull these off? How will I be able to easily and effortlessly repeat these types of contacts with very successful, very busy people?

Well, that is super secret knowledge that I will only share with a select few… if at all.

The point I’m trying to make is this:

There are ways to get the attention of very successful, busy and famous people. But… it’s much easier to build a relationship with them so that they 1)know how you are 2)see you “in the arena” putting in the work and doing the effort 3) start to view you as a peer.

There’s a right way and a wrong way.
There’s the easy way and the hard way.

Stack the cards in your favor for success and try the easy/right way.

-Richard Lee

As you read this, keep in mind, we’re talking about working towards your goal of time and financial freedom via an Internet business.

Which of these 3 is more valuable?

Here are your choices:

Reading
Thinking
Doing

Oops… I lost some of you right there.

Just stick with me for a couple of seconds and then you can go back to whatever you were doing.

I bet you were reading emails weren’t you. Don’t freak out; I’m psychic.

Which is more valuable and WHY!

Reading: I’m a voracious reader and I bet you are too. Reading has greatly expanded my mind and my world. Reading has presented me with wonderful ideas that I might very well have never thought of myself. Reading is a huge part of my life and brings me great pleasure.

Thinking: I mean thinking in the sense that I think about how to do something better or different. I sit and think about how to solve a problem in my business or how to grow my business or ideas for another business. Thinking is where I mull over things I’ve read or come up with on my own. These ideas stew and incubate while I think about them and sometimes they explode into something very cool.

Doing: This is the action part. It’s were the rubber meets the road. Doing is where I take an idea and test it. Will it work or not? If it does; cool. If it doesn’t… why not?

So now its time to vote. What’s your choice?

I pick “Doing” because there is something very special about it. “Doing” has a feedback loop and the others don’t.

If you put something into action, you may very well find that you were way off the mark. But the only way you would know that is by the feedback provided to you. The feedback ONLY comes from doing.

Reading and thinking, as valuable as they are, can’t give you the feedback that taking action does.

Tell me if this sounds familiar: You’ve put up a Website and earned some money but you are disappointed by the size of your earnings to date.

Has that ever happened to you?

Think about what I write. Think about all the other stuff you read. Formulate an idea. Come up with something you want to try out. Then… just do it. Put it into action and look at the feedback. Adjust, based on the feedback. That’s the only way I know to make progress toward your goals.

I know it’s not cool or sexy but that’s what works for me and it will work for you.

Take MASSIVE action and look at the feedback that action gives you.

OK…

As promised, you can go back to what you were doing.

Or…

You can stop right now and go do something that may very well catapult you toward you goal.

Want some suggestions?

Try this (it’s free): http://richardlee.com/?p=171

Or this (just $10): http://richardlee.com/?p=165

-Richard Lee

Dear Skeptical Beginner,

Did you know that some readers of this blog have gone behind your back and gotten ahead of you?

Are they cheating?

They’ve quietly been receiving “secret” weekly training (that you haven’t) that’s written specifically for those who want to lay a solid foundation for their Internet business.

With what they are learning, they will avoid unnecessary effort, save tons of time and finally escape the pain of failure.

They are people who, just like you, are tired of spinning their wheels because they lack a bit of knowledge.

This training is provided in a sequential manner so they are already two lessons ahead of you.

Will you continue to let them pull away?

Click Here Now

-Richard Lee

I am a very positive person by nature. I am not a doom and gloom kind of guy and I’m certainly not a fear monger. But I don’t sit around with my head stuck in the sand chanting “everything’s fine, everything’s fine” when it’s not.

I want to go over some markets that have always done well and I think will continue to do well regardless of the economics of the day. I don’t, however, want you to abandon any projects that you are currently developing just because they don’t fit into these categories. Everything goes in cycles and if you have a Website in a market that tends to be cycling down, it will eventually cycle back up and there you will be with a well developed authority site ready to take advantage of the upswing.

Having said that…

Back in June of last year, I wrote about 7 evergreen markets. These markets have been around for a long time and will continue to be strong for the foreseeable future.

They were separated in 4 major and 3 minor categories. After look at that post again, I think the 4 major markets are ones that won’t feel any impact at all from a recession.

Here’s the post I’m referring to:

http://richardlee.com/?p=24

And here are the 4 major markets.

Love… romance and relationships
Money… and material comforts
Career… and progression
Health… and well-being

Many years ago when I was turned on to Robert Cialdini’s book ” Influence”, I became fascinated with aspects of Sociology that applied to marketing and I’ve continued my studies in that field to this very day.

Sociology answered many questions for me about human behavior as it applies to marketing. It also explains very well why the above listed markets do so well regardless of the economy. Sociology provides the answer to the big question of “why do people do what they do” and what motivates them to do it. Hint: if you understand that then you can begin to understand how you can motivate them to take the actions you want. In marketing, this may be call a toll-free number, cut out a coupon and send it in or go visit this Website.

However, this is just a list of markets; think about what the wishes, wants, needs (real or perceived) and desires are within these markets. You success will be tied directly to the extent that you address those specifics.

-Richard Lee