have for eliminating distraction, helping me

improve my focus and getting on with my work”

It can often be VERY difficult to sit down and get on with some work, particularly if you are working from home, where there are an incredible array of distractions to absorb your attention. Staying focussed and actually getting on with my work was one of my biggest issues when I first started working for myself as part of my own business.

I tried listening to music through headphones, but often I found that the songs I listened to distracted me and made me think of other things. After a little Googling, and careful research, I discovered white noise.

Wikipedia definition:

“White noise is a random signal (or process) with a flat power spectral density.”

(In simple terms, think of the sound that a hoover makes).

If you would like to listen to a continual loop of white noise to help you focus, then I highly recommend Simply Noise. Its a website I have open and running anytime I am working on anything important. It doesn’t distract me, and allows me to simply focus on the task that is in front of me.

Try it here for 30 minutes, and see whether you think it helps you? It doesn’t cost a dime, and you never know, you might end up getting more done!

(Picture by pacunar)

Do you ever look at the photographs of supposed “Internet marketing millionaire’s” posing in Ferrari’s, exotic cars, mansions and holiday destinations and wonder to yourself…..

“Is that real, is that how they really live?”

If you have, I am here to answer that very question, and give you a rare insight into the World of the “Internet marketing gurus” and mindset (this could get ugly).

Before I go on, let me remind you, whilst I don’t live this lifestyle, and whilst I don’t move in these circles, I have worked for one of the World’s largest Clickbank merchants and affiliates, and I also have friends who still work for these guys, and who live these “dream lifestyles” themselves. Having been in this rare and privileged position, I have had a peak behind the curtain, and had a glimpse of the lives they lead away from the Internet.

First of all, yes. In many cases, the photos you see of these information product sellers are legit. There is a large group of marketers in the UK, the USA (and other locations such as China and Hong Kong) who are living very well. They drive fast sports cars, date numerous women, and live in some of the most stunning apartments, villas and mansions you have ever seen. A lot of the photos you see on the sales pages are genuine.

(Important Disclaimer: There are a number of marketers who FAKE these kinds of photographs by hiring an expensive car or venue for a day, but we are not talking about those guys just for now). 

It seems crazy to a lot of people that a bunch of young 20-something year old males can be driving round the English countryside in high-performance, luxurious sports cars (usually only one of several cars in their collection), heading back to their mansions after a hard days shopping, meetings, partying etc. But its true. And this “image” that these marketers have created, project wealth, success and “status”.

Some of these marketers can afford these “toys” outright. They have accrued so much money, they are able to make ridiculous purchases on a whim. These guys are in the minority of online entrepreneurs however, and their abundant wealth is a result of years of hard work and trial-and-error.

Other members of the “Internet marketing clan” afford these toys and luxuries through a management of their cash-flow and credit. For example, if you own a business that generates 10k-20k a month, then you can afford to splash out 5k a month on car payments for your new Ferrari! (This is a more common arrangement, and is a little more risky).

On top of all of this, these marketers KNOW that if they include photographs of themselves in their sports cars, their sales pages WILL convert better, more people will buy from them, and they and their affiliates WILL make more money as a result. You see, like it or not, these obnoxious photographs of wealth, abundance and “status” all help to trigger certain feelings and emotions in the types of people that are buying these information products. These photographs are incredibly POWERFUL examples of “social proof”.

The reality is, these guys know that these photographs make them look like high-school-level tools. But they also know, if they left these corny photos out, they’d make less money.

So, now you know, the photos are legit, and the opportunity to live that lifestyle is real. The only lie here is; “that its all so easy for anyone to achieve”. But thats for another post on another day….

online business though.”

If you are a solo entrepreneur, operating out of a small office, your home, or your bedroom, then you need to stay focussed and dedicate the majority of your time to activities that make you money. Cash flow is key, and dedicating months to learning about SEO, tweaking your strategy, and then going back to the drawing board when Google changes their algorithm is not going to make you money.

This is something I am incredibly passionate about. When I was new to starting a business online, I did a lot of reading, learning and experimenting with SEO. In 2010, that didn’t change and I was running a small business offering SEO services to small and medium sized businesses local to me. On the side of that business, I decided to test running an affiliate campaign using SEO.

I made no money at all. It took up a lot of time and effort, and it yielded zero results from me. I used the latest tools, tricks, tips and techniques, and worked hard to build excellent links to my chosen web properties, but it was time intensive, and there was very little reward for it.

If you’re an SEO pro, or aspire to be, then SEO is where you are going to make your money from. I made a little cash from SEO back when I was selling it as a service, but using it as a main traffic source for my affiliate and information product funnels has never worked for me.

As a one-man-band I don’t have loads of time to fighting for free scraps of traffic from the search engines (and I suspect that is the same for a lot of people starting their own businesses online). You need to spend the bulk of your time working on things that make you money:

Creating a business/sales funnel, and getting interested people to your offer.

Cut your traffic generation time/heart ache in half by doing the following when first starting your online business:

- Ignoring SEO

- Use paid traffic

- Use networking/joint ventures

- Leveraging traffic from large authority websites in your niche (ebay, Amazon, Facebook etc).

Don’t get me wrong, SEO is valuable, but I would only recommend focussing on it if:

A) You’re awesome at it

Or

B) You are paying a pro to do it for you.

Protect your business by making sure SEO is 1 part of a bigger strategy for your online venture and projects.

of money in my life”.

I have got a good job, I live in a nice apartment in the centre of an exciting city. I have met people in the last year that I am confident will be best friends for the rest of my life. In terms of relationships, although I am recently single, I am enjoying meeting new people, and I am happy with where I am. I have a great family, that I enjoy visiting in the holidays, and health wise I am feeling strong and feeling good about myself.

However, something is keeping me awake at night. This “something” has been stopping me from enjoying things I would usually love, and has been stressing me out to the point where I am not behaving in the same way I usually do with my friends, work colleagues and family.

On the face of it, I have everything I need to make me happy, but in a few quiet moments of reflection and thought over the Easter holiday weekend, I realized that the number 1 stress, the thing keeping me up at night and causing me great anxiety in my life was money. More specifically, it was my lack of money.

You see, my job and my online projects bring in enough money for me to lead a nice life. I eat well, I exercise, party, enjoy myself, and generally have a good time. But the stark reality is, I am still working hard and living pay check to pay check. I need to better leverage the money I have, and improve my cash flow.

A combination of bills, not being able to experience things I want to experience, and not being able to help/treat my family financially have all caused me to get very stressed, during a time when I should be at my happiest. And this revelation was a timely reminder of why I have started working online again to make more money, why I strive to once again have my own business, and why I am running the Rat Race Lab project.

I just thought I’d post this for people out there who might be in the same boat? Its a reminder to myself and others why its important to work hard and smart, especially during economically tough times. If you share the frustrations, have any thoughts, comments or questions, feel free to drop them in the comments section below.

because if you fear failure you will never be successful.”

It was Thursday night, it was 9pm in the evening, and I was stood up, in between train carriages, squashed between 4 or 5 strangers, all who where in the 21-25 year-old bracket. Three of them had decided to sit on the floor and play a card game called “Shit Head”. I still don’t understand the rules or principles of this card game having watched them play it for the best part of an hour.

The ring-leader of these proceedings, and the individual chiefly responsible for the total lack of space in that carriage was a young guy, swigging beer from a beer can and dealing the cards out to the young females joining him in his card journey. He was a nice guy and doing his best to make the best out of a bad train situation.

It was after one of the card-players had failed to take a risk with the cards they had been dealt that the young guy I am talking about came out with the sentence at the top of this blog post. It was a nice sentiment, put quite simply and sincerely. It cheered me up, and reminded me of an important lesson that I am often in danger of over-looking.

The fear of failure is the worst fear to have, and its one I have had for years. Its particularly damaging when you are looking to try and make a little cash online, or when you are looking to start your own business (trust me on this, I have been there). The reality is, you are 100% going to fail at something when you start doing something like this.

Being able to avoid failure is not what will ultimately determine your success. It will be your ability to experience, deal with, learn and move on from failure that will see you achieve success.

If that stranger on the train ever happens to read this blog post, I’d like to personally and publicly thank you for reminding me of a lesson I often forget in the hustle and bustle of my day-to-day life.

One of the reasons why I think so many young people find success online is because they tend to think less. They do things and take action, instead of debating the potential outcomes, results and consequences. Rather spending their time pondering whether something will work, they do it, and get actual results they can measure and analyze later.

Thinking about it, this is probably to be expected. At such a young age, most of these online entrepreneurs do not have the same commitments that many members of the older generations have (mortgages, children, pets, bills, etc).

They have a care free attitude, boundless energy and a better grasp of online technology that allows them to attack their Internet marketing projects.

There are negative consequences to this. Failing to think about what you are doing can often lead Internet Marketers to take risks and indulge in practices that are not strictly legitimate (does anyone remember the acai berry or the farticle affiliates and Internet marketers )?  Its that kind of behaviour that could lead to an organisation like the FTC taking an unhealthy interest in your business.

That being said, young entrepreneurs are often fearless, and action takers. If you can strike a balance between these qualities and having a hint of caution injected into your online strategy, then I am confident anyone can follow in the “young guns” footsteps, no matter what age they are.

I have often really struggled to focus and create the right working environment for myself. I have a desk and desktop computer in my bedroom, and whilst my flat mate has been away, I have been using the dining table in our living room to work on.

Although I would get work done, neither of those options has been as productive as the environment I find myself in now. Ever since the Sun started shining in the UK, I have been sat with my laptop out on my balcony, enjoying the view from my top-floor apartment. The sound of the outdoors, and the epic view seems to relax me, help me forget my distractions and crack on with some work.

Since finding this new spot, my productivity and output has increased 100% (and thats no exaggeration). If you are struggling to sit down and actually do some work, then change the format a little. Experiment with some different working environments until you find one that clicks for you.

I am pretty happy with my new work space for now, but I am going to face a couple of challenges when it starts raining again (rain due here on Friday I believe). So I will need to find a slightly more sheltered alternative!

For the past couple of years I have been honoured to call him a friend and a mentor. My only problem with Roger is that he does not post nearly enough on his own damn blog!

You can imagine my surprise and delight then when I saw him recently smashing out a few high quality blog posts, accompanied by some stunning photography. Its all part of his Early Start Boot Camp, a self-imposed lifestyle experiment that forces him to get up earlier, and start the day the right way.

I have been guilty of some appalling starts to my days recently, and I have found although I probably stay awake for the same amount of time, the time I have is a lot less productive. So this week, inspired by Exrat’s boot camp, I am going to be waking earlier, and looking at ways I can use my time better. From getting into work earlier, to exercising or just enjoying an early morning walk. I’ll report back on my findings soon!

In the mean time, to take part in the experiment, or just to read a very good blog, head on over to Exrat’s blog, take some notes and leave him some comments. Here is the link: Early Start Boot Camp

On this particular Friday night, I had gone back to my friend’s apartment. He has been in the company a lot longer than me, and is exceptionally good at his job. We were both planning to hit the town that night, and we had gone back to his to grab a pizza, a couple of beers, and give him a chance to get showered and changed for the night ahead.

Whilst I was waiting for my friend to get ready, I saw a book in his bookcase that I had heard of before, but I didn’t really know why I recognised the name. The book was called The Alchemist and was written by a guy called Paulo Coelho. My friend noticed me reading the blurb on the back of the book, handed me a beer and said “you should definitely read that book, its amazing”. I mumbled something back about getting round to it some time, and with that we drank our beers and headed out in to town.

Fast forward to this Saturday just gone, and you could be forgiven for thinking we were in the middle of Summer. The sun was out, I was up early, and the weekend had officially began. After a quick gym session, I decided to grab my Kindle, look for a nearby Park, and spend my day reading in the sun.

Flicking through the Amazon online book store, I remembered my friend’s recommendation and bought “The Alchemist”. I read the entire thing in one afternoon.

The book is essentially a work of fiction about a Spanish shepherd  boy who goes in search of treasure and his “personal legend” in the deserts of Africa. The book is about his story, but in between the narrative of this book are metaphors, lessons and insights into success and achieving your personal goals that I found striking and some what familiar.

The book looks at why many do not seek to fulfill their destinies, and further goes on to show you how to discover and pursue your dreams. There are lessons about the challenges you will face, and there are lessons about how to overcome your own personal fear of failure.

A word of warning:

Some elements of the book are a little “out there”. I am not personally religious, so I didn’t take anything from some of the religious elements of the book. I am also not a great believer that when you decide you want something, the “Universe conspires to help you get it”. That kind of thinking is too close to the kind of thinking promoted by books like “The Secret”.

With that said, I highly recommend this book. If you are struggling to identify your calling, overcome your fears and get where you want to be in life, then I think this book will most certainly be of interest.

And no, I am not going to drop an affiliate link in here. Go Google “The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho” get yourself a copy, and if you have a little time, drop back here and let me know what you thought of it!

Let me explain…

If you are sick of living to work, and seeing all your hard work line the pockets of your boss or the owner of your company, and if you are sick of living your life on some one else’s terms then its about time you setup your own business. With your own business you can make more money for the same amount of work, you can empower yourself, live life on your terms, and not have to dance to some one else’s tune. Despite recent developments in the Internet marketing industry, setting up your own online business is still one of the greatest business opportunities out there for aspiring entrepreneurs, and the barriers to entry are still low enough to welcome all those with two brain cells to rub together!

These 3 books that I am about to share with you and review (in my opinion) contain ALL you need to start, grow and profit from your own online business. I see a lot of people promoting “get rich quick” ebooks, and I see a lot of people “pimping out” the latest “make money online” ecourse, and those courses are great and serve a purpose, but they often miss the basics, and leave a lot to be desired.

Some of those get-rich-quick eproducts you are probably used to are almost entirely based on gimmicks or techniques that used to work. Not everyone needs that when setting up an online business. Everyone who wants to run their own work-at-home/internet business does need to understand some business basics and needs to understand how online tools and tricks can help that business. It’s a balance, and these books provide you with the balance you need!

Now before I go any further, I want to let you know a couple of things:

1. I have bought and read all of these books. In fact, I have bought, read and re-read at least 2 of these books.

2. I truly believe these books answer nearly 95% of all questions you might have about starting your own online business. The rest you can discover through trial and error/networking on internet marketing forums etc.

3. I have linked to these books in this post using affiliate links. If you click my link and decide to purchase these books via my link, I will receive a tiny commission and it won’t cost you a penny more. These commissions will be used to pay for the hosting of this humble blog, and it’s associated running costs (email newsletter etc).

4. Although I will receive an affiliate commission if you decide to purchase through my link, I wrote this post because I genuinely feel these books can help a lot of struggling Internet marketers out there. They have helped me, and I hope that they help many others who are in the same position as I was a short time ago.

With that out of the way….

Here are the Books:

1. Tim Ferris – 4 Hour Work Week

2. Drew Eric Whitman – Cashvertising

3. Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson – Rework

6 Reasons These Books are Great For Internet Marketers:

1. They are REAL books, which means you can read them anywhere, and not just on a computer screen. I don’t know about you, but this makes it a lot easier for me to read and absorb the content!

2. They cover everything from basic stuff like; “what niche should I go into?” and they cover more advanced stuff about how to use outsourcing effectively, and how to “grow and develop” your business/company. These 3 books totally cover the life-cycle of an Internet marketer.

3. No annoying up-sells. Everything you need to know is in these books. There are no hidden up-sells etc. You buy the book, you read it, you use it and you profit from it. Perfect.

4. Buying these 3 books is far cheaper than buying 3 ecourses. If you bought all 3 books from amazon, you’d spend around $37. If you bought 3 ecourses or “guru products” at $47 a pop then that would cost: $141. Thats a difference of $104. Seriously, why spend over $100, when you could spend $37 for a lot more information?

5. These books can help all kinds of online businesses and entrepreneurs. Does’t matter whether you are into building your own social applications, networks, ecommerce stores or even if you are an affiliate marketer, these books can help and change your business today.

6. It’s all killer and no filler! A lot of the advice is timeless. There is very little fluff, and the tips, tricks and advice in these books are timeless and backed up by real research and practical experience.

Individual Books Reviews

Lets take a quick look at each book individually, and take a look at how each one can you help you start, grow and succeed in your own online business.

Tim Ferriss – 4 Hour Work Week

Cost: $12

Who is it Ideal for?

Answer: Complete beginners and intermediates. Whilst some advanced Internet marketers and entrepreneurs would probably benefit from reading it, I think beginners and intermediates will get the MOST benefit from this book.

Some of the Things Internet Marketers Will Learn From This Book:

- How to pick a niche

- How to come up with a business

- How to test a business idea on a tight budget

- How to grow your online business and generate a life-changing amount of income

- How Tim went from $40k per year working 80 hours a week, to $40k per month and 4 hours per week

- How to eliminate 50% of your workload in 48 hours.

- How to remove yourself from business and outsource your life, allowing you to do whatever you want and enjoy your money.

- And much, much more…

Personal Thoughts:

I love this book and Tim’s writing style. The tips and strategies he shares are priceless, and when times are tough, and I need reminding why I am trying to grow my own business, I always pick up this book for a “pick-me-up”. Its a classic and must-have book for all internet and affiliate marketer’s libraries!

Drew Eric Whitman – Cashvertising

Cost: $11

Who is it Ideal for?

Answer: Everyone. I truly believe every single business person should buy this book to improve their marketing and selling. This is an especially good book for affiliate marketers and information product merchants.

Some Of The Things Internet Marketers Will Learn From This Book:

- Ninja copywriting techniques that will help you sell anything to anyone

- How to create powerful ads that literally suck visitors to your website/offer

- 100 secrets of the biggest and most successful ad-agencies in the World

- How to make people really believe what you say, and how to build trust and rappourt with your audience so you can sell more stuff.

- “Sneaky” ways to persuade people to respond

- Effective tricks for writing “magnetic” headlines.

- What you should ALWAYS do, and NEVER do in your ads

- How to get inside the minds of your prospects and find out what really drives them and what they really want

Personal Thoughts:

This book is all about selling, copywriting and advertising. It is full of insights and secrets from some of the best ad-agencies in the World, and gives hundreds of real-world examples on how to effectively promote your business. This is a thoroughly researched book, backed up by 23 years advertising experience. The hot-lists at the back allow you to quickly reference important techniques to use when setting up your marketing campaigns. Every affiliate, information product merchant should have this within arm’s reach of their work-desk!

Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson – Rework

Cost: $14

Who is it Ideal for?

Answer: Advanced Internet marketers and beginners who enjoy some “heavier” reading. Its all about how the “regular” way isn’t always the “right” way. Its a different outlook on business, and it shuns the traditional teachings of business school and goes in a slightly different direction. This book is certainly not for everyone, but this different take on business will be helpful for many online entrepreneurs.

Some Of The Things Internet Marketers Will Learn From This Book:

- Why meetings are toxic

- Why you should fire workaholics

- Why planning to flip your site is a plan to flop

- How to prevent “bloat” in your business and why bigger is not always better and how less is often more

- How to recognise that enthusiasm is not the same as priority

- And many, many more simple rules for success

Personal Thoughts:

This will not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s a relatively quick read, with a lot of interesting concepts that could help prevent you making some classic mistakes often made by more traditional businesses. It is an easy-to-read book written by the people behind 37 signals. It’s about taking a minimalist approach to your business and eliminating, clutter, crap and waste. I highly recommend it, and suggest you apply the rules that you feel are most useful, relevant and helpful to you and your business.

Conclusion

These are 3 books I have bought, read and enjoyed in 2009 and 2010. These are not the only 3, but they are the 3 most relevant/powerful books I have come across for experienced and beginner Internet marketers. I genuinely believe these books have helped me transform my outlook on life and business for the better and I hope they do for some one else out there too.

I’d highly recommend reading the 4 Hour Work Week first, and then read Rework. Then, once you start creating your business/campaign/project I’d recommend referencing specific/relevant parts of the 4 Hour Work Week to keep you on track. After that, I’d use Cashvertising to help you develop and turbo-charge your sales message, marketing and advertising.

I hope my review here has been helpful, and if you have any questions, comments or reviews of your own about these books, or any other books you have found useful, then please feel free to leave them in the comments section below!