WiseUp Coach Blog

Choosing the right affiliate products or programs is essential if you want to succeed in making money online.

It should not cost you a lot of money to join an affiliate program or to start promoting an affiliate product.  There are affiliate programs that are free to join and there are others where you have to pay to join. Choose the affiliate programs that are not costly to join. If you are considering promoting some products as an affiliate, choose the ones that make it easy and less costly for you start promoting them.

The affiliate program or the product owner must provide you with the necessary marketing tools. If you have enough marketing tools, it’s easy for you to market your affiliate link and start to make sales quickly. You must look for affiliate programs or products that provide marketing tools as well as any necessary support.

How popular is the product? You don’t want to try and promote a product for which there is no demand. It is therefore important for you to make sure that the product or program you choose to promote is of high quality and is popular.

The commission checks must be paid early and on a regular basis. Make sure that the affiliate program or the product owner will be paying you your commissions on a regular basis. You don’t want to waiting for many weeks or months before you get your commissions.

How much commission can you earn and can you earn residual income? Depending on the affiliate program or product, you can earn commissions between 30% and 70% for every sale you make. You must maximize your earning potential by promoting products for which you can earn high commissions.

Choose an affiliate program that is a Two-tier program instead of one. A single-tier program is the one that pays you only for the business you have generated. On the other hand, a two-tier program pays you for the business, plus a commission on the sales generated by any other affiliate you sponsor in your program. It is recommended that you choose an affiliate program that gives you more opportunities to earn residual income.

By following these recommendations, you will be able to choose an affiliate program that will enable you to earn attractive commissions and become successful in making money online.

So much of the discipline of giving a public presentation is to establish an internal structure to your talk that helps you  stay on task and maintain the focus of your subject for the entire time you are speaking.  That structure can also be of huge value in helping you gauge your time and make adjustments so you get the most crucial parts of your talk presented within the allocated time frame even if that means leaving out less important parts of your presentation.

There is a simple directive many public speakers live by that gives you a fine guideline for that structure.  It goes like this…

. Tell them what you are going to do. . Do what you said you were going to do . Tell them you did it.

This simple outline may be overly simplistic but it is the heart of what makes a good presentation work.  And the simplicity also helps you stay focused under the pressure of  a public speaking situation.  So any tool that can do that is a good one.

You tell the audience what to expect during your opening comments.  Those comments also contact giving your personal information, a greeting to the audience and perhaps some humor to set the tone of the talk. After you have gotten the speech  underway, it is common to establish what is the topic of your talk.  But to do that, the most effective device is to make a statement of the problem.  By phrasing the subject matter as a compelling and very real problem to your audience, that creates interest as the audience says mentally, "Yes I have that problem.  Tell me how you will help me fix it."

This is where you tell them what you are going to do.  The body of your speech is usually a three to five point discussion of the solution to the problem.  Don’t give them the entire heart of your speech but let them know the ground you are about to cover.  Not only does this give the audience a road map of what to expect, it lets them know that you know what you are doing and you know when you will get done.  This gets rid of  a secret fear of an out of control speaker that a lot  of people who sit in on presentations dread.

Once you establish this roadmap for the rest of your speech, this gives the audience a good feel for where you will be going.  By giving them this information early on, that actually reduces the impulse to interrupt you because they know you have a path to go on and they don’t want to take you off that path.  Now it is just a matter of stepping through each of the outlined areas to do for this audience what you said you would do which is to offer a solution to the problem statement.  Naturally your detailed discussion will have more content than your brief preview. But if you continue to broadcast to the audience where you are on the outline and that you are on track to reach the goal, that keeps them interested and assured that this is an organized program they are a part of.

It is always good to let the audience know then when you are entering your closing statements.  Many speakers use a simple clue like "Let me point out, and I am closing with this…" to give the audience the signal that the presentation is almost done.  This is common courtesy and a professional way to conduct a presentation.  And if you treat the audience with respect like this by telling them what you are going to do, do it and then tell them you did it, you will be a speaker that will get good reviews and invited back for more presentations frequently.

Making money is not the only goal of becoming an internet millionaire – it’s about freedom.

Many people across the world are gifted with experiencing this freedom everyday.  How can you become one of these people? What kind of life, and business, do you want to run? Would you like to be able to check your email from your private plane? These are the kinds of goals many people have in mind when they begin to forge ahead with their business ideas. But the truth is that the rich and the successful – the millionaires off and online – have about nine characteristics in common, not that different from a lot of people we all know. Most of them exhibit some or all of these. The truth is that we all have the potential for greatness – if we can train ourselves to keep this in mind as we go about our business day.

1. They don’t blame.  Successful businesspeople don’t blame others. Instead of making excuses for bad outcomes, or reassigning responsibility to others, they take time to learn from their own mistakes.

2. They are decisive. Millionaire-types have a vision. They take quick, decisive action aligned with that vision. They’re action oriented, always pushing forward toward their goals.

3. They trust their intuition. If something seems like it’s not quite right, they trust that instinct. If an opportunity excites them and sounds like a great idea, they go for it.

4. They are singly focused on their CORE business. Successful entrepreneurs may be inspired by ideas, but they always remain true to their vision. They focus on opportunities that are aligned with their business’s purpose. If you sell retail products on eBay, don’t try real estate investing the next day. They don’t lose focus. They may sell their products on eBay, write articles, focus on joint ventures, and go to marketing seminars, but all of their efforts, and FOCUS, help them move toward their main goals.

5. They are marketing focused. Millionaires, including such giants as Bill Gates, understand the importance of building on their core business. They hire people with specialties in marketing. They work hard at building their email lists, gaining exposure, and are constantly looking for ways to reaching a wider audience.  If you want to build a decent income, you sell products and services.  If you want to be insanely rich, then you create and control markets. The key to your business, and creating phenomenal success, is marketing.

6. They understand the importance of continuing education. Successful businesspeople are always learning and drawing from other people’s experiences. They listen to how other people have achieved their success, especially if these people have expertise in another industry. They are constantly learning about new approaches and strategies, and thinking about how they can apply it to their own business.

7. They are not afraid of making mistakes. Any big company online will tell you that they’ve had their share of downfalls, even such giants as eBay or Craig’s List. Mistakes are building blocks for success – by making mistakes, you learn what works, and what doesn’t. You don’t have to get it right, you just have to get it going. We all make mistakes, and one of the most powerful things you can do is gain feedback from them. Feedback is a great way to learn from your customers and colleagues. You need to look at feedback and take it with a grain of salt - it helps you learn and grow. See your mistakes as learning lessons

8. They model their business for success. Internet millionaires model other people, strategies, and systems. They constantly look for models of success in everyday life and think about how to incorporate these lessons into their own strategy. They even look at their competition for answers. Whatever niche you’re in, subscribe to some industry newsletters, buy their products, and learn HOW they create success.

9. They build a team to rely on. No matter what stage you are in with your business, you’ve got to realize that you simply cannot do it all. You can’t be an expert in everything.  You want to create a great team of people. How can you find them? Go to seminars and workshops. Hone your networking skills. You’ll often find that like minded people that are out there constantly learning and attending, seminars and workshops. Getting rich is a team sport.  You have to have people that are cheering you on, encouraging your success.

These are some inherent characteristics of business millionaires.

Can you apply them to your business and your life, too? Of course you can. If you can keep these principles in mind, you’ve got the millionaire mindset. No, you aren’t going to get there overnight. Making a million dollars takes some time. You can’t make a million dollars if you haven’t made your first hundred. So focus on the first hundred, first thousand, and first hundred thousand. Thinking this way goes a long way toward your goals – finding success, gaining riches, and living the kind of life you want to live.

So what is a goal? In my previous issues, I talked a lot about quantum creation , and manifestation. You have already know that the universe will always obey your order, take your instruction and turn it into the exact things you want. Believe it or not, you are creating all the time, the only difference is some of your creations are subconscious, and some are conscious. Unfortunately, most of our subconscious creation are not what we truly want, as a result, we are consistently creating what we don’t want, and end up with an unhappy life. A goal is something that helps you eliminate subconscious creation, and turns it into conscious creation. A goal is the order, or the command that you send out to the universe consciously, and as a result, you will get what you consciously want, and ultimately the ideal life that you enjoy living.

The process of goals setting is to help you get clear about want you truly want, turn your subconscious goals in to conscious goals so that you will be able to literally design your own life and have absolute control about your life.

You may have heard a lot about goals setting, and tried many types of goals setting programs. but most of them fail, The reason is not because the programs don’t work, the reason is because of your own beliefs and thinking. I can tell you any goals setting program works, even the most simple one, just by writing down your goals, you can achieve them. Why some people come out from a goals setting workshop with great result, but others with little or no results. This leads to today’s topic, what makes a goal effective?

What makes a goal effective?

First , your goals must be in harmony with your higher purpose. I believe that we all have a purpose in our life, this purpose has already be chosen even before we were born. Do you find yourself have some special talent, something that you enjoy to do , and you can it effortlessly, but others find it difficult? Do you find there is something that you enjoy doing so much such that the whole world suddenly disappear, the only thing exists is you and the things you are doing. At those moments, you are on purpose. Whenever you are in harmony with your purpose, you fell joy and happiness. A most effective goal must be in harmony with your purpose, this is the only way to ensure that you not only achieve your goal, but also enjoy the process. The process become enjoyable, and you also feel the fulfillment. Yes you can achieve your goals without being in harmony with your purpose, but you will never feel successful even you have all the accomplishments, and all the achievement. The easiest way to find your purpose is to pay attention to what you are good at, and what you are enjoy to do. If you can’t find it yourself, ask your parents, ask your friends, ask your families. Everyone have a special talent, that is the reason you come to this planet.

Secondly, Your goals must be beneficial to the world. I am not trying to make myself honorable, but this is true, unless you goals are beneficial to others, you will not find anyone to corporate with you, the universe will also not work to your advantage. A selfish goal will never make it big. You can see from the biggest success in the world, all these people had a mission to make others life better, to help the world become a better place. How much better our life have become because of the computer? This makes Bill Gates become the richest man in the world. The more beneficial your goal is to others, the more value it will produce, and the more achievable it will become.

Thirdly, your goals must be supported by your own core beliefs. Do you have an experience that you set a goal, and you did everything to make it happen, and at the last minute something happened, and it destroyed everything, your desires suddenly disappeared, and you went back to your comfortable zone? I did have this kind of experience, I did not know why until I realized that I was holding some subconscious beliefs that are contradictive to my goals. That means I wanted something, but my subconscious mind didn’t. Your contradictive subconscious beliefs will create negative blocks that are extremely hard to break, this is why a simple task sometimes becomes very big in your mind, you dare not to take any action. An effective goal must be in harmony with your current subconscious beliefs. You beliefs can change overtime due to your experience and the books you read, but you can never achieve anything that is bigger than your current beliefs. If your belief says that you can only make $3000 per month, you don’t set a goal of making $1 million dollar per month. Set a goal that is believable to your subconscious mind, once you have done $3000 dollar again and again, and you are so comfortable with it, your subconscious mind will start to believe the possibility to make $10,0000 dollars per month, and your goals will grow bigger and bigger from there.

How to test whether your goal is supported by your subconscious beliefs or not? I learned a simple test from Dr Robert Anthony, the legendary peak performance expert. The test is very simple, you draw a vertical line on a blank piece of paper, on one side, you write Yes, and on another, write no. Take a piece of string, tie something on one end to make an pendulum, hold your pendulum directly above the vertical line. Ask yourself the question ” Can I achieve the goal of …”. If you subconscious mind thinks it is possible, your pendulum will go to the yes side, and if not, it will go to the no side. I just want you to know that your subconscious mind does not always agree with your conscious mind. This test can only be used as a guide, don’t rely too much on the result you see from this test, because it won’t be 100% accurate if you only use it once or twice. Dr Robert Anthony has discussed in details about the conscious and subconscious contradictions in his audio program “Know How to Be Rich”, I am amazed by his deep understanding of the human mind and the universal laws.

Fourthly, goals must be exact. As I have said that your goal was the command you send to the universe, so for the universe to be able to execute your command, it must understand exactly what you mean. ” I want more money” is only a wish, not a goal. The universe could not know what you want if you just tell it “I want more money”, OK, you want more money, here is one cent, take it. Since you want more money, one cent more is also more. The universe does not know how to fulfill your desire if you don’t tell it exactly. A real goal is something like this ” I intend to manifest $10,000 dollars by Jan 1, 2014”,” I inteND to set up my company by March 1, 2014”. Don’t confuse the universe by an unclear goal. Ask for something specific, and the universe will end up giving you the specific result.

The fifth element for an effective goal is that your goals must be compelling enough so that it will trigger your emotions every time you think about them. Emotion creates motivation, motivation leads to action, and action will give you result. How much result you get depends on the quality of your emotion. Positive emotion create positive results, negative emotion creates negative results. From scientific point of view, positive emotion sends out positive vibration, and will attract back positive results with the same vibration frequency. Be careful how you feel, because you are creating the same results as you feel.

1) Point of Sale (POS) and Inventory Control Software

A good POS / Retail Management System can be a huge time saver and money maker for you. That's partly why it's number one...

In its simplest form, a good POS system will track all your sales so you can easily see how your business is doing (at any time).

In other words, it replaces your cash register.

It's difficult to decide where to even start talking about POS software because it can do SO many things for you. I could literally write a book about ALL the reasons why a POS system will help you -- so I'll quickly summarize in 5 key areas. A good POS system can...

* Dramatically improve your customer service

* Simplify and improve inventory management

* Improve the effectiveness of your marketing efforts

* Easily show where you're making and losing money so you can make adjustments and increase profits

* Save huge amounts of time by automating bookkeeping and countless other retail tasks for you

Now keep in mind... not only will a POS system give you a huge benefit, but it can also be the MOST difficult technology to choose.

There are many things to consider and you certainly don't want to miss out on anything important because it's very expensive to change POS systems. So take your time and do your research when you choose a POS system.

2) Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software

One of the unwavering keys to building a successful retail business is to build relationships with your customers. Because of that, CRM software is a critical tool for the retail business. And not only will CRM help you improve your customer loyalty it will help you market to potential prospects and generate new business.

In a nutshell, CRM software allows you to track your customers, identify market segments and then easily communicate with them via email, telephone, direct mail and more.

Some POS systems actually include CRM capabilities and that's what I recommend.

This allows you to track all this information in one place and reduce time consuming double entry. In any case, CRM software can be purchased as a stand alone product or considered its own module in your POS software. So it deserves its own category.

3) Bar Code Scanning and UPC Codes

Simply put, bar code scanning allows you to check products at the point of sale much faster and more accurately than can be done on the keyboard. Not only will this save you time, but you should also consider the effect of your inventory...

Just think about the consequences of entering the wrong product number and throwing off your inventory. Your inventory is the lifeblood of your business and accuracy is vital. These errors can cause you to lose sales, increase inventory costs, and waste hours of time.

I should also point out that if your merchandise has UPC codes, you can easily scan those tags without the need to print your own bar codes. This can be a huge time saver.

4) Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

EDI technology allows you to send purchase orders (created in your POS software) to your supplier electronically via phone line or internet. Not only does this save a huge amount of time, but it can also reduce errors -- so you don't have to apologize to your customer because you special ordered the wrong item.

Just imagine, using your POS software to automatically generate purchase orders (based on order levels and sales history) and then sending your order to your supplier electronically. You can process your entire order without entering a single product number! How much time would that save you?

5) Retail Accounting Software

More and more retailers are doing their accounting in-house because they can quickly produce up-to-date financial statements and see how their business is doing at almost any time. This has become easier for the small business owner because of a variety of user friendly accounting applications.

Accounting software can be purchased stand alone or can be integrated with your POS software. Now it's important for you to consider each different module within an accounting system.

I suggest that your Accounts Receivable module (what people owe you) should almost always be integrated with your POS software. It's also a good idea to get your Accounts Payable module integrated with your POS too (because you'll reduce double entry).

Your General Ledger module can be stand alone or integrated. There are pros and cons for each method.

6) Store Traffic Counters

These valuable devices will help you improve sales conversion ratios, increase store traffic, and improve advertising. If you're serious about increasing sales conversions then you need an accurate measure of your store traffic so you can determine your closing ratio.

Automated traffic counters are accurate and objective. They provide surprisingly detailed data that takes the guesswork out of measuring closing ratios and even how ads pull.

Store traffic counters also help better schedule your sales staff because they identify actual foot traffic in your store during certain time periods. You can also determine if traffic goes up or down during marketing promotions so you can figure out what works the best. And this is just the tip of the iceberg! There are MANY benefits to this technology.

7) Graphics Design Software

Most small retail business owners tend to wear many hats... and taking care of marketing promotions can be one of them. With computers and graphics programs today, you can save thousands of dollars by creating simple flyers, brochures, and ads with your own graphics design software. Popular programs include Adobe InDesign, Adobe PageMaker, Corel Draw and Microsoft Publisher.

8) Websites & Shopping Carts

Whether you sell products on your website or not... websites can be powerful tools to promote your retail business. For example, you could link to your website from business cards, newspaper ads, and more.This gives you an opportunity to tell your story, give people an idea of what you sell, and convince them to stop by your store.

Since it would be very expensive to tell your entire sales story in a newspaper ad... you can finish the job by sending people to your website and save money.

Then if you're really serious, you can utilize a website shopping cart so customers can place orders and pay you right from the website.

9) Payroll Software

Payroll software can allow you to do payroll in-house and save a bunch of time. The software calculates the deductions that come out of each payroll, like FIT, SIT, FICA, 401K, HSA, flex, etc. It also calculates the totals for W-2's (and prints them) at the end of the year. And of course, it also prints nice looking checks with all the deductions per payroll as well as year-to-date totals.

10) Portable Data Terminals (PDT) and Hand Held Computers

Portable data terminals are great tools that allow you to quickly count your inventory and easily update your POS system. You can simply carry around this portable terminal, scan your merchandise, and then enter your on-hand quantities. This allows you to more easily and accurately count your inventory.

In addition, hand held computers are becoming more popular.

They allow you to create orders and complete various tasks on a computer that fits in the palm of your hand. You could place orders from a truck or anywhere inside or outside of your store.

Now I obviously listed only 10 retail technologies because it's a nice round number, but there are many other great technologies that can help you out.

For example, a few honorable mentions include... signature capture devices, smart cards, customer loyalty cards, wireless technology, and email auto-responders.

I'm sure there are a few more that I'm missing, but depending on your type of business, this is a pretty good list to start with.

I suggest that you take a close look at each one of these technologies.

Make sure you understand what's involved and why they are SO important. Then consider utilizing this type of technology in your business (if you haven't already).

Learn more about retail technology including how to choose, utilize, and maximize profits with retail technology.