John Jonas Blog» internet business http://www.jonasblog.com John Jonas on Living The 4-Hour Workweek Thu, 02 Feb 2012 05:24:27 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Copyright 2003-2009 John Jonas John Jonas On living the 4-Hour Workweek No No What to focus on in your online business http://www.jonasblog.com/what-to-focus-on-in-your-online-business http://www.jonasblog.com/what-to-focus-on-in-your-online-business#comments Thu, 14 Oct 2010 14:50:31 +0000 John http://www.jonasblog.com/?p=1665 I got this video question from a reader:

Here’s my answer:

I recorded this video in the foothills a few minutes from my house. (I have the ipad in my hands to look at my notes)
It’s beautiful here.

Here is the gist of what I say in the video:

  1. Focus on understanding the business you’re going to implement. Understand the process and the steps. Don’t be the one to do the work (Outsource it)
  2. Don’t worry about building a list, creating one-time-offers, upsells, downsells, or continuity. Focus on making the first sale. All the rest of the “you have to do this” stuff can come later. In the beginning, the money is NOT “in the list.”
  3. Make your website have one purpose. (Hint: it’s not to get them to friend you on facebook or follow you on twitter) MAKE SALES on your website. That’s the only purpose.
  4. Find out what your market wants to BUY, not just what they WANT.
  5. Get traffic to your website (refer to this post about My
    websites aren’t making money, what do I do     for a traffic generation plan.
  6. Follow a plan. You’ve already bought someone’s product for how to make money, now stick with it! Follow the steps…after you understand them.
  7. Outsource it all. DON’T be the one doing all the work. Be the CEO of your business. Learn to outsource at ReplaceMyself.com
]]> http://www.jonasblog.com/what-to-focus-on-in-your-online-business/feed 143 How I Do Videos For My Blog http://www.jonasblog.com/how-i-do-videos-for-my-blog http://www.jonasblog.com/how-i-do-videos-for-my-blog#comments Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:04:00 +0000 John http://www.jonasblog.com/?p=1037 I’ve spent a lot of time figuring out how to do good videos on my blog.

If you look at some of my earlier videos you’ll see they’re not that good, and they took me 10x longer to do than the ones I do today.

This is how I currently create the videos for my blog (and for my other websites).

Here are the tools I use

]]> http://www.jonasblog.com/how-i-do-videos-for-my-blog/feed 198 Insights Into My Business http://www.jonasblog.com/insights-into-my-business http://www.jonasblog.com/insights-into-my-business#comments Mon, 23 Nov 2009 16:28:12 +0000 John http://www.jonasblog.com/?p=987 I had a comment on my blog that I thought was worthy of a full answer.

Get Flash to see this player.

As an addition to what I wanted to say in this video, outsourcing to the Philippines isn’t a fad. It’s not one of those “you have to get in at the beginning or it’s going to be bad” things. This isn’t going anywhere. It’s not something that changes very often.

Below are excerpts of the comment and my answers as videos below each excerpt.

I have a couple of question for you John. I know you talk about paying less to your guys versus the cost of contracting with companies like e-lance, or brickwork; and I appreciate your thinking. I tend to think that way too, if they can do it, I’ll bet I can do it better and for less money. You’ve found a way to do something better and cheaper and you’re attempting to help others do the same. I respect that. The thing is Timothy Feriss makes a good point in his book “The Four Hour Workweek”, (Which I read after your recommendation, Thank you!), about the extra cost of dealing with company vs. working with an individual being worth it. He points out the pitfalls to having “one guy” you’re dependent upon. If you contract with a company, you’re not completely dependent on just one person to get the job done should he “go down” or do a bad job. If (when) that happens where does that leave you? He’s sees the “one guy” approach as more of a headache then it’s worth.

Get Flash to see this player.

You always talk about your team in such glowing terms which is wonderful, but I’d like to know about how you began; about your time line and how long it took you to build your dream team. I know achieving that doesn’t happen overnight which is why I’m interested to know about your personal experiences. Please focus on how it was when you first started, as I imagine many of your campaigns are at a completely different point currently, and perhaps don’t require the work and attention they once did. I have seen you write about problems lasting for a short time, but what have your experiences been overall, and how did you solve the problems that occurred?

Get Flash to see this player.

Also, what method did you use and what are you currently doing to decide on which topics/products you will create content, and/or what markets you’ll pursue? How does your approach differ now with the changes taking place on the web? There is a lot of conflicting information available, and coupled with how things are quickly changing it’s very hard to decide which method is best. What’s your perspective on this? It seems SEO is changing and somewhat dependent upon the whims of Google, as I’m sure you’re well aware! It feels like SEO, etc., is in a state of flux and I’m anxious to hear what you think.

Get Flash to see this player.

http://www.jonasblog.com/2009/04/how-i-do-niche-research.html

]]> http://www.jonasblog.com/insights-into-my-business/feed 275 Web Tools To Help Run Your Online Business http://www.jonasblog.com/web-tools-to-help-run-your-online-business http://www.jonasblog.com/web-tools-to-help-run-your-online-business#comments Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:09:10 +0000 John http://www.jonasblog.com/?p=892 There are a lot of online tools I use in running my business. Tools which at one point I didn’t know existed, and when I found out about them, I said
“HOLY COW!!! THAT SAVES ME HOURS OF TIME AND THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS!!!”

I attempted to create this list somewhat here, but it was just too much content creation for me (I just don’t like creating ongoing content…that’s why I only blog once a month!).

So, here’s a big laundry list of tools I use to run my business, and just in general good internet websites to know about.

This is a list that comes from my experience in doing online business, as well as the knowledge of my mastermind group.
If you have great sites to add, please add them in the comments. Maybe I’ll add them to my main list if I start using them.

Testing/Tracking

  • Crazyegg.com – heatmap click tracking
  • Woopra – website analytics
  • Statcounter – Not the most detailed analytics, but gives very important trend/keyword data easily. Great for affiliate websites.
  • Google Website Optimizer – free split testing and multi-variate testing
  • ClickTale – web analytics that takes a video of your users mouse/actions
  • ClickDensity.com – similar to crazyegg.com…
  • Site Yogi Free consolidated website statistics

Video/Audio/Picture

  • Audacity – free audio editing
  • Jing – free screen capture/sharing tool
  • JW Player – best free flash player (the best flash player…period)
  • Super – free video conversion tool (the best free video converter – converts from anything to anything) Download
  • VSO Image Resizer – right click to resize/save images to a different format
  • OnlineVideoToolkit – How to do video with a Flip camera
  • LiveFaceOnWeb.com – Pay to have an actor create a video and “appear” on your site
  • TubeMogul.com Free Video Distribution service (free alternative to traffic geyser)
  • iStockPhoto free stock photos
  • sxc.hu free stock photos
  • Amazon S3 I use them for streaming video and for reliable image/file/video hosting.
  • Pixlr Image Editing – Free alternative to photoshop. Amazing online image editing…free.

Outsourcing

Screen Sharing/Collaboration

Phone Calling/Recording

  • FreeConferenceCall – a whole suite of phone services – conference lines, voice boxes, broadcasts…
  • Pamela skype recording plugin
  • PhoneTag.com – intercepts voicemail, transcribes it, and texts the voicemail to you (voice recognition to text)
  • Google Voice – If you can get in…
  • MagicJack.com – A usb device that gives you VOIP for dirt cheap. My partner, Dan, uses it exclusively at home.
  • K7.net Free incoming voicemail and fax service
  • AuctionAudio.net or AudioAcrobat.com – 3 way in phone conversations to record

Project Management

Graphic Design

  • 99designs.com – People will compete to create a logo/design for your website (cheap graphic design work)contest for cheap graphic/design work
  • DoMyDesignStuff.com – Great graphic designer
  • DesignGuruRyan – Another great graphic designer
  • Kuler.com free Adobe recommended color pairings and design templates

Content Creation

  • Screen Steps – tool for creating step by step instructions with screen capture
  • MTurk.com – Get articles written for you for cheap. Also automate human processes.
  • AssociatedContent.com – get content here and then re-write it for articles
  • ExpertVillage.com – collections of video that you can buy from people
  • Findarticles.com – searches offline articles – go buy them from people
  • HowStuffWorks.com – good source of content, like expertvillage
  • Ehow.com – more content, like howstuffworks.com

Online Survey Tracking/Creation

Online File Storage/Backup

  • DropBox.com Free file storage, sharing and remote backup from a folder on your desktop!
  • Mozy – Simple online backup solution
  • SugarSync – Online File syncing/storage
  • Backupify – backup your online life!

Random Coolness

  • Evernote – free note taking tool (puts notes on your desktop and online, indexes images/pdf to make them searchable)
  • Fatwallet.com – get great deals on “stuff”
  • Gliffy.com – free flow chart design – alternative to MS Visio
  • Filezilla – best free ftp client
  • “The” Paypal Button – Andrew Lock says that if you’re doing more than $3000/month in paypal, you can click this button and they’ll charge you less transaction processing fees
  • Kayak.com – travel prices aggregated
  • Web-Appointments.com – let people schedule appointments with you when you allow them to
  • Doodle.ch – Group date picking (“when works for everyone?”)
  • HandWrittenresults.com Send hand written thank you letters to your list!
  • Ted – Inspirational video presentations from great minds!
  • Windows Notepad Replacement – A better program than what comes with standard windows.
  • RescueTime – Auto tracks and categorizes computer usage. Usable with employees.
  • LastPass Password Manager – Keeps track of all login info across computers. I’ll never (hopefully) be without this again.
  • Kunaki – awesome CD/DVD creation/fulfillment service.
]]> http://www.jonasblog.com/web-tools-to-help-run-your-online-business/feed 458 Local Business Internet Marketing…What I would do if… http://www.jonasblog.com/local-business-internet-marketing-what-i-would-do-if http://www.jonasblog.com/local-business-internet-marketing-what-i-would-do-if#comments Fri, 18 Sep 2009 16:09:50 +0000 John http://www.jonasblog.com/?p=867 The most common question I receive from so many of you out there is, how do I start out with earning money from the internet, what do I do?

The answer I give people is: Local Business Marketing!

(just last week I told my MOM! to start doing this)

Last night Kevin Wilke did an amazing webinar explaining how he does local business marketing.
His system is amazing because it just works.

I was able to do an interview with him talking about why I like what he’s doing so much, and why it works so well.

This is why I like Kevin’s program:

  • You don’t need to know every single detail about internet marketing. (Which is great for those who are still starting)
  • You look for clients before even starting, which less risk. (MAKE SALES!!!)
  • If you tie it in with outsourcing, it’s totally automatable, plus it’s a great stepping stone for great future business opportunities.

Here’s the interview I did with him:

Get Flash to see this player.

You can watch the webinar again (hopefully when you see this the webinar will still be available) here:
http://www.jonasblog.com/go/localbusinesswebinar

Here’s a link to join his program if it’s right for you:
http://www.jonasblog.com/go/localbusinessmm

]]> http://www.jonasblog.com/local-business-internet-marketing-what-i-would-do-if/feed 22