Q & A With Liz

by liztomey
2 min read
Add Comment

We just wrapped up the Building An Online Business series, and now I want to know what questions you still have?

In this series I covered…

1. How to find a niche that you love and that is PROFITABLE. Both things are vital!

You can see that post at http://liztomey.com/blog/do-you-love-your-niche

2. Setting up your business foundation. Another vital component, and you've GOT to do it right.

You can see that post at http://liztomey.com/blog/the-biz-foundation-method

3. Monetizing the business you've built.

You can see that post at http://liztomey.com/blog/turning-on-the-money-in-your-business

4. Driving the RIGHT traffic into your new business.

You can see that post at http://liztomey.com/blog/the-truth-about-traffic

5. Running your online business daily.

You can see that post at http://liztomey.com/blog/the-daily-life-of-an-online-business-owner

Note: None of this is about the marketing side of things. I cover that stuff constantly. This is all about getting an online business setup. What questions do you still have about that? What is holding you back? Why don't you have something up and going? If you do have something up and going, and it's not making money, why?

If there are any other questions you have on this topic, please leave them in the comments below and I'll be more than happy to help you out!

Wishing you much success on your journey!

Liz

The Daily Life Of An Online Business Owner

by liztomey
5 min read
Add Comment

Okay we are at the fifth and final part of this series, and just as a recap here's what we've covered…

1. How to find a niche that you love and that is PROFITABLE. Both things are vital!

You can see that post at http://liztomey.com/blog/do-you-love-your-niche

2. Setting up your business foundation. Another vital component, and you've GOT to do it right.

You can see that post at http://liztomey.com/blog/the-biz-foundation-method

3. Monetizing the business you've built.

You can see that post at http://liztomey.com/blog/turning-on-the-money-in-your-business

4. Driving the RIGHT traffic into your new business.

You can see that post at http://liztomey.com/blog/the-truth-about-traffic

Today we're going to wrap things up by talking about what you need to be doing each day to keep your business running.

Now there are so many different types of online businesses that you can run, so this is going to be different for everyone, but here's what most people will be doing.

Some of things you will do daily, some weekly, some monthly. Is what I recommend that you do is write down everything you need to do and then input it into a calendar.

I have Google Calendar setup for this, and have it set to email me every morning at 5am with my “to dos” for the day. I get an email every day and know exactly what I'm supposed to be doing, and this keeps me super focused and on track!

Alright so let's take a look at the typical stuff and this is in no particular order.

Customer support – It doesn't matter if you're selling your own products, selling products as an affiliate, or just running a content site you monetize with ads. There are real people coming through your business. If you're not selling your own products you will have less customer support than someone who is, but you still need to make sure that your audience has a way to contact you, and that you are responding back to them.

Learning – You can never stop learning. Either you're learning about new marketing tactics and strategies you can use in your business, how to make more money in your business, other ways to make money, and the list goes on and on, but you need to have dedicated time to learning more about running your business.

Content creation – If you have an online business it's in constant need of content. Your content hub for your business foundation always needs content, if you're using social media to get traffic then your social media sites always need content, if email is part of your online business then you need content for that, and the list goes on and on.

Money makers – Every day my first thought in my business is what is going to make me money today? What can I add to my business to make more money? Finding a product to promote as an affiliate. Working on creating a product to sell. Creating a marketing campaign. There are so many things you can be doing, but every day I'm working on something that makes me money either right this moment or in the future. You need to be working on this daily too.

Traffic – Like we talked yesterday. When you stop working on getting traffic into your business, the traffic stops, and you don't make money. Every single day you need to be working on traffic. I typically split my working time in half. Half of the time I have to work I spend on traffic generation. The other half is devoted to everything else.

Now as I said… Depending on your business will depend on what of these things you'll do and how much you will do of them. There are many many many other things too, but you get the idea here.

So back to my advice above…

Spend a week running your business, as you do things, note them. Then take those notes and input everything into a calendar so you have something to look at each day and KNOW what you're supposed to be doing.

Okay… That wraps up this series!

We've covered a ton of information, and I hope you're putting it to use.

If you'd like to see a complete online business built from scratch, and how all of these things work together, I highly recommend that you grab a seat in the Get An Online Business Workshop.

Everything I've covered in this series is covered in this workshop, but you get to see it ALL put into action, so you can do the same thing.

Right now the price is discounted, so make sure you check it out right now before the price goes up again.

You can grab your seat at https://learningim.com/get-an-online-business-workshop-wp

Talk soon!

Liz

The Truth About Traffic

by liztomey
5 min read
Add Comment

If you've been following along lately, I've returned back to the basics because I realized that many many many MANY of my readers are struggling when it comes to creating an online business.

For those of you that are killing it. Congrats! We're going to get back to our “regularly scheduled” program soon, but THIS series is all about the basics.

So far I've covered…

1. Finding a niche that you love and that's actually profitable.

2. Creating a business foundation for your chosen niche.

3. Monetizing your business.

Now today I want to talk about traffic.

Once you have the first three things in place then you're ready for traffic.

Or are you?

So the first lesson I want to give you in traffic is that you need to be ready for it.

Is the page your sending traffic to ready for traffic?

Does it look good? Is it easy to navigate? Does it have a strong call to action?

Whatever it is that you're sending traffic to (be it a squeeze page, a sales page, a blog post, etc) needs to have ONE job and that job needs to be clearly stated.

For example if you're sending traffic to a squeeze page. You need to make sure you've got a good offer there that people will actually WANT, and copy that makes them want to get it right NOW, and an easy way for them to get it.

So the first step in getting traffic is making sure whatever you're driving traffic to is READY and will actually work for you.

Why would you want to go through the effort of driving a bunch of traffic if what you have isn't going to get you the results you need!

Now the next step is deciding what route you want to go with getting the traffic.

This is where most people melt down and try EVERYTHING.

DO NOT do that.

Is what you need to do is understand there are basically three ways to get traffic.

1. You can buy it.

You can pay for ads on social networks, you can buy advertising space on sites that offer it in your niche, and the list goes on and on.

If you KNOW that what you have gets results (meaning people buy from you, or optin to your list, or whatever result you want) then this is a great option because you will be able to recoup your investment and then some.

However if you don't KNOW that what you have gets results then you're going to spend A LOT of money getting it all figured out.

My rule of thumb with paid advertising is that I wont use it unless I KNOW I have something that will get results.

2. You can borrow it.

When I say borrow I mean use the traffic that others can send you. This is where you'll get affiliates to send you traffic and you pay them a percentage of your profits, or pay them for actions their people take. There's a lot of ways to do this, but you need a product and an affiliate program.

3. You can mine it.

This is where most other traffic tactics live. This is where you are doing things to get the traffic. You're “mining” it. You're digging for it. Tactics like blogging, social marketing, guest blogging, SEO, YouTube marketing, and the list goes on and on and on and on.

And mining it is where 85% of you will be at.

Now the last thing when it comes to driving traffic…

No matter HOW you decide you're going to get it you need to make sure that you're doing SOMETHING to get traffic every single day.

If you're using paid advertising you need to make sure that your ads are working (stat checking), you need to be testing other ads against your ads to get them working better, you need too be looking for more places to advertise, etc.

If you're running an affiliate program you want to be working on reaching out to affiliates, creating new promotional tools, etc.

If you're mining it well that's hard to say because there's about a million different ways to mine it. 🙂

But you get the idea here. You need to be doing something each and every day no matter how you're driving traffic.

Okay so let's wrap up our talk on traffic here.

When it comes to getting traffic you need to…

1. Make sure you have something that is ready for it.

2. Know how you're going to get it

3. Never stop getting it. When you stop driving traffic you stop getting results. PLAIN AND SIMPLE!

Need more help with getting traffic? Then I highly recommend you check out the Get An Online Business Workshop. Everything I just went over with you is covered WAY more in-depth in that workshop PLUS everything else we've covered over the last several days.

You can grab your seat at https://learningim.com/get-an-online-business-workshop-wp

Okay that's it for today. Tomorrow we're going to wrap this all up and I'm going to tell you what you need to be doing each day to run your online business.

Talk soon!

Liz

Turning On The Money In Your Business

by liztomey
5 min read
Add Comment

And we're back… This is the third installment in a series of five blog posts I'm doing all talking about building an online business in a niche that you love and that actually makes you money.

I'm talking to those of you who don't have an online business setup yet and/or who have failed at getting one setup.

In the first installment in this series I talked about finding a niche that you LOVE. You can see that post at http://liztomey.com/blog/do-you-love-your-niche

In the second installment in this series we talked about building a business foundation which is VITAL to do once you have your perfect profitable niche picked out. If you missed that post you can see it at http://liztomey.com/blog/the-biz-foundation-method

Now once you have that perfect profitable niche AND a business foundation set up then you're going to move on to monetization and that's what we're going to be talking about in this post.

Show me the money!

So first things first… Depending on what your niche is will depend on how you're going to monetize it. You can also do “monetization stacks” where you use multiple monetization methods.

For example… In my Internet marketing business where I help people build and marketing online businesses, I sell my own digital products, but I also selling coaching, make money as an affiliate marketer, sell services, and have even sold physical products (a tshirt).

That's monetization stacking.

So let's say you're in the weight loss niche. This is a niche I'm going into and letting my attendees of the Get An Online Business Workshop watch me develop. I have created my business foundation in it and will be monetizing it by…

1. Creating my own digital products. (Journals and trackers and stuff like that. No ebooks or courses. I want to give people tools not teach in this niche like I do IM.)

2. Physical products. (Creating branded supplements, powders, etc., physical journals and trackers)

3. An mobile app. (Obviously not sharing the details there. 😉 )

4. Affiliate links

There are so many different ways you can monetize your business once you have a business foundation setup.

Here's a short list…

1. Digital products you create. (Ebooks, courses, software, app, etc.)

2. Physical products. (The list is never ending here. 🙂 )

3. Products your an affiliate for. (Again the list is never ending here and you can promote physical and/or digital products)

4. Ads (You can sell advertising on your site, emails to your list, put PPC ads on your site, and so much more.)

Now there are tons of sub categories for each of those things, but those are basically your options.

And as I said you can use one or all or any number of them in between that you want.

You simply need to research what people in your niche want and give it to them!

Whether you develop the products yourself, pay others to develop them for you, and promote products as an affiliate, you still need to find what your people want, and then figure out how to give it to them.

Okay so we've gone through the first three steps here…

1. Find your perfect profitable niche

2. Build your business foundation

3. Decide how you're going to monetize it and DO it.

The next thing we're going to talk about is…

TRAFFIC!

Once you have your niche, you've built your business foundation, and you've gotten everything monetized you need to turn on the traffic, and that's what we're going to be talking about in the next installment of this series.

If you'd like to learn how to do all of this then I highly recommend that you grab a seat in my Get An Online Business Workshop where I will show you how to do all of this step by step!

https://www.LearningIM.com/get-an-online-business-workshop-wp

Here’s what you’re going to learn in this live 5-day workshop.

Day 1: You’ll learn how to pick a niche, make sure it’s profitable, and make sure it’s one you’re actually going to enjoy so you don’t get bored and wander off. 🙂

Day 2: You’ll learn how to create an online business foundation that is absolutely VITAL to your success. This system is super easy to setup and can be done in about a day! Sorry no push-button BS here.

Day 3: This is the day you’ll learn how to monetize your new business foundation so you can actually make-money with it! Yeah baby!

Day 4: Want to REALLY know how to get traffic? This is the day you’ll learn the TRUTH about getting traffic and how to make sure you’re ready for it.

Day 5: Clueless as to what you need to do each day to run an online business? Today is your day then because you’re going to learn everything you need to do daily to keep your business making you money 24/7.

Here’s the bottom line…

Right now you have the chance to clear the fog and confusion from your brain and be lead straight to success by someone who has been running multiple online businesses for almost 15 years now.

ME! 🙂

With what you’re going to learn PLUS having all the help you need you’re going to be unstoppable!

NOW is YOUR chance to grab a seat in the Get An Online Business LIVE Workshop (at a HUGE discount), and finally get that business setup that you WANT for the freedom lifestyle that you NEED!

BUT… You only have a few days to get in on this offer, so do this NOW!

https://www.LearningIM.com/get-an-online-business-workshop-wp

Okay… Shameless plug over. 🙂

I'll see you in the next installment in this series in just a couple of days.

Talk soon!

Liz

The Biz Foundation Method!

by liztomey
2 min read
Add Comment

If you haven't heard yet (I've been going on and on about it) I just released a brand new workshop to help those of you who haven't created an online business yet.

OR

You've attempted and just can't get anything to work. 🙁

It's called the Get An Online Business Workshop and you've only got a few more days to jump in on this so make sure you grab your seat now if you want to learn how to create an online business that you'll love AND actually make-money with!

https://www.LearningIM.com/get-an-online-business-workshop-wp

On Day 2 of the workshop I'm going to be showing you how to create a business foundation for the niche that you decide upon.

Don't worry I teach how to pick a niche on Day 1. 🙂

Here's the thing…

If you don't have a business foundation, you're done before you even get started.

Your business foundation consists of two things…

1. A page to build your list/audience – This doesn't need to be hard. People think you've got to create some amazing offer. You DO NOT! I have a super simple way to get people to jump on your list.

2. A content hub – YES! You need content, but quality wins over quantity. A simple blog will allow you to house your content for a multitude of purposes, but all lead to you building your list with it.

That's it!

That's a complete business foundation.

Now of course there are strategies you must use to do all of this right, but that's ALL you need to get started. Stop making this so hard!

And if you want to learn how I do it, then I highly recommend you grab a seat in my the Get An Online Business Workshop and learn how to setup your business foundation.

Like I said… You've only got a few more days to grab your spot before the price goes WAY up, so grab your seat at https://www.LearningIM.com/get-an-online-business-workshop-wp

Okay so far we've talked about picking your niche (I cover that on Day 1 of this workshop) and now building your business foundation (I cover that on Day 2 of this workshop). Tomorrow we're going to talk about monetizing everything and what your options are.

Talk soon!

Liz

Do You LOVE Your Niche?

by liztomey
3 min read
Add Comment

Hey gang!

The other day I told you about the opening of my latest workshop… The Get An Online Business Workshop!

https://www.LearningIM.com/get-an-online-business-workshop-wp

On Day 1 of the workshop we're going to be starting from the very beginning of building an online business. I've seen a lot of people in niches that aren't profitable and/or that they don't love.

Here's the thing…

1. If you're in a niche that doesn't have buyers, you're never going to make-money in that niche. Do you want an online business that DOESN'T make-money?

Of course not!

You absolutely MUST find a profitable niche to build your business in.

So if you're not making-money with your online business it just might be that you're in a niche that doesn't have any demand.

This is pretty unlikely, but it DOES happen.

2. On that same note you might be making a “little” money in a niche and you've tapped it out. If that IS the case (and it could be likely) then you need to learn to broaden that niche and/or pick a more profitable niche.

3. You have no niche. You've done nothing to build an online business, and maybe you're even stuck when it comes to making the decision on what niche to pick.

If any of this applies to you, then you NEED to grab your seat in the Get An Online Business Workshop!

https://www.LearningIM.com/get-an-online-business-workshop-wp

On Day 1 of the workshop I'll show you how to pick a niche that is PROFITABLE and that you LOVE!

Both of these things are vital…

Yes, you CAN just go into a niche that is really profitable even though you don't like the niche, but how well do you think you'll do if you don't actually like the niche?

I can answer that because I've done it…

You WON'T do well. 🙁

SO I'm going to show you how to uncover super profitable niches that you either like and know about or would like to know about.

Plus I'll give you several niches that I know for sure are profitable and you can just pick one of those that you LIKE instead of doing the research yourself.

By the end of Day 1 you will know exactly what niche to go into and FINALLY be ready to start build a business in a niche you know will make you-money, and that you'll enjoy for years to come.

Here's the deal though… You've only got a few more days to get into this workshop at the discounted price. In just a few days the price is going to go WAY up, so make sure you grab your seat right now!

https://www.LearningIM.com/get-an-online-business-workshop-wp

Talk soon!

Liz

Well Spent Freedom Money

by liztomey
2 min read
2 Comments

One of the biggest complaints I hear about in this business is how much money you have to spend to be able to make money.

I mean you have to spend money on things like…

Domain names
Hosting
Autoresponders
Software
Training
Coaching

… and the list goes on and on!

But what if you were starting a brick and mortar business?

I mean an online business is a “real” business too right?

For a brick and mortar business there are all kinds of costs and usually you have to have hundreds of thousands of dollars in capital to even get started.

So my question is why are people complaining so much about having to spend money on starting their online business?

Just why should everything be free and handed over to you?

It's simple… It shouldn't!

Just because it's an online business doesn't mean it's not going to cost you money, but you need to look at it as what I call, “Well Spent Freedom Money”.

Each time you invest in your business you're investing in your freedom…

Your financial freedom
Your time freedom
Your lifestyle freedom

Because having an online business can give you all of that and so much more.

Now of course I'm not saying that you should buy everything under the sun. You should ONLY spend money on things that will help your business right now, but never think for one second that you shouldn't have to invest in your business simply because you run an online one.

Okay end of rant! 🙂

I'd love to hear your thoughts on what I've said here so make sure and leave your comments below…

Liz

Notes On Getting An Autoresponder

by liztomey
3 min read
1 Comment

An autoresponder is vital to any online business. You absolutely MUST have one to be able to have prospects to market your online business to.

For example…

I run an online income coaching business. I have setup LizTomey.com to collect leads to market my products and services to. My autoresponder gives me a form that I can put on my website, collect the name and email address of leads, and then it puts them on my “list”.

As soon as someone joins my list my autoresponder automatically sends them a welcome message. I then have several other messages “loaded” into my autoresponder that are automatically delivered to the leads that are added to my list. You can have these messages sent out at any time you determine.

So if “Bob” joins my list today he will immediately get a welcome message. 24 hours later he will get another one. 48 hours after that he will get another one, and so on and so forth. This is all automatically setup and done by my autoresponder.

I can also log in to my autoresponder at anytime, select my list, and email everyone on the list at one time.

Hopefully you see how powerful this is! 🙂

It adds some serious automation to your marketing efforts!

Now I want you to listen very closely because picking an autoresponder service/solution can literally make or break you. There are solutions out there that you can purchase install on your own domain name and be off and running. However that is NOT what you should do.

There are a million reasons you don't want to do this but the main reason being your deliverability rate. Imagine sending an email out to 1000 prospects and only 700 or even less of them getting it. You're leaving money on the table! You want to ensure you're using a reputable service that can get your emails delivered.

The only two I recommend are…

1. Aweber
2. GetResponse

I actually use both, but that's kind of an advanced technique I will leave for another tutorial. 🙂

Use one of those for now, ensure your emails actually get delivered, and save yourself lots of headaches and lots of money!

Now I've created this post to explain autoresponders to you, tell you which ones to use, AND to answer any questions you have about autoresponders and/or how to use them.

If you have questions about using/getting an autoresponder make sure and leave them below. I’ll answer them here and create any tutorials that you may need to learn from.

I look forward to helping you with all your autoresponder questions. 🙂

Liz

UPDATE:

Above I stated that I used both Aweber and GetResponse. I've done an update video that explains why. 🙂 You can see it below.

Notes On Getting Hosting

by liztomey
2 min read
Add Comment

Getting hosting is the second thing you'll need when creating your online business.

Hosting is what your server is and your server holds all the files for your website. Your domain name sites on your server and when people visit it they see your website.

So if a domain name is your house then hosting is like the land your house sits on so people can come visit you.

A little confusing I know, but once you understand a little how things work this stuff will become really easy. 🙂

I've decided to help you understand more about hosting, where to get it from, how to get it setup, etc. that I would create this post here on the blog so that I can answer your questions about hosting.

If you have questions about hosting make sure and leave them below. I’ll answer them here and create any tutorials that you may need to learn from.

I look forward to helping you with all your hosting questions. 🙂

Liz

Hosting Questions And Answers

Q1. I'm starting an online business. I have a domain name. Where should I get hosting for it?

A1: The one I've used for years is Liquid Web. I recommend that you spend the $50 (at the time of this being written) a month on the VPS 2GB Plan. This will give you a WHM (web host manager) where you can add as many domain names as you want. Yes, you can get cheaper hosting, but why build your business on something that may or may not work for you. It's a business and you need to treat it like one.

NOTE: I've done a video tutorial showing you how my hosting works and why I recommend it. You REALLY need to get hosting that comes with a web host manager and in this video you'll see why!

Notes On Getting A Domain Name

by liztomey
1 min read
2 Comments

Getting a domain name is always your first step in getting your online business up and going.

As time goes on and you build your business bigger and bigger you'll find yourself buying more of these domain names.

For instance with my business I have…

IMWithLiz.com which is my main site.

ThisKicksButt.com which is a site I use to build my list, manage my affiliate links, etc.

LizLive.com which is my support site.

And then I have about 500 more (yes seriously) that I've bought for various reasons.

Now most of you wont ever have that many, but you will probably have 10-20 as you do this or that online to build your business.

So I've started this post here on the blog to share tutorials with you about getting domain names, how to use them, and the like.

If you have questions about domain names make sure and leave them below. I'll answer them here and create any tutorials that you may need to learn from.

I look forward to helping you with all your domain name questions. 🙂

Liz