Here’s the interview:

This has had me thinking for a couple days and it reminds me of something I learned from Brian Tracy and that is problems, adversities, obstacles are all normal parts of life, especially in business.  And, on average, most business people have major problems every few months.  That means, of everyone you know, someone is either in a crisis right now… just coming out of a crisis… or is about to enter a crisis!

Therefore, when it comes to success in business, our abilities to react & handle failures and problems will determine our success.  In fact, the bigger your goals, the bigger your problems can be.  I mean, I remember early in my business career, when I owned an offline ad agency in the 90′s, reaching a crisis situation where I had to meet payroll and the money was not there.  I had a matter of a day or two to come up with like $20,000 to cover payroll for that period and my business bank account was on fumes.  This was an emergency, crisis situation.

Payroll checks were to be given-out on Friday.  I had to figure out what to do.  I remember sitting down and pulling out a notebook and writing 20 things I could do to solve this emergency problem.  I struggled to come up with 20 but I sat there and tried.  I then picked up the phone and called a relative in Illinois who was in a similar business and asked him if he had any ideas.  He gave me a few that lead to a few more ideas I had.

Finally, I had at least 20 ideas I could pursue to solve this catastrophic situation.  The pressure was on, my stress level was at an all time high and I was so disturbed, I remember physically shaking and my voice cracking when I spoke to my relative on the phone.  I was like a deer caught in the headlights.  I was paralyzed from the stress and needed to leave the office for a little while and get it out of my head before it killed me.

I remember going home and running a hot bath. I never took baths, always showers, but decided I needed my own make shift hot tub.  I laid there in the bath, during the middle of the business day, put a hot wash cloth over my eyes and tried to relax.  I remember being able to hear my own breathing and how quick and short it was.  I was only in my twenties at the time and was certainly not used to this kind of business stress.

Just a month prior I was on top of the world and money was flooding in and life was grand.  I was invincible and everything I touched turned to gold.  But then, all of a sudden, like a black thunderstorm wind crushing in, I was in turmoil and considered throwing it all away and quitting.  Who wants this kind of stress and responsibility?  I had been picturing my employees upset, mad, making fun of me, quitting, killing the business, pitch forks and torches.  I ran scenes through my head of being homeless… a failure… a loser.

As I soaked in that hot bath, I became relaxed.  It was fight or flight and I had started giving up to the point I did not care what happened anymore.  I had worked until my eyes bled for many months and pulled late nights for what seems like forever trying to build this business.  I reached that tipping point and I did not care anymore.  I was fine with the failure and almost welcomed it as relief from my stress.

As I got out of the bath I considered calling it a day and going to the movies or something.  Or maybe tequila shots was in order.  Then it happened… a subtle almost feather-like… thought entered my mind.  I had remembered a past experience with an old job I had, where the business owner (my boss) asked me to help him go collect a bunch of money that was owed and past due.

I remembered how we collected a ton of money in like 2 or 3 days by showing up in person to all these other business customers who were past due.  Maybe I could do the same and go collect money that was owed to us myself?  The idea grew.  Then, my attitude was one of fight.  I rushed to the office in my old jeep (I loved that jeep) and pulled up all the past due customers.  The printer was zinging with invoices popping out one after the other.

I totaled up the total amount owed to us and it was way more than 20k.

I took my stack of printed invoices and hit the streets.  One after the other, I hit these businesses face to face and said, “Hey, how’s it going… I wanted to see if I can get a check for this past due amount”.  It worked.  I put my stress and pressure on THEM.  I was on a mission, my business life depended on it.  My pride depended on it.  I was going to collect my way out of this and I did not care who I pissed off either.  I saw red and I went and collected the money owed.

Friday came and I was still short a few grand of payroll.  I delayed cutting the checks until after 4pm to buy myself some time (BTW, if you have a job and your company delays checks until 4pm, that might be why).  I delayed the checks to make sure I did not go negative in the bank.  Since it was Friday, it would be hard for me to continue collecting over the weekend.

At around 2pm or so on that Friday, I called my bank and spoke to a very nice lady. I explained my situation and said I was short a few grand, but that I would get it deposited no later than Tuesday.  she asked me to give her all the “check numbers” and she’d cover them no matter what.  WOW!  I cut the checks and covered payroll.  By Tuesday, I not only covered the entire 20k of payroll, we got a 10k new customer that same day.  Then, more revenue came in and then we landed the biggest client we had ever had the following day…. and that huge client alone would cover payroll each and every month.

Now, looking back, I learned so much.  I learned there are always answers.  There’s always a way.  There’s always an answer.  There’s always a chance to learn from any catastrophe and do better the next time around.  The collections strategy of showing up in person became a monthly occurrence and increased our revenue big time.  It was a new strategy I’d use over and over again. PLUS, it gave us new revenue too because it gave us the chance to up-sell or solve new problems for our clients.  I mean, we’d show up to collect, but then mention that we are now handling radio advertising and some clients would upgrade bringing in new revenue!

As I look back over the years and think about problems I had as a business owner, or catastrophes, I realize that those shaped me as a business person.  Those failures made me better, smarter, faster, more creative and more resilient.  Those problems often made me recreate myself, innovate new solutions, change and change again and again.  I realize those failures made me grow stronger.  I realized that crisis is just change trying to take place.  I realized that problems are natures way of saying… “GROW!”

We’ve all had problems… not only in business, but in our personal lives too.  Half the time, those problems never even come to fruition and we often amplify our problems and make mountains out of molehills.  We tend to glorify our problems and blow them out of proportion.  We tend to stress on our problems and paralyze ourselves from moving forward confidently.  We beat ourselves up with guilt, depression, feeling sorry for ourselves and dwelling on mistakes we’ve made.

We let our past mistakes crush our present actions.  We beat ourselves up over mistakes we made in the past and find it hard to let go of those mistakes in order to pursue our dreams in a bold and confident manner.  We let ridicule from other people crush our dreams because we beat ourselves up and dwell on problems.  Our problems take center stage and those emotions we have from those problems crush our actions and confidence causing lack of action, timid action and people pleasing.

Bold, aggressive, action taking is what causes success.  It’s all about cause and effect and if we are timid, we fail.  If we are bold and confident, we succeed.  Therefore, problems are certainly problems indeed, because if we allow our problems to be problems in business (or life) those problems win and we lose and succeeding becomes even more difficult than it already is.

That little voice in the back of your head that is beating you up and dwelling on problems is a voice that is a problem all in itself.  The way I handle problems now is I pull out a sheet of paper and I write down 20 ways to solve it.  I then ask.  I reach out to people and ask for advice or ask for something.  I then go from flight mode… to fight mode.  As I enter “fight” mode, answers open up to me and all of a sudden that problem seems microscopic.

As I devise a plan to fix or attack any problem, answers open up and I feel 100 times better almost instantly.  If I see something is failing in my business, I look for the opportunities.  Some of those opportunities can be to change for the better!  Some failures have ended up being the biggest of wins.  All of those failures pumped success into my blood.  It’s amazing what you can do about problems when you attack them full throttle with everything you have.

If you have a problem right now that is bothering you, then try this:

– write down 20 things you can do to solve that problem

– ask someone for advice

– take action on at least ONE of those 20 things you wrote down

– fight, be on a mission and get aggressive to conquer that problem and get after it

You’ll likely find the solution in record time and cast it off as no big deal almost instantly.  People dwell on their problems and those problems become their main excuses and they tell everyone how that problem is keeping them back… like a handicap to success.  Squash that problem and welcome failure.  Fight instead of fly.  Solve instead of dwell.  Realize problems are normal.  Realize that catastrophes are the cost of doing business and the better you are at handling financial pressures, the more successful you’ll become.  Realize there’s always an answer, ALWAYS!

Realize you are not the only one on this planet who has faced the problem you have, so seek answers!  Seek solutions!  Seek help and advice from others!  Seek the opportunities hidden in those problems.  Seek to grow and evolve and change.  Seek to become better, stronger, more creative and more immune to stress and stressful emotions.  Become bolder, more confident and get thicker skin.  Become more resourceful to figure things out yourself.  Put the blame and the responsibility to fix your problems yourself.  Take control.  Don’t be afraid to piss others off.  Don’t worry so much about ridicule from other people, especially your peers.  My friend Matt Gill once told me that someone did not like me.  I got a little upset about it and then he said, “You think Donald Trump cares that some people dont like him…. you think Mark Cuban has people who dont like him… you think Bill Gates pissed some people off along the way…”

He’s right.

When the illusion-thought of failure shows up, smile.  Steve Jobs did.

What’s a minion?

Well, I call minions all those people we come across in our lives who are naysayers… who tell you, “you are wasting your time”. These are the folks who chastise you for chasing your dreams… who complain, moan and cut-you-down.  These are the negative, toxic, complainers… who ‘long-ago’ gave up on their dreams and God forbid you continue chasing yours.

These minions are the dream killers, the buzz killers, the antagonists in our lives who knock us down, laugh at us and call us names.  These are the people who are NOT ambitious at all.  These minions will rub salt on your wounds… plant seeds of doubt in your brain… wreck havoc on your goals and severely weaken your confidence!  Minions will destroy your “action-taking-abilities” and they will frustrate the daylights out of you.

Now, they may love you… might be friends or family… co-workers or associates… and they might think to themselves they are doing you some good, but they are usually causing more damage than good… and they are bringing their own shortcomings front-and-center into your world.  It’s hard to battle these minions because they outpopulate the ambitious people on this planet.  There’s like 1,271 minions to every 1 ambitious go-getter. (not a fact, I made that stat up).

Minions… love them or hate them, they are everywhere… in every nook and cranny… under every rock, around every corner and even on your cell phone contact list.  They are abundant… an army… and they are here to squash your dreams and keep you down to Earth (average).  They certainly do NOT want you to go-off getting all successful on them… because that will just make them feel even worse about themselves.

[minion]

Minion speaking to another minion:  “Hey, did you hear about Danny Boy?  He went on and made a hundred thousand dollars on the Interwebs, can you believe that?”

Minion response:  “Is that right?  Well, Danny Boy is probably doing something illegal and will end up in jail by the end of the year.  He aint’ to smart ya know and I’m sure he’ll blow all that money in a week.” [/minion]

So, here’s to all those snapper-heads who said we’d never get back up!  To all those naysayers who said we better stop setting ourselves up for disappointment.  To all the negative-spitting, pessimistic-vomiting, dream-stabbing, toxic-aura-wearing and stink-infested-goal-squashing-know-it-all’s… to all the countless people who have zero faith in YOU!  I’d like to say here’s my goal for 2012:

By the end of 2012, I want to be earning ONE MILLION DOLLARS PER MONTH!  I believe my partners and I can do it!  We will do it!

How you like them apples minions?

Let that goal be an INSPIRATION for you ambitious folks.  Let that resonate with you because I’m an average guy.  Let that sink in because ANYONE with a dream and a goal and the courage to attack those goals can do it too.  Let that stand as a measuring stick for “anything is possible for someone with a goal, a dream and an idea”.

Let that be a beacon for those who want more life… more freedom… abundance… wealth and more.  Let that goal be an empowerment for those who strive for a unique lifestyle.  Let it be encouragement for those who’ve seen me go from newbie to millions in a blink of an eye.  Let it be positivity for you — in a world jam-loaded with negativity.

Because listen my friend, all millionaires have insecurities too.  They have challenges, personal problems and adversities too.  We all do!  All millionaires have minions around them too.  Millionaires are normal people too.  Heck, I can’t even spell right or even design a website!  I can barely put together the bench-furniture my wife bought today.  Successful people have problems and challenges too… they have that little voice in the back of their head that says, “Hmm… maybe I am not good enough for that”… or “maybe that’s not going to work”. It’s no different.

Millionaires struggled to figure their businesses out… they bounced checks and had negative bank balances… they worry too.  They get frustrated too.  They are insecure about the same sorts of things as the rest are.  Millionaires are human.  Some cannot write… some cannot add… some cannot even talk.  There are blind millionaires, death millionaires… millionaires who cannot speak English… millionaires who suffer from depression or panic attacks… millionaires who have ADD, bad addictions, bad health habits, inferiority complexes, diseases, handicaps and major-major problems.  They are human too!!

There are teenagers who make six and seven figures now.  There are folks who were homeless and now rich!  There are senior citizens who have just now finally made it!  There are people from all walks of life who have made it too.  You can.  Anyone can.  The only difference between the millionaires and the rest of the ambitious people here is the millionaires kept getting back up!  They kept taking action despite all those fears and challenges and insecurities.  They kept faith even with personal problems.  They kept on with their dreams and kept believing in themselves despite the minions, nor the problems in their lives.  They just did it anyway!

That’s it my friend.  That’s the difference.  So, when minions or even your own personal challenges present themselves to you… keep faith.  Hold strong.  Be tough.  Be bold.  Get back up and try again, and again, and again.  And when you have given it your everything, do it again.  Then, when you have finally-finally reached a point of giving up, do it again.  And even after all that time, energy and frustration, when enough is enough, do it again.

Never, ever, ever, ever quit.  Do not let the minions win.  Get back up.  Keep trucking along with faith.  Keep pushing yourself out of the comfort zones.  Keep increasing your knowledge and skills.  Keep gaining experience.  Keep getting back up!  Keep learning, learning and learning.  Keep failing.  Keep getting back up.  Keep educating yourself, keep trying, keep learning, keep your faith.  Your faith is everything and do not let anyone, especially minions kill your faith.  Be strong, be honest, tell the truth, even to yourself, keep learning, keep getting back up!  Keep freaking trying!  Keep loving everyone, even minions.  Keep getting back up!  Keep believing in yourself.  Grow!

And when the money comes… and I mean when it comes by the truckload… when you achieve those goals… celebrate!  Then set new ones.

Happy New Year!

Eric Louviere

You have just a “quick moment” to capture them.  If your headline does it’s job right, the visitors “commit” to reading more.  They subconsiously “commit/invest” in reading the rest of your salesletter, or at least commit to checking it out further.  The headline is critical… paramount… crucial… and the headline is often the one part that most newer marketers screw up.

You see, most newer marketers write the headline first, then carry on writing the rest of their sales copy.  Once they get in the flow of writing, their writing gets better down the salesletter and they actually start writing better headlines further down the salespage.  When I critique copy, I spend most of the time looking at the headline and sub-headline.  I also spend a great deal of time looking at the “main offer”.

The main offer (or main hook) of the sales page is THE MOST IMPORTANT part to making a sale. If your stuff is not converting, then it’s likely the copywriting is bad… or if you have done a lot of hard work on the copy and it’s still not converting, likely your offer is just not compelling and people dont want to buy that thing.  An offer is critical and often times, all you have to do is tweak your “offer/hook/USP” and the thing will start selling.

Back to headlines…

I think most newer marketers screw-up their headlines.  I’ve seen the worst headlines on Earth and I often think those headlines were written in less than 5 minutes… never to be looked at or tweaked again.  I think it’s somewhat human nature to think once you’ve done something, it’s done.  It’s over with, not to be worked on again.  Well, in marketing that’s a big mistake.  HUGE mistake.  The name of the game in marketing is to “convert” and that requires tweaking and testing… it requires putting in a lot of time, effort, energy and even money to get your stuff to convert.  Because once it converts, you can drive traffic from all over the Internet!

Back to headlines…

One of the best ways I’ve ever heard “headlines” explained was from Tony Blake.  He told me years ago that a headline should “disrupt their flow”.  That’s an amazing way to explain “headlines” and it’s dead-spot-on!  Your headline should disrupt your visitors “flow”.  They are looking for answers, looking around, dancing around with “Internet ADD” and when they read your headline, it should disrupt that flow and get them to STOP that flow and read more!  Brilliant

When I write headlines, I write a bunch of them… tweak them… keep tweaking them… keep playing with them…. keep analyzing them… etc.  I’ll write a headline for an hour!  Then, leave it alone for a day, come back and tweak it again.  I’ve written headlines, only to come back a month later and think to myself, “That’s a crappy-ass headline!”  Then, redo it yet AGAIN!  Sometimes changing just one word of a headline can make a huge difference too!

Never.

Stop.

Testing.

And.

Tweaking!

Therefore, here are some of my favorite templates for writing headlines:

(1)   How To _____ Even If You Are _____ And ______.

For example:  How To Write Powerful Headlines Even If You Are Broke And Dumb!

(2)   How I Took A Bunch Of ______ and Showed Them How To ____ And How You Can Do The Exact Same Thing!

Example:  How I took a bunch of clueless newbies and showed them how to write powerful headlines… and how you can do the exact same thing right here and right now!

(4)   What If You Could ______!?!

(5)   Imagine If You Could _____!

Example:  What if you could make money without spending money!?!
this example is a question but I like to use two exclamation points and one question mark like so:  !?!
this is a great sub-headline template to use lower on your salesletter (in the body copy)
I also like using this one on sales videos!

(6)   Who Else ______

Example:  Who Else Wants To Convert Like A Super-Guru And Double Their Income Overnight!?!
Example:  Who Else Wants To Double Their Income Virtually Overnight Using Amazon Kindle!?!

(7)  Here’s A Formula That Is Helping People To _______

Example:  Here’s a formula that is helping newbies earn their first $1000 online the first week!

(8)   If You ________, then _______

Example:  If you want to earn money by this weekend, then this formula works even if you’ve never made squat!

(9)   Now You Can ____ even if you _____

Example: Now you can write converting sales copy, even if you cant spell or have never written a salesletter in your life!

(10)  Revealed!  A ____ Way To _____ Quickly And Easily!

Example:  REVEALED!  A Masterful Way To Earn Passive Income With Social Media, EASILY!

Now, of course there are many other headline templates beyond these listed above.  These just happen to be some of my favorites.  If you have more ideas for templates you like, post them in the comments and I might add them to this main post for you.  I’d also bookmark this post and use it as a reference.  Or you know what to do.

BONUS ADVANCED TIP:

One little known technique I love to use is making your salesletters more like an advertorial.  This is where your salesletter does not start out looking like a salesletter at all.  It looks more like an article you wrote.  These work!  You see, I learned from a great guy (Blair Warren) a little secret on persuasion that is HUGELY powerful!  Blair explains it like this:

“People are resistant to sales attempts”

“People are not resistant to sales attempts they do not detect”

Therefore, if you start out your advertorial or salesletter to seem more like an article (where it educates the reader) and then transitions into a sales pitch… that sales pitch will not seem like a “knock them over the head sales attempt” and seem more like a “recommendation”.  This works beautifully in your auto-responder emails too!  Here’s a little more on how to pull this off and an example:

“How To Write Compelling Headlines And Double Your Conversions Instantly!”
By Eric Louviere

By putting “By Eric Louviere” right under the headline, it already looks more like an article than a sales letter.  From there I’d start off by educating the reader and teaching stuff in my writing.  I’d take them by the hand and steward them through my “article” only to transition into a sales pitch (subtle sales pitch).  I’d use a transition word like “in fact”… like this here:

And that’s how you go about writing compelling headlines and increasing your conversions.  But it does not stop there at either.  There’s other tricks and techniques to increasing your conversions and the more tricks of the trade you know for persuasion, the more money you are going to make, period!  you should spend a great deal of your time learning copywriting, sales and persuasion because it will impact your bank account more than just about anything else you can do as a marketer!

In fact, I have an entire report based on copywriting and it has been a catalyst for thousands of marketers already!  This report covers all sorts of persuasion tricks and copywriting lessons.  Some have said it’s changed their markeketing lives and this report has received so many testimonials I’ve lost track.  you can get it here:

Ad Influence!

(now, that report is free but make believe it was for sale).

that technique of teaching (educating) and then transitioning into a sales pitch can sometimes out-convert the best “knock them over the head” sales pitches around!

All in all, even if you plan on never writing a lick of sales copy yourself, studying sales, copywriting and persuasion is one of the best things you could ever do to increase your income.  Most marketers who enter this industry probably spend less than 10% of their time, resources and energy on studying copywriting, sales, etc. and it should probably be the other way around… where 90% of their time, energy and focus is put on copywriting, persuasion and sales.  And, then, they wonder where all the money is hiding at.

Respectfully,

Eric Louviere

PS - Blair Warren has a book called “Forbidden Keys To Persuasion” and that is one of the best, if not the best book I have ever read on persuasion.  It’s deep… it’s pervocative… but it’s truly facinating and has changed my persuasion/copywriting forever!   In fact, here’s the testimonial I left him for the book and is found on his salesletter:

“This is the most intelligent and articulate book I have ever read on persuasion. It is truly masterful and in the right hands can transform not only your business and marketing, but you!

I give this book my five star endorsement, two thumbs way up and would recommend it to anyone and everyone who is actually ready to discover why people do the things they do, including buying or not buying your products. Just get it and read the living heck out of it.”

Eric Louviere – EricLouviere.com

PPS – You can get that book here (not an affiliate link either):

PERSUASION!

Visit http://unbreakablesociety.com/forum.php to participate in the forums.

When you take a strong look at your income/revenue, you’ll notice that you have a system that is working.  That system is producing income.  You’ve got the system down and it’s nice.  You see many more people out there struggling to even believe this online marketing  thing is real or not.  But make no mistake about it, you’re making some cash and you are starting to really want to make even more than ever.  But how?

This past weekend I went to the pen and notebook to just think.  I like doing that in the quiet and many times I get some really big breakthroughs doing that.  However, what’s really weird is even if I spend an hour consumed in my thoughts, the really big breakthroughs come later one when I’m doing something else… like taking a shower, or jogging (ok walking)… or driving… or cleaning… or watching a movie.  Weird huh?

Well, I took a strong hard look at the past few years of making money online and tried to identify the true “money sources”… and narrow-in on those sources… and think of how I can increase those money sources even more.  Mo Money!

Weird thing is, it’s not rocket science at all, but it is indeed powerful.  Lets take a look at the main areas real fast:

MORE CLIENTS/CUSTOMERS

Sounds like common sense doesn’t it?  Wrong.  It’s not.  First, do you even think of your customers as clients?  Do you cherish them?  Do you love them?  I know we all hate the haters we get, so ignore them to an extent (your attitude wise)… and only use haters to improve your game.  Do not let them distract, limit, or persuade you to slow your roll.

But customers (clients)… do you cherish them enough?  In the world of quick transactions and automated income, and outsourced Filipinos, and ebooks, and software, it’s easy to ignore them and forget they even exist as people.  But, if you cherish them and love them, and give so much they are blown away by you, how can you help but to make a crap load more money?  A happy customer (client) is much easier to sell other stuff than it is to gain a brand new customer (client)… right?

Therefore, one avenue for more revenue to your bank account is to cherish your clients, treat them better than anyone else does, give, give, give… and keep giving.  Because, if you love them… they’ll love YOU!

Get more clients.  How?  Well, look at all the resources and areas and distribution avenues and opportunities available to you.  Chances are, if you’ve mastered one system/model for making money online, you ONLY have one or maybe two avenues for generating new customers.

Perhaps, your only way of getting new customers is through SEO.  That would mean there’s an abundance of opportunity for you to gain more new customers through Paid Traffic… Solo Ads… List Swaps… Banners… etc.  Or, perhaps you have TWO avenues (SEO and paid traffic).  What else could you do?  Affiliates maybe?  Joint Ventures perhaps?  Referrals possibly?  Direct mail even?  Integration you think?

Adding just one other avenue of “getting clients” can severely increase your overall income deposited into your bank account.  This alone can double, triple or more… your cash!

(you’re welcome).

LTV BABY!

Want even more cash?  Increase the lifetime value of your customers (LTV).  If you’re making some money online, chances are you have a system that’s working for you.  If your system involves gaining “customers”… then this is a solid gold mine waiting for you to do something about it.  However, if your system is just making money off of people clicking links (Adsense for example)… then perhaps your tripled income will come from changing your business model and increasing your chances for even more income.

Let’s assume you have an info product, and if you don’t, then you need some.  That move alone can change your life.  So, you have an ebook or video course or something.  Now, focus on increasing the LTV of those customers you have and get.  Sound like common sense?  NOT EVEN!

Millions and millions of online businesses have no backend, have no up-sells, have nothing else they sell their customers other than their main product.  These businesses could easily add products (more expensive products)… and could even add other people’s products (as an affiliate or Joint venture partner).

If one customer buys from you at around $50 per sale, just adding a couple other products… even a high ticket one that’s much more expensive, could increase your income 8 times or more!!  And, if you are a consultant, or someone looking to make their first bucks online, then HELLO?!  Did you catch the part where I said millions and millions of online businesses have no backend?  BINGO and money in da bank my friend!

In fact, I heard of a business here in Austin, TX that has generated millions of dollars very quickly by just doing THAT… increasing the revenue for online businesses that are already established.  They have no backends brotha’

or sista’

OTHER!

There are some other areas identified for increasing income big time.  I’m not going to share them on this post, but might in the next post or future posts.  However, I’d love to hear what you think of.  If you come up with some other areas, let’s hear them.  What are some ways to increase your income?  I’ve got a list and I’m checking it twice!

Those 6 or 7 of you who read my blog, post your comments and lets see how they shake out.

One of the MAIN areas I’ve witnessed about a gillion times is this trait:

Resourcefulness!

I think that’s the best word to describe it.  I’m not sure if there’s a better word that describes what I’m referring to here, but so far, that’s the best word I’ve found.  Some people have it… most don’t.  Unfortunately for the great many who DO NOT have resourcefulness, good results are seldom achieved.

Basically, it means to “figure it out”.

Let me explain… many people in this business who are trying to get over the hump or make their first breakthrough dollars online… instinctively look to someone else to do it for them.  Why not, most of us are used to people paying us a paycheck every two weeks, telling us when we can or cannot take vacations, writing us up, reprimanding us, giving us speeding tickets, running our lives and restricting what we do.

Therefore, we often operate in this box… where we expect things to just be given to us.  We don’t like to think for ourselves, and many of us expect every single detail or thought to be answered by someone else.  Sure, if you buy a product on how to make money online, you should expect a lot of details and instructions.

However, it’s almost impossible for every product creator to think of every single thought or detail that may or may not come up or need to be answered by customers who buy that product.  This is understandable of course, but what separates the successful from the non-successful is resourcefulness.

You see, those who succeed figure out those missing details or they fill in the blanks by figuring it out themselves.  They think about the challenges or obstacles and problem solve.  They see a challenge and dont see a failure.  They look for ways around, over or through the obstacle.  Nothing is perfect and no two businesses are often identical.  If I followed a step-by-step blueprint and you followed that exact same blueprint, there’s a pretty good chance we’d still do things a bit differently.

Maybe I write bad copy, or perhaps your graphics look better.  Maybe I’m good at engaging my visitors with my voice and videos.  Maybe you’re good at capturing them with compelling copywriting.  Maybe I use Google Adwords and you use Yahoo to drive traffic.  Maybe I hate Facebook and you love it to death?

The point here is, those who can figure it out themselves and make it work, any means necessary, are often the ones who succeed.  Those who find a negative, or obstacle, or challenge in pretty much everything… and use those obstacles or problems as excuses to quit and move on to something else, often fail.

Look, there’s always an answer.  There’s always a way.  There’s always an opportunity to adapt.  And, in every failure there’s opportunity.  Therefore, the next time you feel frustrated that you don’t have ALL of the answers and all the details covered and thought of for you, instead of remaining frustrated or quitting, focus on how YOU can figure it out yourself… or find a way over or under, around, or through any obstacle.

This may sound simple and obvious to you, but to many-many out there, this one major trait, “resourcefulness” is the major road block that’s keeping them down.  You see, for many out there, they do not even ask questions.  They do not seek answers to the pieces of the puzzle they are missing.  They dont even Google it! They just chalk it up as yet another opportunity that’s not for them… another opportunity they wasted their time (or money) on… another opportunity to seek/search some other opportunity that might be a better fit.

For me, I had problems with technical stuff (still sort of do).  For a while, that one challenge has held me back.  I’ve noticed it holds many back.  It does not have to.  There are plenty of people who can do it for you.  I’ve seen the same thing with copywriting and conversions.  Most people suck at it, yet they continue to write their own copy… and then wonder why they cannot convert.  Conversions are a major obstacle to succeeding online. A large percentage of the market is totally terrible at it,  yet they cannot afford to pay someone to do it for them, so they are stuck.

Some people go years and years in this market with the same major problem preventing them from succeeding — conversions!  Yet, years later, they still cannot afford to hire someone to do it for them… and they have not figured out a way to cover this weakness.

What would a resourceful person do?

Let there be light in the form of: VALUE

Yes, the value train is coming.  Soon (very soon) the market will get flooded with great value at affordable prices, I say!  I can feel it.  It’s coming.  I have seen the future and it comes beautifully laced with gold and silver… treasure for all who are left after the bulls##t storm has left us.  Long gone will be the lies, cheats and crap products.  What will be left standing is value.  Sure, I expect a few crap products here and there (crap products = outright lies) to surface forever.  But, the RUSH/FLOOD/HAMMERING of crap products in our market will soon die off and be replaced with good old fashioned value.

And what about the star marketers who salvaged their lists (souls) to scramble to earn money by (if you cant beat them join them) marketing those crap offers — EVEN WHEN THEY KNEW AHEAD OF TIME THEY WERE PROMOTING CRAP OFFERS? Well, they’ll have to do some salvaging right?  And that will come in the form of free valuable content, goodwill and “giving”.  It’s coming.  I’ve seen it.  Buulieve it.

But, before the flood of crap-offers disappear and get slapped silly from all directions… I’d like to just leave this right here for you:  My custom created crap product swipe copy example of said crap products (enjoy!)

Crap Product Copywriting Example:

“How To Extort, Launder and Screw Your Market And Customers

With Fake Names, Paid Actors, Crap Products and Bold Faced Lies!”

The Step-By-Step Guide On How NOT To Market, How To Kill Your
Lifetime Customer Value And Create A Mob Of Pissed Off People, Pitchforks And All!

PLUS – How To Do It All… While High As A Kite On Meth & Coke!”

From the desks of:  Bugsy Segal, Jimmy Two Times, John Gotti & Charles Manson

Dear Soon-To-Be-Ripped-Off-Customer,

Before I get into what this product is, let me first show you a bunch of fake screen shots of my income.  See?  I’m rich.  I am clearly showing you fake screen shots of how I made all this money daily on clickbank.  Well, actually, this screen shot is not fake right here, it’s real… it’s real because I made that money on my last crap product launch.  that’s right, I did not make that money from the technique I’m about to reveal to you (actually i never do)… but I made that money by doing a launch.  So, that one is real.  This other one is real too, but it’s not mine, it’s my friends’.  He wont care if I use it because he’s in jail right now anyway.

Because you see, I’ve been at this for a long time.  I”ve failed miserably for years.  I never made a dime until I started lying!  I mean, as soon as I lied, I made money.  I just made up a bunch of lies, used fake screen shots and made up some crazy story about how I so-called stumbled upon some treasure map I found from some guru in the mountains of Packistan and now have the golden goose of making money online.

Yes, that’s right!  I made up the entire story… the mountains… the guru… even the goose!

The fact is, I have no Earthly idea how to market or make money online other than by selling bold faced lies.  AND, this has made me $1,000,000 (one million dollars!).  That’s a lot of money my ripped-off-friend and I’ve spent every dime I’ve made on partying like it’s 1999.

Additionally, what’s really interesting, is out of that one million dollars, I only got to keep around $22,000 of it.  Yeah, sucks because I had an 82% refund rate and had to pay affiliates 50% of the remaining portion.  Oh, and I have yet to actually get that $22,000 because it’s frozen.  They are holding the funds because of my astronomical refund rate.  I guess they are realizing my products dont have any value and that I am ripping people off so bad.  Funny huh?  I’m laughing out loud at the very moment.  Damn this is funny.

But that’s OK, because today… RIGHT NOW… I have yet ANOTHER rip off for you to jump on!  But, you’ll have to hurry because I’m only going to sell 125 of these (not really, I’m going to sell 5,000 of them and get refunded on all of them but the 125 units).  But I digress.

Look, listen ripped off friend, I am using fake names right now.  I mean, most of these names are dead or in prison…

Understand that I’m just blatantly ripping you off and it’s not your fault.  It’s not your fault you are getting ripped off.  It’s my fault.  So, don’t worry about buying this product and getting any value out of it, because you’re not!  Got it?  Now take action and buy.

OH, you might be wondering what this product even is.  Still here?  Great, that means you’re motivated.  It means you are finally ready to get ripped off royally and I’m very glad to be the one who does it to you.  Sound good?  It should because I’m good at lying (not really but I sure pay someone well to lie for me really well and even hire paid actors to do my ripping off words for me).

Anyway, back to the product.

HERE’S WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO GET:

Before I tell you what you’re going to get… let me tell you how I stumbled upon this great loophole for getting money from Yahoo!  it’s an amazing story and I’m sure you’re not going to believe it, but here it goes…  I met a man from Nigeria.  He emailed me and said he had 25 million dollars in a Cayman bank account.  But in his country they will not let him receive the cash.  When I asked him how he made his money, he said with Internet Marketing.  He had learned from the Warrior Forum how to run WSO’s and from that, he’s a multi millionaire.

He wanted me to retrieve the money for him (from Cayman islands) because he could not do it himself.  And for doing that, I’d receive a percentage of the money.  BUT INSTEAD of taking an easy million dollar finders fee, I got smart.  I negotiated that instead of receiving 1 million dollars in cash, that he would teach me his secret loophole formula for making millions in Internet Marketing.  He Agreed!  Wow!  Bam!  Swoosh!

Well, he taught that loophole to me and I’m now going to provide you with an ancient secret loophole for making billions of trillions of dollars.  YES, you read that right.  You get the entire formula right now… and I’m not going to charge you $1,000,000 for it (although its worth every penny of that million bucks).  No, no!  You get for far cheaper than that (if you are lucky enough to be one of the 125 spots).  YES, you get it all for the dirt cheap (limited) price of only…..

…wait for it

… wait for it

Yes, you get it all for the dirt cheap price of only………. $35!

Wow!  Now, that’s cheap enough for you to just cast off and not ask for a refund.

It’s low enough for you to buy on impulse thinking “ah, it’s only $35 what the heck”.  It’s cheap enough for you to buy — just in case I’m NOT lying to you.  It’s cheap enough to buy and then hopefully forget to ask for a refund.  Hey, we’re all very distracted in our lives.  Yes, it’s cheap and it’s a lie… but it comes with software I paid $50 to get created.  So, it’s got to be worth something huh?  Well, the guy I paid ran off with the $50 bucks and never finished the script, but I’m selling it anyway.  It’s likely you’ll give up trying to make the script work anyway and think it’s your fault when really, it’s ALL FREAKING MINE! YAAAH

So, buy now.  right now.  you only have 45 seconds left on my countdown script that cost more than the entire product you’re about to buy.  Buy now!  Like that buy now button?  It was custom created and also cost more than the product you’re about to get.  See that fake screen shot?  Yep, it costs more too.  My $8 domain name cost more in fact.

Buy Now,

Jimmy Two Times

PS – Stay tuned for my next crap product.  Look for the fake name of Bernie Madoff.  hehe, that’s a killer fake name huh?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++end of crap product copywriting example

Ok, hopefully that’s the last I’m going to post here about crap products.  I got it out of my system.  I wrote all of that in about 10 minutes.  I feel better.  And, to the crap product creators… I don’t understand why you don’t just provide value?  It’s not that hard to provide value.  Just provide more value than the price tag you’re asking for.  that’s it.

Later

Let me explain… most people out there have the wrong belief-system when it comes to money.  They might have been taught that money is bad… that money is evil… that only bad people make lots of money and they do bad things to get it… that rich people are crooks and poor people are good.  Look, even if you don’t think that now and chalk it up as complete nonsense now in your life, what about the conditioned thoughts from years and years of your past??

If you are in the clear and dont have that belief, great for you.  You are lucky because MOST people dont. Even though they may not admit it, or even realize it yet, many people have a hidden belief that “they are not worthy” yet.  The keyword there is… YET!

Ok, this is deep and I admit that, but hang with me here because it’s powerful.

You see, most people feel they are not worthy (YET). They think they have to pay some kind of price first… earn their stripes… no pain no gain… put in the time (years) first… and so on.  In the Internet Marketing community, many have the belief they have to “have a known name” first… or have earned a substantial income first… or have to prove themselves in the eyes of the market first… or impress their peers first… before the true wealth can come.

Does that make sense?  It’s a bit hard to explain, but I’m trying.  Keep reading…

Even though most everyone wants to achieve a substantial income… have freedom… be secure and comfortable with their own online business, most feel they have to do something first to be worthy of that substantial income.  They have to pay some kind of price, they think.  If that resonates with you and makes sense and you understand what I’m talking about, then let me be the one to tell you…. It’s all bullshit.

You don’t need to do a damn thing to earn your stripes.  You don’t need to pay any kind of price and you don’t have to put in years and years of failure before you hit the big time.  That’s all beliefs and those beliefs are dead wrong.  Seriously.  There’s no prerequisite on hours you have to work in order to earn a substantial income.  There’s no “years worth of experience” necessary in the business world.  Money does not care if you are 14 years old or 84 years old.  Money does not care if you have 10 years experience in this IM business or 10 weeks experience.

This is true.  Money does not care if you are black or white, red or green… if you are articulate, beautiful, smart or funny.  Money does not care if you are talented, good at tech stuff, a good copywriter or a good friend.  Money does not care if you are mean, nice, happy or sad.  Money does not care who your parents are, how you were raised, what college you went to, your grades, your hobbies, your favorite TV shows, your addictions, your habits, your available time, your boss, job or if some bully in 1st grade punched you in the nose and took all your lunch money!

Money does not care about your most embarrassing moments… your biggest failures… or if you even got in trouble with underage drinking (keg stands in college during spring break).  Money just DOES NOT CARE about all that stuff.  AND, it just does not matter.  Not one bit.  Now, it may matter to YOU, but it does not matter to money.  And, money is not evil — unless you think it is.

So what does “money” care about?  Nothing.  Money is just dirty paper and a symbol.

However… to get money and keep money, there are laws and those laws abide by the universal laws of “mathematics”.  Yep, and money does not care if you failed algebra ten times.  The point is, all the other stuff, the “not feeling worthy (yet) stuff”, is all in ya’ head.  Money does not care, so why should you?  You are “worthy” as soon as you say you are.  You are worthy of making even a million dollars per year — if you believe you are.  Heck, even if you don’t believe you are… but still do the right things to earn that money, you’ll make that money anyway, despite your feeling of “not being worthy yet”… because you simply “DID” the right things to earn that money.

Money does not care about feelings.  So however you feel, or whatever emotions dominate your life and thinking… money is made despite how you feel.  Money does not care and is not made because you feel good or feel bad.  Money is made because you “do things”.  You “cause” money to happen (cause and effect).  You make money because you did something that caused money to be spent in your direction.  You deposit money into your bank account because you did something to create/generate that money.

DESPITE IF YOU ARE WORTHY OR NOT!

Understand?

So, let me say this… in order to make more money, and take those “money making” actions that causes money to flow to you, you have to “cause” money to happen.  One of the main reasons people dont “cause” money to happen is because they dont feel worthy (yet) of taking those actions to CAUSE money to flow to them.  Because they dont feel worthy yet, they put off those actions.

Because they dont feel worthy yet, they refrain from doing those things that cause money to flow to them.  Because they dont feel worthy yet, they are not worthy yet.  You are not worthy if you say to yourself that you are not worthy yet.  You are not worthy yet if you BELIEVE you are not worthy yet.

And, if you continue to think you are not worthy yet, you’re not.  You’ll never be worthy yet, until you believe you are worthy.  When will that be?  Have you met people in this community who have been at this for 10 years?  AND, they still don’t make any money?  Guess what???  They continue to put up obstacles, barriers and imaginary “reasons” why they are still not worthy………………….yet.

~Eric Louviere

1. Dreamers (Pie-in-the-sky) Seekers
2. Real Business People

Which are you?

Now, some people are brand spanking new (newbies) and they of course are so green to this business they are not sure what they are yet.  That’s understandable and natural.  However, even newbies need to learn sooner than later that in order to have your very own “home based business” you have to first be a business owner… and have a business owner mindset… and take action like a business person does… and take risks like business people do… and make things happen like small businesses owners do… and ultimately… treat this like a business, like real business people do.

However, as a newbie (or even seasoned person) enters this wild and rocking world of online business, it’s no wonder so many of them get steamrolled, run-over, hammered, knocked-up and strangled by the consistent hammering of promises to EASY and LAZY money!

Isn’t it everywhere we look nowadays?

Everywhere we look, there’s a new offer promising a magic button.  It’s usually some pie-in-the-sky wicked offer for easy, do-nothing, and make a gillion dollars.  It’s usually cheap on the front end and an impulse buy.  Most people buy it because they say to themselves “what’s $35?  I”ll try it out and if it is terrible, so what”

Guess what, it’s often terrible and the owners of that product just made off with your $35.  But, that’s a pipe-dream right?  It’s not a real business plan or model or system, is it?  Whatever it is, that’s what people buy left and right and then get a very nasty taste in their mouths they cant seem to get out.  Yuck!

Additionally, all those pie-in-the-sky products further fuel the “mindset” that pipe-dreams are real.  They are not.  But, the cycle continues and the newbies continue on down the rabbit hole, buying the next latest pipe-dream everyone is promoting, again hoping that new pipe-dream is the real deal.  It’s not… of course.

Next, the newbie either gives up, continues to seek out the REAL pipe-dream, or becomes part of the “jaded-crew”.  AND, that crew is growing rapidly into an enormously giant, festering, neon army of pissed off rock throwers.  That army of jaded folks then groups the entire industry into one fat category…  “SCAMMERS!”

Even though, there are plenty of real people with real advice to share to those who care to gain that advice, most are giving up even “sharing” anymore… and leaving the market to the wolves!  And guess what?  The wolves are running the kingdom and are the loudest around.  All you hear nowadays are the wolves… and boy are they loud now.  Real loud.

So, although the wolves come dressed in glitter and certainly sound good with their magic buttons and “conversions” the truth is, more and more “real” people are either leaving the market or are joining the wolves.  Ouch!  Sure, there are some good folks left, but they are harder to find and are not speaking as loudly as they once did.

What is a newbie to do now?  Follow the wolves?  Find the needle in the haystack?   Give up?  Try something else?  Figure it out themselves?  Well, here’s my advice if you want it:  If I were you, I’d figure it out myself… and if I do find a real person, who is sincere and willing to help, take it!

Additionally, the days of just anyone picking up a lap top and an ebook and quickly making good money seem almost over. Heck, for years now, I’ve been hard on “article marketing” and many have debated me and even threw rocks at me for speaking out against their “easy business” tactic.  It’s not working as well as it used to right?  With Google changes and all?

It’s not as easy as it used to be.  I remember bidding on keywords that were not relevant and raking in easy-easy cash.  For example, I’d bid on JCPenny.com (as a keyword) and get tons of cheap traffic to whatever I wanted to drive that traffic to (like CPA offers).  Those days are long gone now.

Therefore, my advice is this… create and build a real business now.  Most are still shell shocked and still chasing shiny objects… still thinking this Internet Marketing thing is glitter.  They still think they can hit the jackpot by finding some loophole and raking it in for financial freedom.  Get Real!  C’mon.  If you think like that, it’s called a pipe-dream and you might be better off getting a lottery ticket.

Instead, think of building a real business and treating this like a real business.  Be a small business owner.  Be a home based business owner.  Find a problem that millions of people have and solve it!  Then market that solution very well… over the long term.

Stick to one business, not fifty.  I see people all the time with so many different opportunities they are chasing, they never give any ONE business it’s due effort.  In today’s Internet Marketing world, that’s not going to cut it anymore.  You must focus on one business/formula and get that ONE business to work first.

If you give 50 different things effort and focus, then each business will only get 5% of your effort and focus and 5% is just not good enough to win (winning!) You need one business formula and that one formula needs 150% of your effort, focus, resources and brain power.  That one business needs all of you.

You have to tweak and test things.  I mean when you look at people in this market and see them all over the place, there’s no Earthly way they are testing things out, because they never get that far.  They never tweak things to get them to work eventually, because they never tweak anything.  They simply move on to some other pie-in-the-sky and hope a miracle happens and they strike pure gold.  Duh, not going to happen.  Lottery mindset and it’s dead wrong.

Instead, build a real business and focus all you have on that one thing.  Test, track and tweak that baby until it works like a charm.  Do that and you’ll leave 97% of the rest of the pipe-dreamers in your dust.  Focus on one business and your bank account will soon thank you… A LOT!

There are four or five main areas:

1. Product Creation (solving problems)
2. Traffic (prospects and leads)
3. Conversions (this requires testing, tracking and tweaking)
4. Technology (almost a must for the net right?)
5. Outsourcing (you cannot do it all good yourself.  Get others to cover your weaknesses)

There’s one other area that’s the most important of all.  This one category trumps all the one’s listed above.  On the surface it seems and sounds easy and common sense but it’s far from that.  This one category is TOPS and it’s the one violated the most.  It is the difference maker and it’s of the highest importance.  Most continue to ignore it and most out there will NEVER, EVER, EVER fix it properly.  They’ll continue to lose and lose big because of it.  It’s what needs to change for money to flow in and it’s hard as heck to fix.  It’s simply refered to as:

1. YOUR MINDSET

Your mindset is critical, paramount, required, necessary and HUGELY important.  It’s the difference maker, the game changer, and prosperity will NEVER show up without it.  Money flocks to those who have it and it is as elusive to the tune of a “lifetime” for those who don’t have it.

Those who dont have it will continue to chase lottery ticket pies-in-the-sky, and they will continue to BLAME the living daylights out of everyone and everything but themselves.  They’ll throw rocks at the successful, bash them, complain, make excuses, curse them, chastise them and even threaten them with violence.  They will never stop and look in the mirror and realize all the problems are because of…………THEM!

To change your mindset, here’s some homework:

1. Only surround yourself with empowering people and ignore the negativity that’s abundant
2. Stop thinking lack (look it up and research it if you dont understand what I’m saying)
3. Escape comfort zones (this is huge and you should try to escape your comfort zones every day!)
4. Build self confidence and put the responsibilities for everything in your life on YOUR own shoulders.  You are responsible for everything good or bad in your life… and the day you take that responsibility fully is the day you’ll grow towards a wealth/prosperity mindset.
5. Work-out or exercise… drink more water… eat healthy foods more often… drop pounds if you are overweight.  I’ve been doing this more and more lately and its amazing how much this has boosted my mindset even higher than it was before.
6. Invest in yourself.  Read books, listen to audios, watch videos, follow those who are where you want to be and ask questions.
7. Be more aggressive than you are used to being.  IN business, movers and shakers (aggressive people) get what they want while the passive, non-aggressive people have a slower, longer route to prosperity.  When self confidence is high, becoming more aggressive is almost automatic.  I’m a laid back, easy going guy, but when I turn up the volume on aggressiveness, I always get more of what I want faster!  This is true with many others I know.  Ask more.  Dont take no for an answer so easily.  Push people.  Follow up.  Bug people.  Make things happen and handle rejection and failure better, because we all get it.  Just dont let it stop you!
8. Be the one who sells products… not the one buying them left and right
9. Be the one who recruits affiliates or people, not the one who gets recruited predominately.
10. Be the one who owns a MLM company, not the one who joins every one that comes along that sounds good
11. Be the one with an affiliate program and recruit affiliates
12. Strike list swaps.
13. Strike Joint Venture deals.
14. Partner up with people.
15. Make propositions and proposals.
16. Make things happen.
17. Focus on one thing
18. Never quit.
19. Be happy every day, all day.  Life is short.
20. Buy my products

Ok, I just threw in the last one.

So what are you now after reading this?  A pipe-dreamer… or a business owner!  Now, get to work.

Eric Louviere

This video explains the 4 or 5 main areas you should focus on to make money online.  If you are weak in any of these areas, then it could be costing you revenue.  If you focus on these four areas only, then results (money) is sure to come your way.  Grade yourself on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the best and you’ll get a pretty good idea what’s going on with your online business results (or lack of results).

More to come…

Enjoy!

Eric Louviere

PS – What are some other areas you think (besides these five) are important to online success?