Rachel Rofe (pronounced ro-FAY) is a brilliant young marketer with a background in retail sales. After deciding that she did not like working for others, she made the decision to come online in 2006 and has never looked back. Rachel quickly saw the benefits of having others help her in her business, something we refer to as outsourcing on the Internet.

Outsourcing her Kindle books is something Rachel has now become well known for, and I must admit that this course – Outsourcing Kindle Books – changed the way I now think about having other people help me in my online business. Rachel is adamant about sharing her knowledge in this area, and has books on Kindle that earn her several thousand dollars each month.

We discuss the review system on Amazon, training people to help you, and more on outsourcing to build your online business.

Knowing how to write short reports is a skill and marketing technique that will build your online business quickly by allowing you to grow your list with targeted prospects, drive massive traffic to your blog and other sites, build your credibility in your chosen niche, and increase your online revenue. This is content creation at its very best and, hopefully, this will set you on the path of creating content regularly for a variety of uses in your business.

Increasing your revenue is a huge part of this strategy as long you think about how you will be able to monetize your short reports from the very beginning. That’s right, you must decide what you will promote before you even start to write the report, and how to make sure that it remains evergreen (information that will be good for years, not just at the present time) so that you your prospects will be able to use the information you prepare for them for many years to come without it becoming stale or outdated.

The thought of writing a ten to fifteen page report was daunting to me when I was first getting started with my online business. I had written reports of that length for the classes I had taken in order to get my teaching credential, but I typically had a full semester in which to do my research and prepare my paper on the topic I had chosen or had been assigned. This style of writing is very different. And, I’m happy to tell you, no one will be giving you a grade on what you write! Also, you can use PLR (private label rights) content to ensure that you have as much material as you need for this.

In fact, you will want to start your short report by just writing a short blog post on your topic. I recommend just letting your ideas flow to see what comes up. I get some of my best ideas this way, and I’m not sure exactly where they come from. I think about what I want to share with my readers, and then just start writing with small paragraphs, such as the ones I am using here.

Like I said in the very beginning, decide what you will be promoting before you write anything more than your blog post or article. Sometimes I am writing in order to promote one of my own courses or programs, but most often it is to promote an affiliate product or course. The idea is to present information in your short report that will explain clearly to the readers how they will benefit from the products you are recommending. It must all make sense to them, in terms of what they need to do first, and then what they need to do next to move closer to their goals.

By now you can see that writing your short report will be an excellent way to promote your own products and those of others for whom you are an affiliate. My intensive training on How To Write A Short Report is very effective.

Jeanette Cates is officially known as the ‘Technology Tamer’ to new and experiences online marketers around the world. I first met Jeanette at Armand Morin’s Big Seminar in 2008, and we became fast friends. Soon I learned that she had been online since the very beginning, and that she has moved seamlessly between the corporate and entrepreneurial worlds for many years. I’ve had the opportunity to teach several online courses with Jeanette, as well as co-hosting five live events over the past few years. She is a pleasure to have as a business partner and made the entire process a joy to experience.

We discussed teleseminars during this interview, and this is an area Jeanette pioneered from the very beginning. I’ve been through her Teleseminar Basics Training, and can tell you that she teaches everything you need to get started with this profitable revenue stream. You could be hosting your own teleseminars, interviewing experts, and creating products within a few days of taking this course.

List building tips are valuable and will help you to grow your business quickly. Almost every day someone will write to me to ask how they can sell their eBook or other product if they do not have a list. My first response back to them is that they must start building a list right away if they are to be successful with an online business. This is a skill that will grow your business steadily over time. I have found the best and most effective ways to get started with list building are with blogging, article writing and marketing, hosting your own teleseminars, social media marketing, and attending live events whenever possible.

The biggest mistake I made during my first year working online was to not take this process of list building seriously and make it a top priority. Instead, I spent too much time setting up websites and going through endless hours of training in search of the perfect business. If I had started building my list from the very first day, my business would have grown much more quickly.

You will need to add an optin box to your blog and other sites to start building this ‘permission based’ list. This is a simple process that can be done using any of the autoresponder services that are currently available, such as Aweber. We cannot expect anyone to sign up for our list without having a good reason, so offer them a free short report on your niche topic that will provide them with useful information in your area of expertise. It used to be that people would join your list to receive a newsletter or email updates, but those days are long gone now that we all receive way too much email on a daily basis.

This report you create need only be a few pages in length, but must convey real value. Even though you are giving this away at no cost, put your best foot forward to make it look and feel as professional and polished as possible. This will be the first time someone sees who you are and what you know on your niche topic so you want to shine. I like to write three articles on my topic and then put them together into a report for this purpose. Then I call it a Special Report and give it a catchy title and tag line.

Now that the person has added themselves to your list the next step is to stay in regular contact with them through email messages. You’ll want to set up some of these in advance as a sequence of autoresponders that will be sent out automatically over time. In addition to these automated messages, stay in touch at least twice a week through broadcast emails.

Your list is the most valuable asset in your business. You may have already heard that the gold is in the list and the follow up. Make sure to continue to build the relationships with your prospects and clients by providing them with relevant content, tips, resources, and appropriate offers. Take care of your list and your business will grow.

Debbie LaChusa was one of the first people I connected with when I came online in 2006. I signed up for her 10 Steps Marketing course and learned so much about how to make the successful transition form the corporate or offline world into the life of an online entrepreneur. Debbie has many years of experience in the corporate world, and has been featured in magazines, websites, and blogs such as Entrepreneur, Forbes, CNBC, and Yahoo! Small Business. She has written her new book, titled Breaking The Spell: The Truth About Money, Success, And The Pursuit Of Happiness, to share her journey with others.

We discussed how the pursuit of more and more money does not bring happiness into your life, and the idea that serving others, whether through your daily work or other outlets leads to a more meaningful life. You will gain greater insight into your own business by listening to this call.

Click here to listen to all calls in my Podcast Series, or go directly to iTunes for your free subscription.

I am asked on a regular basis whether or not it is too late to get started online to build a successful online business. This time the question was asked by Denise, one of my newer subscribers. She wanted to know if it is still possible to choose a niche, set up a WordPress blog, and build a profitable business now that so many people are getting involved with online marketing. She had heard that the days of getting started online as a pioneer in the world of Internet marketing were long gone, and that anyone just starting out now as an online entrepreneur would have great difficulty getting their foot in the door of this virtual world. Denise has been active in my 21 Day Challenge and I wanted to answer her questions here so that you would also benefit.

It is my belief that people always feel like the window of opportunity has passed when times are changing. In the 1970s I wanted to buy a house instead of continuing to rent. I went to see one of my friends, a business owner who owned several pieces of property, to find out what my next steps should be. He told me that it was much too late to get in on the benefits of home ownership because prices had gone up so much during the past few years, interest rates were too high, and the economy was uncertain. The Viet Nam war was still an issue at this time as well.

I was shocked by his attitude and decided not to be swayed by his analysis of the current situation in regards to buying my first house. Having just graduated from college I was anxious to get my life going in a direction that felt right to me. Three months later I was a homeowner, and within another two years I had purchased my second piece of property. I’m so glad I did not allow my friend’s feelings and experiences to sour me on my own dream. Looking back I know that he was just reacting to the changes that were occurring in the United States economy at that time, and to what he saw every day in his business.

During the 1980s I decided to return to school to earn my teaching credential. I had a neighbor who was teaching and I asked her about the possibilities of employment as a classroom teacher in the Los Angeles area. She told me that teaching had changed and that I would probably have to drive at least fifty miles each way to work at a school. She also said that salaries were not likely to increase and that I should think long and long before borrowing money from the government to work on my teaching credential. There were other issues of concern to her as well, and she went on and on about the unions and the administration at the school board and its negative effects on the state of education in California.

Even though it turned out that much of what she believed was also what I experienced over the next few years, I am so glad she did not dissuade me from doing something that meant so much to me at that time. Again, this was a good example of someone expressing their personal feelings and beliefs instead of the actual facts at that time. It was then that I decided not to ask anyone’s advice when I wanted to do something new.

The next time this happened was in the early 1990s when I wanted to become a residential real estate appraiser. I had heard that this was a difficult field to break in to, but I jumped in anyway. I was able to find an established appraiser to help me learn the ropes and get my hours in so I could sit for the state exam. This ended up becoming a field I enjoyed very much for many years, and the income was greater than what I had ever been able to earn in my adult life. Where many people did not succeed in breaking into this field, I believe I was able to do it relatively easily by finding out the facts, working hard to achieve my goal, and taking every opportunity to connect with the people who could help me.

So, back to the question of whether or not it is too late to get started with Internet marketing. Yes, things have changed significantly since I began in 2006. It is more competitive these days, the laws and regulations have changed, and many of the strategies that worked well just a year or two ago are no longer valid. But opportunities still exist in a big way, just as they will for everyone who makes the commitment to be an online entrepreneur. Make sure you know the facts, work hard to achieve your goals, and take every opportunity to connect with people, such as myself, who are able to help you build your online empire.

Learn from those who have come before you, but do not allow anyone to come between you and your dreams. Please let me know what you think about the information I have shared here.

Shannon Cherry from Be Heard Solutions has a background in public relations and marketing and has also worked as a television anchor, but it wasn’t until she and her husband became parents to now six-year-old twin girls that she decided to bring her business online. She works with newbies as well as more experienced business owners, and helps them to reach their full potential. Shannon is also a published author, and has most recently contributed to Trust Your Heart: Building Relationships That Build Your Business.

We discussed how to get what you want and need in your business simply by asking, the power of social media marketing, and how to achieve life balance as an entrepreneur, wife, and mother.  Shannon also shares her thoughts on staying out of debt as you get started online with new challenges and opportunities. She believes that we are all experts in areas of our lives, and that we must find out where our target market spends time by looking in forums, magazines, and on the social media sites.

Sign up for your free subscription to receive all of the calls in my Podcast Series.

You can always learn more from my Internet marketing tips for beginners. Here is a Case Study for you:

Have you fallen into the habit of seeing only the negative in your Internet business, rather than having a positive point of view? Recently I have been hearing more and more people complain about what they don’t want to do in their online business. I absolutely love my Internet business and helping people to become successful, so I decided to delve deeper into the reasons my students were complaining so that I could help them move forward. The list is long, and includes such things as:

• I don’t want to be on my computer all day
• I don’t like to write every day
• I don’t want to spend time on social media sites
• I hate the idea of hosting my own teleseminars

These are the same people who came to me to learn how to earn a living on the Internet, so I was becoming more and more frustrated with how to help them move forward. I am always completely honest with everyone about what it will take to build a profitable online business, and perseverance and hard work is a part of this. As with any business, there will be parts of it that you enjoy more than others. In addition, once you know what needs to be done you are in a much better position to find someone to help you with those specific tasks.

Outsourcing may not be cost effective if you are just starting out, so think about how you can barter for your needs. I did this successfully during my first two years working on the Internet, and slowly began doing more of what I liked to do and was good at, and much less of what I had no talent in at all (graphics and web design was a big one for me here).

Now let’s get back to what you do not want to do. Instead of thinking about any parts of your business in this way, think about the positive aspects of being an online entrepreneur. What is it about doing this that you do look forward to? Make a list of those things and print it out to look at throughout the day. My list would include:

• I like to be able to work from home
• I like making my own work schedule
• I like to be creative in my product creation and marketing
• I like having the time to write each day
• I like having the time to spend with friends, family, and community projects
• I like to be able to earn as much money as I want and need

By changing the emphasis from negative to positive you are able to see how fortunate we all are to have this opportunity in our lives. Appreciation and gratitude make a huge difference in our feelings about ourselves and what we do. As far as earning some money quickly, think about the services you can provide others in exchange for money or barter for their knowledge and expertise. And before you complain about how little you may earn per hour with this model, think about the fact that you can do most things from home, on the days and hours you choose, without having to get dressed up, and without having to spend time to get there and back and money on gasoline and other transportation costs.

Yes, I want you to appreciate that you can get started right now and get a lucrative business off the ground this week. What are your thoughts on this?

Michele Scism is the founder of Decisive Minds, a site dedicated to helping online entrepreneurs and small business owners achieve rapid results strategically. In her former life she helped to run a family owned trucking business, and credits this experience with helping her to become the savvy entrepreneur she is today. After the business was sold in 2007 she found herself longing to start a new business venture.

Michele has distinguished herself as a leader in social media, and is also an author, speaker, and coach. Her insights on using the various social media platforms is the most strategic I have ever been made aware of from anyone teaching this topic. She was kind enough to offer a free gift to listeners. It is a three-part video series on using social media to build your online business. I know you will enjoy learning more from Michele.