Step 1. What do I need to get started?

You don't need a whole lot really, just a desire to succeed and the willingness to learn. Besides that all you need is the commitment to take responsibility for your own success and failures. That's it in a nutshell.

So let's get started.

First you need access to the internet and since you are reading this, you obviously have that.

Now, you need a basic understanding of how to market, promote or sell, products on the internet. I hope you took advantage of the special offers listed to the left of this post or followed the links in the previous post.

If you did not, you should do it now so you can have a better understanding of what I will be talking about over the next several days.

If you just got here, don't panic just click on one of the banners to the left and take advantage of the special offer and in a matter of a few hours you will be upto speed with us and this will all start to make sense.

Here we go...

What is Marketing?
Marketing is telling others about the following:

1. Who you are.
2. What you have.
3. Why They Need It.
4. Where Can They Get it.

So lets take a look at the 4 W's.

• Who you are. Who are you? i.e. C.R. Webcraft
• What you have. What are you offering the customer? i.e. I can teach you how to be self-sufficient and to take responsibility for yourself in just a matter of weeks, if you are willing to make a commitment to do just that.
• Why They Need It. Why does the customer need what I am offering? i.e. If you do not take responsibility for yourself then you leave the decisions concerning you life's direction up to someone else, such as your employer or worse...your government.
• Where Can They Get It. Where is it the customer can get what you are offering. i.e. Right here and from the sponsors. I am offering the basics, but you really should consider getting the entire education, you will be far better off to learn all you can. The basics I give you for free to get you started, but to get the maximum benefit you really should do the homework.
  

It is really as simple as that! Well, sorta, kinda, well okey it is a little more involved.
More involved it is, you will need to know what are you going to market, how to market it, and where to market it. And if you did your homework you would already know what I am talking about. So if you, skipped out on the homework, do it now. Click on the banners to the left or the links in the previous post. This is important, you need to understand what I'll be covering over the next few days and it is well worth every penny, believe me. You will not believe the difference it will make in your life until you actually make the change.

Anyway, to break it down, you will need to decide who you are. In most states and provinces you will most likely need to obtain a business license. No big deal here, you can usually just go down to either your city or county office and for a small fee obtain a license. I recommend this as it makes you a legitimate business, you can use your name or use a fictitious name (a dba or doing business as). If you plan on selling taxable goods or services, you will also need to obtain a sellers permit or tax-permit, this is usually obtained from the state or provincial office. And if you will be employing other people you will also need an Employer Identification Number, which you can obtain free of charge in most cases from your federal government tax office. Although it is very tempting to do this all "Under The Table" or "Off The Books", I would advise against it simply because the penalties for not being legitimate are too high. It is cheaper to comply than it is to lie.

Okey, I got all that now what?
Now, what are you going to market? What are you wanting to promote or sell?
Here's an idea. What is your favourite hobby? Write down step by step how, I could learn to do what it is you do as a hobby. Surprise!, you just created your first product. A how-to course about your favourite hobby. To learn how to make money with it you will need to get either one of these two products, and if you did your homework you would already have them. Get either Do You Suck at Making Money or Micro-Continuity, both will show you how to make money marketing information products.

So you have answered questions 1 and 2 on to 3 and 4.
Now you must convince the prospective customer that you have what they need, and that your product is the solution they are looking for. So let us say that you have an information product on how to build high performance spud-guns. Your job now is to convince me, the prospective customer, that by purchasing your ebook on high performance spud-guns I will learn the techniques for building spud-guns that out perform those of my friends, family and neighbours. You will need to decide will this product be a one-time purchase or subscription based purchase. That's why you should do the homework, because you would know which one you want to do.

Now that I am convinced, how do I get this information and how will I be paying for it. You will need to decide how you want to deliver the product I am purchasing, will it be an ebook, video course, email based, DVD, CD Audio, mp3. How will you be charging me for the product, will be a one time price, a subscription, etc. The reason for the homework is to make you aware of the many different delivery formats, and to give you an idea of how each would apply to information based products (How To's, etc.)

Give this some serious thought, check out the products I have recommended and check back, I will add more either today or tomorrow.