There are very few things you shouldn’t leave home without.  But for an online business owner, there is one thing that should be the priority…

It’s a system.

I say that, and it’s a fact, but I admit that I haven’t yet completed it myself.  It was pretty clear no blog entry was posted here yesterday.   Just the thought of a daily blog entry not being posted stayed on my mind, all day yesterday.  I know a procedure that could have solved that for me.  It would have taken a lot off my mind.  This is the procedure that would have helped:

http://kunaki.com/sales.asp?PID=PX00QA2W19

I also just finished reading a great blog entry.  It was more of a survey, and the results (posted in comments) were interesting to look at.  In fact, almost all of the comments made were other online business owners who hadn’t put together their own systems yet.  However, I was really weirded out by one comment.

Apparently, it’s possible to say you’re “not happy”, “happy”, “not satisfied”, “would be happier”, and “happy enough” all in one sentence?  That’s pretty extraordinary actually.

Here’s that blog entry I read:

http://www.jamesbrausch.org/systems/

and a more recent one from today: http://www.jamesbrausch.org/systems-mean-freedom/

- Aaron Brandon

Are you stuck reading a bunch of success or business books? Did you know you can find very useful knowledge which you can be applied to your business in “out of the ordinary” type books? Here’s an example of one book I’m reading that’s somewhere out of the ordinary…

The book is: ”The Toyota Way - 14 Management Principles From The World’s Greatest Manufacturer” It’s about the Toyota production system and explains many differences about them, vs. their competitors.

It’s a fascinating book, but how in the world is a book on automobile production going to help me with my business? I sell information, not cars!

The book tends to talk quite a bit about inventory, systems, processes, goals, continuous improvement, and more. Do those few things sound like important parts of a business? They are, very important! I use all of them in this business. In fact, I’ve even found more than one way to make improvements to my intern program. It runs on multiple procedures I use to continuously improve my business.

So what are you reading? I don’t think Harry Potter can help you with your business, but I haven’t read it, so I wouldn’t really know.

Have a great weekend!

- Aaron Brandon

I just noticed that ClickBank now offer recurring billing. That’s some really great news. Just imagine what you can do to take your products or services to another level. Imagine affiliates promoting your services and having them be rewarded with an affiliate income month after month. For several years now, I’ve seen many product owners at clickbank “pretend” they have some type of membership going on. They say their membership is “$50 a year, which is just $4.16 a month!” but how many customers are they losing because of a non recurring payment plan?

Come to think of it, I still have a few websites on a host doing just that. They charge me about $70 a year for hosting (This is my affiliate link), but they need to send me a number of reminders that I have to renew. Basically, you’re telling your customer to do more work…which isn’t good system.  In fact, I just left another web host (This is my affiliate link) (which wasn’t on ClickBank) because they simply didn’t automatically charge me. I decided it was easier to switch over to an existing web host (This is my affiliate link) which I’m paying a simple fee each month and can host a large number of websites without a hassle.

Can you see the potential recurring revenue streams you can create?

I really wasn’t planning on getting involved with this discussion…but here it goes.

On Tuesday, James Brausch asked his blog readers the following:

“Would your Internet Business continue to function and grow if you actually took action and went to some place like Costa Rica for two full months later this year?

http://www.jamesbrausch.com/?p=639

If not, tell me specifically how you could create a plan to fix that in less than three months.”

And apparently some readers failed:

“I’m a little disappointed in the responses I’ve received for the freedom challenge so far.

All of them give long lists of things they would start doing to prepare to take some time off.
That’s not what I teach. It’s not what I do.”

So, instead of doing MORE work for your business (create product, get traffic, etc.) just do this:

Open an intern program.

And…that’s it. I’m not kidding.

Would you believe me if I said I could start my own intern program in just one hour?

How many hours are there until September?

I don’t even want to know what some people have to go through with their customer support…

My blogcastcourse has a support system set up so customer inquiries can automatically be resolved. I still receive and e-mail when someone does make that inquiry, just to make sure it gave the customer the correct response.

Yesterday, a customer asked for a refund. The product was simply not for him, for various reasons. I instructed the customer to use the support url and ask for a refund there. It simply takes up time I really don’t have to search for a clickbank receipt number and e-mail clickbank for a refund. I don’t even know how, nor do I want to know how.
The customer was not able to follow my instruction. The customer went to the support system, filled out the forms, and in the question box, typed in “refund”.

Now, if you were unsatisfied with a product, and needed a refund, do you simply say “refund” to a customer service rep? I wouldn’t, because it would be rude and probably wouldn’t be understood. I would simply ask “Can I please have a refund?” and it would be over with.

And a bit of advice, never tell someone how to run their business. Also rude.

Ok, that’s the end of my little rant. =)

When was the last time you decided to make life easier for yourself? That’s a tough challenge many people face. Our lives are so full, so busy, that we just simply forget that it doesn’t have to be this way. You don’t have to do most of the things you do.

You don’t have to:

1. Pay bills when they arrive in the mail
2. Vacuum your floors
3. Wash the dishes
4. Mow your lawn

However, many people will say that if you don’t do these things, you’re just lazy, your house will be a mess, your yard will be overgrown…But I’m not saying they can’t be done. Many people simply can’t understand this concept.

All of the above tasks can be easily done by others. In other words, the can be automated.

1. Online Bill Pay
2. House Cleaner
3. Dishwater/House Cleaner
4. Gardener

My mentor James Brausch knows this already. He even uses an iRobot Roomba to vacuum his log cabin in the middle of nowhere. He only works three hours a day, and only four days a week. The rest of his time/life is spent with his family. He’s pretty fortunate to have that kind of freedom.

You can have that freedom too. Why not just ask James how he does it? He’s a lot more successful at it than I am. Right now, he’s doing a question time on his blog about Life/Time Management.

Here’s how you can ask him a question:

Write a blog post – if you don’t have a blog yet, go get one by going to Blogger.com, or you can use the course I’ve just created called http://www.blogcastcourse.com

In the blog entry, simply write as many questions for James about Time/Life Management as you would like to see answered. Then, add this hyperlink to your post: http://www.jamesbrausch.com/?p=629

It has to be a one line question though…follow the link above and you’ll see the full guidelines for asking a question.

That’s it!

Now, for my questions:

1. What is your method of scheduling important events into your life?
2. What do you do to make sure nobody is wasting your time/life?
3. How do you prevent 98%ers from wasting your time/life?
4. How many times a day do I have to brush my teeth before I’m wasting my time/life?

In this entry, I’m going to give you a task for this weekend. But, to make this task easier, it doesn’t have to do anything with your blog or business, unless you would like it to.

Here are a few ideas you can use for yourself to automate, or, you can choose something other than what is listed below.
Here are a few things that can easily be automated:

- Household cleaning

- Bills

- Customer support

- U.S. mail

If you have decided that the weekend is your day for resting, at least think about how you can automate something and automate it when you’re ready to work again.

I have already decided what I will automate this weekend. I will report to you on Monday or Tuesday what it was. You’ll be able to leave a comment if you want to tell me what you were able to automate, or will automate in the near future.

Ok, that’s it!

Have a great weekend =)

In my previous entry I gave out the steps on how to create an announcement list. One main reason I posted that was because blogging automation is the key if you need freedom.

I’ll make up a quick example. Let’s say you need to go on vacation for a couple of days. Do you want to leave your blog sitting there gaining no new content? Probably not. So, what can you?

Actually, there is more than one solution. The first is to write two blog entries, and have them set to submit at specific times and dates. It’s a fairly simple thing to do. I think most of us can figure out how to do that. However, if you do that with your blog announcement in place, you’re killing two birds with one stone because each post is going to be e-mailed your subscribers. Likely, they won’t be able to tell if you’re really there or not.

The second solution is to post a blog entry asking for users to make a comment. An example blog post would be something like this:

“I’m feeling like I’m running out of ideas for what to write about here. I really want to know what YOU blog readers want to know more about. Is it how to _____ or what is _____? All you have to do is post a comment below, and I’ll answer them on Monday, it’s that easy.”

If you have enough visitors who often post comments, you will not only be receiving valuable information for what your visitors want to know, but they will be posting comments which also builds content for your blog. Cool? I think so.

[tags]blogging, blog automation, blogging automation, announcement list, freedom[/tags]