Liane Carmi

About a month ago, the studio where I practiced Muay Thai three to four times a week for over 10 months suddenly closed its doors and went out of business.

Initially, it was a big shock to me.  How could this place I have been relying on for my stress relief, for my health, a place I imagined myself being a part of for years and year to come, suddenly disappear?

But then I realized how normal this was in our current economy. In fact, if you haven’t already opened your eyes to it, go for a quick drive in your neighborhood and see how many businesses are closing their doors, having “going out of business” sales, or just starting to look a bit run down.  And how many of your friends and colleagues were recently laid off because their employer can no longer afford to keep them?

How is your local laundromat doing?  Gas station?  Pizza shop?  Doctor?  Can you imagine having to go out and find a new dentist, after having gone to the same one for over 20 years?

The good news is that in this economy, internet marketers are making a killing.  Network marketers are doing particularly well – and is it a wonder, with so many people losing their jobs and looking for a way to keep their heads above water?

But here’s the deal.  There’s a certain code of ethics I believe every online marketer should follow.  Online marketers are, after all, entrepreneurs, and entrepreneurs excel at filling a need of some sort.  Right now, the greatest need involves your local area businesses.

If I had just opened my eyes a little bit, I would have seen my teacher’s struggle, and I could have helped keep him stay afloat.  In short?  I feel guilty, knowing that I had the skills to help, but didn’t.

That’s why I am now actively going out and seeking small businesses in my neighborhood, and offering them a solution to the economy.  A website, a way to attract customers online, multiple organic (free) listings on page one of Google, a database of customers to follow up with…a way to stay afloat.

Of course, being me, the big note-taker, I would never go out and offer a service without being sure I am doing the best that I can.  That’s why I’m involved in two training programs.  The first is IM Leadership, which is run by Howie Schwartz – someone who has taught me 80% of what I know about online business.  The IM Leadership program teaches you how to do everything I mentioned above, and more.

The second is the Offline Gold Summit.  Mark Ress, one of the founders of this upcoming summit, has given me so much incredible information for free that I could probably write 10 eBooks and make a killing selling everything I’ve learned from him.

Look-  right now, offline businesses are suffering.  I believe it is our duty as internet marketers to open our eyes and look around the real world.  Just because we’re making a killing online doesn’t mean everything is good around us.

If you’re ready to help – and I hope you are – the quickest way to brush up on your skills and learn how to help people is to attend the Offline Gold Summit. Go there as soon as you finish reading this post, and read about all the presenters, and all the incredible bonuses that are being offered.  And sign up.  When you return home, you’ll be making anywhere from $500 to $2500 per month per client – and you’ll help stimulate your local economy.

If you prefer to stay home, I highly recommend Howie’s Apprentice.  I can’t promise that it’s still open, as training has already started, but it’s worth a shot.

Don’t wait until the economy affects YOU to open your eyes.

My friend James Busé wanted to know how to close sales.  He’s gotten very good at bringing traffic to his websites, but his conversion rates…well…they kind of stink!

Listen to this audio to learn about a few ways to convert traffic to sales.

A few things I mentioned are:
Preselling – letting people know where you’re sending them & why by writing a story they can relate to.
Building a List – collecting email addresses so that you can contact people who don’t convert right away and possibly convert them at a later date when they’re ready to buy.  A good tool for this is aweber.

Remember to leave comments below, and if you found this helpful, do a little bookmarking

Ever felt like there was TOO MUCH information out there?  Go to Google and type in, “make money online,” and you’ll see what I mean.  There are over 197,000,000 results!

I suppose access to information is never a bad thing – but it can be if you don’t know where to begin.  Many people don’t realize that in order to make money online, you have to pick one blueprint – one method – and stick with it.

I like to compare this to school.  When you attend High School, you take many subjects.  When you graduate High School, you know a little bit about a lot of things.  However, you can’t really get a high-paying job for any of those subjects.

So you attend college. Four years later, you have a degree and know a little bit more than most people about a particular subject.  Still, especially nowadays, you can’t get a high-paying job with a BA / BS degree.

So you go to graduate school, and two years later, you know a heck of a lot about one little thing.  That’s where the money (well, as much as you can make working for someone else) comes in.

With the online world, it’s not much different.  If you keep moving from one method to another, you’ll be like a High School student.  You’ll be making the online equivalent of a $8/hour McDonald’s job.

Focus a little on one thing, and you’ll move up to the equivalent of $20/hour…still more, and you’re at the $30-40/hour.  And because the online world gives us so much leverage, these hourly wages actually become much higher with an online business.

So how do you know which blueprint to follow when there are so many ways? You don’t.  Picking one that makes sense – that you see others having success in – is a good start.

To see the blueprint I use to make money from home, click on the “Making Money Blueprint” tab above.