If you've been reading in this blog for any length of time you'll know that I follow James Brausch's blog regularly, because of the valuable information that he shares with his readers. I've yet to come across a blog where the reader is so often and directly challenged to take action on their life / business. His latest challenge is to come up with a "freedom plan" to declare your independence in three months and take off to somewhere like Costa Rica. Well, not being someone to back down from a challenge, here is my plan.

First of all, as a programmer, I was taught that every program that you write naturally follows a procedure. You write your code to follow a predefined set of rules so that the compiler can interpret it correctly and that you have a bug free application when finished. When your application is working, then nothing has to be changed. Every time the computer "runs" the program, it follows the specified procedure every time without fail. I believe this should also apply to your business.  First map out a procedure. This is my procedure for the "Freedom Project".

Step 1 – Create a Product

1a. Brainstorm a list of products that I think will "fly". This list can be compiled by simply listing the things that you are good at. What are your hobbies? what do you like to do? What don't you like?, etc. Now narrow down your list to what you can apply online. For example, I created this blog to promote my product, AmazingCloaker, I also like to write software and custom scripts for my internet projects, I like guitar, etc.

1b.  Market Reasearch your potential products next.  I'm going to create a "How to build a blog for marketers" product. It will be designed for the raw beginner starting from the very basics and progressing into more advanced areas such as customizing your look, and optimizing for the search engines.  The finished product (the blog) will also be my sales page. Now go out to http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword/ and use their keyword suggestion tool and type in your main keywords.  In my case, I'll type in keywords such as "creating a blog", "blog marketing", "web design", etc.  For "creating a blog" I scored 1,747 monthly searches, 998 of them from Google, which is ok if the competition isn't to stiff. These are conservative figures and are probably much higher in reality.

Ok, now let's get an idea of our competition. Go out to Google and type your best keyword. Now take a look at the right hand column where the Google Adwords advertisements are located. If there are more than 10 ads listed you will see a link at the bottom of the column that says "More Sponsered Links".  Click on it.  There will be 10 ads listed for each page.  Click through each page at the bottom of the list until you reach the end.  This will give you an idea of what kind of competition ratio you have to monthly searches.   Each page contains 10 ads, so if you scroll through 5 pages before it runs out, you would have 50 advertisers.

In my example – "create a blog" I got 8 advertisers, not bad at all. A more competitive keyword like "designer handbags" has 172 advertisers, seems like pretty stiff competition for that product, but you also have 32,000 searches a month. In a perfect world that's around 186 visitors per advertiser.  In reality we're talking high bid amounts for first page positions for such a competitive keyword.  Anyway, back to our blog product.

Now that we have our product, the next step in our procedure is to:

2. Get a website. Pick a domain name, preferably one with your best keyword in the name. Get your domain before anything else.  The domain will help commit you to the project as well as get the clock ticking for Google to list it.  Now host it of course, and make a quick home page.  Put a couple of paragraphs explaining your new product and how this is going to be something really worth having.  Put an email capture form below to catch & notify interested prospects when your product is released.  This will allow you to generate a list of interested buyers before you even get started!  If you don't have an auto-responder like GetResponse, or Aweber, go sign up now, otherwise you're really not serious enough to keep reading on.  Now I can do some quick promotions via existing blogs, forums, web 2.0, etc. 

3. Create Your Product using Camstasia Studio or the free equivalent (camstudio). I will be using Camtasia to create my "how to make a blog for marketers" course. I suggest opening wordpad first and writing out the steps that you will take in creating your product. This will help you move along smoother and allow your customers to grasp what you are teaching more easily. Now just create your product as you narrate what you are doing. Try to keep each section less than 15 minutes. 10 is better. Having each section broken down is easier to digest. Besides, Camtasia won't compile over a certain number of frames for the web.

4. Create a bonus video (optional), in my case, an HTML primer video and offer it free to anybody who signs up on your new web page.

5. Publish your project and upload to your website.

6. Create a sales page using Glyphius to generate your most effective sales copy. Keep your page short & sweet. Maybe 3-5 pages (Not more than 7 pages at the very max).

7. Add your order link and thankyou pages. Use PayPal or Clickbank, or any program you prefer. (Clickbank is a good choice because you can then easily allow people to affiliate with you, who will then spend their own money on advertising your product). Set your auto-responder to send the link to your customer immediately after they purchase your product.

8. Promote via PPC to get initial traffic rolling. Optimize web site for search engines with keyword rich all-in-anchor text, title, tag, h1, h2 tags, body, footer, etc.  Remeber, you're writing your content for the visitor first, so don't make your web copy look phony & keyword stuffed.  Start getting backlinks to website via blogs, forums, directories, StumbleUpon, diggit, flickr, del.ic.ious, etc. If you have the funding, sign-up at rasof.com to get the best SERPs.

9. Purchase SuFAQ (recommended) or install if you already own it to automatically handle tech support questions. Remember, FREEDOM is the keyword here, so we want zero headaches here.

10. Create a new product repeating steps 1 through 9.

11. Create a network of 10 – 20 domains / websites with related content to your successful product(s) webpage and interlink all your sites together to push up your rankings and boost your business.

If you've been there, done this and are ready to step up to the next level, get yourself a mentor. James Brausch offers a mentoring program through his magical e-mail address. The price is always increasing, so don't wait too long.  He will personally answer any questions that you have on building your business and becoming successful.  There's only one hitch, however.  You have to follow through with what he tells you.  He will give you the path to success, but it's up to you to walk down it.  Are you up for it?  I'm going for the freedom challenge.  I'll keep you posted these next few months how the procedure is working along with any ratcheting that I may do if any.  Until then… I'm off to create a product!

[tags]James Brausch, Internet Business, Creating a Blog, marketing, Google, Information Products, marketer, make money online, SEO, business opportunity, glyphius, rasof, magical email address, sufaq[/tags]

If you're an affiliate marketer, or even a newby to the whole marketing thing, I would suggest that you seriously consider creating your own product. With your own product you can keep 100% of your profits as opposed to a percentage from affiliate sales. With a decent sales letter and a form to collect email addresses, you can start to build a long term business that will give you solid results. You just need the motivation and the willingness to visualize, create a plan and take action. Creating a product really isn't that tough. Believe me, you KNOW something about something that someone else out there is itching to learn and willing to pay for it. Information products are in very high demand and can give real value to your customer. Think about it, let's say you are good at golfing, and you have a certain swing that gives you fantastic accuracy when driving the ball. Don't you think there aren't literally thousands of golfers out there that would love to know your secret? This one technique of yours could take their game to an entirely different level! What do you think that is worth to golf lovers struggling with their game? Think you don't have what it takes to create a product? You do. It's that simple, end of story. Before I created the AmazingCloaker, I was clueless as what my product was going to be. I took a study course by James Brausch called the "Info Product Creation" Course. He steps you through the entire process of creating a product starting with "Brainstorming" and market research. These are both very simple techniques believe it or not, that didn't take much time at all, but made all the difference in the world. This is exactly how the AmazingCloaker was born! The AmazingCloaker allows you to safely secure your affiliate links, but also gives you the power to generate extra profits using the cloaking techniques in my free report available on my main page. As I create more products, I will likely make this (or another) blog my central point for promoting all my products. James Brausch is creating a video product in his course, and he lets you "sit in" via 5 hours plus, of videos during the whole process from start to finish! Creating a video product is what I would also remcommend even if you're a programmer like me. The advantage of video products are that they have a higher perceived value and can be created much quicker than if you were writing an eBook or a software application. Support is also not so much of an issue. One thing that keeps affiliate marketers from stepping up to their own products is because they don't have to deal with support issues. eBooks & Audios / Videos will minimize support issues. Pricing is also very important. Don't price your product too low! You want to attract quality buyers. Selling something too cheap will devalue your information and people won't take you seriously. Not only this, but you will tend to attract the lowly bottom feeders that will waste your time with all types of petty issues. You don't need that. You are not a non-profit orginization! We are in business to become a member of the 2%'ers. We want to free ourselves from the bonds of the "wage slave" lifestyle! Am I right? So don't sell yourself short because of a lack of confidence. You want to start attracting quality people and positive influences into your life. Another thing to consider is releasing your product on DVD. You might be thinking, "Are you crazy Jack?! That would cost a fortune!" Up until I read about what James Brausch is doing with DVD products, I thought the same thing. It turns out that you can have your product produced on a CD / DVD through a third party company who will produce & package the CD complete with graphics, shrink wrap it and even handle the order page and mailing! It all comes out to around 2 bucks per disk and a few bucks for shipping if you have them ship it to your customers. They will even ship and properly barcode your products to Amazon if you are participating in the Amazon Avantage program! You simply download the software provided by Kunaki and design your CD/DVD with the builder using built-in templates, or your own graphics. Upload the info with your media and you're good to go! It's actually cheaper to produce your product this way! I am seriously considering offering the AmazingCloaker as a CD based product and getting into the Amazon Advantage program. If you haven't considered selling your products via Amazon, you should seriously consider it. Amazon gets 55% of the sale. Now before you click off this site thinking I've lost my mind for splitting 55% with them, think about this. If you were affiliating out your info product, you would have to do a 50 – 65% split with your affiliates to get a respectable amount of affiliates to push your product. This is no different, except that you have Amazon "affiliating" with you. This is like getting a Super Affiliate representing your product with thousands of targeted visitors every day! Ok, now you know what to do, so what are you waiting for? Stop what you're doing right now, get the Info Product Creation Course and start creating!!!!

As an affiliate marketer you probably enjoy a nice commission check every so often, or if you're already successful, then you enjoy them all the time. Money in your inbox is something you just never get tired of. The rush is always fresh, just like the first time! Seeing all the info products out there, such as e-books, videos, audios, CD's etc., I'm sure that you have wondered at one time or another what it would be like to have your own product. If you're like many people, you then probably told yourself why you could never do it such as "I'm not a writer", or "I don't know programing", "I don't have the time" (uggggh!), and the list goes on. Did you know that releasing an info product is much easier than you think? If you're not a programmer or writer try rentacoder.com or elance.com. For around 1 to 200 dollars you can have someone do it for you, and you keep all the rights to the product! After a few sales, it's all profit. Don't have any ideas on what to sell? Maybe you think that you have no talent for anything. Maybe no one is interested in what you're good at. Here's my response – HORSECRAP! If you know anything about anything, then there is someone out there who wants to learn more about what you know. I mulled around with the idea of releasing a product for nearly 2 YEARS before I finally got off my butt and did it. Looking back I can see what a pathetic waste of time it was, dreaming about it, spending all kinds of money on the "Next big marketing thing", etc. I was never much of a TV fan, so I can at least credit myself with that as a plus. So what got me motivated? Two things. One was that my student loans were killing me, and since my degree was in programming, I thought I better start re-couping my investment. Secondly and most importantly, I came across a very unique blog hosted by a very special individual. His name is James Brausch. James offers genuinely good information for free in his daily blogs. His products are fantastic, and if it wasn't for James, I'd still be off in dreamland somewhere. The first product that I purchased from James is a product called the Info Product Creation Course. This course starts out with a brainstorming technique that will allow you to come up with a marketable idea, even if you think you are devoid of all talent. It's simple but ingenious. James creates the product from start to finish and you are virtually right there, peering over his sholder from start to finish. He even shows you how to promote your product after it's finished. Also, you don't have to be a writer or programmer to succeed with this course. As a result of the info product course, I got off my skinny butt and created "The AmazingCloaker" along with this brand new blog. Plus a couple of guitar tutorials on another site (playkillerguitar.com). If I can do this stuff, there's no reason why you can't either. It just takes desire and the right mindset. No rocket science necessary. As you'll notice, the above link is not an affiliate link and James is not my personal buddy. I've never even met the guy before, but if you become a regular reader of his blogs, you will start to feel like that he is your friend. I believe that James really cares about saving as many of the 98% of the population as possible from going to their grave in debt and joyless. Yes, I'm convinced that he's got a good heart, but don't think he's a push over, because he won't waste a second of his time with difficult or unruly customers. He'd rather refund you and send you on your way rather than have you waste his time. Speaking of precious time, James is realeasing a Life Management course which looks to be worth 10 times its weight in gold. This is a physical product on a CD, which is sent via snail mail. I've already ordered my copy, and I would recommend that you do too. I will give my "critique" on the product as I use it and apply it. Give Jame's site a read. This is a guy who went from homelessness and addicted to methamphetamines 10 years ago, to being wealthy, living a joyful life, and debt free. If you don't think that's inspiration, then get off my site, you're stinkin' it up!