As you learn how to run a business it’s just unrealistic to think you can and should go it alone.

I mean if we think about how we learn all through our lives we have mentors for just about everything we do:

- Our parents are mentors as we are welcomed to the world and then try to figure out what it’s all about.
- Our friends are mentors when they’re learned something we don’t yet know.
- Our school teachers are mentors as we learn the skills we need to go get jobs (if we so choose to

So why do we sometimes think in business we should throw away the mentor mentality and figure it all out ourselves? Well, we shouldn’t!

I became a bit of a membership-site-aholic a few years ago and joined a lot of different ones. What I can tell you without a doubt is that not all membership sites are created equal.

Meet Lynn Terry:
I don’t know when exactly I first heard of Lynn Terry but I’ve been reading her Clicknewz blog for many years now, about five. I was certainly impressed by her story – a single mom who worked her way from not enough money for groceries to internet marketing success story. I was also impressed by the amount of seriously high quality content she gave away for free.

I don’t know what took me so long to join Lynn’s Elite Membership Forum. I knew Lynn knew her stuff, was a successful affiliate marketer and had a seriously loyal following.

Well if I think a little harder I guess I was tired of ‘wasting’ monthly membership fees and was weary of joining another membership group that I just used as a distraction to go ‘chat’ and not get anything done with.

But I bit the bullet and paid out the monthly membership cost to join the Elites.

Fast forward seven months and here are direct results from my time there:

1. $46+ Monthly Commish: As a result of November’s challenge I am now in the #2, #3, #4 & #10 positions for ‘Audio Acrobat Review’ and am earning a recurring profit of $46.08 in affiliate commissions every month. Considering I had no affiliate commissions from Audio Acrobat when I started the program this challenge alone has more than paid for my membership.

2. $125+ Sales Profits: I decided to write a report on my success hosting a virtual event last year. I wasn’t sure if I should sell it or give it away. Now while giving away quality reports is a great way to boost business, Lynn and the gang over at the elite forum suggested I sell it. And sell it I did! I put it into the 10 Day May Madness sale for just $5 and sold over 25. That’s an initial profit of over $125. Another four months of membership paid for.

3. Coaching Program Success: You probably know that I’m running a coaching program right now on how to create a website with WordPress. My planning of this event coincided perfectly with May’s challenge to create a product and so I accepted the challenge and posted my planning and progress on the forum. It was great to use the forum as a place to get feedback on how I was doing and suggestions on what else could be done. The coaching program has been a wonderful success for it’s first run with 21 students. Again, making the monthly membership payment easily paid up for a few years.

Now I know you know I can’t promise you’ll make your money back in the first week or the first month as your results may completely vary. What I can promise you is this:

“Lynn Terry and the Elite members are amoung the most dedicated online marketers out there. Lynn truely cares about helping her members and her market get from start to profit, and then repeat. “

The Self Starters Weekly Tips Elite membership is the ONLY membership program I now pay a monthly fee for and I’d be willing to pay double or triple for what I receive there.

So the membership has been closed for a while. Lynn’s been moving things around, making changes and improvements and gearing up for more members to join us.

Well I just got word the doors are open and you can sneek in before everyone else even knows about it!

Come join me on the forums (I visit and comment daily) and get the mentoring and support you need to get motivated and do greater things with your business. Here’s the link:
http://www.marketersmojo.com/recommends/elite

p.s. See you there!

Over the weekend I watched an 88 year old Betty White do her thing on Saturday Night Live. As I watched I couldn’t help but wonder how many years she has left because she’s lived such a full life and how amazing to top it off with an event to remember.

I also couldn’t help but wonder if I’ll have so many truly great accomplishments to look back on when I turn 88.

It was such a strange and amazing turn of events the lead to the talent actress hosting the popular late night show. It was a mixture of old and new.

After fans saw Betty on the Snickers commercial that featured her as a pseudo football player they started a Facebook campaign to get her on the show.

Betty’s career spans 70 years. SEVENTY YEARS!

I loved her on the Golden Girls, she was absolutely my favorite character.

There’s No Internet Marketer Who Compares

For all intents and purposes marketing on the internet started no earlier than 1980′s, and that’s really pushing it since about 99% of people had no idea how to sell a thing online in the 80′s. So, at most, we’ve got experts who’ve been in this field for 30 years but they would be very few and far between. Most people have no more than 15 years in internet marketing.

See what I’m getting at here? We ARE pioneers. We ARE paving a new road. Going where no man or woman has gone before. {dun da dun, la, la, la, la, la, la <-- star trek theme song } Isn't that exciting, and amazing?

And so I get back to my question of Who Will Be The First Golden Girl of Internet Marketing.

Will it be you? Will it be me? Will it be one of the many, amazing women marketers out there literally making the world a better place by sharing their wealth of information so others can build an income online?

In It to Win It?

I know with all my heart I’m in this one for the long haul. It’s what I’m absolutely called to do. I see myself doing nothing else for my entire life.

I don’t even see myself retiring! Because retirely means leaving a J.O.B. to live your life. But I plan on making my business PART of my life like Betty White has done so beautifully!

But You Suck at Sales!

People have tried to tell me I was wrong. That I wasn’t cut out for this. I was even told: “Angela, You’re just not a sales person.” Ummm, the continuous stream of paypal payments this week tells a different story, you see.

To be fair they were right, I’m not a salesperson. At least not in the old fashioned sense of the word. And I’m glad. You see the internet has changed the way many do business. I’m not the sleezy Amway rep who pushes their way into your home and tries to sell you a bunch of stuff you don’t need and weren’t looking for.

No, I’m the kind of salesperson who meets you where you’re at, who listens, who learns what you really need or want and helps you get it. THAT’S the kind of salesperson I LOVE to be.

I don’t really care if I’m the first Betty White of Internet Marketing. That’s not my point. The point is to make you think about your legacy, your life’s work and how you’ll feel when you turn 88 and look back on all you’ve done.

Now that’s something worth thinking about…

p.s. Now that I’ve poured my heart out to you I’d like to invite you to join me on this journey. Whether you want to be the Golden Girl or the Leading Man I’ve got experiences to share and advice to give. It’s here:
Marketers Mojo Email List

p.p.s. Because I love Betty so, I had to dig up a video for you. Here’s a great one that summarizes her career:

I’m a big fan of using tools to help me run my business better. That’s why I love the internet. There are so many ways to make your business run smarter, faster and even on autopilot that you can literally make money without even being there.

Choosing the right tools can be a challenge for some people.

Internet Resources & Tools

Here’s a list of things to consider when choosing the resources and tools to build your business:

1. How does this help my ROI (return on investment)? In other words, will using this tool make you more money?
2. Why do you want to use it? Are you considering a tool because someone told you that you MUST have it, or do you actually need it?
3. Is it in your budget? You’d be amazed at how many free and low cost options there are out there, don’t sign up for a high-priced tool before doing your research and deciding if it really is within your budget.
4. Is it user friendly? There’s nothing worse than downloading a program you need now and finding out it’s going to take you eight months to learn it. On the other hand, investing some time in learning a program that will advance your business is a smart move.

How Can Internet Tools Improve Your Business?

There are a few ways I use internet tools to build my business strong and make more money. Here they are:

Automation - This might very well be my favorite! Automate and you don’t have to be there. Plan ahead, do the work, set it and then move on to the next thing. There are many tools that make this possible.

Organization - There are tools that help you organize files, information, passwords and more.

Speedy-ness – There are many tools you can use to do things faster online. The need for speed is great when you want to get a lot of things done in a limited amount of time! (yes and I know speedy-ness is not a real word )

Recommend Internet Resources & Tools

Now, there are many tools I use in my business and over the years I’ve learned to use them well. This is my personal list of tools I use all the time. The thing is, your business and your personality is different so all these tools probably won’t fit you. Pick and choose the ones that you need and the ones you can put to action right now.

1. Wordtracker – I use this almost every day. Free keyword research tool to find out what people are searching for online.

2. Google Adwords Keyword Tool – Another keyword research tool. It’s powerful when used in combination with Wordtracker.

3. WordPress – This blog is build on WordPress and so are most all of my other websites. It allows me to automate, organize and increase my speed all at the same time with the features of this software.

4. Aweber – I couldn’t write a list of tools without mentioning Aweber. I use this program to build my email list. Best email marketing tool in my opinion!

5. Filezilla - I use Filezilla to upload files like pdf documents, audios and videos to my website hosting so I can put them on my site or link to them. There are other good uses for filezilla.

6. Gimp – Gimp is free and it’s a great graphics program. I’ll warn you that it did take a while to really learn this program. It’s one you need a bit of time to master but well worth the savings over a graphics person if you’re on a tight budget.

7. Feeddemon – I read and comment on blogs for a few reasons: to learn, to network and to get incoming links back to my site. I use Feeddemon to keep everything organized.

8. FreeMind – Sometimes I need to put my work into a mind map. FreeMind is another free tool that let’s you create these maps to help plan out your business.

9. Basecamp – Anyone who does freelancing could benefit from Basecamp. It is the ultimate in online project management. You can have multiple team members on a project, to-do lists, due dates and much more.

10. Freshbooks – When I started using Freshbooks for my client billing I shaved hours of my monthly invoicing to clients. Very useful and it also integrates time tracking and billing together.

11. Gmail – I couldn’t forget Gmail! Having a well-organized email inbox is probably one of the best things you can do for your business productivity. Gmail is an amazing tool for organizing, sorting and quickly responding to email.

12. Roboform – I posted about Roboform earlier this week. I can even think of running my online business without this tool – what a mess that would be! Hundreds of passwords but only one to remember, that’s how Roboform keeps me sane.

It’s all about the mojo! Find what works for you, do it and then make it work better.

p.s. It would be a bit of overwhelm if you decided to download and try using all these new tools at once. If you want to start with just one check out Roboform to save hours upon hours storing and trying to remember your login information. Plus Roboform automatically fills forms to save you time in more than one way. Click here to download a free trial of Roboform

I’m a real live internet marketer. I make money on the internet. I don’t find clients or sell stuff offline, everything I do is online.

Sometimes I forget the amazing accomplishment that is.

There is still a huge portion of the population that have no idea where to even start making money online.

So how did it happen? Oh boy, pull up a chair!

I’m going to go through a play by play history of how I became an internet marketer. It wasn’t a straight path, like most things, and I’ve still got lots to learn and ways to grow (don’t we all). Here’s how I got where I am today.

1999 – Learning HTML & Websites

It all started in 1999 when my lab partner in college, Elizabeth, handed me a sheet of paper with HTML code.

We had somehow been talking about making internet pages and she knew how. I was interested but had no idea at the time what I’d do with website. I took the sheet of code, went to the computer room at our school and signed up for a Geocities account. From there I started building my own website.

My first website was a hobby site for beaded jewelery I used to make. I would scan photos of my jewelery into the site for people to look at. It wasn’t a business at all, I just was having fun and playing around.

2001 – Hobby to Business Venture

Years later I had a new hobby, soapmaking.

I had learned how to make soap at college through my course in Chemical Engineering Technology. We had a laboratory session on making soap but we weren’t supposed to use it (I guess if we messed up the recipe and it was lye-heavy they didn’t want to get sued). The soapmaking really peek my curiosity and I decided I wanted to start making soap at home. So my home soapmaking hobby was born. I started brewing up all kinds of stuff including other bath & body products like lip balms, bath salts, bath bombs and more.

Then I had my son. I was on maturnity leave and I couldn’t imagine leaving him and going back to work. I had always wanted to have a business but this new, amazing little life fueled a determination like no other to have a successful home business. I wanted the freedom to do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. So I turned my soap hobby into a business and I started my own ecommerce website.

I learned so much from this first business website I owned. I learned how to set up a shopping cart, charge shipping, charge taxes. Then I had to learn how to get traffic and how to turn that traffic into sales. These were the basics but thinking back now they are just as important today to any new business as they were back then.

From what I learned I started a new website for other soapmakers to teach them how to make money with their websites.

Eventually I decided to move on from the soap business.

2002 – Offline Sales Lady

I started a business that has nothing to do with internet marketing.

I was a representative of a company named C.S.T. (Canadian Scholarship Trust Plan). What I did was sign new accounts up for an R.E.S.P (Registered Education Savings Plan). This plan is a government registered saving plan for parents of young children to save for their future education.

This was a business I didn’t use the internet for. A very big lesson I learned in this business though was to never just follow the money. The ONLY reason I really joined this business was because of the extravagant claims my sponsor made about how much money she made as a rep. I was entirely drawn in by the idea of getting huge paychecks and if you’ve ever done the same you know that money along is not enough motivation to keep a business going.

2005 – Network Marketing on the Internet

I came across the Mia Bella company as I was searching online for a new business to start. After I scrapped the soapmaking business I had gone back to work for a few years. I needed a break, a rest, time to regroup. I never game up on the decision to own my own business.

Mia Bella candles seemed like a perfect fit for me so I joined as a representative and started building my website. The point of the website was to tell people about the business opportunity of selling candles and making money. I did well with it. From that site I recruited a fairly strong team.

I ran the candle company all while I was working full time. I was hoping to be able to quit my job on the income from that business but it just wasn’t happening as quickly as I wanted it to. Again, this was a case where I considered the business opportunity and didn’t look closely enough at what I really enjoyed doing.

2006 – Starting a Virtual Assistance Business

After I quit the candle company I was feeling pretty discouraged and a little desperate even. I remember seeing a friend post on her blog that she was no longer accepting virtual assistant clients and she would no longer be working “dollars for hours”. I thought to myself that I would much rather work “dollars for hours” at home in my own business than be out there in my factory job making money for someone else, so I opened up my doors as a virtual assistant.

My virtual assistant business took off very quickly. I started off at an unbelievably cheap rate ($5/hr) and then grew my hourly charge from there. It actually provided me with enough money to quit my factory job! I was so excited.

The problem with my virtual assistant business was that I never thought it to be a long term solution. I wanted a business I loved and I wanted passive income. I mean, I had traded one boss for a whole bunch of bosses and over time I started to become unhappy, resentful, stressed out and burnt out.

2008 – Finding the Mojo, Marketers Mojo!!!

I love what I’m doing now. My goals are now completely aligned with my values, my personality and my desired lifestyle.

Here at Marketers Mojo I just get to be me, to share my story and my knowledge with people like you and people like me. People who are coming to my site to find out how they can build a business they love without being the sleezy ‘car salesman’ type persona. It’s entirely possible and it feels great!

p.s. Don’t miss any more posts like this one! Sign up to the Marketers Mojo RSS feed by clicking here. Or get on the Marketers Mojo Email list for post updates and great info on how to love your business, love your life. Your private information is always safe. Enter your name and email below to get on the list:

Think you need just one more internet marketing product to succeed in your online business?

Think again.

You don’t.

You don’t need anything else.

You don’t need another website. You don’t need another course. You don’t need another coach. You don’t need another ebook.

There are some programs I use daily in my business and I don’t know how I’d run it nearly as effectively without them.

Here’s my list of five top internet marketing software programs I couldn’t live without (all except one are FREE!):

5. Gimp – I just don’t have the budget for the graphic designer I would need to create all the little extra graphics I like to add to my posts, products, etc., so I use Gimp. Gimp is a free graphics software that is pretty powerful.

4. Filezilla – I transfer a lot of files back and forth from my website service (where my site is hosted) to my computer. There are many reasons why I need to do this – pdf docs, images I want to link to, zip files I want to sell, etc. Filezilla makes it super easy.
Read More→