Corey Rudl 
Have you ever switched off your computer at the end of a day's
work, but found that the "to do" list you started with that
morning is still as long as your arm?
Okay, you've answered tons of e-mails containing questions from
customers, you've fulfilled some orders, and you've updated your
newsletter subscriber list by deleting recent unsubscribes and
bounce backs, and adding some new subscribers.
But what have you really achieved in that time? Have you
generated more sales? Have you developed improvements to your
products or services? Have you come up with some ideas for your
next really profitable campaign?
The fact is, many small business owners get so caught up with
running their business, that they have no time to grow it.
Answering e-mails, fulfilling orders, and updating your
subscriber list are all essential tasks -- but they will NOT
increase your profits.
The only way to grow a business is to market it. And the secret
to being able to grow your business and still run it at the same
time is automation.
Automating key tasks -- so they happen without you lifting a
finger -- doesn't just free you from doing some of the daily
chores involved in running a business… it actually grows your
business, too.
In fact, I'd go so far as to say that automation is ESSENTIAL to
your web site's growth.
Here's a few examples of what I mean...
An automated ordering system allows you to sell your products or
services day and night... meaning more sales, and more profits.
Automated follow-up emails let you upsell related backend
products to your customers... which can boost your revenue.
Instantly confirming orders and fulfilling your customers'
orders for electronic products like software and eBooks lead to
happier customers who are more likely to buy from you again.
Answering questions instantly creates satisfied customers who
appreciate your fast, professional service. And the earlier you
automate your business, the better -- so you can concentrate on
building your business. Once you're automated, you can handle
thousands more customers without being bogged down by thousands
more administrative tasks.
THE best way to automate all your daily chores is to use "
autoresponders." Autoresponders are pre-written e-mails that are
automatically sent on your behalf -- for example, in response to
an e-mail sent to a particular e-mail address that you set up,
or when an order goes through.
They take care of the tasks that would take you hours to do
yourself and leave you free to concentrate on building your
business. All you have to do is write the e-mail messages in
advance and set them up to be sent out when you want.
Unfortunately, some autoresponder services charge for every one
you send, which can get really expensive. The good news is that
there is a cheaper, more efficient alternative, which I'll talk
about later in this newsletter. First, though, I'd like to run
through the two areas of your business that are essential to
automate... and tell you how autoresponders can help you do it.
Secret #1: Automate your ordering and fulfillment process
Your sales and ordering process is crucial to the success of
your business, and it's critical that you automate it from the
beginning. When you start your business, you might find that you
WANT to handle the orders yourself. After all, it's satisfying
to see those first few sales come in and to deal with your first
customers personally... it means all your hard work is paying
off!
However, after that initial honeymoon period is over and you're
handling hundreds and thousands of orders -- you won't find the
hands-on approach so much fun. Just think how long it takes you
to handle ONE order manually, and multiply that by 100 or 1,000!
Put simply, your business won't grow... unless you automate your
whole ordering process. So this is where autoresponders come in -
- they can manage all your most time-consuming tasks, including:
Confirming orders. Many people are nervous about buying online,
and they like to be reassured that their order has gone through
without any problems. You can set up an autoresponder to send an
e-mail confirming that you have their order, and reassuring them
that everything is on track.
Receiving an instant confirmation leaves your customer with the
impression that you're running a highly professional business,
and it stops them calling or e-mailing you to check up on their
order.
Notifying customers that their order has shipped. People also
like to know that their purchase is on its way. So you can set
up an autoresponder to tell them -- saving you trouble and
preventing more phone calls and e-mails from customers asking if
their item has been shipped.
Fulfilling orders. If you sell downloadable software, access to
a password-protected area of your site, or an information
product like an eBook, you can also use autoresponders to
fulfill your orders and automatically e-mail your customer a
link to where they can download their purchase or e-mail them a
password to let them into a members-only area of your site.
This "instant gratification" factor is very important for good
customer service.
Sending follow-up e-mails. One of the most effective after-sales
techniques is a simple "thank-you." Of course, it would take you
far too long to send an e-mail to every customer a few days
after their order thanking them for buying from you and inviting
them to come back again some time. So you can set up
autoresponders to do this for you!
In the same autoresponder, you can tell your customers about
other related products that they might want. For example, if you
sold a customer a camera, you might ask if they'd be interested
in an extra lens.
This type of product -- sold on the back of a previous sale --
is known as a "backend" product, and automating this process can
potentially generate thousands of dollars in extra revenue for
you, with no extra work on your part.
In fact, this technique can easily boost your sales by 30% --
overnight!
Now, you could do these things yourself. You could write order
confirmations... send thank-you messages... fulfill orders...
and so on. However, online customers are a very demanding bunch!
They want to be able to browse for, order, and receive the items
they buy online as quickly and easily as possible.
It's in your interest to make it easy for your customers to
order and receive your products, as well as making the whole
process hands-free so you can concentrate on growing your
business.
Secret #2: Automate your customer service
As I've just mentioned, online customers EXPECT quick service.
The fact is, if you leave it a day or two to respond to a
question about your products or services, you could lose that
customer to your competition. So good customer service is a
vital component of a successful online business.
And once again, autoresponders are crucial. They allow you to...
Answer your customers' questions automatically. You can set up
an automated FAQ using autoresponders. Just create an e-mail
address like faq@MyWebsite.com and invite visitors to e-mail you
with any questions.
They then receive an automatic response containing answers to
all the most common questions you're likely to receive from your
visitors about your products or services, ordering process, and
so on.
This way, you save yourself the hours you'd spend answering the
same questions again and again. And your visitors will be
impressed by your instant response to them -- increasing the
chances of them buying from your site.
Send more information on your products instantly. Another way to
provide an extra service to visitors to your site is to send
them free information. You could write a useful article -- for
example, "10 Hot Tips for a Stress-Free Holiday" could go with a
web site selling travel accessories -- and promote it on your
web site.
Just invite customers to send an e-mail to freearticle@MyWebsite.
com for their copy -- an autoresponder e-mail then sends them
the free information.
The result is that you've established contact with a potential
customer, sent them information about your product, and
impressed them with your professionalism -- all done instantly
and automatically.
The secret to great online customer service lies in providing a
stress-free buying experience and giving potential customers all
the information they need to make a quick buying decision.
So I have to emphasize again the importance of automation. If
you can make your customers' buying experience as quick and easy
as possible, and make your fulfillment and follow-up efficient
and instantaneous, you can significantly boost your sales.
But how do you go about automating your business without having
a lot of down-time or spending a lot of your hard-earned profits?
How you can automate YOUR business
Many Internet entrepreneurs get into the habit of doing
everything themselves when it comes to running their business.
It's partly because that's in our nature! We're very hands-on
and like to be in control of everything!
But then more and more orders start coming in, you get more and
more questions from customers, and before you know it, you’re
spending nearly ALL of your time performing these "
administrative" tasks.
And when you actually break down what you're spending your time
on, you can find you're really just standing still instead of
growing your business. Meanwhile, your competitors who HAVE
automated their business are snagging YOUR customers, who've
become frustrated by your slow response to an e-mailed question,
the time it takes to get an order confirmation, or slow
fulfillment of their order.
Automation is the perfect solution to providing great customer
service and freeing up your time to develop your business. And
autoresponders, in particular, are amazing tools for handling
all the mundane e-mail chores that can take up so much of your
time. They allow you to...
Build your credibility by impressing your customers with the
speed of your response to their requests for information.
Increase your chances of making more sales by answering
customers' questions immediately.
Make sure more customers buy from you again by providing great
customer service through the instant confirmation of orders.
Provide your customers with instant gratification through the
quick fulfillment of digital products.
Increase your sales by automatically upselling backend products
to your customers.
So how do you automate your business? Well, there are a number
of companies out there that will set up and send out
autoresponders for you. However, some of them charge you for
EVERY autoresponder. And as there are tons of ways to use
autoresponders, that cost really adds up.
A better solution is to use custom-built software like Mailloop.
This is the software I use at The Internet Marketing Center,
which I developed because of my own frustration with the limited
and expensive solutions out there on the market. It's built with
Internet business owners like you in mind -- both newbies and
more experienced netrepreneurs -- and it allows you to set up
UNLIMITED autoresponders.
That means that you can set up autoresponders to handle all
aspects of your ordering and fulfillment process, answer
questions from visitors to your site, and upsell backend
products to your customers -- automatically.
The automated e-mails that you write will still sound personal
and can contain any information you want -- but you only have to
write them once! Then Mailloop takes over, allowing you to get
on with the important job of building your business.
Check out the full range of benefits Mailloop can offer your
business, such as unlimited autoresponders for handling all your
ordering, fulfillment, and customer service e-mail tasks; an
easy-to-use interface for creating and sending autoresponders;
and complete control over the appearance, content, and
management of your e-mails.
You can get full details at:
http://www.thecassiopeia.com/mailloop.html
Remember, the HUGE benefit of automation is that it allows you
to spend more time coming up with new ways to grow your business
and increase your profits.
It's not impossible to make money and grow your business without
automation, but it's very difficult if you spend hours every day
answering e-mails, fulfilling orders, and taking care of all the
other daily chores yourself. You'll basically become a secretary
in your own business -- which I'm guessing is not what you set
out to do!
So the question is not can you afford to automate your business…
it's can you afford NOT to?
********************************
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Today's Motivational Reading
Persistence
Bob Proctor 
If you were to choose just one part of your personality to
develop that would virtually guarantee your success, I'd like to
suggest that you place persistence at the top of your list.
Napoleon Hill, in his classic "Think and Grow Rich" felt so
strongly about this subject, he devoted an entire chapter to it.
Hill suggested, "There may be no heroic connotation to the word
persistence but the quality is to your character what carbon is
to steel."
Think about it. If you took a quick mental walk down memory lane
and reviewed some of your accomplishments in the past - large
and small - you would have to agree that persistence played an
important role in your success.
Napoleon Hill studied many of the world's most successful people.
He pointed out the only quality he could find in Henry Ford,
Thomas Edison or a host of other notable greats that he could
not find in everyone else was persistence. What I found even
more intriguing was the fact that Hill made comment of the fact
that these individuals were often misunderstood to be ruthless
or cold-blooded and that this misconception grew out of their
habit of following through in all of their plans with
persistence.
It's both interesting and sadly amusing to me that, as a society,
we would be quick to criticize people for realizing they had an
unshakeable power within them and were capable of overcoming any
obstacle outside of them. This power would ultimately move them
toward a greater chance of achieving any goal they set for
themselves!
Milt Campbell is a good friend of mine. He and I have shared
many hours together discussing the very topic of persistence.
Milt was a Decathlete in the Olympic Games held in Helsinki,
Finland in 1952. His goal was to capture gold for the US.
Unfortunately, another fierce competitor who had taken home the
gold four years previous in London wasn't satisfied with one
gold, Bob Mathias wanted two; Milt had to settle for silver.
That did not deter Milt one bit. He had formed the habit of
persistence and four years later in Melbourne, Australia, Milt
won the gold medal, earning him the title of the greatest
athlete in the world.
On numerous occasions Milt has said, "There were many guys in
school who were far better athletes than me, but they quit." I
can recount story after story about individuals who overcame
obstacles so great, but only did so because they dared persist.
These individuals are no different than you and I.
Ultimately persistence becomes a way of life, but that is not
where it begins. To develop the mental strength - persistence -
you must first want something. You have to WANT something so
much that it becomes a heated desire... a passion in your belly.
You must fall in love with that idea. Yes, literally fall in
love with the idea and magnetize yourself to every part of the
idea. At that point, persistence will be virtually automatic.
Persistence is a subject I have studied all of my adult life and
I can tell you one thing I know for certain: very few people
ever, mentally or verbally, say to themselves... this is what I
really want and I am prepared to give my life for it, and thus,
they never develop the persistence to achieve it.
Persistence is a unique mental strength; a strength that is
essential to combat the fierce power of the repeated rejections
and numerous other obstacles that sit in waiting and are all
part of winning in a fast-moving, ever-changing world. As
Napoleon Hill found out, there are hundreds of highly successful
men and women who have cut a path for others to follow, while
leaving their mark on the scrolls of history … and every one
of these great individuals was persistent. In many cases it was
the only quality that separated them from everyone else.
It is generally believed that a lack of persistence is a
consequence of a weak willpower. That is not true. A person
could have a highly evolved willpower and still lack the
persistence required to keep moving forward in life. In more
cases than not, if a person lacks persistence, they do not have
a goal that is worthy of them, a desirable goal that excites
them to their very core.
Though willpower is important in moving a person toward their
goal, if there is ever a war between the will and the
imagination, the imagination will win every time. What that
means is: you're powered by desire and fuelled by the dream you
hold. Once you start to use your imagination to help you build a
bigger picture of your dream, to define and refine it until you
get it just right in your mind, the emotion that is triggered by
that desire far outweighs any force that may be caused by sheer
will alone. I am not suggesting the will does not have to be
developed, it does. It must become highly developed in order to
direct you toward the image with which you are emotionally
involved.
Your intellectual factors hold the potential for enormous good
when they are properly employed. However, you must remember that
everything has an opposite and any of your intellectual factors
can turn, without warning, into destructive lethal enemies when
they are directed toward results that are not wanted. It is easy
to find individuals who are persistently doing what they don't
want to do and achieving results that they do not want. A lack
of persistence is not their problem; that person is persisting
to their own detriment. Ignorance and paradigms are the enemy
that we must defeat. Everyone is persistent. Our objective must
be to put persistence to work for us rather than against us.
Vision and desire have to be the focus of your attention if you'
re going to develop persistence into the great ally it can become.
Another excellent example of persistence was demonstrated when,
in 1953, a beekeeper from Auckland, N.Z., Edmund Hillary and his
native guide, Tenzing Norguay, became the first two people to
climb Mt. Everest and return, after having tried and failed the
two previous years.
Hillary had two obvious character strengths that took him to the
very top - vision and desire. Even despite the seemingly
insurmountable challenges, he had no trouble persisting with the
strenuous acts that were required because every act was hooked
into the image of him standing on top of the mountain. They were
expressed because of his persistence, but he was persistent
because he was emotionally involved with the image. Without
persistence, all his skills would have meant nothing.
Persistence is an expression of the mental strength that is
essential in almost every profession, where repeated rejection
and obstacles are part of a daily routine.
In closing, let me give you four relatively simple steps that
will help you to turn persistence into a habit. These steps can
be followed by virtually anyone.
- 1. Have a clearly defined goal. The goal must be something you
are emotionally involved with, something you want very much. (In
the beginning, you may not even believe that you can accomplish
it - the belief will come.)
- 2. Have a clearly established plan that you can begin working on
immediately. (Your plan will very likely only cover the first
and possibly the second stage of the journey to your goal. As
you begin executing your plan, other steps required to complete
your journey will be revealed at the right time.)
- 3. Make an irrevocable decision to reject any and all negative
suggestions that come from friends, relatives or neighbors. Do
not give any conscious attention to conditions or circumstances
that appear to indicate the goal cannot be accomplished.
- 4. Establish a mastermind group of one or more people who will
encourage, support and assist you wherever possible.
What do you dream of doing with your life? Do it. Begin right
now and never quit. There is greatness in you. Let it out.
Be persistent.
********************************
For 40 years, Bob Proctor has focused his entire life and agenda
around helping people create lives of prosperity, rewarding
relationships and spiritual awareness.
Give me three days and you'll know - finally and without
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Sincerely,
