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In addition to your SMART goals you need to set yourself a BHAG (pronounced BEE-Hag).

The concept of a BHAG was dreamt up by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in their best selling book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies.

BHAG stands for Big Hairy Audacious Goal and it is something that Collins and Porras discovered was at the heart of almost all companies that lasted over the long term.

On the flip side they discovered that most companies that don’t have a BHAG tend to flounder along the way, ie. They don’t last over the long run.

So, what exactly is a BHAG?

Leo Burnett, the famous advertising executive, said “If you reach for the stars, you might not quite get one, but you won’t end up with a handful of mud, either.” Well your BHAG is like the stars. You might never reach your BHAG, but by always shooting for it you will create a forward momentum that helps you to get a lot further than you could possibly have done without having your BHAG.

Your Big Hairy Audacious Goal can be absolutely crazy and almost totally unattainable. It might be to be the richest man in your town, the best-selling author in America or it could be a business goal such as 100% increase in productivity for three years in a row or the best company in the world for mega-widgets.

As long as you have your SMART goals to keep you focussed on your short to medium term objectives you can have a BHAG that lets you shoot for the stars. You might only ever reach the moon, but if you didn’t have your BHAG you might not even have achieved lift-off.

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Backing Up Is For Sissies

That’s a funny slogan from the latter days of the “insider” era of computing, an in-joke among computer geeks who were trying to assert that being a computer geek doesn’t mean you can’t be tough.

Being a computer geek — excuse us, Internet entrepreneur — does mean that you shouldn't be stupid however, and not backing up is just plain dumb, especially these days when the tools and technologies to do it are so easy and so cheap.

Hardware and software options

The world of backing up is primarily about storage, and the storage marketplace is moving so quickly it would be a waste of both of our time for us to list out X equipment at Y price.

As a simple example, there is a pocket hard-drive called the Giga Bank. About a year ago, a 2.2 GB Giga Bank — at the time a wonder of miniaturization — cost about $150. Today a 4 GB Giga Bank is around $89. By the time you read this, they’ll have the next one out.

It’s probably more useful to talk about general ways and means of backing up (or if you prefer, replicating or archiving data). Archiving is not the same as backing up, but you may find doing some of both useful.

We’ll discuss a couple of general concepts about having multiple sets of data, and a little about the hardware and software options for creating and accessing them.

Backing up versus archiving

Backing up means keeping copies of stuff you currently need or use in a second or third place, so if the one you have on hand gets destroyed, you have another one. You want backups pretty easily accessible at all times.

Archiving on the other hand usually means removing data files from a high-traffic place (like your C drive) and putting it somewhere in storage, in case you ever need to look at it again, which you may well not but you want to have the stuff safely stored in case.

Accordingly, backing up is something you do routinely — probably weekly or more, or even several times a day if you have high-volume transaction heavy businesses. Whereas archiving you only do once in a while, like you might do each year, if you do projects on an annual basis. You might not need your 2004 projects on your desktop in 2007, but you might need them tucked away someplace.

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70 Build a larger online community by giving your visitors bonuses for participating on your message boards or chat rooms. Try free products, ads, etc. For example, you could say, "Participate in our online message board and get the FREE report! How To..." Another example, "Get this free e-book for just chatting in our chat room!"

71 Instead of starting an affiliate program, start a referral program. Give people discounts and free products for referring people to your site. For example, you could say, "Get a free e-book software for referring just 3 people to our web site." Another example, "Refer just 2 people to our web site to get a 20% discount on our new e-book!"

72 Offer free original content. It's important to give your visitors information they can't find anywhere else. If you're the only source, they'll visit your site. For example, if you write business e-books you know they are many of them out there, but if you added an unrelated topic with the business content, like science, it would be more original.

73 Give people free software. Most people like to find good deals on software for their computers. If the software is free, that is even better. For example, you could say, "FREE Accounting Software!" You could also use the software for viral marketing. Just place your ad in the software and allow people to give it away.

74 Hold free contests or sweepstakes. Most people like to win things. If you can fulfill that need, people will stop by to visit. You can also capture people’s e-mail addresses. For example, "Sign up for our contest for a chance to win a new computer! You will be notified via e-mail."

75 Provide a free web directory. Create a directory of web sites on a popular topic that will attract your target audience. For example, if you had a free e-book directory you could advertise your web site by saying something like "Get 1000 FREE E-books When You Visit (your web site address)."

76 Offer a free e-zine. Most people love to get free information that’s e-mailed to them regularly. This saves them time and money. For example, you could say, "Sign up to my e-zine and learn about (topic) every week for absolutely free!" Another example, "Free Weekly Business E-zine - Save time and money learning (topic)!"

77 Make your web site look professional. You want to have your own domain name, easy navigation, attractive graphics, etc. For example, wouldn’t it make you think twice about buying from a free domain name web site? Another example, if you get confused or lost at a web site, don’t you immediately click out of it?

78 Let people read your ad before they get to your freebie. When you use free things to lure people to your web site, list them below your ad copy. For example, haven't you ever downloaded a free e-book and read it right away without looking at the rest of the web site?

79 Attract the target audience who would buy your product or service. A simple way to do this is to survey your existing customers. Another idea would be to address them with their group name. For example, "Dear Web Marketers..." , "Attention All Gardeners - Listen Up!", etc.

80 Test and improve your ad copy. There are many people who write an ad and never change it. Make sure you get the highest possible response rate. For example, run the ad you have ready and see how many orders you get in a week or month. After that change the headline or closing and see how many orders you receive. Continue tweaking your ad till you get the highest amount of orders per visitors or viewers.

81 Give people an urgency so they buy ‘now’. Many people could be interested in your product but they’ll put off buying it until later and eventually forget about it. For example, "Order Before Aug 15, 2002, and get 2 Bonuses Valued at ($)!" Another example, "Order Now! Only 1000 Members Will Be Accepted."

82 When you ship people the first product they bought, insert a flyer or brochure for your back-end product in the package. For example, if you're selling a book about gardening, you could slip in a flyer about a packet of seeds you're currently selling into the box you are shipping.

83 Give customers a free subscription to a Customers Only e-zine when they buy your product. You could include your ad for your back-end product in each issue. For example, you could say, “When you order, you will get a free subscription to our e-zine about e-books.” The customers will also see your ads every week and that will increase their tendency to buy again from you. Plus a free e-zine is a good bonus to lure them to order.

84 Send your customers greeting cards on holidays or on their birthday. Include a small advertisement inside the card for your back-end product. For example, the card could say "Happy Halloween! To celebrate this holiday we are offering you 30% off our new book titled..." Another example, "Happy Birthday! For a gift we are giving a free sample of our new book titled... If you like it, you can get the full version for only ($)."

85 Tell your prospects that your product is easy to use. People don't want to buy a product that they have to read a 100 page instruction manual. For example, "Our software is user-friendly, it takes you step-by-step." Another example, "You'll get a simple 3 step instruction manual that walks you through the whole scanner set-up."

86 Send customers a free surprise gift after they order your first product. You could attach another ad with the free gift for your back-end product. For example, "Unadvertised Surprise Bonus! A free copywriting e-book!" Then inside the e-book have subtle ads for the product(s) you're selling. Above or below each page. You could also mention them within your content.

87 If you're selling an electronic product, like an e-book or report, include your ad for your back-end product somewhere inside the electronic product. For example, on the last page, title page, index, table of contents, glossary, etc. If you liked the product, wouldn't you buy again from that company?

88 Tell your prospects how long you've been in business for. People think if you've been in business for a while, you have more credibility. For example, "We've been in business for (no.) years!" Another example, "We've been serving businesses since 1935!"

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You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, apply for a patent or own your own factory in order to have your own high value product. In fact, you don’t need to sell anything tangible at all.

Some of the wealthiest and most successful business people online made their fortunes selling nothing more than information.

An information product can come in many formats: electronic book, membership site, software, subscription newsletter or even video. The most important thing about information products is that they can be delivered digitally.

This means that your product is packaged as a file which customers download right to their desktop. Your inventory is ‘virtual’ and there is nothing to ship. The customer receives immediate gratification and your hands are free of the dirty detail work of delivery, allowing you more time to focus on marketing your business.

Does information really sell online? If so, what types of information can you sell?

Let’s tackle the first question. There is absolutely no doubt that information sells! The majority of people who come online do so in order to seek out information. Your job is to put yourself in front of them with the information and the solutions they seek. Don’t think for a second that just because a lot information is available for free online that people won’t pay to access an information product.

The average consumer puts a premium on his time. He will pay for your product if he thinks you have the answers he needs. In terms of demand, information products aren’t much different from traditional, physical books.

There are plenty of books available for free at the public library (and plenty of books to be browsed through down at Barnes and Noble) but this hasn’t stopped Amazon.Com from becoming one of the number one retailers on the web.

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FTP = File Transport Protocol i.e. It’s the path of transporting your internet files up to a web server so they can become accessible online. (Some call this live online)

FTP Program Setup Up and Usage

Note: Your FTP program may be a little different than how I explain to use FTP here in my tutorial. However, most features are similar and you should be able to figure out the varying degrees of use no matter which FTP software you are using.

If you want a free FTP program that functions like paid ones, get File Zilla at this link. File Zilla is the program I use to describe how to FTP in this tutorial. Get it here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/filezilla I like File Zilla’s drag & drop features that function just like the ones you have to pay for – but it’s FREE! Once you place your mouse on a file icon (and while holding down the left mouse pointer) you can drag files and wherever you drop them… it makes a copy and or overwrites files.

Note: Overwriting files updates them if the file name and place on the server is exactly the same. Overwriting is how you update previous files or webpages.

Many people seem perplexed by the process of how to FTP. So, I wrote this quick & easy guide to help anyone that wants to learn how to do it - get started. It’s not hard at all. Ok… let’s start learning how to FTP right now…

1. Open up your FTP program.
Go to:
2. File
3. Site MGR.
4. Click the New Site Button
5. Click rename button and rename your site.
6. In the host window put your website URL in without the https://www. e.g. mysite.com
Note: Keep server type set at the default FTP setting.
7. Login type - select normal ( notice the username & password windows become active)
8. Put in your username & password. This is info you should have received from your host server company.
(Do not check the box “Don’t save password” if you have one) Note: Before clicking the Connect button make sure you have navigated to you local web files through your FTP program. For details on how to do this see the info below on local website files.
9. After navigating to your local web files click the Connect button.
Note: Sometimes you must drag the perimeters of the FTP windows down to see the server activity or it may appear that nothing is happening when it actually is.
10. Click Save and exit to Save your FTP site settings.

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I was in two minds as to whether include this section and it is the reason I have put it here rather than what might have been a better structure to include it earlier. It is here because I don’t see it as being as important as the other contents of this report up until now. Some people find this kind of stuff helpful and some people don’t. Personally I use it some times and not all the time. For writing short articles I don’t see the need for preparation exercises and all that malarkey but for more serious content like ebook chapters or reports it may benefit you to be in the most creative state of mind possible. Also this report is about speed and this stuff takes time. It is up to you to decide whether or not this aspect of the writing process is beneficial to you. What I will offer here are some things that can help prepare your mind for creative work and make the cranking out of your articles even faster.

Read stuff: It may sound stupid but before I write I will quite often just read something for a few minutes. The higher quality the writing the better but it gets my mind into the mode of synthesizing words and processing writing. It should only need to be done once before each session but it will start your engine running with more momentum.

Write stuff: Personally I don’t need to do this but many people find it helpful to write something else before they begin writing work. Whether its an email, a shopping list or a post in the forum it turns your brain on to the mode of putting its thoughts onto paper. Again only needs to be done once before each writing session but might provide great benefits.

Specific exercises: I train martial arts so I often find that performing some movements of that nature prior to creative work can stimulate a greater level of connection between right and left brain halves and create a more creative state. Other ways to do this are through meditation (nothing fancy, just focusing on your breath and calming your mind), other breathing exercises, and other movements. I won’t go into them here but there are certain movements that you can do that coordinate your breath and your body in a way that enhances right and left brain connectivity. Hit up Google if you want to know more about that aspect of writing as it is slightly outside the scope of this article.

The next point I will mention however is EXTREMELY important and I do it before every article. What I do is put myself in a state where I know that I will be able to crank out a 400-600 word article on this topic despite the fact that I know nothing about it and that I don’t know yet what I’m going to write. There are various ways to put yourself in this state but my main ones are to focus on what it will be like when I have completed the article and think about other times when I have done something similar. Then I just begin thinking with complete certainty that I will be able to finish this article very quickly.

What I also do is actually begin writing before I know exactly what is going to come next. I start writing in the state I mentioned above. I have the structure in my head but I just start writing giving no recognition to the fact that I might get stuck and remain totally faithful that if I keep writing, the appropriate words, sentences and paragraphs will come to me. Some people know what I’m talking about and some people think it is phooey but I strongly believe that when you hold thoughts in your head that are doubts as to whether you can do something you physically prohibit your brain from accessing the parts of itself that will make the action in question possible. If you keep your mind open and have faith that you can do something you allow your brain to find the resources to make it happen. Your mind is an untapped source of ultimate potential: Don’t underestimate it!

Finally is another point that some people adopt and find beneficial and some people don’t. Some people say to keep writing once you start and not stop. What you can do is do your research, then with those points in mind just start writing and keep going. What happens is you will get out a lot of information quickly but it will be unstructured and you will have to later structure it and rearrange it to make sense. If you are writing articles this may be beneficial and if you get out a whole article quickly by doing this, by all means go ahead. Trouble is, it’s harder said than done and that’s why I believe its easier to embrace the inevitable pauses in your writing and continually refer to my structure so you always know what to write next as soon as you pause.

In concluding this section, I find the non stop writing idea more valuable when I know about the topic of the article before hand but when it’s a niche article on a subject I’m not familiar with this method doesn’t really help me. Again make the decision for yourself because its all about what makes things faster for YOU.

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77 Make a list of your target audience. Write down what reasons would attract them to purchase your product. Include those reasons in your ad copy. For example, if my target audience was business owners and affiliate marketers, I would write down things like - make money, increase sales, cut costs, etc.

78 Include any proven facts in your ad copy. They could be customer surveys, scientific tests, product reviews, etc. For example, you could say, "FACT: Our product withstood an elephant walking over it!" Another example, "(business name) Research found that our product reduces stress by 325%."

79 Look for different ways to prove your business and products to your audience. You could collect testimonials, hold surveys, do scientific tests, etc. For example, if you were selling a money-making product, you could use a picture of one of your actual checks.

80 Tell your prospects that your product has better safety features. People want to feel safe when they use your products. For example, you could say, "Our product has tested safer than any other product in our category." Another example, "Our product comes with a safety lock and switch."

81 Try new business ideas and strategies. Do not be afraid of changing what you're doing. You could try out technology, advertising, marketing, etc. For example, just because you are selling e-books doesn’t mean you can't try selling printed books, DVDs, videos, cassettes, software programs, etc.

82 Solve an existing problem for people. There are thousands of problems in the world. Create a product that can provide a solution to one of those problems. For example, you could write an e-book to show people how to market their product on the Internet. Another example, you could advise people on how to get out of debt.

83 Find out what's the current hot trend. You can find out what the new trends are by watching TV, reading magazines and surfing the net. Just create a product that's related to the current hot trend. For example, if the current hot trend is pop-up ads you could write a report on how to create your own pop-up ad.

84 Improve a product that is already on the market. You see products at home, in ads, at stores, etc. Just take a product that's already out there and improve it. For example, if you read an e-book on starting your own web business and you think it could be improved, write your own e-book about that subject.

85 Create a new niche for a current product. You can set yourself apart from your competition by creating a niche. Your product could be faster, bigger, smaller, or quicker than you competitor's product. For example, if you sell downloadable software, your niche could be that it downloads faster than your leading competitor’s.

86 Add on to an existing product. You could package your current product with other related products. For example, you could package a football with a team jersey and football cards. Another example, you could package flowers with greeting cards, gifts, candy, etc.

87 Reincarnate an older product. Maybe you have a book that's out of print and is no longer being sold. You could change the title, design a new front cover, and bring some of the old content up-to-date. For example, if you wrote a book about starting your own bookstore, you could rewrite it to be about starting your own online bookstore.

88 Ask your current customers. You could contact some of your existing customers by phone or e-mail and ask them what kind of new products they would like to see on the market. For example, a customer may tell you that he would like to see you offer free consulting with each e-book you sell. If one person thinks that, then usually more do too.

89 Combine two or more products together to create a new one. For example, you could take a briefcase and add a thermos compartment inside to keep a drink hot or cold. Another example, you could take an e-book and link it to a related online message board.