Starting an Online Business 3

This is my first ever blog. Yeppers, I’m a 55 year old newbie . . . . but that doesn’t mean that what I have to say about starting an online business is necessarily biased or lacking objectivity – I’ve been researching the subject for a long time. What it does mean is that I’m probably going to make a few mistakes delivering my thoughts to you – but that’s OK too. In his best-selling book “If You Want to be Rich and Happy, Don’t Go to School,” the famous self-development guru, Robert Kiyosaki, wrote that the way to accelerate your learning is to actively make as many mistakes as you can as quickly as you can. This is totally the opposite of most traditional schooling where we were only ever valued for the things we got right and where what we got wrong was often ignored and given very little attention - but as we all know, intuitively and empirically, we learn from our mistakes.

So now that my initial excitement at starting an online business is under some degree of control, I owe you a decent introduction and some logical reasons why I may be worth listening to if you’re considering the “Starting an Online Business” strategy for yourself . . . . . So here goes . . . . . My name is Keir Douglas and I’ve been a hunter for over 30 years. I do my hunting from the driver’s seat of a taxi-cab and the process is functionally very little different from that of a professional fisherman or shooter. One learns to understand the habits of the prey; the changing economic seasons; the social activity cycles of the human herd: To think quicker than the other hunters competing for the food; to be more observant and to react faster; to spot the opportunities; to play the probabilities and to avoid congregating with dozens of other hunters at the predictable popular hunting grounds, waterholes, sandbanks and reefs.

Turning away from a university education at twenty-two years of age and diving into the sea of life at a primal "survival" level has generated some remarkable consequences over the years. When I pause to consider how much I have learned about what it is to be human; about our biologically programmed habits; our intelligence; our common goals, fears, desires and needs; our frailties and our strengths - I consider myself extremely fortunate to be amongst the minority of people in developed nations who have experienced our life on Earth in this way.

Living, as I have, without concern for the 'morrow has caused me to live simply and within my means; to avoid wasting income on servicing debt, delay gratification until I can pay cash, be interested in the nature of change and open to opportunity. While I may be starting an online business, I do not require one to be successful in my own small way. I own my home, a couple of cars, a small investment property. I have always viewed life as being a trade-off between time and money and my relationship with my family demonstrates the effect of having lots of time to spend loving and explaining, discussing and assisting. I have behaved “as if” I was financially independent, secure in the knowledge that always through life I would “see” the next step forward if I kept my eyes peeled and my senses alert.

There is no doubt in my mind that intelligence is the critical distinction between we humans and Aesop's lazy grasshopper who played a fiddle all summer while the ants worked hard only to starve in the winter when the ants were safe and warm with the food they'd collected. I budget a proportion of my income to buy knowledge from people who've established their credibility and posted “runs on the board.” So I’m starting an online business now because I have finally found people like Andy Jenkins and the team at Stompernet that I trust know enough about it to save me a lot of time and wasted effort and money and risk. See what you think if you're considering starting your own online business. Keir

Starting an Online Business 2

Starting an online business . . . . me?? . . . . . . who’da thunk it?? I can't sleep. . . . It’s 0400 on Monday morning after a Geekversity weekend seminar in BrizVegas. My head is swimming and buzzing and I have this excitement in my chest that says my life has just changed direction. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not usually given to indulging these feelings at the drop of a hat – in fact the last time was probably the birth of my son 18 years ago . . . . . back then my anticipation was tinged with quite a bit more fear and trepidation than I feel right now. My excitement is also decidedly not the sort of emotional, enthusiastic, "hopeful" high I’ve felt a number of times before in my life following the hoopla of network marketing conventions and the like. Rather it stems from a calm and rational knowing that I've been privileged to learn principles underpinning the greatest change in human communication since the Tower of Babel, from Shaun and his team. It burns the more intensely from my own understanding that the foundations of this digital communication revolution are still under construction; that one day the entire world will use the Internet (or it’s successor) to trade and communicate; and that armed with my new knowledge I have the power to make a difference to the lives of my family and all my descendants. Since you’re investing your time reading my “starting an online business” blog, I presume that you know - logically - there has to be a lot of money “somewhere” in the Internet. Like I did, you probably wonder who knows where it is? Who to listen to; who to trust; who has the 'duck’s guts' information to save you wasting time and money on 'wild goose chasing' and save you from the pain of seeing your hopes dashed? So before “starting an online business” – DO YOUR RESEARCH! 'Year of the Affiliate' is a great place to start. To be truly successful you'll need to know where the money is in all three levels of the Internet – to maximize your profitability and assure a dependable, lasting income stream. I know now! - And I owe my good fortune to this Sky News - Business Channel interview. Without it I'd still be in the dark . . . and here I am, a week later, already earning Internet income and starting an online business.

keir

Starting an Online Business 1

Starting an online business is an undertaking shrouded in fear, suspicion and mystery for a majority of baby boomers like me. A couple of weeks ago I had the extreme good fortune to meet Shaun Stenning and his wife Stephanie who, together with Sean Rasmussen, head up a remarkable training organisation in Australia called Geekversity. Geekversity is dedicated to disseminating factual and practical knowledge about how the money flows in, around and through the World Wide Web, making it easy for even 55 year olds like me to understand how internet wealth is generated and contemplate starting an online business. That money is being made from the internet has always been beyond doubt but just how easy it is to do, given a small amount of time and education, has come as a revelation, not only to me but to all my fellow seminar companions you see on the video – most of whom I would describe (with the utmost respect) as "middle aged" computer illiterates and novices. In fact, for everyone struggling with the perennial life problem of balancing the competing demands of time and money, today’s Geekversity teaching modules have convinced me the internet is a goldmine for the willing worker in possession of some basic tools and a reliable map.

The first essential to grasp when starting an online business is that retailing generates only a proportion of total Internet wealth and that developing the capacity of the World Wide Web and the trading of information and traffic are equally important sources of wealth. A simple form of trading (and an excellent choice for starting an online business) is the process of ‘affiliate marketing.’ Rasmussen’s excellent text, “Year of the Affiliate” is a complete and reliable reference containing the knowledge necessary to succeed at establishing an effective source of passive Internet income for yourself.

Not everyone will be fortunate enough to hear about the principles governing starting an online business explained firsthand, clearly and simply, by big Sean and little Shaun but for those of you who haven’t lost faith that opportunity will come knocking one day, I, and the rest of my Geekversity classmates recommend you grab a copy of Sean’s ebook and get cracking. Information equals power and with 1.5 billion people logging on to the Internet each day there’s enough wealth for all. Get your copy of “Year of the Affiliate” now and get stuck into starting an online business.

keir