A few years ago, I was part of a panel of supposedly successful people speaking to a room packed with about a thousand college seniors.

Our topic: how to be successful.

When it was my turn, I asked the students: “How many of you want to be successful?”

Every hand in the room shot up.

I then asked: “Who can tell me what success is?”

Not a single hand in the room was raised.

“If you don’t know what success is,” I asked the students, “then how are you going to get there?”

This is the dilemma facing many people I meet today.

They desperately want to be “successful”.

But when you ask them what that would mean, they either can’t give you a definitive answer, or they say it would be becoming a millionaire.

They define success by how much money they have because that’s how the world keeps score.

But does becoming a millionaire really make you successful?

If you won the lottery or inherited the money, you are a millionaire, but are you really a success?

If you have to do something unethical or illegal to make that much money, are you really a success?

If you work marathon days at a job that makes you miserable, same question.

That’s why early in my career, I thought about what success meant to me, not what others thought success is.

And I came up with this definition: Success is doing what I want to do…when I want to do it…with the people I want to work with…and getting paid very, very well for it.

I don’t claim this is a perfect definition for success. And it may not work for you. But it works for me and many others I have shared it with in my books and lectures.

Let’s break down this definition of success piece by piece…

“Success is doing what I want to do.”

To me, 90% of the secret of enjoying life is having a job or business you love…one you’re so excited and enthusiastic about, you jump out of bed every morning eager to get to your office and start the day.

After all, you spend more than half your waking hours working. If you don’t like work—and millions of people don’t—then your days will seem to drag on almost forever. It’s close to torture.

Now, the mistake people make is to believe the old saying, “Pursue your passion and the money will follow.”

There are plenty of things people are passionate about (e.g. 18th century Peruvian poetry) that may be fun and interesting but have close to zero money-making potential.

The trick is to pursue an interest of yours (e.g., restoring classic cars) that people will pay for.

Aristotle said words to the effect that wherein your passion intersects with the needs of the public, therein lies your vocation.

Next, success is doing what you love “when I want to do it.”

This is why 9-to-5 employment was not for me: I resented being told what to do and when to do it.

I could not abide having my freedom taken away and being subject to someone else’s whims at their beck and call.

And so I quit to become a freelance copywriter.

One of the dangers of self-employment is the crisis-lull-crisis rhythm of so many businesses.

To protect yourself against the slow times, you should create multiple streams of income – some active, some passive.

I have 5 income streams: (a) copywriting, (b) consulting, (c) Internet marketing, (d) writing books, and (e) giving workshops and seminars.

That way, I am always busy. If copywriting would ever slow, as happened a few times very early in my career, I would turn to the book I had under contract or do some workshops.

The best thing is that, being self-employed, I can largely work on tasks and projects when I want to do them, not when someone else tells me to do them.

Even meetings and conference calls are scheduled by me when I want to and can do them, not when someone else commands me to.

My old friend DH says, “I don’t like taking orders, and I don’t like giving orders.” I feel the same way.

That’s why, aside from my administrative assistant, JV, I work alone. And JV is a virtual assistant, so I really am alone all day, as I prefer.

Success is doing what I want to do, when I want to do it, “with the people I want to work with”.

By working diligently and consistently to build my copywriting practice, I could soon pick and choose the clients I accepted.

This way I could work only with people I like and respect—and only on projects that interest me.

If you are in a service business, figure out how much self-promotion you need to do to fill your book of business and then do twice that amount of marketing.

This will fill your lead pipeline to overflowing and allow you to pick and choose what clients and assignments you take on.

The last part of my success formula: “getting paid very, very well.”

Goal-setting experts would find fault with this statement, because it does not specify a dollar amount of money.

Well, I live in an affluent neighborhood. So I decided that for me, getting paid well meant earning 4X or more per year than my average neighbor.

You may have a different money goal: higher annual earnings or the accumulation of a net worth of a certain dollar amount; i.e. a million bucks.

That’s a valuable and laudable goal, but it simply isn’t part of my personal success definition. But by all means, if you want it to be part of your success definition, go for it.

One other thing…

I have a litmus test for your definition of success, and it’s simple: Does it allow you to live comfortably? Does it make you happy?

If you can say yes, then you are successful. At least in my eyes. And I hope in yours, too.

Bob Bly is the author of “World’s Best Copywriting Secrets” and has written copy for more than 100 companies including IBM, Boardroom, Medical Economics and AT&T. He is the author of more than 75 books and a columnist for Target Marketing, Early To Rise and The Writer. McGraw-Hill calls him “America’s top copywriter”.

You’ve GOT to see this.

Brendon Burchard is practically giving away $14,792 of training right now as part of the LAST 48-HOURS of registration to his coaching course.

Here’s what’s going on.

Brendon’s High Performance Academy Master’s Course and Coaching program is an advanced 5-week training that teaches you how to get heightened and sustained levels of clarity, energy, courage, productivity, and influence in all areas of your life.

If you’ve been struggling in any area of your life lately, the only way through it is to get the best out of yourself and take back command of your life; high performance is the path to doing that.

Brendon’s High Performance programs are usually $1000 by themselves, but he’s JUST announced a HUGE discount and an unbelievable bonus package (for the next 48 hours ONLY):

+ The $5,000 INFLUENCE course, which is an advanced sales, negation and leadership training

+ The $5,000 Business Accelerator Crash Course, a program on simple and effective ways to 10x business growth

+ 12 months of access to a Q&A forum where you can correspond with Brendon personally (his coaching clients pay $45,000 per year for his guidance!)

These are in ADDITION to his previously announced bonuses:

+ 12-months of free training after the 5-weeks (usually $804 on its own)

+ The High Performance Academy DVD Core Course (usually $997 on its own)

+ 2 tickets to the live High Performance Academy seminar ($1994 value)

This must be the offer of the year.

Brendon is the highest-paid high-performance training in the world, and there’s a reason: he knows what works NOW and he knows how to guide you by the hand, help you find clarity and courage, and motivate you to your highest levels of excellence and contributions.

If you’re ever going to get incredibly committed to your personal transformation and professional achievement, to hitting high gear with your level of success, abundance, and mastery in life, then you really have to watch this video.

FREE web workshop scheduled on Tuesday, May 15, 2012 5:00 PM – 7:00 pm EDT reveals a simple-to-use system for building your local consulting business and ‘auto-closing’ your sales. Check it out here.

As long as you are inclined towards business aspirations, anyone can do this, rinse and repeat, and succeed.

On this training, you learn how to:

- Target high-value clients eager and stampeding over the competition to spend money with you

- Qualify any local business lead to never waste a moment of your time

- Implement a simple 2-step qualification process that removes all the heavy lifting on your part

- Automate the closing process w/o the need to talk to your clients until after purchase

- Show value upfront with absolutely no real “work” using a proven “plug and play” system

- Properly position yourself as an authority to easily close $500, $1,500 or even $5,000 a month deals

This isn’t some ‘trick’ to get prospects to pay attention to you.

It’s a proven, scalable process—a SYSTEM—that’s extremely simple to duplicate and takes advantage of a variety of marketing fundamentals that everyone should be using at their business.

You’ll learn exactly how to do it by registering here.

My local mall has a food court with some pretty good places to eat.

The busiest by far is Chick-Fil-A.

Why?

Because an employee is usually standing in front of the counter, giving away samples.

It’s a well-known and very simple marketing technique that many marketers ignore: you can sell more of your product by giving some away.

It works because free is one of the most powerful words in the English language…and people love free stuff.

In fact, one of my friends made his fortune in mail order by publishing and selling through direct response ads a small book titled, “A Few Thousand of the Best Free Things in America”.

It’s great fun to go through the book and send for all the free stuff!

One of my subscribers, SJ, writes: “Subscribers often expect free stuff as a right, rather than a good turn.”

That’s been my experience. Getting free stuff has become the expected standard, not a rare bonus.

If you sell everything and give away nothing, your readers will see you as mercenary rather than concerned about their welfare.

No one likes being ripped off. No one likes feeling that their vendor is squeezing them for every dime they have.

That’s why I price most of my products under $50 while my competitors charge hundreds of dollars—or even thousands—for their products covering similar topics.

And every product I sell comes with at least one free bonus.

I also give away stuff in my freelance copywriting practice.

For instance, I routinely give away an audio CD on copywriting that sells for $29.

In some cases, I also give away a copy of one of my books as a gift.

Here are some suggestions for strengthening your marketing results by giving away stuff for free:

>> Give away a bonus with every product you sell.

>> Make bonus reports generous. Mine average 50 pages of content. Yours can be shorter.

>> Offer freebies to your e-list; e.g. free webinars, videos, special reports, e-books.

>> When you have a customer complaint, resolve it and then give the customer a free e-book or report to make up for their inconvenience.

>> If you publish an e-newsletter, make it content-rich, not just a sales vehicle.

>> Answer subscriber questions about your products by e-mail or phone.

Bob Bly is the author of “World’s Best Copywriting Secrets” and has written copy for more than 100 companies including IBM, Boardroom, Medical Economics and AT&T. He is the author of more than 75 books and a columnist for Target Marketing, Early To Rise and The Writer. McGraw-Hill calls him “America’s top copywriter”.

I have been coming up with ideas for books and selling them to traditional publishing houses continually since 1981.

My track record so far: 80 published books and counting.

Has anything changed in the process of selling your book to a major publisher in the last 30 years or so?

Oh, yes indeed:

1 – Many non-fiction books have been sold based on a clever or useful repackaging of known information.

Example: Dummies and Idiot’s Guide books convey useful but known information with unique packaging and format. (I should know. I’ve written one of each.)

Today, editors increasingly demand unique information: innovative techniques or ideas that have not appeared in other books before. Fresh packaging and format alone are not enough.

2 – If you do not have an active website on the topic of your proposed book, your chances of selling it to a big publishing house are slim. Editors are now asking potential authors to provide web analytic reports showing their website hits and unique visits.

If your website has little traffic, you are in trouble. Therefore, I urge you to optimize your site for the keyword used in your book title.

3 – Blog. Having a blog can get you a book deal, and not having a blog can impede you from obtaining one.

One major publisher just asked me for my blog stats, which I must confess I don’t ever look at.

Another gave me a $20,000 book contract based on one of my blog posts!

4 – Social media. The same major publisher who asked for my blog stats also wanted to know the number of LinkedIn contacts, Facebook friends, and Twitter followers I had—3 more statistics I never pay the least bit of attention to. But now I will have to start.

This is a bad trend for writers like me who are not active participants in social networks.

5 – List size. Do you publish an e-newsletter? How many subscribers do you have?

A monthly or more frequently published e-zine with 50,000 or more subscribers is enticing to book publishers; they want to know you have a built-in audience you can easily and cheaply reach online.

6 – Book sales. What other books have you written and how many copies have sold?

You can’t hide weak sales; the new publisher can easily find this out from your existing publishers. If your last book went into the toilet in sales, publishers are likely to stay away from your next one.

7 – What is your “main platform”? How well known are you to the potential buyers of your book? How many of them are there?

If Dr. Oz wants to write a health book, it will get published because he is on television. If you want to write a health book, good luck.

The bottom line: it is getting more and more difficult to sell your book idea to a mainstream publisher today.

You need more than a good book idea or even a good book. You need a reputation in your niche, a large built-in audience for your book, and a cost-effective way to reach them.

Bob Bly is the author of “World’s Best Copywriting Secrets” and has written copy for more than 100 companies including IBM, Boardroom, Medical Economics and AT&T. He is the author of more than 75 books and a columnist for Target Marketing, Early To Rise and The Writer. McGraw-Hill calls him “America’s top copywriter”.

You’ll find this interesting.

EVERYONE dreams about becoming personally and financially free on THEIR terms.

Everyone wants to make a fabulous living where they’re the boss and they call the shots. But that’s not all…we all want to make a DIFFERENCE at the same time (after all, what feels better than going to sleep at night knowing you’re supporting others to be successful…while generating an abundant, dream income at the same time?)

And yes, a lot of people make this dream a reality.

But let me tell you something…while there are many legitimate ways to find economic freedom, there are few that offer control of your destiny and personal fulfillment at the same time.

But there’s one way that tends to make all the others, well, not as appealing. And today, I’m going to tell you how you can make this happen for yourself (it’s not as hard as you think… more on this below).

What is it?

The secret is to become a Certified Business Coach. Here’s why:

- you have access to a market worth billions of dollars

- you have potential clients who will do anything to help their businesses grow…people who see hiring a business coach as a true investment

- you’ll get respect in your community as a recognized expert business coach

- you’ll receive incredible gratification knowing your expertise is helping others succeed

- you DON’T need experience to make this dream a reality

- AND, you’ll be the envy of all now that you too have found a way to make lasting financial freedom and personal fulfillment an undeniable reality.

********* HERE’S THE GOOD NEWS ***********

Celebrity hypnotist Steve G. Jones, along with internationally acclaimed life and business coach, best-selling author and personal development expert, Dr. Joe Rubino, have put together the most comprehensive Business Coaching Certification program around.

But don’t worry: you’re not going to need textbooks and months of study. They’ve stripped out all the fluff and given you all the secrets of the trade…tactics for business success that very few people know about (imagine what you could do if you ever wanted to start a side business of your own!).

But the best part?

As a “welcome aboard” gift, they’ve decided to offer this full-throttle Business Coach Certification at a whopping 95% off! (this program is normally offered for $675 at AUNLP.org…just don’t enroll there!)

This is a very limited time opportunity to pick it up at this huge 95% discount.

Watch a short sample module video here.

Many Internet marketers I know hate refund requests.

“My product is great,” they think. “Anybody who would return it must be a boob.”

Not necessarily. In fact, there are 6 perfectly legitimate reasons why some of your customers will return your product for a refund:

1) They change their minds.

I had one customer return my Internet Marketing Retirement Plan CDs. Reason? After listening to them, he decided the business was not for him.

2) They’ve heard it before.

The customer has already bought 9 programs on this topic and yours is the 10th. If there’s nothing new in yours, he may return it for refund.

3) They didn’t understand what they were buying.

I had one customer scream at me, “These discs won’t play in my car’s CD player.”

“That’s because, as it clearly says on my web site, they are DVDs, not audio CDs,” I replied.

This was clearly stated on the landing page. But not everybody reads every word of your copy. So he could easily have missed it.

I also have e-book buyers complain that they have not received a hardcover or paperback book when it clearly says “e-book” in my sales copy.

4) They don’t like your media.

Every week people complain to me that they don’t like audio CDs, DVDs, and e-books, and why don’t I produce my program in a format they do like.

One solution for audio and DVD products: transcribe them and sell a PDF of the transcription (or give it away as a free bonus with purchase of the CDs or DVDs).

5) They think the material is out of date.

On the Internet, any information product with a copyright date older than a couple of years is seen by some buyers as automatically out of date. Ridiculous, but that’s how they feel.

6) They think your product is of inferior quality.

One customer requesting refund told me, “Your product is worth the $29 you charge for it, but not more than that.”

People don’t want their money’s worth. They want more than their money’s worth.

So how do you cut down on your refund rates and product returns?

Here are a few suggestions:

>> Update your information products at least every year or two, preferably more often. That way, they reflect your latest thinking and knowledge as well as industry developments.

>> For these revised editions, update the copyright date to reflect the latest edition.

>> Offer your information in multiple formats—print, audio, video.

>> Make it clear on the landing page whether a particular product is an e-book, audio CD album, DVD set, subscription website, whatever.

>> Organize your material by chapter, module, disk, track, whatever. The better organized your information, the more valuable to the customer.

>> Give a longer guarantee (e.g., 90 days) rather than a shorter guarantee. The longer the customer has the product, the less likely he is to return it.

>> In the beginning or introduction to the product, give your bio and credentials as an expert in the field.

>> Collect testimonials about the product from satisfied customers and post them on your landing page.

>> Sales copy should accurately describe the product. If the product doesn’t live up to its hype, you’ll get more refund requests.

>> Charge a fair price. If the customer perceives that the price is higher than the value received, she will ask for a refund.

Bob Bly is the author of “World’s Best Copywriting Secrets” and has written copy for more than 100 companies including IBM, Boardroom, Medical Economics and AT&T. He is the author of more than 75 books and a columnist for Target Marketing, Early To Rise and The Writer. McGraw-Hill calls him “America’s top copywriter”.

There are 2 types of customers you must pay special attention to in your business: (1) the excellent customer and (2) the extremely unhappy customer.

The excellent customer is someone who can’t stop buying your products, has been easy to service, and raves about you to everyone he knows.

Only now they are asking for something a bit out of the ordinary and have created a special situation that must be handled.

Since satisfied customers are your most important asset, you want to go to extremes to keep these extremely happy customers happy.

For instance, one wanted to substitute one of my e-books for a free bonus report I was offering—something we don’t normally give away.

But he had bought tons from us, so I happily gave it to him.

He was so happy, he immediately bought yet another product from me.

The other type of customer you want to handle personally and with great care is the extremely unhappy customer.

Reason: unhappy customers tell other people. The more unhappy they become, the more people they complain about you to…and the louder they say it.

In the good old days, an unhappy customer told maybe 5 or 10 other people.

But with social networking, they can tell thousands with a few key strokes and mouse clicks.

I had a problem with a product I bought online, but could get no satisfaction from the seller, who refused to even take my call.

So I wrote about it on my blog.

Within 24 hours, the marketer called, apologized profusely, immediately fixed the problem, and begged me to remove the post from my blog.

Despite this newfound power consumers enjoy online, many Internet businesses treat their customers poorly.

I hear complaints all the time from people. They tell me they bought a product online, but when they called about returning it, the Internet marketer became abrupt and rude.

Or they tell me about Internet marketers who flat out refuse, on the flimsiest of excuses, to honor their money-back guarantees.

I hear horror stories of Internet marketers who recruit affiliates, let them generate sales, and then don’t send commission checks.

A lot of consumers are frustrated that Internet marketers are so darn inaccessible.

I mean, if you have a problem with your phone line, you can call the phone company, and you eventually can get a real person on the phone, right?

But when you want to complain to an Internet marketer, more often than not there is no mailing address or phone number.

And when you send them an e-mail, you get an automated reply and not a ‘live’ human being.

The e-mail tells you how busy the marketer is. Sometimes it promises a return call from a person…which usually never comes.

I have heard of Internet marketers who blow their stacks at customers—particularly older customers—who aren’t that computer literate and have trouble opening and reading an e-book or downloading and listening to a webinar.

They may frustrate you and try your patience, but think about how frustrated they must feel. They just bought great content from you, and now they can’t access it.

The collective sigh of all the Internet customers who despair at the treatment they receive from Internet marketers is palpable.

Is this how you’re treating some or all of your customers? If so, something a speaker told me can serve as your new customer service policy…

At a recent meeting of the Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County, this speaker said that a precept of the organization is: “Every person deserves to be treated fairly and kindly.”

This is great advice, especially if you are an Internet marketer. Because from what I see, there are many Internet marketers who don’t follow this rule.

“But,” you argue, “I can’t personally respond to each complaint. That’s what I have an autoresponder or an assistant for.”

First of all, assuming your products are a good value, you’re not getting all that many complaints to begin with.

Second of all, you probably could respond to all of them, if you wanted to.

SL, a major catalog marketer, writes a personal note of apology—and sends it along with a small gift—whenever his rather large catalog company gets an unhappy customer.

If SL can do it, you and I can do it too.

But let’s say you are busy, and can personally respond to only a fraction of the complaints you get. What should you do?

Well, I hired a part-time assistant in my Internet marketing business, and it’s her job to handle all complaints and special requests, which she does with sensitivity and common sense.

However, I see all the complaints and special requests first, and I pick certain ones to handle personally. These are from the 2 types of customers I mentioned at the beginning of this essay—the extremely unhappy ones and the valuable repeat customers who spend a small fortune with you.

Every person deserves to be treated fairly and kindly. Are you treating every customer and prospect fairly? Do you do it angrily or kindly?

One more thing: add unadvertised grace periods to your money-back guarantees.

For instance, if you have a 90-day money-back guarantee and the customer returns your product on day 92, should you give him his money back anyway?

Yes, because you want to treat him fairly and kindly…just like you’d want to be treated when returning an item to a store.

And if you treat your customers fairly and kindly, they will deal with you in the same way.

Bob Bly is the author of “World’s Best Copywriting Secrets” and has written copy for more than 100 companies including IBM, Boardroom, Medical Economics and AT&T. He is the author of more than 75 books and a columnist for Target Marketing, Early To Rise and The Writer. McGraw-Hill calls him “America’s top copywriter”.

When entrepreneur mentor (and ABC’s “Secret Millionaire”) Ali Brown started her first business 12 years ago out of her tiny kitchen in NYC, all she had was an idea, an old computer, and a bit of gumption to actually try being a business owner.

Those first few years were rocky for sure. In fact, after coaching hundreds of business owners, many who are starting their first ventures, Ali believes your first THREE years in business are typically your *toughest* by far.

Ali says, “In my experience, this is also when most of you want to GIVE UP. You may think, ‘This is just too much’, or ‘I have no idea where to start’, or ‘I’m so overwhelmed and not sure where to focus!’

“The GOOD news is, if you can get through these first three years with the RIGHT information, plan, and mindset, you can be SET for life! But it’s sad that many give up.”

That’s why Ali’s hosting a special FREE CALL next week that will share the *KEY elements to making your business WORK during this foundational phase.*

It’s called “Solid Steps To Success“, taking place *THURSDAY, March 15, 2012.*

This call is SPECIFICALLY for those of you who are in your FIRST three years of a business venture.

Go here now to see everything Ali will be covering on this one-time only, FREE call!

One of the things I like about Dan Kennedy is that he tells it like it is. He gets straight to the point with no BS hype…

And this week he really is cutting to the chase on how to make a better opportunity for yourself.

Below are 4 reasons why you should be checking out Dan’s Recession Made Renegade Millionaire info this week.

Reason #1

Learn how much more wealth this economy can produce for you. Unlike a lot of the fear tactics surrounding the economy, Dan gives you a real solution so that instead of fearing this economic time, you can capitalize on it, act and make more money then you ever thought possible.

Reason #2

Discover a system tested and proven to work during recessions. There couldn’t be a better time to start or expand a business. With 35 years of experience and a long list of businesses he’s helped start and expand during recessions, I can’t think of a more qualified person to show you how to take advantage of the current economic
conditions.

Imagine what you can uncover listening to Dan answer intimate questions about his personal experience with hundreds of first generation, from scratch, millionaire and multi-millionaires.

Reason #3

Make dramatic changes. How much time do you want to give up to working at something you don’t really enjoy? Worrying about money and giving up to compromise. Dan gives an in-depth explanation of how he organizes his work, communications and time allowing him to get more done in one hour than most people get done in a day.

Reason #4

The free content alone is worth a fortune in terms of what it can mean for you. In case you haven’t tuned in yet, Dan has delivered 4 videos, each with valuable lessons you can use right now, no matter what business you are in. Dan also did a ‘LIVE’ 4-hour interview where he spilled the beans. And there’s a 7-hour expert’s webcast to answer all your questions. And that’s just the free stuff Dan’s giving away.

And now to give you one more reason to take advantage of Dan Kennedy’s Recession Made Renegade Millionaire system, Dan is now offering a generous 6-payment plan too so it’s easy to fit into your budget.

More millionaires are made during or right after a recession. In fact, all the official number crunchers have predicted that the number of millionaires is set to double in the next 10 years or faster.

Do you want to be one of them?

Head over to see what everyone’s talking about.