If you’ve ever wondered exactly what it takes to put together a non-trivial Internet business – here’s a rare opportunity to see up-close how it’s done. This is a chance to fully understand what is really involved – the challenges and issues and setbacks - as opposed to the story you’re normally told about how easy everything is.

I am in the process of setting up Twitter Professionals, which will provide a range of Twitter related products and services and memberships. This is not a single-product website, but a family of products and services and multiple related websites. (That's why it's a 'non-trivial' business.)

Recently, it has become obvious to me that the model I am creating is one that I will certainly want to replicate for future online business ventures: it has taken – and is still taking – a lot of effort to define and set up the required infrastructure, and I fully plan on re-using all that effort, as well as refining the process. And then it occurred to me that others could benefit from seeing not only the end result, but more importantly, the process I am following to get there.

And so I got the idea of forming a Club where I would share all my learning with the members. As a member, this is what you will get:

• Invitations to attend weekly webcasts covering a variety of topics (see below)
• Q&A sessions after the webcasts
• The ability to download recordings of past webcasts and Q&A sessions
• Access to a private forum where you can ask further questions and have discussions with each other
• Access to whatever materials could be of value, such as planning templates and examples of request for bids
• Access to my “Online Internet Marketing k-Map”.
  
  Some while ago I started storing my useful links and learnings about Internet Marketing in a sharable Mind Map format (like my Twitter Resources k-Map http://twitter.k-maps.com). I’ve toyed with making this available to others online for a fee, but it’s a long way from being complete enough. However, I’ll give you access anyway as part of the Club membership.

PLUS:

• If you are still a member when the first information product is launched – the Twitter Tools Report - you will get that for free.
• If you are still a member when the second information product is launched – the Twitter Master System – you will get that at 50% discount
• Access to the script as a beta user (I don’t want to say more about this yet.)

The topics I cover in the seminars will be based on the following activities that I have done/am doing/plan to do

• Defining and creating a number of information products using Mind Maps, PDFs and Spreadsheets
  
  
• Identifying the need for Twitter related services
  
• Getting a script written for that service:

• Specifying the requirements for a script,
• Finding developers
• Working with them
• Testing the script
• Integrating it

• Creating a suitable infrastructure and integrating all the components which include

• Choosing suitable domain names for multiple sites
• Setting up and configuring one of the most advanced e-commerce platforms (Delavo)
• Using one of the most advanced content management sites (Drupal)
• Installing and configuring a WordPress blog
• Setting up and using a number of Twitter Accounts
• Researching and identifying an advanced auto-responder with the required facilities
• Defining an inter-linked network of auto-responder sequences

• Getting graphics created

• Defining the needs for graphics across all the products
• Identifying a graphic designer
• Choosing a suitable "tone" and "style"
• Providing the right degree of "control"

• Defining and putting into practice a plan for traffic generation
  
• Defining and putting into practice a plan for finding affiliates
  
• Working out how to handle metrics and measurement
  
• Creating ways to record how all the components of the business relate to each other
  
• Recording the business requirements, plans and schedules
  
• Using online collaboration systems for working with outsourcers and other collaborators
  
• Finding resources to help run the business
  
• The bigger picture: defining how the Twitter Professionals business fits into my overall online business strategy
  
• .... and probably others…

Let me clear about what this is NOT and what you will NOT be getting:

• This will not be a comprehensive blueprint with detailed instructions that you can simply copy and paste. However if you are a reasonably experienced Internet marketer, and you wanted to create a similar business model, this will save you a great deal of time.
• This will not be a properly planned course with a published timetable of topics. This will be much more fluid, and the topics I cover will be influenced by the voice of the members.
• You will not learn everything there is about Internet Marketing. I will only be talking about what is related to creating and setting up this business.
• This will not be suitable for Internet Marketing beginners; the business model being discussed is not one I would recommend for the beginner. However, getting the infrastructure right is key to any business, and the ideas here will help new people understand the foundations they will need to put in place for the longer term.

At this point I can't predict for how long the club will exist. My current intention would be to keep it going until I run out of interesting things to talk about. Of course you'd be able to cancel whenever you felt you had learnt enough.

To begin with I'm going to limit membership of this club to 50 people, and the charge will be $47 per month. If you are unhappy after the first two webcasts, you can leave the Club and receive a full refund.

Finally, not everyone will be allowed to join.

For reasons of commercial sensitivity, and to ensure that people without a suitable background are not wasting their money. I wish to vet everyone who wishes to join.

So, if you are interested, please contact me via my helpdesk (select Behind The Scenes Business Club for the department) and tell me the following:

• A little about yourself (unless I already know you)
• How sure you are that you wish to join to the club
• Your email address
• Your Twitter ID

I will respond within 48 hours and if appropriate, I’ll let you know the planned start date and give you instructions for joining.

Please remember that I am limiting membership (for now) to the first 50 who qualify. Confirming your commitment now reserves your spot.

Also, unless I get 20 committed members, I will not go ahead. Fewer than that will not warrant the distraction from me actually putting the business together!

I hope this interests you and that I’ll be able to welcome you to the club shortly.

Kind regards
 

Alex Goodall

The question: What is stopping you from creating and operating a profitable internet marketing business? A deceptively simple question - but the the answer could be transforming to your business if you are honest enough with yourself, and act on the answer! I have some ideas about what the most common answer will be - but rather than presume and assume, I'd like to ask and inquire!

If this topic interests you, please register here to stay informed of how our ideas develop. (You won't get lots of extraneous promotions by doing this, so please make sure you use your primary email address!)

This last week I had some exchanges with two subscribers, and without any prompting from me, they revealed that their biggest issues was.... Not traffic... Not lack of know-how... Not product development... Not social marketing... Not traffic conversions; not tracking; not launching a product; not website design ... not ANY of the things about which we all get promoted to multiple times a day. And it wasn't even "how to organize my hard drive"!! No. The common theme was FOCUS. Just sticking to one thing and seeing it through to completion: that was what these two subscribers found the hardest. Now, you probably know that I've already identified this as a huge problem for just about every internet marketer, and I created a small, low-cost product to help in this area - the Laser-Focus Shield But it's clear that the problem is far too big to be solved by a single, small product. In fact, Focus is just one of a range of related issues that can't be picked out and solved in isolation. I've spent some hours sketching out my ideas on this, and I have some (in my opinion) very exciting options. But before saying anything about them, I'd really like to hear from YOU. Put aside issues around traffic and conversion and product development and so on. Just focussing on strategy and planning and operations - what are YOUR biggest issues? Please post your answers below. Here are the sort of things to think about:

• Defining your personal goals
• Defining your business goals
• Deciding on a business model
• Learning new skills
• Building a team
• Finding a "master mind" group
• Not having anyone to be accountable to
• Feeling isolated
• Having to do everything yourself
• Not being able to collaborate online (e.g. in a shared team space)
• Not having a mentor
• Having no deadlines
• Having no-one to brainstorm with / bounce ideas off
• Not being able to create a project plan
• Perfectionism
• Time management
• Distractions from email etc.
• Staying focussed on one project
• Having a disorganized filing system
• anything else!!

So - give me your thoughts on this below: tell me your top THREE issues - either from those above, or anything else. I am VERY interested in what you have to say. (But please - DON'T put down "finding JV partners", "getting traffic", "finding a niche" etc. : you can get information about that in many different places.) Regards Alex

If this topic interests you, please register here to stay informed of how our ideas develop. (You won't get lots of extraneous promotions by doing this, so please make sure you use your primary email address!)

*** File under Business Strategy - click for details. *** There are thousands of internet marketing "experts" selling to the internet marketing niche itself. But you can count on the fingers of one mutilated hand the number who specifically focus on providing serious advice concerning IM strategies and planning. 99% of internet marketing products are tactical, and their subject matter falls into one of three categories:

Techniques - such as traffic generation, traffic conversion, testing & tracking, market/keyword research etc.

.

Content - such as PLR artcles, resell rights products, graphics etc.

and

Blueprints - step-by-step instructions (at the tactical level) for running a particular type of internet marketing business

But despite the unbelievable wealth of information and support available - much of it very good (but a lot of dross as well) - the majority of would-be internet marketing entrepreneurs still make little or no money. Obviously, there is a percentage who will never make anything because they are lazy and/or incompetent: that's the reality of life. But there are many others who are intelligent, hard working and committed - but who still fail to make any reasonable income. I believe a core reason for this is that they fail to think strategically, and fail to plan. And, like I said at the beginning of this article, precious few people are providing any support at this level. This is a topic that interests me greatly, and which I have been thinking about for some time. I have a series of products/reports planned that I will start to publish next year - but in the meantime, I have registered a domain and created a one-page site to announce these ideas. It is: http://IMStrategyAndPlanning.com If you'd like early notification of the availability of these reports, just add your details below. Note that this list will ONLY be used to inform you of developments in IM Strategy And Planning. Alex

Version 2 of the IM Index Mind Map was due to go live on the 27th September - but we had a slight delay - and then decided to wait a little longer to squeeze in some development that was in the pipeline. But everything seems to be coming together nicely. I've re-done the sales page, and altough it's not officially live, you can see it here: *** Update: Now Launched! See IM Index Mind Map