There is a new way of earning a living that wasn’t available to us 10 years ago, but today is building massive success stories and even millionaires.

When growing up, most of us were taught in school and/or by our parental figures that there is a pattern to life. It begins with elementary school, then high school, then university, then into a job making money for someone else (often while carrying the hefty burden of a student loan). After that there is retirement, although that has begun to change as more tired workers expecting to finally be able to enjoy life are finding out that is not necessarily an option for them.

Let’s be fair, working for others is not a bad thing, it can be a great experience in your life. What is not natural (in my opinion) is how many millions of people are only one pay-check away from disaster and that our whole socially accepted system is based on making money for someone else – and that someone else can fire you at any time. You earn just enough to pay your bills but not enough to travel and enjoy the world, or buy that big back yard jacuzzi to soak in at night or even to feel secure and happy about your future. Instead you may feel trapped with no end of the cycle in site.

Does this seem “natural” or secure to you?

Growing up with one immigrant parent I realized early on that society’s “rules” are not really rules at all, they are simply one way that you “could” choose to live. Yet most people buy into these rules without even a second thought, while in fact you can live anywhere you pretty much want on this planet, choose your vocation and live to the beat of your own drum.

This society accepted cycle or “rule”, also happens to be, by the way, largely based in fear; the fear of striking out on your own, fear of employers not having enough worker bees, fear of being different or unaccepted by society. Have you ever got the feeling that banks treat entrepreneurs or people self-employed as not really employed?

But I ask you, “When does something that is based in fear – ever turn out to be the best way to go in life?”

And who were the people who first came up with this hair-brained idea that this was the only “decent way” to make a living? My bet is the aristocrats, the government or wealthy factory owners…or simply people based in fear of the unknown. Anyway it doesn’t matter – they are history and you are not. You are living in one of the most exciting and changing times the world has ever seen.

We live in an incredible time in the history of our planet where never before could we get so much education and have direct knowledge at our fingertips. You want to learn how to make money, then find a millionaire online who is teaching it. You want to learn how to teach or work in another country – then go online and find that. One of my girlfriends woke up one morning and decided she wanted to quit her job and begin to study wines. She went online and found an ad to come work for the summer at a winery in Italy, no experience required. It turned out to be a life changing event in her life. She lived in a castle in Italy with one of the wealthiest and famous families from the US and began a whole new career.

With the power of the internet and new technology such as video on the internet and podcasting (audio or video) you can not only learn from experts around the world …you can become one!

Learn how to make money and work for yourself by selling your ideas. You can teach others who want to learn from you! You can even have your own TV or radio show at zero cost and zero permission from anyone and gain instant celebrity status. Plus you can write a book online and sell it, create a learning program online and sell that around the world or become an article writer where thousands can read and download it at a push of a button and without any publisher – or again any cost!

People from all over the world who are interested in your topic will seek you out, and you simply sell them what they want.

Today you could earn an incredible living by earning money or creating a business, where you simply sell information that you already have, and becoming known as an Expert in your field by sharing that information and helping others.

The greatest thing about this is that you can literally re-invent yourself. Let’s say you were an accountant by day for many years, but your secret passion was travel, and being an accountant you were a very savvy traveller. In fact you found not only destinations that were undiscovered by hordes of tourists and were dirt cheap for the American dollar, but you studied and found out how you could fly with free upgrades and at much lower costs than the average traveller. Well….that could be your business. If you have the expertise and experience, there is nothing stopping you from creating a travel membership site for others, or an ebook series or ezine series where you sell your tips for savvy travellers or even interviewing industry travel experts on your own radio show where you can give your audience even greater travel tips and hot spots.

To find out how you can or if you should consider yourself an “expert” please refer to my article “How Experts are Born”.

Today the main point I’d like you to take away, is the realization that most of us were taught the wrong way to make money.

The truth is that 97 out of every 100 people will go their entire lives without learning the right way to make money. The good news is that virtually anyone can be taught how to make six figures annually.

The big secret wealthy people know is this: Making money has nothing to do with age, formal education, gender or geography.

The second concept you need to take into your psyche, for anything to change in your life, is to understand that MONEY is simply a REWARD or EXCHANGE for something else. That’s it! Money could be stones or beads or paper (as it is today). It is not unreasonable to think you can acquire a lot of green or purple (or whatever color in your country) pieces of paper!

Money is not scary or powerful or elusive. It is just paper - it is simply an exchange or reward for something else (yes I repeated that but it is so important).

To help put this in perspective for you, let’s look at the 3 main strategies for making money (or acquiring paper):

1. Trading Time for Money. That’s when you pretend to work and they pretend to pay you. The big flaw with this method is that people work their entire lives until they’re exhausted and barely have any time off to enjoy their money. You may feel stuck or unable to do what you want or get what you need, because the bills outweigh the bank account. When you have a job you are exchanging your time so you don’t get paid unless you work specific hours- you become a slave to your job. And what you earn is always limited as you can’t work more hours than there are in a day and working crazy hours makes your family life suffer and you end up exhausted, so where’s the prize there?

2. Trading Money for Money. This method is used only by 3% of the population today. The Golden rule of investing is - only invest what you can afford to lose. Ok here’s a question - If you don’t have the money to start with – or any “extra” money how are you ever going to get into it?

3. Trading Value for Money. This is what I do, and what I mentor other people to do. You get paid for your value when you solve someone’s problem or give them information, training or experience. Thousands of people just like you are learning how to make money by selling their information or expertise. They're capitalizing on their own imaginations, knowledge of life or work experiences, by selling information they already have and building a home-based business out of it often times with no employees. And the best part is - they are spending next to nothing to get started. All you really need is a computer and a phone, something most of us already have.

Your computer & your phone can become your own ATM machine – that’s power and freedom over your life, but you’ll also receive heartfelt thank-you’s from people, and that’s more rewarding and fulfilling than anything else.

Chances are you are throwing away literally thousands of dollars every month by not sharing your knowledge. We all have a built-in natural need to learn from each other in this world, that is why this “business” or way of earning money has become so incredibly successful. We constantly share information and experiences with our friends and our family to help them out – so why not bottle it and help even more people? Why not turn that into a business? Share your information with even more people, and make money in the process! It’s a win/win. You feel great and so does your customer.

Do you enjoy working for yourself? Would you like to make a minimum of $100,000 a year? Can you work in an environment from home and set your own hours? Imagine being able to live life in a more “natural” way, the way I believe we are meant to, where you help others while you get to enjoy the good things in life, like creating your own raises and salaries whenever you want to, going to the park or Disneyland with your family on a moments notice and without carrying any financial burdens or debt load of a educational loans.

Wouldn't you love to make six figures a year from your couch or home office? Millions of people are using intellectual property marketing to make money for themselves. So can you.

To learn how you can create this type of business step by step simply visit www.mitprogram.com for more info or email me: mit@stefaniehartman.com

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Send us your wit or wisdom: ezine@stefaniehartman.com

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Dear Stefanie,

How do I know if my product idea is marketable?

Thanks!

Jim M.

Thanks Jim, Good question, I just received a very similar question in the MIT students private forum.

Here are some 5 easy yet effective ways of finding out if your product idea is marketable:

1) Listen to what your customers are telling you they want or they wish they had or what they are struggling with and need some help with.
2) Talk to people about what you are planning to create and watch their reaction – do they understand it – get excited about it or are they ho-hum about it. [Make sure they are your target market].
3) Go find your potential customers in forums, blogs or chat rooms - read the posts, interact with them and find out what is wanted and needed.
4) Place a classified ad in newspapers and test your response. [This is how Robert Allen tested and started his “No Money Down” concept]
5) Create a pay-per click ad and test it.

Here are 2 golden marketing secrets for you:

#1) You may have heard the phrase “it’s not how good your book is – it’s how many people know about it that is important”. The number one rule is that good promotion overrides good content. While I urge you to write a book that has great content, the hard sad truth is the promotional value is a major element to your sales success.

#2) As far as something selling...how committed to it are you? Are you willing to adjust your plans along the way?

This is perhaps the biggest secret in this industry. It’s not whether or not it will work – its how do we get it to work? Are you willing to travel down that path to figure it out? Are you willing to change the product from a 6 week course to a weekend seminar if that is preferred? Are you willing to change the copy or title or packaging so that more consumers understand what your product is and more importantly…understand why they should rush to buy it today.

This sounds simple, yet every once in a while I meet entrepreneurs who are so set on their product being exactly as they want, versus what their customers want, that they dig their heels into the ground and refuse to budge. By doing so, they are not only digging their heels into the mud they are also burying their business and their profits.

Make the commitment to sell your product and do whatever it takes to do so!

An ounce of flexibility is worth and a pound of gold in marketing.

Stefanie

If you have a question on marketing or business building that you would like to ask Stefanie please send your questions along with your contact information to: ezine@stefaniehartman.com Subject: Ezine Dear Stefanie

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