I Made 6 Figures Online… But, I Use PAINT for Graphics

This is a tongue-in-cheek post but points out an important concept…

Yaro Starak, a great guy that is taking the internet marketing world by storm with his simple and genuine style, is beginning his Membership Mastermind program again and I received an email that led to something funny that we all can learn from.

Below is the image Yaro used to show subscribers to his email list how to confirm their subscription. Aweber sends another email to the subscriber and this link must be clicked on to confirm a subscription is really desired…

What’s funny is Yaro’s red instructions and circle around the link…

Did he farm this out to a local Aussie kindergarten class that needed milk money? Or, was this a calculated attempt at dumbing it down so it catches our attention? If I know Yaro it’s the latter, but I still couldn’t help writing about it.

It’s funny because here is this guy that has done backflips and cartwheels above and beyond what so many are trying to do… and he can’t use a graphics program to save his life…

You know what it means?

It Doesn’t Matter!

Don’t let your weaknesses hold you back from knocking  it out of the park. Very few people know how to do everything well. Nobody is the best at every part of the puzzle… there are people that do graphics – WELL.

I’m not one of them. Want to see my junk graphics? Go to one of my Thailand blogs and have a look at the graphics there on the right column and the logo. No joke – I’m horrible.

I know a lot of what I need to know, but I don’t know everything. When I need a good logo or graphic done I pay for it – there’s no reason for me to spend 3 hours doing something that would take a pro 10 minutes.

Outsource.

Outsource.

Outsource it!

Is Your Blog Stalled Out? Revitalize it – in 31 Days – With the Master

I’ve knocked myself out building blogs over the last 3 years or so. I’ve learned tons of things over the years, and I’ve looked for guides that would help me over the first year – and never found what I needed. I was just stuck for great resources and finally did it all on my own. I’ve read thousands of posts about blogging – and how to ramp my sites up to get more traffic and to sell more products. I’ve had a looooong learning curve.

Recently there have been a number of great products coming out from people I admire, trust, and have no problem referring you to.

Darren Rowse – his name is synonymous with blogging – is the most accomplished blogger I know. He has more knowledge in his head about blogging than anyone alive. He’s truly the master.

You can learn a lot from a master.

I wasn’t sure I could learn something – as cocky as I am. I decided to get his 31 Days to Building a Better Blog workbook to see if I might be able to refer you to buy it because you might learn something.

I almost fell off my chair. The amount of great information Darren packed into this 31 day plan is astounding. I have to wonder how can a guy – one guy, put this much content out – consistently over the years… HOW? He’s done like 5,000 blog posts over 5 years of blogging. He’s put out ebooks, and speaks at conferences. He continually cranks out more content, and better content about blogging than any person on the face of the planet.

In short – he’s amazing and seems to be a very nice guy as well.

I found this 31 day program immensely helpful and I thought I knew it all.

This guide outlines a realistic 31 day program that will tighten up your blog and help get you on the right track.

I learned a LOT. I know you will learn a LOT too while going through the program.

Give it a shot!

Darren’s workbook is available here >

[Disclosure - I've purchased this guide myself and reviewed it. I've found it extremely helpful for me - and so I know you'll get a lot of out of it too. I'll make a small commission from the sales of Darren's guide.]

Greatest Obstacle to Online Success? Confusion.

I was reading an online interview of a blogger that was becoming really well known in Asia and he said one thing that struck me when asked about one of the biggest problems he’s faced online.

He said, simply, “Confusion.”

I think this resonates with a few million people in the USA alone. There’s a good reason for that…

Online success in whatever area you’re operating demands mastery of that area, or at least a very high level of functioning. It is not only difficult to reach this level in whatever area online you’re trying to master – it’s seems impossible sometimes.

The reason? Those that have mastery of the idea dont’ seem to be writing tutorials for beginners that don’t have the necessary background needed to grasp an idea. There just aren’t. I’ve looked and rarely do I find something written at a level that I understand it.

For example, when you were trying to learn about RSS… Did you ever find an excellent tutorial that explained from step 1 what RSS is and how to use it to your advantage?

Have you found something that teaches you how to FTP something that explains all the parts of the big picture?

Have you found a step by step instruction set that tells you exactly what you need to do to protect your computer and yourself from all the harm that could befall you online?

Nobody is teaching the big picture. That’s the problem. Explaining something from the standpoint of the big picture means taking it from the beginning. A tutorial must help EVERYbody that wants to learn, not just those to whom the author is equal with in knowledge. Tutorials assume too much, which loses people in the learning process.

I’m at a fairly high level of knowledge about all kinds of areas of IT. I still run into (everyday) an explanation of something that gives a tiny slice of the picture, and doesn’t really explain it to me well. I still need to go research and figure out the other parts of the big picture so I can put all this knowledge together and use it for myself.

I’m confused multiple times every single day. Anyone else feeling like that?

Confusion can get you down. It can give you this negative opinion about yourself… as if you’re not smart enough to learn something quickly. Really it has nothing to do with how smart you are at all. It relates more to how you learn. It’s difficult to find a teacher that’s teaching exactly in the way you need to learn.

Confusion is  a major part of reaching success in whatever area online you’re trying to master. Keep pushing past the confusion until you have it down, inside and out. Confusion means you’re learning. Confusion means you’re pushing yourself into an area you were previously ignorant about.

I’ve pretty much given up trying to find tutorials to teach me things that make sense to me. I’ve tried over these 11 years I’ve been involved in internet marketing to learn hundreds, thousands of skills. Usually I find that I can get a piece here, get a piece there… eventually I piece it all together and come to a complete understanding of a topic. That’s the way I’ve learned over these years. It’s just as much work searching for tutorials that teach me in the way I learn as it is to go piece together the big picture on my own.

Learn all you can about online marketing, sales, PPC, SEO, web dev, email lists, and the thousands of other tools to help you accomplish something online.

If you’re trying to be successful online you have a lifetime of learning ahead of you. Get comfortable with that and offer to help those that don’t quite “get” something you know inside and out. Give them the big picture and encourage them to ask any questions about anything to help them advance their knowledge.

You can contact me through leaving comments here – ask me a question about something (non-SEO related) that you’re having trouble wrapping your head around and I’ll either:

• help you if I can, or…
• refer you to look somewhere else that might have the info

No question is too small or big – give it a shot… ask. If I can help, I’ll be happy to. If not – I’ll try to point you in another direction where the answer might be hiding.

Best of Life!

Vern

(Photo: Flickr.com member, Kristian D. Creative Commons Licensed (BY:))