Many of us, who started making money online creating our blogs and trying to reach a larger audience, want to make it better and faster. Sometimes we invite other people to our team.

For example, I was invited to do a guest post for internetbusinessmastery.com.  The thing is that the blog owners may have many writers like me.   This would create a need for people who will have different functions in maintaining their blog. They will need an ‘html’ guy who will make their blogs pretty and well designed, an SEO professional who will make their blogs rank high on the search engines, and a host of other people to do certain tasks or handle some other problem.   To complicate things further, each member of  the online team can live miles and continents away. What will you do then to put them all together?

About a decade or so ago this question hit software developers because their own teams are sometimes spread all over the world. This is how numerous online solutions for daily tasks management appeared. Let’s take a quick tour through some of them today.

Clarizen   is positioning itself as a serious solution for project management. Indeed, it has a toolset for planning and management of your resources, yet you can create tasks for everybody on your team. The benefit you can get out of this project management solution is that, not only you can create separate single tasks, but you can also create a series of tasks and everyone on the team will be aware of it.  All the data is available through your browser window and all you need to use the application is an Internet connection.  The latter is true for each of the solution I mention in this article.

AtTask will demand some time for you to learn how to use it. At the same time, the solution is built for companies and it is quite reliable. If you wish to go further than tasks: you can create a project in MS project and integrate it into your AtTask project. Of course, if you don’t have proper skills as a project manager it won’t be that easy but at the same time your blog is a project too. Do you want it to run well? Then seek for something bigger than just exchanging emails all over the world.

Zoho is set of office tools that you can access online. Creating documents, tables, collaborating  with your team is possible through different applications offered by Zoho. The documents can be edited by different users. It is also possible to communicate with others through wiki and notes so everyone stays on top of what’s going on within your project. Zoho has been on the market for a while  and is recognized by numerous users.

Comindware is an online tracking and task management solution. Unlike all of the solutions above, it offers free daily tasks management software. The disadvantage is that we need to wait as the solution has yet to be released.  The online pre-registration for the product however, is already open and in case you choose to wait for a while, you will be able to enjoy all the benefits of online task management without paying much.

Zendesk  is an ideal tool for those who have used ticketing systems. I recommend it because you can use it for free and because it is simple and reliable. As for your main purpose which is  team collaboration and organization, you will need: comments, forums, and notifications upon the work that has been done. When you complete the task, you can change its status so that all the team sees that it is done.

I have chosen only 5 online solutions for this article to keep this article short and sweet, yet there are many other solutions out there.  Clarizen or AtTask, are made for those who have project management skills, so they would be perfect for an experienced professional who is used to planning his project before starting. For others, who need online collaboration for a team, you can also try googling the keyword  ‘daily task management’ .

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

However, when you take your business online you immediately give yourself the ability to automate it to a degree never seen before in conventional businesses.

Many online businesses can be almost entirely automated. Sure, they take a good business mindset and plenty of time and effort before you’ll see good results. They’ll also require at least a little ongoing maintenance to keep them going.

I’m not going to tell you that setting up or running an internet business is quick and effortless, but I am going to tell you that if you set up your business correctly you can utilize the power of automation and free up large chunks of your valuable time.

Selling Products

With your website and online sales letter you can sell 24 hours a day to an international audience,  that’s a lot of potential customers, in a lot of different time zones.

Don’t worry though, your website can do the selling and take orders for you, even while you sleep. You won’t need to stay awake all day and night to do it yourself.

Oh and if you don’t even fancy the effort of making a product you can always be an affiliate of someone else’s product.

Taking Payment

Having your website being your 24 hour international salesman is awesome, but you don’t want people phoning you up 24 hours a day to make their payments.

Luckily, with online business you can take payments automatically, you can wake up in the morning and count the money you earned in the night while you were sleeping.

Product Delivery

So if you’re planning to wake up in the morning, count the money you earned while you slept and then spend your morning shipping products, I’m about to disappoint you.

You’ll have to think of another way to spend your morning because you’re now selling downloadable information products, audio, video, eBooks, etc. This means that not only did your website make the sales and take the payments, it already delivered the products to your customers.

Customer Services

Lets start by pointing out that your customers are likely to be extremely happy by now. With downloadable information products there’s no waiting around for postmen or driving to the depot to pick up parcels that couldn’t be delivered.

The product was delivered to them immediately after their purchase. People nowadays are more impatient than ever so they’ll be very impressed with your super fast delivery.

That’s a great start to keeping your customers happy, but if you want to further reduce your customer queries by a significant amount, use an FAQ or knowledge base. They really work and can automate the answering of the vast majority of your customers questions.

Staying in Contact

You can automate your customer follow ups too with an email list management service. With automated subscribing, unsubscribing and good use of autoresponders you can sell more products to new or existing customers and automate much of this process too.

Also, with social networking tools like Twitter you can use auto follow tools and message scheduling to reach new or existing customers, again being largely automated.

Almost Everything Else

So, having automated most of your business you’d expect us to be done now, leaving you with just the tasks that can’t be automated?

Well, we’re not quite done yet. That’s where we introduce virtual assistants. Although not technically automation, if the remaining tasks you don’t enjoy doing are done for you, that’s as good as automation from our point of view.

What remains after all this is one last problem to solve, what do you do with your free mornings now you don’t need to be selling, taking payments, shipping and answering customer queries?

It’s entirely up to you what you spend your newly freed up time doing. From a business mindset perspective I’d recommend being the visionary for your business, the entrepreneur, the content creator and the master marketer. These are all tasks I wouldn’t want to outsource completely.

The key point here is not what you do with your newly found freedom, it’s that fact that with the help of internet business and automation you’ve freed up your time in the first place, so you can spend it doing whatever you really enjoy doing.

I’ve been so impressed with internet business myself that I wrote a two part blog post about it called Could This be the Perfect Business Model? In here I discuss automation as well as the many other benefits of creating and running an internet business.

Please feel free to leave a comment and let me know about your own experiences of automation in your business…

—–

Jason King is a freelance Software Engineer who has run a number of online businesses and is also in the property letting business. His main interest is teaching people how to developing a good business mindset so they too can enjoy more passive income and freedom. For more information visit: BusinessMindsetExpert.com

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

When I first hired my VA he was a rock star finishing tasks as quickly as I could give them to him.  I had him emailing me weekly status reports summarizing his work week.  I eventually came up with a weekly plan of having him perform default tasks such as search engine optimization (SEO) work.  Over the next year we became very comfortable with each other and had built an excellent relationship.  I was providing him with programming and SEO training. I also gave him project bonuses and bi-annual raises.  I am of the opinion if you take care of the people that work for you they will take care of you. After a year and half the status reports were substituted with intermittent progress emails.

The projects started taking longer to finish and email correspondence became really slow.  I suspected my VA was moonlighting on me. So I gave him a task that required him to login to WordPress with the Admin user ID. Prior to giving him the task I had changed the Admin password.  If he were truly working on the assignment his next email to me would be requesting the password.  It was over a week before he asked me for the password. I asked him why it took so long for him to respond.

He gave me a ridiculous explanation that was incoherent at best.  Realizing he was not only stealing money from me he was also lying.  I proceeded to change all the passwords he had access to and told him I had no more work for him. With that said I recommend periodically checking up on your VA to save you time and money.  If you are paying them for full time work and they are not working full time they are stealing your money.  I have devised a four step plan to help you identify if your VA is actually working.  Here are the steps:

1.       Establish specific work hours and expectations for your VA from the beginning. Clearly define what times you expect your VA to work. If your VA is on the opposite side of the world then they will probably be working while you’re sleeping.  Next create a detailed VA expectation worksheet that clearly states what you expect from them.  Have them fill out how long each task takes to complete.  Use this sheet as the VA’s weekly task list.  This worksheet will help you identify if your VA is working reasonable hours for the task you assign them.

2.       Establish how you will communicate with each other. Initially you will email each other.  I also suggest using an instant messaging (IM) tool like Digsby or Skype to communicate.  Communicating via email is somewhat impersonal.  Especially when you have not personally met the person.  Communicating via IM or Skype on a weekly basis adds a higher degree of engagement with you and the projects your VA works on.  I recommend having weekly Skype meetings to go over the tasks that they are working on.  If your VA is not fulfilling their work responsibilities you can ask them on the spot to explain why.  Based on their instant response you will be able to determine if they are lying.

3.       Ask your VA to send you weekly status reports of what they worked on and how many hours it took. The status reports should closely match the VA expectation sheet described in step one.  This will help you quickly identify any potential issues a head of time.  Click here to download an example status report.

4.       Periodically change the Admin password on your website. If your VA is truly working on the items you requested then they will respond right away indicating that the password they have is no longer working.  If they do not send you a message requesting the password for a day or two then you might have a moonlighting VA on your hands.

In summary when you hire a VA you will have to allocate time out of your schedule to make sure they are doing their work.  Since your VA is working remotely and you cannot physically checkup on them you need to have methods in place to ensure they are doing the work you are paying them for.  The four methods described in this article will help you identify if you VA is actually performing the work you requested.  If you suspect your VA is not doing the work you will be better off replacing them ASAP saving you time and money in the process.

————

Tom Sasnauskas is an entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience focusing on Information Technology and Small Business. Tom helps people learn both topics with his expert advice at Understand IT Now and Job Talk Today.

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

You’re in luck. For the next few days you can watch the replay here.

Here’s what one attendee, Phil Clark, wrote on Facebook:

“Wow the John Jonas Webinar was great. I love that guy, so passionate. Can’t wait to hire my first person!”

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

What’s the investment in your business that has brought the biggest results ever in terms of increased money, fulfillment and freedom?

Recently I was asked that question in a mastermind meeting. One answer came to my mind right away…

Outsourcing as much of my business as I could to quality employees in the Philippines

Doing that can bring you huge returns like…

• Reducing your overwhelm greatly
• Drastically increasing your income
• Allowing you to spend time on the things you enjoy doing most
• Lowering your stress because things are getting done even while you sleep
• Allowing you to work as little as 20 hours a week

This is probably not the first time that you’ve heard about outsourcing. In fact, you may have tried to do it before.

Outsourcing can seem frustrating and hard. I know how it is.

I could never get outsourcing to work for me, until I finally met someone that could show me how to do it right.

That guys was John Jonas. And I’ve asked him to do a free webinar for you.

John has figured out a system where he hires full-time, honest, hard-working, loyal, intelligent people, in the Philippines, for
about $300/month! Yes…full-time!

Following what he taught me is easily one of the most important things I’ve done in my business in the last five years.

And now I want it to change your life and business, too.

So we arranged with John to do a special, free webinar this Thursday, December 9 where he’ll share with you his system.

He’ll show you how to get other people to build and run your business for you!

The webinar is free, but space is limited. Register here now

The webinar has already taken place. You can watch the replay here.

This will likely be the most important information you’ve heard for your business in a long time. It was for me.

So take the first step and learn from the expert by joining John on December 9th at 4:00 PM Eastern. watching the replay here.

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

Clearly define your VA’s expectations.

Do not assume the VA knows what you are thinking. Despite what you may think VAs are not Information Technology Deities. VAs are typically experts in two to three technologies at most. Do not expect them to be a Programmer, WordPress Expert, SEO Expert and Article Writer all-in-one. If you set unrealistic expectations you will be disappointed with the outcome. Write up the requirements and show them to a friend who has minimal computer experience. If your friend can understand the expectations your off to a good start. Pretend you are writing to 3rd grade student. Make your VA job requirements as simple as possible. Clearly define your desired outcome. Once you know what you are looking for you will be able to identify the VA that is best for you.

Create your job posting from the information created in step one.

Keep it short and to the point. Maybe three to five sentences with four or five bullet items. Define whether you are looking for full or part time help. In your job posting define how much you are willing to pay.
Also define how you intend to pay. I recommend using PayPal on a bi-monthly basis.

Prepare your VA hiring test.

After you narrow your VA choices down to a few employees have a test prepared for them. If they are as good as they say they are have them implement a small technology test that encompasses a little of everything you’re looking for. Here are some test ideas to get you started:

• Buy a test domain for testing the skill level of your potential employee.
• Configure a limited FTP User ID that only allows access to your test domain. You may need to ask your Host provider for help with that. Tell them you have a VA and you want to give them limited access. Also tell your host provider what the VA will be doing and ask if there is any other type of access they will need. Be sure to tell your host provider that you want the VA to have limited access initially.
• If you are looking for a programmer ask them to code login web page that redirects them to a welcome page displaying the user ID entered on the login page. A junior level person can get this done inside of 3 days. Ask them how long they think it will take to code it. Then ask them to do it. A seasoned person can get this done in an hour or two.
• If you are looking to have them setup your WordPress website then ask them to install WordPress, Configure Permalinks, Add at least one plug-in, Change the Theme and finally create a Post with one image in it. The image is important because they will have to configure Read/Write access on the Hosting Directory for Images folder. A junior person should be able to do this inside of two days and a seasoned person can get it done inside of 4 hours.

Next week we will continue with Part 2!

Tom Sasnauskas, Understand-IT-Now.com

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

Building the right team for your business will speed up your success and boost your income. It’s one of the best business investments you can make. In this series of posts we talk about the kind of team members that you need to find to keep your business growing.

One of the great things about Internet business you can start a business on your own even with a limited budget. But eventually you’ll find out that running the business by yourself will hold you back. There’s just too much to do.

No Entrepreneur is an Island

One of the most important things I learned as musician is that no artist is an island. I created my best work when I worked with other musicians to write the songs.

The same lesson is true for entrepreneurs. You can’t do it by yourself forever. There are too many hats to wear. If you try to wear them all at the same time, you’ll go crazy.

As time goes on, you need to spend your time doing the things that you are best at and letting others do the rest. This requires building a team.
This doesn’t mean hiring employees. The team we’ve assembled for Internet Business Mastery is made up of freelancers from all around the world. Most of them we have never met in person.

Here’s a list of the members of our team, what they do for us and how we found each.

Virtual Assistant

Our full-time virtual assistant does a number of general tasks for us including:

• Research
• Customer service
• Link-building
• Editing videos
• Posting content to the blog, You Tube, etc.
• Posting articles to article directories
• Basic editing of WordPress and web pages
• Data Entry
• Anything else we can think of and train her in

She lives in the Philippines. We pay her $380 a month — a good salary for her position in the Philippines. She works for us 40 hours a week.

We found her using the resume searches provided with John Jonas’ Replace Myself site (affiliate link). A number of Internet Business Mastery listeners have used that same site to find their own virtual assistants.

Audio Editing

Since we produce a lot of audio content, it’s nice to be able to record the content, upload it and have it taken care of by someone else after that. We found our audio editor through a referral from another podcaster. We pay about $25 per hour.

Bookkeeper

This is a great task to outsource as early as possible. It’s a pain to do, often gets ignored and when you finally get around to doing it, you probably do it wrong anyway. Our bookkeeper was referred to us through a business colleague, Alice Seba.

Our bookkeeper is worth every penny. It’s such a relief just to know that every month things are up to date and we will have an accurate report of our finances. We spend about $100 a month on this service.

To Be Continued…

In the next post we’ll continue listing the members of our team.

What has your experience been with hiring a virtual assistant and bookkeeper. Please share your ideas for questions in the comments below.

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

As a result, it struck me that Sterling and I hadn’t fully shared our our views on what could be an emotionally charged issue given the current economic climate (not only in the U.S. but in many places around the world.) This is a long post, but it is one that is important to consider.

In the interest of discussion, I’ve included the email here (with the sender’s name omitted) followed by our views.

Sterling and Jay,

I’m surprised that you would boast about outsourcing to the Phillipines at a time when unemployment in the US is at a high.

There are plenty of highly qualified tech people looking for work in the US who can help you–people who can actually come to your office and meet you in person.

I understand that businesses have to be competitive. And, they are often driven to find the cheapest price, but at what cost–fewer jobs in the US, the comodification of high-level intellectual jobs; which makes it difficult for US companies to compete because we use local talent and have to charge more.

Your email announcement describes hiring this person like you found a great online deal on a laptop. This is just as problematic, if not more, as hiring outside the US–human beings are not commodities.

I’m sorry you’ve gone this route. You have lost a devoted follower.

NAME OMITTED

This was in response to an e-mail newsletter that said we’d just hired a full-time Filipino web developer for $500 USD a month.

In my emails I responded to the following claims.

1. That we caused harm to jobs and the economy.
2. That we talked about a human being as a commodity.
3. That we have a responsibility specific to the U.S.

Here are my thoughts on each of these points.

Which Option Would You Pick?

When making business decisions, it’s important to consider your Definite Major Purpose as well as the impact that your actions will have on others. For us the ultimate mission is to bring increased freedom and financial stability to our listeners and Academy members.

Continually improving our sites and web services  helps us accomplish this mission. We’ve reached the point where this requires hiring an ongoing web developer. To do this we have two options.

Option 1

The first option is to hire domestically. Our budget allows us to engage a freelancer for ten hours of work a month. Compared to a full-time developer this only provides a sixteenth of the improvements to our sites (ten hours a month instead of 160, thus greatly limiting our ability to accomplish our primary mission.

In order to afford more time from a domestic freelancer, we’d have to raise our prices to cover the additional expense. This would make it harder for people to afford our help to create the income they need.

Option 2

On the other hand, with the same budget we can hire a full-time web developer in the Philippines. This gives him a very livable salary. We achieve sixteen times the site improvements than if we hired in the U.S. Consequently, our ability to reach and help people create their own business and income is vastly improved.

Outsourcing Leads to a Stronger Economy

By being more cost-effective, we assist more of our listeners to achieve financial stability and freedom. As a result, new businesses are created. This leads to more jobs and income. It has been said repeatedly that small businesses are the backbone of our economy. Thus, our services are helping to improve the current economic climate.

Let’s take a look at concrete examples of how this has taken place with some of our students. Consider Pat who was laid off last year and now, thanks to our help, makes more money than he ever did in his job.

Then there’s Curt, whose son’s medical bills were going to require him to get a second job. Instead he started an internet business and now he has a means of earning the money he needs without having to sacrifice valuable time with his family.

In addition there’s Cornelius. He was able to create a thriving business around his profession. Now he teaches others how to thrive in that same profession, hence making their job situation more solid.

Our Moral and Ethical Position

We recognize that having a popular podcast puts us in a position to influence a number of people. This is not something that we take lightly. We continually consider the effects of our actions. Most important, we make it a policy not to do anything that would harm another human being.

We don’t feel that hiring offshore professionals, or encouraging others to do so, does any harm. In fact, as stated above, we feel it is just the opposite. Therefore, we don’t have any ethical or moral reservations about the approach we have chosen for our business.

A Person is Not a Commodity, but Skills Can Be

When it comes to the claim that we were speaking about humans as if they were commodities, it has never been our intent to devalue a human being in the content that we publish.

We by no means condone the treatment of a human being as an object nor do we do so. Anyone that is hired full-time should be treated with respect whether they are local or virtual/offshore.

We’ve given a full-time job to a young man right out of college in the Philippines at a salary higher than he would otherwise have made. He sets his own hours and work on things he finds challenging and interesting, as well as getting paid to learn new skills along the way.

We provide him with paid holidays and don’t ask overtime of him (which is more than I can say for most U.S. employers). He gets raises and bonuses more than once a year.

He’s treated much better than I ever was as an employee in the U.S. I was treated like I was a replaceable commodity. We treat our full-time people with far more respect.

Now, it should also be recognized that a given skill set will change in value over time. Some are easier to find than others. Perhaps that qualifies as a commodity. Even so, respect and ethical treatment should always prevail.

Not a U.S.-Specific Issue

Finally we come to the claim that we have a responsibility that is specific to the United States. Internet Business Mastery is not a U.S.-specific podcast or business. We have as many customers and listeners outside of the U.S as we do within.

Our mission to teach personal freedom and responsibility and is not based on any ideology that is U.S.-specific.

In any case, we feel that anything we teach only helps the situation in the U.S. in the long run as well as anywhere else that we have listeners and Academy members.

In All Things, This is Paramount

There’s one final note that needs to be made on this matter. As with anything we share in our content, it’s up to each individual to consider the best decision for them. You know your circumstances better than anyone. How you apply what we teach is up to you. In all things, personal responsibility and free will are paramount.

If you decide that your Definite Major Purpose is better served by hiring locally, our hope is that you would follow that as long as it didn’t harm anyone.

Thoughts from the Community

While writing this blog post I posed the question to Twitter and Facebook to get thoughts from the community. I’ve included a number of the responses here. The opinions expressed here are solely the view of each individual author and not necessarily our view.

Best Outsourcing Site

Every time we mention outsourcing in our content, someone asks about where we go to hire our full-time people. You can learn everything you should know and find the people you need here.

What Do You Think?

• Is outsourcing a good business practice or is it irresponsible?
• How has outsourcing impacted your business?

Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

You asked for it and you got it, we are asked about virtual assistants all the time SO In this episode of Internet Business Mastery we talk about What You Need to Know to Start Outsourcing Your Business (and Your Personal Life) with Virtual Assistants and in the quick tip we’ll tell you about some great resources we found for learning even more about outsourcing and using VA’s.

Items mentioned in this episode:

• Our outsourcing resources!
• Elance.com
• Craigslist
• AgentsofValue.com
• DistantSupport.com
• GetFriday.com
• jingproject.com

How has having a VA (or not having a VA) changed your life?

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

Here are the resources mentioned in this video:

• MindManager – The mindmapping software that we use
• Freemind – A free mindmapping software that is also excellent
• Example Organization Chart (Freemind) – This is an example chart that you can view and edit with Freemind
• Example Organization Chart (MindManager) – This is the example chart I used in the video that you can view with the free MindManager viewer
• Getting Things Done by David Allen
• The E-Myth by Michael Gerber
• Mindmeister – The online collaborative mindmapping software that we use for our GTD system

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

I love my big desk space so that I can have everything I need, exactly where I want it with plenty of room around me. I like my ergonomic keyboard and 24′ flatscreen monitors. I haven’t had to think of dumping Outlook before since I generally work from the same computer day in and day out, but things have changed.

It’s a pain taking all my equipment with me to a seminar, there is never enough overhead cabin space on the planes for my room full of equipment.

There is never enough room in my hotel rooms.

The seminar planner hate it when you set up an office at the back of the hotel ball room.

Don’t even get me started about how uptight tropical resorts are about using all that power off their little generators…

My life has changed and I have had to start using my laptop since my traveling has gone up significantly, hence the need for an online solution. I have enough different sites that it makes going online and checking each email address in the hosts online email checker too time consuming.

At several of my Mastermind Groups the guys are all going Gmail and just forwarding all their email to their Gmail account.

When Jay and his wife, Melanie, stayed with me she went Gmail before my eyes.

Seems to me that is certainly is the trend, but I wanted to see what the community thinks.

Should I dump Outlook for Gmail?

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

We live in Manhattan with no washer and dryer in our apartment (a common thing here). So doing laundry is always an ordeal. We probably spend at least five hours a month doing our laundry (total between the two of us).

For the first time today, we decided to check into pickup/delivery laundry services. To our surprise it wasn’t that expensive. We had it done for $22. It was beautiful. They picked it up in the morning, a few hours later it was done and everything folded and on hangers.

We figure all in all it will cost us $60/mo to have our laundry done for us. And here’s the kicker. That is only about $25 more than what we spend per month when we do it ourselves!

DUH! For only $25/month, I’ve reclaimed five hours. That’s only $5/hour. Just goes to show how we get tunnel vision and adopt the status quo overlooking simples improvement we could make to our lifestyle and business.

If someone offered to give you five more hours a month at a cost of only $5 per hour, wouldn’t you take it!? I’ll take that deal any day. Especially when I can make many, many times more than that with that time.

At least I was smart enough to have groceries delivered for the past two years.

Has anyone else come up with any ingenious improvements to save them time and improve their lifestyle?

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

There are two points I want to make in this final segment.

First, do everything you can to find a credible source.

I a truly amazed at how many books about making money on eBay there are out there. I read many of them and my other business partner Andrew Lock has read most. The thing we found is that most of the authors have never even SOLD on ebay, yet they write books about making money selling on eBay. It’s really criminal if you asked me, as I followed the advice in many of those books only to start my first eBay business and fail miserably after spending thousands of dollars on implementation and months of my life. I followed all the advice! Why didn’t it work?! Well, it’s like asking a 400 pound man how to have a 180 pound fit body.

Then, there are scam artists who may have done some business on eBay, but defrauded people and now teach about eBay business. There is one guy that is very popular right now that has been BANNED by eBay themselves! He can never use eBay again and has even been stopped from speaking at eBay Live. Is that who you would like to learn from?! Sadly, the guy is making a fortune selling ‘how to make money on eBay’ courses.

The point is to do what you can to find out if the source of your info is credible.

Second, it seems so obvious, but I must say it – TAKE ACTION! Really, in the end, the true value of most information is what you DO with it. Knowledge is only POTENTIAL power, action is the key to real power. It’s better to take the WRONG action then NO action at all.

“You will accomplish a lot more with movement then you will with motivation”

-Gary Halbert

So, to end of my Information Diet, I will summarize. I cut out the seemingly endless barrage of information I was bombarding myself with and opted for more precise, strategic knowledge related to what I need NOW. I added some much need mind rest and entertainment. Then, I have set myself to TAKE ACTION on the surgical info I receive, rather then just constantly allow a complete INFLOW of ideas and info.

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

I had my cable TV shut off over a year ago. Why? Two reasons.

First, I was crazy for channel surfing. I realized that I could go two hours without watching one single program all the way through. I suddenly realized I was like some lab rat starting at the screen, just fascinated by all the random pictures going by. It had to end.

Second, you can watch most show on the net now OR just get the DVD. I had been just watching the DVDs of most shows for some time, which cuts out commercial watching and gets rid of having to wait an entire week to see how Jack Bauer gets out of each cliffhanger episode ending.

Most shows can be watched online if you cannot wait till they come out on DVD. I watch the likes of Lost and Heroes all from the networks website.

TIP: One way to get a lot of TV show DVDs is to join Blockbuster.com. They had nearly all of the TV shows I wanted to watch and as of now, you can take a DVD you get in the mail to a Blockbuster store and swap it for a store DVD, giving you double the DVDs then the plan you have.

Here is just a snapshot of shows I enjoy:

Lost

Heroes

Battlestar Galactica ß Jay turned me on to this one, I would have never thought it was as good as it is

Boston Legal

Prison Break

HBO and Showtime have my FAVORITE shows. Nearly every original hour drama on those channels I love, though they are Rated R style show, to be warned… The tops are:

Rome

Deadwood

The Sopranos

Penn and Tellers BS!

To name a few…

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

On we go. I was never really a big magazine reader. Back in my Hollywood days I would read Entertainment Weekly and Premier Magazine. Now, there are only two that I actually read:

Wired Magazine

Business 2.0

I actually scan them cover to cover, stopping to read only if my interest is really peaked.

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

So, I just finished doing a bit of ‘spring cleaning’ in my iTunes podcast folder. I had 44 podcasts that I downloaded each week, now I have 12.

“44! How on earth did you listen to them all?!” You ask?

Here is what I use to do… I would listen while I made my meals, did mindless business stuff like WordPress changes or eBay auction template changes, while I drove any and everywhere, while I shopped, in line at the post office, riding my bike an hour + per day, during my late night walk, while getting ready to shower (not actually in the shower, thought I had considered looking for a waterproof case and earbuds), and any time I could have a bit of my attention on what I was listening too. I lived that way for the last year or so.

Not any more! Right now I’m on an info fast. 5 days without my normal information overload. I’m also purging my sources of info one at a time. Today is Podcasting.

From 44 podcasts to 12. Many of the 12 are not updated every day or even every week, so I hardly know what I am going to do with all that time to think?!

One key was to add more entertainment based podcast to let my mind rest and relax once and a while. I even added music to my ipod! Imagine that?! Before I never put music on it. The few people I know with iPods have NOTHING but music and I finally added music to it for the first time in 2 years.

The majority of my podcast use to be business and marketing related, now I added some info I need and some entertainment. Here is a quick and partial list just to give an idea of the change.

Couple for Business-

• Podcasting Underground – Having several podcasts now I have to stay up to date with how that world works and Jason really is on the cutting edge of promoting your podcast.

• Podcast Tools – Paul Colligan goes over some useful and simple tips for tweaking your podcast.

• e-auction-air – Michael Donahue talks does a great job being the news around eBay, what is going on in the eBay community and what new eBay tools are out there. I usually look into the tools to see if I would use them in my eBay business or if I would suggest them to my eBay podcast listeners.

Couple for fun –

• Never Not Funny – Jimmy Pardo and friends. This is a fantastic podcast that keeps me connected with the ‘hollywood world’. They talk about a lot of things my comedian friends do, BUT this is R rated so if you get offended easily, DON’T even thing about listening!

• Real Time with Bill Maher – HBO TV show transformed into the podcast version. R-Rated.

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

The cause for this info dump was ‘The 4 Hour Work Week’ by Tim Ferriss. That book has been the second most influential book I have ever read. I have been an info addict my whole life. When I am into something I study it voraciously, to the point of obsession. I have never smoked, gotten drunk or done drugs, but I have been an info junkie nearly my entire life.

This obsessive behavior has an upside and a downside. The upside is that I gain a massive about of knowledge very quickly, the downside is that I have a pitiful lifestyle and very few ‘hobbies’. The other downside to taking in information that quickly is that you have very little chance of putting even half of the info to real use. Knowledge is only POTENTIAL power. Action is where knowledge becomes real power.

The goal for me now is not to consume a piece of information until I need it. I will not read about traffic generation until I am working on my traffic generation again. I will read no more about search engine optimization until, you guessed it, I’m doing more search engine optimization.

I turned on the radio in my car for the first time in… years. Usually I plug my iPod in and listen to various podcast on subjects from eBay to skepticality. It’s been long enough that the music I listened to in high school is now considered ‘adult contemporary’! I also realized that hip hop is not my cup of tea.

I’m going to now balance the info I bring in with the entertainment! I have been doing this for the last couple weeks and I thought I would share with you, in the next few blog posts, the list the information and entertainment I now consume.

Blog-a-mania!

I use google reader to sort through and read my blogs. I have more then 60 blogs in my reader, but I have started a ‘must read’ folder and here is what is in it:

• ProBlogger Blog Tips – Darren Rowse is a top blogger that actually makes a fantastic living by blogging. I met Darren at Yanik Silvers Underground seminar in March. He is a very down to earth, friendly guy that is also very prolific. I get a lot of great tips from his blog.

• Marketing What Works – Dean Hunt talks a lot about traffic and using social media to get lots of it. He also talks about mindset, which is a pet topic of mine. He has a very blunt, no BS style, which I enjoy

• The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss – Tim has a very informative and entertaining blog about entrepreneurial lifestyle and more.

• Jason Van Orden :: Podcast Consultant – Jason is my business partner, but I still read his blog and listen to his podcasts. I really like his writing style and way he delivers information and you will too!

• Social Media Optimization – I love using and learning about social media optimization and here is a place I go to learn more.

BLATENT PLUG:

BTW, if you are into making money using eBay I have a podcast that I do with Andrew Lock called Renegade eBay Sellers, check it out!

I also run a blog called Dan Kennedy Says, with tips and advice from ultra-famous marketing expert Dan Kennedy.

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.