2008 UK Focus Marketing Seminar Review

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I had looked forward to this for a while, so it was good to get going (even at 5am on Friday morning) to the Radisson Hotel at Heathrow. The hotel was pretty grand and the proceedings kicked off with co-host Internet Entrepeneur, Sean Roach outlining a few house rules -  like mobile phones needing to be OFF - otherwise a donation of £100 to charity was in order. Nothing against charities, but my phone was firmly switched off from that moment on.

Those who’ve seen him know Sean is a highly entertaining speaker and always drives home important points about where we should be going in terms of our online business, asking: what’s your SKOPAS?, a Greek word for target, goal or mark. Explaining how we should choose a niche an inch wide and a mile deep and create a business out of your hobby or something you love. Nothing new to those who know, but it’s always good to see old hat with fresh eyes.

Sean outlined an interesting vision of the near future  Internet with Ebay and Yahoo examples of the bigger picture and lone websites representing unconnected islands on the sea we call the web. People, explained the US entrepreneur, will be drawn to platforms for all their online needs, and examples of this are already evident with social media. This tied in neatly with his social media project GOT ACCESS which looks like becoming a winner, especially with the unique selling points it offers.

Now, how about something completely shocking? We should all know this, and it shouldn’t be a surprise, but I guess it sometimes takes someone to point it out in black and white.

The terms and conditions written by Social Media sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Google and I just read Flickr (owned by Google) stipulates that all content posted on these sites is owned by them…Whooaaah there!..,.think of all those photographers that throw up their works…not only that, but they have the right to syndicate this content:

“By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide licence (with the right to sublicence) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise”

Scared yet? And have you ever sent confidential documents, product blueprints or content through Gmail? Yep, they could own that too…read the terms.

So after recovering with a quick shot of Jack Daniels, we moved on:

GotAccess main pointers:

• Your Information is kept private
• Create Clubs (memberships) which you can charge for up to 10 levels if you wish
• Monetize your content
• Sell your products on a Social Technology Platform
• Two separate parts, social and business, so both are separate initially, but as in life, sometimes friends and business does mix.

I suggest you get the whole story at GotAccess for more info

Speaker highlights of the seminar for me Raymond Arron, Glenn Dietzel and Alan Forrest Smith. Raymond was an extremely funny and inspirational man and quite obviously a heavyweight within his profession. Glenn is someone I’d have no problem buying into, because it would suit my own business plan and Alan also, a great storyteller but most importantly someone who stands by his results – which are DAMNED impressive.

Yes, it was a pitchfest, with low entry fee it was bound to be, but as long as you are not easily swayed by sales patter for something that doesn’t suit your plan you can sit back and appreciate the success stories and techniques employed – which brings me to the tears – I’m not sure about the tears from a couple of the speakers. Was it genuine? or an emotional selling strategy to create empathy with the audience? Am I a cynical b*stard? You decide. Personally, I had to eat my twin sibling as a kid when growing up, whilst living in a match-box in Siberia – but I survived.

I caught up with people from last year and some names that are the new generation in Internet Marketing such as Chris Freville, Matt Garret and Alex Jeffreys - and many a beer was had. One thing though - I had a feeling there was a barrier between some of the speakers and everyone else (I’m talking about the bar networking here, not at the seminar) that wasn’t evident last year. Was this my imagination? I can’t remember which speaker pointed out that millionaires hang out with other millionaires or of the same social status and this rang true. Don’t get me wrong though, I’ll be hanging out with a lot more millionaires when I’m one, for sure.

Conclusion: There was tight organization this year that kept the show running smoothly throughout and breakfast, lunch (very nice) and coffee breaks ensured everyone didn’t have to rely on expensive hotel cuisine, which did annoy me last year. But tightening up the ship lost some of the relaxed feel that was associated with previous Focus seminars, in my experience. But the free stuff! Cruises – Books - T-shirts - Prize Draws – Lunch and Speaker Programmes with upwards to $10k were given away like confetti at the end of the Seminar as well as a  five DVD set to everyone, which you cannot fault.

Have you got the Success Mindset?

To build a business online you need to have the ‘success mindset’ -  this is a massive desire to succeed because there will be ups and downs on the journey ahead to be sure. This doesn’t mean a positive mindset alone will propel you to success, but it has to be a large part of your foundation to jump ahead.

Have your main goal and vision broken into mini-goals or accomplishments toward your goal. Sometimes it’s easier to work backwards. Think of your main goal or goals and work back step by step to accomplish these goals. So your goal might be to write a book. Break that down into chapters, how many chapters would you need to write a month to complete the book within one year?

This gives you a starting point to work with and the first initial task might be to list what each chapter is to cover.

The old cliché, where do you see yourself in 5 – 10 years really applies here. Remember this is not about what your boss wants to hear – this is your own vision. Write a list and think BIG!

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by the information, strategies and advice to succeeding online which floods in from every direction. The key is to find a strategy that fits in with your business and stick to it.

DO NOT DEAVIATE!

This is a big mistake that many people make – they start on one thing and then get distracted by the latest easiest way to make millions online and just start hopping from opportunity to opportunity – which, unfortunately mostly ends up a waste of time and money. Or they constantly buy the latest courses, ebooks and products, whether it fits into their business plan or not.

Stay focused, stick to the plan and build momentum. I’ve always believed that even if you are struggling to focus on a project, try to do at least one thing a day (a phone call, email or small task) towards that project and you will slowly build momentum. You should, of course, do much more and spend powerful units of time, say three hours, completely focused on just that one project.

But make sure the plan is worthwhile first by doing your research.

So, firstly you need to know your market to succeed. The Internet has a wealth of online research tools and systems to help you here. The Google External Adwords Tool is agood place to start.
You do not need to go into virgin terrortries or re-invent the wheel to succeed, like all those inventors dragging in their crazy new ideas into the Dragons Den..(OK there’s a few good ones) But finding markets where money is already being made is a good sign and should be investigated further. This almost works in reverse in the offline world, where you wouldn’t want to open a store selling the same stuff as several other stores on the same street.

The Internet is such a huge place that there are always going to be opportunities in reach a different group of people in the same niche. However, more and more businesses are coming online every day and they are looking to dominate their niche and crush the competition. So the Internet pie will probably not last forever – it fact it’s safe to say, now is the time to get your online business started!