My 4 Hour Workweek

For most people (myself included), internet marketing begins as a side project. You work on your websites and whatnot on weekends and after you get home from your “9 to 5″ job.  At first, you don’t earn a lot, but if you stick with it, you slowly but surely begin generating real income.

Some people hit it big very quickly and others fade out just as quickly as they faded in.  If you stick with it, you will eventually reach a point where you have to begin treating your internet marketing activities as a real business.

Today, I’m going to show you exactly how to do that.

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Note from Eric: This is a guest post by Sunil, an internet entrepreneur who has seen a variety of successes online, including several website sales for five and six figure amounts.  Sunil and I initially connected because we share similar professional backgrounds (we’re both CPAs and previously worked in public accounting) – he has since become a full-time internet entrepreneur and has been making money online for the past 9 years (longer than many of the so-called “gurus” out there), so I respect his advice and was happy to publish his guest post here today.  You can read more about him and his blog at the end of this post.

When I started my ecommerce business online, my motivation was pure profits. Years after selling that business for a six figure sale price, I found myself online with a portfolio of several profitable niche websites and now a successful blog.  However, my underlying motivations today seem to have evolved.  Am I alone in this boat?

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It’s been awhile since I wrote about the first two deadly sins of entrepreneurship (impatience and indecisiveness) so I figured it was time to address the third part of this series: complacency.

What is complacency? In basic terms, it’s the satisfaction with a current condition or situation.  Feeling content with the way things are.  How is this a sin?  I’ll explain.  The truth is, this may be the deadliest sin of all, depending on who you are and what your goals entail.

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As I sit here laying the foundation for my authority website, I realize my plans cover almost everything: design, content, traffic, and monetization – four key elements to almost any successful money-generating website.   As critical as these elements may be, I still felt like I was missing something – my unique selling point/proposition (USP).

Great design and content provide a good reason to visit and revisit a website (in general), but what about when competition is fierce?  What about when you’re one of thousands within your niche?  Defining and properly executing your USP can be the difference between success and failure.

So I sit here and ask myself, “Why are people going to want to read and continue to visit my authority website?”  Before I pinpoint an exact answer, I thought I would brainstorm some potential types of USPs that can be applied to almost any business or website.  Pick your favorite(s) and run with it.

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As you may be aware, last week I decided to experiment with laser focus on one project, cutting out all distractions (to the best of my ability).  It was difficult to stay away from reading e-mail and @ messages on Twitter, but there were a lot of distractions I successfully avoided.  This project, as I’ve mentioned in the past, will be an authority website that’s going to allow me to share the knowledge and wisdom I’ve accumulated throughout my career, and hopefully help people by addressing real problems, issues, and concerns that I know are prevalent in most people’s lives.

Although I’m not ready to share the very specific details and the exact site URL with you yet (this is more for my own protection), I want to talk about what I’ve done and the plans I’ve come up with over the past couple of weeks.

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Today I have a special treat for you – a guest post that should inspire you.  As I’ve said before, I rarely ever publish guest posts on my blog.  In fact, today’s is only the second one I’ve ever published (you can find the first one, Maren Kate’s, here).  The only time I’m really open to publishing guest posts is when they’re written by people I follow and admire – Spencer is no exception.

Like me, Spencer was also a participant in Pat Flynn’s niche site duel.  The only difference is, Spencer has been wildly successful with his niche sites, and has a large inventory of them too (I believe he owns over 200 niche sites!).  I think it’ll be better if I let Spencer explain.

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