One thing that we should all celebrate is when someone we care about makes their very first sale.

Please help me in congratulating Carolyn Holzman in making her very first sale in just a few days…

Below is email that I just received from her:

Lance and Robert -

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

I'm been following your training for facebook fan
pages I started two fan pages - one for a sports
team and one for a celebrity.

The sports one has 500 fans the celebrity has 350 fans.

I posted a link on the celebrity to a product on amazon -

I MADE A SALE!!!!

Do you realize two things happened this week
that I've been wanting since I went to my first IM seminar
- over 2 years ago!!!!

A list

A sale

And I didn't need a website -
an email responder -
seo -
nothing

thank you!

Carolyn

Congratulations Carolyn

We are all VERY proud of you!!

Leave your cheers for Carolyn below…

I just wanted to share 4 of my favorite membership site tips with you to get you thinking about building yours today:

1. Your membership site doesn’t have to be recurring. It can be a single payment or even a finance plan

2. You don’t have to create months of content, just stay ahead of your earliest subscriber. This will let you “get it out the door” soon, plus you will end of with better content since you can adjust based on the feedback you receive

3. You can ask your current members to help promote your site as affiliates. Create something that “wows” them so they will tell their friends. Under-promise and over-deliver

4. You don’t need fancy or expensive software. In fact, you can run a membership site with your existing blog and email list. Always make sure you get the right tool for the job.

What is your favorite tip or hint about running or being a part of a membership site?

There are 2 ways that I can approach this blog post…

I can tell you what you want to hear. You know… you have probably heard some of these before:

• Your doing great building your online business
• All you need is to build a list and you’ll be rich!
• Keep doing what your doing and you’ll be living the “lifestyle”

and on and on and on…

I know this is what you want to hear…

How Do I Know?

Over the last 4 days I built a new list of 2,426 new subscribers (we can talk about that some other time) so that I could do a little experiment.

I sent them 2 “personal” videos showing them concrete actions they could take to actually stand out to their prospects and customers with a call to action asking them to leave a comment about how they were going to build a better business and relationship with their clients.

I Got HUNDREDS of Responses

And I personally replied with custom videos and emails going into detail about personalized action plans each person could do for their business.

These weren’t big things. Just small tweaks and tips that would get them better results.

Of the over 100 personal responses I sent I got less then 7 replies. I am guessing those were the few people that actually read them.

Anyone Else Confused?

Why ask for help and then turn your back on it? If you constantly feel like you are getting the “short end of the stick” online, maybe it is time to take a real look at your business and start finding ways to build it into the machine you want.

Now here is what you need to hear.

Building an online business is not as different as you have been led to believe than building one offline.

You still have expenses, no matter what you have been led to believe.

• You still need an education
• You still need to do your homework
• You still need to DO SOMETHING that works

Here is the thing. I finally understand why SO many people fail online. They somehow believe that having a “business” online is like the gold rush.

They just push a button… money
They just build a big enough list… money

If the main focus of your business model is to “provide value” to your subscribers, I want you to think about the following…

HAVING to use deceptive headlines like

• “PayPal Is Not Accepting Payments Today…”
• “re: You Purchase”
• “Your Commissions Have Been Aproved”

etc, etc, etc.. followed up by a “free offer” to get even more junk from another marketer is NOT providing value.

Don’t get me wrong, these are fun to use and can be very effective, but this is NOT a business model, there is a big difference.

Second, simply hoping that you can run a “numbers game” and get enough people on your list to click on a free crap offer and then run them through an endless cycles of upsells and exit popups is NOT providing value.

Are there places for upsells and exit popups and tactics like this? Of course! Just NOT the way you might be using them.

It’s Time For You to Make a Stand and Take Responsibility for Your Business

It is about personal growth, relationships, passion and dedication.

If someone led you down the wrong path.. who’s fault is that?
If you bought into a scam… who’s fault is that?
If your not getting the results you want… who’s fault is that?

The good news is you can start changing these things immediately and your business and your happiness will benefit as a result.

The real keys to online success are actually really simple

1) Provide REAL value, stand out and be yourself… No one can duplicate YOU

2) Study systems that have a proven track record from people that actually “walk the walk”. If someone is telling you that you need to build a big list… do your homework and make sure they actually know how to do that. If someone tells you that you need a Facebook Fan Page with millions and zillions of fans. Make sure THEY have one. If someone tells you that you should build membership sites. Make sure THEY have successful membership sites (and not just the ones that teach you how to make one)…

3) Then rinse-and-repeat what ACTUALLY works.

Building an online business can be fun, profitable and extremely rewarding, but when was the last time you really got something GREAT without a little elbow grease.

So what are you going to change TODAY that will make sure you build a thriving, successful online business?

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