• Online Entrepreneurship Interview with Tonya Pruitt

    March 12, 2009 // No Comments »

    Recently I had the privilege to connect with an successful online entrepreneur friend of mine, Tonya Pruitt , blogger on Affiliate Home Based Business topics.  Tonya shared some lessons in online entrepreneurship and gave us her opinion on the importance of having a positive mindset as well as personal development in your online business success.  I met Tonya on Twitter several months ago and enjoy following her.

    Let’s see what Tonya had to say…

    How long have you been an online entrepreneur?

    I’ve been marketing online since Oct. 1998.

    Tell us a little bit about your entrepreneurial background?

    Wow, I actually started my entrepreneurial life back in my senior year of high school in 1994. I spent 5 out of 7 classes in business training classes that enabled me to start my first business that year. I started in Network Marketing at 18 years old.  So I’ve now had almost 15 years of business building training and experience.

    What businesses have you created/joined and which one is your favorite?

    Currently I have TLP Unlimited which is the same "business" I’ve had all along though it’s had many different faces. I started off with Network Marketing/MLM and have progressed through the years from that to eBay and now for the past 9 years I’ve been focused on Direct Marketing and Affiliate Marketing as well as web development.

    Personally, I love what Affiliate Marketing provides for the individual who chooses to get into this form of sales. You never have to create your own products (unless you want to).  You never touch the products.  You never do refunds and customer support.  You are able to run a very financially sound business without all the headaches of product creation, and distribution … What more could you ask for?!

    I also love the ability to pick and choose the markets I want to sell in.  Affiliate marketing enables you to be flexible.  I call it a seasonal type of business.  For example, one of my business models (I’m giving secrets away here) is to promote what’s IN SEASON at the time.  During the holidays I promote products that people want to buy then.  During Spring I promote flowers, gardening stuff, etc.  During summer I promote beach gear, travel packages etc.  During fall I promote winter clothing etc.  During winter I’ll promote snow shovels, gear, clothes, etc.

    I also promote the sports products only during their particular season.  It increases sales when you promote while people are really searching for those products.

    How related are personal development, mindset, and an entrepreneurs success in your opinion?

    This is a HOT topic in my opinion.  I personally think if you’ll use the personal development products, and the Mindset products in conjunction with your business development products you will find success. I think the two types of products are NEEDED and very much a part of my own personal system I use to build my success.  They are the key to anyone finding success.

    The thing people need to realize though is that only YOU can change your life .  You can read these products all day long but if you don’t apply what you are reading and put into action the tips you receive you will not succeed.

    The systems in these books won’t work unless you work the system.

    How do you truly gauge what a "successful entrepreneur" is?

    I gage success in any aspect of your life, in how much you help others! If you can provide a good product or service to others and change their lives then you have succeeded.  Otherwise you’re just in it for the money and to me money is not everything!

    What are the 5 keys to online entrepreneurial success?

    Tonya had more than 5 keys here :-)

    1. Education
    2. Action
    3. Consistence
    4. Persistence
    5. Repeating what you do RIGHT!
    6. Learn from your mistakes, and move on. Failure is only what happens when you quit!

    What are your top 3 ways to build relationships online?

    1. Blogging
    2. Facebook
    3. Twitter

    Connection Options: Links to top social networking sites

    1. http://profile.to/tlpunlimited (Facebook)
    2. http://www.myspace.com/tlpunlimited (Myspace )
    3. http://www.twitter.com/tlpunlimited (Twitter 1)
    4. http://www.twitter.com/tonyapruitt (Twitter 2)
    5. http://www.linkedin.com/in/tlpunlimited (Linked In)
    6. http://www.affiliatehomebasedbusiness.com (Blog)
    7. Tons more… will leave ya with this. ;-)

    Visit Tonya Pruitt’s blog at Affiliate Home Based Business dot com.

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    Posted in Habits of Entrepreneurs, Online Entrepreneur Interviews

    5 Steps to Avoid Internet Marketing Information Overload

    August 12, 2008 // No Comments »

    If you are an Internet Marketer, or an aspiring Internet Marketer, chances are you’ve been sucked into the vortex of information on the best way to make money online and continue to learn about the latest and greatest best ways make money online programs.  And even likelier it has led to some serious Internet marketing information overload !

    It is super easy to get caught up in learning what others are doing to make money online and find yourself not doing the important things you need to do in order to build your email list or blog following.

    I recently came across two successful bloggers who blog about Internet Marketing (Courtney Tuttle and Yaro Starak ) and Personal Development who helped shed some light on this topic.

    In a recent blog post, Courtney Tuttle speaks of an experience with a client that spent a good deal following "make money online" blogs and always looking for the hottest way to make money online. According to Tuttle, the main thing a new blogger should be focusing on is content creation and link building instead of staying on top of what others are doing to make money online. For a full view of this blog post visit:

    Are You Suffering from Internet Marketing Information Overload

    I also subscribed to Yaro Starak’s blog recently and read his "Blog Profits Blueprint" which not only speaks of information overload being a reason most bloggers fail but also adds "lack of direction" to the recipe.

    When one does not have clear goals, a vision, or a plan it is easier to get sucked into the vortex of ever-changing Internet Marketing techniques and the best way to make money online strategies.

    Below you’ll find 5 Steps to avoid Internet Marketing information overload that have greatly helped me achieve laser focus and productivity in my Internet Marketing efforts.

    I look forward to your comments!

    5 Steps to avoid Internet Marketing Information overload:

    1) Set ONE Goal for the next 30 days. Don’t get goal crazy, but focus on one aspect of your Internet Marketing business you would like to grow. My goal the next 30 days is to create 1 Squidoo lens per week and an E-Zine article pointing to each Squidoo lens, which will point to my blog to gain readership and get more of myself out there.

    2) Plan your week every Sunday or Monday. What action steps will move you forward in reaching your Internet Marketing goals? If you need more training to fine-tune some skills only focus on the training related to your goal for that month (i.e. if your goal is to build relationships with people on Facebook or Twitter stick to trainings that deal with online relationship building preferably on exactly Facebook or Twitter – not on creating squeeze pages).

    3) Select 3 or 4 Tasks to Focus on Per Day. Don’t go crazy with a "to do" list. Really prioritize and select a few actions that will help you move forward in your Internet Marketing goals. Today for instance my goals were to: 1) Begin working on a new Squidoo lens (keyword research), 2) Submit my latest article to several article directories with my automatic article submitter 3) work on this blog post.

    4) Find an Accountability Partner. An accountability partner is someone who shares similar goals and will agree to hold you accountable to what you say you will do – ideally on a daily basis. Accountability partners motivate each other and help each other prioritize. You should articulate your goals to each other and check in daily (via phone or Instant Message) to get pumped up for a productive day.

    5) Don’t check email more than 3 times a day – Let’s face it, Internet Marketers like to opt-in to the guru’s email lists and learn from the best. While it’s important to stay on the cutting edge and learn from the top dogs, you have to be careful not to spend a good portion of your day in learning what’s the hottest Internet Marketing Strategy and what’s the latest make money online formula. Focus on your goals. If you notice yourself spending more than a half hour at a time in "learn mode" get back on track to content creation and link building, as Courtey Tuttle recommends!

    I hope this helps you in your efforts to avoid Internet Marketing information overload.

    Your Partner in Online Prosperity,

    Dali Burgado

    Posted in Internet Marketing Productivity