Online Business Launchpad | Start An Online Business | Online Business Growth

Have you ever thought about buying an existing website as a business?  Or if you have a content-based website, selling it to someone else?

Michael Bereslavsky is the CEO of Domain Magnate LLC, a Private Equity firm specializing in acquiring and growing online businesses.

Michael has completed 300+ successful deals and has a wide-ranging industry knowledge and some unique insights when it comes to buying and selling content-based websites, particularly ones that are high-revenue sites. 

In this podcast episode we talk about:

• How Michael decides what kind of website to buy
• What’s happening with “Buy” prices (and the revenue profit multiplier) for content websites and other related trends
• Why you need to be careful and what to look for if you’re thinking about buying a website
• How to tell a low quality website from a high quality one
• Ways to generate future growth of a content-based website
• Best types of lead magnets for a content website
• Michael's favourite type of digital asset to go with a content website
• What can be done to enhance the "saleability" of a website
• Your unique "thing" that sets you apart from the competition
• Quizzes, calculators and tools as digital assets
• SaaS (Software as a Service) and apps which are trending as desirable digital assets
• Prepping your own site so you can sell it if you want
• Michael's most memorable deal when buying a website

So if you’re interested in either buying or selling a content-based website at some point in the future, have a listen to this episode.  There’s a lot of wisdom here.

And if you're interested in exploring what it takes to get a quiz on your website, download my free Quiz Creation Checklist at https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/quiz-creation-checklist 

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Have you ever KNOWN that you have limiting beliefs that are stopping you from achieving your dreams?  But you don’t have a clue how to get rid of or change them?

In this podcast episode, Clinical and Counselling Psychologist, Katrina Streatfeild, talks about limiting beliefs and how to start discovering some of their causes.  More importantly, she talks about reshaping those beliefs so that you CAN be the success you want to be.

We talked about:

• Whether it's really a limiting belief or is it survivor's guilt?
• What “Choice Moments” are and how to use them 
• Why talking to yourself compassionately really matters
• The concept of “Transitional Discomfort”
• Why trusting the deprogramming process matters
• Change and new habit development
• When you might need professional help with your limiting beliefs
• Mental health lifestyle development
• Whether that critical voice in your head is really YOUR voice

We all have limiting beliefs of one sort or another.  Learning how to deprogram your limiting beliefs could make a big difference for you and your business.

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Finley Robinson left his pastoral career of over 20 years so he could work with his wife to build her online fitness business.  He and his wife have 3 lovely children.  And people kept asking them for advice on how to handle various child-rearing situations.

So in true entrepreneur style Finley started a side business giving advice to and working with parents of children ages 3-13.  

In today’s episode we talk about the one thing that you need to have in order to be successful, whether working with customers, raising a family or just life in general.

We also talk about:

• Inflation as a catalyst for finding ideas for new products and services
• The necessity of making your business all about your customers (and not about you)
• How that can be difficult, being humans, so what to focus on instead
• Why empathy, urgency and clarity matter, and not just in a marketing sense
• Whether intuition about what other people are thinking and feeling be learned
• Generosity mindsets, why it matters and how it can be applied when “selling”
• The genuine struggle about believing in our value as entrepreneurs and how that impacts us when it's time to raise prices
• The difference between value and worth  and how we know what it is that customers value about us
• Techniques for being good listeners, asking the right sort of questions and the “Ladder Of Abstraction”

So whether you’re a business owner, a parent with children ages 3-13 or both, this episode has a lot of wisdom sprinkled through it.

Have a listen and see what you think.

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Have you ever tried to put a new habit into practice? 

And maybe it didn’t go so well?

Well, there’s a reason for that.

In this episode, Mindset Results & Psychosocial Recovery Coach, Louise Evans, explains the 5 things that you need to think about BEFORE you start working on building a new habit that’s 5 times strong and faster than your old habit.

We talk about:

• Louise's journey into entrepreneurship
• Who Louise helps (it’s surprisingly wide-ranging)
• How what you eat  can have an impact on how easy or hard it is to change habits
• The 5 things you need to ask yourself BEFORE you start working on changing that habit
• How to tell whether you're living YOUR best life, or whether it’s actually someone else's vision of your best life
• What to do if you've gotten so lost, you no longer have a vision of what your best life could be
• Building heart centered habits five times faster
• The role of accountability and being true to yourself when changing habits
• Procrastination.  Is it a good or bad thing?  What causes it and a useful technique for getting past it

So if you’ve been working on changing your habits or building a new habit, have a listen.  What Louise has to share may help.

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For a lot of people, making the leap from employee to self-employed consultant is a huge, scary step to take.

Because of that, many never make that leap, instead preferring to remain in the safety of their current job, even if that job is boring, unsatisfying, or worse, exposes them to a toxic working environment.

In this episode, I talk with Nitish Verma from Essence Networks, who took a carefully considered, step-by-step approach to making the change from government employee to self-employed consultant.

We talk about:

• The transition journey Nitish took while still an employee in order to get himself ready to make the leap
•  The 3 key questions he asked himself (and his network) that helped him position himself so he was ready at the right time
• The value that stable governments add in enabling anyone to start their own business
• Why a learning mindset was critical to Nitish’s success
• Why having a process for getting feedback from people he’s worked with, helped Nitish get testimonials
• How Nitish has been successful in focusing on a niche within a niche and use his experience and skills to bring value
• Nitish’s open invitation for further discussion

RESOURCE MENTIONED:

Paper:  https://www.academia.edu/67420142/Auditing_for_Sustainability_The_urgent_need_for_a_community_centric_approach 

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When Chris “Mercer” Mercer started growing his Measurement Marketing business, he didn’t have a lot of money to put into ads.  So he developed a strategy that helped him get leads without a lot of effort.  And he continues to get leads from those same sources even today.

How did Mercer do it?

He adopted a guest podcasting strategy.

And in this episode he shares exactly how he went about it and how you can, too, even if you speak on podcasts that don’t have many listeners.

We talked about:  

• Why not wanting to use analytics is like wanting to use diet pills to lose weight
• How working in a narrow niche can make it seem difficult to attract your ideal audience
• How Mercer got started using guest podcasting as a marketing strategy
• Unforeseen long-term benefits of using a guest podcasting strategy
• Hype and profitability
• Why a “spray and pray” approach to marketing
• Mercer’s process and pro tips for landing guest podcast appearances
• Tips for people who would like Mercer to be on their podcast
• Why it doesn’t matter if the podcast you are a guest on only has 2 listeners
• How to be a good podcast guest
• Brands and bridges

So if you’re looking for more leads, whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been in the business game for awhile, have a listen to what Mercer has to say about guest podcasting as a marketing strategy. 

There’s a lot of value there.

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Are you doing these five “A” things in your business?

• Being super clear about who your Avatar is
• Automating repeatable processes
• Analysing your data
• Honing your Appetite for learning
• Taking Action

If not, it’s going to be extremely difficult to get your business to grow to the size you want.

In this episode I talk about:

• Each of the 5 “A”s, why you need them and how they support the growing process
• How easy it is for us to get one of those “A”s, Avatar Clarity, wrong and why it took a naughtly little boy messing with his mum’s work laptop to help me understand that
• How a quiz can make it easier to do all the 5 “A”s well, without spending any extra time or energy.

If that sounds like it would be helpful, have a listen.

And if you’re interested in getting started on a quiz for your business, head over to my 30-minute free training on how to choose which type of quiz to use.

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Saying “no” to things or to people can create intense dissonance, especially for people who like to help others.

In this episode, Counselling and Clinical Psychologist, Katrina Streatfeild, takes us through a number of ways to deal with the guilt and the dissonance.  And she explains how to say no in a way that leaves the other person feeling heard, understood and valued.

We talked about:

• Why sometimes saying no is the best thing for the other person
• Three questions to set the stage for saying no
• Why your priorities matter
• Dealing with stretch moments and associated guilt
• Engaging our "wise" minds
• Making "choice moments" count
• What to do when you really need a crystal ball
• Why a growth mindset is vital
• When beating yourself up is like burning money
• Techniques for dealing with people pleaser dissonance
• How to say no, without sounding horrible about it

There is so much that is helpful in this episode.

If you’d like some help with learning how to say no nicely and with style, be sure to have a listen.

And please share the podcast with anyone else you think it would help.

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Russell Pearson, host of The Marketing Report and Your Consulting Business podcasts has years of experience with business branding.

In my experience, working with startups, branding is something that the business owners initially  obsess over.  But once they’ve picked their logo, font and brand colours, tend to ignore some of the more important aspects of branding.

In this episode Russell talks about:

• Networking and why there needs to be a better way of doing it
• His “Barrel” concept for finding new clients
• How business branding is far more than just a logo. 
• What true marketing is, who does it and what it means
• Intentionality versus manipulation
• Why you need to niche down and how to do it successfully
• 3 key questions to ask when niching down
• Changing and adapting in order to take our businesses global
• Mindset, branding and change
• What “brand” is
• Business owner versus practice owner - what’s the difference?

Whether you agree with Russell or disagree, there is plenty of food for thought in this episode about living your brand, niching down, and networking more smartly.

If those topics interest you, have a listen.

Resources Mentioned:

• The Marketing Report Podcast - https://russellpearson.com/marketing-podcast/ 
• Your Consulting Business Podcast (iTunes) - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/your-consulting-business-podcast/id1643441325   
• More Info About The “Barrel” Free Download - “Clients On Tap” - https://russellpearsonprograms.com/
• Website - https://russellpearson.com 

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Not that long ago, virtual reality was just another emerging technology that most businesses didn’t see a need for.

Well, that might be changing.

In this episode I speak with Zerafina Zara who is an expert in the virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (XR) spaces.

And we talk about:

• How Zerafina's interest in dance set her on a path towards working with virtual reality
• What a Holographic Stage is and how it might be used in a business
• Whether small businesses might be able to use some of the amazing capabilities that these technologies bring to create new opportunities to better serve customers and grow
• Why augmented reality might be better for business meetings than Zoom
• The benefits of VR meetings for introverts
• Why making rollercoasters the first thing you try on VR is a bad, bad, very bad idea
• Whether the Metaverse actually exists
• Your online avatar, relationship building and communities
• Evoking emotional states with VR and promoting a sense of self-agency and control
• According to the gurus, how long you'll be spending in a VR headset per day for work (the answer might surprise you)
• Whether VR could be used to help people with disabilities and some of the ethical considerations around that
• An example of using VR to enhance the coaching experience

It’s a fascinating interview about a subject that has the potential to really change how we interact in the business world.  And it’s something that you, as a small business owner, should be starting to think about now.

If that sounds interesting to you, have a listen.

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Have you ever seen a billboard or advertisement that just stuck in your head?  One that you remembered months, if not years later?

What is it that makes those marketing messages stick?

In this podcast episode, I talk about some marketing messages that I saw in my recent travels and why those messages stuck like velcro to my brain.

RESOURCES

“How To Choose Which Quiz To Use” Free Training:  https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/how-to-choose-which-quiz-to-use-training/ 

Podcast Rescue:  https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/podcast-rescue/id1644925604 

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If thinking about using SEO to increase traffic to your website makes you feel seriously overwhelmed, then this episode may help.

It’s a case study where podcast host, Trudy Rankin sits down with SEO expert, Graeme Knight from New Route Digital to talk through the results of an SEO audit he ran on a neglected website.

The goal? 

To show you the process from start to finish of starting to use SEO in a serious way to grow website traffic numbers.

In this, and subsequent episodes we’ll be walking you through the process, the data and the outcomes, warts and all.

We talk about:

• How we're widening out an existing case study to include a more in-depth SEO approach
• The sadly neglected website I want to revive
• What Graeme’s SEO audit process involved
• Getting a sense of what to do first and how to deal with all the “things” that need doing
• What “relevance scores” are and why they matter
• Picking which keywords to start with
• Why search intent matters when looking at keywords
• Art versus science when it comes to picking the right keywords
• My lightbulb moment for future content creation
• Is it possible to shortcut the whole process?
• Keyword cannibalisation
• Getting started with a Backlinks gathering strategy

If you’re interested in following along on this experimental (for me) process, have a listen.

We hope you find it useful.

Here's the link to the website page we've been working on.

https://themenopauseeffect.com/7-top-natural-indian-home-remedies-for-menopause-relief/ 

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The risk and impact of burning out is something that most people want to avoid. 

And when a recent podcast episode on burnout rapidly became my most listened to episode ever, I knew we’d hit a nerve.  

So I’ve asked Counselling and Clincial Psychologist, Katrina Streatfeild to come back on the podcast and talk about what we can do to move beyond burnout.

We talked about:

• Beyond normal - all the things happening in the world right now
• How old coping mechanisms might not be enough anymore
• Long term stressors, stress hormones and our ability to cope
• How do we get off the hamster wheel?
• The impact on others when we are compassionate for ourselves
• The necessity of acknowledging that the world has changed
• A process for reimagining our future
• Defining what's realistic in terms of goals now
• How do we figure out what's meaningful now?
• Setting new baselines
• What to do if you don't know what success looks like any longer

So if the thought of facing an unknown future has you feeling a bit exhausted, you are not alone.  Have a listen and try the process Katrina is suggesting.  It may help. 

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Have you ever secretly (or not so secretly) dreamed about starting a live event?  Maybe a conference or a series of live workshops?  Something longer than just one day?

But the thought of doing it was so daunting, you’ve never had the courage to do it?

In this episode I talk with Dr Eibhlin Fletcher, the founder of the Get A Grip Of The Grind Festival, which is now in it’s 5th year.

It hasn’t all been smooth sailing.  And Eibhlin has some advice for anyone thinking about starting up and running that event.

We also talked about:

• The origins of the Get A Grip Of The Grind Festival
• The impact of going tech-less for short periods of time
• What was involved in starting the festival
• Winging it, the things that can go wrong and the things that will always go wrong
• Working with local businesses and getting them to help out
• Eibhlin's biggest fear in running the festival and what actually ended up being the hardest part
• Other key challenges, like keeping everything fresh
• Rogaines (no it’s not medicine)
• Feeling free to do stuff that makes you feel young again
• The difference having help can make
• How documentation and delegation, in that order, can help spread the load, but can slow down decision making
• When customer service is not your strongest point …
• Being the visionary / ideas person ...
• One piece of advice for someone thinking about running a festival or event
• The philosophy of having no regrets

If you’re interested in what Eibhlin has to share about the ups and downs of starting a big event, have a listen.  You’ll be glad you did.

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The first few podcasts that Cliff Duvernois started went into pod fade within a few short months.  It wasn’t for lack of trying.  He truly believed that podcasts were important for business growth.  But he couldn’t get past the sense that unless he was doing everything perfectly and getting thousands of downloads, then his podcast was a failure.

It wasn’t until Cliff had a breakthrough “aha” moment where he realised that there’s a difference between podcasters who get thousands of listens and entrepreneurs who use their podcasts to serve their business, that he was able to make podcasts that really work for his business.

In this episode we talk about:

• Whether you have to be an extrovert to successfully start a podcast
• Overcoming perfectionism
• What pod fade is and what’s it’s biggest cause
• Cliff’s first rule of podcasting
• Building relationships through podcasting
• The wrong way to build those relationships
• A better way of introducing what you do in your business
• Monetising a podcast, even if it’s very new with low listener numbers
• Opening up about who you are as a person
• How sharing parts of the process you use to help people can help with the “know, like and trust” development process
• Whether the numbers of podcast downloads matter
• Insights into Cliff’s success results/metrics
• How you can speed up the time it takes to start a podcast
• How Cliff helps entrepreneurs start their own podcast
• Shownotes and stories
• Podcasts and YouTube

If you’re nervous about starting a podcast for your business, especially if you’re an introvert, this episode will help you develop your own effective approach.

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Lisa was struggling to juggle both her career and her role as a carer for a family member with ongoing health issues.

Because of the demands of her carer role, she finally had to give up on her career and was looking around for something she could do that was just for her.

When she discovered Online Business Liftoff where we teach carers and people over 50 how to start their own online business, she realised she’d found exactly what she was looking for.

As Lisa went through the program, she struggled to decide exactly what her business should be about.

In this podcast episode, Lisa shares how the Online Business Liftoff team helped her discover her calling and what has now become the heart of her business. 

We talked about:

• The start of Lisa’s journey into entrepreneurship
• How she figured out what her business should be about and who she could help
• How she now helps her clients and what’s involved
• How everything starts with a quiz
• Community and what that means within the Online Business Liftoff Community
• Future goals for the next 5 years and how Imposter Syndrome can sometimes help us achieve those goals

Being a carer and finding time to focus on something that’s all your own can be a difficult balancing act.  Lisa’s story is proof that it is possible.

If you’re interested in hearing more about Lisa’s journey from struggling carer, to having a business of her own, have a listen.  You’ll be glad you did.

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Have you been thinking about using paid ads to help build traffic to your website, so you can build your email list?  But you’re not sure how to get started?

Or maybe you have tried ads before, but so much has changed in the world of ads, especially with Facebook, that you’re not sure it’s still worth doing?

Today’s podcast episode features Oscar Garcia.  Oscar  has run online ads for the past 7 years.  And he’s used what he’s learned about ads to grow a business past the half million dollar mark in less than a year.  He did it by successfully running ads to a $27 offer that still currently works today - despite all the targeting and privacy changes that are happening.  

And Oscar is also the host of the OMG! Show, which is a podcast that helps business owners run profitable, paid traffic funnels

In this episode we talk about:

• Oscar’s journey to a successful business, which included doing something not many people do, when they get their first client
• What he did when he discovered that his marketing degree had not prepared him for real life marketing
• Starting his own agency and successfully growing it
• The strategy Oscar discovered for running profitable low ticket offers
• Why your audience size for Facebook matters even more, thanks to recent changes
• Advice on how long to test ads before switching them up
• The process Oscar uses to optimise his ads
• Why knowing your numbers is so important
• What to have on your sales page to maximise conversions
• Tips for planning your numbers baseline
• Why an upsell is like a slice of cheesecake
• Tips around bumps, bonuses and upsells
• And more …

There is a lot of really useful information here.  So if you’re interested in using ads to grow your email list, have a listen.  You’ll be glad you did.

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Having great copy for your website, your sales pages, your emails and your ads is super important for getting people to buy from you … whether you’re simply asking them to trade their email address for a digital download, or asking them to pull out their wallet and purchase something.

The tough reality is that writing great copy that converts is a skill that can take a long time to get good at.  It’s all about practice, practice, practice.

Fortunately, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel.  There are some great frameworks out there that can help you learn how to write great copy a lot faster.

In this episode, I talk with Meredith Kallaher, a conversion copywriting expert.  We talked about:

• The conversion copywriting framework that she uses and how it will make things so much easier, not just once, not just twice, but lots
• Why you need to make your customer the hero, not you.  
• Shortcuts you can use to get your copy done more quickly
• The 3-step process that Meredith uses to create and optimise her conversion copy (spoiler alert, it involves testing)
• Why knowing your numbers is so important (and why you shouldn’t let your Google Analytics dashboard scare you away from tracking your numbers

If you’re wanting better copy that converts, this podcast episode is full of tips and techniques you can use to help you get that copy.

So, if you’re interested, have a listen.  You’ll be glad you did.

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• Keyword stuffing … what’s okay and what’s not
• Which should come first, your Google Business Profile or your website?
• What kind of photos to add to your profile
• Whether you should have a Google Business Profile if you’re an online business
• Why getting reviews is so important
• How to deal with it when people give you bad reviews
• Ways of asking for reviews
• Advice re posting events on your Google Business Profile
• The number 1 thing you should do that will increase your Google Business Profile impact
• What if you want to have more than one profile?
• Other online places where people can find your business, that you should be claiming
• How to do with overwhelm when it comes to building your Google Business Profile
• Why you really, really, really need to claim your Google Business Profile

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In today’s podcast, Business and Transformation Coach, Benjamin Yeh, returns to give us Part 2 of his framework for how to start removing the barriers that stop us from achieving the success we want.

We talk about:

• The 3 things that surround us that we need to pay attention to as we work on breaking down barriers
• How gardening and community relate to what we’re talking about
• Why personality matters when building a business and in breaking down barriers
• Is it possible to leave out one of the 3 components and still get results?
• What can happen when, in doing all this barrier breaking, your worldview gets shaken
• How an old Sony Discman helped Benjamin create a winning mindset
• How training as a runner (even if you hate running) makes a great analogy
• Benjamin’s 5WG framework that’s been the secret to his success

If that sounds like it would be interesting, have a listen. And then apply the principles Benjamin shares to your own situation. You’ll be glad you did.

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