-
- May 29th, 2008
- 6 Comments
-
How many of you grew up with Siskel and Ebert? How many of you also wondered who they were related to, who they killed, bribed, and other adjectives I will leave off this child friendly blog, in order to secure those positions?
Here were 2 GEEKS (in my youthful opinion), and all they had (got) to do all day was be PAID to see movie after movie and say thumbs up or thumbs down. I am sure I never thought about the equivalent of the journalism ‘mail room’ they may have worked their way up from, or that when they put pen to paper they nailed a motion picture in a few sharp sentences. I am only referring to the 2 guys who I saw sitting on their bums yapping about movies.
Fame (and success attached) used to be analagous to winning a ‘lottery’. Not just the powerball or Ed McMahon, but who was to become the next pop singer, the next biggest movie star, the next Siskel and Ebert. Sure, it took talent, but as my folks used to say = We dont know who the best guitar player is - He is sitting in some corner of a room, playing with no audience to hear.
With the internet and shows like American Idol, those days are (could be) history. Now the talented but unconnected and ‘unlucky’ are breaking their way into all industries, and in a big way!
I could totally litter this page with examples, and it would be a lot of fun actually, but I am going to highlight one such example I came across for now since it is a lot more relevant to what I actually planned on writing today.
I am scouring the web for some of the hottest social networking platforms as I am doing research for a site I am building and before ordering something new, I thought it wise to check out the existing ‘open sourcey’ (apparently open source is not always as simple as the word sounds), and one cannot be checking out social networks and not come across NING. NING allows you to freely create a social network of your own.. let me try to wrap this up since once I hand the floor over to these guys, you will not give too much thought to what I am going on about now…
Allow me to introduce to you, a group of incredibly talented individuals, who have taken advantage of free online tools, and their collective talents, to ‘win their own lottery’ .. Its not who they know.. its waking up and smelling the ripeness of the opportunities and realizing that it’s all fair game. Even Tom Cruise, albeit with a much heftier budget, is heavily advertising his own website to try to gain more commitment from his fans, as the collective pool of talent grows. He created a gorgeous showcase just to remind you of one of the original and most successful lottery winners!
Back to this site that has me completely amazed - the site is called Spill.com, one of the most popular NING sites, completely stripped and remade so you would have to know a Ning site to recognise it. These guys could be high schoolers, they could be businessmen, they could be from harlem… thats the beauty of it. Enjoy.
-
- May 9th, 2008
- 14 Comments
-
Here was the challenge My Mr. X posed me with in this post last month (be sure to read the comments on that post - good stuff!) :
Assuming you currently do not have a web presence and no other online assets, how can you make 1 million dollars in 12 months?
First of all, Mr X is becoming a way overused moniker for someone who makes a crapload of money but wants to remain anonymous .. We are given the impression that people would be stalking and calling him all hours of the day, beating his secrets out of him. Mr X is getting a new name, since any Mr X I consort with is WAY cooler and simply cant share his title of Mr X with a bunch of other zombie face millionaires. Any Suggestions? Agent Money maybe?
Back to the money:
This is a unique challenge since MOST people have some leg to stand on… some ’stuff’ in their arsenal.
Here we are just waking up one day.. and deciding to become an online millionaire.
To that I say… NO PROBLEM!!
1 Find where the NEXT convention is
In an industry that interests you, and assuming you are really broke, figure out ANY way possible to get yourself there. Borrow. Beg. Comandeer some moolah! Meeting like minded people face to face wont put money in your pocket immediately, but will open doors, as many doors as you have the time and energy to pursue.
Want proof? I just went to a convention at the end of February 08. Here is my Paypal account balance from Feb 17th 08 until March 1st 08: (I split it up to remove the private info and have it fit on the screen)
- Proof of earnings on paypal
Now, Here is my current paypal account balance up to May 7th ‘08. And it will be growing. 90% from the relationships at the conference and I have been back just over 2 months.
- Proof of earnings on paypal
(btw - you can see that I joined a membership, and that allowed me to cancel a different one that I didnt need anymore)
NEXT
2 Show Off Your Skills
Lets assume you have some skill or talent. Find some ugly backwards but high ranking website in your niche, and SHOW them what you can do for them. Dont send a stupid email. Go to WHO IS, call them up, Fed EX them a personal letter (if you can afford the postage) and do this for MULTIPLE people in your niche. From there the possibilities are endless from a simple affiliate relationship to a product you could whip up as an expert to a split equity deal. It will be the cheapest and fastest way for YOU to grow a high ranking website and make it fast!
Want Proof? I dont have figures, but showing you that I am putting my money where my mouth is: The launch I am working on that I invited you to witness is for a website that belongs to ‘my company’ but is exactly as described above : Ugly, backwards, high ranking, and niche. This guy approaches me, lets call him YOU for now, since he is following the steps I advise, and asks me to promote his product. Then I become YOU, since I actually tell him.. thats not good enough! I dont want to promote some stupid ebook and make a couple of dollars! I want to blow this out! We are dedicating part of the site to this launch experience, and you have been invited to watch. If you have patience since we are both busy!
NEXT:
3 Look At Me - I Am Important
Start putting yourself out there and draw attention to yourself. Garner market interest by being either controversial, out there, influential, funny… How much will it cost? Well assuming you dont already own a digital camera that can do videos, you could prob get a little flip camera or $79 dollar Samsung (the kind you get kids for their Bar Mitzvah, and the kind I have used for all my videos so far), go to UStream or youtube or anywhere and try out for online contests or reply to other peoples videos, and start talking about your niche..
Want Proof?
I should be called the ‘always a contestant, never a winner’.. but I would beg to differ. Exactly a year ago, I submitted my first video ever. A timid, shy, hint of personality, a little loserish entry to the next internet millionaire: (I cant even watch it anymore)
I entered a few other contests and look at how I was referred to a mere 7 videos and 9 months later. The ‘FAMOUS Andrea’ … not that this is my finest work, but
“The Famous “Andrea” Shares Her Top Event Highlights”:
I went from earning - well a lot less than I could - to being approached by an online marketing genius (may he rest in peace) who invested in me, to having personal relationships with many whom I only admired from afar in the past, to gaining serious leverage as a result of all the above, and the ONLY reason I am not seeing the figures I would be otherwise is due to very unfortunate circumstances that has naturally caused a very big setback (refer to may he rest in peace above for clarification).
NEXT:
4 Do the local circuit
Become your OWN tupperware party! What do I mean? If you know about online marketing, then you are in the .00001% of the population who does. Whenever I leave my house to hang out with the common people
, everyone wants a piece of you. I mean we are skilled in a multi billion dollar industry of how to make money online from HOME. I could be next to Pamela Anderson and still wow the crowd (man.. this ego trip is out of control today!) MILK IT!!
Want Proof? Anytime I run into a group of people who are interested, I am able to do one of the following:
- If they have an online business, take money from them to tell them why it sucks. It usually does. and it could ALWAYS be better.
- Tell them to collect a bunch of people and charge per head to have an evening of live q&a on whatever it is that separates them from not having a clue to getting it. Then you furnish them with an affiliate laden options list and let them move on.. of course they could always pay for private consulting.
- Create a partnership (although usually less inclined since too busy). Here you leverage other peoples unique talents and your skills to do a joint venture. Advisable if you come across a real winner..
- Get more exposure which leads to all sorts of possibilities.. similar to my online videos, just on a local scale.
Just to be honest.. I give away a lot of information for free.. If you enjoy what you do, the adrenaline is obvious, and people respond to it! I mean if making money from home online wasnt enough of a selling point, seeing someone happy and excited certainly helps! This blog is free, there is ample free stuff online. Its not like I am telling them something they cant discover on their own if they had the time, the patience and the skills. I respect that and am happy to give away the farm.
Then WORD OF MOUTH spreads and you can be your own guru to the locals.
NEXT:
5 Rewards based work.
This blog post is referring to those who are looking to make a million dollars since they will work hard for it, have the drive, ambition, passion, and ability to succeed. Everyone else inherits it, marries it, or is in Hollywood.
Approach a big company and tell them what you can do for them and that your earnings will be a %age share on the growth of the company. This requires some careful attention to detail and hard work, but if they have some capital willing to back you up, this could be a great golden ticket, since those %age residuals could be very cushy and you would certainly earn the respect of the company, and the referrals would define your continual rise to the top of the food chain.
Want Proof? Working on it
.
-
- May 1st, 2008
- 0 Comments
-
My whole life is a big TO DO list. However, since there is direct cause and effect with building a business to do list, it helps to see the big picture by literally creating a BIG PICTURE
. While we work on copy, videos, etc.. let me share where it REALLY should start. Mindmapping has become huge and there are many online sources that allow you to create your own free Map. I wanted to quickly share with you, in a few broken up images to allow it to fit on this screen, the maps I am using for our Launch.
At the core is the Name of the project. (here its the name of the website)
In order to draw people in we will:
- we have to bond with them (here we will tell a story of how we can relate to them)
- show them social proof (samples) (either exhibit one way to help them, or show expertise on what NOT to do)
- appeal to their interest in the topic (in this case would be their PAIN - and in MANY cases Pain is great emotion to go after).
In order to figure out what we have to work with, we created a list of our assets..
- We currently have a pretty high ranked site with decent organic traffic
- a mailing list that has offered incredibly little value thus far, so I would view it as starting from scratch
- Blake has already written an ebook on the topic, with some visuals, also a prevention manual
- Not one, but 2 Internet Marketers! Myself plus Blake (he actually approached me about our pathetic autoresponders. I didnt write them - I inherited them! I think he was SHOCKED, to say the least when I told him who I was and what I do!) So we will both focus on keyword searches to our page, gtrends, whats hot, whats not to know what our visitors want before they even TELL us. They will just enforce it.
- We have a list of cute work at your desk exersizes that can be a bonus/freebie
- I included videos because it was a given that we would have them, and we are working on making them better, and they WILL be a part of a final product since how can you teach someone certain specific exercises without it?
- The Message Board was very active for a while, until it got taken over with spam. I am updating it to a better version. Perhaps only members will have access.. a lot of options..
Finally PROMOTION: I didnt get into this one more, since I *think*, in the interest of just getting something behind us, we may want to pull off an internal launch, with our small list. Once we see how it works, then we can approach other potential JV’s and have some stats to back it up, and also work to improve it since we will have experience, feedback, etc. Here are some ideas:
- Advertise on sites or ezines who have no idea how they could be making more money from their niche site. It is then cheaper to pay them a set price for their visitors to see, than give them a huge cut on the sale. In fact, many should view the site we are sampling here as such a web property - totally not maximizing its potential
- Traditional affiliate program, offer a big cut
- Fleshing that one out more - approach potential affiliates, let them get in earlier to offer your freebies to their visitors, list, etc.. then they look generous, its an easier conversion on our end since who doesnt want something free, and they still get a nice cut while WE do the rest of the work bringing it home.
-
- Apr 25th, 2008
- 3 Comments
-
40 is the new 30, orange is the new pink, AND
Billioniare is the new millionaire! So.. just as you thought you were approaching success by hitting 6 zeros, there is a new beast to face.
000,000,000 - yes 9 zeros!
If you are still looking to acheive 1 zero, let me inspire you with a quote I had the pleasure of reading in Februarys Entrepreneur Magazine. Billionaire Marc Ecko was interviewed on the billionaire mindset and very succesfully sums up how he has acheived his level of success and why so many others LOSE:
“I dont think theres one silver bullet that will shoot you to the moon. Not being emotional and being able to call shit on yourself and on the people around you is really important. And not having to worry about tap-dancing or tiptoeing around people’s feelings. Just to be sober and say “look, this is how it really is”. I think having an environment that lends itself to that without everyone getting pissy is really important. That, coupled with being passionate and being able to distinguish between the shades of passion, and emotion, because there is a distinction. Being passionate doesnt give you license to be emotional..”
I have personally witnessed, rather ALLOWED parts of my businesses to FAIL since I didnt want to confront someone, rather to avoid conflict than get what I wanted, needed, deserved, and PAID for!
I am working hard to make sure this is no longer a concern by aligning myself with people who ‘get’ the above quote. Life is too short and business is too damn hard to have it any other way.
Is this full of EGO and ATTITUDE? Heck ya, but listen close to what it really means.
If WE work together, the EGO I am looking after is YOURS.. How can I build you up, how can I make you feel more important? The Attitude I bring is what can I do to make this a success, where do my strengths lie? (why did you seek me out in the first place?) and where am I weak? I have the Ego and Attitude to do this Honestly.
Is it too much to request the same in return?
-
- Apr 18th, 2008
- 2 Comments
-
Here we go:
I am sorry to be so scientific about this, but we have Passover (google it!), so I am in a mad dash to get everything done .. and its all on top of my usual hectic schedule.
Therefore, with no further adieu, I give you this to look to: (NOTE: THIS IS NOT LIVE!! IT IS STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS).
PLEASE read this FIRST:
1) PLEASE do not Opt In to the list! I will give you a link here for the 2nd page that aweber sends you to, and I will ALSO (not today, since its not complete yet), give you the first autoresponder. You will not miss a step! I dont want you to opt-in so that when the page goes live, the stats will be 100% accurate, and not skewed by all of you
!2) This launch is for the very specific ailment niche in which I am partnering with someone else - an expert in the field. Therefore not everything is in my control. While Blake (he) is completely flexible and happy to go along, it is still a work in progress. These are his first videos and I did what I could to jazz them up. He has not even seen the changes yet, so I am waiting to hear if he thinks he can do better, plans to try to do better, or is satisfied. Curious what you guys think..
3) On Page 2 I tried for like 30 minutes to get the text below to NOT be centered. Its like an HTML exorcist. NOTHING WORKED. I know it looks bad. (also the text isnt complete)
4) Once we move along and get to a place where we all care cuz it succeeds (YES!), then I can go back and tell more history about this site, and how I came to be using it for this project. For now, I consider that information unnecessary to expound upon and dull.
Tell me if you notice the variables that would classify this site as in the stages of ‘pre-pre-launch’ mode? I will clarify them in a few days.
ok. Check this out:
(sorry - link removed for a few days to work out faster video playing! I dont want to make you suffer here!)
When someone signs up, they reach HERE:
(same sorry for this link too) - on that page is a link to a 3rd video…
Ok, look. I am a big girl and I can take it. So BRING IT ON. Tell me what SUCKS.
Caveat: try to imagine you are a ’sufferer’ and not an IM’er..
Back soon…
P.S.- If you recognize the squeeze page look and feel, the background what have you… it is because you are looking at a professional squeeze page STEALER, THIEF, RIP OFF. That’s right. When I see a page, I like - its as simple as :
View Source. Copy. Paste. Change content. USUALLY hire graphic designer for new header graphic/logo, but didnt yet.