Post: #1

As I am going through business and product development and launching my site I am learning a lot not only about starting a business but also about myself and my circle of friends. I'm going to keep a log here so that you guys can see how things are progressing, avoid the mistakes I make, and maybe learn a thing or two.

I am learning that I am less organized than I thought but also far more adaptable than I thought. The entire launch process is happening almost entirely in the opposite order of how I expected and planned for it to turn out. It seems like the businesspeople who turn out on top are the ones who are the most adaptable and agile, and not necessarily the ones with the best plan.

"Every boxer has a plan until he gets punched in the face."

I've been metaphorically punched in the face several times in the last month.

It's like every time I plan out the next 2 weeks of my business development something else comes up that shifts my efforts in a totally different direction. Fortunately, all these distractions have been positive developments, but I will probably hit a wall at some point and I'm preparing myself mentally to be able to react flexibly when that happens.

I thought that time management would be a problem in that I would have to motivate myself to stay on track and keep working. The exact opposite is happening in that my brain never stops thinking about my product development, consultations, and video screencast interviews. It's become a bit overwhelming at times and I've been having to juggle multiple hats all the time. Motivation is strong and I've been hustling and moving forward, though.

The mentors whose biz dev structure I am following have a mantra to "fail forward", which I am finding to be entirely responsible for any progress I've made. So far I've been lucky and only succeeded forward but my initial staggering randomly forward into an intermediate phase of the business launch structure gave me the momentum I needed to calibrate and move forward.

I spent my first three months in "niche identification", trying to figure out a perfect golden niche that would work for me. Then, I finally just starting throwing out random ideas and concepts I had on this forum and others and some of them stuck - especially international career related stuff. I went with it. In the last month that I've been moving forward and gaining momentum, my progress has sped up exponentially.

I've also realized it is difficult and maybe impossible for me to do business with my friends. There are no professional boundaries and this has been causing problems with two of my friends in particular, who I've completely stopped consulting. It is incredibly aggravating to spend time trying to help people who don't execute the advice you give them and then later blame you for their failure.

Outsourcing is awesome.

I'll be updating this thread regularly and welcome comments, questions, and feedback from current and aspiring entrepreneurs as I go through my own journey.

Post: #2

This is a great idea. I look forward to hearing more about your progress/fail forwards.

Post: #3

Gotz mine on the boiler pot, awaiting launch hopefully by the end of this year. I currently work a job so I have to work on it on the side. Sometimes you just got to throw away the notion of a niche or a golden idea, and build backwards; like saying "this is what I have going on for me now and this is what I can do to leverage my situation", instead of "i'm generating an idea list and from this I will select one and I will push forward'. This allows for more flexibility, fights analysis-paralysis, replacing it with the hope that it sticks.

Post: #4

Incredible stories happening in China. I don't think these kinds of stories can happen anywhere else in the world than China.

Post: #5

Interesting stuff, YMG. Keep us posted on your developments. Looking forward to hearing more.

Post: #6

I'm learning a lot about outsourcing and management of people as I'm going through this.

Post: #7

Okay, I've just convinced myself to go to Saigon after 2 months in Thailand.

I'm going to have to hustle a lot harder and faster than I planned.

Post: #8

I've actually made a lot of money developing and selling products online.

It looks like that is what you're trying to do.

Go check out:
- warriorforum.com
- odesk.com
- elance.com
- guru.com
- freelancer.com (the dollar store of freelancer sites)

Your front end products make under $40. $37 is a good #. e-Books are common. You break even on this sale. Also can use $17 or $19.95. If you can break even on the front end you are golden.

1-click upsells are where you make money. $97 audio course, $197 video course, $997 personal coaching, etc. Audio version of the ebook, even. Also you can use PLR content (private label rights) as you have mentioned. You'd be AMAZED what you can do with PLR. Re-write it, record it as videos, modify it, use it as upsells, etc.

Ultracart.com or 1shoppingcart.com or now even clickbank.com for upsells.

Build a mailing list. You MUST do this. Eventually you'll know how much $ every subscriber spends.

I know people doing $xx,xxx,xxx per year with these techniques. I do alright myself.

Good work on getting moving.

Post: #9

Hi bluewater, thanks for the info and encouragement.

Post: #10

The thing about front-end is getting a customer.. even a $1 trial and $97 per month is successful... the point is - people get into a "buying frenzy" once they start a "relationship" with you.. lower price, easier to start a "relationship". In non-financial niches going straight for $97 on an initial sale may be equivalent to proposing on the first date. Read about it. Good work.

Post: #11

Also consider your "Free Reports" or hooks to get subscribers.. doubleyourdating.com has good examples of all of this.. Eben Pagan banks like I don't know $20M a year selling IM (Internet Marketing) & Seduction stuff as far as I know. Not sure if this is profit or gross, but its a lot.. its called a "sales funnel" and you build relationship with the customer as you go. Happens in online and offline businesses (would you like fries and a coke with that?)

Post: #12

ahhh got it....that's a pretty novel idea I didn't think about it.....I can bang out a cheap ebook in about a week's time or less I'd imagine.

Thanks for the tip.

Post: #13

One more thing.. on your front-end product or Freebies you want to "over-deliver" to both affiliates and customers.. pay affiliates a lot (100% or 200% like doubleyourdating.com does) and then give the customer WAY OVER the amount you're charging.. you get a ton of shit for $19.95 on doubleyourdating.com and he pays people like $40 per sale if they send him a buyer. Why? Because the buyers see your $19.95 is unbelievable and are sure your $197 will kick ass too.. more likely to buy.. same with free content.. Frank Kern basically gives away his whole shit during his launch sequence.. people spend $1997 because his free shit is unbelievable (along with other reasons, like status in his market, built by "names" pushing his shit, results, social proof, blah blah)

Post: #14

(05-31-2011 05:35 AM)bluewater7 Wrote:  One more thing.. on your front-end product or Freebies you want to "over-deliver" to both affiliates and customers.. pay affiliates a lot (100% or 200% like doubleyourdating.com does) and then give the customer WAY OVER the amount you're charging.. you get a ton of shit for $19.95 on doubleyourdating.com and he pays people like $40 per sale if they send him a buyer. Why? Because the buyers see your $19.95 is unbelievable and are sure your $197 will kick ass too.. more likely to buy.. same with free content.. Frank Kern basically gives away his whole shit during his launch sequence.. people spend $1997 because his free shit is unbelievable (along with other reasons, like status in his market, built by "names" pushing his shit, results, social proof, blah blah)

How do they stop the affiliates scamming them if they give 200% commission?

Post: #15

I'm going to be splitting up my time like this:

Monday - Friday - Muay Thai 8-10 AM, 4-6 PM

Weekdays - Business work - 12-3 PM, 8-11 PM

Weekends - Business work - 10 AM - 10 PM

I'm going to completely immerse myself in business development and hardcore training. Like if Rocky was starting an internet business.

I might have to adjust these hours when I get there, as I will probably be so physically and mentally exhausted from the muay thai. We'll see. I'm ambitious though, and want to stick to these standards.

Post: #16

The CPA networks with the free trials and even the dating offers on free trials all pay out for free sign-ups.. same idea with 200%.. if you see one affiliate committing fraud leading to no actual sales or a lot of refunds, etc. - you eliminate the affiliate or adjust down their commission

Post: #17

So far I've used fiverr to do the following:

-Get logo redone
-Compile 30 hi def and public domain photos of skylines in Asia
-resize pics on website
-web research about cost of living in cities

I've got more in the pipeline. This is exactly what I've been looking for. I generally need virtual assistant type grunt work done in small spurts of 1-3 hours for very specific things and I don't need a VA working for me full time (yet).

Fiverr is the shit.

Post: #18

Although I"ve been getting work done and have produced about 10 pages of solid content and other deliverables, I feel like I shoudl be getting more work done. When I'm not working in a traditional structured environment like a workplace, I occasionally lose control in one sense or another in that I either work nonstop or work too little.

Any other entrepreneurs have any tips on time management?

Post: #19

Its tough man.. especially with no office and friends that are doing other shit and pussy on the mind, etc.

I've had employees and no employees.. either one can be good or bad depending on who is involved and the status of the business.

GOOD employees can be golden. BAD ones can be worse than not having them. I feel your pain.

Perhaps the best idea is similar to a "workout partner". Hold each other's feet to the fire. Meet online. Etc.

Or, a mastermind group. These also are the same type of thing - meet less frequently. Shoot me a PM if you want. Meeting daily and listing your goals to other people - almost like you are doing in this thread - or talking in real time can help you get more shit done.. make it more fun.. doing it in person can help even more IF the person is a positive influence. Again, its good when its good, bad when its bad.

Sometimes friends around can help, sometimes they can take your eye off the ball.

Perhaps balance is key.

Key is profits and employees and managers getting shit done. That is what I'm focusing on now.

Post: #20

PM sent, this is a great idea.

Anyone else out there an entrepreneur or launching a web business right now?

I keep hearing about warrior forums. I'm going to join now.

Post: #21

(06-07-2011 01:10 PM)youngmobileglobal Wrote:  PM sent, this is a great idea.

Anyone else out there an entrepreneur or launching a web business right now?

I keep hearing about warrior forums. I'm going to join now.

I may be starting a web based biz, retail based looking into the importing issues and trying to find suppliers that source the products I want, they're tough to come by and are based out of China so seemingly only get half the answers I want every email so it takes twice as long. Im using tradekey to find the suppliers and havent used it before, if you've done a lot of biz in China, any ways to find out if a company is on the up and up, legit and licensed?

Post: #22

I've never done business in China, just worked there a couple times.

Read this blog, it'll have ansnwers to most of your legal/supplier questions:

http://www.chinalawblog.com

It's an entertaining read and somehow makes legal reading fun.

Whenever anyone asks me to help them out with China business I point them towards CLB.

Post: #23

I've been on the Warrior forums for a few weeks now. I joined the War Room Private Discussion and have gotten a lot of value out of it. There is so much gold sitting on that forum its ridiculous.

I've looked through a lot of ideas and I've finally settled upon a business that has good earning potential and plays towards my strengths.

Its going to have three parts:
1. SEO Consulting
2. Website Design
3. Web Hosting

The first step I'm going to take is to get local businesses as clients for my SEO services. Local businesses are easy to rank and I can use a couple of Fiverr gigs to get them to the top of Google.

I can make a nice looking website using Wordpress in a few minutes, and I plan on selling this service on Fiverr with the condition that they buy hosting through my reseller hosting account. Once they've bought the website I can upsell them with SEO services. This isn't my focus right now, right now I'm trying to get local businesses as clients because these guys will pay $2,000 a month.

The challenge for me is that I'm stumbling around all by myself. It would be immensely helpful if I had a friend who does freelance SEO to talk to and ask questions.

Post: #24

(06-13-2011 11:52 PM)Sardino Wrote:  I've been on the Warrior forums for a few weeks now. I joined the War Room Private Discussion and have gotten a lot of value out of it. There is so much gold sitting on that forum its ridiculous.

I've looked through a lot of ideas and I've finally settled upon a business that has good earning potential and plays towards my strengths.

Its going to have three parts:
1. SEO Consulting
2. Website Design
3. Web Hosting

The first step I'm going to take is to get local businesses as clients for my SEO services. Local businesses are easy to rank and I can use a couple of Fiverr gigs to get them to the top of Google.

I can make a nice looking website using Wordpress in a few minutes, and I plan on selling this service on Fiverr with the condition that they buy hosting through my reseller hosting account. Once they've bought the website I can upsell them with SEO services. This isn't my focus right now, right now I'm trying to get local businesses as clients because these guys will pay $2,000 a month.

The challenge for me is that I'm stumbling around all by myself. It would be immensely helpful if I had a friend who does freelance SEO to talk to and ask questions.

Can you talk a bit more about the value you're getting out of warrior forum?

I hear that while there is value in there, most of it is just people trying to sell each other stuff.

Post: #25

I'm looking into adding video content for my product too. Anyone out there have experience with creating video content for information products?