Shoemoney - Skills To Pay The Bills

30k Fans, 1k Subscribers, 3 Huge Mistakes.

Posted: 13 May 2014 06:55 AM PDT

The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success

- Bruce Feirstein

I don’t know what came over me when I had this idea.

I was at a dog park and i saw this lady that had this pet collar that looked like California driver’s license.

I thought.. hey this is pretty crazy but it might just work.

“How much did you pay for this?”

She replied, “$20″.

Holy hell. $20? For a piece of laminated photo with some custom information on it?

Of course, I knew about dogs at the time, because i had 3.

At that moment, I should’ve asked around .. or just look around and notice that among 20+ friends I knew that had dogs, no one had or even wanted this thing. That usual metal tag with name, ID, and phone number was good enough.

I believe in this stupid Silicon Valley “make a crazy product”… “build it and they will come” bull shit.

I thought “hmm.. dog lovers, big enough market, and a pretty crazy innovative product. maybe this can work”.

My competitors were getting sales by word of mouth and orders were taken manually, meaning you couldn’t see what the product looked like until you received it.

I knew Adwords and traffic buying like the back of my hand, and I’m a kick ass coder.

I thought I would corner the market by actually showing the finished product (most intensive jquery coding I’ve ever done)… then BAM, pour on adwords, let I take care of billing, and my partner (a local printshop that actually co-invested in this idea with me) would do the shipping, handling, and returns.

So did it work?

Let me answer that in form of a question.

Ever watch Willy the Coyote try to catch the Roadrunner while on roadskates with a jetpack, only to blast into the wall?

Then they play that “wah wah wah” sound effect?

I invested $60k of my profits from my affiliate marketing days into equipment I didn’t need, building relationship with suppliers I didn’t want to ever deal with, and of course, 3 months of my life coding away, and dumped additional $5k in adwords / media buying.

I made an amazing sale of $300.

Of course, I pivoted.

I wasnt sure if target market was off or my intuition was off, but I knew there was something with dog people.

So i started a blog, thinking that i would use inbound marketing to get some organic sales.

Back at the time, Facebook fanpages were novelty and of course, Facebook ads made it mindlessly easy to get fans.

I was getting fans at less than penny a fan. And I mean the GOOD traffic: 25+ US females. And hitting 33k Facebook fans was quite easy.

Of course, Facebook page reach was pretty phenomenal back then too. I would post about any dog picture, and I would get 60-70% reach (not anymore, and if you are still building your “asset” on someone else’s property, sooner or later you’re gonna wake up to a rude awakening of sharecropping).

I posted a story about this one dog named Patrick who was thrown down the garbage chute of 20 story building in NJ after starving & beating him for weeks.

That went viral. Probably gave me 300-400 email optins.

I posted a story bout how I lost & found my dog, only to have him found by a NHL hockey player. I used that story as link bait and got insane PR, including backlinks from CSN and NBC.

(Me and Joe Pavelski of San Jose Sharks)

That went viral. Gave me another 300+ optins.

All in all, I had the largest newsletter of my life up to that point – (I have a personal newsletter, which you should join!)

So how many sales came out of that?

Another couple of hundred bucks at best. After a year or so of hitting the brickwall so many times, my fumes ran out.

So what did I learn?

1) Targeting broad = Surest way to succeed and fail

I live US.

Everyone (well, there is no scientific basis for this claim but probably 90%+ either tolerates or) loves dogs. 2/3 of the people are fat. Most are 1 paycheck away from complete bankruptcy. Everyone wants a sports car. Gossip media is probably the most popular genre, next to shitty bad news.

Just because you are in a big market doesn’t mean there are schmucks waiting to give away their hard earned cash for your widget.

Why? Because no one cares.

If you have an innovative product or service, find a SMALL niche who cares about your stuff.

Let them amplify for your message with referrals, testimonials, and of course, free backlinks.

2) Test first. Build second.

Four Hour Work Week, Lean Startup, Business Model Generation…

All these books say the same thing OVER AND OVER.

Get the customer FIRST. Invest in engineering & do all that fun scaling stuff whe you actually DO have money coming in.

Remember, the world is FULL of people who’s good at doig all that non marketing / sales stuff. Most are afraid of failures and rejections. If you’re the entrepreneur, that’s your job.

It’s gonna sound crazy, but you can even apply lean startup methods to dentists.

3) Give people what they want, NOT what you want.

You are not Steve Jobs. I am not Elon Musk.

There are some entrepreneurs who can actually create a market that did not really exist (or wasn’t a very good one).

Meaning they can create stuff that people would actually want even if they had no idea those things existed. Why? Because they can somehow “create” the future and the 99% of us just walk into it.

It’s ok, you don’t have to be Musk/Jobs to be successful. Look at Sam Walton.

In fact, BE like Sam Walton. Figure out what the public is looking at and playing with, and sell that. (Yes, be a mercenary.)

Even in affiliate marketing, I was so resistant against doing health & beauty because quite frankly, I don’t know what middle aged women from the ‘burbs want. But little did I know, there was MORE money in weight loss than i imagined possible.

If you’re marketing someone else’s product or service, understand the market and give them what they want and need. (Assuming that the product or service is completely ethical & legitimate).

Trying to increase your Google rank that is like no other?

Be a Better Blogger By Being an ACE (Here’s How) [Guest Post] - DailyBlogTips

Be a Better Blogger By Being an ACE (Here’s How) [Guest Post]

Posted: 13 May 2014 03:31 AM PDT

This is a guest post from Matthew Eaton.

Would you like a more successful blog?

Sadly, there's no magic formula to follow.

Instead, success starts in your head – and you may have to clear some mental hurdles to achieve it.

Building a successful blog means being an A.C.E …

… not a J.O.K.E.R.

What is an A.C.E.?

A – Attitude

Did you know your mind attracts whatever you think about most of the time?

Were you aware this applies to being negative as well as being positive?

You cannot succeed without a positive attitude. If you see your blog as just a blog, you’ll defeat yourself before you even start. Your blog is a valuable platform that you must work hard at to keep fluid in order to reach out to your customer base.

So keep your thoughts in-line with what you want and keep them away from what you don’t want. Tell yourself your blog is successful, not that it just might be if you get a lucky break.

(And yes, if you are being a “realist,” you are thinking negatively.)

C – Commitment

Your blog achieves greatness over the long haul, not with shortcuts. In this crazy modern world, you won’t see real success by gaming the system or buying likes/tweets/subscribers. Commit to sticking with it, no matter how long it takes.

Some days a post will go viral. Other days, your blog will be a virtual dust bunny farm. This is a part of life, just as it is a part of blogging. If you work on your commitment, you will see success when all others might see failure.

Remember, it is easy to get the first ninety percent. It takes all your effort to break through the wall to the remaining ten percent and see the fruit of your labors grow.

E – Excellence

Please note, I didn’t say perfection. Most people panic when they see excellence because they believe it means shooting for perfection.

Be excellent in what you do. You must give all you've got to see your blog do well. You will fail, you will stumble, you will make embarrassing mistakes, but you must do everything in your power to do your best.

Failure is the key to success. You will find your success through failing excellently, brushing yourself off, and diving back into the fray.

What is a J.O.K.E.R?

My definition of J.O.K.E.R is as follows:

Just

O.K.

Enough

Really

If you’ve ever been tempted to do the following, you might fall into the joker section:

Buying likes
Buying friends
Purchasing quick fix programs / ebooks / etc
Going for the next get rich scheme
“Gaming the system”

These steps will undermine your authority. You will devalue your voice.

You probably have stumbled across a pitch page with an ambiguous message that follows some shady marketing practices. They offer you a quick fix. Instead, they are using you to earn a little extra money before the next “trick” hits.

There are other ways to be a joker:

You blame someone else for your failure
You blame the situation
You can’t accept you might have been wrong
You can’t accept you might have used the wrong method
You aren’t willing to do the hard work it takes

We're all tempted to take the easy route. It is easier to spam your list than to build a relationship. It is easier to flood the market with poor products than to hone your craft. It is easier to buy mailing lists than to build your own.

Do you believe taking these shortcuts will earn you more or fewer customers in the long run? I have a feeling you already know the answer.

Are You an Ace or a Joker?

If you are a joker, you have very little ground to stand on. If you want to turn things around and become an ace, this is what you need to do:

Be honest with yourself: You will have to put in the effort and dedicate time to make this work for you.

Come up with a plan: All great businesses have a plan. All great entrepreneurs have plans. A poorly thought out plan executed well will do far better than an excellent plan never attempted.

Take action: If you take action, you are a success. Even if you fail, you are better than ninety percent of the people who don’t act.

Place value on your work: Make sure your work is genuinely valuable. If you don’t, you will make it harder to keep your bank account full and your name clean.

Might you be a bit of a joker? Can you be a better ace? Tell us in the comments below and we’ll be happy to help you achieve better success!

Bio: Matthew Eaton is a copy technician by day and a writer by not day (dusk, dawn, night, whenever he isn’t hungover) over at Matthew Eaton: Writer, a site created to quell writer’s fears before they become paralyzed by the blank page. You can follow Matthew on his Twitter @MattEEaton.

Wanna learn how to make more money with your website? Check the Online Profits training program!

Do You Listen to Music When You’re Writing Blog Posts? Try This Instead…

Posted: 12 May 2014 11:16 AM PDT

Are you the sort of blogger who works best with music blaring, or in total silence?

Perhaps you're not sure yet. I know I've flip-flopped over the years about which I prefer.

On the one hand, music can be a bit distracting (especially if you have a tendency to sing along) but "silence" usually means being at the mercy of all the noises going on nearby: roadworks outside, the TV on in the next room, your colleagues or kids or housemates chatting …

One great alternative I've found is to listen to background noise. I'm particularly enjoying Noisli right now – a site (and iPhone app) with a range of different noises you can listen to, from wind and waves to coffee shop chatter.

The site aims to help you focus, by playing background noise that's not intrusive or distracting. My personal favourite is the "leaves" sound, but you may find one of the others is a great fit for you.

For me, this is perfect for editing and proofreading – I find music much too distracting during those tasks. (When I'm writing a first draft, the music doesn't seem so intrusive.)

If you prefer actual music, though, you could try focus@will, which promises "neuroscience based music channels" designed to increase your attention span. You can join for free, though you'll need to pay in order to get access to more than one track per music channel.

Do you already use either of these, or something similar? Drop a comment below to let us know what works best for you.

Wanna learn how to make more money with your website? Check the Online Profits training program!

Pages

USAHA BERSAMA

Ads 468x60px