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Barbara Ling
"Hey" "Guru Name Here"
You suddenly lose all your money, along with your name and reputation, and only have your marketing know-how left.
You have bills piled high and people harassing you for money over the phone.
Plus, you have a guaranteed roof over your head, a phone line, and an internet connection for only one month.
You no longer have your big guru name or JV partners. Other than your vast marketing experience, you're an unknown newbie.
What would you do, from day 1 to day 30, to save yourself?
Joe Kumar
Answer: By Barbara Ling
Day 1 – Monday
The sun is shining, the birdies are mooing, the cows are tweeting and I’m up the proverbial paddle without a creek. Sure, it’s easy enough to tell myself that I will NOT panic. I will be bold! I will be daring!
To heck with that. I’ll first get a cup or 27 of coffee and take stock of my situation. Then I will determine if I’ll panic or not.
Check #1 – Am I breathing? Check!
Check #2 – Are my loved ones breathing? Check!
Check #3 – Do I still have my health? Can I walk without pain? Check!
I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason. If I’ve lost my business it’s because my guardian angels mean to teach me something with the subtleties of a Mack truck.
The past is done, it’s over, it’s etched in stone – I cannot change it! BUT! And this is a big but – I can improve on not only the present but the future as well.
If I have my health and my family, I’m not in a panic-worthy situation. A stressful one, yes, a painful one, yes….but it’s up to me to choose my own perspective. And I choose to look at this as a new direction in my life.
The first thing I will do is give myself permission to grieve. It's human, it's natural, it's normal to cry for what has been lost. Grieving simply gives one an outlet for all that suppressed emotional fury and despair.
Once I stop feeling lousy, I'll deliberately think of other depressing "what ifs" and force out even more negative emotion. I'll do this for an hour or so until I'm simply wrung out....and in a state that lets me put my unhappiness by the curbside like an old suitcase and simply walk away.
Next, I will celebrate by going to Pizza Hut with my kids! Remember, I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason - even though I'm completely clueless now as to why I'm in my current situation, I'm certain I'm meant to learn something from it. So a celebration is in order - this is the first day of my new online marketing success.
The rest of the day I will spend outside with my kids and my husband. I plan on focusing my attentions solely upon them….they will be one of the most important focal points for when I’m developing my new business.
Day 2
It's time to take stock in my financial responsibilies. Do I owe anyone any money? If so, can I arrange for payment after 30 days? What about schooling for my kids? Can I decrease that expense by bartering services? Would the owner of a preschool be interested in a reduced fee if I gave their family a career marketing seminar (one of my current skills)? I'll go check!
No money yet is coming in, so I have to reconsider my expenditures with great caution. I'll visit Frugal sites like
http://frugalliving.about.com
http://www.thefrugalshopper.com/
http://www.frugaltimes.com/
and see how I can decrease the expenses my family incurs.
Eeeek, what about my marriage. Losing a job is a great way to enjoy increased stress and angst at no extra cost! So I'll proactively ask my spouse to forgive me if I become anxious about my work situation and inadvertantly take it out on him or her, and express that the best possible support (for me) is empathy and time.
http://stress.about.com/cs/maritalstress/ has other resources for stress as well.
Do I owe anyone any money? If so, I am now feeling far more balanced than I did yesterday, and can possibly alert my creditors without generating enough tears to fill an ocean. If I have a debt, I shall pay it. My problems shouldn’t translate into difficulties for others.
By the end of the day, I should have taken care of my marriage, uncovered ways for reducing family expense, and ensured my kids still get the kind of education they deserve. I’ll go to sleep happy and determined…because tomorrow will be when I choose to focus my abilities on my new direction.
Day 3
The sun is shining again, the birdies are mooing and those lovely cows are still tweeting….and I am now open to moving forward. My last two days that I spent grieving, taking stock and ensuring my family’s financial/emotional health have given me an unexpected bonus – I can now focus upon me! Only me! Me Me ME!!!!!!
In other words, I don’t have to go over the same ground of despair again! I’ve been there, done that and bought the t-shirt – I’ve given myself permission to take charge of the thing that only I can control. My online business.
The first thing I will do is make another 14 cups of coffee. Then I’ll sit down and take stock of my skills. What do I do best? Not only, what do I do best, but what do I do best that will bring in money the quickest?
Let’s see. I’m a dynamite seminar speaker and trainer – I single-handedly built up my Internet recruiting seminar company at http://www.riseway.com to being one of the top two businesses in that industry (you can read an interview about me at the top job board at http://hr.monster.com/qanda/ling ).
I started that company from scratch as well…but it took three months from conception to presentation to present the first seminar. Seminars also require handouts, workbooks, CDROMs and the like….and I just don’t have the time for that.
Yet. But I’ll keep it in mind.
What else do I do wonderfully? I can build killer websites very easily in a short period of time…sites that, when indexed by search engines, achieve high visibility as well. Can I build a quickie template to market such a service to businesses that are local to me?
If that appealed to me, I’d simply go to Infospace at http://www.infospace.com and generate a list of local businesses within a niche about which I knew something. Restaurants, preschooling, and medical are three that come to mind. I’d then whip up a free website that extolled my skills and make sure to include a “special offer” for my local merchants. That by itself could be a 30 day project….but it’s not one that personally grabs me and fills me with excitement.
But wait! I know the secret for achieving high search engine visibility and attracting floods of targeted traffic….the fact I can build extremely effective websites is something I should definitely take advantage of! I should use it for my products and my business.
Still haven’t decided my business yet though.
Taking a long hard look at my business skills, I know my best strength lies in researching online information, compiling it into an enticing user interface, and presenting it in a neat electronic package that takes advantage of many free marketing resources. I think I’ll focus on that (especially as it’s something I greatly enjoy doing).
But how can I make a sellable product from that?
Easy! I’ll just take a topic that has wide appeal and see what I can offer that nobody else does.
To do that, I’ll first visit the everpopular auction site eBay. That place has millions of visitors….if I can find an item or category that has a high sell-thru rate, I’ll have a better chance at selling my own product tarageted to that niche.
First I’ll fire up Deep Analysis, a superb auction analysis tool available at http://www.hammertap.com/deepanalysis/.
It will let me input a category or keyword and see how many such items sold over the period of a month (as well as what got the highest bids, what didn’t sell, etc.).
I’m pretty familiar with weight loss, so I’ll first look there. Yep, in some categories the sell-thru rate is pretty high….but within electronic products (remember, my final business will center up on a digital product), the price is already at 99 cents for recipes and such. Ick.
Next I’ll look at a topic myself enjoy – model horses. From my research, I see that there appears to be a rather high interest in that topic from the seller’s point of view! And because I grew up with model horses, I think I’ll see what I can do with that.
But that’s only 1 topic…and it’s a foolish person who puts all of their toddlers in one antique glassware store with only one adult guarding their actions!
So I’ll choose 4 additional topics as well.
That’s day 3.
Day 4
First things first – I need to get a website to start promoting my product. I’ll review the free hostings available at
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Web_Design_and_Development/Hosting/Free/Directories/?il=1
and then choose a site on which to put my free pages. Once my product is developed and is up and running (and money has come in) I’ll wisely invest in my own domain.
Now I need to build my site!
There are lots of free html builders out there – you only have to look at
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Software/Freeware/Editors/HTML/
to see the range of choices available. I’ll pick the best one for my skills.
What do I want to showcase? Since I’ll be building 5 different products at the same time, I should have 5 different sections on my site. So I’ll ensure my main page of my site contains jump-offs to the 5 product sections.
The main thing I’ll want to ensure is my new website achieves high visibility within search engines. So I’ll make certain to optimize any page built! The best way to do that is to make sure each page is either a resource unto itself or has blatant links to my soon-to-be-created resources.
Beyond a Doubt – Online Search Profits at http://www.virtual-coach.com/online-search-profits.shtml goes over that in exacting detail.
Additionally, I’ll want to network with the professionals in the Search Engine Optimization world, and lurk on forums like:
http://www.webmasterworld.com
http://www.searchengineforums.com
Another great resource to brush up on cool traffic-building techniques is found at
http://www.jimworld.com
http://www.gethighforums.com
I’ll go over these sites and take down notes on a postit pad if I come across anything sterling. Why? Because I can stick the postit notes to my computer screen so they’re always staring me in the face! It’s a foolproof way of ensuring I do not forget something critical in the future.
And that’s day 4.
Day 5
I have the website tools, I have the webspace, and I have an idea. The next step is to define my final products, finish the webpages, add a prelaunch, network at forums and create my products. A piece of cake!
Actually, it really is….if you have a set template and procedure to follow!
So. First I’ll build a webpage about model horses. I’ll make certain to include the resources model horse fanciers find valuable – that will contribute towards them viewing me as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) and help build trust.
I’ll go to Google at http://www.google.com and first search for model horse forums. It’s a fair bet to guess that people who post there would be interested in my final products. I’ll read the archives and uncover 5-6 different topics that seem to be of high interest.
Once I have my topics in hand, I’ll quickly craft some resource pages about them. If necessary, I’ll use a free site template that is available at http://www.freesitetemplates.com .
When completed, I’ll upload these pages to my site and index them in Google at http://www.google.com/addurl.html
Oh yes, one more thing! I’ll also make certain that each page has a direct link for people to sign up for my free ezine. What free ezine? Whatever one I decide to create for the future! As I’m building 5 different products, I’ll set up autoresponders for 5 different ezines.
I’m a firm believer in paying for my autoresponders – I do NOT want any other advertising other than my own cluttering it. So in the future, when my first income starts generating, I’ll invest in Proautoresponder at http://proautoresponder.com .
If I had to use a free AR, I’d choose aWeber at http://www.aweber.com/ . I quickly decide on the ezine names (Model Horse Hobbyist perhaps?).
Next, I’ll start my interaction with the forum. I’ll look to see if anyone has posted questions about eBay or Internet marketing as it applies to model horses. If so, I’ll answer it and make certain to include within my signature a direct link to my new model horse resource page. That way, anyone who views my answer has a direct one-click method to learn more about me.
Finally, I’ll grab a free Clickbank ID at http://www.clickbank.com/ and look thru their marketplace at http://www.clickbank.com/marketplace . I’ll see if any other vendor has already created something that might be complementary to my future products…if so, I’ll add a “resources” page to my website and embed my new affiliate ID in all the links. Then I’ll finish 1 or two more product resources pages and uncover other targeted forums today as well. And that’s day 5.
Day 6
Today I’ve awakened at 4am! Why? Because my fingers are itching to start defining and building and selling my future 5 targeted niche products!
Things I’ll do in parallel today include:
Uncovering targeted forums in my remaining ideas/niches
Building and uploading resource pages about them
Doing a quick affiliate link search to see if I can offer any currently-available product and grab some quick commissions
Because I have a set format that provides quick research results, I patiently and meticulously begin my online search to find content for my products. As I continue to lurk on my targeted forums, I fine-tune the ideas for my new 5 products.
What might have seen like a great seller at the beginning of this exercise might not prove to be as valuable as future insights.
To help me focus, I quickly whip up and upload a brief 7 second survey that I post to specific, choice forums. In this survey, I ask for the readers help to let me know what they’re dying to learn. I decide to offer a 20% discount for any future products to anyone who takes the time to fill out the survey.
After reading the rules to the forums, I decide if it’s okay for me to notify forum participants about my survey. From my 15 years of being on the Internet, I know exactly how to approach this without being perceived as a spammer – I simply ask for help and add a few other techniques as well.
I then post the notice and watch the results steadily stream in. From this exercise, I now have a firm grasp of exactly what my future buyers want to learn/know/master/etc. This technique has never failed me in the past! Not only that, but I also make it virtually impossible for participants to miss the benefits they’ll receive from signing up for my free ezine. The technique I use here has resulted in over a 90% conversion rate.
I spend the rest of the day researching online and reading the responses as they come in. I’m pleased to notice that just about every survey response is followed by a signup to my free ezine. This is good! I’m now building a mailing list that I can use for the future to market my products when they’re available.
And that’s day 6.
Day 7 – Sunday
Today is Sunday and today I park my work under my desk and throw out the key. I spend the majority of the day playing with my kids and my husband and refresh my soul and inner self by their love and warmth.
Day 8 – Monday
It’s time to take stock of where I am! I check Google to see if by chance a miracle has happened and my sites have been newly indexed…no such luck. Wah! I check out the Google Dance alerts at http://www.google-dance.com and realize, I had forgotten to sign up for dance alerts. I submit my email address there for the future notifications.
Then I go over the 198 email responses from my 5 different potential product surveys, knowing that more will roll in as the day progresses. After analyzing the data, I’m able to pinpoint exactly where interest lies. And because I know how to research quickly, I’m now able to craft a 10 chapter ebook for each targeted niche.
But I’m not yet ready to do that. I still have to set up one other key component to my online business – my eBay account! After all, once I create my 5 products, I’ll want to notify the biggest number of potential customers as quickly as possible. EBay has a huge audience…chances are, I’ll find several people who would want to bid on my offerings.
Not only that, however. I can play eBay and my website against one another – depending upon my inclinations, I can set my auction price to be ½ of my website product price and highlight that fact (you’re bidding on the same product that sells for 50% more on my retail site!).
Thus, I sign up for eBay. I’m done! Ooops, no I’m not – many people like paying for auctions via Paypal. I need a paypal account! Luckily, that’s free too. So I go to http://www.paypal.com and sign up there as well.
And that’s day 8.
Day 9
Yesterday I mocked up a rough idea of what I want each of my 5 products to contain. Now that I have a concrete idea, it’s time to start generating some cash even before the product is available!
For each of the 5 products, I quickly craft a sales page that includes all of the points my future customers had told me they want to see (via my survey). I then close my sales letter with a special Pre Launch notice – people can reserve their copy at 50% of the future retail price! I’ve found that prelaunch prices ranging from $27 to $47 do quite well.
How can I compel someone to give me $47 though? I’ve just realized…I really should have a basic and a deluxe version of the product available.
I set up a mechanism for people to pay me via Paypal and create a folder in my email software. After all, once someone buys a prelaunch, I had darned well better make certain I deliver the product once it’s completed! The new folder is for each email that Paypal sends to me, telling me that someone has bought my prelaunch.
For even better service, I can opt to use autoresponders as my email ID for paypal. That ensures that my prelaunch customers will receive an automatic “thank you” message (not to mention an opportunity to sign up for my free ezine as well).
Next, I upload all 5 pages and make certain to point all of my resource pages to their corresponding product page.
And that’s day 9.
Day 10
Now’s it is more important than ever to be careful and meticulous. I look at my watch and determine what hours I will spend marketing what product. Since there’s 5 products I’ll be building, I decide to allocate 1 hour for each and set up a timer on my computer to notify me.
I write an update notice for each of my product surveys that I post to the relevant forums! In it, I thank the people who participated and let them know that a prelaunch is now available for those who want to take advantage of it and save money. Because I’ve been proactively answering questions during the past few days, I’ve already established myself as a solid Subject Matter Expert. And of course, I make certain to include my prelaunch link (which is different for each product) in my email signature.
One hour goes by and my computer beeps. An hour has gone by! I stop as soon as I can marketing the first product, and move smoothly onto the next. And then the next. By the 4th hour, I receive email from Paypal – someone has bought my prelaunch! Life is joyous! Not only that, but 2 minutes later, I get the wonderful news that that person has also signed up for my free ezine. This is great! My mailing list is now growing and growing.
I continue through the hours, marketing each new future product for 1 hour. And I’m gratified to receive notice from paypal of more and more prelaunch sales. I now have income coming in…I can now feel that the interest is THERE and my future direction is proving to be a success.
And that’s day 10.
Day 11
Now is the time to start building my 5 new products.
I already know what is going to be in the content – the survey respondents proactively told me! All I have to do is hunt down the information and present it in a user-friendly fashion.
Wait a sec.
That’s wrong.
Certainly, I’ll be thrilled when customers buy my products. But…I also want those products to work for me too! Every time someone reads something I’ve written, I want to ensure they start to wonder what else I have to offer. Someone who has bought from me once will probably buy from me again.
Therefore, when I start to build my 5 products, I will ensure that learning more about me and my products always (with no exception!) are subtly in my customer’s vision. No matter what page they’re on…no matter where they’re looking…they’ll always see that “About the author” and “More information” tag that compels them to learn more.
So. My next step is to pick the product that has produced the most survey results (as that indicates the highest interest) and craft the contents. That’s an easy step – I’ll simply go back to my dozens of responses and see what is the most commonly asked or desired component.
Then I’ll go to the best search engine for this task and begin my research. I’ll make sure to have each chapter flow to the next in a seamless fashion by asking myself, okay, what makes sense to cover first? And then second? And then….
Assuming I’ve prepared myself with 7 cups of coffee, this step should take me no more than 8 hours. Of course, that’s 8 hours for each digital product! Thus today, I will finish the first digital product I have planned.
It’s not yet time to go to sleep, however. Before downing the last cup of coffee, I’ll dash off an ezine article that has a 4 line advertisement at the top – “Prelaunch ending this week!” And perhaps I’ll write a paragraph or two about how I’m burning the midnight oil to bring to my audience the answers to whatever topic the ebook is about. Then I’ll add 4-5 paragraphs of a real ezine by picking one of the survey responses and answering it in detail. By that step, I’ve proven to my audience that I’m not only after them buying my goods…I’m also interested in providing valuable
information for free as well.
And that’s my day 11.
Day 12
Today is a 2-step day! The morning I shall dedicate to eBay, and the afternoon I shall use to build the 2nd product.
First, eBay. No, not first. First, I have to create a sales page on my website that has the full copy of my product (and because I just wrote it, I know exactly what killer points should be highlighted). Then I have to determine the price point (normally if I wasn’t in a rush, I’d send out a second survey to ask for assistance in fixing this). Let’s say if it’s a typical infoproduct or ebook, I’ll set the basic price to be $27.
Everyone loves a bargain, however. Therefore, I’ll add a script to my main page that pops up after 10 seconds, and offers a $10 discount. Here’s the script I use:
http://www.yourSite.com/special.shtml , of course, is where you’d put your special offer and discount.
Next I’d check my Paypal account. Because now more than a dozen people have signed up for the prelaunch, I have enough money to become a vendor via Clickbank. Clickbank lets anyone have their own affiliate program! I decide to set up my payout rate at 50% - that way, any of my affiliates will have an added monetary incentive to tell their friends and customers about my new products.
After I do that, I then set up mechanisms for customers to automatically receive my products once they buy.
Then I have to stop and take stock where I am. I’ve:
Become known as a subject matter expert
Gotten bunches of prelaunch sales
Built my first product
Sent out my first issue of an ezine
Designed my sales page and discount page
Signed up at Clickbank and turned that on
Now I have to put up an auction on eBay. I’ll take the exact copy I wrote for my website and modify it just a weee bit…enough to include “This is the product that sells for 50% on my website!”.
By now, it’s 1pm in the afternoon. Depending upon my energy, I’ll start on the 2 product…or I’ll take stock of the interest in the first. If I’m hit by a wave of sales, I’ll probably take an extra day or so to proactively market the first product to potential JV partners, respected industry leaders and the like.
And that’s my day 12.
Day 13
The first thing I do upon waking up is run to my computer. Okay, not run, because I’d trip on the various desks and toys that are strewn about the room. Possibly sedately stroll instead!
Anywhos, I now check my email. No more paypal prelaunches came, because I updated my sales page yesterday. Eek! I updated my pages…but forgot to send out the product to all who bought via the prelaunch!
So the first thing I will do is rectify that mistake and email the product to all my customers.
Then I write a postit note to ensure I don’t forget something so crucial in the future.
All of a sudden, I’d sit up and realize….all the pieces are in place to build up my multiple streams of income!
I have a product that is now selling.
I know of 4 more products I have to develop. They each take 1 day to research and build.
I already have my clickbank method of buying set up…so all I have to do is add the others once they’re completed.
I also have my eBay account active…so everytime I build a new product, I can add it to my auctions.
Depending upon the status of my first product, I’d either continue marketing it…or I’d leave that to run on autopilot and start building my 2nd.
That takes care of day 13.
Day 14
It’s the last day of the weekend again! I will spend the time with my husband and kids and regale them with tales of The Brilliant Princess Who Defeated The Evil Infomercial Truth-smoosher. J
The Next Two Weeks
True, the above shows only 14 days of my business plan. The next two weeks would see me simply replicating what I’ve done above. Whatever generates the most interest gets the top priority mark from me! Keep in mind that I also dedicate a bunch of time participating at my relevant forums – I always want to keep my name out in front of all my future customers.
I’ll also be checking my weblogs to see from where people find my webpages. The day an entry comes in from Google notifies me that I’m now highly visible to my targeted audiences! I can expect an increase in sales from that as well.
The 2nd Month
By the time the second month rolls around, I will see enough of an income to feel confident about taking care of my family as time goes on. I am aware that if I choose to stop, I choose to lose future money. I’m also aware that what exists today could be gone tomorrow in a flash – the word ‘complacent’ simply doesn’t exist in my vocabulary.
Remember, when it comes right down to it, there is only one person upon whom you can depend in business. You! You you YOU! You are in the drivers’ seat, you are in control. You might not be able to change what happens to you…but you can certainly choose how you react to anything and everything.
You. Nobody else. So go make it happen….yesterday.
Enjoy!
Barbara Ling
http://www.auctionsearchprofits.com
http://www.virtual-coach.com
This article is supplied for information purposes only and, as experienced in this subject matter as the contributors are, the material herein does not constitute professional business advice.
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher and the contributors are not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional advice. If legal advice or other professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.
The reader is advised to consult with an appropriately qualified business professional before making any business decision. The contributors, Joe Kumar and JoeKumar.com do not accept any responsibility for any liabilities resulting from the business decisions made by readers of this article.
copyright © Joe Kumar and JoeKumar.com
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