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Paul Colligan
"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 Paul Colligan
Note
I’m not going to try to re-create any wheel here. I’m not going to regurgitate someone else’s ebook. There are number of great references many times better than what I’d ever be able to produce and I will mention them here in place of copying them. We take intellectual property pretty highly.
Yes, some of them are going to cost you a few bucks. I won’t recommend a thing I haven’t purchased myself and don’t consider to be worth many times the cost. You can’t make money without spending some money – the key is to spend less than you make!
I hope to bring to this exercise a certain degree of calmness. I’m not going to promise you a million dollars in 30 days. I promise you a path that I’m sure work and an ‘angle’ on this whole thing that I don’t think anyone else would offer.
Even if you don’t take my path, deconstruct it – there are a number of great truths in this plan that I can’t believe I’m giving away for free. I won’t have anything left when I finally get around to writing that book ;-)
Anyway, with that said and done – good luck!
And yes, I’d love to get a copy of the note I recommend on day 3.
Paul Colligan
paul@colligan.com
Day 1
According to Joe, I’ve got 30 days to rebuild my life and my place on the Internet. This ain’t going to be easy. Spent some time today trying to figure out how I can rise to the challenge and came up with the following:
1. The money is in the list. I can't build a list in 30 days. I’ve got to fast track this one.
2. I can build a product in less than 30 days. There are dozen of products out there that teach me how to do that. I’ve done it before – will do it again. I wish I had the time to follow Marlon all the way but I don’t (for this round). He’s still King of the infoproduct creation though and I’m gonna pick up his package for my model. (http://gimmesecrets.com/).
3. The careful combination of the right product and the right list can make things happen quickly. Combining the two is the path I can take if I expect results in 30 days.
So, here is what I’m going to do:
1. Find an existing guru with an existing client base and make him an offer he can't refuse.
2. Leverage some bonus in my product to build my list.
3. Within 30 days, start selling resale rights and explore other additional revenue streams.
Having been in the Internet “guru” space myself, I know that there isn't an Internet guru or successful Web site out there that doesn't have a long list of products they'd like to get completed and out to their audience. I know I had 20 of them myself – back before I “lost it all” in this twisted experiment.
I will, as quickly as possible, identify a guru who needs a product and is willing to jv, develop the product for the guru, give him a jv deal he/she can't refuse and then sell the thing myself once the guru has made a ton on the product.
In 30 days, I'd only be able to get so much of a list (despite what the spam tells you) and I'd rather have a small piece of a bigger pie than an entire pie that is only bite size. Which would you rather have, a thousand quarters or a hundred dollars? Do the math, if you don't know the answer to that one.
In the first 30 days I'd collect money quickly and a get a mailing list in the process. I wouldn't do much for my own name but that simply doesn't matter in the first 30 days. Yes, someone else will get most of the cash but it simply doesn't matter (and they do deserve it - it is their list).
The average guru gets 10 or so JV requests a week so I need something to simply rise above the noise. I'll put together a hot looking Web site and establish myself as a real player BEFORE I contact anyone. That is so easy to do on the net and I can do that part today! Once I start contacting the gurus, I'm going to give them something very nice to look at.
O.k., time to get to work:
I grabbed a Hotmail Account with my full name as the email address. This looks as classy as it can look and still be a Hotmail address. (http://hotmail.com/)
Now that I have an email address, I grabbed a PayPal account. I’m going to need to do some electronic financial transactions on the net very quickly and this is the fastest way to do it. They are annoying and tedious but I jumped through all the hoops and am on my way to a PayPal Preffered account. It is the only way to go with these guys. I’ll need to keep on any email from these people – that can be a bit anal (especially with the new eBay acquisition). (http://paypal.com/)
One of the best ways to “establish” myself as a player online (in any industry) is to get a Blog running. I signed up for a BlogSpot account through Blogger with myfullname.blogspot.com. This is going to help me in a number of ways (more on that later). I also wrote my first Blog commenting on the top news article at www.news.com. Look at me, I’ve got a Blog – I will be using that to my advantage very quickly. (http://blogger.com/).
And, finally Ryze. I need an account at Ryze. It will help me in a number of ways. I set up as impressive as a home page as I could and I, obviously, linked to my new Blog. Heck, I went into my Blog and sent a link back to Ryze. Hmm, cross-linking between to sites with a high Google Pagerank. I wonder what that will do for me? (http://ryze.com/).
Why don’t I submit my Ryze page and my Blog to Google? (http://google.com/addurl.html).
Now, I’ve got to pay for some things and I need some cash. It always amazes me how some people seem to think that they deserve to make millions on the Internet but don’t have to spend a dime doing so. I’m going to have to spend some money. I don’t mind – there is plenty of money out there.
I put up $500 worth of my own stuff on eBay on a 7 day auction. I’m taking payment by PayPal only. I’ll need the cash asap.
I visited ColliganHosting.com. For $42.90 I grabbed a domain name (used my full name for the domain name - ideally it would be just my last name but made it my first and last name because the last name was taken) and a month of hosting. The bronze plan is fine for what I need. (http://colliganhosting.com/).
I obviously borrowed the money for this from a friend. It’s ok, I’m going to be able to pay him back on day 8.
I grabbed the 30 day download of Dreamweaver. I won’t put the link here because they are always changing it but you can go to Macromedia and find it pretty easily.
I visited DreamweaverTemplatesOnline.com and purchased the template that I though matched my style the best. (http://www.dreamweavertemplatesonline.com/)
Again, borrowed money paid back in 8 days.
Notes:
I would be in grave error not to recommend the use of FrontPage in developing your Web site. You can also use a FrontPage Template and a trial of FrontPage – FrontPage just seems to take longer to get a free trial of (but the templates are much easier to use). (http://www.frontpagetools.com). I wanted to remain as true to this experiment as possible but don’t waste your time learning how to code – that’s not what you’re here for – use FrontPage.
If you are scared to death of using a Web development package, ColliganHosting does offer a Web based Web builder that “works” but won't produce a site as nice as DreamWeaverTemplatesOnline.com or FrontPageTools.com will.
What a day. Tomorrow is going to be HUGE.
Day 2
Posted some more intelligent thoughts to my Blog. Check me out, I’m quite the pundit. I even critiqued the latest from Dvorak. People just might take me seriously.
I also participated, intelligently, in the conversation always going at Ablake. Linked to my Blog in the link option. (http://ablake.net/forum).
I’m beginning to look like a real player. Excellent.
I grabbed my 30 day trial of Dreamweaver and put together a Web site about me. I linked to my Blog and my Ryze page. I also linked back from those to my site.
Now there are three pages on the Internet that talk about me and they all link to each other. I’m also getting some decent traffic from participating in the conversations at ABlake.
It is now time to make my move.
I’ve got to find a guru. The good ones are easy to find – if they aren’t easy to find – they aren’t any good.
But first, lunch – more Ramen.
I installed the Google toolbar on my version of Internet Explorer. I don’t want to deal with anyone who doesn’t have a pagerank better than 5. There is simply no “quicker” way to validate whether a Web site is worth anything. If the content is good and they’ve been around for more than a few months, they’ll have a good score (http://toolbar.google.com/).
I identified a short list of 20 gurus who
Look big.
Sell information products online.
Have a big affiliate program.
I could possibly provide an product for.
Day 3
Another posting to my Blog, an update of my Web site, a few more postings to Ablake. Check me out Mom!
I got 20 gurus. I now need 20 ideas.
I’m heading to the park with the 20 gurus and their audience on 20 pieces of paper. I’m going to fill these 20 pages with ideas before lunch.
Lunch – yup – Ramen.
I now have 20 pages with 20 gurus and they are all filled with ideas.
Most of my ideas involve creating an information product or something that I’m able to do myself. I just don’t have the programming skills under my belt to pull of anything else. If I was a Web developer, I’d probably make some templates and see if I can get one of those Web template sites to bite.
I cross off all but my best 3 on each page.
I now have 20 pages with 20 gurus with 3 ideas each.
Now the note gets written:
Dear ,
Wow, you really are all over the place. I’ve spent some serious time searching the net figuring out where I “fit in” and you just kept popping up.
I’m really impressed with . I love this industry because .
A little bit about me .
As a matter of fact, I just commented on this issue at my Blog. If you are at all curious, do take a look at .
I’ve got an idea I want to run by you. I’d like to get into this Internet game and would like to propose to you a win/win situation. Are you game?
After pounding through your sites and your competition, it suddenly hit me that you are missing . I’m sure you’ve got it in the “queue” but I’d like to help you speed up the process.
I know would really hit your audience hard and sell very quickly.
Here’s what I like to do:
Produce it in 2 weeks.
Produce all of the sales material and supporting documentation.
Deliver it all to you.
Allow you to sell as much as you can for one week.
After that, have you become an affiliate at 75%.
What do you think?
Name
WEB ADDRESS
Read my Blog at NAME.BLOGSPOT.COM
See, look at that – I’ve complimented them, I’ve shown them that I’m real with a Web Address and a Blog.
I have just risen above the crop of emails that these gurus normally get.
Looks good. I’m going to put that away for an hour. Obviously I’ll need to pick my favorite idea from my short list of 3 per guru.
O.k., I’m back.
I’m going to send this out to ten of the gurus right now.
Day 4
Just posted a few more articles to my Blog.
Checked my email for any bites from the gurus.
Edited that letter again.
Sent it to the next ten gurus.
And I wait.
And I wait.
Man, daytime television is crap, isn’t it?
Waiting is lame. I quickly write an EXCELLENT report on one of the topics I’ve been thinking about and I post it at my Web site, mention it in my blog and link to it from Ryze. What format do I use? HTML and PDF. How do I create a PDF file? (http://pdf995.com/).
So, now an inventory of myself:
Web site, Ryze Page, Blog – all filled with good stuff.
20 gurus contacted with my excellent idea.
Already produced first “piece” at my site.
Check my email again – look at that – someone “bit.”
Wait till tomorrow to get too excited.
Now, I have that report – gosh – I should do a quick survey on Google for sites that might want to link to my report.
And then contact them.
Yeah, I’ll do that.
I contacted them and two contacted me back that they’d be putting up links. Wow, people are linking to me.
Day 5
Ok, I want to close the deal today. I’m sure I’ll hear from some other gurus later but I’m making a decision today. 3 responded – that is enough.
Now, I need to make sure that the “guru” I pick is ready to move quickly.
I call the gurus. I’m smart enough to figure out his/her phone number.
I made sure that he/she understood what was going on and how important this was. I believe they do.
O.k., 2 did.
I spend the day in negotiations and on the phone. I offer the guru the ULTIMATE win/win
I pick one.
What a day.
Let the games begin!
Day 6
I have a lot of work to do but I take time to update my Blog and my Web site and make a few friends at Ryze as well.
Other than that, I spend the day on the info product.
I won’t even begin to tell you how to create an info product – there are too many people who do too good of a job at that. Again, I recommend Marlon’s “Gimme” course – all of the rest of them are just sad copies. (http://gimmesecrets.com/)
Day 7
Again, the info-product with just enough time taken out to post to my Blog, add to my Web site and make a few more friends at Ryze.
Day 8
Hey, look at that – the stuff I hocked on eBay raised $578.23. I’ll be using all of it. I might even upgrade from Ramen.
With the $578.23, I pay off the money I borrowed – with interest. If I learned anyone before I lost it all it was that I need to be as good as possible to the people who are good to me.
I still have $500 left. I’ll be using that later.
I also use the cash to overnight a package with some local Oregon Microbrews to the guru I’m working with.
If you aren’t from Oregon, use some local treat that will make the guru you are working with feel all the more better about working with you.
Because I followed the PayPal directions perfectly I am now a PayPal Preffered customer. Yes, it will take 60 days for me to get my debit Mastercard (I ordered it) but I can use the virtual credit card number found in the lower right hand side of the Shopping Page to make orders online “with a credit card” – despite the fact that I don’t have one. Their site will do a better job of explaining the issue than I will here so I won’t even try.
With that credit card purchase, I get an account with Clickbank. I’ll need that to be selling my product. (http://clickbank.com).
Also wrote my second “report” at my Web site today. Now I have 2 PDF files at my Web site for people to download.
Man, my Web site and the links and the reports really make me out to be a serious player.
Day 9
Worked on the product. Posted to my Blog. Ate Ramen.
Day 10
Worked on the product.
Realized I could get a free month of Corey Rudl’s “Secrets to Their Success Newsletter” now that I have a credit card. Signed up for that. Great stuff, wow, read the whole thing – every single piece in the archives. Man, that August 2002 issue about me “before I lost it all” brought back some memories. (http://secretstotheirsuccess.com).
Day 11
Worked on the product.
After the table of contents in the information product, I make a simple one-page call for a “free bonus MP3” on my topic. All they have to do is “sign up” to receive it which, of course, puts them into an autoresponder series.
Yup, now everytime someone buys my product from the “guru”, the chances are good that they’ll sign up for the free bonus and give me their email address to get the free bonus. You know, just like Joe did when you bought this thing ;-)
How did I create the MP3? I hijacked the “record from line in” option on the new version of Real Media’s Real One Player.
It’s actually pretty good.
What autoresponder did I use?
http://myleadcenter.com
$15 bucks a month for 25 newsletter and 25 autoresponders. Not a bad deal at all.
Day 12
My Clickbank account was approved today. I can now go “live” with my product when I’m ready.
I decided to ‘sell’ that first report I wrote on day 4. Look at me – I’m an info-product barron on just day 12.
It also makes my site look a lot better.
Don’t think I’ll see a dime from it but it sure makes me look good.
Day 13
Worked on the product.
Worked on the sales page.
Spent some time in UseNet reading about my industry. Made a few “friends” online that I’m sure I’ll cross paths with again.
Day 14
Worked on the product.
Worked on the sales page.
Day 15
Worked on the product.
Worked on the sales page.
Thank God for Marlon.
Day 16
Worked on the product.
Worked on the sales page.
Wife edited the thing. Man she’s good – glad I married her.
Day 17
Worked on the product.
Worked on the sales page.
Man, I can’t wait until launch.
Day 18
Worked on the product.
Worked on the sales page.
Made a couple of more friends in Usenet.
Day 19
I delivered today. I delivered it all – the product, the sales page, the bonuses, the autoresponder messages, etc.
I delivered early. Why early, I’m trying to impress the heck out of the guru and nothing impresses more than delivering better than promised earlier than expected.
Great thing is – because I followed Marlon’s rules to a T, the guru I’m dealing with knew exactly what to do with what I’ve delivered. He’s kind of a standard.
Let the sales begin. Guru has 7 days to make as many sales as possible. At the end of the 7 days he PayPal’s me my part. I only asked for 20%.
I’ll ask him to pay me with PayPal’s “mass pay” feature and take the $1 service charge off the final total. It won’t cost him a dime and I’ll save like 50 bucks in the transaction.
Day 20
Wordtracker. I love Wordtracker. I used the 1 day trial to identify the keywords that I can grab for a decent price at the PayPerClick search engines. I can’t believe what I found. If all goes well, I’ll take my earned cash to bring 200-300 people a day through the site. If I convert 1% of them, that’s $300 a day in revenue. (http://wordtracker.com). I can do that.
I used Campbell’s Nothing But Net to learn just how powerful Wordtracker can be. Thank goodness I remember what I learned ;-) (http://www.internetmarketingstrategy.com/).
And I’ll have some cash from the guru to do that at the end of his run.
And with the PayPal credit card thing, I can buy some PPC credits right now.
I’m going to set up my accounts today. Going to set up accounts with Google, Overture and FindWhat. (http://google.com), (http://overture.com), (http://findwhat.com).
Day 21
Hey, the guru is selling my product like crazy – this is going to be great.
But I need to get ready for what happens after he’s done.
I need affiliates.
At this point, I don’t have time to purchase and install a new affiliate program.
So, I’m going to simply create 10 different pages at my Web site with the sales letter and find 10 great people to sell my product via affiliate sales.
Spent the day making the ten pages and spent the day identifying 30 potential affiliates.
Day 22
Heck, affiliates are great but I’m going to sell resell rights to this thing as well. I don’t know if anyone will bite this month but it is an interesting idea.
Day 23
Yup, I took the day off. Can’t believe I did it – but I did. Went to the Zoo with my daughters.
Day 24
Called the guru to see if there was anything I could “do” to help. I knew there wasn’t but no one likes to think that they are alone in anything.
Day 25
My potential affiliates have been contacted and I got enough to see some good cash after this round is over. Excellent!
Wait a minute, could it be … what the @#$#?
Look at my site in Internet Explorer and my site suddenly has a PageRank of 5? How the heck did I get a PageRank of 5? Was it the Google/Ryze/Blogger round of links?
Yup, that was it.
I’m glad I listened to myself.
Wow, PageRank of 5 in less than a month. Maybe if this whole info product thing doesn’t work I can sell my self as a search engine expert.
Day 26
Wow, look at that – 250 sales of a $97 ebook. My 20% is $4850. Not bad for a month’s work.
I also have 250 names in my mailing list of people who buy digital products online. My list has begun.
Obviously, after I took over the sales page for my site I’ve got a popup for people who didn’t buy to
I’m now in charge – this is going to be a big day
Day 27
I now go BALASTIC with advertising with Google Adwords. I can get uniques for about 8 cents each. If I convert one out of every hundred I’m doing fine and making $97 on an $8 investment. (https://adwords.google.com/select/main).
I wonder whatever happened to that InternetButtKicking Course I wrote before I “lost it all” that went into greater detail on that one? (http://www.internetbuttkicking.com)
$100 in revenue from the PPCs on the first day.
Day 28
$200 in revenue from the PPCs.
But I can’t just sit around all day.
Oh wow, what an idea …
250 people bought the product. I’m gonna offer resell rights.
But I’m going to do it in a way that has never been done before. Well, ok, I came up with this one back before “I lost it all” but it still works.
I signed up with Commission Junction (http://cj.com). They run the affiliate program for eBay and have this great little item called the “flexible destination tool.” In short it allows me to create an affiliate link for any page at eBay.
I’m going to put up a 1 time 10 day auction for resell rights for my product at eBay. I’m going to link to it through the flexible destination tool and contact EVERYONE who either purchased the product or found themselves in the “interested” autoresponder series.
I’m going to start the bidding at $1.
See, everyone who goes through my link and makes a bid – I get $5 if they’ve never bid on ebay before.
What if 50 people do that? $250. Not bad.
Day 29
$300 in revenue from the PPCs.
Day 30
$300 in revenue from the PPCs.
I made it to day 30.
I now have:
A great relationship with a guru that I helped make nearly $20,000 for. I’m sure I’m on his Christmas card list.
6k in revenue in my first month – not bad.
350 people who have purchased my product on one mailing list.
More than 1000 people on my other mailing list of people who are at least “interested” in what I have to offer.
3 products and bonuses.
A decent Google pagerank.
People linking to me.
Legitimate Internet destination sites related to me in terms of my Blog, my Ryze page and my Web site.
And look at that, I made $9 from Clickbank on the product I put up for sale on the 12th day.
It’s been a good month.
I’m going to take a nap.
Maybe next month I’ll rebuild http://www.colligan.com.
If I did, I’d sure use a Web template? I wonder if there are any good ones online?
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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