Category: Entrepreneurship

Mistakes and Failures #1: LaunchALabel.com

A possible new series about dissecting the mistakes and failures of my past, including what I learned from them …

Although I don’t like dwelling on past mistakes or failures (especially because failure doesn’t exist), there is always something that can be learned from them. I get a lot of requests for information about mistakes or failed projects from my past. They are a plenty!

The reason for that is simple: when I have an idea I believe in, I go for it.

If I believe in something I do whatever I can to take swift action. It’s important when we have an idea we’re excited about to get the ball rolling quickly, because getting started is the most difficult part of any project. Once the ball’s rolling, momentum builds, and we’re more likely to see a project through to the end.

I have enough stories on mistakes, failures, and lessons learned to create a whole series. Depending on how this goes over, and how much I enjoy dwelling on the past for a bit, I will continue it regularly.

Part of the problem with past failures is I don’t have backups/notes with me so I’m relying on memory, Google, and archive.org for help.

The Failure: LaunchALabel.com

Unfortunately, I can’t get a screen shot of the site. Here’s the archive.org link. I spent about $2,000 on design and backend aspects of this project and it looked great.

I launched LaunchALabel.com in August of 2007.

The concept was: Get 50,000 music fans to each donate $25 to a new record label that they would control. They would choose the bands, the marketing, and decide where the money would go.

50,000 x $25 = $1,250,000.

The goal was to use $1 million to sign bands and $250k to run the actual label (Just Paypal fees on the donations would’ve amounted to ~$50k). The idea was to sign 5 bands, and allocate $200k to each of them for the purposes of recording/touring/marketing.

Here’s the copy from the home page of the site:

It’s Your Label. You Choose The Bands. We Make It Happen Together.

From: Karol Gajda

If you’ve ever thought you could run a record label better than the corporations who currently control our music industry then this may be the most important Web site you’ve ever visited.

Join 50,000 like-minded music fans who want to make history. As a community you will launch a brand new record label. The World’s first Social Record Label.

  • You choose the first 5 bands the label signs to packages worth $200,000 PER band! These bands will be taken care of as they should be.
  • You will receive a copy of each of the first 5 label releases. Based on iTunes costs that’s a $49.95 value.
  • You choose the label’s name.
  • You make the decisions on tours and everything else that goes into launching and running a successful record label.

This Is Your Label.

Nobody can sway your decisions. Not me. Not any music industry “big wigs.” Nobody.

Once 50,000 music fans join for free each will be sent an official invitation to LaunchALabel.com and be asked to make a $25 donation to raise the necessary cash to rock the music industry.

From there you will start voting on label names and the first band to sign to your label.

To learn more check out our How It Works and FAQ sections.

Or click here now to join our music revolution.

Karol Gajda (that’s Carl not Carol)

Was it incredibly ambitious?

Yes.

Could it have worked?

Yes.

Did it work?

No. :)

Results

I sent out press releases, I e-mailed bloggers, I e-mailed friends, I did everything I could think of … it all resulted in ~300 free signups after a couple of months.

I did get a write-up at CMJ.com, which was pretty cool. But it was a tiny write-up and it resulted in no traffic. :)

Why It Didn’t Work

I knew going in it would be an uphill battle due to one word: skepticism.

I got a lot of e-mails from people thinking I was just going to take the money and run. Unfortunately, I didn’t know what to do to overcome this at the time.

What Should I Have Done Differently?

In other words, what should I have done to overcome skepticism and establish trust?

The obvious choice would have been to partner with someone who had a public profile.

I could have offered a nice chunk of money raised, maybe $10k-$50k, to either a celebrity or someone already well known in the music industry to join in on the project.

This would have given me instant credibility and more opportunities for press.

Closing Thoughts

I honestly believe this project could have worked. And I actually believe something similar could work well today. I’ve often thought about revamping the idea a little (100 people each donating $1,000 to sign just 1 or 2 bands).

That said, other sites have sprung up that totally blew my idea out of the water.

Enter: KickStarter.com.

KickStarter has proven that crowd-funding for artists and entrepreneurs works like gangbusters.

I’ve helped fund 3 projects so far. 2 of them musical acts.

You can following my KickStarter here if you’d like.

How Would You Have Made LaunchALabel.com A Success?

Do you have any ideas on how this project could have worked out successfully? Let’s brainstorm in the comments.

Additional Questions For You

– Do more of these kinds of articles interest you? Would you like me to create a Mistakes and Failures series? In this article I focused on one major mistake I made, but there were others as well. Do you want me to go into more detail on the mistakes?

– Do you have any stories of failed projects where you learned a thing or two? Give us a brief synopsis of the project and tell us what you learned …

How To Use A Free Survey To Get Infoproduct And Article Ideas

How to get ideas by conducting a simple survey using the free Google Docs Form feature …

I’m trying something different today. I usually leave the how-to technical boring stuff to other people. Writing about this kind of thing usually doesn’t interest me.

But this week I conducted my first survey here at Ridiculously Extraordinary and the results have been a little bit mind-blowing. One of the suggestions I got (more than once) was to include more step-by-step hand-holding technical type information on this blog. If today goes well I will consider doing this more often.

If you got the survey it’s because you’re in a not-so-secret club. ;)

There is a lot of online survey software out there.

The most popular seems to be SurveyMonkey.com. Which, for the version I’d want to use, is $20/month. And even that only allows 1,000 responses/month. Seriously? Come on.

Free Surveys With Google Docs!

Which is where Google Docs saves the day!

I’ll be honest with you, I have a love/hate relationship with Google Docs. What I hate is the formatting gets really jacked up if you save a document and then open it in OpenOffice or Word. What I love is almost everything else. :)

I especially love the Forms feature.

There are a myriad uses for Google Docs Forms, but today we’re going to focus on surveys.

Surveying your audience is a great way to figure out what they want from you. Say you’re stuck on what kind of product to create. Run a survey! Maybe you’re out of blog post ideas? Run a survey! Looking for feedback about your site/products? Run a suvey!

Using Surveys For Infoproduct Creation Ideas

Back in the days when Google Adwords wasn’t such a beast we used to use surveys to figure out what kind of niche products to create.

The idea was simple: run a Google Adwords campaign on some topic, say dog training. The landing page would be a 1 question survey: “What is your biggest problem with training your dog?” (and variations on that theme)

It would cost maybe a few hundred dollars in Google Adwords spending to get a ton of awesome questions.

Then we’d compile all the relevant questions, get the answers, and BOOM, instant infoproduct. :)

You can use this exact same strategy now, but a better bet would be to use Facebook Ads, Yahoo Search Marketing, Microsoft AdCenter, Plenty of Fish ads,  or any other ad system that doesn’t hate 1 page landing pages and is still comparatively low cost.

Step By Step Survey Creation

I’ve been wanting to run a survey here for a very long time, but it wasn’t until Day 26 of the EBK that I got the kick in the pants I needed to actually do it.

So on Monday I ran a survey about the future of RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com, including future premium products and future free articles.

This is how I did it.

Step 1) Go to Google Docs: http://www.google.com/docs

Step 2) Click on Create New > Form:

Step 3) Give the Form a name:

Step 4) Create the first question:

Step 5) Now, assuming you selected a multiple choice, checkboxes, or choose from a list question type offer up some choices:

As you can see this part offers you a few extra options. Click “add Other” to give people the option to suggest their own answer instead of using one of your stock answers. Then check “Make this a required question” if you want to force people to answer this question. (The survey won’t submit if the question isn’t answered.)

Click Done when you’ve finished with your options.

Step 6) If you want to do more than a 1 question survey click Add Item:

Then select what type of question. All very simple.

Step 7) Repeat Step 4 – 6 until you’re done with all your questions. The shorter the survey the more people will finish it. The longer the survey the more detail you can get out of each person. How you decide to tackle it is completely up to you.

Step 8 – Optional) Select a new Theme to give your form some kind of design other than plain white.

The default theme is plain, but Google has a few dozen theme designs for you to choose from if you’d like.

Step 9) Click on More Actions > Embed:

Step 10) Copy your Embed code and past it into a new WordPress blog post.

That’s it!

The Finished Product

Now just send your visitors to that blog post like this:

http://www.RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com/survey-time/

That is the survey I sent out earlier this week. If you want to help me shape the future of RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com please fill it out. It’s completely anonymous.

11 Excuses Stopping You From Starting A Business

If you’ve been thinking about starting a business and have been giving yourself excuses let me help you …

In the 10 years I’ve been an entrepreneur I’ve heard a lot of excuses from very intelligent people as to why they haven’t started a business. While I could probably write a book filled with those excuses, let’s tackle some of the most common.

1) “I don’t have enough money.”

This could be a good excuse. If you’re trying to start a restaurant chain. Otherwise, I’m assuming you’re reading this because you want to start something mostly web-based. Which means you don’t need much money. If you can’t scrounge up a few hundred dollars to start a business then you really don’t want to start a business. Hell, Kevin Rose started Digg.com for something like $2,000! (The domain itself was $1,200.)

For more check out:

– The Absolute Beginner’s Guide To Starting A Small Online Business

– How I Created My First 6 Figure Business For $119.40

2) “I’m in too much debt.”

I’ll come right out and say it. This is the only legitimate excuse I can think of. Whenever somebody e-mails me to say they’re in a ton of debt but want to start a business my response is: “Get out of debt first.”

There is simply too much stress with debt. Add that to the stress of starting a business venture and you have a recipe for disaster.

Caveat: If you started a blog about how you’re getting out of debt that could grow into a very nice business. See GetRichSlowly.org, ManVsDebt.com, and TheSimpleDollar.com.

3) “I don’t have the right connections.”

You don’t need any. Seriously. And once you actually start your business you will naturally make connections. The truth is, starting a small web-based business is usually a solo venture. That’s not to say meeting people won’t help. It will. Tremendously. What I mean is, if you can’t make things happen yourself, then by involving other people you’ll just waste everyone’s time.

4) “I don’t have enough time.”

There is not a single excuse that gets me more fired up than this one. Because you do have time if you want it. How much free time do you think you’d have with baby triplets and a full time job? Not much, right? Yet Charley is still making things happen. No time is no excuse. Make time. I won’t tell you how, you know where you’re wasting time.

5) “I’m not sure what to do.”

This makes sense. Starting a business can be a daunting task. But again, not if you’re starting a small online based business. Here’s the secret: do something. Action begets action. Get your idea out there, get feedback, tweak, get more feedback, and keep it up! Yes, it’s true you might fail furiously, but hopefully you’ll fail fast and move on.

But this brings me to another excuse: 5b) “What do I do first?”

And the answer is the same: something, anything. Buy a domain, get web hosting, and install WordPress. Or map out the specs for the application you want created and submit it to eLance.com and Guru.com to get quotes. Do something that moves you closer to shipping.

6) “Most businesses fail, why should I bother?”

It’s true most business fail, because the owners close them. As to why you should bother, well … to be honest, if this is your reason for not starting a business you’re probably better off not starting a business. A much better way to think is to find success stories and base your own business around those successes instead of failures.

Reading autobiographies of successful entrepreneurs (and successful people in general) will help you with this. You’ll see that most people had many failures or very moderate successes before being considered truly successful.

7) “My family/spouse/friends/dog don’t support me.”

There can be two different interpretations of no support. If your family/friends/etc don’t help or encourage your business (mine never did) then that’s easy to overcome. It’s your business, support yourself.

If, on the other hand, they tell you that you’ll fail and you have no business starting a business then you need to remove them from your life. Toxic people will never support you and you shouldn’t expect them to. Additionally, keeping them around will just make your chances of success that much less likely. Remember: avoid the unhappy and unlucky.

8) “I don’t have enough education”

This excuse is usually rooted in not having an MBA or business degree of some sort. The majority of successful business owners I know either didn’t get a University degree at all or got a degree in something other than Business. As Aristotle said: “What we have to learn, we learn by doing.”

Do or don’t, the choice is yours.

9) “I don’t come from a business family.”

I’ve actually heard this one more than I can count and I don’t fully understand it. Was Michael Jordan’s father the best basketball player of his time? No, he never even made it to the NBA (and I don’t even know if the late Mr Jordan Senior played basketball at all).

The point is, you don’t need “entrepreneurship in your genes” to start a business. There isn’t a single entrepreneur in my family. Not a single one anywhere.

Might it help if you have a close family member who can show you the ropes? Yes. But it’s not necessary for someone to show you the ropes. Show yourself the ropes and you’ll understand them better.

10) “There is too much competition.”

Good! That means there is a hungry market. Much better to go into a market with competition and lots of customers than a market with no competition and no customers. With the former you can prosper, with the latter you will starve.

11) “I’m afraid”

There it is. And congratulations for admitting it. Fear is what every excuse boils down to. And you know what? You have a right to be afraid. If you don’t approach things right you can lose your ass. You can fail. You can spend hours, days, weeks, months, years building a business that could come crashing down one day. It has happened before.

But what if none of that happens? What if you don’t lose your ass? What if you succeed beyond your wildest imagination?

You’ll never know unless …

The Thrill of $10k In A Day (and Why Monetary Goals Are Worthless)

I discuss the thrill of $10k profit in a day and then get into how to set goals that matter …

It’s not pre-launch week anymore. How To Live Anywhere launches tomorrow! I’m so fired up. I’m really looking forward to unleashing this bad assery on the world.

What we’ve covered so far:

Monday – How I Created My First 6-Figure Business For $119.40

Thursday – Why I Quit (or How To Go From $10k/month to $0/month Overnight)

Saturday – Sweet Shit Saturday #009 (Business Building Edition)

Today’s article is about, quite possibly, the most important lesson I’ve learned in life.

“What?! What are you talking about?! Shut. Up!”

I had just told a friend of mine that I pulled in $9,000 in 1 hour and I think her reaction was warranted. By the time the product I was selling had sold out 4 hours later I pulled in just a tad over $20k profit.

I was really proud of myself. It was a crazy adrenaline high and it was almost surreal. By the way, I don’t state any of this to brag, but just to show you what is possible. And, more than that, to show you why monetary goal setting is worthless.

I’ve already discussed building trust, giving good content, and the power of an e-mail list. Well, those things all came together on that day.

But that wasn’t the first or the last time I pulled in over $10k profit in one day.

In How To Live Anywhere I interview a guy named John Reese. I paid $4,500 to attend his private workshop in March of 2004. Later that year he released the core information from that workshop in a huge course called Traffic Secrets that cost almost $1,000.

It was August 17, 2004. John pulled in $1 million that day. Me? I sold 35 copies of his course, getting a $500 commission on each one. $17,500 for selling a product that was not mine. That was my first 5 figure day as an affiliate (also not my last).

That is the power of giving people what they want. If you give enough people what they want, you will get what you want. I didn’t have the biggest audience, but I was one of John’s top affiliates anyway. That’s a recurring theme in my life. Besides the temporary setback I wrote about in Why I Quit, my thinking has always been to give, give, give. And then I always got what I wanted.

The problem: At the time all I wanted was money.

Nothing else mattered. I didn’t need all the money I was making, but my goal was to make more, more, more. Fill the bank account! I wanna see lots of zeros! Sell! Sell! Sell!

Listen, I know it sounds like I’m complaining about money. That’s not it. It’s very hard to tell someone “money, as a goal, is dumb” during a time when so many people are affected financially.

While things may be a little more difficult these days, a fun shift is happening. I see a lot of people who are getting back to basics.

Can’t afford cable TV? Awesome, you get to spend more time reading to your kids, or taking walks, or enjoying true peace and quiet.

Can’t afford to go out partying every night? Sweet, invite some friends over, cook out, hang, bond.

Why Money Is A Useless Goal

Money goals are empty numbers and life is not a contest. Making more money doesn’t make us more special. Making more money doesn’t make us happier.

The happiest wealthy people I know grew that wealth as an aside. It happened because they were focused, living awesome lives, giving people what they wanted, but without a number as an end goal. The most depressed wealthy people I know have only money as the goal.

The happiest “regular Joes” I know are happy because they’re focused, living awesome lives, giving people what they want, and setting experiential goals instead of monetary goals. The most depressed “regular Joes” I know are depressed because their end goal is money.

Do you see the connection?

Monetarily wealthy or not, happiness is not determined by a dollar amount.

Depression, whether someone is a millionaire or not, is rooted in some random dollar amount.

Why You Don’t Need $10k In A Day

I’m not going to say it’s not awesome making $10k in a day. It is. But it’s no more awesome than spending an afternoon in the park (Park Zachodni here in Wroclaw, Poland for example!), taking the time to enjoy the cool breeze and the hot sun.

We do need money to live. And we also need money to Live Anywhere. That’s a fact.

We just need a lot less than we think we need.

Money Goals vs Experiential Goals

A short while ago I talked about Living Dreams vs Chasing Dreams. Setting monetary goals is chasing. Setting experiential goals is living.

For example, maybe you want to do what I did and learn how to build a guitar from scratch in India. Awesome experiential goal!

Now, figure out the cost: $1,200 for the course, $1,000 for an economy flight (unless you do what I did and use Frequent Flier Miles to fly business class), $400 for a room and food for 3 weeks. That’s only $2,600 for an unforgettable experience, complete with take home prize (the guitar!).

Tell me which one of these goals feels better to you:

– I will make an extra $2,600 in the next 90 days.

or

– I will make an extra $2,600 in the next 90 days so I can experience the bad assery of spending 3 weeks hand building a guitar in India!

When you feel a goal something clicks in your brain. Solely monetary goals are unfeeling and soulless. When you set a goal based on an amazing experience your synapses will start firing and help you focus on achieving.

The Time Has Come

How To Live Anywhere is coming tomorrow. (Yay!) I will post on this blog at 10:30am EST to let you know, but if you want a headstart to get the fast action bonus just get on the Priority Access List below.

By the way, the process for pulling in $17,500 like I talked about above is the exact same process I write about in The Anatomy of a 4 Figure Affiliate Promo case study, which is part of the How To Live Anywhere course. The difference is, this recent 4-figure-in-a-day monetary goal had a purpose. I’ll let you know about that another time. ;)

This has been my first really public launch in a long while. Whether you decide to buy How To Live Anywhere tomorrow or not, thank you so much for sticking around!

And, as always, results are not typical. Your results may not match mine or they might blow mine away. Remember, this is not a contest. :)

Tell me what you thought about it …

Why I Quit (or How To Go From $10k/month Profit To $0/month Overnight)

The story of why I shut down a 6 figure business one day out of the blue …

“I’ll give you $50,000 + 50% of the revenue for life.”

That was one of the many offers I received for the 6 figure business I talked about on Monday.

4 hour work week?

I had that business so automated I think it was 4 hour work month. All physical products were fulfilled by a fulfillment center in Ohio, all customer support was outsourced for $15/hour to a really awesome Canadian company, all digital sales were fulfilled via autoresponder/Paypal/Clickbank/2Checkout, bookkeeping/accounting was outsourced, Authorize.net merchant account deposits came in every day like clockwork … it was completely hands off.

And that’s where the problems started appearing.

My life went from trying to provide as much possible value as I could to each fan, subscriber, and customer to just wanting to make as much money as possible in as little time as possible.

I was turning into a greedy son of a bitch.

I didn’t know what to do, but I began looking for a way out.

I e-mailed a few people who I respected and told them I’m selling. I had a 50,000 subscriber double opt-in e-mail list, so in addition to the business being completely hands off, I had some really valuable assets on my hands.

I got some really great offers. A few were in the 6 figure range, but I think the $50k + 50% revenue was the best one, simply because it was a guaranteed income stream.

From $10k/month To $0/month

One day (June 15, 2005 – did I ever mention my brain remembers everything?), without consulting anybody about it, I just shut it all down. Profits went from over $10k/month to $0/month.

And I felt relief.

You might think it’s stupid “throwing away” that much money. Many people told me I was insane.

But I “bought” something more important than cash: integrity, dignity, pride.

See, that infoproduct business sold the “how to sell on eBay” type products I talked about in How I Created My First 6 Figure Biz. I had all but stopped selling on eBay by 2005. So I had been selling products teaching people how to sell on eBay while I was no longer actively doing so.

Even though my eBay knowledge was vast (marketing is marketing whether it’s eBay, offline, online, whatever) I didn’t feel good about it and quitting this business was the only respectable plan of action.

Going through that taught me very important lessons about treating customers with respect and providing massive value …

How To Be Ignored

The following seemingly has nothing to do with business, but there’s an important message in these words …

A little over a year ago I was seeing a girl. One day, after she had just spent 2 straight weeks at my house, she gave me a kiss, walked out of my house, and went home.

I called her later that day to say something silly, but she didn’t pick up. No big deal. I don’t expect people to answer every single phone call. So I left a message. And didn’t hear back. A day later I called again, wondering if something had happened. Again, no response. A text went unanswered as well.

I didn’t know whether she died or what was going on. Whatever it was, not knowing and being ignored like that was painful.

The Pursuit Of Every Single Connection

It wasn’t until a week later that I heard from her. I’ll spare you the details. The important thing is that being ignored reinforced an important lesson about how to treat people.

That’s why I’m so adamant about responding to every comment, every e-mail, and every tweet. It’s not a scalable strategy at all, but it feels good to get a response from someone you take the time to connect with, doesn’t it? I know how much I hate being ignored and I did a lot of ignoring that last year of running the automated-beyond-belief eBay how to business.

Will I always be able to respond to every single connection? To be honest: no. But I’ll cross that bridge when the time comes. Today? Yes, I can respond. More than that, I want to respond. It’s not a burden. I don’t feel like I’m wasting time. I love it.

I’m fired up about truly helping 100 people achieve Ridiculously Extraordinary Freedom. At its core, that is what this site is about, after all.

A little while ago I talked about establishing trust. Shutting down a $10k/month business instead of selling it or continuing on with it really boiled down to re-establishing trust with the world … and myself.

Today I do my best to over-deliver. That’s why this blog is free. It’s my payment to you. Yes, How To Live Anywhere is coming June 8, and I will release more products in the future. (Although I have no clue what those will be since I put everything into How To Live Anywhere.) But it doesn’t matter to me whether you ever buy anything or not. If you want to connect, I’m happy to connect. I want to rock your world with what I do here. And in return all I ask is that you keep rocking my world by reading / commenting / tweeting / sharing / e-mailing. :)

How To Be Trustworthy, Ethical, and Still Rock Hard and Live Anywhere

You don’t have to resort to underhanded tactics to make money. Yes, there is millions being made by shady marketing, and you can do that if you want. No judgments, it doesn’t matter to me. (Although you should probably stop reading this blog if that’s your game.)

What does matter to me is getting the message out that being ethical is OK. You can still make a ton of money by being cool. You can live an awesome life and have anything you could ever want. Whether that’s a tiny house in the woods, a 10,000 square foot mansion in Beverly Hills, or a non-stop vagabond live-and-work-anywhere-life full of amazing experiences, it is all possible.

And you know what? Every night, when you lay your head upon your freshly fluffed pillow, you’ll have a great night’s sleep. No stress, no strain, just love.

Note: Results are not typical. I don’t know whether you’ll ever be in a position to shut down a 6 figure business, much less actually run a 6 figure business. Hustle, focus, work hard, and awesome things can happen! ;)

How I Created My First 6-Figure Business For $119.40

The first 6 figure business I built would cost just $119.40 to start today. Full story inside …

I’d already been working for myself for a couple years doing Web design (back then a chap didn’t need to have sick skills like Charlie, Norcross, and Reese have), selling on eBay, and just straight up hustling before I started my first extremely profitable business in 2002 for just $119.40 (back then it cost a little more, this is what it would cost today).

If you’re a member of the Freedom Frighters you know a tiny bit of this story, but I’m going to go in-depth now. Strap yourself in and hold on tight! (Err, if you actually do that, please first pull your car to the side of the road before continuing on reading this. Safety first!)

The Beginnings: Hustle

How it all began: In the year 2000 I met a girl who sold stuff on eBay. I’d already been dilly dallying on eBay, but she taught me about a fun little niche. She taught me how to find free stuff to sell on eBay. This wasn’t a hugely profitable business (I’m getting to that part!), but for college students working very part time it was awesome and very consistent.

There were 2 main aspects of this “free auction profits” niche. First was getting lots of free after rebate stuff from stores like CompUSA, Staples, and OfficeMax. Sometimes this stuff was beyond free. We’d actually sometimes get paid after the rebates were sent! The second aspect of the free stuff was going to record stores and getting free stickers/cassettes (yes!)/CDs/posters/paraphernalia that street teams would leave in stores promoting bands. We would never take ALL of the stuff, just a few of everything. There was (and probably still is) a huge market for band stuff on eBay.

All in all, this business could pull in $500-$1000 profit in a good month. Again, not hugely profitable, and it really depended on if the rebates were rocking hard or not, but it was not especially time consuming. (Side note: I was also beginning to dabble in affiliate marketing at this time. Like I said, hustling!)

But I’m getting a little ahead of myself.

More Hustle. Hustle Times Two. Hustle Hustle Even!

All throughout my eBay selling (even before the free stuff) I was a member of a small eBay sellers forum/message board. I spent a lot of time answering questions and also getting help. I had no Web site, and nothing to sell. I was just there because I loved learning about auctions and what others were doing. And I also thrived on teaching new auction sellers the ins and outs.

One day I e-mailed the guy who ran the forum. We’d had many previous contacts, but this time it was something new. I’d read about people selling these things called information products, specifically eBooks. So I e-mailed him, told him about the free stuff I sold on eBay, and asked him if he thought it would make a good eBook. He already had an information product to sell, so I figured I should get advice from someone with experience. (<– So important I did this.)

His response?

“Yes! Write it! I’ll promote it!”

Wowza! Sweet. :)

So what did I do?

I got my ass in gear, wrote the guide, wrote the sales page, designed the Web site/eBook cover, and released that eBook, Free Auction Profits, within 10 days!

Then I e-mailed Jim, the guy who ran that auction forum, with a copy and an affiliate link.

What did he do? He promoted it without the affiliate link! He said it was thanks for all the awesome help I provided on a regular basis in the forum. :)

First Sale (!!!) and Goal Setting

From idea to first sale was just 10 days. This was October of 2002. (In 2006, after I stopped selling that product and quit that business I put up a copy of the eBook for free at FreeAuctionProfits.com. It’s strictly for posterity so please don’t take anything written there as gospel nowadays. It probably isn’t valid. Also, please excuse the formatting and AdSense. I don’t really know how to edit that site now.)

My goal with that information business was to make just $400/week. On top of what I was already making with other stuff, it would mean I’d never have to get a job after University. I hit that $400/week goal within a month. So I doubled the goal to $800/week. I reached that a few months into 2003.

Stepping It Up To 6 Figures

Next goal: $100k/year. It took a little bit longer to reach that goal. If you remember reading Sweet Shit Saturday #004, I talked about a guy named John Reese. With the stuff I learned from him I turned this tiny little information product business into a 6 figure earner in 2004, when I was 23 years old.

The gist of how I did that: I stepped up my eBay game by learning about wholesaling and drop shipping and then released a $97 physical (as in, real mail!) product that taught how to find wholesalers. With the higher price point I could offer affiliates a nice commission on a great product and still make ~$30 per sale after all fees. I sold low 5 figures worth on launch day. A few thousand went to affiliates, but along with all of my other income streams, it was my first $10k profit day. We’ll talk about that (and at least one other 5 figure profit day, as an affiliate not merchant) next Monday.

Breaking Down The Costs Of My First 6 Figure Business

Let’s break down the costs of what that first tiny info product business that changed my life would cost today …

1) Domain Name: $9.69/year (or free)

My domain name advice is simple. I like .com the most although I do own a bunch of .net and .org domains. Choose a name that sounds good (RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com) or a choose a name that has a bit of a benefit already built in (HowToLiveAnywhere.com). Length of name doesn’t matter much since you’ll be doing your promoting online.

I’ve been using NameCheap.com to register domains lately. Good prices and free domain privacy. I used to use GoDaddy, but switched for my last 9 domains (including HowToLiveAnywhere.com).

You can honestly use any domain registration service you want. The Web host I use will actually give you one free domain …

2) Web hosting: $95.40/year

For $95.40 per year (including domain name) you can use the same host I use: BlueHost. Many people don’t recommend them. Many people do. They’re not perfect. No Web host that costs less than $10/month will be perfect. Hell, I used to have $500/month managed servers and things weren’t perfect with those either. Don’t get too caught up in choosing a Web host. Every time BlueHost has been down they’ve been good about providing quick status updates. And while my wish is that they’d never be down, I know things happen with computers.

Note: BlueHost is on WordPress.org’s recommended hosts list because they make installing WordPress really easy.

3) Credit Card Processor/eBook Delivery Service: $5/month or $49.95 one-time

When it comes to your first info product I can only recommend these two: e-junkie.com (use coupon EJVIDEOS for a 67 day free trial) and clickbank.com. E-Junkie is $5/month and Clickbank is a $49.95 one-time fee. Each have their benefits and downfalls. For what it’s worth, Free Auction Profits (the infoproduct I talked about above) was launched on Clickbank. I’m using E-Junkie for How To Live Anywhere. E-Junkie has much lower fees (i.e no fees beyond the $5/month) than Clickbank ($1 + 7.5% per sale). But Clickbank take care of paying your affiliates. With E-Junkie you have to login once/month, download a file that you upload to Paypal, and pay your affiliates yourself. It takes less than 10 minutes. :)

4) E-mail list management/Autoresponder: $19/month

Double opt-in e-mail lists have been responsible for generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue for me. Double opt-in simply means that somebody signs up for your e-mail list (for example, my Freedom Fighters ecourse), gets an e-mail asking them to confirm subscription, and clicks a link inside that e-mail before you can actually send them any messages. This is the anti-spam approach to e-mail marketing. It’s permission based marketing and completely on the up-and-up.

More than anything, building an e-mail list is the key to starting a successful long-term online business. I interviewed 2 experts on list building for How To Live Anywhere, that’s how much I believe in it.

I use AWeber.com. It starts at $19/month. As your list grows in size your costs will increase a bit. But that’s a good thing. If your costs are increasing your profits will too (especially if you do what the 2 dudes I interviewed in How To Live Anywhere tell you to do).

And that’s it. Free domain + $95.40/year Web hosting + $5/month e-junkie account + $19/month Aweber account = $119.40

For $119.40 you can get started with your own info product empire. Technology is awesome. :)

Note: Results are not typical. There are too many variables for me to say you will have the same success as me. Forgive me for being honest, but there is no magic pill. Take focused action and hustle! ;)

7 Exceptional Ways To Establish Trust In An Age Of Skepticism

Trust is difficult to establish and easy to lose. Here is how to be trustworthy …

Trust is difficult to establish and easy to lose.

Last week I did a very small promotion (you may not have even really noticed it) for Chris Guillebeau’s Empire Building Kit. I don’t know how well too many other affiliates did, but my results exceeded expectations. I wouldn’t be surprised if I outperformed bloggers with much larger (but not as bad ass!) fan bases than mine. (The 4,000 word Anatomy of a 4 Figure Affiliate Promotion case study will be in How To Live Anywhere.)

And the reason for that success is simple: trust.

Whether you bought the Kit or not, thank you for being here.

I really do appreciate the fact that you trust me. I work hard to keep that trust. Actually, I’m borderline obsessed with establishing and growing your trust in me.

I have big plans for the future of Ridiculously Extraordinary (speaking to high school and college students and writing a series of print books, among other things) and they won’t happen without you.

How To Establish Trust In An Age Of Skepticism

If you’re starting a business or blog or trying to establish yourself in an industry, you can guarantee your success by being trustworthy.

Here’s how:

1) Provide value.

Sometimes those words come across as empty. Or maybe just confusing. How do you provide value? At its essence, it’s simple: be a problem solver.

If you solve problems you will not only be well paid but well liked and well lived.

How do you find problems to solve? Ask, listen, and pay attention to your people.

If you’ve been here for a while you know that I never planned on monetizing this blog or creating products. This was my passion project. But after getting well over a hundred e-mails asking how to do what I do, I decided to solve the problem by creating How To Live Anywhere. That way I can still write about whatever I want to write about here, but if you’re interested in learning how to do exactly what I do you can go there.

2) State your own opinions and ideas.

There are too many people simply rehashing thoughts and ideas. And while you might think that some of my ideas aren’t necessarily unique, I do put my own spin on them. I don’t agree with everybody about everything, even many of my peers who I respect. You don’t earn trust or respect by being a pushover lapdog.

3) Help others.

It doesn’t matter if you’re interacting with someone “famous” or not, treat them well. Help them when and where you can. Yes, it does suck getting the same type of e-mail 10, 20, 100 times per day. If you have to, create stock responses, but sheesh, at least respond. If someone takes time out of their day to contact you, to pour their heart out to you, is it really so difficult to get back to them?

There are a handful of mind bogglingly successful (and busy) people I have e-mailed who personally responded with thoughtful responses. (And I’m not referring to Gary V.) If they can do it, so can you.

4) Showcase your true personality.

This goes along with state your own opinions and ideas.

Bill O’Reilly is a douchebag, but the reason he has such a devoted following is because he has personality. Sure it might be a hateful, abhorable, cantakerous personality, but it’s a personality. And lots of people connect with it. Then people like me write about it even though we don’t want him to get even more free publicity. ;)

You have a personality. It’s interesting to your right people. Make sure they can see it!

In a recent CopyBlogger article, Johnny B. Truant talks about his alter-ego. I’m not advocating copying Johnny’s approach directly because it’s difficult to pull off, but let the passion in your art, heart, and mind shine.

I liken it to a comedian who is funny in public, but just a “regular person” in private. Fans expect comedians to be “on” all the time, but they’re not. That’s not the art. The art is standing up on stage and making a room full of people forget about their problems (see what I did there?) and laugh.

Your blog, your public persona, is your stage. Dominate that stage. Trust in that stage. In return, your audience will trust that you deserve to be on that stage.

5) If you tell someone you’re going to do something, do it.

Being a man/woman of your word is the ultimate showcase of your trustworthiness. You will be forgiven if you make mistakes, or if you’re late or you realize you just can’t make something happen. But if you make failing people a habit the trust will diminish. Quickly.

6) Be cool.

You’re a leader for your audience. And you’re probably in the audience of a leader (or leaders). Treat your audience the way you want to be treated. Before taking any action think to yourself “Is this cool of me or not?”

Success does change people, whether they want to admit it or not. I’ve seen it so many times, with myself and my peers, that I know it’s true. But success is more than just a catalyst for change, success actually brings out the real you. If you come to find out the real you is a greedy sack of depression (that’s what I found out 5-6 years ago) you can take steps to change that and just be cool. (These days I’m a fun loving sack of ping pong balls!)

7) Provide value.

In the mid-90s J Yuenger, guitarist from the band White Zombie, had a monthly article in Guitar World magazine. Every month he offered advice to musicians and bands who hadn’t yet made it. One piece of advice: if you have a song that your fans love, open and close with it. Open with a bang, close with a bang. (Yes, my brain does remember everything.)

Providing value is so important I’m opening and closing this list with it.

Your business, your brand (I don’t really like that word, but it gets the point across), boils down to this …

Without trust, what are you left with?

Is Ridiculously Extraordinary Freedom Possible At A Day Job?

In which I talk about the possibility of day jobs *and* freedom. What? It’s inside …

“Understanding that your job is to make something happen changes what you do all day.” – Seth Godin in Linchpin

The answer is yes, Ridiculously Extraordinary Freedom is possible with a day job.

Surprised?

Here’s why: Ridiculously Extraordinary Freedom means you are able to do what you want to do, but are not forced to do anything you don’t want to do. If you want a day job, if that is Freedom to you, then it’s all good.

A couple months ago I created a list on twitter: http://twitter.com/KarolGajda/only-person-id-work-for

It’s the only list I’ve created thus far and it consists of exactly one person: Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, HDNet, Landmark Theatres, blogger at BlogMaverick.com, and all around bad ass.

And when I mean I’d work for Mark Cuban, I mean if he wanted me to clean his house or scrub the floor of the American Airlines Center, as long as I had access to his brain in some way, I’d do it. (There’s the rub!)

I know I would learn a lot from him. I know I could execute a lot of ideas for his businesses that others wouldn’t be willing to try. And I also know it would be hard work, but fun as hell.

But let’s get off that for a moment because, well, although I would accept if Mr. Cuban contacted me, I’m not looking to get my first job since the year 2000. :)

Where this is coming from: I’m currently working on the anti sales letter for How To Live Anywhere and it starts with a story of two of my friends.

One of them, who makes a very nice amount of money online in only a few hours (usually less than 10) per week (*ahem* thanks to my teachings), doesn’t want to quit his job. I think that’s awesome. He has the option, the Freedom, but he likes his job, so why quit?

It’s almost the ultimate Freedom: knowing that the second he doesn’t like his job he doesn’t have to worry about what he’ll do. He can move on.

When To Stay and When To Kill a Day Job

If you have a business that is generating enough cash to live on and you hate your job, you quit.

If you have a business that is not generating anything, and you hate your job, and you have no savings, you stay. And you get your ass in gear to start generating that cash!

If you have a business that is generating some cash, but if you worked on it harder you could ramp it up, and you hate your job, you quit. And you get your ass in gear to start generating more cash!

If you have a business that is generating some cash, but if you worked on it harder you could ramp it up, and you love your job, you stay … and reevaluate that decision when your business is generating job replacing income.

Or if you’re Dave Navarro, you wait until your business is rocking so hard you’d be crazy not to quit your high level management day job.

Your Turn …

Seriously think about this: What is Freedom to you? I write so much about Freedom, but I don’t think I’ve ever directly asked you what your version of Ridiculously Extraordinary Freedom looks like. I’m excited to read what you have to write!

On Changing Your Mind (or Don’t Be Afraid To Kill Good Ideas)

The origins of this Web site and when to kill a good idea …

Sometimes, when we have a good idea and get to work on it, we see that idea through even though it might not be our best idea.

In late March of 2009 I had an idea for a blog. I bought a domain name, got a few different logos designed, wrote content, and had the site almost ready to go …

That site was TRVLGR.com. TravelGear without the vowels.

It was going to be a weekly travel gear review and travel tips site. Benefits would be three-fold. One: I’d get free travel gear. Two: I’d get to test said free travel gear. Three: I’d get to connect with bloggers.

I didn’t plan on writing the blog to make money. (Sound familiar?)

A New Idea

By now it was the end of May 2009 and I was getting close to launching. And then … I had a new idea for a blog that I felt really passionate about. It would be about inspiring people. Helping people. And connecting with people.

That is what you’re reading right now.

Once I had the idea for Ridiculously Extraordinary (I didn’t have the name yet, just the concept), I immediately dropped TRVLGR, and got to work again.

If you look in the early archives of this site you can see a couple articles that were originally written for TRVLGR:

Zero The Hero or How To Pay 0% Credit Card Transaction Fees When Travel Outside The US

Powder Is For Babies (or How I Keep My Only Pair Of Shoes From Smelling Like Boiled Rat Piss On Extended Trips)

When I had the idea for Ridiculously Extraordinary it was like a fire was lit under my ass. I spent all of June 2009 writing, writing, writing at least 1,000 words/day. Sometimes upwards of 3,000. It was all coming so easily and it reinforced that I made the right decision. (Now in hindsight I’m definitely sure I made the right decision.)

Don’t Be Afraid To Kill Good Ideas

My point is, don’t be afraid to kill a good idea when you have a better idea.

But here’s the rub: don’t make that a habit.

Some of us jump from “good idea” to “good idea” and never get anything done.

That’s not at all what I’m advocating. What I’m advocating is to focus all your energies on an idea until you see it through or until a fire is lit under your ass for a better idea. This won’t happen often.

If I would have launched TRVLGR.com it would probably currently be languishing amongst millions of other blogs. The passion would have died. I’m not passionate about writing travel gear reviews, although it is fun every once in a while.

Should You Continue With Your Idea Or Kill It?

This is a difficult question to answer.

If you’re truly passionate about something you won’t give much thought to trying something else.

Since launching RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com I’ve had tons of ideas for other Web sites, but none of them hold a candle. I’m having too much fun with this to do something else. More than that, I’m not going to stretch myself thin and start another project in addition to this one. Focus is as important as passion.

How about you: how do you handle all the ideas that come to you? Do you try every single idea hoping something sticks? Do you focus on just one until it’s a failure or success? I’m interested in your idea vetting process …

Fear Of Competition Is Bullshit (or Why Competition Is Your Friend)

I will abolish your fear of competition using the 551 words inside …

“Fear doesn’t exist anywhere except in the mind.” – Dale Carnegie

I get a lot of e-mails asking if particular niches are good. Usually it goes something like: “Should I launch a Web site/blog/product in a competitive niche? Isn’t it too difficult if there are tons of competitors?”

Competition doesn’t matter. In many cases, the more competition the better. The fear of competition is all in your head.

Get out of your head and take massive action.

Let’s say you wanted to start a new blog in the simplicity niche.

How many blogs are already in that niche? Too many to count.

How many are successful? Quite a few.

Let’s start at the top: ZenHabits.net. Leo Babauta has 170k+ subscribers! And a print book. And eBooks. And a blog coaching program. And 2 other successful blogs! Leo has created a massive movement. That’s scary competition, right?

Or maybe not.

When you find a “competitor” who seems like they have a stranglehold of the marketplace that’s a good thing. It means the niche is thriving and you have a better chance of getting a piece of the pie.

Know this: The pie is not finite!

The pie grows to support new thought leaders. It will feed as many mouths as is necessary. If you provide the new ingredients, it will take care of the rest. Bigger pans, bigger window sills (for cooling, duh!).

Why You Shouldn’t Fear Your Biggest Competitors

The people at the top aren’t usually evil. (And if some of them are, who cares?) The more success more people have in a niche, the more the pie grows and the more everybody succeeds. Again, the pie is not finite.

Successful people understand the abundance mindset. They know the pie is not finite, and they’re happy to share ideas to make the pie bigger.

More than likely if you talk to some of the top dogs in your chosen niche they will be happy to provide you with some advice. That doesn’t mean you should abuse this ability to connect with them. But a short, succinct, e-mail (short e-mail = very important) asking for a bit of specific advice (also very important) will usually be met with kindness.

I’ve e-mailed some people who I never thought would e-mail me back. Much less with quality suggestions/ideas/tips instead of a simple “cool, keep doing what you’re doing!” or whatever.

Destroy Your Fear Of Competition In The Next 7 Minutes

This is what you need to do:

1) Choose your 3 biggest “competitors.” It doesn’t matter who they are, how famous they are, or how much you look up to them. Get out of your head! As the guys from The Ren Men Show (<– amazing) would say: “Get off the bench!” Meaning, play the game!

2) Come up with a very succinct question that you need help with.

3) Send each a personalized e-mail. Your whole e-mail should be no more than 5 sentences. No long diatribes. Brevity is key.

I think you’ll be happily surprised with what happens. :)

Do you still fear competition?