How I Made My First $100 Online

“It was a dark and stormy night. The wind was whipping the trees into a frenzy of leaves and branches which crashed into the side of the building I was staying in. My mind was screaming for it to be over, but I knew it hadn’t even started. I braced my inner self for the impending doom approaching the building, knowing I would also have to fight myself if my mind broke. I would either come out victorious or die fighting to my last breath. Walking to the door, I opened it. The wind blew through my hair, powerful and threatening enough to knock me over. Rain splashed against my face as I resolutely crossed the threshold and walked out into the storm, seeking the silence beyond.”

Not exactly the introduction you expected to read about right? You probably were expecting me to say something along the lines of “I hacked Facebook and got some massive dough, let me show you my insider secrets!”

No, I am not that kind of person. Nor do I expect to be. I am the kind of guy who provides you with some solid information you can use. I am the kind of guy who wants to document my journey online. I am the kind of guy who wants to give you something of value.

To that end, and in response to the unexpected introduction you just read, here is what I have up to this point.

That introduction is basically what my mind was going through at the time before I started making solid money online. Using allegory is as close as I can come to explaining my predicament at the time without giving away private information.

How did I do it? How did I make my first $100 online?

1. I searched for an Urgent Need

I thought to myself, “What do people need help with? How can I help them?” My thoughts stumbled across Facebook Fan Pages. The more I thought about it, the more I uncovered that I knew alot about Fan Pages that I could teach people and that this was something big enough for companies to have. 400 million targeted potential customers in one place with dirt cheap access to all of them and companies just flirting around the issue? I knew I had to do something.

2. I provided customers with the exact solution

I figured many businesses knew about Fan Pages, but had no idea how to create/maintain/promote one. I also knew of other companies who just jumped in without looking and stepped in a couple problem areas that could have been avoided if they had guidance.

3. I Planned In Advance

Not everything was planned out, but most of it was. I cannot stress this enough when starting out online. You need to have some key aspects planned out, such as name, upsell flow, content, offer, and price, before you start “officially working on it”.

4. I Started Free

When I started putting the wheels into action, people already started coming in, but I wasn’t even finished! I was still in the midst of making my skeleton, which was barely operating at this point, yet people were coming in. I knew at that moment that my idea had paid off and continued with renewed vigor.

5. I Strategically Positioned myself to take advantage of all the Free Traffic/Exposure

In the name, where it was located, and how I started, I strategically positioned everything to take advantage of all the free traffic out there on Facebook. I never spent a penny advertising, they all came to me. This particular step required some thinking on my end to make sure this idea worked, the rest came in all by itself naturally.

6. I converted from Free To Paid

I left the free option open for about two weeks, then shutdown the free offer I had going. I stuck a price tag on it and stuck it back on the shelf. I expected traffic to drop, which it did, but people still came and purchased based on the pricing structure I had planned out beforehand. I even made a cold sale over the phone, which left me energized for at least a week! (Gotta thank Wells Fargo for all that sales training when I was a teller)

7. I Upsold to a Premium Option

Yup, contained within my plan to get their foot in the door was the first small purchase and the subsequent value I added in the content I provided. I wanted to provide them with enough value that they would be happy and clamor for more. Some did, and I gave it to them. They are extremely happy, know exactly what to do, and are all fired up to handle what they have.

What do I do?

I Create Fan Pages.

What do you do?

Can you Run your Business with only an IPad?

That is the question my mentor, Paul Colligan, posed to us recently over Twitter:

Can I run my business for 30 days with nothing but an IPad?

What do you think? Can Paul do it?

I am personally interested in this challenge. Owing to the fact that the IPad is more of a content consumption device than anything else, this will be an interesting twist. I am curious Paul if you, being a content creator extraordinaire, will be able to pull it off with the apps available for the device. I know all the apps are there for you to use, but this will get interesting when you want to do video, take pictures, record your voice, and such. How will that work into your New Media Content Creation Model?

The interesting feature about the IPad, which I foreshadowed in my first post (The Apple iPad. Greatest thing since iSlicedBread?), is that Apple is purposely marketing this as a “content consumption device”. This device, as confused as you may be at this point, is for the content consumer not the content creator. Does anyone besides me and Paul notice this subtle shift?

If you want to keep tabs on what Paul is up to with this challenge and if it actually works, visit:

http://www.paulsipad.com/

Multi-Level Marketing Not Multi-Level Advertising

Anyone noticing the shift here?…

It used to be completely different. Business in the 1900’s was all about how many levels we could advertise our product/service on. The internet has completely changed the game, as well as the rapid change in technology. Now we find ourselves with an unlimited amount of levels we can promote our company in. That game has changed and we need to quickly find where we can make the most impact and leverage it.

“But wait” you may be saying right now. “Isn’t marketing and advertising the same thing?” Well…yes, and no.

Advertising is a communication strategy used to persuade the person engaging in the “ad” to take action and to buy from that brand.

Marketing is the process by which companies create value for and build strong customer relationships to ensure brand loyalty and word of mouth distribution with their market base.

Notice the slight but important difference here. (Muaha! And you didn’t think I would flex my communication degree muscles while here in college eh?…)

What did the Industrial Revolution give us? A simpler way to mass produce goods and services at a lower cost. What did the Information Age give us? Well, it kicked down the doors of the Industrial Revolution and said, “Hey, I can do all of that and more for the cost of NOTHING!” What is the Social Media Revolution giving us? It stole the idea presented in the Information Age and scattered it to the far reaches of the globe while giving us the means to connect and share with anyone and everyone across the planet at virtually the speed of light.

What multi-level advertising was to the Industrial Revolution, multi-level marketing is to the Information Age and the Social Media Revolution. You need to stop persuading and start providing value for and building strong relationships with your customers. The persuading will work itself out in the customers’ mind once you have built that relationship.

I worked for the big boys. I know those who have taken this new approach and are now soaring on untold heights. I’ve also watched others flap their “multi-level advertising” wings in vain and plummet straight to the earth below. I know the reason why too, but that is for another post. You’ll have to wait for that to come out…

In the meantime, what are you doing to ensure your multi-level marketing strategy succeeds? Do you even have one?

I’m not giving you the rest of the pie until you’ve consumed your chunk of it and let me know what you thought of it below. You know I love hearing feedback from you guys…

The Apple iPad. Greatest thing since iSlicedBread?

It is a week after all the hubbub around the Apple press conference. Things have now cooled down a tad. Now its time for me to interject my thoughts…

Here they are:

The iPad is nothing more than a glorified IPhone, only bigger.

Yes, you heard me. That is what I think of it. Now, before you start calling me out on twitter, let me say a couple things. (Yes I know about all the jokes, but I am not posting them here)

First off, Scobles’ 16 year old kid agrees with me! Secondly, Paul Colligan, the tech guru that he is, ran the numbers on the iPad which proved to be quite interesting. Third, a college friend of mine has 27 reasons against the iPad. And finally, my good friend Harrison Painter thinks that the iPad will soon be coming to a WalMart near you!

Oh, and I haven’t even launched into the jokes yet! (Don’t worry, I’ll be breaking them out at the end)

In all honesty, lets go back to my original quote. It does everything the IPhone does, why do we need another thing to lug around? And by lug, I do mean lug! Don’t worry though, you won’t be getting flatter abs or bigger biceps with this thing anytime soon.

I am not convinced. I was really looking forward to what would happen with IPhone’s exclusivity deal with AT&T. And I REALLY didn’t like the fact that to add insult to injury that Apple goes ahead and throws in 3G on AT&T.

Now that you’ve heard the bad, here is the good side.

What I did like about the iPad was the option to have a bigger screen to see more detail. The 3G option is pretty neat as well. I did look at Verizon’s netbooks when they first came out but realized I would max the bandwidth usage in an hour with that I do, so the iPad just might be the answer to that problem. If only it had an iBall camera though!

I could see this device finally making use of the RPG gaming apps in the app store. Now you can actually see detail on a larger screen and have more options than be squished between your two thumbs.

I also liked the fact that this takes us another step in the digital media distribution medium. Looking forward to the day when we no longer read inewspapers, as “neat” as they once used to be, and iwalk around with a little tablet thing with all the news we need at the touch of our finger. That and the podcast options too.

If I do get my hands on the iPad, it very well may be version 2 or 3.0.

Those are my thoughts, what are yours?

iDone.

How Geese are like Market Leaders

Did you ever think about this application to the Business World?

Geese fly in the classic v-shape formation, each leading one at a time, giving the leader time to rest as they fly south for the winter. Notice here that no one goose leads for the entire length, he’d be DEAD before they reached the destination! Nor do two of them duke it out for first place, it would waste too much energy.

Nope, they do it the most efficient way possible. Each goose leads for a time, then falls back to let another lead while he rests to wait his turn again. That way, they get to the destination that much faster and farther than possible by one or two geese.

Every single business in every industry works the exact same way. As a matter of fact, so do nations. Hint: I’ve been studying Western Civilization I for the past three weeks and it has been interesting to watch each nation rise to power, take the stage for a time, then fall back and give it to another nation.

Where are you in the formation? Comment below.

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