My "Law School Challenge": $250K in 16 Weeks

[Nathan Malone]

Okay, it's official, I'm tired of not hitting huge successes in my internet marketing endeavors.

As you can see from my profile, I joined the Warrior Forum on March 24, 2005, over three years ago (and I was reading the forum and other material well before then).

However, in the time since then, I have not really had a huge amount of success in internet marketing.

Now, I have been doing decently with web programming and some other things, but as far as internet marketing is concerned, I feel I have really not been hitting the income levels I think I could be making for someone who has studied the subject as much as I have.

So, starting today (or yesterday, as it is past midnight here), that is going to change.

After a month or so of preparation, I am launching a 16-week "Law School Challenge" ( LawSchoolChallenge.com ) where I am going to attempt to earn $250K, mostly from internet marketing, in the span of 16 weeks (yesterday was the 16 week mark until the end of the year).

Why the title? Well, I'm planning on using the earnings to pay for Law School, so I figured that "Law School Challenge" was a good name for it.

As I'm sure many of you here know, earning $250K in 16 weeks is possible, even if it is a bit of a stretch.

I'm going to be giving regular updates on my blog at LawSchoolChallenge.com , but I have several main income sources I am going to be drawing on, including several types of internet marketing, as well as other items such as penny stock trading, etc.

Although I have put together a fairly detailed plan for the next 16 weeks (which should allow me to reach my income goal even if any two of the income streams fail to generate any revenue at all), I would be grateful for any advice, tips, or leads as I attempt to reach this target (and yes, I'll provide nice testimonials if your product/advice/etc. works well).

If you have anything you would like to offer in way of advice, tips, opportunities you know about, or pitfalls to avoid (yes, I know all the basics of internet marketing), I would love to hear them either on this thread or on my "challenge" site at LawSchoolChallenge.com

Looking forward to hearing from everyone here!

[Michael Chris]

Looks like you have some SEO going on with your blog, so that is good. I would change the permalink structure to take out the numbers and get the keywords closer to the domain name ( %post_name%.html ... I think ) on all of your blogs.

I see you are linking off to your social Web 2.0 stuff to spread your net even further, so that is good also.

$250,000 in 16 weeks is a ambitious goal.

How, in general, are planning on making it? I hope not by selling just in the IM niche?

By the way, the link in your sig is messed up.

Good luck!

-Michael

[lakshaybehl]

Originally Posted by Michael Chris

How, in general, are planning on making it? I hope not by selling just in the IM niche?

What's wrong wih that?


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Nothing at all...

As long as you can sell valuable information that is practically implementable, you can sell anything.

All the best... Just a thought... Why not involve other warriors into it? Maybe collectively 3-4 brains of similar aptitude can make over a million dollars a lot easier.

[Neil S]

Well what has been your success thus far? To be frank, if you believe you can hit 250k in 16 weeks I would guess you have already had some substantial success in IM.

[Nathan Malone]

Thanks for letting me know on the sig link. I think it's fixed now (my guess is that it got messed up in the forum transition a couple months back...)

On the links, yes, I thought about that, but in the end, I guess I set it up this way because I thought I might have posts with the same title (although I will obviously try to optimize the titles, which should make them be more unique then they otherwise would be).

I am going to be posting more details in the coming weeks on my blog, but I am going to focus on several (I forget the current count, but at least half a dozen) different income streams. Eight weeks out, after doing at least some work in each area, I will discard the ones that don't show potential, in order to focus on those that appear to be viable.

Marketing IM-related material is definitely not my primary planned income stream.

My thought is to market a limited number of affiliate products from proven IM masters, but to refrain from putting out any products myself in that niche until I have established some credibility and have some solid proof of my success.

I am hoping to reach at least $135K in the first 12 weeks, and then focus on a IM-related product launch for the final four weeks that will contain a massive amount of information and data on my various endeavors, which should put me "over the top" financially. I will also, at that time, have extensive data and test results (I like to split test everything) as well as a lot more knowledge which should enable me to actually write something worth buying.

Thanks for your comment!!!

Originally Posted by Michael Chris

Looks like you have some SEO going on with your blog, so that is good. I would change the permalink structure to take out the numbers and get the keywords closer to the domain name ( %post_name%.html ... I think ) on all of your blogs.

I see you are linking off to your social Web 2.0 stuff to spread your net even further, so that is good also.

$250,000 in 16 weeks is a ambitious goal.

How, in general, are planning on making it? I hope not by selling just in the IM niche?

By the way, the link in your sig is messed up.

Good luck!

-Michael

[Nathan Malone]

I would love to do JVs or something similar with other warriors. If anyone is interested in doing something in the next few months, by all means, please drop me a PM or email!

Thanks for your comment!!!

Originally Posted by lakshaybehl

What's wrong wih that?

Nothing at all...

As long as you can sell valuable information that is practically implementable, you can sell anything.

All the best... Just a thought... Why not involve other warriors into it? Maybe collectively 3-4 brains of similar aptitude can make over a million dollars a lot easier.

[Nathan Malone]

Yes, I have had some success, just not to this level.

I think that if I focus and concentrate on this task, with my past experience and knowledge, I should be able to reach this goal.

I have, over the past few years, had quite a bit of success in several areas, including Adsense (earlier on), and PPC campaigns (more recently). I have also done other forms of internet marketing as well, and have also studied the subject extensively.

I suppose that my main problem so far has been a lack of focus, and getting distracted from my goals. My blog should help provide some accountability, though, and I am considering other things, such as posting a 24-hour time log of my activities for a solid week, or something along those lines.

Originally Posted by Neil S

Well what has been your success thus far? To be frank, if you believe you can hit 250k in 16 weeks I would guess you have already had some substantial success in IM.

[Stanley Tang]

Good luck dude.

I know you're going to make it.

[jem]

Big goals push you more so go for it!

I'll be following along and may even start my own site to make a similar amount but mines will be called "wipe the smirks off my friends faces and prove that internet marketing is better than being an accountant.com" I hope the domain isn't already taken lol.

Good luck!

[Marian Berghes]

Originally Posted by jem

Big goals push you more so go for it!

I'll be following along and may even start my own site to make a similar amount but mines will be called "wipe the smirks off my friends faces and prove that internet marketing is better than being an accountant.com" I hope the domain isn't already taken lol.

Good luck!

yeah you could make that
anyway, good luck man and i wish you the best

[David Raybould]

Good luck.

I don't know what kind of marketing you're into or what your skills are so specific advice is a little redundant, so the only advice I'll give you is to take as much action as you can every single day.

You'll be surprised what you accomplish.

David

[Samuel P.]

Once this works, why would you want to go to law school? Scale, rinse and repeat. Unless of course you like spending 50 hours a week reading legalese!

[Scott Ames]

Originally Posted by Samuel P.

Once this works, why would you want to go to law school? Scale, rinse and repeat. Unless of course you like spending 50 hours a week reading legalese!

Power, imtimidation, political ambitions. Could be more reasons non money related.

[dougp]

Good luck bro. If you got good grades as an undergrad then you should be able to get a scholarship if you don’t want to pay no out of pocket expenses, just saying.

[jestershaw]

Wow, what a lofty goal. Please keep us informed. I will subscribe to you blog but I would also like you to update your progress here.

Good luck.

[Samuel P.]

Originally Posted by Scott Ames

Power, imtimidation, political ambitions. Could be more reasons non money related.

So you are trying to become world dictator eh? Just be a benevolent one!

[rapidscc]

Good luck man!

We all need a success story.

:-)

Ohh and one last thing, post videos on youtube. It works.

[Amy Bass]

Wow! I really hope you make it. I thought my goal was lofty when I set out to pay off $72,900 worth of debt in 2 years with IM. If you can make $250k in 16 weeks i'd love to read how you did it.

[Thomas Belknap]

Originally Posted by davebo

And besides that, why on earth would you go to law school if you did actually make $250k in 16 weeks. That's $812k per year and I don't know many lawyers making that.

I know this sounds a little strange, but some people actually do things because they enjoy it. I know, I know, you are thinking no way. They must all do it for the money. Well, my friend, that isn't the case for everyone.


I do believe that when someone does something just for the money the odds are they will not succeed.

[Takuya Hikichi]

Good luck in everything you do... I am sort of in the same boat. I'll be back in school, finishing my Masters starting next month because I want to be a college professor (After 7 years and 2 kids).

[alexshelton]

What does it matter what he wants to do with it!

Its great to see this kind of ambition, best of luck mate

[Nathan Malone]

Thank you everyone for the encouragement and advice!

In case you're wondering why I'm not replying, I'm trying to focus on getting as much actual work on this done during the day as possible, but I will make a blog post as well as make some posts in this thread tonight, after I get the work for today wrapped up.

[alexshelton]

Nice blog dude... great design too

[Thomas Belknap]

Originally Posted by davebo

I would possibly agree with you if he said he was saving money to become a teacher or a pastor. But are there people that LOVE to be lawyers, excluding the money? I know people that love their job as lawyers and love to make 150k a year. But if you gave them 850k a year, they would probably rather volunteer at a soup kitchen to give back.

My sister is a lawyer and doesn't make six figures. She loves her job.

[Dave Cornish]

There is no U-Haul behind the hearse.

Do something worthwhile to yourself and the world.

[Phil Spinelli]

if you can make $250K in 16 weeks, why bother with law school?

[Dana_W]

Originally Posted by davebo

The points flying over your head. If your sister could make $250k in 16 weeks, would she still be a lawyer?

I used to cover the court beat and I know a lot of lawyers who love their jobs. I still may go to law school some day, and yes, even if I were making a fortune, I would at least want to work as a lawyer a few days a week. It's fascinating. It's challenging. I don't always find internet marketing to be so. I don't hate IM or I wouldn't do it, but there are more interesting jobs out there.

[Thomas Belknap]

Originally Posted by davebo

The points flying over your head. If your sister could make $250k in 16 weeks, would she still be a lawyer?

I think the point if flying over your head. Yes, she would still want to be a lawyer. It isn't all about money.

[Tim Franklin]

Well I hope you are successful...

Nothing is impossible, if you have the will and an innovative dont give up attitude.

Goals are important, a wise man once told me that when building a house you dont put the roof on first, you build a foundation.

Then you put up the walls, and you work you want into building a house the right way.

In other words work within the frame work of what you know you can do.

That made an impression on me, that was back in 1979 and I have never forgotten that lesson.

I know it is possible, because I have seen it happen, in fact just recently selling only to MAC software users, one group raised, $349,000.00 in one week.

Wow, that is just for MAC users, imagine what you could do if you had both windows and MAC versions of software.

Nothing is impossible, but if you find that 16 days is not enough time to develop the right framework, don't give up.

Sure a team of seven guys, made $349,000.00 in seven days.

But, they had a network setup in advance, setup cost, server cost.

$4500.00
$1872.00 additional bandwidth costs, managed server.

Cost of developing the software they sold, 1892 man hours, at 79.62 per hour, cost, $150,000.00

Ecommerce costs, transaction costs, $28,792.63

While these guys did a fantastic job on this, they had a plan, and they planned this out one year in advance of this event.

So when it was time to build the house they were ready.

Best of luck, but in reality, luck has nothing to do with it, in reality,

it is all about how well you plan ahead and finding the resources that you need when you need them...

Hope you found this helpful..

[yaji]

Your web site is very appealing to say the least. Will you use this iste as part of your money making site? Or just a blog to document your progress?

Keep us posted and we'll help as much we can.

[Benjamin Eddy]

As a lot of people are saying, your site looks great!

If I can ask, what did you use to build it?

[Nathan Malone]

Thank you everyone for your comments, encouragement, and advice!

I just made another blog post at LawSchoolChallenge.com as a quick update (the real action probably won't start for another week or two, as I'm doing a lot of preparatory work for some launches and ad campaigns right now).

I'm also going to answer a few of the posts below...

Once this works, why would you want to go to law school? Scale, rinse and repeat. Unless of course you like spending 50 hours a week reading legalese!

Great question! I'm not really into it so much for the money. Actually, getting a job at a big firm and knocking myself out with 80 hours/week of work is probably the thing I least want to do once I graduate from law school.

Good luck bro. If you got good grades as an undergrad then you should be able to get a scholarship if you don’t want to pay no out of pocket expenses, just saying.

Yes, I'm really hoping to get at least a partial scholarship to cut down on the expenses. FYI, law school, without a scholarship, should cost a bit less then $250K, so just for clarification, I'm not expecting it to cost quite that much, although it would be quite expensive.

The LSAT (Law School Aptitude Test) is actually quite important when it comes to admissions and scholarships. I believe that Baylor Law School (the one that I'm most interested in going to currently) works on a scoring system that is ((GPA*10) + LSAT) = Score. So, in other words, a five point bump in my LSAT score would make up for getting a GPA of 3.5 instead of 4.0 (as an example...).

Wow, what a lofty goal. Please keep us informed. I will subscribe to you blog but I would also like you to update your progress here.

Yes, I'll definitely keep my fellow warriors here informed, in addition to posting updates on LawSchoolChallenge.com.

Ohh and one last thing, post videos on youtube. It works.

Yes, YouTube is probably the one main thing that I haven't done yet. I created an account recently, but haven't actually uploaded anything yet. I'll likely upload a Camtasia video or something like that in the next couple of weeks to get things rolling. Thanks for the tip!

Wow! I really hope you make it. I thought my goal was lofty when I set out to pay off $72,900 worth of debt in 2 years with IM. If you can make $250k in 16 weeks i'd love to read how you did it.

Congratulations on your success so far on your goal! A very worthy goal to work on, and you have results to show on your goal, unlike me (granted I just started two days ago...). I might recommend advertising your RSS feed on your blog, though, as some people might not know that they can get it by tacking on a "/feed/" to the end of the URL...

I don't mean to be a ball-breaker but are you seriously kidding me? If you've been doing IM for 3 years and haven't made much, now you're going to make $250k in 16 weeks? People on the WF use that "Declaration" method a lot, but I think it works a little better when you say stuff that you actually have control over, like the number of hours you work.

Thanks for the dose of reality. No, I'm not kidding, though. I'm planning on spending the first four weeks on setting up systems and preparing campaigns and products, the next eight weeks for a "shotgun approach", trying to hit a number of different niches with a number of different techniques to see what works, and then narrow in on the high profit strategies and niches in the final four weeks to hopefully get the final way there. I expect to make my goal, although I would be the first to admit that it definitely isn't a sure thing...

Your web site is very appealing to say the least. Will you use this iste as part of your money making site? Or just a blog to document your progress?

Thanks! I was hoping to do some more stuff on the site before the launch, but I didn't have enough time. I'm too much of a perfectionist, so I am trying to learn that sometimes perfection isn't possible when you have deadlines, and you just have to do the best you can do.

I'll probably get a little income from the site, but to be honest, that is really not my intention, and I might not market or sell anything on it. The way I see it, it's kind of "cheating" to use the buzz about my "Law School Challenge" and the resulting visitors from places like this to generate the income for the challenge, and I would much prefer to get the bulk of my income from other sources that aren't tied to the blog.

Keep us posted and we'll help as much we can.

I appreciate it! I'll be posting updates regularly over the course of the next 16 weeks, both here and on the blog...

As a lot of people are saying, your site looks great!

If I can ask, what did you use to build it?

Thanks! To give credit where credit is due, the design was done by UniqueBlogDesigns.com (it's a free theme), so go ahead, and steal it. I did customize it a bit (mostly on the coding/backend part of it), and got another designer to create the avatar and banner.

The actual site is powered by WordPress (great software)...

Thanks again everyone. To get this much support from fellow Warriors has been wonderful!

[Keith Boisvert]

Originally Posted by davebo

I don't mean to be a ball-breaker but are you seriously kidding me? If you've been doing IM for 3 years and haven't made much, now you're going to make $250k in 16 weeks? People on the WF use that "Declaration" method a lot, but I think it works a little better when you say stuff that you actually have control over, like the number of hours you work.

And besides that, why on earth would you go to law school if you did actually make $250k in 16 weeks. That's $812k per year and I don't know many lawyers making that.

I think you bring up a great point. But as stated, he seems to have a firm grasp of IM but lacked focus.

I honestly believe that most of us here on this forum suffer from the same problem. We all have the knowledge to succeed in IM, but lack the focus. By him making a declaration...it is, in his opinion, forcing him to "get on the ball" and focus.

There isn't too many peple on this forum that can't go out armed with what they already know and make money online this week. But if you don't go out and do it, you'll never know.

And if he wants 250k in 16 weeks but only makes 75k...is that a failure? I think not. Because the habits he will form in these coming 16 weeks will ensure him a profitable foundation in which to stand on.

keith

[Popstar]

Good luck with your challenge.

But why are you shooting for $250K? Law school tuition isn't anywhere near that, even for all 3 years at the best schools.

As to getting a scholarship, make sure you go to visit the school. You'd be surprised how much scholarship and grant money is sitting in the Admissions Office for anyone who asks, especially if you have an offer from one or more competing schools. The LSATs alone aren't the only criterion.

Make sure the admissions and financial aid people understand how motivated you are, how interested you are in their school, and just how you plan to use their education to achieve your career goals.

It also doesn't hurt to mention that you'd like to "give back" after you graduate. The top schools love their contributing alumni.

Call this "Plan B" for funding. If both the challenge and the scholarship come through, you could be sitting pretty.

Best of luck,

Debbie