Questions I need help with before I spend a shedload of money.

[BigGChef]

Ok I'll level with you guys here.

I haven't posted on here for a while and when I initially started posting I didn't make many because I didn't know what to post or how to contribute.

I'm a chef by trade - as you may be able to tell by my Nickname.

I love what I do, I'm extremely passionate about food and take great pleasure in creating something that makes people happy.

However after 15 years the 60+ hour weeks are starting to take it's toll.

I want my life back.

Just after my last post on WF I made the decision to give it a go online. Whatever spare time I had (not a lot) I spent learning about making money online.

I enrolled on a course that advised me to buy some PLR or MRR and resell it on Clickbank ensuring I had an opt-in on my sales page to build my subscriber base.

The list, the list, the money is in the list was their mantra.

Reselling a ready-made package appealed to me because I didn't have a lot of time to create my own products. It was just a simple matter of copy and paste, set-up my payment link and upload.

Mind you this took me several days to get right!

Several months later and I've made 450 dollars in sales from this ebook, and I have a subscriber list of over 500 that I email weekly and I've made about a grand from.

So the money is in the list?

About a month ago I gave in my notice at work.

I worked my last day yesterday.

I've got some work helping a self-employed local chef who caters for high society functions in London and the home counties. I'll only be working a three days a week for him.

My choice.

I'll make enough money to pay the bills, luckily the mortgage is paid off, and continue to provide for my adorable wife and our four lovely little girls.

I know I'm lucky to be relatively financially secure but I've worked my ass off to attain this. However, I now want to start working smart.

I have plenty of time, and to quote my wife 'no excuses', to build the foundations for my future online empire. Bold statement I now but hey – think big be big and I am the BigGChef!

I'm gonna go down the InfoProduct route - I guess I just love creating things!

Now the introduction is out the way and I hope I haven't bored you I need a bit of help before I spend some my hard earned.

I'm interesting in creating some videos for my next InfoProduct. I hear Camtasia 6 is the way forward. What do you guys think. Should I go for Jing? Camstudio? What do you guys find works best for you?

Also does Camtasia 6 allow me to do screen grabs/captures and let me insert lots of pretty arrows, circles and text?

The weekly IM course I was a student of I cancelled last month because after a while some of the lessons tended to be rewrites of previous lessons so there was no flow to it as such. Also I believed it was geared too much for the make money online niche of IM. I want to break into and dominate niches before I even consider releasing my own InfoProduct in the make money online niche.

Besides how can I realistically be an expert on something I know very little about like some people advocate?

Baffles the hell out of me that one does!

So what course or InfoProduct have you tried and had success with that will teach me how to create an Infoproduct and market it to a hungry niche?

Another thing I struggle with is this backlinks thing.

I understand the importance of PageRank. However, what is and what does anchor text have to do with anything? Do I need to put 'keyword' links on these high PR sites or can I just leave my url as a link. What difference does it make? I'm very, very confused with all this.

Marketing copy is a skill I think is essential for any potential online marketer to have in their arsenal. I plan to build up my own swipe file but I'm particularly interested in how to write ad copy. Can anybody recommend any products to help me.

I don't expect a six-figure education to be handed to me on a plate. I want to work for it. I am a chef and my biggest quality IS my work ethic. All I'm asking for is some guidance and pointers to nudge me in the right direction.

Hopefully in the future I'll be able to answer these kinds of threads in WF with rock-solid information and conviction to guide other people in the right direction.

Thanks for reading.

Giovanni.


P.S. I'll be online all day so please feel free to leave a comment or if you feel more comfortable PM me.

[Frank Donovan]

Hi Giovanni

Originally Posted by BigGChef

I love what I do, I'm extremely passionate about food and take great pleasure in creating something that makes people happy.

I think you may have missed your obvious calling

Have a look at this thread: How to Produce Your First Product -- Step-By-Step In Detail With Complete Videos and Resources

And get to work creating some unique recipe videos. With your background and passion, I bet you'd create some compelling products.

Good luck.


Frank

[Tony Dean]

Hi Giovanni,

Get the free ebook in my sig below and give it a good reading!

It explains simply how you will get backlinks from joining this free traffic system - did I just say FREE?

A good service they offer at a cheap price is to go look at your website and tell you the keywords you should be targeting - search volumes a month at Google - competition etc.

The ebook explains it all to you.

Be successful,

Tony

[Diana Lane]

Originally Posted by BigGChef

So what course or InfoProduct have you tried and had success with that will teach me how to create an Infoproduct and market it to a hungry niche?

Not got time to offer any insight regarding the rest of the post, but in response to the above I'd highly recommend anything of Kevin Riley's...

Product Creation Labs - Create Your Own Information Product

Thorough, easy to understand and a whole lot of other raves I'm too pushed for time for. If I remember rightly, he's into the whole cooking thing too, as a hobby. Just watch for the hamsters...

[mpruben]

I think you will do well if you focus on products to do with your obvious passion for cooking. I'll leave the product creation side of things to those with more experience but on the whole backlinking/SEO thing, my advice would be to market your products through affiliates. Let them do all the hard work while you concentrate of producing quality products.

[BigGChef]

Originally Posted by Frank Donovan

Hi Giovanni



I think you may have missed your obvious calling


And get to work creating some unique recipe videos. With your background and passion, I bet you'd create some compelling products.

Good luck.


Frank

Thanks a million Frank I'll check out the link.

I've researched the cookery niche. If you excuse the unintentional pun I don't think it's a 'hungry' cash-spending niche. A lot of information is available for free. Although on some sites there is a strong adsense presence. So that may be an idea.

Only problem is I like to create things. Isn't Adsense just about copy and pasting some html code into your blog/website. Writing the odd article and driving traffic - where's the creativity in that?

I don't intend to poo-poo your idea Frank. It's just that I'm a 'creator' not a 'copy-n-paster'.

I'll never be a poet either will I?!

[BigGChef]

Originally Posted by Tony Dean

Hi Giovanni,

Get the free ebook in my sig below and give it a good reading!

It explains simply how you will get backlinks from joining this free traffic system - did I just say FREE?

A good service they offer at a cheap price is to go look at your website and tell you the keywords you should be targeting - search volumes a month at Google - competition etc.

The ebook explains it all to you.

Be successful,

Tony

Thanks Tony I'll read the ebook and get back to you mate.

[Frank Donovan]

Hi Giovanni

I was thinking of actual products, such as videos. I didn't mention Adsense; although, as Tina said, you could easily incorporate it into a content-rich blog.

I'm all for letting your creative juices flow!



Frank

[chris11]

What about cooking videos? I mean, you select a range of recipes that you know people love - be sure these are fairly complicated to cook, then start cooking and make videos with each recipe.
You can sell these as a one time fee package or you could even build a reccuring income by selling memberships to your video cooking site - once you have a fair number of videos and you're adding new ones regularly.

Think about it.

[MasonRamm]

You should start up a blog or website and post free recipes or something and have ads on your site that you can do to promote relevant products as an affiliate.

[Spark]

Hi Giovanni,

From what i see, i think you should do what you like most - be a chef! Create tons of interested recipes or even videos yourself.

Trust me, don't waste your talent in cooking. you spend almost 15 years doing it. Don't waste it. Use it!

Funny things that, almost all the IM always think that to get paid well. we need to do what others are doing. Putting ads, writing articles, etc. Yes , it can be done. But you have to restart your work again. Why not using your cooking skills and let the world know!

[BigGChef]

Just marinating/cooking some squid (calamari) in lemon juice and a splash of white wine vinegar.

Gonna leave it for half an hour.

Then I'm going to drain off the juice, toss in some crab meat, some chiled wholegrain cous cous, chopped fresh cilantro (coriander) and finely diced red onion.

I'm gonna mix it all this together using my hands because I love the texture of cous cous and I love to feel the food in my hands. Finally I'm going to add a little of the strained lemon juice mixture and stir it in well.

DONE!

Just getting some practice in guys!

It's lunchtime...

Back soon.

Thanks for all the feedback so far guys. The response has been amazing - you're all stars!

Giovanni.

[Terro]

I totaly see where you´re coming from I´m a baker my self and have been for 15 years in my family´s bakery here in Iceland . I´ve allways had this Idea in the back of my mind to make my own product in that niche but as English is my second language I don´t feel comfortable making videos. But making a recipe e-book might be the way to go. But I think there are just to many of them out there and I think one more would just get lost in the flood.

So I´m now looking into making a membership site with healthy recipes for breads and decerts.

Maby we could do something together in that area.

Just a thought.

[dv8]

Originally Posted by Frank Donovan

Hi Giovanni

I think you may have missed your obvious calling

And get to work creating some unique recipe videos. With your background and passion, I bet you'd create some compelling products.

Good luck.

Frank

I'm in total agreement with this.

Just from your first post, it's obvious how passionate you are about cooking and how much of a hard worker you are. Put those two together and you have enough to be deadly.

I can help out more later on (don't have the extra time right now to do a lengthy post), but for now, please reconsider your thought of not wanting to do any type of cooking product. With your experience, there has to be some niche you can go after and do well in.

In fact, maybe after you get a little more time under your belt with this personal chef, maybe you can create a product teaching other chefs how to book catering jobs at high society events.

[BigGChef]

Originally Posted by Diana Lane

Not got time to offer any insight regarding the rest of the post, but in response to the above I'd highly recommend anything of Kevin Riley's...

Product Creation Labs

Thorough, easy to understand and a whole lot of other raves I'm too pushed for time for. If I remember rightly, he's into the whole cooking thing too, as a hobby. Just watch for the hamsters...

Just signed up for his newsletter Diana - thanks for the heads up.

Giovanni.

[dv8]

Btw, ever hear of Gary Vaynerchuk? He has his own wine site where he does videos. Not sure what type of personality you have, but if you just did a daily/weekly recipe video, it may become huge.

I don't know Gary's exact numbers, but I know he is making a killing.

Wine Library TV: Gary Vaynerchuk's daily wine video blog



How about....Big Giovann's daily recipe video blog...

[BigGChef]

Originally Posted by Terro

I totaly see where you´re coming from I´m a baker my self and have been for 15 years in my family´s bakery here in Iceland . I´ve allways had this Idea in the back of my mind to make my own product in that niche but as English is my second language I don´t feel comfortable making videos. But making a recipe e-book might be the way to go. But I think there are just to many of them out there and I think one more would just get lost in the flood.

So I´m now looking into making a membership site with healthy recipes for breads and decerts.

Maby we could do something together in that area.

Just a thought.

Hi,

A membership site I think is probably a great option I like the idea of building a relationship with my customers plus the recurring income thing kinda appeals too!

However, before this is launched I think a reputation needs to be built.

e.g. Chris Farrell has a very popular and very successful membership site. He launched this only after building a massive subscriber list plus a solid and trusted reputation. I don't think it would have made anywhere near as much money if he launched it prior to building his reputation.

His business model is very interesting and it clearly works.

We could do something together in the future. The 'Healthy Eating' sub-niche is also something worth considering.

I'll shoot you a PM some time this week if that's ok?

Giovanni.

[BigGChef]

Originally Posted by dv8

Btw, ever hear of Gary Vaynerchuk? He has his own wine site where he does videos. Not sure what type of personality you have, but if you just did a daily/weekly recipe video, it may become huge.

I don't know Gary's exact numbers, but I know he is making a killing.

Wine Library TV - Gary Vaynerchuk

How about....Big Giovann's daily recipe video blog...

I like to think I have an open, friendly and happy personality and could create engaging videos. Am I alone in thinking Gary V is slightly annoying?

Originally Posted by Tony Dean

Hi Giovanni,

Get the free ebook in my sig below and give it a good reading!

It explains simply how you will get backlinks from joining this free traffic system - did I just say FREE?

A good service they offer at a cheap price is to go look at your website and tell you the keywords you should be targeting - search volumes a month at Google - competition etc.

The ebook explains it all to you.

Be successful,

Tony

Just read through it Tony. Maybe it's me but I feel even more confused now. I guess it's going to take me a while to understand this whole backlink / anchor text concept.

Originally Posted by TMG Enterprises

That is what I was thinking, too, Frank.

Start building up your presence and showing yourself to be an expert in the niche even before you finish a product.

Tina

I like this idea a lot Tina. Guess I need to create and promote the brand first and then sell the branded products?

Originally Posted by dv8

I'm in total agreement with this.

In fact, maybe after you get a little more time under your belt with this personal chef, maybe you can create a product teaching other chefs how to book catering jobs at high society events.

That's got my creative juices flowing - maybe I can put together a guide for all aspiring chefs on how to break into and be successful in catering.

************************************************** *****
************************************************** *****

Can anybody help in respect to my Camtasia 6 question please?

"I'm interesting in creating some videos for my next InfoProduct. I hear Camtasia 6 is the way forward. What do you guys think. Should i go for Jing? Camstudio? What do you guys find works best for you?

Also does Camtasia 6 allow me to do screen grabs/captures and let me insert lots of pretty arrows, circles and text?"

Giovanni.

[john2k]

Originally Posted by BigGChef

I'm a chef by trade - as you may be able to tell by my Nickname.

I love what I do, I'm extremely passionate about food and take great pleasure in creating something that makes people happy.

IMO, this is your "recipe" to success online.

Translate your passion and knowledge in food to something you can do online.

You could acquire an already established site in the food industry or start one of your own from scratch. Write articles, recipes, make videos, etc, etc. Build your site traffic and an email list.

When it comes to making money, just look at what other established media outlets in your industry do. Marketing online is a little different, but the concept is the same as with offline marketing - increase brand awareness & sales.

Being an expert in your field I believe gives you a big advantage to publish online in that field.

[Aitor Astobieta]

BigGChef,

Maybe you could do the following:

1. Create a mixed product, containing video, audio, and text about cooking and recipes. This will give your product a higher perceived value.
2. Sell this product on clickbank or any other place where infoproducts can be sold.
3. When people buy your product, make them give you their email addresses, so you can begin creating a customer list (very important!).
4. Turn your video series or ebook into a book that you could sell on Amazon.
5. Create a blog where you talk about cooking.
6. Direct traffic to your blog. Also put videos in your blog, and direct the members of your customer list to your blog.
7. From the videos on your blog, or simple blog posts, you can direct your visitors to an affiliate product or your own product.
8. Create more products and keep increasing your customer list. These people will become your loyal fans, and they will buy from you on a regular basis. They will also give you testimonials before product launch, which will give your product credibility.

As for video creation, I use CamStudio myself because it's free, and it works well. I know some people say that Camtasia is much better, but if you are on a tight budget, CamStudio is all you need.

When it comes to copywriting, you should focus on benefits and emotions. Customers don't care about you or your product, to a certain extent. They care about what your product can do for them.

So first, identify the most common problems the people in your niche market have. Then tell them that your product will offer them solutions to their problems. You have to make them imagine and feel how the product will help their lives.

In your sales letter, you have try to remove as many obstacles to buying your product as you can. At first, visitors to your sales letter are resistant; they are in a skeptical mood. Slowly but surely, your sales letter has to remove that skepticism and turn it into trust and desire. Easier said that done, for sure.

I hope this helps you in some way.

[Bill Farnham]

Hi Giovanni,

Coupla thoughts...

Regarding the title to this tread...Join the War Room. There is a ton of info in there for free I have paid dearly for before I signed up. Don't let that happen to you.

Camtasia - Go for it, I have it and I love it. I use a PC and you can do a lot of stuff in Windows Movie Maker and bring it into Camtasia for great effects.

Reading your OP was inspiring in the sense that you seem to 'get it' unlike a lot of folks who come here and "need to make a $1000 by tomorrow night". That's not a knock on anyone, just an observation.

I've followed CF since he started his journey, and I have a feeling you may follow in his footsteps to some degree. He also 'got it' early on like you have.

One last thought...Ron Douglas is a Warrior who you may want to follow as well. He has brilliantly paved a path that you can learn from. Be sure to check him out, it will pay huge dividends down the road.

Much success,

KJ

[BigGChef]

Originally Posted by Killer Joe

Hi Giovanni,

Coupla thoughts...

Regarding the title to this tread...Join the War Room. There is a ton of info in there for free I have paid dearly for before I signed up. Don't let that happen to you.

Camtasia - Go for it, I have it and I love it. I use a PC and you can do a lot of stuff in Windows Movie Maker and bring it into Camtasia for great effects.

Reading your OP was inspiring in the sense that you seem to 'get it' unlike a lot of folks who come here and "need to make a $1000 by tomorrow night". That's not a knock on anyone, just an observation.

I've followed CF since he started his journey, and I have a feeling you may follow in his footsteps to some degree. He also 'got it' early on like you have.

One last thought...Ron Douglas is a Warrior who you may want to follow as well. He has brilliantly paved a path that you can learn from. Be sure to check him out, it will pay huge dividends down the road.

Much success,

KJ

Wow. Thanks a million Joe. There's some great advice here.

I checked out Ron Douglas. Mmmmmmm very interesting and someone for me to aspire to I think.

Thanks a bunch for your complimentary words too. I hope I have 'got it' but I expect there'll be a few failures to learn from in the upcoming months.

I've just bought Camtasia 6 and I'm turning the laptop off. The girls need their bedtime stories.

I'm raising a glass of red to you all.

Cheers.

[Daniel Deegan]

Check the out the course "Desperate buyers only". The author just released a 2009 version.

[jasonl70]

While I think with your background it's bloody obvious what path you should pursue , I also felt I should address this part of your post:

Originally Posted by BigGChef

Several months later and I've made 450 dollars in sales from this ebook, and I have a subscriber list of over 500 that I email weekly and I've made about a grand from.

So the money is in the list?

You tripled your IM income by having a small list. With your list making more money then your product did, then yes - the money IS in the list

So far, each subscriber was worth $2 to you (With some work, they could be worth quite a bit more).

What if it cost you $1 to generate new subscribers... would you say you had a good money maker on your hands? I have a list I use ppc to build, and the last time I checked I think it cost me 1.23 per subscriber - and I make over $3 for every subscriber I get. Warren Buffett couldn't get me that sort of ROI

or

What if you replicated this every month? This was Frank Kern's method - set up a bunch of 'under achieving' sites making 500-1000 a month.

I think you had a successfull start, and maybe you didn't quite realize it...

[Doctor Article]

Hi Giovanni

Unfortunately I can't really offer much advice simply because I'm a writer rather than an Internet Marketer, but what I can say is that I agree with many of the posters on here, in that you should try and do something related to your passion for cooking. Perhaps a membership site where you teach people how to cook certain styles of food, or where you teach people how to prepare healthy meals, or even meals aimed at the weight loss niche.

The reason I say this, is because the article writing site I work for, and promote, receives thousands of requests for weight loss articles each month, so there must obviously be a demand. And, if you formulate something different, in that you're not marketing some or other affiliate product, I'm sure you could end up building a rock solid client base.

Above all....good luck with your venture

[BIG Mike]

Hey Giovanni,

I’ll toss in my two drachmas with this – one of the first mistakes many people in IM make (and I personally think contributes to the high failure rate), is in not putting the same time and effort into learning to use the tools at their disposal as they do with learning IM.

I’ll use your own profession as an example – I can buy and read all the cook books in the world, but that is not going to make me a chef, now is it? The same is true in IM – no matter how many info products you may buy, in and of themselves they are not going to make you a successful IM’er.

You need to become technically proficient enough to use tools like SEO, FTP, Web Hosting, etc., effectively. You do NOT need to become a programmer or a super geek, but you do need enough working knowledge and practical experience to avoid getting bogged down with technical barriers.

That said, since your passion is food, given your background, it’s a logical choice to start out with. Loosely, here is what I might do if I were you…

I think I’d start one site for list building purposes that offers something like a free recipe of the day. And I think I would also make sure those same recipes are listed on a web page, maybe with a picture or two and tagged appropriately. You can plug in Adsense or CPA offers on these pages to create a passive revenue stream for yourself.

Next, I might start a free cooking forum and really organize it by various foods and preparation techniques. I would funnel people from the list I mentioned into this and monetize it with Adsense, CPA, Amazon, etc.. You might consider a paid section of the forum (something akin to our War Room here), where you provide lessons.

While you’re getting the first two items moving forward, I’d plan a series of info products that you could promote to both the list and forum – everything from meal planning to videos of preparing different recipes. I know for a fact that cooking shows/video are wildly popular all over the world and you could literally run your own online cooking show.

There’s no limit to the volume of info products you could create over time, including physical products. There are lots of possibilities here to build numerous sales funnels related to what you do best and to build a following of people who are going to “Tune In” to everything you do.

The key to all of this working is to research what your competitors are doing (and not doing) and develop a solid, long-term plan to follow.

[DyLan Lee]

Hi Chef,

You like cooking, go with your passion. try giving out free recipe and later sell some special recipe online to make money.

I think this will work out for you.
Broadcast yourself online with video, showing you cooking a good dish. This might catch people attention. If you do so, you might want to include your link in the video.

Video is a better marketing tools than writing. But remember to include a comment box so that you can improve.

Hope that this helps.

[Martin Luxton]

Giovanni,

Ron Douglas and Willie Crawford both made recipes and cookbooks into successful business ventures.

Re: Gary V. It doesn't matter if you find him annoying. Millions of paying customers don't. It doesn't mean you should copy him. Look at all the great chefs like Keith Floyd, the Galloping Gourmet etc and try and work out what it was that made them popular and see if you have something in your character that could be equally appealing.

Just an idea for starters. You are now home-based so you could brand yourself as "The Home Chef". Your wife and daughters can be your assistants and your critics - at the end of each tasting they could each hold up a score card. And there could be a fixed system of rewards and punishments:

Average score 10: Dad does no washing up for a week

Average score less than 4: Dad gets sent to the dog house (literally. Even if you don't have one, put a kennel in the garden).

Try and think of a format that has interesting sections like that.

Big Mike is also a big food enthusiast (his advice is worth listening to) and I recall about a year ago he sent a really good subscriber email about how to write your own cookbook. Maybe you could send him a link, Mike?

Martin

[Bev Clement]

Giovanni,

One of the biggest problems in the US is obesity. If you check the stats you will find many kids have never eaten a proper dinner. Some kids were surveyed and shown a potato and asked what was it?

Nobody in the class knew the answer, and when the teacher said it was a potato, they had blank faces. When explained it was used to make fries, the kids didn't believe it because to them fries came from one of two places. A fast food restaurant, or the deep freeze area of the supermarket.

If you check, many children don't get proper meals, because their parents don't know how to cook.

Imagine as a chef you could teach these parents and kids how to cook. Have an online TV program where you create a simple dish, which is good nutritionally, yet also easy to make.

Bring fun back into cooking by using video. Look at the eating habits of countries and use your knowledge and skill to start to make a difference

[Traffic-Bug]

You may want to create a info product out of your own culinary skills and experience - I think that would probably have been your first port of call.

[Kim Standerline]

Lol you beat me to it Frank, (About the calling that is), I could see Giovanni's niche straight away...

Originally Posted by Frank Donovan

Hi Giovanni

I think you may have missed your obvious calling

Have a look at this thread: How to Produce Your First Product -- Step-By-Step In Detail With Complete Videos and Resources

And get to work creating some unique recipe videos. With your background and passion, I bet you'd create some compelling products.
Good luck.Frank

Giovanni, I liked your post very much (especially your work ethic). It's good to know that you realise that getting it together online isn't going to be a walk in the park like so many people do.

I'm in the UK as well, so we're in the same timezone, if you want to chat etc at any time (or even if I bit of advice etc is needed), pm me and I'll send you my skype name

I was going to say good luck, but to be honest I think you're quite capable of making your own luck

You've also got some great ideas in this thread, Big Mike has given you a pretty awesome business model to start with.

(hint) anyone could take some of these ideas and weave them into their own particular niche

Cheers
Kim

[milkyway]

Some great advice here in this thread, Giovanni. And yeah, Kim, some interesting ideas for other beginners as well...

Just one additional idea (dv8 already hinted at that): You don't only know how to cook, I'm sure you know an awful lot of other stuff related to professional cooking:

• How professional kitchens are organized
• Where to get killer food (either very special stuff, or good quality for reasonable money)
• How to plan and organize various courses, for few or very many people
• and loads more I can't even think of

I can see people being very eager for this information and some solid advice, and I think you could easily transfer this into a product line for "non-experts", as well as into a second product line for the pros or wannabe pros.

And as soon as you have enough experience in IM and with the technical side, there is a third option: Teach restaurant owners, catering services etc how they can present themselves in the internet, market online etc.

I.e. with your experience and unique combination of skills, that would make at least three different target niches, not counting everything you could do with recipes and cooking books.

And if you are still looking for good information: I can highly recommend the war room, too. Also, subscribe to both Paul Myers' and Marlon Sanders' newsletters -- they send great and very helpful information. Paul also has a WSO currently running (at a very decent price). If this fits your potential business model, it's definitely worth the money: Build your own empire - 20 pages at a time

Hope that helps,

milkyway

[BigGChef]

Hi all,

I'm just having lunch and when I logged into WF I almost choked on my bacon & avocado ciabatta.

I've got hardcore warriors offering free business advice, a hatful of PMs to wade through.

Wow. You guys are so generous with your knowledge. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

I'm working for my friend Monday or Tuesday but I'll be at home all day Wednesday. The kids are at school so I'll have a bit of time to crack on with my business plan.

I'll be in touch and more active then.

Thanks a million.

Giovanni.

[Kim Standerline]

Is that the same as a bacon & avocado butty lol

Originally Posted by BigGChef

I'm just having lunch and when I logged into WF I almost choked on my bacon & avocado ciabatta. Giovanni.

[BIG Mike]

Originally Posted by BigGChef

Hi all,

I'm just having lunch and when I logged into WF I almost choked on my bacon & avocado ciabatta.

I've got hardcore warriors offering free business advice, a hatful of PMs to wade through.

Wow. You guys are so generous with your knowledge. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

I'm working for my friend Monday or Tuesday but I'll be at home all day Wednesday. The kids are at school so I'll have a bit of time to crack on with my business plan.

I'll be in touch and more active then.

Thanks a million.

Giovanni.

Hope you have your Heimlich poster up

[milkyway]

Giovanni,

I almost choked on my bacon & avocado ciabatta.

You didn't cough out too much of that ciabatta, did you? It would have been a shame to waste it...

milkyway

[sagerock]

Another thing I struggle with is this backlinks thing.

I understand the importance of PageRank. However, what is and what does anchor text have to do with anything? Do I need to put 'keyword' links on these high PR sites or can I just leave my url as a link. What difference does it make? I'm very, very confused with all this.

I thought I'd address this just because I don't think it's been talked about.

You have to remember that search engine spiders only do 2 things: read text and follow links. So, a link with keyword rich anchor text hits both of those areas.

A link wrapped around an image, for example, doesn't tell the spider anything about where it's about to go. It has to go to the link and then determine what it's about.

But if you put the key phrase in the anchor text (the text that is the actual link on the page), then the spider will say, "Ah, this hyperlink says I'm about to go to a "Membership Cooking Site". Then, when I go to the page that link sent me to, the page is all about a "Membership Cooking Site." It creates cognitive resonance.

So, whenever possible, cross link the pages within your site with keyword rich anchor text. And when you get a link from some other site, try to get them to link to you with your idea key phrase.

It just compounds all of your search engine optimization.

I'm totally with everybody here. Videos, audio, text on cooking. You have a great opportunity here for a membership site.

Personally, I like videos that move between the screen and the video of the person doing the video. An affordable tool that does that for PC is WebcamMax.

However, I use VidBlaster... it's a full featured software switcher. Unfortunately, it costs hundreds of dollars.

But you can't go wrong with all the suggestions given here for video software.

There are a lot of moving parts to creating a video-based membership site. But just make a list of everything that needs to be done and start ticking off the items on your list. You'll do it.

You know, you could also offer a high end service where you offer a live personalized coaching service. I've never seen any place where someone can get professional, individualized cooking consulting.

[BigGChef]

Thanks a million again to everybody who has taken the time to post on this thread. As mentioned already not only is this information extremely helpful for me, I really hope it will help many other potential and wannabee online marketers kickstart their online careers. Just leave the cooking stuff for me guys ok? Unless you wanna JV?

What a day I have had today. It's been tiring, long but ultimately very rewarding. It's a bit of a landmark day really as I now have a PLAN. Mind you it's in .odt format and not printed yet, but it's backed up on my USB drive for safekeeping.

One thing I'm particularly good at is managing my time. He says modestly.

It's true.

When all my fellow chefs were struggling to get their preparation done in the afternoon, moaning and complaining about their workload shivering outside in the cold whilst simultaneously and probably completely unintentionally doing their level best to beat the World Record for the fastest a human can smoke a cigarette.

I was inside happily peeling, slicing, chopping, dicing, stirring, scraping, skinning, trimming and cooking. Only when my preparation was done would I 'reward' myself with a cigarette. I'd take my time smoking it too.

NOTE: I've been clean of the stuff for a year now - the best decision in respect to my health I ever made.

Even at home although the wife would be loathe to admit it I'm the organized one.

So managing time effectively, kicking procrastination into touch (or the sidelines for any American readers) staying motivated and getting things done is a talent that is bred into the marrow of my bones - thanks and love to mama and papa. It's also something I'm passionate about - admittedly not as much as the cooking.

I have a half-finished product on my hard drive. A combination of really well written PLR (i'm very lucky to have sourced this - or do you make your own luck?) that I have rewritten to my own style plus my own ramblings, opinions and asides.

Inside is info on time management, mastering motivation, traits of successful people plus successful traits that anyone can develop, how to create your own office environment and how to clean, organize and declutter your computer.

Plus I have other brain dumps and brain storms that I flooded some cards with today (thanks Mr P Myers for the Empires ebook) including avoiding info overload, the power of attraction and the psychology behind the reasons why people buy - this is something I will be researching heavily in the next few weeks to ensure this module is absolutely clinical in its execution.

I owe it to myself to complete this project first so have decided to target all those people who would like to have their own 'work from home' business. The goal is to help them fine tune and ready their mind, body and environment for the journey their about to undertake.

If a very positive, honest and driven ethos can successfully be articulated and shared with other people in helping them get the right mindset for pursuing their online endeavours plus setting and achieving their goals - then it is worth all the effort is it not?

I'm giving myself a timescale of two months to complete this project ready for launch. I hope to create lots of sales and promotional stuff for my future affiliates - I know I'll need a hand with copy (ads, email and salespage) and probably some some article writing too. Although I am seriously considering purchasing Instant Article Wizard?

Once this project is completed and launched I'm going to start my own cookery website - probably using wordpress. I'd rather not go into too much detail at this point but needless to say the foundations of this website have been pretty much laid bare in this thread already.

Originally Posted by jasonl70

You tripled your IM income by having a small list. With your list making more money then your product did, then yes - the money IS in the list

I think you had a successfull start, and maybe you didn't quite realize it...

Thanks for the compliment - possibly you're right. Bearing in mind the limited free time I had I didn't do too bad. This is part of the reason why I want to finish this incomplete time-management project because I believe as long as I get the sales copy right and the product over-delivering on content and value, I think I could do quite well.

Originally Posted by BIG Mike

You need to become technically proficient enough to use tools like SEO, FTP, Web Hosting, etc., effectively. You do NOT need to become a programmer or a super geek, but you do need enough working knowledge and practical experience to avoid getting bogged down with technical barriers.

That said, since your passion is food, given your background, it’s a logical choice to start out with. Loosely, here is what I might do if I were you…

I think I’d start one site for list building purposes that offers something like a free recipe of the day. And I think I would also make sure those same recipes are listed on a web page, maybe with a picture or two and tagged appropriately. You can plug in Adsense or CPA offers on these pages to create a passive revenue stream for yourself.

Next, I might start a free cooking forum and really organize it by various foods and preparation techniques. I would funnel people from the list I mentioned into this and monetize it with Adsense, CPA, Amazon, etc.. You might consider a paid section of the forum (something akin to our War Room here), where you provide lessons.

While you’re getting the first two items moving forward, I’d plan a series of info products that you could promote to both the list and forum – everything from meal planning to videos of preparing different recipes. I know for a fact that cooking shows/video are wildly popular all over the world and you could literally run your own online cooking show.

There’s no limit to the volume of info products you could create over time, including physical products. There are lots of possibilities here to build numerous sales funnels related to what you do best and to build a following of people who are going to “Tune In” to everything you do.

The key to all of this working is to research what your competitors are doing (and not doing) and develop a solid, long-term plan to follow.

Fantastic information Mike and I really am grateful for you taking the time to throw in your 'two drachmas' worth. You actually helped make the writing of the 'PLAN' today a lot less difficult and more enjoyable. Any chance you can PM me the link to your subscribers list and your email on how to create your own cookbook please?

Originally Posted by Martin Luxton

Giovanni,

Ron Douglas and Willie Crawford both made recipes and cookbooks into successful business ventures.

Re: Gary V. It doesn't matter if you find him annoying. Millions of paying customers don't. It doesn't mean you should copy him. Look at all the great chefs like Keith Floyd, the Galloping Gourmet etc and try and work out what it was that made them popular and see if you have something in your character that could be equally appealing.

Just an idea for starters. You are now home-based so you could brand yourself as "The Home Chef". Your wife and daughters can be your assistants and your critics - at the end of each tasting they could each hold up a score card. And there could be a fixed system of rewards and punishments:

Average score 10: Dad does no washing up for a week

Average score less than 4: Dad gets sent to the dog house (literally. Even if you don't have one, put a kennel in the garden/

Martin

Great ideas Martin. Alas I could serve my family up a meal worthy for royalty but I would stilll never be able to get out of doing the washing up!

Originally Posted by Bev Clement

Giovanni,

One of the biggest problems in the US is obesity. If you check the stats you will find many kids have never eaten a proper dinner. Some kids were surveyed and shown a potato and asked what was it?

Nobody in the class knew the answer, and when the teacher said it was a potato, they had blank faces. When explained it was used to make fries, the kids didn't believe it because to them fries came from one of two places. A fast food restaurant, or the deep freeze area of the supermarket.

If you check, many children don't get proper meals, because their parents don't know how to cook.

Imagine as a chef you could teach these parents and kids how to cook. Have an online TV program where you create a simple dish, which is good nutritionally, yet also easy to make.

Bring fun back into cooking by using video. Look at the eating habits of countries and use your knowledge and skill to start to make a difference

This is so true Bev. And it saddens me too. Jamie Oliver has made great progress in the U.K. in encouraging schools to cook healthy food for their young pupils. My wife is a learning support assistant at a local school and she has commented several times on how healthier and how much variety is included in the menus at this school.

I think from a marketer's perspective the healthy food niche offers unlimted potential for educating and helping people adopt healthy eating and cooking practices.

Originally Posted by Kim Standerline

Lol you beat me to it Frank, (About the calling that is), I could see Giovanni's niche straight away...


Giovanni, I liked your post very much (especially your work ethic). It's good to know that you realise that getting it together online isn't going to be a walk in the park like so many people do.

I'm in the UK as well, so we're in the same timezone, if you want to chat etc at any time (or even if I bit of advice etc is needed), pm me and I'll send you my skype name

I was going to say good luck, but to be honest I think you're quite capable of making your own luck

You've also got some great ideas in this thread, Big Mike has given you a pretty awesome business model to start with.

(hint) anyone could take some of these ideas and weave them into their own particular niche

Cheers
Kim

PM on the way Kim - many thanks. I'll be downloading Skype tomorrow.

Originally Posted by milkyway

Some great advice here in this thread, Giovanni. And yeah, Kim, some interesting ideas for other beginners as well...

Just one additional idea (dv8 already hinted at that): You don't only know how to cook, I'm sure you know an awful lot of other stuff related to professional cooking:

• How professional kitchens are organized
• Where to get killer food (either very special stuff, or good quality for reasonable money)
• How to plan and organize various courses, for few or very many people
• and loads more I can't even think of

I can see people being very eager for this information and some solid advice, and I think you could easily transfer this into a product line for "non-experts", as well as into a second product line for the pros or wannabe pros.

And as soon as you have enough experience in IM and with the technical side, there is a third option: Teach restaurant owners, catering services etc how they can present themselves in the internet, market online etc.

I.e. with your experience and unique combination of skills, that would make at least three different target niches, not counting everything you could do with recipes and cooking books.

And if you are still looking for good information: I can highly recommend the war room, too. Also, subscribe to both Paul Myers' and Marlon Sanders' newsletters -- they send great and very helpful information. Paul also has a WSO currently running (at a very decent price). If this fits your potential business model, it's definitely worth the money :

Build Your Empire 20 days at a time

Hope that helps,

milkyway

Originally Posted by Kim Standerline

Is that the same as a bacon & avocado butty lol

Not quite maybe.

Lose the avocado and replace with some chips (home-made of course roasted in thyme & rosemary oil and dusted with cajun seasoning) add extra butter. Voila... 'une butty'!

Actually in cooking it's amazing how you can completely change the appearance, aroma and flavour of a recipe by removing and replacing one or two key ingredients. Bit like rewriting and reworking PLR I expect?

Originally Posted by sagerock

I thought I'd address this just because I don't think it's been talked about.

You have to remember that search engine spiders only do 2 things: read text and follow links. So, a link with keyword rich anchor text hits both of those areas.

A link wrapped around an image, for example, doesn't tell the spider anything about where it's about to go. It has to go to the link and then determine what it's about.

But if you put the key phrase in the anchor text (the text that is the actual link on the page), then the spider will say, "Ah, this hyperlink says I'm about to go to a "Membership Cooking Site". Then, when I go to the page that link sent me to, the page is all about a "Membership Cooking Site." It creates cognitive resonance.

So, whenever possible, cross link the pages within your site with keyword rich anchor text. And when you get a link from some other site, try to get them to link to you with your idea key phrase.

It just compounds all of your search engine optimization.

I'm totally with everybody here. Videos, audio, text on cooking. You have a great opportunity here for a membership site.

Personally, I like videos that move between the screen and the video of the person doing the video. An affordable tool that does that for PC is WebcamMax.

However, I use VidBlaster... it's a full featured software switcher. Unfortunately, it costs hundreds of dollars.

But you can't go wrong with all the suggestions given here for video software.

There are a lot of moving parts to creating a video-based membership site. But just make a list of everything that needs to be done and start ticking off the items on your list. You'll do it.

You know, you could also offer a high end service where you offer a live personalized coaching service. I've never seen any place where someone can get professional, individualized cooking consulting.

Makes it a whole lot clearer for me Sage. I still have a couple of questions but I'll save them for another time if that's ok? You managed to invoke a couple of lightbulb moments with this great description though so thanks a million.

Wow long thread this. If you made it all the way to the bottom without getting bored I applaud you. I know I'm not the most talented of writers. But I'm working on it!

Moderators if I have done anything wrong in this thread please could you let me know. Please just don't delete it without a bye or leave. My heart is in this post - please bear this in mind.

Giovanni.

[HeyAdMan]

Giovanni,

I sure have learned a lot from you asking a few questions here.

Reminds me of something Zig Ziglar once said ... "I'm as happy as a man who went through the swinging doors on someone else's push".

A lot of great ideas here.

[itcoll]

hey chef.if i were you,i would solely concentrate on
1.bum marketing and
2.creating niche sites.
Have you tried adsense?

[rayjay777]

BigChef,
I bet you never expected a response like this.
I have been around the internet for a couple of years now and the best place to go forward in my opinion is Chris Ferrall's membership site. Get the free gifts listed below before you join though and make sure it is what you are looking for. It sure is what I was looking for and it has been a big help to becoming successful.

[Bill Farnham]

Originally Posted by rayjay777

BigChef,
I bet you never expected a response like this.
I have been around the internet for a couple of years now and the best place to go forward in my opinion is Chris Ferrall's membership site. Get the free gifts listed below before you join though and make sure it is what you are looking for. It sure is what I was looking for and it has been a big help to becoming successful.

Hawking your affiliate links here is a big NO-NO.

You might want to rethink your post.


KJ

[WareTime]

Check out site build it (sbi). Perfect for people passionate about a topic as you are. It's an online marketing education in itself. I second everyone here that said use your passion for cooking for your niche.

[Kim Standerline]

Unless it's changed a huge amount within the last few years I wouldn't touch SBI with the proverbial barge pole. I had some nasty experiences with their support

Kim

Originally Posted by WareTime

Check out site build it (sbi). Perfect for people passionate about a topic as you are. It's an online marketing education in itself. I second everyone here that said use your passion for cooking for your niche.