IM Made Me Indecisive. How Would You Spend Your First $600 If You Could Start Again.

[Damien Roche]

It's true. I first started looking into IM about 4 years ago. I was a junior web developer, but the prospect of earning $5000+/month almost on autopilot completely took my attention.

I'm a very methodical person though, so I didn't dive in buying as many products as I could, hoping I would discover the 'secret' so many MMO products promise. I studied, and I studied hard, every day, my whole life was immersed in IM.

Then came crunch time, and that's when I realized, I didn't know how I wanted to make money online or even what methods would work because they're were so damn many.

So, after months of planning and researching and trying to put something tangible in the works, I give up. I just couldn't afford to commit to something which didn't earn me a single penny. Of course, my mind was still very much focused on the MMO niche and every other day I'd hear about a new great, unstoppable technique or product or system or software...and my mistake would be casting aside my old stuff so I can develop new, better material.

Anyway, after 2 years of being slapped in the face with offer after offer, no direction and thousands of pages of notes, I decided to give it up. It was exhausting and I evidently didn't know what I was doing.

Since, I fully embraced web development, which I love, but I so desperately want to earn passive income, communicate with clients, produce great material and actually go abroad (first holiday in a week in 22 years!). It's frustrating, because I know it's so very achievable and I have so much determination, in the long run, I will prevail.

But I suffer from what most newbies do or people who haven't earned anything yet:

I have no direction.

And that's exactly what I need help with. So, really, what would you spend your first $600 on if you had to start all over again, with the knowledge you have now?

I don't expect anybody to uncover their secrets or gold mine niches, just need some general advice...and if anybody would be willing to help me out a little more, please send a pm.

Appreciate your time.

Thanks,
Damien.

[SeanSupplee]

build a list and do affiliate marketing. clickbank.com paydotcom.com amazon.com ebay affiliate adsense learn SEO

[ramone_johnny]

Opportunity hopping is very common amongst newcomers. Best suggestion would be to get a mentor dude.

[The Schwa]

I would second the mentor idea.... since I started working with Alex Jeffreys I've gotten way more done then ever before... and I have focus.

What I plan to do with my new income however is to outsource.

I have more to do than I can ever accomplish... and I need help.

I just got a new job, so some of that money is going to support the business... and pay my contractors!

Dunno if that helps... but it's my plan : )

Peace,
Alan

[Catalin Ionescu]

Damien,

You say you're proficient with developing web sites. This alone gives you a tremendous edge over most people that start now looking for ways to make money online.

You possess some of the technical knowledge. Further more, you've already tried at this for two straight years despite failing over and over again, so you have perseverance.

I truly believe success is just around the corner for you...

Here's what I'd do if I were you with $600 to invest. And the 10 steps I'm about to share were done by me personally more than once, and can all be done within a month or less...

The general idea is to create a product, and then start selling this product. It can be an info-product, or a software, or a video training tutorial, and you don't even have to create it yourself.

Some of the investment you're going to make is one time only, and the software you'll purchase it can be reused over and over again for all your future product launches. There are other ways to accomplish a product launch, and some may be cheaper. This is what I use and have experience with, and know it works.

1. Product download manager/protector - I highly recommend Sam Stephen's DLGuard. Been using it for years, it's rock solid and integrates right out of the box with most payment processors. It also integrates out of the box with AWeber (more on this later). It costs $97.

Remaining budget: $500.

2. Affiliate management software - I'm using both JROX and PayDotCom.com right now, but recommend you go with the self-hosted JROX. This is free to download and you'll only have to pay the license price after you have more than 50 affiliates.

Remaining budget: $500

3. Email list management. AWeber is my choice, been using them for years and most of your customers will already be familiar with them. Rock solid, top email delivery. Costs $1 for a month trial, then about $20 thereafter per month.

Remaining budget: $500.

4. Research what kind of product you want to make, then either create it yourself if you have the expertise, or outsource it to RentACoder. I'll assume you'll outsource the product creation, so you can focus on setting up everything else in the meantime. For about $300 you could get a very good ebook, or software product for sale.

Remaining budget: $200.

5. Write the sales copy, and have the graphics made for the sales page. The sales copy you can write yourself, then spend about $20 on Robert Boduch's WSO and have it critiqued and corrected. Robert provides a top notch service, plus you'll get a very good compendium on how to write good copy from him -- "Mad" Copywriter Spills The Beans on WINNING Sales Letter FORMULA & Includes 1 Full Year of SUPPORT

For the graphics, although I haven't personally used them they got some awesome feedback: WOW! Only $10 - Crazy Custom Headers & Banner Designs

Remaining budget: ~150

6. By the time you have the sales copy done, and everything else set up on your own domain, your product should be about done too. Test it yourself to make sure it matches your specifications, and has no obvious bugs.

Buy a WSO listing, and a WarriorPlus WSO Pro account from Mike Lantz. One WSO listing is $20, and the WarriorPlus for one WSO is still around $10 -- http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-...ell-wsos-3.htm

Remaining budget: ~120

7. If you've done everything else well, by this point you should have a quality product that people want, so you'll see some sales coming. Follow up with your customers to make sure they're completely comfortable with setting up your product (if it's a software) or that the ebook you sold answered their questions. Gather testimonials if possible. Update the sales copy with the testimonials you got.

Remaining budget: ~120

8. Start looking for other people that have products complementary to yours, and try to set up joint ventures with them. At this point you probably don't have a list, so try to offer something of value in return, be it a higher commission or a special discount to their list that nobody else can get. Set them up in JROX.

Remaining budget: ~120

9. Buy Paul Hancox "Small changes big profits" and "The secrets of a 10 percent conversion rate". I believe Paul Myers had a special going a while ago, and you can get a copy through him at around $30 each.

Remaining budget: ~60

10. Reinvest some of the money you made so far from the WSO sales and buy a good split testing script. The only one I have personally used (and thus can recommend) is quite expensive, in the $700 range -- Split Test Accelerator. Paul Hancox has his own split testing script which I believe to be quite good, but haven't tried myself. Install it, and based on the feedback it gives you (and what you've learned from the books in step #9) update your sales copy.


That's all there is to it :-)


Sincerely,
Catalin Ionescu

[cconlan]

This is a great thread. I can totally relate to you Damien. I have spent the past year trying to learn as much as I can on IM and have made very little. It gets frustrating but I will maintain the same attitude as you.
Thanks for your tips there Catalin.

[Damien Roche]

Thanks Catalin, a very straight forward, thought out, step by step on an effective direction I could take.

Really appreciate it. I think with your own downloadable product, it's absolutely crucial you have a decent download system like DLGuard, so I'll probably be purchasing that as soon as I know what product I want to produce.

Thanks Again.

[ramone_johnny]

Step 1. BECOME AN INTERNET MARKERTER - FORGET ABOUT BEING A WEB DEVELOPER. Sure the technical skills are great to have, I have them too (9 years experience) but in this industry, it doesnt mean $$$ in the bank. Some of the best IM I know, cant even spell HTML, let alone code it.

Step 2. Decide what business model you want to adopt. Affiliate marketing, selling your own products, CPA, Adsense.... etc etc. I cant tell you what to do here - its a decision you need to make. My preference is to create and sell my own products.

Step 3. This is VITAL! Decide upon ONE topic or subject. Did you get that? ONE TOPIC. Not several, decide on ONE subject or topic. Research the hell out of it, both keyword research and profitability/saleability (sp?) research.

Step 4. Product creation. If you complete decent market research you should be able to find the "holes" in the marketplace. Fill them!

Step 5. Sell, wash, rinse and repeat.

Kicker.

1. You must make a decision
2. You must take action.
3. Acknowledge your strengths and weaknesses and outsource where necessary
4. Ask for help. Dont be a fool, know when to say "I dont know" Get a mentor.
5. At the end of each day ask yourself "what did i do today that has moved me closer to my goal?" If the answer is bugger all - slap yourself and get your **** together.

[derekwong28]

I am not an info products person and have never promoted an info product. My experience is mainly with physical products and this is what I would do and I am actually doing this right now.

1. Buy software, scripts or subscription services that will enable you to put up a shop from datafeeds. One program I use is Webmerge which costs $99. However, there are other scripts available and you can also use services like Goldencan and Popshops.

2. I would also look out for a VPS or dedicated server once you get good results. Some networks may ask for a fee to access their datafeeds and I would consider paying for it.

3. I would then analyze the results to see which merchants and products converts well. I would then proceed to set up PPC campaigns to these merchants. To go further, I would consider dropshipping or ever setting a shop selling similar products.

I know this is not most warriors do but this has worked well for me in the past, netting over $5000 at its height. This is not my core business but I am doing this on a big scale again since my core business had been whacked hard by Google. This is why I am very serious this time round.


Derek

[Martin Luxton]

Go on holiday alone to an isolated place, reflect on your life and make a decision.

If you ask the Forum you'll just become more confused because all you're really doing is pushing responsibility away from you.

Take responsibility. Take a decision.

Martin

[JayXtreme]

Yup...

I concur with Martin above...

Only I would substitute the holiday with a truck load of your favourite beer... and make yourself responsible.. err.. maybe that won't work.

But have the beer anyway.... enjoy that cash

You're in good company to make plenty more here.... but first you need to kick your own ass... nobody here can really give you direction.

The answer is staring right at you! (your avatar )

Peace

Jay

[Damien Roche]

Top info, thanks guys, esp ramone.

I fully understand the importance of taking responsibility. Hell, I quit my job 3 years ago so I could go into full time web development and I'm happy to say I will never EVER be 'employed' again. I feel the full whack of responsibility every day.

This is different. I'm lost and I'm losing interest in everything around me. Where do you go about finding a decent mentor? I don't want to start *another* thread, I've already created 2 in the last couple of hours.

Thanks.

[avenuegirl]

Originally Posted by JayXtreme

You're in good company to make plenty more here.... but first you need to kick your own ass... nobody here can really give you direction.

Yes, I agree. You can try the plans here, but they may only be a bandaid.

Someone else here this past week had a great post about the difference between IM and a business.

To sum it up, your business is your business - IM is just marketing to sell and promote what ever it is that your primary business does.

Those who sell IM products are just selling the shovels.

If you really want to stick with web development then that is the direction you'll want to hone in in. Like IM in general, there are a lot of different areas of web development you can go into. Find one of those sub niches and stick with it long enough to establish yourself as an authority.

Although sometimes used synonymously with web design, strictly speaking web development deals more with creating, coding and building the underlying framework of a site and any additional applications such as blog setup, ecommerce capabilities or contact forms. ...

This is a very broad field! Within it, find the starving crowd and feed them.

What are the biggest problems faced by other web developers?

[bahnsurf]

Hi,

If you are the one who is very focus in what ever you do, go ahead and try Catalin Ionescu method. But if you need someone to guide you along, find a mentor.

But don't follow blindly. Find those who walk the talk and have the heart to teach.

Hope this helps.

[ramone_johnny]

PM me dude, and Ill send you a link that *should* change your life for $7!

Oh and by the way - get rid of that "Web Developer" tag under your avatar. Youre an Internet Marketer now - remember?

[Daniel Brock]

Originally Posted by Damien Roche

Top info, thanks guys, esp ramone.

I fully understand the importance of taking responsibility. Hell, I quit my job 3 years ago so I could go into full time web development and I'm happy to say I will never EVER be 'employed' again. I feel the full whack of responsibility every day.

This is different. I'm lost and I'm losing interest in everything around me. Where do you go about finding a decent mentor? I don't want to start *another* thread, I've already created 2 in the last couple of hours.

Thanks.

Why not go back to one of your favorite courses and actually do what they tell you to?

How hard is that?

It seems to me that the more you learn, the worse off you will be. So common sense would say, to stop learning and start doing.

Simple...yet effective.

[derekwong28]

By the way Damien, since you are a web developer, you can consider flipping websites.

You can consider buying existing ugly websites, spruce them up and then reselling them.

You can find lots of websites for under $50 in Digital Point. Flippa would be more expensive but they would be suitable for larger projects.

[dralan06]

Your focus should be on branding yourself in your niche/ teaching others to follow you because your in the same niche building a list of people who opt in for valuable info you provide/ then monitising that list with products and services that serve them well. Always providing great value and always giving of yourself don't worry about the return Laws of the universe always prevail It can do nothing except come back to you. Alan Any questions call me 785-274-7929

[seantanmarketing]

You can't sell "How to make money online" stuff if you personally do not know how to make money online yet. You should sell what you know and what you're expert in.

There plenty of "Internet Marketers" do not know how to drive web traffic but selling you the "How to drive traffic course". They not even make money online before, but selling you "How to make $XXX in 30 days" ebook.

Don't be one of them. You can't teach someone what you don't know. When your customers find out you're fake, you will kill your business and your name.

If you still prefer to work in "How to make money online" market, I would suggest you to become a publisher NOT creator. This mean, you find someone expert who already in the game and very successful in "How to make money online" stuff, joint venture with them to come out a new product. They're the creator of the product and you're the publisher.

However, it's not easy to get those 'expert' to joint venture with someone newbie or beginner UNLESS you have a very good offer.

- Sean

[FaJeeb]

If I were making a decent wage at my job and had $600 to spend that I wanted a pretty sure way of making me more money... I hate to say this, but I probably wouldn't use it in Internet Marketing. I would go with the physical products I KNOW I could sell for profit. If I had $600 that I wouldn't miss if it just disappeared, then I would go along with internet marketing.

[freudianslip27]

I'd suggest staying out of the "make money online" niche, at least at first as it is so competitive.

I agree with what others said, that building on your web design skills is a huge opportunity for you.

If you can make them quickly, you could create some premium wordpress templates. They sell for a premium.

You could also focus in and create some web templates for specific niches. I saw a basic pharmacy template listed for like $2000, and believe me, it was nothing special!

The point is, rather than just building sites for people individually, create some templates that you can sell again and again, building that passive income.

Matt

[Damien Roche]

Thanks for all the responses! Some great info above and a lot to keep me grounded and in check

Right, well I took a dive and bought a semi-established website for $500, pulling about $70/month almost automatically. Think I'm going to put everything I've learned about marketing and copywriting into action and make this baby a winner!

I *might* flip it, but we'll see how it goes. I'm just glad I actually have something tangible which is at least producing somekind of result. Really looking forward to developing and testing the site and product.

Look out for me, here I come WORLD...lol...so dramatic.

Appreciate your help above. I'll be referring to this thread from time to time and will actually keep people posted in a couple of months on how things have gone.

Damien.

[Damien Roche]

Love the idea about selling and reselling templates/sites etc. It's just, I feel like I'm stealing. Do people really not know the little effort that goes into these sites?

It's not my style, and it's not my style to go into MMO niche (per se) at this point. Though I have just entered a sub-niche in MMO which I consider a little less competitive and far far more grounded than the average MMO sub-niche.

I think for me I am in a very good position to make a lot of money flipping sites because of my experience. Just have to produce something I really believe in so much I think it still holds value after selling it 100 times over.

[Gorilla Writer]

Hey Damien, I totally hear where your coming from. Going to send you a PM.

[bgmacaw]

Originally Posted by Damien Roche

So, after months of planning and researching and trying to put something tangible in the works, I give up.

Anyway, after 2 years of being slapped in the face with offer after offer, no direction and thousands of pages of notes, I decided to give it up.

That's the basic problem, isn't it? "I give up"

The truth is that it takes time to build a list or to develop a good SEO or PPC campaign. It isn't something that happens overnight or even within a few weeks other than in some exceptional circumstances. Don't expect instant results no matter the system. The first thing to learn is to have patience. Until you learn that it's best to keep your money safe in the bank.

I'm also from a software and web development background with a little accounting, statistics and logistics thrown into the mix. I'd say the most important non-programming skill I brought to the table was project management. I treat my IM work just like my programming work, as a series of projects with cost analysis, milestones, benchmarks and such.