So What is The Real Picture of IM -

by tbunch
16 replies
It really amazes me that so many people think that you can spend 5 minutes on IM and become successful. I would like to take a survey to really break it down and shed some light on the truth.

I would ask those that consider themselves successful at IM (by your own definition) to give a quick break-down of your time.

In general where is your time spent overall by percentage:

  • market research
  • product location or development
  • blog or site building
  • promotion

Hopefully this will help those who really don't understand what the real expectation of IM is. The honest replies to this may also, for a short time, dis-spell the idea that their is "magic method" that their are so many posts looking for.

Thank you for your time.
#picture #real
  • Profile picture of the author Louise Green
    I can break it down into days for you..

    Market research: on average 1-2 days per long tail keyword
    Product development: 1-2 days
    Site building: half a day
    Promotion: continuous, on going, never ends
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    • Profile picture of the author cellcom
      Hi - Good post

      I typically build "content" type sites that are built over time (30 + days)

      Market research: I spend a lot of time on market research and have invested in quite a few tools to help me out (saves time and gives more accurate results)

      I would say I spend 1 - 2 hours per day for a few days in a row until I start to get a "feel" for the niche

      Product development:
      This varies - often I will outsource this out

      Site building: 3 - 5 hours to get a rough working version of the site (with no articles) - I then add 1 article per day for 30 days

      Promotion: for the first 30 days 1 hour per day - adding 1 article, building links/backlinks
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    • Profile picture of the author John Romaine
      Originally Posted by Louise Evans View Post

      I can break it down into days for you..

      Market research: on average 1-2 days per long tail keyword
      Product development: 1-2 days
      Site building: half a day
      Promotion: continuous, on going, never ends
      You build your product in 1 to 2 days?????

      My last product took about 8 weeks, and that was outsourced.
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      BS free SEO services, training and advice - SEO Point

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      • Profile picture of the author Louise Green
        Originally Posted by ramone_johnny View Post

        You build your product in 1 to 2 days?????

        My last product took about 8 weeks, and that was outsourced.
        You're working too hard :p

        What type of products are you making? I'm fairly big into audio products.. takes much, much less time.
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        IMPORTANT MESSAGE: I'm currently on vacation & will answer all messages when I return - Happy Holidays!!
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  • Profile picture of the author unitminer
    Product development: 80%
    Market Research: 5%
    Blog/site building: 5%
    Promotion: 10%

    But I have to tell you, that it took us about 2-3 years to earn first $1M
    Beginnings are hard and you should not expect high profit at the beginning.
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  • Profile picture of the author tbunch
    Great start! I appreciate those who have taken the time to reply. Maybe thru this thread many people will realize, more clearly, what it take to succeed and make money online.

    Please keep it coming - the more the responses the better!
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  • Profile picture of the author Andyhenry
    Building relationships and nurturing the ones I have.
    Signature

    nothing to see here.

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  • Profile picture of the author rayx
    I spend the bulk of my time on promotion
    everything else can be completed somewhere in between 3 days and 1 week
    ...I use systems & templates for research, product creation and website building - it allows me to set them up fast!

    consequently, I haven't spent hardly any time on forums like this
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  • Profile picture of the author VeitSchenk
    keyword research comes naturally to me, so I just tend to "accidentally" bump into great keywords without much hard work (well, maybe it just doesn't feel like hard work) -- I usually carry a notebook with me and whenever I see something interesting, read about whilst at the doctor's, that kind of thing, take notes...

    creating product, I do mostly video, so that's about 1h of video per day plus say a day for processing, editing and uploading to (f&987#$%#$#%, grrrrr) S3, meaning I can create a 1h video product in 2 days, start to finish.

    the website stuff, awful, takes me forever

    promotion, takes me even longer....

    hey, anybody good at making websites and promoting the stuff? I'll do the KW and produce the product;-)

    Veit
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    Connect with me on FB: https://www.facebook.com/veitschenk

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  • Profile picture of the author Mukul Verma
    • market research - Do Only stuff you enjoy and a market exists (2%)
    • product location or development - Maybe a couple days or weeks depending on how big the website or project is (8%)
    • blog or site building - Pretty straight forward, the design of it running with your business mode it would be key, think about what will be outsourced and how, future updates, who will do it and customer expereince(5%)
    • promotion - This is the BIGGEST PART OF ALL - No promotion, no sales for a website. I believe this is what most people need, traffic, traffic, traffic to a trusted professional website.
    Another important point is run it like a business
    - improvements and updates
    - customer service (listen to customers)
    - Testing, tweaking and tracking

    Cheers,
    Mukul
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  • Profile picture of the author Imran Naseem
    Banned
    Outsourcing is good and usually saves you a lot of time

    The more you outsource the more money you will make.
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  • Profile picture of the author tbunch
    I really appreciate the few that have taken this seriously! The idea I had, with this thread, was so any new person could see that it is serious work to be successful in IM. Not "Building relationships and nurturing the ones I have" or "outsource = time freedom + money".

    I still hope :rolleyes: this will become a thread that when someone asks a question which shows that they don't understand the business - they can be pointed to it. I think it is great that so many with join dates of 2009 are already successful - that is a positive at least!

    Thanks again to those who have responded!!
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    • Profile picture of the author cellcom
      Hey Tbunch,

      Yeah - I appreciate what you are doing here. Even if it can help just a few people it is worth it.

      I think the "over hyping" that is going on by the so called "guru's" is really pretty sad and obviously it is working as it continues.

      For me, I would rather "under promise" and "over deliver" - especially if you want repeat customers.

      At least let the "newbies" go into it with realistic expectations so they stand 1/2 of a chance in what is already a pretty tough business.
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    • Profile picture of the author Mukul Verma
      Originally Posted by tbunch View Post

      I really appreciate the few that have taken this seriously! The idea I had, with this thread, was so any new person could see that it is serious work to be successful in IM. Not "Building relationships and nurturing the ones I have" or "outsource = time freedom + money".

      I still hope :rolleyes: this will become a thread that when someone asks a question which shows that they don't understand the business - they can be pointed to it. I think it is great that so many with join dates of 2009 are already successful - that is a positive at least!

      Thanks again to those who have responded!!
      The question was answers (well speaking from me), the rest is a conversation on the tread, it is how it goes sometimes

      I also think that the 3 points, 3 have to do with a really small % of the picture which is the beginning phases (I guess that may be the market for people reading this), then misses out on the 85% of the work needed to succeed once set up. Promotion, Relationships (JV or customer service) and so on (I hope you dont mind me adding my 2 cent on the OP)

      Cheers,
      Mukul
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      • Profile picture of the author Samantha McKenzie
        Banned
        [DELETED]
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        • Profile picture of the author Mukul Verma
          Originally Posted by Samantha McKenzie View Post

          • market research--10%
          • product location or development--30%
          • blog or site building--40%
          • promotion--20%
          I really need to do more promotion. That's really where my overall strategy is lacking. I'm currently looking into possibly outsourcing some promotional activities, like backlink building, blog commenting, and social bookmarking.
          Master them, find ways that work for your website then train your outsource employee to do the ways you find work best.
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