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Seeking Sage Advice on IM Biz

by manahei
5 replies
Hello there - hopefully this is the best place to post this in order to attract the advice and opinions of experienced IMers. Thanks in advance for sharing your wisdom.

Quick background on me: 40, married with two little kids, left an executive position with integrative health care in December with a desire to get out of the city and out of the drama of staff, lawyers, and so much more.

For several years I have taken an active interest in web design, development, and marketing (in a former "life" I was a Java programmer). In the Spring of 2010 I started pushing myself into a learning curve on IM, webmaster functions, and so on. I picked up a few websites to learn WP, GA, etc.

Well, I got pretty frustrated by the extraordinary amount of conflicting information/advice and the plethora of ***HYPE*** that surrounds IM. On this forum, the best forum for IM that I am aware of anywhere, the abundance of nauseating buzzwords, sales copy that insults intelligence (e.g. "Powerful Easy System To Earn FAST" - spare me!), aggro marketing techniques (aweber on steroids type stuff), etc...really turn me off. I don't mean this as an insult to anyone - it's just foreign to me and I do not respond to it and no one I know does either.

So I made a few calls and landed some consulting jobs with doctors, to keep connections alive in that realm and earn some bread.

Now, several months later, doors are opening up in the consulting but they require too much travel, and too much drama.

I am prying the door open once again to see if web business or IM might be up my alley. I just want to own and work sites that make money, without needing a physical plant or staff.

Having unique ebooks has always been attractive to me...

It could be that I need to buy a website or two or three that has proven revenue and has a future...

Maybe I just don't have what it takes...but what does it take?

As a part-time consultant I can earn about $60-$80K annual, which might sound nice, but the travel away from my family I just cannot stand any longer.

I could give a new enterprise a solid year of my time and energy. I would invest $15-25K into such a business (trying to be conservative given my ignorance).

So, thank you so much for taking the time to read this. And do not hesitate to lay into me, abuse me, or enlighten me.

If I can't earn $60K annual in the 2nd year doing web-based ______ business it makes no sense to me.

Let it rip!

You rock,
Bryan
#advice #biz #sage #seeking
  • Profile picture of the author InHwan Park
    ah, please do not judge all WSO's and IM products based on the sales pages you see here, nor do they make this forum any less valuable. Granted it does make finding value more difficult. with the amount of experience you have in business and the amount of start up capital you are willing to invest, i see why you couldn't reach your goal of $60K per year.

    i got in to IM accidentally, while in college and found that i enjoyed the freedom of being able to work when and where i wished, opening up my time for family and personal growth.

    there are many WSO's well worth the money and many of the methods you find here will work, you just need to find one that you want to work at.
    if i may i think product creation may be just up your ally. or a couching site. i do not mean in the IM niche. but seeing as how you have had success in other businesses and are actively consulting others, you may be able to create a course, or membership site that helps people do what you currently consult them to do.

    i suppose you can invest 15k in a website that is already producing income, but i think that is unnecessary. why not invest that in your IM education. actually not even that much. you can have a one on one coaching with a reputable marketer and create you product together. there are many experts here the forum, maybe you should read through all the bad sales letters and find a few true experts and try contacting them for consulting. a good consultant will try to get to know you on a personal level and find a business model that best fits your experience/passion/strengths. Just an idea if you were really stuck on the route you need to take.

    hope this forum or online marketing, in general, doesn't discourage you from all that you can gain from IM

    im on skype most nights if you need anything or you can PM. please note that i do not sell or am an affiliate to any sort of coaching. i found a lot of great people on this forum that gave me lots of help when i needed, freely, and i am only trying to return that back to the forum.
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    • Profile picture of the author manahei
      InHwan Park, thanks for your thoughtful response. I suspect there will be many more and will unplug for a bit then come back to the party.
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  • Profile picture of the author tryinhere
    Originally Posted by manahei View Post

    Maybe I just don't have what it takes...but what does it take?
    If you never never go, you wil never never know.
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    | > Choosing to go off the grid for a while to focus on family, work and life in general. Have a great 2020 < |
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    • Profile picture of the author manahei
      Originally Posted by tryinhere View Post

      If you never never go, you wil never never know.
      I sense there is more risk than opportunity. But I do not know...
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      • Profile picture of the author Ldimilo
        Originally Posted by manahei View Post

        I sense there is more risk than opportunity. But I do not know...
        There is risk in everything. But I would be willing to bet that there is no more risk in building an offline business compared to an online business.

        The problem is that most people entering the IM world view it differently than the real world. In reality, the two are governed by the same principles....

        If you want to sell stuff, you need to find a way to get your message to the people who would potentially want to buy your stuff and offer it in a way that shows them why they would want to buy it and (if you are selling your own product) why they would want to buy it from you.

        All the WSO's pretty much focus on the how to's to doing this. Some are good. Some are stupidly bad. But the principles are the same.

        Create an offer....

        Find your target market...

        Make your offer...

        Sell crap...

        That's pretty much it.
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