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New Member - My story

by CEH
11 replies
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Good Evening Ladies and Gents,

I'm a new member as of a few minutes ago. Have been a visitor for awhile. Hoping to learn a lot and dive into the WF.

I'm a graduate of the University of Kentucky Landscape Architecture Program back in 1998. After graduating I spent the next 14 years in the general Landscape and Swimming Pool construction field. I have been everything from a landscape salesman/designer to the owner of my own swimming pool construction business. Its been a tough road, I'm not going to lie. My body is broke down from all the years of hard construction.

With the housing market crash the past few years, my business took a nose dive. It has been hard to make a living anymore. I have witnessed many landscape and pool companies around me going under. One of the biggest pool builders in my town just filed bankruptcy. I have decided to take a step back from the industry and concentrate on my online business pursuit.

A few years ago I really started to look around for a better business structure. I started reading tons of business books. One day I came across Yanik Silver's book, Moonlighting on the Internet. Then Tim Ferris, Four Hour Work Week, they gave me inspiration to start an online presence. I decided my best bet was to stick with something basic and a field I knew.

Over the years I had lots of people contact me wanting to build their own pools but wanted me to help them. I did some consulting with homeowners. But most of the time I just turned the work away because I was too busy. So that sparked my idea to write an Ebook about building a pool. So I wrote, How to build and inground vinyl liner swimming pool.

I now sell the Ebook on my website and on amazon.com.

Over the last couple years I have made a few dollars selling the Ebook, but nothing that will allow me to retire on my own island or anything cool like that. I mostly just put it out there to test the market.

I now am thinking about posting the contents of the book for free on my website in exchange for customers emails. Making the website free content and maybe a free (or very low cost) forum. Either selling products or doing affiliate offers to the customers. Not sure yet. But I think there is a better way to utilize the information. The small return I am getting now is not worth the investment. Yet, I do know that I have directed very little traffic to the site. I just feel that it is such a small portion of a niche that it will be hard to generate much of an income with the site.

Anyways, I thank you for reading my first post. I hope to learn and help teach whatever little I can contribute. I am willing to hear any help from anyone.

I am also working on a new website (where most all of my free time is going) that has a bigger customer base. But I don't want to get into much about it yet. Once I get it up and running I will post it for your guys to rip apart! Sound Good? Awesome.
#ebook #member #story
  • Profile picture of the author rocky
    After reading through your post I just want to say.......
    i appreciate your candor. I wish you the best.
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  • Profile picture of the author WillR
    Honestly, I think you would be best to re-evaluate your market/niche.

    I can't imagine there is a very big market for that information. I think you would be better to take a small chunk of a much larger niche.
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    • Profile picture of the author CEH
      Thanks Will,
      And I agree. My new website adventure is a whole new niche. I will be posting about it soon. Just don't want to talk about it until it is live.

      Edited by moderator: Welcome to the forum. Linking to your site is only allowed in your signature and in paid forums. Might be a good idea to check out the rules.
      I am just thinking of new ways to reinvent it. Maybe take the Ebook and break it down into posts on a forum. Charge a fee to join the forum. Give it away for email capture. Not sure yet.
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      • Profile picture of the author WillR
        Originally Posted by CEH View Post

        Thanks Will,
        And I agree. My new website adventure is a whole new niche. I will be posting about it soon. Just don't want to talk about it until it is live.

        I still have the How to build a vinyl liner inground swimming pool EBook website. I am just thinking of new ways to reinvent it. Maybe take the Ebook and break it down into posts on a forum. Charge a fee to join the forum. Give it away for email capture. Not sure yet.
        When picking a niche you want to try and find those things that are causing people pain. Something that people fall asleep at night worrying about. I can't see too many people falling asleep worrying about building their own swimming pool. It's just not going to be the easiest type of information to sell. I think for all the time and effort you would put into it you are much better to maybe realize it's not a great seller, put it to the side, and move forward in another market.

        Just my opinion. I learnt the hard way. I spent years trying to flog information on a particular topic because I always thought it was something people wanted. Turns out some people did want it but very few wanted to pay any money for it. The best thing I did was to finally realize the mistake I made and move on with other products that were much easier to sell. You definitely have to realize when things need to be layed to rest. If you haven't made any big dent in the last few years with that information, it's unlikely to change all that much.
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    • Profile picture of the author Fraggler
      Originally Posted by WillR View Post

      Honestly, I think you would be best to re-evaluate your market/niche.

      I can't imagine there is a very big market for that information. I think you would be better to take a small chunk of a much larger niche.
      The market may not have a lot of people in it but it's a very high end market: these people are still spending $20k to build the pool. They probably need advice on where to source equipment, tools, materials as well...

      Just my opinion. I learnt the hard way. I spent years trying to flog information on a particular topic because I always thought it was something people wanted. Turns out some people did want it but very few wanted to pay any money for it. The best thing I did was to finally realize the mistake I made and move on with other products that were much easier to sell. You definitely have to realize when things need to be layed to rest. If you haven't made any big dent in the last few years with that information, it's unlikely to change all that much.
      But he is experienced and possibly quite passionate about a subject that people do want to spend money for - a lot of money. I wouldn't discount the idea because it isn't mass market. If you can get enough people seeing your guide then it could be turned into something great if you think about it and especially scrub up what your presentation.
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      • Profile picture of the author WillR
        Originally Posted by Fraggler View Post

        The market may not have a lot of people in it but it's a very high end market: these people are still spending $20k to build the pool. They probably need advice on where to source equipment, tools, materials as well...
        If they are people looking to build their own pool, I'm not so sure they are big money spenders. I think there are much easier markets out there.

        And they would only need that equipment if they actually took your information and built a pool with it-- can you imagine how many would actually follow through with it?

        Originally Posted by Fraggler View Post

        But he is experienced and possibly quite passionate about a subject that people do want to spend money for - a lot of money.
        The people he is targeting are those who do NOT want to spend a lot of money. They would rather go through the hassles of a building a pool themselves rather than paying for one.

        Besides, I am yet to see any proof that his information is something people are willing to pay for. He said he has only made a few sales over two years or so. That tells me otherwise.
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  • Profile picture of the author rlcf
    Great post and welcome. When I first started in IM, I always kept this in the back of my head.
    Winners never quit and quitters never win. Never give up and stick with it. Success will come to you. Wish you the best.

    Daniel
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  • Profile picture of the author Fraggler
    Will, did you read his sales page? His example is a bloke who saved $30k on the pool - but still spent $26k. They are trying to save money on expensive materials, equipment, and labour. You can connect the customers up with the best gear to do the job on a budget.

    It's also going to be an intimidating process for someone to build a pool by themselves. By running a site he can offer advice to multiple people building the pool without the physical exhaustion and limitations of being in two places at once. He can be the DIY project manager's manager from his computer.

    I'm not saying it's viable but it's worth looking into further, especially if he is new to internet marketing.

    Besides, I am yet to see any proof that his information is something people are willing to pay for. He said he has only made a few sales over two years or so. That tells me otherwise.
    Failure to get targeted traffic doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
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  • Profile picture of the author J Bold
    I've seen a few make decent money in some weird niches, for sure. People who make their own pools are still going to spend a lot of money, I agree.

    I think, CEH, that you could try and seek out some other product/list owners who are in the same target market of pool building. Perhaps someone with a swimming pool website who has build a list from that website.

    There aren't going to be many but if you can introduce yourselves to some of them you may be able to get something going.

    Let me know if I could help you in any way with this. Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author derekwong28
    Welcome to WF.

    I have had some success with "In the Swim Pool Supplies" affiliate program at Shareasale.

    http://www.intheswim.com/

    However, to make better money, you should consider opening a drop-shipping or e-commerce business.
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  • Profile picture of the author CEH
    Thanks guys.

    I have had some sales of the Ebook. I average a sale every 14 days or so.

    Then main thing is that I never have made a huge effort to drive much traffic. I put up a youtube video ( How To Build A Vinyl Liner Inground Swimming Pool - YouTube ) that has about 2600 hits over the last year. It is a clickbank product but there has been only a small amount of affiliates. Most of my sales come in the summer time (USA) and from amazon.com. I don't do any PPC traffic.

    My analytics says that I average about 130 visits a month. And my current SEO is none existent. I am just now starting to learn about the importance of SEO and how to implement it into my wordpress site.

    I still think there is hope here. I just don't know if it exists in....

    1. Put up a forum, break the Ebook down into posts and put it up on the site. Open other forum topics to help with pool construction related questions. Ad advertising and affiliate offers. I would have all the emails of the forum members to use. Maybe have a ecommerce site that drop ships. Just don't know if I want to get into the drop shipping business. Those who do drop shipping, is it a lot of work?

    2. Give the Ebook away in exchange for emails. Start a blog on the site talking about normal pool construction. Ad advertising and affiliate offers.

    And try harder to drive traffic to new site, use better SEO on new site.

    What do you guys think?
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