EMAL Marketing

I accept the challenge

linda009

I am not getting that how to start this challenge.

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Tom Oxby

I accept the challenge

joekyut

a great challenge

Tiptopcat

I love a good challenge!

I accept.

Good luck everyone.

Tiptopcat

gergo2007

Good luck with it! Im going to follow it

ShayB

THE CHALLENGE HAS BEGUN!

Okay, guys - it's time to start.

Hopefully you have done some research and figured out what it is you want to base your project on. If you haven't, today's the day!

What I'm going to do is I am going to post whatever my daily activity is for this challenge. I will try to post every day, but if I have to miss a day or two because of whatever, I'll make sure to post several days' worth in one post.

As I said earlier, my first seven days will be spent on getting a product together, setting up the platform, etc. I will list resources as they come up naturally in the course of setting up everything. For example, on whatever day I set up the auto responder for this I will list the auto responder resources. Fair enough?

Days eight through 30 will be devoted to getting traffic, sign ups and sales.

As far as posting what I am going to do - I want to give exact examples and show you exactly step-by-step what I am doing; however I don't want my results skewed from people clicking on my links or maybe even buying something just to "help the challenge along."

Someone suggested that I just use screenshots and not reveal the URL until the end of the challenge. I think that's what I'm going to try and do.

If you guys have any questions about what I do or variations of what's acceptable, please ask.

Quick guidelines:

1. Remember that you can't spend any of your "own" money on this challenge.

2. If you make some money in the beginning stages of this challenge and decide to reinvest in the project, that's acceptable.

3. If you already have something in your possession at the beginning of this challenge - software, PLR, etc. - then you can use it. (For example, I already own Dragon NaturallySpeaking software and I use it daily. I will be using that software for this challenge.)

4. if you have a question, please post it in the thread and I will answer it as I can.

Shall we begin?

DAY 1

I already have a pretty good idea of what I'm going to do for my project. It's going to be in the weight loss market. I know that's going to be something that I write.

Today, however, I'm going to be doing some keyword research. I want something that is a little bit unusual for my product, and something that I will be able to use and build on later. I don't want something that is so specific that I can only sell that one thing to the list, but I also don't want something that is so general that it doesn't help me bring a targeted audience at all.

I've also decided for my platform I am going to use blogger. I am actually in the process of dieting myself, so I decided to use a personal blogging approach instead of your normal content for a weight loss site.

There are a few reasons for this, but the most important one is going to be that it will be unique content that can only be found on my site. I plan on writing a few blog posts a week, chronicling what I am doing to help lose weight and also inviting people to join my mailing list.

I also feel like sharing my personal story is going to help build a rapport with my list whereas a general weight loss site would not.

Again, this does not mean you have to do the exact same thing I'm doing. I'm giving you an example and my reasoning behind it so that it can help spark some ideas.

Now, what I would like to do is to have everyone post a general idea of what their product is going to be about ( if you know it at this point).

If you don't know what you're project is going to be, then post about whatever dilemma you are having in choosing your niche for your project everybody can chime in and give some suggestions.

PLEASE NOTE:

I will answer everybody that posts a question. I just may not do it immediately, and I may end up answering several people at once. I also keep very weird hours, so don't get antsy if you don't see me posting it in the mornings. I don't do mornings. Well, that's not true. I actually stay up until about three or four in the morning, and then go to bed. By the time I get online it's usually about one or two in the afternoon.

So let the challenge begin!

sethdrebitko

Would you like people to post there day to day activity in the 30 day challenge thread as well? If you would like I can run my full plan by you to see if it jives with your view of the contest.

If you are not feeling other people posting right in here I thought it would be nice to have folks create there own threads with [0-30 Challenge] so we can more easily track each others progress. This way would help to keep things from getting cluttered probably.

Sincerely,
Seth Drebitko

ShayB

Since it would clutter the Challenges and Contests forum to have 30-40 threads on this (plus, each one needs to be approved by the staff), I would say it's best for everyone to post their progress here in this thread.

It's my understanding that that's how the section is supposed to work (having everything for each challenge in the one thread).

thebalroc

I accept the challenge yesterday, not sure whats the next step but I look forward to the future..

ShayB

I posted a few posts above this one about your first step.

You need to decide on what kind of niche you want. Is it going to be health-related? Is it going to be dealing with relationships? Is it going to be dealing about money? Whatever it is, you need to start doing some keyword research on it.

The first seven days will be about getting your product, platform, payment, and your list set up.

I'll be going over each step as I go through them for this challenge.

So, to answer your question, your next step is to decide what area you want to have your product in.

Ensemble

I already regret this! WP is more suited for a blog type site than for what I want to do, but I will be sticking with my choice and get to know WP better in the process.

According to my planning, my site was supposed to be up and running by day's end day two (today) but the WP learning curve is steeper than I thought it would be, and tomorrow I will be otherwise engaged and wount be able to do much work. So my deadline for getteing the site up has been moved to Friday. :-(

Shay, I understand why you have made this choice, but me being completely new to IM, I will have to leverage any channel available to me! So guys & galls, when I add my site(s) to my signiture, Please feel free to pop in!

I quick question on autoresponders: with my hosting, I have CPanel access, I have noticed that most people seem to prefer an autoresponder service. Does this mean the autoresponders available on CPanel is useless? Surely it makes more sence to use a autoresponder from the same URL as your site?

Something else I was wondering about, being from South Africa, I registered my domain as .co.za. Do you think this would cause people from other countries and particularly the USA to hesitate when they need to buy?

Shay, Thanks again for this challenge, thus far it has already been quite a learning experience for me!

ShayB

I'm glad you're using this as a learning experience! That's great!

There's a reason why I'm taking thirty days for this. It is something you can do in a lot shorter time, but 30 days gives plenty of time in case things "go wrong" - and they will!

As far as putting your link in your sig - feel free! I've put a lot more restrictions on myself than others taking the challenge will have. That's because as the "model" example, I want to results to be as close to what a newbie would have as I can. For anyone else, I encourage them to put links in their profile, etc. - I'd love for them to get good feedback!

Autoresponder - use whatever you have available to you (that isn't costing you anything additional). I prefer Getresponse, but that's just me.

As far as the domain - I think a .com would be better if you can get it, but I don't think it's a huge deal to have something other than that.

Edited to add: It's 4 am now. I won't be posting on this thread for another 10 or 12 hours, so if anyone posts a response, I'm not ignoring anyone. I'm trying to get some sleep.

Thomas-West

I thought I might just chuck this in here for those who are having problems getting an idea. I often go to "Resell Rights Weekly" to get my ideas. Now it's importand to only use the "Free" membership to stay within the rules Shay has laid down. I am sure you will find enough there to get an idea. By the way I am an affiliate for this site but have left it out of any post to keep it "Free". Hope that helps someone here.

I have my keyword list and product as of today and deciding where I will host it, blogger or my current hosting, I'm leaning to blogger again to keep it "Free".

sethdrebitko

@Ensemble What do you want wordpress to do? I am fairly familiar with the software so I might be able to help.

Julie M

interested to see how this goes, will be checking back to see the results!

mmartin028

I just saw this thread and I'm up for the challenge.

sethdrebitko

I decided to try and bring things inline a bit more with not focusing on services and things front end and just generally getting some grass roots money making going on. I’ll be splitting my focus on 2 separate projects:
Public Domain:
Overall goal: The hope here is to choose a niche and gather together public domain works and then quickly read through them marking up the originals for revisions and updating to be a bit more modern. The catch here is that I will be packing the Public domain books with basic resources and directing folks to an email list for continued support of future errata. Once I sell enough books I’ll be throwing up a blog/sales page as well as an affiliate store based around the books. A big reason to revise the books aside from plugging an affiliate store is to avoid the stigma of public domain completely as well as meet criteria on royalty reduction from programs like kindle for sale of public domain.
For example: if I do a book on canning I’ll include a section of the store for canning supplies to make extra off the back end and look a bit more established.
Week 1: Book prep on 1-2 books in the field of self sufficient living. I’ll be applying these books to places like digiresults clickbank, lulu, and others to try and stretch my reach out that much further. I’ll also try and strike a deal with some focused blogs or forums for possible promotion in exchange for # of sales they generate.

TZP
Overall goal: This will be a zombie themed expansion for a game I am developing. Some initial activity in the beginning will result in some extra payoff as I have struck a deal with another developer to support one of their boardgames in an affiliate fashion that will provider some initial funding. From there I have 3 shirt designs that will also get the purchasers into a pre-order only development forum for the game where I will be crowd sourcing the development to let users collaborate on the supplement they want to see; overall this will give them what they want and reduce my overall workload. When the initial work is done to get the starting cash I need I’ll be set on domain money.
Week 1: I already have a deal with another developer to let me include alpha/beta testing of one of their games as an exclusive in the pre-orders which will help give a huge value added, and I am looking to just get the artwork I want squared away for the shirts. This week is primarily about getting the money for the site, and then the site itself up.
I’ll post 1-2 times a week at most with my progress.

ShayB

It sounds like people are off to a great start! I love seeing what people are doing!

DAY TWO

okay, after doing some research I decided on offering a Hotsheet with fruit smoothie recipes for weight loss as my paid product.

There are several reasons for this.

1. It gets lots of searches. The various keyword combinations are in the 8 to 10,000 range per month.

2. It's something that I can make that is unique. It doesn't matter if they have even bought other recipes from someone else. I can still offer something different, and chances are they will buy multiple products of this nature so that they can get a variety.

3. It's a subject that I know something about.

4. It can provide ongoing income via my list because if they are interested in that kind of product, they will be interested in a variety of dieting/weight loss/healthy eating types of products.

5. It's not a difficult product to put together. It shouldn't take very long.

6. It can be a low-priced product, so it can be an impulse buy of sorts.

I will be setting up my site today - hopefully - and starting to put content on it.

A NOTE ABOUT PRODUCTS


You do not have to have something that is written as your product.

Do you have some area of expertise? You could offer a webinar or an audio about the subject. It doesn't have to be about Internet marketing - there are plenty of things that you can offer about a variety of subjects.

If you really don't have an area of expertise they think is marketable - interview someone who is an authority on the subject. You may have to ask a number of people before someone will accept, but it certainly is doable. Do your research before hand and make sure that you have something to offer the person that is doing the interview.

You could start a membership site - there are free options for starting sites.
(FreeForums.org is one I know of. You can do a Google search for more.)

If you start thinking out of the box, you will come up with a whole bunch of ideas.

Tiptopcat

Hi all,
So Day 1 & 2 of My Challenge:
I have decided on my product offering. As I write PLR, I will be using a couple of my products as the basis for this product.

It is in the parenting niche and I have written a draft sales page on a newly aquired blogger blog. This still needs a little tweaking.

I will be using article marketing as my way to connect to my target audience. It will be interesting to see if the keyword I chose is profitable as I am rubbish at keyword research.

Good luck everyone.

Tiptopcat

rehtheis

I'm In :-)

angiedc

Hi Everyone,

Shay, I'm totally not stealing your idea, but I was already actually planning to do something similar in the weight loss niche as I am beginning a new lifestyle (NOT diet) myself and planned to chronicle it in a new blog.

Luckily, I already had hosting, an auto responder, and a theme subscription.

I'm looking at promoting several products that I currently use in aiding my weight loss.

Thanks for this challenge! I am already a month behind on setting up my site, so this was just the kick in the pants that I needed!!

Thomas-West

Day 2 for me so far.
I am trying to use everything free here as I have said and in so doing I have so far:

Completed Keyword research using free tools (Google Keywords)
Chosen a free PLR product.
Researched PLR articles and rewritten using as a guide.
Selected and modified Blogger template for my site.
I have used a header image from another free PLR pack, modified and inserted into blogger.
Two articles have been posted along with 2 pages.
For those worring about an autoresponder, I am currently using the free trial for Getresponce so still using free stuff as per this challenge.

Free images are a bit of a problem so I am open to suggestions as to where I can get some.

Forgot to add, I am writing a hot sheet, as Shaw calls them, on a related subject to give away as part of my list building plan. This is about 8 pages in length.

Scott Lilly

On my first day, after doing all the regularly scheduled tasks for my existing sites, I did a little article writing for pay. That's not my whole plan for the 30 days. However, I wanted to get a bit of cash in my PayPal account, so I can use it for the rest of my project.

I've got an outline for the book I'm writing for my project. Based on how I typically write, it looks like it will end up around 20,000 words, which may be pushing it to complete in a month and generate some income from. Fortunately, much of the content will also be usable on my main site, so that will save me the time I normally need to write those posts.

ShayB

LOL There's plenty of room in the dieting niche for both of us.

I'd love to see your site - it sounds great!

ShayB

Let me take a look and see if I can give you some suggestions.

Scott Lilly

I use morgueFile free photos for creatives by creatives and stock.xchng - the leading free stock photography site for free images. Just make sure you check to see if you are required to notify the photographer when you use an image.

Thomas-West

Wow!, all gold at Morguefile, thank you for that Uruguayan, well done. I was already familiar with stock.xchange but didn't find what I wanted there.

Deveron Hilgers

Hey Thomas,

You can also look at Dreamstime, it's filled with paid pictures, but there's a free section as well, once you register. I've been using them myself for my picture needs and their free section isn't that bad.

sethdrebitko

This might seem like a stupid question, but what is a hotsheet? I've never actually heard the term. Would you mind giving a brief overview?

angiedc

I was actually wondering the same thing and was going to PM Shay about it. Shay, do you mind sharing with us briefly?

ShayB

Sorry, guys!

A hot sheet is a short report, usually around 10 pages or so. They are usually priced under $10.

My site is Shay's Hotsheets, and I have Hotsheets that are both in the MMO niche and other niches.

Hope this helps. Sorry that I didn't explain it before.

RickAllen

So far I've got my product done and began working on my website page for the sales.

The product I had already completed (alone with dozens more just setting there) so that was easy and no cost to me. It consists of an ebook, report and webinar I did all for free. The ebook was gathered from research, the report was a brain storming session with my wife and the webinar was done with a free webinar host.

The web hosting I already have, so adding a page was free (otherwise I would use a WP or Blogger site). I will use PayPal for sales.

My idea is to offer a low cost package and offer additional services as a followup.

Not sure about getting leads into the funnel, may offer a free report, seeing what others are going to be doing at this stage.

"I can get you more sales without spending a dime more on advertising!" http://ThePRexpert.com Free video course, whitepapers and more.

bensonenterprise

OK, it looks like I am a day behind (must have missed the start) I like your idea about weight loss but I think I am going to gear my weight loss on different exercises that an overweight person can do that is fun and enjoyable so that they are motivated to keep going forward with it. Will need to do some research to see what products are available for this but I think this is the direction I would like to go.

Day Two: I am stumped...going to need to give this some more thought. Maybe offer a quick video on an exercise that a person could do while sitting on the coach or watching TV? Going to have to spend more time on this thought.

I own a small writing company that takes the time to make sure you are pleased with your end product visit my site at http://www.ebookwritingservices.org for more details.

ShayB

After Day 7, we'll focus on traffic and leads.

ShayB

By the way -

The articles section of the WF - Articles - is a good place to look if you need information about different subjects. Many of the articles will list free resources, too.

For example, there are a few articles on there now about list building by Fabian Tan. (Since people have been asking about building a list.)

Just an FYI.

Edited to add: You can use the other parts of the forum for information, too. I plan on posting helpful WF links throughout the challenge.

One of the reasons for this challenge is to show you that you can use a ton of FREE resources right here on the WF to help you with your IM journey! :

sethdrebitko

Would you find it against the rules of the competition to solicit opinions on t-shirt designs for my project?

ShayB

Not at all! Please post them!

(I am not posting my links because I don't want to skew my personal results. Anyone else is free to post their links and whatever details they like. As long as it doesn't violate WF rules, of course.)

ShayB

The great thing about this challenge is that you don't NEED 30 days to see a profit. 30 days gives plenty of time to get everything done, even if you hit a few snags. (Think of them as snow days! )

Take the extra day - it'll be fine. Do some more research. You'll still have plenty of time.

sethdrebitko

Ok so my day 2 was getting my 2 rough drafts done. I only need to finish 1 more design which will be the Team Zombie PWN logo. Once that is done I just need to do some last minute touch ups and start the promotion machine. If I have extra scratch from my promotional efforts I plan to get a couple mass twitter bursts out.

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ShayB

Did you draw those? Those are awesome!

I like the hug one better.

ItalianoDinero

I accept this challenge!

sethdrebitko

Not that talented. Also should have mentioned I sold a couple hard to find out of print books I owned right quick and paid $5 for the stock art then modded it myself.

Jill Carpenter

Ok, I am a big blabber mouth and I am going to spill some secret knowledge here about Shay.

She can not type worth beans!

And, she does not even know how to put up a screenshot as of me typing this! - Because I heard her confess she is not a "technical" person.

So, if she can pull this off, then you all have NO FREAKING EXCUSE!

"May I have ten thousand marbles, please?"

iva

I am a couple of days behind, but I accept this challenge. Have to brainstorm some ideas. I guess, it was decided, that providing services does not qualify as a project for this challenge.

Evgueni

Send me a PM if you have any questions.

"Ask simple questions to get simple answers"

ShayB

If you decide to offer services for this challenge, that is fine.

My project will be focusing on a site, though.

ShayB

It's true! All true.

jezbiz

i accept the challenge

Need Articles? chek my gig @ http://fiverr.com/markwilson

sleblanc

Hi Shay,

I'm curious to know what you will be choosing as your free domain name? Thanks!

"People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing -that's why we recommend it daily." - Zig Ziglar

JSThompson

I accept the challenge.

Day 1:

I will be using blogger for my blog site.

Day 2:

I have decided to write a product on How to create an Internet Business from the ground up.
In our campgains I am assuming upsells are ok too?