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Newbie Looking For Advice From The Elite

by Scott McCullough
38 replies
Lets see, where to start? I have been trying to start a business for over a year. I get started with a project and then I get distracted by the next shiny object and then move on to the next looking for I guess the instant gratification. Well I have told myself is enough is enough and I am buckling down and I am going to make sh!t happen. I am currently unhappy working at my current place of employment and want to accomplish my goal of making my own income. I don't need much per month to maintain my current lifestyle. So Warrior Forum I come to you looking for a little bit of advice.


Things I enjoy doing are woodworking, welding(current job) , DIY projects, etc

I have the domain diyscott.com currently there is literally nothing there but one article I created last weekend.

I am looking for ideas/paths to make my skill sets into some sort of a profitable online income source. I know I can make wood projects and sell them but I am looking for something that's producing income while I am not physically working if that makes sense.

I hope someone can point in me a direction to crush so don't spend any more evenings staring at screen trying to think of which direction to head.
#advice #elite #newbie
  • Profile picture of the author JohnTimmins
    You can start blogging about woodworking , post videos in youtube and social media and direct them to your blog. Monetize with affiliate banners while you create your online course if you really want to follow your pasion. A great mentor in this process is Eben Pagan.
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  • Profile picture of the author shaunybb
    Hey there!


    You seem to have the passion which is good!


    But you really need to master mindset and action taking!


    So many people waste time trying to figure it out or say oh ill start tomorrow!


    START NOW!


    BE CONSISTENT!


    THEN YOU WILL BE SUCCESSFUL!


    Its simple keep it simple!
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  • Profile picture of the author Mattiyu
    Hi Scott, shiny objects are a distraction . One thing i would suggest is take some time and visit some sites that are in your niche interest, write down everything that appeals to you.
    Everything. Logout out of your email because new opts will come every second. Focus on one project at a time. Think long term.
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  • Profile picture of the author Gambino
    Woodworking and DIY are huge opportunities. There are several Clickbank products on woodworking... I bought the biggest one and wasn't impressed with it. It was basically a rip off of plans that are ripped off/scraped from across the internet. This one had something like 10,000+ plans but I always thought there was better room for improvement there... Quality over quantity wise.

    I also thought that something like a Spotify for woodworking plans could potentially work. Charge a monthly fee for the plans and pay a royalty to the experts that upload the plans.

    Or you could go ultra niche and just create something like how to build a dog house. Which is probably the easiest way to get started. If you go that route, I would like for something that people are 1. passionate about and/or spend money on (i.e. pets), 2. point of difference (i.e. better or cheaper than store bought).
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  • Profile picture of the author 55sadhikar
    Write a free report on woodworking, post a banner on websites related to your niche, when you write a new content shoot an e-mail to the people who you obtained from the free report, these people already view you as an authority since you are knowledgeable about the product, every now and then pitch them affiliate offers related to your niche. Congratulations, you just made your first affiliate sale without much effort or hard pitch...
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  • Profile picture of the author Apratim Barua
    It's great that you have started your project. The next step is to focus totally on it and not get distracted. Try to find ways to bring traffic to your website. It's good to see that you are capturing leads. That is something which should be done right away. You're on the right track, just keep going ...
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  • Profile picture of the author sirtiman
    Create Clickbank products with your woodworking niche, find affiliates to promote your products.
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  • Profile picture of the author agmccall
    There are lots of DIY forums out there. Why not join a few and see what people are asking and talking about

    al
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    "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." Thomas Edison

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  • Profile picture of the author Scott McCullough
    Wow! Thank you everyone for the great tips this is definitely what I needed! I guess one other question I have is. How wide should go in the DIY space. Should I solely be focused on woodworking space or a mix of woodworking and different home related topics? Example I was going to make a article for tools all home owners should own for general repairs.

    Building a clickbank product with out a audience will that work?
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    • Profile picture of the author Gambino
      Originally Posted by Scott McCullough View Post

      Wow! Thank you everyone for the great tips this is definitely what I needed! I guess one other question I have is. How wide should go in the DIY space. Should I solely be focused on woodworking space or a mix of woodworking and different home related topics? Example I was going to make a article for tools all home owners should own for general repairs.

      Building a clickbank product with out a audience will that work?
      For your first question... I would niche down as much as possible if this is your first time working online. But, it really depends on your strategy. How you plan to make money and how you plan to drive traffic are the main things you need to figure out. I would recommend looking into funnels.

      It's all about problems and solutions. Idnetify problems... Find the people with that problem... Direct those people to your funnel.

      1. Opt in, free report or something of value
      2. Follow up emails, connect with audience, identify with their problem
      3. Provide a solution
      4. Upsell (one time offer) immediately after purchase
      5. Follow up emails continuing to build authority and upselling, down selling and cross-selling

      That's the short answer.

      As for your second question.. If you put a product on clickbank and attract GOOD affiliates, they'll build your audience for you as they'll drive traffic to you site for a commission.
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    • Profile picture of the author Oziboomer
      Originally Posted by Scott McCullough View Post

      How wide should go in the DIY space. Should I solely be focused on woodworking space

      Building a clickbank product with out a audience will that work?
      As Gambino put it the basic funnel is outlined in their post.

      As for creating a product for the Clickbank marketplace I would tend to advise to stay away from that goal until you can create a product for yourself and sell it.

      Build a reputation and sell your product.

      I'll share a personal example and you can check out one of my youtube channels to see the stages of development warts and all.

      I'd always taught students a six week evening course for maybe 15 years or so.

      At the same time I wrote learning resources for a National training program for the Australian Government.

      When I stopped physically teaching the courses I still had a demand for what I offered.

      One Christmas when my business was closed I spent about three days making a basic training course and filming it.

      I had three people help me. My cameraman who also did the video editing and my graphic artist/web developer who created covers, landing pages, ebooks, etc.

      Initially that product was made as a four DVD set which gets produced on demand by a DVD publisher - There are a few to choose from like Trepstar, Disc delivered or Kunaki

      We started selling that product as a physical course and also extracted several Kindle books from it.

      Then we built several funnels around it.

      Then re-purposed and added additional content to sell on Clickbank.

      Now there are multiple courses maybe around 40 or so that all stemmed out of that one basic class.

      The thing about Clickbank that you need to be aware of is you need to be able to sell your product first and continue to sell your product before you go to the marketplace.

      Before you list on CB you want to have everything working. You want to have the backend built out. You want to have the landing pages converting to different traffic.

      Focus your efforts on making one niche product first that meets one individual's desire.

      You say you weld and you do woodwork and you enjoy DIY.

      Focus on one simple project - for example - "How to weld your own box trailer in a weekend"

      Then you would expand on the topic.

      I already had some leads and followers but when I started online I did a lot of free video tuition on Youtube. This is one of the channels for you to study --->

      https://www.youtube.com/user/Endurart

      I started several channels and this one and another that has ten times the subscribers were the two best that took off.

      Now whenever I'm launching some project I do the whole monty
      - website, youtube,Facebook, Pinterest, twitter and so on etc

      Start with youtube linking to your website - add others from there.

      If you want to check out any of my funnels please do as following some of the links and taking notes along the way is far cheaper than many of the guru courses that teach you the stuff. I know because I've paid my way to learn over the years.

      Start with ONE thing.

      Sell it and then work from there.

      Best regards,

      Ozi
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      • Profile picture of the author Scott McCullough
        thank you very much! I already have a lot projects that I need done around the house so taking time film and write about it will be like killing 6 birds with one stones. Any camera recommendations? Any funnel creation software or articles to read on the subject?
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        • Profile picture of the author DCross
          Originally Posted by Scott McCullough View Post

          thank you very much! I already have a lot projects that I need done around the house so taking time film and write about it will be like killing 6 birds with one stones. Any camera recommendations? Any funnel creation software or articles to read on the subject?
          You can find the answer to the camera question in about 5 minutes of research on the Internet. Decide what your budget is, then search video cameras fitting your budget. These days there are lots of choices for good quality video cameras at any price point. And, with a little additional research you can find great audio options as well. Even Radio Shack sells lapel microphone that hook up to almost any video camera, and they're cheap, like $5 or $10.
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  • Profile picture of the author ANDREIS
    There are 2 ways to go about it:

    1. Create Clickbank products with your woodworking niche, find affiliates to promote your products. PROS: Affiliates will get traffic for you. CONS: There is already competition in that niche and it will not be easy to create something really original. If you can find something within your niche that there is no significant ebooks or products about out there, then you can jump in and do well. You will also give a big portion of your earnings to affiliates (75% with clickbank...less than that and affiliates will most likely avoid you).

    2. The other way to go about it is to create a website and attract visitors and followers using social networks. Then you can promote your products or affiliate products. There are really nice and useful products related to woodworking which you can promote. This will work only if you do the social thing in the correct way.

    You need a concrete plan and you need to learn internet marketing in the real sense of word, or you can use other people who already know stuff to do that for you. There is room for making money within your niche, no question about that though.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rory Singh
    If you enjoy word working and welding then it sounds like you enjoy working with your hands. Why not find another job in the field that you are already in?
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    • Profile picture of the author Scott McCullough
      You are right I do enjoy making things and working my hands and I have considered another job but I am tired of working for others. What I mean by that is they are in control of my income. We have went through a series of layoffs this year and with in a instant your source of income is gone. I want to to be in control of my future and not have employer control my future. Hope that makes some sense.
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      • Profile picture of the author Mattiyu
        Don't know if you have a site setup or a squeeze pg in place, but start there and reachout to your visitors and see what there interest are and feed it to them.
        Just a thought.
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  • Profile picture of the author Antony Micheal
    i think you frist go around some website or blog about woodworking DIY, observe how they do and learn at.
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  • Profile picture of the author discrat
    As a few have said I think starting off learning how to do youtube videos of your Craft. And then getting it ranked and promoting it. With a Course that others have an opportunity to purchase


    - Robert Andrew
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  • Profile picture of the author Crazy Bad
    I see the problem here is focus, it looks like you have a great opportunity that could work for you and that is your skills that not everyone has. You have to present it to the world and let people know how they could produce the type of work that you do and there's your pot of gold right there.
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  • Profile picture of the author austing hausbb
    Awesome hobby, I am not into those kind of things but I know they require a huge amount of talent. I would suggest though that if you would like to focus on earning from your craft, partner up with someone who could help you focus and actually complete projects and stuff. You mentioned you have a website, that's a great start now all you have to do is start populating it with what you know and enjoy.
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  • Profile picture of the author LegacyUniverse3000
    Banned
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    • Profile picture of the author Scott McCullough
      I haven't thought of udmey!! That would be great idea to create course through there. Thank you for the idea!
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      • Profile picture of the author Mattiyu
        Also checkout skillshare.
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  • Profile picture of the author bestAd
    You can set up a blog, build an email list and promote products to your list and in the future create your own products and promote them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mattj84
    Congrats on wanting to get into the online marketing field! You're going to do great! And I totally agree...it's very easy to get distracted by all of the shiny objects out there. What you can do is to write down your goals every morning when you wake up and every night before you go to bed. This will help to keep you focused on what you are trying to accomplish as opposed to getting distracted by the next shiny new thing!

    As for the diy niche, you should definitely go to the Google Keyword Planner tool and figure out how many people are searching for diy each month and the keywords that you'll want to be targeting. Now that you have your keywords, go to Fiverr or something like that and get some articles made for you about your niche on the cheap....plus will save you time as you won't have to write them. This will help your website to rank naturally (takes a little longer however).

    Another thing you can do is to write a 'review' of whatever you're trying to sell. This way when people search for that particular product, your review comes up and they can click on a link in the review to go to the sales page.

    Those are like a 10,000 foot view, but are proven to work. Hope that helps and good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author Mattiyu
    Well woodworking is the broader direction but you have a opportunity to drill down a bit into micro niche aspects and cross niches.
    Furniture
    Shed plans
    Authority sites
    Etc.
    Do some keyword researching with your broad terms and be amazed at the choices you will have!
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  • Profile picture of the author RefuseToLose
    Interestingly enough I came across something the other day that fits your description perfectly...

    There's a guy on clickbank that packaged a product together showing other people how to make money selling their woodworking skills...

    If you want to try something different while still doing what you like, I suggest creating your own product around a similar idea and see if you can improve on what he did.

    It's a great way to teach other people and make some money on the side...

    I won't link the product here, but you can easily find it on the clickbank market place. Go check it out, it should give you a lot of ideas.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kurt
    Go to Youtube and look for videos about woodworking and welding and make notes with the following criteria:

    Which topics/keywords have multiple videos with a lot of views?
    Can you make a similar video quickly and easily?
    Can you make a similar video for free or cheaply?

    You don't need to reinvent the wheel. With some research Youtube will show you what's already successful.

    Maybe:

    Check Craigslist for free stuff that you can use your skills to make useful or interesting. Can you turn pallets or scrape metal into something useful or artistic? How about solar air and water heaters or dehydrators from recycled stuff?

    Not only can you make videos from this, you may be able to sell the things you make on sites like Etsy..
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  • Profile picture of the author aizaku
    couldnt find the article on your site,,


    but yea, start today!


    there is no perfect plan


    dont think! Acccccct...

    -Ike Paz
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  • Profile picture of the author norahwhitlow
    I blog too, and been trying different topics that I'd like to write about and observe what people do like. But, at the same time, i always remind me one important thing, blog about what I am really GOOD at.
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  • Profile picture of the author zdebx
    That's a great domain by the way and you should hold on to it.

    As for making money online, while not having to do any physical work, then you will need to turn that domain into a proper woodworking/welding/DIY web resource, build up your audience and then make money from advertising/affiliate programs.

    Writing, teaching people about your skills/experience is probably the easiest thing you could do, which isn't too technical and over time you could turn diyscott.com into a great DIY hub, but you'll have to put it the hours and work on it on regular basis, so you'll have to learn how to "kill 6 birds with one stone", if you have a busy schedule, because otherwise you won't get anywhere.

    Unfortunately, there are no magic push-button methods of making money online.
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  • Profile picture of the author wodonga park
    I believe Mattiyu is correct when he said focus on one project at a time. The key here is that you make the tasks as enjoyable as they could be for you to be able to continue and push through, set deadlines, small tasks milestones whatever works and soon you will be able to establish a clear output of the current hodgepodge of ideas you might have.

    We all fall into the trap of shiny things, you don't starve yourself from those kind of things, but you don't drown in it as well.
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  • Profile picture of the author keyword rank checker
    There's huge potential in the DIY industry, you could make actual products start with something small that could be easily delivered like those you find in etsy. Work with designers who would be able to feature your products and market them for a commission.

    You could even go the Youtube route and have your projects filmed like in a how-to manner and earn from advertisements. You have an amazing skill and there are surely a lot of ways you could profit from it.
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  • Profile picture of the author ChrisBa
    Originally Posted by Scott McCullough View Post

    Lets see, where to start? I have been trying to start a business for over a year. I get started with a project and then I get distracted by the next shiny object and then move on to the next looking for I guess the instant gratification. Well I have told myself is enough is enough and I am buckling down and I am going to make sh!t happen. I am currently unhappy working at my current place of employment and want to accomplish my goal of making my own income. I don't need much per month to maintain my current lifestyle. So Warrior Forum I come to you looking for a little bit of advice.


    Things I enjoy doing are woodworking, welding(current job) , DIY projects, etc

    I have the domain diyscott.com currently there is literally nothing there but one article I created last weekend.

    I am looking for ideas/paths to make my skill sets into some sort of a profitable online income source. I know I can make wood projects and sell them but I am looking for something that's producing income while I am not physically working if that makes sense.

    I hope someone can point in me a direction to crush so don't spend any more evenings staring at screen trying to think of which direction to head.
    From reading this, to me it sounds like you have ideas, but you keep jumping from idea to idea.

    I think you should pick 1 idea to start, come up with a plan on what to do with that idea and see it through to the end. Force yourself to continue and not stop/quit to jump on to the next one until you see it through.
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  • Profile picture of the author DCross
    Hi Scott,
    The main reason people get distracted is because they're not happy with or really not interested in what they're currently doing, meaning, what you're currently working on isn't holding your attention and/or it isn't really that interesting to you.

    Given what you said about wanting to create an affiliate program based on your interests of DIY projects, there is a very useful project you can start that will earn you an income. And FYI, these are the types of things I look for when I start a DIY project.

    People love DIY projects, and they not only want to know how to build something themselves, but they need to know about the tools used in each project. You can either focus on a DYI project or focus on a tool and then show people what they can do with that tool by doing a couple quick small projects.

    In my opinion you can create videos illustrating how to use a particular tool, i.e. a finishing nailer, a worm drive or an acr welder, for example, then provide information about the best brand names out there, then provide your affiliate link to Amazon or another outlet that sells that brand name and has an affiliate program that you can join. Amazon does sell tools, lots of them, which you can promote on your new authority site.
    Here's an example link to a product that you can use in your demos and sell through their affiliate program:
    https://www.amazon.com/Freeman-P4FRF...g+nailer+combo

    So, you can have the best of all worlds. You can create videos of your DIY projects, which you like doing, focusing on either the project or the tool, then sell the tools you used for the project or the particular tool you choose to highlight. Under each video, you can write out the steps people need to take, the materials they will need, the skill level required for each project and the time it will typically take to complete each project.

    Based on what you said, this kind of project sounds like something that might hold your attention and would provide you an income at the same time. You can create lots of freebies for people to download that will help bring in new viewers and customers. You can create a downloadable PDF or video of the steps needed to build a shelf or a coffee table, as an example. Then once they view your other projects, they will be lifelong viewers and customers.

    And as I mentioned earlier, I also do DIY projects around the house, and when I come across something I don't know how to do, I always turn to the internet to find someone who provides instructions about the project and the tools needed as well. If you give good information people will buy there tools from you, if they're inclined to buy tools from the internet, which I have done. Sometimes it's cheaper than going to Home Depot and buying something off the shelf.
    I hope this helped.
    Good luck
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  • Profile picture of the author Edmontontech
    Hey there, it might be appealing to handle the project on your own but if you are not very experienced in filming or in graphic arts, I would suggest you get in touch with someone who could help you on that so you could actually have great results that are easy to market. Learn the ropes of those along the way, or have a relative, friend do it for you so you could focus on the project at hand.

    Remember, if you are producing videos, they should have great quality for viewers to appreciate them and refer to them often. Start with planning the whole setup and work your way. Good luck!
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