How I Really Made $5,746 In One Month

Hi Warriors,

This is a true story of how I made $5,746 in one month.
Well actually, slightly over $5,500 if you deduct the paypal fees.

Here, I'll talk about the exact steps I took and the various people involved
that helped me along the way.

It's a long story so get a cup of coffee or light up a cigarette and make yourself comfortable.

The Story

In October last month, I had a business plan to create many related,
low cost information products on the self help niche. Offering 100%
commission to customers, and selling them from one main website.

I got this idea from one of Kevin Riley's amazing posts where he won a
copy of Traffic Secrets 2.

I'm lucky to know Bev Clement who also lives in Hong Kong. I remembered she had a WSO where she helps setup your business plan.

Well I looked at the offer again and contacted her to review my business plan. We met up at a bar had some drinks and she told me to do a SWOT analysis for her.

I sent her my SWOT and got a reply a few days later. Honestly, I was a bit depressed with her comments because she basically said that with my business plan will work, but it will need time to get momentum and earn serious cash. At that time, I needed cash.

She told me to concentrate on my strengths and to do some ghostwriting
related to business-in-a-box type of thing that will get me cash
fast.

That night I did some serious thinking and decided to create a
completely new business plan.

I decided to be a ghostwriter offering a complete solution. Ghostwriting
an ebook, autoresponder messages, a video opt-in form, mini-site
graphics, a short-copy sales letter and installation of the whole
package on the customer's website.

After a few days, I showed Bev my sales letter and told her of my new
business plan.

She looked at the plan carefully, gave a few comments and gave me the nod, saying it would do well. I released it on October 17th as a WSO for $297.

The offer was limited to 10 Warriors and I sold out in about 5 hours.
I was over the moon. At the end, I received a total of 13 orders.

I raised the price to $377, limited to 5 Warriors and it sold out
again, on page 2 of the WSO section.

A month later, after the orders were finished, I had over $5,000 in my paypal account. All from my ghostwriting service.

The feedback I got from my customers were very good. I got my
testimonials and got my ghostwriting business off to a good start.

What Happened In The Background?

It all seemed pretty easy right? Hell No! A lot of hard work and
planning went into it. Here's what happened.

On June of this year I went to Bali on a trip with some cool folks
from the WarriorForum. I stayed in contact with them after that trip,
as friends.

I didn't go to Bali to approach them with my offers or JV requests etc... I just had a very enjoyable time with everyone. We had a good laugh during that week.

Well in October after my discussion with Bev, I passed my ghostwriting idea around to a few of them and I got some amazing responses.

Shafir Ahmad went over the idea and gave suggestions on the sales letter. The guy was so thorough, I felt bad that he was doing it for free.

He gave me my USP for the sales letter and also ideas what other services to add.

I was very surprised with the knowledge this guy has. He's mad not to
be doing IM full time.

Next I Skyped Aurelius Tjin who helped me look at my offer and the sales letter. He gave me some comments and also gave me confidence by confirming that he thinks the offer would do well.

Frank Bauer, jumped in too and offered an avalanche of suggestions.
Plenty of comments in improving the sales letter. Frank was very generous with his advice.

The guy liked my idea so much, he even reserved a place for himself in advance

Then there was Kevin Riley. He was busy as hell but still took time out to
Skype me and offered advice.

Boy oh boy, that hamster came out with some wicked comments. He
re-worded the headlines and sub-headlines and made them more
powerful.

It was like having Michel Fortin going over my sales letter. Kevin
took about 8 mins on Skype, re-wording a lot of my headlines and
offering suggestions. After that he said bye because he had a lot on his plate. I was impressed!

Next was Dian Ferdinand. Another cool bloke I met in Bali. Dian
gave me his thoughts and told me what he thought overall. I asked him about the cost of my offer and he said it was a bargain price so I should get buyers.

And finally there was Willie Crawford who had been mentoring me on and
off for several years. He's the dude that taught me how to write
articles and ebooks and how to market.

Willie liked my offer very much and added his comments to the sales
letter. He commented that I should mention I was born and educated in
the UK, since people would think English is not my first language
because of my Chinese name - I never thought of that.

Bev gave me that same comment a few days later when we met up. Great minds think alike.

After Willie gave me his thumbs up, I was ready to launch my WSO.

Before I posted the WSO, I emailed all of them including my own email list, asking them to post positive comments so that people won't think I'm a
scam.

If I had posted regularly in the WarriorForum, this would not be a problem that I'll be worrying over.

I really must force myself to contribute more to this forum.

Before I posted the WSO, I did a lot of preparation beforehand. I installed and practised using Camtasia, got the ebook format ready, partnered with a good designer (Semmy - a great guy) that designed good minisite graphics, prepared several sales letter formats, created the workflow when someone ordered, designed a questionnaire form for customers to fill in etc...

I posted the WSO at around 8:30pm (Hong Kong time) and answered PMs
and replied to the posts like mad.

Quite a few of the sales were made after discussion on the PMs.

What I Learned From This Experience

1. I found that some of my customers were more concerned with the minisite graphics rather than the ghostwritten ebook. Presentation is very important for your clients. Remember that.

2. After ghostwriting for the past month, I knew what the maximum
number of clients I could take on each month. Therefore I know how much I should charge to make this worth my time.

3. None of the customers were concerned if I was late for a day or two. They preferred me to spend more time and not to rush things. Quality was more important to them.

4. The customers really enjoyed my quick responses to their emails. It was
something that made them very happy. Even when they haven't seen the
end product yet. Just a short reply to say "I got your email" was considered excellent service.

5. Meeting internet marketers in person is very important. I never
believed this even when other successful internet marketers told me
about it ages ago.

The fact is, my trip to Bali really helped me here. I would never have
got the help from these Warriors had I not met them in person.

6. Getting advice and accepting them is very important. Don't believe
that your stuff can't be improved. People who are not attached to
your business will see things much clearer than you.

Final Points

1. The money did not come easy. I worked my ass off completing the
orders. However that phase was unavoidable. I needed to know how much
content I could feasibly create and then know how much I should
charge.

I have raised my prices and offered less services with the package and
I still got orders. A very good sign.

2. I did not just decide to become a ghostwriter overnight. I've been writing articles and ebooks during the past few years. So I was not new to this - I just never considered being a ghostwriter to make money.

What I did was work on my strength. If you struggle to write then
don't try to become a ghostwriter. Work on what you're naturally good
at.

Same reason that I would never design a minisite myself even though I
have PhotoShop and the ecover action scripts.

Success will come if you work hard, make friends, take advice and take action.

Imagine what if...I told Bev that she was talking out her ass about me
being a ghostwriter?

Thanks to everyone who helped me launch this career. If I was stupid
and left your name out, please let me know.