A Most Peculiar Authority Service Site (not what you expect)...

Thanks for your inspiring story.

I've actually made a living from obscure and just plain weird niches.

My first software business was so obscure but there was enough demand to make it a successful micro business.

Then in 2009 I got interested in one weird thing and posted my journey on a forum. Well one day I woke up and smelled the coffee. My threads were generating thousands of page views!

I left that forum and started my own sites. They still make money today.

Remember that many (all?) people go on the internet to find out about that weird thing that they think only they are interested in.

Well. You are sitting on a goldmine. It isn't nearly as "dark" as you think. In fact, the mainstream critics, are probably doing as much for your traffic as anything. Controversy attracks eyeballs.

What you are lacking, is a spear (or phalanx) to penetrate and REFRAME the general idea...I tell you this sincerely,

you coud easily be doing a thousand bux a day, if you execute a proper strategy.

Weird, arcane, little known, off the beaten path, strange and out of the mainstream light there grows acres of mushrooms, which can be havested for pots of gold.

You have truffles, not found at the grocery store, but the things which draw a premium price if you _________ , so continue on, but ACCELERATE.

GordonJ


PS. A well established market with 101 niches, we'll keep the good ones to ourselves, eh? Also, 19 years ago, I wanted to be able to say what I wanted and the way to do that, is start your own forum/blog. We've been at it 19 continuous years.

A few years ago I spent several months in University Hts. Went to The Cave (Momma Joan), the BookTree, Controversial book store. Have visited scores of such shops throughout USA.

Day 2/14

Finished a little fb promotion and got some decent results.

For a small site like I have, 3 sales equaling $155 is not bad at all.



All I did was post to my fb timeline (I don't post much at all). Normally I posted to relevant fb groups which I run, but only have a couple dozen members.

The members aren't even that active, but I still have about 4 prospects continually paying me, which is nice.

The next post will likely be a site comparison: one of my main competitors to me.

They have a much larger natural audience, but I have the service spread that will attract them ALL in.

I also have a much cheaper range of services, so that helps me 10 to 1 on attracting certain clients.

I chose to stick with a model that even the underdog could use my services and built their empire.

The other dude chose the other way around, that only those with lots of $$ (4 figures) would work with him. That leaves A LOT of business on the table.

So this will be interesting to see how my site takes off, which it already sort of is.

One curious thing I have noticed over the years is that fb fan pages don't really do anything.

They have to be nurtured sort of like one of those neo pets from the 90's; if you don't care for that thing constantly it just dies.

I literally just talk to people in my fb groups and post up stuff every few days. The traffic from that has been well enough so far.

Over time it appears to just snowball, which tells me that this is a long term thing since I've been doing this traffic funneling method since 2016.

Day 2/17

This is the service comparison post...

Just a quick / simple over view of how my service differs (more different than similar) from another largely entrenched competitor.



They get roughly 70 - 100k visitors to their site per month in a largely unexplored niche.

This is purely about skillset and building up your reputation over time.

Even though my site has just started even my 5 - 20 visitors per day is getting me sales, which says A LOT.

* * *

The larger take away here is that in other consulting related businesses we see stuff similar to this.

There might be a HUGE whale of a competitor (let's say copywriting) who gets all the medium - high end clients.

Does that mean that I can't come in the bottom to low end range to build up my reputation?

Of course not!

It just means I have to find my own creative angles, the right traffic sources, and I'll be working my ass off for the first several clients so that everything turns out alright (it won't be perfect, but it might feel perfect at times).

Often people don't get into copywriting due to the high barrier to entry - but that's actually quite the opposite of what's going on.

Many times they get in because it's all self-taught, they build up their skillset, they might even write their own pages and do some testing...but then what?

The only barrier here is finding the right traffic sources, and in this context, without having customers, you have no business.

This is why, for my unique services, I applied them to my own life first, made sure it all worked out. Then I offered it freely to others until they saw crazy good results like I did.

They then became referrals for me now (which are now paid - they know what I can do) and I get more work out of it.

So the free sample came out of something I never expected to get paid for.

I got so into my work that it just became a labor of love, then things just cascaded from there.

In this sense passion and skills have coalesced; a very unique situation indeed.

But as you can see, even against a largely entrenched competitor who charges A LOT more for their services, as long as you have the proper foundation and the proper angles for your traffic / leads, everything can work out just fine.

Even if you're literally a nobody starting out.

Day 2/20

This is a curious post because I am a copywriter, but what I do to boost my business has almost nothing to do with copywriting.

Just like a copywriter would write copy for his own sales pages / businesses (ideally) I use my own skills to boost my business in a very creative way.



Doesn't it make sense?

As a copywriter would write copy for his own business, I use my own services to promote my services in a very unique way.

Does it work?

Yes, of course it does. It's not even a question that I'm making 100% profit from this and it's crazy that this is even possible.

Did this take a lot of skill, dedication and effort?

Of course!

Like the copywriter who wants to excel, this is about becoming the most valuable person you can be for your highest paying clients, and connecting your skills to their need (that was stated awkwardly for a purpose - think about it).

Most people don't know how copywriters work, and my clients don't question how I create amazing results for them - it just happens.

It's not even a question that my services can help ANY situation, but results tend to be the problem for most people.

This is how I liken it to copywriting - especially since I AM a copywriter.

Does the best copy just look good, or does it actually produce a tangible result?

That's the most obvious thing ever, but think about it. How many consultants get paid off of general advice that no one actually uses.

My service is results based, and it doesn't even compare to anything that exists right now.

True copywriting is based on numbers, revenue, profit etc It's not based on general advice.

Even if the copy looks good, that sh!t better convert or your ass is grass.

It's like dating someone with a pretty face but no skills or personality. You know that's not going to last (the dumber ones try to convince themselves it's alright for now - which is pretty funny).

In analogy aren't those failed dates the unprofitable businesses?

The ones that look at all the wrong variables, realizing they've spent too much on the wrong people / projects, then whoops - back to the drawing board.

All I'm saying is that results matter, and even in my industry, or something like copywriting, there are those who look at the wrong variables constantly, and don't know what the f*ck they're doing.

Small lesson for the day: don't be one of those people.

Be an actual entrepreneur providing real value to great clients.

2/22

I had a small lesson hit me recently. It was related to the value of researching deeply for essential services.

I needed a new hosting company because the last one just wasn't cutting it. No need to point to particular issues, but I saw that support was a bit slow and their answers to crucial questions - especially related to billing - tended to become circular discussions related to me paying more for the same stuff.

No one likes a company like that, really.

This might seem like a common sense example, but think about it a little deeper.

If you know you need a specific service, do you skimp on researching the best option?

Do you try to get the best value for your money?

Getting the best value for your money in the sense that I mean here is not what you think. It is not about going as cheap as you can go in order to go for minimum price, maximum value.

Most people, especially in IM, tend to screw themselves over that way by going ultra-cheap, just to get smacked later by the service going down or out of business.

That's not what real businesses run on.

The trap in IM is that we find cheap services that have good people running them, but life gets in the way, things happen, and later in the same damn year we find that they're already bored, can't handle the challenges and they're looking to do other things.

Technically, these are never the people you want to work with.

You want people who are passionate about what they do, how they conduct themselves for long term business, who want to work with other long term business people.

I found this out by researching hosting providers, and oh boy was this a decade long battle.

Goodhosting.org was what I came across in the past few months. I used one of my services to find it, and boom, there it was.

I've been with hostgator when they were good (long ago lol) and just two others, and I saw how passion was without necessary skill, and I saw how necessary skill was without passion.

Damn. Just damn.

You need both! Don't ever try to skimp on the details like that.

It's ridiculous to see these hosts, copywriters, businessmen...whatever...get into industries they might be skilled in, but have no passion.

Likewise, if you see tradesmen who have passion but lack the skill, or even the motivation to get the skill, that's also a no go. Just f*cking ridiculous how all this turns out.

Skills don't trump passion. Skills must accompany passion for long term success. Or else you will be like everyone else switching industries, jobs, careers, businesses etc ever few months / years.

Do not do that. Just don't.

This happens in the job world and business, it's no different. From what I saw in business, it's in every system where there is low barrier to entry.

The trick here though, is not to get comfortable with minimum effort, ever.

Even with my own service, copywriting, or anything else I've done. Minimum effort might get good results, but I want exceptional, the top tier. If there is some greater level that I can reach, I want that.

This is what a lot of people get really confused by, but it's really simple.

Minimum effort is never the tier that truly defines any industry. You look up to the experts and those with the expertise to teach by example, not by the courses that they sell.

In this way, going for minimum effort is kind of idiotic. It's what the lowest tier of everything do just so they don't get kicked out of apartments, and have their cars repossessed.

Are you part of that tier?

No?

Then don't work as if that's your life.

I'm getting deep here because very few hosting companies have ever Wowed me in terms of their service performance. It's actually very hard to find a good hosting company that mixes that passion with the necessary skillset to achieve long term greatness.

But this is what I applied to my copywriting biz, and now to my ritual for hire service. It's very telling to see sales copy sell a service, but what about word of mouth and testimonials:



If your services can stand by their own merit, sometimes the advertising happens on it's own.

That's great! Especially in 100 days. I wish I had you luck. Been plucking away and just haven't hit my stride yet. Good luck and hope it keeps rolling in.

I vibe with the light-dark point Heavy.

Totally opposite approach here. No income claims. But I do snap selfies here in Thailand, showing folks I live in the tropics.

I just share how to blog from paradise. I take 'em from point A to B to C, but sharing the process sheds light. If we tell the truth, and are transparent, being genuine in sharing without fearing loss, we spread light.

This has been an extraordinary month, and I've had some interesting insights.

Though I have had several other businesses over the years, this is the first site that profited right out of the gate with repeat clients who just message me directly to buy.

That just doesn't happen for most sites and it's indicative of the foundation that was created for the site.

Initially I had created a facebook group where I helped others for free and grew my connections there by just giving free advice and helping people.

That lasted for roughly 10 months and now my new group - directly related to my site - has given me a pretty solid customer base.

This is technically blogging in a very unique way, and now that I have a growing fb customer base, it's just been very solid over the past month.

I still write for my groups every two days and the response has been pretty amazing so far.

One of the key insights I've received so far is being smart about how you approach your customer base.

I did not know that being helpful and provide solid advice was going to get me literally banned off a forum where I had very targeted expertise.

I also didn't know that reaching out and trying to help people in A LOT of fb groups is literally frowned upon for various reason I never expected.

It seriously sucks to want to help people and get booted from groups like that.

I know what I can do, I have the expertise to provide guidance and actually freakin help people - yet they don't accept anything.

None of the people I reached out to were the problem; it was always someone with greater power kind of unnecessarily stepping forward.

I don't care what their reasoning was, but it really ruined my day to see my efforts to help get thwarted like that.

Though I brought in a solid customer base through my effort (as my screenshot shows) being legitimately helpful and knowledgeable on your topic can have unexpected consequences; I now see why true experts rarely go onto fb groups and other places - they'll likely get called out in the stupidest ways and likely booted.

It's not fun to work around those who don't know what they're doing.

This month was very profitable and I am roughly half way toward my goal - $1200 in less than 30 days - this lesson about walking on egg shells around certain people was a startling lesson. One that I wish didn't have to happen.

The latest insight I've experience has been related to traffic generation...

It was bizarre to realize that forums tend to bring more traffic in certain contexts than facebook groups in general.

But it was even crazier to see that facebook groups actually bring in the sales - which I did not expect.

All of my clients so far are from facebook groups, and that was not even a thought when I first started.

I had a facebook group, but I thought forums would be a bigger part of everything.

Nope.

It was all about gathering connections, and eventually clients through facebook - a very simple process that enabled me to help my customers directly figure out what they needed help with.

Solving their problems and giving them deep insight was very insightful all in itself because you get a feel for how other similar client situations might be in the future.

The way I'm generating traffic is technically a unique form of blogging that people don't really do, and I didn't see that until recently.

You just send all the visitors to a relevant blog link (sort of) and they click through the blog if the product / service is worth their attention.

Most of the time it's not though, so that derails most would be businesses from ever starting up.

Traffic generation is a very unique thing because we don't know what we're doing most of the time and yet we all need it.

Like needing nutrition and not understanding how to properly setup your diet in a way that you don't become unhealthy. You know you need proper nutrition, but it just somehow doesn't happen.

It just happened that I grew my facebook group last year, and though it was closed down, I knew exactly what to do to recoup the members and thereby my traffic.

It's a pretty simple process as long as you know what to do long term - and even then you have to adjust to changes in the way technology works and shifts.

Nothing stays exactly the same, and if you stay in the past you'll get left behind.

Wealth is another topic that most people just don't remotely understand, and it baffles most businessmen to realize that they have no grasp of what it really means.

Creating wealth through magick...

It's not that we don't care; we kind of never really understood what we were supposed to remember.

Understanding wealth and money is pivotal to most business people, but they just don't see it that way.

If we just understood those two things first we would be in a lot better shape.

Traffic generation is sort of like this.

You have to understand the basic fundamentals before you can expand and grow your audience over time. It doesn't just grow overnight; and you have to take the right steps to develop everything.

If you had that basic foundation down - you could start any business online and have it floushing in no time at all. That's not what most online businessmen could say, and that would be funny if it weren't so tragic in most cases.

If you handle money without understanding remotely how it works or how to use it; you're going to lose it before you can spend it - and that's sort of how traffic generation works in a nut shell.

Testimonials should be about real results, and most businesses shirk on getting real reviews from their clients so I'm covering that here today.

I wasn't too sure that testimonials would be a big factor in this business, but it's actually a larger determining factor than i realized. It's not even close to what others make it out to be.

As long as you provide an amazing service and show great expertise - you should be pulling in clients based upon results - not necessarily raw marketing effort.

If your product can't stand on its own merit, you're going to have some problems later on.

I wasn't sure getting reviews would be a big deal starting out because i tried to offer my services for free so my clients would know my stuff is legitimate - but they mostly rejected that and went for the paid stuff.

This wasn't necessarily a surprise, but it was a bit startling to know - yet again - that having quality services brings in quality referrals, and those referrals so far have been a very interesting part of my business.

None of my clients so far has been an island - they spread the word and it's just been a snowball effect of people reaching out for services, asking general questions, or confirming that they are 100% interested in my services in the near future (many of those leads have come back to buy).

Having quality services which sells itself through verified results (clients just get results - period) is the only way forward - and I have proven that here thus far.

Service - Manifest a reasonable amount of money for a great need



Get Out of Debt



Receive Important Insight



Tiny Windfall (money)

Your success with this "business" is like...magic!

I had a startling surprise this past week, and it brought me into a very curious lesson...

In dealing with my clients i've seen that they like to prepare a lot for their purchases with me - many have even bought before for great results but they just can't pull the trigger again very easily due to various reasons they have.

This made me think about what it takes for some people to move in life - what does it take to reach that moment of realization that you need something and can't really go on without that thing in your life.

I know i have a larger than average pool of leads for my business, and it's a very unique market where i'm basically the only option as a default - but it is very interesting that my potential clients and current clients have to go through a lot of things mentally before they move and pull the trigger.

It's not that they're not interested - obviously that's not a problem since they're talking to them and it's pretty clear they're interested from our chats together.

But this made me think of the old money beliefs that i know that people have.

What old rutted beliefs do they carry around that hold them back like anchors?

Transcending old money beliefs in a way that brings you to the next level financially...

It's not a good thing to vaguely know you have negative money beliefs and do nothing about that. You have to tackle that head on and remove it early on before it spread like a pestilence through your life.

Once that negative belief takes hold, it is not a question that your life will be dragged down by that belief - and it might be a little discomforting later when you reflect on your finances and realize that you always have more than enough but feel like you're always behind.

Though that isn't a good moment of realization, i know this is true for my clients, and they have to go through a period of self-reflection and hesitancy even when they know they have to buy the thing.

These are literally the old negative beliefs holding us back and keeping us back from moving forward with our finances.

It's not a good situation, but we can eventually let go of those beliefs by deciding that this old way of thinking isn't for us and that we're ready to move on.

It might be a bigger problem for some than others but it just has to be dealt with early on so that these limiting beliefs don't take over your life for good.

Thanks for these tips