Cryptocurrencies

Looking good!

Next Goal + Motivation

I'm way behind schedule, but on track.
Filling in my product palette.
Next step, run paid advertising to my landing pages:

Finished my first REAL A-B test! Cool!

Results were black and white - excellent, kept the "good" page.

This has a two-fold effect:

Since I easily get distracted; "Acute Bells and Whistles Syndrome"...
I have to focus on actually creating stuff,
Validation phase is over! Gotta work on my airtight measurable funnels now!

But the bells and whistles distraction is still there.
Luckily, as usual, there is plenty of guidance out there.

Derek Halpern only tests his MONEY POINTS!

This makes perfect sense.

Only A-B test your:

• Sales Email, not ALL emails in a sequence
• Your Sales page
• Your landing page (maybe this is an exception?) - it is the TIP of your funnel, so yes, it actually does lead directly to SALES.

Have set up Gumroad Ecommerce analytics in my Google Analytics account.

A-B tested the landing page (tip of funnel) NOW I got 2 sales pages, one with video , one more classic; just text.

Traffic from blog is not enough, so now RUN A-B Test with paid traffic to Landing page.

Gonna be fun!

The "airtight measurable funnel" is UP!
The A-B test is on and engaged,
Go!

Motivation:

"Things" aren't moving fast enough.
I can't just wait for next December and that Christmas bump to bump me over my goals.

Also, my next milestone is an Omega Speedmaster, which starts at 3,500. That means my next goal should be 35,000 -- not 10,000.

(A milestone motivational should not be more than 10% of your target $.)

Omega Speedmasters, I think I like the red one best:

First Goal Met!

First 1k down, 10k to go,

then 100k, and 1m, 100m!

So now I gotta look for a new watch as the 10k goal! 

I've seen people make 100k per month with ONE webinar. 

• Pat Flynn makes 100k per month with his blog and affiliate sales (Blue Host). 
• I can do it! 
• My highest webinar revenue to date has been 200+ 

Der Weg ist das Ziel, I'm on the way!....

The PROCESS + Lessons Learned 2015-2016

Processes not goals

1.      Always be writing a book -- DAILY writing goal!

2.    Always be interviewing an influencer

3.    Always be writing a guest post

4.    Always be reviewing your process

5.     Always be organizing your next webinar or conference-NEW- for this year – remember toastmasters and your Ebook seminar!

6.    Always be writing an email to your list/s

7.    Always be optimizing your funnel “I will build airtight MEASURABLE FUNNELS”

8.    Always be teaching - making a video/pdf/audio training material

9.   Always APPLY 80/20

10.                        Always make a plan of attack for the year/month/week with planned MILESTONES instead of goals.

11.  Always review your MASTER PLAN from TAGR

12.Always FOLLOW UP, and MAINTAIN those relationships you built with your first influencers! (and all subsequent of course!)

If you persist – you will succeed!

Specifics

1.      Aways be writing = Daily routine:

a.     Write in the morning your book or guest post

b.    Write in the evening to your lists

2.    Always interview…Daily routine:

a.     If you cannot find a new interviewee, then send a FOLLOW UP email to one you have already interviewed.

b.    Thank them for their time and offer to help them. Also ask them who you should interview next!!!! LEAD generation opportunity that I totally spaced out on!

3.    Always optimize funnel…daily routine:

a.     LOOK at your landing page

b.    A-B test the MONEY POINTS (see Dereks vid in youtube)

c.     Ask yourself what you can do better

4.    Ask yourself “What TWO things could I do to promote my book or blog today?”

5.     Always be making a video,

a.     If you cannot make a video today – make a PDF and or REPURPOSE YOUR CONTENT!

                                                             i.      Slideshare

                                                           ii.      Youtube

                                                        iii.      Youtube video in a slideshare!

                                                         iv.      PINTEREST! My new technique this year – follow up Sidehustle how to pinterest etc.

6.    80/20 for this year – lessons learned from 2015:

a.     Facebook ads work the best

b.    A free book or cheatsheet in Amazon work just as well.

c.     Guest Posts – big break with D.Chesson!

d.     Pinterest and YouTube are my chosen channels now, Facebook and Twitter are just echo-chambers.

e.     Influencer outreach NETWORKING is the MOST IMPORTANT THING-ASPECT-TECHNIQUE OF ALL!

f.       Jeff Walker’s Seed Launch and Frank Kern’s Webinar Blueprint are the best online methods.

7.    Epiphanies – BIG ONES! :

a.     I made more from my affiliate products, with one email to my list, than my product launch! --which took 5,000x more effort and hours to make than the one affiliate product and email to my list!!!

                                                             i.      Do more videos and emails about your aff.products! Just like Pat Flynn said “Find your Bluehost”. Matt Stone said something similar to this too – see the quitN6 series.

b.   As Matt Stone said, “what’s point of having 1,000 email subscribers if you don’t have a product or funnel?”

                                                            i.      Make the Airtight MEASURABLE FUNNEL first – then get the ‘scribers!!! (with fb ads or free book in –zon)

c.     Always bundle your products.

                                                             i.      One kindle book bombed on –zon, but made me over $100 on the gumroad platform and my own blog.

1.      Because I offered it in 3 different formats that was impossible on –zon!

                                                           ii.      However don’t offer too many choices and confuse them

                                                        iii.      Put the offer you want them to buy at the top, or beginning – subject to design.

d.     Good examples of “How To” book authors doing it right:

                                                             i.      Ari Whitten

                                                           ii.      Mike Geary

I know I said in a previous post “This is the last book…” about the millionair fast lane –BUT- the QuitN6 series is FREE and damned good and it just simply got my attention! Also they go into the details of blogging/internet/online money-making world and they are totally worth it.

PHASE II

I made my first "Fully automatic" "Tim Ferris 4hwwk" Sale!
A blog visitor went to my lead magnet - then to email list sequence - then SALE!

Awesome - Awesome- Awesome!

Making money in my sleep - it is an awesome euphoric experience - it works!

And it really motivates you to do more and get to the next level.

I may be late, but I'm ON TRACK.

As said in previous post - PHASE I is over, now starts PHASE II:

Take the winning producst/businesses from phase I, scale them, improve them, make more of them, until I reach the 100 million.

So I have to re-adjust my mantra.

In phase one it was "My new hobby is validating product and business ideas"

This mantra should be taken to heart and NEVER FORGOTTEN. Validation is step 1 - always.

But now that I have validated my products and business direction, I must:

"My new hobby is building airtight MEASURABLE funnels!"

Because everything I did to get my initial base of 200+ subscribers and products, is very CHAOTIC!

I have about TWENTY different lead magnets, two core products, or 1 tripwire and 1 core product, my signature course in the works, AND NO WAY TO MEASURE my ACV and CLV.

Besides my Email sequence which is 10 mails of giving giving giving, and then 1 mail where I pitch my core product, I have NO MEASURABLE funnel!

So I have started with my one lead magnet - the niche finder tool, and stopped this silly "pay with a tweet" function. 

Instead I am doing like Nick Loper; want the show notes or spreadsheet? -- gimme an email!

Number one focus is still EMAIL! (see all of Bryan Harris' stuff!!!)

Then when they get the spread sheet, they also get a "Read Me First" file where I have an upsell and a downsell.   A lot like Gumroad and their "workflows" which is awesome!! -BUT- I was splitting my efforts between my website and Gumroad.

I have to make it airtight and stop this unfocussed stuff.

It's GOTTA BE LASER FOCUSSED DAMMIT!

So now, all of my products on gumroad are becoming my resource center: the visitors can only access it by subscribing. This allows me to have a "naked" page on my blog as a resource center.

If someone stumbles upon it, and somehow gets past my subscribe gate, they still have to give me their email to download from gumroad!

"My new hobby is building AIRTIGHT LASER FOCUSSED MEASURABLE FUNNELS!"

DIRECTION:

I will now stop validating new products (unless I see a REAL opportunity - never forget that opportunity clause!) and FOCUS on my Tripwire, Core-Offer, and Signature Course and MEASURE THEM.
(see the ACV article by Ryan Deiss = awesome!)

I am going to use webinars and joint ventures with other entrepreneurs to take me to the next level:

• The webinar blueprint of Frank Kern is amazing.
• Jeff Walker's Launch series is also awesome - turns out I was DOING it already.
• The really cool thing about both of the above, is that their free materials are so good, you don't need their courses! An experienced entrepreneur can fill in the blanks. (and I did.)

My SYSTEM right now is:

1. Interview a successful entrepreneur on my podcast
2. Later ask them to promote one of my products in the P.S. section of their next email.
3. Make high quality Ebooks and Print books around EVERGREEN topics.
1. This brings in more money right now! Passive income pure!
4. But- you can make waay more money once you start selling high-end info products with WEBINARS.

Next actions:

1. Close all gaps in my website
1. Too many lead magnets and not enough focus - I gotta lead them along that path so I can measure the ACV and then I know HOW MUCH I CAN SPEND ON ADVERTISEMENT AND THE NEXT CUSTOMER ACQUISTION!
2. Finish my webinars (Frank Kern's Blueprint)
1. 7 day challenge
2. Facebook Ads
3. Fulfill my book Palette
1. I want to finish at least 6 books this year!
2. Will have to hire someone (e.g.ArchAngel Ink) to fill in the gaps for sure.

MANTRAS:

"My new hobby is building airtight MEASURABLE FUNNELS!"

"I will continue influencer outreach and build meaningful relationships. Then I will start Joint Venture Launches and webinars to get to the next level."

Milestone Update

As you know I'm a big fan of the Napoleon Hill book "Think and Grow Rich".

As a matter of fact I think this book should be mandatory reading at the start of everyone's journey.

The killer technique from this book is to write down your goals and make a master plan.

It must be written and you must review it everyday.

Here is an excerpt from mine:

PHASE ONE – 2 years, 2014+2015: 

Research and Validate all potential businesses and products: 

 Done! I finally really -without cheating- validated two products. i.e. got paying customers!

Winner is: 
INFOPRENEUR!!! – making videos to help people learn things that make their books better, more successful, and more PROFITABLE. 

And
Ebooks! – Creating EVERGREEN high quality content that will sell forever. 

 PHASE TWO – 2015 til death: 
Grow winning business from PHASE 1, 
continuously improve until you reach and SURPASS goal of 100 million. 

 If you can make 1 million you can make 2. If you can make 2 you can make 10. If you can make 10 you can make 100.

The Top Four Entrepreneur Myths (Limiting Beliefs)

1. You gotta have an idea.
-- Wrong.
-- Backwards. 
-- You FIND the idea! Or better, it finds you.
-- Help people, find the need, fill it.

2. A thousand other people have already done that.
-- Wrong.
-- No one has done it like you! 
-- All that means is that there is a GOOD MARKET for it.

3. I don't have anything to teach.
-- Wrong.
-- Are you dead?
--  If you have a pulse and a body temperature of 97.8°F +/- 1 degree, you have an EXPERIENCE that other people want to know, and are probably willing to pay for!

4. You gotta get lucky.
-- Wrong. 
-- You simply MUST VALIDATE your ideas!


Once you learn how to validate your ideas things will magically start happening:
The veil will be lifted. 
You will get new contacts, you will get new customers, you will find new needs and new ideas! 

All of a sudden, you will have an epiphany, "I'm on the path!"

All of a sudden you will find yourself getting "lucky" more and more frequently ...strange indeed...(hint: this shows you are indeed on the path.)

This is the way, and today all of the tools are free. All you have to do is consciously, and INTENTIONALLY, make the decision to walk the path.

And that starts with a very simple first ACTIONABLE ACTION:

1.Consciously and intentionally choose to take the first step to freedom.
1a. PUBLICLY announce your goal.

PUT one foot in front of the other, your body will follow.

P.S. A good indicator of your progress is your revulsion to the word "LUCK". The more you walk this path of success, the more you will hate the word luck.

Test B

TEST B


I finally got test B going!
Here are the first results after a "clean" 24hr. period.
The book is in the blog now in prime real-estate.
The Blog gets 200+ uniques per day.
I'm using KDP select to offer the book for FREE for 5 days, yesterday was day 1.
Day 1

20 Free units "sold"/downloaded
200 uniques/20 = 10% conversion - is that safe to say? (don't know, exactly how is conversion calculated for free books?)
I'm very interested to see what happens when the 5 day sale is over, I think I will put it up to 2.99 and then do a 99cent sale afterwards.
Well that's the strategy anyways...LESSONS LEARNED:

A vs B
Comparing method A to method B, in method A you make 1 book permanently free and gather subscribers, in method B you write a blog and push your book in your blog, going for sales only because you want to remain anonymous etc.

A:
After 3 weeks
100+ downloads of book 1 = 17 subscribers
100+ downloads of book 2 = 2 subscribers (!)
No new subscribers for over 1 week
Sounds dismal doesn't it?
Well regardless, I have learned we MUST have CONTROL (remember?) and after 3 weeks Amazon has blocked one book (not in the test now , but the reason I had to delay the test) , and GOOGLE has announced once again that they will be BLOCKING ADULT CONTENT BLOGS!!!
All of these "jerk-moves" by the various platforms don't bother you in the least bit if you have your own subscriber list!
Your 1000 true fans are YOURS, to take to whatever platform you please, but only if you have an email list.
This is GOLD and my biggest takeaway already.

B:


After 1 day = 20 free downloads of book 1. (Book 2 is in the making)

My FUNNEL blog for test B is now in danger of going down because of Big Brother Goog changing their policy (N-E-C-S-T), it will be interesting to see what happens.

I will post everything here, right now I'm going run it to the hilt, March 23rd is D-Day.

In four days the book will be 2.99$, we shall see what happens to the graph after that:


Bonus:

You see that little red "paid units" on the left?

That's a book I added over a year ago, no keywords, no categories, just forget about entirely...

It's starting to sell!

Dontcha just love passive income? Ok it's not a lot, but that's telling me something isn't it?

GET ON IT!

A/B Testing Ebook Marketing Methods

As mentioned in a previous post, I finally started the test!

Initially I wanted to start both methods at the same exact time, but -well- that didn't pan out because I would have to have 4 books ready at the same time. So I am starting with method A as I finish the other 2 books for method B.

A quick reminder:

Test A is Nick Stephenson's "Reader Magnets" method where you make 1 book permanently free, and the 2nd book free for subscribers to your list/website.  This method is all about growing your Email list. Also called the Lead Magnet, Funnel Marketing, or Perma-Free technique.

Test B is my own favorite method where you use traffic to your blog to sell a book, targeted specifically for readers of that blog.  The ballpark figure should be a blog with at least 200 unique hits per day.  This method does not build your Email list at all, because you want to remain anonymous, or maybe your readers want to remain anonymous and are not the type who would subscribe, maybe due to the nature of the product or blog topic.

I know this is an apples vs oranges thing, because in the 1st method it's all about Email sign-ups, and the second method is about selling straight away, but here it goes:

TEST A1

I'm using this book .

Results after 1 week:

37 downloads at Smashwords.

1(!?) subscriber grand total at Mailchimp.

TEST A2

I'm using this book.

Results after 2 weeks:

70 downloads at Smashwords.

14 subscribers grand total at Mailchimp.

Lessons Learned:

Smashwords is a cool platform, but ridiculously ANAL about the description of the book, "no upselling language allowed". When I look in Kobo and iTunes they actually transferred the "upselling" description, but kept my revised description for their website only! Plus they want you to upload a WORD.DOC instead of .docx ,   WTF???! Stoneage mentality or Tech. reasons? The problem with this word.doc requirement is that the .mobi that they generate from the .doc is DEFECTIVE. Check out the screenshots (from my kindle keyboard) of the table of contents and some pics that have transparency (.png) and how they rendered in the smashwords generated .mobi:

The ToC!

A .png image —  wtf?!

Now you may say it is a technical problem on my side, BUT the Auto-vetter results from smashwords said "Congratulations! No defects in your word document!"  

To solve the problem, I opted to upload an Epub, instead of a word.doc, and -yes- , it passed easily and is now available in all the platforms that Smashwords works with, iTunes, Kobo etc. BUT, I must disable the .mobi on the site because I don't want to risk someone downloading that defective garbage and giving me a bad review.

So Smashwords is really cool, and once you figure out their quirks and criteria you can upload and be live in FIVE different platforms simultaneously really QUICK, but you really gotta massage your descriptions and word.doc's before you can get there. I recommend just going with the Epub to stay on the safe side.

Another VERY cool advantage to Smashwords, your book stays on the first page of the results if you choose your keywords wisely, here's the Navy Seals book and my Ebook Formatting guide on the first page (top 10!) still after 1 week:

I'm kind of disappointed in 1 subscriber and 14 subscribers, but do I really think I'm going to get 10,000 in the first week?

OK, that was Smashwords, what about Amazon?

AMAZON SUCKS!

The idiots blocked my Navy SEALs book. They said "too many open domain pics". WTF!? In their rejection letter they specifically state that public domain pics are allowed, then they go on to say that Wikipedia pics are not allowed... do they know what the hell "public domain" is!?

"...We don't accept books which include content that is freely available on the web unless you have sole publishing rights or they're part of the public domain. For example, content from Wikipedia and content with private label rights are not allowed..."

For my Air Force book I have F-15 pilots on my contributor team, I have a lot of the pics from the Air Force directly, however ANY and EVERY pic taken by a US Airman is by law open domain! So what if some of them are in Wikipedia too!? It's inevitable! Do they really think I'm going to rent an F-15, F-16, F-22 and an F-35 so I can get my own copyrighted pics?! Same thing for my Navy Seals book.

So this really underlines the fact that we should be growing our Email lists, this makes us platform independent, the EXACT reason for this method.  And remember in MFL — the law of CONTROL, well this is a friggin darned good example of WHY we need to stay in control.

Another problem with Amazon, in Nick's Reader Magnets, you put your funnel book for free on Smashwords and then get Amazon to price match it, well, that can take a very long time. So it lumbers around Amazon for weeks at .99cents while it is already free on Smashwords, iTunes etc. So the other book, A2  , the Ebook Formatting Guide did get accepted by "Ama-dumb", but it's still not free, after 2 weeks and me and my friends telling them to price match multiple times.

OK my friends, that's enough for now, I'll be updating regularly,  I'll show you a quick screenshot of my 200 hits per day blog below while I try to finish the 2 books for Test B, asap!

AdWords Lessons Learned

My biggest takeaway from my whopping 70€ ad campaign is:

DO NOT USE THE DEFAULT BIDS IN ADWORDS!

You can still get great results by setting your bid all the way down to 35 cents per click!

If you are lazy or it's your first time and don't know much about adwords, you may feel compelled to just use the defaults set by google, that would be around ONE DOLLAR PER CLICK!

In my opinion that's f**ing insane, to pay a dollar for one damned click that most likely will not end up in a sale.

So I definitely "saved" money there, however I did not fully follow Mr.Geary's advice.

He said that the number one mistake beginners make is to not let an ad campaign run long enough.

He also expects to make a loss at first.

So I made a 70€ loss and did not sell one product.

I stopped the campaign "early" because through my research with customers I found that people really do want a finished product and not a .pdf that they would have to print out themselves.

So in other words I DID NOT SOLVE THE HASSLE MAP FOR MY CUSTOMER!

Solve the Supply Chain and You Will be a Rich Man!

Thanks to Mike Geary and Tim Ferriss for this tip:

http://fourhourworkweek.com/2011/11/02/the-truth-about-abs-mike-geary/

And here are the results directly from Google

BENCHMARK PRINTABLE WISDOM - ASHLEY, she's killing it online with digital products!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/PrintableWisdom/about?ref=l2-more-about