Celebrating 13 years fulltime online this month.. lessons learned and hurray
This month makes my 13th year of being online fulltime making a living in my industry, and it's great to have learned so much from the WF over the years. (I used to be here in the mid 2000s, had over 2k posts to my name.). Thanks to all who'd been speakers and attended my earlier IM seminar, too in Denver.
Lessons learned:
a) IM = 12-14 hour days 7 days a week for years before making it. there's no shortcuts.
b) never promote nor be affiliated with shady/crappy/overpriced products; only sell things you'd be happy to sell to your parents and best friends. with a straight face.
c) I was the first guy back here in the mid 2000s telling everyone video was the wave of the future, and many warriors were posting "no it isn't , video's too slow, that'll never catch on, you can only have long copy salesletters, video isn't going to work for selling online except for xxx sites". (really)
d) copywriting is an essential skill, and is worth taking years to learn, from top guys like my colleagues Fortin, Carlton, Makepeace and others.
e) dont waste thousands on overpriced guru bs or product launches, just watch what they do, model their processes, instead. Don't buy the koolaid, just invest carefully in low price content where it makes sense (like a rare wso); mostly just WATCH and scan competitors' / other sites for data. Besides, $1997 will buy a lot of books (go buy all of Brian Tracy's books, Tony Robbins, Earl Nightingale, copywriting and marketing books with 1k; subscribe to lynda.com etc for software training).
f) have a product ladder from free on up; move the free line significantly nowadays because buyers are much more skeptical and cautious
g) study everything Brian Tracy has to teach; he's my role model for info products, integrity, authenticity and work ethic.
h) based on mostly lurking the past few years here (too busy to post/interact like I did years ago); many folks here seem to have unrealistic expectations, or very shallow skill sets and expectations of themselves. You've got to invest thousands of hours of personal skills training and 70-80 hour weeks to make it online, especially in competitive niches.
i) testimonials, personal branding, proof elements, are all important.
j) outdoing competitors is not about niche keyword seo or articles or other stuff like that; it's more on overdelivering actually useful content at reasonable pricing and earning a reputation with hard work and authenticity for years.
hope that helps... cool to be online a full 13 years now; glad to be long gone from working for others; working at home is great, especially since it allows one more time with family, and to be productive.
Did I make millions a year? Nope. Did I work harder than I ever did back in Fortune 500 corporate jobs? Heck yes. Did I have a great time? Absolutely; wouldn't change this last 13 years for anything. Only thing I'd have done differently, is recruit affiliates (I built my business to having thousands of customers over the years, with zero affs); and that's not even a big thing.
Never did make a huge net profit; but instead I have earned the trust and loyalty of thousands of customers, who buy from me many years later and refer me to others... and that's the right way to do it. I just wanted to make a living doing what I loved, and make enough money to pay my bills and have a little left over, which is what I've done, to raise my kid, take her and my wife out for dinner or occasional modest vacations, and have a good family life.
no bmws, no mercedes (I still drive a 2000 camry). no mansion. but thousands of customers, served well, and that's reward enough. no employees, run my 60+ sites all myself, lots of hard work, but loving it. expanding into new markets, doing new things all the time, keeping busy.
I was on the front of Corey Rudl's MarketingTips.com site for years as a testimonial, I say thanks to him for everything (my remembercorey.com site), because he showed me how to do it. Here's to Corey.
any questions?
-ken
Lessons learned:
a) IM = 12-14 hour days 7 days a week for years before making it. there's no shortcuts.
b) never promote nor be affiliated with shady/crappy/overpriced products; only sell things you'd be happy to sell to your parents and best friends. with a straight face.
c) I was the first guy back here in the mid 2000s telling everyone video was the wave of the future, and many warriors were posting "no it isn't , video's too slow, that'll never catch on, you can only have long copy salesletters, video isn't going to work for selling online except for xxx sites". (really)
d) copywriting is an essential skill, and is worth taking years to learn, from top guys like my colleagues Fortin, Carlton, Makepeace and others.
e) dont waste thousands on overpriced guru bs or product launches, just watch what they do, model their processes, instead. Don't buy the koolaid, just invest carefully in low price content where it makes sense (like a rare wso); mostly just WATCH and scan competitors' / other sites for data. Besides, $1997 will buy a lot of books (go buy all of Brian Tracy's books, Tony Robbins, Earl Nightingale, copywriting and marketing books with 1k; subscribe to lynda.com etc for software training).
f) have a product ladder from free on up; move the free line significantly nowadays because buyers are much more skeptical and cautious
g) study everything Brian Tracy has to teach; he's my role model for info products, integrity, authenticity and work ethic.
h) based on mostly lurking the past few years here (too busy to post/interact like I did years ago); many folks here seem to have unrealistic expectations, or very shallow skill sets and expectations of themselves. You've got to invest thousands of hours of personal skills training and 70-80 hour weeks to make it online, especially in competitive niches.
i) testimonials, personal branding, proof elements, are all important.
j) outdoing competitors is not about niche keyword seo or articles or other stuff like that; it's more on overdelivering actually useful content at reasonable pricing and earning a reputation with hard work and authenticity for years.
hope that helps... cool to be online a full 13 years now; glad to be long gone from working for others; working at home is great, especially since it allows one more time with family, and to be productive.
Did I make millions a year? Nope. Did I work harder than I ever did back in Fortune 500 corporate jobs? Heck yes. Did I have a great time? Absolutely; wouldn't change this last 13 years for anything. Only thing I'd have done differently, is recruit affiliates (I built my business to having thousands of customers over the years, with zero affs); and that's not even a big thing.
Never did make a huge net profit; but instead I have earned the trust and loyalty of thousands of customers, who buy from me many years later and refer me to others... and that's the right way to do it. I just wanted to make a living doing what I loved, and make enough money to pay my bills and have a little left over, which is what I've done, to raise my kid, take her and my wife out for dinner or occasional modest vacations, and have a good family life.
no bmws, no mercedes (I still drive a 2000 camry). no mansion. but thousands of customers, served well, and that's reward enough. no employees, run my 60+ sites all myself, lots of hard work, but loving it. expanding into new markets, doing new things all the time, keeping busy.
I was on the front of Corey Rudl's MarketingTips.com site for years as a testimonial, I say thanks to him for everything (my remembercorey.com site), because he showed me how to do it. Here's to Corey.
any questions?
-ken
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