I'm new and low on cash. How can I get a mentor?

For now, I'm working with my Fiancee and a friend of mine. He's a talented web genius who can use technical methods of driving us traffic, and my Fiancee is a great writer (well, she's actually a writer).

As for myself, I'm a graphic designer and photographer. I work in a marketing office at my university and I've learned a good bit on how they use paid lead generation.

We've already started building a couple of business plans. One is subscriber based, the other is product based. We've ventured into selling advertising services (once we are certain we know the ins-and-outs) as well.

The issue here is that I know what i WANT to do, but I just can't get myself to do it...

I'm kind of in-charge in my little group, and they aren't going to take action until I make the call.

I do pick up quickly, I'm honestly just looking for a quick point in the right direction from someone who's doing well. Not so much a full-time mentorship, but just someone who can say "yes, you're doing that right" or "no, swap portion A of your plan with portion B".

I suppose someone to help me get started.

Yes I run a photography business, as well as a graphic design business. I also teach the two, but business has been DEAD for the past year. I used to market on Craigslist, but I believe I'm now getting ghosted. People just aren't calling.

Facebook marketing isn't helping either. I get fans, but no bookings, nothing. Offline marketing helps to a small degree, just not enough.

I'm $15,000 in the hole in debt from all my photo equipment, I literally just got done paying off my desktop workstation.

Exactly. Instagram is ruining my life.

I would never sell my gear though, it's literally the only thing that keeps me happy. The thing is, my efforts offline haven't worked, and my online methods are dying out. I live in New York, so I have plenty of competition from new "photographers" who just bought a camera and read a couple of books. I literally lose jobs to some kids with a kit lens and a generic flash offering $20 photoshoots and $200 weddings. It's pathetic.

Photography is one thing I don't doubt my abilities in, as far as shooting/retouching/printing and all. It's just too competitive. If I could afford a storefront studio, I'd do it, but that's out of the question.

I am not a massively successful online marketer, but I have come across two things that have been helpful both online and offline. One is the JanRain social login approach for list building and they also have a share feature which you can offer a gift for using.

The other is a piece of software that will allow you to quickly collect targeted emails from general goog searches. I don't use it to create spam lists but to build my business network by inviting people to join my LinkedIn connections. It works pretty well. I have a video on youtube about both here: JanRain_Warrior - YouTube
There is a little self promotion in there but hopefully the information is more helpful than annoying! Actually I would appreciate your feedback on that front. I know this isn't entirely on-topic for you but I am hoping it is helpful!

Man, I just need one, seriously.

IM is like math to me...lol.

I could be wrong, but I think you have the wrong gist of the question.

Most who will be worth having as a mentor are worth paying for.
If you can't pay with money, you need to come up with something else.

It's the classic marketing "What's in it for me" mentality.

What can you offer someone if not money?
Are you willing to do free work?

Anyway, I don't think you're ready for a mentor either if you don't even have a direction yet. Your direction will help you determine who your mentors are - not the other way around.

Take some time to read on the forums.

Those are all methods. What niches are you considering? Because a lot of niches will eliminate use of some of those methods right off the bat.

So far, I've reached out to a friend who deals with marketing full-time, but he founded an agency. I wouldn't even know where to start with a project that big.

Who do you recommend looking into, off the top of your head? Of course, you yourself, probably have some good information for me. So far, I've really just gotten something from Kenster and the posts in this thread.

That is certainly a path I have encouraged some of my students and other people to take. Service providing is reliable and can bring in income to keep you afloat as you are building out your IM business.

I don't think anybody want to stick with service providing (at least not at the base level) but it's certainly not a bad place to start for that seed money to invest in other stuff!

Clarity is a HUGE part of IM success. It's so simple when you know it -- and darn difficult when you don't! I owe my mentors a world of thanks for bringing this clarity.

You sound like you're a little bit all over the place. Take your love of photography and plug it into my advice here.

IM is actually pretty simple: you can sell only one of two things:

1. Products
2. Services

That's it!

And selling products or services online happens in the same basic way for everyone, no matter what they're selling:

Traffic > Opt-in page > Autoresponder series (or e-zine) > Sales page

That's it! It's just that simple. (We IMers tend to overcomplicate things.)

But no matter what your niche is, or whether you're selling a product or a service, do you know what your business model is?

A business model is the framework or skeleton of your business. Essentially there are three types of online business models:

1. Membership-based model

A membership-based business model allows you to build a community of people (your members) who are as passionate about your subject as you are. Your membership fees can be monthly or annual, but either way, you're building recurring, passive income.

There are a lot of resources and information out there to help you build a membership-based business if you're interested in doing this.

2. Product-based model

Selling products allows you to maximize your time and effort by selling items over and over again. This can be hard goods or it can be information products. Information marketing is it's own business model under the product-based model. Information marketing allows you to take your brain to the bank by creating a product ONCE based on what you know and selling it over and over again.

3. Service-based model

Selling services can be great for 1) generating quick cash (as in the case of article writing or video producing) and 2) establishing your expertise and getting testimonials.

(Affiliate marketing falls under both models. You can choose to market either products or services as an affiliate.)

However, in the long run, your goal should be to offer services at a PREMIUM. The biggest advantage of IM is LEVERAGE. You're able to leverage your time, money and expertise exponentially online. We all have just 24 hours each day. Time to get ruthless about what you expect for those hours you spend in IM each day. Expect more of yourself and more from your business friends, clients, partners, etc.

What results are you getting for those hours you spend online each day? Ultimately, your services should be at the bottom of your funnel and cost the most since they involve your time and personal attention. (We all have a limited amount of time each day.)

The fun (and confusion) comes in with all of the endless mix-and-match possibilities of the above models. If you're just starting or still struggling to make money, keep it simple:

Pick just ONE!

1. Pick ONE niche. (Something you're interested in and know something about.)

2. Pick ONE target market for your product or service. (Who will buy what you're offering? The more specific you are, the more you narrow it down, the more successful you'll be.)

3. Pick ONE business model.

Now that you're clear about what business you're in, FOCUS! (And stop buying any info not related to your niche and target market, period!)

F -- Follow
O -- One
C -- Course
U -- Until
S -- Successful

And remember: build a list, Build a List, BUILD A LIST!

In IM, it's easy to put the cart before the horse. Take a deep breath, step back and consider what type of business you REALLY want. Don't worry about getting traffic or buying that expensive traffic product until you know 1) what your business model is, 2) what niche you're in and 3) WHO your target market is!

Successful business people will tell you that MARKETING is more than half the effort that's needed for success anyway. So pick a niche, target market and business model. Then spend most of your time and effort marketing it.

If you DON'T have a solid plan or system, THAT'S when it's hard. A good system will shave YEARS (and save you big $$$) off of your learning curve

That's why I recommend investing in at least one good, comprehensive IM course (or mentor who will give you such a system) instead of jumping from one $37 e-book to the next. A lot of people here complain about not being able to make any money. But neither are they willing to invest in their business. (Buying a random bunch of $37 e-books doesn't count.)

The best thing I ever did was invest in a comprehensive IM course aimed at REAL business owners, not just other IM wannabes. Yes it was $1500. (It's no longer available.) But it was truly some of the best A-Z IM info I ever bought. Everything else I've learned (from the $37 e-books) since has simply been plugged into this system.

Get a solid plan or system and then work the plan!

Hope this helps!

Michelle

I think this makes sense...

It's really important that you understand what type of IM business you would like to build. If you already have information overload it probably means you have taken in your fair share of different strategies and methods...

Instead of buying different traffic reports all the time (I'm guilt myself) look into the different areas of Internet Marketing that interest you, write them all down on a piece of paper, and then research them for free.

By research I mean look into what the big players in that market are doing, how they're making money, and think about if it interests you.

Narrow down to 2 or 3 different types of IM businesses that interest you and then weigh out the pros and cons taking into account your skill set also.

Then make a choice and take massive action! Don't let little obstacles break you and make you start something different from the beginning again.

Figure out how to overcome the obstacles, learn from your mistakes, and follow through with the knowledge that you learn. Once you drill down to ONE business model that interests you I would recommend to start looking into who the authorities are and who you can have an opportunity to learn from. Mentoring is probably the most important thing you can have in IM but I think that before you get a mentor you need to know exactly what you want to do.

Enjoy the process and don't be fooled by all the "fake hype" going around these days, do your research!

Cheers

i can be your mentor for free in exchange you being my accountability partner, fair?

This is an excellent suggestion! Definitely check it out.

Michelle

Nightengale and Alan, thank you for your long, detailed replies. Thank you to everyone else who helped out too!

While I cannot afford a mentor, I've made some initial progress with my team.

We are currently exploring and attempting to focus down on 4 niches that we found through researching keywords. Low competition, high traffic. We're finding ways of applying these niches to the keywords, making them SEO friendly.

Currently, I've been able to buy a few domain names that I feel will be necessary. My friend is also working on getting his dedicated server back up and running. It used to be blazing fast, but he took it down for a little while.

I've seen that creating lists, taking notes, and building a database of viewers is a great idea. I have been looking into autoresponders to work with too. Can anyone suggest a good one that doesn't break the bank? (for now atleast)

We already have a dummy Tumblr blog up on a certain niche that we're using to test with, just ways of driving traffic. My web dev friend is taking care of he technical parts of it, I can update you guys on exactly how when I see him later on today.

I do know that we are considering a service-based model. Right now, our issues are what service to market, and how, but we're discussing it.


Also, I was never really aware of what SCORE was. We have one here, I may stop by. Thanks for the heads up!

Yeah I would never say get a mentor if you don't know the basics of the business. No mentor want to tell you what an email autoresponder or landing page means.

Ah, content, I forgot to mention it.

I have two people working with me who are great writers. One is writing content for squeeze pages, as well as a wordpress site with a blog that would promote/recommend offers with high quality and informative posts on his niche.

The other, my fiancee, is managing another website and providing information and/or reviews on products and offers, also on wordpress.

They're still very new though.