I laughed at this guys failure. He read Tim Ferriss’s “4 Hour Work Week” and didn’t follow the instructions.
His goal?
To create a business that brings in $2000/month automatically.
His problem?
As someone who has been involved with most of the components of starting a muse for several years, I thought that I would be a good candidate to see if I can successfully create a muse. Because if I can’t create a successful Pay-Per-Click campaign and I’m certified as an Adwords specialist, isn’t it going to be pretty difficult for someone else? I know there are other things I could do wrong like not choosing a good product or other operational issues, but these are the same mistakes other people can make. I have multiple inherent advantages in that I have been around the industry enough to know what I’m doing.
What a douche. I read the beginning of his blog post and KNEW he was going to have problems. But it gets better…
I thought about doing some testing, but in all honesty, it would be much easier to test out the muse with real products. I have already contracted out a very good Yahoo Design Firm to build the stores and provided them details on what exactly I’m looking for (by creating a mock-up with the features I wanted)…
…I’ve probably spent about 10 hours total so far on these projects and don’t plan to spend too much more. I’ve also spent $2750 on the 2 web site designs and Yahoo programming for them. I hope to be earning $2,000 per month by the end of the year (hopefully sooner) and be profitable in month one.
WHAT? No testing? If you are an Adwords guru, why not spend a couple hundred dollars (instead of the $2750+) to test? The most important thing is to be sure that you have a hungry crowd!
Within a few months, he was lamenting his failure…
I’m sure that I have more knowledge about the steps that were laid out on create a muse than 95% of the people who have read the book. If I can’t do it, I’m not sure how someone else can who has never spent any time in the online business world.
So what did I discover? I think it’s very unlikely that most people can go in and create a muse that would provide a full-time income to support them. The problem people face is the one that most entrepreneurs face when starting a business. If there is money to be made in the market that you’re moving in to, there probably is a competitor there who has taken the easy profit.
Wrong… wrong… wrong. Competitors in a niche are a good thing! That usually tells you that the market is viable. You should be looking for at least THREE competitors when you do your niche market research. And of course you MUST test the viability of your market and product using Adwords.
Especially if you are a hotshot Adwords guru.
It is easy to Google and fnd people that are following the plan outlined in the 4HWW and doing their market research properly. Here is the perfect example from The Displaced African.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Ironically, I agree with what he says here: “I think it’s very unlikely that most people can go in and create a muse that would provide a full-time income to support them. The problem people face is the one that most entrepreneurs face when starting a business.”
However, I completely disagree as to his reasons why. I think the real reason is threefold:
1. The Wrong Plan. “I’ll set up a site, and buy some adwords, and I’ll make a million pounds!”
2. The Wrong Mindset. “I know everything there is to know about internet marketing. I’m a friggin genius!”
3. The Wrong Goals. “I’ll drive traffic to my site and people will buy!”
The ‘right’ versions, to my mind, would be:
1. I’ll set up a site, with multiple landing pages, and test a little using AdWords to refine it, then slowly scale the traffic testing different methods and how they respond, so I get the best conversion rates possible.
2. I know a little about marketing. Therefore I’m going to apply what I know, whilst simultaneously getting the advice and thoughts of other marketers who’re more experienced.
3. I’ll drive traffic, test it, track it, build an email list, get people coming back to the site, build credibility with my audience, and then sell more great products on the back end, whilst always providing great customer service and never selling anything that isn’t awesome.
Weirdly, the second one works better. But it actually takes time and effort. And yet people still shirk the work and wonder why they make no money.
Odd.
Great post Pete. If every marketer followed what you wrote so succinctly, there would be many more people living the Internet Lifestyle!
Starting an Internet-based business will cost you: time, money or both. Once it is self-sustaining, then the profits allow you to outsource the crap you hate or aren’t any good at. Until then it is working weekends and nights to make things happen. It’s sweat equity.
Aloha,
Jason
No worries. And thanks for the email! Sadly, I think the problem is a basic one , rooted in why lots of people buy things like 4HWW and $97 ebooks on how to “Get Rich Quick”. The problem is the sales side says to the person “Buy me and you’ll get rich fast”, whereas the content (which in my experience is often fairly good) is actually telling you “Learn marketing, learn content creation, learn product creation, and then do it over and over again until you get there.”
Sadly, as I said, involves actually DSFW (Doing Some F$^@ing Work), which most people don’t want to do.
I like that acronym: DSFW!
Oh, and the word FUCKING is allowed on my blogs. No need for political correctness.
Aloha,
Jason
Noted for future reference!