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How My Biology Blog Landed Me My Dream Job

by Paul Joseph July 26, 2011 Featured

Yeah, I know. It’s not what you want to hear about on a blog about Blogging and Entrepreneurship. Who comes here to know how to land a job? Isn’t the entrepreneurial dream never to have to work for anyone but yourself? Isn’t it all about working smart and not hard? Can you be an entrepreneur and still have a full time job ? The fact is, for some “entrepreneurs”, the end goal isn’t ONLY to work for yourself. I fit in this category. I’ve started an online business, and the main thing it does is that it supplements the income from my job as a teacher. It gives me the ability to do things I wouldn’t be able to do without my own online business. However, there’s something that I’ve realized that I can’t deny – I’m a teacher, and I LOVE teaching . Not only that, but I love teaching at the university level, and ever since my days in grad school, in the recesses of my mind, I knew that it’s what I wanted to do. My Educational And Teaching Adventures When it comes to education, I’m somewhat of a sucker for punishment. I did a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and went on for a Master’s degree in Neurobiology. I LOVE neurobiology, physiology and all of those kinds of subjects (yes, I’m a nerd). However, there was a significant problem – I HATED the research (or I thought I did). Although my Masters Research involved traveling to the beautiful country of Germany for two summers along with all kinds of cool stories like playing piano for a gospel choir, staying in a Fraternity house for $80 a month with a chef that came in once a week to feed us AWESOME food, and hiking through the Hartz Mountain, it also involved coming back to a small research lab dissecting crickets and doing electrophysiological recordings for up to 14 hours in a day – YUCK! It was at that point that I abandoned my dream of teaching at the University level. I loved the people, but hated the crickets (and for me, that represented the research). When I was offered a job as a High School science and Math teacher, I decided to jump at it. Teaching, without the research – YAY! This is where the 2nd problem came – I was also teaching things I wasn’t passionate about, and it wasn’t at the level I enjoyed. So, I decided to do something about it. I wasn’t qualified to teach at the university level, but I was going to teach University-level stuff whether it was my job or not. How? By blogging of course . . . My Blogging Experience Since 2008, I’ve been actively blogging and have been having a decent level of success. Working part-time on my blog, I have been able to net anywhere between $500 and $3000 per month , much of which has been relatively passive. Not a ridiculously large amount like many others, but enough for me to feel like I know what I’m doing. I learned about SEO, Affiliate Marketing, Traffic Generation, Building a list, and all of those phrases the readers of this blog have come to know and love (hopefully). What I eventually realized was that I could take those same principles and apply them to Biology. So, I started my Biology Website , where I started making short video clips teaching the content I wanted to teach , with no one telling me what I could or couldn’t do, and it was very exciting. The website grew quickly, and my videos are being viewed anywhere between 1,000 and 2,600 times daily , thanks to a lot of what I learned in Gideon Shalwick’s Rapid Video Blogging Course . Not only that, but I started receiving emails, almost every day, from people all over the world who have been using the site and finding a tremendous amount of value in the content. These people included University Students and Professors, Doctors, Pharmacists, Nurses and a variety of other professionals who have been using them as an integral part of what they are doing, or just as a tool to help them remember the things they forgot from Medical School or University. The Bad Story With A Good Ending Back in April, my father was diagnosed with a serious neurological condition, and was sent to a special hospital in Colombia (the country). Because we weren’t sure how things would go, I went down there to spend a month with my family. He was in an induced coma and was paralyzed to where he could hardly move his arms and legs even before going into the coma. While there, my main task was to help him with his Physical therapy. While he was in the coma , I would exercise his arms and legs twice daily, to help speed up his healing process, and when he was taken out of the coma, the exercises continued. During this relatively stressful period in time, there was a topic of discussion that kept coming up. My mother and aunt would constantly tell me that they thought that I should be a Physical Therapist. I actually let them know that it was something I had considered in the past, but that I knew that my calling was to be an educator. However, if there were one Profession I would want to do in the Health Care field, it would be Physical Therapy. At a certain point, with a lot of prayer, and some serious miracles, my dad’s condition took an abrupt turn for the better. We were planning for him to be in the Hospital for a few months, but in about a week, so many good things were happening that he was moved out of intensive care, into a different hospital, then to a hotel, and was then sent back to our country. The details of all of that would take many blog posts to get into, but the short version is that we’re praising God for the things that happened. The Invitation When I got back home from Colombia, there was a letter in my mailbox from the university I attended. It was an invitation to teach Anatomy, Neuroscience and Pathophysiology, in one of the top Doctor of Physical Therapy programs in the United States. When I received the invitation, I was quite surprised. I was not a Physical Therapist, nor did I have a PhD. In the back of my mind, I couldn’t help but think how much of an “interesting coincidence” it was, with everything I had been experiencing. Well, I decided to apply. Yes, I was unqualified on paper, but I thought that my blog would give me some leverage to where they would at least consider me as a candidate. Then I called up one of my former professors for a recommendation. He went in to speak with the chair of the department, and then told me that I should consider taking a trip to the university to talk with the chair of the department, and show him the stuff that I was working on. The Importance Of My Blog Based on the recommendation of my former professor, I made an appointment and went to speak with the department chair. We had a very interesting chat. At the end of our meeting, the following was clearly established: There were over 30 people applying for the job, many of whom were actual Physical Therapists who were more qualified on paper than I was. The department had already decided that they were not going to hire someone with a Biology Background. They wanted someone with a physical therapy background. If I hadn’t come in, I would have never gotten an actual interview. BUT , he was blown away by what I had accomplished online . Based on my blog , he would make sure that, at the very least, I would get an interview. The Interview And Job Offer Then it was time for the interview. I came into a conference room and sat at the head of a conference table that was surrounded by eight highly educated individuals, most of which had PhDs and DPTs (Doctor of Physical Therapy) ready to grill me with their questions. I started off with an opening statement, highlighting my passion for Biology and the success of my website. I let them know what was happening at my site, and you could see their faces light up. Then they asked me all kinds of questions. I answered. I was cool, calm, and collected, with the confidence that whatever happened, I would leave the situation a better person. Now, I know that I didn’t do a great job with building up the suspense in this article. In fact, you knew the result by reading my title. Yes, I did get the job. In fact, it was a unanimous decision which, from what I understand, doesn’t usually happen in these committees. Why did I get the job? For a number of reasons. However, one of the main reasons was that I used my blog to demonstrate authority. In fact, I can proudly say that because of my blog, people all over the world have come to see me as an authority when it comes to biology. Does it mean that my blog is perfect? Nope. In fact, I make mistakes in my videos and get people saying things like “Umm, actually, that’s all wrong!”. Then I go in and correct the mistakes (sometimes). It’s a learning process, and I learn as I go, and then I share what I learn with people all over the world. If you would like to listen to this full story from my podcast, go to the podcast episode on my blog of How I left My Job because of My blog . The Importance Of Blogging Without a shadow of doubt in my mind, I now firmly believe that Blogging is one of the best ways to establish yourself as an authority in your industry/niche today. It’s a way of building credibility , nurturing relationships , and gaining an audience . These are factors that can help anyone accomplish their goals. Your goal might not be to get a better job. In actuality, that wasn’t my goal with my blog either. My plan was to eventually quit my teaching job and do internet marketing full-time. However, that was me settling because I didn’t think that teaching at the university level was plausible. For me, to a certain extent, doing internet marketing full-time would be settling. I know what I’m called to do, and now, because of my blog, I can do it. I don’t know what your goals are, but I want to encourage you to take this blogging thing seriously, because it has the potential to do great things . My Recommendations My first recommendation is that if you don’t have a blog, START ONE NOW . The concept of blogging is still young enough that most people don’t know how to do it well. You’re reading this blog, so you have access to resources to help you get started and to do it well. In other words, you’re at an advantage. At the risk of sounding like I’m writing this because this is Yaro’s blog, I HIGHLY recommend that if you haven’t taken his Blog Mastermind course , you need to get in on it. Without Blog Mastermind, I would NOT be where I am today. It gave me a strong Blogging foundation as a blogger, and has made me comfortable enough to start a blog and establish myself as an authority. The biggest thing is that it helped me to avoid making some of the common mistakes most bloggers make, and that is worth it’s weight in gold. My final recommendation is that if you are into video blogging, check out Gideon’s Rapid Video Blogging Course. It has really done a lot for me, especially when it comes to my Biology blog , and has helped me to go from hardly any video views to over 1,000 daily views in less than two months. Online video is thriving right now, and Youtube is allowing a lot of people to Crush it! Remember that you can’t keep doing the same ‘ol thing and expect to get different results. Well, you can expect it, but that’s the definition of insanity. Take action! Give yourself a kick in the butt and get going. Your Comments Have you started a blog already? If so, are you having success with it? If so, what has blogging done for YOU? Let me know in the comments below! Until Next Time! Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: article, country, health, industry, interview, mind, podcast, small-business, videos, young

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How My Biology Blog Landed Me My Dream Job

by Paul Joseph July 26, 2011 Featured

Yeah, I know. It’s not what you want to hear about on a blog about Blogging and Entrepreneurship. Who comes here to know how to land a job? Isn’t the entrepreneurial dream never to have to work for anyone but yourself? Isn’t it all about working smart and not hard? Can you be an entrepreneur and still have a full time job ? The fact is, for some “entrepreneurs”, the end goal isn’t ONLY to work for yourself. I fit in this category. I’ve started an online business, and the main thing it does is that it supplements the income from my job as a teacher. It gives me the ability to do things I wouldn’t be able to do without my own online business. However, there’s something that I’ve realized that I can’t deny – I’m a teacher, and I LOVE teaching . Not only that, but I love teaching at the university level, and ever since my days in grad school, in the recesses of my mind, I knew that it’s what I wanted to do. My Educational And Teaching Adventures When it comes to education, I’m somewhat of a sucker for punishment. I did a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and went on for a Master’s degree in Neurobiology. I LOVE neurobiology, physiology and all of those kinds of subjects (yes, I’m a nerd). However, there was a significant problem – I HATED the research (or I thought I did). Although my Masters Research involved traveling to the beautiful country of Germany for two summers along with all kinds of cool stories like playing piano for a gospel choir, staying in a Fraternity house for $80 a month with a chef that came in once a week to feed us AWESOME food, and hiking through the Hartz Mountain, it also involved coming back to a small research lab dissecting crickets and doing electrophysiological recordings for up to 14 hours in a day – YUCK! It was at that point that I abandoned my dream of teaching at the University level. I loved the people, but hated the crickets (and for me, that represented the research). When I was offered a job as a High School science and Math teacher, I decided to jump at it. Teaching, without the research – YAY! This is where the 2nd problem came – I was also teaching things I wasn’t passionate about, and it wasn’t at the level I enjoyed. So, I decided to do something about it. I wasn’t qualified to teach at the university level, but I was going to teach University-level stuff whether it was my job or not. How? By blogging of course . . . My Blogging Experience Since 2008, I’ve been actively blogging and have been having a decent level of success. Working part-time on my blog, I have been able to net anywhere between $500 and $3000 per month , much of which has been relatively passive. Not a ridiculously large amount like many others, but enough for me to feel like I know what I’m doing. I learned about SEO, Affiliate Marketing, Traffic Generation, Building a list, and all of those phrases the readers of this blog have come to know and love (hopefully). What I eventually realized was that I could take those same principles and apply them to Biology. So, I started my Biology Website , where I started making short video clips teaching the content I wanted to teach , with no one telling me what I could or couldn’t do, and it was very exciting. The website grew quickly, and my videos are being viewed anywhere between 1,000 and 2,600 times daily , thanks to a lot of what I learned in Gideon Shalwick’s Rapid Video Blogging Course . Not only that, but I started receiving emails, almost every day, from people all over the world who have been using the site and finding a tremendous amount of value in the content. These people included University Students and Professors, Doctors, Pharmacists, Nurses and a variety of other professionals who have been using them as an integral part of what they are doing, or just as a tool to help them remember the things they forgot from Medical School or University. The Bad Story With A Good Ending Back in April, my father was diagnosed with a serious neurological condition, and was sent to a special hospital in Colombia (the country). Because we weren’t sure how things would go, I went down there to spend a month with my family. He was in an induced coma and was paralyzed to where he could hardly move his arms and legs even before going into the coma. While there, my main task was to help him with his Physical therapy. While he was in the coma , I would exercise his arms and legs twice daily, to help speed up his healing process, and when he was taken out of the coma, the exercises continued. During this relatively stressful period in time, there was a topic of discussion that kept coming up. My mother and aunt would constantly tell me that they thought that I should be a Physical Therapist. I actually let them know that it was something I had considered in the past, but that I knew that my calling was to be an educator. However, if there were one Profession I would want to do in the Health Care field, it would be Physical Therapy. At a certain point, with a lot of prayer, and some serious miracles, my dad’s condition took an abrupt turn for the better. We were planning for him to be in the Hospital for a few months, but in about a week, so many good things were happening that he was moved out of intensive care, into a different hospital, then to a hotel, and was then sent back to our country. The details of all of that would take many blog posts to get into, but the short version is that we’re praising God for the things that happened. The Invitation When I got back home from Colombia, there was a letter in my mailbox from the university I attended. It was an invitation to teach Anatomy, Neuroscience and Pathophysiology, in one of the top Doctor of Physical Therapy programs in the United States. When I received the invitation, I was quite surprised. I was not a Physical Therapist, nor did I have a PhD. In the back of my mind, I couldn’t help but think how much of an “interesting coincidence” it was, with everything I had been experiencing. Well, I decided to apply. Yes, I was unqualified on paper, but I thought that my blog would give me some leverage to where they would at least consider me as a candidate. Then I called up one of my former professors for a recommendation. He went in to speak with the chair of the department, and then told me that I should consider taking a trip to the university to talk with the chair of the department, and show him the stuff that I was working on. The Importance Of My Blog Based on the recommendation of my former professor, I made an appointment and went to speak with the department chair. We had a very interesting chat. At the end of our meeting, the following was clearly established: There were over 30 people applying for the job, many of whom were actual Physical Therapists who were more qualified on paper than I was. The department had already decided that they were not going to hire someone with a Biology Background. They wanted someone with a physical therapy background. If I hadn’t come in, I would have never gotten an actual interview. BUT , he was blown away by what I had accomplished online . Based on my blog , he would make sure that, at the very least, I would get an interview. The Interview And Job Offer Then it was time for the interview. I came into a conference room and sat at the head of a conference table that was surrounded by eight highly educated individuals, most of which had PhDs and DPTs (Doctor of Physical Therapy) ready to grill me with their questions. I started off with an opening statement, highlighting my passion for Biology and the success of my website. I let them know what was happening at my site, and you could see their faces light up. Then they asked me all kinds of questions. I answered. I was cool, calm, and collected, with the confidence that whatever happened, I would leave the situation a better person. Now, I know that I didn’t do a great job with building up the suspense in this article. In fact, you knew the result by reading my title. Yes, I did get the job. In fact, it was a unanimous decision which, from what I understand, doesn’t usually happen in these committees. Why did I get the job? For a number of reasons. However, one of the main reasons was that I used my blog to demonstrate authority. In fact, I can proudly say that because of my blog, people all over the world have come to see me as an authority when it comes to biology. Does it mean that my blog is perfect? Nope. In fact, I make mistakes in my videos and get people saying things like “Umm, actually, that’s all wrong!”. Then I go in and correct the mistakes (sometimes). It’s a learning process, and I learn as I go, and then I share what I learn with people all over the world. If you would like to listen to this full story from my podcast, go to the podcast episode on my blog of How I left My Job because of My blog . The Importance Of Blogging Without a shadow of doubt in my mind, I now firmly believe that Blogging is one of the best ways to establish yourself as an authority in your industry/niche today. It’s a way of building credibility , nurturing relationships , and gaining an audience . These are factors that can help anyone accomplish their goals. Your goal might not be to get a better job. In actuality, that wasn’t my goal with my blog either. My plan was to eventually quit my teaching job and do internet marketing full-time. However, that was me settling because I didn’t think that teaching at the university level was plausible. For me, to a certain extent, doing internet marketing full-time would be settling. I know what I’m called to do, and now, because of my blog, I can do it. I don’t know what your goals are, but I want to encourage you to take this blogging thing seriously, because it has the potential to do great things . My Recommendations My first recommendation is that if you don’t have a blog, START ONE NOW . The concept of blogging is still young enough that most people don’t know how to do it well. You’re reading this blog, so you have access to resources to help you get started and to do it well. In other words, you’re at an advantage. At the risk of sounding like I’m writing this because this is Yaro’s blog, I HIGHLY recommend that if you haven’t taken his Blog Mastermind course , you need to get in on it. Without Blog Mastermind, I would NOT be where I am today. It gave me a strong Blogging foundation as a blogger, and has made me comfortable enough to start a blog and establish myself as an authority. The biggest thing is that it helped me to avoid making some of the common mistakes most bloggers make, and that is worth it’s weight in gold. My final recommendation is that if you are into video blogging, check out Gideon’s Rapid Video Blogging Course. It has really done a lot for me, especially when it comes to my Biology blog , and has helped me to go from hardly any video views to over 1,000 daily views in less than two months. Online video is thriving right now, and Youtube is allowing a lot of people to Crush it! Remember that you can’t keep doing the same ‘ol thing and expect to get different results. Well, you can expect it, but that’s the definition of insanity. Take action! Give yourself a kick in the butt and get going. Your Comments Have you started a blog already? If so, are you having success with it? If so, what has blogging done for YOU? Let me know in the comments below! Until Next Time! Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: country, health, industry, internet, interview, podcast, small-business, video, videos

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How My 5 Question Survey Saved Me Time And Resources In Product Development

by Paul Joseph June 9, 2011 Featured

Selling information for money – it’s such a beautiful thing. It’s what so many of us love talking (and blogging) about. It doesn’t take a huge office, lots of inventory, and once it’s done, you can almost set it and forget it – right? Well, it all depends. Allow me to explain . . . Since the beginning of this year, I’ve been working on building my Biology Website . It has been a huge undertaking. After reading Crush It , by Gary Vaynerchuk , I was convinced that the way to grow my website was to release videos almost every weekday (three to five times a week). Each video would teach one concept in biology. I also decided to use YouTube as one of the main ways of getting traffic to my website. It was interesting to see what happened next – my traffic increased significantly and has been increasing every month since I started, with my videos receiving anywhere between 1,000 and 1,500 views every day . I’ve also started getting people sending me testimonials and Thank You emails almost EVERY DAY ( 254 since January – yes, I counted), it’s such an exciting feeling. Then I reached the stage that many internet entrepreneurs reach when they realize that their site is getting decent traffic – the stage where the site is demanding for more resources – a stage that starts to cost more and more money (upgrading servers, outsourcing more tasks, etc). It’s the stage when you know you need to start doing things to start making money. The Great Money-Making Idea Since I was satisfied with the level of traffic I was getting, and with the amount of value I was able to share with the world, it was time to take it to the next level – releasing a paid product . I had many ideas about different products I could release and eventually narrowed it down to what I thought was the best idea – I could take all of my free YouTube videos and create a DVD package. After consulting with an internet marketing friend of mine, we both came to the conclusion that it was the best idea for the following reasons: I didn’t have to create anything new in order to have the product. Since it was based on videos that were already made, all I needed to do was re-export the videos in a form that could go onto DVD. Using a service like Kunaki , you don’t even need to purchase the DVDs in advance. They ship the DVD directly to your customer for you at a low cost of $1 per DVD. So if you charge $97 per DVD, you make a SWEET profit of $96. DVDs generally have a higher perceived value than digital downloads. As I made more free videos, I could release more DVDs in the future, allowing me to have multiple products. Doesn’t that just sound like a great deal? Wouldn’t it make a lot of sense for me to develop a product like that? Yep, that’s what I thought too, until I made a quick decision to do something very simple that proved to be very valuable. What did I do? I’m glad you asked . . . If You Want To Know – Ask! Right before I got ready to start putting together the DVD package, I decided to send out a short survey to my audience. I wanted to know whether they would be more inclined to buying a DVD product or a Digital product. My assumption was that they would prefer to get a DVD, and boy was I wrong. The questions on the survey were the following: Do you think it would be valuable to make a DVD series available? If you had to choose between having a physical copy (DVD) or a digital copy (Download) of the Interactive Biology videos, which would you choose? If we made DVDs available (over time), would you buy a copy? How much would you pay to be able to get a full Series (approximately 40 videos): The full, mobile AND MP3 versions? If you could choose between purchasing a Set package at one set price (i.e. a Nervous System Package, Energy Package, etc.) vs a Subscription where you get immediate access to ALL Videos as soon as they are released (full, mobile and MP3), which would you choose? This survey answered a number of questions that have helped me shape my product that I’ll be releasing over the next few weeks. Allow me to share some of those important answers with you: When I saw these results, I was very happy. No, it didn’t tell me that 88% of my audience would actually buy, but at least I had a good idea that they thought the idea was worth looking into. I’m not sure why these results surprised me, but I was indeed surprised. I was thinking that most people would find more value in a physical product, but the results indicated something different – only 9% was in favor of just a DVD. Everyone else were in favor of either all digital or a combination of both. This showed me that if I were to choose one to start with, digital would be the way to go. When it really comes down to it, knowing that my audience thinks that having a product is a good idea doesn’t paint a full picture. What really matters is whether or not they would actually buy. This told me that 62 of the people that took the survey would at least consider spending money. This was a very important question for me. I was struggling to decide on a price point. Seriously, I was. I can’t tell you how much time I’ve wasted discussing this question with one of my Internet Marketing buddies over the phone. Now, I know that 74% of the people who took the survey would at least think about paying anywhere between $47 and $197 to get a product relating to my content. The results to this question really amazed me. I’d always thought about adding a paid membership component to my website. However, I always told myself that it wouldn’t work for this non-internet-marketing crowd. Now I know that 55% of the people who completed this survey would at least think about paying a subscription fee to access the resources I could easily make available. Why Was The Survey Such A Good Idea? It gave me actionable data . I no longer have to guess at what is more likely to work. I can take action based on actual data as opposed to my thoughts and feelings. It saved me a lot of time . Maybe it’s just me, but sometimes I can suffer from analysis paralysis – where I try to analyze every aspect of what I’m trying to do, so I waste time not taking action. Now, the decision-making process took a much shorter time and I can spend time building the product. My audience gets to be a part of the decision-making process . My site is not all about me providing information. The goal is to build a strong community, with active participants. By allowing them to take part, it encourages them to take ownership of the community, and that’s exactly what I want. Tips For Running A Successful Survey There are certain things you can do to enhance the likelihood that you will get a decent response to your survey. Here are some very useful tips: Keep it Simple. Don’t try to answer every question you might have in one survey. In my survey, I did five questions. That’s the most I would do in any survey. Long surveys can be intimidating. Use a service like Survey Monkey or Polldaddy . They both give you pretty detailed results and stats. I chose to go with Polldaddy because they have a plugin for wordpress that easily allows you to embed your poll into a blog post. With their free service, you can analyze up to 100 responses to each survey. Promote it in various ways for maximal response. I posted a blog post, sent it to my list, shared it on my Facebook Fan Page and made a YouTube Video about it (I’ve taken down the blog post because the poll is now closed). Be Human. In creating your surveys, let people know the real deal and ask them for their opinion. I straight up told them that we need money to grow the site, but wanted to make sure to do it in a way that is most beneficial to everyone. So What Did I Decide To Do? I decided to set up a membership site that will provide video downloads in two formats (for computer and mobile device), in addition to an MP3 that they can take along with them and listen to even while they are driving in their cars. It will be a paid membership of $47 for six months . Yes, I know it’s a low price point, but I want as many people to benefit from it as possible without having a high barrier of entry. Plus, I know that a significant amount of my audience is at least willing to consider paying that price. I will also produce DVDs, but not right now. The plan is to eventually make them and offer them at a discounted rate to upgraded members. Do I know that it will be very successful? No, I don’t. The fact is – a Paying customer is only a paying customer when they’ve actually paid for something. Filling out a free survey saying that you will spend money is much easier than actually spending the money. But you know what – that’s what the “Entrepreneur’s Journey” is all about. What I do know is that I will gain experience from what I’m attempting to do, and I will report back to you in as much detail as I did in this post. Why? Because I want us to learn together. It’s much more fun that way Your Comments So what do you think? Do you think doing a survey was a good idea? Did I make the right decision based on the survey? Have you used surveys to help you decide what to do in your online business? How did it work for you? If you haven’t used them, how do you think it would help you to start? Let me know in the comments below. Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

Tagged as: book, customer, internet, money, online, small-business, videos, young

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How Helping Newbies Led To Big Profits And A Closing Down Sale (Discount Price Ends Friday)

by Paul Joseph May 4, 2011 Featured

One the factors I like to hammer home to people when they create any kind of information, whether it’s blog or website content, membership content, or any kind of paid info product, is not to underestimate how much of your audience truly are beginners . Everyone starts as a beginner. If you are teaching something that requires any kind of practice or knowledge to become proficient in it, then you have a market of beginners ready to be helped. In growing industries, new people become beginners every day, especially online as more people to turn the web as a source of training resources. When I launched Blog Mastermind in 2007 I intended to create a course that would guide beginners through a process of learning how to build and eventually profit from a successful blog. I remember writing the first few lessons of the course, imagining what it would be like to be at the other end, reading my lesson having no experience at all with a blog. I referenced back to my own beginner phase and attempted to cover all the most important things I had learned that beginners need to know. I think I did a pretty good job of handholding people through the starting phase of blogging in Blog Mastermind (so much so that some people in the first test group quit the program early because they thought it was too basic, forcing me to create a second stream of advanced lessons to keep more experienced people interested long enough to reach the later lessons in the main stream of training). Despite this, I felt that there was one significant limitation that I wasn’t addressing that I knew many beginners wanted – I didn’t offer any video training to show people how to install a blog. Become A Blogger Is Born Although I initially said no to an offer from a reader of my blog to purchase the becomeablogger.com domain name, eventually I came back and purchased it once I had an idea how to use it. It is a good domain name, with good cadence, and a very clear message about what the site is about, given the plans I had for it. My idea was to release videos to show people how to install WordPress, which is something that definitely becomes easier to learn when you can visually see the process presented by someone else. Writing is my strong point, and although I had rudimentary camtasia video recording skills at the time, I didn’t feel I could do a good enough job to create the kind of polished and easy to follow video style to teach people how to set-up their first blog. I didn’t really want to spend the time doing it either, so I decided finding a person to create the videos was the way to go. Enter Gideon Shalwick . Gideon interviewed me in video format, we made friends over a period of a few weeks, and eventually I asked if he would be interested in the becomeablogger.com project. He quoted $5,000 to create the ten videos we talked about and I agreed. It was fortuitous that Gideon, who was learning a lot about online video at the time because it is his passion, was very capable of creating the kind of videos I wanted, and he also happens to have the perfect kind of voice and tone I was looking for – like a preschool teacher explaining to children what to do. I don’t mean this to sound condescending in anyway, but when creating content for beginners it is best you pretend you are dealing with children so you really do cover every little step with basic instructions. This is exactly what Gideon did with the ten introductory videos. We didn’t assume our students had any existing tech knowledge and just wanted to watch our videos and copy what we did and then get a result. The videos were challenging to produce and several times Gideon had to redo a video, but eventually the job was finished. Gideon also produced the very first Becomeablogger.com blog design to host the videos, which was one of the last times he did any web design work. We launched the site, I emailed my lists and told my blog readers about the videos and then sat back and watched what happened. It didn’t take long to see that we had a hit on our hands as the videos reached over 30,000 views in a short period of time, and we weren’t using YouTube as a traffic source at all. It was growing organically through word of mouth. Become A Blogger Goes Premium Due to the success of the free videos Gideon and I decided to team up and form a partnership to create a premium version of the videos that we would sell. We decided to follow my launch formula and market the course using the same methods I used to successfully launch Blog Mastermind (by then I had learned enough about launches that I knew the best format to promote our new course without making previous mistakes). When coming up with a new product it is really important you know who your target customer is , because your offer is derived from this knowledge. If you get your offer wrong, you won’t make sales. I was concerned that Become A Blogger Premium would be perceived as too similar to Blog Mastermind , since both courses fundamentally teach the same thing – how to build a profitable blog . Because of this I wanted to clearly define what made each course unique and different from the other. Become A Blogger was initially created to meet the needs of absolute beginners who want to do the technical things themselves by following step-by-step videos. Blog Mastermind has very few videos, most of the course is text (with audio versions of each lesson included) and I recommend that people outsource technology rather than do it themselves (and hence do not teach how to do it yourself in this course). This is how I saw the key difference, and as a result we would market Become A Blogger to a person who is an absolute beginner AND doesn’t have the money to outsource, so would rather learn how to do the necessary technical steps through video training. Despite doing my best to clarify the positioning of Become A Blogger Premium in our marketing materials I wasn’t sure at all how the course would sell. Gideon and I talked about taking on 100 members as a base level of “success”, where we would be happy to continue to build the course (we launched with about 10% to 20% of the course complete, as per my launch formula, the rest we built along with the first group of members). Anymore more than 100 people would be great of course, but I didn’t want to set expectations too high. We created the launch materials, went through the prelaunch process and opened the program at a charter price of $27/month for six months, raising it to $47 a month after the launch period was over (about two weeks if I recall). Much to my jubilant surprise, at the end of the opening campaign we topped over 700 members, which was incredibly successful, much better than I thought it would do. Soon after we added another 400 members even after the price rise when we conducted another marketing campaign. Within a matter of months we had created a course with over 1,000 paying members and an income stream in excess of $20,000 a month after affiliate commissions and expenses came out. Obviously I was pretty stoked at how successful the course was, and it went on from there to grow to over 2000 members and become the most successful program I’ve ever created based on total number of users. Don’t Underestimate The Beginners This experience taught me several things – Video is a viable and popular format for creating training products. Giving beginners the very basic steps to learn how to do something you might consider easy (and free to learn elsewhere online), is something you can charge money for, especially if you packet it up in a professional presentation. There are a lot of beginners out there – many more than you probably think there are. All these lessons can be applied to your situation. Even if there are plenty of free training resources, or other paid beginner training programs out there, don’t believe that you can’t create a product to target this market. You can pick a new media format or use your unique style or method and focus on beginners and create something unique that people will buy. Become A Blogger Premium Is Closing The story I just told you relates to a period from 2008 to 2009. Become A Blogger has since stayed perpetually available, although we did not do any more significant launch campaigns. Instead we focused on smaller promotions with individual affiliates and relied on existing traffic streams, such as this blog, to attract new members. The sign-up rate dropped significantly after the launches were over (I’ve yet to come across a better marketing method than a launch campaign, but they do take quite a bit of work), however the business continued to deliver a steady, albeit smaller income stream bolstered by affiliate income when we promoted other products and services. Gideon and I decided this year that it’s time to put to rest the current program because we are both focusing on other areas. We will likely replace it with something to service the same market, but that won’t be for a while. The course as it currently is, will be retired this week, and will not reopen. The program however remains full of great training videos, and although some of it has dated, much of the content is still very viable – especially the fundamental strategy videos I created on how to grow traffic and monetize your blog . As one last hurrah before we shut the doors on this course forever, we are offering a hefty discount on the course if you want to grab it before it closes. We’ve knocked over 30% off the price of the premium program, so you can grab the complete course for one payment of $147 (no monthly payments required). There is also an upgrade offer to bundle Blog Mastermind with Become A Blogger Premium (that’s definitely all you will ever need to know about making money with blogs in these two programs), which is also discounted at $200 off the original price . These are both one time fees, not monthly fees, and you get immediate access to the entire program after purchase. The course content will remain available to all new and past members, so although the doors to join will close, all the materials will be online for a long time still, so you have plenty of time to study the resources. You can find out more and join now at the special discount price here – http://www.becomeablogger.com/signup/ Don’t forget the course and sale price closes this Friday, 6th of May at midnight eastern US time . There won’t be any exceptions, once Become A Blogger Premium closes, that is it. Bonuses If You Join By Friday Gideon and I talked at the start of this week about what additional goodies we could give you as enticements to join (you have to have bonuses during a closing campaign!) and we came up with the following, which I think is a pretty cool bonus pack. You score the following SEVEN extra bonuses if you join Become A Blogger Premium during this closing down promo: 1. The Definitive Guide To SEO For Bloggers (by Yaro Starak) This is a comprehensive guide to search engine optimization specifically for bloggers, including 75 link building techniques and my methodology for dominating search results with a blog. 2. SEO In 2011 – Interview With David Jenyns David runs a search engine marketing company in Melbourne and thus has to keep up to date with all the latest SEO techniques. I grabbed him and asked what are the current SEO strategies used today and what has changed (this is a new unreleased interview, April 2011). 3. A Preview Copy of The 2-Hour Work Day Report (by Yaro Starak) This is my latest report, fresh of the press, 86 pages long, due for release later this year. If you want an advanced copy, this is the only way to get it. 4. The Ultimate Guide To Selecting The Perfect Video Camera (by Gideon Shalwick) This guide will save you a TON of time and money. It will help you select the exact camera you need for your exact situation, and prevent you from making costly mistakes! 5. YouTube Hacks For Building Your Email List Presentation (by Gideon Shalwick) This is a 90 minute long presentation Gideon did at an event where people paid 5k+ just to attend! Inside, you’ll learn all the tricks that Gideon uses for building his email lists in the tens of thousands using YouTube. 6. Six Figure Launch Email Sequence Swipe File (by Yaro Starak) This is 96 page PDF contains every email I sent for the prelaunch and launch of Blog Mastermind for the very first release, which netted over 400 members and created a six figure income. Not only do you get the emails, you also get hand-written commentary from me about why I sent each email when I did (you can copy these emails for your launch, or just take bits as you please). 7. Interview With Katie Freiling On The Power Of Social Media Inside this interview, Katie reveals how to easily build your tribe who loves spending money with you, using the latest social media strategies. You can order the course and score all these bonuses here – http://www.becomeablogger.com/signup/ We will send out the bonuses to all new members next week after the doors close. Thanks again for supporting our work and please please please , make sure after buying these products you take action and do something with them. I look forward to seeing you as one of our new members. Yaro Starak Blogging Since 2004 Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here

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