Hello, friends! |
In case you missed the last edition, here it is. We’re back to Tuesdays now. |
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Here's what's inside: |
Weekly Wrap Business Ideas Growth Hack Check-In 1 Question for you…
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Weekly Wrap |
The best content from around the web |
⛰ A 3-step system for achieving your most ambitious goals |
📈 26 Truths to Make Your Business Grow |
📣 A request for a startup |
📚 Making $60k from Selling eBooks on Amazon |
🏕 Setting up $1500/month remote camping sites |
🎥 A Framework for getting to 600k Subs on YouTube. |
🔖 Don’t Miss: Last week’s value-packed edition |
Business Ideas |
Business ideas I like, explored |
Thanks for the feedback from last week. I’ve included a short section called “Getting Started”. |
This is what everyone seems to battle with: Going from 0 to 1. How to start, where to start? |
Inside you’ve got: |
An actual business idea you can start with steps to go from 0 to 1. A framework you can use to generate endless business ideas (with 7 examples) A break-down of a successful existing business (and how you can copy it to start your own)
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[1]: Romance Novels |
Sex sells. It’s a massive industry. |
Most are when emotions take hold and the rational part of our brains is left at home. |
Look at this search volume for "erotic short stories": |
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21k monthly searches in the US alone. |
Having a look at the top-ranking site for that search term… “Literotica” |
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The search volume hitting the site is nothing short of mind-blowing. |
So how do you take on this behemoth? |
The Idea |
Create a subscription-based erotic sex story newsletter for [insert your niche here]. |
You need to identify a portion of the Literotica search traffic that you can: |
Create content for that they will like, and Be able to take that search volume away from Literotica (or other competitors).
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Point 1 depends solely on you. |
Point 2 means you need to find a niche with enough search volume, but a low enough competition ranking that you can take their traffic with a relatively low domain reputation. |
Getting Started |
Decide on a niche you want to serve. Go specific, like… “Single women over 40”. By going specific, you have a much higher chance of appealing to that audience. Use a free search volume tool like Google Keyword Planner or a free trial of Ubersuggest, Mangools or other. Find a domain name that’ll match your audience. Instantdomainsearch.com is a good place to start. Unless you’re going after a specific country’s search traffic, try and find a .com domain. If you’re battling to come up with a name for your company, use Namelix.com to generate some ideas. Get your website setup. Install WordPress on your domain (comes free) and get a free or cheap WordPress theme that’ll suit your audience. Install YoastSEO and make sure you’re checking all the right SEO boxes from the get-go. Do a proper site outline and plan based on your target keywords. Here’s a good tutorial on site URL structure. Register your site on Google Search Console. Get your Google Analytics setup so you can track user behaviour and acquisition. Start writing (or outsource writing using Upwork - if you have the capital). Aim for a cadence of at least 1 new story per week when you start. Ideally aim for 3+. Distribute. As much time as you spend writing, you should spend on getting your writing in front of your desired audience. Go to places where your audience hangs out. Quora, Facebook Groups, Forums, Cross post on Medium etc. Guest post. Start guest posting on other websites with an overlapping niche. Offer to write stories for free in exchange for a backlink to a piece of your content. This will build your Domain Authority, and you’ll be able to slowly go after more and more competitive keywords (with more search volume).
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Once you’ve got some traffic (might take up to 6 months, depending on your niche, quality of writing, and outreach efforts), you’ll be able to start monetizing it. |
You’ll have a big base of written content that people would see as valuable. Keep the majority of your content free, and then put a paywall on the most exclusive content. |
And away you go! |
[2] Framework: Premium Version of X |
One of the best frameworks for business ideas is “The premium version of x”. |
Often, premium, can also just mean “Done for you”, instead of “You do it yourself”. |
An example: Tinder. Tinder provides the platform, you do the matching yourself. They take no risk on the transaction being successful. |
The premium version of Tinder does the matching for you, reducing: |
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Tawkify is the premium version of Tinder, starting at $99/mo for the basic DIY version, with concierge packages starting from $5k (!). |
So, what other niches can you apply the “Premium version of x” framework to? |
Here are some ideas: |
Fitness/health coaching: Get a health coach that takes care of everything. Meal prep & delivery. Exercise plans. Exercise coaching. Snack planning. Impromptu check-ins etc. Premium trip and travel planning: Take care of everything from the moment you clock off work to the moment you get back home. Book flights, choose best accommodation, find the best places to visit, take care of Visa’s etc. Premium grocery delivery: You tell them what you/your family likes to eat, they do all the meal planning, grocery shopping, planning and cooking. Meals ready at a certain time of day. Kids lunches packed for school. House hunting: You tell the estate agent what you’re looking for. They find a suite of houses and present them to you. You have first dibs on the houses (before they are listed) because you pay a premium upfront fee. You get personalized home walkthroughs all on the same day. Premium home decor: Exclusivity is everything to wealthy people. They want what other people can’t have. Build a premium service that curates one-of-a-kind pieces of furniture, decor and art that can be used to furnish homes. Partner with high-ticket construction companies for referrals. Premium pet care: People are spending $$$ on their pets post-pandemic. Create a one-stop shop for pet care. A place where people not only don’t feel bad for leaving their pets behind, but get excited to take their pets to. Ultra-luxury pet accommodation, complete with groomers, personalized daily training, live-streamed always-on video feeds, allergy testing, play-mate pairing, on-site vets, personalized toys - the whole shebang.
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Remember, where there’s a service that exists for the masses, there’s an opportunity to do it 10X better at a 100X price for a more exclusive client. |
[3] Successful Business: Skills Arbritrage |
Shepherd is basically a recruitment firm that takes advantage of the shift to remote work and an international pool of potential employees. |
They find and vet workers from the Philippines who get paid between $5 and $15 USD hourly and place them in US-based businesses. |
Their founder @Marshall (super impressive entrepreneur) says the business does 8 figures now, after launching in late 2019. Pretty crazy growth. |
Framework |
Take something that’s “been done that way forever”, and reimagine it. |
What do you come across on a daily basis that is the same as it was when your parents were kids? |
There’s an opportunity ripe for disruption. |
Given the tools we have at our disposal, how would this look different? |
The Idea |
So how can you apply this idea yourself? |
Take a niche in any business. Can be any department in a traditional business. Accounting, marketing, sales, assistants, customer support. Choose one you are familiar with. Offer it as a done-for-you solution. The business owner doesn’t have to worry about hiring inefficient employees or the headache of dealing with employees. You do the A-Z of that department. Create leverage by hiring talent internationally, and being hyperfocused on being the best in your niche. Better than any single employee could be.
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Getting Started |
Find a niche you’re familiar with in a business. Pick a very specific task or problem that you yourself have experienced, or witnessed. Cold email 50 business owners who you think would use something like that:
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“Hi first_name, I’m about to launch company_name. We help you your_value_proposition so that you can focus on running your business. We do it at a fraction of the cost of a traditional department_name department name because we specialize in it. Our launch price is launch_price. It’ll go up in a few weeks time. Does it make sense for you to explore further? PS: We have a 100% money-back guarantee if you don’t like the service we provide.” |
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Take their feedback and alter your value prop until you find a good fit. Don’t stop until you have hit 100 cold conversations. Do whatever you can to get on as many calls as possible. On those calls, ask questions. Find out as much as you can about the client. If they don’t have problems with their accounting, where do they? Be prepared for your idea to be challenged, mould and potentially fail.
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Keys to Success |
The right partners. Marshall partnered with Nick Huber early on who drove a ton of traffic to their site. Find strategic partners. Quality. If the employees weren’t delivering, business owners wouldn’t be creating referrals or going back for repeat business. The value prop delivers though. Turn your clients into referrers. Ask for referrals and reviews. Social proof is a big thing when the switching cost is high. The business owner wants to be as certain as possible he is making a good decision.
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🚀 Growth Hack |
A growth hack I came across this week |
When growth stalled in the early days of ConvertKit, Nathan Barry turned to direct sales to get his MRR back on track. |
After interacting with the prospect’s content (so you weren’t reaching out 100% cold), Nathan would send an email like this: |
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There’s no push for a direct sale, and you find out more about the underlying problems your target customers face. |
The next step was getting them on a call and addressing any major objections. |
In the oft-used words of Paul Graham, in the early days of your business “Do things that don’t scale”, as you overcome inertia. |
👋 Check In |
This section is a broad product update to give you the inside scoop on how things are going in my businesses. |
Projects: |
SnapSessions: Small product that I'm designing to scratch my own itch. |
Not much progress this week. Focus has been on the two agencies and getting their processes up and runnig properly. Might get a chance next week. |
Last Week: $0 Current: $0 Goal: 🎯 $500 by 1 April
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Skippa: Software and System implementations for SMBs. |
Operational progress this last week. Continued with current projects, put in place a lot of systems and did a lot of research on potential clients. |
This week, I’m focused on growth. I’m starting up my cold outreach properly. 5 hyper-personalized cold emails a day for the next 5 work days. |
Will share the results, process, and a video walkthrough next week! |
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Content Subscription Agency [Now called DamnGoodSEO]: Productized SEO content subscription & strategy on-demand |
Similar to Skippa, I did this in conjunction. Marketing processes in place, I’m now focusing on outreach. Same input: 5 hyper-personalized cold emails a day with the intention of booking calls and/or business. |
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Growing on Twitter: Decided to stop sleeping on Twitter and make an attempt to grow my audience there. |
Bit more of a focus this week. I’ve got a good backlog of content scheduled, and a reliable system for engagement. |
SnapSessions is going to be a really cool tool to help me do this. Stay tuned! |
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Shameless plug: Get info on all things business ideas, real-time lessons & systems here… |
Last Week's Wins: |
Completed Skippa website: heyskippa.com Completed DamnGoodSEO website: damngoodseo.co Started cold outreach in earnest. Still building up to a decent cadence. Small win on Twitter (+60 followers) from a well-timed tweet reply. 95% done with the sale of GiveMeGiftIdeas.com after listing on Acquire.com the week before.
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Plans for This Week: |
Finish SnapSessions build, start using myself(Behind schedule here) Ramp-up outbound for Skippa (systemize the process so I am not involved) Formalize outbound for DamnGoodSEO Continue curation of Signal startup database Continue Skippa agency work Start backlink building for heyskippa.com
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1 Question for You… |
How can I make this 10X more valuable for you? What am I missing? What do you desperately want to see? What would make you look forward to opening this every Tuesday? |
Hit reply and let me know, please? |
or… |
What would you prefer more of?(Please click to vote - this helps me build a more valuable resource for you) |
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