A Deeper Look into Project Payday

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It’s been about a year and a half since I wrote my first Project Payday review. Since then, it has grown to be quite popular. In fact, it’s the fifth most popular post here at I’ve Tried That. I have since been called a number of names for not actively trying the program, but still offering my opinion on it. Well, we decided to take a deeper look into the program. To do so, we brought in Cheryl to act as a secret agent for I’ve Tried That. Her article is a brief look into what you receive when you sign up for Project Payday. Cheryl has agreed to do a followup post later on with more details on her specific earnings. Stay tuned.

A Look into Project Payday

When I was offered the opportunity to try Project PayDay, I figured why not? I had nothing to lose, right? So many people had commented on the original blog entry that they were making money through PPD, there had to be something to it.

I signed up on 01/07/2009 and paid the $34.95 fee to join. I was provided with a login and password to access Project Payday’s training site with resource materials. Throughout the signup process and training I was offered the opportunity to purchase additional materials such as step-by-step video tutorials or reference books for additional charges (usually $19.95 or more), but I opted to take the traditional route.

So, what is Project Payday?

Project PayDay (PPD) is a resource for finding out how to make money by working those “Click Here for a Free iPod” or “You Can Win a Free Wii” banner ads you see everywhere. PPD teaches you how to make money by becoming a paid referral for someone who wants that iPod or that Wii, and eventually becoming someone who pays for those referrals and cashes in on the profits from these free items.

The instruction manual is clear and concise, with videos peppered throughout to make some concepts more clear. Project Payday has a 3-step process, called “methods” that claim to get you making money quickly and keep you making money.

Method 1 is where everyone starts. The manual explains that to get started making money, you must participate in a referral forum. It gives you several to choose from, and even shows you what to do to start managing trades and “going green” to earn money right away. You log in to the forum, find someone who is “buying” referral opportunities (Buyer) and selling your services. You set up a trade agreement with the Buyer through the built-in trade manager, and then they give you their referral link. You use the link to log in to the site and complete enough offers or credits to “go green” or show up on the Buyer’s list as a qualified referral. Say the Buyer wants to get a $400 television from one of these sites. If they need just 4 qualified referrals, they could pay 4 people $25 each to sign up and become a qualified referral, and they’ve just paid $100 for a $400 TV. This is where you make money – you offer to be a referral, go on the site, sign up and complete the offers required. Once you have met the requirements, you let the Buyer know, and they verify it with the site, then pay you the asking price for the referral.

Sounds easy, right? There is a catch. In order to become a qualified referrer, you must sign up a certain number of offers. There are many to choose from, including makeup, pantyhose, credit reporting services, money making services, jewelry, coffee and more. Some of the offers are free to try, while others can cost from $1 – $50 or more, depending on what you are purchasing. This is usually an introductory offer, and must be cancelled within 7 days in order to keep recurring monthly fees or dues from being charged to your credit card. These fees can range from $7.95 – $79.95 or more per month.

The trick is, you can’t cancel too quickly, or you might end up “going red” and being forced to return any money you’ve earned back to the Buyer. If you sign up for the trial offer and cancel it a day or two later, you risk losing your referral pay. Most Buyers recommend cancelling on day 6 of a trial offer, just to be safe.

It sounds simple enough: earn money just to go on a site and be a referral. Just remember that nearly every referral fee will cost you something, whether it’s a trial fee, a membership fee, or the like. And if you don’t keep meticulous records of your transactions, you can end up paying through the nose when those monthly dues and fees start piling up. A $25 referral fee on a site could end up costing you $5, $10, even the whole $25 or more.

You also can’t just stay at Method 1 forever and continue to make money. Every site has numerous offers, but all sites have virtually the same offers. In addition, some offers are actually the same company. For instance, there might be six different credit report offers on one site, but they are all the same company. Try to sign up for two or three of them and you’ll get rejected for duplication. At that point you might as well move on to Method 2.

Method 2 builds on Method 1. You’ve already signed up for several sites to “go green” and earned cash. Now you become the Buyer, buying greens from people who are working Method 1. You pay them to complete offers for you, usually a small percentage of the amount of the product or money you are receiving from the referral site. For instance, you want a $500 PayPal cash payout. If that payout requires 10 referrals, and you pay $20 per referral, then you’re paying $200 for a $500 payout, for a profit of $300. Not too bad. Just one of those a week will net you about $1200 per month in extra income.

Method 3 builds from Method 2. You go from buying referrals for cash to buying referrals for other items like electronics, which you can then sell. This method is described by Project PayDay as somewhat more lucrative than the other methods, since electronics may have a higher profit margin per referral than cash.

The Bottom Line

Project Payday itself is an information source. You find out where to go to make the money, and what to do once you get there. (Our recommendation: Your time is better spent at a free site, like SwagBucks, where they offer $5.00 just for signing up.) Once you’ve gotten comfortable with Method 1 and 2, PPD even provides a mentor or two that can help you increase your income.

PPD also keeps in regular contact with you, e-mailing once or twice a week with “special offers” just like the ones you’ve been signing up for. These are generally offers such as a $1.97 trial offer on how to make money on eBay, and PPD refunds the trial fee back to you. Of course, there is no mention of the exorbitant monthly fees that program charges (for which PPD most certainly receives a kickback).

Money can be made with Project Payday, but the work is tedious, time-consuming, detail-intensive and risky. You must provide personal information (including your phone number), thus increasing your spam e-mails, junk mail and phone calls. You must also provide credit card information to sites that may not be strictly legitimate. Failure to note the details of the offers and keep track of orders and cancellations can result in significant financial losses.

I have been working the PPD program for the last 3 weeks and will report what actually happened in my next article, including how much money I made. Yes! I did make money.

Click here to read our third and final update on Project Payday.

Cheryl is a writer in Southwest Florida.
You can read her blog at: http://www.cliopatra.net/

Our Review of Autoresponder Madness by Andre Chaperon

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If you’ve been developing your email marketing campaigns and are wondering how to best approach your subscriber list and generate sales from it, please read through our review of Autoresponder Madness.

In a nutshell, Autoresponder Madness is a product offered by Andre Chaperon and has been around since 2009. So, there is quite a bit of history to this product, as well as content. As for Andre, he is and has been an online marketer since 2004.

What is Autoresponder Madness?

Autoresponder Madness (ARM) is an 18-lesson email marketing course designed for online and affiliate marketers who already have products to sell and have an email list of at least 1,000 subscribers. Granted, that shouldn’t stop other folks from signing up to ARM and benefiting from it, but the assumption here is that you are ready to go with subscribers and are looking to improve your Earning Per Subscriber (EPS).

Incidentally, if you are still in the process of list building, Andre offers the following free resource here.

Andre notes that many marketers make an average EPS of $1/subscriber/month. That’s a good earning rate if the marketer has a huge subscriber list; however, for those marketers with just a few thousand, or just around a thousand, this earning rate is too low to make a decent living.

Andre proposes that you can significantly raise your EPS if you emulate his email creation and broadcast tactics.

What are these email tactics?

1. Create customer personas.

Andre teaches you how to create customer personas, or avatars, in order to better identify your target customers and what they are looking for. This requires some general emailing (known as manual broadcasts) to your entire list- at least at first. Based on who responds to your emails, you immediately go into step 2.

2. Segment your list.

As your subscriber list clicks on your broadcast emails, you immediately segment those clicking individuals out of the general pool of subscribers. Those segmented individuals are channeled directly to step 3.

3. Create Soap Opera Sequences (SOSs).

Once you’ve collected enough individuals for your segments, you weave what Andre calls Soap Opera Sequences, or SOSs, to hook them into buying your product. SOSs are specialized emails that tell a story but leave the ending of that story for the next (and then the next) email. In this way, a soap opera-style email sequence is launched that keeps readers coming back to your emails as they are sent out on a regular basis.

As readers continually click on and open those SOSs, they become comfortable with you and your (eventual) offer. You are seen less and less as a marketer and more as a trusted resource.

Incidentally, SOSs are not for those email marketers who are reluctant to write- Andre holds up an example SOS that consists of 27 emails!

4. Create splinter SOSs.

Those subscribers who follow along your initial SOS and who eventually click on one of your offers are segmented into a new SOS. At this point in time, you know you are dealing with highly motivated buyers who are very likely to purchase your offer. Andre states that one of his splinter SOSs resulted in a 31+% conversion rate.

So, you direct these highly motivated buyers to a new SOS that focuses on the product they clicked on. That’s where you’re most likely going to get your amazing conversion rate, and even if you have just a few hundred subscribers.

What else does ARM offer?

1. Customer persona insights.

Having been in the online marketing field since 2004, Andre provides lots of insights into how people buy online and the psychological process they follow when doing so. He presents lots of examples here and how to take advantage of consumer psychology.

2. Product Launch Sequences (PLSs).

For one-off products that aren’t sold as a series or by subscription, Andre provides a blueprint on how to sell them via the Product Launch Sequence or PLS. He also teaches you how to intersperse your SOS with a PLS so that your subscribers are slowly drawn into wanting your offer.

3. Loads of case studies and example emails.

If you’re not sure just how to construct your own SOS or what content you should include, don’t fret: Andre fleshes out his 18-lesson course with numerous examples of how other marketers generated their SOSs and what copy they used. It’s very easy to see how this copy can be repurposed into your own emails and offers.

The Bottom Line

For online and affiliate marketers who already have an email subscriber list and want to squeeze more money from it, Andre’s ARM is an ideal fit. To be fair, the course does require significant effort from the marketer in terms of generating several detailed auto-responder emails and segmenting the audience. You will need to have an auto-responder program like AWeber, for example.

However, if you are looking to increase your EPS, then the ARM course may be just what you need.

7 Ways to Build a Community & Increase Repeat Visitors

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Often, internet marketers tend to look at their traffic numbers and focus solely on one metric: how many people are visiting the site.

Sure, some people are analytics demons and monitor their stats in fine detail, but I’m pretty sure a lot of people out there don’t.

One juicy bit of information that you may miss is the New vs. Returning visitor metric.

This statistic tells you how many of your visitors in the current time segment have been on your site before.

While it’s not a 100% accurate figure due to people clearing cookies etc, it does give you a decent idea on your returning visitor figures.

Why do I need to know this?

It’s simple: it’s easier to sell to people who know and trust you and your website.

If the vast majority of your traffic is a first time visitors, then you are not doing everything you can to retain your audience.

This should be a revelation and if you metrics are like the ones below, it should be a cause for concern too.

building a community example website stats

These stats are not from I’ve Tried That!

In fact, websites with a low number of repeat visitors, that actually turn a profit, are rare. It’s also likely that your bounce rate may also be fairly high as a result of having such a high volume of new visitors.

A lack of repeat visitors means a lack of a community.

Sometimes we forget that the stats in our analytics system are in fact people: living and breathing, with wants and desires (OK there’s some bots too!).

Actual people are looking at your site and saying to themselves “Nope. Nope, nope, nope!” and clicking the back button.

nope

That is, if they even give the site a second thought before delving elsewhere to find their answers and spend their money.

Causes

There can be multiple reasons why your returning visitor count is low:

Poor Quality Content

If your content does not meet the needs of those visiting, then they will abandon your site, and find somewhere else to frequent.

Inconsistent Posting

You may have the best content in the world, but if you rarely post anything your site will begin to die a slow but quiet death, with new visitors failing to see the value in a repeat visit.

Incorrect Targeting/SEO

If you’re targeting the wrong keywords or market, you could be bringing in a bunch of visitors to your site that have no interest in the content, thus inflating your new visitor count dramatically.

Poor UX/UI

If people cannot find the information they need because the User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) of the site are poor, then they simply won’t return.

You Ignore Your Audience

If your audience talks to you, reply! Ignoring them is a great way to bleed away your fledgling or existing community.

7 Ways to Build a Community

Building a community around your website often brings to mind things like forums, and while they can be used, you need to think of community in a broader sense, covering several areas.

Forums

Well, since I mentioned it! Barring IRC (Internet Relay Chat) forums are one of the oldest community structures on the internet.

They can be used for many business types, especially for things like support and discussion. However, unless your site is built around a forum, I don’t think these are a great addition to a normal blog style website.

Comments

With WordPress and other CMS style websites, having the ability to comment has greatly increased engagement.

Default WordPress comments though are a bit sucky, and you should definitely consider “upgrading” your comments system by using something like Disqus. This type of commenting system not only makes it easier for people to comment, but facilitates the conversation as well.

Engagement

No matter what form you want your discussions to take place, you, yes YOU, must be involved.

Actively monitoring the discussions is key, and you should not only be replying to comments and ideas, but provide even more value where you can.

Sure, on a busy discussion you can’t answer everyone or even every post, but you should keep abreast of them and answer the interesting and valuable ones.

As a bonus for this, you also get to see into the mind-set of your visitors, allowing you to modify your Content Marketing Plan to better target your repeat visitors.

Social Media

For me, there are only three social media networks you should consider using for community building: Facebook, via a Facebook page, Medium and Google+.

These three networks make it easy to share content and discuss it.

You should of course, follow your audience. If you know that your audience shares to Facebook more than Google+ or Medium, then use Facebook.

Networks like Twitter don’t really facilitate a conversation; though it can be useful for sharing links to content and discussion son other networks.

Content Quality & Consistency

Mentioned earlier as possible causes of low return visitors, these two aspects can and should be reviewed and worked on.

Review your analytics to see what pages people are landing on and viewing. Is this content up to date? Is it the highest quality it could be?

Compare it to similar content across the web, and check out their social metrics too (if someone is not interested in your site enough to never return, why would they bother sharing your content?).

If your content seems thin in comparison, you know you need meatier, more informative articles.

Make sure you start building a Content Marketing Plan, and be consistent with your posting, as people will be more likely to return to your site if they know there’s a good chance of new, and informative e content.

Go Forth & Communicate

You can do this both online and in the real world, but head out there and join in the conversations with other communities, via website comments, forums, events and conferences.

Get to know the people in your niche, the movers, the shakers and just the people in general.

Reach out to other bloggers and websites, not necessarily in your niche, whose audience you think might be a good fit, and offer guest posts etc.

This is more to try and grow your audience, by bringing in visitors who potentially might find your content awesome enough to grace with repeat visits.

Offer Value

Your content, your business, must offer value. This could be in the form of intelligent and information articles regarding your niche.

It could be bringing news to people. Perhaps you have the best product in your niche that would greatly benefit people.

All that is great, but guess what? You need to keep providing value, week in, week out.

You need to come across, through the various parts of your site, that your site is worthy of peoples time.

The Bottom Line

A site without engagement is dead in the water, or dying. A lack or low percentage of repeat visitors is a good indication of this.

The way to combat it is by slowly but surely building a community around you, your site and your brand.

Only by having a core, solid group of “regulars” who trust you and the content your produce, can your business and site grow.

How to Avoid Getting Into Legal Trouble with Retail Arbitrage

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If you’ve ever wondered how a new Gucci bag listed on eBay costs significantly less than the same bag offered through a Gucci store, the reason may include retail arbitrage.

In many cases, the practice is questionable and can land you in a lot of trouble.

What is retail arbitrage?

Retail arbitrage is defined as buying trademarked items, usually in bulk, from a retailer and then reselling those goods at a lower price.

Typically, the reselling is performed through online shopping sites such as eBay or Amazon; however, it can also occur on the reseller’s own website- or even at a yard sale he is having.

As opposed to retail arbitrage (RA), traditional retailers typically sign purchasing contracts with the manufacturers of the trademarked items before they are allowed to sell those items. In this way, the manufacturer is guaranteed a given percentage of profits from the sale of the items.

Also, the manufacturer works with the retailers to ensure that the items are presented a certain way, and any promotions that are launched are in compliance with the manufacturer’s desired brand image.

When a reseller purchases from a retailer with the intent of reselling, that reseller becomes, in effect, a wholesaler. Selling items as an unauthorized wholesaler is rife with legal landmines, including possible trademark dilution, selling to prohibited territories/countries, and inducement of breach of retailer contract (known legally as “tortious interference with contract”).

Retail arbitragers have even been accused of passing off used goods as new by manufacturers. This is because technically, a purchased retail good, even if it is still in the original wrapping, is legally defined as used.

Is retail arbitrage illegal?

If you currently engage in RA, and even if you don’t touch your inventory because it is all being handled by Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) or some other drop-ship company, don’t think that, one day, a manufacturer won’t contact you. This post was published on an Amazon discussion forum after someone received a cease-and-desist letter from a popcorn manufacturer:

Retail Arbitrage issues

What makes these letters really scary is not that they ask you to cease and desist, which simply means taking down your listings and/or deactivating your store. What makes them scary is that you may have just purchased thousands of dollars of said inventory. Unless you quietly sell your merchandise at a yard sale or on Craigslist, you stand to lose your investment.

This is why you need to be especially careful when engaging in RA.

Luckily, if you follow the following “rules of engagement,” you are less likely to incite the anger of both manufacturers and retailers, and to get into legal trouble.

How to play it safe with retail arbitrage.

  1. Purchase non-trademarked bulk items. While it may be a challenge, you can purchase bulk items that are not branded with a major label like Gucci, Prada, Jimmy Choo, etc. Designer items are especially prone to surveillance by their respective manufacturers, so choose lesser known brands or even generics.
  2. Don’t sell knock-off or counterfeit goods. Even if you purchased them from a major retailer like Wal-mart, selling counterfeit goods will land you in legal trouble. Manufacturers and business can sue you for trademark infringement or, at the very least, notify marketplaces like Amazon and eBay of your activities. This will result in your accounts being suspended.
  3. Understand the first sale doctrine. In the eyes of the law, the first sale doctrine means that any good that you have procured legally, and which is authentic, can be re-sold by you. This is a law that you can cite should you receive a cease-and-desist letter in the mail. Check the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Kirtsaeng ruling for more information.
  4. Understand retail contracts. Having just pointed out the first sale doctrine, know that it applies more to copyrights than to trademarks. When it comes to trademarked goods, many manufacturers have their own trade agreements in place with select “authorized” wholesalers and retailers. If you aren’t one of those authorized distributors, expect a notice to appear in your email or mailbox.
  5. Don’t make it obvious. If you frequent certain stores, especially small stores, the merchants will probably call you out if you are routinely buying hundreds or thousands of dollars of merchandise there on a regular basis. This is because manufacturers often stipulate that retailers not sell their items “at wholesale or otherwise for resale.” Due to the terms of their contracts with manufacturers, retailers may eventually refuse to sell to you. To prevent this problem, vary your purchases at select stores and frequent a wider range of stores.
  6. Create your own private label products. Although some individuals manage to make a good income from RA, the journey is often rife with legal hurdles. To avoid these issues, you are best advised to start generating private label products (PLPs). This is performed by working directly with a manufacturer and having the factory generate bulk items for you to sell. I talk more about this selling approach here.

Can retail arbitrage work for you?

While my personal opinion of RA is that it has limited potential to make you a steady and full-time income, there are resellers out there who make a good living by using this approach.

Jessica Larrew is one such reseller who has made it in RA; Cynthia Stine is another.

The key to success in this field is to do everything by the books and not incite the ire of major designers and manufacturers. It also helps to know something about trade law and how to cite it in case you are flagged as a reseller.

Why Does Every Writer Need a Tribe?

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Are you an aspiring author who has always wanted to publish a novel or non-fiction book but are scared about receiving negative reviews? Maybe you’ve already written and published a book…only to be disappointed by its lackluster sales and lack of interest on sites like Amazon.

You’ve perchance wondered why a certain someone earned $95 million for fan-based fiction riddled with spelling and grammar mistakes, not to mention a ludicrous storyline concerning 50 shades of a certain color. You may have even asked yourself how this person has so many followers when her writing isn’t even that good?

Whether it’s fear of criticism, lack of popular interest, or just a lack of understanding about how to create the right platform for your book, something  has been amiss in your campaign to become a published author. As a result, that great American novel gets put on the backburner for tomorrow, or next week, or next year. Never today or right now.

Meet Jeff Goins of Tribe Writers 2.0

Jeff Goins is a self-published and traditionally published author who believes that every writer needs a tribe if that writer is to be successful and actually sell his books. In fact, Jeff believes so strongly that every writer needs a tribe that he developed a multi-lesson course on building one; this course is called Tribe Writers.

The Tribe Writers course was so successful that it is now undergoing a re-vamp and is about to be released in 2.0 format.

What is this ‘tribe’ stuff all about?

So, what is a tribe, at least according to how Jeff views it?

“A tribe is a small group of people that share a common interest,” he says. However, “a tribe is not everybody.”

In his book Tribes, Seth Godin defined a tribe as a small group that has a leader, a message and a way for members to connect to one another.

As a writer, you need to establish yourself as the leader of your own tribe, hone your message to that tribe, and empower your members so that they have ‘social currency.’ In case you’re wondering, social currency is a kind of psychological parameter that’s measured in how smart or popular or interesting your members look to those people they are influencing.

However, the idea of having a tribe isn’t just so you have some online fans. Publishers work with authors based not so much on their content but on the following that they have. Literary agents also look at how much marketing they will need to do after taking you on as a client. If you’re not well-known in the social media and blogging world, and you have no followers, who exactly is your book audience going to be?

The measure of a tribe isn’t what you think.

Your tribe isn’t defined by the number of Facebook friends or Twitter followers you have. It isn’t even defined by the number of comments on your blog posts.

Your tribe members are actually defined by your email list.

Why?

Because email is personal, and thus it’s still the best way (outside of postal mail) to reach people directly.

As marketers say over and over again “The money is in the list.” Likewise, the people who are most likely to support you, to recommend you, and to inevitably buy your book, are your email subscribers.

Jeff notes that one of the first questions he was asked when discussing marketing strategies for his upcoming book was, how big was his email list?

In other words, how many tribe members actually subscribe to regular messages from the tribe leader? How many tribe members are available to recommend the tribe leader’s published book, or even the leader herself? Without referrals and recommendations from loyal tribe members, it’s unlikely that people unfamiliar with a book are just going to buy it.

How do you find and grow your tribe?

Jeff talks about how writers need platforms in order to legitimize and to amplify their message. In today’s age, that platform is a blog.

Jeff Goins describes how he reluctantly quit his 4-year-old blog, a blog that had maybe 100 subscribers. He then started a completely new blog.

Within 18 months, Jeff’s new blog had amassed over 100,000 subscribers and several book publishing offers.

How did he do it?

In a nutshell, this process involved the following:

  • Targeting a small, defined community of readers with a similar mindset.
  • Not just operating a blog, but operating a blog that provided value for its readers.
  • Pursuing passion, not profit or popularity.
  • Creating and offering an incentive for readers to sign up to the blog’s email newsletter.
  • Offering readers a sense of involvement and ownership in the blog and its content.
  • Establishing personal expertise by selectively interviewing other experts.

Jeff describes the process he followed in Tribe Writers 2.0, which is launching this week; he also outlines the principles in his free e-book called Every Writer Needs a Tribe.

Take your next step today.

If you have always wanted to publish your novel, short story or non-fiction book, what’s holding you back? Time waits for no one. If you have doubts about being “good enough” or finding an audience that shares your passion, then Jeff’s e-book Every Writer Needs a Tribe is for you.

Download it today.
Read it.
Find your tribe.
Write your passion.
Publish your work.

How to Earn Extra Cash as a Senior Move Manager

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If you’re good at household organization and like to socialize, becoming a Senior Move Manager (SMM) might be for you.

What is an SMM?

An SMM helps older individuals relocate and (usually) downsize their belongings. Oftentimes, this involves helping a senior citizen move into an assisted care facility or other senior residence. The issue faced with such an undertaking is that there are a number of logistics involved, including the following:

  • Consolidating/reducing current belongings
  • Packing and transporting current belongings
  • Cleaning, repairing and staging the current residence
  • Finding a realtor and selling current residence
  • Finding a suitable new residence
  • Organizing movers and moving remaining belongings
  • Unpacking belongings and organizing belongings in new residence

Oftentimes, the family of the senior citizen undertakes such tasks; however, that is an ideal situation where family members live nearby and don’t have extremely tight schedules. When such a situation is lacking, the senior citizen may delay moving, or not move at all. This is not always ideal, especially if that senior has physical and/or memory issues that progress with time.

To this end, there are SMMs who step in and take care of house staging and selling, estate sales, moving, etc. They are paid by the hour and can specialize in a very discrete area of the move, such as consolidating belongings, or they can get involved in all aspects of senior moving.

Your actual SMM tasks may not be what you imagined…

You might be assuming that, as an SMM, you’ll be involved in a lot of back-breaking labor like moving couches or cleaning behind refrigerators. You may also be assuming that, as an SMM, you’ll be spending long weekends away from your home organizing knick knacks and pricing items for an estate sale.

In actuality, the role of the SMM is more of a manager of movers, cleaning crews, realtors, etc. Your primary goal as an SMM is oftentimes to simply convince the senior citizen that it’s in her best interest to move. Alternately, the client you are working with may be ready to go, but simply can’t decide how he will part with his extensive collection of art prints or trains or antique teapots.

To this end, your best work will often be performed by simply listening to your client and offering helpful suggestions. Remember that, as an SMM, you are not the POA or the family of the client. Thus, the hard task of consolidating precious heirlooms or keepsakes will not be for you to complete. However, in coordination with the family or the client, you can offer suggestions such as donating some items to charity, placing them into storage, or taking photos of the heirloom collections and displaying those photos instead of the actual items.

For many SMMs, the work is more a calling than just another job. You will be called upon to be not only a manager but a listener and even a counselor. You might form close friendships with some of your clients or their families. As with caregiving, the clients you work with will depend on you for guidance and assurance as they transition from homes they may have been in for over half a century. Thus, it pays to have a caring heart and a sympathetic ear.

How much money do SMMs make?

In some states, SMMs are able to charge from $40-$125 per hour. If you choose to work with an established franchise, the basic starting rate is $9/hour but quickly increases with training and experience. Overall, you’re better off starting your own franchise and hiring people as you advance in experience and number of clients.

Where can you learn more about being an SMM?

Just like with most work-at-home professions, SMMs can undergo training from a variety of organizations on the nuances of getting started, networking, marketing their services and pricing services accordingly. There are at least four well-known online resources:

NASMM– The National Association of Senior Move Managers is a trade association that offers not only education and training on becoming a SMM, but even a yearly conference. The NASMM also operates an accreditation program that reviews other SMM companies and accredits them accordingly.

Caring Transitions– This outfit operates in 35 states and has 116 franchise locations in the USA and Canada. With CT, you can launch your SMM business in just six weeks and start marketing to area nursing homes, hospitals and senior centers. Best of all, the training and work can be conducted from home.

Smooth Transitions– The ST organization operates offices in 26 states as well as Canada and New Zealand and is both a training center and license provider for people who are starting their own SMM businesses. With Smooth Transitions, you can get a head start with your SMM business, download workbooks, learn about setting your rates, and lots more. In exchange for this know-how, you’ll pay a start-up and licensee fee to ST. You can also purchase your NASMM membership at a discounted price on their website.

eSMMART– This organization conducts training of new SMMs, as well as certification of SMMs who have been in the business and conducted at least 40 invoiced moves. eSMMART offers lots of useful courses on topics like dementia, hoarding, aging in place, and the senior living industry in both the USA and Canada.

How much does it cost to get trained?

The training sites that specifically state how much training and licensing will cost estimate around $5,000 total. While this is a pricey sum, keep in mind that the senior population is booming, and there is a very real need for people to help seniors.

Summary: Should you consider being an SMM?

If you like working with seniors and consider yourself to be a good negotiator, you will likely thrive in this arena and make a decent living too. In time, you might even outsource your tasks to employees and function in a more business lead generator role. While being an SMM does take some training as well as patience, the rewards (monetary and otherwise) can be worth it.

A Beginners Guide to Outsourcing

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When you talk to different entrepreneurs and successful online marketers and ask them for advice, there seems to be one piece they all agree on: get help!

Not mental help (though that may help some days), but rather help with what you are doing. In other words outsource your work!

What is outsourcing?

What exactly is outsourcing? Well, it’s the act of hiring someone, a freelancer, to do a particular job.

It’s quite different from hiring an employee, as generally contracts are on a single “project” basis, whether that project is to write a single 1,000 word article or work 20 hours a week indefinitely doing admin.

With the growth of the internet, the online jobs market has boomed, and there are numerous websites that you can frequent to find freelancers. Some of these are very general in nature, and some cater to more specific needs and niches.

Why should you outsource?

Barring heeding the advice of successful entrepreneurs, there are numerous reasons why you should consider outsourcing:

To free up time

This is the big one when it comes to reasons to consider outsourcing.

By getting others to handle more of the menial and repetitive work, you free up your valuable time.

This time can be spent on more important things, such as aspects of the business you love, growing the business, spending time with family and friends, experiencing life, trying new projects, and much more.

Remember, you can earn more money, but you can’t earn more time!

To get help with work

This is similar to freeing up your time, but in that sometimes you will have simply too much on your plate to get everything done, and it will just pile up.

Hiring one or more freelancers to deal with different aspects of your work can help bring this workload under control.

When you need particular skill-sets

Let’s face it, we do not and cannot know everything. In fact, being a jack-of-all-trades is often detrimental, as it makes you believe you can cope with everything and instead you end up being pulled in multiple directions at once.

As well as that, sometimes others just know more about something than you do. If my car breaks down, I for one would go to a mechanic, because the extent of my car knowledge doesn’t extend beyond my gas tank.

If I need a suit, I’ll head to a tailor. Why then not do this with aspects of a business?

If your site looks crappy, hire a designer. If you need certain site functionality, hire a developer. If you struggle to write more than 200 words a day, hire a writer.

Very little red tape

Another great reason to hire a freelancer, is the lack of red tape: you say you want X thing done, agree a price and timescale, they do it, you pay them. Job done!

There’s no lengthy contracts, no unions, no healthcare, no taxes to deal with – the freelancer has to deal with any of that which is applicable to them, all you ned to do is pay them when the job has been done to satisfaction.

Is outsourcing right for you?

Only you can answer that, but generally if you are lacking a particular skill set, or are struggling with work load, and you have the cash to spare, then outsourcing is a must.

The cons of outsourcing

While outsourcing is a great way to get things done, there are a few issues with it that need to be noted and thought about, both before jumping in and even while you are hiring people.

Cost

Cost is definitely a problem for most people beginning to outsource work. How do you find the right skills, the right quality for the right price?

Generally, people want to pay peanuts for outsourcers, and with international workforces available and happy to work, paying peanuts isn’t hard.

Paying very little for the work is often a backwards way to handle things though. Poorly paid workers will often produce poor quality work, and you often end up having to pay to get it redone by someone with more skill.

You can still find quality workers for less than the norm, but it’s like finding a diamond in the rough: you have to work for it.

Quality

As mentioned above, quality can be an issue, and really it doesn’t always matter whether you are paying below or above the average for the job. Sometimes people advertise they can do something, but simply under perform.

To help counter this, really review the potential freelancer. Check out their previous work and clients, look for testimonials as well.

Most decent websites for finding freelancers will also allow you to ask questions and request samples; make use of these features as they will help you quickly filter out the unsuitable.

Of course sometimes you simply need to take a risk. The best advice here is to give them a small job to assess their work, and “fire” them if it’s not suitable.

Don’t be afraid to fire a freelancer, the worst thing that you can do is hang on to dead weight, it will merely cost you in sanity and pocket.

Initial time cost

To begin with you might feel that you are spending more time looking for the right freelancer than you are doing your own work!

This is always how it goes, but fear not because once you have hired a few freelancers, you will quickly realize just from profiles and their portfolio which ones are more likely to fit with your needs.

It won’t be exact, there will still be ones you need to fire, but that’s how it goes. Persevere to begin with and reap the rewards later down the line.

Where to find freelancers

There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of places on the internet where people sell their skills and expertise and it can often be daunting to even start looking.

I’ve outlined below a few of the key sites that should get you off to a good start.

There are two broad types of freelancer sites (I’m not talking individual here, but more marketplace type sites): general and niche.

General freelancer sites

These sites cover pretty much every type of job that can be done online. Think of them as malls of the freelancing world.

Fiverr.com

If you need something doing, and you need it to be cheap, then Fiverr is a good place to start. IT offers a variety of work types from graphic design to videos, article writing to programming.

The price is often the only reason people use Fiverr, as the cost starts at $5 bucks per “gig”. They do allow their sellers to offer increased pricing for additional or more complex work, which can work out very well for everyone concerned.

Personally I have never had much success with Fiverr, often finding the quality matching the price, but your mileage may vary.

Upwork

This is the combination site for Elance and Odesk, and I often call it the Amazon of freelancers, because it covers such a wide variety of work types and has such a large number of freelancers.

You can also find a wide variety of skill levels here, but even in the broad bands they segment people into the skill range varies.

It differs from Fiverr in that you generally post a job and people will apply and bid on the job. This means you can find people who are interested in what you are trying to get done, once you cut through the chaff that is.

Freelancer.com

Freelancer.com is very similar to Upwork, being a large marketplace where you post a job and have people apply for it. In fact Freelancer, was certainly the biggest one before Elance & Odesk merged into Upwork, so now it’s debatable. Either way, there are a lot of freelancers there hungry for work.

Guru.com

This is another large marketplace, but has a smaller focus, mainly supplying freelancers in the IT, development, design and writing areas.

Specific freelancer sites

While the general freelancers sites are good, if you need a specific thing doing, you may want to look at a marketplace that caters solely to that niche. Here are some examples, though it’s far from an exhaustive list.

Writing

There are many writing services out there, but let’s focus on article writing. The 3 most popular that I’m aware of are:

Each has its own pros and cons, but they cater purely to those wanting to find writers.

WordPress

If you are looking for someone to help with your WordPress site, whether it’s a small job or a custom plugin build, the following sites can help:

Graphic Design

When you need some beautiful designs it’s a good idea to check out the freelance networks that focus on graphic design.

  • 99designs is a design contest website, where a brief is given and a price, and multiple designers submit work and you choose the one you want from the selection.
  • DesignCrowd is similar to 99designs, with Design Crowd, you post a brief for free and users submit a design for you.
  • Behance is a network for creatives to showcase their work, but also has a jobs section. It costs a lot to post a job here.
  • Dribbble is very similar to Behance and started out as a site to showcase design work, but now allows job posting. Dribbble is a great resource for finding skilled designers, but does cost a lot to post a job, unlike a lot of other sites.

Other sites

There are plenty more sites out there, catering to a wide and narrow niche alike. Google is your friend here, but make sure to do your due diligence with both the site and potential hires.

How to hire a freelancer

Each freelancing site has different ways to go about hiring, but in general you would follow this procedure:

Write a brief

A brief is a description of the job you want to get done. It should be relatively short but cover the details as much as possible.

For example “I want an article written” won’t yield many responses, but “I would like a 1,000 – 1,500 article for an online marketing website. Topic to be provided to the successful applicant” would make a better brief.

You can and should provide requirements for the job. To keep with the writing example you could say:

  • I require a native or fluent English speaker
  • Articles must be unique, not spun, and must pass Copyspace plagiarism checker
  • Article must be a minimum of 1,000 words max. 2,000 words

The more details you can provide the better, but of course the exact details such as the article title, can be excluded until you have a successful applicant.

If the system allows questions set some, otherwise set some in the job posting itself.

Questions can be used to gauge the skill and appropriateness of the applicant so make sure to set some that would directly help with this.

Alternatively, or in conjunction with, ask for samples of previous work.

Pricing

For me, one of the hardest things to do is set a price, and one of the best things to do is set a price and learn from it. Most applicants will bid on your pricing anyway and you can encourage that in the job brief.

You will get pricing wrong, but after a while you will learn how to set and accept a fair price.

I would recommend searching the very site you are posting on for similar jobs to see what price range they posted at, as it will give you a ballpark figure to work with.

Most networks like Upwork also allow you to modify the price (with agreement from both parties) after the fact, as well as give bonuses etc.

Set a price, whether hourly or a fixed price, depending on the job and post the job brief.

Choosing an applicant

Once posted, you will then start to receive applications. Personally I recommend leaving the job open at least 24 hours before you even look at the applicants as it will give people time to see the job posting and apply for it.

Once you start looking at applicants, quickly go down the list and discard any that obviously won’t be suitable for the job, for example:

  • Anyone without the appropriate skills
  • Anyone with poor spelling or grammar in their application
  • Anyone that failed to answer or incorrectly answered any questions you set.

Once that is done you can start fine combing through the other applicants. If need be contact them for more information.

Depending on the task your are hiring for, it may be worth hiring multiple freelancers and giving them all the same or similar small job. The one/s that succeed with it should be hired, the others fired.

Communicate

I really can’t stress this enough: communicate with your freelancers!

Normally they only have the brief to go on, so make sure you provide as much information as they need to get the job done, and make sure they know to come ask a question if they are unsure; it’s better to reply a couple of times to questions than have a poor job done and have to hire someone else.

I hired a freelancer, now what?

Well, hopefully all went well and you got your work done satisfactorily and for a fair rate for both parties.

If so, then make sure you rate them on the site you hired them from as this will help them get work later on.

Just remember to be fair and honest.

Then, hire them again! The whole point of outsourcing is to make sure that whatever you consider menial or difficult tasks are handled by someone else.

If your experience didn’t quite go as planned, don’t worry, it happens. Pick yourself up, and go find someone else. You may have to go through a few freelancers before you find ones you like that can do the job.

The Bottom Line

Outsourcing your work by hiring a freelancer is really the only way to go if you want to grow your business and free up some of your time, without taking on an employee.

Yes it has some risks associated with it, but no more than most things that you do when running your own business.

Take your time, ask them questions before hand, give them a test (cheap) project to do first and never be afraid to fire them.

RIP Amazon Product Ads and Text Ads- What This Means For Sellers

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This summer, Amazon announced that it would discontinue its Amazon Product Ads (APAs) program and replace it with Amazon Text Ads. Then, in a somewhat unexpected move, Amazon announced that it would also discontinue its text ads. Both the product and text ads are due to be discontinued this October 31st.

Typically, the product ads were purchased by sellers who did not necessarily have an Amazon store. Oftentimes, this was due to marketplace restrictions, budget concerns, etc. The one major advantage to having the APAs was that consumers would be redirected to the sellers’ sites instead of completing their purchases on Amazon.

Another advantage was lower cost: As opposed to Amazon marketplace sellers, who had to pay a percentage of their sales revenue to Amazon, APA sellers only paid for their click costs.

APA products could appear side-to-side with Amazon products, thus actively competing with Amazon for sales. APAs could even appear all alone on a product page if Amazon sold no comparable product of its own. Thus, the APA seller who researched which products Amazon didn’t sell, and then marketed them on Amazon, could gain a real advantage.

And all for the price of a click.

Amazon Product Ads end on Halloween

Although Amazon doesn’t explain exactly why it’s ending its APA and text ads programs, the reasons listed above suggest that the engine was seeing too much competition from sellers who were merely paying for clicks and directing traffic away from Amazon. In fact, according to the 2015 Online Retail Survey published by ChannelAdvisor, over a third of advertisers noted APAs as providing the most return on their investment.

Perhaps when Amazon was smaller and in need of revenue from any possible source, the APA program was a good idea. But now that Amazon is the 800-lb gorilla in the online shopping world, it is saying goodbye to its lower revenue generators.

What’s a retailer to do?

While the demise of APAs and text ads will leave a hole in many a retailer’s arsenal of sales tools, there are alternatives that can take their place.

Amazon Sponsored Ads

Amazon Sponsored Ads (ASAs) still operate on a pay-per-click revenue model where sellers bid on keywords and pay only when their ads are clicked. The difference between ASAs and APAs is that the ASAs keep the consumer on the Amazon site. Otherwise, the ads look almost identical.

sponsored ads

Google Product Listing Ads

A while back, Google sat up and took notice of Amazon’s highly profitable advertising format. The result was Google’s Product Listing Ads (PLAs), which had a similar look and feel to the APAs and ASAs. These ads are now a great way for sellers to direct consumers to their own websites while still just paying for a click.

google plas

eBay Commerce Network

eBay is another massive shopping site that some sellers don’t immediately think of as an ecommerce platform. However, the eBay Commerce Network (ECN) enables sellers to feature their products not only on eBay and Shopping.com, but affiliated blogs, online magazines, and ad exchanges.

shopping

Bing Product Ads

According to ComScore, Bing gets 15% of all searches compared to Google’s 66%. While Bing is certainly not the search engine behemoth that Google is, it does have some unexpected market advantages, including exclusivity deals with Apple and the Amazon Kindle devices. As a result, it is more likely to be used on iOS-powered mobile devices.

Bing Product Ads make it easy for sellers already using Google as their advertising platform- there is a process in place that enables product data to be imported from AdWords.

Nextag

Another alternative to consider is Nextag, which not only gets over 30 million unique visitors/month, but also seems to garner an exclusive audience of shoppers that don’t shop anywhere else.

nextag

Nextag product ads have an eBay look and feel to them; however, they direct the shopper to a third-party site. Sellers deposit a starting amount of money to get started on a campaign, then pay only when shoppers actually click on the product ads.

Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads, which are operated under Facebook for Business, enable sellers to target product ads to audiences based on age, gender, geographic locale, and interests. Much like with Google AdWords, sellers can set spending limits and obtain reports of how well their campaigns are doing.

With Facebook Ads, sellers can achieve many different marketing goals, including promoting a post, Facebook page, or video, sending viewers to their own website, increasing downloads of an app, etc.

Twitter ads

Twitter ads have taken a while to really gain momentum, but they are now a staple of Twitter and offer sellers yet another viable platform for offering their wares. With Twitter ads, sellers can promote their brand, website, promotion, etc. Shoppers can be redirected to the seller’s website or Twitter page. Best of all, the ads can be retweeted, enabling them to go viral.

twitter

Summary

While the sad reality is that APAs and text ads are going away, the good news is that there are plenty of other platforms to fill the void. A savvy advertiser need not worry about losing significant market share, even if a giant like Amazon is getting tighter with its advertising allowances.

How I Figure that 7 Figure Club is a Scam

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“You’re about to make $1,000,000 in the next 27 days. Guaranteed.”

So starts the spiel of Martin Taylor, the spokesman for the 7 Figure Club. Here’s a photo of Martin.

martintaylor

After we see some glowing customer testimonial videos, Martin’s spiel continues. “I want to make ten invites into millionaires within a month.”

In fact, Martin says that, if you’re not a millionaire in 27 days, he’ll pay you $10,000 out of his own pocket.

7 Figure

Why is Martin being so generous? He doesn’t say. How does Martin plan to pay you $10,000 of his own money? He also doesn’t say.

And just how are you guaranteed to become a millionaire?

By using Martin’s state-of-the-art binary options trading software, apparently. This software “requires zero financial knowledge, sets up in a few clicks, and operates on autopilot.” It’s also completely free to use.

Martin notes that you could “take your daughter to dance recital, stop by the grocery store, and come home to find that you’ve made $358,900.” That’s how automated this automatic software really is.

After you input your name and email, you see a second sales video. Here, Martin explains how you’ll be earning your cash.

Oh, what a tangled web 7 Figure Club weaves…

Martin explains that you’ll be making money by, in essence, riding the financial coattails of automated binary options trades. “You just register, for free, when a new guaranteed profitable trade is available and you get paid that money into your account.”

It took me some time to understand how this would work.

Somehow, if you register your account when a trade is about to be placed and- I assume- won, you get to keep the money from that binary option trade.

But wait!

Before you can proceed with your registration, Martin has some bad news: All ten spots have been filled.

Or, maybe not…

Martin then goes on about how you can still register for an account before all spots are filled. Huh?

You’ll also need to register an account with Martin’s recommended broker. Why? Because Martin’s software is “built to interface with my broker’s system,” and so “he’s the only one with compatible software to mine.” In fact, “anyone other than my broker will not be able to connect, which means they can’t make trades and collect your binary profits.”

Martin notes that his broker is ISA authorized, which increases security and better protects your investments. What is the ISA?

I searched “ISA certified brokers” on Google but was unable to find anything that defined ISA in terms of brokers. I did locate information on customs brokers, however, and how U.S. Customs and Border Protection asks them to complete importer self assessments, or ISAs. But how does this relate to trading software?

There’s a method to the madness

Once you input your name, email and phone number into the form on the second sales page, you are directed to Martin’s recommended broker. In this case, it is Bee Options.

Once on the Bee Options page, I learned that in order to activate the 7 Figure Club software, I would need to make a deposit of $600.

7 Figure Club 4

The fact that you must pay $600 to use the 7 Figure Club software already tells me that this freebie isn’t really free.

I also learned something else: 7 Figure Club is offered as an affiliate product on Clicksure.

clicksure

When a product offers affiliates a $250 commission per sale, is it any wonder that there are at least three pages of search results sporting “positive” reviews for 7 Figure Club? Also, these reviews all contain affiliate links such as the following:

http://7figureclub.co/?clickID =2010888350&aff=enator&c=US&tid=102cabad89db56762f53f5289a6d10&aff_id=5584

What else is askew with 7 Figure Club?

7 Figure Club features several customer testimonials, including the following:

7 Figure Club 6

jerry s hart

Upon closer inspection, it appears that the happy customers are actually actors who sell their testimonials on Fiverr at the rate of $5/testimonial.

7 Figure Club 7

7 Figure Club 8

There are also these “security measures” that the site provides:

7 Figure Club 2

There are no links associated with these security seals, which makes them essentially ornamental. The same can be said of the following news announcements- if you can’t click on the trademarks and find the associated story, then the announcement might as well be imaginary.

7 Figure Club 10

The website shows the following countdown of spots left available:

7 Figure Club 9

This counter eventually goes to just one spot left available. However, if you refresh your page, you again have “9 spots left” on the counter.

Summary

The 7 Figure Club proposes that it will make you a millionaire in under a month, but provides no strategy on how that will happen, just actor-based testimonials. You are also told that you will be paid $10,000 from Martin Taylor’s personal funds if he fails to make you a millionaire- yet again there is no strategy provided or even how you would receive those funds. Furthermore, you are on the hook for $600 of your own money if you try the software out. This is nothing but a plain old binary options scam, and the only winners here are the affiliates and brokers, not you.

How to Create and Make Money From Your Own Online Course

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I’ll bet you $50 that you probably have enough material in your head to generate at least one online course. That course could be about a traditional topic like physics or chemistry or it could be something less academic, like how to refinish a hardwood floor or make quality moonshine. The bottom line is that any skill that took you time to learn can be marketable; i.e., your knowledge and experience can make you money. The trick is, how do you make your knowledge and experience marketable?

Using an online academy or online university

Nowadays, you can publish online courses via online academies (or online universities) that offer you an easy platform through which you can showcase your talents. Here are just a few such online academies:

Udemy

This online academy has recently gotten some good press from NBC Today and Forbes, among other high caliber places. At Udemy, anyone can create, publish and promote an online course, regardless of credentials. About 75% of the offered courses are free; the remaining 25% run anywhere from $9 for an Affiliate Marketing for Noobs course to $500 for Jack Welch’s Welch Way Management training course. Udemy keeps 30% of your revenue; if you directly refer a customer to your course (such as through a coupon), Udemy’s cut drops to 15%.

Odijoo

This site, much like Udemy, runs on an open platform and allows anyone to create and publish a free or paid online course. Even better, Odijoo takes only a 10% cut of your revenue. Odijoo also allows you to create your own “campus” from which your courses are displayed and taught, allowing you to create a veritable online education business. Another Odijoo perk is that you can syndicate your content, allowing other instructors to purchase that content and use it in their classes.

Litmos

Litmos prides itself on being a learning management system (LMS) geared towards business professionals. In tune with that philosophy, Litmos makes it extremely easy to create and add to your own online course and have it distributed on mobile devices. With Litmos, you get a lot of entrepreneurial perks like your own domain name, branding and landing page. There is no cut taken from your revenue; however, you do pay a minimum monthly charge to the site; the Starter membership runs $49/month. As you grab additional perks and students, your monthly fee can become quite high…so this platform may not be for everyone.

Using your own website

If you have a large enough following online, you can use your website or email newsletter to advertise your online course and get people to sign up privately. This allows you to keep all the profits and make additional money through back-end product sales. Additionally, you can offer your students a premium-priced version of your course by including something extra like one-on-one phone/email support. Alternately, you can send your students extra materials like ebooks or give them access to an online forum.

You don’t need a fancy-shmancy platform or software to generate an effective and informative online course. Your lessons can be sent out as weekly emails to your students followed by an assignment that is emailed back to you. Additional course information could be posted on internal website pages that only your students have access to. I know this because I’ve seen it done on several online courses including Linda Formichelli’s Write for Magazines e-course.

There are a number of free online tools available if you need to record your voice or provide a presentation. If you really want to go all out and give a webinar, AnyMeeting offers free web conferencing (up to 200 attendees).

But I’m not an expert on anything!

You might be wondering how you can teach anything when you’ve never received a qualifying degree or wrote a book about the topic. Well, I have a solution for you:

Tim Ferriss of The 4-Hour Workweek fame wrote the following “back-door” formula on becoming an expert in almost anything in 4 weeks*:

1. Join 2-3 trade organizations [in the field that you intend to teach].

2. Read 3 top-selling books on your topic and summarize each one.

3. Give one free 1-3 hour seminar at your closest university and company branches.

4. Offer to write 1-2 articles for trade magazines related to your topic, using steps 1 and 3 as your credibility points.

5. Join ProfNet, a site that journalists use to find subject matter experts and quote them. Then, get quoted.

Tim also makes the following statement: “”Expert” is nebulous media-speak and so overused as to be indefinable. In modern PR terms, proof of expertise in most fields is shown with group affiliations, client lists, writing credentials and media mentions, not IQ points or Ph.D.s.”

How I became a crowdfunding expert

I somehow became an expert on equity crowdfunding even though I’ve never crowdfunded a thing in my life. It all started when I wrote an article on equity crowdfunding for I’ve Tried That and then another one for a small business site. A few months later, the local SCORE Madison chapter contacted me to find out if I’d give a talk about the subject.

I happily agreed and started compiling my Powerpoint slides, learning a lot about exciting SEC regulations in the process. Fortuitously, my Evansville Area Inventors & Entrepreneurs Club hosted a venture capitalist who gave a talk about equity crowdfunding just days before my own talk. As a result, I got the scoop from a “real” expert on what pertinent issues I should discuss. And voilà! An equity crowdfunding expert was born. I now pitch crowdfunding to my clients.

What if I can’t answer a question?

Another major concern for budding online course instructors is that their students will ask questions that they cannot answer on the spot. There are several ways around this uncomfortable possibility, including telling the student that you will get back to him/her with an answer at a later time, asking the class to answer the question, or simply admitting that you just don’t know- but will return with an answer.

The best preventative measure by far is to initially not do live sessions with your students until you can safely anticipate a majority of their questions. And remember that, according to the Pareto principle, about 80% of your students’ questions will cover only 20% of your material, so make sure you learn that portion well. As for the other 20% of your students’ questions- well, while they will come up, it will be less common.

Also, you don’t have to know everything there is to know about your subject matter- you simply have to be one step ahead of your students. In light of this, try to stay informed about your topic and any news that are relevant to it. Set up a Google Alerts on your topic’s keywords and have those alerts go to your email account. In this way, if any new developments are at play in your field of expertise, you’ll be the first to know- and impress your students.

How much money can you make from your own online course?

A well-known name like Jack Welch, who has now sold his Udemy course to 109 students at $500 per student, has grossed $54.5K. No bad.

However, lesser-known Miguel Hernandez, who sells a $297 Udemy course titled How to Create an Awesome Demo Video for Your Business, has outgrossed Welch by one entire figure and come in at over $483K. Your results will probably differ, but even this one example illustrates how creating a course that offers something relevant to your audience, especially a business/technical audience, can earn you some big bucks. And this can happen even if you don’t have a big name.

Fortunately, Miguel also offers another Udemy course titled How to Create an Awesome Online Course for those who are curious.

Much like with teaching courses in the “real world”, it takes time and persistence to create a highly popular (i.e., lucrative) course. But if you’re passionate about your subject matter and (more importantly) about teaching it, creating an online course is a great way to go.

 

*excluding neurology, automatic transmissions and school boards.

How I Used LinkedIn to Win 3 Freelance Clients in Just 1 Month

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Recently, I was shocked to discover the following seminar on EventBrite:

Madison LinkedIn Extravaganza

For whatever reason, the organizer of this event is charging participants almost $200 to learn about LinkedIn and how they can win sales prospects by using this business networking platform. Seriously?! Well, for just the price of a few minutes of your time, I can tell you how LinkedIn can help you find your own sales prospects- and win them. At least, I can tell you how I have used LinkedIn to land clients; recently, after making a concerted effort on LinkedIn, I gained three clients in just one month!

LinkedIn works like a big virtual Rolodex, keeping track of all your business contacts and their information. However, unlike a standard Rolodex, LinkedIn also immediately informs you whom your contacts are connected with. These connections-to-connections are invaluable when you are trying to reach a potential client or hiring manager and need someone to help you out. Remember that, in the world of business, it’s not just what you know; it’s also who knows you. However, that’s just the start of why LinkedIn is so useful for doing business. Here are three additional reasons:

  1. Credibility. On LinkedIn, you can post your resume, website(s), work history/projects and even your personal “mission statement”. You can also solicit and receive recommendations from your coworkers, bosses, employees and clients. Having this information out there improves your credibility and chance of being approached for work. You also save yourself a lot of time and effort when sending out job query “teasers” by referring potential hiring managers/clients to your LinkedIn profile.
  2. Information. LinkedIn is a great sales prospect research tool if you know what you are looking for (more on that later). For example, you can track down and locate the name and information of the company hiring manager to whom you are about to send your resume. This sure beats addressing your cover letter with “Dear Sir/Mam” or the God-awful “To Whom It May Concern”. It also helps you better focus your job inquiry; for instance, if you discover that a hiring manager has posted several discussions about the importance of SEO, you can highlight your own SEO accomplishments in your resume. Finally, you can “spy” on people and find out who has recently viewed your profile; this is useful if you’re sending out a lot of resumes and trying to gauge who might be contacting you soon.
  3. Networks. Many companies have an established presence on LinkedIn and use it to post corporate news including job opportunities. Many of these announcements are fed in from social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. Such announcements give you some really golden opportunities to post comments (that are strategically linked to your work) and make yourself known to these companies. Likewise, by joining LinkedIn groups that are within your area of expertise, you have the opportunity to lead and/or contribute to discussions where hiring managers/potential clients may be hanging out.

My personal experience with LinkedIn

I’ve had a LinkedIn account for years but never really utilized it until I became a full-time freelance writer about a year ago. Since then, I’ve used LinkedIn almost obsessively. Aside from updating my work profile, I now use LinkedIn to find potential clients.

When I was trying to win additional corporate/business clients last October, I used a scouting technique where I’d locate companies that were making at least $5-$10 million in annual revenue and thus could afford to hire me. However, I would steer clear of companies that made over $10 million because these places usually had their own hired team of writers. I would then find one or more of that company’s marketing personnel (writing typically falls into the marketing category) and pitch them directly through LinkedIn’s InMail function (a valuable and limited resource that allows you to email someone on LinkedIn regardless of whether you are connected to that person or not).

To make the pitch meaningful, I would research the company’s objectives and study its website. If something was lacking on the company’s website or amiss in the business, I made sure to mention that problem and suggest a way that I could solve it. Taking this approach with just three companies, I immediately landed one as a client last October.

I also found corporate clients by following companies on LinkedIn. This way, I received notice of any job openings and how much interest they were generating. If a potential job caught my eye, I tried to track down the person who would most likely be receiving my resume. Again, due to my profession, this involved scoping out the marketing department. Although I wasn’t always right on target, I knew I was making a fairly accurate estimate that my selected individual would at least peruse my file during the hiring process.

Because my query was always directed at a real live person, I did usually see him/her checking out my profile on LinkedIn. In the month of October, I sent out 6-7 official cover letters with resumes to potential clients. I later noticed that three of the queried companies had been checking out my LinkedIn profile; of those three, I won one as a long-term client.

My last client “win” in October was actually one of my LinkedIn contacts whom I occasionally see at another in-town networking event. I didn’t directly market my services to this person because I didn’t want to create any sales pressure (for this reason alone, I never make cold calls). What I did do, however, was make sure that this person knew what I did for a living and that my LinkedIn account showed several work examples in her niche field. I also checked my LinkedIn account from time to time to see if this individual was perchance looking at my profile. Indeed, she was. One day, this person approached me and asked what I would charge per hour for some website/proofreading work. After some negotiating, I won my third client.

Getting started with LinkedIn

You don’t have to be a tech-savvy geek to know your way around LinkedIn; the platform offers helpful tips on how to get started and will even help you “flesh-out” your profile by prompting you to fill in provided sections. Every time you return to your account, you can add one more detail or job description. Even if you have only 10 minutes, you can do a lot to tailor your profile. Once you’re comfortable with how you appear on “paper”, it’s time to start networking and asking your newfound contacts to recommend you. If you get stumped or want to take the next step, check out some community centers or colleges; many groups offer free tutorials on using this platform. Or just ask me. Good luck!