Thread: The secret that was left out of The Millionaire Fast Lane Book

It might have been left out of the book but it sure wasn't left out on this forum.

Buying ads is a game of numbers. It's also one of the biggest barriers to entry to online businesses. It's best to do the math BEFORE pursuing a business.

The-J,

My point is that, from all the major sources of traffic that can provide the 12.000 visitors a day, their average PPC range is from $0.50 to $1.

I'm not saying that you can't find one or another keyword that has a PPC of $0.20... but if you find one, chances are, it only has 30-40 visitors per day... the volume is just not there.

The current price of advertising makes almost impossible to operate any business on a large scale that relies on lead generation / advertising as its revenue source.

When you can't pay for advertising, you can't scale and you are limited to your website's traffic.

I think the book's overall purpose was to highlight the Fastlane Millionaire philosophy, rather than dissect the author's own business down to the atomic detail.

Edit: I also don't recall MJ ever telling anyone that his business model could be easily replicated. I'm not necessarily saying that you're wrong here, but we all have our own paths. The Internet is great because of the leverage it provides, but it's still not a free lunch.

Ever hear of word of mouth? Have a great service and the word gets around.............

Interesting observation on how to get massive traffic to your site, regardless of whether the dollar amounts and stats mentioned are accurate or not.

Originally Posted by Disruptive

The question is, how do you get 12.000 visitors a day?

Hard work.

Originally Posted by Disruptive

The only keywords that have such volume of traffic are highly competitive and the people that rank on top have deep pockets and full-time teams working on SEO...

I was a one man SEO team.

Originally Posted by Disruptive

To get that volume you need to buy traffic.

Wrong.

While I don't remember the exact numbers, paid advertising (PPC) was probably around 25%. The rest came from SEO and affiliate relationships. I was on PAGE 1 for all long tail, targeted keywords. I also was on page 1 for some generics as well.

Do you see this forum has A LOT of traffic? As I write this, it has 313 people online and nearly 10,000 visited today.

Do you know how much of that I PAID FOR?

None.

Zero.

But I guess, to get traffic, I need to pay for it.

Originally Posted by Disruptive

The problem is, when you look at PPC prices from networks like Google Adwords, specially for keys with significant volume, you realize that most clicks cost from $0.50 - $1.

I remember my PPC costs being around 50 to 60 cents per user, hardly cheap. There were some keywords I bidded low dollars. (1.08, etc.) In general though, my ROI on PPC was steadily declining due to increased acquisition costs and it was probably the lowest ROI, and unpredictable. I paid affiliates 20-45% - this was an acquisition cost I could project.

Originally Posted by Disruptive

we know that MJ had a great domain

I remember being quickly disappointed (within months of purchasing it) that "type in" traffic was virtually nothing. The only thing the domain did was juice my SEO rankings and strengthen brand image.

Originally Posted by Disruptive

making it almost impossible to operate a lead generation business via paid advertising, which limits scaling and expanding hugely.

Did I advocate starting a lead generation business recently? I don't recall doing so. I think its sad that all these people are rushing out and examining the "lead gen" business simply because it was something I did. There were reasons why I exited the business, one of which, was my perspective of its viability ongoing in the future. Additionally, what works today is far different than what worked yesterday. Nowadays, most traffic is social in nature.

Originally Posted by Disruptive

The secret that was left out of The Millionaire Fast Lane Book

Sorry bro, there is no secret unless years of hard work is somehow a secret.

In closing, here is something to consider: Most of your premises are false and therefore, your conclusions will also be false.

If you think about this problem long enough, you realize it's bigger than it seems at first sight...

It's not only the business models that rely on leads and advertising as their revenue source that are ruled out, it's basically every business that is basically a broker/intermediary/drop-shipper.

Just think about it... can you really make more than $0.50 per EACH visitor that comes into your website, when you only get a percentage of a sale?

If your conversion rate is 1%, which is typical for most products... it means that you would have 1 sale per each 100 visitors.

100 visitors, at $0.50 each would cost you $50...

Can you REALLY make $50 on commissions per each 100 visitors?

Well... if you got 10% commission, to get $50 in commissions, you would have to sell a total of $500.

Is there really a product that sells for $500 and has 10.000+ searches a day?

And this is just to break even... you are not making any profit yet...

Even if you had 50% commission......to get $50 in commissions, you would have to sell a total of $100.


Do you see the problem here?

Basically EVERY business that relies on being an intermediary can't afford to pay advertising... Which means, it can't scale! (unless the product in expensive enough to award a above average commission).


The only solution I see is to develop your own products... and get full margin, not just a commission.

SEO probably did it since limos.com would probably end up near the top of most things limo related. Wouldnt you think?

Thanks for the clarifications MJ!

Originally Posted by Disruptive

Basically EVERY business that relies on being an intermediary can't afford to pay advertising... Which means, it can't scale!

I'd respectfully disagree with this statement.

MJDeMarco,

Don't get me wrong. Your book is probably the best book I've ever read.

It's the only book I've ordered 3 copies of. I gave one to my brother and kept 2, and I've recommended it to a lot of people.

I think it's very good and you have a lot of merit.


I'm trying to use it as much as I can to improve my life, and there are certain things I need to understand, so that's why I'm here.

In your book, under "Potent Fastlane #1: The Internet" you suggest 7 models:

1) Subscription Based
2) Content Based
3) Lead Generation
4) Social Networks
5) Brokerage Systems
6) Advertising
7) E-commerce

I'm not saying you can't build profitable businesses on any of those categories. Sure, you can rank for a couple of keywords with SEO and get some traffic and make some money...

I'm talking about scaling... getting 10.000+ visitors a day.

Can you do it TODAY without paid traffic? Probably not...

What I'm saying is that, with the current advertising prices, you can't run most of the models you suggest in the book profitably if you are buying traffic.

And if you don't buy traffic, it's almost impossible to get to that volume today with SEO alone, with the established players already there dominating most keywords and paying a lot for SEO, and all the SEO work that has been done for years.

Only 1) and 7) can afford to pay for traffic, and 7) can only do it if it's selling it's own product, not drop-shipping/sell other people's products.

So, if all the other models can't afford to pay for traffic because they rely on intermediation, they can't scale... and if they can't scale, they aren't fast lane.

To have scale, you can't rely on commissions (unless the product is expensive enough to award a big comission, like cars or expensive websites, etc..) ... you need full margin on what you sell... you need to sell your own products. All other models that you suggest there are not fastlane with the current advertising prices.

I can't see it any other way. If you think I'm missing something, please let me know.

I really would like to clarify this.

Originally Posted by Disruptive

Basically EVERY business that relies on being an intermediary can't afford to pay advertising... Which means, it can't scale! (unless the product in expensive enough to award a above average commission).

The last business I built and sold was entirely an "intermediary." It was a services business that aggregated and organized services, and had no owned assets of it's own. We didn't own a single screwdriver, ladder, delivery van or W2 technician. The business quickly scaled beyond our capability to provide infrastructure... we sold it in to a larger organization, and today it's the second largest installation provider in the country and serves the world's largest retailer as it's largest customer.

Take words like CAN'T out of your vocabulary. In the one post above this one, you used the word "can't" five times. You used the words "probably not," "impossible," and other limiting words just in your most recent post. Words create artificial ceilings where none need exist. If I followed your thought process above (and we had thin margins and the entire business model was structured on thin commissions) we never would have been able to do what we did. If I had the mentality of what couldn't possibly happen (I can't pay advertising, I can't scale, I can't bid on a contract with the world's largest retailer) the biggest accomplishment of my life to date never would have happened.

When you begin your thought process with all of your misconceptions about what "can't" happen, you miss what CAN happen if you have the guts and stamina to build a business based on a value proposition that fills a need. You're missing the forest for the trees.

"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world." - Harriet Tubman

"Jump into the middle of things, get your hands dirty, fall flat on your face, and then reach for the stars." - Ben Stein

Hey Vigilante,

Thanks for dropping by.

Can you share a bit more about your business? - average visitors per day / average "service" price / conversion rate ?

It seems to me that you might have been operating in an above average "unit price"... maybe the average "service" was >$100, and you got a nice percentage of that... so it was enough to cover the advertising costs and leave you with a profit.

Advertising is getting very expensive, and to pay for it you have to make enough money... I can only see 2 ways to accomplish that:

1) Sell your own product and have 100% margin, enough to pay for advertising and leave you with a profit

2) Sell other people's products/services that are in demand and are expensive enough that the commission if generous enough to cover the ads and leave you with a profit (which is not possible with most "intermediary" businesses - either the commission is not enough or the product/service doesn't convert enough to be profitable).


Of course, the more expensive the products/services are, the narrower your addressable market is, so it's really a double edged sword... can you get 10.000+ visitors a day for a $1000 service?


In the way I see things, advertising is essential to scale... if you can't afford it, you are limited to the people that reach your site alone... and there's no leverage in that.

Originally Posted by Disruptive

MJDeMarco,

Don't get me wrong. Your book is probably the best book I've ever read.

It's the only book I've ordered 3 copies of. I gave one to my brother and kept 2, and I've recommended it to a lot of people.

Did MJ pay you to buy three copies, give one away, and recommend it to a lot of people?

AwkwardPublic,

You don't get it.

If MJ was relying only on that sort of "advertising", his book wouldn't sell nearly as much, if at all.

I'm an isolated case, or one of the minority. Most people don't do that, and most people represent the other 99,999% of MJ's customers.

In fact, I discovered the MJ's book by myself, no one recommended it to me or gave me any copy.

That's because you are still living inside the box of your own creation. There are a million ways around the mountain you have created. Read that sentence again, as you have created the mountain you stand before. In your post above, you still used the word can't. Until you can see past that, you are right... you essentially "can't."

In my case, I found one of the million ways around the mountain. In my case, none of the variables in your post above mattered. Why? Because we got the world's largest retailer to advertise our services for us, and for that we paid... nothing.

We didn't fit any of the single assumptions in your post above. We didn't sell our own product, we didn't have fat margins, and our average ticket was <$100.

Until you drop phrases from your vocabulary such as "you are limited to..." you are never going to think outside of the box enough to achieve scale. In my current business (unrelated to the business I sold as above)... I am not "limited to" anything. 99% of the people that would stand before my business would point out all of it's limitations. Meanwhile, my cash deposits continue to come in daily. If I listened to people who told me what couldn't be done, my deposits would be zero. What other people might see as barriers, we have learned to see as nothing more than diversions. Every bend in the road creates opportunities for people that can see past them to the finish line. Losers stop at the bend and assume they've reached the end of the road.

You have to want it bad enough to find your way around the mountain. If it were easy, everyone would do it. There's not a turnkey business model you can follow. The Millionaire Fastlane book didn't propose any replicable business model to follow. It proposed a mindset of rule breaking that enables you to tunnel through the mountain, forge new paths around the mountain, or climb over the mountain. The 99% will stand in front of the mountain, like you are doing, and propose it's too big for you to move. You've outlined a lot of reasons why things can't happen. How about investing energy in what can?

What if I had listened to everyone who told me I was too small to do business with the world's largest retailer? What if I let my own fear about what "can't" happen decide my future? What if I didn't have the balls to break the rules?

You have an understandable blinder. You have the perspective that the world gives you about your own limitations. You will find 99% of the people you talk with agree with your viewpoint. That 99% has never broken the mold.

The 1% that don't agree with you are the people that I gravitate towards. MJ and dozens of other posters on this forum are in that 1%.

Your quest is noble. Your questions will lead you to a positive gain for yourself. You are intrigued enough to know there's something wrong with the limitations you have discovered (not realizing for the most part they are self imposed). Hang in there, keep asking questions, and keep challenging assumptions until you find your way over, around or through the mountain.

The 'secret' you missed was in the book all along - stop looking at the event and work on the process. While folks like you are listing the reasons why you can't do it, the few of us are doing it anyway and finding a way to make it work. so that in a few years, the people that had too many "can'ts" and "impossibles" in their vocabularies are scratching their heads wondering how we got so "lucky" in getting in at the right time when SEO was so easy or great domain names were still available.

How do you eat an elephant? The answer is not its impossible...

One bite at a time..

Vigilante,

You had a website that aggregated and organized services like small electrical repairs/installations, right?

Why would the world's largest retailer advertise your services for free? What was in it for them?

Every bend in the road creates opportunities for people that can see past them to the finish line.

I can see "past them"... as I said... it's absolutely possible to do SEO and rank for a couple keywords, or buy some keywords on the cheap... and make some money... but the volume is just not there, not the 10.000+ visitors a day... the real potential is out of reach if you go this way...

It's like people selling things on ebay... I did $10.000 in 1 day on ebay sending 3 emails, without any inventory 5 years ago.

Did I make a lot of money? Yes! Was it scalable? No, it was once-in-a-life-time thing... no leverage...