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Golden Nuggets- Tips, processes, & How To's

vek242

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Thank you for all the useful information!!! how do you suggest getting the 20 credit cards? prepaid gift cards? Thanks again!
 
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DeletedUser2

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Thank you for all the useful information!!! how do you suggest getting the 20 credit cards? prepaid gift cards? Thanks again!


We used to buy around 100 gift cards at a time. for employee gifts, and rewards. you can go to wallmart, sams club, wallgreens ect to get prepaid visa/mastercard/amex type cards. they spend just like a credit card. you have to pay cash tho. as part of a test about 4 months ago, I did one for 20$ bucks. used it to open a new adwords account, and get 15$ in adspend (first 5$ went to open the account.) hope that helps.

Z
 

kirrubi

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zen******* thank you for the tread can i ask you a very basic question?
you talked about "Create small “mini sites” sells 1 product"
For each mini site will be need a domain or can i just use free domains or worldpress?
Thank you i am doing my best to learn this new way of business thank you again for your time.
 
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DeletedUser2

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zen******* thank you for the tread can i ask you a very basic question?
you talked about "Create small “mini sites†sells 1 product"
For each mini site will be need a domain or can i just use free domains or worldpress?
Thank you i am doing my best to learn this new way of business thank you again for your time.


really, 10 bucks for a domain.....

get a domain. free ones suck.
 
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DeletedUser2

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ok, Another quick process.

Got Dropbox?

Got 10 Gigs on dropbox Free?

Dont have that many friends who signed up for you yet?

here is a quick process someone shared with me after we discussed it. Since I already had drobox maxed, I haven't used it but he did and went from 2Gigs of free space to 4.5 in less than an hr after posting this, I thought I would share it.

I posted the whole "mini process" here on my google docs where I keep these things.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q7rNWqA7iQ5FS2mzCgHxdtJzAJAXQfnkKl1s_ves5iM/edit

you can go there and read the process.
basically he went and posted on odesk this process, and got to his full10Gig in less than a day.

it was cool enough to watch, that I wanted to share.
:)
Z
 

Laverdure

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okay guys,

I followed zen******* advice and he's helping me really hard and I have to say that is advice and coaching worth gold!

He knows a lot, he gives awesome advice and also he's changing my perception of this fastlane road!

Thanks Dale!

Cheer guys!
 
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Bruce

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This is a really great thread! Thanks for taking the time to post all these nuggets/tips.

Though some tips were a bit too blackhat for me
eg: Testing method and also Dropbox method.
 

David Rees

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Some great information, thanks for sharing. I am buying domains for niche affiliate sites, in your opinion can you make good money with this method.
 

Inphinity

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Some great information, thanks for sharing. I am buying domains for niche affiliate sites, in your opinion can you make good money with this method.

You're probably going to get a variety of different answers to this question, but personally I feel that, as with most things in this regard, it comes down to your execution. Can you make good money with niche affiliate sites? Yes, you can. Does buying domains for niche affiliate sites automatically mean you will do so? No, it doesn't.
 

David Rees

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Of course it depends on execution, my question was a bit simplistic i must admit! Any examples on here of people who are doing well with it?
I know about in depth keyword research, on page, off page seo etc just curious to see examples.
 

Thrive

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Hey zen*******,
I have been thinking about an idea lately and I was wondering after watching you Market Testing video how do you know when its a bad Idea? Because when you have a fully developed site with info, story, great design wouldn't it convert better? Or maybe its just the way you positioned the landing page? I just cant seem to grasp how you tell what a good idea is after reading about people getting turned down time after time and no traction in the beginning but later turn into a huge success. Its messing with my brain. :S
 
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DeletedUser2

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you could turn a book bout Facebook profile picture improvement into good success, but

can it scale?
is there a burning need?
how would you be unique after all the copy cats jumped in? what could you define as your unique angle?

the thing was, in the test we used good copy, for a short add type of copy. we used a decent offer,

yes you could improve.
but going on direct response numbers, you can make a "test" and know what response rate you want to hit within

if its WAY out side the range, you need to rethink the product ect.

if your just spit-balling ideas up, to see if there is any market, then you can use low numbers

if you use a known market, then you can use normal DR response rates.

also, if you don't feel the test brought you enough information, then retest.

the whole point of the test is to kill bad ideas faster, and to spend a little money and effort finding your market and message. often i will see people rush to the market, and are SURE it will be the next big thing. but when faced with a test. (even a small one) it causes them to ditch the internal fantasy world, for the more concrete example staring them in the face.

by doing that one simple thing, I found that most people realize that the "bumper stickers for blind people" idea really isn't so hot.

Hope that helps
Z
 

Eos

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Thank you so much for this fantastic advice Zen. Going to take a shot at the DropBox method tommorrow. Will let everyone knows how it goes :)
 

Amail

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I'm curious - why would you want 10G available space on Dropbox? Is there some monetization aspect I'm missing, or is it just to have more dedicated room in the cloud?
 

Eos

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ok, Another quick process.

Got Dropbox?

Got 10 Gigs on dropbox Free?

Dont have that many friends who signed up for you yet?

here is a quick process someone shared with me after we discussed it. Since I already had drobox maxed, I haven't used it but he did and went from 2Gigs of free space to 4.5 in less than an hr after posting this, I thought I would share it.

I posted the whole "mini process" here on my google docs where I keep these things.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q7rNWqA7iQ5FS2mzCgHxdtJzAJAXQfnkKl1s_ves5iM/edit

you can go there and read the process.
basically he went and posted on odesk this process, and got to his full10Gig in less than a day.

it was cool enough to watch, that I wanted to share.
:)
Z


THIS ^ Incredible. My limit on monday: 3GB. As of today: 18.6GB. I've totally maxed out my referral bonus!

I'm curious - why would you want 10G available space on Dropbox? Is there some monetization aspect I'm missing, or is it just to have more dedicated room in the cloud?

I am not aware of a monetization aspect. For me its just about having more room in the cloud. I can have my entire iTunes collection within Dropbox and access it from anywhere now. Pretty cool huh?
 
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DeletedUser2

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my 500th post.

I thought I would do a post for my 500th post, on some deep insight or great process ect. but instead, I'm posting here because of the simple golden rule. one that has served me well over the years.

and unfortunately someone I know, recently ignored and is now going to prison, more on that in a second.

the golden rule, applies in business and in life. here it is

Dont Lie,
Dont Cheat
Dont Steal

pretty simple. really.

the unfortunate part is some people really never learn this. they play in the gray areas, long enough that it becomes second nature to them, they shave the line, enough times, or even go over the line and never get caught, that they then think that its ok.

its not OK.
not even close.

this person promised to NOT do certain things, was even paid to not to do them, and then promptly broke that promise. thinking no one would notice, or if they did notice, no one would care, or even if they did care, no one could do anything about it.

How wrong he was.
although I hate to spend money going to court, (only the attys ever win it seems) we recently dropped 10K on taking him to court,

Oh, and the FBI were notified also.

you see, when people think its a LITTLE OK, to lie cheat or steal, pretty soon they think its MORE OK, to do it. and eventually, it leads them to the point where their brain is justifying some mighty whoppers, and even some bold ILLEGAL actions. and he did it with the same ease as if he was just sending an email.

when you do these things, you don't create value, (the foundation of wealth) you steal value, you destroy value, you destroy part of yourself.

This person will be serving up to 10 yrs in prison now. unfortunately. and at the ripe old age of 24, that's going to take a terrible chunk of his life. and forever destroy his credibility, and trust with most people.

The point is this. its HARD to stay truthful. its HARD to not take short cuts even when you know they are wrong.
BUT

learning to do so is a process. and its WORTH IT. it took me years and one kick a$$ mentor to get there.
but I never have to look over my shoulder and wonder if the cops are coming. I never have to worry about losing sleep over something I did.

This guy, is going to be worrying for a long, long time, and it will never go away. I hope he learns his lesson, and I hope I shared something of value here for you.

It really is that simple.

Z
 

Amail

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Great post. It's easy to succumb to shortcuts if you're after quick money. Stick to providing value all the time and you stand a much better chance of avoiding the pitfalls of unethical business practices.

Happy 500th!
 

TK1

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why do you hate SEO?

ok, so I hate SEO
that doesnt mean we dont do it in some form or fassion

here is another nugget, by a friend of mine. he wrote one of the better explanations of SEO, including some REAL costs and TIME to seo.

I think the best part is on page 8
http://seoexpert.s3.amazonaws.com/SEO-for-Competitive-Terms.pdf
look it up,
Read it,
its some good stuff

Z
 
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DeletedUser2

Guest
ANOTHER NUGGET TODAY

Your competitors can be your best friends...

So, I was recently sitting with a young man the other day, and he was laying out his plans for making money. WASTE OIL. right? like from restaurants. FRY oil ect...

and he was telling me the numbers on it, and how it can be used to make soap, bio diesel ect. (apparent there is a pretty active secondary market for that stuff)

in any case there was someone already in the market, and had a monopoly on the market, and they had setup a great barrier to entry.

restaurants need to have their grease traps cleaned out. so this guy, had offered to do it for free, in exchange for hauling away thier fry oil.

wow what a great barrier. anyone new in the market, would have to overcome the FREE cleaning to get the oil.

in any case this young man wanted to do it because it was "sustainable and green" his model of the world.

after doing alot of market research he was stuck on how to overcome the free. if he paid for the oil, (some do) he would have a pretty thin margin to operate with. so I suggested he go to the guy who owned the other company and make a deal.

here is what he found out.
1. the guy is older (nearing 70 now) and none of his kids want to do the oil thing, they are all grown and moved onto their careers.
2. the old guy just keeps plugging along with his 5 employees like he has for 20+ yrs.
3. the guy has the the town sewn up, has all the equipment, and has all the buildings and land set up for a pretty smooth operation (20 yrs of optimization)
4. there are 3 other towns in driving distance that could be included in a growth strategty, but the guy is just to old, and makes more money than he can spend anyway...
4. the guy has zero exit plans. because he doesn't know what to do. or how to sell.

here is what I suggested to the young man. I am posting this so you can get some other ideas of how to approach business rather than startup....

1. go to the owner, offer to buy it from him.
2. offer to jv or partner with him by expanding to the other cities FOR him, using his processes, his trucks, and his land.
3. offer to buy it from him in parts, (20% now, with an option on all the rest over time. some now, some every year, at a fixed price)
while you go out and increase the business, letting the growth pay for the aquistion.
4. get a partner
5. offer to work for him at a reduced rate for x period of time, with him teaching you the biz, or work for him, buying his equipment for work.

the whole point was solve this guys need. what does he need to do? not work 40+ hrs a week at 70. give him an exit plan, that works for both parties,
give him the future growth, with out having to hire a bunch of young sales people to do it for him.

there was so many ways to solve a need, provide massive value to the owner, and still step into a healthy profitable business, with growth potential, and income from day 1.

what did the old guy say? HE LOVED IT! now he is motivated to find an exit, where he never had one. they are working out the details now.

I just thought I would share that. it can be faster, and less work than a startup.


Z
 

CommonCents

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Here is some tidbits for offshore stuff.
Been a while since I looked but most should still be good.


recommendations on off-shore web hosting and domain registration,
1) https://www.zone.ee/ in Estonia
2) https://www.switchplus.ch/ in Switzerland
3) Runbox.com is in Norway
4) Cirrushosting.com is in Toronto (easy switch for Americans)
5) CCihosting.com in Panama
6) https://www.netpoint.ee/eng in Estonia

what are pros/cons for hosting offshore?
 
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DeletedUser2

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Todays Nugget

WARNING... this requires a TON of work. and is NOT easy.


one of the fastest business deals we ever made.


we attended a conference recently, where we put together a spectacular deal, Ill outline it below, but more importantly I will outline HOW we did it. the PROCESS.

we went to AD-Tech. one of the biggest online conferences for all the bigger boys in the industry. (want to advertise on line? you need to be here)

1 month before ad tech, we spent 2 hrs looking through all the lists of people going. and made a short list of people we wanted to see.
not a big deal, but that was only step 1

Next we contacted all of them. confirming ad tech, and stating we wanted a face to face meeting. outside their booth, outside the crowds.

then, we followed up with them. confirming, and moving appointments at things arose, but since our team kept a calendar, we could see what each person was doing, and we were making sure to move thing's around to keep everyone happy. we also kept pinging them. and kept them abreast of our impending meeting. as well as asking them about their business, and how things were going for them ( just good communication)

Now, at this point we were only doing business with a very few of them. most of them were only people we had not yet met.

when we got to NY at the conference it was meeting after meeting. and we were pretty clear on what we wanted from them directly.
we then went home, and followed up directly with them both with email, phone call, or txt.

here is what good planing, clear vision, great face to face meetings, awesome followup can do.

we got:
money to fund a new company, all the product and traffic we can buy.
a company to provide us with a super high quality product we can sell
a company to do the entire website process, setting up, ect
a company to bring us all the traffic we need
a bank to provide us with difficult processing
several experts who can improve our already good conversions

so in short. we can launch a whole new company, fund it, and put out a great product with all the traffic we need in just under 2 weeks.

if you KNOW EXACTLY what you are trying to do, the parameters of your success, and what elements you need to get it done. it can be done pretty quickly. if all goes well, we will launch another biz by Jan 1st, with a profit almost immediately.

the Key was to plan ahead for meeting the team that will help with your success. it only took a month of hard planning.

hope that helps



Z
 

Rerun

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Speed+++ for sharing.

I've done similar and had great results at AdTech and related conferences, but just going at it solo... not with a team like you. I'm sure you were able to make way more headway than I could in a single day.

When you setup your meetings did you have a product/business in mind for a particular space you were trying to enter, or did you more or less make the discovery through interviews with advertisers in various categories?
 
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DeletedUser2

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When you setup your meetings did you have a product/business in mind for a particular space you were trying to enter, or did you more or less make the discovery through interviews with advertisers in various categories?

we already had 1 product in the space, we were looking to ad more. from the interactions we pivoted from our original plan and went a slightly different direction, all from the data that these people were able to share.


Z
 
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theBiz

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Zend i knew about this but stayed away, im surprised you do this. What happens if you get caught.. wont google ban you for life if they find out? Are you advertising the same domain in all of these accounts? Where are you getting 20 ccs from? Are they all in your name?


Also...
a bank to provide us with difficult processing
can you talk more about this? Plus you found them at ad tech?
 
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DeletedUser2

Guest
Zend i knew about this but stayed away, im surprised you do this
.

This is an old post regarding how easy it is to create something even when your dirt poor and totally broke. while I dont do this kind of stuff, I still posit the question, what if, or HOW can someone, or HERE IS something I thought up. (perhaps I should qualify it as "would I do this?"


What happens if you get caught.. wont google ban you for life if they find out?

probably. with the new rules, when this was originally written (not posted) the rules were different.

Are you advertising the same domain in all of these accounts? Where are you getting 20 ccs from? Are they all in your name?
you can buy them at wall mart.


Also... can you talk more about this? Plus you found them at ad tech?

High Risk Processing.

We found them at Ad-Tech. here is a short list of What High risk processing covers.


1-800 type chat sites
Airlines
Airplane charters
ALL sexual oriented or pornographic merchants: (i.e. companion or escort services, adult telephone conversations, adult book stores, dating services, online adult membership or matchmaker services, adult paraphernalia or toys.)
Amazon, Yahoo or Google Stores
Annual contracts
Antiques
Auctions
Automotive brokers
Bankruptcy attorneys
Brokering
"Business opportunities"
Calling cards
Casino, gambling or gaming
Check cashing services
Cigarette or electronic-cigarette sales or nicotine cartridges
Coins, collectible currency or autographed collectibles
Collection agencies
Coupons or rewards-points program
Credit or debt repair
Credit counseling
Credit protection
Debt collection
Direct selling
Discount health - medical care programs
Debt consolidation
Drug paraphernalia
eBay Store
E-Books (copywrited material)
Electronics
Event ticket brokers (unlicensed - non registered (i.e. Stub Hub type merchants))
Exporting services (non US based)
Fantasy sports websites
Federal Firearms License (FFL) dealers
Finance broker, financial consulting or loan modification services
Indirect financial consulting (i.e. How to Save Money by Lowering Your Electric Bill.)
Financial planning, strategy or advising
"Get rich quick" - books, programs, etc...
High average tickets
"How-To" type websites (i.e. "Learn How-To Make Money on The Internet")
Horoscopes, astrology or psychic services (i.e. fortune tellers)
"Hype" products or services
Hypnotists or self-hypnosis
International merchants (non US based)
International shipping, cargo or import/export
Investment firms
Investment strategy
Investment books
Lawyer referral services
Life coaching
Lingerie sales
Lotteries
Magazine sales and subscriptions
Mail order
Membership organizations (over 12 months)
Merchants on the terminated merchant file (TMF list)
Modeling agencies
Multi-currencies
Multi-level marketing (MLM)
Music, movie, software downloads or uploads (ie. copywrited music, movies or software (i.e. Microsoft office))
Non US citizens
Off-shore corp. establishment services
Pawn shops
Poor credit
Prepaid debit cards
In-bound or outbound telemarketing services
Real estate
Replica handbags, watches, wallets, sunglasses etc... (knock-offs)
Self defense, pepper spray, mace, etc.
Seo services
Social networking sites - Facebook, Twitter, MySpace etc...
Sports forecasting or odds making/betting
Talent agencies
Telecommunications
Telephone companies
Telephone order
Third-party processing, factoring merchants (i.e. payment processors, vacation rental brokers)
Time-shares or time-shares advertising
Tour operators
Travel services
Travel agencies
Travel clubs
Vacation planners
Vacation rentals (unless property is owned by merchant)
Vitamin and supplement sales - diet pills, prescription pills, health supplements, pharmacy
Voip services
Extended warranty companies
Weapons of any kind - guns, knives, stun guns, or ammo. Includes any parts of weapons (i.e. butts, triggers, magazines, etc.)




Z
 

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