A better Intro (+marketing question)

[Jon822]

First and foremost, the books: I've read TMF and The Great Rat Race Escape .

A brief rundown on education and skills: I have a Bachelor's in Mathematics and Statistics. After much self-learning, I can confidently say that I am at least knowledgeable in full-stack web development, software engineering (in Python only for now), and data science.

When I was in college, I had a sense of the Fastlane (like Neo and the Matrix) long before I read either book. In one of my mathematics classes, a professor told us a quick story about a girl who had recently graduated with her bachelor's in mathematics and statistics. He said that she interned at some company, and then immediately upon graduation that company hired her for $90,000/year because they liked the way she thinks. The room was filled with "ooh's" and "ahh's" while I was looking around thinking, "Wtf? That's it? That's what we're supposed to be excited about? I wanna make way more money than that." And while part of my reaction was out of ignorance (since $90k/year is a great safety net right out of college), I knew that it would takes years before that $90k became 6 figures. And that's not even including income tax. I wanted millions and I knew salaries like that just don't cut it.

After graduating, I became obsessed with two things: teaching myself web development (and a bit of software development) and self-made millionaires. I eventually stumbled across TMF and it should have changed my life, but instead it just reaffirmed the suspicions I had in college. It didn't change my life because I was too comfortable and lazy to put it into action. I built a couple websites that I hoped would end up as Fastlane successes but they solved idol curiosities, not actual problems.

Fast forward to today: I've read The Great Rat Race Escape , moved from Washington state to Arizona (currently in San Tan Valley), and have two kids. One of my biggest hindrances to Fastlane action has been video games. As I write to you now, I am doing so from a Linux OS that is not compatible with most games and I don't even bother attempting roundabout installs anyway. It's been at least 5 months since I have played a single video game. Blocking certain dopamine-hit websites has also helped tremendously and also made me realize that I don't have a focus issue, I had a "too many easily accessible distractions" issue. It was like I expected myself to adhere to a diet while leaving a donuts box on my computer desk.

Anyway, I'm officially here and am working on a Fastlane venture. I'm currently in the "desert of desertion" and so I don't want to disclose what it is but I will gladly make a progress thread when it is ready to engage the market.

 

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[Jon822]

I've officially been offered a position at the US Department of Labor so I don't have to worry about bills and can start back up on my entrepreneurial endeavors!

 

[Jon822]

This is a bit of a vent but I drastically underestimated the challenge of marketing. Maybe I'm just really bad at it but it is so frustratingly slow. Any pro tips or book recommendations?

 

[MJ DeMarco]

This is a bit of a vent but I drastically underestimated the challenge of marketing. Maybe I'm just really bad at it but it is so frustratingly slow. Any pro tips or book recommendations?

More detail needed...

Why is it slow?

No conversions?
No impressions?
Too expensive?

Marketing has a ton of fail points.

Half the marketing game is getting in front of the right audience and the right medium.
Even when that is done, your messaging must be rock solid.
Even after that, your business process must be as well to turn that visitor into $$.

So many fail points are embedded in the journey which is why "I'm bad at marketing" can mean a dozen things.

 

[Jon822]

More detail needed...

Why is it slow?

No conversions?
No impressions?
Too expensive?

Marketing has a ton of fail points.

Half the marketing game is getting in front of the right audience and the right medium.
Even when that is done, your messaging must be rock solid.
Even after that, your business process must be as well to turn that visitor into $$.

So many fail points are embedded in the journey which is why "I'm bad at marketing" can mean a dozen things.

It could just be that I am really impatient and need a more realistic context for how long it takes on average.


I'm advertising on reddit and spamming marketing opportunities on social media, I'm just concerned that the organic daily visits won't be high enough when I stop promoting. If that ends up being the case, then I either have to get feedback as to ways of improving or accept that my website sucks.

 

[Jon822]

Marketing has a ton of fail points.

Half the marketing game is getting in front of the right audience and the right medium.
Even when that is done, your messaging must be rock solid.
Even after that, your business process must be as well to turn that visitor into $$.

So many fail points are embedded in the journey which is why "I'm bad at marketing" can mean a dozen things.

I was rushed when writing my last response and didn't see this. I appreciate the insight. It honestly might even be too early to really tell where my areas of improvement are - I launched the site early in September. Like I said, I might just be venting due to being really impatient. I'll figure it out eventually. I think part of my problem was underestimating how big of a journey marketing is.

 

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[Jon822]

It's not much but it's my very first business profit. Gotta start somewhere

 

[Warloff]

It's difficult to give you feedback because we don't know what you're selling and who you're selling to (we don't even know if this is a consumer or business product).

I make my living in advertising (although not online) and my number one piece of advice is look at what your most successful competitors are doing for marketing and see if you can reverse engineer their funnel (warning: many companies have no idea what their marketing is doing and are just throwing cash into the wind. Look for companies whose marketing has some type of trackable concrete call to action and not those doing "brand awareness.") An easy way to follow the funnel...is just accept a competitor's offer and see what happens.

If there are no competitors in your space...we've got a problem.

Also, I hope you're selling something that's going to lead to repeat sales. If you're selling something that you buy once and only once and there is no opportunity for repeat business this is going to be very hard.

I don't know how much you've spent...but that 2-cents tells me you need to radically rethink your marketing or your product or both.

 

[Jon822]

It's difficult to give you feedback because we don't know what you're selling and who you're selling to (we don't even know if this is a consumer or business product).

I make my living in advertising (although not online) and my number one piece of advice is look at what your most successful competitors are doing for marketing and see if you can reverse engineer their funnel (warning: many companies have no idea what their marketing is doing and are just throwing cash into the wind. Look for companies whose marketing has some type of trackable concrete call to action and not those doing "brand awareness.") An easy way to follow the funnel...is just accept a competitor's offer and see what happens.

If there are no competitors in your space...we've got a problem.

Also, I hope you're selling something that's going to lead to repeat sales. If you're selling something that you buy once and only once and there is no opportunity for repeat business this is going to be very hard.

I don't know how much you've spent...but that 2-cents tells me you need to radically rethink your marketing or your product or both.

My revenue model is Google adsense. I'm not selling any products. The $0.02 is from the very first day (today) my ad account was verified and approved by Google.

 

[Warloff]

My revenue model is Google adsense.

So how many more views a month do you need to make this website successful?

 

[Jon822]

So how many more views a month do you need to make this website successful?

I guess it depends on what you mean by successful. I already consider it successful right now because I have to make $0.02 before I can make $1 and so on. Improvement every day:

 

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[DeNero]

This is a bit of a vent but I drastically underestimated the challenge of marketing. Maybe I'm just really bad at it but it is so frustratingly slow. Any pro tips or book recommendations?

I'm not surprised that's the case with kind of mindset you have combined with your trolling attitude.

There are countless videos on YT on this topic, Alex Hormozi is one of the best people to learn from about business & marketing, amongst many others.

Congrats on your 88c/day achievement, I guess that's better than nothing lol

 

[ZackerySprague]

It's not much but it's my very first business profit. Gotta start somewhere
View attachment 51776

2 cents is something, doesn't matter how small bud. Congrats!

 

[ZackerySprague]

This is a bit of a vent but I drastically underestimated the challenge of marketing. Maybe I'm just really bad at it but it is so frustratingly slow. Any pro tips or book recommendations?

Your learning, not everything will come easy. Try going from IT to whole 180 and learning how to drive with Amazon as a Delivery Driver.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I'm not surprised that's the case with kind of mindset you have combined with your trolling attitude.

There are countless videos on YT on this topic, Alex Hormozi is one of the best people to learn from about business & marketing, amongst many others.

Congrats on your 88c/day achievement, I guess that's better than nothing lol

I'm getting really tired of your pompous attitude kiddo, and I don't care how much of a god-complex you have.

 

[ZackerySprague]

I'm not surprised that's the case with kind of mindset you have combined with your trolling attitude.

There are countless videos on YT on this topic, Alex Hormozi is one of the best people to learn from about business & marketing, amongst many others.

Congrats on your 88c/day achievement, I guess that's better than nothing lol

At least he's trying and not talking so much.

Also Alex Hormzoi is cool, but something should be said that Noah Kagan suggested. Trust but verify. Has he proved that he has an actual $100million net worth. I respect Alex, but Noah's got a point.

 

Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member: Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)

[ZackerySprague]

I guess it depends on what you mean by successful. I already consider it successful right now because I have to make $0.02 before I can make $1 and so on. Improvement every day:
View attachment 51828

A dollar is a start.

 

[ZackerySprague]

First and foremost, the books: I've read TMF and The Great Rat Race Escape .

A brief rundown on education and skills: I have a Bachelor's in Mathematics and Statistics. After much self-learning, I can confidently say that I am at least knowledgeable in full-stack web development, software engineering (in Python only for now), and data science.

When I was in college, I had a sense of the Fastlane (like Neo and the Matrix) long before I read either book. In one of my mathematics classes, a professor told us a quick story about a girl who had recently graduated with her bachelor's in mathematics and statistics. He said that she interned at some company, and then immediately upon graduation that company hired her for $90,000/year because they liked the way she thinks. The room was filled with "ooh's" and "ahh's" while I was looking around thinking, "Wtf? That's it? That's what we're supposed to be excited about? I wanna make way more money than that." And while part of my reaction was out of ignorance (since $90k/year is a great safety net right out of college), I knew that it would takes years before that $90k became 6 figures. And that's not even including income tax. I wanted millions and I knew salaries like that just don't cut it.

After graduating, I became obsessed with two things: teaching myself web development (and a bit of software development) and self-made millionaires. I eventually stumbled across TMF and it should have changed my life, but instead it just reaffirmed the suspicions I had in college. It didn't change my life because I was too comfortable and lazy to put it into action. I built a couple websites that I hoped would end up as Fastlane successes but they solved idol curiosities, not actual problems.

Fast forward to today: I've read The Great Rat Race Escape , moved from Washington state to Arizona (currently in San Tan Valley), and have two kids. One of my biggest hindrances to Fastlane action has been video games. As I write to you now, I am doing so from a Linux OS that is not compatible with most games and I don't even bother attempting roundabout installs anyway. It's been at least 5 months since I have played a single video game. Blocking certain dopamine-hit websites has also helped tremendously and also made me realize that I don't have a focus issue, I had a "too many easily accessible distractions" issue. It was like I expected myself to adhere to a diet while leaving a donuts box on my computer desk.

Anyway, I'm officially here and am working on a Fastlane venture. I'm currently in the "desert of desertion" and so I don't want to disclose what it is but I will gladly make a progress thread when it is ready to engage the market.

Go kill it buddy, I got your back.

 

[DeNero]

I'm getting really tired of your pompous attitude kiddo, and I don't care how much of a god-complex you have.

This guy literally sent me a DM a few hours ago asking if I offer paid coaching for investing, for the sole purpose of using it as a bait and wasting both of our times. Then when I pointed him in the right direction he had the audacity to talk shit as well. You can't make this stuff up lol. Dude has some serious mindset/mental issues.

 

[DeNero]

A dollar is a start.

Perhaps, but for him to talk shit & disrespect me the way he did, ESP being a complete newbie with no previous results or track record- is utterly pathetic, classless, and disgraceful.

That being said, I don't take it personally and I wish him good luck on his journey. But unless he changes his mindset & attitude, he will never amount or achieve anything great in his life.

 

[ZackerySprague]

Perhaps, but for him to talk shit & disrespect me the way he did, ESP being a complete newbie with no previous results or track record- is utterly pathetic, classless, and disgraceful.

That being said, I don't take it personally and I wish him good luck on his journey. But unless he changes his mindset & attitude, he will never amount or achieve anything great in his life.

Dude seriously, just stop.

 

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[Jon822]

Your learning, not everything will come easy. Try going from IT to whole 180 and learning how to drive with Amazon as a Delivery Driver.

Yeah, I know I can figure it out I just underestimated how much of a grind it is. I really appreciate your support

 

[ZackerySprague]

Yeah, I know I can figure it out I just underestimated how much of a grind it is. I really appreciate your support

Were all on a grind, you got this. No problem. I'm sure others wouldn't mind giving you a tip or two.

 

[DeNero]

Yeah, I know I can figure it out I just underestimated how much of a grind it is. I really appreciate your support

Lol so what did you estimate/expect exactly? That it would be easy and/or you wouldn't have to grind/work hard to see big success? Like what were you actually thinking going into this? I'm genuinely curious

 

[DeNero]

Dude seriously, just stop.

Stop what exactly? When others on here give me shit & criticism for no reason it's ok, but when I do it while actually offering value and answering his question all of a sudden that's a problem?

Anyways, you guys can do whatever you want and feel free to help each other out.

I will just focus on myself and soon post more updates on my progress under another category.

 

[ZackerySprague]

Perhaps, but for him to talk shit & disrespect me the way he did, ESP being a complete newbie with no previous results or track record- is utterly pathetic, classless, and disgraceful.

That being said, I don't take it personally and I wish him good luck on his journey. But unless he changes his mindset & attitude, he will never amount or achieve anything great in his life.

Your attitude, look above for example. If you treat a person like this on the internet. I could see you would treat another person in IRL.

Sure hey may have asked you a question about investing and possibly coaching. But I don't see how he's clearly harmed you in anyway except for defending himself from your attacks.

I would never conduct business with you if this is how you treat others.

 

Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member: Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)

[DeNero]

Your attitude, look above for example. If you treat a person like this on the internet. I could see you would treat another person in IRL.

Sure hey may have asked you a question about investing and possibly coaching. But I don't see how he's clearly harmed you in anyway except for defending himself from your attacks.

The guy had 0 and no genuine interest in paying for any sort of coaching, with his sole intention being an attempt to make me look like a scammer if I said I can coach him about investing if he paid me X amount. Then look at this comment on my 2nd thread to which I replied to with a screenshot of his DM.

He has no respect or class whatsoever. And trying to deliberately make me look bad was such a lame attempt & low move.

 

[ZackerySprague]

The guy had 0 and no genuine interest in paying for any sort of coaching, with the sole intention of making me look like a scammer if I said I can coach him about investing if he paid me X amount. Then look at this comment on my 2nd thread to which I replied to with a screenshot of his DM.

He has no respect or class whatsoever. And it was such a lame attempt & low move to try to make me look bad.

You wouldn't even read my "long" post. I gave pure value to you. Also gave you examples of hard working people who made something of themselves and actually achieved a $100million dollar acquisition or someone running a SaaS business and you brushed off their levels.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to reach mountains. But the level your talking about is like Glenn Stearns level or Kara Goldin of Hint. Or even Tom Golisano or John Paul Dejoira.

Told you how exactly Crypto works and the scandals that has happened, and yet you have ignored it all.

As MJ says from the state of Texas "All Hat, No Cattle."

Talk is cheap, this even applies to me. But I was deliberately trying to articulate you pure value to which thus was ignored.

Even I, a nobody, tried to help you.

Stop down playing someone else's success and also stop getting hurt by the ego because you might have lost a potential client from the forum.

 

[Jon822]

Lol so what did you estimate/expect exactly? That it would be easy and/or you wouldn't have to grind/work hard to see big success? Like what were you actually thinking going into this? I'm genuinely curious

No, I did not think it would be easy. I incorrectly thought that the months of work on the software and web development comprised most of the work. It was a combination of ignorance and impatience on my part.

 

[DeNero]

You wouldn't even read my "long" post. I gave pure value to you. Also gave you examples of hard working people who made something of themselves and actually achieved a $100million dollar acquisition or someone running a SaaS business and you brushed off their levels.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to reach mountains. But the level your talking about is like Glenn Stearns level or Kara Goldin of Hint. Or even Tom Golisano or John Paul Dejoira.

Told you how exactly Crypto works and the scandals that has happened, and yet you have ignored it all.

As MJ says from the state of Texas "All Hat, No Cattle."

Talk is cheap, this even applies to me. But I was deliberately trying to articulate you pure value to which thus was ignored.

I didn't ignore it, it just didn't apply to me to me for what I'm looking to achieve right now. And where/when exactly did you share the $100m dollar acquisition part? I don't recall seeing or reading about it