A Story of Rapid Execution

[HackVenture]

I've been here a long long time and I also started progress threads the last time round but I was pulling myself in too many directions and have gotten nowhere really, other than learnt a bunch of things from the school of hard knocks.

Btw if you're wondering why my rep is zero right now, you need to read this post to find out why I transferred all my rep over to MJ, that trigger thread just so good.

SO, I'm lucky to be reasonably successful right now but there's still tons and tons of projects I need to complete, new businesses I need to start.

I'm pretty good at starting projects, not so good at finishing, especially back when I just started on this journey. Thanks to lots of brute force failing and lots of practice, I'm alot better at finishing now.

Most important thing I've learnt is the power of deadlines.

Big project, small project, they all need deadlines, they all need an articulated plan and series of action steps. I've tried tons of apps and Wunderlist is the best I've tried so far. I could do a post about this if there's any interest, but back to what this progress thread is gonna be about.

Right now I have a bunch of boring existing business activity going on but I'd like to share stories of my side projects, and maybe some bigger projects as well; both to share the fun, and also to keep myself accountable.

I'm a digital marketer, and due to the nature of my skillset, I like to start small and quick projects that are fun. Some might not even make business sense but yolo!

I figured the amount of raw intelligence and talent here is so abundant that it would just be a waste for me not to learn from everyone.

So let's go, this should be fun!

 

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[amp0193]

I've tried tons of apps and Wunderlist is the best I've tried so far. I could do a post about this if there's any interest

Based on the amount of responses to other productivity threads in the past, I'd say there would be a lot of interest in this. I'm also very interested personally, as I have yet to find a productivity method that's really stuck. I tend to float from one thing to the next. I
m always willing to hear about something new or different.


Welcome back to the forum!

 

[HackVenture]

Based on the amount of responses to other productivity threads in the past, I'd say there would be a lot of interest in this. I'm also very interested personally, as I have yet to find a productivity method that's really stuck. I tend to float from one thing to the next. I
m always willing to hear about something new or different.


Welcome back to the forum!

Cool thanks for the welcome! Always refining my methods and this is my favorite so far for sure. I'll make a post about it some time.

This past weekend was spent immersed in an intensive workshop on property investing.

Really scary how our education teaches us NOTHING about managing our finances etc and how it really takes our own initiative to learn and explore in order to make good financial decisions and investments..

 

[HackVenture]

The idea behind the first side project I was going to execute was from a promotional email that I received.

The deal was that you're supposed to refer 7 people for a free night's stay in a resort in Krabi.

Meaning if you referred 70 people you'll get 10 nights free.

It's meant to be a viral marketing campaign which I thought was really interesting. With my FB marketing chops I thought it would be a piece of cake to win an easy 4D3N vacation for the family.

Unfortunately when I was trying to set up the campaign I saw that the signup form has disappeared. When I emailed them they said the promotion was closed.

Probably someone like me came in and won too many free nights

 

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[HackVenture]

So the next side project would be a product launch in a market I'm interested in.

It's basically a high ticket information product, and currently the affiliate program is for driving signups.

I'm again going to be using my FB marketing chops for this little project that would probably end around the first week of Nov.

So far I've been super lazy and only direct linking to the signup page.

I've had 300 conversions so far but totally no idea how many are going to end up purchasing so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

At the same time I've been preparing to slap up a quick Wordpress site to put up some content and lander, and probably to put up a page with a bonus for anyone who purchases through my affiliate link. I'll maybe drive some Google traffic to this lander as well.

I probably only have the rest of the week to finish all this and I'm not quite sure if I can make it in time as I'll be pretty busy with my "real" work as well so let's see.

 

[HackVenture]

So here are the stats from the project so far:
Total adspend: $260
Total number of leads generated (direct linking): 413

As mentioned earlier, it's a high-end financial newsletter and I actually had grand plans to build a site for it but it's still only halfway done and the actual launch of the product is tomorrow so I really don't have much time.

The commissions from one sale would more than cover all my adspend but it's still hard to say how many sales I could generate. Maybe I'll budget $500 - $600 for this project.

I might just decide to ramp up the spend on my existing campaign; at this point I'm just concerned that my leads generated are not high enough quality to generate sales on launch.

Let's see how it goes.

I might also decide to put in 1-2 hours later tonight to finish up the site and drive some Adwords traffic to it; the quality from this traffic would be way higher quality but I'll be busy with the main business today so not sure if I can get that done, so let's see!

 

[HackVenture]

Ok so I decided to ramp up the budget to $200/day tomorrow as it would be the last day before launch.

I hope to be able to get at least a couple of sales from the hundreds of signups!

I have also completed the site, phew! I will be offering a bonus to people who buy with my affiliate link, and I have already set up a Google Adwords campaign, I would probably look into this after the launch.

Before the launch, I would just be working on the Facebook campaign.

 

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[Hai]

Congrats for getting many signups for little money!
I personally hadn´t have success delaying a launch. I was quite disappointed about the 1% conversion rates, after spending a lot of money for the leads.
Interested to hear how it turns out.

 

[HackVenture]

Congrats for getting many signups for little money!
I personally hadn´t have success delaying a launch. I was quite disappointed about the 1% conversion rates, after spending a lot of money for the leads.
Interested to hear how it turns out.

Thanks man!

It's the first time I'm promoting a launch like this so really just keeping my fingers crossed, not sure what's going to happen in the end.

So I overshot my budget on this campaign lol! I have paused the campaign as the launch webinar is happening now.

Total adspend: $756.09
Total number of leads generated (direct linking): 1,292
Average cost per lead: $0.58

Let's see if I have any results to show later today or tomorrow..

 

[HackVenture]

So the launch webinar happened, and here's the total stats so far.

Total adspend: $756.09 SGD which is like $581 USD
Total number of leads generated (direct linking): 1,292
Average cost per lead: $0.58 SGD which is like $0.44 USD
Total revenue so far: $2,500
NET: +ve $1,919.00 USD

A little bit bummed that the sale to lead ratio is really low but the advertiser is still going to carry on mailing the leads so hopefully a few more sales come in.

I ended up being too busy (lazy) to promote the lander so even though the conversion rate is not quite as high as I hoped for (so far), it's still not too bad for like 30 minutes of work setting up the direct linking campaigns.

If I get some time I might just promote the landers I made to make this case study a little bit more interesting I guess.

 

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[HackVenture]

Quick update on stats.

Total adspend: $581 USD
Total number of leads generated (direct linking): 1,292
Average cost per lead: $0.44 USD
Total revenue so far: $4,198.50
NET: +ve $3,617.50 USD

The affiliate manager is telling me that international sales could take some time for commissions to get credited, so I think I should still have more sales coming in.

Part of the reason why I ran this test was to confirm my suspicion that high-priced financial newsletters could bring pretty good profit and it does seem like the case.

This is actually a really ghetto way to profit from the financial newsletter industry, and I'm considering building email lists in this space, could be a nice source of income since.

Anyone has any experience or insights in building out a high-priced financial newsletter as a product?

I'm also likely going to start an eCommerce brand locally, in the Home & Living category; this project would take a significantly longer time to see results so it might be kind of boring as a progress thread but let's see, I might document it here anyways if there's interest.

I'm also in the middle of an eCommerce branding project in the supplement space, doing some tests to confirm viability. If we decide to go ahead with it I'll probably share it here as well.

 

[Andy Black]

Lol. Looks like you have the same entrepreneurial ADHD that I have due to a media buying skillset.

You're getting paid per sale? What's your click-to-sale rate like? Is there anything you can do to increase that?


Anyway, thought you might find this podcast interesting:

• 227 – How To Set Up A Profitable Recurring Paid Newsletter Subscription Business

(Subscribed to your progress thread. I like the speed of execution.)

 

[InformationH]

Never launched a paid newsletter myself but it is on my someday list.

Most struggle with retention but if you do it right you can easily overcome it.

Check this video out. (Doberman Dan was one of Gary Halberts mentees)

View: https://youtu.be/HprDkiiilVs



Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

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[HackVenture]

Lol. Looks like you have the same entrepreneurial ADHD that I have due to a media buying skillset.

You're getting paid per sale? What's your click-to-sale rate like? Is there anything you can do to increase that?


Anyway, thought you might find this podcast interesting:

• 227 – How To Set Up A Profitable Recurring Paid Newsletter Subscription Business

(Subscribed to your progress thread. I like the speed of execution.)

Haha yeaaa which is why I think media buying is a really, really powerful skillset, could be used for so many different things as traffic and conversions are the lifeblood of any business.

Yea I'm getting paid per sale, I've had 4 sales out of 1,292 leads which is a 0.3% lead-to-sale which isn't high by any measure but this is direct linking and it's a high-ticket item so the results are pretty interesting, and is prompting me to get more serious on the model.

This is a promotion for a product launch so sales will be more brisk in the first couple weeks then probably gonna die off for abit but if I build on it I should still get sales or at least be geared up for the next re-launch next year.

Thanks for the link to the podcast, gonna check it out!

Never launched a paid newsletter myself but it is on my someday list.

Most struggle with retention but if you do it right you can easily overcome it.

Check this video out. (Doberman Dan was one of Gary Halberts mentees)

View: https://youtu.be/HprDkiiilVs

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

Thanks for this, gonna check it out! My biggest fear is of the content that needs to be produced as I intend to make this a high ticket item so I don't intend to sell something low-quality even if I could get away with it and with my schedule I won't be able to develop a solid enough product, which is why I'm looking out for opportunities to partner up with someone who has the ability to put up solid content. I could package up the content and promote the heck out of it no probs, but coming up with solid content is a problem for me at this stage.

 

[HackVenture]

ADHD strikes again.

A hotel is doing a promo where they give you free nights if you refer people to sign up to their funnel.

Something light and fun, I'm probably gonna take out an hour or 2 tonight or tomorrow to set up a campaign to send them some business and try to win a nice short holiday for my family lol.

 

[HackVenture]

So I think I spent the last 30 minutes setting up the campaign for this hotel, targeting various geos in SEA, and I'm DONE!

Set daily budget at $30/day, let's see where that takes me.

 

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[HackVenture]

Aww this hotel campaign isn't going so well; I think I only have 1 or at most 2 sign ups from the campaign and I'm paying like $30 for them; at this rate I might as well pay for the hotel stay lol.

I received an email from the marketing department though, probably cos they're seeing abnormal amounts of traffic to my links cos I'm buying traffic, and I'm wondering whether they blocked those users from signing up.

In any case, I'm pausing this campaign unless they confirm with me what's going on.

In the meantime, probably just gonna get friends and relatives to sign up and see if I manage to get something at least.

 

[HackVenture]

I'm beginning to find this thread kind of messy especially with the multiple projects I'm doing and the even more I will be doing.

So here's an attempt to make things more organized and just to be clear, most projects are small ones that have a clearly defined short duration. Only a few would be big projects that would take place over more than weeks/months at a time.

Hotel Campaign
--
I wrote in to the folks asking about whether there was any issue with tracking as my CR was super low. Apparently they are running traffic themselves too and told me they are seeing bad CR as well and recommended I refer through word of mouth instead.

Kind of odd reply but ok, so I wasted $30 on this and this is the end of the project; here is the post if anyone is interested:
Welcome to Krabi

END of project!

High Ticket Newsletter Affiliate Campaign
--
I made a stupid mistake of deciding to run an additional $120 worth of traffic a couple days before the end of the launch and I think they weren't valid or something, not sure.

So these are the stats with the reflected ad spend. Still waiting for the latest stats from the advertiser to see if I made any more sales. Interesting side track is that I'm now talking to the advertiser about working together perhaps on a contract or performance basis, might be interesting to see where this leads.

Total adspend: $700 USD
Total number of leads generated (direct linking): 1,292
Average cost per lead: $0.44 USD
Total revenue so far: $4,198.50
NET: +ve $3,498.50 USD

 

[HackVenture]

High Ticket Newsletter Affiliate Campaign (Final Update)
--

Total adspend: $700 USD
Total number of leads generated (direct linking): 1,305
Average cost per lead: $0.54 USD

Total revenue: $17,147.00

NET: +ve $16,447 USD

That's like 24x return on adspend and I'm very happy with it. Apparently alot of the sales really hit the bank much later as I had alot of international orders.

Hoping for possible future collaboration with the advertiser for ongoing business, will keep this thread updated with regards to that but as of now, I've concluded the 2 case studies; started a few more projects and am considering which ones to add on here.. These days I am mostly working on 2 eComm projects, looking at starting some email marketing recurring income projects, as well as a Kindle business.

And of course along the way if I see something interesting like this high ticket newsletter or hotel stay promotion I would still stick my toes in it simply because it just doesn't take much time and effort at all.

I probably look like I'm all over the place but I guess this suits my skillset and working style..

But I'm really looking at pumping out more assets that keep producing revenue instead of one-off projects.

Anything you guys would like to see in particular?

 

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[Andy Black]

High Ticket Newsletter Affiliate Campaign (Final Update)
--

Total adspend: $700 USD
Total number of leads generated (direct linking): 1,305
Average cost per lead: $0.54 USD

Total revenue: $17,147.00

NET: +ve $16,447 USD

That's like 24x return on adspend and I'm very happy with it. Apparently alot of the sales really hit the bank much later as I had alot of international orders.

Hoping for possible future collaboration with the advertiser for ongoing business, will keep this thread updated with regards to that but as of now, I've concluded the 2 case studies; started a few more projects and am considering which ones to add on here.. These days I am mostly working on 2 eComm projects, looking at starting some email marketing recurring income projects, as well as a Kindle business.

And of course along the way if I see something interesting like this high ticket newsletter or hotel stay promotion I would still stick my toes in it simply because it just doesn't take much time and effort at all.

I probably look like I'm all over the place but I guess this suits my skillset and working style..

But I'm really looking at pumping out more assets that keep producing revenue instead of one-off projects.

Anything you guys would like to see in particular?

What other money nozzle can you put on the end of that funnel you created?

 

[HackVenture]

What other money nozzle can you put on the end of that funnel you created?

Do you mean how I can spend more in order to get more leads?

Unfortunately I can't as this campaign was for a product launch which has now ended.

The sucky thing is I wasn't able to know how well it converts until a few days AFTER the launch webinar and by then it was already too late to want to send more traffic.

If I knew CR was going to be so high I would have at least 10x-ed my spend for sure lol.

 

[Andy Black]

Do you mean how I can spend more in order to get more leads?

Unfortunately I can't as this campaign was for a product launch which has now ended.

The sucky thing is I wasn't able to know how well it converts until a few days AFTER the launch webinar and by then it was already too late to want to send more traffic.

If I knew CR was going to be so high I would have at least 10x-ed my spend for sure lol.

No, I meant you've already built a funnel to get signups. What else can you sell to them?

 

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[HackVenture]

No, I meant live already built a funnel to get signups. What else can you sell to them?

Ah, I was direct linking to the offer.

Building a list in this vertical is what I intend to do next. I can sell parallel products in the meantime while waiting for the relaunch of this product next year.

 

[HackVenture]

Would like to announce a new project case study!

Master Node Project
--
I've been involved in the crypto space for awhile now and have always been interested in setting up some master nodes.

Basically, what it is, is something like mining.

For some coins, you can buy in a minimum amount and become a master node holder, meaning you have to set up some fancy tech stuff on a server holding the master node, which helps facilitate the operations of the coin.

Master nodes for some coins are super expensive, but could be well worth the investment as it could result in XXX% in annual returns.

I'm going to be starting a small and inexpensive master node for a start, see how things go. If things go super well I could even go deep in, start a company, secure investments to build big nodes etc.

For now, I'm starting small and let's see how things go.

Not sure how technical the process is going to be like too, but just gonna dive in and see what happens

 

[HackVenture]

Quick update on the masternode project!

I chose to set up a masternode for Zencash, a cryptocurrency I believe has great prospects and doesn't require much capital to start.

I did the whole setting up with the help of someone whom I ended up paying a small sum to for his time, but man, the whole technicality of it all has convinced me I should hire this out for my next masternodes.

Basically, I will be generating an income of about 5% of the zen I put up per day. That's a pretty sweet return considering the fact that I believe the value of zen should increase as well, so my total earnings is more than 5%.

I made a mistake in not entering the correct address in one of the steps so I will not be receiving payouts for the past 20 days or so that I have my node live.

All should be good now, and I have secured enough tokens for the following 2 masternodes I will be setting up next: Nuls & VeChain.

Masternode for these 2 will only be available in a few months' time so I'm just holding these tokens now, and value should appreciate in the meantime.

 

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[HackVenture]

Mandatory Happy 2018 Post!

2 days late in writing this because I realized too late that 2 days is insufficient for reviewing an entire year!

I have written in my journal (used Day One on iPhone, have switched to Diaro ever since I switched to Android) pretty much every single day so it took quite abit of time to read, reflect, and pen down my learnings.

Here's the cliff notes of what happened in 2017 for me:
- became a dad (I am so grateful at being able to work from home and watching my baby grow everyday)
- discovered crypto and am grateful for the opportunity of finally being able to get into something BIG while it's still not too late
- executed TONS of projects; I've always had a weakness in shipping projects and I'm happy to report I've been able to ship and complete many projects this year; many were unsuccessful but I did see them to fruition. I credit this to..
- finally establishing a productivity system that WORKS for me. I've tried countless productivity systems and I'm so happy that I finally have one that I've been able to stick to consistently
- this is probably going to sound juvenile but I love my current wallet and backpack, and I've tried so hard to find a wallet and backpack that I like so much! Wallet = Swift wallet, backpack = Nomatic backpack, Swift from Kickstarter, Nomatic from Indiegogo, love supporting indie creators that make great products, much prefer these than the "branded" stuff out there. I foresee using my current setup for a long long time.
- switched to an Android! Have always been an Apple guy and have tried 2-3 times to switch to Android but it just wasn't mature enough for my usage. My iPhones just flat out WORKED and that's all I wanted; something that Android hasn't been able to do for me on my attempts with Samsung Galaxy S5 and HTC One M8. I bought the Samsung Note 8 for Christmas and I LOVE it so far. I have found great Android replacements for all my commonly used apps from the iPhone, and look forward to dreaming up massive empires with the S Pen in 2018!
- pretty much zoomed in on a dream home. I own my home right now and love it, but I'm looking to move to a bigger home and getting a live-in helper in order to live a more comfortable lifestyle where we don't have to take care of our own household chores and can eat healthy home-cooked food daily
- business-wise was filled with ups and downs; had a streak of unsuccessful projects but I've learnt so much
- fortunately I made 6 figures again in 2017. Significantly more than in 2016.

And of course, my goals for 2018.
- my projects so far have mostly been short-term ones. I look forward to creating long-term, recurring income in 2018 through info products and publishing
- 7 figures in profits from crypto investing
- have generally been in good health but look forward to being even healthier and fitter in 2018 together with my family, by eating better and exercising more!
- attain $10,000 in my rep bank on fastlane forum; I really like this community and look forward to meeting some of you in real life

Quick question though. I'm still trying to learn my way around the forums, but is this thread of mine currently in INSIDERS? I should probably have posted it outside, is there a way for me to shift it?

In any case, I hope everyone CRUSHES it in 2018, and thanks again to @MJ DeMarco for your awesome books and this community to hang out with!

 

[MJ DeMarco]

but is this thread of mine currently in INSIDERS? I should probably have posted it outside, is there a way for me to shift it?

It is on the OUTSIDE. You're good!

 

[HackVenture]

It is on the OUTSIDE. You're good!

Haha cool, shows how lost I am, thanks!!

Sent from my SM-N950F using Tapatalk

 

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[HackVenture]

@MJ DeMarco I just tried to start a conversation with you but apparently I'm not able to do that. I wanted to make a post but wasn't sure if it's appropriate and wanted to run it by you first. May I know how I can do that?

 

[Andy Black]

@MJ DeMarco I just tried to start a conversation with you but apparently I'm not able to do that. I wanted to make a post but wasn't sure if it's appropriate and wanted to run it by you first. May I know how I can do that?

You can PM me...