Three days ago I launched my new website. It took about 2.5 months once I started taking it seriously. I knew when I launched it that it would take time for the money to come. It's a review site; an online community that I'm trying to build. Out of all the entrepreneurial ventures I've attempted, this is the realest, most impactful one by far. And I did it. I took an idea, researched it, promoted it, learned on the fly how to build it, got it as far as I could and then passed it off to a developer who I worked very closely with to bring it home. And now we're live. It really is one of the accomplishments I'm most proud of considering all the ideas I never took action on.
Reception has been decent. I even made $800 before we launched - so that hard proof combined with a lot of positive feedback kept me going. The project itself, now sparked, is a small fire. And I have no doubt that as long as I keep tending it, it'll continue to grow.
I'm not complaining, and I'm not a lazy or greedy man, but I need money. I got laid off my job at a clothing store in the mall, learned Google Ads from @Andy Black, joined a business networking group, and started managing Google Ads for people while getting unemployment from my old job. I had this idea for my website back in June 2020 but it wasn't until November that I started planning and researching my current project because I realized that managing Google Ads was not going to be a long-term thing for me.
My digital marketing company (if you can call it that) had a very high turnover rate, so once I stopped looking for new customers and focusing solely on my current project, the income from that business dwindled into nothing and I was left with unemployment - thank God.
I made the mistake of having an unreasonable expectation that as soon as I launch, the reviews will poor in and compel the business owners in this specific niche to pay me - not quite. Even though every prospect is interested in the paid service I offer, it doesn't make sense for them to pay me until my audience grows to a point that makes it more compelling to the business owners. And the audience is pretty dependent on the reviews - which I'm learning are not very easy to come by. I'm sure in time they will come. But I got bills due now, and I'm barely scraping by with unemployment.
Option #1: get a job. I can deliver pizzas for my friend that owns a pizza shop. I can get more customers to let me manage their Google Ads. My brother in law can get me a job selling HVAC or something else. I can hop on indeed and try to get something a sales job or something more aligned with digital marketing. I remember in TMF MJ got little jobs here and there to stay focused on the main goal.
Option #2: find a way to turn this website into money. MJ also said to "dump the damn job." Rightfully so, because I've worked my whole life and when I reflect on that I think about all the time that was wasted. 5 days a week in return for 2 = a -60% return on my time investment. I can't do that again. So now it's like, alright. I can find freelance work. Or, I can figure out a way to turn my website into money. I do have something that works great and provides value. I can focus on begging people to write a review - which takes time but helps them have a voice to help others. I can get more businesses to claim their free listing to provide basic info for my visitors - ultimately making it more helpful to people searching. I can call the businesses that have already claimed their businesses and offer them a discount to upgrade to the paid service - but we've only been live for 3 days so maybe I should at least give it a month so I have analytics to demonstrate value.
Option #3: raise funding. I can spend my time doing this, but just the idea of this hurts my pride. I feel like there's gotta be a better way to make money than ask people for it. I don't know why I'm so against this. I guess I feel like if I have something functional, then getting funding this early on should be unnecessary because I should be able to execute well enough to not need it. I don't even know how I would go about doing this - then again, I don't know how I've gone about this whole process lol. I was thinking about opening a credit card to pay my web developer and work to get it paid off before they charge me interest. I could ask my Godfather or my brother-in-law to make an investment. I could take a bank loan.
Obviously, I like option #2 the most, but I need to make money now. And option #2 is the least certain option to handle that objective.
What do you guys think?
Reception has been decent. I even made $800 before we launched - so that hard proof combined with a lot of positive feedback kept me going. The project itself, now sparked, is a small fire. And I have no doubt that as long as I keep tending it, it'll continue to grow.
I'm not complaining, and I'm not a lazy or greedy man, but I need money. I got laid off my job at a clothing store in the mall, learned Google Ads from @Andy Black, joined a business networking group, and started managing Google Ads for people while getting unemployment from my old job. I had this idea for my website back in June 2020 but it wasn't until November that I started planning and researching my current project because I realized that managing Google Ads was not going to be a long-term thing for me.
My digital marketing company (if you can call it that) had a very high turnover rate, so once I stopped looking for new customers and focusing solely on my current project, the income from that business dwindled into nothing and I was left with unemployment - thank God.
I made the mistake of having an unreasonable expectation that as soon as I launch, the reviews will poor in and compel the business owners in this specific niche to pay me - not quite. Even though every prospect is interested in the paid service I offer, it doesn't make sense for them to pay me until my audience grows to a point that makes it more compelling to the business owners. And the audience is pretty dependent on the reviews - which I'm learning are not very easy to come by. I'm sure in time they will come. But I got bills due now, and I'm barely scraping by with unemployment.
Option #1: get a job. I can deliver pizzas for my friend that owns a pizza shop. I can get more customers to let me manage their Google Ads. My brother in law can get me a job selling HVAC or something else. I can hop on indeed and try to get something a sales job or something more aligned with digital marketing. I remember in TMF MJ got little jobs here and there to stay focused on the main goal.
Option #2: find a way to turn this website into money. MJ also said to "dump the damn job." Rightfully so, because I've worked my whole life and when I reflect on that I think about all the time that was wasted. 5 days a week in return for 2 = a -60% return on my time investment. I can't do that again. So now it's like, alright. I can find freelance work. Or, I can figure out a way to turn my website into money. I do have something that works great and provides value. I can focus on begging people to write a review - which takes time but helps them have a voice to help others. I can get more businesses to claim their free listing to provide basic info for my visitors - ultimately making it more helpful to people searching. I can call the businesses that have already claimed their businesses and offer them a discount to upgrade to the paid service - but we've only been live for 3 days so maybe I should at least give it a month so I have analytics to demonstrate value.
Option #3: raise funding. I can spend my time doing this, but just the idea of this hurts my pride. I feel like there's gotta be a better way to make money than ask people for it. I don't know why I'm so against this. I guess I feel like if I have something functional, then getting funding this early on should be unnecessary because I should be able to execute well enough to not need it. I don't even know how I would go about doing this - then again, I don't know how I've gone about this whole process lol. I was thinking about opening a credit card to pay my web developer and work to get it paid off before they charge me interest. I could ask my Godfather or my brother-in-law to make an investment. I could take a bank loan.
Obviously, I like option #2 the most, but I need to make money now. And option #2 is the least certain option to handle that objective.
What do you guys think?
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. :-)
Access Restricted: Unlock 1,000,000+ Posts
Stop Peeking Through the Keyhole.
Open the Door.
You hit a wall because the best advice isn't free—it's earned. Since 2007, MJ DeMarco has been active here daily (99.9% active rate), building a war room for entrepreneurs who refuse to settle for mediocrity.
- Active Daily: Life-changing content posted dozens of times every day. No dead threads.
- MJ's Inner Circle: Direct access to the author of The Millionaire Fastlane.
- Vetted Network: Connect with founders scaling to 7 and 8 figures.
- Proven Roadmaps: Strategy over motivation. Execution over "hustle porn."
"SCALED TO 6-FIGURE MONTHS"
"Tips and advice here saved me from huge mistakes, others allowed me to scale my business to 6-figure months."— User MitchC
"INSANE QUALITY OF PEOPLE"
"The number of high quality people I've met from this forum has been insane. All of it predicated on building real value."— User Richard Peck
"You are the average of the five people you surround yourself with."
Are you surrounding yourself with success?
