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Hello Everyone, I am Luca

Spino

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Hello Everyone,
I am halfway through The Millionaire Fastlane and though of visiting the Forum... And here we are!

My name is Luca, 37, born in Italy I moved to Melbourne, Australia, a little over 6 years ago.
I come from a humble family and a slowlane education. Moving to a new and rich city triggered in me the curiosity and motivation to wealth (freedom) so in the last 4 years I have trying to find ways of accumulating wealth, with poor results.

I am a Tech Guy, been working in systems support and projects for over 10 years and in my free time I do a bit of coding.

One of my passions is Forex and Cryptocurrency trading and I also created an online side business about it. I create and sell technical indicators and plugins for a popular trading platform. This is averaging 200 $/month and I think I reached a plateau.

I am quite creative but I haven't cracked the code to wealth yet so if you have any advice will be very welcome.
 
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Spino

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Welcome to the forum, Luca. Very cool that you've already created something that generates revenue.

Why has it plateued? Maybe we can help.

I almost finished The Millionaire Fastlane and I see a few issues with the current business/webiste:

  1. I don't have full control, the software plugins are sold through the Marketplace of Metatrader hence I rely on their conditions. They test the plugins, take care of the distribution (installation on the client) and provide visibility, because the marketplace is accessible directly from the client, on the other side, they take 20% commission on my sales
  2. The products I develop are for Metatrader 4, which is quite obsolete and will be discontinued in the next couple of years... Metatrader 5 will replace that version but the plugins will need to be re-coded, hence a significant investment of time
  3. I am not sure about the reach, can I affect millions with something of this type? The user base is limited to traders that use this platform and look for additional trading tools. I can't do magnitude for sure with this and I am not sure I can do scale
So this is the situation at the moment
Any suggestion is welcome
Thank you
 

BlackLynx

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Hello Luca,

You live on the second floor ?

(Sorry couldn't resist)

Welcome to the forum.
 

lowtek

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I almost finished The Millionaire Fastlane and I see a few issues with the current business/webiste:

  1. I don't have full control, the software plugins are sold through the Marketplace of Metatrader hence I rely on their conditions. They test the plugins, take care of the distribution (installation on the client) and provide visibility, because the marketplace is accessible directly from the client, on the other side, they take 20% commission on my sales
  2. The products I develop are for Metatrader 4, which is quite obsolete and will be discontinued in the next couple of years... Metatrader 5 will replace that version but the plugins will need to be re-coded, hence a significant investment of time
  3. I am not sure about the reach, can I affect millions with something of this type? The user base is limited to traders that use this platform and look for additional trading tools. I can't do magnitude for sure with this and I am not sure I can do scale
So this is the situation at the moment
Any suggestion is welcome
Thank you

You're complaining about a bunch of problems you don't have.

Just because you lack complete control, doesn't mean you can't make a boatload of cash. Don't over analyze here.

Having to recode something that will be discontinued in a couple years... does not mean you've reached a plateau. Cross that bridge when you come to it.

As far as reach, take a look at your analytics. If your conversion rate is < 10% you're leaving money on the table, even with the current user base. You shouldn't be worried about total reach until you've maxed out every bit from your current market.

I don't see a plateau. I see analysis paralysis.
 

ExaltedLife

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You're complaining about a bunch of problems you don't have.

Just because you lack complete control, doesn't mean you can't make a boatload of cash. Don't over analyze here.

I don't see a plateau. I see analysis paralysis.

Relax bud, he just finished MFL and is applying newly learned concepts to his business. All he said is that he sees a few issues with his current business model.


  1. I don't have full control, the software plugins are sold through the Marketplace of Metatrader hence I rely on their conditions. They test the plugins, take care of the distribution (installation on the client) and provide visibility, because the marketplace is accessible directly from the client, on the other side, they take 20% commission on my sales
  2. The products I develop are for Metatrader 4, which is quite obsolete and will be discontinued in the next couple of years... Metatrader 5 will replace that version but the plugins will need to be re-coded, hence a significant investment of time
  3. I am not sure about the reach, can I affect millions with something of this type? The user base is limited to traders that use this platform and look for additional trading tools. I can't do magnitude for sure with this and I am not sure I can do scale
So this is the situation at the moment
Any suggestion is welcome
Thank you

Hey Luca, welcome to the forum. Let's run through your concerns with the CENTS commandments.

1. You lack control because you depend on Metatrader for distribution and reach. Can your plugins be modified for different trading software? Can you sell your existing plugins in other marketplaces where you can expand your reach to clients who might use the same software but not choose yours from the marketplace?

Alternatively, can you offer anything more to Metatrader to convince them to lower their commission?

Additionally, what needs are you solving for your clients? What are Metatrader's needs? Are you solving any of them?

Also, what is your business model, and how limited are you by their conditions? For example, are these one time sales? If so, could you conceivably switch to a subscription model? That way you could achieve greater magnitude over time as well as possibly entice more customers with lower upfront fees.

2. If Metatrader 4 is going to be obsolete and replaced with Metatrader 5, this is actually a great opportunity - because you can capitalize on both NEED and ENTRY. People using the new version will need plugins, and if you can provide the best solutions before anybody else, you can throw up entry barriers behind you. Chances are you aren't the only plugin developer who feels hesitant about investing that time. You can get there first if you want.

3. I don't know what your reach is, so the first thing to do is determine the size of your market. That being said, how can you increase magnitude with the market you do have? The best leads are existing customers. Have you been collecting their emails? What do you know about the people who buy your plugins, and their trading habits. What else would be of value to them? Do you know tricks of the trade you could compile into an ebook and sell to them?

I don't know anything about your business but those are my thoughts. Good luck and if you make progress keep us posted!
 

Spino

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Hi Guys,
Thank you for the feedback, I will try to expand
  1. Metatrader is probably the most popular platform for Forex trading and uses a proprietary language so the plugins are developed for that platform and non transferable. I could increment my "control" creating a Store on my website, drawback is a decrease in visibility because the Metatrader marketplace is embedded in every Metatrader client and an increment of maintenance because I would have to manage the licencing of the plugins. Regarding the business model, I have both a rental monthly price and once off buy price. Other disadvantage of using Metatrader is the very limited statistics I have and no data regarding the buyers
  2. I must have explained wrong, Metatrader 4 will be discontinued in the next few years however Metatrader 5 has been available for 4-5 years already hence it is already a crowded marketplace
  3. I am struggling to think about ways to increase the magnitude, the average buy price of the plugins is between 20 and 60$ (take away 20% of commission) and the user base say... 10.000-15.000 people I would say judging by the DEMO download of the best selling plugins. I built a 700 email list giving some tools away for free but haven't really leveraged that much.
This is where I stand at the moment, honestly, this is still something I LIKE to do, but after reading the book I believe it doesn't have enough POTENTIAL. This is way I started looking around for new opportunities and ideas.
 
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Spino

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Hi Guys,
I just wanted to say thank you for the feedback.
I took onboard the critics and positive feedback, at the start I was let down and upset but once processed I came out with an action plan:
  1. Through Facebook Ads I created a custom audience that represents a possible target, the smallest group is around 4 million people (traders using a popular trading platform), this gives me SCALE
  2. I came out with a solution to licence and distribute my plugins through my website, this gives me CONTROL
  3. I will create more products and more useful, for both Metatrader 4 AND the new Metatrader 5
  4. I will increase visibility and improve the user experience to increase audience and conversion
It will take some good work at the start but the good thing is that this kind of model is 90% automated.
The biggest challenges I will have once I create new products and redesign the website is to improve my ranking and SEO and be competitive, I found some of my top competitors and it will be tough.

Any comment and feedback will be welcome
 

ExaltedLife

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Hi Guys,
I just wanted to say thank you for the feedback.
I took onboard the critics and positive feedback, at the start I was let down and upset but once processed I came out with an action plan:
  1. Through Facebook Ads I created a custom audience that represents a possible target, the smallest group is around 4 million people (traders using a popular trading platform), this gives me SCALE
  2. I came out with a solution to licence and distribute my plugins through my website, this gives me CONTROL
  3. I will create more products and more useful, for both Metatrader 4 AND the new Metatrader 5
  4. I will increase visibility and improve the user experience to increase audience and conversion
It will take some good work at the start but the good thing is that this kind of model is 90% automated.
The biggest challenges I will have once I create new products and redesign the website is to improve my ranking and SEO and be competitive, I found some of my top competitors and it will be tough.

Any comment and feedback will be welcome

Cool! Keep us updated
 

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