- Joined
- Jul 14, 2011
- Messages
- 310
Rep Bank
$665
$665
User Power: 40%
Well, here's my story about a failure - I haven't completely given up on this quite yet and I'm still pursuing it, but I am about 95% sure it will be a failure in the end.
Here's the background info: after reading TMF , I was motivated to start a business where I would have more control, instead of the affiliate promotion that I had been doing for the past year. I hated the cancelled commissions, low % of sale that I would earn, $500 max commission, and potential for the affiliate program to be canceled at any time if the merchant so desired.
As part of my affiliate work, I frequently worked on SEO in order to get more traffic to my affiliate site. From my little bit of experience with SEO, I came up with an idea for a business in the SEO industry.
I'm not going to say exactly what it is yet - once I feel like I'm done with it and don't care anymore OR if thing turn around and it gains some momentum, I'll post what it is.
I created the service:
I have spent the last 4 months developing the service - I knew nothing about PHP, so I found a couple Wordpress plugins that offered something similar to what I needed and then started learning PHP so that I could modify the plugins to meet my needs.
About 3 months ago, I went to a forum (this is where my target customers hang out - forums) where I planned on selling my service later to get 5 beta testers. The interest was there at first - I even ended up giving out 9 free beta test accounts.
After that, I received absolutely NO feedback at all. I sent out messages to everyone reminding them that I needed feedback. A couple responded that they were too busy too test, some didn't respond at all, and 2 people actually gave me some suggestions.
"Better than nothing", I thought. I'll add the suggestions that they want, writes a sales page, and release the service to the forum.
The launch:
So, I released my service on the same forum to a very UN-encouraging response - asking $50/month. A couple people saying "this is stupid" and some saying "___ already does this". However, 3 people signed up - 1 at a review price of $25 and 2 at the full price of $50. I offered the first month free, so I didn't get any money yet.
1 of those people cancelled within the first month, so that left me with paying 2 subscribers.
Last Saturday I released my new and improved service to a different forum. I have received two more $25 review subscribers so far. - 1 has signed up and the other has only said they want an account but hasn't signed up yet. I'll see if they actually do.
A couple minor victories:
Even though this idea has turned out to be almost a complete failure so far and doesn't look like it will make me more than $1k a month (without a killer new feature or something like that), I can still make out a few positive things:
What next?
Here's where I'm going from here: I'm going to stick with this for another month or two, launch it on 1 more different forum, re-launch it on the first forum, and see where it goes.
My goal right now is to make $750 a month from this - still not much but it will equal the income that I make from my shit job right now.
Even if I reach that $750/month mark, I will still have to start something else, this time keeping in mind scale and magnitude (among other things!). I have NO idea what to do next - I hate not having a good idea that motivates you to succeed!
If you don't get anything else from this post, get this: KEEP IN MIND SCALE/SIZE OF YOUR MARKET AND MAGNITUDE.
Here's the background info: after reading TMF , I was motivated to start a business where I would have more control, instead of the affiliate promotion that I had been doing for the past year. I hated the cancelled commissions, low % of sale that I would earn, $500 max commission, and potential for the affiliate program to be canceled at any time if the merchant so desired.
As part of my affiliate work, I frequently worked on SEO in order to get more traffic to my affiliate site. From my little bit of experience with SEO, I came up with an idea for a business in the SEO industry.
I'm not going to say exactly what it is yet - once I feel like I'm done with it and don't care anymore OR if thing turn around and it gains some momentum, I'll post what it is.
I created the service:
I have spent the last 4 months developing the service - I knew nothing about PHP, so I found a couple Wordpress plugins that offered something similar to what I needed and then started learning PHP so that I could modify the plugins to meet my needs.
About 3 months ago, I went to a forum (this is where my target customers hang out - forums) where I planned on selling my service later to get 5 beta testers. The interest was there at first - I even ended up giving out 9 free beta test accounts.
After that, I received absolutely NO feedback at all. I sent out messages to everyone reminding them that I needed feedback. A couple responded that they were too busy too test, some didn't respond at all, and 2 people actually gave me some suggestions.
"Better than nothing", I thought. I'll add the suggestions that they want, writes a sales page, and release the service to the forum.
The launch:
So, I released my service on the same forum to a very UN-encouraging response - asking $50/month. A couple people saying "this is stupid" and some saying "___ already does this". However, 3 people signed up - 1 at a review price of $25 and 2 at the full price of $50. I offered the first month free, so I didn't get any money yet.
1 of those people cancelled within the first month, so that left me with paying 2 subscribers.
Last Saturday I released my new and improved service to a different forum. I have received two more $25 review subscribers so far. - 1 has signed up and the other has only said they want an account but hasn't signed up yet. I'll see if they actually do.
A couple minor victories:
Even though this idea has turned out to be almost a complete failure so far and doesn't look like it will make me more than $1k a month (without a killer new feature or something like that), I can still make out a few positive things:
- This is my first time working on my OWN business - in the past I had only done affiliate stuff promoting someone else's business.
- I got more than 1 person to pay me! Small victories, huh.
- I have received some experience dealing directly with customers - I had emphasized quick response times to their problems (mainly them requesting a feature that wasn't available yet). Then I tried to implement the requested feature ASAP. That seems to work well and I can carry that on to future work.
- It IS still possible for this to make more money. If the few members that I do have bring in a good amount of traffic to the site, I try offering paid ads to bring in a little more revenue.
- I realized at least one BIG reason why this failed - the market is too small! That and I don't offer a service with magnitude, as MJ calls it in TMF. If I could justify a $500+/month price tag, then I would have a chance. But, the market DEFINITELY doesn't number in the millions. I would estimate it at around 500 people. Could be higher, could be lower, but it's definitely not more than ~3,000ish. This is why I am so sure that this is going to end up being not worth pursuing any more.
What next?
Here's where I'm going from here: I'm going to stick with this for another month or two, launch it on 1 more different forum, re-launch it on the first forum, and see where it goes.
My goal right now is to make $750 a month from this - still not much but it will equal the income that I make from my shit job right now.
Even if I reach that $750/month mark, I will still have to start something else, this time keeping in mind scale and magnitude (among other things!). I have NO idea what to do next - I hate not having a good idea that motivates you to succeed!
If you don't get anything else from this post, get this: KEEP IN MIND SCALE/SIZE OF YOUR MARKET AND MAGNITUDE.
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?
. Qmat, O'n mohjvziest exez gsun cioph ecmi vu neli e SIEM, ipvisqsoti-miwim xic eqq. 
