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Personal Challenge: 1 Month To Impossible Success

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...
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GuestUser4aMPs1

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Fascinating @Aaron T . Even more so considering your track record.

To put this into perspective, this is $4,000 a DAY for the next 30 days.

@wade1mil is probing the right issues.

If you had a gun to your head and had to come up with $240,000 in 30 days instead, what would you do differently right now?

What is the Biggest, Juiciest, Lowest-Hanging Fruit you can grab and devour?

There are 24 hours in a day. Let's assume you can only effectively take 9-12 hours per day plucking the largest fruit.

How can you create the largest volume of results with the least amount of effort?

Once that's figured out, who or what can you put in place to pluck the largest fruit while you sleep?

If you want a powerful 'why' behind this challenge,
the simple exersize of creating massive results in a short period of time is an extremely valuable lesson;
especially analytical types like you and I - we like to think a lot, but have a hard time putting rubber to the road.

Cheers.
Rooting for you :)
 

Aaron T

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If you had a gun to your head and had to come up with $240,000 in 30 days instead, what would you do differently right now?

Excellent question. Certainly those are the right things to ask depending on where you are in life. However I get the point! Err.. the gun point!

If I had a gun to my head, I would flash sell one of my many homes that I own outright for well below market for all cash. Or I would pull it out of one of my investments because I could get that in 48 hours.

If it was strictly by creating a business then I would pump up some of my current online businesses that are established. A couple of those do pretty good as it is.

If it was creating something from scratch, which is what I think you mean, then pretty much what I am doing now, or maybe a product in my aff network. But then I would be using my mailing lists to do it.

Instead, I am doing this as a personal challenge because I can. Instead of paying the tax bill I thought it would be fun as a challenge, but I certainly get the urgency. I took a deliberately harder route. Somewhat intentionally. I am starting as if from scratch with only knowledge. As I stated it is pretty impossible, but it is definitely fun.

I think it is just to show what is possible with a strong need, but not necessarily gun to the head need. That however sounds like a different challenge thread or maybe a contest thread. Ideas peculating for that one.
 

amp0193

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Aaron T

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I love the Fastlane.


You got this.

For clarification since it was asked this is gross profit essentially. I want to get to $85k roughly so I tacked on an arbitrary %.
 

amp0193

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For clarification since it was asked this is gross profit essentially. I want to get to $85k roughly so I tacked on an arbitrary %.

I figured. Just wanted to get it in writing... for the sake of posterity.
 

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ill be watching this thread as well. ive seen good stuff in the things you post so it should be exciting to see you in action.
 
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Aaron T

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Not an update yet but it is coming..

Just been hosting the BOLD conference all week in San Diego.

Hopefully post the first big update tonight.
 

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i love you american or english speaking guys, whatever


because you remind me of the american movies we watch on TV :

superman, Western's heroes and so on


this is your culture : saving the world , doing the impossible, insulting reason and common sense

you guys are either crazy or geniuses. nothing more , nothing less




" Hope : it is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of
your greatest strenght and your greatest weakness "

The Architect ( the matrix reloaded )


matrix.jpg
 
D

Deleted50669

Guest
i love you american or english speaking guys, whatever


because you remind me of the american movies we watch on TV :

superman, Western's heroes and so on


this is your culture : saving the world , doing the impossible, insulting reason and common sense

you guys are either crazy or geniuses. nothing more , nothing less




" Hope : it is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of
your greatest strenght and your greatest weakness "

The Architect ( the matrix reloaded )


View attachment 16511

That quote borders on stoic philosophy. That's a bleak rabbit hole to go down, but can be an informative one.
 
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Aaron T

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you guys are either crazy or geniuses. nothing more , nothing less

I will take that. I think it is both. Crazy is often unrealized genius. Someone before or after their time unless it is truly a mental issue.

I am certainly no genius, but I will take crazy all day. Plus crazy is fun.
 

Aaron T

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Update 3

This is just a minor update but I thought I should let everyone know where I am at.

I finished this past week where i was at our BOLD conference. Literally busy all day, but it was awesome. Got to meet Arianna Huffington and Magic Johnson. Wow, they were inspiring. Anyway, in between the madness of helping out clients, organizing, speaking, and yes partying.. OMG the partying I did manage to make progress.
  • I finished my unique free entry level product (info/competitive market)
    • It is a < 30 page lead in give away about something I am knowledgeable on to help build my list
  • I have reached out to several big marketers I know for feedback and to see if they can use it as a lead-in on their efforts and I received 2 yes's so far mailings
    • All new lists and with focus to build my email list of fresh leads to 100k from each marketer
    • Email is where the money is and I can afford to give this product away just for the emails
    • Yes I used my network (not my list) to get help here and for free with the exception of the below
  • Started the second product / up sell that is $29.99 that will be used
    • Same marketers will get $20 from each sell on the up sell in lieu of any upfront costs while I get the lead and $9.99
    • This is the cost for the leads which are what I really want
  • I am still trying to see what the next offer should be to the list after and it should be in the $99 range or more
    • I probably won't have time to create this product in the time frame
    • I have another friend who has done similar work and has a product in mind that I might be able to use and split
    • I can always go to another Aff offer if I need to
  • I got my URL
  • Building the Bridge pages and Landing Pages now
  • I have a back of the napkin funnel flow and I am finishing the weekend out with either coding it or using a tool like Market Hero
The marketer friends have substantial reach. We will use what we can to try to get my email list to 100k from each marketer knowing this is exceptionally hard. But let's play with some funny math to see if this is going to work well enough assuming the email list comes through. Right off the bat I can tell you that my monthly average earn per email address is .61 cents. That means I can technically afford to spend up to .61 cents to acquire the email lead without losing money. Then that lead will continue to earn for me month after month aging out after a lack of response over 6 months.

This means that 200k emails should earn me about $122,000 per month. Oh so close! So what is the problem? Well, the cost to acquire them is not an issue here. Pulling favors. The first up sell should get me about $59,940 given my lowest conversion rate of 3% (6000 sales) . I tend to do closer to 8% these days. Also not the best but not bad. That is not the return I want. So the next up sell I don't have needs to do good and be worth it. At $99.99 (all mine if I create) and at another 3% (of 6000 here) then I might get another 180 sales for $17,820. Yikes! No where close to what I need.

Yeah, $77,760 is nice, but it is half my goal. Also I probably won't be able to create that second product as all mine. I will probably market the up sell to everyone so that number will be different. I will also continue to market to the same list through the funnels over the course of the month hoping to up the conversion. But the reality is friends.. this isn't looking good. This is awful!! I have some ideas, but let's get the marketing going first.

Where I am at now is pure setup. I know, I know.. but I believe preparation is key and I am going to go through with it. Since I am not using this forum for any of the marketing I am trying to be very careful what I actually share yet. I know I will be asked, so when this is over, success or likely failure, I will make sure to share the setup, funnels used, pages and what I was doing in more detail, in such a way that it is not marketed here, but still informative. Please don't ask for details or special previews yet. Hang tight. I will try to make this train wreck worth it for those that stick with the long reads.
 
D

Deleted50669

Guest
Update 3

This is just a minor update but I thought I should let everyone know where I am at.

I finished this past week where i was at our BOLD conference. Literally busy all day, but it was awesome. Got to meet Arianna Huffington and Magic Johnson. Wow, they were inspiring. Anyway, in between the madness of helping out clients, organizing, speaking, and yes partying.. OMG the partying I did manage to make progress.
  • I finished my unique free entry level product (info/competitive market)
    • It is a < 30 page lead in give away about something I am knowledgeable on to help build my list
  • I have reached out to several big marketers I know for feedback and to see if they can use it as a lead-in on their efforts and I received 2 yes's so far mailings
    • All new lists and with focus to build my email list of fresh leads to 100k from each marketer
    • Email is where the money is and I can afford to give this product away just for the emails
    • Yes I used my network (not my list) to get help here and for free with the exception of the below
  • Started the second product / up sell that is $29.99 that will be used
    • Same marketers will get $20 from each sell on the up sell in lieu of any upfront costs while I get the lead and $9.99
    • This is the cost for the leads which are what I really want
  • I am still trying to see what the next offer should be to the list after and it should be in the $99 range or more
    • I probably won't have time to create this product in the time frame
    • I have another friend who has done similar work and has a product in mind that I might be able to use and split
    • I can always go to another Aff offer if I need to
  • I got my URL
  • Building the Bridge pages and Landing Pages now
  • I have a back of the napkin funnel flow and I am finishing the weekend out with either coding it or using a tool like Market Hero
The marketer friends have substantial reach. We will use what we can to try to get my email list to 100k from each marketer knowing this is exceptionally hard. But let's play with some funny math to see if this is going to work well enough assuming the email list comes through. Right off the bat I can tell you that my monthly average earn per email address is .61 cents. That means I can technically afford to spend up to .61 cents to acquire the email lead without losing money. Then that lead will continue to earn for me month after month aging out after a lack of response over 6 months.

This means that 200k emails should earn me about $122,000 per month. Oh so close! So what is the problem? Well, the cost to acquire them is not an issue here. Pulling favors. The first up sell should get me about $59,940 given my lowest conversion rate of 3% (6000 sales) . I tend to do closer to 8% these days. Also not the best but not bad. That is not the return I want. So the next up sell I don't have needs to do good and be worth it. At $99.99 (all mine if I create) and at another 3% (of 6000 here) then I might get another 180 sales for $17,820. Yikes! No where close to what I need.

Yeah, $77,760 is nice, but it is half my goal. Also I probably won't be able to create that second product as all mine. I will probably market the up sell to everyone so that number will be different. I will also continue to market to the same list through the funnels over the course of the month hoping to up the conversion. But the reality is friends.. this isn't looking good. This is awful!! I have some ideas, but let's get the marketing going first.

Where I am at now is pure setup. I know, I know.. but I believe preparation is key and I am going to go through with it. Since I am not using this forum for any of the marketing I am trying to be very careful what I actually share yet. I know I will be asked, so when this is over, success or likely failure, I will make sure to share the setup, funnels used, pages and what I was doing in more detail, in such a way that it is not marketed here, but still informative. Please don't ask for details or special previews yet. Hang tight. I will try to make this train wreck worth it for those that stick with the long reads.

Thank you for the detailed update! I'm rooting for you. It seems your expertise in this arena is allowing you to sew the patches together pretty quick.
 
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Aaron T

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Thank you for the detailed update! I'm rooting for you. It seems your expertise in this arena is allowing you to sew the patches together pretty quick.

To be honest it isn't nearly fast enough to be a success per my criteria, and my distractions this week with prior obligations took a lot of time and energy out of me. Just seeing that I might only get $77k, half my goal, is frustrating. I am tempted to dump money into advertising, but then I promised to keep this to < $1000 as a startup budget and that would be cheating.

I appreciate your rooting for me though! I got ideas and I will work them.
 

Philip Marlowe

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It is a < 30 page lead in give away about something I am knowledgeable on to help build my list

For something this quick, are you just creating a PDF file with some decent cover art, and sending it via e-mail when they sign-up? Since it's free I assume the financial/time input is low, but ultimately the content needs to be strong as it's your hook to the upsell?

Thanks!
 

ZF Lee

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I will try to make this train wreck worth it for those that stick with the long reads.
Train wreck?
Come on...keep on going.
I'm into long reads, especially when they can be life changing.

I'll put this on thread watch!
 
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Aaron T

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I have
For something this quick, are you just creating a PDF file with some decent cover art, and sending it via e-mail when they sign-up? Since it's free I assume the financial/time input is low, but ultimately the content needs to be strong as it's your hook to the upsell?

Thanks!

Yes that is correct. It is small PDF, nice art, good graphics/explanations. It is free as a lead in for the up sell.

I believe in providing value so even if it is a free "handout" the content costs me a lot of time and money to learn and I am taking a risk in giving it out. I think people would be able to learn from it and I think it will provide enough value that people can take and use it immediately and see results.

Also to get the free mini-course you are giving me something of value in return. Initially your email. Just your email. Not even your name. I have a series of very strong funnels that I use and that email will eventually be worth a lot to me. I have funnels and programs that earn me around $8.47 per month per buyer email.

Buyers emails are super valuable and I will convert these prospect emails into buyers emails using this method and these strong funnels. Prospect emails are worth around .61 cents a month to me on average so normally I only stick with my strong buyers and use organic methods for the prospects.

However I said I wouldn't use my current lists and I would build from scratch and organic prospects won't come in fast enough. I did say I would use my network of people and I am asking for favors. I actually got 2 of my larger (not largest) marketing friends to commit a small amount of prospects to my challenge. They will send their buyers/prospects to my funnel. I will get he interested names. We will then split the up sell.

Does it make a little more sense now? BTW this is kind of a training too now that I think about it. Nothing you can't learn online, but still valuable.
 

Aaron T

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Train wreck?
Come on...keep on going.
I'm into long reads, especially when they can be life changing.

I'll put this on thread watch!

Love the faith! Not sure this is life changing in anything other than education, experimentation, and perhaps some knowledge.
 

Philip Marlowe

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Does it make a little more sense now?

Yes - this is an excellent thread.

In doing some due diligence on my own project, I've been researching a primary competitor and have just run into what I'll call his 'solar system'. It's amazing, and I didn't notice it before, but he has these sites all over the place, all revolving around his products. Even his most distant, obscure websites bring you back to his products. It's been really helpful moving through it all and seeing what he's doing. Especially since his product is just mediocre and his website is from the 1990s.

The challenge is that it's so overwhelming. He's literally got sooo damn much "stuff" out there. It's like getting stuck in a giant casino that hasn't been renovated in years and you don't know where the exit is.

All I can do is just grind through it ("How do you eat an elephant?").
 

Aaron T

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I wasn't sure what you meant by that Jon so I had to reach out. Thank you for the great call and helping a new member understand. Glad all is good.
 
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MJ DeMarco

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Thanks for sharing, win or lose, succeed or fail, we will all grow from your documentation. Thank you.
 

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Thanks for sharing, win or lose, succeed or fail, we will all grow from your documentation. Thank you.

Thank you MJ.

To me the only real Failure is if you learned nothing. Even if we fail at the endeavor we learn from the experience that helps us the next time.
 
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BD64

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Update?
 

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Not a full update yet as I prefer for it to be informative but a mini-update is not a bad idea so:

Mini-Update 2.1
While I have everything setup the one thing it needed without my lists were basically marketing. As mentioned prior I was relying on two friends to push to their lists into my initial funnel. They did not do that all week, but have started today.

So far in the first couple hours here is where I am at:
upload_2017-10-7_11-24-19.png

Ignore the default test. The first list is the one that matter for now. Note the Unsubscribe rate is through the roof and pretty upsetting but the fact is in a few hours I am starting to get a list up. This is not a big update but it it an update. The full update should include some initial sales numbers. There are some sales BTW but don't want to spoil .. or upset.

So far nothing was spent on this part of the effort. I believe AWeber will charge me a little less than $30 dollars at the end of the month for a list this size so far so I am well under my budget. I am also going to do some of my own marketing to my Bridge pages versus Landing or Squeeze Pages as I am upset at the timing from my Email Marketing friends. Yet I now have a list of people I need to convert into buyers.

Lessons Learned/Info:
  • This is taking longer than I had hoped it would
  • You cannot rely on friends for your timing when they are doing something gratis
  • Still off track from my goal
  • This method does work even with the front loaded work for getting some sales

I will provide a better update hopefully soon. Sorry for the lack luster update.
 

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A few people on the forum recommended Divi and Generate Press to me. Those might be worth a look.
I use DIVI and it is pretty easy to work with. I also did a LLC through Legal Zoom a few years ago. Didn't take too long (under a month) but it was a few weeks.
 
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Qstyle

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I was just wondering I haven't seen any updates on this the last week... Are you still on track?

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-G935F met Tapatalk
 

Aaron T

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I was just wondering I haven't seen any updates on this the last week... Are you still on track?

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-G935F met Tapatalk

Hey. Sorry. I have not been here or online a whole lot. I have had a bit of news in the family that has required my attention.

So for a very short update see below. I will try to put more information as soon as I can really focus

Minor Update:
Nearing the end and things are not where they should by a long shot. This is in part due to some inattention as I refocused on what is my priority in life; my family.
There have been a few ongoing campaigns with sending emails and building my list. The list looks better than I expected to be honest at this point, but the subscribers are thinning out.
upload_2017-10-19_22-18-38.png

Mostly I have been ignoring things and this has led to a drop off. The good news is that I have a decent buyers email list now and a decent subscriber list. My problem is the percent of conversions is lower than I really need and the up sell and down sell opportunities are as a result lower. The net of it is that I am more than halfway in and I am less than halfway there.

I am not providing all the numbers yet, but while I have started with an initial investment lower than I thought, the output is also lower than the target, but it is also not inconsequential. One thing I have learned though is I prefer building software products so far to this type of marketing. It takes a lot more focus and when something takes your focus away from it you see immediate drop in income.

As for my current situation it will resolve soon and I will provide more information as I can really break it down. This is a disservice to the group right now but I wanted to share a little bit as is fair. I am sorry.
 

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