Tell us about your online success

[Mexidan]

Wondering if members on this forum who are already ´successful ´with an online biz would be willing to share with us what business they are in, what their business structure looks like and if they are willing to share with us what kind of earnings they see on a monthly basis.

It would be nice to have all these success stories here in 1 thread.

I am aware that success is different for everyone, but if you perceive yourself to be succesful that's good enough for me.

 

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[Brander]

Well, I am a bit too private for that (I would assume others here will react the same) and I like to keep it that way.

Suffice to say I have been in software for around a decade, wouldn't have too much trouble buying my neighbourhood out if needed and love to mess with entrenched industries. Have been branching out offline to do the same 'cos I can't race my bikes all day, now can I

BTW, make your own path, if you are seeking a blueprint to copy, I advise against such thinking.

I would suggest some resources, but they've been discussed here a few times before. Make a search and best of luck.

 

[johnp]

It would be nice to have all these success stories here in 1 thread.

I made enough money to pay for a year of college (about 30K) by selling a small ebook online in about 4 months time. I don't consider that much of a success though, just a nice push in the right direction.

 

[luke]

Johnp,

How did you pick a topic for your book (market research) and how did you market and sell the book?

Thanks.

It would be nice to have all these success stories here in 1 thread.

I made enough money to pay for a year of college (about 30K) by selling a small ebook online in about 4 months time. I don't consider that much of a success though, just a nice push in the right direction.

 

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[johnp]

How did you pick a topic for your book (market research)

I just picked it. I didn't feel like doing market research, mainly because it was never something that I really wanted to do. I just knew a lot about the subject and needed a quick way to make money through my college years so I didn't have to work. The main reason why I didn't really need to do market research is because I focused my idea towards the majority. You always want to reach the largest audience as possible with your product. Even if you go niche (like I did) you need to figure out how how to reach the greatest number of people in the niche market. That was really the main ingredient to my small scale success.

and how did you market and sell the book?

The entire book was pdf, I did not own an actual hard copy of the book. I sold it via a website for about $350 per copy. I attacked online forums and built a reputation on the forums to make sure that my posts did not come across as spammy. I even added a forum to my own site which later helped convert a lot of people who were unsure of whether to buy the book. I found that if I could get someone to join my online forum then I could usually convert them to a sale later.

I also played around with price points. I found that the 349 dollar range actually sold a larger number of copies over the $75 and $150. There was a ton of competition in my niche market so the price acted as a major motivating factor. I found that when someone has a lot of choices they will typically use price as a determining factor since many people often associate a higher price with value.

And finally, I made decisions for people. I found that people either fell into 3 main groups.
1) yes I am going to buy it.
2) hell no, I'm not waisting my money on this shit
3) I have no clue, what should I do? -- this was the majority

The people in #3 were easy to convert to sales down the road. I found that all I really had to do was make the decision for them by suggesting that they should buy it in various ways.

I killed my product - this was one of the best moves that I made to make a bulk of sales. One day I woke up and said "This is enough of this crap. I'm not paying my taxes on this and I don't even enjoy doing this." So I decided that I was going to go for one last bulk of sales. So I killed my product off. I spent about 1-2 months promoting a final sale and I think I even raised the price about $100. I remember sitting in my room watching a hockey game and seeing the sales come in by the second. It was a very interesting and eye opening experience. But with that said, it's probably not a good idea to kill a product or even go in business with the intent to do so. I just happened to be in a different situation, I wanted to get on with my life.

So that is how I did it. The bulk of my sales came from Europe & Asia (i'm in the US). I did this all online from my dorm room. I never made a phone call or actually spoke to any of customers. I made some amazing contacts along the way and I learned a lot from my experience. Some of my moves were sort of manipulative. And that is really not a good way to do business.

I hope something here helps. It's an experience that I am really not proud of, mainly because I exploited people so easily but i learned a lot and it got me in the right direction. If you have anymore questions then let me know.

 

[PatrickP]

I have thought about an ebook but I see so many black hat forums where one person buys a copy and then gives it away to everyone els.e

What was your book about?

 

[CMCarlin]

I have thought about an ebook but I see so many black hat forums where one person buys a copy and then gives it away to everyone els.e

What was your book about?

Don't let that be a reason not to make a book. There will always be things like this with any product - and the more successful you are the more of a problem this will be.


One thing is not everyone will think of stealing your book. Its just a small section of people that will resort to this. Most of them won't pay for it anyway and only a small percentage will ever actually consider buying it. Of course that is only speculation but the reality is, that is a defeating thought. There will always be a BUT in life. Well I could do this, BUT I don't know anyone. Well I want to go for this, BUT I'm 2 inches too short. This would be great to do, BUT... and fill in the blank with any defeating thought that only stops you from doing anything.

Sometimes just taking action WITHOUT thought gets you further. Sometimes its your own thoughts that defeat you before you ever even start the race.

When you worry about how the world will defeat you, you've just defeated yourself.

 

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[CMCarlin]

I just picked it. I didn't feel like doing market research, mainly because it was never something that I really wanted to do. I just knew a lot about the subject and needed a quick way to make money through my college years so I didn't have to work. The main reason why I didn't really need to do market research is because I focused my idea towards the majority. You always want to reach the largest audience as possible with your product. Even if you go niche (like I did) you need to figure out how how to reach the greatest number of people in the niche market. That was really the main ingredient to my small scale success.



The entire book was pdf, I did not own an actual hard copy of the book. I sold it via a website for about $350 per copy. I attacked online forums and built a reputation on the forums to make sure that my posts did not come across as spammy. I even added a forum to my own site which later helped convert a lot of people who were unsure of whether to buy the book. I found that if I could get someone to join my online forum then I could usually convert them to a sale later.

I also played around with price points. I found that the 349 dollar range actually sold a larger number of copies over the $75 and $150. There was a ton of competition in my niche market so the price acted as a major motivating factor. I found that when someone has a lot of choices they will typically use price as a determining factor since many people often associate a higher price with value.

And finally, I made decisions for people. I found that people either fell into 3 main groups.
1) yes I am going to buy it.
2) hell no, I'm not waisting my money on this shit
3) I have no clue, what should I do? -- this was the majority

The people in #3 were easy to convert to sales down the road. I found that all I really had to do was make the decision for them by suggesting that they should buy it in various ways.

I killed my product - this was one of the best moves that I made to make a bulk of sales. One day I woke up and said "This is enough of this crap. I'm not paying my taxes on this and I don't even enjoy doing this." So I decided that I was going to go for one last bulk of sales. So I killed my product off. I spent about 1-2 months promoting a final sale and I think I even raised the price about $100. I remember sitting in my room watching a hockey game and seeing the sales come in by the second. It was a very interesting and eye opening experience. But with that said, it's probably not a good idea to kill a product or even go in business with the intent to do so. I just happened to be in a different situation, I wanted to get on with my life.

So that is how I did it. The bulk of my sales came from Europe & Asia (i'm in the US). I did this all online from my dorm room. I never made a phone call or actually spoke to any of customers. I made some amazing contacts along the way and I learned a lot from my experience. Some of my moves were sort of manipulative. And that is really not a good way to do business.

I hope something here helps. It's an experience that I am really not proud of, mainly because I exploited people so easily but i learned a lot and it got me in the right direction. If you have anymore questions then let me know.

Hi! Wow thanks for sharing your story. Some great lessons can be gotten from this from a marketing perspective and from a personal development perspective.


I would like to know more about the bolded sections. Could you elaborate more for us please? What kind of lessons did you learn? What were your mistakes? You seem like a genuine guy, so why do you think you wronged people?

Since you no longer sell your book, would you mind sharing what it was? Or if its better, what market it was?

Thats always the million dollar question but in this case I didn't think it would be an issue I understand if you would still want to maintain privacy, of course.

 

[CMCarlin]

While I don't consider myself successful yet, I do make my living from online income.

I sort of fell into selling SEO related services. Sometimes it takes your own need, to discover a market. Its pretty saturated, but if you present yourself the right way (as Mj says, its all in the execution), then you can see some success.

Its NOT fastlane. I'm still thinking on that part. I want to go into local SEO, and thats not fastlane either, but its a living I can make for myself.

I also want to put out some digital/information products, which CAN be fastlane in a sense (even the product creation can be outsourced these days).

 

[johnp]

Hi! Wow thanks for sharing your story. Some great lessons can be gotten from this from a marketing perspective and from a personal development perspective.


I would like to know more about the bolded sections. Could you elaborate more for us please? What kind of lessons did you learn? What were your mistakes? You seem like a genuine guy, so why do you think you wronged people?

Since you no longer sell your book, would you mind sharing what it was? Or if its better, what market it was?

Thats always the million dollar question but in this case I didn't think it would be an issue I understand if you would still want to maintain privacy, of course.

I am sorry for the late reply. I tried replying over the weekend and every-time I click "reply" I get a server error page. I can't figure it out. I will try a few more times before I PM you my response.


Edit - But this went through. I'm really confused now. I must be using some sort of character that isn't allowed?

 

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[cilaes]

I have thought about an ebook but I see so many black hat forums where one person buys a copy and then gives it away to everyone els.e

What was your book about?

Think about this for a second and profit from it. Create an e-book providing a quality solution to a problem. If you can also provide services or refer people to products and/or services that already exist that make this solution easier, build your e-book around that and include your links! This way you profit even (and often times more so) from people that obtain your information for free.