Hi Guys,
TLDR; First-time entrepreneur. It seems taking on a partner is a bad idea, so I’ll be occasionally engaging you guys and seeking your priceless thoughts. For now, I would appreciate your brutal feedback on my sales page here: The Ultimate Guide!
First time I was here, I could hardly imagine myself having anything of value to share with the group. At the time, I was practically a wantrepreneur; the theoretical entrepreneur.
Gladly, a couple of months down the road, I have both some lessons to share and others I seek to learn. Let's get right down to it.
So I have financial burden I need to lift; well something of a debt, and I need to make some decent money. I decided to write an eBook despite the advice I got that eBooks are really not the best content to sell in this day and age. Courses or coaching would have been a better, option, I was told.
In any case, my friend and mentor also advised that if I were to write an eBook, it had better be about how to make money online for begineers, and within a definite time period. In fact, he insisted I titled it, " How to make your first $100 in 10 days or less!" I didn’t. (There's an idea you can steal and execute on!)
First forward, being in the transcription niche, and since experience books are easier to execute on than research books, I chose to write a beginners guide to online transcription, as I 'd searched in vain for such a book back when starting out.
Transcription is this super slowlane thing where you listen to audios and type out what you hear while adding punctuation and formatting to the resulting document called a transcript. Online transcription is when you do this online, for online transcription companies that have an online workhub and a whole load of clients and work.
Transcription (and essay writing) is one of those work-from-home niches for the absolute beginner that needs make legit money online. Here, if you pass the test/interview, you get hired! No need to stand out from the crowd, or to bid, or to be creative, as is the case with traditional freelancing on Upwork or Fiverr.
Beginners always have a challenge starting out, they're not sure how to begin, not sure how and where to practice, not sure which companies hire beginners and which ones don't, not sure which companies hire freelancers from all over the world, that sort of thing. So I chose to provide a sort of blueprint they can follow, hence the writing of the guide.
So I wrote the guide, took me about a month or so. I got a guy in Fiverr to do the cover, he sucked. So I got one of my designer friends to do the cover (although working with friends can be complicated (as you would imagine.) I later asked the Fiverr guy, as a btw, to make quite a bit of revisions and he eventually came through with a half-decent cover, to be fair to him.
I got a someone on Fiverr to proof-edit the manuscript. Got my designer guy to do the WordPress (WP) sales page, although I had to learn WP on the job and pretty much customize the sales page myself for hours on end. I subscribed to SendOwl, as my payment processor (had used their free trial when giving away free copies of my first draft).
Another important bit of advice my friend and mentor had initially given me - and of course, it's the same advice I picked from every single article or free eBook I read on self-publishing - is the crucial technicality of having an audience.
Nuh, I waived this off and thought, “Since I know of a Facebook transcription group of over 65k members, I don’t need an audience. That’s my audience.” Big mistake. If they don’t know and trust you, then they’re not your audience.
As it turned out, I should have been valuable to this group much earlier before I even released my book.
I should have been posting helpful and valuable info, maybe transcription tips on a daily, to sort of build trust and establish myself as an expert in the group so that by the time my guide drops, these guys F*cking know and trust me. Then, these guys get to recommend me to the newbies, these guys get to like my ads when I subtly post them. These guys get to affiliate market my damn book! Smooth sailing!
Anyway, I didn’t think of that. I just thought, as long as the product is good, and the audience is there, just hit them with the ads, and bammm...sales will come in! I was so wrong. If they don’t know and trust you, they’re not your audience.
So anyhow, the thought of getting a partner has been crossing my mind repeatedly and I thought this would be the perfect place to get one.
You tend to get overwhelmed when in your first entrepreneurial endeavor; you've invested quite a bit on writing the book (time), getting a cover ($16 fiver, $13 my designer friend), hosting and domain (about $30), sendowl subscription ($15), internet cocsts, designing ads in canva (time), writing and refining a hell lot of copy (time), running campaign of giving away a free copy of my first draft on a limited time basis (time), customizing my sales page (time), changing the copy on the book cover, et cetera, et cetera. After all that and two weeks into your launch, the account reads zero – I mean $0 – it starts to take a toll on you. (That existential crisis shit; you know that shitJ)
So I thought, I really need a partner. I mean, two heads are always better. I can't even get someone impartial with whom I can brainstorm the customization of the F*cking sales page!
But then, I found out (when I searched ‘business partner’ in the forum) that getting a business partner wouldn't necessarily be the smartest thing to do. Apparently, they suck, tend to laze around while you do all the work and tend to rip you off in the long run.
Anyhow, since I won't have a business partner, I thought I might maximize the resources here, of you my "tribes-mates" [Seth Godin, Tribes). I would very much appreciate every little bit of wisdom I receive here.
I’m now still customizing my sales page. I’m being valuable to the Facebook group; posting daily transcription tips and all. I answer questions on Quora relating to my niche, while being very helpful to the OP, and only dropping my ad at the very end just in case it might benefit the OP, that sort of thing. (The kind of shit I should have been doing waaay before I even wrote the damn book! This whole thing has been such a learning process.)
Anyhow amigos, thanks for taking the time to read through. At this stage, I would like some brutal feedback on my sales page. It seems I’m starting to get some traffic to it after all!
Here's the guy right here: The Ultimate Guide!
Thanks.
EDIT: Some guys had no clue about what transcription is, so that explains why I added a couple of paragraphs talking a bit about it.
TLDR; First-time entrepreneur. It seems taking on a partner is a bad idea, so I’ll be occasionally engaging you guys and seeking your priceless thoughts. For now, I would appreciate your brutal feedback on my sales page here: The Ultimate Guide!
First time I was here, I could hardly imagine myself having anything of value to share with the group. At the time, I was practically a wantrepreneur; the theoretical entrepreneur.
Gladly, a couple of months down the road, I have both some lessons to share and others I seek to learn. Let's get right down to it.
So I have financial burden I need to lift; well something of a debt, and I need to make some decent money. I decided to write an eBook despite the advice I got that eBooks are really not the best content to sell in this day and age. Courses or coaching would have been a better, option, I was told.
In any case, my friend and mentor also advised that if I were to write an eBook, it had better be about how to make money online for begineers, and within a definite time period. In fact, he insisted I titled it, " How to make your first $100 in 10 days or less!" I didn’t. (There's an idea you can steal and execute on!)
First forward, being in the transcription niche, and since experience books are easier to execute on than research books, I chose to write a beginners guide to online transcription, as I 'd searched in vain for such a book back when starting out.
Transcription is this super slowlane thing where you listen to audios and type out what you hear while adding punctuation and formatting to the resulting document called a transcript. Online transcription is when you do this online, for online transcription companies that have an online workhub and a whole load of clients and work.
Transcription (and essay writing) is one of those work-from-home niches for the absolute beginner that needs make legit money online. Here, if you pass the test/interview, you get hired! No need to stand out from the crowd, or to bid, or to be creative, as is the case with traditional freelancing on Upwork or Fiverr.
Beginners always have a challenge starting out, they're not sure how to begin, not sure how and where to practice, not sure which companies hire beginners and which ones don't, not sure which companies hire freelancers from all over the world, that sort of thing. So I chose to provide a sort of blueprint they can follow, hence the writing of the guide.
So I wrote the guide, took me about a month or so. I got a guy in Fiverr to do the cover, he sucked. So I got one of my designer friends to do the cover (although working with friends can be complicated (as you would imagine.) I later asked the Fiverr guy, as a btw, to make quite a bit of revisions and he eventually came through with a half-decent cover, to be fair to him.
I got a someone on Fiverr to proof-edit the manuscript. Got my designer guy to do the WordPress (WP) sales page, although I had to learn WP on the job and pretty much customize the sales page myself for hours on end. I subscribed to SendOwl, as my payment processor (had used their free trial when giving away free copies of my first draft).
Another important bit of advice my friend and mentor had initially given me - and of course, it's the same advice I picked from every single article or free eBook I read on self-publishing - is the crucial technicality of having an audience.
Nuh, I waived this off and thought, “Since I know of a Facebook transcription group of over 65k members, I don’t need an audience. That’s my audience.” Big mistake. If they don’t know and trust you, then they’re not your audience.
As it turned out, I should have been valuable to this group much earlier before I even released my book.
I should have been posting helpful and valuable info, maybe transcription tips on a daily, to sort of build trust and establish myself as an expert in the group so that by the time my guide drops, these guys F*cking know and trust me. Then, these guys get to recommend me to the newbies, these guys get to like my ads when I subtly post them. These guys get to affiliate market my damn book! Smooth sailing!
Anyway, I didn’t think of that. I just thought, as long as the product is good, and the audience is there, just hit them with the ads, and bammm...sales will come in! I was so wrong. If they don’t know and trust you, they’re not your audience.
So anyhow, the thought of getting a partner has been crossing my mind repeatedly and I thought this would be the perfect place to get one.
You tend to get overwhelmed when in your first entrepreneurial endeavor; you've invested quite a bit on writing the book (time), getting a cover ($16 fiver, $13 my designer friend), hosting and domain (about $30), sendowl subscription ($15), internet cocsts, designing ads in canva (time), writing and refining a hell lot of copy (time), running campaign of giving away a free copy of my first draft on a limited time basis (time), customizing my sales page (time), changing the copy on the book cover, et cetera, et cetera. After all that and two weeks into your launch, the account reads zero – I mean $0 – it starts to take a toll on you. (That existential crisis shit; you know that shitJ)
So I thought, I really need a partner. I mean, two heads are always better. I can't even get someone impartial with whom I can brainstorm the customization of the F*cking sales page!
But then, I found out (when I searched ‘business partner’ in the forum) that getting a business partner wouldn't necessarily be the smartest thing to do. Apparently, they suck, tend to laze around while you do all the work and tend to rip you off in the long run.
Anyhow, since I won't have a business partner, I thought I might maximize the resources here, of you my "tribes-mates" [Seth Godin, Tribes). I would very much appreciate every little bit of wisdom I receive here.
I’m now still customizing my sales page. I’m being valuable to the Facebook group; posting daily transcription tips and all. I answer questions on Quora relating to my niche, while being very helpful to the OP, and only dropping my ad at the very end just in case it might benefit the OP, that sort of thing. (The kind of shit I should have been doing waaay before I even wrote the damn book! This whole thing has been such a learning process.)
Anyhow amigos, thanks for taking the time to read through. At this stage, I would like some brutal feedback on my sales page. It seems I’m starting to get some traffic to it after all!
Here's the guy right here: The Ultimate Guide!
Thanks.
EDIT: Some guys had no clue about what transcription is, so that explains why I added a couple of paragraphs talking a bit about it.
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