The Get Rich Project

New Look.

The Get Rich Project is long overdue a visual refresh. While a minor cosmetic change was rolled out several months ago, the site has had basically the same look since day one. This will all change soon. Once I get the new logo sorted out, the new look will hit your screens. It’s a complete change, getting away from the now tired red/white/grey scheme.

Less Advertising.

With the new theme will come a decrease in the amount of advertising on the site. Most of what is currently on the site is not earning me anything. Only the “solid” performers will kept. This might seem strange, when it seems a lot of sites are increasing their ad-slots, but I think striking a balance amongst the reader, the content, and the revenue is more important to me than just increasing my income.

Content.

I’ll be the first to admit that fresh content is posted too erratically. My main problem has always been finding time and inspiration to write “feature” articles. The new design will allow for these features to be given centre-stage, but will also let me post shorter, less involved, and more frequent content.

When the update launches, I’m going to try a phase where I post more links to relevent content elsewhere, along with short “questions for the reader” style posts, on a more regular schedule. This should give you, the reader, a better blog to read, and it should make me feel less guilty about not writing anything for long periods at a time.

I remember back what must have been a couple of years, to when Squidoo was first announced/launched. With marketing genius Seth Godin behind it (Read his books. Now. I’ll wait.), it was thought it couldn’t fail.

Only I don’t think many of those hyping the site fully understood it, because since it launched, I don’t recall hearing or reading much about it, other than the odd passing reference. I might just be looking in the wrong places, but it seems Squidoo was rather underwhelming for most.

Which is a shame really, because I think it could be a really useful tool if used correctly.

What is it?

Squidoo is all about “Lenses”. A Lens is a page which acts as a sign-post to stuff out on the web, all based on a topic. The idea is based about “permission marketing”, trust and the idea that everyone’s an expert at something. Would you trust Google over a human with a passion for a particular topic? I wouldn’t. Google can be gamed and manipulated, real people are a bit harder to trick.

What can I do?

At the most basic level, you can create a page on the Squidoo site which links to other pages and resources all over the web. You could use this as an additional means to market your blog. I’m only just getting started with Squidoo, so to try it out, I created a very basic Squidoo Lens on the Get Rich Project. It displays excerpts of the 3 latest posts, links I think are relevant, and related items from eBay and Amazon.

This last point is a nice feature of Squidoo - you can make money from your Lens. You earn a cut of all Ad and affiliate profits generated by your Lens. Having a Lens is a nice way to potentially earn an extra bit of passive income, all while providing an extra source of traffic. It’s not often you get to advertise your site and make money at the same time!

Or you could give any revenue earned to charity.

Do You Squidoo?

Are you using Squidoo? If so, what for? Do you use it for your blog, for products, or for personal use? If you are using Squidoo, please share your Lenses and tips in the comments!

The Get Rich Project on Squidoo

Note: this article is based purely on a theoretical idea, designed to get you thinking about other ways of looking at blog monetization methods than advertising

I was reading the training materials on Teaching Sells, and was struck by two of the arguments presented in the first module (and the free report, if I remember correctly?):

• Paid-for content has a higher perceived value than free content, even if it’s the exact same content overall.
• People are willing to pay, just to avoid the increasingly intrusive advertising in their content.

When I churned these two ideas over in my head, an idea emerged. Why not take your standard monetized blog - advertising and all - and offer people a means to pay to receive an Ad-free version. Readers who pay will theoretically value your content more because

1. they’ve paid for it, and
2. the advertising was removed.

Potentially this would mean more loyal readers who are happy to spread the word about your site, thus increasing your mind share (and potential subscriber base).

I imagine you could do this with Paypal subscriptions integrated with some sort of registration system. I suppose Wordpress could manage it, with some modifications. If the user reading your site has logged in, and have paid up, they receive a version of the site with all advertising removed. Otherwise they receive the bog-standard version laced with Adsense and the like.

I can’t imagine this working for everyone, but surely it would work for some bloggers. It would certainly help to diversify a blogs’ income stream.

So what do you think to the idea? Basically it would be like asking readers to get a TV license for your blog, and like how the BBC (supposedly) uses its license fee, presumably you would use the money raised to help fund you producing better and better content?

Teaching Sells, the new site from Brian Clarke, Tony Clark and Shane Arthur has launched, after a few weeks of building hype.

You’ve probably seen posts linking to their free report over the last few weeks. If you haven’t read it yet, I suggest you do as it’s rather good. Unsurprisingly, it gives a taste of what’s to come in the full online course.

Normally I avoid these online “guru” courses like the plague, but this time I have stumped up the cash (currently $97 for 3 months “charter membership”), as I have been a long time reader of Brian’s Copy Blogger and I know the material is going to be good. I’ve been reading through the first batch of materials, and so far it’s living up to my expectations. I’ll need to go back over it tomorrow, as I’m skimming just now to just get a flavour of what’s to come.

Initially the course is about taking good content - knowledge and information - beyond the usual confines of eBooks and text-based websites. From there, the idea is to grow into a means of using effective learning techniques to build a booming business.

By moving beyond what 99% of your business rivals might produce, you stand a much better chance of making sales, and at a higher volume or more profitable margin. This makes more sense to me than the standard online entrepreneur “path”, and is possibly why I’ve not really put more than maybe 80% effort in at any one time.

That said, I do still see a big place in the market for those who want the traditional means of selling information products.

Teaching Sells

Thanks to my Wife for the inspiration behind this post.

Everyone knows the saying “if you don’t ask, you don’t get.” An analogy might be “you don’t get anywhere if you don’t take risks”. This is all very good and well, but what does this have to do with you? What I’m telling you is to start asking for things.

Look for better deals than are being offered to you. Don’t be afraid to contact people to ask them for something (usually in return for something else, of course). I’m sure 90% of those you contact will be open to a little bargaining. As long as both sides can achieve something positive, there’s nothing to be lost by Just Asking.

Consider This Example

An online personality (name withheld to protect the innocent!) was looking to offload a few items of inventory. He’d offered them about, but no one was buying at the (ridiculously low) price he was offering them for. In the end, he gave up. I missed his initial offer, so was sure I’d missed out on what I thought could be some good opportunities.

But something made me email our Personality about the sites. I asked what he had left, and what the best deal he would do for me was. In the end, I got 25% off. I got some good money making material for a low price, and he got rid of some excess inventory. It was win-win for both of us.

If I hadn’t asked, neither of us would have got what we wanted. So remember this lesson next time you see a resource or something you’re considering buying. Fire off a quick email to the seller, to see if they can give you a better bargain. Some will come back and say no, but that’s the worst they’ll do.

It’s More than the Money.

Wangling the discount is not the only reason to contact a seller. In fact, your contact to contact might not even be about buying anything. It might be a straight-up question. “Who handles your payment processing?” “Who designed your logo?” Perfectly innocent questions with no financial motive. Compliments also work wonders. These can work out just as well (if not better) in the long run. If you approach everyone with the attitude of “what can you give me, you’ll soon get a reputation for being greedy, seedy, and possibly a whole load more words that end in “eedy”.

Take a risk and contact someone for the sake of contacting them. The very act of taking time to email someone creates a connection. Connections lead to relationships, which are the cornerstone of good business. People inherently like to “network” and meet new people. Most of the time, you will be well received, so long as you’re not an ass.

Think Bigger Picture

By extending yourself to other online entrepreneurs, you will invariably lead yourself to new opportunities, just because you once got in touch. The other opportunities might be a direct consequence of that first contact, or they might come from further conversations you have. Regardless, it is the initial connection which has to start the ball rolling.