December 7th, 2016 | By Tom Woods
I’m thinking of writing another eBook, this one called: Instant Online Business Ideas.
I’ve got a big idea I’ll be writing to you about in the coming weeks. One of my kids (Regina) and I intend to start in on it next year, and I think we have an excellent chance of making it a success. It certainly won’t hurt her college application, that’s for sure.
But here’s one I’ll bet you never thought of.
Card decks.
Not just card games, though of course some of those are quite lucrative: Exploding Kittens raised over $8 million in funding on Kickstarter, all from buyers.
But I’m talking about cards of all kinds. There is a huge market for cards in all sorts of genres: spirituality, self-help, humor, education, and more.
Thanks to lots of free online tools, creating a product like this is much easier than you think.
And if you think hard enough, you probably have one of these decks within you.
How about: questions to ask each other before getting married? I always thought that should be a thing.
There are plenty of possibilities.
You can find a bunch of proposed card decks that raised at least six figures on Kickstarter. In this area, the right idea can spread like wildfire.
I just finished reading Amy Harrop’s new guide to how to create and sell a card deck. Everything from coming up with ideas and content to design (you can do this even if you’re the world’s worst artist, like me), publishing, printing, pricing, sales, and more, is covered in detail.
The whole process, in other words, is laid out before you.
Could this be your hobby project that earns you a few bucks?
You won’t know until you give it a shot:
https://www.happyearner.com/decks
December 6th, 2016 | By Tom Woods
I know precisely one thing about knitting. And it’s this:
Kathy and Steve Elkins own a store that sells knitting, crocheting, and weaving supplies. But they do most of their sales online.
Why? Partly because they started a weekly podcast about knitting.
I first read about their podcast in early 2011. I remember thinking it was a good idea for a business to do this. Just for the heck of it, I checked last week: they’re on episode 468, and still going.
When they discuss a particular yarn or pattern on the show, they see a spike in sales on the relevant pages of their website.
It’s a great idea, and it works especially well because of Woods’s Law: Nobody ever does anything.
By which I mean: how many of their competitors have a podcast? The question pretty much answers itself.
There are all kinds of ways you or your business can benefit from a podcast. I have an extremely successful podcast, so take it from me: the guy you need to listen to is John Lee Dumas.
He’s the creator of his own wildly successful podcast, as well as the premier training and support site for podcasters: Podcasters Paradise, of which I am a happy member.
He earns six figures a month from his podcast. He knows what he’s talking about.
Be prepared to take notes at his free workshop for the curious tomorrow (Wednesday). You’ll learn a ton.
Grab your spot:
https://www.happyearner.com/paradise
(That’s an affiliate link, by the way. But if you sign up with it and then decide to join John’s Podcasters Paradise, which I myself belong to, I’ll hop on Skype with you for 30 minutes at your convenience and answer any questions you may have. Just drop me a note on my contact page.)
December 2nd, 2016 | By Tom Woods
“It has brought me from utter obscurity to a recognizable figure within my niche in under a year.”
That’s what one of my listeners just said about his own podcast.
In fact, he just told an A-List potential guest, “I’ve finished up my interviews for the year. Let’s touch base in January.”
That’s a boss.
He can make sales to his audience (affiliate products or his own), all while giving away content for free. Everyone wins.
Where did he figure out how to do it? From John Lee Dumas, naturally, whose Podcasters Paradise site I myself joined over two years ago.
John’s the master: he went from sitting in traffic listening to podcasts on his way to a job he hated to making podcasting into his full-time living.
Curious? You should be. Attend John’s free workshop, as I did two years ago.
Remember Woods’s Law: Nobody ever does anything.
OK, I know that’s not literally true. But it’s close enough. Most people think writing books, launching podcasts, creating courses, or whatever, are all things other people do.
And that means you’ll have less competition than you would if Woods’s Law weren’t true.
Successful people are the doers.
First thing to do: check out John’s free workshop, where you’ll be impressed with how much you learn:
https://www.happyearner.com/paradise
(That’s an affiliate link, by the way. But if you sign up with it and then decide to join John’s Podcasters Paradise, which I myself belong to, I’ll hop on Skype with you for 30 minutes at your convenience and answer any questions you may have. Just drop me a note on my contact page.)
December 1st, 2016 | By Tom Woods
I want my kids to have every possible advantage.
Regina, my 13-year-old daughter, loves animals and hopes to pursue a veterinary career someday.
It turns out we happen to live in an area with a pre-veterinary program nearby that she can enter when she reaches high school age — which is next year.
Not everyone can be accepted into this program. Applicants need to stand out somehow.
My Regina stands out in numerous ways: she used to volunteer at an animal shelter when we lived in Topeka, she raised $500 for the shelter through a GoFundMe campaign, and she used her own money to sponsor pets — which made them more likely to be adopted, because she’d already paid the fee.
But I’ve suggested to her, without pressure, that another way she might stand out is with an animal-related podcast. (We have a more specific idea in mind, but that’s a house secret.)
Who else her age will have one? She will be viewed as a leader.
Will it require a lot of money? Not really: once you plug a microphone into your computer, you’re pretty much ready to go.
Will it take a lot of time? Not really: she can produce two episodes a month and not be an outlier in the podcasting world. Common Sense with Dan Carlin is one of the top-rated podcasts on iTunes, and it releases two episodes a month.
It would open doors and opportunities for her, without a doubt.
A podcast can do the same for you.
You won’t be just another face in the crowd anymore. You’ll stand out in your industry, since almost no one ever does anything.
You can build an audience, get to know interesting people, position yourself in your industry, learn and polish a new skill, and in general be different from everyone else.
It’s not nearly as hard as you think. Between my two podcasts I’ve produced nearly 860 episodes. It’s no big deal.
But it seems bewildering. I get that.
So I am sending you to the master, John Lee Dumas, who earns a six-figure MONTHLY income from podcasting.
Will you earn that? No, probably not.
But you can get out of your rut, grab the bull by the horns, and do something — which right away places you in the 20 portion of the 80/20 Pareto rule.
John’s free workshop walks you through the whys and the hows of podcasting, and even how podcasts can be monetized.
If that voice in your head is telling you this might just be an interesting idea after all, sign up for John’s next online workshop. Costs you nada. But hear him out: this could be the opportunity you’ve been waiting for:
https://www.happyearner.com/paradise
(That’s an affiliate link, by the way. But if you sign up with it and then decide to join John’s Podcasters Paradise, which I myself belong to, I’ll hop on Skype with you for 30 minutes at your convenience and answer any questions you may have. Just drop me a note on my contact page.)
November 30th, 2016 | By Tom Woods
I admit it: I’m a bit of a grammar snob myself.
To my mind, the decline of the use of “whom” is a horrific atrocity.
And I do know a bit about writing: my first major book was published by Columbia University Press, and their standards for formal writing are rather high.
Now to the email I received yesterday, in response to my story about the Nigerian guy who genuinely thought he’d earned $60,000 from me.
I began that story: “A couple years ago….”
NOT ALLOWED!
I was supposed to say, “A couple OF years ago….”
Here’s my correspondent’s commentary on those four words:
“Interesting why writers believe they must dumb themselves down to reach an audience. Is this how you reach ‘conversion’? One would think the paying customers you wish to reach would know the ‘of’ is glaringly missing. Or is your content so simplistic that a lesser educated audience is your goal.”
Now that’s just plain nasty.
Let’s see what we can learn from Miss Sunshine here.
(1) Drop people like this from your list like a hot potato. Normal people don’t write nasty notes about nothing to complete strangers. You’re going to be dealing with this person’s problems forever. You don’t need them. Someone who’s nasty to you was never going to buy anything, and since you are not a registered charity, that should be a decisive factor.
(2) Conversion IS what matters.
One of the best-known advertising slogans in history was “Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should.” Now strictly speaking, that should be “Winston tastes good, AS a cigarette should.” And no doubt our friend was outraged at that, too.
But it sold boatloads of cigarettes for Winston.
You are in the business of making sales. Use formal writing to your heart’s content on your own time. When you’re selling, speak the way that makes the sale.
Try to imagine just how fast our friend would have been fired by Winston for her pedantic corrections.
Good email marketing involves storytelling. Storytelling, in turn, involves speaking colloquially and in a natural, conversational style. It’s quite all right to say “a couple years ago.” Trust me.
And when people like our friend send you a nasty note, you can reply from the deck of a cruise ship while enjoying a fine wine and the cash your email marketing brought in.
Now if you weren’t interested in selling something online (whether a product of your own, an affiliate product, or a service) someday, you wouldn’t be on this site. And I’m telling you: you need to know how to convert visitors into sales.
You need to know when — as in the case of our friend — to ignore the know-it-alls.
I am positively luxuriating in the process of ignoring her.
I know more about formal writing than she does, yet she’s correcting me. As her correction shows, I also know more about selling.
Today’s the last day to grab Conversion Secrets, a free course on making visitors into customers.
Clunky landing page, but highly worthwhile content:
https://www.happyearner.com/conversion
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