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What I Know I Did Right

What I Know I Did RightIn my last post, If I Had to Start Over…This is What I’d Do Differently, I shared a lot of things that I wish I knew when I first started doing business online. I made a lot of mistakes and although I can’t go back in time and redo things, I hope that my past experiences can somehow help you.

In today’s post, I’m going to flip the switch and share what I know I did right instead – things that I would make sure to do again if I had to start from scratch.

It’s interesting because in the beginning, at times, I wasn’t fully aware of why I was doing so well. Only now – almost 4 years into self-employment online – can I look back and fully understand why things transpired the way they did.

Here’s what I know I did right…

My first online business was a resource that I built with the primary objective of helping me (and a few co-workers) pass the LEED exam. In fact, when I started it, I was still working 9 to 5 and never actually had any intention of turning this site into a business, but I always had the intention of turning it into a resource.

Because I was studying for the exam myself, I was a perfect example of what eventually became my target audience. I understood everything that needed to be on that site and wrote content in a way that was easy to navigate and easy to understand.

Without me even knowing it (I’ll get to that point in a second) people eventually found exactly what they needed to pass the exam too, and word spread like crazy.

I feel that the long-term success of a website is directly proportional to it’s ability to become a resource - an aid to fulfill a certain need, want or desire.

Just because a website exists on the Internet doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be a good resource, and it’s the webmasters who actually create something that’s helpful who are going to see results.

In addition, a good resource is not only helpful, but also easily accessible, which is where the idea of how and why I was found comes into play…

When I first added Google analytics to my site and saw that hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of people were already visiting my site every single day, how that happened was a total mystery to me.

I didn’t know what search engine optimization was or how keyword research worked – but now that I’ve been doing this for a while I know exactly what happened.

For over 6 months, I was publishing new content on the site every day – sometimes multiple times a day.

To me, I was posting a new section of the exam I needed to learn and memorize. In the titles of posts and through the content I included relevant terms that were important to me as a “resource builder” – it was just natural to do that.

To Google, however, I was publishing fresh material that deserved to rank extremely high for all of the keywords relevant to the exam, which no one else on the web was talking about in as much detail as I was. As I began to add more content, my site became even more of an authority.

My site was found, shared and linked to by several other websites – all without me knowing. :)

The “unfair advantage” is a term I picked up from my recent interview with Lain Ehmann, and it’s the idea that in order to rise above the competition you have to find out what YOU have to offer that nobody else can, and milk it.

Again, I didn’t know it at the time, but my unfair advantage was the fact that my first business was not built like a business at all, and my personality was infused into every part of the site.

My notes, and then later, my exam tips and guides were directly from me – and I didn’t hide that behind any sort of company facade.

Everyone knew it as Pat’s site – sort of like here on SPI.

When people started to leave comments and email me, it was always “Hey Pat…” or “Thanks Pat”.

I wasn’t a faceless company like all of the other LEED sites out there at the time.

That’s why when the company that actually administers the exam came out with their own set of study guides, and I thought my business was dead for sure, I actually started to see an increase in sales and earnings.

My unfair advantage was that it was just me and my personality.

People could connect with me and were more than happy to pay me back for the information I gave them.

When I launched my eBook in October of 2008, people who already passed the exam paid for it anyways, just to thank me.

I can’t imagine that happening if I wasn’t so personal with people on my site.

This particular strategy may not be suited for all niches and industries, but it definitely worked with GreenExamAcademy.com, and now again on The Smart Passive Income Blog.

No matter what though, utilizing that “unfair advantage” is extremely important.

What’s yours?

When I first started monetizing my site, before I published my eBook, I gave Adsense and private advertising a shot.

When seeking potential advertisers, I went in with the mindset that although I could easily put these companies into the competitor category, these were companies I was trying to get to pay me money to advertise on my site, so I had to build a relationship with them first.

Cold emails aren’t very good for this, so I actually called various companies, told them who I was and that I’d like to advertise for them and their products.

I got a few “no thank you’s”, of course, but I kept calling because I knew I had the traffic to serve them and I eventually ended up with upwards of 6 companies advertising all at one time, each paying me $50 to $300 per month for a small banner ad.

Many of these companies eventually began linking to my site promoting my own material that was not in direct competition with their own.

One company in particular, for the last few years, has been an amazing partner site that always keeps me up to date on the latest going-ons in the industry and has allowed me to become one of the only affiliates for their products.

When I think about The Smart Passive Income Blog and the approach I have with my “competitors”  here, it’s the same thing – I don’t view them as competitors at all, but partners instead.

Together, we all help each other out, keep each other informed and just grow together.

I’ve even started to see interactions and potential long-term relationships with other companies for my security guard training niche site, which is pretty cool.

I launched my eBook in October of 2008 (about 18 months after starting the site and building credibility) and the sales numbers looked like this:

October 2008: $7,126.91November 2008: $8,598.51December 2008: $10,900.70

In mid-December, I went back to the same mastermind group that helped me realize I should write an eBook and was given another life-changing tip: add an audio guide to my product line.

The idea was simple: just record what I have written in my eBook, package it into mp3 files, and sell.

There was no hesitation this time – I wanted to get it done right away, so I went home and started recording.

Unfortunately, after 2 days of recording and editing, I deleted all of the files.

It was terrible!

The audio quality was atrocious, I sounded timid in all of the recordings, and I could not imagine anyone being happy after purchasing what I had created.

I needed some help.

Fortunately, I was given the tip to try out a site called Elance.

I actually went back into my account and found the exact job description I posted, which I thought was interesting (click to enlarge):

Elance Voice Talent Proposal

Note: I only wanted a female voice because to me it was easier on the ears and much easier to learn from – especially for long periods of time. 

I received 19 proposals with sample recordings and eventually found my perfect voice talent, who recorded everything and delivered it to me in about a week.

By the first week of January, I had the audio ready to sell on the site.

I included the audio guide as a separate product for the same price as the eBook ($29.99), but also sold a combo product that included both the eBook and audio for a discounted price ($44.95).

Here’s what the sales numbers looked like from that point forward:

January 2009: $17,788.63February 2009: $20, 128.35March 2009: $25,787.65

And the coolest part was that more people were buying the combo product than individual products!

Adding more products to my product line was definitely a great move, and with an eBook – an audio version just seems like a natural, second product to introduce to a product lineup.

If you have a website and are already making sales – try thinking about what else you could add to your product line.

I’ll keep this one short, sweet and to the point:

In any successful business venture I’ve been a part of, I’ve always put my readers first – not the money.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to lie and say I don’t like to earn good money – but I will say that the more I help people, and the more I can put my readers first, the more I seem to get back in return.

That’s what I always try to do, and it’s a business model that I’m always happy to promote.

I hope you enjoyed this post, and look out for SPI Podcast Session #38 and my April Month Income Report coming up next.

Cheers!

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