Zenit
12-02-2008, 08:10 PM
Of course you can read again chapters 9 and 10, but here's a quick summary that surely helps you.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR MUSE
FROM HERE (http://www.anywired.com/finding-your-muse-business/50/)
One or two months ago I found myself wishing I could start some kind of time-minimal online business, but decided that the idea was too good to be true. In my own experience, new projects have required a lot of babying just to get on their feet, let alone become successful. The idea of starting a business from scratch hardly sounded time-minimal to me.
I shelved the idea until my second read-through of The 4HWW re-awakened it (I actually skipped the chapter the first time, thinking it wasn’t relevant to me). In it, the same concept I’d envisioned but dismissed was called a Muse — an automated online business designed to make a profit with a very small time investment of no more than a few hours a week.
Perfect.
The Muse model, simplified as much as possible, is this:
* Decide on a product you want to sell to a very small niche (ideally one that costs the customer between $50 — $100). Mid-range pricing means you have less customers to manage, and can sell fewer units. Test the product and experiment with different landing pages, prices and so on.
* Advertise the product with PPC ads.
* If you’re selling tangible products, send orders to manufacturers rather than buying stock and holding it yourself.
* Start to outsource and automate.
While it might still sound too good to be true, I found the model was backed up with a lot of sensibility. There’s a detailed method to test the profitability of a product before you launch it for under $500. It essentially involves setting up the product site and running a PPC campaign as you would if the product had been launched, but greeting customers who fill out the purchase form with a notification that the product they’re trying to buy is unavailable at this time. This allows you to work out conversion rates and return on investment (ROI) per $500 worth of advertising expenditure before you even purchase stock and lay out other expenses.
If your net profit minus PPC costs is above $0, your business is profitable.
It might work like this:
For each sale of a $100 product, I make $50. One sale costs $10 worth of advertising on average. The net profit per sale is $40.
Your monthly business expenses might also be very light:
* Shared hosting account ($10/month).
* Domain name ($1/month).
* Online shopping cart ($40/month).
If you were to sell two products a month at a net profit of $40, you’d make $29 a month. That kind of amount probably isn’t worth the trouble, but it does show how difficult it is for a well-tested Muse to run at a loss. If you get a hundred click-throughs a day at a conversion rate of 2%, your daily profit is $80. Two-hundred click-throughs yields $160, three-hundred click-throughs yields $240, and so on. Once you’ve worked out a consistent advertising cost-per-sale, your efforts are really only capped by the amount of search traffic looking for the terms you’re targeting.
While the above is a nice scenario, there are a few steps involved in getting there:
1. Decide on the niche you want to target and the product you want to sell.
2. Build a functioning sales site for that product.
3. Test it using a genuine AdWords campaign (or if the business doesn’t require much outlay you might fore-go testing).
4. If tests are positive, launch the product and begin your AdWords campaign, out of the testing phase.
I’m at step number two, but I don’t want to talk about the product before I have a website to show you. When it’s launched I’ll describe my own process in more detail and talk about some of the resources I’m using. While I’m learning as I go, I’d like to help you learn from the process I go through.
As you can see from the above numbered list, the Muse model isn’t much good without an idea. Here are some different types of products you can sell:
* Create an information product (eBook, CD audio recordings, interview transcripts, instructional video, subscription-based newsletter).
* A manufactured product (order product from manufacturers at wholesale price when an order is made).
* An invented product (hire others to prototype and manufacture the product.)
* Resell an existing product (buy the rights to do so).
* License a product.
The product you sell will also depend strongly on the niche you target. It should be small, so there’s less competition for your keywords and PPC campaigns.
For example:
* Athletes — no. Sprinters — yes.
* Students — no. Spanish language students — yes.
* Travelers — no. Low-budget travelers — yes.
As I’m about to start experimenting with a new way of earning an income online I’m interested to know if anyone else is or has considered taking the Muse plunge. Until then, I’m looking forward to the time when I can show you my Muse and explain the process that went into building it.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR MUSE
FROM HERE (http://www.anywired.com/finding-your-muse-business/50/)
One or two months ago I found myself wishing I could start some kind of time-minimal online business, but decided that the idea was too good to be true. In my own experience, new projects have required a lot of babying just to get on their feet, let alone become successful. The idea of starting a business from scratch hardly sounded time-minimal to me.
I shelved the idea until my second read-through of The 4HWW re-awakened it (I actually skipped the chapter the first time, thinking it wasn’t relevant to me). In it, the same concept I’d envisioned but dismissed was called a Muse — an automated online business designed to make a profit with a very small time investment of no more than a few hours a week.
Perfect.
The Muse model, simplified as much as possible, is this:
* Decide on a product you want to sell to a very small niche (ideally one that costs the customer between $50 — $100). Mid-range pricing means you have less customers to manage, and can sell fewer units. Test the product and experiment with different landing pages, prices and so on.
* Advertise the product with PPC ads.
* If you’re selling tangible products, send orders to manufacturers rather than buying stock and holding it yourself.
* Start to outsource and automate.
While it might still sound too good to be true, I found the model was backed up with a lot of sensibility. There’s a detailed method to test the profitability of a product before you launch it for under $500. It essentially involves setting up the product site and running a PPC campaign as you would if the product had been launched, but greeting customers who fill out the purchase form with a notification that the product they’re trying to buy is unavailable at this time. This allows you to work out conversion rates and return on investment (ROI) per $500 worth of advertising expenditure before you even purchase stock and lay out other expenses.
If your net profit minus PPC costs is above $0, your business is profitable.
It might work like this:
For each sale of a $100 product, I make $50. One sale costs $10 worth of advertising on average. The net profit per sale is $40.
Your monthly business expenses might also be very light:
* Shared hosting account ($10/month).
* Domain name ($1/month).
* Online shopping cart ($40/month).
If you were to sell two products a month at a net profit of $40, you’d make $29 a month. That kind of amount probably isn’t worth the trouble, but it does show how difficult it is for a well-tested Muse to run at a loss. If you get a hundred click-throughs a day at a conversion rate of 2%, your daily profit is $80. Two-hundred click-throughs yields $160, three-hundred click-throughs yields $240, and so on. Once you’ve worked out a consistent advertising cost-per-sale, your efforts are really only capped by the amount of search traffic looking for the terms you’re targeting.
While the above is a nice scenario, there are a few steps involved in getting there:
1. Decide on the niche you want to target and the product you want to sell.
2. Build a functioning sales site for that product.
3. Test it using a genuine AdWords campaign (or if the business doesn’t require much outlay you might fore-go testing).
4. If tests are positive, launch the product and begin your AdWords campaign, out of the testing phase.
I’m at step number two, but I don’t want to talk about the product before I have a website to show you. When it’s launched I’ll describe my own process in more detail and talk about some of the resources I’m using. While I’m learning as I go, I’d like to help you learn from the process I go through.
As you can see from the above numbered list, the Muse model isn’t much good without an idea. Here are some different types of products you can sell:
* Create an information product (eBook, CD audio recordings, interview transcripts, instructional video, subscription-based newsletter).
* A manufactured product (order product from manufacturers at wholesale price when an order is made).
* An invented product (hire others to prototype and manufacture the product.)
* Resell an existing product (buy the rights to do so).
* License a product.
The product you sell will also depend strongly on the niche you target. It should be small, so there’s less competition for your keywords and PPC campaigns.
For example:
* Athletes — no. Sprinters — yes.
* Students — no. Spanish language students — yes.
* Travelers — no. Low-budget travelers — yes.
As I’m about to start experimenting with a new way of earning an income online I’m interested to know if anyone else is or has considered taking the Muse plunge. Until then, I’m looking forward to the time when I can show you my Muse and explain the process that went into building it.