Anyone Actually Making Good Cash Yet?

[buddha377]

So I've seen a lot of messages asking for feedback on muses. That's awesome. I'm glad so many people are trying to get things rolling. Keep at it! What I'm interested in are people who are actually making decent money from their muses. Are you out there? Do you mind sharing with the rest of us and posting a few of your sites so we can steal from them (I mean learn from them :) ). Are your muses yet fulfilling the dream of beating the 9-5 grind?

All the best,

Buddha

[diglyd]

IMHO the 10% rule will apply here as anywhere else...for every 100 people who try this...10 will put something up while the other 90 give up after a few weeks, and out of the 10, 1 person will make money.

so if 1,000 people buy the book, 100 will actually put something up, 10 will make money, and probably 1 will quit his job, and spend more time with his kids.....

If 1,000,000 people buy the book and the 10% rule applies....1 guy will be like Tim. If we get lucky maybe 10 and those guys you will see on his commercial.

Same with the carlton sheets and all the other make money methods. For every one you see there are thousands who did not succeed.

I am not saying it can't be done. It can, and I think it does work, but there is more to it then what Tim said, and its not as easy or fluffy as he makes it out to be.

The other thing you have to take into account is that not everyone is willing to behave like he did...for example looking for loopholes in a thai boxing competition to win instead of winning by virtue or skill, or using other methods to get ahead and get what he wants like when he was in college trying to get As. His survival of the fittest approach, do whatever it takes is a "short term" vs" long term" gains approach and in some circles it is looked down upon. Some also consider such behivor unethical such as delibrately harrasing their professors so they will choose to do things differently in accordance with their moral code which in turn will still work but will take much much longer to accomplish.

The key is to get the ideas but come up with an approach that is as effective but one that works for you unless you are willing to re-write 20+ years of your own moral conditioning and become like Tim to get the same result.

See it starts to get complicated. Do not delude yourself by beliving that its "easy" and "everyone already has their dreams comming true".

I go to sleep every night with a purpose and a dream and an itch that I did not feel before I read Tim's book, and to me that is the real value in it.

Having failed in business multiple times, having done way more then Tim even experienced in the corporate world I can definitely see that it can be done having done the same very things for big corporations that he proposes doing for yourself but I can 100% gurantee you that its NOT EASY AND ITS NOT FAST. Almost every project no matter the scope or size will face insurmountable obstacles and no matter how well managed or what processes are in place will still have a tendency to spiral out of control if not baby sat and project managed to a T. Do you think your life is any less complicated then a multi million dollar intenrational multi million earning web protal being re-architected to .NET with new frameworks added in India? If that is the case your life is a hundred times more complicated because it deals with your destiny, your fear, and your family....so more shit is at stake then some CEO's fortune.

just like in a large scale corporate outsourcing project, while you are trying to outsource yourself scope creep will come rearing its ugly head, you will go over budget, you will suffer setbacks, loss of resources, confusion, miscommunication, financial crisys, missed deadlines, pissed of vendors, major and minor setbacks etc but eventually IF YOU STICK WITH IT LONG ENOUGH you will finish and be free.

maybe I am wrong but from looking through the posts I have a feeling that quite a few people here think this will be much easier then what it will really take and are under the impression that money is just rolling in from day one. Tim even mentioend this in his book about his brainquicken...how 2 other comanies tried to immulate his idea and failed miserably. You have to remember to read between the lines and realize that for every 1 great person or 1 great idea that becomes a household word there are millions that failed. As long as you realize that but keep plugging away trying one thing after another until you hit one that works it will be you that makes it. if not then you will die by the wayside and become bitter and hate Tim and his book for wasting your time.

If it was really THAT easy as Tim says then everyone would be doing it. ....if that was the case we would all be living in the Hollywood hills but at the moment sitting at some cafe in Morocco sipping martinis right about now not looking for muses and reading forums.

your comment about stealing from them or learing from people's sites is a perfect example of the point I am trying to make. Tim is successful becasue his muse was based on the same thing as the ab track, the ab roller, the loose weight in 20 minutes with 2 pills a day, and the "if you place one of these little adds in the paper just 30 mintues a day" blah blah products....his book feeds on people's ignorace of making money and the dream of easy money with no work. that is what brainquicken is in essence. A pill that will enhance your brain with no effort and let you perform without training. This is the same as Tims super conditioning before competition...easy this and easy that.

If you guys want a good "muse" that is the approach you want to use. Rely on people's basic instincts and needs...promise them instant gratification, instant success without effort, instant weight loss without training, instant gains without time. Short term its great...long term it could backfire. The key is to offer them something taht is alluring but actualyl beneficial. Tim's stuff luckily offers both that is why it works.

I will be more then happy to list my sites when the yare making moeny but please for the love of god don't think that what it took me to get it up there was in any way easy and can be done overnight by you.

Even my little online store took over 6 months to prep. there is always ramp up and lead time unless you are very very lucky, very connected, are a trust fund kid, or have the discipline to do everything that Tim says to a T every day without missing the beat with the same merciless didication and focus.

[final_id]

I find great value in reading the book, in communicating consistently with other adherents of some of its core understandings, and reminding myself thereby, that "to have a regular job in a cubicle" is NOT necessary as a longer-term goal in life. It's simply useful as a counter-point to our otherwise toil-obsessed culture.

But I do think your numbers are a bit skew. I see how you got to only 1 in a million being the successful entrepreneur Tim wants us to be, and I see that there's some cynicism in it. But you're indulging in the tertium non datum fallacy: that there isn't a third option, between "becomes like Tim" and "doesn't become like Tim." There could be many varying degrees of success at the 4HWW program going on out there, from the mere enlightenment that the book's questioning of old assumptions offers (as I mention, this in itself is a benefit to me), to a single mother making a mere extra $500 a month (after all is said and done) off of very little effort, thus paying for a tutor to get her kid to ace the SAT and get an awesome scholarship to a state school and thus her family's next generation out of the housing projects, to a young inventor not getting bilked by an "invention management" company and instead using some automation and liberation to enable his new chemical gewgaw to fund itself and thus start his own research firm, to a work-obsessed lawyer learning to relax a bit, take the time to lose some weight, and therefore not dying of a heart attack when he's 43. Each one of those people could gain in a small way from Tim's book; maybe none will actually become "independently rich" with an automated muse-type website bringing him or her over $5,000.oo a month in relatively stress-free income, but there's still "success" in it. Right?

I think of my success, as giving myself the right to seek for what I WANT to do, and realizing I don't "have to" do the more stable, righteous, somehow predictable things. I was doing well in a very low-paid field (publishing) and saw no light at the end of the tunnel. To slave like hell, I'd get promoted to a higher (but still undesirably low) salary some day. To not slave like hell, I might get promoted anyway, or a might not, there was no way to know. Either way, the books were weak (there's a dearth of decent authors out there) and the work I was free to do in the fields I enjoyed (because of time expectations, and the necessity to work so much on so many unrelated projects in other fields) was inevitably shoddy, therefore useless to either my portfolio for getting a better job, or to my own sense of accomplishment. How to get out? No time to find a new job, I'm too busy at my bad job. No way to look good at my old job so that I can find a new job, I'm too busy doing too much and therefore doing a bad job at all of it. No way to invest for the future, I have to hold down a second job merely to break even on all the "required" but unstated job expectations like wardrobe, regular attendance (maintaining a car), going out of state on my own dime to "professional development" conferences, representing the company positively at social functions which I can't really afford. It was a hole digging itself deeper and deeper, with lots of social and cultural expectations that if you fail, you didn't "suck it up" hard enough. The people who succeed in those situations have alternate funding, period. The superiors in those fields aren't competent to assess the disastrous lack of opportunity that they're giving to their new up-and-coming underlings, because they presume that their own past success over hardship was an indicator of their own dedication, yet fail to understand that their own financial hardship was probably much less stringent than what they expect of the current generation.

In any case, a field where "getting ahead" is considered an inappropriate motivation for working, is in itself a field a sane person would want to leave. No matter how much you love it, if you can't afford it, you can't stay.

These types of analyses, are understandings which Tim (I presume, on the basis of evidence in his 4HWW book) might agree with, or at least sympathize with, if he found weaknesses in them. But before I -- or many like me -- ever found the book, we did not know that an alternate analysis of our situation was even a possibility. We simply thought we were failing, and thought that failure was because we were not dedicated enough. So we upped the commitment, in terms of time and effort and money (yes: I actually had to "pay to work" because of the expense of mandatory travel). Most of us saw no reward for that increase in commitment because of the skewed financial situation. More and more American fields of work are tending toward this "commitment and compliance" model, and away from the older "reward for productivity" (or "reward for effort") model. Tim's book is just another step in the counter-cultural revolution AGAINST poor reward systems. Many people may never wholly adopt Tim's model for a reward system as the only one operating in their lives, but at least they might feel a little more free to reject other more dysfunctional models which have been foisted upon them.

[diglyd]

Wow,

Final_ID that is really well said. I agree with what you said 100%. You are absolutely correct. The biggest value this book provides is openning people's eyes and minds to another way to live, where they can (whether one succeeds or fails) work at exiting the system.

In a way this book was a confirmation for me about how I felt for the last 10years working in the corporate world and where it would lead. My father a devoted company man now in his 60s who still works 2 jobs is one of those people who does not even know that an alternative analysis as you say even remotely exists. He is jsut plugging away and it has led him nowhere.

After my last "job" I set out on my own, 5 months later people were still telling me I am crazy. Yeah, sure I might have to get another job for financial reasons but I have seen the light. A job is now just a job not a career or a goal. Its just a stepping stone in a plan to freedom and leverage over my own destiny.

Like you the greatest benefit of the book that has openned my eyes was that the life in the cubicle is not the long term goal in life, and more importantly the work hard play later model does not work because the later part is a dream that might or might not come true because life is what "happens" in between your plans.

My father is 65 and he still thinks the lottery is the answer to his retirment needs. Its completely backwards thinking.

I bought the book and gave it to my best friend and his wife who upon devouring it over the weekend said to me "There are moments in your life that define and alter your destiny, times that are milestones and you giving us this book and letting us read it is one of those because of how it openned our eyes".

That is the true value of this book. Even for me who was already aware of the concepts or knew about the pieces or was slowly trying and failing to break free, this book is a god send. Why? because Tim connected the dots for me. I knew about the pieces but no one actually connected all the dots for me and spelled out "how" it can all tie together.

Going forward whether I find myself working at target or a cubicle because I have to, operating a business, or setting up a muse the ideas presented in the book will move me c loser to freedom.

I also completely agree with your examples of the "varying" degerees of success. Its not just "be like Tim" or "not be". Success can take many forms some bigger then others.

We are both on the same page here and I got exactly the same from the book as you. My goal wasn't necessarily to show data but just to illustrate that its not going to be as easy as Tim makes it out to be and there are quite a few people who miss this very point. For some it will be for others it will not. Everyone who reads the book stands to benefit from it as poeple can adapt varying degrees of the advice given.

I just wanted to be clear that from my experience starting a "muse" isn't any different then starting a business or working for yourself. To set it all up you are doing the same things a start-up business owner does...you set up a LLC or Corp, you create product, you deal with distributors, you take risks. The last part the "risks" is what scares people, and this is what Tim tires to help you overcome by providing a roadmap that will not be costly.

The concepts in the book are extremely good, valuable and mind boggling for people who have only known the "job" world before. In a way some of the concepts are redifining their entire lives or making t hem rethink their plans. That is good, my only point is that the 3rd option of freedom or varying degrees of automation will still take some work.

There is no such thing as something for nothing. Anyone who tells you that is selling something. Tim makes it sound "easy" and people just forget that things that come easy to some aren't that easy for others. He makes it "easier" and that is good but people still need to "realize" that like anything else in life it will take effort to bear fruit and hitting the bullseye might not happen the first time around. My main concern was that Tim said things like how he made some "critical" mistakes but because he does not elaborate and spend time on the failures poeple read the book and think its a no brainer.

Tim learned from his mistakes and what we read is the result but to sell a million copies you can't talk about how many times you failed in detail or it will turn 90% of the people off the subject.

I jsut wanted to make people aware that the "key" is to keep plugging away and not give up if by some chance it does not work out for them and keep putting in the effort with the intention of becomming the NR who leverages his own self.

[James Grey]

Yes – I do really well financially traveling and living around the world

BUT – I have dozens of Muses – you can not live and travel comfortably overseas with just a single muse, you will need several different ones or several different variations on your “Big One”

And don’t just limit yourself to online ventures – If you are an Expat with some money in your pocket there are there are billions of little (and big) opportunities to make money overseas, you just have to pay attention to your surroundings.

I have done everything from importing motorcycles in Qatar to providing bodyguard instructors in Indonesia, selling used Dell Servers in Baghdad and everything in-between.

Internet marketing is a great way to earn regular income from anywhere in the world, and it is where you should concentrate the majority of your efforts on – but once you have some money and you are overseas then look out for other opportunities. Thousands and thousands of Expats make good money wheeling and dealing around the world

[turk]

Although I agree with above well argued points, I feel they miss the mark a little.

I assume there must be others like me who don't think winning a kick-boxing championship on technicality is same as becoming a champion.
Just as the idea of 4 hr work week is not just to travel.

I believe we have a moral obligation to our creator (what ever you call her)
to be all we can be.
I don't mean that in a mediocre way of paying your bills on time or having a nice 4000 sq' home, sending your kids to nice school all you can be, although that is a start.

I mean all we can be like Bill Gates (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates), Warren Buffet, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Buffett) Pierre Omidyar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Omidyar)

Being successful means you are rich financially, physically and spiritually and not one of them is more noble than the other 2.
It's a 3 legged stool.

Money is an energy just like food. If we're hungry(broke) all we think about is Money (food) once we have enough, then we can start giving away. You can't give away $60 Billion like Bill Gates & Warren Buffet, if you don't have it.

If you are not healthy, and I mean perfect functioning body no matter how much you have in the bank you can't be happy.

If you are not connected to a higher power and don't have an intimate relationship with your source your soul will eventually die, and your body will end up doped-up, drugged-out searching for answers in bottles.

Let's start firing ideas and testing and improving our aim as we go, but keep moving, and demand massive results from ourselves.

I think once you quit your job, and start doing what you want instead of what you think you have to do, you will notice you're working harder and longer.
And that's what the humanity needs.

Hard working happy, healthy leaders who lead by example.

Keep remembering 4 hr. work week is another muse for Tim. and hopefully inspiration for the rest of us.

[Marcie]

I liked that, Turk, :) Thanks!

[seacrestpromo]

So I've seen a lot of messages asking for feedback on muses. That's awesome. I'm glad so many people are trying to get things rolling. Keep at it! What I'm interested in are people who are actually making decent money from their muses. Are you out there? Do you mind sharing with the rest of us and posting a few of your sites so we can steal from them (I mean learn from them :) ). Are your muses yet fulfilling the dream of beating the 9-5 grind?

All the best,

Buddha

I am happy with the income I make from my fundraising business as a part-time effort. However, now I want to share my knowledge about this business while making some money at it too. I have already launched my ebook and now I am working on a MP3 with one of my colleagues. Hopefully in a about a week or so I will be making that available online.

I think I will be able to transition out of my daily routine by the end of the year, if everything stays on track and I keep focused.

Thanks for asking.

Thomas

[RogerSteciak]

Internet marketing is a great way to earn regular income from anywhere in the world, and it is where you should concentrate the majority of your efforts on

Tim's book is inspirational, but you don't have to want to travel all over the world to use his techniques if you don't want to. The idea is to develop automated streams of business and investment income so that you don't need a regular job to pay your living expenses. If you set up your automated businesses and investments properly, you can have a four-hour work week that consists of checking out via the Web how your businesses and investments are doing while you are having your morning coffee.

Stop Working; Start a business, globalize it, and generate enough cash flow to get out of the rat race! by Rohan Hall is a book similar to Tim's book (although with a different slant) about how to do this. Rohan's and Tim's books should be considered complementary to each other. Go It Alone; The Secret to Building a Successful Business on Your Own by Bruce Judson is yet another book with this same "extreme outsourcing" philosophy. Bruce's book is now available free online at http://www.brucejudson.com/.

In my case, my job 12 years ago changed from being an employee of a company to being an employee of a specialty temporary help agency (I'm a technical writer in Silicon Valley). I did the same work in both cases, but I made 50% more income working as a contractor. I kept my living expenses low (i.e., live well below your means) and invested my new surplus income in a carefull manner. Over many years, my investments grew (including surviving the post dot-com and 9/11 years). Today, I have the financial resources I need to provide the investment income I can use to pay my living expenses without having to work for a living (although I'm still looking at various automated businesses I can start and run for both fun and profit). I have no desire to travel the world, but I do have the desire never to go back to working in a cubicle again for someone else.

A good way to learn financial literacy is to play the Rich Dad Cashflow game. There are Cashflow Clubs in many locations all over the world where you can play this game and learn how to build wealth. Tim's way is just one of many possible ways wealth building can be done. So long as you have more than enough business and investment income (on an after-tax basis) to pay your living expenses, you are financially free and can choose to do what you want with your time. You will still spend about four hours a week as a financially-free person to monitor your businesses and investments and take corrective action whenever required. But with Web access to this information, you can do this monitoring and correcting from any Internet connection anywhere on the planet.

[twoway]

So far, no one has actually named a "muse" here or whether they are making money from it.

Just an observation.

-twoway

[Batman]

So far, no one has actually named a "muse" here or whether they are making money from it.

Just an observation.

-twoway

here is my 'practice muse' www.effortlessgifts.com

so far I am at break even, if you want to see a profitable success story place a couple of orders :D

It has not replaced my income - however its not intended to. Its practice

[sokab]

In a nutshell, I have used Tim's book to take a service based product and increase revenue from 5-6k a month to over 50k a month. It is a real estate based niche service that I have been doing for over ten years. I was making (as indicated above) 5-6k a month. After reading the section on Automation and the 80/20 rule, and taking the necessary ACTION, I have almost eliminated my involvment with this project while increasing revenue ten-fold.

What ACTION did I take? First, I came to grips with the fact that I was the bottleneck. And secondly, I was NOT the only person capable of completing even the most complicated tasks necessary to make deposits appear in my bank account.

That being said, I did the following.

I immediately hired a virtual assistant through elance.com. Initially, I didn't know specifically what I would use him or her for, I just knew that if I was ever going to take ME out of the equation, I would need one. How right I was.

I initially asked myself, what will I delegate to my new found employee? I soon discovered the answer; just about everything.

This particular muse requires sifting through court dockets to find specific information that I previously thought only I or an attorney would be able to extract. How arrogant was my thinking was. I started off small with my new assistant, teaching him how to find the information, with the intent of adding a step or 2 here and there as he began to understand. I had a 4 week window for his learning curve. To my surprise he picked up the entire process in 4 days. This was my process of lead generation that I was dedicating 1 to 2 hours a day on before. That was all I could afford to spend on it because I was so "busy". My new assistant can focus on it 6 hours per day while still leaving 2 hours per day for phone calls, email and follow up. Then a funny thing happened. The phone started ringing off the hook. Why? Because something that was so critical, lead generation, was getting 1-2 hours (12.5%) of my attention while other "important" things like reading junk email, shifting piles of paper from one side on my desk to the other, etc. were getting (87.5%).

With this increased buying activity I took Tim's advice and added a call center to field the calls. Since I have been taking the calls directly for so long I knew most of the questions that might be asked so I created a FAQ with the appropriate responses for the call center. Not only did I increase the window of opportunity from 12 hours (me answering the phone from 9am to 9pm) to 24 hours (the call center answers 24/7), but now I wasn't interrupting a nice dinner with my family to take a "quick call".

At this point in the process the call center notifies my virtual assistant of the new customer, he emails the necessary information to my attorney, and in a few weeks a check arrives in the mail.

Now, I know some of you will want to see my web site. Truth is, I haven't created one yet. Based on the tight niche that this is, internet marketing wouldn't fit as an advertising medium (direct mail is what I am using). However, I will be adding a web site that basically reiterates the FAQ that the call center uses so potential customers can surf to my web page if they are so inclined. I believe a web page does add some credibility to my offer. As for my specific service, I have to leave that a little vague because it is so "duplicate-able" and I'm not sure if the process is "trade-markable" (are those words?).

Anyway, I have to say that Tim was able to encapsulate in those two sections of the book (Automation and 80/20 rule), something that I was trying to create, albeit unsuccessfully, for the last 10 years.

I am considering starting a daily blog outlining my exploits using Tim's methods. If you would be interested in seeing something like that, submit a quick reply to this posting and, if there is enough interest, I may give it a shot.

[twoway]

Hey Batman & sokab,
thanks for showing that there are people out there doing it. inspiration for the rest of us!

cheers, twoway

[benethridge]

So far, no one has actually named a "muse" here or whether they are making money from it.

Just an observation.

-twoway

Good observation. I thought diglyd made some really great points early on, and speaks with some experience to back it up.

This search for freedom, which is what I think this is really about, is fraught with peril. Exploring this new ocean in search of a muse to do your every bidding, you will hear the sirens coming from many rocks, and ironically, the most alluring of them are in Tim's book...

Nevertheless, these rocks must be explored, and the sirens approached and understood for what they are, if you are to EVENTUALLY succeed in your quest. Sounds like a catastrophe waiting for those who value security over freedom, but great adventure...for the adventurous. :)

[jetpacklife]

I'm certainly making good cash. I don't call it my "muse", I call it my business. I started it before the whole 4HWW thing, but, I'm still learning from Tim. I'm not down to 4 hours per week, but I am down to about 14 and actively lowering it. I don't name my business here, simply because you guys aren't my customers and I don't need to advertise.

[Peter Bowen]

My first muse http://www.NoMore247.com currently makes about 1/4 of what I need.

It's just come to the end of it's second month of trading after a development period of about 3 months.

Right now it could run on about 4 hours a month but probably needs considerably more than that to grow to where it is able to support my lifestyle singlehandedly.

Cheers

Pete

[Alexa]

Hello all,

I've appreciated reading through your advice. I have a specific question: has anyone tried to open an online book store, or a niche seller featuring books? There are several ideas that I am considering, but books are much below the recommended $50-200 price range. Any suggestions or experiences?

Thank you,

Alexa

[James Grey]

I have a couple of amazon affiliate stores – they do pretty well BUT you have to have allot of good content and a theme to base your store around

You really wont have much luck with “just a bookstore” but a bookstore about (lets say) “Pizza” then you could sell everything from recipe books to stoves – throw in a blog magazine and a forum + a few bucks into a magazine add and google and you have a very good chance of making some good money

But buying a bunch of books and reselling them? No chance in H**L of succeeding

~James Grey

[markus]

There's a good reason people don't post their success stories online.

As soon as someone gives a specific example, others will copy it and drive the muse into extinction. I've seen this happen before in internet marketing. The market gets flooded fast once it's revealed that there's money in it.

You have to try over and over and over again. I would say that out of about 10 attempts (even before Tim's book), 1 or two proved to be hits. I'm trying to find more as we speak. However if I was to tell you what my latest muse is, you and anyone else could duplicate it within hours and flood the niche into unprofitability.

I 100% agree with Tim on this: work with something you know, something you have personal experience with.

[OneOfEm]

I haven't started making "good cash" yet, but I just started down this road a couple of weeks ago.

I found a product that I make a 15% commission on that sells for 2-4k and that I never have to touch or support. I've just started building traffic and getting a few sales. I'm not near my goal, but it's very likely to happen, given what I'm seeing so far.

I took the best product (IMO) in a very competitive and highly saturated market, and I'm marketing it to a niche that can afford and will need and want the best product, regardless of the cost.

I outsourced logo design, web design and web copy writing. I'm also going to (try to) outsource blog writing to keep driving traffic to my blog without having to spend too much of my time on it.

My biggest hurdle was that I'm going through a divorce, and my funds are extremely limited, so it's been a slight challenge to get started. One advantage that the divorce has given me is that everything (and I mean everything but the clothes on my back) has changed, so I'm very open to further change. When you have nothing to lose, you have everything to gain. :D


-OOE

(Quick addition - this product is in an area that I know and have experience with, as is the niche.)

[James Grey]

There's a good reason people don't post their success stories online.

As soon as someone gives a specific example, others will copy it and drive the muse into extinction. I've seen this happen before in internet marketing. The market gets flooded fast once it's revealed that there's money in it.


That is not necessarily true – look at all of the “Internet Marketing” ebooks out there – or even different ways to make money overseas (consulting, photography, writing, contracting).

I wouldn’t really worry about other people “steeling” your ideas because it probably isn’t an original idea anyway – pretty much everything has been done, the trick is repackaging it and creating a unique selling point.

Actually – most internet marketers actively promote their products to other internet marketers.

And if you are worried about the market being flooded with a product like yours (if yours is truly unique) – then “Rip yourself off” and copy yourself. This is something I have done several times.

Selling a book about “Retiring Young in Timbuktu” with a website – then sell 5 books on 5 different websites about “retire now in Timbuktu” – “How to Live in Timbuktu” – “Timbuktu for Single Men” – “Timbuktu Retirement Options” - Ect, ect..

Flood the market yourself to keep the competition away

~JG

[jetpacklife]

As soon as someone gives a specific example, others will copy it and drive the muse into extinction. I've seen this happen before in internet marketing. The market gets flooded fast once it's revealed that there's money in it.


I agree. My second biggest successful website/muse was a myspace accessories site. When it came out, there were a couple of other ones, but most people didn't realize how much traffic and money was involved with these sites (because myspace was so huge and still growing). After a few press stories came out about how kids were making 5 figures a month on these sites, people started really cranking out competitor sites. (There is now a free template script that produces one of these sites ) Now, traffic is down an most people aren't making as much anymore.. many have moved onto facebook for the next big thing.

[James Grey]

With something that’s a monster like MySpace you cant avoid copycats

I was mostly referring to information products


James Grey

[JET]

Doesn't seem many folks are making a living with their muse.... Is anyone making real money ($5k+ per month) with a muse?

[Marcie]

Jet - there have been a lot of people here over the past (almost) two years who fade away after reporting a successful muse, most that are here now are in the learning process, that is mostly what this board is about. Tim will also be highlighting case studies of people's success in the next version of 4HWW. Hope that helps.

[JET]

Thanks Marcie! Yes, that is SUPER helpful. I would really enjoy and appreciate reading some of the successes. Heck, that would be a great 2nd book for Tim to write about.. :)

I truly look forward to seeing the success stories.

[nghs22]

Jet - there have been a lot of people here over the past (almost) two years who fade away after reporting a successful muse, most that are here now are in the learning process, that is mostly what this board is about. Tim will also be highlighting case studies of people's success in the next version of 4HWW. Hope that helps.

I've submitted my success story to Tim :)

[JET]

Awsome! I really look forward to seeing the success stories. Anybody have an idea when the second book is coming out?

[Matthew Connors]

These threads can create all sorts of social havoc with accusations of bragging, people copying your niche, they basically end up in a loss of credibility for a lot of people.........

You are extremely unlikely to get an honest thread in this thread.................. as if someone came in here bragging about how they made $10K last month, within 24 hrs the profitability of their niche would be trashed.

I can name 50+ people of the top of my head earning ridiculous money online using their muse... Most are in the IM of info muse try Reed Floren, Fabian Tan, Brad Cullen, Steve Wagenhiem, Mach Michaels, Tim Godfrey, Zig Ziglar, Lee Miteer, Jerry Clarke, Mike Vance, Mark Victor Hanson etc etc etc The fact is when you get it right it pays a lot more then wages.. When there's hope there is power.......and all the people in this forum feel empowered just by exploring their potential.

Just the fact anyone has even read the book or taken the next step to join this forum is a huge step on the path to success and everyone should be feeling great about this. Not bad or shy about not making $5K per month.......

Congratulations to everyone in this forum......... whether you've made $1 or lost $500.....

I look forward to seeing you in other threads..

[JET]

Thank you for your good points! I agree kudos for everyone who is trying.

Though I think folks could give insights to successful muses without giving the details of the niche's away. I.E., we all know "Chicken Soup for the Soul" series are a huge money maker...but that's not making it any easier for others to copy that, etc...

Just would be nice to see/hear a few start-ups that are being successful. :)

[therealrico]

I think to keep in mind too is, a lot of business fail because the person starting the business had no idea what they were doing, or enter a very competitive market such as a restaurant, and so forth.

This book outlines how to avoid those mistakes to a degree, but I do agree that just because someone read the book doesn't mean they actually took the steps to do what the book outlined. For example I know of at least 5 people who have read this book, and I am the only one out of that group who has really taken this to heart and is attempting to create a muse.

[DaveinHackensack]

There's a good reason people don't post their success stories online.

As soon as someone gives a specific example, others will copy it and drive the muse into extinction.

I can see the reluctance to mention your business while you're still developing it, but once it's up and running? Did Pro Sound Effects get driven into extinction when it was mentioned in Tim's book?

A concept from Warren Buffett comes to mind: the moat. A good business should have a moat of some sort.

[No Mondays]

Hello, I just begun reading the book and was wondering if anyone knew if Tim has created a new "muse" with the principles he outlined in the book? We all know he didn't create his supplement company using the principles in the book, He modified it after it was in existence. Just wondering what new product he produced from scratch using the principles in the book. Anyone know?

Thanks

[clanshrapnel]

I'm quite sure Tim makes enough money from the book and other endorsements that he doesn't need a new muse to create. The book became his next muse in many respects. Seems like he spends a lot of his time now with investing in other companies, too.

[No Mondays]

Yes, I was thinking the same thing. But, was wondering if he has proven his principles true by doing it with another original idea of his? Does anyone know of any examples? Looking for some hope, Thanks.

[officer_dibble]

Yes, I was thinking the same thing. But, was wondering if he has proven his principles true by doing it with another original idea of his? Does anyone know of any examples? Looking for some hope, Thanks.

I think the book is definitely the current muse (and let's not forget he has another on an entirely different area in the works). And the 4HWW is a great example of selling shovels to gold miners.

[No Mondays]

I think the books success was a surprise, I believe Tim said he didn't expect the success he has had with it which leads me to believe he didn't follow the all of the principles he outlined in the book, The publisher gave him a deal and he produced the book. And I believe he was unhappy with the book deal also. I doubt Tim would suggest writing a book be your "muse". On the other hand based on his book, I believe he would encourage an ebook as a "muse".

[indieviewTV]

Wow, 75% of the people on here don't believe in Tim's book. Or they make excuses as to why it doesn't 'really' work. I guess I am so delusional that it makes me giggle to read those long verbose posts. (just learned that word today)

I made three thousand dollars in a total of working 12-15 days summed over the course of 2 months. Three months preparation beforehand... website, marketing, etc.

How much did I invest in the muse? 30 bucks.

I discovered 4HWW two and a half years later. It's time to make the big bucks.

[networkmemetics]

I am not making "good cash" ie $100 per day, but I am creating and tweaking an internet marketing system that will do this for me :)

[mastererrob]

i love how most people went on a huge rant about how it's really hard. i argue they just aren't getting it. i started this 70 days ago...i've journaled everything i've done. i'm working with amazing people looking to do the same thing and i'm seeing my first $500 a month passive income from ebook sales, product mock testing, and affiliate links because i've actually read the resources and believe in them.

forgive me for tooting my own horn, it just seems these forums are filled with a lot of people not actually living this thing out!

check out one of my muses www.investingincashflow.com ...making me and my buddy lots of sign ups...i have more ideas and i'm mock testing them all for profitability...it's a trial and error process with EASILY managed business ideas...not grind away on something that's not working. i haven't perfected anything...but i completely disagree that 1 in every 100 will be able to do anything with these principles....ANYONE can be making decent passive income monthly it just takes some time to retrain, go effective efficiency all over you life, turn on automation and then finally learn how to make some passive money. i'm just started to get into the nitty gritty recording of automation and passive income if anyone wants to check out my progress blog...which is detailed, in depth, and filled with real life actions...check it out...otherwise...don't lose hope! this is possible, people are making money.

here's my recordings ..http://thelifedesignproject.com

here are some other examples by the way of muse's that the people i have met and consulted with are using...

source control - resources on outsourcing
http://source.muselife.com/

the zero hour work week
http://www.illuminatedmind.net/2009/09/08/the-zero-hour-workweek/

[indieviewTV]

great post mastererrob

[No Mondays]

That's Great for you. Sounds like folks are just selling more info for how others can make money. Tim advised us to find something we were interested in or had knowledge in and create a product. Unfortunately, I never found that Tim tested the principles he outlined in the book. He has tested and recorded his other experiments but not this one. It's more of a "do as I say. But, I didn't do it." I think the only thing Tim tested was adwords for the book title.
Why not just create a business around your passion and then it won't be work if you're doing 35 hours a week. Tim spends around 16-20 hrs a week on consulting startups he's invested in. But, it's not work because that is what he wants to do. So if you start a biz around say "baseball" and spend 30 hours a week on it, It's ok, because it's what you want to do. What do you think?

[indieviewTV]

tim's on vacation right now w/ kevin rose in china. he's chillin hardcore. he learns how to automate his various businesses he's made. just because he hasn't mentioned all of them doesn't mean they are not there.

these negative posts are all self-fulfilling prophecies. you have fear that this is how it really goes down, and so it will happen like that FOR YOU.

it's the same with pickin up chicks. you believe that your are awesome, you get chicks. you believe that you are 'less than', and you don't get chicks. in fact, you never even get the nerve to approach because you already believe you will fail.

there should be a "pessimist filter" on this forum.

[clanshrapnel]

tim's on vacation right now w/ kevin rose in china. he's chillin hardcore. he learns how to automate his various businesses he's made. just because he hasn't mentioned all of them doesn't mean they are not there.

these negative posts are all self-fulfilling prophecies. you have fear that this is how it really goes down, and so it will happen like that FOR YOU.

it's the same with pickin up chicks. you believe that your are awesome, you get chicks. you believe that you are 'less than', and you don't get chicks. in fact, you never even get the nerve to approach because you already believe you will fail.

there should be a "pessimist filter" on this forum.

I agree with this post 100%.

I think one of the great ironies of this process, with very few exceptions, is that those who have had great success won't bother posting much on this message board. There isn't much incentive to do so.

Do what you love and make a profit out of it. If you don't have any passions in life, find them-- that major problem will crop up again once you manage to free up your time.

[Marcie]

Actually he's back from China and now in Nicaragua or somewhere in that part of the world, but no matter :)

A pessimist filter sounds nice, any coders with linguist experience out there? :)

[ItsuNaneo79]

Agreed. Why would we post here? The reason I stopped posting last year was because of all the negative bs.

Anyway, to answer the question, yes.

My first month I made 200$, then it slowly climbed to 500. After a few breakthrus (articles in bigger magazines, more money to advertise, better website) it's broken the 1000/month mark and climbing.

That's one product.

I now have 3 and a bigger sales list. I hired someone to help me set things up. Now it's a strong, part-time income. Within the next year it'll be a full time income.

I don't have any advanced degrees and I know nothing about websites.

I created 3 products on a topic I know a lot about and put it out there. Even in the beginning with horrendous sales copy, it sold.

Slowly, the blog and the site grew.

Those who quit or are bitching just don't get it.

They either have crap products or are just vomits who no one would buy from.

Oh, I should mention I applied the techs from the book and reduced my off-line earnings by double and cut work time in half.

[indieviewTV]

hey itsunaneo79

care to share your websites?

[ItsuNaneo79]

hey itsunaneo79

care to share your websites?

Sure...

Blog/info site www.explosivefootballtraining.com

Sales site - www.ExplosiveFootballTrainingProgram.com


Both are being re-done professionally...and the sales site is getting professional sales copy written.

But, not terrible for someone with no computer skills. :)

Feedback is welcome!


If you want to contact me outside of here steve@explosivefootballtraining.com

[DaveinHackensack]

I like the idea of this kind of info product -- one where it seems pretty clear the guy putting it together has years of experience in the field (I get that sense from the hockey shooter guy's business too). Much better than slapping an e-book together about a field you don't know much about.

I'll be interested to see your new sales site though, because this part here struck me as complete b.s., particularly as it was followed by reams more of long copy:


But, let me first say that I'm not going to bore you with a long, drawn-out sales letter.

I hate that garbage…Honestly, who reads all that tripe anyway?

It may be effective b.s., if it's generating sales, but that's just my reaction to it.

[ItsuNaneo79]

Dave,

Good call!

Somehow I missed that. That was part of a very short copy test version I did.

I gotta get that taken out.

Thanks.

To answer your general thoughts...yes, I played/play football for the last 12 years. Am a personal trainer/strength coach for 10, and have a lot of experience with football training.


So many people miss this point. If you are going to write a book (mine is 148pages) you better know what the hell you're talking about!


Oddly enough, people respond to the super long copy....I hate, HATE that shit...but, people like it I guess.

[webgal]

Hey Steve. They are looking you up and finding you on sportsmedinfo.net. Just wanted you to know you are a keyword phrase in the stats!

[ItsuNaneo79]

That's mostly cause the woman who runs that site is super awesome! ;)

Let me know when you need more content!

[jakediddy]

it's the same with pickin up chicks. you believe that your are awesome, you get chicks. you believe that you are 'less than', and you don't get chicks. in fact, you never even get the nerve to approach because you already believe you will fail.


That is only true if you don't have three eyes.

[indieviewTV]

That is only true if you don't have three eyes.

Good thing you have only two.

[EdMarriott]

ItsuNaneo

Your copy for the program has two typos in the first 4 sentences of the main body: deadlift and vertical

Regards

EM

[jakediddy]

Good thing you have only two.

Yes indeed.

[ItsuNaneo79]

Thanks Ed. :)

[EelKat]

So I've seen a lot of messages asking for feedback on muses. That's awesome. I'm glad so many people are trying to get things rolling. Keep at it! What I'm interested in are people who are actually making decent money from their muses. Are you out there? Do you mind sharing with the rest of us and posting a few of your sites so we can steal from them (I mean learn from them :) ). Are your muses yet fulfilling the dream of beating the 9-5 grind?

All the best,

Buddha

In 2006 I lost everything to a flood, including to lose my job. I became instantly and unexpectedly homeless and jobless. I lived for a while in a tent, than a car, than a motorhome. My lifestyle was changed dramatically from an average well off normal house dwelling girl, to a "homeless bum" barely able to find enough food to stay alive.

I found the 4HWW in 2007. I do not say it is the reason I got out of homelessness and got my own business started, but it certainly helped to give me ideas on how to get started. It was one of only many books I had read at that time, on building your own income, but it did stand out from the rest and it was the one I have referenced back to many times in the past 5 years.

Now in 2011, I am back "on my feet", no longer homeless, and while I'm not rich and my income is still much lower than it was before the flood, I am making enough to take care of myself and my family and i am working for myself "full time", with my own online business. And, I have seen a steady increase of income each month for the past 3 years. granted it's only a small increase, but still, it's a steady increase and has no signs of going down.

The biggest bonus of all: I'm only working 8 hours a week and have plenty of free time for family, hobbies, and activities; and if I need more income, it's a simple matter of increasing my work hours for a few weeks. Plus I did this all myself without any help from anyone, no loans, no start up costs, nothing. I just used what I already had; pen, paper, canvas, paint, brushes, and the deep rooted love of writing sci-fi and painting pictures of my cats.

My income is 100% online. My top payer is Zazzle.com, and my #2 payer is Squidoo.com. Other places I get a (very) small income from include Lulu.com, Spoonflower.com, Etsy, Amazon.com, Associated Content, Keen.com, Commision Junction, and RedGage.

If you don't know those websites, than I'll explain what it is I do...

I am a writer (non-fiction), author (fiction), painter (acrylic & pastel), photographer (nature & flowers), dollmaker, quilter, and online psychic.

I write articles for places such as Squidoo and AC and they pay me for that. Since 2007 I have written over 2,000 articles some I got paid for up front, but most all of them are now an "automated income" as I get paid by how many times people read/click on those articles. Once I have written the article and submitted it, there is no more work to do and one article can generate a steady income for the rest of my life...granted each article only generates pennies a day, but pennies a day, for lots of articles does add up, and if you keep writing a few articles a week, it can add up to a lot over time. Right now my 2,000+ articles is bringing in $30 to $200 per month, depending on traffic and clicks.

I self publish books via Lulu and Amazon and get paid for that. (I planning to expand to include ebooks for Kindel this fall). So far I have written (and illustrated) 30+ books/novels, 200+ short stories, about 2 dozen plays, a couple of cookbooks, and a few comic books. Again this is an automated income, because as long as the books are in print I get paid for sales, and being self published, I get to decide how long they stay in print. This brings in the lowest income for me (the reason being I write sci-fi erotica, which has only a small readership; if I wrote a more popular genre I would have more sales), but I make on average .99c per ebook up to $7.50 per hardcover book sold.

I sell prints, postage stamps, notecards, and t-shirts of my art & photography for a 48% commision on Zazzle and a 10% commision on CafePress. I do acrylic/watercolor/pastel paintings of birds and cats and photography of flowers and nature. This is my largest source of income bringing in $75 to $600 per month.

I sell quilting fabric I designed for the fabric manufacturer Spoonflower. I make a commission on sale of fabric I designed for them, but it is only a few hundred dollars a year, so this is a very low income generator at the moment, but I've only done it less than 2 years and their company is new. I know the guy who owns the company, thus how I got started with them as a beta tester.

I sell dolls and quilts and other items I sew on Etsy. (I plan to expand to include canvas paintings this fall.) This is my third highest income generator, but it is the one which requires the most work and the longest hours. It can take several days to hand sew a doll or a quilt and the costs of materials is often higher than the cost people are willing to pay for the end product. This is something I do because I like sewing and is not something I recommend as a way to bring in a "good income".

I do psychic card readings for people off my "Psychic Hotline" account with Keen. I'm only doing this a few hours per month, however I know a few people who do his several hours a day, several days a week and are making $200 - $700 a week doing nothing else, so I could easily triple my monthly income if I increased the hours I was available to answer calls. If you have a talent for reading tarot cards this actually is a very good way to make a lot of money fast - but there is stiff competition in this field and you got to be really, really, really good at it otherwise you'll get crushed by the other psychics. This is a hard business to get going in if you are not very well versed in card reading.

CJ, Google Ads, and RedGage are affilate linkshareing pay-per-click companies that pay me a commision for placing their adds/links on my blog. So far this brings in under $200 per year, but I'm not doing any marketing or promotion of my blog. I just write posts a few times a week and leave it at that. Granted my blog was started in 2003 and has over 5,500 posts on it today, and does have hundreds of subscribers, has had over 183,000 unique hits since 2007, gets over 1,000 hits a day, and is often reviews by other blogs who often attribute me as their "inspiration". (If you Google me you'll find out that I am a little bit, somewhat, very famous and have thousands of fans. One of the books I wrote did get rather popular a few years back. So do take this into consideration before you look to blogging as a source of income.). I could probably turn my blog into a huge income source if I took the time to market and promote it.

How much I earn each month depends on varying factors (such as if and how many new articles I submit, how many hours my "Psychic Hotline" is "online", etc.) I can easily increase my income by writing more articles, staying online longer hours, or listing more items on Etsy, but at the moment, I don't really have the need to, as my income - though low - is plenty for my current expenses.

I have a plan to start selling my craft items and paintings from a booth at fairs, I plan to start that in 2013.

I also plan to start a mini "Dungeon Master's booth" to set up at RV Parks, as part of being an activities host (which I also plan to start doing in 2013), seeing how I'm a Dungeon Master and have a massive collection of Rpg and board games and casino games, which I could easily convert into a traveling gaming booth for campers. (And added note here, my expenses are low because I live in an RV fulltime, I do not live in a house). Though I'm not sure that I'd be doing this for money...no idea how to turn such a thing into a money making venture. LOL!

But there you have it. I took my muse and ran with it and have been successful. I'm not wealthy or anything, but I am working very barest minimum hours (rarely more than 8 hours a week) and earning enough income to be considered sort of well off. If I made more effort and worked more hours, I could easily increase my income, but for the moment I have no real need to do so, my needs and expenses are met and that was, after all my goal.

I am living in an RV fulltime, I set my own hours, I work for myself, I do the things I love doing, I found ways to get paid to do things I would be doing anyways (I'm going to write, paint, and sew wither I get paid to do it or not, so I just found a way to get paid for doing what I love to do.), I get to travel when I want to where ever I want. Me? I'm a beach bum. I love the beach. I grew up on a beach. I still live on a beach. With an RV and can drive from beach to beach to beach and live on any beach I want to whenever I want to. I can chase hurricanes and blizzards all over the place. Plant me on a cold North Atlantic beach, tell me there's a hurricane or blizzard heading straight for me, and I'm happy. I love extreme weather camping. I love digging my tent out from under 9 feet of snow. I love standing in the surf with 100MPH winds lashing all around me. I love writing sci-fi. I love painting pictures of birds and cats. I love living in an RV. I love sewing dolls. I love sewing quilts. I love having 12 cats. I love collecting tarot cards and reading them for people. I love that I can do these things and get paid to do them. I love my life. Do I need to be wealthy? No. Why? Because I've reached contentment and found a lifestyle that I love living. I may not have reached wealth, but I did reach personal fullfillment and success and to me, that's worth more than all the money in the world. My life may seem wild and hectic and not appeal to other folks, and that's fine, my lifestyle is not for everyone, but for me, it is perfect.

[tylanco]

Congrats EelKat. It all sounds great. I am working on my muse currently. I do have a job and I make good money...but I hate it. I would trade a little less money for freedom and time to be with my family without hesitation.

[bowerboy]

I have a successful muse that made money from day one...it was a lot of hard work to set up but I have resigned from my job last year and travelled round South America for 4 months while I ran the business online and now live in Thailand where I live off the money I make from the business.

I make between $5k to $7K per month which is more than I need and the business takes about 1 hour per day. Tims book is full of brilliant advice that I needed to make the dream a reality but it is way way harder than he makes out....the people that fail are the people that dont realise this....plus you ned wayyyyyyyy more money than Tim suggests or need IT or developer skills.

Implementing the Muse is the easiest part...FINDING the muse is absolutely the hardest part...anyone can implement but only a few can get the right muse.

Once you find your successful muse here is a peice of advice...dont ever ever say on this forum what that muse is!!

[Jay2300]

If people are going to say they have some awesome successful muse, for heaven sake, give us a link. Haha

[Lodge]

Once you find your successful muse here is a peice of advice...dont ever ever say on this forum what that muse is!!

Gasp! I did that... :eek:
but no success for now ! :cool:

@ bowerboy: Just what kind of muse is it? No need to be precise.

so if we can not write thing here for discussion, where can we do?
i really would like to get into a group of 4-6 people already working on their muse and life style for exchanging, setting goals, motivating/challenging.

[PeterE]

Hi, I'm new here, having only just read Tim's book.

However, I have been working on several niche sites for a while now and they are slowly starting to bring in money. Only a few hundred bucks here and there at the moment, but I see my current sites as a learning experience before I tackle my "ultimate" muse which will be property related.

When I started I had no idea of SEO, IM, copy writing, list building etc etc so it's been a long and steep learning curve!

I echo earlier comments though and that is that getting a successful muse in place is not easy and does take lots of hard work - there will be many 80hww's before you can get to 4hww!

I am actually thinking of launching a muse creation site to share my experience and lessons learned in a more structured way than through this forum.

think there would be any appetite? all info would be free ...

[dave222]

Peter

Im also Into property muses!, got some great plans for this year. Are you into buying proeprty or are you talking about related products?

Dave