yherrliche
Senior Member
- Oct 20, 2015
- 996
- 870
Hi BlackHatWorld,
I have wasted countless amount of money on new ventures that didn't bring anything (or not enough). When I quite my job in October I did not want to invest all my savings into something I wasn't sure would work, I wanted to start from zero (well actually $22) and reinvest what I made.
Here's how I did it :
- Find Something you know more about than the average person (SEO, social media, webdesign, lead-generation, sales messages, building relations..)
- Give your service a fancy name, something that sets you aside from the crowd (remember always be creative rather than competitive).
- Make your website, payment processing, mail setup :
- Let's find the clients, and let's do it business-development style :
- Pick your clients
-First Sales :
- Improve
I have wasted countless amount of money on new ventures that didn't bring anything (or not enough). When I quite my job in October I did not want to invest all my savings into something I wasn't sure would work, I wanted to start from zero (well actually $22) and reinvest what I made.
Here's how I did it :
- Find Something you know more about than the average person (SEO, social media, webdesign, lead-generation, sales messages, building relations..)
When you have that, you need to create your product or service (I'm more of a service person). I personally went for consultancy service for niche specific market. For the sake of the method we will say you are a seo consultant for artists.
- Give your service a fancy name, something that sets you aside from the crowd (remember always be creative rather than competitive).
So we won't be calling our service "SEO consultant" but "Online presence management consulting". Generic service names won't get your very far, everyone received mails about seo/webdesign/social media everyday, you have to be different.
Make your service monthly so you can insure continuous cashflow at least 1month after they start.
- Make your website, payment processing, mail setup :
I like to use squarespace ($12) but you can use cheaper options, got my domain for $10, used paypal at first (0$) and you can get 30days free google mail (linked to your domain). So you basically have 30 days to make money before your next investment is required.
About the service, put 2-3 packages (cheap - average - expensive). Make the cheap service very affordable, but designed so it doesnt take much of your time. So it should go like this :
$10/month - Student package : weekly brief and action plan for your online presence management
$35/month - Consulting package : online presence audit + continuous research + weekly brief and action plan setup
$120/month - Professional package : all above + something special to justify (kind-of) the extra : we handle the tasks you need to do
Try to make your website with a classy modern design (that's why I like squarespace). Don't make it like a 2001 design's website please.
Total $22 spent, and you are now ready to roll.
$35/month - Consulting package : online presence audit + continuous research + weekly brief and action plan setup
$120/month - Professional package : all above + something special to justify (kind-of) the extra : we handle the tasks you need to do
Try to make your website with a classy modern design (that's why I like squarespace). Don't make it like a 2001 design's website please.
Total $22 spent, and you are now ready to roll.
- Let's find the clients, and let's do it business-development style :
Go on Facebook, and start looking for potential clients. In our example we are a online presence consultant who are targeting artists (I'll do the following in real time). I typed illustrator in the search bar for Facebook (selected pages) and picked "Arts, Artists, Artwork" .Then go on the bottom left, look for the people this page follows. There are already about 50 artists there.
Open each in a new tab, go to their About section and take their mail. If you want to do things well try to make your list creative , for example :
Name | mail | Favorite work (in our case) | Profession
When you are done, repeat the step above on each of your 50 pages : go to the people they follow, get them, add them to your list , etc..
If you continue like this you should have an endless number of potential clients. At the end of your day of work you should have 500-1000 mails.
- Let's contact them :
I inspired my sales message from : Skyebug77 in his thread : "629038-contact-form-marketing-how-i-make-money"
We will do mass mailing, so try to keep your message vague, but relatable. Personally I like to be informal, as it will sound more realistic and less computer generated. We also have now a key information to make it look like it's a personal message : the 'favorite work' column .
For other niches it can be "something i like about the business", "found you on", "favorite article", "favorite project" etc..
For the mailing, we will use Outlook mail-merge option($0). Outlook is included on most of your PCs if you have office preinstalled, if not just go download it somewhere.
Our message will look like :
To : [MAIL]
" Hi [NAME],
I found you on Facebook and I really liked your work. My favorite piece from you is [FAVORITEWORK], great job on that !
At Herrlichecorp we help young and talented [profession] in increasing and managing their online presence. We are consultants and professionals dedicated to your success blablabla, our prices start at $10 blablabla"
I like to mention the price in the mail for two reasons : 1/ a lot of people think companies and consultants cost a fortune and we don't want them to ignore our message because they think we are too expensive for them
2/ a lot of people think that because you are contacting them, it means you want to help them for free (it sounds crazy, but you'd be surprised how many people think like that, even medium sized companies).
Blast the mail at night/end of your day, and check back in the morning. With a very personalized message (like above) i would get 100-150 responses per 1000 mails. About 40 not interested (or "do you work for free"), 10 insults (can't avoid them), and the rest would be more or less interested.
Open each in a new tab, go to their About section and take their mail. If you want to do things well try to make your list creative , for example :
Name | mail | Favorite work (in our case) | Profession
When you are done, repeat the step above on each of your 50 pages : go to the people they follow, get them, add them to your list , etc..
If you continue like this you should have an endless number of potential clients. At the end of your day of work you should have 500-1000 mails.
- Let's contact them :
I inspired my sales message from : Skyebug77 in his thread : "629038-contact-form-marketing-how-i-make-money"
We will do mass mailing, so try to keep your message vague, but relatable. Personally I like to be informal, as it will sound more realistic and less computer generated. We also have now a key information to make it look like it's a personal message : the 'favorite work' column .
For other niches it can be "something i like about the business", "found you on", "favorite article", "favorite project" etc..
For the mailing, we will use Outlook mail-merge option($0). Outlook is included on most of your PCs if you have office preinstalled, if not just go download it somewhere.
Our message will look like :
To : [MAIL]
" Hi [NAME],
I found you on Facebook and I really liked your work. My favorite piece from you is [FAVORITEWORK], great job on that !
At Herrlichecorp we help young and talented [profession] in increasing and managing their online presence. We are consultants and professionals dedicated to your success blablabla, our prices start at $10 blablabla"
I like to mention the price in the mail for two reasons : 1/ a lot of people think companies and consultants cost a fortune and we don't want them to ignore our message because they think we are too expensive for them
2/ a lot of people think that because you are contacting them, it means you want to help them for free (it sounds crazy, but you'd be surprised how many people think like that, even medium sized companies).
Blast the mail at night/end of your day, and check back in the morning. With a very personalized message (like above) i would get 100-150 responses per 1000 mails. About 40 not interested (or "do you work for free"), 10 insults (can't avoid them), and the rest would be more or less interested.
- Pick your clients
It may sound insane, but remember 80% of your problems come from 20% of your clients. You are under enough stress jumping in a online startup, and don't need any more than that. Plus remember we are using paypal and people are trigger happy with those disputes.
Do not over-sell, do not promise wonders. Actually I prefer under-promising so that I can over-deliver. Give them a taste of what you can help with : "I would start by cleaning up your social media profiles, they are messy. Then I would recommend redesigning this this and that on your site. Also have you thought about the keywords you are targeting blabla"
From my past experiences, about 10 people are willing to work with you, but you'd want to work with 4-6 of them (depending on your bullshit tolerance).
Do not over-sell, do not promise wonders. Actually I prefer under-promising so that I can over-deliver. Give them a taste of what you can help with : "I would start by cleaning up your social media profiles, they are messy. Then I would recommend redesigning this this and that on your site. Also have you thought about the keywords you are targeting blabla"
From my past experiences, about 10 people are willing to work with you, but you'd want to work with 4-6 of them (depending on your bullshit tolerance).
-First Sales :
You will make your first sales with these people, try to over deliver as fast as possible in order to have proof or your work for new clients you will be contacting (follow method above).
These 5 clients will make you ~$175 recurring. Continue using the method above to generate your first income. I managed to make about $800 to $1000 during the first 2 months with the annoying manual Facebook contacting.
These 5 clients will make you ~$175 recurring. Continue using the method above to generate your first income. I managed to make about $800 to $1000 during the first 2 months with the annoying manual Facebook contacting.
- Improve
Improve your service, go towards what your client request the most from you and make them your main services.
Improve your business process, get Scrapebox for faster Facebook page scraping. Get a follow liker and use Instagram/Twitter/GooglePlus (depends on your target market) and use that to generate some interest for your Herrlichecorp .
I would get about half my clients from follow-liker on the third month of business. The key is targeting (as you all know), but with your direct contact campaigns you now know you are the most interested by your services so you are not flying blind.
You should be at $1000 - $1200 income at this point.
- Supercharge Improve your business process, get Scrapebox for faster Facebook page scraping. Get a follow liker and use Instagram/Twitter/GooglePlus (depends on your target market) and use that to generate some interest for your Herrlichecorp .
I would get about half my clients from follow-liker on the third month of business. The key is targeting (as you all know), but with your direct contact campaigns you now know you are the most interested by your services so you are not flying blind.
You should be at $1000 - $1200 income at this point.
Now that you're getting some secure income, you can go and supercharge your campaign. Get Paigham bot here on BHW (easy to find, it's a thread by Cratos ).
You now have 2 options :
Either use the built-in scraper from paigham bot . You will get higher quality prospects, but it will be slower.
Either use scrapebox to scrape superfast with the paigham bot standard foot-print. Then import the URL on paigham bot directly.
Now we are using contact-form submission, so our message can't be as personalized as previously. You will obviously get better responses with the above method and super-targeted-messages, but getting the mails will take you hours and hours.
Follow the thread from Skyebug77 (linked above) to make your new message for contact form marketing.
Also think about increasing your prices, and maybe add one or two new services per package.
Do not contact 100,000 people at once, do weekly campaigns (send on Sunday, take the week to make the new clients). You will be flooded with 800 mail responses and won't be able to answer on time (which makes you lose the potential clients).
I have noticed a 1-2 per thousand conversion from contact form submitting. If you are not being a idiot and spamming random people, you should get $200-500 income increase per contact form campaign.
That puts us at $2000-$3000 income within a month or two.
You now are getting a reasonable income to sustain your lifestyle and try new methods/ open a business you are really interested in/ travel.
If you are looking into growing that business, then grow your social presence, start reinvesting in other marketing channels (ppc, SEO etc), hire people..
If you are looking to open another business, you can skip some of the beginning steps as you have some money to spend now.
Thanks for the inspirations BHW, and ideas are welcome in order to improve that strategy!
Good day!
You now have 2 options :
Either use the built-in scraper from paigham bot . You will get higher quality prospects, but it will be slower.
Either use scrapebox to scrape superfast with the paigham bot standard foot-print. Then import the URL on paigham bot directly.
Now we are using contact-form submission, so our message can't be as personalized as previously. You will obviously get better responses with the above method and super-targeted-messages, but getting the mails will take you hours and hours.
Follow the thread from Skyebug77 (linked above) to make your new message for contact form marketing.
Also think about increasing your prices, and maybe add one or two new services per package.
Do not contact 100,000 people at once, do weekly campaigns (send on Sunday, take the week to make the new clients). You will be flooded with 800 mail responses and won't be able to answer on time (which makes you lose the potential clients).
I have noticed a 1-2 per thousand conversion from contact form submitting. If you are not being a idiot and spamming random people, you should get $200-500 income increase per contact form campaign.
That puts us at $2000-$3000 income within a month or two.
You now are getting a reasonable income to sustain your lifestyle and try new methods/ open a business you are really interested in/ travel.
If you are looking into growing that business, then grow your social presence, start reinvesting in other marketing channels (ppc, SEO etc), hire people..
If you are looking to open another business, you can skip some of the beginning steps as you have some money to spend now.
Thanks for the inspirations BHW, and ideas are welcome in order to improve that strategy!
Good day!
Would try someday for sure!
