Issue # 67, 27-Jan-2004
ISSN 1447-4956
Copyright 2004 Jason Anderson. All rights
reserved worldwide
http://www.achievenetprofits.com/
IN THIS ISSUE
1. From the Editor
2. Interview - Kathy Crockett
& Ross Stokes
3. Resources - Web Traffic
Secrets for 2004
4. Final Word
5. Legal Stuff
1. From the Editor
Welcome to another issue of Achieve Net
Profits, the newsletter where every week I
manage to jinx myself ;-).
Jinx myself? Yep. You might remember that
last week I mentioned my ear ache, and how it
was slowly going away.
I should have known better! On Thursday it
flared up again, quite badly (and started
spreading to the other ear and the back of the
throat). So I bit the bullet and finally went to
my doctor.
The diagnosis was what I was expecting - an
ear infection. So I now have some lovely green
capsules to take four times a day :-)
I don't know if it happens to anyone else,
but have you ever noticed how you'll "jinx"
yourself quite often by saying something, then
having it happen a bit later? I seem to
anyway.
For example, if you were with me last year
you may remember that I was having computer
problems. Well, at one stage when it seemed that
the logic board might have gone in the computer
(it hadn't - yet), and that I would have to buy
a new computer.
This was both good and bad. Good because it
would get me a new computer. Bad because I
didn't really want to pay for a new computer!
:-)
In the end it turned out that it wasn't the
logic board, and I got the computer back. But I
did feel a little disappointed that I didn't
have a new computer.
That was when I jinxed myself. A week later
the logic board *had* died in my old
computer!
(you try having the logic board decide to
"fry itself" in a laptop - while the laptop is
on your lap - and see how quickly you move! :-)
)
This type of thing is mentioned a lot in many
of the self improvement books & courses
you'll see. Well, the ones I've read anyway!
They talk about how you get what your mind
expects you to get.
In the example with my computer, I had
expected that the logic board was dead, so I'd
be getting a new computer. It wasn't dead at
that stage - but it died a week later.
True, that's hardly a "scientific"
explanation :-) But strangely enough, as I said
it ties in with some of the material I've read
on self improvement.
Now don't get me wrong! I'm not someone who
buys every self improvement, positive thinking,
take control your life type of book. And for a
long time I always thought they were
nonsense.
But in the last few months I have started to
read a few of them.
The first one was "The Science Of Getting
Rich". The great thing about this one is that
it's in the public domain, so many people are
giving it away for free. There's a copy of it in
the subscribers only section if you're
interested (in the Misc section I believe).
The next one I read, or rather listened to,
was Jim Edwards "5 Steps To Getting Anything You
Want". This is a CD & workbook package. I'd
heard a small sample of it in Jim's newsletter
as he was finishing it up (and been really
impressed by it). So when Jim announced that it
was ready, I was one of the first ones to buy a
copy.
I was totally blown away. It really 'clicked'
with everything I did and thought. I've listened
to the CD at least 20 times already, and I
expect to listen to it many more times in the
future. Its one to definitely check out.
http://www.howtogetanythingyouwant.com/
(not an affiliate link BTW).
Another one that I'm reading now (I'm about
half way though) is also showing great promise.
It's written by someone who I have a lot of
respect for (and who I've actually interviewed)
- Rebecca Hagel.
Rebecca is more known for her books on
Internet marketing, but in this case I feel its
a good thing. She has been able to target the
book at people who are interested in running
their own successful online business, instead of
taking a more general approach that others have
to.
Her book is called "How To Unlock Your
Potential To Succeed". You can't buy it
separately - it is part of a package that
Rebecca has released called "The Essential
Business Success Package.". You can find out
more about the package at:
http://www.achievenetprofits.com/esuccess
(yeah, its an affiliate link).
Maybe you're like I was a few months ago, and
you feel that reading any sort of self
improvement book is silly.
My response to that is that you are severely
handicapping yourself!
Sure, you can *probably* succeed in your
online business without reading any such books,
or considering the ideas they teach. But I truly
believe that by reading any of the above items,
or the many others that are available in the
library, you will reach your goals a heck of a
lot faster.
I can honestly say that Jim Edwards course
has given me a lot more confidence in myself and
my abilities than I had before. And Rebecca's
material so far looks like it will be equally as
helpful.
At least consider the possibility, if only
for a moment.
And if you find that reading such material
does help you with your business, I'd love to
hear all about it. So please, drop me an email
and let me know how it goes!
mailto:jason@achievenetprofits.com
Ok, I guess its time for me to step off my
soapbox now ;-) Instead, allow me to tell you
about what is in todays newsletter.
My interview this week is with not one
person, but two! Kathy Crockett & Ross
Stokes recently released a book together - "227
Unusual Business Ideas". Many people *want* to
create their own product. They just never find
an idea that appeals to them, or get started on
the project.
Kathy & Ross managed to overcome both
obstacles (and many more, including the birth of
a baby) in putting together their book. If
you've been longing to write your own book,
you'll find help (and a touch of inspiration) in
their interview.
The resource I have for you this week helps
with a problem almost every website own has -
getting more traffic to their site. "Web Traffic
Secrets for 2004" was written to answer that
very problem - more on it below.
I hope you enjoy this weeks issue. And now,
on with the show!
2. Interview - Kathy Crockett
& Ross Stokes
Following a period working as a business
and marketing journalist, Kathy
Crockett ended up in advertising,
launching New Zealand' s first brand response
agency, Trigger Australasia in 1998. Her direct
marketing and writing skills have been brought
together for "227 Unusual Business Ideas" - a
project which has allowed her to indulge her
passions for new technologies and wacky
entrepreneurial endeavours.
Ross Stokes left a career as
a school teacher to launch a number of unusual
businesses of his own. Over the years he's been
a chimney sweep in a top hat, a financial
analysis programmer and a full-time possum
hunter. In 1995 he set up a cable TV company and
today he also runs a website software
development firm. Ross's focus now is on
developing successful Internet based
businesses.
You can find their book "227 Unusual
Business Ideas" at http://www.227UnusualBusinessIdeas.com/
Jason: Thanks for
taking the time to speak with me Kathy &
Ross. You recently released the book "227
Unusual Business Ideas". I've got to ask - what
made you decide to write the book, and how on
earth did you come up with the idea?
Kathy & Ross: We came up with the
idea because we love ideas... and wanted to
share them. We wanted to come up with a product
where people could read the ideas and go "I can
do that!" We wanted them to be able to use the
ideas to create their own unusual business.
But we were also inspired after discovering a
rare old book by George Haylings. He was a
1950's entrepreneur who wrote business
newsletters. The book that inspired us is called
"Discovered! 505 Odd Enterprises"... and it's
crammed with unusual business ventures. We
thought it'd be fun (and profitable) to put
together a modern version.
Haylings book is now long out of print but we
managed to find a copy, and it's one of the
bonuses available to everyone who buys "227
Unusual Business Ideas".
Jason: Did you do
much research into how viable the book idea was?
If so, how did you go about your research - what
tools, etc did you use?
Kathy & Ross: We knew the idea was
viable... and the only way to find out exactly
how viable was to actually get the book out
there.
Having said that, we did take a good look
online at what kind of things were already being
offered in the "business idea" arena. We checked
out the competition, partly to see how we could
differentiate our offering, and partly to see
the potential for future JVs with people
obviously interested in the same sort of
market.
Jason: How did you
first start the task of going from the idea in
your mind to "paper"?
Kathy & Ross: We both use
mind-mapping techniques for almost everything.
The MindJet software is one way we can easily
share mind maps between our laptops. We
brainstormed all our ideas for this project and
then put dates and deadlines against the
critical portions. We split up the tasks... and
got started!
We're part of Yanik Silver's first-ever
apprentice program, so Yanik helped us structure
the timeline in terms of what we should do first
etc, and reporting into him on our progress kept
us on track each month.
Jason: For people
unfamiliar with mind-mapping, could you explain
briefly what it is, and how you were able to use
it in the process of writing the
book?
Kathy & Ross: Mindjet's
MindManager software is a visual tool for
brainstorming and planning... it's a really
great way of dumping all your brainwaves into
one highly visual document. We used it for
capturing all our ideas about the overall
project, and for apportioning responsibilities
and timeframes (not so much for the process of
writing the book).
All our 'to do' lists are mind maps!!!
We also use MindManager for taking notes
while we're listening to teleseminars, at
courses or on the phone. It's kind of a creative
alternative to note-pads, flip charts and white
boards...
Jason: It sounds
very interesting! How did you go about finding
the content for your book (ie: unusual business
ideas to write about)?
Kathy & Ross: We looked everywhere
and asked everyone! We decided the businesses
would be unusual, quirky, interesting, humorous,
strange, easy to relate to, and making money.
And then we did loads of research on the
Internet (websites, forums, ezines etc) and we
searched through newspapers, magazines and
books. It's amazing what comes up if you keep
your eyes and ears open.
We've now built a pretty impressive network
of people who know we're interested in unusual
business ideas... and so the ideas are flowing
to us a bit more than us having to go out
seeking them.
We're still looking though - and we're
planning a further book. If you want to be
included email:
mailto:ross.kathy@227UnusualBusinessIdeas.com
with your unusual business idea :o)
Jason: Was there
ever a time while creating the book that doubts
started to surface in your mind - "it won't
sell", "we'll never get it finished", etc. How
did you silence those thoughts?
Kathy & Ross: Overall, no, we
didn't entertain the doubts... we just stuck to
our plan and tried not to get too bogged down if
we missed a deadline or two. We knew it was
worth doing properly. We accepted the process as
a total learning experience and enjoyed it from
that perspective.
Right near the launch there was a period of a
couple weeks when it felt we were 'so close but
so far' from launch - it felt as if small things
just kept coming up.
We had a lot of other things on as we did
this project - Ross runs a couple other
businesses, Kathy works freelance for various
companies and Kathy was also pregnant when we
started work on this... her baby was born just
prior to launch. In the end, we launched 4
months later than we'd originally hoped... but
with a better product than we'd initially
imagined too.
Jason: What was the
timeline (both planned and actual) for the book,
from initial idea to finish? Which tasks proved
to be more difficult than you first
expected?
Kathy & Ross: Our planned timeline
was 4 months... and the total timeline ended up
actually being 8 months, but probably closer to
6-7 months actual working time. Also, we both
have commitments to other business activities so
over those months we didn't have the luxury of
working on 227 Unusual Business Ideas
fulltime!
Kathy had a baby at month 5 and we'd always
known that if we didn't launch before her son
was born, we'd have to wait a month or two.
Because of that we were ok with the change in
launch date.
Tasks didn't so much end up being more
difficult than we expected - it was more that we
kept on realizing we had additional 'little'
jobs to do just before we launched. Or we'd
decide to add in something that wasn't on our
initial plan. So, for a couple weeks it felt
like at last we were ready to press the
button... and then another little list of tasks
would somehow materialise. :-)
For instance, we'd 'finalise' the
autoresonders then discover we wanted to add in
a new bonus or offer another product. Then we'd
agree we really should test something else!
Jason: I know how
frustrating that can be! Were there any guiding
thoughts you had when you were laying out the
book - anything you did to try and make it
easier to read, etc.
Kathy & Ross: We wanted to make it
look unusually great! We wanted it to look as
good as it read -and the look of the book is
part of the "Unusual Ideas" brand.
A lot of the PDF stuff online all looks the
same... so we really wanted our graphic layout
to differentiate our product. Yes, we also
wanted it to be easy to read, and fun to look
at. It helps that Kathy's husband is a graphic
artist.
Jason: How did you
go about choosing a price for the book? Did you
do any sort of research, crunch any numbers, or
just decide that a particular number sounded
good?
Kathy & Ross: All of the above. We
crunched a few numbers, and we also read some
research about what numbers sound good and sell
well. we also looked at the pricing of
comparable products... most importantly, we
tested various prices with our initial
mailings.
In the end we went with the pricing that
pulled the best response.
Jason: A common
response from people when you tell them that
they should write an ebook is that they can't
write. Now that you have done it, what would you
say in response?
Kathy & Ross: Two things: Choose
something you're interested in - it's much
easier to write about something you like. And
just get started. Thinking about writing an
ebook is a lot harder than actually writing
it.
Jason: With the
benefit of hindsight, if you were starting all
over again what would you do
differently?
Kathy & Ross: Not a lot. But
perhaps we might pull the book together more
quickly? Having a finished product really
spurred us onto the final details like
completing our autoresponders and finalising the
sales letter. It was a good motivational boost
to get feedback from friends and family once the
book was done.
Jason: Finally, if
your best friend was thinking about writing and
releasing an ebook, what advice would you give
them (now that you've done it
yourself)?
Kathy & Ross: The same two things
as before - write about something you like, and
stop procrastinating! Just get started.
Jason: A very
important tip! Thank you very much for sharing
your knowledge and experiences with us Kathy and
Ross. I wish you well with your
book.
3. Resources - Web Traffic
Secrets for 2004
Everyone wants more traffic to their site. It
doesn't matter what the site is on, and if it is
commercial or not. There is some satisfaction
from seeing that you got more visitors this week
than you did last week.
Enter "Web Traffic Secrets for 2004", written
by Jaclyn Easton. Jaclyn offers 17 different
ideas for how you can increase the number of
people visiting your site. And they aren't the
usual "get a better position in the search
engines" type of idea that you see
everywhere.
Instead, she's tried to come up with unusual
ideas that you don't see many people using.
Perhaps using only one or two of them won't have
a huge impact, but if you used several of them
together, you could start getting some serious
traffic to your site!
Definitely check it out. Even if you don't
use the ideas directly in the book, hopefully
they will lead you to think of your own ideas
that you can use.
This report is in PDF, so can be read by most
people. A link to the report has been added to
the "members only" section, along with the
existing collection of ebooks, ecourses, and
other useful sites.
http://www.achievenetprofits.com/members/
[Subscribers-only area. The password
was sent out in the annoumcement message for
this issue. If you aren't a Subscriber, the
password is also in the Welcome message when you
subscribe to this newsletter!]
4. Final Word
The new membership site that I've been
working on for the last month and a bit is
almost ready for launch. I expect that I will be
opening the doors (so to speak) next week.
Amazingly, on schedule! :-)
I've put a lot of work into it so far, and
I'm happy with what I have been able to build,
but I still want to add a lot more to it before
I'll be totally happy with everything there.
One thing I have finalized is the discount
that subscribers to this newsletter will get
when the site launches. As I mentioned in an
earlier issue, the regular price for the site
will be $19.97 a month. However current
subscribers of this newsletter will be able to
join during the first week for only $13 a month
(locked in for as long as you remain a
member).
(Affiliates will be able to earn $7 a month
for each person they refer, so this price is
basically what I would be earning if an
affiliate referred people to the site).
Watch out for the announcement next week!
Till then take care, and may your profits
keep rising.
"Man is so made that when anything fires his
soul, impossibilities vanish." -- Jean De La
Fontaine
5. Legal Stuff
Copyright 2004 Jason Anderson. All rights
reserved.
We accept no responsibility whatsoever for
the content, profitability or legality of any
published articles or advertisements contained
within Achieve Net Profits.
And, although all of the articles have been
selected for their content, the publishing of
such articles within this newsletter does NOT
constitute a recommendation of the products or
services mentioned or advertised within those
articles.
Be responsible! Always do your own Due
Diligence before responding to any offer.
