My 7 Day Challenge

6 days ago, I set out to build an online project that would potentially add another income stream to my business.

Though I could’ve done a lot of things better, I’m happy to say that I’m essentially done. Yes, I still have to do promotions for the site, but someone could come there right now, subscribe to my autoresponder, and buy the PLR e-book.

That’s what my objective was.

The great thing is that I’ve learned a lot of things (and, a lot of things that I knew intelectually has been confirmed by experience). From this, the next time I do a challenge, I’ll do a lot better.

Whatever you put your mind to, you can accomplish, and I’ve just done that.

You can see the site here: http://antiquehow.dkfynn.com/

The e-book salesletter is here: http://antiquehow.dkfynn.com/digital-e-book/

(Keep in mind, though I am a copywriter, I didn’t write that salesletter. But over time, I will make improvements to it…like adding some sort of guarantee.)

Plus I did some article submission. Not a lot, but it’s a start.

PS: Just a few minutes ago, I made a stupid mistake. Someone phoned me, because they’d seen one of my other sites, and was asking me questions that indicated that he was a potential client for my services. We talked for almost 10 minutes, then hung up. I didn’t even ask the guy his name!

He’s from Toronto, or at least he lives there.

But damnit–how self-centered of me not to even ask him his name and phone number.

Don’t make that mistake…especially when someone phones you.

There’s nothing like putting yourself to a challenge like this one.

I came across a few technical hurdles today that slowed me down, but they didn’t stop me.

In fact, the salespage is up now, and someone could buy from me if they wanted to.

But I can still do better.

I need to get the autoresponder series into Profollow (Aweber).

I can sometimes be a very detail-oriented person, and I can see A LOT of gaps and places where I can improve.

I could’ve done SO much better.

Maybe it’s just me being hard on myself, but that’s the way I’ve got to be.

I’d like to give you a bit of advice: Next time I do this, I’m going to start with a very well outlined (detailed) process map of prospect > happy customer.

There’s no doubt I can finish tomorrow–the only question is: How well will I finish?

Will it really be ready for traffic?

There’s only one way to find out…

Last night, I really targetted about 13 keywords that I’ll focus on the short-, medium-, and long-term.

Now I’m gonna get to work!

…is research.

I’m thankful for the keyword research that I was able to conduct yesterday. I discovered a few obvious gems that I can really take advantage of.

Here’s a tip: Think of common misspellings that people in your target market may type into a search engine.

That’s it for now.

Well, I think I accomplished quite a bit today:

1. I did quite a bit of keyword research today.  I’ll have to go over my findings and develop strategies.
2. I joined a few affiliate programs.
3. I had to change the theme of my blog in order for my new opt-in form to work.  It looks very familiar now…but I’ll modify it to try to resore it’s look and feel that I originally wanted.

Tommorow, I need to work toward getting the autoresponder and free report ready.

I’d like to send out a special thanks to Cheryl Hines, who wrote the report that helped me make a better opt-in form (I can still make it better, but I’m on the right track).

To read about it, go here: http://www.paul-simpson.com/blog/im-back

I must say that I’m thankful for what I’ve been able to accomplish so far.

Even though I wasn’t able to get everything done that I wanted to yesterday, I did manage to change the look of my blog to one that I wanted.

And let me tell you, it wasn’t the easiest thing I’d ever done.

I hate to get technical, but at one point, the new header graphic wasn’t centered (it wasn’t the same size as the original, plus it had a bit of a margin).

Without going into detail, I thought of a little “trick” to make it look the way I wanted it to.

Today, I’m going to:

1. Do some keyword research (I probably should’ve done this earlier, but that’s fine.  I know that this is a profitable niche, so now I just need to narrow my focus some more and dig for those hot, buyer-ready keywords).
2. Locate more potential products I can offer. (Why rely on just my PLR product?)
3. Do things to get ready for traffic.  I could start promoting my site harder, but why not at least get the autoresponder, free report, and opt-in box ready to capitalize on any traffic I get?

Okay; I’ll probably do more, but that’ll be a good start.

PS: To see the new look of my site, go to: http://antiquehow.dkfynn.com/

Well, I slept in till about noon.  Then I got to this noisy coffee shop at around 1 EST for my Fantastic Five Mastermind call.  As I say in my self-promotion letter, I’m in a mastermind group of 5 above-average copywriters.

Man, it’s noisy here.

In any case, enough complaining.

Today, I’m going to become more of an expert on the subject of antiques.  I’ll do this by:

• Going through the PLR e-book some more
• Reading the PLR articles and understanding them with enough depth so that I can re-write them from a position of authority
• Outline a few articles.

One thing I really need to do is slowly start driving traffic to my site.  I need to strategically submit articles so that I’ll get indexed in the search engines.

(I say strategically because I don’t want to do too much at one time, otherwise I might get banned.)

Well, it’s 8:36pm, and the coffee shop closes in 24 minutes.

Originally, I would’ve been on a date with this nice girl, but I told her that I had to cancel because I was doing something else…which is this.

In any case, I think I got a good amount of stuff accomplished today.

• I started getting familiar with my PLR content (articles and e-book)
• I installed a Wordpress content management system (or “blog”) and installed a number of plugins, as well as…
• Made my first post.

Tommorow, I’ll work at becoming more of an expert at this niche.

You can see it the new blog (content management system) here: http://antiquehow.dkfynn.com/welcome-to-the-world-of-antiques

Hello,

I woke up this morning with a purpose: today is Day 1 of my 7 Day Challenge.  What do I intend to accomplish, specifically?  I’ll get to that, but first…

What I’m Grateful For

I’m thankful that you’ve taken time out of your day to read what I have to say.  I’ll do my best to ensure that you learn and gain from this.

I’m thankful for my Experience Seeker insight.  Basically, I’m trying not to think of people as “prospects”, “customers”, or “buyers”, but rather, as Experience Seekers.   One of the only reasons why people do anything is because they want an Experience, and I want to keep that in mind, and I truly aim to serve people at a level that’s deeper than what a mere “product” or “service” will do.

I’m thankful thatt I operate with both the artistic and scientific/mechanical aspects of business in mind.  I’ll post about this below.

I’m grateful for the fact that I have goals and objectives that include you, me, and my target Experience Seekers.

I’m happy that I already have a good idea about what one of my biggest weaknesses is.

I give gratitude for the fact that I know what the most challenging part of this 7 day challenge will be.

I’m glad I have the motivation, resolve, and time to pursue this challenge.

(Man…I have a lot on my side.  I hope I don’t leave anything out…)

Also, my biggest advantage is another thing that I’m happy that I know.

And finally, I’m grateful that I am everything I need to succeed, that I have (almost) everything that I need to succeed, and that I’m going to take the right action (consistently and sufficiently) to meet this challenge.

We’re All Experience Seekers

You don’t offer a product…you don’t offer a service…you don’t offer a business opportunity…you offer an Experience.

That’s an insight I’m going to do my best to live by these 7 days, and beyond.  I came up with that saying about 2 years ago, and it used to be my signature in a forum I used to post in a lot.

I began to give you a good explanation of this insight above, and I’ll give you a perfect illustration:

My guess is that you’re not here to read a blog post; you’re here to gain the Experience of entrepreneurial how-to insight.

My “market” is not just a group of potential buyers; they seek the Experience of collecting and selling antiques.

I’m not just a guy who’s trying to set up a profitable business project in 7 days, I seek the Experience of providing how-to insight to you, providing value to the Experience Seekers who’ll best resonate with what I have to offer, and to experience a sense of entrepreneurial accomplishment.

Those are the beneath-the-surface ideals I’m aiming for.  I believe these are the real reasons why we’re all here.

The Art, Science, and Magic of Wealth Creation

In university, I noticed that a lot of other students somewhat identified with one of 2 sides of a scale: arts or sciences.  In fact, this dicotomy sometimes seems like it’s an either-or: you were either more of an arts student, or more of a science student.

In this context, I’m using arts and sciences as a limited metaphor (or is it analogy?) for what I’m doing here.  If you identify strongly with one or the other, don’t worry.

One of the things I’m very grateful for is that I think I can operate from both sides of the coin.  Both arts and sciences are necessary.

By arts, I mean the artistic, or “soft” side of marketing, such as getting to really understand your Experience Seeker, the Experience they seek, how they communicate, the words, phrases, and attitudes they use, and so on.   You want to understand them the way an orchestra understands how to tune their instruments to resonate with the accoustic designs of the music hall.  (Too many words in that last sentence, but I hope you get what I mean.)

By sciences, I mean the nitty-gritty “to-do” stuff and mechanics.  The “hard” shit.  (And I don’t mean hard in the sense that it has to be difficult, though I don’t expect everything to be easy.) I need to get traffic.  I’m going to need to install a Wordpress content management system (otherwise known as a blog, but to me, Wordpress is so much more than just a “blog”).  I’m going to need to rewrite PLR articles (more on this below).

I think you get the idea.

Both the artistic, and scientific/mechanical aspects are needed.

Or, to put it in a Tao Te Ching-like way, both the “soft” and the “hard” complete each other.

As for the magic…I haven’t found it yet.

My Goals And Objectives

If you don’t know already, I’m a business strategist, marketing consultant and direct-response copywriter.    If you read my story, you’ll understand that it’s my resolve to provide value to everyone I do business with.   I intent to attract potential clients and busienss partners.

So…

Why not provide value to you by showing you that I’m “the real deal”?  After all, as an entrepreneur and business strategist, I should be able to take a business idea and make it happen.

So by embarking on this challenge, I’m showing you that I can take a sound business idea, and make it real.  It challenges me as a strategist.

My Biggest Weakness

Until very recently, it used to be that my biggest weakness was that I didn’t take consistent, focused action.

By the end of these 7 days, that weakness will be a strength.

From past experience, I know that my biggest weakness will be generating sufficient amounts of targetted traffic to my salespage (attracting enough Experience Seekers to what I have to offer).

This post is getting long.  Hang with me…

The Most Challenging Part of These 7 Days

Reading, mind-mapping, and rewritting the PLR articles!

PLR just means private label rights.  I have articles that I can simply claim authorship to.

But I won’t do that.  Who knows how many other people have identical copies of this article on their site.  It wouldn’t be strategic.

I need to take those generic articles and make them my own.

This is going to take a lot of time, because I have to read each one, understand it’s essential message, and rewrite it in my own words.

My Biggest Advantage

My product’s already been created!  I used to be a member of PLR Pro Ebooks, which is great!  Until now, I never really did anything with my membership.

A good PLR site gives you a generic product you can modify and call your own.  And it doesn’t just apply to the internet either.  Private label is basically whenever a company that doesn’t have it’s own processing capability (or doesn’t want to invest in the effort) simply asks another company to make a product to a certain specification, and he asking company puts its name on it.

Anyway, I already have an e-book, a report, about 20 articles, salespage templates, Wordpress templates, and even female and male .mp3 recordings of the e-book!

So at least 80% of the work has been done for me.

Okay, I shouldn’t really take too much more of your time.  Thanks.  I’ll probably make a post before I go to bed to tell you how today went.