I always have too many business ideas for my own good. And here is one that involves the whole ‘what can I do for you?’ (see below) approach in a very clever way.
A survey was done and the number one things site owners wanted done but didn’t have the time is writing jobs. Articles, search engine content, sales letters, press releases etc… it can be bloomin’ time consuming trust me.
So I had an idea. I thought about site owners and realised what they want is writers. I looked at writers and realised what they want is work. You could make money from putting writers in touch with businesses requiring writers.
So…
A business idea for you – make money from writers
You could place an advert in the back of writers’ magazines in the UK like Writers Forum or Writers News that said something like ‘Writers Wanted’. The ad then gives them a link to your web site which explains that you are a broker for writers looking for work. You will find them work if they are willing to give you a cut of what they make.
Then you go to places like www.elance.com, www.rentacoder.com and bid on writing projects. If you get picked you simply contact one of your writers you picked up from your ad in the writing magazines and tell them the price and what their job is.
Let’s say that a site owner wanted twenty 500 word articles written at ten dollars a pop. That works out to be around one hundred and twenty six English pounds (don’t quote me on that but it’s not far off). You could take thirty percent of that (writers are nearly always broke and looking for work they’d bite your hand off at that money) you could make £37 or so.
Not too impressive. But all your work was just placing a few ads, which are free at elance etc.
And think about it. The combined readership of Writers Forum and Writers News magazine is hundreds of thousands (I advertised with them on a different project back in 2005). So you could potentially be setting up a lot of these deals for writers each and every week. You’re not really doing any work yourself apart from a few ads.
And of course, once the company starts doing well what do you do? You reinvest into hiring someone to place the ads at elance etc whilst you sit back and count the cash. Your work will be virtually zero.
Just the way I like it.
Can you see how this approach to money is a little different? ‘What can I do for you?’ Use it. It works. Big time.
‘Is there anything I can do for you?’
This could be one of the most important lessons I ever teach you about business, be it online or offline. I have set up deals with companies that generate millions using this one simple principle and it has never failed me.
You may have seen the latest Churchill Insurance advert where, after the Churchill Dog helps someone out the guy says ‘That’s great. Is there anything I can do for you?’.
A couple of things happen whenever I see this ad. Firstly, the Churchill dog goes off into a weird fantasy about weathergirl Sian Lloyd, and I curse myself for having such a vivid imagination.
Secondly I smile to myself at just how powerful that sentence is.
If you take this approach into business, online or offline, you will do very, very well for yourself. So many people go into business deals thinking ‘I want you to make me money’. That is completely the wrong approach. You want to go into any deals thinking, and carrying out, the ‘what can I do for you’ approach.
The concept of leverage is one of the most powerful money-spinners on the planet. If I lost all of my money and contacts tomorrow I can assure you I’d have tens of thousands back in the bank in a few months. How? I’d leverage my way to it. Here’s how it works…
You approach a company or web site that is already successful and ask them ‘what can I do to make you money? I’ll do it without charge’. They’ll then say something like ‘well I’d like an article written’ or ‘I need this product created’. You say ‘Ok great. I tell you what I’ll write the report if you give me a cut of the profits. It will be your product. You’ll own the rights. Your company name. You just pay me 10% or so of the sales. As I’m doing all the work you can make money without ever doing anything’.
Not many will turn that offer down. It’s how I got in with companies doing millions and it’s how one of my freelancers Adam became my business partner.
Then what do you do? Well rather than spend the money made from that deal on a nice car you reinvest it into another venture. You could start your own site or you could contact other web site owners in the same way but this time rather than creating the product yourself you hire someone else to do it.
Then you reinvest those profits. Do the same. Reinvest…
By doing this and ramping things up consistently you can earn a very, very good living. I have done.
Think of how many web sites out there, in all markets, are looking for work to be done but just don’t have the time? An endless amount. Contact them with the ‘what can I do to make you more money?’ approach and you’ll find deals. I assure you.
Those pesky ‘virtual assistants’
Have you noticed the new thing with online marketers these days where when you try to close their site a box pops up that says something like ‘Our virtual assistant wants to offer you a ten dollar discount. Click here to get it now’? I’m sure you have seen them. And I’m sure like me you think they’re a right royal pain in the….
I don’t know if it’s just me but I can never quite figure out how to shut the blighters down. I end up clicking on ‘cancel’ and then I’m stuck at the web page I want to leave, and then I end up clicking on ‘ok’ and I still can’t leave the bloody site. I don’t want a discount, I want to shut the site down, but I get stuck in an eternal loop of ‘discounts’ from an automated piece of software.
I’m sure that this kind of thing does increase sales and I can see why people use it. However what so, so many marketers these days don’t seem to get is the importance of relationships with subscribers or site visitors. Is this going to make more money in the long term? Personally I don’t think so because you’re going to pee a whole lot of people off. I for one think twice about visiting any of Alex Goad’s web sites for fear of spending an entire afternoon swearing at his discount software for not allowing me to leave (I exaggerate obviously but you see my point).
I want you to think about something. How many gurus’ lists are you on? Out of that how many send out content every week that is not trying to sell you something? Very, very few right? I’m on the list of dozens of these guys, and hardly any send out regular content.
I’ll give you an example. Yanik Silver, who many see as one of the top boys in this market, is one of the guys’ list I’m on. This dude makes millions. Yet I got an email from him last week for the first time in months…and it was promoting Jeff Walker’s product launch formula. Was I more inclined to buy from his link, or from Frank Kern’s who constantly gives away cool information?
Frank’s. Every day of the week.
Believe it or not people are making absolute fortunes online and they’re not even doing things the right way. What happens when you do things the right way?
Simple. You make serious moolah quicker and easier than those who don’t.
In the build up to Christmas I want to give you some of the most amazing content I ever have done. I’m serious, what I’m going to do over the next few weeks is do my all to make sure you have an entire workable plan for making next year the greatest financial year of your life.
What can I do for you? Help you make bucket loads of cash that’s what. Starting next week. And you never need pay me a penny for it!