So, I have a contract software job through the end of February, and I decided that...hey, I'm 29, I've made really shotty initial efforts at getting into IM in the past, and well, its time to do it for real.
Been reading up on tons of info (I know over-consumption of info...bad). Right now my main goals are (by Feb 16 2014, ~2 weeks from now):
1. finish watching the videos of "Traffic & Conversion Summit 2010" (yeah, old, but heard its a good summit and I'm learning things anyway, like "oh what does banner retargeting mean?" and then look it up and learn like that, even if strategies are outdated). I'm also at work reading some of trafficandconversionsummitnotes.com | the notes from 2013 summit (and soon 2014 when he gets em out) while I'm at the office
2. look at an offer my friend told me converts super well that does a couple of upsells after you buy the initial 2 dollar product, and fully understand their sales funnel and video marketing and website, look at where their ads come from, etc.
I'll stick around Seattle for the month of March, no job, just studying and doing this stuff, before moving out to the city of sin, Las Vegas, where I have a good buddy in the IM scene, and buncha other people I know who do a lot in the IM world. (Vegas is cheaper and "you are the avg of the 5 ppl you are around" -- I actually know people in this shit but I don't here in Seattle, I assume its a little bit of a bonus...)
I think I could live for about a year on my current savings (~32k right now, could hit close to 37k I think by the time I'm outta here), so that plus the hopeful unemployment I can get from here, I believe I can live it out on a year, if not more.
I plan to pay ~$600 in rent (may have another friend doing the same sorta move so we'd split a solid apt out there for $1200), most likely keep health insurance for $300/mo, shitty car insurance of ~$100/mo, may join a BJJ gym again to avoid being bored in the gym (so $100-$200/mo haven't checked their prices out there yet), $200 or so for student loans, and some dough for food. So think I can keep it sub-$2000, if not that $2500 fo sho, I'm pretty simple and don't have a family.
At that point its workaholics anonymous time, plus meditation, gym (or jiu jitsu), and going out 1-2 nights a week (I don't drink and can get in clubs weeknights for free), the bare minimum to blow off some steam and get some action.
What would you guys say is my current (pseudo) plan of action's flaws? My guesses are
1. you don't actually know what business model you're going to go for (correct, I was thinking content marketing a la copyblogger.com but my IM friend says to go with paid traffic to some sort of offer -- so hence why I'm learning the traffic/conversion stuff right now)
2. I'm not super familiar with how to research niches and markets, I guess researching the offer my friend told me to backwards engineer for now will help me understand that market (one which made me lol for sure when I realized how genius it was, though I'd never ever have thought to get into that stuff as a consumer)
3. not having a dayjob means paid traffic will scare me a bit, I may be prone to over-caution
4. I'm particularly bad at goal setting, even that "goal" I set above (setting the 2 week date on consuming that info plus backwards engineering the offer and site, was hard for me to set, heh), so this is clearly a thing I'll have to work at while on the start of my IM journey
5. I have various thoughts of "backup plan" like "should I spend time up front figuring out how to get software freelance jobs?" vs "I'll just get a job at a PPC or affiliate marketing firm if I start to run out of cash" vs "just get a (less crappy, e.g. web app development in Rails not Java) software job if I start to run out of cash"...not sure if I should even bother with this?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I will be starting a log once I have an actual idea to execute on, to stay accountable.
Been reading up on tons of info (I know over-consumption of info...bad). Right now my main goals are (by Feb 16 2014, ~2 weeks from now):
1. finish watching the videos of "Traffic & Conversion Summit 2010" (yeah, old, but heard its a good summit and I'm learning things anyway, like "oh what does banner retargeting mean?" and then look it up and learn like that, even if strategies are outdated). I'm also at work reading some of trafficandconversionsummitnotes.com | the notes from 2013 summit (and soon 2014 when he gets em out) while I'm at the office
2. look at an offer my friend told me converts super well that does a couple of upsells after you buy the initial 2 dollar product, and fully understand their sales funnel and video marketing and website, look at where their ads come from, etc.
I'll stick around Seattle for the month of March, no job, just studying and doing this stuff, before moving out to the city of sin, Las Vegas, where I have a good buddy in the IM scene, and buncha other people I know who do a lot in the IM world. (Vegas is cheaper and "you are the avg of the 5 ppl you are around" -- I actually know people in this shit but I don't here in Seattle, I assume its a little bit of a bonus...)
I think I could live for about a year on my current savings (~32k right now, could hit close to 37k I think by the time I'm outta here), so that plus the hopeful unemployment I can get from here, I believe I can live it out on a year, if not more.
I plan to pay ~$600 in rent (may have another friend doing the same sorta move so we'd split a solid apt out there for $1200), most likely keep health insurance for $300/mo, shitty car insurance of ~$100/mo, may join a BJJ gym again to avoid being bored in the gym (so $100-$200/mo haven't checked their prices out there yet), $200 or so for student loans, and some dough for food. So think I can keep it sub-$2000, if not that $2500 fo sho, I'm pretty simple and don't have a family.
At that point its workaholics anonymous time, plus meditation, gym (or jiu jitsu), and going out 1-2 nights a week (I don't drink and can get in clubs weeknights for free), the bare minimum to blow off some steam and get some action.
What would you guys say is my current (pseudo) plan of action's flaws? My guesses are
1. you don't actually know what business model you're going to go for (correct, I was thinking content marketing a la copyblogger.com but my IM friend says to go with paid traffic to some sort of offer -- so hence why I'm learning the traffic/conversion stuff right now)
2. I'm not super familiar with how to research niches and markets, I guess researching the offer my friend told me to backwards engineer for now will help me understand that market (one which made me lol for sure when I realized how genius it was, though I'd never ever have thought to get into that stuff as a consumer)
3. not having a dayjob means paid traffic will scare me a bit, I may be prone to over-caution
4. I'm particularly bad at goal setting, even that "goal" I set above (setting the 2 week date on consuming that info plus backwards engineering the offer and site, was hard for me to set, heh), so this is clearly a thing I'll have to work at while on the start of my IM journey
5. I have various thoughts of "backup plan" like "should I spend time up front figuring out how to get software freelance jobs?" vs "I'll just get a job at a PPC or affiliate marketing firm if I start to run out of cash" vs "just get a (less crappy, e.g. web app development in Rails not Java) software job if I start to run out of cash"...not sure if I should even bother with this?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I will be starting a log once I have an actual idea to execute on, to stay accountable.
