Does anyone have a successful muse?

[Adonis Fitness]

So does this stuff even work? Everyone is batting around ideas and so forth, but I have yet to hear if anyone has even been remotely successful with this.

I for one, have been somewhat discouraged. The amount of hours that I have been putting in trying to create my Muse are turning this into a 60 hour workweek.

It would be great to hear if and how much everyone is making with their muse.

[CobaltSailor]

Of course it works. Look at every business out there. There's your examples. they all started off as an idea at some point.

[Webzu]

Tim wrote that he was working 15 hour days, 7 days a week when he first launched his site. The book was published in April or May of 2007, it would be hard to put up a site that makes you 80K per month while only working 4 hours per week in 2 months. It works but you do have to work at it.

[JSimpson]

I'd be curious to hear from people who've lauched just past the test point and are bringing in a hundred or more a month. Even if their idea isn't working to the scale that we'd all like. Something is more than nothing. Motivation would always be helpful.

[jazzdrive3]

I should have my first muse site up within a week or two. I've just been brick-walled by the state of Kentucky dragging its feet while I wait for a sales tax id and certificate.

I'll be sure to post here after the first week of operation so I can reveal results. And you're right. Even if this site just netted my $250 in profit a month, I would consider it a success. It's been a great learning experience so far. Of course, I would work to make it more successful, but it would be a nice start.

That's what's great about the web. My operating costs total to about $50 per month, and that's it. My adwords will be budgeted at about $400 per month, but that's another story, because the niche I'm in, people who will click on the ads are looking to buy at least 30% of the time. And even if they just browse, they'll come back for a purchase later.

[Adonis Fitness]

Exactly,

Has anyone actually read the book, put the principals in effect, and cashed in? I would love to hear about it if they have.

[PhilnCedarPark]

To make a muse work, you should first work within what you know.

One of mine is a software application that ties into Ebay. It scans postings for certain coins (I was a former collector but am not now). It attempts to identify Morgan and Peace dollars that meet a particular profile, based in part on the fact that PCGS and NGC formerly had higher grading standards (though they dispute this) and it identifies older coins that may be able to upgraded upon resubmission. There are other factors as well.

I don't buy the coins; coin dealers subscribe to a private email with a list of links, and pay a monthly subscription. I wrote the app in about a week; tested it a few times, then quietly marketed to known dealers. I now spend about an hour a week on it (since it is automated), and make about $2000 a month. And yes, I comply fully with all fees and licensing needed for Ebay. Since I was formerly an Ebay PowerSeller I had a familiarity with the system and the process.

Keys? I had a pre-existing way into a market from previously collecting coins (I asked a few dealers I had a relationship with). I had a way to simplify a technology that a lot of people wanted to use (Ebay) but not the skills to use it effectively. I had targeted knowledge (how coin grading worked) that I could automate. And finally, I had access to experts (a few coin dealers) to test and validate what I was doing.

Notice my product (basically a password-protected PDF sent by email) is information-based, so no inventory or production issues. And the best part is a lot of the code I produced has been reusable for many other projects. And rather than make the product mass-market (volume), I made it exclusive (value).

[InTN]

I finally chose a bid of elance today to create a logo for my muse as well as a website. It will take approx. 1-2 months to get it going. I'm fully confident my "muse" will bring it a minimum of $2500/month. Hopefully more like a minimum of $5000. I'll be sure to report on everything once it is up and running.

[Drewkerr]

the downside to my muse is the website is going to take over 8 weeks to build.

I am running the testing now to set price point and determine potential profit, and once that is doen at the end of july (i am doing a full month of testing) i will start with the website build.

I have already secured my first long term customer without having the "product/serice" done.

After it is up an running I will let you know some of the stats

[jetpacklife]

Well, I guess you could say I have a successful "muse". I didn't create it from Tim's ideas, but I'm trying to use his ideas to refine and automate it more. I already have substantial automation in place though, and many people are surprised that such a large operation is done by just one person.

I'll have to say that it took a really really long time and a lot of work... and, now that everything is running well, I don't feel like kicking up my feet just yet.

[wildsoul]

I started this website builder & hosting service a year ago, and it's turned a profit. http://www.inspirationalwebhosting.com

But my marketing needs some tweaking still. Two areas to improve:

1. My PPC keywords have become so expensive that I need to really rework them. I think I'm taking a loss on leads from Google Ad Words now actually.

2. Most of my revenue from the service still comes from my consulting clients who use the service based on my recommendation. The problem there is I'm still the #1 salesperson, AND because my clients know me personally, they ask me for a lot of help designing their sites.

Still though, it's nice getting a residuals check each month. Once someone signs up for the service, they don't unsubscribe. Once they're site is built, they just keep renewing it. (And it's MUCH cheaper than Yahoo stores, which is what I used previously. You can sell up to 500 items for no per-item fee, and even then it's a dollar to add more bandwidth.)

[Peter Bowen]

My muse seems to be working.

I only started selling about four days ago and have had 6 sales at $97 each so far.

I did a crazy thing and had a software product built as a muse. It's taken 4 months of solid work to get this far (I'm already on retirement so I didn't have to fight for time with a job). It seems to be working but I won't build software again

You're welcome to look at http://www.nomore247. com to see what I'm on about

Cheers

Pete

[Webzu]

My muse seems to be working.

I only started selling about four days ago and have had 6 sales at $97 each so far.

I did a crazy thing and had a software product built as a muse. It's taken 4 months of solid work to get this far (I'm already on retirement so I didn't have to fight for time with a job). It seems to be working but I won't build software again

You're welcome to look at http://www.nomore247. com to see what I'm on about

Cheers

Pete

I couldn't access your website...

http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/1276/firefoxscreensnapz011rh6.png

[Vagabond]

I couldn't access your website...

http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/1276/firefoxscreensnapz011rh6.png

yeah throw a .com at the end.

[Webzu]

yeah throw a .com at the end.

Ha-ha didn't notice that, I just clicked on his link. That helped. :D

[ChrisMc07]

"2. Most of my revenue from the service still comes from my consulting clients who use the service based on my recommendation. The problem there is I'm still the #1 salesperson, AND because my clients know me personally, they ask me for a lot of help designing their sites."

This was posted earlier. Maybe you could look at how much extra revenue is being brought by the adwords, and use the 80/20 principle to see if it's really worth the hassle. You could save that money and the extra trouble, but only if you feel that it's worth it.

[wildsoul]

"Maybe you could look at how much extra revenue is being brought by the adwords, and use the 80/20 principle to see if it's really worth the hassle.

Thanks for the reminder about 80/20! Good pointer!

[Link82]

I know I'm digging up old stuff, but the forum seems dead and this one's a really good one. I wonder who started a couple of years ago and is making even $500/month from a muse.

I'd love updates on these.

[DaveinHackensack]

I think the crickets chirping here suggest creating a successful muse is much easier said than done.

Which makes sense, when you think about it. A "muse" (I'm not a fan of the term) really just describes a type of successful business (one that can be highly automated/outsourced). Whoever thought that starting a successful business was easy?

[officer_dibble]

I have quite a few muses - the best of which makes over $500/month on average (most...erm...make under $10/month). Most of them were set up before I read Tim's book last year though.

I'm a naturally lazy chap so most of them were set up based on parts of Tim's philosophy. They are practically all fully/nearly fully automated, for example as I've always been fascinated by automating stuff and was lucky enough to hear the quote about factories of the future having two staff - a dog and a man - in my formative years.

Even parts of the marketing are automated now - for example I've written a bot which posts thank you messages to my twitter accounts if someone retweets one of my messages (I'd previously noticed that the more people I thanked - the more my stuff got retweeted - but it gets real boring thanking 10 or so people a day).

[Marcie]

Tim wil be highlighting successful muses in the new 4HWW revised coming out Dec. 15. I don't think it's a matter of crickets chirping, rather the fact that most who become successful with a muse or muses don't need the forum anymore, and stop posting. IMHO.

[DaveinHackensack]

They may not need the forum, but they could easily pop in and share their success stories. If the venture I am about to launch succeeds, I'll be happy to let people know that it was successful. Generally, I've found people like talking about their successes.

[roe_g]

Even parts of the marketing are automated now - for example I've written a bot which posts thank you messages to my twitter accounts if someone retweets one of my messages (I'd previously noticed that the more people I thanked - the more my stuff got retweeted - but it gets real boring thanking 10 or so people a day).ha ha... "I'd like to thank you from the bottom of my script"