Biz Idea Mixed with Dream Pursuit

[Nuwanda]

Hello 4HWWers - you guys rock,

Thanks in advance for taking a moment to read this. I'd highly value any and all feedback while I poise to transition out of my job into my dream life.

Here goes. One very powerful part of the book to me was the idea that being "reasonable" has caused my passions to atrophy. I found this so true. I've always wanted to do martial arts but always told myself it wasn't a responsible use of time. After reading the book I have decided to get private coaching from a semi-pro UFC fighter.

Idea - while I transition into my dream life, document my weight loss and fat percentage loss on a web site, create a mailing list and document my psychology and mechanics, the pitfalls and victories over the next two months.

At the same time I am believer in the power of the Vegan diet, (I'll spare you my reasons) but it is not that I have a moral problem with humans using animals for benefit. Along the way, my site and email list would have affiliate links to the books I read and products I use. I will recommend meal replacements based on the science but not insist on Vegan. I plan to use Vega (produced by a Vegan IronMan) and would need to strike a deal with them and recommend that as a good option, but not the only.

Rationale: I was thinking that so many of peers (30 something family men, are
carrying an extra 20 lbs.) They are also stuck in "responsible lives" shelving their real desired pursuits. My list will show how I have transformed from a negative thinking 9-5er to a fit, mixed martial artist, on his way to travel and a life of true growth for me and my family and meaningful contribution.

Now after they follow me through this process, my list will have stickiness, my brand will be stronger, and I can move into other products related to living your dream life or products geared toward families.

Question: do you guys think this is a viable approach or is it my dreamer side trying to mix my dream with business? The other option would be keep my UFC life private and work on a muse totally separate and independent of this?

[bigdreamer]

The idea you have is not the problem, It could be turned into a info product in some way. Its how you want to make money from your idea (affiliate's). In the book Tim focuses on creating products to receive direct payments for maximum earnings. This is a basic core idea you are missing. Affiliate's In my option are best used to promote your product as extra promotion but not to be used as the main source or only promotion.

I also have heard Tim say somewhere he does not use affiliates but cant remember were i seen it at. Maybe someone else has seen this and knows. Ustream maybe when he was live I cant remember.

[sadu]

I'm a 30-something man who needs to shed 40 pounds recently stuck in a 'responsible' life, so could be a fair indication of your market. I thought you might be interested in my opinion from a customer's perspective.
Personally, I would never buy a weight loss product online - there is way too much snake-oil out there, and websites preying on fat people with low self-esteem desperate to pay for any solution. My approach (which has lost me 40lb so far) is to pay nutritionists and trainers by the hour for unbiased advice when I need it.
Unfortunately, your site is biased before you even begin by choosing to recommend Vega before you have seen results from it. I have no problem with that, and some of my muse sites recommend products I have never used - just that as an overweight male, I personally wouldn't buy from this kind of site.

It's also worth mentioning that weight loss is one of the most competitive businesses on the internet. The problem with this is that Adwords are going to be expensive, and organic search is going to be tough and slow.

I managed to have some success with a weight loss site a couple of years back - have a look at www.weightlossarticles.org - this site took about 4 hours to put together, and earned about $100 per month from Lipitrex affiliate commissions and Adsense. After about a year, Google realised the site was total rubbish and the organic results died off completely (I never used Adwords on this site so losing the organic meant game over). I haven't had an affiliate commission for a couple of years. This site was never going to see me retiring, but I consider it to be a success on a time/effort vs reward basis.

Tim and others talk about niche markets. Weight loss isn't even close to being niche, but weight loss for vegans or muscle-mass-gain for vegans probably is. You could work with a nutritionist to develop a series of eating plans / shopping lists for vegans, use it to shed a pile of weight and iron out the bugs and then turn that into a product. I agree with Bigdreamer - by all means use the Vega affiliate program, but don't let it be the core product - sneak in the odd recommendation here and there in the content, or use it for sidebar advertising. Google hates affiliate-only websites, your site will look just like thousands of other affiliate-only websites - there will be no point of difference.

Sorry if this seems negative, I'm trying to be helpful and honest as opposed to squashing your ideas - weight loss is the 800 pound gorilla of internet marketing, right up there with hotels, car rental, viagra and internet porn. If you choose this industry, you are playing with the big kids and need to really know your game.

Good luck.

[Nuwanda]

Sadu and Big Dreamer,

This is why I am here and really appreciate your honesty. Your points are well taken. My site wouldn't really be about weight loss, rather seizing the day, and the psychological / physical transition from corporate drone to badass. I thought that documenting my weight loss would be one means of proving my credibility by letting my subscribers track this journey, but the journey would also be about the martial arts training as well.

Regarding Vega, it is the only vegan meal replacement I've found for vegan athletes, made by Triathloner Brendan Brazier after his own experience and research. The studies indicate that meal replacements in general are a proven way to lose weight and sustain it, allowing you to feed forward even with a busy lifestyle and making sure you get lean, nourishment.

My site would recommend meal replacements, citing studies, and discuss the merits of a vegan diet. However, I would not say that Vega is the only way or even the best way, only for those that are convinced of the Vegan diet. I plan on researching the niche of Vegan Athletes to see what is there but I suspect this will be too niched.

I'll provide links to references for those that are interested in knowing more about that, but what I really want to focus on is the transition to pursuing your dreams, and getting out of the slow spiritual death that is corporate America.

As Big Dreamer pointed out, it seems I need to come up with an informational product. Here is my dilemma, I feel that my credibility and my informational product would have more value and be more marketable after I truly replace my income and fire my job. I'd also have more knowledge to share.

On one hand I am thinking to focus on a muse first independent of this transition, build that to replace my income. After that, I would be more credible to start my manifesto type site, imploring even those with families to stop being so "reasonable," killing their passions, and cheating their kids out of a real education and life experience. While my message admittedly mirrors Tim's, I would work hard to hit points that he does not and my audience would be more toward those with families or are pursuing that path, not necessarily the single guys.

On the other hand, I am committed to learning martial arts now and getting lean irrespective. I feel like this is a golden opportunity to gain subscribers from my extended network. I believe that my contacts will be interested from at least a voyeuristic point of view, seeing if I crash and burn and how this all turns out.

Hopefully that makes sense. Do I start building my brand without a clear path of making money? Or should I forget that and think about a muse that can make money now?

Gratefully,

Nuwanda










I'm a 30-something man who needs to shed 40 pounds recently stuck in a 'responsible' life, so could be a fair indication of your market. I thought you might be interested in my opinion from a customer's perspective.
Personally, I would never buy a weight loss product online - there is way too much snake-oil out there, and websites preying on fat people with low self-esteem desperate to pay for any solution. My approach (which has lost me 40lb so far) is to pay nutritionists and trainers by the hour for unbiased advice when I need it.
Unfortunately, your site is biased before you even begin by choosing to recommend Vega before you have seen results from it. I have no problem with that, and some of my muse sites recommend products I have never used - just that as an overweight male, I personally wouldn't buy from this kind of site.

It's also worth mentioning that weight loss is one of the most competitive businesses on the internet. The problem with this is that Adwords are going to be expensive, and organic search is going to be tough and slow.

I managed to have some success with a weight loss site a couple of years back - have a look at www.weightlossarticles.org - this site took about 4 hours to put together, and earned about $100 per month from Lipitrex affiliate commissions and Adsense. After about a year, Google realised the site was total rubbish and the organic results died off completely (I never used Adwords on this site so losing the organic meant game over). I haven't had an affiliate commission for a couple of years. This site was never going to see me retiring, but I consider it to be a success on a time/effort vs reward basis.

Tim and others talk about niche markets. Weight loss isn't even close to being niche, but weight loss for vegans or muscle-mass-gain for vegans probably is. You could work with a nutritionist to develop a series of eating plans / shopping lists for vegans, use it to shed a pile of weight and iron out the bugs and then turn that into a product. I agree with Bigdreamer - by all means use the Vega affiliate program, but don't let it be the core product - sneak in the odd recommendation here and there in the content, or use it for sidebar advertising. Google hates affiliate-only websites, your site will look just like thousands of other affiliate-only websites - there will be no point of difference.

Sorry if this seems negative, I'm trying to be helpful and honest as opposed to squashing your ideas - weight loss is the 800 pound gorilla of internet marketing, right up there with hotels, car rental, viagra and internet porn. If you choose this industry, you are playing with the big kids and need to really know your game.

Good luck.

[sadu]

Hopefully that makes sense. Do I start building my brand without a clear path of making money? Or should I forget that and think about a muse that can make money now?

I have been down that road lots of times, and it's a habit I'm trying hard to break.
Personally, I find that the less you spend on a website, the higher the chance of success. I have lots of websites that make money and lots that don't. Oddly, the ones that earn money are the ones that have consumed the least amount of time - this is because the original idea was better. I have a couple of blogs that I have worked my ass off on and get good traffic and great feedback from people - but less revenue that some cheesy affiliate site I put together in less than a day.

A lot depends on what kind of site you are trying to put together - but the concept Tim is trying to teach is to make the idea prove itself before you spend too much time/money on it. You actually stay more focused when you approach it this way too.

Sometimes an idea is only good for $200 per month - if that's the case, don't spend countless more hours trying to turn it into a $10k per month idea. Just bank the $200 with a smile on your face and find another idea to pursue. Nobody says you can't have lots of little muses working together.

I agree about Tim's book not being all that family-friendly (this isn't intended to be a criticism). I'd love to see a version of the 4HWW which takes into account all the extra baggage that comes with kids in tow.

Good luck breaking out of the mould. I'm loving it so far.