I Can Get Your Muse Up And Running For You!

[saveTheWorld]

We all want our muse to do well. But 80/20 says that 20% of muses will see 80% of all muse success. But if we work together, we can all have muses in that 20%!

Use my reply layout as a template to describe your own muse steps. We can ID which muse characteristics succeed, and which ones fail. We learn from each other's mistakes instead of all making the same mistakes individually. We can all have successful muses faster!

Damn it, I'm fulfilling my dreamline by Aug 2010. (Among other things) Bahamas VayKay. Who's coming with me!!?? I'm buying the first round once we get there!

[saveTheWorld]

1. Found Niche Market: Ambitious Musicians.
2. Created A Product.
-Name: The Creative Juice Booster. www.creativejuicebooster.com
-Product Description: eBook to enhance creativity
-Why? Cause I’m an ambitious musician looking to improve creativity.
3. Skipped preliminary eBay testing.
4. Built Test Site.
-Adjusted code from pxmethod.com to fit my needs. Found an intern from local university to build my site for free.
-Did a flickr advanced search for 'legal to copy' pics. (Creative Commons)
-Wrote the description. Click the link above to see it.
-Purchased Domain Name & Web Hosting from globat.com for $57.
5. Advertised on Google
-Selected keywords like “creativity”, “boost creativity”, etc.
-Tested on adwords for 5 days. ($50 per day budgeted)
-285,814 Impressions
-114 Clicks (So CTR was 0.04%)
-10 “Try It” Button Pushes
-0 “sales” (Conversion Rate was 0.00%)
-Used $250 in ads. ($200 my money & $50 globat credit)
6. Divested in the eBook.
-Reasons: Terrible CTR and Conversion Rate.

[saveTheWorld]

1. Found Niche Market: males 18+ who read “The Game” by Neil Strauss.
2. Created a Product.
-Name: WCB Attraction Maximizer. www.world-class-baller.com
-Product Description: eBook to teach people to be THEMSELVES & be attractive.
-Why? Cause I read the Game, and realized how true, yet how manipulative it was
3. Skipped Prelim eBay testing
4. Built Test Site.
-Adjusted code from my earlier muse site. (Creative Juice Booster)
-Use flickr for photos
-Wrote my description
-Ditched Globat cause they sucked
-Bought Domain & Web Hosting from Godaddy for under $50
5. Advertised on Google
-Used keywords like “mystery method”, “neil strauss”, etc.
-Tested on Adwords for 1 week ($50 per day budgeted)
-706,237 Impressions
-266 Clicks (CTR was 0.04%)
-2 “sales” for eBook priced @ $99.95 each.
-3 Comments left saying they wanted to hear more (Counted as 1 “sale”)
-So 3 “sales” counted (Conversion Rate was 1.13%, 217% ROI)
6. Decided to re-work ad scheme, test again.

[jasonwisdom]

Are these actual examples, or are they hypothetical?

[boxmanboxman]

This thread needs to be stickied now. I loved the FHWW because it allowed me to skip all the startup knowledge and moved right to contacting manufacturing. My muse will be up and testing in 3 weeks, afterwards i will be sure to post my mistakes here.

[ItsuNaneo79]

[QUOTE=saveTheWorld;24528]1. Found Niche Market: High School Football Coaches and Players
2. Created a Product.
-Name: Explosive Football Training. www.explosivefootballtrainingprogram.com and www.explosivefootballtraining.com

-Product Description: eBook to teach coaches and players the football training system, highly adaptable

-Why? Most h.s. coaches are football coaches, not strength coaches and need help. most players get their info from bullshit like muscle & fitness

3. Skipped Prelim eBay testing
4. Built Test Site.
-was ugly, had bad copy and was ugly...oh was ugly too
-put up horrible email form

5. Advertised on Google
-Used keywords like “football training”, “football speed training”, etc.

-Tested on Adwords for 1 week ($5 per day budgeted)

-Dont remember the impressions but was getting 3-5 email sign ups per day

6. Reworked site, cleaned it up, made it nicer, added aweber opt in

7. Articles released on a few big websites (2 on the opening weekend, if you will)

-7 “sales” for eBook priced @ $49.95 each.
-43 email opt-ins (over the first "real" weekend of the site)

8. Since then, sales have climbed steadily.

9. Optins are usually from 5 - 10 per day (using Facebook PPC now, much better for me...much much cheaper)

10. List climbing towards 1000, finally


Next up....

--Having sites re-done professionally with full SEO service.

--Finished 2nd product (slimmed down ebook, just workouts 19.95)

--Creating 3rd product, which was requested by most of my list (ebook/DVD combo for lineman, not sure of the price point yet)

[saveTheWorld]

Jasonwisdom -

These are my real-life muse examples. They are actual muse attempts that I have made.

[saveTheWorld]

Boxman -

Just quickly post what you've done so far. We can help you while you test.

Thanks in advance :)

[babyblue]

You guys are doing some amazing stuff. I wish I had a muse to test... My mind is stuffed with ideas but feel so overwhelmed, don't know where to start.

Good luck! I hope to hear more from you all here!

[DanzAmazon]

This thread needs to be stickied now. I loved the FHWW because it allowed me to skip all the startup knowledge and moved right to contacting manufacturing. My muse will be up and testing in 3 weeks, afterwards i will be sure to post my mistakes here.
So, are you up, up and away? What challenges have you encountered?

[saveTheWorld]

ItsoNaneo79 -

I think my Conversion Rate is decent, but I always wondered what it would be like if my site was less info-mercially. Know what I mean? I think people get turned off to the Billy Blanks style "stuff a product in your face" way of selling. But your site is awesome because I didn't get that infomercial vibe.

You don't mind if I borrow the basic HTML layout from your site, do you? I would change the colors, style, description, etc. It would have my pictures and text, but your general layout.

By the way... I LOVE this, you guys! See how much faster we are learning when we work together?? It would have taken me two weeks to develop a better site layout. And that's just the beginning!

[jakediddy]

Hey all, I'm currently working on content for my first committed muse (both the site and, yes like every other person, an e-book). What I've done to figure out my site layout and SEO technique initially is compare and contrast various other similar sites. I started with Tim's www.pxmethod.com, and proceeded to use Google to find other websites. I used terms such as: "learn italian", "learn piano", etc... Some searches don't return any ads while others have a lot.

I'm also looking for effective keywords for ads. I found http://www.goodkeywords.com/ (they provide a free utility to import Google suggestion data so that you can work with a larger set of keywords to find less-competitive keywords that aren't too dead).

I'll keep you updated on anything else I try.

[itakerefuge]

1. Found Niche Market: males 18+ who read “The Game” by Neil Strauss.
2. Created a Product.
-Name: WCB Attraction Maximizer. www.world-class-baller.com
-Product Description: eBook to teach people to be THEMSELVES & be attractive.


I'm also designing something based on the seduction lair. Although, it has much less to do with seduction and much more to do with self-development. I'll hold off on the details for now.

Did you hear about "The Four Hour Work Week" through style life? That's how I heard about the book. It was recommended in one of the monthly newsletters I got sent.

Anyway, after reading this book and researching muses I realized how much money all those PUA gurus are making, and how they are much better examples of businessmen than dating coaches.

p.s. Don't become a PUA, it's not worth it. It messes with your head in the long run.

[ItsuNaneo79]

ItsoNaneo79 -

I think my Conversion Rate is decent, but I always wondered what it would be like if my site was less info-mercially. Know what I mean? I think people get turned off to the Billy Blanks style "stuff a product in your face" way of selling. But your site is awesome because I didn't get that infomercial vibe.

You don't mind if I borrow the basic HTML layout from your site, do you? I would change the colors, style, description, etc. It would have my pictures and text, but your general layout.

By the way... I LOVE this, you guys! See how much faster we are learning when we work together?? It would have taken me two weeks to develop a better site layout. And that's just the beginning!

Yea, i know what you mean. In the fitness industry the standard is to be IN YOUR FACE DO THIS OR DIE FROM FATNESS kind of stuff.

Frankly, I'd prob sell more if i was "louder" but, I'm a football player and refuse to do that to my fellow footballers.

Sure, you can feel free to use the lay out. I think it needs improvement (html is my enemy) but sure.

[saveTheWorld]

p.s. Don't become a PUA, it's not worth it. It messes with your head in the long run.

I know what you mean. I read The Game almost 3 years ago, and began my own research into the idea about a year later. Since then, I did enough research to solve the problems that the game created. Hence my eBook.

Actually, we might be talking about the same type of product to sell, itakerefuge. Email me at contact@world-class-baller.com. Let's talk about collaboration.

[Mike Rhodes]

You guys are doing some amazing stuff. I wish I had a muse to test... My mind is stuffed with ideas but feel so overwhelmed, don't know where to start.

Good luck! I hope to hear more from you all here!

just pick one & start.
the danger is getting overwhelmed because you want to either
a) do it perfectly, or
b) learn everything before you start.

I'll make this easy for you - neither of those will ever happen.
So just start with one.
Make some mistakes.
Rinse & repeat.

Your aim is not to make $1000s from muse #1
It's to learn

Goal for muse #2 or #3 is to break even

Have a goal not to make buckets of cash until #4 or #5 - any sooner is a bonus. but be realistic with your expectations.

[Marcie]

Really good advice, Mike - and nice to see you around!

[shlomof]

:confused:Hey guys,
seems that what you are saying hear is really simple. but as someone who wrote an ebook before, it's a pretty hard thing to do.

you need to collect the data, do the graphics, edit it and write it all ( not on this order).

how long did it take you to write those ebooks and what was to working proccess?

thanks,
shlomo

[saveTheWorld]

Yes, awesome advice, Mike. Does this mean you have some muse success and failure stories? Do share!

[jakediddy]

:confused:Hey guys,
seems that what you are saying hear is really simple. but as someone who wrote an ebook before, it's a pretty hard thing to do.

you need to collect the data, do the graphics, edit it and write it all ( not on this order).

how long did it take you to write those ebooks and what was to working proccess?

thanks,
shlomo


One key element is outsourcing. I do want to do as much as I can using my own time and resources (for initial production, not customer service) since I enjoy my topics, but a major point of the book we've read is deciding whether it would be "cheaper" (in time/ejoyment of time, not USD or Euros) to have someone else do the work.

[networkmemetics]

Outsourcing Content creation is a key to scaling your business. If you plan to outsource, make sure you outsource from multiple individuals / businesses. Don't throw all of your eggs in one basket.

Outsource content to 3 people, whoever does best gets more work.

Outsource submission of content / linkbuilding to someone else. By compartmentalizing, it will be harder for one outsourcer to reverse-engineer your business plan.

[Y.O.Morales]

I'm so frustrated with my ideas. Being a web developer, they are always Internet-based and, being a hard core dreamer, they mostly tend to be too large and daunting. Then comes the discovery that most of them are already done and so it's frustration after frustration.

Here are some of my ideas, along with some problems:

Idea 1: A do-it-yourself website creation service specifically for small business. Based on subscriptions, users get the best online tools available (like Google Wave (http://wave.google.com/help/wave/about.html), ExtJs widgets (http://www.extjs.com/deploy/dev/examples/samples.html), etc.) tailored to business procedures (e.g. if a technology does little in helping the users offer good, automated customer service, then it's left behind.). Users also get support plus periodical articles on small business, entrepreneurship, and the like. The service can even create a community so that users can exchange skills (e.g. I design your logo in exchange for printed media). This idea would be good for 4HWW'ers. :)
Problem: DIY website creation services already exist, with Yola.com being a huge one with (supposedly) millions in finance and 2 million users. Heh, it's competing against a giant.

Idea 2. A social network/project management service with an approach of "less is more" (example: like Twitter did with their main feature: 144 words messages). So, recognizing that there is an overload of information these days, this service will have its features in small doses: micro-messages, very short To-Do lists, limited RSS readers, and the more.
Problem: I'm not entirely sure how good this sounds. Plus there is the issue that the market for this kind of stuff is very saturated.

Idea 3: A service like StackOverflow (http://stackoverflow.com/) but for college students in general.
Problem: Other than advertising and maybe premium memberships, I don't see other ways for business models. Plus, we already got Yahoo Answers, which although not similar, can be used for the same purposes.

See? I've worked on 1 and 2, but every week or so I find more frustration as I begin to discover solid obstacles and doubts. :(

Anyways, if anyone need some help in developing their muse (from a technological point), drop me a private message. It's the least I can do.

[jakediddy]

Hey Y.O.(?),

How long have you been really thinking hard about muses? I have found that the first few months that I began thinking about life and income this way, I was thinking of products which were too complex (i.e.: the next cool kitchen gadget). I've noticed that over time my muse ideas have gotten more efficient and much simpler (and cheaper investment-wise).

Keep your brain on-track and you will basically be excercising it. After a little while you'll start seeing opportunity in simpler ideas that you didn't think of before. Just give it time. Keep working on your existing ideas if you want, but I can guarantee that you'll get hit by simpler muses in time.

Some people have a natural knack, others need to work on it; but believe me it gets easier to think of ideas if you "practice".

Two other rules float around in this forum:


Just do it - stop hesitating and don't over-analyze
Don't look for a winner the first or second muse, use these to "learn the ropes"

[networkmemetics]

The $$$ are in the details and the selling.

You are thinking like a developer, not like a salesperson, or a person you are selling to.

Don't try to help everyone:

How about 'Websites for Private Practice Dentists" or an info product on how to create private practice dental websites that rank well in Google...and then sell it to dentists?

Take off your developer hat, and put it away. Who needs help/something so bad that they will pay for it?

[Y.O.Morales]

Hey Y.O.(?),
How long have you been really thinking hard about muses?


Well, I've been trying to find a muse about.... umm... 2 1/2 months ago.

Hey Y.O.(?),
Two other rules float around in this forum:


Just do it - stop hesitating and don't over-analyze
Don't look for a winner the first or second muse, use these to "learn the ropes"


I agree. The problem here is that one cannot be entirely sure if an idea/project works until you actually get it done.


The $$$ are in the details and the selling.
You are thinking like a developer, not like a salesperson, or a person you are selling to.


I've been slowly seeing that this is the case.


How about 'Websites for Private Practice Dentists" or an info product on how to create private practice dental websites that rank well in Google...and then sell it to dentists?

Take off your developer hat, and put it away. Who needs help/something so bad that they will pay for it?


For now I cannot think of something exact, but I will keep my eyes open for it and, of course, listen and keep listening to people for finding that problem.

Thanks to you both. Perhaps I should print and stick these two articles to my home office wall:
The Prescription for Self-Doubt: Watch This Video (http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/01/12/nick-vijicic-get-back-up/)
Harnessing Entrepreneurial Manic-Depression: Making the Rollercoaster Work for You (http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2008/10/03/harnessing-entrepreneurial-manic-depression-making-the-rollercoaster-work-for-you/).

Anyways, back to action! :D

[Stephenw]

:confused:Hey guys,
seems that what you are saying hear is really simple. but as someone who wrote an ebook before, it's a pretty hard thing to do.

you need to collect the data, do the graphics, edit it and write it all ( not on this order).

how long did it take you to write those ebooks and what was to working proccess?

thanks,
shlomo

Dude, I wrote my 20 page ebook in one sitting. Only took about 4 hours, and If you know all of the information off the top of your head, then not only is it simple, but you know a lot about the subject at hand. I guess it may depend on the topic, but writing an ebook shouldn't take more than a couple of days if you stick to it.

1. Found Niche Market: Create a 2.0 website in 1 hour or less, no html knowledge required
2. Created A Product: EBOOK
-Name: Create a Website in 1 hour or Less. http://www.GoogleStatistics.com
-Product Description: eBook to easily create a website in 1 hour or less from scratch
-Why? Cause I have a website idea, but don't know the first thing to get started and get ti up and running.
3. Skipped preliminary eBay testing.
4. Built Test Site.
-After creating a very successful gaming site with podcasts and sister forum deal, without any prior knowledge, I simply made an ebook to teach people the way I did it.
-Did a advanced search for 'legal to copy' pics. (Creative Commons)
-Wrote the description. Click the link above to see it.
-Purchased Domain Name & Web Hosting from godaddy for about $10.
5. Advertised on Google
-Selected keywords like “how do i make a website”, “create a website”, etc.
-Tested on adwords for 7 days. ($46 per day budgeted)
-160,000 Impressions
-90 Clicks
-15 “Try It” Button Pushes
-5 “sales” (Conversion Rate was 33.00%)
-Used $80 in ads. ($30 my money & $50 godaddy credit)
6. eBOOK is still up since that test trial. No need to advertise on google, since I get a ton of traffic from my two sites. Made about 15 sales since then.
-Reasons: Terrible CTR and Conversion Rate. No need to take it down if I get a sale here or there, cause HEY, FREE BEER MONEY FROM THE INTERNET ;] (I'm a college student, what do you expect?)

[jakediddy]

The beauty of ebook selling is that it is an extremely low-risk/low-investment product. If it doesn't sell, well maybe you could lose a few hundred bucks in advertising, but that's a one-time loss and you should have learned from it (AdWords experience, hosting experience, customer behavior if you set up your site to record it, etc...). At that point, consider that few hundred you lost an educational expense, not a loss.

[Michel_Carroll]

Here's my situation. I hope you can help me brainstorm a good product:

I'm already owner of a blog. I get maybe 40 targeted visitors a day, and I have about 25 people subscribed to my feed. If I tried harder, I could bring in more, but for now, it's a nice start.

My visitors consist of fairly young guys (judging by the maturity of many of my comments) of different cultural backgrounds, with an interest in game development.

I thought about introducing a game programming tutorial, but with the amount of free tutorials on the internet, I don't think they'll bite.

Any ideas?

[jakediddy]

My visitors consist of fairly young guys (judging by the maturity of many of my comments)

Sorry but that made me laugh. :)

I thought about introducing a game programming tutorial, but with the amount of free tutorials on the internet, I don't think they'll bite.

Any ideas?

You'll still get bites.

[roe_g]

Here's my situation. I hope you can help me brainstorm a good product:

I'm already owner of a blog. I get maybe 40 targeted visitors a day, and I have about 25 people subscribed to my feed. If I tried harder, I could bring in more, but for now, it's a nice start.

My visitors consist of fairly young guys (judging by the maturity of many of my comments) of different cultural backgrounds, with an interest in game development.

I thought about introducing a game programming tutorial, but with the amount of free tutorials on the internet, I don't think they'll bite.

Any ideas?see if there is a niche that isn't covered (program a basic FPS using c++, or whatever). eBay test an ebook toturial.

[funinthesun]

Here's my situation. I hope you can help me brainstorm a good product:

I'm already owner of a blog. I get maybe 40 targeted visitors a day, and I have about 25 people subscribed to my feed. If I tried harder, I could bring in more, but for now, it's a nice start.

My visitors consist of fairly young guys (judging by the maturity of many of my comments) of different cultural backgrounds, with an interest in game development.

I thought about introducing a game programming tutorial, but with the amount of free tutorials on the internet, I don't think they'll bite.

Any ideas?

Find out the kinds of games these guys are interested in/like to play. Then create an ebook how-to on developing a basic FPS, RTS, etc. game in Objective-C for the iPhone or another format. iPhone is huge right now, but these guys might be more hardcore, in which case, traditional game programming in C/C++ would probably be better. Personally, I would stick to basics for the first ebook (i.e. IDE/dev environment setup to getting a basic game running on whatever format you choose). Then you can do sequels that either modify the existing project (add in flashy graphics, new functionality, etc.) or create a different game type. But definitely test out your audience first, find out what they want and deliver it :D

[Michel_Carroll]

Thank you all for your advice. I wrote a sale copy on my website, leading to "Under construction". I want to see my conversion rate before developing my ebook tutorial.

[jakediddy]

Let us know how it goes!

[ArtWealth]

Hey all.

Great thread.

I've noticed a lot of "skipped the ebay test" comments. I have been thinking of doing that also with my first 2 muse attempts. What's the thinking on this? Why not test everything on ebay first?

I'd love to hear from some of you who already have successful musses.

N.

[dvdwlsh]

@ArtWealth, eBay doesn't represent the same sales channel that you'll end up using for your product. It's not controlled, reliable testing to see if something works on eBay and assume it will convert similarly as a sales page. There's almost zero barrier to getting a simple sales site online and handling your testing in that way. It will give you far more accurate testing results.

Though they're certainly more elaborate than you need for testing, feel free to check out 2 of my muses for ideas: Audio Mixology (http://audiomixology.com) & Source Control (http://getsourcecontrol.com/).

David

[ArtWealth]

Very nice. I want that app and I hardly ever drink, let alone tend bar :rolleyes:

In my development of a low information diet, it's important to watch the already successful people closely. It's fun to be a spectator of the drama of others at my level... and to entice others to follow my own drama, but that's really the stuff that needs to be skimmed for pitfalls and successes, not focused on.

That's not a comment directed at anyone in particular other than myself.

Since my muse is a piece of jewelry, I may do some testing on Ebay, but only in conjunction with PPC testing, not to establish a baseline on price or market desire...

Thanks again.

N.

[Michel_Carroll]

Let us know how it goes!

Sorry, but no bites after 50 views. I'm putting it down, for risk of losing some blog viewers.

The average time my copy was viewed for was 20 seconds.

I think I know why this is so. These years, seeing an internet copy is an instant page turner. Unless you're dealing with a non-cyber savvy crowd, or have a godlike product.

My next plan is studying game artificial intelligence, which I love. Hopefully, in the near future, I'll come up with an incredible product based on my expertise.

Any comments are welcome.

[saveTheWorld]

1. Found Niche Market: males 18+ who read “The Game” by Neil Strauss.
2. Created a Product.
-Name: WCB Attraction Maximizer. www.world-class-baller.com
-Product Description: eBook to teach people to be THEMSELVES & be attractive.
-Why? Cause I read the Game, and realized how true, yet how manipulative it was
3. Skipped Prelim eBay testing
4. Test Site was built from Muse Attempt #2
5. Advertised on Google
-Used more specific keywords like “mystery method products”, “mystery method workshops”, "mystery method workshop", etc. Used good ol' Mike Rhodes tutorial on how to pimp out my CPC campaign. (Search the message boards for his link.) If someone is doing an internet search on "mystery method workshops", that means they are about to drop $1000 to have someone try to teach them 8% of what I can show them for $100. I figured this would mean a high conv rate.
-Tested on Adwords for 1 week ($50 per day budgeted)
-About 200,000 Impressions
-201 Clicks (CTR was 1.72% for Google Search, 0.07% for Content Ads)
-2 “sales” for eBook priced @ $99.95 each.
-2 "sales" for eBook priced @ $49.95 each.
-So 3 “sales” counted (Conversion Rate was 1.99%, about 300% ROI)
6. Invested in the eBook, I'll let you know when it's written. Exciting!!

[saveTheWorld]

I found out something very important if you are having trouble coming up with muse ideas. Thinking of the niches that you are part of is easy, but sometimes it's hard to think of product ideas just out of the blue like that. Try this:

Just write down a giant list of your complaints about your life. Write down every problem with your life that you can think of. There is a huge chance that you are not alone. Other people have those same problems. And guess what? Those people are probably in one of your niches that you thought of before! So pick one of those problems and solve it in an awesome new way! Then sell that new way to everybody else with that same problem. And voila! You have a muse idea!

Do it for each problem in your life. Then your life is hassle-free, and your loaded from all of those muses! Let me know how it works!

[jakediddy]

I actually used FreeMind (http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page) to inspire myself. It's an open-source/free mind mapping tool. I created three main branches from myself at the center: Jobs, Interests, and Hobbies. Then I broke these 3 sections down further and further.

Take jobs, for example. I listed all of my past and current paid positions by company name. Then I broke them down into responsibilities and experiences. If possible, I'd break these down even further.

That allowed me to not necessarily learn my personality, but rather remind myself of it.