Resources: Omnigraffle, Deadmau5, Greg Rollett, Zack Shapiro, Syncplicity, Graffletopia
dec 3rd
sat in omnigraffle and created a breakdown mindmap of plausible actions and details for the wordpress websites set up. it all starts with a few sentences and a mindmap. the process is hard to mentally “get into” but fun and provides a sense of accomplishment, plus this can now be reviewed and vetted by friends and people.
Omigraffle is great, and omnigraffle stencils abound at graffletopia.com. websites that can potentially build the same thing.
an interesting concept i’m going to play with because omnigraffle is so versatile and powerful is using the mindmap in the actual selling or pitch process. I can export my mindmap with image links and as HTML…which means I can create a version that is used for the actual buying process leading people to a sales page or capture…
dec 4th & dec 5th
omnigraffle is now open all the time. i’ve been crafting the flow of each service and sending out to trusted fellow entrepreneurs or my board of directors. mindmaps to entrepreneurs must be what code are to programmers. i have a first draft of each mindmap, each step in the process of selling and serving each service package. the hands on involvement of each service varies from moderate to completely automated digital product. it’s exciting, it provides a real scope for what needs to be created, and it needs to be looked over for gaping holes or missing parts.
board of directors?
this brilliant idea came from Zack Shapiro who is a college entrepreneur, and has already launched an iphone/ipod app for bus transportation. he contacted me and wrote a guest post for ITA, we corresponded back and forth since then, exchanging some good books to read. he suggested creating a board of directors. obviously not a real board of directors, as that would implicate a corporation, but really a few individuals who’s opinion and expertise you value. at first i thought, who would do this for free? agree to chat with you every few weeks and be available via e-mail. well…turns out most entrepreneurs probably would. in my experiences those who have or are building business first, love and want to network, but they also like helping. so, i asked a few people i’ve worked with in the past to commit to a business chat every 6 weeks and to be available by internet.
i watched the social network the night of Dec 4th. a decent hollywood movie, a real motivator for anyone in the online entrepreneur world. a vivid example of the potential out there. i’m finding myself invigorated to continue creation mode and building value after watching it.
i’m also finding myself lonely in entrepreneur world. although i have several online contacts i banter back and forth with, my offline world has little entrepreneur motivation in it. i don’t use an office share, no huge warehouse buildings with everyone sitting at a computer ready to dive in on something. i’m not in a position or on some crazy binge where one specific project or idea consumes all of life. besides my fiance, and my day job colleagues, and my roommate (barely) … i don’t really spend time with anyone else, let alone anyone else to encourage building business opportunity. hmmm, yet another reminder to go to real life meetups. anyone else out there relate?
the movie also got me thinking about the bigger picture when creating something. the concepts of a lifestyle business and a traditional business are at war and the differing ideas get to me sometimes. on one hand, i want to do what i love, give technical support, make enough money to enjoy life and do it on my own terms. stop there. on the other hand, creating a scalable product people can invest in and grow and make a serious impact to an untold number of people is exciting and enticing. maybe one will be a stepping stone to the other.
back to looking over the mindmaps.
dec 6th
Monday, back to daily job grind. Disliking the business structure more and more, even though I still profess to love the technology, the macs, the problems I run into.
Non-related – was studying my mint.com trends for the last two years, specifically net income. when reviewing over the last two years and the amount of money i’ve spent and earned, it seems absurd. it also looks insulting how little i’ve saved, even though i save more than most in my circle of friends, 11% of my day job income goes into a 401k. how is it so hard to put away more money?
i’m starting to work with larger numbers, and not think about paycheck to paycheck income, but where i could be using money to make more money. (i have between 10-20k in accounts) i’ve been increasingly interested in places to outsource, establishments i can tilt my savings into, like money market funds, high yield savings accounts ect. i’m starting to lean toward these so i can free more of my time and concern to doing online business that creates income, or eek out a few extra dollars in interest yields.
the flip side of this is always analyzing where i’m spending money so i can be more frugal, cut spending, although again, there’s a shift in mindset. it’s starting, just starting….to feel like i can make a bigger impact by putting thought into how i can make more income, instead where i can spend less money. spending less and tactics for doing so are always valuable, and i especially need to stay away from Wawa, but there’s this mental shift as you’re not looking at what is coming in and going out and thinking, Ok…ok…can rent be paid? can I afford food this month, cell phone bill…what a pompous thought, but I just don’t have to worry about those things.
found more audio fuel for doing work – deadmau5 (for lack of a better name) – awesome instrumental house techno electronica tunes
business goals for the night.
- catch up with g_ro.
- purchase HD domains for side adsense website project.
- work through m6 niche identification worksheet
- 2 ITA nucleus tasks
- send out initial mindmaps for review.
- what actually happened
- g_ro chat was good, encouraging. man it’s uplifting to just talk with other entrepreneurs
- didn’t purchase domains
- straightened up ITA nucleus task document
dec 7th
- catching up on my action items, christmas shopping ect.
- did shopping, found engagement venue (talked with rcbyob)
- did keyword research with google keyword tool, used ask500, and chose hdtestvideo.com for my ad website about hd video tests for your computer.
- tested syncplicity and dropbox, awesome functionality…NOT perfect. potential eproduct here for syncoholics
dec 8th
no specific ITA relaunch action
worked on an adwords campaign and web development for www.braziliantechnicaltraining.com, seniorclarity.com, and reversemortgagesite.com
got 4 hour body in the mail, read for an hour! tim has an incredible ability to spark action through rational data tracking. i want to try a few things in his book sure, but his data centric mind has invigorated me to keep track of key deliverables i just let waver. body image deliverables and business ones. i’m putting together some tracking tools soon, a tracking blog for the body, and monthly reports and goals for ITA.
dec 9th
went through m6 niche worksheet. it’s incredibly thorough and has me coming up with new ideas for products, untapped niches, and also sharpening my awareness of how to sell and update IT Arsenal’s collective offerings for the relaunch. it’s created a nice mental picture for creating my product services on a content blog, and opened doors for stand alone products.
it’s also reminding me that technical mastery for online entrepreneurs is still too vague to pitch as a product in itself. the trouble is that the tools online entrepreneurs use are varied, and changing, and daunting to even understand in scope for most beginners, and even for some of those who have been up and running but going without a certain element, like a newsletter, or actually selling a product but still have a website. a lot of people just don’t know what they don’t know, so how can i become relevant to those people and give them specific products at the same time?
be in your niche, but make further niched offers based on specific expertise or experience to cross over into other niches.
each “help with” (service/product) deeper niche page will need to be treated like it’s own homepage, setting up orientation (a framework for why this is important where it fits into the bigger scheme), with the thought that each page is it’s own niche product and made specifically for it’s audience, a niche within a niche. so…what’s this mean? tech mastery for online entrepreneurs will turn into, wordpress mastery for online entrepreneurs (tap the wordpress niche), or wordpress backup for online entrepreneurs, or learning product launch tools for online entrepreneurs (product launch niche). those things will sell better, as they are more targeted, more specific, and more easily identified as a need. do you need tech help or tech help with launching your digital product? the difference is obvious.
why do this though? because for the lifestyle business, there’s an overarching website that has a broad base, such as “tech stuff for online creators” and within that, there are specific more niched opportunities. you don’t want to just do one thing (or i don’t) so you build a flexible foundation. an example of this could be everett boque who blogs on and loves minimalism. he wrote a book on it, and then later found interest in business or likely had roots there the whole time and has created a minimalist book on businesses. niche crossing.
the rub. am i still being too vague?
do i have to specify a specific launch tool or method for that product launch example? usually the tool depends on a series of tools, or tools that change depending on your product and it’s properties or industry. it’s harder to rank or be found if i’m not super super super super specific, but the online entrepreneur and tech support niche like i’m sure many others has a lot of shifting variables depending on how you approach or how you’re getting into it.
because of the complexity involved in online business and the many solutions for getting something out there and selling, i’ll have to test educating the customer a little, and gathering a few answers or leading them down a decision tree before i pitch an offer. hopefully that decision tree will also be laced with valuable information to peak interest. for example, if using ejunkie and paypal, you need to know if the product is digital, how many sales, if affiliates are important, etc before I can say…OK, you want to watch these 3 videos, and use this service because…X X X, get started, or hire me to do it for you. there’s a level of telling the client about what they don’t know.
with that in mind, the only path i can see being the most logical is, to tier the “offerings”. blog posts can be proper name, as specific as is possible because you can craft the situation and story, and update them often. products have to be the next most specific, as people won’t buy something they are going to receive that they don’t understand explicitly. services that can be partial information products and/or outsourced are the next in line. services still need to be as specific as possible, spelling out what can be spelled out, but with the aid of decision trees, an orientation video and worksheets to get at feedback on what exactly to pitch.
going through the m6 niche worksheet helped me see how to go a level deeper and target more specific people more clearly as i develop these services. more of what i need in this relaunch.
now time to stop this thought banter and get back to actually creating the worksheets and salespages for what I am offering.
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e-mail from corbett. he never tells me what i think i’m going to hear from him, but it’s always something valuable. he offered now that I’ve completed the mindmaps, not to get bogged down with the big picture, pick a few services, and finish them out, and test them.
i’ve picked wordpress website setup, wordpress website backup, and launching a digital product
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left work, maria called and asked to pick up some elevation burger…passed out at her house…apparently tired from the little sleep in nights before…oh well
dec10
feeling fresh, hope to make some actual product and website change progress.
sidebar image update. all the feedback from corbett, and experienced players say put your real face on your website. funny because i bet those websites of people you admire, have their picture on it. i had a siloughette that was awesome my good friend zack made, but i needed something with my real image. how’d i do it?
ask my cousin to take a picture of me with a black posterboard behind me. the profile picture i’ve been using for a while.
asked my graphic design friend to cut me out for a few bucks (check him out, he’s awesome)
also asked zack to make me a logo thing with my name in it.
i took those items and opened them up in an image editor (any online one will do the trick as long as it supports layers)
i chopped up 3 versions that i thought looked okay, saved them individually, and saved them together and then put a post on twitter and facebook to vote on which was the best. http://i.imgur.com/odoRu.png …i actually thought 1 was, but i was clearly wrong.
updated website with the real image of me, and changed my header tagline to reflect feedback from the survey i posted a few weeks ago about my launch. i’ll cover this in more detail in a specific post.
made a “coming soon” graphic for a resource page i’d like to publish with all the tools, free and affiliating i’ve used to create it arsenal, including consultants and trainings I’ve done. it will also be a mass resource list for online websites to get everything an entrepreneur could need done. i didn’t make the page, but i made the graphic and put it into my sidebar on my website so I could come back to it.
evening
de-railed by reading 4 hour body instead and making notes on how to take action on the slow card diet as it sounds fun to try.
had wordpress open, created my categories, which will match up to the services. it makes sense to post about the same categories that my services and products are in, so wordpress, backup, product launch, online store, membership sites, ect.
also cleaned out my e-mail and sent out a few more specific e-mails to request if any gaping holes stand out in the three services I’ve picked to start things up with.
dec11
more reading 4 hour body, it’s engrossing, i’m looking forward to running out of food so i can start some of the mealplan.
later in the day. logistics on how to execute on these three services. spent a good deal brainstorming how to handle flow and what services to use. here’s how it’ll work.
sidebar link for “help with” my service, click through to an informative, yet sales based wordpress page with the tiers of options depending on product. they’ll check out, either with ejunkie, clickbank, or paypal, i haven’t decided yet. i’ll receive an e-mail for the sale, and they will receive a follow up e-mail with the next steps…if I need to gather more information, their site details for example, I am going to send them to a itarsenal.com page with a form, using the plugin contact form 7 which is amazing customizable for what they can enter, and where to send what they enter. this way, thinking for the future, and for outsourcing, the details can be sent to a VA to manage or complete, and it can easily be edited for changes.
i started creating one of the pages to just see what came out, and for a section where want to offer free advice and information, I want to pull a list of posts from a specific category on the blog. found this great plugin to do just that in any post or plugin – http://blogsessive.com/blogging-tools/wp-plugin-latest-posts-by-category-archive/ – works well but you need to read the documentation. if you need someone to install it for you, that’s a job for IT Arsenal.
i’ve recorded in my action document for ita arsenal, which I keep in google docs, that I need to create pages, start drafting the sales copy, and set up the products in the sales gateway (paypal, ect) and so on, it looks like this currently.
wordpress websites
- add page in blog, with visuals
- train me to build one
- create orientation video
- add page in blog
- rough draft salespage
- create ejunkie/paypal product?
- create video/worksheet on buying a domain name and hosting
- create video/worksheet on installing wordpress
- finding and installing a template
- creating your first post
- doing your first design change
- build one for me
- i need help with my site
wordpress backup
- new page on blog
- sales copy
- create orientation video on backup
- service agreement
- ejunkie/paypal product
- create form for site detail submission – (contact form 7? would be most flexible)
the other brainstorming piece is how to visually represent my mindmaps and the options someone will have to click on to get help. so far, i want to just put big buttons ie. Where’s it hurt? “I need a site – train me – do it for me” “I need help with my site” “I’m looking for advice and information” all this will need to be played with the get the best flow. i don’t want people to have to click 4 pages deep to find a buy now button, but with technical services, understanding exactly what your problem is can make a world of difference. hopefully no more than two clicks from the homepage and they will have the option to purchase service or product.