So I’ve gotten started on my first 30 day challenge and I’m well underway. In my last post, I gave a list of action steps that I was going to follow to see this challenge through. I’ve pretty much completed all of the steps that I mentioned I was going to be doing in the first week.
What I’ve been doing is keeping a little journal (on physical paper) of all the steps I’m doing towards this challenge. I write down everything so that I can make sure I pass it all along to you without leaving anything out. So what will follow will be my journal entries for the last couple days. If you’re following along, feel free to take the same action steps that I’ve taken over the last couple days.
May 7, 2012
I started out by making a few decisions. I had to first pick a niche to dive in to this project with and once I had my niche picked, I had to choose a pen name to use during this challenge. I don’t want to reveal my niche or my pen name just yet because it could taint the results of this project. I do have a little bit of credibility and name recognition in this online world. I don’t want my name to skew the results.
I will tell you that the niche I chose was online related. I am teaching how to do something online that a large amount of people want to learn. This type of training will make it easier to find people willing to do solo ads with me as most people that I follow that sell solo ads have lists that are targeted towards online training.
Once I chose my niche and my pen name, it was time to register a domain. I used NameCheap to buy domain name and I picked a good domain name geared towards my chosen niche. I linked my domain name to my hosting account. If you don’t have a hosting account yet, I recommend HostGator. They are who I used for many many years and still use to this day on many of my sites.
Once I had my domain name and hosting, I installed WordPress on my domain name because I’m going to be creating my squeeze pages and thank you pages within WordPress. If you don’t know how to install WordPress yet, I have free training videos at The WordPress Classroom.
To create killer looking squeeze pages, I installed a premium WordPress theme called OptimizePress. OptimizePress makes it really simple to create really beautiful looking squeeze pages. Since I haven’t actually written my free report yet, this is as far as I got on creating the brand and the site.
Now that I had my niche and I knew what I was going to teach, I decided to create a little flowchart of the process I was going to teach in my free report. I used a free service called Gliffy to create an awesome looking flowchart of the process. Having this flowchart gives me a visual to use on my squeeze page that grabs attention and makes people want to learn more. I can also include this flowchart inside my free report to further solidify the concepts that I’ll be teaching.
May 8, 2012
Today I spent a couple hours writing my free report on my topic. I had intended to write only 5-6 pages on this free report but actually became caught up in the process and ended up writing 11 pages. About 3 of those pages are graphics and the rest is teaching the process. More than 5 or 6 pages isn’t really necessary, I just got caught up in my writing and decided to over-deliver a little. Most people can write whatever they feel best explains the concept they are trying to teach. Quality of Quantity is important here when creating your free report. Throughout my free report I used affiliate links any time I mentioned a resource that I recommend someone uses. I don’t expect this to generate a lot of money but I expect to see affiliate commissions trickle in here and there from this.
I really struggled to get my head in the write place to begin writing. I kept telling myself, “I’m going to go eat lunch, then I’ll start…”. “I just need to grab some coffee, then I’ll start.”, “Let me just check my email first, then I’ll get going.”… etc, etc. etc. It really is difficult sometimes to get yourself to just start writing. But once I finally got that OpenOffice document open, I just couldn’t stop writing. I got in to a zone and just hammered through until the report was perfect.
OpenOffice is a free word processor for both Windows and Mac and it works great for writing free reports. Once I was done with my report, I saved it as a PDF and uploaded it in to my new WordPress site.
Once I had my report finished, I could start building out my squeeze page. I logged in to WordPress and created a new page using the OptimizePress theme. I created my squeeze page using the Squeeze 8 template that comes with OptimizePress. I wrote my headline, my bullets, and added my little flowchart image to the page… The squeeze page ended up looking something like this… (Obviously I can’t show it to you yet)
Once I had my squeeze page finished, I began working on the “Thank You” page and the “Download” page. The “Thank You” page is the page that they will see immediately after opting-in with their email. This is valuable real estate because everyone sees this whether they give a real email address or a bogus one. Therefore, I want to make sure I monetize it. I went to Clickbank and opened up a brand new account. This account has made zero dollars and you can see the account creation date is May 8th. (I blurred out the account name because it would give away my niche)
I browsed Clickbank and found a product that I’ve actually purchased in the past that is very relevant to my freebie and I added a little banner for it on my “Thank You” page. I then added some text to my “Thank You” page that says something along the lines of “Thanks so much for giving me your email, please check your email for details on how to access your free report”.
After creating the “Thank You” page, I needed to create a download page. I created another page in WordPress, linked to the free report that I had uploaded earlier, and added another banner to this page for the affiliate program that I had chosen to promote.
That completed my page creation but I hadn’t set up a list yet. I jumped over to Aweber and created a brand new fresh account just for the sake of creating my challenge. It’s $1 for the first month so if the challenge doesn’t work out, I’m only out a buck.
(List names are blurred to protect my niche)
You’ll notice that in my Aweber account, I have two lists created. I did this so that I can have one list for Pay-Per-View Traffic and one list for all other traffic sources. By doing this, I can track how well PPV traffic converts to other sources.
I then wrote my first followup email for both lists which links people back to my download page where they can access their free report. I created a webform as well. The web form has the “Thank You” page set to the “Thank You” page that I created. I then took the form code that Aweber gave me and pasted it in to my OptimizePress squeeze page in the section where it asks for opt-in form details.
That’s it… That’s everything I’ve done so far towards this project.
To recap, I’ve.
- Chose a niche
- Chose a pen name
- Purchased a domain name
- Purchased hosting
- Installed WordPress on my domain
- Installed the OptimizePress theme in WordPress
- Created a flowchart of the process I’m teaching
- Wrote a 13 page free report (which included affiliate links)
- Created a squeeze page
- Created a “Thank You” page
- Created a “Download” page
- Opened a Clickbank account
- Opened an Aweber account
- Wrote my first autoresponder message
- Linked my autoresponder to OptimizePress
And that’s everything. Taking action is the key to making these types of things work. As you can see, I’ve taken a lot of steps over the last couple days. Despite how many steps it looks like I’ve taken, I really only spent about 2 hours on this project each day. 2 hours on Monday and 2 hours on Tuesday.
Now that I’ve got this whole process in place, I’m going to go experiment with generating traffic to my new page!
Let the fun begin!
Please ask any clarifying questions or add comments below. I do my best to respond to everyone so that I can make sure you can follow along.
More Posts In This Series:
1. Add $1,000 Per Month To Your Business in 30 Days
2. One Thousand Email Subscribers in 30 Days
3. Creating A Free Report And A Simple Squeeze Page
4. Traffic Generation And Challenge Hiccups
5. Your Questions Answered And More Stats
 The (not so stellar) results post (Challenge) |  Your Questions Answered And My Latest Stats (Challenge) |  Traffic Generation And My Challenge Has Hiccups (Challenge) |
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Thanks for sharing Matt, can’t wait to see how this unfolds for you.
JR
Thanks for commenting. I’ve already ran in to some road blocks. I’ll share in another journal entry tomorrow. (I still think I’ll reach my goal though)
Ooooh, My thoughts and ideas are bouncing around like a jack-in the box. I have decided to unearth a project I started about a year ago and which for personal reasons I was forced to drop along with everything else that was IM related.
It is actually a service product for niche sites.
What it does mean is that I have already completed most of the steps mentioned including a 30+ page report with several affiliate links and a mind map instead of a flow chart. I even have an Early Bird sign up page and so far about 30 people have wandered by and signed up. I am feeling very guilty that those poor people have just been left to wonder what is happening.
The one major hiccup is my complete lack of experience when it comes to Optimize Press (I do have it) and whether to go the membership site route as originally planned or not. I also still have to add more products to the site and I haven’t yet added the report in as a giveaway
I must admit I am a Thesis fan and am thinking that I should change my theme back to what I know and laugh off the membership thing.
Thanks for this challenge Matt. It is doing me a lot of good and is helping me to focus myself.
I have now added in my website as a link here to force myself to go on. It is either that, or run away with my tail between my legs.
Sandy
Hey Sandy. Sounds like you’re already half way there. You’re past the hard part (making a product). Now it’s time to get it out there and start getting it in front of people. Don’t get hung up on which them to use. Just get it out there.
I like OptimizePress because it makes the squeeze pages look awesome. It’s not necessary though. Work with what you know and just get it out there.
Haha lov’n the vulnerability about taking for ever to get writing. Thanks for sharing it.
Thanks Geoff. I’m not going to lie… Writing a report or an ebook or something along those lines takes a lot of focus. I have procrastination issues sometimes. However, doing this challenge publicly on my blog is getting my butt in gear to make sure I do what I’m saying I’m going to do.
The clock is ticking,,, 4 days gone, 26 days left. I can’t wait to see the end of this challenge. Nice one dude.
Thanks Sam. I think I’m on track. A couple of little hiccups here and there that I’ll share in my journal entry tomorrow but nothing that’s setting me back too far. I should still be able to accomplish what I set out to do (if not more).
Hey Matt, what about keyword research? Did you do keyword research for coming up with a domain name, and the name of the report?
Thanks for doing this challenge!
Hey Mary,
I actually did not do any keyword research for this particular project. I picked a niche that I know is hot and very popular. When it comes to this type of model, popular, saturated markets are good. It means you have more people to swap with and more people to purchase solo ads from.
I also feel that with this, you should be diving in to a niche that you already know. You need to be able to write a free report and followup sequence. So I just find it easier with something that I’m already knowledgable in…
I’m not sure what you mean by this:
“It means you have more people to swap with and more people to purchase solo ads from.”
Are you going to explain that further along, Matt?
BTW, this whole thing is fascinating to watch (and great to follow along with). I”m now a daily visitor to your blog
It basically means that if you pick a popular niche, you’ll have a lot of people in that niche with lists in that niche. If there’s lots of people in that niche, you’ll have more people to contact to promote your freebie to their lists…
So to be clear, your product, the thing you will actually sell, is an Affiliate Clickbank product in a popular niche?? And, as you say, you wrote your own Freebie to attract them.
You do not have your own product….wow! As I read your step by step, I was struck over and over by these thoughts:
o Oh I already know how to do that!
o I already own that!
o That sounds simple!
I too have the procrastination virus…and a little ADHD as well so it’s easy to get distracted by most anything new and shiny…
I feel like that dyslexic, agnostic, insomniac guy….I can’t sleep all night worrying about if there really is a Dog.
This is a wonderful project and is making my confidence level climb. It’s a good thing you are doing!
Thank you.
David Rodwell
Thanks for commenting David. It really is pretty easy to get stuff like this going. A lot of people know what they need to do but get hung up on little details instead of just moving forward.
I’m glad you like the project! It’s going to get real interesting pretty quickly.
I’m really enjoying following along, Matt and I can relate to the “putting off getting started syndrome – that is something i suffer from.
Thanks for the all the details and links to the resources you use too.
I didn’t know about Gliffy – that looks like it is a useful resource to know about.
Good luck with everything.
I’m off to read your next report now. My, this is interesting!
I’m glad you’re enjoying it. Gliffy is a great free tool. I use it constantly just to visualize a plan that I’m going to put in to action.
Matt, I look forward to your progress. I am particularly interested in your flowchart as a sort of a blueprint for getting my projects going. While a list is helpful, a flowchart can indicate the dependencies among the items on the list.
Good Luck
Jeff
Exactly Jeff. Flowcharts are great tools. People love to see other people’s flowcharts as well, making them great tools to grab attention when promoting free products.
Hi Matt, I plan on running with you on this one. Started taday and have registered my new domain, installed WordPress and created my free report. Getting started on squeeze page now…
Update: Got a whole heap of stuff done today – Installed OptimizePress, created Squeeze, thank you and download pages and got it all linked to autoresponders and working.
It took me longer than your 4 hours Matt, probably because I have never used OptimizePress before. Good product though and their videos are great – made configuring pretty easy.
Only thing left is to write the 2 x responder emails. I have however not created 2 lists as I don’t know how to distinguise between PPV and other traffic. Suppose that will become clear as I go along.
2 Email responses to write and then I can dive into traffic generation.
This is fun!
Hey Eddie! That’s awesome! Thanks for the update. I understand a lot of people will probably spend more than the 4 hours that I spent. I’ve made a lot of squeeze pages in my time so many people should allow for extra time to learn how to get these types of things going.
As far as the 2 lists in Aweber… It’s not 100% necessary. I wouldn’t worry about it. I’d just focus on building one list. In my case, I’m just trying to get super detailed with my tracking so I can report back to you guys what is and isn’t working. Since you don’t necessarily need to go in depth and report back to anyone, it’s not as big of a deal.
Great job on getting things moving! Definitely continue to keep us updated!
Matt -
I’m glad to see you posting on your blog again – I had a feeling you were busy with the bigger money makers!
This is awesome – thanks for posting this; I’m looking forward to these series of blog posts!!!!
Hey Irwin. I missed blogging. I was busy with other aspects of my business but my blog has been the one thing that I’ve kept coming back to. I can never abandon it.
Hi Matt
Sounds like your 30 Day Challenge is going along great, this post was easy to follow on how to create a free report & squeeze page, I will be popping back every day now to follow your progress.
Thanks for sharing
Can I just ask how often do they do this challenge as I would be interested in joining next time?
Have a great day
Pauline
Hey Pauline. Thanks for following along. This is my first time attempting a 30 day challenge. I’m not sure how often I’ll do this. I’ll probably do another one every other month or so… After all, every time I do this it adds a potential extra $1k per month to my business.
I paid a lot of money to go on a course that taught me how to create blogs and products, but this type of thing just wasn’t included, so here I am now with a really good grasp of how to create stuff, but not how to market it and make money from it. Hoping to learn a lot from your test, Matt. Thanks for sharing.
Enjoy the journey.
Mandy
Hey Mandy, I do discuss some of my traffic tactics in the newer posts. I use mostly paid traffic to just push a ton of people through and then run tests to increase the conversions on my pages.