Status Update #1 – A twist added to the challenge
The Challenge gets a little bit tougher…
Ok, so by now you should know that my challenge is to start from zero, and by using my experience and knowledge create a viable online presence within one year…
oh yeah, just a small case of raising a 7 figure profit as well 
But that challenge was not hard enough it seems, so my mentorees (my students) asked me to add one more restraint to make my challenge more realistic. I have to do it with no money!
So, from March onwards I will completely be reliant on what ever income I have coming in from my online ventures.
In January I attended the Marketers Cruise which cost me over $3000 including flights. Whilst it was a great experience and great to reconnect with so many people that suprisingly remembered me from my earlier online days, my team though it was to much of an advantage in my challenge.
We came up with a figure of $5000 which a random individual may have set aside before going self employeed. Since I have spent close to $4000 already in January, I have only $1000 left for February, to pay my rent and my food costs.
WOW – these guys are really making me put my money where my mouth is!
So, I have done the following,
I worte down all the reason why I truely believe I can do this and made sure i truely believe in my abilities. I them wrote down simple ways I could save money right now, and then acted by doing the following:
1) I have moved out of my place into a shared flat, where i only rent a small room, at a much smaller cost (Internet sucks here but i will have to make do)
2) Any of the websites and features I was preparing to pay to have done, have been put on hold until I have additional funds.
3) Cheap simple meals only for me, no bars or clubs or outings which cost me money.
4) I will not be celebrating my birthday on the 17th Feb. Unless I have made some money by that day there is nothing to celebrate…
These are very small sacrifices within the bigger picture. I have wrote down clearly on a piece of paper (that is now stuck to my wall), the reason why I am doing this, and the reasons why I beieve this is fully achievable. It will act as a reminder to me everyone day and keep me motivated.
Failure is not an option, I will first make enough money to pay my rent and food costs for March. After that point I will reassess…
So, now time for my business plan.
THE BUSINESS PLAN
I have done a very comprehensive list of all the costs I have. If I live on a shoestring budget this month I can have $200 to spare (leaving nothing for next month).
So, I must assess my skills and look to what I am good at to bring in quick wins (money) before i concentrate on what i really want to do.
My history on the Internet started with a lottery site way back in 1995 I think. It was very simple, it followed the Texas state lottery and allowed people to play the lottery for free. Each ticket they entered was preceded by a 20 second viewing of an advertisers site, and these advertisers naturally payed me!
It was pretty scary each day of the drawer as I was always scared someone might actually win! The jackpot was $100,000 and even with the loophole in the T & C which stated I would only pay them $200 a month for the life of the debt, it was a little too much risk for a teenager like me so i gave it up.
After a brief stink with FFA netwroks and MLM I stumbled upon the Traffic Exchange industry and with a great mentor made a profit in my first month online, which I always spent buying educational software to learn more about marketing.
The Traffic Exchange industry has been around for quite a while, and is still strong, so naturally with 7 years experience there, that is where I think my online efforts will focus first.
I gave away a site Fontoon.com to a colleague whilst I worked on my offline career. Well, it seem this colleague didnt do much with it, so it was very easy to convince him to give it me back. The site had over 10,000 active members when I left it, but after two years of neglect I guess many of them have forgotten about it. So althought I will regain the database I expect it to be mostly dormant, so what I am actually regaining is a recognised Site name within the Traffic Exchange industry.
Yeah yeah I know, some of you are sitting there thinking that’s cheating. But hey, I already mentioned I have many years of online experience. I don’t think the average person who is new to Internet marketing can follow what I am about to do this year (forget that 30 days to success bullsh#t all over the net, most of my student do it in 3 years, but in such a way that they know how to do it again and again)
So the relaunch of Fontoon is my first business option. I will spend the $200 I have left on a facelift (site redesign) and relaunch it, but I will talk more about relauching strategy in an upcoming blog post.
As for hosting the site, I have a prepaid annual hosting account which runs out in May, my very kind metorees allowed me to keep it, provided it is renewed with my profits only in May…
So, I have a plan, and a massive hill to climb…. strangely that probably why I sit here writing this with my hiking boots on….
Long post – but need to be written down and logged….
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