Why hardly anybody makes money online >>>

In other news, we are renewing the Lifestyle Design School coaching group in 2012.  We have about a half-dozen committed members in a weekly 30-min Skype check-in / Mastermind call and I am trying to think through how to make this or similar free service available to all of you, if you want it.  I will post more when we’ve mulled this through, and if you have any comments or feedback please comment to the post (don’t email).

For the rest, this blog is and will continue to be (among other things) the “insider’s group” (“opening up the kimono” view) of WP Academy business development, including all my neuroses, hope you enjoy and trust that there is method in my madness.

You may also download the audio.

Download mp3 here.  Download slides here.

(it’s best to follow the recording with the slides, but not necessary)

Download audio file (marc-podcamp-2011.mp3)

If you like, please comment!

My primary business WordPress Academy is very likely to reach  “game over” with our fall course that begins in October.  I am simply speechless, “knock me over with a feather” kind of amazed, grateful.  It seems pretty certain that I will be teaching these courses to large groups (100+) three times a year, doing work I like, enjoying all the benefits of the internet entrepreneur lifestyle (location independence, work-hours independence, and equity accumulation), traveling in the summer as I have always wanted to, with time to pursue interests and relationships.

How this happened is a story in itself, just to say here that my entrepreneurial career has been a very mixed bag, often leaving me to wonder whether I was really cut-out to be an entrepreneur, and sometimes even to hold down any kind of job.  Money, health, and sex all have one thing in common: you don’t think about it much unless you aren’t getting any, and then you think about it all the time.   WordPress Academy was not immediately very profitable, and indeed without a peculiar circumstance in our life that enabled me to live on very little income for a while I never would have made it, but I never doubted that I was on to something.

So Lifestyle Design School has now come full-on into its original purpose, which is entrepreneur and internet business development training.  I almost-exactly followed the program laid down by Brendon Burchard in The Millionaire Messenger to create this success, which I wrote about in my earlier article.  I didn’t know about Brendon Burchard when I started, but I instinctively did what he says you should do: find an area of passion, develop a product or service that provides compelling value to a group of people, create a (very cheap) web marketing and sales platform, and then promote it via JV partners or social media.  It’s actually not rocket science, and I am now exploring the idea that the process is repeatable. I have already been working with my own private coaching group / Mastermind for several month, and initial results for everyone in this group have been very positive.

I really just got the full  scope and meaning this week of what I (we) are up to.

The first level of this new awareness is that I am thrilled to be working in the Training and Development business, this is (IMHO) one of the best careers in the world, where people pay you to give advice that changes lives (Brendon Burchard talks about this).

But  there is much more than that: this is what I was born to do.  It’s an intoxicating feeling to have realised my life purpose as it were, at the ripe old age of 51, but there you have it.  Not just teaching this process (currently the fastest way to wealth generation on the planet), but also guiding and empowering people to take control of their destiny in all areas.  I don’t even care whether I make any money at this.  I just know that I am going to be spending the rest of my life exploring the infinite opportunities for human development, not just in in business / financial terms (you need to get this handled otherwise you won’t be thinking about anything else), but in all areas of life, including our human ability to love and be loved which I have always thought of as the ultimate prize.

But yield who will to their separation,
My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation.
As my two eyes make one in sight
Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done,
For Heaven and the future’s sakes.

–Excerpted from Two Tramps in Mudtime by Robert Frost

Is it possible to add anything to that?

Read the invitation below.  Tim Ferriss’ “The 4-hour work-week” sold 1 million copies in hard-cover.  Brendon Burchard generated $7 million in a project that initially started out as a 5-week effort.

For my thoughts about “The 4-hour work-week” (and why it makes better book marketing copy than an actual business plan) see here.  It’s still a damn good read, though.

Update:  A very disappointing event, WAY too much selling of Ferriss’s $9,000 program.  A few takeaways:

• Use Evernote for research.  Spend 80% of your time on content and research, and 20% on marketing
• StumbleUpon much underused marketing vehicle.  Spend $50 on SU advertising per post and hope for your article to go viral
• Recommended books (Ferriss): On Writing Well (style), Bird by Bird (challenges of writing), 22 Immutable laws of marketing (marketing)
• Gently nurture relationships with top bloggers at BlogWorld, South by Southwest
• Burchard: have your back-end be ready BEFORE your write the book
• Nurture your JV partners, always be focussed on providing value to them

____

Marc,

This could change your career (and how you market yourself and your brand) forever.

RARELY do I say you MUST join an interview, but add this to your caendar right away, okay?

Tomorrow, I’m interviewing New York Times best-selling author Tim Ferris.

As you know, Tim rarely does training calls. He’s the author of The 4-Hour Workweek and The 4-Hour Body.

Tomorrow he’s going to tell you how he architected his expert brand and book empire. (And his stats, below, are beyond impressive).

So, tomorrow you’ll have two guys — me and Tim — sharing how we crafted our New York Times best-sellers, including how we got our MULTI-million dollar book advances. This will be marketing gold.

(Btw, I don’t think two modern day authors with #1 New York Times bestsellers and MULTI-milliondollar advances have ever revealed all on a call).

Here’s the details for your calendar. Below that is more information on Tim’s incredible stats.

——————————
FOR YOUR CALENDAR
——————————

Brendon Burchard Interviews Tim Ferris, Author of The 4-Hour Workweek and The 4-Hour Body How We Did It, How You Can Start Now

July 28th at 4pm Pacific U.S.
U.S. Call-in: 1-800-771-7838
International Call-in: +1 212 231 2904
No access code needed.
One time only.
No cost to listen in.

——————————

Next, if you’re in the know, you’ve heard that Tim is FINALLY doing a reveal-all event on how he architected two publishing phenomenons back-to-back. (See stats below).

What you HAVE NOT heard, is that he and I are doing a BONUS DAY on the Monday immediately following his weekend seminar.

At this event, I’m going to share the most advanced strategies I know for building a expert empires and publishing phenomenons.

I should warn you that Tim’s event is VERY expensive, and only people who attend his event can stay for he and my bonus day afterwards.

That’s one reason I’m doing this call for you. Very few people can afford our seminar, and the truth is there are only 20 spots left for his event.

You can learn about and apply for Tim’s event here:

https://4hb.wufoo.com/forms/tim-ferriss-book-marketing-seminar-aug-1921

That’s the application page, but you’ll also see a link for more information on his event.

You get $1000 off if you signup via that link. (No, I am not compensated – I just know Tim and asked him to give my people a deal).

Let me know if you signup, so I can look for you at my bonus day.

Tim’s event runs from August 19-21st in California wine country. Our joint bonus day is Monday, August 22nd at the same location from 9am-3pm (or until they kick us out). Details via the link above.

Here’s the STATS Tim and I have achieved, which we’ll talk about on our call so you can start your own phenomenon.

——————————
STATS
——————————

TIM FERRIS:

The 4-Hour Workweek… (published April 2007)
– #1 New York Times, #1 Wall Street Journal, #1 BusinessWeek
– Called “The most surprising self-help hit of the decade” by Men’s Journal
– More than 1,000,000 hardcovers sold in the US alone
– Nearly four years unbroken on the New York Times Business Bestseller List
– Sold in 35 languages, 60+ printings
– An Amazon Top-10 Reader Favorite of 2007
– AdAge “Best Product Launch for 2007”
– Digital sales: 4.8% of total units
– Advance paid: < $100,000 (signed before publication)
– “best self-promoter of all time” (Wired) and “branding wunderkind” (FastCompany).

The 4-Hour Body (2010):
– The 4-Hour Body… (published December 2010)
– Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller, #1 six out of the first eight weeks
– Nearly 500,000 books sold in the first four months
– Selling at FIVE times the rate of The 4-Hour Workweek
– The #1 most-highlighted book of all time on Amazon
– First business author to jump non-fiction categories and create another instant #1 hit
– Digital sales: 30% of total units, 90%+ of which is Kindle
– Advance paid (largely based on the proposal’s marketing plan): $2,000,000+

BRENDON BURCHARD:

–The Millionaire Messenger instant #1 on New York Times and USA Today
– Promotion accomplished with just 3 videos, and 5 weeks total timeline (including writing the book)
– Increased subscriber base by 60,000
– Generated over $1,000,000 on the backend of the book in 60 days
– Less than 90 days later, generated $4.1 Million online in sales for followup promotion
– Less than 120 later recorded and ran the audio book to #1 on Amazon (across all Amzn, not just audio category). Ditto B&N.
– 120 days later signed a $2,000,000 book advance from a major pub (deal not public yet but will share on call)
– Did all this with NO media whatsoever.
– All online marketing.
– At point of #1 on NYTimes, had never, not once, been interviewed about the book.
– No blogs, no pr, no book tour, no traditional nonsense that wipes you out and fails to get results. Just the fewest possible moves to #1.
– The most lucrative online backend of a book in history
– Displaced two books on the list in this category that had held the top spots for over 5 years
– The first paperback in history to hit #1 that fast without store penetration or PR

I think you see now why you need to be on this call.

I can’t wait to tell you how we did it all.

Tim will share 5 secrets, and I will share 5 as well.

This will be historic and change your career. Take lots of notes!

Talk soon,

- Brendon

NOTE: I am not a paid affiliate of Tim or this event. I just like the guy and since we’ve been SOO blessed to accomplish so much so fast, I thought we’d share how we did it with you.

So to try and counteract this problem I have taken a new tack.  I pay myself $100/hr of fake money at the end of each business day in which I can lay even a modest claim to being productive.  And at the end of each week I “pay my bills” and then buy gifts (like boats, swimming pools, motorcycles and the like).

If you try this too and it works for you, let me know.