Case Study – The Lazy Spare Time Business
“Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy”
~Charlie McCarthy
You know whats hard? Going to a job you hate every day.
You know whats worse? Going to a job you hate every day, then coming home exhausted & demoralized and still trying to be enthusiastic about working on your own gig.
And yet…
Some folks seem to have a penchant (Sounds better when you say it with a French accent, “Payshannn”) for slicing through the cobwebs of employment-funk.
Well, bully for them – golf clap, kind words, and all that faint praise, and such… ‘Cause 99% of us “normal” folks don’t have that trait.
What about us Humans?
Did you know that Pirate Dan Thies actually had a job for the first 4 years of his online-career? He even achieved “Keyword Research Guru” status while he was still working for “The man”.
How’d he do THAT? Was it the leather chaps or his daily intake of Honey-Nut-Cheerios?
NO! Well… maybe. But we don’t need to construct a legend (DAMN IT!), because today, we have VIDEO!
So now, you can have all of Dan’s secrets.
It’s VIDEO TIME!
Video #10 – The LAZY Spare Time Business. Part 1 of 2
In this video, Dan reveals, nay EXPOSES how he grew his spare-time business to “Guru Status” all while toiling at a full-time job. Bastard.
Video #11 – The LAZY Spare Time Business. Part 2 of 2
Still a bastard.
As always, leave me a comment and relate you some commentary…to..uh…me.
Andy “Two things will get us through this recession. One is decisiveness. The other… wait, no, three things. Well, four. Although technically…” Jenkins
Andy,
Big thanks for all the motivation(YOU can do it!). This topic hit me where I live, as I have 1 and 1/2 jobs “working for the man” to keep things going in this recession, and build/run sites in my “spare time” HA! Free time? What’s that?
As a former STSE2, and TNE subscriber, I love your flair, style, and relatability. Too many “guru’s” impress from a distance. You impact from up close.
JC
P.S. Love the Thesis theme. Bear to learn, but insane flexability.
Good video if you want to sell information. What about physical products, affiliate marketing, or just trying to promote your brick-mortar business using the web?
Great point Raza! Rest assured, we’re not done making videos yet.
I likey.
thanks
Well, how about that third block of time we spend with family???
When are you 2 gonna gives us the 27 hour day, huh?
Andy, can’t believe you let someone else get your .com
version of your name! He who hesitates…
Doctor Q.
http://DoctorsHealthSecrets.com/
___________________________________
Doc Mike, RE: MY Domain name – I KNOW!!! The truth is, the dude that’s got it is a GREAT Artist that’s had it since about 2000. I’ll just out-rank him here in a few more months and then it’ll be all good.
You know, I watched the second video again… Dan really touches on some excellent points about the amount of time it takes for support (instead of spending time on marketing) when you do not design the product in such a way that answers the buyers’ questions. Almost like a catch 22, where we need feedback from customers to create a product/solve their problems, but you need to release a product in order to create this feedback/tell us their problems.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Michael Stenger, Guru Mastermind and Randy Kemp. Randy Kemp said: Article: "Case Study – The Lazy Spare Time Business" http://is.gd/3MQoA [...]
That was worth watching… Thank You and I’m recommending it to a friend working on a product now!
You may have just saved hours of future work!
I’ve always been wondering what Dan’s business model was. You shared some very cool stuff here…
Sharon, it’s almost a Catch-22… for those who have been involved in a market for a while, it’s a little bit easier, but there are some things you can do, which have worked well for me:
1) Give time. I do sometimes just get on the phone with someone who has a problem or a question, and work on it with them. This is tremendously valuable for me, in understanding what the needs of the audience are.
2) Free line content & “ask” campaigns. Sample the product idea for free, get people to ask questions, find out what they’re trying to deal with, solve, attain, etc. Then build your product to actually address that – and I mean the actual product, not just the sales copy.
3) Look at other products – talk with their customers – read blogs – hang out in forums… immerse yourself in the Tweetstream for a bit. It’s amazing how much insight you can get by osmosis, and from helping people where you can.
Dan (and Andy),
I just got a FREE moment to watch these videos. Great stuff and so true. This kind of dialog is helpful to you and to me the “newbie” on this type of ONLINE marketing strategy. I took a step back to look HOW you are marketing right now and I think it is great: It is a win-win situation for everyone. You (Andy and yourself) are getting your necessary feedback while we are gaining valuable insights that may have taken years to gather and learn; especially if you still work for “THE MAN” with the dreaded OT (overtime). Thank you! I have pretty much stopped the OT (or I am trying to) and now am looking to “MARKET” my services/products (videos).
Sharon (Hi Sharon, I liked your comment) wrote: “we need feedback from customers to create a product/solve their problems, but you need to release a product in order to create this feedback/tell us their problems”. Your answer was great and helped me to have another light-bulb moment.
People have laughed at me for years because I offered my computer-related services for years “FOR FREE” to family/friends . I already have YEARS of this kind of computer-related “feedback”. I am struggling with this very issue of what to put out first. The website or the videos. I am already doing the one-on-one training/teaching (just don’t have any marketable product to go along with it). So I am in the building and creating phase (a couple of real passions are creating/teaching).
In some of my experiences in the computer-related field, I have studied “usability studies” regarding web sites and was amazed at what you can learn just be watching a USER navigate through a web site. Getting customers feedback helps to drive a better UI (User Interface).
So I had another light bulb moment. You and Andy are not so involved in the current PRESENTATION of this subject as you are getting the necessary FEEDBACK. Get the feedback now so you can build your product from that feedback. (Why did I say this was a light-bulb moment? It helped me to bite my tongue when I wanted to FIX these two video presentations; graphic-wise, interaction-wise (you definitely need more interaction on the screen other than a mindmap. ) I do foresee the difference between what you are “testing the waters with” right now in videos and what you will produce in the future as two very different things. I could not do it this way because I am a nobody (not known to anyone) and while I do not mean anything by this, I could not present to anyone with just a MINDMAP. First time visitors to my site certainly would say “let us see what she has to offer” and if I did present a video with just a mindmap (so I can gather feedback or whatever:) a) they may get bored b) they won’t bookmark my site, or c) they may never come back.
What is going through my mind right now is seeing someone do a “usability study” on someone watching a “you-tube” 2 minute video, 5 minute video and a 15 min video. Do the same “usability study” on persons watching a “professional-well thought out” video for the same times listed above. Find out what their attention spans are, monitor what their reactions were to different items shown in the video. People will watch videos BUT when do their minds start to wander? Or when do they stop watching? At what point did you lose them? Etc… Wow, what kind of feedback would that give you.
I loved the Stompernet videos and yet, while packed to the gills with information, I had to break from watching. I did return later to watch and I watched them MULTIPLE times with MULTIPLE breaks. One I REMEMBER the best was the one where it showed a HEAT sink graphic of how/where people clicked on the page. Was that an eye opener!! I am a firm believer that the right picture can say a thousand words (in my own words). I plan to take it to the next level with video, images and hopefully something to keep the customer engaged and wanting more. Thank you.
Sorry if I was a bit long-winded . Just my .2cents. Please keep them coming.
Sue
Sue,
Thanks for the thoughts and I may ping you for some more detailed help soon.
I have a “love-hate” relationship with mind maps. Mostly hate. I make lists. I make outlines. I do PowerPoint. I do charts and diagrams. I’ve learned to use mind maps, but it still feels like work.
Andy, on the other hand, has a love affair with mind maps, that honestly, if Janeen only knew… I was there when he proposed to her (if you’ve seen the picture I’m the guy standing behind Andy with the pirate beard) and I swear, no joke, he did a mind map beforehand.
What kind of sick man makes a mind map of love?
Anyway – for a live webinar, the mind maps do seem to work very well in getting people to retain more of the information. Breaking it up into shorter videos helps later, when people aren’t quite so engaged. But we’re always looking for ways to do better.
Dan, That is great. I look forward to that.
I do love MINDMAPS (but not as much as Andy(hehe)) and I think they definitely have their place in the arsenal of tools used to keep things interactive and engaging. That is why I have a couple of different mindmap programs.
Sue
thanks guys you are 2 of the best period – I have been on 3 hour phone calls with both of you and Love you like family for what you have done for me. Thank you…Charlie Slack
Dan, how did you get such a nice voice in one of your newer video tutz? What a difference to these two.:)
Love your stuff, moved you into my top 15 feeds. Keep em coming!
I guess because the Andy is talking on the other videos lol
Sorry, but still, the quality is much better on the newer videos by Andy
I am looking forward that your “Video Making Mini Course” will be accessible again. I have seen it twice, but lots of my friends did not.
I love you blog – the style and the content.
I wish you a lot of success.