NevBlog

Neville's Digital Surrogate Brain

The Autoresponder Kourse

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“I make courses on AppSumo.”

That’s my current answer to “what do you do?”

Several of them have been big hits, and a couple flopped.

One of the primary reasons for the “flops” was simply trying to make a course that would SELL THE MOST COPIES.

However THAT was a mistake.

Instead the question should be, “What courses could I make that would HELP people the most?”

When I’ve stuck to that creedo, it’s served me (and others) very well.  Ironically when I’d make a course WITHOUT a focus on how well it will perform, it tends to do better!

This AutoresponderKourse I just released was the same thing……I was originally trying to make a “Kopywriting Kourse Part 2” because the original product did very well, but when actually planning it out, it didn’t seem to make sense.  Most of the content was ALREADY IN the original KopywritingKourse, so this product was being created solely for money purposes.

I didn’t like it.

I even asked a pretty big marketing guy I respect about the dilemma, and he said:

I never build a product just based on what people will blindly pay for.  We make the products they NEED…….and THEN find a way to sell them.

I was actually very relieved to hear him say this, because it meant I could move forward with the course I WANNNTTED to make, not the one that would simply bring in the most dollar$$.

So from there I got started with the Autoresponder Kourse:

The reason I went with this Autoresponder Kourse was because the KopywritingKourse did such a dam-good job of teaching people to write copy……and if they applied those skills to an autoresponder sequence, it would multiple the usefulness (it sure did for me).

I wish I can go back in time and kick my previous-self in the face for NOT using autoresponders earlier!

Anyhow, the AutoresponderKourse (or A.R.K. as I like to call it) is officially out.
You can buy it here.
Or signup to the autoresponder sequence here. Someone thought the course was free because “the free emails were so damn good!”

…and if you like please leave a nice review!

-Neville

 

June 2012 Goals

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New month, new goals!

Here’s mine for June 2012:

1.) I’m doing a KopywritingKourseKase Studies product where I’ll be re-writing copy for people across many different industries FOR FREE! ……so long as I get to use them as a case study.

If interested, you can signup here to be a case study and get your kopy re-written (I have a pretty good batting average at getting higher conversions).

 

2.) I had this one listed as a fun case study from last month (I’m going to validate a friends restaurant idea and see if they should add an additional taco truck).  This stemmed from a lot of requests where people wanted to see a brick-n-mortar business validated.

I was a bit busy getting the AutoresponderKourse out the door in May, so this one fell behind to this month.  Kind of appropriate for AppSumo to validate a TACO stand eh :-)

How to profit from hackers

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Here’s a quick business idea (more like “consulting”) one of you can run with.

I got this “Pharma Hack” on my WordPress blog a few days ago.  Apparently it doesn’t have any effect on WordPress blogs, except it changes your title tags in your database (so you can’t easily change them) to promote pills…..this is what it did to my search rankings:

Sooooo……apparently NevBlog now sells Viagra :-)

It’s actually not a “hack” but rather a small “exploit”.

ANYHOW, I ended up paying to get it removed (yet it still came back).  I REALLLLLYYY wanted to do a search for “WordPress Pharma Hack” and see a sponsored result saying:

….instead I found nothing.

I had to personally call Chris Pearson who wrote the most detailed post about the pharma hack to get a recommendation for the removal of this brilliant little exploit.

But these large-scale exploits seem like a GREAT opportunity for WordPress junkies to make a bunch of extra money.  If someone charged $200+ to just “take care of this shit” for me….I would’ve GLADDLLLY paid.

-Nev

 

P.S.  In case you’re wondering, I’m currently moving this blog to WPengine  and they’re cleaning it up right now.

Spray Alcohol Experiment

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Browsing the news I saw this article about a mouth-spray alcohol that gets you “temporarily drunk”.

A little YouTubing showed videos like this:

I was instantly reminded of this thing I read about in Europe a while ago called AWOL (Alcohol Without Liquid)….

….which is essentially an oxygen vaporizer machine with hard alcohol infused into it…..and you inhale the liquor instead of drink.  This means you only have to only get a SMALL amount of alcohol to have an effect, but it only gets you “buzzed” for a very short amount of time.  It looked like:

 

SO I WANTED TO SEE IF SPRAYING ALCOHOL IN YOUR MOUTH WILL GET YOU BUZZED!
(since I really have nothing else better to do all day) :-)

STEP 1.) I bought several different types of atomizers from Sephora (those little perfume pump thingies):


STEP 2.) Bought a bottle of Titos plain vodka (40% alcohol) and a bottle of Everclear (90% alcohol).


STEP 3.) I filled the purple spray thingy with Titos, and the Silver one with Everclear


STEP 4.) TIME TO SEE IF I GET DRUNK!  I wore safety goggles (in case I mis-sprayed pure alcohol into my eyes):


STEP 5.) Waiting to see if I got drunk!
The first few sprays actually didn’t taste THAT bad like expected (although not particularly good either).

I sprayed a few Everclear, and a few vodka….and I’ve gotta say….(unless it’s placebo effect speaking), I FELT SOOORRRTA BUZZED! (it was a similar feeling to the very first sips of alcohol you take in a night…..you’re not “buzzed” yet, but you know something’s swirling around in your brain).

I’m 29 and have been drinking since about the age of 20 years old.   So I can tell by my first drink of alcohol that “something is happening” in my head before I get full-on buzzed or drunk.

Two of us tried this, and we both are almost 100% convinced we felt a very light buzz.
The buzz however wears of literally in about 2 minutes or less.

I’m sure there’s MANY other ways to achieve this (such as just swishing around alcohol in your mouth), but this “spray” method seems to be the most convenient.

 

CONCLUSION.) I’m almost dumbfounded to say this…..but IT WORKED!
…however, only a little. Drinking still seems FAR superior.

However there was only a few milliliters of alcohol in each spray bottle, so this alcohol delivery method is surprisingly efficient.

 

VIDEO OF THE EXPERIMENT:


SO IS THIS A VIABLE PRODUCT?  WHAT OTHER USES?

Here’s a couple of quick ideas an “alcohol spray” could be marketed as:

  • Anti-anxiety spray for approaching and picking up girls (placebo effect will also be strong on this one).
  • Anti-anxiety spray for shy people (placebo effect will also be strong on this one).
  • Creativity Spray – “Spray twice, and start brainstorming!”
  • Calm-Down Spray – “Two sprays will calm ya down!”
wow….those are all kinda dumb ideas.  Maybe I’m still drunk ;-)
Happy spraying!
-Neville

Cool AppSumo Guitar Picks gift

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One of the interesting things about being involved with AppSumo and all the products we sell, is people THANK US in odd ways.

I get emails all the time that start off with “THANKS YOU FATASS SUMO’S!”

Normally them’s fightin’ words….but it’s actually a sign of affection :-)

Books, cookies & ukelele’s  have come our way….and now my new favorite gift: Personalized AppSumo guitar picks from Andrew Woo from ProspectSnap!

I’ve actually been using them!

May 2012 Goals

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New Month = New Goalzz.

Here’s mine for May 2012:

 

1.) Taco Stand Validation: 
From the SumoBusinessBlueprintLIVE, a decent amount of people  wanted to know how to validate a PHYSICAL business.  I always tell them:

“If it’s a physical business, you’ll usually have to do some physical validation”

So in true Sumo-style….I’ll be validating a TACO STAND!  Details later :-)

 

2.) Course Reinforcement:
To make sure all my previous courses stay relevant and last a long time, I’m going through each of them and “cleaning things up” …or adding content if necessary.

For example a couple of things like:

  • Google discontinued “Google Friend Connect” which means alllllll the comments on my courses were one day just erased.  That really sucks because there were some great Q&A’s going on.  I will be trying to restore most of that on a different commenting platform.
  • Will be adding more emails to all the autoresponder sequences (so signup for all the email lists if you haven’t already)!
  • There are literally HUNDDDRREEEDDSS of emails with amazing testimonials…..and none of them have been posted.  This will be changed.

 

3.) A.R.K:
This is the next course coming out called AutoResponder Kourse.  It’s like an add-on course to the KopywritingKourse to show people the power of autoresponders (I realllyyy wish I knew about these when I was starting out).

 

 

Anyhow…..cheers to a great May 2012 :-)
-Neville

How to get out of a slump

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Me and Noah talk about how to get out of slump:

I know what you’re thinking:

“Neville….what’s wrong with your hair??”

Well….at the beginning of the month my hair color was “bright blue“ …..but now faded into “i-don’t-know-what-the-hell-is-on-my-head” color.

People just copied this….and it worked!

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For the SumoBusinessBlueprintLIVE I wrote this particular email (below) as part of a sequence of emails.

What’s funny about this one, is that people literally COPIED AND PASTED the ad I made….and put it on Craigslist themselves (changed contact info obviously).

After that, I’ve got at least FOUR EMAILS that said, “I put this ad up on Craigslist just to see what would happen, and within a few hours I got people calling to schedule!”

I love when people have this “lightbulb” moment that this stuff (despite how simple it seems) ….REALLY works!

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EMAIL STARTS RIGHT HEREEEE:
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Every time I hear a wantrepreneur talk about how they can “Make this cool idea and it’s goona be soooo great!!”

..I flip the hell out.
….and kick a trash can.
…….and sometimes even kick a puppy.

It’s because they’re THINKING about their idea too damn much, and doing NO ACTUAL real-world tests.

I can already hear you say,
“OK Neville…..then show us wantrepreneurs what you’re talking about if you’re soooo smart.”

Fine….I will.  In the next few minutes this email will show you how to make a basic page to validate your idea.

Let’s pretend we’re trying to sell WordPress design services to people in our area.  Before we “design a portfolio” and “try to cold-call clients” …..let’s do some simple tests:

LET’S START:
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If you’re trying to measure if people will pay for your idea or service…..try something like this…..it’ll be a quick ad on Craigslist.

Craigslist is easy & free…..and it gets a shitload of traffic….so it’s perfect for us.

The point of this to see if people call us up and want to PAY $money$ for our services:

So we’d make a simple ad like this:

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I MAKE WORDPRESS SITES IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE.

Do you need a WordPress site put up and customized….but don’t know how to do it?

Let ME do it for you!

I have 2 years of WordPress experience and know how to customize themes.

I can even work with you personally, and we can design your site together.  I’ll even train you how to use your brand-new site (WordPress is really easy once setup)!

I charge $25/hour and can meet you anywhere in Austin.
Call Neville at 713-301-1546
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Here’s a mockup of the ad I put up on Craigslist (took me 2 minutes to make in photoshop):

(click hereif you can’t see the image)That’s it!

Just put that bad-boy up on Craigslist….in this case we’d place it in the SERVICES → COMPUTER section.

I’ve done this before, and started getting calls within a few hours of people wanting to meetup and PAY me!

Most “wantrepreneurs” will do useless stuff like:

  • Make a portfolio (and spend a lot of time).
  • Register an LLC company (and waste money).
  • Try to set themselves up as a “We-Do-Everything” company and lose a lot of niche-power.

…..instead….just GET THE DAMN BALL ROLLING FIRST!

Within the first few clients you’ll make money PLUS get insanely-great feedback on what clients want and need (not to mention you’re getting PAID this whole time)!

See how easy that was to validate?
If we start getting calls and emails requesting our service….BOOM….we’re in business.

If no one bites….then we may have a service most people don’t need.

Peace,
-Neville – A Fatass Sumo

P.S.  Tomorrow I’m showing you my #1 go-to place for validating ideas right away (and fo FREE)!  Watch for the email tomorrow morning.

 

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UPDATE (5-1-2012): I got  several MORE people using the same ad, but this was my favorite email from it:

Hey Neville,

Just wanted to let you know I used your Craigslist Ad example to grow my SEO business.

Within 12 hours I had 2 leads. One closed today – $300 for 4 hours of work, not bad. The other one will close later this week.

Before posting your ad it took me 6 months to make my first $300.

If you ever want to grab burritos let me know. I live in Austin. I owe ya one or two or three!

Cheers,

Joel