plans

It’s been a long time since my last post. It was the one where I voiced some serious dissatisfaction with the lay of my personal and professional land, then outlined plans to throw it all up in the air and start again.

In the ensuing 6 months a succession of very lovely people have frequently asked me, “How’s everything’s going?” It’s meant a lot to me. However, it’s a question that’s pretty difficult to answer, not least because I didn’t ever explain what I was up to in the first place!

So where did all those hours of furious research take me?

In a (over-simplified) nutshell: online marketing.

Specifically, I’ve hit upon an amazing research technique for locating potentially profitable niches. Niches, for those unaware, are areas of specialist interest, encompassing everything from personal hobbies to the most bizarre medical complaints! A potentially profitable niche has a decent number of people searching for information on that niche but competition elsewhere on the web is weak.

I’ve been locating juicy-looking niches and then using a method to quickly and cheaply test them to see if they’re actually profitable. Some niches simply aren’t interested in buying anything, no matter how much the initial numbers might suggest, so testing them for commerciality is vital before scaling things up further.

How have I been testing and moving into these promising niches? I won’t go into detail here but essentially through a mixture of blogging, article marketing, link building, organic SEO and PPC. I’m also discovering PPV, CPA networks… The acronyms just keep on coming!

I won’t deny there are some crazy-assed ninja techniques thrown in there too. But if I told you about those, I’d have to kill you. Such is the way of the ninja.

The intention is to hit on a niche that passes the ultimate test—is this market interested in buying anything?—and then quickly create (or source) a product to sell to that market, even expanding further into related niches and markets.

The goal: a business that will require no client work and indeed no long-term personal involvement from myself, a profitable business I can sell in a couple of years. Luckily, these type of niche businesses sell very, very well indeed.

I’d love to tell you which niches I’m testing but I can’t reveal that I’m afraid. Much as a magician doesn’t reveal his tricks, I simply can’t reveal my niches and if I did, again, I’d have to kill you. And neither of us would want that, let alone twice in one blog post.

Am I enjoying it? A resounding yes. It’s immense fun.

Is it rewarding? By most definitions of the term, yes, fantastically so. In terms of personal fulfillment, I’ve learnt more in the past 6 months than in the last 10 years put together. This stuff really lights my fire and makes me excited to get to work each day.

I’m moving further and further away, day-by-day, from the work of building websites. Even though my day still involves a great deal of that (though I’ve been outsourcing a fair bit to some highly talented folk to whom I’m very grateful) I’ve found that prioritising something else entirely has done wonders for putting the never-ending website technical problems and invoice-chasing into perspective. At least most of the time anyway.

In financial terms—it’s just starting to pay dividends. I haven’t struck goldmines yet but it’s coming, it’s coming. There have never been any guarantees of success or a return on my investment of time and energy, but then money has never been my main motivator anyway. I’m happy to keep at it, keep focused, keep my eye on the prize. I’m guessing a good many people would probably have given up after 3 months. Not I.

Yet in many ways, it’s been harder to do this than I ever imagined.

First up, it’s majorly hard to focus. My web design business is busier than ever, with no signs of that changing any time soon. With paid client work flooding through the door it’s the path of least resistance to throw all efforts into that, rather than into something with a less immediately tangible and predictable result. Clients want work doing: I do the work and get paid. I could easily ignore the voice inside and take the easy way out.

(I have to say, I’ve found it easy to see why people become stuck in the same job if they’re unhappy. But then nothing worthwhile ever came easy did it?)

Secondly, I’ve become acutely aware of the true nature of my goals and how they impact my motivation. I realised recently that mostly my goals are to move away from something I don’t like (frustration, futility, long hours), rather than towards something I want. It’s like I have ‘negative’ motivation, as opposed to positive.

While I do have goals I’m moving towards, of course, on reflection they’re pretty much just the opposites of all the crap that has been pissing me off. Negative ‘away’ motivators aren’t nearly as motivating as moving towards positive goals (which I guess for many folks might be ‘to make pots of cash’). Money in itself doesn’t motivate me much, so this notion of motivation is a constant battle.

So I’ve become au fait with a good many simple little tricks to keep on target and stay focused, to do something real and positive to keep moving towards the prize.

Putting fixed, immoveable, non-negotiable time aside for the new stuff is working wonders. I’ve been attempting 2 hours a day, which usually works fine—unless a website-related emergency crops up to destroy it.

Setting a timer for 30 minute bursts works well too. I’ve been using the timer on my iPhone—once it’s off and running I don’t look up, don’t lift my fingers off the keyboard, don’t edit, don’t stop; writing content, producing something, anything!

(By the way, I can heartily recommend both Twlya Tharp’s ‘The Creative Habit’ and Stephen King’s ‘On Writing’ on this score. These two are/were the masters of producing worthwhile, creative stuff, day-in-day out. Both books are a life-changing read.)

Disclaimer: I’ll receive a few pence if you decide to buy either of these books following the above links. If you’re not comfortable with that, Google them instead.

The other difficult thing I’ve found is deciding when to stop learning and when to take action. It’s definitely tricky sticking at it without flitting around trying new things that crop up on my radar ooh look, a squirrel!!

So that’s pretty much it, for now at least. Onwards and most definitely upwards!

Although in the tradition of Steve Jobs, there is one more thing…

One or two clients recently asked what I’ve been up to so I explained a little of it to them, the research involved and the results I’d been getting. They became rather excited about the possibilities of applying these techniques to their existing businesses. It hadn’t occurred to me till then that techniques like this applied to an already established product or service (often localised and targeted) could work like gangbusters.

If you’ve been following this far you’ll perhaps understand my reluctance to take on more client work. But the more I’ve thought about it, the more the idea of providing this as a service to other businesses really appeals. Zero technical hassle. Predictable, regular monthly work. Working on the stuff I really enjoy, and, most importantly, funding further work on my own internal marketing projects.

So far it’s been working very, very well indeed. I’ve became rather excited all over again!

So it’s with great pride I introduce you to my new business: Woof!

Simple page, simple concept. If you know of anyone who might benefit from such a service, I’d be grateful if you could send them along, with my thanks.

Thanks for making it to the end of another rather large blog post. It’s appreciated.

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