Today, I will tell you how I did it!

Warning: This article includes lots of important information, grab a cup of coffee before you continue reading!

To read the first part, go here.

THE GAME PLAN:

1. How I came up with the business idea:

Throughout the years of being an entrepreneur online, I found out that I was not the only person on the planet that’s hungry for information, in fact, I have found out that even after school, people are still in need of knowledge, some will pursue a collage education, a night school, or just some private lessons.

And since I have started blogging in 2004, or speaking in seminars in 2006, I have been asked many questions related to my business, it didn’t matter if it was about online business, marketing, new technology or even Twitter!

Everyone had a question, but the main question was: Why did you choose this line of business?
Here is my answer: When I asked a friend of mine why did he choose to open a restaurant? he answered a very simple answer: People will never stop eating! Which is true. So all I did was to translate that answer into my business: What is the main thing that any business in the world needs? The answer was: Marketing, advertising, exposure, and most importantly, to make money!

From there I have started my journey, and until today, I still answer hungry business minds, whether by blogging, on forums or even by phone!

Then it all came to me, why not put everything I know in a form that everyone can share. And knowing me, I knew that there is no better place to share with the world than on the Internet. And that’s where my business idea came from.

2. The business plan:

This one was easy, as I have been doing for a while now.
I have to say, that throughout the years, many potential business partners came to me asking for ideas, which I had a lot of, but the best idea was to do it like the big players.
Let me explain with an example:
An old friend, with an established business and a fair amount of knowledge came to me and asked me out on a “business date in the park” over 3 years ago.
The weather was nice and the economy was at it’s best!
The business idea was an education site (kinda like Wahol.com) but for a specific kind of business type to teach the people about.
My first suggestion was blogging (Remember that was back when blogging was not hip), then I suggested videos online (YouTube was still a baby back then) and to include forums.
Then the next question came: How will this make me money? I said it won’t, but the advertising on your blog will make you money, and I explained: The same way Google and Yahoo makes billions, offer free services or contents and just add the little thing we call AdSense on it!
I will not tell you how scared my friend’s face looked when I said that. This is what I heard next: I will lose my business brand!
OK, first of all, what brand? The business is not even established yet.
Second of all, Google and Yahoo still holding their brands (Until today and for years to come), yet again they don’t charge you to search!
So my friend agreed on offering free content (for a while) I even helped building the wordpress blog, but then the shock came to me when that first blog was ignored and the new blog/school was a membership with a monthly fee service (still with advertising for affiliate commission supported), that’s when I withdrew my services, but before I did, I said what I have always believed in: Remember, sharing is giving. Within a year that business went down the hill, even with more than half of it’s member that have free access, still it went down. I wonder why?!
So, my business plan was this:
Create the content in a sharable format, make it available for free, and use the empty space on the site for the advertisement.

3. The request!

So many options are out there to monetize any site or blog, however, I followed what John Chow (JohnChow.com) once said: Ask, and you shall receive.
So I asked!
And not that I have anything against membership sites (You know I am a huge fan of Yaro’s Blog Mastermind), but I truly believe that seeking your sources is a better way to accomplish your income, and that the say (If you build it they will come) is just trash talk.
Here is what I did:
I built 2 lists of potential advertisers/sponsors.
The first one was for the big corporate.
The second was for small to mid-sized companies
Both lists shared one thing, that the sponsor’s product must be related to the content that I have created.
So I grabbed the phone and looked for emails, and within 2 days I landed 2 great deals with 2 huge sponsors, Sony and T-Mobile.
All I had to do after that is to work out the deal with them.
 
4. Exposing it all to the public:
 
That was the easy part, after all, it’s what I do almost on a daily basis.
There is 2 parts at this stage:
a.       Do a beta product launch to get the mass to sign up, in other words, when there is a deadline and limited seats available, people in general don’t like to be left out, and so was the signing up for Wahol.com, especially if it’s for free!
b.      Do what I call: my in-house explosion marketing technique. (For the purpose of this article’s length, I will write an entire series of articles to explain this stage of the business, sign up to keep up to date).
 
5. Giving it 100%:
 
Until today, I think that by giving my members every effort I can, to answer questions or to be available and reachable, is the reason I got the offer to buy the entire business.
It’s very simple (with the help of one of my marketing techniques that I promise that I will tell you all about it soon) I have accomplished the idea behind the saying (Sharing is giving) and (Give and you will get back). I had no attention of building this to sell it, and I only asked for sponsors so I can make a descent income (After all it is a job and I had to get paid somehow!) and so when the offer came in, well, you know the rest of that story.
 
6. The numbers!
 
And this is not to brag or to show off, this is only for people that I know they will ask if I didn’t disclose it.
Altogether from beginning to end, the total that I have made of this project was $102,000! Not bad for the worst economy crisis and for about 3 months of hard work!
 
This is not the end. This is the beginning if a lot of good stuff to come.
Stay tuned for the upcoming series of articles of a powerful marketing plan that no one else will tell you about, and for news and upgrades that will happen only because of the sale of Wahol.com.

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