Mailbag: Are you a hypocrite? How would you make $1,000,000 next year?

By September 10, 2014 18 Comments on Mailbag: Are you a hypocrite? How would you make $1,000,000 next year?

Every Wednesday I answer questions from you guys. If you have one, just leave them in the comments section and I’ll get to it ASAP.

This week I’ll be covering:

  • How to setup a custom short URL
  • How to make $1,000,000 in the next 12 months
  • My research and content scheduling process for Videofruit
  • The backstory of how I got my first client

…and a few other random things.

Last week I got one the weirdest emails ever.  Strange enough that It deserves it’s own segment. So welcome to the inaugural edition of  “Weird Email of the Week.”

WEIRD EMAIL OF THE WEEK

Preface: Last week I complained about my massive failure of applying sunscreen while on vacation. The result was a hot itchy mess. It didn’t ruin the vacation but came close.

Several of you sent your home remedies to me.

First – you guys are into some weiiiiird stuff (yogurt…really?).

Second – Don’t worry, Jesse is weirder than all of you.

Enter Jesse’s email…

Random email of the Week

I have so many questions that I’m at a loss of words.

Please tell me one of you has tried this before?

$100 to the first person to post pics!

Onward…

Question #1

CUSTOM URL: How did you setup your custom (videofru.it) URL shortener?

-Cary

I use a short custom URL in social media, e-mails and on this blog.

Example:

Example of my short custom URL

Setting it up is pretty straightforward.

Step 1: Buy the domain name. (I use GoDaddy.)

Step 2: Sign up for a bit.ly account. (It’s free!)

Step 3: Inside of bit.ly, go to “Settings > Advanced” and fill out the “Short Domain” and “Branded Short Domain” settings.

Here are my settings:

My bit.ly short domain settings

Step 4: Use TextExpander to populate your short urls.

I use the shortcode “/link” anytime I want to paste a Videofruit-branded shortcode.

To do that, I copy the URL and type “/link” and the shortcode is populated.

Here is what it looks like in action:

To do that I use this script inside of TextExpander.

My TextExpander script

 Question #2

RESEARCH: How do you find all these different hacks that you write about on Videofruit? 

-Tom

Good question, Tom. It’s fairly simple and non-extraordinary.

I keep my eyes open.

I use a few tools to help the curation process (namely Evernote), but for the hacks themselves I just pay attention to what catches my attention.

  • If I see a tweet about something interesting, I save it.
  • If I see an interesting launch sequence that someone is using, I save it.
  • If I notice a different take on affiliate marketing, I save it.

Everything I see goes into a special notebook inside of Evernote called “DIY Marketing Hacks.”

I’ll usually copy the URL to my clipboard, then use the Evernote menu bar app to save the URL and a few quick notes about the tactic to Evernote.

My Evernote setup

Then every morning I process my Evernote inbox and categorize the “DIY Marketing Hacks” to the proper folder.

The next step after putting them into the folder is content planning. Once a week I’ll open my content calendar (I use Trello for this) and schedule out what hacks I’m going to write about in the coming weeks.

Here is what that calendar looks like.

Trello Content Schedule

 Question #3

A LOT OF MONEY: If you were going to make $1 million next year, what’s the one change you’d make to what you’re currently doing–or what would you introduce to the mix? 

-Amir

Honestly, at this stage in my business, I have no revenue goals.

Will I bring in $1 million in revenue via Videofruit one day? Yes.

But that’s just not a focus right now.

I would challenge you with answering this question.

Why?

Why do you want to make a million dollars? Is it just a nice round number? Did you see a TV show about someone that made a million dollars?

What would you do with a million dollars?

I’ve discovered that your “WHY?” is one of the most important elements of your business. It controls your endurance, work ethic and longevity. If your “WHY?” is “I think it would be cool!” then you are screwed.

If it is “I want to make a million dollar so I can build 35 kindergartens in Vietnam next year,” then you MIGHT have a chance.

I recommend watching this video…

Question #4

FIRST CLIENT: Someone asked (in the comments section of this week’s post) how you got your first client and I think it’s an excellent question! Care to answer? 

-Noyra

Love this topic.

One of my first clients was KISSmetrics. This is the general blueprint I used to land my first 10 clients.

Step 1: Make a list of potential clients.

Step 2: Set a very specific proposal goal. (How many will I be sending? Over what time period?)

Step 3: Create your proposal. (Use the Santa Claus formula.)

Step 4: Send your proposal.

There are a lot of nuances and best practices that I’ve learned over the years. So I wrote a detailed guide to teach you exactly how to do it.

You can check it out here: How to get your first $3,000 per month contract

Question #5

WRITING: There’s a screenshot in this week’s post that indicates that you started your daily writing goal in December 2013. Is that when you launched this blog, or had it been live for a while before you committed to writing regularly? 

-Noyra

I started the blog back in late October. At the time I really didn’t have a clue what I was doing or much of a strategy.

My writing goal started in December. Since committing to that, everything changed.

 Question #6

HOW TO BUILD SOFTWARE: Could you talk more about the SaaS apps/sites you built? Was it just you? Or you plus a developer? I’m curious because I really want to get into SaaS subscription-based businesses. I’m pretty technical, but not so business savvy. (Hence why I read sites like yours!) Any insights would be appreciated! 

–Laurence

I started building apps in May 2012. I had NO CLUE what I was doing at the time. I simply read an article on Tim Ferriss’s website and did what it said.

Link: How to Build an App Empire

The first two apps were built with a guy I used to work with. He put up the money and I designed the app and outsourced the coding to an overseas developer.

They both flopped. They cost a total of $2,000 to build and grossed $800 combined. Though the apps themselves were complete flops, the experience I gained was huge.

Later that year, October-ish, I partnered with another friend to build my 3rd app, Gmello. It immediately did well and still brings in $300 to $500 per month.

Shortly after Gmello, we saw the traction it was getting and we built Emello as well. Very similar to Gmello, just a different functionality and target user.

Gemllo was designed by me and built by an overseas developer for $200 or so. Emello was designed by me and built by my partner in around 10 hours. If we would have outsourced the coding of Emello it would have cost around $800. However, at the time my partner had some free time and wanted to code it himself.

I love building apps and plan to build several tools for Videofruit users in 2014/2015!

My interview on Mixergy goes into even more details on this. I also have links to the design templates I used to create these apps:

Link: $10K Series: How Bryan Harris breaks down tough concepts into short mottos to live by

Any other question on this topic? I would love to go into more detail.

 Question #7

HYPOCRITE: Hi Bryan, I saw you posted the exit intent video, but I couldn’t get any exit intent pop-ups to fire on Videofruit … Have you found any plugins, scripts or functions you like for this yet? If you talked about this on the video, sorry, I missed it. 

-Don

OptinMonster is my go-to pop-up software. However, SumoMe is quickly catching up to it (and it’s free!).

Currently, I’m running a few experiments with a Scroll Box so my pop-ups are disabled for now.

You can read about how that experiment is going in more details here: Scroll Box Experiment.

 

 Do you have a question? Leave it in the comments section and I’ll answer it in next week’s mailbag.