With
the
recent
advances
in
technology,
the
“American
dream”
has
transformed
from
thoughts
of
white
picket
fences
and
a
well‐paying
nine
to
five
job
into
the
idea
of
having
a
lucrative,
work‐from‐ home
and
make‐money‐while‐you‐sleep
type
career.
You
make
your
own
hours
and
have
yourself
as
a
boss!
T hat’s
the
dream
of
today.
Most
people
think
that
just
because
you’re
able
to
home
and
at
your
own
computer
means
it’s
going
easy.
Unfortunately,
while
it’s
certainly
possible
to
substantial
income
from
home,
it
requires
hard
dedication
and
an
unyielding
desire
to
succeed…
every
other
successful
endeavor!
do
it
from
to
be
earn
a
work,
just
like
No
matter
where
you’re
at
in
your
Internet
marketing
career,
it
is
both
beneficial
and
to
not
only
build
a
solid
foundation
of
the
basics,
but
expound
upon
this
as
well.
Without
this
founda
Week 11
necessary
Building Your Team: How To Network With Others And Find Long Term Partners
ocument
here.
The
abstract
is
typically
a
short
summary
of
the
co tio n,
you ’ll
be
lost
and
con fus ed.
Tha t’s
where
this
guide
comes
in.
This
12
Week
Course
contains
the
information
you
need
to
be
knowledgeable
about
the
industry
while
also
learning
the
best
ways
to
use
different
tools
found
online.
W hile
you
don’t
ne ed
to
be
an
expert
in
all
of
the
fields
we’ll
talk
about,
you
will
at
least
become
a
“Jack
of
all
trades”
(so
keep
this
in
mind
throughout
the
training).
]
Welcome...
Someone once told me that finding good people is like finding a parking spot-- the best ones are already taken and the rest are handicapped. The catch-22 of good engineers is that if they're really good, they're likely already doing their own thing. And if they're unemployed, then you gotta wonder what's wrong. Same is true about people who are skilled at anything-- PPC, mailing, web design, whatever. So how do you identify the high quality people and convince them that you guys should work together? This week, let's walk through the filtering process of finding good people and business partners. You want good people to come to you, versus you having to hunt them down. We’ll go step-by-step on how you can do that, by first starting with convincing these folks that you're someone they want to work with—to establish credibility.
Step 1: Set up Google Alerts Visit Google Alerts, and choose topics that you want to become an expert in-- select a mix of specific and general categories: "ppc tools", "keyword research", "affiliate marketing", "ecommerce tips", whatever. Get your skills up, so that you can be known as an expert when you eventually meet these folks in person-- you'll see why later in this guide. Step 2: Comment on those blogs As you read through the articles and blog posts that Google delivers to you, post a short, but insightful comment on the ones you like. Don't just compliment the author- say something interesting. You'll begin to develop relationships with the folks
that matter. Further, because these are pages that Google thinks is relevant, your posting on these pages will help your blog seem more relevant. You'll know it's really working when your own blog posts start showing up in your Google Alerts. Step 3: Create your own blog That's assuming you don't have one already. We won't go into how to pick a domain name and set up a WordPress blog. If you don't have much money, choose one of the zillion free WordPress themes out there. Just get your name up, so that you can reply back to blog posts with your domain, not your Gmail address. As an added bonus-- as your blog gains search juice, you can link to new sites you launch to give them a boost. Note: we covered setting up your own site in Week 7 of our Xtreme Internet Marketing Guides. There is a huge benefit to having this on your own domain versus a blogger.com or typepad.com. Nothing earth-shattering so far, right? But watch what happens after you've done this for about 60 days. You'll have developed better industry knowledge, know who the people are-- and most importantly, these people will start to know who you are. They won't remember where, but at least your name will be familiar when you meet. Search on your name every few days to see what's showing up on Google and Facebook. Don't search every day-- you might hurt your rankings. Step 4: Reach out to industry leaders on their Facebook and twitter Friend them on Facebook. Odds are they'll accept, especially if you compliment them on their blog and make some reference to something they care about. Don't just friend them with a blank message. Once they accept, your statuses will show up in their news feeds and vice versa. So don't
litter your statuses with trash. And as you have more heavy hitters as friends, when you friend other players, they'll see that you're already friends with a bunch of their friends-- your reputation is growing! Do this on LinkedIn, too. Even submit a T-shirt to Shoemoney, to grow reputation-- include good vodka if you want to get his attention. Step 5: Comment on their Facebook statuses and posts
You're not a pure stranger anymore, but at the same time, don't go nuts posting a ton of junk. They'll block you. Other folks will assume you're friends and it will enhance your credibility, especially if you've been keeping up with Google Alerts and their blogs. You will also be able to tell who is real or not by whether they know the same folks you do. Don't hard sell your offers, any more than you'd yell at friends in a nice restaurant. Step 6: Write your own blog posts Post regularly-- at least a few times a week. Don't have time? Then limit yourself to 5 minutes and just submit whatever you have. Don't know what to write about? As soon as you've read your daily Google Alerts, you'll definitely have some thoughts about what you read-- write your blog post right then, while it's still fresh in your mind. Aim to comment on at least 5 blogs each day and then write 1 blog post each day-- in response to something thought provoking you read. Dennis-Yu.com went from Google PageRank 0 to PageRank 5 in just 6 months by doing this. Step 7: Tie your Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter together
Thus, when you update your status on twitter, it will update your blog and your Facebook. When you update your blog, the new post will show up on your
profile. Get the picture? The more friends you have, the more people will see what you're doing-- it's a huge multiplier effect. As people comment on your posts and statuses, be sure to reply back, so you can keep the momentum going. At this point, you have developed your knowledge, a large base of contacts, and perhaps a following on your blog. You've got a good base going and it's time to multiply! Step 8: Google Analytics Look at what posts are getting the most traction-- write more about that, making the good stuff better. Look what sites are sending you the most traffic-- ask those folks if they'd like to trade guest blog posts. You want to eventually whittle down the number of topics you talk about down to just one or two so that you can rank on such terms in Google and also be known as THE industry expert on that topic. It will assist you in later steps detailed below. Who cares what the topic is-- it could be as random as discount caskets and cosmetic surgery, or as mainstream as ringtones and local lead generation. Step 9: Network at conferences This is where it happens. Conferences are not for listening to sessions-- they are for networking. Bring your business cards-- many of them. For each person you meet, remember one particular thing about your conversation-- even write it down on their card so you remember. And that night, before you go to bed (this is critical), send them an email referencing the one particular item from your conversation. Don't wait to the next day, no matter how tired you are. Hit them on LinkedIn and Facebook, too. People will remember you for following up. Got a few thousand dollars? Attend
Elite Retreat and Think Tank to shortcut straight to the top.
Step 10: Speak at conferences Your name should be such that folks at SMX, SES, Ad-Tech, and other shows will reach out to you-- else just reach out to them. Not ready or afraid of being a public speaker? Sign up for a local Toastmasters club to overcome your fear and actually enjoy public speaking. Network with the other speakers. Contact the conference organizer early and offer to help out-- this will help you land future speaking engagements. If you have the cash, sponsor something. So how does speaking at conferences have anything to do with networking and building up a team? It's better to have folks come to you versus you having to go to them. This way, you don't have to prove your competence. People assume it based on the company you keep. Plus, it's a lot more fun to be approached by other super affiliates than to resort to yelling louder to try to gain attention. And because you have knowledge, you can add value in relationships, plus introduce folks to mutual benefit. Do favors for others and they'll remember you for it. And now for how to build up a team... If you are a one-man show, there's only so much you can get done all by yourself in so much time. You need partners to do what you don't like to do. But how do you find these people and determine whether they are full of it, short-timers, or trustworthy? And when do you hire folks versus just partner with them? What if you don't have the
money to hire full-time employees?
Step 1: Use elance and rentacoder Believe it or not, we've found some great folks on these job boards. I'm assuming that you're a marketer looking for designers and engineers. But if you're an engineer looking for a marketer, just reference the earlier section on networking. If you're an engineer looking for another engineer, then you've got the best of both worlds, since you can easily tell who is good or not. Post a project for $200-300 on the boards, clearly detailing the requirements of the site you want to build. Don't know how to write requirements? Look at what others have written and find examples of sites you want to copy parts from. I'll estimate that 1 in 7 jobs you do will result in someone that you'll want to hire full-time. That means you'll be firing 6 out of 7 folks, so do it quickly. Only consider folks who are in the US-- you'll likely have a bad experience internationally. You may find some college kids that will be loyal to you later. It won't cost a lot, but you'll have to deal with a lot of project failures. You're looking for good business partners, so get used to the idea that you'll have to go through a lot of folks to get there. Step 2: Ask within your network for shops that they use We have gone through a ton of offshore companies and now use iqsplus.com and netsolutionsindia.com for outsourced design. There are many others out there. Even with a good shop, you'll still face disaster if you don't manage requirements tightly, have a project management system, and
communicate regularly-- more on that in Week 12. The benefit of an offshore company is that you can easily control costs. Manage them to hourly estimates and project caps. Don't know how many hours it should take to build a site? Ask your network for guidance and ask the company how many hours it took to build other sites in their portfolio. You should pay between $10 and $30 per hour-less if they're a small shop, more if they do high-end flash, speak great English, and actually have an office with full-time folks (not freelancers). Open source is a great way to cut down dev time- it's amazing what you can do with wordpress plugins. Step 3: Hire folks who have demonstrated competence Hiring your friends will likely result in disaster. Hiring people you like for non-work reasons-- also a fail. Hiring a programmer that's recommended by another programmer-- perhaps a 50/50 chance of failing, since they will push for their friends. Having a prospective engineer interviewed by a competent engineer you trust-- quite likely to succeed, provided they ask the prospect to write code in the interview and provide code examples beforehand. Step 4: Never hire folks full-time off the bat-- do a try out period So now you're making enough money to afford a full-time programmer or designer. The job market sucks right now, so you don't have to pay a lot, plus you can set up a try-out period. This provides your employee with a chance to see what it's like working with you and you can see how you like their work. Low risk to everyone-- they don't have to quit their current job, if they have one already. Manage them to hours used with daily timecards-- this is a step beyond managing hours from a shop, since you're working directly with the person, maybe even in person.
Step 5: Do a revshare if you can You can get burned by hiring folks by the hour or on a fixed bid basis. The longer they drag out a project, the more they get paid. See if you can get partners to agree to sharing the profits in percentages that everyone agrees to be fair. Agree to adjust later if work levels shift. A revshare is the trickiest of deals to negotiate, because of how profit is calculated, potential unevenness in work between partners, and lack of hard dollars on the line. However, it's the most lucrative long-term, since it aligns everyone's interests. If revsharing is difficult, then offer a low hourly rate with bonus for project completion. I've seen projects that have dragged on for weeks get completed overnight when I dangle a $100 bonus if it's done by tomorrow. Step 6: Negotiate a fair deal Don't screw your business partners over-- they will realize it later and you will have lost a long term partner. You don't want the reputation of being a slimeball-- it will follow you around. We've been left holding the bag several times for a lot of money-- in the long run, it's costing them more than us. Mark Twain once said that the key to success is to be genuine-- fake that and you've got it made! Seriously though-- when you have the reputation of being honest, it's that much easier to attract other business partners. Look at Wes Mahler of Tracking202. Affiliates are comfortable running his PPC tracking software because they know he's not going to steal their data. You also want to decide if you’re paying people by the hour, the task, on salary, or via revshare. Don’t know what’s the best method?
Hourly: this is the most common form of payment when you’re not sure how long something will take or where you’re likely to change your mind frequently. You can reduce risk by limiting the number of hours for a given project. o Upsides: You can control your cost— ramping up or shutting down projects as you go along. Best used for freelancers. o Downsides: Requires time tracking by you to prevent the hours from being eaten up. Task: When you pay by the project, you limit your financial exposure and deadline risk—especially if you use a job board where there is a ratings system in place, plus mediation for project failures. o Upsides: You can compare “apples-to-apples” bids from many people. You can bring many people into a factory-like process if you require repetition of the same task (building websites and writing articles). Easy to scale. o Downsides: Paying by the task creates high churn and low loyalty. Don’t expect to keep people long. Don’t use this for projects that continue to build upon a foundation or would benefit from a learning curve of having the same person working on it. If you don’t define your requirements EXACTLY, then they probably won’t do it. Salary: The most dangerous of all types of pay, since the employee has an incentive to work as little as possible – “F*ck it, I’m on salary.” However, for projects that are huge/complex, sensitive in nature, require the same person or group of people on it, and build long-term value, then you need employees. Never bring someone on board on salary to start— you will regret it. Try hourly or task-based via a try-out period.
o Upsides: This is how you build an internal team, folks who can work together and get it done. You cannot build an internal team with contractors—the politics will kill you. o Downsides: You have an unspoken responsibility to provide stable pay, it’s hard to fire people, and there is an incentive to work less. Mitigate this by offering some portion of performance or bonus pay. Revshare: The most difficult to negotiate, but when done properly will align everyone’s interests. You’re sharing profits or revenue in a clear way. There is shared risk, but if you have the right people, unlimited upside for everyone involved. Most revshare deals never get off the ground since both parties are waiting for each other to commit—hence nobody does. Most revshare deals are borne of folks who don’t have any money—if someone offers you a revshare, understand if it’s because they don’t have money or truly want partnership. o Upsides: Reduces your risk if you define it properly. Will often attract the best talent— folks who don’t want to work for a salary or for someone else. Causes partners to invest from their own pocket in terms of time and resource—but may also result in hesitancy. o Downsides: Very tricky to manage, often hard to measure. Can only be applied to a few people, since if you’re splitting the pie too many ways, you’ll suffer from the “free rider effect”. To really scale up your business, you need to build it upon people and systems that operate in such a fail-proof way that you don’t need to be involved at each
step. For a great analogy on this—read this story: “Moving Rocks in Mass Quantities” Step 7: Maximize your availability Your #1 asset is your availability-- you want to be the one that a partner thinks of when he has a great idea. If you're not around-- your loss. Get a blackberry or iPhone and respond to messages promptly. If you use gmail, use gmail tasks and the built-in calendar to organize your stuff, so that you have a reputation for getting stuff done, as opposed to flaking out. Run your business like a business-- have an office with office hours, even if it's in your house. More on organizing your projects next week. You might also check out “Getting Things Done” by David Allen or resources at lifehacker.com. When you've set up your reputation as being a credible businessperson, as opposed to an affiliate pimp, you'll be surprised at how many deals come your way. Next week, our topic is Launch Day: How To Kick Start Your Business And Manage Your Projects. So you've got your world-beating, bone-crushing idea. Now how do you organize such that things get done?
ShoeMoney Action Plan: Week 11
Set up google alerts and find topics to become an expert in Connect with other experts. Friend them on social networks, and comment on their posts and blog articles Create a blog (if you haven't already done so!), and install Google Analytics Blog about the topics you have chosen Make sure all of your social network profiles are tied together Attend a conference to network with others (Don't forget business cards!) Speak at a conference on your topic of choice Ask your network of friends for team member / shop recommendations Begin hiring capable people to fill in your team Negotiate a payment system for your team members Buy a smartphone to ensure you're always able to be reached