I’ve been thinking a lot about the survey I did a couple weeks ago. The basic feedback I received from everyone is they want to watch me create a brand new website business, make it profitable and then sell it, all while incorporating various aspects of internet marketing.
There are a few logistical issues with this plan that I’m trying to figure out, so I decided to ask for your advice. You’re probably a lot smarter than me anyway, so hopefully you have some ideas for me.
I talked with a couple people who have done these “live experiments” before and they said it was very challenging to create a successful website with thousands of people following along each day. Here’s an example that I was given…
Apparently my friend was testing a new Adwords campaign for his new website. He was sharing all of the details with his readers so they could learn exactly what he was doing. He shared all the keywords he was using and the exact ad copy he was testing. But for some reason, the people who were following along kept clicking his ads. He racked up about 1000 clicks in a couple days at $0.25 per click and ONLY got about 10 optins to his email list he was testing. He later found out he wasted $250 on clicks from his readers, not from people interested in his offer.
(funny thing is, after his experiment, he kicked the campaign back on and it’s now making a profit of about $3,000 per month since nobody is interfering with the test results).
I can see how that can happen though. If you have 1,000 or 3,000 people following along watching your every move, it’s hard to get accurate test results. Internet marketing is a numbers game, so if you are testing conversion rates of a sales letter or an optin page and you have 1000 people checking your sites everyday just to see what you are up to, it can get pretty ugly from a stats point of view.
Another issue with a “live” business is, NOT ALL BUSINESSES ARE SUCCESSFUL. It’s true, not everything I touch turns into gold. In fact, out of every 10 websites I start only 1 or 2 are considered “home runs”. 3 or 4 are “moderately profitable” and about 4 to 5 are complete duds!
That’s a lesson in and of itself…Not every project you work on will be a huge success, not even for people like me who have been doing this for 5+ years.
If you do a live experiment with people watching and you have a 50% chance of having a dud project, people will think you’re an idiot and not know what you’re talking about. Even though the real value of an experiment like this is learning the steps along the way, not necessarily the final income figures.
Another issue is, I’m guessing it will be fairly difficult to sell a website where 1000+ people watched every step of how that site was made. A big part of selling a website is the non-disclosure and non-compete clauses. One reason why people buy websites is because not everyone knows how to build a profitable web business. I can’t imagine someone would want to buy a site knowing that any of the 1000′s of people watching could replicate the success of the site step by step. I know I wouldn’t want to buy a site with that kind of risk.
Finally, the process from starting a new web business, getting it profitable and ultimately selling it, is a long process. We’ve found the best success using a 13 month time schedule. That gives us a couple months to set up the site and start promoting it. Another 10 months or so to ramp things up and make it ultra profitable, and then another couple months to find a qualified buyer. It’s really a snowball effect when it comes to growing an internet business, and the first 2-4 months are really just a foundation building phase.
So, how can I avoid these obvious problems AND STILL give you what you want by showing you step by step a live example of a profitable internet business?
Well, I had a few ideas and wanted to get your feedback. I’ll just list them out here:
1) Partner With A Small Group Of Readers
One downside about starting a project like this is time. Aside from running this blog, I have 2 other projects I’m also managing right now. If I add a new project to the mix, I’m afraid something is going to have to take the back burner and get less attention. I may not be able to continue spending two hours a day writing these free blog posts, etc.
Also, if I were to do this experiment, I wouldn’t be doing it half-assed. It would be a full blown, step by step guide showing every single detail that I do. This would mean videos, in-depth articles, audio recordings, etc. All of these things take a lot of time to develop. So, not only would I be starting an entirely new web business (which takes a lot of time), but I’d be spending about an equal amount of time documenting everything.
This “partner” idea could be something like this…Maybe I would pick 4-5 people to help with the project. Assign each person a task to do, have them do it and document each step they take. I’m not sure how I would pick these people, maybe some kind of interview format?
By having 4-5 people involved, I think things could be done at a much faster pace. And since I wouldn’t have to do all the work myself, I wouldn’t be sacrificing the quality of my other projects. Maybe we could split the profits of the website among all the contributors if there was a fair way to do that (based on the amount of effort contributed, etc).
The downside to this is, nobody else will be able to watch along while the project is going on so the results aren’t manipulated artificially. And also I’d have to be managing 4-5 people I don’t know, and who knows what the work ethic will be from these people. Could be a nightmare…
2) Have A Paid Membership Site To Access The Training
As you know, I love membership sites and this concept is a perfect example of a potential membership idea. It’s a long term project that requires lots of updates. It’s a valuable topic that people are interested in.
I have no idea how much would be a reasonable price to charge for something like this or if anyone would even be interested. It would be a more “exclusive” club where I could freely share all the details of what I’m doing with everyone in the club giving LIVE updates.
I know people would obviously prefer to have a free experiment done, but based on the reasons above, I’m not sure that’s a possibility. By having a paid program, I would be able to give more details and share more things, especially if the members each signed a non-compete before we got started. That would also help with the issue of selling the website later since the new owner would get those non-compete agreement’s transferred to them.
Finally, by having a paid program, I would be compensated for my time, which means I could focus more time and effort into this training program rather than splitting my time up among 4 different projects. I’d basically hire someone to take over one of our other sites while I did this experiment.
3) Have A Combined Partner & Paid Tuition Program
In this idea, I would combine the paid program with the partner program. Here’s what I’m thinking…
Each partner would pay a flat rate tuition fee (maybe $500 or $800, etc). For this fee, the partner gets to follow along LIVE while I’m starting a new business. The difference this time though, is the partner would be creating THEIR OWN website at the same time, using the same strategies I’m using.
When the class ends (maybe after 6 months or so), the partner would have a choice. They can either keep the website they built and enjoy the profits from their hard work, or I can buy their website back from them for $800 or $1000 perhaps. That way they get their tuition back, plus make a few hundred bucks for the work they put in while doing their “on the job training”.
With this option, either way the partner would have zero risk. They either have a profitable website they can keep, or they sell the website they worked on and get all their money back and then some just for trying.
Obviously there are some potential issues with this as well. For example, the partner would actually have to FOLLOW the steps I’m teaching for me to buy their site back, etc. It wouldn’t be fair to me to buy their website for $1000 if they gave up after 3 days and only had a domain name and one page of content.
4) Do A Secret Experiment Behind The Scenes
With this option, I would basically start a new website from scratch behind the scenes. I would do the same documentation as I would from the examples above, but nobody would know what my site was or what I am currently working on (so there is no interference).
Then, after 9-12 months or so, I’d sell the website and document each of those steps as well. Once the site is sold and the new owner is ok with it, I would share the entire process with you (either free on this site or via a paid training program). Again, anything given away for free makes everyone lose because there will be too many people following the same steps at the same time. A paid program increases everyone’s chances of success since it will limit the number of people participating.
The downside to this option is, it’s at least 10 months out before you ever see a single lesson. By that time, who knows if the internet will even exist 
Maybe some of the strategies I’ve used during the experiment will no longer be valid (ie – Adwords may change their rules again by then, etc).
5) Have ONE reader take the challenge
This idea would be to pick one motivated reader of this blog, and have me work one on one with this person. The reader would be required to do all the work, make all the documentation and just follow the directions I provide to them.
Again, I’m not sure how we could do this “live” and keep it free for everyone, but I’m open to ideas. This option could be done behind the scenes as well or as a paid membership program. I’m not sure, just throwing out ideas here…
6) Scrap the whole idea and keep doing what I’m doing now
If none of these ideas sound good to you, I can just forget the whole thing and just keep posting blog posts here sharing tidbits of my wisdom instead. You can use the knowledge gained from these blog posts and try to make your own success web business.
What do you think would be the best way to do this experiment?
I’ll be back on Monday to get your feedback. I have a wedding to go to this weekend, so I’ll be out of town until Sunday night. If I get some free time this weekend, I’ll try to write another blog post, but I’m guessing you’ll hear back from me on Monday.
Thanks in advance for your comments on this idea…
Author: Max
Updated: May, 2012
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Updated: May, 2012
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Well I think your much smarter than I am in this area….five years ahead of me:)
Anyway I think a thing that you could do that might work is have a membership or tuition thing but it cant cost to much because most of your readers are looking for a way to make money meaning most dont have a lot to spend up front.
With this membership or co op thing you would build a site and instead of having everyone else build the same thing you did why not have each person pick a different niche. So that everyone is doing the same to build thier buisness but are not competing for the same customer.
Building a membership site that allows people to join and build a site from the ground up with an instructor. Just as if you taking an online class through a college have things you need to complete each week. Make it be a 6 month course etc.
You could do live web confrence, chat, forum etc. The thing is it would need to be a way someone could do for low cost. By doing this you need to find a way you can profit from it in some way down the road since you cant charge to much for it at first. ( at least if they are like me I just dont have enough cash to through down to much now days with the market and everything going the way it is)
You could go a lot of different directions with this but I think you could build something good here. Since not everyone has the ability to do everything from programing to graphics the class could help each other out along the way. So basically you would put down the structure and then let the class go with it and if they need help along the way you would give the support.
I would think that now days with the market the way it is and eveyrone looking for another source of income you could build a huge network/ membership site.
Now I am not sure if you can do your strategy with every niche or not so this may not work but its just and idea.
Another thing I was think is that you could build a membership site like this and team people together. Like a group of 5 or so and have the 5 people work on the same project. And in the end they could split the profit of the site they sell or what they make each month.
Either way I am onboard anything you decide to do. You give great content that is not just the same thing someone copied off another blog. Its great stuff and I look forward to your post every day.
Jason Zalesky
Max,
Let me first just say that this is one hell-of-a-blog my friend. The content is well written and valuable to bloggers of all backgrounds. The silly thing is, I don’t really think that “The Blogging Experiment” is really an ideal title anymore. Your almost to good for it in some sense…. sorry to get off topic.
As for all these ideas and questions, I’m amazed at your creativity. Coming up with one or two “ideas” is hard for most folks, but a list… wow. I think looking at some of your concerns somewhat answers your own question.
You mention that the laws of averages are simply against a successful “experiment”. That said, people “could” consider the tuition system somewhat of a gamble. Example…
If I were being a pessimist I could question what “real” motivation someone would have to make the “experiment” work. Afterall you are being paid a healthy sum just to “try” right?.
I know that wouldn’t be the case here, but you know somebody somehwere is going to pipe in their noise and question your motives… and of course your results. I’d stay clear of that mess for sure.
Besides not being 100% accurate on the building of a true from scratch readerbase, I see another downfall to the accuracy of the results being the number of people you have following the experimental site daily. As your friend mentioned a statistical nightmare… I mean if I were to buy the “experiment” site after it was finished, I wouldn’t want 3,000 readers ( aka: students) to disapear overnight. Lets face it, your going to start off with one hell of a traffic flow right off the bat just from this website alone.
I don’t envy you… ha ha. Though I would LOVE to see you do this… I don’t see how you can without becoming a heavy drinker before its over with.
Any, keep it up, and thanks for the great info.
-John
I agree with some of Jason ideas.
I think you could build a membership course for a couple of months, with a not so high monthly fee. People could organize in small groups (I guess no more than 3 or 4 per group would be good, more people doesn’t necessarily mean less time) and limit the course registration to x number of groups/people you think you’ll be able to handle.
Then each group would choose a niche or website format to work with (maybe you could prepare 5 or 6 website ideas you think my work and let people choose from them).
Each member of each team should sign some kind of contract to share the profits (don’t know much about legal stuff).
And here’s what I think that could work for you. You could also have a share of each project (let’s say 20% as an example) to get some return for your management time, percentage you would collect from the monthly profits of each website and from the website sell (task which you’ll be doing, of course hehe). Maybe even you or one of the team members could buy the the website.
With this profit-share model you could even not charge for the subscription.
I think that with this model everyone would be winning. People would learn a lot under your tutorship in a real-life example and would also find new business partners.
What I don’t have many ideas about, is how you should choose the people that will participate, which parameter you should use.
Another couple of ideas:
-people could enter the course adding funds to the project instead of a subscription. Funds could be used for marketing, software, etc
-every people that want to be a part of this challenge could specify which role they want to play in the project (marketing, coding, designing, etc)
I understand your dilemma.
All of us, including you are here because of our interest in making money.
You cannot be expected to invest your time for free to make us all become successful. It reminds me of the article a few days ago about being lazy and looking for the easy road to success.
From what I see, the idea makes the most sense, could be having 4,5,6 or 10 people commit to a piece of the project. They don’t have to be masters in the area they are assigned. This way it is a learning process for everyone.
The entrants invest some of their time and money for software and resources.
If you don’t attach a monetary value or entrance fee to this opportunity, then you risk a breakdown in the process. It would hurt more to lose money personally than to lose someone else’s.
Charging a membership fee to watch this project evolve would be a sensible approach.
If this chases some people away because of a membership cost, then they will always keep searching for the free stuff in life.
I am not criticizing the “Free Content Concept” at all, that is why I am here.
There will continue to be opportunities out there, we choose where and when we want to participate.
Is there anyone else that can offer another approach. The more ideas, the better the results!
@Kevin, I thought about the “spectator” membership, but that way the people that is “watching” would be able to replicate the project and the website would incur in the problems that Max mentioned for finally selling the website.
Any other ideas?
I’ve been enjoying your posts, Max (which is not to say I didn’t enjoy Ben’s posts, too, because I did), and this is very intriguing. I’m very interested in whatever you come up with as well.
I would definitely support the idea of a paid membership or tuition, because obviously you would be sharing lots of valuable information and time, and that’s definitely worth something. I don’t want to have to put out a lot of moolah either, but some sort of monthly payment I could handle.
The only option I don’t like at all is #4 – I don’t want to wait 10 months!
I think #2 or #3 have the most potential. I’ll be following along to see what you decide and hopefully be a part.
It’s hard to say which option would be the best. Depending on the cost of the membership there will be some that would take part and others that will not. If you choose #5 I’m sure everyone would like to be “The One”.
~Terry
I would like to go for option#3 and I am game for the one on one hands one coaching..
that way you can weed out non serious people from the experiment..
I think getting a team of partners together is the best option, and work on one site. Teach teamwork as well as the other topics you want to cover.
Have each one compile a weekly report that you can sum up on this blog.
Of course, I should be one of those partners…
I agree with Serena, options 3 and 4 are the best in my opinion.
Case studies with secret websites already have been done. And you could directly describe one of your experiences without launching a new website.
I think that letting people participate directly from the beginning would really make the difference.
I offer myself to help you to set the website to manage this case study and set the tools needed to do this.
Max,
a big dilema here…. just one idea you could think about.
Partnering with a group of readers could drive you to explore an international work. I mean usign people from diferent world places will allow to make a bigger, world size project…
Great post showing us your ways of trying to plan a new project!!
I’ve got a question that is sitting there in the back of my mind and I just have to ask it. Did you really sell the blog? I think not. Very clever. Very Very clever.
Max,
Your ideas are ingenious, I don’t know how you keep coming up with them, but please don’t stop!
With that said, there is definitely a dilemma here. Here are my .02 cents:
I agree with Jason in that we’re all here to make money and most people in this position don’t have a lot of money to spend up front. With that said, this is what popped into my mind.
I would hand-pick the partners involved.
I would not charge the partners, but do charge the “audience” (the paying members) who are watching, learning and being entertained from the experiment. After the website is complete/sold, you could begin a new project with new partners, and members could continue to watch the next one unfold, all the while paying a reasonable membership. This way it could almost be a Survivor-like atmosphere where the people you choose have different strengths, personalities, viewpoints and skill sets – and their personalities become a part of the draw.
Since the partners would be doing all of the work (following your instructions), they would not pay, they would earn their keep by building, creating, etc.
If you’ve ever seen the show “Flip This House“, it could be similar. The show follows various companies that specialize in finding gems in the rough, trying to fix it up with the least possible cost and then flip it within months, or sometimes weeks. They always run into issues, problems and it’s interesting to see how they solve them.
The biggest problems with this idea is how to keep people from interfering with the site and also how to hand-pick the partners (though I’m sure that’s like choosing a good team for any job). Of course, we’d all like to be the chosen partners…
Whatever you choose to do, I’m sure it will be a great experience. I can’t wait to see how it unfolds.
Jeannie
Great ideas everyone, keep ‘em coming…I knew you would be more creative than me!
@ Mark – I’m not sure what you mean? Ben sold his blog, but our agreement is he will continue to post a few times per week for the next 10 weeks.
Sorry Max, I just had a moment there where I thought Ben and Max were one and the same. My bad. It would be a good idea though.
I’m curious Mark…What made you think that Ben and Max were the same person? That would be an interesting twist to this blog if that were the case.
~Terry
I don’t know. It is just my twisted thinking. It probably is the way Max describes it.
Lots of very interesting ideas, each one with it’s own intrigue as well as obstacles. I like option #3 the best, but being an owner of a B&M and a web business, if I were the trainer I wouldn’t want my finances tied to the abilities of the people paying for the training. They may be brilliant and motivated, or they may merely think they are brilliant and motivated. Big difference in outcomes.
Maybe modifying #3 by lowering the tuition a bit and not having the buyback option at the end might make it more of a winner for all.
I have been following a case study from another blog. In fact I have created a similar blog and using most of the techniques that he talks about and shows us to use. He is using a WordPress Theme while I am completely hand coding my page to make it the most SEO as possible. I am all about case studies and following different ideas. Incase you are curious about the blogger that I am following the website is:
www(dot)jimkarter(dot)com
Now I was thinking whether or not I should include my site and for similar reasons as to what Max said I don’t want to. I don’t want to create any competition on my keywords. While I hope that he will show us his case study, I am seriously conflicted. While I wouldn’t personally rip off someones keywords I don’t know about other people.
@ Mark – I think you’re going to have me looking more closely to see if I can catch any similarities with the way Max and Ben write…lol
~Terry
I personally like the paid membership site option — it would be worth it to me to pay in order to have access to this training. I also like the paid partner option in which people create their own sites along with you and follow the steps you lay out — although, I don’t feel like having you buy it back is the best way to demonstrate how to sell a site and I would want to walk through that process as well.
Looks like a pretty wide variety of opinions on this one. I’m going to have to think about this for a bit…
I guess it depends on how vague or precise you want the details to be.
You could infer alot of your training rather than give exact details – although, it would be hard to substitute some of the stuff you do with hypothetical examples.
Perhaps a paid e-book?
It almost sounds a bit like you need a paid version of the Thirty Day Challenge.
You need people to be able to find their own way in this though – not just follow a click this, type that, click there, collect £100 type tutorial. You need to INSPIRE – not just teach.