Harris Fellman Money Making Ideas for Giving You a Life(style)

The trouble with “Stacking” your business

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about attempting to create a business that’s a “viral stack”. I first read about “Viral Stacking” in the book, Viral Loop, by Adam Penenberg.

One of the examples given in the book is basically that Ebay was growing incredibly virally, and then Paypal came along with a much needed service and piggy-backed their viral growth. Youtube & Flickr did the same thing with Blogs & Myspace – creating a service that bloggers & myspacers needed. The same sort of thing happens with all the social games out there like Farmville and Mafia Wars built on top of Facebook.

So, now you get the idea…

Some service is growing at lightning speed, you provide a service that’s needed by their customer base, and viola – you’re growing at lightning speed too.

I’ve been thinking about creating something that would ride on top of Clickbank, in much the same way. Even though the growth of Clickbank is not “at lightning speed” as compared to Facebook, Twitter, or Ebay (back in the day); it still has good steady growth and a hungry hungry affiliate base.

And then a few things happened to some of my friends in the last week…

o Paypal has been limiting and even shutting down some companies accounts. It feels like the Paypal of 7 or 8 years ago. I’m not exactly sure of what the pattern is – but I think it’s a backlash from the higher refund rates on higher ticket products that a lot of info product sellers are seeing now because of the recession.

o Ning has thrown out their ‘free’ model. (Funny, Ning was an example given in both the book “Free” by Chris Anderson and “Viral Loop” mentioned above.) A friend of mine had an info product that basically “stacked” on top of Ning – but it was heavily reliant on the fact that Ning had a free model. Oops – back to square one.

o Yesterday, Twitter announced a big change in their API in relation to advertising that will drastically effect a company that I personally use and recommend called Sponsored Tweets as well as others with similiar business models.

o Plus, I’ve recently had a hacker attack us through an exploit in a piece of software that I’ve built my current business on top of.

Believe me, I know these things can happen…

On the flip side, it’s awesome to be able to ride on top of another company’s success, too. I think the benefits far outweigh the risks in this case. But let this be a warning to you (as well as to me) when you try to stack your business on top of another company. They can, and most likely, will change the rules on you at some point.

It’s best to go into the relationship with a ‘white hat’ on and, more importantly, with open eyes as to what the risks might be if the rules change on you.

I’d be interested to know what you. Please comment if the rules have ever been changed on you by another company in such a way that it’s effected your business.

UPDATE May 26

Oh the Irony: Today my PayPal account was ‘limited’ – they want a business license from me. I’m sure I’ve provided them everything they could possibly ask for in the past. I guess they’re just doing a yearly sweep or something. Don’t have much money in there right now… Didn’t do a launch recently… So, can’t think of what it might be other than ‘random’.

Why God made Moms

Ya know… With all this social media now-a-days (Twitter, Facebook, Google Buzz, Blogging, etc etc etc), I was just thinking the other day “OMG, who forwards jokes in email anymore?”. Isn’t it so much easier to just click a button on  comment on blog post instead?

Anyway, the answer?

My Mom.

And she  forwarded me this email last week which I thought was so cute I’d post it on Mother’s Day for all you moms and people with moms out there. (And don’t worry,  it doesn’t get religious on ya – that’s just the first question.)

WHY GOD MADE MOMS

Answers given by 2nd grade school children to the following questions:

Why did God make mothers?

1.  She’s the only one who knows where the scotch tape is.

2..  Mostly to clean the house.

3.  To help us out of there when we were getting born.

How did God make mothers?

1.  He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.

2.  Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring.

3.  God made my mom just the same like he made me.  He just used bigger parts.

What ingredients are mothers made of?

1.  God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of mean.

2.  They had to get their start from men’s bones.  Then they mostly use string, I think.

Why did God give you your mother and not some other mom?

1.  We’re related.

2.  God knew she likes me a lot more than other people’s mom like me.

What kind of a little girl was your mom?

1.  My mom has always been my mom and none of that other stuff.

2.  I don’t know because I wasn’t there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.

3.  They say she used to be nice.

What did mom need to know about dad before she married him?

1.  His last name.

2.  She had to know his background.  Like is he a crook?  Does he get drunk on beer?

3.  Does he make at least $800 a year?  Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?

Why did your mom marry your dad?

1.  My dad makes the best spaghetti in the world.  And my mom eats a lot

2.  She got too old to do anything else with him.

3.  My grandma says that mom didn’t have her thinking cap on.

Who’s the boss at your house?

1.  Mom doesn’t want to be boss, but she has to because dad’s such a goof ball.

2.  Mom.  You can tell by room inspection.  She sees the stuff under the bed.

3.  I guess mom is, but only because she has a lot more to do than dad.

What’s the difference between moms and dads?

1.  Moms work at work and work at home and dads just go to work at work.

2.  Moms know how to talk to teachers without scaring them..

3.  Dads are taller and stronger, but moms have all the real power ’cause that’s who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friends.

4.  Moms have magic, they make you feel better without medicine.

What does your mom do in her spare time?

1.  Mothers don’t do spare time.

2.  To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.

What would it take to make your mom perfect?

1.  On the inside she’s already perfect.  Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.

2.  Diet.  You know, her hair.  I’d diet, maybe blue.

If you could change one thing about your mom, what would it be?

1.  She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean.  I’d get rid of that.

2.  I’d make my mom smarter..  Then she would know it was my sister who did it not me.

3.  I would like for her to get rid of those invisible eyes on the back of her head.

Happy Mother’s Day – be sure to kiss, hug, or call your mom today.

Lovin’ the Philippines so far

Well, since last I posted, I’ve hired 6 guys in the Philippines to work with us on a contractor basis. Really great guys … well, actually, one of them took another job already programming android applications. Ah well. But the other guys are looking to be pretty kick ass web developers and one up and coming video editor. Should be interesting.

Why the Philippines, you ask?

Well, first of all I needed a lot of low-cost contract workers for my “YourInstantSite” business. I was pretty much planning on just hiring an Indian or other already established Development Company; but as I did my due diligence “the Philippines” kept coming up.

I heard thru the grapevine that Joel Peterson, Mark Joyner, and John Reese all have been taken to hiring people out of the Philippines. But the straw that broke the camel’s back was my buddy, “Magic Ryan”, who pretty much runs “Rich Jerk Enterprises”  - referred me to John Jonas and his services ReplaceMyself.com (affiliate link) & OnlineJobs.ph (which you get when you join ReplaceMyself). Totally kick ass service — RM wasn’t exactly catered to me and what I do since it teaches you to hire article writers and virtual assistants … and I’m looking for more of a web development team… Ryan told me he was super sold on the Philippines himself – but others love it because they speak American English so fluently, have a really good work ethic, and actually like working for Americans — they’re proud to do so.

It hasn’t been super easy – it’s a bit of a pain in the ass to hire people to be honest with you – and it looks like I need to hire another 3 or 4 people at this point as well. But the bottom line is they’re well trained, highly affordable, and have been great to work with so far.

Oh, also, people have asked me how I’m doing towards my goal of $10,000,000 this year is looking. Well, I guess it depends on how you count it to be honest with you. But if I were to be honest, the way I’m counting it, my company is no where close. But like I said before, I don’t really care that much. I’m looking for a lifestyle not a magic number. I think I’ll be very happy with a million or so in profits this year (yes, I mean ‘profits’ as in ‘net to harris’). My original goal was like $2,000,000 in gross revenue. We’ll on a good path to hit that, will have to pick up speed a bit … the $10M was based on some things happening that I don’t think will happen at this point and I’m not willing to push like Michael Dell or Bill Gates to grow that fast.

I’m not wholly willing to admit that to myself. I mean the meglomaniac in me is screaming to take over the world. But if I can just SEE THE WORLD on a nice recurring income, I’ll be pretty happy. I’m totally jazzed about my current business model. We have over 2000 paying customers and the goal is about 10,000 which I totally think we can hit 30-40,000 in the course of a year. It’s tough for me to just focus on one business – thankfully, this particular business allows for some variety within the confines of ‘just one business focus’.

I know you probably don’t know WTF i’m talking about. If you’re curious – feel free to comment and I’ll get into it a little deeper. Basically, my company is becoming a specialized web development house with an awesome whitelabel service providing ‘instant sites’ and ’sitebuilder type’ services to a very hungry market. I’m excited by it all and figured I’d stop in and at least tell you that I highly recommend working with people in the Philippines. Check out ReplaceMyself.com … use it, don’t use it … whatever. Even if you don’t use it – you can actually find people to work for you by posting a free ad in Craigslist (yes, they service the Philippines now and plenty of good people there know about it.)

Peace,

Harris

10 Reasons I Hate Frank Kern

Alright…without any fanfare, here’s the 10 reasons I *hate* Frank Kern,

1. He makes more money than anyone else (and especially me)
2. He did a launch with Tony Robbins for goodness sake
3. His freakin’ video quality is SO good now
   (Go look at his latest one here: http://improfits.com/10reasons geezus, good quality *and* info)
4. He’s done some funny characters, can’t I be the “character guy” all alone???
5. I think he might be half-way decent at playin’ that guitar now
6. He lives on the beach, I live in the valley
7. DAMN HIM! His videos are like short films from a Hollywood producer now – http://improfits.com/10reasons
8. He’s got a full head of hair and I’m bald (even if I didn’t shave what’s left)
9. Smokin’ hot wife (well, I’ve got one of those too)
10. Did I mention that I’m really getting freakin’ jealous of his video quality?

Whatever – here’s List Control, in all it’s glory.

Screw it, what can I say?

– http://improfits.com/10reasons

The One True Way to Success

Someone asked me today what I thought the “one way” to affiliate marketing success was… They said they liked what they saw in what I’ve taught in the past. So, they figured they’d reach out and see if I could give them advice on the “one affiliate marketing training course” I would recommend.

Here’s my honest answer:

Thanks for the compliment. Honestly, I’m not going to recommend “one thing”. The truth of the matter is – for me and others – success has been a matter of trial and error. In order to improve your situation you have to do three things:
1) Relate 2) Repeat 3) Reframe
Relate = finding a program, a business model, a project, a mentor, or a group that you RELATE to – that makes sense to you – that you likeRepeat = repeating habits that will lead to your success based on whichever program you’re in from aboveReframe = as you have little successes, you begin to reframe your mind from someone who says “I am a marketing loser” to “I kick ass at marketing”.
At first glance, your handwashing site looks like crap. But what I’ve learned is that what a site LOOKS LIKE has nothing to do with how much potential it has to make money. Plus, you say you’re making money wiht it – that’s great. The one direction I would go in if I were you would be to expand upon the success you’re already having. Add more side-niches to the handwashing concept … find other ways to build that out and monetize it more. Try a more professional looking version of it.
You say you want to do affiliate marketing? Okay, that’s great. Go do it. You’re smart enough to have put a site together and get a little success going, you’ll be smart enough to come up with a plan to put into place and try a lot of the tactics that are out there.
The “RELATE” side of the three “R”’s above is really a search. Trial and Error. Allow yourself to try stuff that makes sense and follow it to the letter … but then if it doesn’t work, that doesn’t make you a loser – it just means you found something that didn’t work for you. (And I would apply it to the niche you’re already in, too, btw.)
Hope this helps ya out a bit – I know it’s not exactly what you’re looking for – but truly there is no “on size fits all” program for success. You have to find your own way.

When I grow up … I wanna be like my mommy

Be Sure to Read Below

After it was graded and the child brought it home, she returned to school the next day with the following note:

Dear Ms. Davis,  I want to be very clear on my child’s illustration. It is NOT of me on a dance pole on a stage in a strip joint. I work at Home Depot and had commented to my daughter how much money we made in the recent snowstorm. This drawing is of me selling a shovel.     Mrs. Harrington