Split Testing Myself – My 3 Business Models

Some have asked what I do online.
Well, after going through my share of mistakes I am now pursuing 3 different business models. Yeah I know, I need to focus and go after one. I know that, yet I’m still not sure which one is the best fit for me so I’ve decided to go for all 3 and see which one works best.
Obviously it’s only a test for myself and if I were someone else I’d probably see completely different results. Having said that, I love the fact that I can test the waters of any business model before I commit to it full time. It’s what the internet has enabled. So basically I’m doing split testing, only I’m split testing myself.

(reading that last statement again makes me fell weird, but don’t worry, this isn’t going to be some weird post).

Ok, I’ve steered myself off topic somehow. Let’s get back to this post’s topic – what am I doing online nowadays.

So here’s a rundown of my 3 business models right now:
1) Publishing books on Amazon
We’re dealing with information so what’s better than having the grand daddy of information selling your info for you? With the publish-on-demand companies such as lulu and createspace, you can write a book and have it featured on Amazon. I have now written several books and started seeing sales. With a little technique I learned form the warrior forum, I can now write a book in about a week. My aim is to tweak the process so I can outsource it and still be profitable. I can then go ahead and create a virtual publishing house that can realistically publish around 100 books a year (that’s if I outsource it completely).
This is a complete business that will generate return sales again and again as Amazon enables people to list the books, post reviews about them and gives me the platform to sell sell sell.

And as a result I’ve also learned a valuable new skill – I am now an author. True, I write under pen names for now yet I can become an author under my own name when it’s right and that creates a level of trust and creates instant expert status. Obviously I’ll also be able to market my new skill if need be.

2) Ranking Local Businesses on Google’s First Page
There’s another skill set that anyone with anytime in the Internet Marketing niche has probably developed. I’m talking about direct marketing and SEO (search engine optimization, which is a fancy way to say getting ranked well on Google, Yahoo and Bing).
There are more than 4 Million small businesses in the US alone. And most of them don’t know anything about marketing online which is a shame because traditional marketing doesn’t work all that well anymore. Did you know that almost 80% of people searching for local businesses go to the internet? So there’s a real need for anyone that can help a business move to internet marketing.
I know I can help these businesses and I know I can build a business of my own doing so. My hurdle is the fact that I’m so far away, I can’t meet with potential clients. Not that I know how to sell face to face, so even if I could I’d probably suck at it.
I tried partnering up with someone that can sell face to face but that partnership fell apart. I’m still not so sure why really but I didn’t let that get to me since the potential for this is huge. I’m also stubborn so I’m still going for it.
I know my situation isn’t unique – even if you live 2 hours away from the nearest big city then for all practical purposes, you can’t realistically meet potential clients either all day long.
So how do I overcome the hurdle?
I give before I expect anything in return.
I rank sites on the first page of Google and then email prospective clients showing them that I can do what I say I can do. And that’s probably a lot different than the promises made by my competition. I’m showing what I can do before asking for anything.
I also put my money where my mouth is and guarantee to give back all the money paid if I can’t rank their site in aresonable amount of time.

If they ask for it I could also publish a book with them as the author using my previously discussed skill set

3) Creating A Software Product
This sounds pretty simple – generate an idea for a brilliant piece of software, build it, launch it and have affiliates promote it.
Sounds pretty straightforward and for the most part it is. It requires a lot of work though. And I do mean A LOT of work.
This is also the first time I’ve done this so I put most of my energy in creating a killer application and not so much on marketing and affiliates. If there’s one thing I’ve already learned, it’s that you should focus primarily on the marketing.
I should have seen this coming yet in hindsight I realize that I fell for the old “build it and they will come” mantra. So I built it and the software performs a lot better than what I had hoped but without extensive marketing it won’t sell like it should and affiliates won’t come storming in.
I’m not complaining. I’m very proud of my little piece of software, and I know it works. I’ve also made some money out of it already and I’m happy to be on the product creator side of the affiliate equation. To top it all off, I’ve also learned a ton during the experience. Now all I need is to roll up my sleeves again and put in the marketing effort.
(damn)
Doesn’t anything happen without marketing? (I already know the answer)

So there you have it – my 3 business models. For now I’m still tweaking the process for the self publishing model so I can have it outsourced profitably. I’m doing the seo ranking model by myself and I have a partner for the software creation model. So it’s not like I spend 25 hours a day doing this.

What will be the best performing model for me? You’ll have to wait and see. Place your bet in the comments section below and I’ll keep updating so we’ll see how this unravels.
It’s going to be interesting.

Gil