The Big Picture – Day 2 of Cowpetition
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“Give a person a fish; you have fed them for today. Teach a person to fish; and you have fed them for a lifetime.”
Our desire is to have you succeed by following our system. That means that we teach you exactly what you have to do and show you the tools we use to get the job done. What we cannot and will not do however, is the work for you. Creating a successful business online is no different than creating a traditional brick and mortar business… It takes perseverance, money, time and most of all, hard work and commitment from you.
What we are going to show you over the next few weeks is not about “Get Rich Quick” schemes. Instead, we stand strong to the concept that you do it right from the beginning and your rewards will be for the long term. You see, most get rich quick systems are based off of ways to “Cheat” the system. We on the other hand, believe in working with the system to achieve incredible results.
To begin, ask yourself a few questions to better understand the reasons for running a business online:
#1 Why Are You Doing This?
Before you can start into any part of your new business, you need to ask yourself this one extremely important question:
Why are YOU doing this?
You need to stop right now from wanting to rush into just building a blog. Take a step back for a moment to try and understand the big picture. You have probably heard the saying:
“You can not see the forest for the trees.”
What that means is sometimes you can get so caught up in little details that you miss out on the entire big picture. If you want to truly know where you are going then the best bet is to step back, look at the entire picture and then map out what you want. So asking yourself “Why you are doing this” is one of the first steps in being able to truly understand where it is you want to go.
Some examples of “Why” might be:
- to help a current business expand
- to make some extra cash on the side
- to be able to quit your job and work for yourself
- just for fun
- you fill in the blank here
Question to You –> Now it is your turn. What is the number one reason you are doing this?
JohnCow’s Why –> For us the answer to this question is to Prove Market Authority. We want to prove to our readers that we know what we are talking about, it is not about winning, it is about social proof. After 30 days we want the posts and the blog that we built to speak for themselves.
#2. What do You want to Accomplish? What is Your Goal?
You may think this is the same as the first question, but it really is not. Why you are doing something is not the same as what you want to accomplish by doing it. This question takes the first one to a deeper level because it makes you look at it as more than a far off dream but as an attainable goal.
If your answer is “to make some extra cash”, then you probably have a set amount of cash you want to make. Perhaps it is to help pay off a debt or to afford a new vehicle. Whatever the reason, now is the time to figure that out.
Do not shrug this off! It is so incredibly important and so often overlooked. We guarantee you the people that are very successful online all have answered this question. This comes down to work ethic, you need to take the time to build your solid foundation, and then once that is established, everything else will fall into place.
So How Do You Set a Goal?
Let’s say you make a $40,000 a year salary and want to be able to quit that job to work full time online. The first thing you will need to do then is understand exactly how much you need to live on and then double that (this is the formula we used when we started).
So for our example if you make $40,000 but feel you could live on $35,000 then that would be $70,000. Now that you have a goal of $70,000 as a yearly income, the reason you double it is because you will have to pay taxes, health insurance, employees (even if just outsourcing) and so on. 50% is generous but the last thing you want to do here is short change yourself.
Next you need to figure out exactly how much money that is per day. So take $70,000 and divide it by 365 which equals approximately $192 a day.
So now you need to ask yourself, how are you going to do that? Break that value down to smaller goals. So for example, what it might look like for you is:
- $100 – Affiliate income
- $70 – Adsense / Yahoo Pub / Chitika / Pepperjam
- $30 – Advertising on blog
(this is just an example)
Now it is time to pick a time frame that you are going to achieve that goal. You want to be aggressive here, but you also need to be realistic. If you have never built a blog in your life and to say you are going to achieve that goal in 30 days, it is not going to happen.
A realistic example might be to create a time frame such as:
- 1 Months – Earning enough to pay for itself
- 3 Months – Earning $1000 per month
- 6 Months – Earning $3000 per month
- 1 Year – Earning $5800 per month (Your 1-Year goal)
Once you have your first goal accomplished, then focus on your second and third. Once that final goal is reached make another one and this time go bigger!
Make sure you do not create for yourself an unrealistic goal either! We agree full and well with the concept of aiming high, but one of the biggest reasons many people get discouraged with their progress is they start too high. If you are just starting out, set a goal to what you can live on and then once you achieve that you can then focus more time by being able to do this full-time and you can start to reach for the BIG goals.
If you already have a goal, then congratulations! You are already ahead of the majority.
Something important to note is that you need to stick to your plan and not focus on what every other marketer is telling you. Once you have a plan in place and start to see what is working for you, then simply repeat the process. If a new product or strategy comes out and looks good then figure out how to implement it into your current strategy. If it does not fit then leave it alone! If it does fit and makes something easier to do then great! Keep it and keep moving forward!
This is so often the spot that people get hung up on. They have a plan but then Mr. Marketer comes along and says to do it this way instead, so we stop what we are doing and start over again, or even worse, do nothing while we analyze the situation and waste time and money.
Get back to the basics, start with a goal and create yourself a firm foundation first!
Once you have this goal, you will want to print it out and place it somewhere prominent that you will be able to see everyday that you are at your work station. Every morning before you get started, focus on that goal and what you are going to do today to get close to achieving it.
Question to You –> What is your 1month, 3 month, 6 month and 1 year Goal?
John Cow’s Goal –> For us the answer to this question is focused only on a short term goal that in 30 days (because of the cowpetition time line) to have created a blog that when put on the market at sitepoint.com is sold as a complete “Business” solution for the buyer.
#3. Make a Commitment
Now for the hard part. We talked about this in the previous lesson but in our opinion it needs to be repeated again. Writing out why you are doing this and what you want to accomplish is easy. Anyone can take a few minutes and write down a bunch of simple words. What is going to make the difference from making these just a bunch of words to making them an actual goal is that you need to make a commitment to what you wrote down.
As we have said a couple times before, this is going to take hard work on your part and that means that you are going to need to commit time to this every day.
How much time?
That depends on how fast you want to succeed, but we recommend that you spend at least 2 hours a day on this for at least the next 6 months if you want to see any measurable results. So in order to do that you are going to have to clear your schedule to allow for 2 hours a day to be spent on this.
That might mean that you have to drop a favorite pastime for awhile or stop watching a favorite television show. Maybe it means that you will have to stay up a little later every night. Whatever it is, you need to decide now and make a commitment that you are going to dedicate that time to growing your business.
The best way to do this is to map out your week ahead of time. This is one of the reasons we love the Franklin Covey day planner systems, because they are based around the principal of putting first things first. That means you need to look at your schedule and plan ahead of time when you are going to accomplish your important tasks.
By looking at your week, you will start to see a lot of opportunities that you could be doing something more productive. Once you identify your areas, you can then plan those times for working on your business.
Get a timer!
One of the absolute best things we have ever got ourselves to help improve our time management was an electronic egg timer from Wal-Mart. What you can do is if you know you can work one hour in the morning before work and one hour in the evening when you are usually watching TV, then you set the timer for 1 hour and put it in front of you. Once you press start on the timer then all distractions are off. That means you shut your door, unplug the phone, put in ear plugs (or listen to music if it helps) and do not randomly surf the web! Instead, commit yourself to being effective for that time. If you are having a hard time finding time in your schedule for these 2 hours, the last thing you want to do is waste them.
Important Reminder – “Work Ethic”
You see the internet and computers are supposed to make our lives simpler. We can process difficult calculations in milliseconds, create dynamic presentation, find information on just about anything by simply typing in a couple of search terms or talk with people around the world as if they were in the room next door. The problem with this is people often assume that since it makes all these things so much faster and simpler then it should be able to do the same for making money. There has got to be someone out there that has made some program that you simply push a little red button and “POOF” in mere seconds you are generating income.
The answer to that is a resounding.. NO!
Yes, there are great programs and material out there, but none of them, I mean absolutely none of them, are a big red button that allows you to sit back and do nothing.
We are sure you have heard of the 80/20 rule. This rule is incredibly universal in its scope because so many things fall into this. For the MMO market I would dare say it is more of a 90 /10 rule but for the sake of argument we will use the 80 / 20.
What this means is that 80% of those that buy any software or ebook, will never actually use it to its full potential. That means that 8 out of 10 people will either never even open the software or ebook or they open it up and read through it but give up because it looks like it takes too much work.
Then you have the 20%. This is the small group of people that actually are making a living online, they are the people that realize revenue is only generated through hard work, that no software or ebook is the end all be all of solutions and they actually read through everything and use the solutions how they were designed.
Our hope is by the end of this contest to have made you one of the 20% NOT one of the 80%!
Last but not least – Get Rest
Yes, it takes work, yes you are going to have to be a little busier than usual to get your business off the ground but the one thing your body and mind need is rest. We highly recommend that you take off one day a week from all work activity. That does not mean you cannot do work around the house or go fishing, but what it does mean is you completely remove yourself from your job.
This day should be dedicated to getting rest for your body (sleep in and or take an afternoon nap), do what you love (go for a walk, play with your kids outside or go fishing) and just enjoy yourself! More often than not, entrepreneurs who are starting out work themselves into a medication of some sort. They get no rest, no time to unwind and their body starts to react. Stress, depression, obesity are just some of the end results!
Life is your most precious gift, so enjoy it!
In tomorrows post we will walk through the market we selected, why we selected and how we organize our market research for immediate and long term needs.
Talk to you then!
PS – Yes we know by posting this stuff we are helping our cowpetition competitor… but thats fine… hopefully they will learn a few things they can teach to others as well 
Oh and PLEASE Let us know your thoughts on this post please… our hoofs are all cramping up from typing so much!
John Cow dot ComThe Big Picture – Day 2 of CowpetitionPosted: 20 May 2008 11:41 AM CDT
best to answer them all in tomorrows post. We are not making any guarantees that we will answer every one, but we will try our best. To help spark your memory, here are the past weeks COWpetition posts… Day 1 – Build a Business Not A Blog Day 2 -The Big PictureDay 3 – Narrowing Your Focus Day 4 – Dividing Up the Work Day 5 – Diamonds in the Rough If you do NOT have any questions or clarification and just want to provide some feedback of those posts, then please comment below
best to answer them all in tomorrows post. We are not making any guarantees that we will answer every one, but we will try our best. To help spark your memory, here are the past weeks COWpetition posts… Day 1 – Build a Business Not A Blog Day 2 -The Big PictureDay 3 – Narrowing Your Focus Day 4 – Dividing Up the Work Day 5 – Diamonds in the Rough If you do NOT have any questions or clarification and just want to provide some feedback of those posts, then please comment below
[...] Your page is on StumbleUpon [...]
Again…. another jaw dropping information, it’s only day 2 and information you gave is tremendous. Can’t imagine how much value I’ll get for the next 28 days.
Big Moo to you, thanks cow!
Marvins last blog post..The Power Of Affiliate Marketing
Thanks Marvin, great blog you got there too!
Good information, it seems like the winner of this contest will simply be the one that invests the most though. I think having a no-limit-budget blog competition is largely unfair. You should have capped spending at $500 or so to make things reasonable
Jims last blog post..Creating A Blog – Part One: Niche & Focus
I think the real winners are the readers of John Cow and Garry Conn. The information and tactics used in the next 30 days are priceless!
Thanks for all the great information, I can’t wait to read more.
I never really had a goal in mind when I started my blog so now I’m going to have to write some!
Kim @ What’s That Smell?s last blog post..EveryCall.us – free phone number lookup service
This is some really good info you’re putting out. Thanks for taking the time to do it and for taking the time to teach us how to do it right. Too many of the MMO blogs are just recycled trash that don’t help. I’m looking forward to the help.
Bryans last blog post..A family that bikes together stays together
The most interesting thing to me here is that you said to double what you can live on and aim for that as a safe goal.
I had actually asked webmasters about this before, and nobody really had any advice at all. 2007 was my first year fully self-employed so I had no idea what to expect as far as taxes and health insurance. By the time it came to pay taxes, it was a shell-shock. Managing these things requires you to learn other skills altogether!
its like buying a house… you think it is going to be the same as an apartment except you are investing… ya right. Repairs, upgrades, insurance, taxes… and the list goes on.
It’s nice to see, John, that you are approaching this effort holistically. It’s one thing to have tools and gadgets yet quite another to have the mind of a marketing entrepreneur. Thanks for the insights. I will post my goals near my computer today–I have more than 2 hrs/day to work at it so I am hoping I can be a tad more aggressive.
Vicki Flaugher
Vicki Flaughers last blog post..Qassia: Better than Squidoo and Wikipedia
We are glad you like our approach
I agree on the price cap. Most people just starting out don’t have very much money to invest and that could be a little intimidating. Don’t get me wrong – there is no doubt in my mind that this competition is going to be a great resource for aspiring bloggers. I am new to blogging and I can guarantee that I’ll be glued to the LCD on this one! Much success to all!
Hey Cow, definitely enjoying reading these posts as they are geared more towards making a business for passive or eventually easier income. Best of luck in the cowpetition.. Keep up the great work here, you have the Monetizer as a loyal fan!
i usually never read lenghty posts (Just glance) but today i read it once,though i have used 50% of the tactics, i am still a newbie in front of you COW…
This post is worth appreciating! Too good… You could have written a book and sell with ease…
Rockstar Sids last blog post..Google content network accept third party ads
I worked for years as a consultant to start up businesses (primarily during the 80′s when venture capital was at it’s peak) and now I’m curious about blogging. While blogging is unfamiliar to me the concepts of starting a new business are. I guess they are much more similar than I thought. The problem I’m having is finding a market. I read “Mommy Blogs” which are successful but at my age (54 year old female) I’m out of the Mommy Blogging range – so finding what to write about is my problem. Well, not finding something to write about – finding my market. Who would put ads on a site I could write? I’m hoping being here helps me through this – so far I’m hopeful.
Terris last blog post..I need a vacation….
This is really wonderful, will definately going to work like this.
Thanks John.
Prasads last blog post..CSS Specificity
My goals are set and I am committed, actually spending too much time in the office. My problem is I am going down too many paths. They are all growing slowly but I want to focus on one method for replacing my income and free up
some of my time for other things. I am leaning more to blogging to achieve that.
Gords last blog post..A Whale Of A Presentation
Good practical information, I like it.
But I do hope there will be enough guidance for those of us that want to work 6 or more hours a day rather than just 2 hours. I want to fast-track this as much as possible.
Hey John,
nice post. Just wanna share mine here:
$40,000/year
$3333/month
$110/day
PER DAY:
$55 Adsense
$55 Affiliate
(I admit that’s a bit arbitrary cause I really have no clue…)
Time Frame:
1 Month = break even
3 Month = $1000 / month
6 Month = $2000 / month
12 Month = $3333 / month
Cheers,
Richard
Cool, thanks for sharing!
I love the idea of the timer. I tend to be a bit of a “flit around wasting time and hoping that something will come of it” type person.
Thanks for the encouragement to get more focused.
Lightening@Lightenings Blogworlds last blog post..Entrecard Blog Review: Will You Mind
Good stuff. It is important to allow a day of rest. I have not been able to do this. I always feel that I have work to do. I can’t work fast enough to accomplish my goals. I will try harder to take a day off.
Freelance Writers last blog post..What Is A Query Letter?
Another great post, appreciate the effort you’re putting into this ‘contest’ which is actually turning out to be so much more than that. Keep it up!
Neil Ducketts last blog post..Teach English In Japan
Good, solid common sense written concisely. Thank you! Your approach fits in very well with all the other stuff I’ve been learning & implementing. I’m committed to succeeding — I’m not interested in only learning how to set up a blog; I’m creating a new business which will include blogs as important elements. The big picture plan is falling into place, and I appreciate your step-by-step guidance.
A response to the folks complaining that there isn’t a budget limit in this system: I want to know what tools are available, and I want to know what the best ones are. I’m sure I can figure out how to make things work if I can’t afford whatever John Cow may recommend — he’s not making me buy anything. I want to know what he uses, and learn what’s worked best for him. Starting and running a business takes money. That’s a reality. I get to choose how to set up my own budget and create my own plan. FYI, I have absolutely no money right now, & I’m in deep in debt. But that’s not stopping me from learning how to do this right so I can build a lucrative business.
[...] the second day of the Cowpetition on the JohnCow.com web site. You can read the lesson yourself at http://www.johncow.com/the-big-picture-day-2-of-cowpetition . The lesson included some specific information for setting realistic goals for your blog. It also [...]
Wow this is definitely shaping up to be a very big deal! So much good information and we aren’t even half way yet.
Big Ben Pattons last blog post..Apple Owns 66% Of $1k Plus Computer Sales
I answered these questions, apart from breaking the income down, a while ago. My goal is to earn extra income so that I can afford to go back to England with my partner and son to visit my family and to do some longed for traveling around Europe.
I am following your progress closely as you make me feel that this is a real possibility. Deciding on a blog topic is the one thing I have found very difficult to do though. I have even bought domain names but have not done anything with them because of doubts about the popularity of the topic.
Sueblimelys last blog post..Blogspot Blogger Beginners
I am following you here: http://twitter.com/traffichype
Jonny boy
Barry Greens last blog post..The Basics of Domain Flipping
That is one fantastic post! I’m loving the depth of the posts here lately!
Tom – StandOutBlogger.coms last blog post..7 Things I Hate About List Posts!
I have been working online for more than 5 years now, I am following the cowpetition because I want to learn how to start and maintain a blog from the beginning “the right way”. My problems in the past very well fell into the motivation dept. I have all the time and tools at my disposal, so I am giving it another go.
I almost gave up.
InterWeb TVs last blog post..Entrecard releases NEW features for bloggers – WIN 75,000 EC!
So, here’s what I am curious about. How do I strike a good balance between a big goal that I risk making unreasonable and an achievable goal that risks being too small to be motivational? I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts. This has always been a challenge for me.
Vicki Flaugher, the original SmartWoman
Vicki Flaughers last blog post..Wanted: Fiery Woman to Cause a Stir on My Blog
Here are our thoughts…
You want to get confidence in what you are doing and you want to create momentum. To do this you need first of all break your goal down into small chunks. Make the first goals very easy ones… so you can see you are accomplishing things. Then as you start to complete them, start challenging yourself by making bigger goals.
Thanks for the guidance, John. I find too that it’s just showing up regularly and consistently that makes me more confident. Okay, I will apply what you say and get to work creating my smaller chunks. Today, I add my opt-in to my blog.
Small step that can yield my bigger goal.
Vicki
Vicki Flaughers last blog post..Wanted: Fiery Woman to Cause a Stir on My Blog
Yes, you are right, setting realistic goals for yourself to achieve is an important step. I can see small successes build confidence and further drive. And you are right. It is not something I even think about. But I am now.
Thanks. This is a good thing for a newbie like myself.
Blessings in truth,
Dave
Well, you’ve got me started. Although, it took more than two hours today.
The Blog is up. Now I’ve got the medium for adding good clean content quickly. I guess because I’m old school I like the idea of content away from the blog as well. I just think there are somethings that don’t lend themselves to the blog format. But the off-blog pages and blog will certainly complement each other. Thanks for the kick-in-the-pants.
BankCDMan
I see…..so this is how you got soooo big !
This makes very interesting reading…thanks
Barry Greens last blog post..Join our Forum and You Could Win $20 !
A one year goal of 5800$ per month?
Maybe I just aim to low O_o
I’ll listen closely to Your words. I don’t really have time to start a new blog, however I do have the time to apply what You offer to my existing blog. Thinking my blog to be a business? Very smart, consider this way of thinking as stolen by me. Let’s see how I can apply it.
Junjies last blog post..Green Lake Park
[...] research was to find a program that could generate mass amounts of keywords for you. You… The Big Picture – Day 2 of Cowpetition – 3 days ago What we are going to show you over the next few weeks is not about "Get Rich [...]
[...] worth a look. The John Cow vs. Garry Conn “Cowpetition” is well under way. Day 1. Day 2. Day 3. Day 4.Blogstorm find some interesting results while using Yahoo’s search engine. I [...]
Great post! I am very excited about this, and plan to follow it. My goal is to be able to quit my job and do this for a living… we’ll see how it pans out!
It is so very easy to get distracted when a day is not centered around specific tasks leading to the end goal. For now my goal is to see my new e-business pay for itself, but I would like to be earning a living wage within a year. Thanks for the words of inspiration. Looking forward to posts that follow.
Great post! I am very excited about this, and plan to follow it. My goal is to be able to quit my job and do this for a living… we’ll see how it pans out!