1. Action Without _________ Is Worthless
Jean-Henri Fabre is a French entomologist. He studies insects for a living. He is extremely fascinated by one category of insects: processionary caterpillars.
These caterpillars are known as processionary caterpillars because they travel closely behind each other in long continuous head-to-tail processions. Each caterpillar instinctively follows the tail of the caterpillar ahead of it.
During one experiment, Jean-Henri Fabre leads a line of these processionary caterpillars on the rim of a pretty big flower pot in such a way that they form a circle. The leader of the procession is following the tail of the last caterpillar in line.
Nearby, Fabre places abundant supply of caterpillar food. Each and every caterpillar can see the food supply. All they have to do is stop following the tail in front of them and move towards the food.
But for seven days and seven nights, these processionary caterpillars follow each other in unending circles. They keep on moving their legs in search of food and never stop. But in the end, they all die of exhaustion and starvation.
These processionary caterpillars work hard. But they have no proper sense of “direction”.
2. Creating Mini Websites
I moved back to Mumbai from Michigan in early 2006. And it felt like I was moving in circles with no proper direction.
- I was still writing the Marketing Hotsheet twice every month.
- But long distance phone consulting wasn’t a lot of fun for me.
- Local consulting to small business owners in Mumbai didn’t pay that well.
- And the twice a month deadlines were taking their toll on me.
At the same time, while promoting Marketing Hotsheet online, I learnt a lot of online marketing tricks.
So one day, I sat down and created a mind map of the easiest way to make money online. The mind map looks something like:
- Create a website with a form on it. Ask people for their email addresses and start sending them a series of mails that builds trust and follows up to make sales
- As soon as people subscribe to that newsletter, take them to a “one-time-only” page and give them a special offer to buy a product. If that product sells well, continue with the site. Or else drop the market and move on.
- Create and find more related products and sell them to the subscribers through the newsletter
- Promote your newsletter. Don’t even think of promoting the products that make you money. Promote the newsletter and let the newsletter promote your other products.
To read the complete nitty-gritty details of the mini website map, check out http://www.NetHotsheet.com
I followed the mind map and made quite a lot of websites. Some of which became moderately successful and made me a chunk of money.
Action Summary:
- Stop following the crowd blindly.
- Follow just 1 or 2 heroes of yours that have done what you want to do. And learn from them.
- Find your right direction. Plan and strategize.
- Then take massive action.
- The mini website model still works and you can implement it for yourself too. (But I’ve improved upon it a lot these days.? And added blogging to the mix too. You’ll read more about it a bit further on…)
In 2007, I wrote a short little report that takes you one step ahead from simply creating mini websites and making money off them.
That report deconstructs various successful models of making money and lays out their core in 2 short words.? That is report is for sale at a very modest price. If you’re interested in becoming successful online, do check it out: 2WordStrategy.com
Chapter 5: How Luck And Timing Can Make Or Break You