September 3rd, 2010 → 2:41 am @ Jim Kukral // 0 Comments
I was just flipping through the June 2010 issue of Inc. magazine and I was reading a story Jason Fried, the founder of 37 Signals. He was telling stories about why they hire people. He said that we don’t even look at resumes, instead, we look at cover letters. Cover letters tell a story better than a resume, that’s for sure.
He also talked about they hired one person after that person went out and created a special website just for them, to impress them. He pitched them. Here’s the website.
So smart. He got the job.
You want the job? Show me.
I tell a story in my book about how I used post-it notes to get offered a job. I wanted the job. I knew they were interviewing a ton of people. I wasn’t any better then any of them in graphic design. In fact, I was an average designer at best. But I wanted the job.
I tell another story in the book how I wanted to get into the Internet video business. I had a friend who owned a big SEO firm and I pitched him via video on YouTube. I could have sent a resume… c’mon, that wasn’t going to work.
You want the job? Show me.
So what the heck are you doing? You need to stand out and get noticed and PROVE to potential employers that you WANT the job. Otherwise, why should they hire you?
When I owned my own agency back in the dot-com days, I would never look at resumes. I would say, “show me”. If they couldn’t show me what they’ve done, I wouldn’t even pay attention to them.
Doers get what they want…
I recently posted on several Cleveland internship boards that I was looking for an intern. So far I’ve received about 20 emails from people. Not a single one of them has a website, or even a blog, or even a Twitter name. People… you’re applying to be an intern for a guy who does Web marketing.
The point is this. If you can’t show me, you don’t get hired. Want a better career? Want more money? Want longer vacations?
Show me.
Now get to work.
August 30th, 2010 → 7:49 pm @ Jim Kukral // 0 Comments
Had a great time in Boston last Friday at the Hubspot offices doing Hubspot TV! Below is the recording. I flew out Friday morning from Cleveland. Took the Boston Metro directly the studio. Wow, what a nice place they have there at Hubspot. Met with Mike Volpe who gave me a nice little cubby hole to hang out in for a few hours before the show where I could work.
Then I went around the corner and had a little lunch at P.F. Changs, and also went into the Borders and found a copy of my book!
Then it was back to the studio to shoot the live show! Here’s the recording.
Here’s the video link.
August 25th, 2010 → 6:21 pm @ Jim Kukral // 0 Comments
This guy can throw out pitches with no arms. He’s 51-years-old and is on track to throw out the first pitch in every Major League Baseball stadium.
There’s a chapter in my book that talks about people like this. Please read it, then tell me you can’t do something.
August 24th, 2010 → 6:09 pm @ Jim Kukral // 0 Comments
Long post, but if you want to know how Seth Godin, or you, could make millions of dollars per month, read the entire thing.
Seth Godin says no more books. In print form that is. This is certainly big news to hit the publishing world. News that was inevitable really, but certainly still worthy of a strike of lightening to many involved in the changing business. Tim Ferriss nails it, and an explanation about the book business, here in this post. A must read really.
Seth talks about moving on in his blog post. He says that…
Traditional book publishers use techniques perfected a hundred years ago to help authors reach unknown readers, using a stable technology (books) and an antique and expensive distribution system.
The thing is–now I know who my readers are. Adding layers or faux scarcity doesn’t help me or you. As the medium changes, publishers are on the defensive…. I honestly can’t think of a single traditional book publisher who has led the development of a successful marketplace/marketing innovation in the last decade. The question asked by the corporate suits always seems to be, “how is this change in the marketplace going to hurt our core business?” To be succinct: I’m not sure that I serve my audience (you) by worrying about how a new approach is going to help or hurt Barnes & Noble.
My audience does things like buy five or ten copies at a time and distribute them to friends and co-workers. They (you) forward blog posts and PDFs. They join online discussion forums. None of these things are supported by the core of the current corporate publishing model.
Ouch! A stake to the heart for some. I’m not writing this to agree or disagree with him (those are his words). I’m writing this post to talk about The Monetization Shift that is currently taking place on the Web and in the publishing business.
Here’s the truth of what’s happening now in the space. I should know, I’m right smack-dab in the middle of it and I see it from all angles.
Most “big names” and brands are figuring out that you can make ten times as much money doing it differently. How? Going direct to their audience.
Look at the success of the Affiliate Summit show, which continue to grow and grow even in a down economy when other shows are fading away. Why? Because it’s about making money on the Web with legitimate businesses and opportunities.
Heck, even brands like Lebron James are realizing that they no longer need the middle men as much. With the Web and social media they can go directly to their audience. See the power shift happening all around us?
Now of course there are certainly a ton of people who aren’t focused on money only. Scott Stratten, author of UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging.
So no, not everything is about making money.
What About Seth Godin?
He’s written 12 best-selling books and made a ton of money from it. As far as I know he doesn’t do consulting; doesn’t need to. He is wealthy already. But look at his shift as a great indication that he “could” make so much more money. I’m talking tens of millions of dollars more if he were to really go after it and go direct.
Think about it. Seth has sold millions of books. If you look at the traditional split of revenue from a publishing relationship, a typical author can make a fee for writing the book, then royalties for each book sold. That can be anywhere from a few thousand to fifty-thousand for the signing fee and 15-20% of the cost of the book sold. Remember, the cost is what’s left over from the publisher after they sell it to Amazon or BN.com. So a book that sells for $16.95 on Amazon… They probably bought it for half of that? I have no idea. Then, the author gets 15% of that price. Amazon marks it up and keeps the rest.
Now let’s just say that Seth has sold one million books. And let’s assume that he’s gotten paid $100k for each book as a signing fee, and made $2.00 for every book sold. 12 books = $1.2 million in signing fees. 1 million books at $2/book = $2 million.
Of course, those numbers are complete guesses. But I would bet that it was within a 30% plus or minus. Or I could be way off. The point is this. What Seth “could” do is. What a new author “could” do is make ten times as much money doing it a bit differently.
Let’s run some scenarios. If Seth Godin were to switch a new model right now he could earn 10 times as much money as he currently does in my opinion. Let’s just say that Seth decided to create the Godin Marketing Insights Club. I made that up. GMIC charges $499/month to anyone who wants in to have access to Seth’s private thoughts. Maybe he includes a forum that he can have assistants run (like Third Tribe) (affiliate link). Maybe he gives away early copies of new eBooks to his members. Maybe he does a weekly one-hour phone call lesson group call in to his members. Etc…
Run the numbers people. The guy has potentially sold a million books and has how many fans? Let’s be conservative here and say that out of all of his millions of fans he could get 10,000 people/business to pay him $499/month for what I described above.
My iPhone calculator says that number is $4.9 million in revenue per month.
What if it was 10% of 10,000 then? That’s 1,000 members. Again, not so shabby. $499,000/month.
Let’s take it to 10% of 1,000 just to see. That’s 100 monthly members. Seth would ONLY earn $49,900/month. Only.
Think Seth, or you and me, could live off those numbers? After bandwidth and admin costs (which are nothing), he’s left with what? 90% of that as net? Then he has to do what? One phone call a month and release some lessons (which he already does on his blog) every week to his members?
People won’t pay that much Jim. Wrong. So wrong. I bet Seth could get 10,000 people/businesses into that program within 12 months. In fact, I know he could, if he wanted to do it.
What about free?
Now you’re saying that that model is wrong and cheap? Why? Because he provides excellent help and problem-solving insights to people that want/need it? C’mon. Not everything has to be totally free. I love free. I give away about 4-5 hours of my time on the phone every week giving free advice, not kidding. I have free eBooks, totally free, no optin. I have free membership sites. Again, I get free. Keep doing free. But don’t tell me it’s wrong to put a value on the helpful services/products you provide in addition to your free stuff. And certainly don’t tell me there’s something wrong with making a profit. Even a LOT of it.
Stop it. There’s nothing wrong with making money as long as your helping people and giving them solutions to their problems. If I hear one more person allude to the fact that if you make a lot of money you must be stepping on someone’s throat to do it… I’m going to scream. Not all business is like that. End rant.
I’m not saying all this to try and convince Seth to do this. I’m using him as an example of what he “could” do. What you “could” do. This is happening as we speak. Celebrities are actively seeking out these Web monetization experts because they see the money trail. Big businesses are seeing it as well. Pretty soon the bloggers will see it, and everyone else.
Zappos does about $5 million a day in sales. Amazon noticed and bought them this year. Did you know that Zappos Insights is a monthly member program that teaches businesses how to do better customer service? Did you know that they charge $39.95 a month for access? Or you can bring the entire staff to an in-person event at $1497/person. Run those numbers on you calculator.
This is why I wrote my book at this period in time. This is why it’s perfect right now. Now more than ever people need to find new ways to get attention and turn that into revenue. You’ve lost your job or your marketing budget is slashed. What do you do? You either take your shot and start a Web business you’re passionate about, or you find ways to generate new income through attention-getting ideas. Or you take your existing business model and add a new, third-party revenue stream to it and make a boat load of money.
Here’s where things are going: The Monetization Shift
People/business/big brands/bloggers/celebrities… are waking up and realizing what many under the radar Web entrepreneurs have known for a long time now. That if you package your brand or your expertise or your knowledge in a certain way and make it easy for people to consume it and buy it, you can make a LOT of money online. The people who do this already don’t want you to know it frankly, and I’m probably going to make some enemies on my quest to tell the world how they do it. Why? Because they’re doing it so well, and making so much money legitimately, that they don’t really want the rest of the world to figure it out. But that’s too bad because they are going to eventually. It sounds all “guru” to say things like that, but it’s true. Deny it all you want, these things are happening. You just don’t realize it because you’re stuck not paying attention because of the way most of them market themselves. Look around the marketing and open your eyes.
The problem for most people who don’t know it yet is that. A. Most people don’t know how to do this. B. The rest of them think that doing it is “selling out” or being all “marketing-ey.” I made that word up of course. But it should be a word. I know 1,000 really smart people who are not earning their maximum revenue potential because they don’t want to be a “marketer”. It’s not their thing. Fine, I get it. You don’t have to be. Just don’t deny what you “could” be if you wanted it, and certainly don’t try to tell other people they’re somehow evil or bad because they want to do it.
What you’re going to see in 2011 is a major influx of big name celebrities and businesses coming into the Internet Marketing space to claim their gold. And at first the purists who hate marketing will cry foul. But when they realize how successful this model has become they’ll be quick to jump on board.
Look for big name celebrities who have made a past killing on TV to jump into the Internet Marketing frey and quadruple the money they made from TV. Maybe even more.
The scaling problem for most authors
I can’t tell you how many people call me or my friends in my arena who are doing these types of things and are practically begging to learn how to do it as well. A good example is an author I know who does really well for themselves. I mean really well. But they’ve realized that there’s a ceiling in revenue and time they can’t crack. They make their money off of speaking gigs and consulting and book sales. That’s a great model. But it doesn’t scale. You can only book yourself into so many speaking gigs a year, and your consulting business is great, but it’s dealing with clients which take a lot of your time. And we already know you have to sell a lot of books to make real money.
Because that’s what were’ talking about here. Real money. Not a million dollars a year, but 10 million dollars a year. Making over a million a month. Yep, people do that. Lots of them, and it’s not from spamming and adult stuff either. From real businesses; just packaged the right way, or launched the right way.
Everyone knows a lot about something. Consider that you are an expert in your field. Why in the world shouldn’t you put the information you have in a package online that allows people to buy it from you? The point is if all of this I’m talking about is your goal, you’re currently doing it wrong.
The monetization shift is beginning to happen in a HUGE way. Are you listening and participating? Or are you gonna watch it pass you by?
Get to work. Oh, and Seth, I get 10% of that monthly revenue when you do what I said. 
August 24th, 2010 → 4:04 pm @ Jim Kukral // 0 Comments
I originally wrote this and posted it over at Managing Communities. Here is part of that post.
You know it as well as I do. There are a few select individuals in, or out, of your community who are heavy influencers. They have a lot of readers/viewers/listeners/followers, etc., which makes them valuable allies to have in your corner. Naturally you want to have a relationship with them because they can help you move the needle and get attention to your marketing campaigns and ideas to support your community.
But how?
The first thing to understand is that you’re not going to be able to get them to help you without first building a relationship with them. Imagine walking up to someone on the street who has never met you and saying “Please promote my idea, OK? Thanks.” It’s not going to work. The great news is that, because of social media, these influencers are more accessible than ever before.
August 24th, 2010 → 4:03 pm @ Jim Kukral // 0 Comments
I wrote this for the 10 Golden Rules blog. Click the link to read the entire post.
I’ve been promoting the Jim Kukral brand online for close to 15-years now. In 2001 I bought the domain name JimKukral.com and began to blog about every day things, like being cut-off on the road on the way to work, or how the tragedy of 9/11 changed my life, and yours. You know, silly life stuff. That’s what people did at the time.
As I said, my first blog wasn’t about “business,” heck, nobody back then was using blogs for their businesses. It was all about building your brand by letting people around the world, people normally outside of your circle of influence, come in and learn more about you. It was years later that I began to utilize blogs as a marketing and business tool.
I wrote one of the first eBooks online that explained how to make money from a blog. The year was 2003 and it was called Blogs To Riches. The eBook contained tips and strategies for how to use your blog to build a personal brand and then how to turn that brand into revenue. When I first launched the eBook I received tons of publicity from it, and 90% of it bad. I was getting hate mails from people saying things like “Blogging is pure, you can’t make money from it you jerk!” or “You’re an idiot, nobody will ever make any money from a blog.” Indeed, the same types of things people were saying about social media in the beginning.
August 24th, 2010 → 3:41 am @ Jim Kukral // 0 Comments
I love what David Garland does on his show. He interviews people on Skype, and records it with a program that I also use called Ecamm. But he records the video, and as you will see it split screens it and makes for a fun interview. I love technology. Here’s the interview I did with David a few weeks ago.
It’s ridiculous how easy and cheap this is. Yet… for some reason nobody else is doing it. Skype is free. Ecamm is like $19.95 I think. The rest is just contacting people in your industry and asking them to be on the show.
What is the big deal? Why is this so hard for people? Do you realize how much attention he has gotten from these interviews? C’mon people… let’s get on this. No excuses. Go do this. Find the top 20 people in your industry and tell them you want to do interviews just like this with them.
Then do it. Then take those videos and showcase them on your website or blog. Build an archive of them and give them away to members or subscribers or heck, put them on a DVD and send them out to people.
I did this a while back with audio interviews. Go over to my free member site and join up and access over 30 audio podcasts from industry experts, all for free.
But do something!!!! This is too easy.
August 23rd, 2010 → 8:52 pm @ Jim Kukral // 0 Comments
I’ve had a pretty decent track record of getting local media to pay attention to me. If you’ve read the book you know about the story where I went from a simple idea to getting on the evening news in 8-hours. It’s a great story, get a copy of the book and check it out. I know a little bit about pitching as my second book coming out in Spring 2011 is called The Ultimate Pitch!
I’ve been on local radio shows, in local magazines, in the local newspaper, on TV and more. Today I did Cleveland’s biggest morning show called Good Company on WKYC. Here’s the video from the show.
So how did I get on that show? Here’s the process…
You Gotta Have A Story!
I have a book I want to promote, sure, but you can’t just contact local media and say, “Can we talk about my book?” It won’t work. Here’s what I did. On my book launch day last week I kept track of how low my book reached on the Amazon ranking list. At one point I got to #586 in sales of millions and millions of books on the site. I also got to the #1 category for “hot new releases”. See images below.
So how many local Cleveland boys do you think have done that? It’s a story! Here’s the pitch I wrote to send to the local media a week before my launch as a teaser.
Hi there,
I’m like Drew Carey. Well, I look like him sorta. I’m a regular Cleveland guy, but I’m also Cleveland’s biggest Web geek. My name is Jim Kukral. I’m writing you today because I have a new book coming out next week called “Attention! This Book Will Make You Money”. More at www.attentionthebook.com.
As part of the Cleveland media, I was hoping you’d give a local-boy the opportunity to tell you and your audience more about the book. Who am I? Here’s my short bio:
For over 15-years, Jim Kukral has helped small businesses and large companies like Fedex, Sherwin Williams, Ernst & Young and Progressive Auto Insurance understand how find success on the Web. He is an award-winning blogger, professional speaker, sought-after speaker and Web business consultant.
I can tell many stories and give tips to your audience about how to:
*Use social media to get a job
*Increase your sales with attention-getting marketing ideas
*Learn how to start your own business online and make money from homeThank you for your consideration. You can contact me direct at 555-555-5555 or via email here.
P.S. Here’s a private PDF of some excerpts from the book for you to check out now to get a feel for the content.
http://www.attentionthebook.com/attention_excerpts_jimkukral.pdf
I sent that to all the contacts at the local level I could find. More on that below. Here’s the follow up pitch I used the day after my launch to those same contacts.
I’m about to hit #1 on Amazon today for my book. Can we book me for your show? By tomorrow I’ll have a #1 Amazon best selling book.
Sincerely,
Jim Kukral
Then I followed up with each of them with a phone call. This is what got me booked on the show. The whole thing took me a few hours of my time to do. Now, you’re saying that “big deal Jim, getting on a local show isn’t that hard.” You’re right, it’s not THAT hard. But the rewards from it are great. I have seen thousands and thousands of dollars of consulting work come in from my local speaking and media appearances. I’ve also begun to build my reputation as a good guest. Not to mention, having video as you see above is a great audition for national shows. Remember, they need to see you’re going to be good on camera and have something good to say. They’re taking a big risk bringing you in and then you may suck and the segment is blown. They’re in business to engage viewers/listeners/readers, remember.
So How Did I Find The Contacts To Pitch?
It’s really so easy you’ll kick yourself for not doing it. Just go to the website for each channel/station/publication and find the contact information and email them. Most TV stations have a newsdesk. You can email your pitch to them directly. The show producers are the ones who pick the stories to run. However results may vary with this approach. I’ve found that going direct to the personalities works best.
Figure out which person on the show that you want to target and go to them direct. If your pitch is good, they’ll pass it on to the producer. Most all of them have emails nowadays. Resist the urge to send it to every person or email on the site. That will only make them mad. Pick a person that you think your pitch will resonate with. For me, I chose Andrea Vecchio from the Good Company show.
Now follow up as I said above. Just because you don’t hear back doesn’t mean it’s dead in the water. These are busy people and they get pitched all day long.
Remember! It’s Not About You
My big thing was to help them help their readers find a job. I offered five tips. They love tips. Stuff like that. Stuff that can fill a segment. As I mentioned above, you don’t want to talk about your book or your product or your service. You want to to talk about something that their audience needs/wants. Then they’ll inject your book or whatever into the message.
Now… go do it. It’s not that hard.
August 23rd, 2010 → 11:45 am @ Jim Kukral // 0 Comments
Here’s the guest post I wrote over on Nick Throlson’s blog.
Inevitably, at some point in your life you’ve had a head-slapping, stop in your tracks moment where you say to yourself, “Why didn’t I think of that???”. Every year thousands of creative entrepreneurs come up with a new product, or service, or website idea that makes it big, earning the creator either a giant paycheck or boatload of publicity, or both.
So why isn’t that person you? It can be.
Now is the time to act! Still not ready? Maybe you just need to hear about some people who have done it in order to get your juices flowing. Here’s a run down of some of those people who took their ideas (crazy as they may seem) and turned them into gold.
Jason Sadler is another one of those Web-entrepreneurs that have taken a silly or creative idea and turned it into Web gold! Jason created IwearYourShirt.com, a site that features him wearing a new shirt every day, each one sponsored by a new advertiser. In 2009 Jason successfully sold 365-days of sponsored shirt wearing, earning him just under $70,000.Yes, you read that right. Jason made almost $70,000 for wearing a different t-shirt every day. Doesn’t sound so silly now, does it? Kyle MacDonald bartered his way from a single red paperclip to a house in a series of online trades over the course of a year. That’s right, he used the power of the Internet and a creative idea to trade something of almost zero value, for something (a house) of actual real value. Alex Tew is the guy who came up with The Million Dollar Home Page.
August 23rd, 2010 → 7:55 am @ Jim Kukral // 0 Comments
This was originally published on Ben Spark’s blog as a guest post by me.
Darren Rowse, otherwise known as Problogger.net, slowly and quietly built a million-dollar brand for himself on the Web by becoming the world’s authority on how to create and profit from a blog. How did he do it? It all started with a domain name and a passion for blogging, which he then built up over time as THE most trusted and respected resource in the world of professional blogging, all from his living room in Australia. Rowse realized that he knew a lot about the business of blogging early, so he took that knowledge and used it to help education millions of others with a craving for that information.
Brian Clark, also known as Copyblogger.com, spent two years giving away free information about how to write powerful and profitable copy for the Web. In return, Clark, a former lawyer with a knack for words, now holds the title as one of the most influential and skilled copywriters online. This influence has allowed him to launch a litany of profitable products of which his eager readers snatch up without question.
Joel Libava took his years of experience and expertise as a franchise owner and turned it into a well-known brand and business called The Franchise King. Libava leveraged his knowledge into a successful franchise coaching business. He is also a frequent media personality having become a trusted resource for newspapers, magazines, television stations, and radio stations all over the country.
Shawn Collins and Missy Ward took their years of knowledge and experience in affiliate marketing and created the worlds largest affiliate marketing conference and industry mega-brand called the Affiliate Summit.
These are only a few examples of regular people taking the knowledge that they have in their heads, and transferring it onto the Web. Millions of people just like Darren, Brian, Joel, Shawn and Missy wake up every day and reach for Internet millions using the same philosophy, and so can you. You simply have to figure out what it is you know a lot about, or are really good at.
How Do I Figure That Out?
Here’s an exercise for you: Get out a piece of paper or open a Word document and write down a list of subjects you happen to know a lot about. It can be anything. Maybe you’re the worlds best stay-at-home mom, or you happen to be really good at playing World of Warcraft. It doesn’t matter how silly or small or weird you think it is, and here’s why: The truth is that, whatever you happen to know a lot about, or are really good at, there are people out there who want to know what you know. That’s the truth. It’s the reason why Google makes billions of dollars and why the Internet spins round and round. People want to find answers to their problems. Like Google, you’re going to give it to them.
