Introductions Thread

[Sarge85]

Hello -

I literally just found this site yesterday. I can tell it's going to be worth my time to be here. The reason I found this site is because I was (still am) on the fence as to where I should sign up for the Authority Hacker System. I was pretty much ready to until I found this site - now I'm not so sure.

I'm a noob on a budget - Paying $600 for the course, and another $$ for a KW tool - well, like I said I'm on a budget.

I've got a weak affiliate site now. Its +1 year old, and only generates between $15--$50 a month. Its my own fault - feels a bit "too niche" and frankly I haven't touched it in over a year.

I wouldn't have even bothered, except out of nowhere, it started getting hits and getting some sales. I'm ranked for a couple of keywords even.

It basically got me thinking, may I should start this over, with a better study and better tools ---

Thus circling back to perhaps enrolling in the Authority hacker system. Then I found the crash course here, and the LAB - looks awesome and has got me jacked.

Anyway - thats why I'm here and I hope to learn and make my second site work.

Matt

 

[mackem]

I literally just found this site yesterday. I can tell it's going to be worth my time to be here. The reason I found this site is because I was (still am) on the fence as to where I should sign up for the Authority Hacker System. I was pretty much ready to until I found this site - now I'm not so sure.

Don't do it. Take the $600 and invest in content and Tailwind or stick it in a bank account until you've got a system that works and use that to scale when the time's right.

TASS is basically (and I could be wrong as I didn't buy just logged in under a friends account) write 10 info posts, write 10 money pages and link the info posts to the money pages and then use outreach to get links to those info pages which trickles juice to the money pages.

Apparently the podcast has 80% of the stuff covered with the remaining 20% being on setting up a wordpress site.

I've got a weak affiliate site now. Its +1 year old, and only generates between $15--$50 a month. Its my own fault - feels a bit "too niche" and frankly I haven't touched it in over a year.

What you've got there is a site with 1 year of age. If you go the SEO route then that counts for more than you'd think - a new domain is another year of waiting to start properly.

 

[Ryuzaki]

Welcome, @Sarge85. I've looked into the Authority Hacker course after a friend got access, just to take a gander and see what the deal was.

The attraction for newcomers would be that:

• It's a lot of surface area to medium depth info all in one spot and organized
• You'll feel confident following an outline provided by someone you feel you can trust
• You save some time from reading and experimenting, since they've filtered out the crap

The reality is... all of that info is not only publicly available (hell, I've seen them rewrite some of my own posts from this forum days after I pressed 'post'), but it's available for free.

Another thing is that, though you'll feel confident by following their methodolgy, they aren't the end-all-be-all. Tons of their students fail, few become winners. Those winners would be winners anyways. That's not a knock on their method, but just pointing out the nature of winners and losers. Nothing will change a person and nothing can take credit for a winner's accomplishments.

To deal with the 3rd point, there's a lot to be said for only dealing with information as you need it and confront that need in your actual work. You can read a course and follow what it says, but you won't understand exactly why it's being said or needed, and most importantly you won't understand why it's supposed to be better than other alternatives.

Failure and re-iteration is a huge learning device and no amount of money paid can shortcut that cycle.

Again, this isn't a knock on the Authority Hacker guys. I'd say the same thing about the Income School guys. I've seen their course too. I've seen them all.

My suggestion is, if you want to pay for a course like that, pay for one with a community and use it as an excitement factor and accountability partner rather than a teaching tool. Sometimes having spent money is the kick up the butt people need to feel committed. You have to decide if that's you and if you need to trick your brain like that.

If you want those things without spending money, that's what this forum and our Crash Course is for. I'd also recommend you discover every SEO and Internet Marketing blog you can and build up an RSS Feed reader and follow the posts every morning. You'll skip 90% of them but it'll help you understand the lay of the land and let you know when anything important is happening.

Otherwise, NOTHING can replace you being in the trenches and doing the work. You'll learn 100x more doing that than any course, including our own, can teach you. Combining that with our free course is better than a paid one though.

The reason is is that they tell you what to think. We tell you how to think. There's a big difference, because if you're just doing what someone tells you, you don't have to think at all. You're just following a recipe and end up with the same product everyone else has (which isn't special). You can turn into someone's cookie-cutter protegé clone, or you can develop into your own unique special offering which has a chance to stand out in the crowd, in the SERPs, and in the industry.

Anyways, regardless, we're here to talk with you and support you and learn from you at any time. All you have to do is post.

 

[Sarge85]

Thanks guys - two replies right away - I know this site will be useful.

I'm printing the Crash Course now - btw- if it hasn't already can someone condense this into a .pdf.... or point me to where it has.

I'm big on having tangibles - like the crash course for instance, which is why i'm drawn to TASS. The templates and checklists seem like a good jumping-off point for me. They've got a $99 money back guarantee offer for the first 30 days, and I'm finding a hard time finding a reason not to sign up for it.

@mackem - I just read your Laboratory post and I'm lapping it up - I'm extremely interested in your Pinterest tactics as I go forward with my new site.

 

[Samwise89]

which is why i'm drawn to TASS. The templates and checklists seem like a good jumping-off point for me. They've got a $99 money back guarantee offer for the first 30 days, and I'm finding a hard time finding a reason not to sign up for it.

@Sarge85, Just go for it. If you're new, you'll get a quick understanding of the basics. A lot of it is "ABC 123" but you'll have a single spot to learn it all very fast instead of wading through forums and blog posts. It's not exactly hard to understand, but time is money and saving time is important.

You'll save more time doing that then spending the $600 on content, which won't get you a ton. Maybe 7 - 10 articles at good content prices and 20 articles at "eh" content quality prices. You can write 20 articles faster than you can learn all that stuff while having to hunt it down.

Although you don't have to hunt it down because it's all in the crash course here.

You seem decided though, and it's better for you to learn the lesson that paid courses aren't worth it now than to wait around and learn it later.

All of the bloggers with courses get their information from the forums anyways, and this one has been getting plundered lately. What you're paying for is for them to arrange freely available information into an outline for you. Maybe that's worth it to you.

If you're hoping to find some secret methods or something, you won't find them there. Those barely even exist any more. Nowadays the secrets are more about hurting competitors than boosting yourself.

What you've got there is a site with 1 year of age. If you go the SEO route then that counts for more than you'd think - a new domain is another year of waiting to start properly.

This is true. If you've not done much to the site and Google is ranking you for terms, then find out what those terms are and write more content related to those terms. Usually when they decide they like you for a certain type of topic, you can double down on it and get a lot more traffic fast. And you can interlink all of that stuff to boost the whole batch.

I don't think you should give up on the first site. It's showing momentum and favor in Google's eyes. Starting a second site would be fine, you'll learn a lot more that way, but don't give up a good thing either. Improve it.

I've building an online business since 2011 and still have no niche websites, affiliate subscriptions, or email lists.

One of these days, I will actually start marketing something

What the hell are you talking about, man. You're typing this stuff like you're almost proud of it.

You can spend a decade studying and reading and watching other people, but that's all abstract theoretical garbage in your case. Nothing matters if you don't have a project to apply the advice and methods to. And even without the studying you'll learn way more by DOING SOMETHING and running into problems and having to find the solutions.

Do something. If your income doesn't matter because you have a day job or whatever, fine. It's fine to have a hobby. But don't kid yourself about it if you're not going to actually build a project and work towards making it special. There's more fun things to fantasize about. Because this is serious work that's seriously hard and you still might fail.

 

[mikeb23]

Good morning fellows, figured I'd throw up an introduction thread.

To sum things up - I'm the #1 offender of "shiny object syndrome."

Over the past few years, I've dabbled in a handful of freelancing gigs: copywriting, content writing, and Facebook advertising. Although this gave me a foundation to build on, I despised client work. I can't stand the inconsistency and working for other people is a pain in the butt.

So, what am I doing now? Authority site.

About six/seven months ago I stumbled on Authority Hacker and started devouring their content. What really turned me on was the concept of ownership. In freelancing, you might make some cash. But, it's infrequent, and you're not building equity. If you stop working (or can't outsource anymore), you're SOL.

That's why I switched to an authority site. I'm building cashflow and equity, which can be much more valuable than any freelancing. And best of all, it's all within my control.

inb4 "oh, just another Authority Hacker shill!" No lol. I'll post more about my experience in the course later. Spoiler alert - it's not all roses and peonies.

Right now I'm focusing all of my energy into my affiliate site. I've spent the past few months launching the site and creating content. Now, I'm building links. That's what led me to BuSo, and I'm excited to start learning and contributing.

Thanks for reading!

 

[JamaicanMoose]

Welcome!

How's the new site coming along?

 

[Ryuzaki]

@mikeb23, welcome. Yeah, if you're going to build an SEO project, an authority site is the way to go. All of the progress snowballs and the domain becomes stronger and stronger with time, links, and content.

It's definitely nice to say "I think I'll actually take this weekend off" and still wake up every morning, check the analytics and earnings, and have earned the same amount of profit on your days off as you would have working. Passive income is nice but also can be a deadly trap and trick of the mind.

It's still extremely active, maybe more so to get it rolling in terms of SEO. You can go a year before seeing any real income, working harder than anyone you know, and the project can still be a flop because you messed up your niche choice or keyword research, etc.

I love it though. It's how I earn the large majority of my income. Had a 2 year hiccup recently that I just broke through and now I'm back to feeling great about things, and in that period of time I fired up a 2nd authority site. Things are going to pop off hard if I can keep up the momentum.

The other nice thing about a contained project like we're talking about is you can eventually liquidate it. You can do that with freelance work and sell the client list and VA's and all of that, but not really when you're just grinding on Fiverr or Upwork.

 

[Sarge85]

inb4 "oh, just another Authority Hacker shill!" No lol. I'll post more about my experience in the course later. Spoiler alert - it's not all roses and peonies.

Looking forward to your thoughts on this - I'm considering buying it - but after stumbling into this site, I'm not so sure - very curious on a newbies perspective on their site - like you, I was following them pretty closely.

 

[GNews]

That's why I switched to an authority site. I'm building cashflow and equity, which can be much more valuable than any freelancing. And best of all, it's all within my control.


Right now I'm focusing all of my energy into my affiliate site. I've spent the past few months launching the site and creating content. Now, I'm building links. That's what led me to BuSo, and I'm excited to start learning and contributing.

Thanks for reading!

Absolutely the right decision and right thoughts.

Owning a digital domain with content = owning a digital estate

Owning a physical domain with a home = owning real estate

Same things.. Just the 'made up world' makes A LOT more money

 

[mikeb23]

Welcome!

How's the new site coming along?

It's going well so far, thanks for asking. Too early to see results though.

Niche research was tough. Thankfully, as a n00b, the Authority Hacker course did a great job of taking me by the hand and showing me what to do.

Content was difficult to get started. But, once I got the right writers worked out, it was a breeze.

Back-linking has been...decent, but much slower than expected. Also more inconsistent. I've been bouncing between different techniques. I haven't streamlined the process as much as I'd like. This is the area I need to work the most on and I know it.

Looking forward to your thoughts on this - I'm considering buying it - but after stumbling into this site, I'm not so sure - very curious on a newbies perspective on their site - like you, I was following them pretty closely.

I have no regret buying the course. At the time, I had no idea what was going on, and the course put me on the right track. Niche selection, set-up, keyword research, everything...they show you exactly what to do. It takes a lot of guesswork out of it, and the course is set up in digestible bites so you can work through it easily.

Also, I got it for the launch price of $600. If you do some serious Google-ing you might be able to find one of their affiliates offering the same discount. $600 makes it much more reasonable than $1k.

Is it worth the money? Ehh, kinda depends on your situation and how much knowledge you've picked up here.

Happy to answer any questions.

 

[BOBskot]

Hello BuilderSociety,

I'm one of your sneaky lurkers. Although I have been involved in the internet marketing game for years I have mostly kept to the shadows like some creepy stalker. The only internet marketing forum I've ever really participated in was a place called "The Pond" by some guy named Dave. Interested to know if any of you have heard of it or ever been a member? It's gone now, but some of the members of the time were making bank.

I know some of you, but you don't know me I realize that is probably both flattering and creepy. Big fan of CCarter and the no bullshit, get that shit done attitude. Also that guy Tavin is a huge inspiration. His successes (and other people's success) have been marinating in my mind, slowly convincing me I should stop toying around in this game as a hobby and get serious.

Anyway, so this year I have decided to get more involved with other builders and marketers - form some relationships and interact with people that will actually support rather than discourage. Everyone I know in the offline world doesn't really mess around with internet marketing and actively discourage me from pursuing this as a sole occupation - always telling me to keep going with a "real job" and "climb that ladder" to success.

The older I get the less appealing this is. Playing the "real job" game is depressing, at least for me. Especially when I am aware of the opportunities out there that I'm just squandering by continuing on the "keep it safe" lane.

I've had some small successes, building websites that have generated as high as 500+ a month and I've sold three websites on flippa - one for a little over a grand, another for a little over 3,000 and one for around 500 (I know, small potatoes compared to some of you). Looking back I regret selling and wish I pushed it to the limit and sold it for big boy cash on Empire flippers or FEInternational. That shit haunts me. Though at the time I needed some quick cash... cause my "real job" wasn't cutting it.

So here I am, at the point in my life I have to go all in.

I can't grow into an old guy, look back and wonder if I treated this game more like a business rather than a hobby what sort of successes I could have had. Screw family and friends who don't get it. You and I know the potential. Hell, some of you are living it right now.

I've enviously watched others from the shadows make unbelievable amounts. And there is no way I can sit in a cubicle all day with this knowledge and not act on it. It will drive me insane. I see myself becoming that guy in the movie Office Space frantically attacking a copy machine with a bat. I ain't going out like that.

So now this is my only option. It has gone from a fun, money generating hobby to an obsession. I won't stop till this game brings me a million. And when that happens, I'm going to push it further. (I've also witnessed some successful people lose drive, get lazy and then subsequently lose it all.)

I have a few sites I'm building up, and a couple are already bringing in some doh'. I'm at the point I could sell for a couple grand but that is a peasant mindset. I'm going to grow my babies to unbelievable heights, and sell a website for no less than 5 figures. And I'm not going to spend that money popping bottles like past me. It is going to be reinvested.

I'm here to join your awesome club and grow with you guys. I hope my unknown self becomes known, and is accepted by the community. (Being a newb here kind of feels like I'm Caine from Kung fu, waiting outside for the Masters to accept me with three likes)

 

[bernard]

Welcome to BuSo!
The fact that you already have made some sites that make money and sold them is a great starting point. My recommendation would be to try to not do the same as before, as that only allowed you 500 a month. Instead try to follow the BuSo crash course, while keeping your skills from before.

 

[Ryuzaki]

I can't grow into an old guy, look back and wonder if I treated this game more like a business rather than a hobby what sort of successes I could have had.

This is the main thing that turned me into a stubborn "idiot" that persisted through all the failures. I remember having family and friends buying my meals because they thought I was (and I was but not that bad) a broke chump. But frankly, having people less intelligent and skilled than me treating me that way sucked, but it didn't suck as bad as the fear that I'd be on my death bed and regret not having given it my all.

There's no way I want to be the guy that has that kind of regret, that I didn't pursue my main goal in life. That push away from that deep regret is more powerful to me than the pull towards the money, success, and everything wealth brings. Financial security is a huge pull for me, but not as huge as fear of regret in the end. Thankfully I'm not that broke guy any more but I'm nowhere near where I intend to be.

 

[BOBskot]

Welcome to BuSo!
The fact that you already have made some sites that make money and sold them is a great starting point. My recommendation would be to try to not do the same as before, as that only allowed you 500 a month. Instead try to follow the BuSo crash course, while keeping your skills from before.

Yes, definitely uping my game from how I went about things before. The ol' simple & lazy sites with fake reviews and "best/top" lists. Still money there but I don't see this strategy lasting in the long term. My aim is to build true authority sites. Sites that are loved and shared. Not to just pump out content, praying to the Google god to give me some rank, only to eventually have it overtaken by competition or vulnerable to an algorithm update.

This is the main thing that turned me into a stubborn "idiot" that persisted through all the failures. I remember having family and friends buying my meals because they thought I was (and I was but not that bad) a broke chump. But frankly, having people less intelligent and skilled than me treating me that way sucked, but it didn't suck as bad as the fear that I'd be on my death bed and regret not having given it my all.

There's no way I want to be the guy that has that kind of regret, that I didn't pursue my main goal in life. That push away from that deep regret is more powerful to me than the pull towards the money, success, and everything wealth brings. Financial security is a huge pull for me, but not as huge as fear of regret in the end. Thankfully I'm not that broke guy any more but I'm nowhere near where I intend to be.

We're probably lucky to see that possible regret coming so early on, instead of it hitting us when its too late!

By the way, I've read a lot of your posts and love em' - keep that stuff coming.

 

[supersheek]

Hello! @supersheek What niches do you work in?

What Amazon product research tools do you use?

What's the deal with registering .com.au's? Do you need to register trading names every time? For example: one Pty Ltd, but 5 trading names and domain names?

I would normally get a trading name on top on the ABN number yes, as this safeguards you from takeover attempts. You really want to be building a legitimate business, this is the aim here.

I'm in several niche, but currently building out a portal in the consumer electronics. Currently Using amazon itself & Ahrefs for product research

 

[NSG]

Not quite 6 months ago I registered my first domain name.

"Make a blog," they said, "it'll be easy," they said.

Lies all lies.

Who is "they" anyway? Oh yeah, all those "easy solution sites." The, "sign-up for my expensive course and fancy new widget that will make you rich overnight" sites. And yes, I almost fell for it. I was half-way down the path of signing up with Bluehost after the allure of a "free domain" and an easy breezy sign up that was shoved down my throat on every website in the top searches. This followed by the plea of downloading easy plug-in after plug-in until my site would be slower than a turtle crawling through cement. Some Spidey sense told me not to do it. (Spoiler: I just checked a couple of my page load times on google pagespeed insights and got back a 95 mobile, 99 desktop. Hell ya.)

So I took a step back and dug a little deeper. In the midst of all the bullshit articles and "expert advice," I would find nuggets of wisdom buried in the rubble. Site speed matters. Having a plan before you start matters. Easy common sense stuff that I spent time on, but not near enough. Ultimately, I knew from previous failures in life, if I don't get started, I'll spin in analysis paralysis forever and never get started. So I jumped in head-first.

For a person whose only computer skills include a poor grasp of most Microsoft office products, internet searches and one class in C++ taken decades ago, I'd like to think I didn't do too bad. I ended up with a semi-respectable (albeit bare-bones) site customized with enough CSS and simple snippets of code in Ubuntu to get by. I'm proud of what I've accomplished even while holding down a 9-5 job (more like 7:30-6pm most days), and I still built something I'm not embarrassed to show my friends.

Like many others I've read about and sites that have long since been forgotten, I wasn't getting results. I realized about 3 months in that for the very competitive niche I chose that I would never get traffic from Google, so I branched out. Within 30 days after that realization, I had been banned from Facebook and Quora for not using a "real name" and then later for blatant link dropping. Fail. Then I spent far too long looking for "easy" back-links without having to shell out really money and being afraid to send out my content to authority sites for fear of ridicule. Fail. Then I fucked up my SSL so badly my site wasn't working at all and in the process of trying to fix that, I screwed something else up and my site was down for days while I was learning how to fix it. Fail again.

I stopped creating new content or looking for places to advertise on social media. After all, the social channels laid the smack down hard and fast. I started listening to all the voices around me that I wasn't worthy and that I'm living a pipe-dream if I think I can really make money out there. I started thinking they were right. Demons are strong motherfuckers.

Somewhere in the midst of feeling sorry for myself and wondering if I really have what it takes to quit my "9 to 5", I decided to keep going.

Not long after, I stumbled upon BuSo.

Ideas I never dreamed of have been discussed on this forum. Those nuggets of wisdom I was spending hours to uncover in the wild, were now suddenly gleaming around me left and right, just waiting to be plucked.

So I'll take my DA 4 site, with it's 1.6K impressions and I won't give up. And every time the thought comes along, I'll go back and re-read day 14 for the millionth time.

Hot damn, I'm fully bought into everything you're selling @CCarter. When I'm worthy of it, I'll step up to plate and grab those dollar bills.

For now, it's back to the grind.

 

[Ryuzaki]

Welcome aboard. You've definitely found the right place for SEO discussion and development, as well as other topics too.

Not giving up on a project is essential but you have to make sure it's the right project. And in this case that's going to boil down to niche selection. Sometimes going after huge verticals like bodybuilding can be great. They're extremely competitive but there's so many long-tail terms you can go after and endless marketing opportunities that you can carve out a space for yourself and expand from there.

Then there's huge verticals like finance or health that have all kinds of competition and road blocks that I wouldn't dive into, myself. On the other hand you can find yourself going extremely hard on a niche with a small ceiling like "toasters" as the classic example.

That may not be a bad thing for a newcomer. It's good to have a cap in terms of content production, marketing, hitting full potential, and then flipping the site so you can start the next armed with all of your new skills.

My point is, I'd take inventory and really consider if I've done the right niche selection.

 

[NSG]

Thanks Ryuzaki.

I will give it some serious thought. The idea of taking on a "toasters" type site to continue building my skills and confidence before I come back to the original niche is enticing.

Until I find a way out of my current day job the time I can spend will be limited, but I'm determined to make it count. I have toyed with the idea of turning my day job career into my niche at night, but quite frankly, it's just as competitive as the one I actually chose and I've already spent 15 years of my life breathing it every day.

I'd prefer to spend my days learning something new which is why I chose something that I was passionate about and lucrative. I feel like you can't go wrong there, even if it takes longer. Maybe that's naive thinking.

So far, my journey into web-design has not only stimulated my mind in ways I had long since forgotten about (corporate jobs suck the soul out of you), it has also increased my efficiency and willingness to get out of my comfort zone in other aspects of my life.

A win/win on every level.

 

[blackmagician]

Hello BuSo Fellas,

New here. From India. Hustling my way to freedom. I am into Digital marketing(shocking).

Currently i have my progress thread going on TheFastlaneForum where i am writing about my hustle.

Last year i started working side by side with my job. Getting website design projects was the aim, but later understood that its not feasible for long term.

I am into website design and digital marketing last 4 years working on job. Now trying to do on my own.

Have been designed many websites. Currently have 2 clients for SMM where i am trying my best to learn more about funnels, copy, good ads etc to deliver good results for my clients.

Excited to join you all. @eliquid post brought me here.

Thanks

BM

 

[bernard]

Welcome.

What is the Fastlaneforum about generally?

It seems like a very US centric forum.

 

[secretagentdad]

Welcome.

What is the Fastlaneforum about generally?

It seems like a very US centric forum.

Basically it’s a personality cult forum about making money run by the nicest gurutard on the planet. I mean that in a positive and completely respectful way.

Buy his books they’re absolutely great. I highly recommend them.

 

[blackmagician]

Basically it’s a personality cult forum about making money run by the nicest gurutard on the planet. I mean that in a positive and completely respectful way.

Buy his books they’re absolutely great. I highly recommend them.

Hello, it feels you are making bad comments about that forum. To me that place is good. Anyhow it's personal opinions of each other.

Welcome.

What is the Fastlaneforum about generally?

It seems like a very US centric forum.

Thank you! I am new here. Do let me know how to learn best from this forum.

 

[eliquid]

Good to see you!

 

[blackmagician]

Good to see you!

Thanks @eliquid.

Shall i post my progress thread here too? what do you suggest?