30 Day Challenge

The fifth anniversary challenge. Can you imagine!

Ed Dale is doing it again, and the team he has put together is really a dream team.

Stay tuned for updates on the team coming to this lens over the next days. Secrets that you have never heard before (I hope otherwise they are not secrets) and general gossip from the challenge.

I will participate in this challenge and am looking forward to the kick of show at Thirty Day Challenge TV 10:30 am Melbourne time.

There are only 2 hours left before the kick of TV show.

What, a TV show?

Yeah, the Thirty Day Challenge have definitively moved on ...

And while waiting for the show 8PM EDT May 14th 2008, why not listen to this Thirty Day Challenge Mashup from the very first Thirty Day Challenge in 2005.

Here it is

It is the paid version of the 30 day challenge with Dan Raine and Ed Dale. You can find more information on the immediate edge site.

Wow, it has been an interesting ride...

One Web2.0 site got to position number one in Google,
unfortunately the owner of that particular site got upset and disabled all accounts.

They are now gone from Google.

So I had to come up with a new site, and since I was already using Squidoo, I decided to do it again.

And to try I also added a page on wordpress.

Spanish lesson plans have a look, and if you like it please stumbleupon it and book mark it.

The page took 12 hours to get ranked, but I think it really only took one hour, because it took 11 hours before I did the Social posting.

The page is now in position #39, so maybe I will manage to meet Ed after all.

There are still time left until his deadline on Monday.

When doing the last 30 day challenges and really always I find the research part the most interesting and difficult.

This is why I started early on collecting ideas.

If you are starting out for the first time, I would suggest that you check the entries I wrote in the start of the month.

You find them starting here

"WHAT IS THE THIRTY DAY CHALLENGE?

In a nutshell... The Thirty Day Challenge is about making your first $10 online. For a full 30 days we are going to be showing you exactly how to start your own Internet business and generate your first income online without spending a dime.

That's right, this is going to cost zip, diddly, nothing, nada, ziltch. The entire training program is free, and you won't have to spend a thing to get your business started and begin making money. No credit card required."

www.thirtydaychallenge.com

Well, it all started with Ed Dale selling several websites for a large amount of money back in 2005.

Having successfully unloaded his enterprises, he felt very guilty (or something) and decided to give something back to the universe. Well, good on you Ed Dale.

So Ed announced and set up a website for the challenge and started making his, now famous, car casts, and videos.

The challenge started and people flocked sign up on his site. More than 2000 people signed up.

But ...

Where was the catch? Where was the stuff to be sold? What was Ed going to get out of it? The suspicion grew and grew. And nothing was being sold. The (free) lessons were coming day after day, though Ed did take the weekends off, which was good, so the rest of us could catch up.

You see, it took work to learn all the methods and systems Ed was teaching. It was not difficult. Not at all, but it took time.

For example, finding a market looking for something is a big task. And you have to be sure that people want to buy and have money before you continue.

Why you may ask.

Because, you can not sell an e-book with game cheats, if the gamers are 9 year old children. You need to target people with money, who are willing to spend the money on what you have to offer.

But, I digress.

It was not only the participants that felt the work pressure, in the middle of the challenge, when it got all technical and about building a website with a sales letter, Ed had to take a few days off sick. I still remember his whispering podcast from the kitchen.

With Ed out of the game, the challenge participants were getting worried that the challenge would stop, but there were no reason for that.

To the rescue came Rob Somerville. So there was still a daily dose of 30 day challenge tasks to be done.

Towards the end of the challenge, the nerves were getting frayed. Would the products be ready on time? (Well mine wasn't) What about the Google Adwords change that happened in the middle of the month? Trouble uploading the sales letter, getting Clickbank approval, the worries were endless.

At the same time, the 30 day challenge forum evolved to a meeting place for helpful, giving and caring people. Help and advice was given on any and every topic. If you were stuck, there was always somebody also who could help. It was a thriving community.

Towards the end of the month, the first sales started coming in. The first one was a total surprise came out of nowhere, somebody that had just put his head down and done all the work. Well done Tom!

And it was as if the floodgates had opened. By the end of the 30 (31 really) days there were 23 people who had actually sold their first product. (By the end of second month over 40 people had made money with their own product

From the idea of one person, Ed Dale, over 40 people had successfully started their own online business

In 2006 there was a new thirty day challenge

In 2005 Google accepted hundreds of keywords per adgroup

In 2006 we were told to use only one per adgroup (as a starting point)

In 2005 You could send the traffic to any kind of webpage

In 2006 (in the middle of the challenge) Google changed the requirements to send traffic to only 'relevant' sales pages

In 2005 we asked people a question and later started to sign up potential customers.

In 2006 we signed them up straight away.

I had success in the first challenge, though it took me longer that the 30 days.

In the second challenge, I thought knew it all!!! Did a crappy research on the market, dumped loads of keywords into my Google Adwords campaign, and had just one place to send all the traffic to. When Google changed their requirements, they upped the minimum bid price to $10 per click.

That was not the way to go.

Adwords are more expensive and there is a lot more competition.

This year, Ed and Rob have joined forces with Dan Raine (of Pink Thong fame) and there are going to be many new tips and tricks.

In fact they have promised to make is so easy this year that they expect people to make more than the target of $1 for the first challenge. In fact they say that this year you could potentially make 1000% more, sales talk for $10.

I will participate again this year and this year I am going to do what Ed says, look out for DeadAle as soon as we can sign up. For now check out Ed's blog, www.tubbynerd.com.

Talk Soon

DeadAle

PS.

I am going to track my progress in the 30 days challenge here on my lens, and if you are interested in following how it goes for me, then please give me 5 star and add it to your favorites

gremlins being sorted out.

Still another 2 days to go.

"DanRaine Just doing some planning for the http://www.thirtydaychallenge.com (and having a nice Vodka and orange) about 3 hours ago from web"

Rest assured that not all rules have changed. We still need some ideas to get started. To listen to the podcast Follow the link

What you will need in the next month is to collect ideas for your niche. There are many sites where you can find information and I am sure Ed and Dan will cover them shortly.

One place to look is away from the Internet. There are niches all around us if we just look.

But what are we looking for? Start thinking about what you are interested in yourself. This is an advice that seems always to be given and immediately discarded. Still, if you are going to work on something for the next 30 days, you might as well find something where you are interested.

If you are into cooking, you might find have area where you could offer some information you know something special. How to make apple cakes. How to cook vegetables, so you do not lose the vitamins.

If gardening is your area, maybe topics like pruning trees. How to remove moss from your lawn. Grow your own vegetables.

Or car's. How to make reduce the consumption of gas and make your tires last longer. How to repair damages to the paintwork.

Get yourself a small notebook, and list down everything you can think about.

And, if you do not think you can find anything you are doing that other people could be interested in then have a look at what others are doing in their spare time.

Collecting stamps, playing banjo, flying kites, playing with their children, mountain biking, anything.

Should get you started (while we wait for Dan and Ed)

Hope you will all enjoy Idependence Day.

A day out with family.

A taste of freedom.

The 30 day challenge is still to come and today we will celebrate.

Still ...

Keep your market radar open, when you speak to friends and family, ask them what they do in their spare time, about their work, about their problema, their happiness, and then ...

listen.

You can get loads of ideas on a day like this.

When you are going to look for niches for the 30 day challenge, you will probably come across many obvious niches that are already taken.

Just think about dog training, learn to play guitar, satellite tv and diets.

These are all 1) too big and 2) too busy.

Taking them as starting point, van however help us to find other niches.

Let's look at dog training.

Using the free tool http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/
we can do a bit of research.

Enter 'dog' in the tool and you will get a long list back.

Now I clicked on one of the phrases on the list 'funny dog', which gave a new list.

On that list were two that could be of interest.
'funny dog pictures' and 'funny dog videos'

Using this method you can make up an initial list of possible topics of interest. The key here is that it is an initial list. The most important part is to get some practise in getting ideas for now.

Later we will look at how to validate the results. Research is everything here.

Hopefully you tried to practice on the idea generation yesterday, and maybe you found it a bit difficult?

Well, maybe with some more ideas you can get going over the weekend.

Some people have said to me, 'I do not know anything/do anything that other people could be interested in' and you know maybe they are right.

What should you do if there is absolutely nothing you can thing of that you can use as a niche.

Well, there is one thing that you could consider. Does any of your fiends or family have some special skills?

Lets say that you know somebody who is a tennis coach. Go and ask him what are the most frequent questions his students ask him. With these questions you can now arrange a number of interviews with him, record them as mp3 and you will have a niche product.

You could even arrange that the students ask the questions and you film them. 12 interviews and you have enough for a year in a membership site.

However, do not rush out tomorrow and start your interviews, because we are still collecting ideas.

We HAVE to validate that the niches are neither too small or too big. It makes absolutely no sense to go ahead and create an interview series, that nobody will buy or in a market where we can not compete.

So, only ideas for now.

OK, It is weekend, and I will take some time off.

Here is a list of ideas. Maybe they will trigger some ideas for you. Try to use these ideas to get other ideas because you might be able to find a free niche that way.

Here we go.

BTW, please give me a 5 star ranking and add me to your favorites if you think the lens is worth it.

How to make paninis, chiabattas, tiramisu, pizza
How to play bridge
How to repair shoes, shirts, trousers
How to sew a dress, guide from idea to the final dress.
How to repair your mountain bike.
Things to see in Melbourne, La Hoya, Manchester.
How to make digital photos (underwater)
How to grow and freeze your own vegetables.
Learn to be an actor.
How to open an 'internet' cafe (series of 12 interviews)
Grow exotic plants in a flat (Cannabis or something)
How to market your hairstylist business.
How to finance your study.
Arrange a funeral.
How to open a business center.
How to choose the right wine.
Information on lasik surgery
How to change tires
Restoring antique furniture

Phew, hope this gave you some ideas. I got these from driving through town, looking out the window ;-)

How are you doing? If you have the idea's going then we can start looking at the next step.

One thing is to say, "I want to make a book on dog training", another is to find the customers for it.

There are loads of dog owners, and even more dog training guides %u2026

So, we have to take a different approach. We have to find the customers first. We have to find the market.

Think about it. What is easiest for you?

You want to sell a dog training guide to me or I want to buy a dog training guide from you?

It is so much easier to sell something to people that they already want.

How do we find out what people want?

There are several ways to find out. The way I will describe requires that you leave your computer!

We have to look at the magazines in the library or in a bookstore. Is there any magazine that covers one of your ideas?

Let's have a look at the magazine "Dogs For Kids"

This is a magazine for canine-loving pre-teens and teens. It has mini breed profiles, training tips and activities with dogs.

Dog breeding could potentially be of interest. So what we have to do if possible is to go through the last 6 months issues of the magazine and find which adverts are repeated, which kind of articles are written, anything that is repeated could be a niche we can look further into.

It will take time and the more time you put into this the better you will understand if there is some possibilities for your niche.

A word of warning. Dog training, dog breeding and many other niches, are NOT niches. They are far too big for what we need. There is too much competition. So you have to look at your own ideas and then investigate.

Keep notes on this, so you can refer back later, when you have checked a couple of potential niches.

Good luck and remember, finding niches are like learning to ride a bike. You have to practice. The 30 day challenge in August will help you much more with this process and if you start now with your research you will get more out of the 30 day challenge.

BTW, you might want to sign up now, to get some of the front row seats.

Wow, a lot is happening.

Dan and Ed has started the initial work, using Facebook as the way to get information out.

And it is great fun.

Here is my profile if you want to join.

With the lastest google slap / squidoo slap, (don't worry if you don't know what it is) being part of the 30 day challenge is the best place to be.

So off you go, join us there and start to make friends.

Make friends, why?

Because the last two 30 day challenges have been all about teams. People in teams (3-4 people) have had so much more chance in completing the challenge, than prople trying out alone.

Well, up to you.

Here is my profile again.

See you there.

Two years ago we were now in the middle of the 30 day challenge. Working along, step by step, as outlined by Ed. The 30 day forum was full of questions and answers, and some people were starting to stand out.

One was Jason Moffatt. From his log cabin on Oregon he was working on the challenge. Mind you, Jason did have a steep learning curve. But rather than me telling this, head over to his blog and read about it.

Ed has just posted a new video. Get ready we are just about to start.

The fastest way in

Wow, we have started.

If you are new to the 30 Day Challenge, and wondering how it is all done, then the first two video's should give you a good indication.

Specially the second one. Ed explains how to get registered with stumbleupon and digg.

If you already knew this, well good on you, the purpose here is to get everybody up to the same speed, and at a later point there will be news for you as well.

If you need a little more explanation on the use of stumbleupon and digg have a look below. Stumbleupon and digg will be two very good friends in the 30 Day Challenge. So make sure you know to use them.

enter http://www.digg.com in your browser

click login on the top to the right

enter username and password, tick remember me box and click login

Then click submit a new story (again top right corner)

and you get Submit A New Link (1 of 2)

In the field Enter the url of the story put

http://www.thirtydaychallenge/

Click Continue

And you are done.

(In this case you will get a message

Cool, this story has already been submitted.
Digg the story yourself to make your vote count.

which means somebody already entered the URL.
You just click on the Digg it below the number and you are done

This is important, because later your team might want to digg your web pages and the more votes you get the better.

When you sign up with stumbleupon, you will get the option to install a Firefox Add on (because I use firefox)

Click the green Install Now button and install the add on.

Then you have to restart Firefox (thats really a pain)

When Firefox is restarted again you will have a I like it! button on your toolbar.

When you are at a website you want to bookmark click I like it!

A new window will open and you can add a comment on the site, submit and you are done.

(I guess it is the same for Internet Explorer, but I do not use IE, and would strongly suggest you change to firefox as well)