Previously...
It’s been a while since our last update - forgive me for that, I’ve been looking for what to say and I think a good status update is the order of the day right now.
First, there’s some restructuring going on. I’m shifting gears from giving you the more personal blow-by-blow of creating a business out of thin air on the main site and onto my own little corner. I am not ashamed of being human online, and the move isn’t out of fear of losing clients - I’m selective as it is, and if they’re turned off because I opened up and showed my reality, they aren’t the people I want to work with. Period.
However - we want to get back in the saddle teaching you marketing, not venting about it. Yes, there’s a lot about this industry that sticks in my craw, but the main hub should be more informational.
I also want to save this space to let you know of events (I have a lot of interviews and my own teleseminar series planned out - as well as joint venture projects) , sales, and other things you need to know here.
I’m in hyper content production mode - I came into this industry as one of the fastest content creators, and I plan to keep my position solid over the next few weeks.
I’ve got the rudimentary details for five products to be launched between now and December, if not sooner. I’m working on my newsletter - podcast & considering bringing back Get Niched, my live video show on ustream. I’ve got a series of teleseminar calls planned over the next 2 months to lead up to my big birthday sale - haven’t decided quite what we’ll do this year. Last year, I pretty much put seven niches on a platter and said “come and get it” - it wasn’t promoted as hard as I expected.
I have interviews planned, as well as some intro speaking/coaching stuff in the pipeline. We’ve discussed doing a structured coaching program, but time constraints make that a bit difficult.
There’s going to be more content sales coming up, because …quite frankly, there’s more niches than I have time for, but that doesn’t mean I want you walking into a niche blindly or having to take the slow way. *grins* so, I will be announcing different places for content.
There are two free guides coming out as well as another free course. I’m revamping the Niche Breakfast and adding video, a super special case study, and some other in-the-trenches stuff niche marketers are going to love.
The first version of the book is the cake… the second version? Hello, icing, where have you been all my life?
On June 15th, the price of The Niche Breakfast is going up to $47 again - and this time, to stay. I will never sell the book for less than $47, so if you want it for the current $27 price, I would go over there and get your copy now. You get a complimentary coaching session with me as well - a full 30 minutes of focus on helping you rock in niche marketing. A few plesantries at the beginning, but it’s not a snuggle-session, it’s a solution-session. Get where I’m coming from, rockstar? I knew you would 
If you aren’t signed up for the free “pre-breakfast” e-course for the Niche Breakfast, I highly recommend it - I’ve considered taking away the free 21 day e-course, so you might want to subscribe.
Value is what I’m about - and there’s nothing as lethal as inaction. 2009 will be my victory year, and if you want it to be yours too, you need to stay tuned - because I don’t make prisoners, only rockstars!
As always, work hard - play hard - love easily!
Isabella “Niche Lady” Murphy, The Staying Paid Diva
Published by admin //
Josh Tryon here. As Chief Operations Officer, I’ve sat down with Isabella and worked out a new standard operating procedure for new clients. This new policy is effective immediately, so if you are thinking of hiring us, please read this post in its entirety and feel free to send us a proposal.
Isabella will be posting something in the near future with a brief rundown of what is involved in copywriting(our main request from clients) so you’ll understand a little better what your money is paying for. I’ll let her handle that, though. She’s our Senior Content Producer, so she’ll be able to explain the whole process to you better than I can.
So the focus of this post if two-fold. First and foremost, my aim is to describe our new procedure for handling client requests and to outline our general project workflow. The second goal is to show a few pitfalls that we’ve run into and hopefully help any fledgling copywriters that are thinking about doing work for some clients. Ok? So let’s begin.
First, let’s start with pricing, since that’s where most of the questions and objections will be. Pricing is on a per-client basis. Some projects are more demanding than others, so we like to take the time to evaluate a project before accepting and pricing it. Each client is quoted individually. If you’re interested in having work done by us, contact us. We’ll get you a quote as soon as we can.
While we’re on the subject of pricing, I do want to say that high quality copy comes at a price. We are more expensive than E-Lance, and for good reason. We provide high quality work that is custom tailored to each client’s expectations, and we don’t squabble over making revisions. It’s your project, we’ll give you what you want for it.
We do low-cost work as well as high-dollar bids, but we do require that anything under $750 is paid before work on the project begins. This money is held in our Paypal account until you are satisfied with our product. This way, we are guaranteed our payment when the project is done (which covers our end — we’ve had bad experiences in the past), and your refund is guaranteed if our deliverables don’t meet your standards. Anything over $750 can be paid via a payment plan, which can be set up when the final price is agreed upon.
So now that we’ve discussed pricing, let’s discuss what you get for the price. The service we are most often sought out for is copy writing. We write everything from blog posts, to autoresponders, to full salesletters (our most popular). Smaller pieces are delivered as a plaintext file with basic HTML coding (bold, underline, etc) so as to integrate nicely with any site you may post them on.
For our salesletters, we provide a full HTML template. This can be custom made for the project or provided by the client to have the salesletter integrated with. Either way, when we deliver the final draft of the copy, it is ready to be uploaded to your site’s server.
Our preferred project type, though, is to create a full marketing package. This includes articles, autoresponders, videos, adwords content, and of course, the main sales copy for a product. Basically, you give us your product, and we sell it for you. This type of project would be approached more as a joint venture than as client work.
We don’t mind working for commission. That is, we’re fine accepting a percentage of revenue as opposed to a set dollar amount. This makes it easier for many clients because it doesn’t require any upfront cost and only requires payment upon verified results. If you have a product to sell and are interested in a joint venture with us, again, please feel free to contact us and we’ll work out the details.
A few other services we offer include:
- Web Design - 100% valid XHTML and CSS. Full sites can be coded for you, using PHP, MySQL, and Javascript if necessary. Advanced or complex projects will need to be reviewed before acceptance.
- Search Engine Optimization - We have much experience optimizing copy and code for search engines. Google is our primary focus, as is the usual case, but we also optimize for Yahoo and MSN to cover all bases.
- General Content Creation - This includes anything that doesn’t count as “copy”. Video, audio, and graphic design are all included. We are a general marketing/content creation firm. There is very little outside our range of ability. If you’re not sure, just ask. If we can’t handle your project, we have several contacts throughout the web that we can direct your to.
Now, I said we’d discuss some pitfalls we’ve run into as a startup. The biggest source of trouble for us has been scheduling. We have discovered that a minimum of one week is a safe quote for most projects. This gives us time to work it in as we need and allows the client time to revise their request if necessary.
We can complete projects in less time if necessary, but there is an extra fee for rush work. This is usually 30% of the agreed price or $100, whichever is greater. Great copy can’t be rushed (at least not cheaply). When we’re rushed our choices are to increase effort and speed or decrease quality. Our productions are high quality. (Note the period there). We do not lower our quality standards for any reason, but increased effort translates to increased cost.
“How long to re-fit?” — Kirk
“Eight weeks. But you don’t have eight weeks, so I’ll do it for you in two.” — Scotty
“Do you always multiply your repair estimates by a factor of four?” — Kirk
“How else to maintain my reputation as a miracle worker?” — Scotty
“Your reputation is safe with me.” — Kirk
Star Trek III: The Search For Spock
The above quote encompasses about the best advice I can give for scheduling. Always over-estimate. No, it may not take a week to write 3000 words, but after 20 revisions and 3 complete re-writes, it just might. Always account for the unexpected, then when everything goes smoothly, you’re just that much ahead of schedule.
The only other advice I can give when it comes to taking clients is this: don’t be afraid to turn down a job. Not every client is ideal for your business. Don’t think you have to accept every job that comes across your inbox. You’ll get swamped really, really fast if you don’t learn to say no every once in a while.
So that about covers it. Feel free to comment if you have any questions or concerns. As I said, this is effective immediately. Isabella and I look forward to hearing from you. We love working with our clients, and believe that our work doesn’t end when we deliver the product. We like to build a relationship with our clients that is beneficial to everyone involved. Repeat work is always a treat for us. At Olive Garden, you’re family, but here? Here, you’re a partner. Let’s get started.
Published by jtryon //
2009 holds not just promise, hope, or even faith — but victory as well. I am going to mention that word a lot in 2009 because that’s what I’m looking forward to, planning for, and taking action towards. I am determined to create a lifestyle of options for myself and my family. No one else is going to do that for me, and so becoming ridiculously unemployable is a nice goal in 2009.
We made a lot of mistakes in 2008, and that’s OK. Not having an emergency business plan in place caused us to be offline the moment I had an emergency. I wrote an awesome book that devoured my time for a while, but I didn’t give my 100% best in promoting it. I was afraid to really sell it after getting sucked into misery by freeloaders.
I learned a lot more about direct response by taking it old school and looking at offline direct marketing, postcards, letters — I save all that stuff because it blows my mind how detailed some of the process really is. There’s serious money walking out the door for every direct mail campaign, and the results and numbers are held to the chest like gold, like precious gems.
Breaking Fear was the theme of 2008, so I learned how to step out of my comfort zone and enjoy the journey as well as the destination. Getting out more socially (online and offline) was a goal because I knew I needed to network and break out of my shell a little more. I began to read more blogs, and interact on Twitter — I now have over 9000+ updates and 1200+ followers. I went out to a meetup on Sunday, loved it, and got invited to go out for New Year’s.
I had never been interviewed before — after writing The Niche Breakfast, I got plenty of offers for interviews, all of which I intend to fulfill in the New Year to further promote our company’s brand, products, and services.
Joshua Tryon posted our Operations Update — I asked him to hold back just a little but he gave a sparkling description of where we’re headed. For a start up, I couldn’t be prouder. The internet is one of the fastest ways to launch a business, and becoming a bootstrap company taught us how to do more with less.
Having Joshua come to the team from an operations perspective forced me to look at how I spend my time, and what I really need to do more of. I could be writing way more articles, which are a cornerstone of credibility — especially in niche markets. I have a cool camcorder, Camtasia Studio 6 & Sony Vegas — why am I not creating more video content!?!
Listbuilding is something I’m very new at. I’m going back and actually creating a very interesting course on strategic planning for niche markets — once the course is ready, you will be able to find it at the top of this blog, and also in our Content File, that’s going to be in the top menu as well. That menu band is about to become packed with content, so don’t forget to come back
I fixed our permalinks, and I’m in the process of fixing RSS. Not having measurable numbers was another mistake of 2008, so I’m going back to make sure I have enough data to further produce content on this blog, see what’s popular and what else I can do to better serve each and every one of you with valuable content.
My show, Get Niched, is actually going to be on sparingly - I want to mix in the video stream with a call in marketing chat as well. I’m designing the two shows very differently so there’s not too much overlap. My Spirit of Victory Broadcast will be focused on getting your questions answered, something that was a little more difficult on ustream. I can’t stress this enough — send in your questions! I love teaching and don’t mind lecturing, but if you’re struggling, I don’t want you to struggle alone.
Our latest product line in development is a physical product line that really teaches people how to get started in a fun, interactive way. I didn’t want to just design something for people to take notes and never do anything with. When I’m finished, you’ll be able to pop in a DVD and magically zap me into your living room, kitchen table, or bedroom, where I’ll be your guide through the marketing jungle. We’ll be armed with powerful, truth-led machetes that will slice away all that scammy, useless sludge you’re bombarded with and reveal the lush, juicy seeds of victory you’ve been looking for all along.
2009 looks bright, but the only way to bring that vision into reality is by taking decisive action. No more worries about “how others will think” (funny how these others are fast to criticize but slow to put cash in your hands, eh?), no more wringing my hands over pricing (I like to provide top notch service, so things are going to take me far, far away from the penny-a-word articles that put me on my writing career in the first place) … none of that. 2009 is calling my name, and it’s time to get paid - and stay that way for life!
As always, in 2009 and beyond: work hard, play hard, love easily!
Isabella “Niche Lady” Murphy, The Staying Paid Diva
Published by admin //
Hello, all. My name is Joshua Tryon. I was recently named the Chief Operations Officer here at Staying Paid. Regular followers of this blog will probably recognize my name. It’s popped up a couple times here and there as a support role for the company.
I’ve been involved with the company for a while now doing the odd technical work from time to time before I was given the position of Director of Research and Development. I still retain that title for the time being as we haven’t found anyone to take over the position just yet. My main responsibilities, though, have changed, and thus I am posting here now.
I am now in charge of the Operations Department. I want to take a minute to describe what that means for me. On the most basic level, I handle all the “operations” of the company. This means monitoring product and content creation, handling customer inquiries, making sure the other members of the team are focused, content, and well informed, and much, much more.
You may be wondering why I’m telling you all this. It’s because, as COO, I will have considerably more direct contact with you - our readers, customers, and friends. I want you to know that I care for all of you just as Isabella herself does and that we are dedicated to bringing you only the best.
Now, that I’ve introduced myself a bit, I’d like to take a bit of time to discuss Staying Paid as a whole. We’ve made some changes and altered some processes to make everything run a bit smoother. The end result is that we can supply more concise, well-rounded content to you. I’d like to clue you in on a few of the things we’ve done.
The first major change is that we have moved to a new web host. This was done for numerous reasons. First, the host we were with previously was a “pay as you go” service, and when we would get a traffic spike, our account would be depleted resulting in unnecessary down time for the site. Our new host is a more traditional monthly service with unlimited space and bandwidth, so feel free to browse all you want without fear.
One unfortunate result of the transfer is that a lot of our content was lost. We’re still in the process of recovering as much as we can and getting things back to running properly. If there is a specific post you’re looking for that is no longer here, we apologize. Feel free to email us with basically what you’re looking for and we’ll try and get another post drafted with as much of the same information as possible. The advantage we have is that all of our content is produced by hand so the information we share is our own, making it easier to reproduce as necessary.
The second thing we’re doing is going over our processes with a fine-toothed comb. Our business has been a bit disorganized up to this point, and Hurricane Ike was certainly no help with that. Having our CEO knocked offline for several months made getting things back to status quo rather challenging. I’m very proud of our team and the fact that we were able to rise to that challenge and meet it head on.
We are, of course, back online now, 110%. We are moving forward and building momentum for 2009. We’ve got several projects on the cusp, ready to be launched as soon as the time is right. We’re working on a new video offer that will be our first launch of the new year. Stay tuned so you don’t miss out on that. We’ll be posting more information on that as we get closer to the launch. The date isn’t final yet, but we’ll be posting here as soon as we have it set.
We’ve got a lot of new and exciting things planned for 2009. We’re going to make it a year to remember. We’re altering our focus a little, trying to expand our audience and reach a whole new group of people. That doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten about our base, though. We still plan to keep pumping out the high-value content you’ve come to expect from Staying Paid. If anything, we’re more determined than ever to bring you all the best information and resources from around the web.
There is one final change that has been made recently that you, our readers, may be interested in. We are in the process of reorganizing our team. I won’t go into details as we’re still not completely finished with the reorganization yet, but I will say that we are looking to bring in a new member to the team. Isabella and I are working on a proposal to offer potential candidates, and we’ll get that posted up here for you as soon as we get it finalized. I assure you this will be a great offer for anyone looking to get a start in business.
I hope I haven’t given away too much. I did want to give you a taste of what’s to come and let you know that we are still here for you. The next few months are going to be exciting to say the least, so stay tuned. I look forward to working with all of you in the new year. I’m sure you’ll be hearing a lot more from me from here on. For those who are interested, here’s my contact information:
Email: aed.ardal@gmail.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/jtryon
Yahoo: duuktsarith1
I do look forward to speaking with all of you again soon. As Isabella is fond of saying, work hard, play hard, and love easily.
Josh Tryon
Director of Research and Development/Chief Operations Office, Staying Paid Productions
“Getting paid is work. Staying paid is life.”
Published by jtryon //
Double header today, to celebrate my return to the digital world. I’ve missed each and every one of you, but I’m partially glad I was gone. It’s been my “retreat” back to my thoughts, and most importantly, back to really writing, thinking, and taking action. You really don’t realize how much action you DON’T take when you’re whistling through social networking, or diving down into email. I don’t mistake motion for action, as the saying goes.
It’s high time we talk about another concept, one that a lot of folks just are’t instilling in you. A few months back, we talked about value, and why your business needs it more than ever. But since business is also about mindset, there’s something else you need as well, that also starts with V: victory.
As you build your business, your focus needs to be on the finish line, on victory. You have to believe, without a doubt in your mind, that you are on your way to victory. The spirit of victory lies in each and every one of us, regardless of background, past experiences, or the number of naysayers floating in and out of your life.
It’s safe to say that a lot of you reading this have probably been raised not to expect victory, or told that victory is dependant on circumstances outside your control - it’s not. The spirit of victory does not care how you grew up - it is more than happy to reside in your soul, no matter how battered you believe it to be.
When we become employees, as all the good career counselors told us to become, we were again told that the spirit of victory isn’t for you, it’s for the team, for the company. The spirit of victory lives there as well — but it lives within you too.
When we meet special people, we’re told that the spirit of victory lives in them and they have to transfer it to you. While this is sweet, the spirit of victory doesn’t concern itself with your love life - it lived within you from birth, waiting for you to call on it when you were ready.
I summed this up on twitter simply: anticipate victory. expect satisfaction. resonate confidence.
This is also a time of gratitude, and the spirit of victory enjoys being with you when you’re grateful for all of the things in your life. I am grateful for the ability to post to you, to talk with you, to come here and hopefully inspire you to never give up and never surrender. That’s what I feel I was put here for and given an amazing gift of writing copy for — to give everyone the opportunity to build lifestyles of options, not lifestyles of requirements.
What else am I grateful for? Meeting someone that I can grow with (Lee), my three business partners (Josh Tryon, Shawn K. Quinn, and Ray Morgan), and a company that moves with me through any weather — even through a hurricane!
I’m thankful for breaking 1,000 followers on twitter, as that shows me that there is a place in the world for a fast talkin’, copywriting little diva hellbent on creating a life most folks dream about.
I’m thankful for being able to reconcile with my mother, who I haven’t been on good terms with for three years.
I’m absolutely grateful for faith - trusting that urge to drive 750 miles to Houston with everything I own and then some, even though I had no safety net at the time. Since then, I’ve gained another business partner, made great contacts, had more offers for JV’s, and more opportunities to write copy, move crowds, and wander through niches. I’m truly blessed to have the life I do now, and I just smile to think of how many more opportunities are waiting out there for me in the years to come! I’m only 21, so there’s still room to grow - the sky ain’t the limit when there’s still space to explore!
Gratitude isn’t about blindly accepting anything thrown your way — but learning to say, “This is good for right now, but I am on a mission of constant, imcremental improvement.”
This holiday season, I wish nothing but the best for you and yours. Please know that even as I go mobile and return, I am always reachable by email (nichelady@gmail.com) and on twitter - http://www.twitter.com/nichelady
Gratitude and victory go hand in hand — give gratitude a chance, and you’ll see victory make more and more appearances in your everyday life. Now that is something to be grateful for!
Work hard, play hard, love easily!
Isabella “Niche Lady” Murphy, The Staying Paid Diva
P.S - I will not give up, I will not surrender, until I help as many people as I can craft the lifestyle they truly desire - I mean that. 2009 we are making a renewed commitment to being here for each and every one of you, but we need your help - if you’re hitting a mental wall, struggling to get your wheels spinning…we need to know it! Email me at nichelady@gmail.com or hit me up on my twitter - let’s rock 2009 and beyond!
Published by admin //
Posted on October 20th, 2008 in General
What does a gal do when she gets forcibly unplugged from all things digital? She goes offline, off the grid. Armed with a copy book and a pen, I had to think really fast. I mean, *fast*.
I found myself taking up cleanup work, figuring that cleaning up the city would not only restore our cash flow, but also would allow me to learn the city.
I’ve danced with sharp sheet metal, tangled with wet cardboard, and swung a sledgehammer with the best of them. I didn’t think this could happen, but I’ve felt more alive now than I did sitting in Missouri with all the comforts of the familiar.
I’ve had to ask total strangers to protect me, and watch out for them as well. I’ve shown alcoholics how to build business systems, and drug addicts how to check contracts carefully.
It’s been one hell of an experience from the middle class gal from Missouri, the daughter of a soldier. I also wouldn’t have changed it for the world. More energy, stamina, endurance. I learned to embrace challenges that aren’t mental - like helping my teammates carry a solid metal door 100 ft down a rocky walkway.
What about Staying Paid? You can thank Joshua Tryon and Shawn Quinn for bringing us back online. Due to a bank issue, everything went boom. We apologize for the offtime, naturally.
We’re delayed for the holiday season, but even being offline, I’m still here to help each and every one of you. The three of us are working on physical learning courses for the holidays. After the new year, we’ll be more online-focused as we always have been.
Anything new? Of course - more case studies (including premium case studies that spare no detail - something I’ve been asked for multiple times)
Make life meaningful to you *today*. Live your hot life, hot right now. Not tomorrow - I regret not pushing as hard as I could for this company. I am now committed to doing better, taking care of my business, and the people that got us here in the first place.
More joint ventures, more niche websites, more episodes of my Get Niched ustream show, and plenty of marketing laughs, joys, cheer and challenges along the way.
Please understand - there’s nothing more precious to the three of us than each and every one of you. Yes, this is a difficult time for us - Shawn and I are both in Houston, and we went through the hurricane together (separately, but in the same city natch.) Instead of laying down and licking our wounds, we’re choosing to get everything back online so we can return to serving the community we love.
As always - work hard, play hard, love easily!
Isabella “Niche Lady” Murphy, The Staying Paid Diva
Published by admin //
Posted on September 18th, 2008 in General
I’m a pretty loved nichelady. I mean, I knew this but after being forced out of range for 48 hours, you see pretty quick how fast people see you’re not there. I didn’t mean to scare the daylights out of y’all, I just couldn’t get to a source to send out any messages until recently.
It’s been a crazy time around here. I’m on borrowed computers (my computer’s been acting crazy weird since the storm, yikes), borrowed time (I’m at some sort of “workforce center” because they have internet), wandering around the city making sure we have gas - food - necessities. It’s been survival first, business second. I hate that — I miss each and every one of you.
Some of you have been with me since Day Zero, before Staying Paid was even here and I was wearing myself out writing copy for pennies (2002-2003 era) — I’ve got my own marketing copy, attracting new talent, fans, business contacts.
There’s a lot going on, and I’m glad that I even had the ability to come back here on the fly and let y’all know I’m OK.
I am so thankful for Shawn Quinn — seriously, if you’re not following Shawn on twitter, please follow him. If I disappear, he’s usually the 1st person I can get ahold of and he’ll be the first one to update y’all when I’m not able to.
Some have asked me what Shawn does for Staying Paid — he handles all of our technical issues, from “golly gee, what the heck does that server mean when it says error code 319-alpha-echo-2?, to setting up our email, to matching our business objectives to what we have available technically. Any order I write up for say, an outsider coder or developer to come in goes through him first. I’m a thankful, lucky, blessed woman to have a strong business partner like Shawn, and I’m double lucky to say “yep, that’s my best friend.”
In spite of what’s going on, I couldn’t be happier. I made a move to a vibrant city that reflects what I like to think is my real spirit: the ability to go through hell and keep going.
Churchill would be proud. I hope you will be too.
Work hard, play hard, love easily!
Isa “Niche Lady” Murphy, The Staying Paid Diva
P.S - Are you taking action? Even with hurricanes, no power, no net, and long lines to gas & grocery stores, I got the idea for a rocking guide to hook you all up with. Who’s your favorite copy diva? Yeah, that’s what I thought 
Published by admin //
The purpose of a warrior is to get from one side of the battlefield to the other. In business, my focus is to get paid everyday whether I’m running through Houston with my partner in crime, Shawn Quinn, or chilling at home with something nice and cold in hand (I’m talkin’ about soda, what were you thinking). Some days, that rocks — like getting 3 sales back to back before noon, while I’m counting little green rectangles hoppin’ over the fence into my bank account.
Then there are other days — refund requests made ten minutes after purchase, angry emails talking about “disappointment”, no-sale days that leave me scratching my head, and now, PayPal disputes saying “a hacker made this, not me”. Fortunately, PayPal has a sense of humor — getting on the phone with a live person has cleared up 30% of the headache. Long story short, we’re still taking payments via PayPal, we’re just shifting our focus a little bit. Everytime we think about a company shift, I figure it’s fitting to put it here.
Yes, I said we: I’m in Houston right now, my new home. As announced previously, Shawn K. Quinn gave me the honor of becoming my business partner. A skilled IT professional and one hell of a backgammon player? Too good to pass up, for sure. We met up for a casual dinner on Friday, chilled like gangbusters on Saturday, and Sunday - my day of mini-put-out-fires-hell, he began plotting out how to fix the leading cause of the fires.
Digital products have allowed me to do a lot of really awesome things, like moving 700-ish miles. But there’s always something that can be refined to make it better.
First and foremost, over the next few weeks I want to develop a universal refund policy — I think transparency is what has made Staying Paid what it is, and I’ll continue to be as transparent as I can be. That includes letting buyers know exactly when they’ll get a refund, how they’ll receive it, and whether or not there are any conditions (read: physical products, they may need to follow some steps).
Privacy & disclosure policies are another thing — selling my first product has taught me woo, there’s a lot of information on the table, which makes me feel even more blessed people trust me enough to take that step. Awesome! To keep that trust going, I feel I owe my buying public clear terms on what we do with that information, how we store it, what we use it for (read: if you opt in to my mailing list, I will use the email to email you. If you didn’t, I wouldn’t email unless utterly necessary, like when I goofed and none of the hyperlinks worked for Niche Breakfast.)
My copy process has allowed me to create salesletters fast. Niche Breakfast currently converts at 2% - yep, said that right. I’m not excessively proud of that - I’d do handstands at 5-7%, but 2% is a nice base to start testing from.
I do crazy things all the time — I embedded a special code the first week I sold Niche Breakfast in the salesletter — buyers could purchase & forward me the receipt, and I would make them a custom piece of content Is that crazy? Sure, that puts a lot of work on my plate — but when you get emails like:
That is truly amazing!!!
YOU are truly amazing!!!!
wishing you love and joy
You realize you’re doing good things that affect your customers. The phrase I live by is “Work Hard, Play Hard, Love Easily”, and marketers may not like it when I say it, but yes, you NEED that “love easily” part. Your customers are begging for “love easily”, but that’s another rant for another day.
I knew when I fought my way into this business — going from quitting my day job to going full time “Staying Paid Diva”, it would be rough. There have been nights I’ve sat in the living room, phone cradled in my hands telling Shawn, “I quit. I can’t do this. I better brush up my resume. I can’t win this.” Yes, I’ve gone to bed in tears because sometimes, the uncertainty factor goes from “exciting! best time of my life” to “OMG, why did I do this?!?!?!”
Today, even when I caught this little curveball, I’m smiling. I’m sitting in an extended stay place until I figure out where I want to live (yikes, Houston is flipping HUGE!!!), and I have no idea what tomorrow will bring. I’m bouncing to music, reading back through my favorite twitter statements, and realizing that I love being the Staying Paid Diva too much to do anything else
I love what I do, and I want to continue doing it for a long time.
Next leg of the battle? Getting more physical than Olivia Newton-John in the place to be. I love digital products like candy, but Shawn and I have been going back and forth on physical, running numbers and also looking at our long term audience — there’s a lot of people who aren’t comfortable with digital products, and they’re part of the audience we need and want to teach. So yes, I want physical.
What does that mean for Niche Breakfast? A serious shift to physical production — more pieces, possibly a mix & match system. I haven’t thought it all the way through just yet. I eventually want to do a video.
Does that change our price points? Slightly — but it also changes our value as well. Imagine being able to get cutting edge information on thorough niche research anytime you like, just by popping in a DVD — that’s a big deal in my book, and it opens the door to people who may not even know what .avi or .wmv or any of this computer stuff. If they can watch Batman Begins on the small screen, they can also learn how to make payday come everyday.
It’s stuff like this that makes me fanatical about getting into direct mail — I’m finding ways to make direct mail quite useful to me, and I’m excited.
I refuse to give up. I refuse to back down, regardless of the challenges of individual days. I’m too close to what I love, and I can’t think of anything else I’d rather be doing than helping each and every one of you find and keep success.
Work hard, play hard, love easily!
Isa “Niche Lady” Murphy, The Staying Paid Diva
Published by admin //
There are those that complain about where they live, and there are those that change their situation so that they can leave that bad place for something better. After realizing I’ve spent a lifetime being in camp #1, it was time to be in the second camp, the land of the action takers. My brain was still in sideline master mode, whispering those sweet lies we tell ourselves when fear sets in. “Everybody knows what I’m doing, and they don’t need the information. It’s not valuable.”
I had a spark of an idea — why not build the guide on niche research, get people into niche marketing hardcore, and make a couple of bucks in the process. What seemed like such a great idea on the surface would take me through long nights, insomnia, deep hack mode, and incredible crankiness. What came out of those “labor pains” was one hell of a baby: The Niche Breakfast: Making Niche Research Part of a Well Balanced Business. I wanted the step by step guide of what I do on a daily basis: find profitable niches, write content, and sell at a premium. I did this for clients, I did this for friends (why was I giving away such things again? I have no idea!), but the one person I should have been taking care of, I wasn’t.
So I went to the cab, copybook in hand. I would write during downtime, during slow nights, during times where I wanted to pull my hair out in frustration. I would sit at IHOP scribbling words furiously, crossing things out. I would read off lines to servers, teaching as I went along. I stood up one night and looked out the window, and just about fell to pieces. I was determined to finish this guide now that I had started it, and I wasn’t going to just sit and spin my wheels. I wanted to take action, but now that I had the guide started, I was terrified I wasn’t going to finish it.
What would people think about my writing? I said to myself, scribbling and scratching out words. What if it’s not good? What if I get a gazillion refunds? How will I handle that? OMG OMG!
I sat typing, typing, typing once I had everything written how I wanted it. My fingers hurt. My eyes itched. I was running on so little sleep it was unreal. I was packing, trying to get things ready. I was wrapping up local ends and things. I was trying to find time for one last date with a special someone. I was taking care of one of my favorite clients. It was absolutely crazy, and the weird part is everything fused together nicely.
When you grab a copy of The Niche Breakfast, you’re not getting War and Peace, you’re getting a blueprint for results. It’s not the same ol’ tired round de round — I talk to you like I’m standing next to you. My salesletters, in my mind, are successful because I keep it casual, and I learned fast that it works well for books too.
I was blown away at how fast that book got popular. Through the power of Twitter, I got many tweets about TNB, and I got 3 people who emailed their lists — very special indeed. Tiffany Dow sent me a copy of what she sent out to her list and I nearly cried — it was honest, simple, to the point and very sincere.
It’s weird to be out dancing with your sweetie in the shadows and coming home to find sales.
It’s strange to be at the grocery store trying to balance a box of pizza in one hand, cell phone in the other and trying to keep your purse from sliding across the cart and still finding sales.
Yes, I’ve had a refund request — but it didn’t phase me. I refunded their money and I wished them well. I was hurt at first and then I realized that really, it’s not going to benefit everyone. It hinted to me that I did need to build a refund policy as well and be clear about it.
Yes, we had technical problems — I nearly lost the salesletter. I howled, screamed, and broke into tears from exhaustion. My webhost burped and I couldn’t find the website live. I had differing versions of the file saved, for some weird reason. We had some issues with affiliates not getting their affiliate links right through E-Junkie — it was a little confusing.
I was very tired, very upset, and just ready to throw in the towel.
Where’s the silver lining, raincloud?
It gets better. Let me give you the short version, copywriter style:
- I got 3 potential clients that were blown away by my salesletter and wanted me to do the same for them
- I got an opportunity to build a “Product in a Box” solution and test out my theory live & on the line
- I got booked for an interview for KFAQ talk radio station in Tulsa, OK talking about niche research & niche marketing
- I was interviewed on Dr. Wright’s “Wright Place Podcast” pull-no-punches style.
- I have another potential interview in the works
- Several JV offers, including becoming a coach to a select group of niche marketers
- Positive energy from all directions — including being told by a man who’s been in marketing for 20 years that he learned something from my little book
- waves of positive feedback
- offers to speak offline because I wrote The Niche Breakfast
- and too much more to list
It gave me confidence to continue to produce in-house content under the Staying Paid brand, which is always a plus. So look out, because we’re here, and we’re determined to help people make payday come everyday. The Niche Breakfast is just the beginning of that road.
My next battle: standing by the prices I charge. I’ve got plenty of fellow marketers that are gonna give me a beatdown if I don’t start raising my prices to reflect the time, effort, quality, and service I put out there. We’ll go from there, one day at a time.
Not bad for a four month company built on unshakable faith, eh?
Published by admin //
I’m grinning from ear to ear - nine days into August. It’s been fun - bills are already paid and then some, and I’m starting to think about what I want to do next. As some of you know, teaching the next wave and coaching them through their journey is where my passion is. I get a lot of people that tell me they can’t seem to figure out how to increase their income level … what, with everything they have to do everyday.
At the same time, my brain was alerting me to the fact that it might be time for a re-plugging, to figure out where I want to take the company next. So I came up with a neat little challenge of mine:
What if I took a job again and used it 100% to fund my dreams of digital domination?
There were some problems from the get go. As a Staying Paid Diva, I’m pretty persnickety about someone telling me when to clock in, when to clock out, when to go for lunch, and how to do my job. I hated it as a CSR, I hated it as a phone sales gal, and I sure hated it as a cashier at Wal-Mart. So I knew doing the entire job application process in the time frame I wanted wasn’t gonna be a smart decision.
I needed serious flexibility, and serious speed — I wanted to set up this project with enough time to carry it out before my Houston adventure, where I slide deeper into the art, science, belief, passion, and mentality of Staying Paid.
I did what any young person with too much book smarts would do: I became a cab driver.
As I wrote this post in my brain, I worried about spilling the beans - then I thought about my treatise on “Breaking Fear” I wrote some time ago. As much as I adore each and everyone of you, my journey of Staying Paid for life has to be about me, and this is something that definitely qualifies as a “niche break”.
I just got out of training and drove my first day. It was decent, and I already gathered some insights not just into niches (saw a crazy niche driving down the side of the road to pick up these awesome foreign exchange kids), but into people, and how they interact with the world around them. Yep, that was totally worth the headache, stress, frustration, tears (the dispatcher on my first training day was none too pleased with me) to get this insight.
I originally chose cab driving so that I would have flexibility, but I didn’t realize that I would also become a traveling counseling box for everyone coming down the pipe. I got to hear desperate problems with desperate people, and I got to listen in to the “raw feed” of emotions based around those desperate times.
When you want to influence a prospect into buying a product, it helps to know what they’re feeling!
I got a peek into some serious raw emotion, and boy, it was powerful. I wrote some observations down during the slow times. I also learned about the history of this town, took a couple of pics with my phone, and otherwise had a good time planning out where I want Staying Paid to grow and what things we need to cut out.
One thing that got me thinking was our approach with respect to markets. There’s a ton of people out there that buy all kinds of things offline - why am I not marketing to them? I ought to have my letters in the hands of as many as possible. I admit I got bogged down into technique, so that counts as one of the “7 Mistakes of Product Creation & Development” that Get Niched regulars have been hearing about all this time - see, it’s not a newbie-only thing - even veteran trenchbirds like myself can get lost in the sea of “how” rather than the shore of “why”.
The Ground Rules of My “Side Gig” Challenge
These are just the guidelines I’ll be using - you don’t have to use them!
First and foremost, I will be using my taxicab cash for Staying Paid in some way, shape, or form. This can be anything from buying a domain, to buying a whole website, to buying related software…you get the idea. If it’s in the cab, it’ll be in the company sooner or later.
I’ll be keeping myself honest here by posting exactly what I spent on what, where, and why. You can also follow it on twitter with the hashtag #SGC (Side Gig Challenge)
If Staying Paid is being so good to me, why do this at all?
I’m sure the skeptics are already wondering why - I want to prove that *anyone* can make their dream of staying paid come true, even if they had to pick up a side gig, or a part time job, or even siphon cash away from their full time job. Between Staying Paid (the company, not the concept) and being Taxi Cabbie Isa, I’m going to be logging a lot of hours. 40-50 hours in the cab and 30-35 hours of Staying Paid work doesn’t leave a lot of time to laze about - so this challenge will depend on me becoming very productive when it’s time to be productive.
I will be in the cab roughly 10-12 hours a day, 3-4 days a week - I will be taking a break Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday of next week due to coaching folks and other obligations. Not all of that time will be spent handling customers - I’ll be writing, recording thoughts, and continuing to think of ways to maximize my earning power. I’m all about that!
Staying Paid is 7 years of blood, sweat, and tears made flesh - or in this case, corporate. Owning a company will always be my first priority, something that is already well known to the person I’m driving for (my schedule reflects that my availability is 100% based on what Styaing Paid needs first - but since I’m in the middle of my “niche break”, it’s pretty lax). If anyone thinks I’d give up Staying Paid to ride the friendly roadways, they must not be reading close enough.
The Taxi Effect
I’m having to make some sacrifices on my part - my schedule has been flipped from nighttime to days, and that means waking up anywhere from 5:30am - 7am. That’s a lot different than going to bed at 5:30am - 7am. It means that I won’t see my nighttime folks as much as I would like, and I won’t be able to conduct as much “on the fly” coaching as I would like.
My first workaround is to coordinate better with email, and learn what works on my phone and what doesn’t. I use GridMagic for my blackberry to work through spreadsheets, and I use TwitterBerry to keep in touch with all the twitter darlings on my list.
My customers seem amazed that I’m a copywriter as well as a taxi driver. When they ask why I decided to do this, I’m always left wondering how to answer. Really, I’m doing this because I think it’s imperative someone know how to work with all types of people.
I’m surrounded by really, really smart people. I mean that. It’s both a blessing and a curse - a blessing, because the work flows so much sweeter, but a curse because you fall into a rhythm, a comfort. If I’m going to continue “Breaking Fear”, I have to continue stepping out of my comfort zone.
Believe me, when you’re a Staying Paid rockstar carting around old ladies to grocery stores and drunken students from the bar to the dorm, you’re waaaay out of your comfort zone.
This really isn’t a “money thing” for me - I’m well aware that I could sit home and make far more cash in my pocket writing (even if for the “churn & burn shops”) than sitting in the taxicab.
It’s a “people thing” - I wanted to bring you the trenches, but didn’t realize how far I had wandered away from them. My biggest “irrational” fear I suppose is that I’ll become this well known, coast to coast lady that gets paid good and well and often (in other words, the Staying Paid Diva I am today, somewhat…) … but not remember where I came from.
It’s taken a long road to get here. I gave up a lot of things that looking back, were the best things I could have done. It’s taught me to be cold & detached when I need to be, and to love easily when I don’t need to bother with harshness of any kind.
That’s all I have, ladies and gents, so as always: work hard, play hard, and LOVE EASILY!
Sincerely,
Isa “Niche Lady” Murphy, The Staying Paid Diva
Helping people make payday come EVERYDAY through strategy, not chance (even while driving a taxi cab!!)
Published by admin //
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