Notes From Week 9 of Chris Guillebeau’s Empire Building Kit (Another Disappointing Week)

Chris Guillebeau is the author of The Art of Non-Conformity and Unconventional Guides. He runs a course called Empire Building Kit (EBK for short) that I purchased late 2011.

This post is a mind map summary of my learning notes from week 9 which I again found to be disappointing like week 7 because it milks the first webinar call to keep providing “lessons”. This week 5 out of 6 lessons were from that damn webinar.

Click on the link to see a large version of my Mind Map for Empire Building Kit Week 9 (opens in a new window/tab).

The main lessons for week 9 of EBK are as follows:

• Networking from newbies: Talk to everyone you know and everyone you have heard of. Send like 5-10 emails daily and make connections but don’t stick to one industry. I admit I have not gone into the practice of doing this but I must.
• Starting over AONC?: One different thing for Chris if he had to restart AONC is focusing more on guest posting. Getting the word out through powerful blogs to build momentum quickly.
• Why online audio and video and not just print? The main reason is because not everyone likes print and multimedia creates a valuable addition.
• Partner up with a charity. I am in the midst of doing precisely that for singapore Part time Jobs.
• Should you pay interviewees? No
• How to get a newspaper column? Have a unique angle during pitching and start with one opportunity first. I’d love to have a newspaper column which reminds me to submit an article to the Recruit section of Straits Times.

Next Steps

There are several things you can do:

• Share this mind map with friends if you have enjoyed it via Twitter or Facebook.
• Agree, disagree or have questions/comments then leave a comment below.
• If you have purchased EBK, I’d like to connect with you.
• Check out Empire Building Kit (aff link) where you can choose from 3 different versions to purchase.

See you again next week.

Learning Notes for Empire Building Kit by Chris Guillebeau – Week 8

I’ll start off with an introduction, Chris Guillebeau is the author of The Art of Non-Conformity and Unconventional Guides. He runs a course called Empire Building Kit (EBK for short) that I purchased late 2011.

This post is a mind map summary of my learning notes from week 8. Enjoy! Click on the link to see a large version of my Mind Map for Empire Building Kit Week 8 (opens in a new window/tab).

The main lesson for week 8 of Empire building Kit for me was the importance of email lists. The other topics discussed were traffic and lessons from Brooke Thomas:

• Web Traffic: How traffic is the lifeblood of an online business. 8 ways to generate traffic including writing to all your contacts in a non-spammy way and getting traffic from social networks.
• Importance of building email lists: The major major lesson for me was the reinforcement of how email lists are really useful. I used to use AWeber (aff link) but then started using Feedburner since it was free. Now I have a list of over 2,000 people on Feedburner list for Singapore Part Time Jobs website but I am going to bite the bullet and convert to AWeber since it supports multiple lists, segmentation, split testing and follow-up series. The importance of having an incentive to sign-up was another major lesson for me. I have given myself some deadlines to first create two incentives for employers and job seekers and then convert the list to AWeber.
• Brooke Thomas lessons: Another emperor or empress lesson in this case and local marketing was discussed which was again very good for me. The main lessons were shifting mindset to contribution than promotion while thinking of all past clients who have found the service useful. This applies to me so much as sometimes I am hesitant to approach business owners even though we can have a win-win. The last lesson from Brooke was to align with like minded businesses which has got me thinking about synergistic local businesses.

Next Steps

There are several things you can do:

• Share this mind map with friends if you have enjoyed it via Twitter or Facebook.
• Agree, disagree or have questions/comments then leave a comment below.
• If you have purchased EBK, I’d like to connect with you.
• Check out Empire Building Kit (aff link) where you can choose from 3 different versions to purchase.

See you again next week.

Chris Guillebeau’s Empire Building Kit (EBK) Review for Week 7 (Slightly Disappointing)

Chris Guillebeau is the author of The Art of Non-Conformity and Unconventional Guides. He runs a course called Empire Building Kit (EBK for short) that I purchased late 2011. I have been going through the materials week after week diligently and I have been impressed so far, except this week. Week 7 was a disappointment for me because it was a rehash of the very first webinar. The bright side is that the learning was reinforced and like Tony Robbins would say “repetition is the mother of skill”.

This post is a mind map summary of my learning notes from week 7. Enjoy! Click on the link to see a large version of my Mind Map for Empire Building Kit Week 7 (opens in a new window/tab).

The main lessons for week 7 of Empire building Kit were six questions that Chris had already answered in a webinar. Disappointment because it was not new content but reinforcement is always good:

• OK to run an anonymous business? Only for very good reasons but remember customers want value and trust and its hard to provide both if you are anonymous.
• Small markets? Always ensure that your market is *really* small before jumping ship. Listen to Jonathan Fields on markets because small markets can potentially be lucrative. Even very small markets like guinea pig owners are thriving.
• Building an empire as an affiliate? Don’t depend on others because affiliate marketing is a money making opportunity and not truly an empire. Start a business where you have control.
• Ignore PayPal? Do not ignore Paypal as it is the de-facto standard of payment accepted over 100 countries. Use PayPal payments in conjunction with other payment options and see which one performs better. Alternatives include Clickbank.
• How many prospects / readers before launching? At least 500 but 2000-3000 preferred but it is better to launch and analyze the results then relaunch rather than not launch at all. Remember in business nothing is really fatal.

Next Steps

There are several things you can do:

• Share this mind map with friends if you have enjoyed it via Twitter or Facebook.
• Agree, disagree or have questions/comments then leave a comment below.
• If you have purchased EBK, I’d like to connect with you.
• Check out Empire Building Kit (aff link) where you can choose from 3 different versions to purchase.

See you again next week.

Review of Empire Building Kit (EBK) for Week 6 (Learning Notes)

Chris Guillebeau is the author of The Art of Non-Conformity and Unconventional Guides. He runs a course called Empire Building Kit (EBK for short) that I purchased late last year.

This post is a mind map summary of my learning notes from week 6. Enjoy! Click on the link to see a large version of my Mind Map for Empire Building Kit Week 6 Learning Notes (opens in a new window/tab).

The main lessons for week 6 of Empire building Kit are:

• Don’t dismiss a market: It may seem insignificant to you but there is money to be made in every market. For instance, Lisa Sellman’s dog walking and pet care business pulls in over 100K a year. On closer look, these kind of businesses are not rare at all.
• Three Whole Days of Jonathan Fields: An hour long interview with Jonathan Fields where he primarily discusses markets. Tons to learn from the interview include how to identify pain that the market is going through, how not to spend too much time educating the market about their pain and using simple tools to verify whether a market exists for your product or solution.
• Importance of freebies: The discussion on freebies and how it can be used to build trust and value made me rethink certain aspects of my business. I’ll definitely be incorporating this learning point into my business one way or another.
• Persona: Writing a one page description of what my ideal customer would be like and how I can find someone closely resembling the persona in the real-world to garner feedback. Powerful stuff.
• Nothing is fatal: The last part was about another of Chris’ business disaster and how he came back stronger after having gone through the turmoil. A reminder that in business nothing is really fatal.

Next Steps

There are several things you can do:

• Share this mind map with friends if you have enjoyed it via Twitter or Facebook.
• Agree, disagree or have questions/comments then leave a comment below.
• If you have purchased EBK, I’d like to connect with you.
• Check out Empire Building Kit (aff link) where you can choose from 3 different versions to purchase.

See you again next week.