Michael Wilding

Category: Product Generation

  • How to write 5000 words per hour

    How to write 5000 words per hour

    Yesterday I was babysitting Max, and the dog, on my own for the first time.

    A full seven hours while Holly was working!

    And it wasn’t so bad 🙂

    During the time I bought a book called 5000 Words Per Hour: Write Faster, Write Smarter

    You can check it out on Amazon here.

    It’s not a big book, which is why I managed to read it in the few hours Max was sleeping yesterday.

    I think it’s important to read these kind of books alongside any that you read for pleasure.

    They help to make you think about what you’re doing, the processes you’re using, and if you can improve.

    For me, I personally like to take nuggets out of them. I’m not someone who’s going to follow a regime set by someone else, and then follow it to the letter. I know, I’ve tried, and I never get very far.

    Instead, I take what I find useful and put it into my own working pattern and lifestyle.

    The book, which I recommend if you want to use a method and exercises to allow you to write that quickly, uses principles that I’ve been talking and teaching for years.

    Principally…

    * Get a quiet space in which to work
    * Turn off all communication and notifications
    * Know exactly what you’re planning on doing
    * Take a regular break

    It’s even easier if you do it at a time when nobody’s around. For me, my day is starting earlier and earlier.

    Max wakes up at 6:30am and the builders are on site at 7:30am, that means there’s a lot of distraction. Although Holly does an incredible job of keeping Max away from my study.

    However, if I start working at 6am, I can get a huge amount done before Max is even awake, and by the time the builders arrive, most of the days work can be finished!

    So I’m thinking about starting even earlier, maybe 5:30am or 5:00am in order to get the whole day finished by the time everyone else is awake.

    Anyhoo… one of the things that the book mentioned, is using dictation software to write with.

    I’m a fast typer, I type around 95 words per minute, and I just did a test to check it:

    I took the test at http://www.typingtest.com/ if you want to have a go yourself.

    Now, if I was able to consistently type at that speed, which I can’t, that would be 5700 words per hour.

    However, realistically, over a long period of time that speed will probably drop to more like 80 words per minute and 4800 words per hour.

    Still not bad.

    But…

    Using dictation, you should be able to speak at least 120 words per minute, and with practice, as much as 160 words per minute.

    That’s between 7200 and 9600 words per hour.

    Which is frickin mental!

    Imagine the output you could have in one hour a day. With the average business book being between 50,000 and 75,000 words, at this speed you could write the first draft in just 10 days if you commited to writing an hour a day.

    Whoah. Now a lot of things start to become possible!

    So… as I mentioned earlier, before I drifted off the subject, a number of years ago I tried using Dragon Dictate, which is leading dictation software.

    But I didn’t get far.

    Why?

    Because I couldn’t be bothered to go through the learning process. You see, I know I type quickly, so why would I want to type any faster.

    A few years on, I read a book thinking how good it would be to be able to type 5000 words per hour. On finishing it, I learn that I do actually type around 5000 words per hour already, but I can probably get that closer to 7500 words per hour if I use dictation software.

    And now… I have a reason to want to do it. There’s less time in the day because I want to spend time with Max, which means I need to be even more efficient.

    So I’m gonna give it a go.

    Which means my next email may very well be dictated.

    I’ll let you know how I get on.

    In the meantime, if you’re not yet a member of our private Facebook group, here’s the place to go.

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/1676733229252397/

    It’s a safe space where you can ask the group any questions you like.

    Ciao,

    Michael

  • What’s dark, thick and light on top?

    What’s dark, thick and light on top?

    And the answer is…. Guiness!

    After all, it’s St. Patricks day today, so if you haven’t yet sucked down your intake of iron through the form of Guiness, then fear not, you still have time.

    It wasn’t that many years ago, he says with his eyes slightly askew, when I would be out drinking all night on St. Patricks day.

    We used to make an event out of it.

    Now, I’m sitting in front of my laptop, typing out an email with the remnants of baby sick on my jumper.

    I know, I know, if I keep talking like this, you’ll start to be jealous of the glamour of my lifestyle!

    But, everything we do, we do for lifestyle.

    Which is why, at the very beginning of your online journey, you need to make a decision…

    Are you going to:

    1) Choose the Guiness business model
    2) Choose the Walmart model

    If you’re wondering what the f**k I’m talking about, then bear with me, I’ve not gone crazy… yet.

    Breaking everything down into it’s nuts and bolts, kinda like an Ikea flat pack, every online business follows one of these two models.

    The Guiness model is all about focus. Do one thing, and do it better than anybody else. Make your product, make it excellent, and then sell it to as many people as possible. Saturate your market.

    The Walmart model is all about offering as much as possible. This means you always have something you can put on special offer, there’s always something you can give away, there’s always something new about to be released.

    Both models work, the choice is down to personal preference.

    You know those folk who you see doing a launch every few weeks?

    Those guys use the Walmart model. They make all their money and leads by doing launches, which means they’ve got to come up with new products and launch materials constantly.

    Up until now, most of my businesses have followed the Walmart model, but for the first time I now have two companies using the Guiness approach.

    Which allows me to make a judgement of the benefits of each.

    THE GUINESS MODEL PROS

    Focus has to be the biggest pro of this model. All of your time is focused on generating the best product, sales content and brand. It’s all about the brand, people will have to want to purchase this as you’ll probably end up being more expensive than newcomers later on.

    Using this approach will be more stressful in the beginning, but less stressful once your business is established. You’ll have to fight to get your initial customer base, but once they’re with you, they’ll be loyal, and that allows you room to breath while you test and work out your long-term marketing strategies.

    THE WALMART MODEL PROS

    You can get started much faster using this approach, because if something doesn’t work you can move on to the next thing rapidly. You’re not invested in just one thing.

    It allows your products to be produced quicker, and require less refinement because the majority of your sales are going to come form the “Here’s Something New” approach.

    Generally you can launch these businesses faster, and start making money far quicker, but to scale out you’ll need a good team who can work quickly.

    THE GUINESS MODEL CONS

    It can take longer to get this type of business started. You’ll want to make sure that things like logos and branding are in place from the beginning, as this is what you will be driving loyalty through.

    Your primary aim will be to build a following, this means your focus is going to be on content marketing and awareness, building up loyalty, rather than hard sales.

    Sales numbers will always drop when you aren’t using a hard sales approach. However, your retention will be significant and it will pay off in the years to come.

    THE WALMART MODEL CONS

    It’s exhausting! You have to be promoting and finding/building new products to promote all the time.

    You’ll also need to have a good source of leads for your business. As you’re going to be promoting heavily for every new product, you’ll lose your leads faster than those building a following.

    If you’re a master of outsourcing and building teams, then this could be for you. It can generate a lot of money very quickly, but if you try and do this on your own, you’re going to struggle after your first few launches.

    Which of these two models would you choose?

    There’s no right or wrong, there’s just what is more suitable to your personality and situation.

    But… 99% of digital marketers have never thought about this.

    Hell, most of the digital marketers who are marketing other peoples businesses (on someone else’s dime) haven’t thought about it on behalf of their clients!

    If you’re starting your own business online, the chances are you’ve already tried the Walmart model, and it didn’t work for you.

    That’s because you hadn’t specifically chosen that model.

    You made a product and then launched it, you probably didn’t focus on branding too heavily, instead you tried to get it to market as quickly as possible.

    That’s all good, until… you start doing content marketing, not wanting to promote very often in case you damage the reputation with your list, then social media marketing, then try to build a following.

    What’s happening here is you’re beginning to mix the Guiness model with the Walmart model.

    And everything starts going to shit.

    Because you’re not focused on how your business is going to grow and how it’s going to make money.

    Truth be told, you probably never got past the point of thinking you’d like to make money online, and then read some stuff, built a website and started trying to send traffic to it before realising you’re spending money not making it.

    Nuh uh my precious.

    That doesn’t work, as you already know.

    Like any business, you’ve got to plan what you’re doing and how you’re going to make money.

    Otherwise it’s going to tank. Fast.

    My approach to making money online, which works like rocket fuel if you actually do it, is written down here:

    https://michaelwilding.com/business-ignition

    Is it right for you?

    That depends if you actually want to put some time in and achieve success. If you’re hoping I’ll do it for you, then put your wallet away and go to someone else who’ll blow hot air up your ass and promise a ton of things they’ll never deliver on.

    Me, I like to work with people who want to succeed.

    Michael

  • Gas Station Sushi

    Gas Station Sushi

    Sometimes you just want something, even if you know it’s going to suck.

    I’m a sucker for sushi. I always want it, and where we’ve moved there are no sushi restaurants. Seriously, the closest one is nearly an hours drive away. I mean WTF?!

    If we ever move again, sushi restaurants are going to be a part of my search criteria.

    Anyhoo
 with this withdrawal of sushi availability, my cravings have got worse.

    So, when we were on the way back from the hospital today, I pulled into the gas station to fill up, went into pay and..

    
sitting in the glass cabinet with a halo around them were packs of sushi.

    In reality, they probably didn’t have a halo around them. To be honest, it was more likely to be a rim of dirt stuck between the window and the sushi.

    But I didn’t see that.

    All I saw was something I wanted, something I craved.

    Guess what I did
 I bought it.

    And it was rank.

    I don’t me a little bit bad, I mean seriously gross.

    Even though it was gross I still ate it, because I was desperate for it.

    Gas stations don’t need to do any marketing, because their buyers are trapped. There is nowhere else to go to buy stuff. All they need to do, is to make sure they’ve got enough variety that there’s something for everyone.

    As marketers we want to find the folk like me, the folk who are desperate. Then we make stuff to sell  them.

    It doesn’t matter if you’re a network marketer, affiliate marketer, ecommerce marketer, heck
 it doesn’t matter what kind of online business you want to go into, the principles are the same.

    Do you know what
 if you’re not selling as much as you think you should be, then the chances are you’ve made a mistake with your audience.

    Look at your audience, who’s visiting your website, what are they reading (Google Analytics is useful for something) then ask yourself


    Am I giving them what they’re desperate for?

    If the answer is ‘no’ or ‘I’m not sure’, then you better damn well go and find out and give it to them, coz if you don’t, somebody else will, and they’ll be taking the money you could be earning 😉

    Michael

  • Even Amazon Uses The F**k Up Then Fix Method

    Even Amazon Uses The F**k Up Then Fix Method

    Damn, I love Amazon Prime!

    This year, I’ve bought every single Christmas present through Amazon Prime. Free next day delivery is worth every cent of the yearly cost.

    Heck, in London you can now get delivery within the hour.

    That’s mental!

    I don’t even want to think about the logistics to make that work.

    Although, to be fair, when it launched… it actually didn’t work.

    Which is exactly why wanted to chat about it, because it proves exactly what I’ve been saying for years.

    Trying to build the perfect product before you launch it just doesn’t work.

    That’s old-school.

    All it’s gonna do is cost you a shite load of money. Chances are, the only person it’s going to be perfect for will be you.

    So… you need to move away from the old-school and come join me in the new-school.

    This is where we use a way of building products called Agile Development. But, forgetting the official terms, basically, we’re building quick and fixing later.

    And if you don’t believe me, then this is what they did with Amazon Now (the one-hour delivery service in London)…

    1. Come up with a concept
    2. Build the MVP (minimum viable product), e.g. do the minimum needed to launch the product to see if anybody wants it
    3. Listen to your customers, discover what they want and find the flaws
    4. Fix them
    5. Repeat steps 3 and 4

    When Amazon launched their Amazon Now service in London, it was at the end of a summer. What happened?

    It was an absolute friggin disaster.

    Everybody I know who used it, didn’t get their stuff within the hour, some of them didn’t even get it the same day!

    But that, in my opinion, was always part of Amazon’s plan.

    Because however much preparation they did, it was always going to have disasters when it launched. I mean, when you’re trying to deliver products within an hour, disasters are pretty much guaranteed.

    What they really wanted to do, was to see how much demand there was for the delivery, and find out what the real issues were, not the ones imagined by a development team.

    And… they wanted to do that before Christmas.

    After all, Christmas was where they were going to make the real money. All the last-minute presents, all the last minute booze. By releasing their new service at the end of the summer, it gave them time to have everything ironed out by Christmas.

    Clever!

    So, the lesson is… build the minimum viable concept of your product, then listen to what your customers want you to do and react quickly, while they’re already paying you to use it.

    Michael

    P.S. This is going to be my last email until 2017, so have a great Christmas and New Year.

    P.P.S. That also means, this could be your last chance to get access to Business Ignition for the January 2017 edition

    https://michaelwilding.com/business-ignition/

  • Jelly Cats

    Jelly Cats

    Don’t you wish you’d had an idea like the Jellycat toy company. It seems like every child in the western world has at least one Jellycat toy.

    What’s special about them?

    The softness of the fabric.

    That’s their USP.

    Every parent is worried about their newborn babies skin, they want to make sure only the softest things touch it.

    Which makes that USP, however simple it is, absolutely perfect for their target market.

    And don’t forget, their target market is parents not children. The children aren’t the ones buying the product, so when you’re selling into this market, particularly for babies, you’re actually selling to the parents.

    Whenever you’re considering building a new product, you must always start with your target audience, the folk who are actually buying it.

    Sounds obvious?

    You’d be surprised at how many people don’t consider this.

    However, it’s the first thing to take into account when developing a new product, writing your sales copy, squeeze page, heck
 when you do anything, you must always begin by considering your target market and what they want.

    Remember, you always want to sell what they ‘want’ and provide what they ‘need’ to achieve the results.

    That’s the way to get testimonials like


    “Love your writing style “No BS just MW” (maybe you can use that as a slogan) bit like the Nike “Just do it”!!!  Keep up the great work.. Cheers” – Tony

    “Please continue doing an awesome job
” – Meschelle Munro

    Michael

    P.S. Join the ranks of those who want to know how to get things done online


    https://michaelwilding.com/business-ignition/