One of the things I have been really looking forward to doing on this new blog is talking about my experiences with the Thirty Day Challenge.
Every year for four years, Ed Dale has provided free training for people to learn about creating a business online. At first he provided that training with Frank Kern, and now he works with Dan Raine (along with a whole host of behind-the-scenes folk and experts).
The first Thirty Day Challenge in 2005 had around 1000 participants. It has been increasing every year, and this year more people joined on the first day of the challenge than had taken part in the previous 3 combined (and there were already thousands who enrolled during pre-season).
Naturally, it can be difficult to teach a method of online marketing that thousands of people can follow which doesn’t involve them having to spend money. Last year, so many people tried to create Tumblr blogs following Ed’s instruction that Tumblr shut them all down, believing they were spam.
Every year the Thirty Day Challenge seems to pull something out of the bag that astonishes even the veteran marketers. In fact, even those of us who are members of Dan and Ed’s Immediate Edge membership site are usually surprised by at least a few things they deliver in training. It came as no surprise that the GTrends method of market research they showed in 2007 was being taught by other marketers 6 months later.
This year is shaping up to be the most astounding yet. Ed and Dan have a great team and have managed to bring exclusive access to a brand new piece of software that shaves hours off the keyword research process. Market Samurai is the ultimate market research tool – not only does it suggest numerous keywords based on the LSI of the top web pages, it also tells you:
And that’s just a section of the software. Each part is being added as we reach that stage of the training, but already we have the Market Research section which tells you what the top websites are for your keyword phrase and what on page and off page elements they are using that might hinder your chances of reaching a top position in Google (or, what elements they aren’t using that your could use to dominate that keyword). This is the best and quickest judge yet of whether it is worth pursuing a keyword phrase.
Today they rolled out the article research component, enabling us to search for relevant articles and blog posts optimized for that keyword phrase and analyse their age, backlinks, index count and more.
And we’re only on Day 5!
Previous years, much of this market research has either been impossible or extremely time consuming. In the first two years we had to use Google Adwords to test a niche. We paid out money just to gather leads and find out what the market wanted. Then we created the product and sold it to them (and unfortunately at this point could discover that it wasn’t a buying market).
But it’s more important than just 30 days of fun and new experiences. It is teaching a method of creating an online business that will last far beyond this month or year. Some of the techniques may be different each year but the overall objective remains the same.
This year, more than ever before, I am focussed on making this work for me. In previous years I have always put my heart and soul into the challenge and even created a product that sold quite well and led me to a new hobby and passion. But, as I mentioned in my previous post, my offline career was always there as my primary concern and income, and at the moment that is no longer the case.
My posts here about the Thirty Day Challenge will not be a step-by-step breakdown of the process but rather what I am learning from the experience. If you’re interested then they will always be posted in the category Thirty Day Challenge so you can find all the relevant posts by clicking on that over on the right of the screen. Or better still, add me to your rss reader for instant updates as soon as I post.
And if you are also doing the Challenge then I wish you every success and would love for you to share your experiences in the comments section.
Oh, and apparently tomorrow (or today as it is now in the UK) is the best day of all – I can’t imagine how it can get any better. You can imagine why it is so exciting to be a part of the Thirty Day Challenge.
Lisa
P.S. You can still sign up and follow the training over at Thirty Day Challenge. If you’re really keen you can still finish within the 30 days, but the training will still be there after August and you can take it at your own pace if you prefer.
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