My Answers to Your Questions: From Business to Life Improvement

About 100 people subscribe to Okdork every day and they each get a welcome email that asks:

“What is one thing I could write about that’d make your day better?”

Since there are certain topics that come up over and over, I figured I’d go through YOUR most popular questions and answer them for you.

By the way: I HIGHLY recommend you add a question like this to your auto-responder. It’s an amazing way to connect with your subscribers and figure out what content they want you to write.

 

Here’s the top questions you ask ranked by popularity:

Question 1: How do I land an awesome job?

Most people email me asking for a job or ask how they can work for me. 100% of these emails have a permanent home in my trash folder.

It’s needy to just beg for a job. Instead, go to the person you want to work for and give specific suggestions on how their business can be improved. Provide some value and show them you’re the best person to improve their business.

Here are a few examples:

1- Bring a plan. At Mint.com I was not hired immediately. Aaron (the founder) said I did not have the experience. So I went back home and worked for a week on a 90 day marketing plan. I brought that plan to Aaron and asked for a minimum amount to execute it. I told him that if he liked it after 90 days then he could make me a full time offer. It reduced his risk and helped him see vision of the results I’d be bringing to the company. I got the job.

2- Work for free. Yeah, you read that right. You might be thinking: But Noah, I have bills to pay.Okay, whiner. That’s exactly why you don’t have a job you like. Ayman, who now runs all of AppSumo, worked for Charlie Hoehn for free who ended up introducing him to us and he now has his dream job. It’s a great way to build a relationship and prove yourself.

3- Resumes are dead. Make a PowerPoint presentation or something visual and email that instead of a resume. I only care about what someone has done, not any of the lies on their resume. If 99% of people are going to send a resume, you should be in the 1% and send something like a PowerPoint or custom website that helps you stand out.

 

Question 2: How can I build $1,000 a month business?

Anything else you want me to answer? Meaning of life?

Okay, here’s the answer. Luckily, it’s completely doable.

Think about it. $1,000/month is just $33 a day. That’s damn near close to nothing. So how can you earn $33 a day?

1) Go on Craigslist, Fiverr, Freelancer, mturk and bid on projects people are already paying for.

“But Noah, that’s not one of those sexy passive income businesses.”

HAHA, yea, like those just happen overnight.  FINE!

2) Find a product on Amazon that is > $100 and doesn’t have some huge blog that is following that item / product category.

For example, Amazon Echo sells for $190. After a quick Google search you can see there’s only 1 blog dedicated to it (and it sucks).

​You get around a 5% commission in affiliate income from selling these products.
So let’s do some basic math…

$190 * 5% = $10 or so.

So you just need to sell 100 units a month (or 3 a day) to earn $1,000 a month.

If you write a few articles, guest posts and promote them in FB groups, it’s possible after a few months to make $1,000 a month. Read this article by Sarah or this one by Nat on how to grow a blog.

3) Ask your network what is on their to-do list that has been there longer than 7 days. Tell them for $33 you will take it off their to do list by completing it. Do that once a day with a different person you know. That’s $1,000 a month right there.

Question 3: How do I prioritize all the things in my business?

Do you realize that priorities stems from the word priority? Singular.

But somehow we want to have multiple #1 priorities. Instead, do this…

Make a list of all the revenue that comes in from your business. Add the % of total next to it.

Advertising revenue $500 (75%)
Affiliate revenue $100 (15%)
Direct sales revenue $50 (7.5%)
Digital product $10 (1.5%)
Subscription revenue  $5 (.7%)
Total: $665

The $15 from Digital products and subscription revenue is only 2% of the revenue in the example above.

Sure, that number could grow but I like to focus 80% on what works and remove everything else. In the example above I’d ONLY spend time on advertising and affiliate revenue. Ignore everything else.

DO MORE OF WHAT WORKS. [click to tweet]

This will help you prioritize and make sure you only spend time on things that really make an impact.

 

Question 4: Can I date you? Please!

Taken, sorry. =)

 

Question 5: How can I get an influencer to respond to my emails?

Make the email about them. We ALL know this but we don’t do it.

Here’s my sequence for emailing anyone.

1- Send an email NOT about you.

Subject: Huge fan of your work

Body:

Noah,
{flattery} Really love the email you sent last week.
{result} I bought that product and it made a huge impact in my life.
{thanks} Keep doing awesome stuff.
{your name} Noah

2- Send follow up a week later (this one is key and where you can ask for something)

Subject: Quick question Noah

{compliment} Hope you are doing amazing.
{ask} Had a 9-second question about marketing. Mind if I email it over?
{your name} Noah

Things to note:

1- Anyone worth reaching is getting TONS of random emails.
2- Keep emails brief and digestible in under 10 seconds.
3- FOLLOW UP is key. If they don’t respond, send a reply email saying BUMP. This has been crucial for me.

Pro tip: Before you send your email, post it in a google doc and have a couple friends review/edit/leave comments. I do this often. Thanks Sarah and Anton!

 

Question 6: My business / life sucks. How can I make it better?

The “power of 1” is what I do.

Go help just one person, right now.

If you run a business, make one customer’s life better.

If you don’t have a business, just reach out to someone on your favorites list and offer to help them with something. Every time I’ve done this I’ve felt better.

 

Hope one of these answers instantly made your day better. Keep the questions coming! I love making YouTube videos and answering your questions. If you have more questions, leave them here so I can make more fun stuff.

 

xo
Noah “tacos” Kagan

P.S. Come work with me. Check out our openings.