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$100K a year sneaky AI that plugs your product online 😏
Welcome to a fresh edition of eBiz Insider, my free newsletter packed with tips, insights and opportunities to build your online business.
Today...
$100K/Year Sneaky AI That Plugs Your Product Online
Running A Lead Gen Agency From an RV
Pat Flynn Says You Should Stop Selling Courses
$727 Per Podcast Episode With Only 2000 Downloads
Copying & Pasting Other People's Playbooks
His "Not Good Enough" Project Earned $20K in 3 Months
How Her $1 Billion Startup Found Its First 3 Customers
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$100K/Year Sneaky AI That Plugs Your Product Online
Alexander Belogubov is the founder of ReplyGuy…
The AI That Plugs Your Product on Reddit and Twitter.
💬 It basically finds conversations related to your product or service, then "mentions your product in [those] conversations naturally."
Bit of a sneaky way to do marketing, but also kinda genius 😎
Alex started the project last October and recently tweeted…
ReplyGuy reaches an incredible $100k ARR 🥳
It took 8 months from launch to reach this milestone.
Apparently he actually quit his job last year and Initially wanted to sell ReplyGuy but…
I put the project up for sale and one of the buyers offered a partnership instead of selling :)
The co-founder took on the marketing side of things and it has since grown to a $100K/year business 📈
When asked about marketing, Alex replied…
PH [Product Hunt], Twitter, Reddit.
Looks like he's also built a decent following on Twitter/X by sharing project updates.
First idea here: if you're struggling with marketing in your business, consider finding and partnering with a capable marketer 🤝
You focus on what you're best at and let them spread the word.
Win-win.
💡 Second idea comes courtesy of Nic Conley on X…
Agency idea: buy an agency subscription to Reply Guy + 10 Domains.
cold email startups. become their "reply guy". plug their biz in Reddit & twitter comments.
charge $500/m + [commissions] on all sales generated.
let reply guy do all the work.
If you can't afford that agency subscription, we’ve previously covered F5Bot, a free service that lets you monitor Reddit and Hacker News, but you’d have to reply manually.
Running A Lead Gen Agency From an RV
Today's email is brought to you by Local Marketing Vault.
That's our top-rated lead generation training 🤩
One reviewer writes…
I took December 2018 to watch the videos and started actively prospecting for clients in January 2019…
I have been earning a full-time income since May 2019 and have been building my business ever since. I live and run my agency full-time in my RV, traveling across the U.S. That would not be possible without Local Marketing Vault, Jason & James, and the incredible community they built.
If you'd like to build something similar, check out their free masterclass video 👈
Pat Flynn Says You Should Stop Selling Courses
Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income has been a highly successful online entrepreneur for a long-time, and has sold many courses sharing his knowledge on different topics 💪
A recent video he put out…
His point 👇
Selling information doesn't work anymore if you're somebody who is trying to build an audience and take this expertise of yours to teach your audience how to do something.
If you actually come from a place of service and you're thinking that you can package this information, sell it, and make a living generating revenue, unfortunately, that's not going to happen.
🤔 His reasoning…
People aren't buying online courses like they used to.
In 2020, we were at the height because everybody was at home because of the pandemic, but then, over time, in the next couple of years, people got overloaded and just tired.
You probably aren't buying online courses.
We've seen it on our end as well.
People just were not buying online courses as much as they used to.
It used to be so easy. We've passed that golden era of just selling information now.
Pat’s solution…
Stop selling information and start selling implementation…
If your tire is flat on the road, you don't want the information about how to change that tire; you want somebody to come and do that for you and get you on your way as soon as possible. And that's what we should be offering.
That's what we should be selling: either access to us, to people, or to each other in order to achieve a goal, not just the information.
Emphasizing that last part, Pat talks about 3 ways you can sell implementation…
Do it for them (Service Business)
Do it with them (Coaching / Consultation)
Do it with others (Community / Cohort Courses)
While Pat may have a point, there are people in comments who say otherwise 😕
This is so tiring. One video someone says this, other videos are saying SELL INFORMATION and other videos people are making a ton of money from their courses.
It's all about this. Build your audience and be genuine. Take whatever path YOU WANT. You can be successful at any path you choose if you put in the work. People will always buy from people they like.
So yeah, it's not black and white.
(It rarely is in the real world!)
But worth considering Pat's point of view before you go launching your next information product 🚀
🗂 $727 Per Podcast Episode With Only 2000 Downloads
From the archive, published November 2023…
Harry Duran is the guy behind the Vertical Farming Podcast 🎙️
Vertical farming is farming up into the air instead of along the ground. This image search will give you a quick sense of it.
From a recent interview with Harry…
Harry Duran launched the Vertical Farming Podcast in 2020, he had zero experience or connections in the industry— he just wanted to learn more about vertical farming.
Fast forward just over three years later, and the part-time project has generated over $80,000 in revenue.
While Harry was new to vertical farming, he did have solid experience producing podcasts.
💰 His approach to monetization…
He reached out to initial guests like David Farquhar of IGS (Intelligent Growth Solutions).
After recording with David, he asked if IGS would be open to sponsorship.
David connected Harry with the CMO, Jeff. Harry pitched a 13-week “season” sponsorship for $9,000—about half the cost of a conference booth.
This secured Harry’s first $9,000 before publicly releasing a single episode!
Now, 3 years later, Harry has published 110 episodes and earned $80,000+ from sponsorships.
That’s about $727 per episode 🤑
If Harry had done the usual thing of selling ad spots based on download numbers – at a typical rate of $25 per 1000 downloads – he would have only earned $50 per episode.
Instead, he focused on securing high-value, B2B sponsors willing to pay premium rates to reach this niche but engaged audience.
New sponsors often come through introductions from past guests.
Harry adds…
I think what was interesting for me is how I went from zero visibility… to now being seen as someone that’s respected, that people are coming to for guidance on the industry…
I came at it from the perspective of an outside observer and a fan of something that I wanted to learn more about.
Two takeaways here 👇
First, you don’t have to be an expert to start producing and monetizing content on a particular subject.
You can take on the role of a curious beginner, interview experts in the space, and break down their insights so ordinary people can understand them.
Second, instead of monetizing the way everyone else does, explore other options. Harry was able to 14x his earnings by going a non-standard route 😎
Last words from Harry…
Just keep moving forward, the universe rewards momentum as an entrepreneur. I fell down a lot [and] I really feel like you need to have those failures so you can quickly figure out what does not work…
Just keep moving forward, keep taking that imperfect action daily.