Making money online using old school methods

[Thebastard]

Hey guys, got a pretty general question for you today.

So I have got had my cheeks clapped pretty severely in my journey to achieving financial freedom or at least freedom from having a boss and the rat race.

I won’t go into that because it take forever to explain but bottom line is I am banned from google ads/facebook ads and frankly not really interested in having to experiment copious amounts of money that I don’t have on ‘cutting edge’ big tech like tik tok etc.

Now the business models I utilised were flawed to a great degree – affiliate marketing, drop shipping etc where the risks of getting banned from big tech were huge as well as the fact someone else controls your business success for example. MJ DeMarco who wrote the Millionaire Fastlane trilogy believes such business models aren’t business models for that reason. Needless to say, what I plan to do next time when I am ready is a service based business of some kind.

Anyway, what I am wondering is if anyone here has succeeded in making money online WITHOUT the marketing engine being big tech related e.g. google ads or facebook etc? So in other words solely with old-school methods like cold calling and direct mail. I would sort of include email in that though I would be curious what your traffic source for acquiring those emails was.

https://revolutionarylifestyledesign.com/how-to-start-a-business/

This is an article by Will Freemen who seems to really know his stuff. He reckons service based industries have the highest success rate.

But what I am really trying to acquire clarity on is the extent to which old school methods are effective and if anyone has had any success with them? And there are any particular resources to explore, sequences of action to take or general advice?

Thanks guys and Happy New Year!!!

 

[Antonio44]

I regard everyone selling courses on how to make money as predatory sharks until proven otherwise (and the proof has to be exceptionally strong, not just a "here's a screenshot of my shopify store"!).

As a reasonably successful entrepreneur (though not as successful as I'd like!), the last thing I would do if I find a good niche is sell courses on it. I think there's a strong overlap between guys selling "get rich" courses and "pickup women" courses - the darker versions of each of these will specifically target vulnerable guys and sell an unrealistic dream.

This is an article by Will Freemen who seems to really know his stuff. He reckons service based industries have the highest success rate.

At least he's honest - " the only business success I’ve had is this one (i.e his website) and that took three years of posting free content before I made a dime. "

But I'm curious - he mentions service based businesses that are offering a physical service e.g draincleaning. How is this making it "online" - maybe I misunderstood your initial questions. Like I get that it's attracting the clientele via online, but the job still needs to be done at a physical location.

Anyway, what I am wondering is if anyone here has succeeded in making money online WITHOUT the marketing engine being big tech related e.g. google ads or facebook etc? So in other words solely with old-school methods like cold calling and direct mail. I would sort of include email in that though I would be curious what your traffic source for acquiring those emails was.

There are ways to use social media/big tech without directly advertising - e.g dm influencers and pay them (ideally on a commission basis) to post for you. I have been pleasantly surprised how compliant your typical 100k ig niche influencer is in this regard - i.e a free product and an agreement for 20% of sales generated was enough to get everyone I've contacted on board.

 

[Thebastard]

A thousand thank yous Antonio44

100% about the predatory sharks. No-one knows this better than I. Got the battle scars probably for life.

Good point about service based business and location dependence. In truth I haven’t really resolved this yet. I am thinking coaching (with regards to subjects I have extensive experience) would be the best idea and would also be online rather than in a particular geographical location. Other than that, I am not really sure at this point.

Thank you for the point about Instagram. While I would never feel good relying on any particular big tech company for my marketing, I do at least like the fact that you aren’t doing paid Instagram ads (and all the risks that go with that) but rather outsourcing it to someone who has an existing audience that matches your niche.

How easy is it to get such an influencer to work with you? Do you wine and dine them over time to get them to agree (and do you need to show them some kind of social proof?) or do you employ the shot-gun approach on a list of potential influencers?