Ideas are easy. Execution, not so much.

[easilydoable]

Two years ago, I created a balloon distribution business that was earning me upwards of $300 per day every day, but last November, I got into a terrible accident that has disabled me temporarily and I have not been able to do the work. I tried outsourcing and franchising but that was simply not working out.

Being bed-ridden, I had my laptop and the Internet to keep me from losing my sanity. So I began thinking of business ideas that I could do from my computer to help me earn some money and keep me busy.

Coming up with the ideas was easy and soon I had a list that included:

- Buying and selling items on Craigslist - Opening up an online bookstore - Starting a "Lunch Time Specials" website - Teaching

And finally,

- Writing an eBook about my balloon business and selling it on the Internet.

Now, under normal circumstances, I would have never thought about selling an idea that was making me so much money but the situation I was in was anything but normal.

So I decided to write an 18 page report detailing everything I knew about the balloon distribution business. I had someone setup a nice website that was linked to my paypal account and I placed ads on Google, Yahoo, and Facebook to attract customers. I spent $100 to advertise on each site and after my $300 was used up, I had received only 11 orders. Not only that but Google suspended my account for violating their terms of service.

Since then, I have tried various free marketing methods and done much better than paid advertisement but I feel like the amount of time I spend marketing the business simply does not justify the returns.

So I guess the point I am trying to make is that even a six figure a year idea is worthless if you cannot execute it properly.

Thanks -Samir

[prpon]

In what way do you think you did not execute properly? What would you do differently if you were to make it successful?

[easilydoable]

I actually do not know what I would have done or can still do differently. That's the problem. I tried offering a 14 day money back guarantee and kept the price low but that hasn't generated the type of sales I was expecting.

[steventruong]

Real marketing efforts can not be measured meagerly by just $300. Most online marketing campaigns run tests of $100/day easily for 30 to 90 days, sometimes even longer to test metrics of what works and what doesn't. Depending on your quality score and your keywords, your CPC won't deliver you a whole lot of traffic with $300. Worse off, the 11 that bought from you is not enough data to really measure what works and what doesn't to improve scalability long term for paid traffic.

On the free marketing, since I have no clue what you did, I will assume you're lacking a lot similarly to your paid traffic attempt.

[prpon]

I am not an expert at these things but if something didn't take off despite your marketing efforts. Your product probably doesn't have a market. e-books might be hot but not the niche balloon business. You should move onto the next e-book. Hopefully it will do better.

If you want someone to just bounce things/ideas off, hit me up, email is in the profile.