SEOTpreneur recommends

Stuff I use on my TPT journey

Here are some of the things Mike uses in his TPT journey.

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This page is a work in progress. Thanks for your patience! (I last tinkered around on this page on Jul 5, 2024)

Books / Podcasts that helped me with my tPT Business

Alex Hormozi’s books

Get book #1: 100M Offers on Amazon.
Get book #2: 100M Leads on Amazon.

Both books are good.

The first book taught me the value proposition and the sales funnel which I used to understand how the sales process works on TPT.

The second book, he explains how he runs ads.

His approach is to give everyday entrepreneurs (like TPT Sellers) to get to the $1M to $3M mark. Then he can help you go from $3M to $30M using a different set of strategies (in exchange for equity in your company.)

My ah-ha moments from book #1:

  • How to create an offer so good, you feel stupid saying no. (The value proposition on your TPT product page.)
  • Find a starving crowd.
  • Maintain product focus and high-converting marketing (by identifying your ideal customer avatar.)
  • You can either be right, or you can be rich.
  • We question all of our beliefs, except for the ones we really believe in
  • More competitors enter and repeat the mistakes of their forefathers. The bottom ten percent drop out, replaced by businesses who don’t know any better.
  • What happens when offers fatigue; what to change if ads don’t work.

My ah-ha moments from book #2

  • 100 minutes per day for 100 days.
  • How much to spend on ads
  • No reward for working the hardest
  • 99% of people won’t buy, but they’ll destroy your reputation based on the sucky fluff freebie.
  • One or two words make the difference
  • Improve headline, image, subheading

E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber

Get the E-Myth Revisited on Amazon.

I listened and re-listen (present tense) to Michael Gerber’s book on Audible.

The entrepreneur myth is that if you’re good at a job (i.e. baking), then you should go into business (i.e. bakery) because they’re the same skill set. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

Creating a teacher resource on TPT is technical work. We’re on the hamster wheel cranking out products. But, we also need to do managerial work and create systems. And, then we need big picture stuff and to think about where we’re headed.

The reality is that there’s an entrepreneur, a manager, and a technician in all of us. If you’re serious about making money from a teacher side hustle, then you also need to learn about the big picture and the managerial skills.

My ah-ha moments from this book:

  • Recognize that I can’t simply abdicate my bookkeeping work to my accountant. I have to be the “VP of FInance” to figure out what financial metrics I need
  • See how a “world-class company” is structured. Sure, my teacher business is not going to be a franchise. But, learning about the processes and organization chart helped me to understand which part of my TPT business I was working on today.
  • Understand the sales process more. I talk about the TPT sales funnel in Episode 17 at 06:17

Bigger Pockets podcast

Yup, they’re talking about the real-estate space and we’re in the TEACHERpreneur space.

But listen to David Greene, the host. I appreciate his growth mindset.

Here are some of my favourite episodes:

Tools I Use for YouTube

TubeBuddy.com

I just upgraded to the Legend plan for the @SEOTpreneur YouTube channel. (Black Friday deal – save 40%)

Why?

I was on the PRO plan before (with their RisingStar 50% off coupon code.) But, now that I’m starting to try to grow on YouTube, here are the two features that spoke to me:

  • Video A/B Tests & Title Generator (Legend only)
  • Bulk Update Cards and End Screens (Star and Legend)

Tools I Use for Facebook Ads

Facebook Lead Ads

Facebook Lead Ads allows you to collect email addresses directly on the Facebook platform (as opposed to sending ad traffic to a separate landing page.)

Although Facebook Lead Ads are free, you’ll need to use a third-party tool to automatically get the leads from Facebook to your mailing program (i.e. Mailchimp, Convertkit, MailerLite, etc.)

Zapier

I prefer to use Zapier to send my email leads from Facebook to my mailing program. (I also use Zapier for many other connections.)

PROS: Zapier is the glue of the internet connecting different programs. It’s versatile and I like using it with my clients because Zapier plays nicely with many programs.

CONS: If you want the lower monthly rate, you have to sign up for their annual plan – which isn’t worth it if you’re just “trying out this Facebook thing.” If you’re trying to set up Zapier for a friend using your own Zapier account, your friend has to give you “full control” access to their Facebook advertising account (and not just “partial access”) because of the way Zapier works. Otherwise, Zapier won’t let you turn on the zaps.

Leads Bridge

I tried Leads Bridge for a little while before switching back to Zapier. Not because there was anything wrong with LeadsBridge – I just needed more versatility with Zapier.

However, if you’re a TPT Seller who just needs to connect their Facebook Leads account with their mailing program, LeadsBridge might be enough for you.

PROS: LeadsBridge has a free tier that will work with Facebook Leads. (The Zapier free tier doesn’t include Facebook Lead Ads.) Leadsbridge also offers a more affordable monthly rate than Zapier (so you don’t have to commit to a year.)

Why use Facebook Lead Ads instead of sending Facebook Ads to your website / mailing list landing page?

Using a landing page is the equivalent of using a bucket with lots of holes.

  1. Let’s say you have a conversion rate of 10% on your Facebook ad and then 10% on the lead form. So then basically, your overall conversion rate will be 1%
  2. You have to set up your Facebook pixel to fire once people submit their email address – otherwise the Facebook Ad algorithm doesn’t know they signed up. If the Facebook Ad algorithm doesn’t know they were an actual lead, then it shows ads to anyone who will click the ad (not people who will click the ad and give their email address.)
  3. The Facebook pixel doesn’t work on Apple iOS Safari web browser, so then Facebook can’t optimize the showing of yoru ad to people who actually give their email address.

Can you get water from the river to your house with a leaky bucket? It depends on how much water you start with.

Facebook Lead forms are the equivalent of a bucket with no holes.

  1. You only have to worry about people submitting the form on Facebook, so your conversion rate in the example would be 10%
  2. Your ad is already set up to focus on people who submit the lead form on Facebook, so the algorithm will learn quicker who your people are.
  3. It doesn’t matter if people are on their iPhones – because they’re in Facebook, the Facebook ad algorithm can tell if they submit the lead form.

if you’re serious about getting water from the river to your house, why wouldn’t you rent a good bucket for $20 per month?

If your ad budget if $150 or $300 per month (i.e. $5per day), then just spend $130 on ads, and have a good bucket for $20. Or, to put it another way, run the ad for 6 days a week, not 7 days a week, and after 4 weeks, you’ll have paid off the bucket.

Looking forward to chatting later today! See you in the next comment. Cheers, Mike

Tools I use for my TPT Business

NordVPN

If I’m trying to access a website too quickly, sometimes, the website will think I’m an automated bot.

(Humans don’t normally request website pages that fast, unless you accidentally open a bunch of website tabs all at once.)

The website will temporarily block my IP address. (An IP address is like your phone number or house address. It’s how computers on the interweb know who you are.)

When that happens, I just turn on my NordVPN to get a different IP address. I usually choose the same country as where the website company is located… or where most of their customers are.

If you use the following affiliate link, SEOTpreneur gets a 40% commission from NordVPN, which proves that this business model of FREE TPT coaching and alternate revenue streams can work.

If you’d rather just go to NordVPN directly without the affiliate link, click here.

A few quick things to note:

  • I’ve been using NordVPN for the past three years. I just renewed for the two-year plan. (By manually renewing, I was able to get their Black Friday 2022 promotion price. They just add the new months to the end of your existing plan. If you let NordVPN auto-renew, you’ll renew at the current non-promotion rate.)
  • I like companies that offer 30-day money-back policies. This company does.
  • Don’t feel pressure to buy right away. There’s always a count-down. There’s always a back-to-back sale.
  • Generally speaking VPN connections are slower than non-VPN connections. If I find the connection too slow, I just connect to a different VPN server on the app.
  • I use this on both my phone and laptop. I think I can load the NordVPN app on my Chromebook, but I haven’t done that yet.
  • Every time I work at a Starbucks or some other place that offers free wi-fi, I use a VPN. (Actually, most times I work at a Starbucks, I just use my phone as a hotspot so I’m more secure.)
  • FYI: Your internet company probably sells your web surfing habits. They aggregate the data, remove your personal information, and replace it with a user ID. It’s called clickstream data. It’s how we know that four out of ten people who visit the TPT website leave right away. (40% bounce rate as seen in this video at 36:34) – A VPN creates a virtual private network so your Internet Service Provider can’t see what you’re doing.
  • If you were wondering about whether search results looked different in a different country, you can use NordVPN and all of a sudden, your computer is located in that country.
  • Google knows I’m on a shared VPN IP address so if I’m connected to NordVPN and I try to use Google, Google warns me that there’s unusual traffic detected from my IP address, so usually I have to do those captcha things. I think NordVPN has a paid add-on where you can get an individual IP address, but I haven’t looked into it.

Tools I use for my TPT Websites (TPT Marketing)

Note: I am currently developing affordable TPT website hosting that starts at $10 per month.

If you are interested, please contact me.

Website Hosting: I use WordPress for myself and my clients

WordPress is a free, open-source content management system.

WordPress is kind of like an operating system on a phone – like iOS on iPhones.

WordPress is free software, but you need to pay for hardware (i.e., a server) to run the website software.

  • So, you either pay for a web hosting company like WPMU DEV (I use them) to carve out a little server space for you to set up WordPress. This is where you can set up and use all of the best plugins and themes from WordPress.org.
  • Or, you set up an account with a WordPress as a Service company like WordPress.com. WordPress.com is run by a company called Automattic (a big player in the WP community.) WordPress.com offers free and premium accounts on their WordPress server.

WordPress is big stuff. You can create blogs, TPT websites, full e-commerce stores, and enterprise-level business websites.

As of Jan 4, 2023, it’s used by 43.1% of websites around the world. (Source: W3techs)

In comparison, you may have heard of some of these website platforms:

  • Shopify (3.8%)
  • Wix (2.4%)
  • Squarespace (2.0%)
  • Adobe (1.1%)
  • Google i.e. Blogger, Google Sites (0.8%)

Why do I use WordPress and not Wix, Blogger, or another website platform?

Because WordPress is open-source. It means if I don’t like the webhosting company I’m with, I can migrate my website to another webhosting company.

On the other hand, if you set up with Shopify, Wix, or Google Blogger, if you decide you want to switch companies or add custom code… well, you can’t. Those are proprietary web hosting systems.

(I started on Blogger. But, then I wanted to do cool stuff that I saw on other websites, and I realized you needed to install WordPress plugins to add that functionality.)

A few quick things to note:

  • A WordPress website needs a domain name and a web server. You have to pay for both, but they don’t have to be from the same company.
  • A domain name is an annual payment. (Different companies charge different amounts for the exact same service: registering a domain. Make sure you find one that includes WHOIS privacy protection. See below.)
  • Web hosting is a monthly payment and can range from $10 per month to over $1500 per month, depending on how powerful the server is. Imagine a web server is like a car towing something (i.e., your website.) You can have a fancy e-commerce site, but if you’re running on a $10 engine, you’re not going anywhere. That makes intuitive sense. You can’t expect a blazing-fast website like Facebook with gazillion people using the website at the same time… on a $10 per month engine.
  • Be careful of first-payment-only pricing. That shared web hosting costs might look like it costs $2.95 per month, but it will auto-renew at the regular price (i.e., $10.99 per month.)

Buying Domains and DNS management: Cloudflare.com

If you’re setting up a website, you’re going to need a domain name.

I now buy most of my domains from Cloudflare.

Why?

Because they offer wholesale pricing.

  • This is the cheapest place I’ve found to buy .com and .org domain names. (I buy my .ca Canadian domains from Grape.ca)
  • It’s even cheaper than what I can buy at “wholesale pricing” to resell.

Once you buy a domain name, you need a DNS server somewhere to manage where your domain name points.

Regardless of where I buy my domain names, I use Cloudflare for my DNS.

Why?

Because they have DNS servers around the world. So when you update a DNS setting, it happens immediately – so you can validate your domain for Google Search Console immediately. (Unlike with other companies where it can take a day or two for the DNS settings to propagate around the world.)

Cloudflare also provides caching (which speeds up your TPT website)

A few quick things to note: