Ramit Sethi and Earn1K: Build a Platform

The hardest part of earning more money is finding a profitable idea.

Ramit Sethi, Earn1K

Ramit Sethi is a personal hero and influencer of mine. I mention him quite a bit on this blog for one reason: he is a man that should be read more frequently.

The past couple of months have been extremely interesting with the material he has been publishing on his blog and newsletter. January was the month of the hustle:

He explained why he was giving out all this information for free at the end of the month, namely because he wanted people to develop the “go for it” attitude. This was to pump people up for his launch of the Earn1K course.

In the week leading up to the launch date, the people subscribed to his newsletter received a free one-week course that would help people answer the issue he raised above: finding a profitable idea.

As I think more and develop my own idea for a consultation business, I read with interest everything that was published by him in that week – seven emails, each easily 1,500 words long, plus even more content on a private section of the website. Video interviews with Timothy Ferriss, Derek Sivers, and more.

This was a lot to take in, but was extremely important for me to do. It helped clear my mind and see the light. The scope of my idea was a little too broad, and I needed to develop it a little further. I also need to do some testing of the waters to make sure it is the right area to go into (check on Craigslist, send out emails, and so forth). I am getting more excited about this opportunity the more I think about it and sketch out how it will work. I plan on doing some testing this week and try to get the show on the road in March.

The real reason I am bringing up Ramit Sethi right now though is about his Earn1k course. Unfortunately, I delayed writing this post too late that the course is closed, but he is launching more of an introductory course about answering that one big question at the top.

FYFPI

Titled: Find Your First Profitable Idea, the course is geared at self-starters. There is an eBook, and several videos to watch on your own time, whereas the Earn1K course is a 8 week time commitment and includes plenty of live webinars and other interactions. There is nearly a $1,000 worth of materials provided for less than $100, so it is quite the deal. I am seriously considering it for myself to help me develop my business idea further.

There is a lot more information on the website about the course, and I would suggest you sign up for the Earn1K newsletter to gain access to the private materials. I  want to discuss the ideas he presents on the site, but since it is behind closed doors, I am relunctant to.

While I was going through this mountain of material on the site, a second thought started to pass through my mind. I was reminded of an idea that Jeff Jarvis presented in his book, What Would Google Do, and published on his blog in a post titled “The Future of Business is in Ecosystems.”

Build a Platform

…Every economy has always been an ecosystem made up of interdependent relationships. But they were based on zero-sum arithmetic: take and control so others cannot. They work at arm’s length. They negotiate every relationship.

Sure, even in the huggy ecosystem, companies fight and compete. But in an ecosystem-based economy, companies benefit – they find efficiency and growth – by working collaboratively. [from the blog post]

Jeff is writing about larger businesses, but I  his concepts can be applied to what Ramit Sethi has been working on.

The idea of a platform is a rather new idea (say, the past five years), in which a company builds up a product, designing it in such a way that developers can add onto it, or develop new products using information from the original product. They do this through the use of an API (Application Programming Interface). Twitter is one of the latest examples of a company that has exploded in popularity based primarily upon their release of API’s (i.e. people used 3rd party applications like Tweetdeck instead of the webpage to use Twitter).

The Blogger’s API

Ramit is primarily a writer and speaker, so he does not have a programming API available to publish to people. Not in the same sense, at least. What he does provide are the tools needed for people to create their own programs, their own small businesses, in order to earn an extra income. This comes in the form of his newsletter, live webinars, recorded interviews with some top minds of the country, 1-1 consultations, and responding to personal emails.

He also has different levels of access for his API: one-off newsletters, private Earn1K portals, unrecorded webinars, etc. A great example of his API at work was his 4,355 word email he sent out to his followers. It provided some valuable lessons for everyone to take in, but he never mentioned the content on his blog, and never sent it out again despite people requesting it.

In turn, the API he releases is only a catalyst to get things started. The real secret of the API is that it encourages people to invest more money and energy into his own product to further advance their skills and their business. There are constant excerpts from the main course in his API, or hints of what is to come. There is a real build up of the information to the point where you can’t go any further without that product to push you up to the level you want to reach. Yes, some people could reach the next level without his help, but most are more than willing to spend money for that extra assistance.

This is a completely different model than what is commonly found across the web.

The model I see most common across the web is repurposing the content originally published on the blog into a product, whether free or paid for. The product is primarily aimed at new people visiting the blog in order to build up an email list to promote future products to. The product is sometimes an after-thought of the original purpose of the blog, not the end goal (this is the impression I get, at least).

Ramit started to design the Earn1K program, then decided to promote it through a private newsletter (no blog posts), until it was ready to launch. With his book, I Will Teach You to be Rich, he started that off as seminars on the Stanford campus, but realized that he had to start out as a blog before people would be willing to pay for the information. His end goal has always been to make money from this content, with the other goal of helping everyone else earn more money.

Platforms for Bloggers

The concept of building a platform is of interest to me as I take the next steps in developing my own consulting business, and building up the content of this site. At this moment, I have no longterm plans to make money from this site, but here is a list of actions I would put to use in order to build a platform for a blog that is aiming to create an income:

  1. Develop the End Goal
  2. Plan the Schedule for Releasing Content
  3. Ramp Up the Content 1-2 Weeks Before Launch with the Purpose of Promoting the Product
  4. Soft Launch the Product to Create Demand
  5. Final Launch
  6. Secondary Launch of a Smaller Product to Keep Building Interest

I want to write more about this concept in the future, so I will leave it at that list for now.

If you are interested in starting right away and your final product is going to be an eBook, I suggest taking a look at Steve Scott’s Income Trilogy. The last section is about developing an eBook and breaks down each step for you quite thoroughly.

Final Thoughts

If you are interested in improving your personal finances, go check out Ramit’s main blog, I Will Teach You How to Be Rich (or the same-named book). If you want to start a freelance career, go sign up for his Earn1K newsletter today. It’s the one newsletter I look forward to seeing each week. Do note this latest tweet from him, however, as he may not be sending out another newsletter for a week or two: “After 50 STRAIGHT DAYS of writing for 8+ hrs/day, the Earn1K launch is over! Now on much-needed vacation in Maui.”

And, finally, if you are curious to learn more about building a platform with a blog but don’t want to wait for my posts, take a look at what Tim Ferriss or Mark Sisson have been doing over the years.

If you build it, they will come.

Shoeless Joe Jackson (Field of Dreams movie)

By James McCullough

James McCullough A young father, working as a hotel consultant, following a paleo diet thanks to books such as The Primal Blueprint and The 4 Hour Body. I use Byword for writing, and do my work using this iPad keyboard. Connect with me at Google+ or Twitter

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