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RE: A defence of Tim Ferriss's Four Hour Week - important book for other reasons than you think
As Nassim Taleb would say, we are more and more living in Extremistan, where asymmetry rules. I wrote an ebook in 2010 (51 pages long, SEO-related) and the first real promotion I did was to have a rather well known SEO guy promote it to his list (I was his customer and a frequenter commenter on his blog, so we developed a relationship). He sent out an email and within 24 hours I had sold almost 1000 copies!
The most interesting part is that it took me a day and a half to write it and one single promotion made me more money than anyone in my family earned in a year!
So, it can be done, and people shouldn't settle for less than amazing:)
Forgot about that one but it is a very apt quote!
Great example, the idea we have about the relationship between earnings and effort comes from a too simplistic and mechanistic view of the world.
We like simple stories with a clear cause and effect.
In your story, the cause of the success seems disconnected from the huge effects it had.
But before you could write a credible 51 page report in a day and a half, you had to have studied and applied SEO a good while.
So I'd say in many cases the effort is actually already expended but we tend to write it off or take it for granted and don't even attempt to monetize it. EDIT : this idea I think is an important one : A lot of people are getting wise to the idea that their attic is stuffed with items that are valuable to someone else on Ebay .
The next decade people will start to see that their head is filled with stories and experiences that might have value to someone on Steemit !
In your case : it seems that the value you offered was clear: instead of repeating all your study and mistakes (and I'd guess at the time, 2008, there weren't many sources for SEO ), your client could buy a report and save the time and headache.
The relationship with the SEO guy was an interesting twist, must remember and apply that more myself ; using providers you like and turn them into associates and allies.
But you looked at something that could provide leverage and applied it well it seems!
Good on ya !
Yes, the lead up to the "asymmetrical success" was more than a year of studying and testing SEO every day, during which time I built and ranked on page one of Google a site in the internet marketing niche. The rewards were slow and uneven at first, and then they jumped sky high and exponentially.
The interesting thing is that my next "big one" came in 2013, was monetarily way more significant and required way less prep and lead up. I'd conclude that with time and investment of energy, we grow in potential and ability to use asymmetry and exponential rewards.