How are the applicants doing, so far?

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  • May 28, 2008

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My stated objective is to make 7 of you as rich as I am (or was when my 7 year journey ended … I didn’t exactly stop increasing my wealth there … perhaps you won’t either?), either in aggregate … or each … it’s entirely up to you!

And, it all starts … now!

[drum roll, please …]

We are in the final few days of the ‘competition’ to select my 7 Millionaires … In Training!

If you do want to be one of my 7MITs …

 [AJC: I can’t think of any reason why you wouldn’t want to! After all, there’s absolutely no cost, no catch, no downside … you’re reading this, anyway, so why wouldn’t you want to participate from the ‘inside’, if you get the chance?]

… even if you haven’t been featured on this site yet, here is what you need to do, as the second step (the first step was applying):

Drive some traffic to this site!

Why?

Well, it does three things:

1. It increases readership, which helps all of us: the more readers, the more contributers, the better the experience for all … also, I am hoping to get some expert ‘guests’ to help us on specific issues (more on this later). To attract such busy folk, readership counts!

2. It shows me how ambitious and resourceful you are: you can see from the stats chart up top who is in line for at least one of these spots. Each of these people have found ways to make THEIR page more popular than even the most important pages on my site … and, most have done this in mere days (Alex, in just one day!). They have each shown great imagination in finding interesting ways to drive traffic to this site.

3. It is one objective measure that I can use to separate the ‘good’ from the ‘bad’ when it comes to applicants … unfortunately, (for me), after reading ‘oh, so many’ applications, I haven’t seen many ‘bad’ ones at all … there are a lot of seemingly worthy and committed people out there!

But, as of today, I still have 7 Millionaires … In Training! to select, so go and drum up some business … if you’re going to get rich (with or without my help) that’s a skill you’re just going to have to learn!

I set each featured eapplicant the same task, and the graphic at the top of the page shows the clear front-runners, at this stage of the ‘competition’ ….

… here are some of these guys’ previously undisclosed traffic-building ‘secrets’:

1. Tell ALL of your friends about this site ( http://7m7y.com/ ); get them to tell THEIR friends AND get them to link to the site from their own pages, blogs, whatever.

2. Use the power of StumbleUpon; from what I have seen, it’s one of the TOP WAYS way to drive traffic in a short burst.

[AJC: Sorry, Debbie, your secret’s finally out 😉 … but, the purpose of this site is ultimately to help the whole reader ‘community’ by example, as well as helping you]

3. Write a Press Release; better yet, write two: one using a free online service to go out everywhere, and a second for your local press [e.g. “Local Resident finalist in competition to become a Millionaire …”]. Use your imagination, but remember Golden Rule # 1: I shall be honest in all of my dealings, both onsite and offsite.

4. Take out an ad on Craig’s List [hint: search and you just might find one there already that you can model … not copy!]; ask some questions on some online forums (be sure to include a back link to this site).

5. Are you on MySpace or Facebook …. ?

6. C’mon, use your imagination … it’s what it’s all about!

I will be checking the most popular incoming links to see who’s the internet-marketing genius behind them … and, I will post later on what worked and didn’t work for everybody …

… consider this a real-life lesson in the realities of traffic-building on the web … you might be surprised at the outcome, and the exercise will be invaluable in your own attempt to get rich (that is why you’re here, right?).

On the other hand, you could just sit back passively and let others do the work … isn’t that what 99% of the world does?

… now, remind me, exactly how rich is that ‘other’ 99%? 😉

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May 28th, 2008
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Reader Comments

Comment Number:
1
Written by:
Heidi
Posted on:
May 28, 2008 at 7:41 am

AJC, are these unique page views? Are they just for yesterday, or from the beginning of the promotion until yesterday?

Comment Number:
2
Written by:
Heidi
Posted on:
May 28, 2008 at 7:42 am

Hmmm looking at it again, I suppose “All time” means “all time” 🙂

Comment Number:
3
Written by:
AJC
Posted on:
May 28, 2008 at 9:08 am

@ Heidi – Indeed 😉 Could be visitors, page views; to me, they’re just a bunch of meaningless numbers …

I look at where the links came from, now that’s what I’m interested in seeing … innovation/imagination in action!

Comment Number:
4
Written by:
Diane
Posted on:
May 28, 2008 at 1:51 pm

AJ – are you slanting the outcome to favor the techno-geeks in the 20 30 age group? I don’t have a clue as to what/how stumble upon is actually, well, “stumbled upon” – or where the heck to find it…so that puts me in the techno-disadvantaged at the moment. I also have no clue as to how I have 116 somethings (as you said, meaningless numbers) as reported a few seconds ago, up above….just a thought along the lines of surveys and such…easy enough to get the answer you want by how you phrase the question….forget I asked one by the way; I’m just babbling after being gone for awhile and checking to see what’s going on….glad to see there are a few more people around here – read a few more of the others’ pages…is there one page that gives links to them all? or one page that shows thumbnail sketches of who all is up for this?

Comment Number:
5
Written by:
AJC
Posted on:
May 28, 2008 at 3:13 pm

@ Diane – as I mentioned, just one little ‘test’ – in a series – of innovation/imagination. No rules against ‘cheating’ here e.g. getting help!

… also, this is an online ‘forum’ so the idea of the application, the 100 words, the thumbnail, and this request as ‘sneaky little ways’ for seeing who will be able to contribute to the community in addition to becoming successful financially

Comment Number:
6
Written by:
Shannan
Posted on:
May 28, 2008 at 4:41 pm

I had no idea that StumbleUpon existed either; another neat little tool. Thanks for the heads up! This has already been a learning experience.

Comment Number:
7
Written by:
AJC
Posted on:
May 28, 2008 at 4:52 pm

@ Shannon – I can assure you that it’s been a (fun) learning experience for me, too 🙂

Comment Number:
8
Written by:
Heidi
Posted on:
May 28, 2008 at 5:14 pm

StumbleUpon is a great community. I recently rejoined last year after a couple of year hiatus, and my husband is one of the founding members and author of the Unofficial StumbleUpon FAQ. I’ve already Stumbled the 7m7y site!

Also, some of the “tricks” that us 20-something techno geeks are not necessarily good for the site. The fact of the matter is, it is easy for us to spam sites and get alot of page views, but these are likely one-time occurances. Folks like you, Diane, who have 116 unique page views are 116 people who are likely to become a readership, versus anyone that I can spam.

Comment Number:
9
Written by:
Heidi
Posted on:
May 28, 2008 at 5:16 pm

AND in saying so, I would like to add, I’m attempting to avoid spamming at all costs and directing traffic that would likely stick around and read the goings-ons at 7m7y! You’re doing a good job, Diane!

Comment Number:
10
Written by:
Shannan
Posted on:
May 28, 2008 at 5:39 pm

@ AJC – That’s Shannan with an ‘a’ 🙂

Comment Number:
11
Written by:
AJC
Posted on:
May 28, 2008 at 7:34 pm

@ Shonnan – Sarry 4 the Tyepo 🙂

@ Heidi – You said, it … and, you are right. I haven’t exactly described what I am looking for in my ‘drive traffic’ post. Do you think I might look at the quality of links, the innovation of the source, and so on … ?

After all, I AM trying to find 7 Millionaires … In Training! 🙂

Comment Number:
12
Written by:
Heidi
Posted on:
May 28, 2008 at 7:51 pm

@AJC – Personally, I’m a personal finance blog addict, so basically what I am doing is including the link in my signature at these blogs and forums. Us PF addicts are always looking for new and interesting blogs to read and are constantly checking out those referenced in signatures and posts. In fact, I found this place by a comment you left on a post over at Get Rich Slowly and have stuck around since.

Obviously, I also did the facebook/myspace thing, and hubby made a post over at a web development forum he belongs to, because family and friends are likely to read your story. However I think folks already interested in personal finance and “getting rich” are the ones who will follow and the ones I’m really trying to reach.

Comment Number:
13
Written by:
Heidi
Posted on:
May 28, 2008 at 7:54 pm

So to sum it all up, yes I believe the quality of the links is important! You’d rather see links from other PF blogs than say, Pogo . . .

Comment Number:
14
Written by:
Heidi
Posted on:
May 28, 2008 at 7:55 pm

And yes, I just gave away all my secrets.

(Said hubby after I read this to him 😉 )

Comment Number:
15
Written by:
AJC
Posted on:
May 28, 2008 at 7:58 pm

@ Heidi – Saw some of your forum posts and “Hubby’s” post, too … all seems to be working so far. GL! AJC.

BTW: Helping the 7MIT ‘community’ is important … another check in the box 4 u 🙂

Comment Number:
16
Written by:
Jason Dragon
Posted on:
May 29, 2008 at 8:15 pm

I did not know it was a hit contest. I will try to drive hits starting now. This is much easier for those of us who are tech savvy, or have existing audiences. Lucky I am one of those.

Comment Number:
17
Written by:
AJC
Posted on:
May 29, 2008 at 8:47 pm

@ jason – it’s an ‘imagination/innovation content … anyone can bump ‘hits’; show me what you got!

Comment Number:
18
Written by:
Jason Dragon
Posted on:
May 30, 2008 at 1:11 pm

I am glad you say cheating is ok. I just took a popular page I have and did a 120 second meta refresh to your page. It should get you at least 50-80 hits per day! It would be interesting to know if it is working. 🙂

Comment Number:
19
Written by:
AJC
Posted on:
May 30, 2008 at 4:33 pm

@ Jason – yep … it’s getting 5-8 ‘good’ hits per day! 😛