{"id":3958,"date":"2014-10-09T11:17:11","date_gmt":"2014-10-09T16:17:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/blog\/?p=3958"},"modified":"2014-10-15T08:55:18","modified_gmt":"2014-10-15T13:55:18","slug":"outsource-crucial-tasks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/?p=3958","title":{"rendered":"Case Study: How I outsource crucial tasks at Videofruit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-src=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/Skitch\/Untitled_2_key_19E58C91.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"330\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/Skitch\/Untitled_2_key_19E58C91.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"330\" \/><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p>[su_quote style=&#8217;modern-blue&#8217;]<strong>Note<\/strong>: We&#8217;re <del>halfway through the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/vault-details\" target=\"_blank\">Vault launch<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0there are just a handful of passes\u00a0left. I&#8217;ll be shutting everything down at 5 p.m. on Friday October 10th.<\/del> So, if you want to join&#8230;get to it&#8230; (<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/vault-details\" target=\"_blank\">Join the Vault<\/a>)[\/su_quote]<\/p>\n<p>I have two friends. See if you can spot the difference in them&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>(names and details are changed to protect the innocent)<\/p>\n<p><strong>My buddy Steve:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Steve\u00a0is a copywriter who lives in Nashville, TN. He works a normal 9-5 job and spends his day writing email copy for banks.<\/p>\n<p>You know those automated messages\u00a0you get from your bank, like, &#8220;<em>Notice: You&#8217;ve had a large withdrawal from your account<\/em>&#8220;?<\/p>\n<p>Yeah, Steve wrote that.<\/p>\n<p>He&#8217;s been doing this type of work since he graduated college. He\u00a0likes it alright, but it&#8217;s a bit repetitive and doesn&#8217;t really get him fired up in the mornings.<\/p>\n<p>When I started Videofruit I introduced\u00a0him to\u00a0the world of direct response copywriting. Sales pages, launch sequences and the like.<\/p>\n<p>He started a blog shortly after<!--more--> and wrote\u00a0about his strategies and techniques.\u00a0His content was really good\u00a0but he encountered\u00a0the exact same problem we all face.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Traffic.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>How do I get people to read my stuff?<\/p>\n<p>So I came over one night for drinks and I\u00a0described to him the process I go through every time I publish an article.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s called the Skyscraper technique.<\/p>\n<p>Brian Dean at <a href=\"https:\/\/backlinko.com\" target=\"_blank\">Backlinko<\/a> taught me this strategy and it works like a champ.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 700px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-src=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/Skitch\/All_Traffic_-_Google_Analytics_19E6D84E.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"329\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/Skitch\/All_Traffic_-_Google_Analytics_19E6D84E.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"329\" \/><\/noscript><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Since implementing the Skyscraper technique on Videofruit, I&#8217;ve seen a 32% increase in organic search traffic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I also told him, &#8220;It&#8217;s a TON of work to do a Skyscraper on each article, but I have a guy you could hire to do it for you. It&#8217;ll cost $150 but save you 8 hours of time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He\u00a0wasn&#8217;t a fan of the idea of paying someone else to do\u00a0that type of work.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Oh, I can do that myself,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>And he tried&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>He spent 2 hours the next day learning about domain authority, finding high traffic and low competition keyword phrases in Google and trying to figure out what a backlink was.<\/p>\n<p>Then he gave up.<\/p>\n<p>His blog slowly sputtered.<\/p>\n<p>Shortly after,\u00a0he stopped\u00a0writing.<\/p>\n<p>&lt;\/business&gt;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Then you have Keith.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>He recently moved to Seattle from Nashville.<\/p>\n<p>The weekend before he left we had a big guys&#8217; camping trip. While we were out in the wild blue yonder\u00a0he started asking me questions about my business.<\/p>\n<p>Fast-forward two months and he now runs a fast-growing blog-based\u00a0business where he teaches people how to buy and sell items on eBay.<\/p>\n<p>Funny thing about Keith: he had the exact same problem as Steve. Traffic.<\/p>\n<p>But he actually listened to me and hired someone to do\u00a0the Skyscraper technique on all of his major posts.<\/p>\n<p>He DIDN&#8217;T try to figure it all out himself. Instead, he focused on improving his writing and launching his coaching program.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, he routinely gets 500+ visitors to each of his posts, has a growing\u00a0training program\u00a0and is steadily building his email list.<\/p>\n<p>He plans to quit his job as a CPA in\u00a0early 2015.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">What is the difference between these two guys?<\/h2>\n<p>Keith\u00a0hired someone\u00a0to do key tasks that he wasn&#8217;t good at while he focused on his core competency.<\/p>\n<p>Steve\u00a0tried to do everything himself.<\/p>\n<p>I call this the <strong>Steve\u00a0Fallacy.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When Steve&#8217;s car breaks down, he doesn&#8217;t take it to a mechanic; he tries to fix it himself. By doing that, he falls victim to two lies:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lie #1:\u00a0<\/strong>&#8220;I can do it quicker than they can.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>No, you can&#8217;t. It takes you 3x longer to fix your car than it takes\u00a0a professional.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lie #2:<\/strong> &#8220;I&#8217;m saving money by fixing it myself.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>What Steve doesn&#8217;t take into account\u00a0is that he could be charging $100 an hour for his time as a copywriter and pay a mechanic $50 an hour to work on his car.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-src=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/Skitch\/Untitled_2_key_19E6D6ED.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"412\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/Skitch\/Untitled_2_key_19E6D6ED.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"412\" \/><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p>Instead of doing that, though, he does it all himself, making him a crappy mechanic and losing over $400 of revenue by not focusing on his core competency.<\/p>\n<p>Moral of the story = Focus on what you are good at + Hire people to fill in the gaps<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">How to make outsourcing easy<\/h2>\n<p>It&#8217;s not quite that easy though&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s nice to hear about people who outsource their entire life to the Philippines and work from their laptops one hour a day.<\/p>\n<p>But if you have ever attempted hiring a $3-an-hour worker off of Odesk, you know how ludicrous that idea is.<\/p>\n<p>Finding good contractors is incredibly difficult.<\/p>\n<p>[su_quote style=&#8217;modern-blue&#8217;]<strong>Tip:<\/strong>\u00a0I made the Vault to fix this problem. Inside of the\u00a0Vault is a list of all of the contractors that I use to run my business. Including Keith, my guy who does the Skyscraper technique on every Videofruit article.\u00a0(<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/vault-details\" target=\"_blank\">Join the Vault<\/a>)[\/su_quote]<\/p>\n<p>Today I&#8217;m going to share with you 4 things that I outsource and show you my step-by-step process.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">[Case Study] How\u00a0to get an ebook designed for cheap<\/h2>\n<p>I suck at design.<\/p>\n<p>When putting the final touches on this release of the Vault, I wanted to pretty up the framework manuals that come with each launch sequence.<\/p>\n<p>So I jumped into Google Docs and did my thing.<\/p>\n<p>90 minutes later, this is what I had come up with&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-src=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/Skitch\/Untitled_2_key_19E5A0EB.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"534\" height=\"693\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/Skitch\/Untitled_2_key_19E5A0EB.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"534\" height=\"693\" \/><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p>I told you&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>I suck at designing stuff.<\/p>\n<p>My next idea\u00a0was to jump into my swipe files and see if I could come\u00a0up with a little inspiration.<\/p>\n<p>After a few minutes of browsing through, I came across this&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-src=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/Skitch\/Thank_you__-_bryan_manfisher_com_-_Mail_19E59F39.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"799\" height=\"615\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/Skitch\/Thank_you__-_bryan_manfisher_com_-_Mail_19E59F39.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"799\" height=\"615\" \/><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a free eBook that Unbounce had promoted a while back. I initially saw it on Twitter and liked the design. So I saved it in my swipe file in case I ever needed some ideas for an ebook cover.<\/p>\n<p>Next, I opened up my rolodex of contractors and found Cathryn, my designer.<\/p>\n<p>I shot her a quick email telling her what I was looking for.<\/p>\n<p>24 hours later, she sent me the finished product.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-src=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/Skitch\/Untitled_2_key_19E5981C.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"472\" height=\"572\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/Skitch\/Untitled_2_key_19E5981C.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"472\" height=\"572\" \/><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p>She designed the cover as well as the layout of all of the interior pages.<\/p>\n<p>I paid $197.<\/p>\n<p>Even better, she gave me the source files so I can use this general layout and design on any of the free ebooks I give away in the future.<\/p>\n<p>Could I have spent 12 hours and put together something close to what Cathryn did?<\/p>\n<p>What would have been the opportunity costs of\u00a0that?<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">[Case Study] How I get each blog post proofread for $15<\/h2>\n<p>Confession&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>I can&#8217;t spell very well AND this whole grammar thing.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;ve spent any time on this blog at all, I&#8217;m not telling you anything you don&#8217;t already know.<\/p>\n<p>A few weeks ago, my friend Noah told me to hire an editor.<\/p>\n<p>I hated the idea. Not only was I a bad speller, I embraced my ineptness and framed it as being &#8220;focused on content and not the little stupid stuff like grammar.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>What I didn&#8217;t understand was that those little mistakes caused new visitors to lower their opinion of my work.<\/p>\n<p>I get it.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If he doesn&#8217;t take the time to spell-check his blog posts, what else is he not doing?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So I finally gave in.<\/p>\n<p>And honestly, it was one of the best decision I&#8217;ve ever made.<\/p>\n<p>Now, my workflow goes like this&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-src=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/Skitch\/Untitled_2_key_19E6EC5B.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"825\" height=\"580\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/Skitch\/Untitled_2_key_19E6EC5B.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"825\" height=\"580\" \/><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p>Start to finish, it takes her around 30 minutes with no notice. Pretty awesome service!<\/p>\n<p>I pay less than <strong>$20 per article. <\/strong>(Depends on the length.)<\/p>\n<p>Now people don&#8217;t think I&#8217;m a moron\u00a0because I can&#8217;t spell &#8220;occasionally&#8221; correctly.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">[Case Study] How to build an entire app for $250<\/h2>\n<p>My first love was software. Not writing.<\/p>\n<p>All of my writing and blog work began 18 months after I started work on my first app.<\/p>\n<p>But here is my secret. I don&#8217;t know how to code.<\/p>\n<p>How do I make apps without knowing how to code?<\/p>\n<p>I draw them on a piece of paper, make a little Google doc describing what I want it to do, then I send it to Saad (my developer).<\/p>\n<p>Kind of like this&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-src=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/Skitch\/Untitled_2_key_19E59BD5.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"331\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/Skitch\/Untitled_2_key_19E59BD5.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"331\" \/><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p>That app turned into <a href=\"https:\/\/gmelloapp.com\" target=\"_blank\">Gmello,<\/a> which last month made $550 in income. I&#8217;ve never used the word &#8220;passive&#8221; on this blog before, but that app is about as passive income as exists.<\/p>\n<p>I update it 3-4 times a year and it keeps churning along.<\/p>\n<p>Total price of development? $250<\/p>\n<p>Finding good developers was very challenging and they stay pretty busy. However, over the last 2 years I&#8217;ve worked with several who are really good and affordable.<\/p>\n<p>It is possible.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">[Case Study] How I got an entire launch sequence written for $250<\/h2>\n<p>Funny story&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Last year I made an\u00a0iOS,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/5clubapp.com\" target=\"_blank\">Five Club<\/a>. It was a\u00a0&#8220;don&#8217;t break the chain&#8221; app that incentivized you to wake up early and work on your side hustle.<\/p>\n<p>By early I mean, 5 a.m.<\/p>\n<p>Why 5 a.m.? Because, as my friend Jon Acuff says, fear isn&#8217;t up at 5 a.m.<\/p>\n<p>The app comes to life every morning at 5 and allow you to check in. For every day you check in, your streak of consecutive days is\u00a0measured and you get badges for reaching certain milestones.<\/p>\n<p>That app wound up being the starting point for Videofruit. (I&#8217;ll share that story with you sometime.)<\/p>\n<p>Fast-forward to\u00a0August 2014.<\/p>\n<p>Five Club is still in the iTunes stores but has quite a few poor reviews because I wasn&#8217;t actively maintaining\u00a0it. But one day I logged in and discovered that it has been\u00a0downloaded by over 5,000 people.<\/p>\n<p>Then it hit me&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Everyone of those people had to register with an email address.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;BRYAN! Email list-building is the crux\u00a0of your entire business!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>So I started brainstorming ways to introduce\u00a0the Five Club\u00a0audience to Videofruit. If I could get all 5,000 people to become Videofruit subscribers that would be a huge increase in my readership<\/p>\n<p><strong>A few ideas I came up with:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Just start emailing them (meh, too spammy)<\/li>\n<li>Build something into the app to tell them about Vidoefruit (too much work)<\/li>\n<li>Write a series of emails to give them stuff and slowly bring them over (WINNER!)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But I was working on the Vault at the time and didn&#8217;t have the bandwidth to crank out a launch series. That&#8217;s when I though, &#8220;Hmmm&#8230; I should hire someone to write them for me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>4 days later I had this email series&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-src=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/Skitch\/email1_txt_and_email2_txt_and_email3_txt_and_email5_txt_and_email4_txt_19E59C9D.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"359\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/Skitch\/email1_txt_and_email2_txt_and_email3_txt_and_email5_txt_and_email4_txt_19E59C9D.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"359\" \/><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re just 2 emails into the sequence and\u00a025% of the Five Club app audience has become Videofruit subscribers.\u00a0Major win!<\/p>\n<p>Total cost of outsourcing the writing of the sequence? $250<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">How\u00a0you can do the same thing<\/h2>\n<p>You have two options&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>You can be Steve and try to figure everything out yourself.<\/p>\n<p>OR<\/p>\n<p>You can be Keith and hire people to fix your problems.<\/p>\n<p>I challenge you to step outside of your comfort zone and start slowly, bringing a few proven contractors into your business to help you.<\/p>\n<p>It has been one of the foundational things I&#8217;ve done to grow Videofruit from $0\u00a0in October 2013\u00a0to\u00a0multiple six figures per year\u00a0in October 2014.<\/p>\n<p>YOU CAN&#8217;T DO EVERYTHING.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve put together all of the contractors that I use on a daily basis into a new product called the <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/vault-details\" target=\"_blank\">Vault<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It took me 2 years to put this list together. I&#8217;ve hired HUNDREDS of people and fired nearly all of them. The people on this list are the\u00a0best that I&#8217;ve found.<\/p>\n<p>Want the list? <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/vault-details\" target=\"_blank\">Join the vault<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Note<\/strong>: <del>There are just a handful Vault\u00a0passes left\u00a0and registration will shut down tomorrow at 5 p.m. Central Time.<\/del><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/vault-details\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" data-src=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/Skitch\/Untitled_2_key_19E43C15.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"767\" height=\"470\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/Skitch\/Untitled_2_key_19E43C15.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"767\" height=\"470\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[su_quote style=&#8217;modern-blue&#8217;]Note: We&#8217;re halfway through the\u00a0Vault launch\u00a0and\u00a0there are just a handful of passes\u00a0left. I&#8217;ll be shutting everything down at 5&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3958\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.growthtools.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}