ramit

I am a New York Times best-seller and I would be happy to answer questions about how I went from blog --> book --> products, especially about the challenges of getting people to pay online.

My book: http://www.amazon.com/Will-Teach-You-Be-Rich/dp/0761147489

My blog: http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com

Let me know if you guys have questions about monetizing content, book sales, or the psychology of getting people online to pay. There is so much interesting stuff I've learned over the last few years.

I've tested many prices for my content products at iwillteachyoutoberich.com/scroogestrategy.com/earn1k.com.

Andrew, based on my experience and data from the content/marketing industry, I'd encourage you to charge more -- at a MINIMUM $47/month, probably $97/month or even $297/month.

If you want to chat about why I suggest this, and some of my internal metrics, please email me.

I recently made 6 figures in one hour when people paid for my content.

People pay for trusted, consistent online content that will help them achieve specific solutions. And Andrew's interviews are a prime example.

There are lots of people doing this. They just don't show up on many Web 2.0 sites.

Before we dig in with tons of suggestions, can you tell us what you've done to try to overcome this problem?

That would help a lot.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Ramit -- ramit at ramitsethi.com Thanks!

I spent a lot of time researching this and chose the HSBC Business Direct account: http://www.us.hsbc.com/1/2/3/business/checking/direct-checki...

For savings, ING has a new business savings account that I'm looking at: http://business.ingdirect.com/products/ofb_savings.asp?s=Sav...

Hope it helps!

Yeah you do. I ran a test on a friend's site, convinced that a short version would outperform the long-copy version. Conversions dropped by about 30%, which would have cost him tens of thousands of dollars per year.

Here's an interview I did about how I got into the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, etc: http://blog.mixergy.com/wsj-press/

I also wrote more about getting press for blogs/companies here: http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/getting-traffic-fo...

Btw, I now write for Lifehacker occasionally, so if you ever have interesting startups, send me an email.

Totally agree. Here are excerpts of my book -- feel free to take a look and decide for yourself:

http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/book/excerpts/

(I'm the author of the article.)

I actually know exactly what you mean -- if I had just stumbled upon this post, I would probably think the same thing.

I wrote this for my community, who know exactly what I mean: Don't try to charge $ too early, focus on the long term, invest in yourself and be entrepreneurial, etc. Many of them have read my articles from years ago that go into detail on this.

But for people that just clicked through and are seeing this for the first time, I can understand the skepticism.

Hopefully this doesn't make you think of my site as just another guru-blah-blah-blah site, because my readers have really done some amazing things -- saving millions, starting companies, automating their money, etc -- over the years.

Really? From watching a few videos and some blog posts?

Tim is a friend of mine. It's hilarious how many people take public blog posts, video presentations, etc and assign all these deep meanings to them (i.e., he can't "build strong long-term personal relationships").

I agree -- and my tips are up there (iwillteachyoutoberich). It's hard to say anything useful in that small amount of space.

Wow -- this is so cool. Thanks, guys. (I'm the author of http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com.)

Agreed.

Doesn't matter if it's for-profit, nonprofit, whatever. I'd rather be less restrictive and open the net widely to as many interesting people as possible.

Progress means the MOST. An idea is cheap, but if you've shown you can execute, that means more than anything else.

Guys, this is Ramit (the founder of the scholarship). No, it's not a scam, and no, I'm not looking for business partners.

I want to give back to someone who is likely to achieve something meaningful. Maybe this person will do it, or maybe next year's winner will (when I give it out again).

If you think I'm cherrypicking for ideas, then I'm sorry you're so cynical and this award isn't for you. But if you read through my site -- which I've been writing for the last 4 years -- you'll see what I'm about.

Obviously, $2,500 isn't a huge amount of money. But for some people, that small amount AND the motivation from winning something public can make all the difference. The scholarship is aimed at people who can benefit from that. If $2,500 won't do anything for you, then no big deal! But for the 1 person who will really benefit from advice, a little money, and most importantly support, I hope they hear about this.

Thanks.