Yakezie Version 3.0 – Thoughts, Ideas, Solutions Welcome Thumbnail

The combined pageviews of the roughly 115 Yakezie Members hovers around four to five million a month. The four to five million pageviews a month consists of roughly three million unique visitors. By any measure, several million unique visitors a month is a very powerful and attractive metric to have!

Bloggers are the wave of the future because nobody wants to just read the news anymore. People demand opinions! And when readers can interact with their favorite bloggers over comments, all the better.

Over the past several years, we’ve all created a wonderful portfolio of articles which get visited over and over again thanks to loyal followers and organic search. The question is, how do we harness it?

Imagine The Possibilities

1) Product Awareness: Imagine if Procter & Gamble came out with an incredibly delicious new tooth paste that not only whitens your teeth, but also comes in a biodegradable container that costs 70% less than the average leading tooth paste. We personal finance bloggers and hygiene freaks would love it! P&G’s advertising head enlists the Yakezie Network to write about the product and create buzz to instantly reach a couple million unique visitors a month.

2) Organic Traffic Through Search Engines: Let’s say the Federal Government wants to promote a new health initiative  that encourages Americans to eat healthier, exercise more, and live longer lives. Preventative measure is one of the keys to reducing our health care burden. As a result, President Obama’s health chief shoots me an e-mail asking if they can enlist the Yakezie Network to write about the importance of health, with the key words “how to live a healthier and longer life” that points back to the government’s health website. To do so, we obviously need to spend some time over at the White House to learn more about the program and speak to the President himself. President Obama wants to leave a legacy long after he’s gone. By increasing awareness and ranking at the top of Google for “how to live a healthier and longer life”, the program the President created will live forever.

3) Social Media Marketing. Almost all of us are on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and more. Social media is here to stay, even though publicly listed social media companies are having a tough time at the moment. Imagine being a first time Executive Producer of a new Hollywood movie that cost $100 million to make. Stakes are high, and the movie studios need to do everything possible to make sure they cover their costs. The executive producer can easily contact the Yakezie Network to start Tweeting, Plus Oneing, Liking, and Pinning the movie in our social circles. Of course, we’d like a sneak peak or an invite to the premier to create the honest buzz. With suddenly several million people hearing about the movie through the Yakezie Network, the probability of the movie’s success increases dramatically.

The difference between the Yakezie Network and all other networks is that we all know each other! Given we all know each other, we have the ability to concertedly affect change. This is a powerful value proposition.

THE CHALLENGE

Mobilization

The biggest challenge we have is mobilizing enough bloggers to participate in any particular campaign. We all have different interests, opinions, and financial requirements. I’m willing to sing the praises of “Healing Back Pain” by Dr. Sarno for free, forever because it got rid of my chronic back pain of two years, eight years ago. However, if I’m going to use a precious slot on Financial Samurai for a review on outdoor furniture, my requirements go up.

Incentives

What I do understand is that almost everything has a price. To put things to the extreme, I’m willing to bet the majority of people would chop off their left pinky for one billion dollars. No? OK, well then how about making the sacrifice in order to save your dying sibling from death? With enough incentive, things can happen. The challenge is figuring out how much.

Market

It’s not good enough we have a huge network. We need to convince our clients about the Yakezie Network’s value proposition. In order to do so, we need to point to past successes, and leverage relationships with people involved with directing funds in the online advertising space.

Execution

It’s all fine and dandy to tell clients to work with us. Hundreds of clients already have in the past couple years actually.  t’s another thing to execute consistently and meet or exceed our client’s expectations. The best clients are repeat clients because the relationships and trust have been built already. New clients are always welcome of course.

SOLUTIONS TO THE CHALLENGES

The best solution I have to the challenges above is to create an open market for both clients and Yakezie Members.

For example:

* Proctor & Gamble submits a bid on Yakezie.com’s yet to be built advertisement platform listing its requirements. Perhaps they are willing to spend $100,000 across 100 blogs for one year that meet certain metrics.

* Yakezie Members can then log onto the system and see if the offer matches their own criteria. If it does, they check a box that says they will participate. After a set deadline to sign up has passed, the advertisement platform highlights which blogs are willing to participate, and the client will either sign off or edit the participation list.

* Once the contract has been agreed, the Yakezie Network will assign a personal account manager to navigate the campaign from start to finish. The account manager’s role is to ensure the proper execution of the campaign, and build a healthy relationship with the client.

The key here is developing an advertisement / business platform that is user friendly to both the clients and to Yakezie Members.

TIME TO INVEST

If we can successfully harness our combined readership, there is no doubt we can create a wonderful business that will benefit all parties involved. The difference between the Yakezie Network and all other networks is that we all know each other.  No other Network as large as ours on the web can claim such intimacy.

Furthermore, the Yakezie Network consists of the very best blogs in the personal finance space by virtue of the six-month long minimum Yakezie Challenge requirement. The six-month Challenge ensures that Yakezie bloggers get to know each other, write two to four times a week, and seriously focus on their blogs.

I’ve been wondering what to do with some of the severance money I received after engineering my own layoff. The answer now seems very clear: Invest in the Yakezie! I’d rather invest in the Yakezie than buy stocks, bonds, or even my beloved real estate. I trust my work ethic, integrity, knowledge and honor to do everything possible to make this happen.

Perhaps the idea will be a hit, or perhaps the idea will fail and I will lose lots of money in the process. But, just like how I took the leap of faith at the age of 35 to leave my job and do my own thing, I’m taking the leap of faith again to invest money in the Yakezie Network to see if we can revolutionize the way clients advertise online. I don’t want to look back when I’m old and gray and regret not doing everything I could to see if I can create a business.

The Ideal Candidate:

* A developer who recognizes the business potential of the Yakezie Network e.g. understands this post.

* Someone who enjoys the spirit of blogging and interacting with others online.

* Someone who is not afraid to work hard and take risks.

* Someone who is proficient in design and coding.

* Someone who wouldn’t mind being a financial success.

* Someone who is looking for real world experience online.

* Someone who values honesty and integrity above all else.

What You Will Get:

* A ready built brand and platform to work with and test out your ideas.

* Revenue share.

* Instant access to the best personal finance bloggers on the web.

* A mentor who will teach you how to sell, market, build, succeed.

* An incredible experience, solid references, and a whole lot of fun.

Members, Challengers, Readers, if you have any thoughts and suggestions on how we can make Yakezie.com a business, do let me know. What are other challenges and benefits I have not touched upon? 

If you know anybody in school, just out of school, or working who you think would be a great fit, please have them e-mail me. I will be back from overseas on September 3 and can meet up face-to-face in Denver from Sept 6-9 and when I’m back in San Francisco. 

Regards,

Sam