Robert Plank

... That you need to add "professional quality" audio and video into a product. The truth is you can get away with what I call the "lens cap strategy" ... you'll know exactly what this means when you get inside Product University 2.0... but more about that on Wednesday's training call.

Remember, products are not just e-books.  Videos can be products on their own... streaming videos, downloadbale videos or even DVDs.  You can use audio to create CDs, offer them for download or even stick them onto your sales letter to increase conversions.

Here's something you can do to enhance your sales letter in the next five minutes: whip out an audio recording program like Audacity or Camtasia, put that USB headset of yours on your head, and record you reading the most powerful part of your sales letter.

That's the beauty of audio: you can read what's already on the page word for word and people will still get extra value of it because it makes your message more impactful.

You might choose to read your guarantee word-for-word.  Or maybe the description of your bonus items, or your headlines and the deck copy below the headlines.  Then slap it on an audio button and guess what... you've added personality.

But what's great about those little USB headsets you can find on Amazon.com is that the audio quality is so good, you don't need a hiss filter.  You don't need a preamp or an equalizer.  You don't need anything because it plugs right into the USB port and does not use your sound card.

Video is a little trickier, but only a little.  What's interesting is that people will hate a good video picture and bad audio much more than they will hate bad video and good audio quality.

With that said, most laptop and computer web cameras these days are decent if you bought it in the last couple of years.  Even if you didn't, get a Flip camera.  The new HD ones cost 200 bucks but you can find the old ones that run on AA batteries for just 40 dollars.

If you know what you're talking about, you don't need a script, just an outline.  Just pretend you're presenting at a live event.  You can screw up in person and recover... the same is true with video.

Marlon Sanders used to give me a hard time over e-mails telling me I had bags under my eyes just like he does and that I need soft lighting to make it look better.  If that's a problem for you, then don't film in your basement!  Crack a window for some lighting or film outside.  Problem solved.

People don't care if your video looks homemade as long as it makes sense and delivers good content.  Once you get the hang of using high-level techniques like video creation to generate products FASTER, you'll launch products faster and make more money.

Leave a comment below telling me what you'd like SPECIFICALLY to be covered in a product creation class and this blog post should redirect you to signup for the free webinar on July 1st, 2009.

Be sure you're registered for the product creation call on Wednesday, July 1st at 5:00 PM Pacific. I can't stress this enough:

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/408406978

But I have a confession to make before the call.  The price of this course will be $997.

To be honest, I'm scared.  I have charged $997 before, but never for an e-course.

Then again, most of my courses are $200 to $400 for a four week course, and this is an 8-week course, so it's really not that big of a jump.

I also remind myself that when you join this course, I'll show you how to create a 7 dollar product to sell FAST.  How to create a freebie to build a list for that product.  How to create a $27 and $97 product.  How to establish a $27 a month membership site with almost no extra effort...

Plus, you get all the list and traffic in place to get some consistent sales.

Just one of those seven things would be worth $997 on its own.  Even back in the day... I'm talking 2003 and 2004, I'd get an idea for a product, whip it out in a day or two, post it in the right community and pull out $400 overnight with no list.

400 bucks overnight... and then the product was still mine to continue marketing!

And that's just from one product.  With my training you'll end up with five.  400 times 5 equals...?

Anyway, I repeated this tactic to build a big list, by creating product after product and then getting people to subscribe after they bought.

As far as I know, out of the 68% of active students in Product University 1.0 who made a product public, everyone made at least one sale.  Maybe not a million dollars, but a sale.  "You need to make your first sale before you make your second."  -- Robert Plank June 28 2009.

All this month I've shown you the kinds of results my students get.  They've taken MULTIPLE four-week and eight-week courses from me.

• In Webinar Crusher, we created 50 products in 4 weeks.  Some people left with FOUR products of their own.
• In PLR Copywriting, a big chunk of people setup their first membership site, and a handful already have some sales with zero promotion.
• Video Sales Tactics: We had eight grown adults hold forks in their videos, need I say more?  At least half of those people told me they were afraid to stand in front of a camera at the beginning, but not any longer.

I could go on.  You know that when you take a class with me, you get results.  You want results, right?

I realize $997 isn't for everybody.  That's why I'm limiting this to 31 seats, and then it's sold out. In 8 weeks I'll reveal my systems and use every tactic I have to make sure you end up with at least one product, hopefully 5 if you'll willing to take it up a notch.

Comment below and tell me what to put into that class to get you to join the rest of us.  You're already going to get 8 weekly calls, replays of the calls, replays of all 25 hours of the previous Product University course, daily recap videos, a challenge every week and the ability to ask any question you want.

I want to know how to deliver $997.01 of value to you... or $998 or $2,000... or even more.

Looking forward to your comments (and still kind of scared)...

Product creation myth number two is that: writing sales copy is hard.

You know what I'm going to say in response to that, right?

"FALSE!!!"

Just like you, I let sales copy be yet one more excuse not to launch a product.  I didn't have 20 thousand dollars or even a thousand dollars lying around to pay someone to make my site sell, so what was I to do?

My mentor at the time just said... list some bullet points.  And that really is all you have to do.  Choose ten things about your prdouct that people would really like.  What does it teach them that no one else does?  What skill do people walk away with?  How soon do they see results and how dramatic are those results?

Think of ten great things about your product that say great things about it, that don't actually give the chapter titles away.  Then take the strongest bullet point in that list, move it to the top, make it larger, and now you have your headline.

Write a couple of sentences about what the product is... for example, a 22-page e-book about organic gardening.  Mention what bonuses you provide, what guarantee you have and then push people to click that order button.

Following that formula won't give you the best salse letter in the world, but it's a start, and it will sell.  What's important is that you actually did something.  You can work that into a much better sales letter after you join us in the Product University class... but I always prefer to have something to work with.

Michel Fortin, who has promoted a lot of my products, says it really well.  Put out a low-quality sales letter, so you at least have something out there, and then split test it to perfection.  You might even end up with a sales page better than you would have paid for.

So come on, join the Product University class.  Use the money you WOULD have paid a copywriter so you can learn basic copywriting one time and create sales letters over and over again.

p.s. The FINAL product creation myth is coming tomorrow (after you guys leave me 10 comments), so don't miss it!

All the time I get replies from internet marketing newbies with resentment about being kept out of the "good ol boys" club.  You know how it goes... you get the same exact copy and paste e-mail from 30 people on the day a product launches, and the process continues over and over... week after week...

Why can't your product be in that rotation?  "It just isn't fair!"

You know what?  I learned at a very young age that you don't want to be in that club.  When you get stuck in one of these "syndicates" ... people will promote YOU but now you're obligated to promote other peoples' products, even if they're similar to yours or even not that great.

Even if you apply this on a smaller scale... like you mail for one person if he mails to you, you will probably still lose.  A lot of marketers will use their sublists of freebie buyers to promote your stuff... meanwhile you mail for the other guy using your small list of BUYERS... and whatever hard work you've done to acquire those buyers is out the window.

That's because your buyers will end up on that other guy's list, and he'll have no reason to get you to promote anymore, plus those buyers of yours will be much less responsive since that other guy is marketing to them now.

So, myth #3 is you don't necessarily need "affiliates" ... you just need a source of traffic. Getting affiliates and joint ventures to promote is an easy way to get a lot of traffic fast but you can do it without being stuck in ad swap hell.

You can take one of your short reports and give it to the guy as a ridealong bonus to include in his products... now he's indebted to you.

You can make a blog post for him to add content and value to his blog... now he's indebted to you.

Even if you don't use joint ventures for traffic, there are even more sources.  I built my list up to where it is today by posting special offers in forums.  I create a product, make a special discount or added value just to the visitors of that specific forum, and post a new one every week.  So every week I was making a handful of sales and getting more buyers on a list.

Don't let traffic be the thing that holds you back from finishing a product.  That's fear of failure and you know how I feel about that... I don't tolerate it.  Get that product finished FIRST so you can focus on landing some joint ventures and affiliates, posting forum special offers, and sending out articles and videos for promotion.

Wow, only two product creation myths left to knock out of the park!  Can you handle the final two?  Comment below to let me know if you can handle it!

Myth #4 is that making a product takes a long time.  FALSE.  I have written a 23-page e-book in one afternoon, launched it, then recorded the videos that night.

Fact: Jason Fladlien and I filled out a DAILY membership site with one year of content (all of 2009) in just a couple of months.

Fact: For our second webinar class, Product University, we filled up 25 hours and 3 gigabytes of content in only four weeks, and that was a "side project" ... in addition to our usual product launches.

Think for a second about what it would be like to have 25 hours of content.  You could have articles written based on that content.  Cut it up into a 52-week fixed term membership site.  Spliinter some of those products as upsells or downsells.

Have you seen the movie Swingers with Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn?  There's a scene where Jon Favreau doesn't know how to introduce himself to a cute girl, and Vince Vaughn says:

"That girl over there is like a little bunny.  And you're the big giant bear.  And you say, I don't know how to kill the bunny with these big giant bear claws!"

That's the exact position you're in when you have a ton of content to repackage.  You've already done the hard work, so all you have to do is throw some stuff together and attack "the bunny" -- your prospects.

The only way to do that is to focus on one project at a time, so if you're the kind of person who has 5 or 10 half finished or 95 percent finished e-books... yes I'm talking directly to you individually... choose just one of those almost-finished books, get it finished as soon as possible (TODAY), and get it published.

Even if you think that's tough, the solution from me and Lance Tamashiro is coming in just a few days.  Maybe you won't be able to crank out content as fast as I can, but even just a couple of shortcuts can reduce your product creation time by 50% or 75%.

Leave 10 comments below to get access to myth number 3 about product creation...