Archive for June, 2009
The Number One Product Creation Myth is…
... 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. Continue Reading »
Product Creation Confessions
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! Continue Reading »
Writing a Sales Letter is Hard?
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. Continue Reading »
A Product Launch is Impossible Without Affiliates?
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. Continue Reading »
Make a Product Faster than You Ever Thought Possible
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...
Be the Product Creation Incredible Hulk in 2009
Robert Plank here to disspell myth number 5 about making products and that's... people think creating products is hard.
Infoproduct Myth #5: Creating Products is Hard!
(Hint: It's Not! It's Only in Your Head!)
False. If you can get into the correct mindset, you'll actually have fun making a product. That's why you need to learn how to "hulk out" into a writing frenzy, or record a webinar and get the audio transcribed by your assistant.
I use a combination of time-boxing and question formatting to write articles quickly, and if those articles run over length then guess what? Those become the chapters of my e-book.
The days of the 600-page, 200-page, or even 100-page e-book are long over. Shoot for a goal of 10 to 30 pages and sell it for 7 dollars. Add a bonus to that product and now you can sell it for 17. Record just an hour of video and now it's worth 27 dollars. Throw a webinar on top of that and now you have a 47 dollar product to sell... in a single day.
Video is pretty easy too, as long as you don't script it. Whip up a PowerPoint presentation then stand it front of a Flip camera, web camera or digital camera and advance the slides using a clicker remote or even your mouse if you want to keep it simple.
The two factors that make you "think" prdouct creation is hard are confidence and completeness. Fortunately, if you can get excited about your topic you can overpower that confidence problem pretty easily, and your need to get that thing launched as quickly as possible before anyone else does will override your need to make it "complete" -- because no product ever will be.
At this point you might be wondering what this is all leading up to. Lance Tamashiro (who was a top student in many of my classes) has now graduated to become a co-host.
Lance and I have teamed up to provide you something very soon that has to do with product creation, but it is very different than the offers you've seen from me and unlike anything you've seen from anyone else. Keep your eyeballs peeled and I'll pass more details onto you as I get them.
What can you do right now? Leave me a comment below so that I can share myth number 4 with you once I get my ten comments...
Competition in Your Niche Keeps You Product-Less?
The stumbling block I want to smash into a million pieces today is the belief that if you try to enter a niche, and there's competition, it's not worth marketing.
Infoproduct Myth #6: Competition!
False. Even years and years ago, in 2003, I knew people who said the market was saturated with internet marketing products. Saturated with affiliate marketing products.
But let me ask you something, how many affiliate marketing products and internet marketing products have launched in the past six years? Do you think one a day? Do you think even MORE than one a day?
Even if we went on the low end of one new product a day, that's over 2000 new products just in the internet marketing niche.
My definition of "competition" is simply that other people have blazed a trail for you. If you research a niche and no one's selling in it... guess what, it means you probably won't sell in that niche and you saved yourself a lot of time.
If you do have competition, you don't have to compete directly. If you're unique, you can occupy different areas of that niche. Or if you offer a complementary solution, that competitor is now your affiliate or your business partner.
Infoproduct myth number five is coming tomorrow, same time same channel... as long as 10 of you leave comments below this post today.
Seven Cruel Myths that Keep You Product-Less!
Bottom line. You need to have at least one product, preferably five, in any given niche. I would prefer ten but let's not get carried away.
Even if you're an affiliate promoter... guess what, you have a bribe to get people to opt-in or even a bonus if people buy from your link: info-product.
If you are strictly a freelancer... the best possible way to get lots of people banging down your door to pay you money for services is to publish a product to PROVE you know what you're talking about: info-product.
If you're a public speaker it's just about REQUIRED that you have some kind of book before presenting on stage.
And even if you already have a product, or a few... more can't hurt, can they?
So allow me to share with you the first myth that keeps you without a product, so you and I can overcome it.
Myth #7: You Need To Be Authoritative In That Niche To Have A Book
False. Dr. Phil (a 245 pound overweight man) sells weight loss products. Kim Cattrall (from Sex and the City) wrote a book on how to have endless orgasms and then divorced her husband because he wanted too much sex. Take your pick. You don't have to prove you can do something, or even that you follow that advice, only that you can get others to follow that advice.
I have a problem with personal and group coaching if you aren't the expert, but when that situation comes up, you can interview guest experts to host webinars for you or even write your book for you. Plenty of people use pen names or partner with real experts in a niche.
Want infoproduct creation myth number six? Great... all you need to do is leave a comment below telling me you want it... do that right now. I need 10 people to tell me they want it.
Three Instant Product Improvements So You Can Double Your Prices Before Dinnertime
Today I'm asking you why the heck is your product (if you even have one) so freaking identical to everyone else's?
To be honest, most people think all they have to do to create a product is write some stuff in Microsoft Word, save as a PDF, and setup the thank you page and sales letter.
And guess what... they're right!
The good and bad news... most people stop there. Let's just say that's good news because when you put a tiny bit more effort into your product, you can rise above the rest of the crowd.
The first thing you can do is add a pre-sell funnel. All you need to do is write a couple of articles based on the content of your e-book. Flip to three random pages of that 10 or 20 page manual, think about what it describes, and write that thing it describes as a question. Then answer it... there's your article.
If writing an article is hard for you, then pay somebody $10 per article to write a question that answers it. Do that four times and you're only out 40 dollars.
Or even better, buy private label rights that allows you to turn the information into a free e-course (only if it's stated in the license) and setup your follow-up sequence in just a few minutes.
Don't even overthink it. Create a four-part follow-up sequence in Aweber, plus one additional follow-up asking people why they haven't purchased. Create a quick PDF report using EzineArticles. Use that PDF as a bribe to get people to opt-in on a squeeze page.
That way even if they don't purchase immediately, you can keep following up with them, automatically.
Speaking of private label rights, something else I do if I feel worried about getting sales... is buy a private label rights product in my niche, and tack it onto the offer as a bonus. (We even discussed this in the PLR Copywriting class last night.) Bam, you've just doubled the value of your product.
Now get this. The easiest, fastest, and CHEAPEST way to enhance your product's value is to hold a webinar. I tried launching an e-class ONLY on webinars a few months ago, but the launch bombed.
Do you want to know why? Because most people are CHICKEN about hosting their own webinars!
But the funny thing is, those people that actually overcame their fears and did it, admitted that once that actually tried it, it wasn't that hard. And using the proper shortcuts, these people became affluent in webinar hosting in just a few short weeks... when otherwise it could have taken months or years.
You simply can't argue with 50 products created in 28 days... especially when 11 of those were made on the same day!
I'm thinking about hosting a new product creation class. With all the products I've launched, plus the fact that I've co-hosted a product creation class before, and even spoken about the subject live, makes me more qualified to teach it than just about anyone else.
Add to that the fact that my webinars get people to actually go out and DO stuff, and you quickly realize there's no one else who can teach you and make you do it like I can.
Would you guys have any interest in taking a product creation class from me? Even if you've already created products, just to pick up the shortcuts (especially those I've picked up in the last six months), absorb new confidence and skills (like making webinars), and being accountable to take action and finally get that product out there?
Comment below with "yes" or "no"... "yes" meaning you'd join an 8-week product creation class if I offered it.
As your reward, I'll redirect you to a signup page where you can get on a free live webinar with me on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 to find out how to make a product a day...
Traffic Bad Boys
Traffic Bad Boys is a site Jason Fladlien and I launched during the first week of our PLR Copywriting class -- DURING the end of the first class. It was pretty crazy, we showed our students how fast and easy it is to build a site consisting of private label rights material.
I don't usually read what other people say about me. But I just read a bad review about Traffic Bad Boys, actually a bunch of bad reviews written by just one guy. And I'm smiling and laughing about it. You know why? Because the only bad things he had to say about it were:
1. I was banned from YouTube, so I "must" be bad. (Not a good assumption.)
2. Someone blogged about me a couple years ago calling me the next Mike Filsaime in a good way, that reviewer found it and tried to spin that as a bad thing.
3. The Traffic Bad Boys site contains master resale rights material, so it must be bad. (False... in the AM2.0 Platinum Google group full of $100K+ earners we recommend master resale rights products all the time.)
For that class, we took 7 products we had rights to, cut them up into pieces and dripped them out onto a membership site for 7 dollars a month.
The reviewer joined for one day, couldn't wait for the rest of the month or even the rest of the week, cancelled immediately and wrote a bad review about us... even though all he had to base it on was the first 20 pages of the material.
So What Does This All REALLY Mean?
It means you need a $7 product for two reasons: to get people on your list, and to get people OFF your list.
You can't always land a $97 or $497 or $997 sale immediately, you have to build trust. Get them to say yes to something small and then build them up with upsells.
But when you price so low you're also attracting bad buyers... it's a fact of life. When those people cancel, you can't take it personally, it's just part of the weeding out process.
You need to weed out those people complaining about having to pay an entire dollar for each product, complaining about having to wait for the rest of the material when they haven't even read what they already have.
(It would be stupid to put your best stuff into your free products and $7 products... save that for your high-end stuff.)
You can't pack the member's area with more stuff because then people will join and complain about being overwhelmed... been there, bought the t-shirt with the Daily Seminar membership.
The Solution!
If you're offering a $7 per month membership site, put $7 of content into it every month... no more, no less. (That's exactly what we did.) That sounds like common sense, but far too many people take bad customers personally and overcompensate.
If you were selling everything in that first month for a one time $7 payment, you would value-stack so that the information was already worth at least $50 or $100. There's no need to further bloat that up to $200 or $300 of value every month just because it's recurring.
Your information and your advice needs to be expensive so people will take it seriously. That's the real lesson you should take away from what happened with Traffic Bad Boys.
Do you find when you price higher you deal with better customers, yes or yes? Leave me a comment below to share your thoughts with me.
