Is it okay if I share with you the ONE formula that appears everywhere, again and again... and if you keep it in your back pocket every time you assemble a sales letter, create a blog post, make a product, send an email, and even deal with everyday relationships, you'll always win?

If I share this formula with you, will you check and make sure your web pages pass the test so you can convert as many people as possible?

I hope you've heard of this formula, and it's this: attention, interest, desire, action...

Every time you put out any piece of writing, video, or even live presentation -- run it through this filter. Here's what I mean...

1. Get someone's attention using a shocking statement or headline
2. Build interest by agitating your problem or setting up a question
3. Setup the desire for your solution by revealing it and explaining it
4. Tell people what to do now by telling them to take action

If you've even given (or read) a course, presentation, sales letter, or any other message that was missing an opening, seemed to "linger" too much on a problem, jump into a solution without addressing it, or had everything right except the end -- it was probably neglecting one or all of the above steps.

And I want to multiply your conversion rates by making sure you follow these simple rules. You can get as creative as you want as long as you follow this four step formula. Check it out...

ATTENTION:
Sales Letter Headline or Blog Post Title

When I write blog posts, I like to split the title into two parts: what I'm talking about (the feature), and the result of it (the benefit)... just look at my last few blog post titles here:

• Specialized Knowledge: How to Make $50 (or More) Every 5 Minutes, All Day Long, By Clicking a Few Buttons (Just Like I Did at Age 17)
• Speed Copywriting Explained (Assemble a Web Page That Gets People to Buy From You In the Next Few Minutes)
• It's Simple, So It Must Not Work: How You Too Can Make Several Thousand Dollars in a Weekend
• Website Backup: Keep Your Site Safe, Instantly Clone Your Blog, and Get Things Done Anywhere
• The Accordion Method (And Now You Never Run Out of Content Ever Again)

Now I have blog post titles that are both short, and long!

With sales letters, it's even simpler. The headline isn't necessarily the title of the web page we're on, it's just the HEADER that gets us to continue reading...

Think about the first thing you want to say to your visitor to keep them alert, on your web page, and hungry for more. Whatever you say should answer "most" of these questions:

1. What's in it for me? (promises a clear benefit)
2. What's my problem or solution? (without giving away your product yet)
3. Why should I even listen to you? (get attention either with a question, challenge, or shocking statement)
   
4. Is this newsworthy? (something new and unique that's worth reading about)
5. Do I have a reason to continue reading? (does it lead to another thought?)

Yes, I'm saying that your headline should contain all of these items...

More often than not I'll have that headline big, red, centered, bolded, and in quotes at the top of that web page, but what's more important than the formatting is that the WORDS are impossible to ignore. For example:

• "How I Made an Extra $101,934.10 In 80 Days From 4 Low Ticket Products (With Zero Traffic and a Tiny List) Using One Very Special Piece of Affiliate Software..."
• Backup, Clone, Protect... WordPress Plugin Makes It Simple For You To Backup, Restore And Protect Your WordPress Blogs And Sites Anytime You Want With Just A Few Easy Clicks...
• "How Would You Like My Instant Formula For Creating High-Impact, Persuasive, Converting Sales Letters in the Next Few Minutes?"
• "If You're Feeling Completely Overloaded, Unorganized and Feel Like You're Always Running Out of Time..." You Need to Get a Grip on (and Control of) Your Time Management Skills!

And I'll usually add a subheadline that COMPLETES the thought that the headline first created. Why? Because it gets people reading further down, and then further, until the next thing you know, they've read the whole sales letter all the way down to the buy button.

INTEREST:
Problem or Big Picture

You've got my attention, but I'm not ready to buy your product yet. And even if I was, I need to know you can actually UNDERSTAND and SOLVE my problem... which is why you need to tell me what problem I'm having and how can you really help me solve it...

I need to stress here that we're not introducing your product yet. I see too many sales letters start off with, "I want you to buy my product right now." You're jumping the gun.

This is the STORYTELLING section. Introduce the problem so that I have to find out how it ends -- with the introduction of your product.

You should probably answer these questions:

1. Who are you and why are you qualified to help me?
2. What exactly is my problem and what's the "difficult" solution?
3. What do I need to know and what issues did I not even consider yet?
4. Why are you better than anyone else?

Check out the deck copy for "Membership Cube" to see what I mean...

For the last several years internet marketers have told you how easy it is to setup your membership site and get a flood of people paying you every month for your services, your expertise, and your information. But there are just a few problems...

It's Not As Easy As "They" Say It Is...
These Are The Same People That Told You
"All You Need Is a Website"

• Where will you get the content for this membership site?
• How will you get people into it, and keep them from dropping out?
• What software will you use for the membership, and what plugins?
• What the heck will you do next?

How Did That Work Out For You?
I Can Tell You From My Own Personal Experience:
Membership Sites Are The Best Thing
To Ever Happen To Me!

It IS possible to profit from a membership site as long as you make the right decisions. But don't worry, we've already made the tough decisions for you in our simple step by step system.

I'm confident in those steps because these are the same steps Lance and I have implemented to create 20 membership sites -- 19 of those sites were created in the past 12 months. And guess what, they've all made money: some as little as $2,000 and some well over $100,000.

Do you see what we're doing? We're educating our prospect about why membership sites are so valuable and differentiating from the competition (especially membership software that doesn't come without training) and saying, you need to listen to us.

One reason I really like telling a story in copy is that it doesn't feel like an ad. But far too many copywriters get stuck on the story, the whole sales letter is one long story, and people still don't know what they're buying. That's why you need to get to the third stage WELL BEFORE the halfway point in your copy...

DESIRE:
Solution or Exact Offer

At this point, you'll reveal YOUR product in that sales letter, meaning a huge headline with the name of the course or item, and a graphical representation, it's just that simple. If I can't easily tell that you're selling an ebook, or video course, or membership site, or physical seminar, or physical item -- in under a minute just by scrolling through -- then you need to make it clearer.

In the "interest" stage you've already done the clever storytelling... now you need to tell me what it is you want me to buy:

1. What's the exact name of your product and what's in it?
2. What's in each module, why is each module important and why is it given in the order you show it?
3. What bonuses are you giving me?
4. What is each component worth on its own? (dollar value)
5. What is the total value of this product you're about to give me? (total up the dollar values)
6. What actual price is it going to cost today? (much lower than the total value)

You'll want to end the "desire" stage by listing everything people get in a two-column table... first column, the name of the module they're getting; second column, the price tag on it.

It may seem tedious to total up each $197 or $297 price tag on your individual modules to get a total of $2,217.00, but believe me, it'll look way more impressive when you then DROP the price to $97 or $47 or $27. Very few people do this on sales letters, but they need to!!!

It's super important that you lay out the ENTIRE offer in the "desire" section. Yes, even the bonuses. Lay out the ENTIRE offer before you ask for the sale, including bonuses.

Have you ever noticed that on some sales letters, you scroll to the bottom, then scroll back up to look at something, then back down? That's not good and when I do that, I notice it's usually because someone got my attention, laid out the story, the entire offer, even showed the guarantee and asked for the sale -- and THEN introduced bonuses! Big mistake.

Now people know we relate to their problem and have the credibility to solve it, we've revealed that product and explained our offer -- and at the end, listed everything in the package and revealed the price... what's left? People will know to order on their own, right?

Wrong! Every time I specifically tell people reading a blog post, sales letter, or email optin form -- to fill out the form, conversion rates go up. We can never make it OBVIOUS enough...

ACTION:
Why To Buy (or Comment) Now

This is probably the most cookie-cutter part of any sales letter, but it's still important. You need to tell me:

1. What's your guarantee? (30 days or 60 days? Can I get my money back for any reason?)
2. What price are you charging? (state it again, make it as simple and clear as possible)
3. How do I order? (i.e., "click on the button and pay $97 to JumpX LLC")
4. What are the technical requirements to run your product? (i.e., Adobe Reader, Windows Media Player, WordPress)
5. How soon until I receive your product after downloading? (i.e., instant delivery)

In an optin form we're asking for their name and email address, in a blog post we're asking for a comment (easy to get if you ask a question at the end of your blog post), and on a sales letter we're asking for people to buy.

The Entire Formula Revealed

I know that was a lot to take in, but here's the whole AIDA formula laid out for you:

1. A1: What's in it for me? (promises a clear benefit)
2. A2: What's my problem or solution? (without giving away your product yet)
3. A3: Why should I even listen to you? (get attention either with a question, challenge, or shocking statement)
4. A4: Is this newsworthy? (something new and unique that's worth reading about)
5. A5: Do I have a reason to continue reading? (does it lead to another thought?)
6. I1: Who are you and why are you qualified to help me?
7. I2: What exactly is my problem and what's the "difficult" solution?
8. I3: What do I need to know and what issues did I not even consider yet?
9. I4: Why are you better than anyone else?
10. D1: What's the exact name of your product and what's in it?
11. D2: What's in each module, why is each module important and why is it given in the order you show it?
12. D3: What bonuses are you giving me?
13. D4: What is each component worth on its own? (dollar value)
14. D5: What is the total value of this product you're about to give me? (total up the dollar values)
15. D6: What actual price is it going to cost today? (much lower than the total value)
16. A1: What's your guarantee? (30 days or 60 days? Can I get my money back for any reason?)
17. A2: What price are you charging? (state it again, make it as simple and clear as possible)
18. A3: How do I order? (i.e., "click on the button and pay $97 to JumpX LLC")
19. A4: What are the technical requirements to run your product? (i.e., Adobe Reader, Windows Media Player, WordPress)
20. A5: How soon until I receive your product after downloading? (i.e., instant delivery)

I hope that pushes you in the right direction with your...

• Sales Letters: Attention-grabbing headline, interesting story, desirable offer, and order button as the call-to-action
• Webinar Pitches: Start with a big promise (attention), demonstrate something live on the call (interest), explain your offer (desire), and tell them where to buy (action)
• Email Marketing: Send an "attention" email hinting at a problem, an "interest" email agitating that problem, a "desire" email introducing your solution and URL, an "action" email with just your URL... and repeat the process
• Information Products: Start each chapter of your report with a bold claim (attention), give them the big picture (interest), explain the step by step process (desire), and end with an assignment (action)

So what's the verdict, does your sales letter pass this 20-point checklist? (It's okay if it doesn't yet.) What's the URL to it? Go ahead and respond with your answer below.

I really do want you to succeed and the way I made the change from a college student with no money to someone who had a residual income was by phasing out freelancing and creating info-products.

Freelancing is good to start off but you definitely need to establish yourself as an authority in your niche and make a product that people can buy that has your name on it that proves you know what you're talking about and teaches them what you know.

I have made all kinds of training courses about PHP, webinars, list building, WordPress and more and I want you to do the same in whatever niche is your favorite with these simple steps.

Step 1:  Four Part Outline

You can take any problem and solve it in 4 steps. If you take it in even more steps, you aren't solving it simply enough. Let's use creating a website as an example. Here's 4 steps: Get a domain, get a web host, set up a WordPress blog, write your first post. How about writing a sales letter.

Have a headline that tells a story, list benefit bullets, explain features, then demand a call-to-action. If you're explaining something to someone, the best way is in 4 steps. No more, no less. Figure out how to solve a problem in 4 steps.

Step 2: Audio Dictation

Most people hate writing. I have gotten to the point where I liked writing but still it's not my favorite thing to do and I know that I could speak more consistently and faster than writing. I'm pretty sure you are the same way. Hence, you know your subject well enough that for each of the 4 steps, you can explain at least 3 things about it. Let's go back to the webpage example before where I said you need a domain name, a web host, a WordPress blog, and content.

When I explain how to get a domain name, I could tell people why you should only stick with dot com, how to decide on the perfect domain name that's not too long but is also short and explains what it is you're going to be offering.

I could tell people which registrar to get their domain and then what to do after, which could – this is into the second part, the web host – how to choose a web host, how to register with this web host, how to set up automatic billing, how to connect that domain name to the web host and how to get support from that web host and so on.

If you can talk for even 10 minutes about each of these 4 things, that's a 40-minute audio product. That's almost a complete CD. Chances are that especially on some of the advanced topics, you might talk for longer than 10 minutes, and if you can speak for an hour, you're doing great.

Step 3: Sales Letter

From that 60-minute audio, I'm sure you can find lots of things to talk about, reasons why your audio is the best, what people can expect to get out of the audio when they're done and why you are the most authoritative person to listen to. Your sales letter doesn't have to be that complicated.

If you can list 10 good reasons why people would want to buy what you have to offer, you can take some of the better reasons, turn them into sentences, take the really best reason, turn it into a headline, add an order button, and you have a basic sales letter.

Now, all you have to do is promote it to your list and to high-traffic areas, like forums, and get a handful of initial sales. Now, what re you going to do with that money?

Step 4: Reinvest Into a Transcript

Every minute that you speak is about 150 words of written material or a little over half a page.

That means your 60-minute audio is going to be over 30 pages in length. That's a complete report.

If you can add in things like bullet points or checklists, the report will be even longer, but the point is you now have a book and an audio book to distribute digitally, and that means that if your audio was only $10 or $20, now that it is bundled with the written version, it is now $30 to $40.

(Optional) Bonus Step #1: Membership Site

You do want to get that price point to $100, don't you?

Then put it all into a membership site. The simple fact that people can come back into your membership site for eternity, even if they lost their password, is worth slightly more. I have bought CDs of software before that charged me an additional $5 to have a lifetime download area. In this case, don't give people the choice, make them purchase access to this membership site where they will receive your report, your audio, and lifetime updates.

At any point in the future, if you decide to sit down and speak for 10 minutes, that is a bonus that can be found in your member's area. That means at this point, you now have your membership site priced at $50 or $60.

(Optional) Bonus Step #2: Live Q&A Bonus After Six Months

Now, here's the final step towards getting people to the $100 mark. There's something weird about the price point between $50 and $100 and that's why people don't really by in that range. If someone is willing to buy or pay you more than $47, they're probably willing to pay $97.

Don't bother pricing at $57, $67, $77, or $87. Just skip right to the $97 mark. I only price in this range if I am steadily increasing my price to $97.

Because you're a marketer, you could price your training at whatever it's worth and whatever you want. What I like to do is offer a live Q&A or a question and answer bonus, people can ask me any question they want for an hour or 90 minutes.

Once that's done, I will put the recording in the member's area and now, that member's area contains a report, an audio, additional bonus audios, and a Q&A video webinar recording, which is all worth much much more than $100 but just because you like your subscribers so much, you are going to price it at $97 and that price will be a bargain and that's why you take one idea and turn it into a $97 or a higher training course.

If in the future you want to increase the price beyond $97, throw in some live training and make it a webinar course.

Is this the way you create your $100 training courses? What is your method? Please explain it to me...

I know you have at least one idea for a product. Maybe you haven't made a product yet or you've made many products in the past.

How do you know that your big idea is something that everyone else is going to pay money for? We're going to figure out right now if your idea will be profitable in two stages – the research stage and the creation stage.

Stage 1: Research

I don't believe in doing more than 30 minutes of research to figure out if your idea will make you money. I say this because I know of too many marketers who have spent a month or 6 months or a year researching as an excuse not to do anything. Let's spend 30 minutes and figure out if your idea is worth it.

The first thing you should do is check forums. What's the hot topic inside the #1 forum in your niche? When I go to my favorite marketing forum, I find that the threads with the most replies are about articles, membership sites, and ClickBank.

When I go to my favorite programming forum, most of the replies are about PHP frameworks, WordPress plugins, and outsourcing.

Don't bother making a report about something unless it's a hot topic that a lot of people in your small niche are talking about. I'm not a believer in going mass market unless you have a lot of money to invest. If you're just starting out on a niche, start in the niche.

Now that you know what everyone is talking about, figure out what people are paying for. You have friends in the same niche you're in, right? What have they all bought recently? What big launches are going on in your niche? What have you personally paid for? There's no point in getting into a niche unless people are willing to spend a bare minimum of $100 on you.

I have bought products showing me how to make a software outline, how to write faster, how to create video, how to make audio products, and they have all accelerated my path towards getting things done.

The final part of your research now that you know what people are talking about and what people are buying is finding out what your competitors are doing. Go to Google and search for the niche you're in.

If you are thinking about creating a course on how to sell on eBay, search the forum you're on for the word "ebay." Search Google for "eBay eBook," "eBay guide," "eBay course," "eBay video." Go on amazon.com and look for books in that niche and DVDs in that niche as well. This is good because not only does it show you what areas to target but also what your price point should be.

You should match your price point fairly well to your competitors but price slightly higher, that way you will have a higher perceived value.

Stage 2: Solve It

Now that you've done your research, you should know how to adjust your idea to deliver the best solution by answering people's questions on forums, figuring out what they're paying for and duplicating or doing the job better than your competitors. Now, it's time to create the product.

I have never spent more than a few days making a simple lead generation product, and by lead generation, I need a product that's $100 or cheaper. Your product will be a lot better if you write it without distractions and write it as fast as possible. You can always go back and make version 2.0 later.

What's more important than spending or wasting a lot of time on creating a product is to add your own "how to" information. I can go online right now and find lots of tips and advice about placing an eBay ad.

I can find lots of videos on YouTube showing me the mechanics of placing an eBay ad, but I want you to show me what makes an eBay ad profitable. I want you to tell me exactly what steps I should take from start to finish from having something to sell on eBay to actually placing the ad and making the sale and what to do after that.

Also think about what simple problem can you solve for them. For some people, an eBay problem might be that they cannot get people to read their ad.

The sooner you make your info-product not just "how to" but also problem and solution-based, the more people are going to benefit from your book, the better reviews it's going to get and you'll have an easier time making a sale. And finally, what success stories can you gather from the people who use your product?

Here's something to think about. If someone has not yet bought your eBook or home study course, all they have to go on is your pitch page or sales letter.

That's why you need to make your sales letter as best as it can possibly be and the way I like to make a sales letter better is to gather testimonials or proof and show that on the sales letter – so, people who have not yet bought can see that others have benefited from this training.

And that's how you're going to create the perfect info-product and make money doing it. First, researching it in forums by what's making money, what your competitors are doing, and then create that product by offering your own unique how to, solving a problem, and gathering success stories from those people whose problems you have solved and place it back on the sales letter.

Did this help you make your next info-product? Where have you been lacking?

In the research stage or in the creation stage? And how will you get better? Leave me a blog comment below right now while it's still fresh on your mind.

I am going to tell you something right now that I hope will get you over that hump of making your next information product. It should also change your minds about what your customers are actually paying for and what information you should be giving away.

My mentor for many years was a guy called John Calder. He was really arrogant (which is a good thing!) and the best piece of advice he ever shared with me was, "Don't tell people everything you know."

But what does that mean?

Leave Room For A Sequel!

Here is something to think about: How come every movie you watch does not end with all the characters dying? Because there is a chance that the movie will get a sequel and that some or all of the characters can be in movie number two.

The same is true with your report creation. Do you try to put everything you know about a certain subject in one report? Sure! Can you put EVERYTHING there is to say in that report? Of course not!

A great example is my "Time Management on Crack" report. This is something that started off with me just explaining how I get things done, how I'm so productive. Then, I later added in formulas for writing, for blogging, for video creation and so on.

In fact, it has now tripled the size and got ten times' as much information - and I am still adding to it! But is that my only product about time management? Of course not!

Lance Tamashiro and I have a Membership site all about time management called, "IM Productivity Secrets." I also have a report called "100 Time Savers" that lists 100 quick and easy things you can use to save a minute a day.

Even though "Time Management on Crack" is the best report anyone could ever get about time management, I do have a prequel to "Time Management on Crack," called "100 Time Savers" that is at a lower price point and gets people ready for the main course, and I have a sequel to "Time Management on Crack" called "IM Productivity Secrets" which is a monthly membership site that contains ongoing training. And none of these products have any overlap.

You don't have to give away every single thing you know, because you might have a Volume II of your product.

Keep It Simple!

Here is the next thing to think about: Do you know how your cable internet gets from your computer out into the world? Probably not. I don't know either. But I still can USE my internet.

Do you know how your power company pumps electricity into your home? I don't either. But I still know how to turn on a light switch.

I can teach subjects, such as time management, without knowing exactly how psychology works, or how everything in my brain works. People don't have to know all the details.

My copywriting report, "Fast Food Copywriting," doesn't explain every single facet about copywriting, because I don't KNOW everything about copywriting. What I do know is how to accomplish a task. And that is all you really should be explaining in your paid materials, is how you accomplish a task and how other people can do the same thing you do.

I have many home study courses teaching people various things about PHP and WordPress. All I do is show how to use a certain script or WordPress plugin, and how to tweak it. That's it! Do I explain in every single report exactly what a function or a variable is? Not necessarily. I just show how to put those things into action.

And that leads me to my final point about not telling people everything you know: You deserve to get paid for your expertise.

Here is a really easy formula to decide what information you should charge for, and what to give away. If the information you are teaching about your subject is a step-by-step "How to" process, people should pay for that. But if all you are sharing is a simple tip, that is free article content or blog post content.

Inside "Fast Food Copywriting," I explain my step-by-step process for copywriting. But I also have hundreds of articles about copywriting that explain simple ideas like a headline or bullet points.

In "Time Management on Crack," there are five productivity levels you can master. There are also over 28 formulas when it comes to article writing, report writing, copywriting, and more.

I share my general time management advice in articles and in my blog posts. But the "How to", the Step-by-Step, people have to pay for that.

I hope you are now ready to knock out that next article or report - because guess what? You don't have to tell people everything you know!

Did this blog post help you? Tell me in what way... that comment form won't bite.

A split test of mine recently finished and the conversion rate increased from 2.21% to 3.92% by changing JUST the headline -- but not even the words on the headline... the COLORS!

Imagine that, an additional 14 signups to a "$47 every 2 weeks" membership site -- an extra $1400 monthly passive income -- from such a small change.

Why does this happen?  Why does split testing even work?

I'll tell you why... it's because:

Most People Are Confused About Which Way to Go!

It's the same reason why parking lots have signs that say "lock your doors."  Why airports have signs everywhere you look.  Why you have to put the silly red arrow on squeeze pages and literally TELL them to enter their name and e-mail address.

People are easily distracted, and it's up to you to explain what you want from them.

Think about how many times you see this on the internet in a single day.  When you go to YouTube, it recommends about a billion videos all around you... and you end up clicking on video after video without even realizing.  You end up with a bunch of open tabs... and you end up watching some other YouTuber's video.

Split Call-to-Action!

The days of "putting AdSense ads next to the order button" are gone (good grief), but now "multiple order buttons with payment plans" are all the rage.  Or even worse, "the P.S. with a different URL at the end of the e-mail."

Come on guys, don't give me a choice between four payment buttons.  Don't let me choose between paying it all up front or doing a payment plan -- most of the complaints and refunds come from the payment plan crowd anyway.

But with most people, the craziness doesn't stop after I buy from you.  Even after I paid you money... you're confusing me with the WORST two-letter word ever invented:

"OR!"

You could do this... OR you could do this... more choices.  Don't give me so many choices!

• You've setup your squeeze page, so you can promote it using AdWords... OR you can post on forums... OR you can get joint ventures
• You want a membership site, so you can use aMember for it... OR you can use Wishlist
• Choose one of these three methods of writing a sales letter
• Learn Windows and open up your favorite programs in one of six ways

Are you kidding me?  I have to choose?  Just give me the best way possible!

Even if you HAVE to tell people multiple ways to do something, like with a multi-part course, just give me the easy solution first.  Then tell me what's the "slightly tougher" solution to complete after I've finished the first one.

Do me a favor and stay away from giving me the "top 21 ways" in your training calls.  Instead, reduce it down to 4 or 5 things... you probably struggled coming up with all 21 anyway.

And then position those 4 ways as step 1, step 2, step 3, and step 4... remove the choice.

Today's Question: Are you guilty of the "top 21" syndrome?  How are you going to fix it?  Comment below and tell me... I'm not going to give you a choice, just comment.

This is something I was thinking about presenting at my next live seminar...

But I'll share it with you here anyway!

It's something that most people who teach "productivity" leave out, and I see marketers FORGETTING this over and over again, even though they should know better.

This is "supposed" to be a programming concept but when I worked with other programmers, almost none of them knew about this, let alone implemented it...

It's Keeping Your Stuff SHIPPABLE!

I'll explain.  Think about the order you see items (as a buyer) in a "fully optimized" sales letter...

1. Free article or video you post to recruit affiliates
2. E-mail ad sent by an affiliate
3. Affiliate link you click on
4. Squeeze page
5. Pre-sell e-mails
6. Sales letter
7. Checkout page
8. Upsell page
9. Download page
10. Surprise bonus
11. Second upsell
12. Post-sale follow-ups

The thing is, if you actually complete these steps in order -- you'll almost NEVER finish!  Every time I've tried completing these steps in "order" ... I've never finished.

Imagine That, Someone Like Me Not Finishing Something!

That's because you have to get all the way to step #6 to even write the sales letter... and to #9 to even create a product!  You've run out of gas before you even created the product.  What in that list could you do without, if you really really had to?  I'll tell you right now:

1. Free article
2. Solo e-mail ad
3. Affiliate program
   
4. Squeeze page
5. Pre-sell e-mails
6. Sales letter
7. Checkout page
8. Upsell page
9. Download page
10. Surprise bonus
11. Second upsell
12. Post-sale follow-ups

All you need is the sales letter, payment button, and download page to deliver the product.  If you wanted to quit at that point, you could.  I have.

Finish your product and have the sales letter and download page COMPLETELY ready to go before you do any sort of pre-launch, webinar pitching, affiliate promos, or anything for that product.  If you think that's too much to ask... then make it version 1.0 of your product.

You Can Always Go Back and Improve It Once You Have the Bare Essentials Out of the Way!

This is the exact order I setup this 12-step sales process:

1. Download page
2. Checkout page
3. Sales letter
4. Upsell page
5. Affiliate link
6. E-mail ad
7. Free article
8. Squeeze page
9. Pre-sell e-mails
10. Second upsell
11. Post-sale follow-ups
12. Surprise bonus

You can literally stop at any point along this path.  If you only create the product, then it's a bonus to another of your products.  If all you have is a payment button... guess what, I have sold products without a sales letter -- just from a webinar.

If you have steps 1 thru 3 finished, then you have a regular sales process.

Anything After That is Just Extra!

Is an affiliate program or an upsell something that will boost your sales?  Definitely.  But you need to create the bare minimum shippable product FIRST, I'm telling you!

This also applies to your whole product line, not just the funnel for one product.  Maybe you have heard this nonsense about what "they" tell you your product line should look like...

1. Report
2. E-Book
3. Video
4. CD
5. DVD
6. Teleseminar
7. Webinar
8. Seminar
9. Personal Coaching
10. "Done For You" (aka Glorified Freelancing)

Do you need to have all of this stuff setup before you launch anything?  Of course not.  My business thrived for years only selling reports and videos.  I've been presenting with webinars since 2008.  I've co-hosted two seminars in the past year but there's too much overhead with those.

All You Really Need is Just ONE THING in That List!

Preferably a report, e-book, video, or webinar.

There is absolutely no shame in writing short reports.  A year ago I wrote a report called "E-Mail Marketing on Crack" in one afternoon and made $2,000 on the front-end and $2,000 later selling resale rights licenses.

On another day, I ran 13 hours of webinars... and at the end of the day I was so excited, that I immediately outlined my "16 Copybombs" video, and recorded 2 hours of videos in one take... which brought me 225 sales at 7 dollars ($1,575).

Both of those products are sold with the worst sales letters I have even written.  I can't even tell you how they convert since I never setup split testing.  I don't have affiliates.

$4,000 and $1,575 from a couple of hours is better than $0 from a couple of hours, right?

One Last Thing...

I wrote AND SCHEDULED this blog post for several days in the future, before mailing for it or even announcing it.  Because if I wrote the blog post and then didn't feel like sending the pre-launch e-mails, I could launch the blog post as is.

Question: Do you operate under an almost paranoid "I'm completing the steps in an order where I can quit whenever I want to?"  Because that's how I roll.  If you disagree with this, is it because you don't know, or do you just think I'm a total idiot?

Looking forward to your comments below...

A couple days ago I asked my list if they had a membership site yet... I got 300 responses to that question and I want to share the results with you right now:

• 165 people, or 54.8% own membership software
• Out of that half that owned membership software, 89 people or 53.9% have at least one paying member
  
• Total, those 89 people who had a profitable membership only accounted for 29.6% of the responders

So Strange!

Some of these people paid $197, $297, even 4000 bucks for a membership script but only half of them are doing anything with it.

So let me share with you a couple of reasons that stopped me from creating membership sites (I've created 19 of them in the past 12 months... and only ONE before that time period!)

Excuse #1: It Becomes a Huge Chore You Have to Maintain. That membership site might be fun and exciting when you first get the idea, but what about a week from now?  A month or even a year from now?

That site is going to become a massive time-suck, and you're stuck with it even though you could be working on new projects instead.

Excuse #2: It's Tough to Retain Members. How many magazine subscriptions have you canceled in your lifetime?  Most of them, right?

The same thing happens to subscribers of your membership site.  Maybe you don't provide enough content, or it's not exciting enough for people, or they just quit and it has nothing to do with you.

You can try to fight it by scheduling daily e-mails in your membership and overloading new subscribers with content, so there's no way they can get through all the information and they forget to cancel... but that's kind of mean.

Excuse #3: The Conversion Rates Suck Because It's Monthly. You get a lot of extra objections when trying to sell monthly access.  How easy or hard will it be to cancel?

Will I forget I'm subscribed to your monthly membership?  Is the content going to be just as good 9 months from now as it is today?

Excuse #4: You Have to Create a Lot of Content. Let's face it, you take a big risk when creating a monthly membership site.

It's a big project, it's fun to start but tough to finish.  You might spend 6 months creating the content and another 6 months promoting it, only for it to flop... and guess what, there's a year of your life, gone forever.

Now that I've ruined your day let me drop a bomb that's super-obvious to half of you and super-surprising to the other half...

Membership Sites Don't Have to Be Recurring!

Think about it.  If someone pays you money one time, and your system gives them a username and password to login and get their download, that COUNTS as a membership site!

Between the two of us, Lance and I have been a part of 20 membership sites.  One of those (NicheSeeker), I created in 2006.  The other 19 were made in the past year.

Only 8 of the 20 are actually recurring membership sites.  The rest are things like e-classes, where they pay once and get access to a private blog.

So now that you know a membership site doesn't have to be recurring, what the heck can you do with it?

Solution #1: Bonus Drip. You can offer your regular e-book but then write some extra reports, or create a bonus webinar, even buy up resale rights to related products... drip it out over the course of a week, a month, or a year to keep people coming back.

Help them through the step-by-step parts of your book, or give them reminders... or just keep delivering value a little bit at a time to cut down on refunds.

Solution #2: Collect Testimonials. Because your membership site is setup on a blog, people have the ability to leave comments.

You could ask people for their feedback which you can use to create your next product, or your next bonus, or even work it into an actual testimonial.

Solution #3: Offer a Trial Period. What if you offered the bonuses to your product first... whether those are checklists or extra videos?

People can join your membership for $1 or $4.95 for 7 days to get a little bit of content, then once they rebill for the full amount, they get the downloads including the main product.

If They Cancel, They Are Kicked Out of the Membership...

Lance and I are using a trial period for our "List Copywriting" membership and I'm going to be applying this to some of my one-time payment products.  What's cool about the trial period is you can present a special offer to a specific person's list or a forum, without discounting the price or bonuses at all.

Solution #4: Offer a Payment Plan. This is similar to the trial period, but you let people pay in two or three parts... again, every time they pay, they get access to a little bit more content.

We used to do this all the time with our high-ticket, single payment membership sites for group coaching.  The final price might be $197, so they pay $127 now and $127 later.  Gotta add a little bit of interest so they're more motivated to pay in full right now.

Solution #5: Easy Upsell. Most membership software like Wishlist makes it super easy to add multiple membership levels.

So you could easily package a bunch of your bonuses in one membership level, or make people pay a little bit more per month to be able to download the content (as opposed to streaming it right off the blog).

Just Check a Couple Extra Boxes...

Solution #6: Cut Off Access If They Refund. If you're a product creator then you like doing this.  A couple of our membership sites run for a 6-month period.

If people get through all six months, they have access for life and can come back anytime.  But a minority of people cancel after 3 or 4 months thinking they've got "just about everything" ... but when they cancel, they're cut off.  So lifetime access after they've paid all their payments is a big reason to stick around till the end.

Solution #7: Easy Download and Password Retrieval. I deal with about one request per day from someone saying, "I lost my download link" or "It says my download has expired, can you give me a new link?"

What's cool about having a membership site in WordPress is that WordPress has a built in "lost password" feature.  If one of your customers needs their download, they'll go to your sales letter, see the link to the member's area, and use the lost password to get their login sent to them... they login and grab their download.

Solution #8: Easy to Notify of Changes. Did you improve your book or change that script?  Just upload the file, edit the post... and guess what, most membership software like Wishlist allows you to e-mail the entire user base right from within WordPress.

The thing is...

Even If Your Membership Takes Only One Payment,
It's a Membership!

So when I asked you guys on my e-mail list if you have a membership with at least one paying member... were you telling the truth or were you a liar?

If you're a liar, don't bother commenting below.

If you aren't a liar, tell me the URL to your membership site so I can check it out.

Leave me a comment below please... I'm only letting 100 of you reply.

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)...

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...