Reading time: 3 - 4 minutes

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.

Reading time: 4 - 6 minutes

Price training your list and your customers IS real. If people are used to getting everything from you for $10, there's going to be a price shock if you jump to $500.

So you're stuck working way too hard trying to land 10-dollar cheapskate customers.

You need to work your way up to at least 100 bucks per sale.  Consider if you want to raise 700 bucks... you can either make 7 sales at $100, or 100 sales at $7. Which do you think is easier?  Getting just seven sales.

If you give away all your good information for free, or you're afraid to sell anything... then your list gets used to that!

You're Stuck in the "Friend" Zone!
Not a Good Place to Be (Remember High School?)

On the other hand, if you consistently launch products at $97 or $497, then your list is used to that and it isn't a problem.

This is why Lance and I have never offered live training for under $247, and recently never under $497, and from now on very rarely under $997. Plus, when it comes time to put those people into membership sites, we don't offer a "pay it all at once" option.  I want people to get used to paying a small amount every month.

Are you starting to understand why Visa and MasterCard killing free shipping offers, one dollar trials, and hidden continuity is a blessing in disguise for your business?

You shouldn't be racing to be cheaper than your competitors... you shouldn't be in a race to cut the price lower and lower.  You should be rewarding your early buyers, bumping up the price and being more EXPENSIVE than your competitors... because you deliver more value than them.

So how the heck do you retrain your subscribers and ensure you never take part in that "race to free?"

Solution: The Seven Dollar Bump

From now on, if someone asks if they can get that product of yours at a discount, you can tell them: "The current price is the discount."

Take anything you are still selling at 7 dollars and tell your list, the forum you're on, whatever audience you have... that you're increasing the price to $17 in four days.

If you need to offer a special deal on a webinar or in a forum, then add a bonus or launch it at that forum, and raise the price later... but never cut the price.

How do you think I'm going to feel if I buy something from you at $197, and then six months later I see it "for sale" for 20 bucks?  Can I get my $177 back?!

Here's what I did back in my WSO days, leaving everyone else scratching their heads wondering why their products weren't selling: after selling a set number of copies, I closed the offer and re-opened it at a higher price.

Lance did this with our Niche Invasion System product.  Launched our 1 hour webinar at $7, after a few days bumped to $17, and now it's at $27 about to go even higher.  Every time, it converts better at the higher price point.  Every time.

And Now, My Favorite Statistic Ever...

Check this out.  Announcing that my "Five Minute Copywriting" product was increasing from $19.95 to $27 in a few days, doubled the conversion rate from 5.3% on November 19th to 10.4% on November 23rd.  To this day it still converts at 8.2% ... imagine that, a higher price AND a higher conversion rate!

Visitor value is your conversion rate times the price. "Five Minute Copywriting" was worth ($19.95 times 5.3%) = $1.06 per visitor, then jumped to ($19.95 times 10.4%) $2.07 per visitor and is now ($27 times 8.2%) $2.21 per visitor.

Bump the Price By $10 Every Time,
and Watch the Conversion Rate!

I use Google Website Optimizer so I can measure my conversion rate AND split test at the same time.  When a split test finishes, I increase the price by 10 bucks.

If at some point the price resistance is too high, like at $47 or $97, then I'll tack on an extra bonus to justify the price.

What a crazy idea... instead of discounting your offers, how about try some good old-fashioned marketing?

Increase the price instead of dropping it. Close down your offer after a certain number of seats are sold instead of opening up MORE slots.  Upsell instead of downselling.

Your time is worth way too much to be selling 6 DVDs for 30 bucks, a video training course for 7 bucks, or even $50 access to a site with 100 products in it. Take part in the race to charge more than everyone else.

Question: What's your highest priced product?  What are you doing to justify that high price? Please answer in a comment below... go ahead, leave a comment right now...

Reading time: 5 - 8 minutes

Are you ever middle of helping someone and suddenly it hits you... and you think, "I can't help you anymore?"

That's what happens when I come across someone who is in "demo mode."

Maybe you do this or you've come across someone who does this every now and then.  These are people who always setup web sites called "Test Web Site." Or blogs called "Demo Blog."  Or membership sites called "Temp Membership Site."

Come on man... tests are for students, demos are for little battery-powered keyboards and temps are for offices.  I honestly want you to make an actual product, an actual membership site, and an actual blog.

Lance and I talked about this in one of our private coaching calls but I think a lot of you can benefit from this advice as well...

Don't Ever Create a "Demo Blog" Ever Again, Pretty Please!

If you're showing a friend how to do something like create a squeeze page, or making a video about how to setup a download page for one of your products... or you're in a class that teaches you how to write a sales letter... then guess what, do it for real!

You don't know if an affiliate will promote it... or a guru will recommend it... or it gets picked up by the search engines or a social bookmarking site like Digg.  If you have your site out there, ready to sell, then that particular problem is solved forever, and you can start getting traffic.

I know it's scary, but guess what... the more you put stuff out there, the less scary it'll be.  How else are you going to become an authority on any subject?  How else are you going to get known for creating such and such product?  How else are you going to build a list, or build a following of any kind?

Here's a Big Secret...

I'm only well known in my niche because I put out a lot of products and send a lot of e-mails.  That's it.  Look at people who are way more famous than me and you'll see that all they did, was put out a lot of something.  Created a lot of YouTube videos.  Wrote a lot of print books.  Left more testimonials and blog comments.

Participated in more interviews than the average person.  (The average person records zero interviews per year.)

Before I ask something of you, I want to take a quick moment to tackle the common objections sandboxers tell me... just to make sure you can avoid their mistakes...

Excuse #1: I'll Figure it Out Later

No you won't.  Honestly, I never get "everything" right when sending an e-mail or launching a product.  Sometimes I'll forget to mention the URL, I'll leave out the guarantee, I'll mistype the download URL... these things happen!

So why try to do it twice (once for practice and once for real).  There are only so many hours in a day and when you do twice the work, it takes you twice as long.  Plus... you're excited about launching your product now, but who knows if you'll be excited in a couple of weeks?

Do it now, so you don't have to do it again.

Excuse #2: I'll Look Stupid

The only way you'll look stupid is if you have one of those sites that says "demo site" this and "test PDF" that.

This is a personal issue for me because we recently held a challenge in one of our private coaching classes.  That particular week, people had to write a sales letter promoting their membership site.

I felt like being a nice guy so I spent about two and a half hours recording Camtasia videos critiquing 19 sales letters in a row. Telling them what to change based on my experience, what stuff to remove, what to change in the headline, what to add... all that good stuff.

One guy asked, why didn't I get a critique?  And I said because your order button is labeled "Test Button."  And when I join your membership site it says, "Here's a test download link until I get something real setup."

Really?  You couldn't just upload your half-finished product and call it version 1.0?  Couldn't have bought resale rights? Couldn't have outsourced it?

Someone else said, I bought resale rights but I set this up as a test site.  This isn't a real site.  Why did I waste time trying to help you out then?

Excuse #3: I Don't Have Time

This is my favorite.  Look, we have all been guilty (including me) of spending a bunch of time explaining why we don't have time to do the things we actually need to do.  As in, write a big long e-mail that takes 60 minutes to write saying why we don't have 30 minutes free to setup that squeeze page, write that barebones sales letter, record that video product, and so on.

The times I was most busy, is when I was the most productive.  When all I had to worry about was being in college and freelancing, I totally kicked back.  If I only got 10 hours of sleep, I told myself I was sleep deprived.  If there was a day when I went to class AND had to program, I said forget it... I'm so overworked!  I went to bed between 2AM and 5AM every morning.

And yet... when I had to juggle college, internet marketing, dating multiple women in parallel, and a 20 hour per week day job all at the same time... I got the most out of every day. I completed school assignments at least a week before they were due -- usually the day they were assigned.

I went to sleep before 10AM 10PM and woke up around 5AM to knock a few things out during the quiet hours of the morning.  I used a calendar, an autoresponder, voicemail, all that good stuff... because I had to.

Now It's Your Turn...

There simply isn't any reason to setup a test site of any kind.  Your time every day, your time every year and your time alive is limited.  So I want to get your over your hurdles.  So here's the deal with you leaving a comment...

• Option #1: "I'm Better Now." Tell me what you did to get out of the sandbox.  When did you stop creating test sites and started making real sites?  What got you to do it?
• Option #2: "Still in the Sandbox." Are you still convinced you need to create test sites instead of real sites?  Tell me why and I'll talk you out of it.

I'm really looking forward to your comments... this is a real personal subject for me... so leave a comment below and let me have it!

Reading time: 5 - 8 minutes

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...

Reading time: 3 - 4 minutes

Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple) who is worth over 5 billion dollars and is a fantastic speaker, has a unique close that if you try to emulate it, will kill every single webinar pitch and every single sales letter you have.

I'm not a huge Apple fan, but Steve runs an event once a year called MacWorld Expo... you've probably heard of it.  A bunch of geeks go to this event and he shows off all the latest stuff their company has put out.

At the end of the presentation, he stops and says, "Oh yeah, one more thing..." And then reveals something big, like iTunes or the iPod Touch.

That Works Great If All You're After
is Brand Awareness, But...

If you're pitching something in a sales letter, on stage or in a webinar... the only "one more thing" had better be "here's this one extra bonus to get you to buy now."

I've been on far too many webinars where I talk for about an hour straight, give away a bunch of information, then transition into the close and offer the best deal possible... and then the other person presenting asks me, "Is there anything else you want to add?"

No, of course I don't! But sometimes I forget and have "just one more" little tip I want to share with people.  And guess what... people are left with that one little tip in their head, instead of "go here and buy this now."

That "One More Thing" Ruined Your Whole Close!

The point of doing webinars for other people isn't to make friends.  It isn't to fill up someone else's membership site with content created by you.  It's to make money.

If you're doing a webinar for someone else (teaching their list), the best favor you can do for that list owner is to promote your product with THEIR affiliate link.

Otherwise, what's the point? I give away tons of free information on my blog just like you do... and no matter how chicken you are of pitching on a webinar...

If you teach them a little bit of something, and you don't give them a place they can go and buy more of that information, then you're a terrible teacher and you should be ashamed.

So How Do You Avoid the "One More Thing" Problem?

Here's how...

1. If you're interviewing someone, and they've started their pitch (it might be difficult to tell because any decent speaker will very smoothly transition from content to the pitch) then don't talk at all while they're closing.

2. If you happen to share "one more thing" then close one more time. It's okay to close more than once.

3. Have just one call to action at the end of your sales letter or webinar.  Not "also find me on Twitter" or "also call me here" or "also go to my blog" or "also e-mail me here" ... go here now to buy.

You Need to Know When to Stop Talking!

Keep it simple. Have your people do just one thing at the end of your presentation.

Now it's your turn to do just ONE thing.  Do you make this mistakes on your sales letters, in your interviews, or on your webinars?  Or have you at least seen other people do it?  Tell me about it... and tell me how you'll correct it next time.  Comment below and tell me...

Reading time: 6 - 10 minutes

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.

Reading time: 3 - 5 minutes

I just came back from the 2nd Warrior Event in Raleigh, North Carolina where I was a speaker.

Speaking of webinars and seminars, remember the "Which Test Won" game we played on the webinar a few days ago?  I showed you how:

• What converts BETTER than a squeeze page giving a free gift?  One of my $7 reports selling almost the exact same thing!
• Removing three words from a headline TRIPLED conversion rates -- an EXTRA $625 from every 500-something clicks
• Adding a small logo to another sales letter boosted conversions from 1.99% to 3.57% -- an EXTRA $846 from every 1000 clicks

When you split test you make those small tweaks.  But if you don't even have a product of your own, or a sales letter, then it's impossible to split test those pay raises!

Here's Something Crazy...

When I was on stage at the warrior event, I asked this question...

"Who here has an autoresponder, like Aweber?"
Almost everyone raised their hand.

Then I asked: "Who knows what a squeeze page is?"
Very few people (under 30 percent) raised their hand.

I didn't even ask who had a squeeze page, just who knew what one was.

Are you kidding me? Take your existing sales letter template, stick in a headline offering a free gift, three bullet points, big red arrow, testimonial, and opt-in box on a page...

That Would Take You a Few Minutes to Setup!

Another question I asked the crowd: "Who here has Camtasia screen capture software?"

Very close to 100 percent raised their hand.  But very few even had a product.

I asked the same question when I co-hosted an all day workshop in Orlando, Florida back in March.  Again, the response to "who has an information product" was under half.

We confirmed this on our latest webinar as well.  When we asked...

"Who Has An Information Product?"
44 Percent of People Said, ZERO!

It's so easy... even if they hadn't created a product... just buying PLR rights to something and putting it online would have counted.

What's really cool is that half of people who had a product... had FIVE or more.  Once you create one product, it's addicting, fun, and profitable.

If you have the fastest computer, best software and most helpful training tools... but you haven't done anything yet, what does it matter?  A product isn't a product unless you launch it.

Before you think about doing those split tests, running those PPC ads, or even creating that membership site... TEST the market first.

• The best way to create a product: find a hungry market, solve a problem with a 7-dollar quick fix by recording a 60-minute screen capture video, then create upsells later
• The best way to create a buyer's e-mail list: capture an opt-in after the sale and sell as many copies of that low-ticket offer as you can, even if it costs you $1 per conversion
• The best way to keep that e-mail list growing: create a squeeze page offering a free gift, that redirects to your sales letter and follows up 10 times, once a day, pitching them your offer

What would it take for you to create a video product, or put a private label rights product up for sale to test the market?

Have You Done It Yet?

What would it take for you to overcome the fear and procrastination so you can be seen as "the guy who wrote the book?"  In other words, be the freaking EXPERT in your niche?

What ONE LITTLE ACTION could you do within the next 30 minutes (after leaving a blog comment) to get you pushed in the right direction?

I'm looking forward to your thoughts below.

Reading time: 4 - 6 minutes

Let me tell you about the first product online that got me to pay higher than $100 for the very first time (this was years ago).

He called it a "Because I Can" sale.  Basically the guy put together a huge package with a bunch of his own products, including resale rights.

• This was long before that kind of thing was common!
• JV giveaways didn't exist yet...
• Pitch webinars didn't REALLY exist yet...

He set the start price at $37 and the end price at something like $297, and the sale only ran for about 3 days.  Every few seconds the price would jump up a fraction of a penny.  I waited until it was above $100 before I bought.

Back then I think my highest priced product was $197, and if I sold two copies of it in a week I would be jumping for joy. I might not have had a $1000 launch yet.  I was still full-time in college, rent was only $625 a month (a lot for me at the time).  I didn't have a full time job or any other source of income.

But... I Still Bought!

What got me to buy?  Scarcity!

If you've read copywriting books (I've only read one and a half) they all try to corner you into this idea of "reason why." Why are you selling your product at this price?  Why are you limiting it to this number of copies?

Back in the day when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and the only infoproducts people could sell were cassette tapes, floppy disks, printed manuals, of COURSE you needed a reason-why.

Years ago before there were services like Amazon S3, Kunaki or even GoToWebinar I saw a couple marketers run "scratch and dent" sales. "A couple of my DVD sets fell off the shelf in the closet... the packaging is messed up, but I just checked and the DVDs still play fine.  But I want to get rid of these and that's why they're half price."

The Problem Is...

Once you have digital products all those scratch-and-dent sales, firesales, going out of business sales, overstock sales, blah blah blah... no longer work.  In fact they look cheesy.

Really, you're only limiting it to 100 copies?  Do you have a shortage of electrons on your web site?

In my past launches I have tried all kind of reason-whys.  I've tried, "I don't want to let these secrets out to too many people."  Yeah right.

I tried, "My server can only handle so much bandwidth at a time."  Yeah right.

I even tried, "I'm testing the market at a low introductory price and gathering testimonials."  Which is halfway decent except this has been used so often it's now a cliche.

So what's the real reason to limit the number of buyers, increase the price or set a deadline on the offer... the reason nobody can possibly argue with?

"Because I Can!"

Having no reason, being ballsy and saying I'm limiting the offer "Because I Can" shows you have a lot of confidence in what you're selling and you're sure it will sell out in a short about of time.

If you only let 20 people in and a few weeks later your sales letter still says 17 slots left, it hurts your social proof, doesn't it?  So you'd better sell out.  And even if you fake selling out (which you should never do) then guess what, you can't brag about your big victory without feeling bad about lying.

"Because I Can" selling pisses people off -- but ONLY that group of people who joined your list and bought from you to be your friend.  Not the ones who joined to apply what they learned from you and get more than their investment back.

But everyone else will love you and respect you more for it.

When you stick to your word about closing the offer, they'll know they can't mess around and WAIT next time.

They Have to Buy in Now!

I bought that guy's offer because I'd seen him use similar scarcity offers in the past, and he never let "just a few extra people in."  Ever.

So I started doing that with my low-ticket products.  I started with time based sales (deadline) and was the first person to offer what people eventually called dimesales -- increasing the price after each sale.  Scarcity and social proof combined into one!

The next time you're worried about justifying your price, or justifying any kind of scarcity, just remember -- you're an information marketer and you can.  As long as you're confident about it.

Speaking of scarcity, guess what... I'm limiting the number of comments on this post to 100 comments.  Why?  Because I Can!

So quickly leave a comment below and add your two cents before I close comments on this post forever.  (I did it last time!)

Has "Because I Can" selling made you buy?  Have you offered it before?  Do you think I'm right or wrong about this blog post?  Comment below right now!

Reading time: 3 - 5 minutes

Guess what, I turn 25 years old today.

And the reason people give you birthday presents or even celebrate birthdays is for one reason.

If You Know That Reason...

... Then you can apply it to your e-mails, sales letters, products, everything, and it will increase response better than any 1-click upsell, forced continuity, free CD offer, 100% commission, or whatever goofy marketing fad is going around today.

The real reason you send people thank you cards, celebrate birthdays, buy one time offers... the reason it's 20 times easier to get a girlfriend when you're already dating some other chick is because of scarcity.

Scarcity is probably the ultimate reason you bought your house or car.  You had to make a bid now before someone else did.

Here's a Funny Story...

Lance and I recently ran a webinar course with 15 students who paid $497 each to get in.  Part of the weekly challenges were to run your own webinars.

These were small webinars we only promoted the afternoon before.  The average one had 17 attendees.

But the webinar with the biggest turnout (from Andy Erickson) had 62 people register and 35 people show up. Why?

I made a single post on a forum a few hours before saying we would only let 50 people in.  Nobody knew how to react to it.

Suddenly, They Wanted In!

Just last week I was at a week-long mastermind retreat that requires you to have a certain level of income to join.  Lance was my guest, and he "sort of" wanted in the mastermind, but as soon as he realized he couldn't get in, he REALLY had to get in!

How did I build my list? The exact same way.  I made forum offers over and over again saying: here's the price now, here's the price it will be by this date.  And I stuck to my word.

How do I get so many blog comments? Exact same way.  If I don't get 10 comments, this blog is going to disappear.  Suddenly it's not around forever.

How Can You Add Scarcity to Everything You Do?

It's simple... answer one or all of these questions on your squeeze pages, e-mails and sales letters:

1. Price Justification: What's the reason why the price is so low right now?  (Even if "you" think it's a high price.)
2. Change the Offer: How soon will you change the offer by removing bonuses or de-bundling the package?
3. Price Increase: How long until your product costs twice as much?  (an actual set date)
4. Expiration Date: How long until you close out this offer completely?

... And suddenly, the decision to buy becomes a no-brainer.

I split test stuff all the time and little changes, like the headline or a single word, make all the difference.

Recently I found out adding a SMALL logo to one of my web pages increased sales by 44.4 percent. That test gave me 18 extra sales at $47 even before the split test was over!

On a squeeze page, I increased opt-ins by 20 percent (tested with 97.5% accuracy) by REMOVING the subheadline.

You have a large population of prospects who are "just about" ready for you to push them over the fence. Adding scarcity is the best push you can give them.

It's takeaway selling.  If you don't act soon, you won't get this.

You Create Excitement Just By Saying "No."

The next time you offer anything... a free report, blog post, e-mail newsletter, special report, training course, DVDs, whatever… add an arbitrary number of copies that will be sold, or an arbitrary deadline when you'll take it off the market, and stick to it.

And the real reason why birthdays are so important is because you have a very limited number of them.

What's your favorite scarcity technique?  Comment below with your answer, and oh yeah, wish me happy 25th birthday as well.

Reading time: 2 - 4 minutes

If you already sell products on the internet, and you experience some decent conversions, there are a few simple tactics you can apply to double or sometimes triple your sales.

In this business, increasing your conversion rate even from 1.0% to 1.1% can mean you can bid higher on keywords for more traffic, raise your prices for more profits, or outsource more product creation, article marketing, and video marketing. Anything you can apply that takes less an hour of work, one-time, that nets you can extra $1000 or $2000 per month, has to be worthwhile.

The first and easiest thing you can add to your business is the cross-sell.

Think of Your Selling Process...

You show people a sales letter; they pay, and go to a thank you page. On that thank you page, they download your product or sign up for your membership area. But does the selling stop there ? Take a second to find your biggest competitor. Does he have an affiliate program? If he does, try adding an affiliate link on that thank you page.

Sell people on the affiliate product, saying, "You just bought this product, but if you really want to take advantage of everything it has to offer, you will also purchase this product for the following reasons..." Due to Robert Cialdini's Consistency Principle, people will want to repeat their previous actions. If they just paid you for something, they already have their wallets out and are open to buying from you again.

The next thing you can add to your bottom line is the mailing list.

On your thank you page, allow people to opt-in to a mailing list for updates. When you come out with a new version of your product, or a new product altogether, e-mail these people about it for some repeat sales. Also setup landing pages for AdWords or add opt-in boxes to your blogs to create pre-sell lists and get prospects who are not yet customers, to buy from you.

Finally, the one easy change that will have the biggest impact on your profits is the upsell and one time offer.

When someone clicks on your order button to buy, you could send them to a page that sells them on the deluxe package. You give them a choice between buying the regular version, or the bigger and badder higher priced product.

Let's say you sell a $47 product with a $297 upsell. The $47 product converts at 2% but the $297 upsell converts at 1%. For every 100 visitors, you make $94 on the regular product and $297 on the upsell... you have just increased your profits from $94 to $391... that's more than four times what you made originally!

If you want that extra boost in sales, consider those three tatics: the cross-sell, building a list, and the upsell or one-time-offer.