Archive 1: 2012-2016
Templatize It: Where is Your Sales Letter and Information Product?
If you take longer than three days to go from having an idea for an information product to having a buy button online, then you're doing it wrong. I want to ask this to you today, but you don't have to answer it:
If you HAD to put that info-product online within the next three days…
if you absolutely had to, were required by law,
faced death and the loss of your family if you didn't…
you'd find a way, wouldn't you?
REAL Information Products (Most Info-Marketers Miss This)
Let me explain an information product: people have always and will always want to discover how to play golf or learn the guitar…
But they don't want to walk into a music shop and have someone pitch to them, they're afraid of looking foolish, they don't want to pay hundreds of dollars a week to a guitar teacher… they don't want to a commit to a community college class or have a family member teach them…
They need you to give them a "package" usually of pre-recorded videos that get them from point A to point B. You're cutting through the "academic" crap and actually SHOWING the simple way (you actually explain a part of guitar playing and then play it on-camera).
Because you're ROCKETING towards the goal of them being able to play these three popular songs on guitar, you can avoid the long tedious "intros" or fanfare about the history of the guitar. You just get right to it. Get right to your system.
Fear of Launching
It frustrates me when I meet someone at an offline event, for example, and then I "run into" them a couple years later on a forum or Facebook group and I see that they're still not making money yet…
I don't have to tell you why this is:
Reason #1: no real sense of urgency: this person has another stream of income so there's no real motivation to make any money online
Reason #2: fear: it's as simple as that. I remember having my first information product (a collection of PHP scripts like a calendar plugin, quiz plugin, basic email autoresponder, etc.) ready to go and WAITING for a week. I asked this person and that person if I should put it out now, or wait longer? What if it was a flop? Shouldn't I add more bonuses? Was the price right?
In reality, I was asking around for the answer I wanted all along. I was hoping someone would tell me: don't put that product out yet, wait 6 months until this happens, or spend 3 months adding these bonuses so you can double your sales. Yeah right.
Let's say you had that guitar course. What's the harm in buying up what's called "private label rights" (just do a Google search) about guitar? Someone's already recorded videos doing what you want to teach, that you can buy for $20 or so.
After it's COMPLETE and selling, you can go back and decide if you're unhappy with the existing videos. Maybe you want to change the course to recommend the ONE specific guitar for beginners? And provide your Amazon affiliate link and also get them to buy a specific tool to make learning the chords easier -- or perhaps you mail this to them as part of the course…
Do you get it? Get something simple online (as simple as possible), focus on making sales NOW and improve later. It'll never be perfect, just improve incrementally.
"Lack of time is actually lack of priorities."
-- Timothy Ferriss
Reason #3: confusion: that all sounds great, but how the heck do I buy these resale rights? How do I record video? What do I use to host my site or my files?
24-Month Shortcut: Use PayPal to Take Payments
What about taking payments? Seriously, I've seen way too many people LOSE OUT on their internet marketing success, or have it delayed by TWO YEARS or longer just because they were confused about how to take online payments. I can't use PayPal… they don't have a 1-click upsell and they don't let me take offline credit cards! Maybe I should use Stripe, InfusionSoft, Ontraport?
Question: do you have a 1-click upsell ready to go? No you don't… that's something you can add later and it's not going to make or break your initial product sales…
I understand… you "might want" to take direct credit cards someday. But how about you forget about that for today and cross that bridge when you come to it?
The answer: use PayPal. Just do it! Not because it "has the most bells and whistles" but because you'll have something up and running today.
Income Machine System
As far as hosting your site, our Income Machine shows you how to register a domain name with NameCheap, get a Baby Account with HostGator, point your domain to your web hosting, now someone can type in Example.com (get a dot-com and not a .net or a .biz or anything like that) and end up on your (blank) website.
"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together."
-- Vincent Van Gogh
What do you put on that website? WordPress, so that you don't have to learn HTML coding or how to upload files, and then our Paper Template so you can have one of those "piece of paper" looking sales letters…
With Paper Template, you can click one button and create a sales letter (pre-written, just fill in the blanks and delete what you don't need). Click another button to create a simple download page (hidden from your navigation and the search engines).
If this all seems confusing, it doesn't have to be… inside our Income Machine course, we give you a clone that you can stick on your site so you have SOMETHING setup that you can edit…
At this point you have a "template" of a sales letter (the front page of your site or the .com) and a "template" of a download page (one single page). Now what???
Step 1 of 3: Resale Rights & Download Page
As I said before, resale rights are a great starting point for your product because it means you can setup something for now and improve later. You can pay somebody a one-time fee (usually $10-$20) and in exchange, get the rights to place their videos and sales letter on your own site, keep all of the money, and make any changes you want including putting your name on it, rename the product, edit it as much as you want.
I know what you're thinking. Resale rights, only 20 dollars, it must be crap. A lot of resale rights are low-quality, especially things like written articles, but in my experience, PLR video is usually decent. Sometimes you get stuck with a bad PowerPoint-based product, but most of the time the videos show them actually taking some action.
For 20 bucks they'll give you a large 400 MB sized zip file with videos. Download, right click and unzip, verify that you're allowed to sell them and do what you want with them. Then re-zip JUST the video files. They're usually MP4 or AVI files. In Windows, select the files you want, right click, Send To, Compressed Folder.
What do you do with that zip file? WordPress has a way for you to upload SMALL files such as images, but for a larger download, you can use your web host's cPanel File Manager to upload right into what's called your WordPress "upload" folder. You don't need to install any software to upload files to your site.
Then you can browse to the Download Page on your WordPress site and link to that zip file for someone to download. As a bonus (if you know how to do this) you can upload the MP4 files individually to your YouTube account and set them to "unlisted" so they aren't public but you can place them right there on your download page.
Step 2 of 3: Sales Letter & Payment Button
You have a way for someone to claim and get their download, now let's create a way for someone to pay you money and get access to that download. (It's a lot easier by going backwards in this way.)
PayPal allows you to create a "buy now" button (we also show this inside our Income Machine course) where you basically tell PayPal: I want to sell a product with this name (what people see on the checkout page and on their payment receipt), for this price (i.e. $7.00 one-time), and send them to this specific URL only if they pay. This is your download page.
Once you've created the button (hosted at PayPal), they give you a special link or button you can place on your page. Guess what? If you had nothing else but a "piece of paper" template with nothing on it other than that button, you still have something for sale!
If you have five minutes of free time, stick a headline at the top of the page. Paper Template has dozens of headlines built in (I've distilled all of the various headlines that make sense on the Internet down to just a few). We are the only sales letter plugin out there with a built-in swipe file.
If you have five more minutes, add ten bullet points under the headline giving people just ten good reasons to buy your course on guitar, or ten things they'd walk away with after completing your paid course.
Step 3 of 3: Membership Site & Email Sequence
Notice I deliberately left out the "fanciness" that comes later. You have two choices: either try to ten things in "parallel" (at the same time), get tripped up, eek along and have ten things at 10%, ten things at 20%, ten things at 30%... or do it in "series" (one after another). Knock out your download page. Knock out your payment button. Knock out that basic sales letter.
THEN you can add in fancier stuff later. An easy example is your membership site. Create a separate WordPress installation in your "members" folder, create a SINGLE PAGE download area, and create your new payment button and switch it out onto the sales page. (Income Machine includes our Member Genius membership plugin.)
Keep in mind this is a membership site where people only pay ONE TIME and only get access to ONE PAGE. The only improvement is that they now create an account to login and get back to that single download if they need it. If you want to add a 2nd page, other levels such as an upsell. That comes later.
Most people are setting things up in the wrong order. They create the "nice-to-haves" first instead of the "must-haves." They create their opt-in page first, their email autoresponder sequence, then they get tired and don't actually create something to sell. Complete things that make money first!
Templatize It!
What makes money: sending paid traffic to that sales letter, breaking even on the ad cost, and building a list of buyers. Joint ventures and affiliate traffic. Building your list. Mailing offers to your list.
"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now."
-- Chinese Proverb
What good is the best information product in the world if no one actually buys it to see it? Get it online, get it selling, and when you're looking to improve that product… instead of throwing out the whole product to start over, think about this instead:
What step-by-step checklist or template can you give someone to make better sense out of those existing PLR videos?
No one cares about how many years you've studied guitar, how many hours the videos are (in fact, if you say there are 100 hours of videos, it talks me OUT OF buying), or how many pages are in the transcript.
They don't even care about "work" or "learning." They care about getting the result they paid money for, while having the most fun, doing the least amount of work, and getting it in the shortest amount of time!
That means your guitar course can have an additional checklist that says… buy this specific guitar, buy these strings, buy this pick, buy this equipment. Master these finger positions. Show you can properly mark time in this way. Play the background part for these five very simple songs. Play these five simple guitar solos.
Give people some easy tasks to check off. You can create any kind of checklist or fill-in-the-blank component in your membership site using our WP Notepad plugin.
If you can get rights to a piece of software or app that helps people to play the guitar, or recycle your early profits into outsourcing such a thing, that's another component you can use to improve your offer. Add in a 30-minute video Skype consultation (using TimeTrade to schedule the appointments) keeping in mind that only 10% of your customers will take you up on it, you'll record it and add it to a section of the member's area, and it's something you probably would have done for free anyway!
"There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing and be nothing."
-- Elbert Hubbard
The easiest way to start making passive income is with an information product. The quickest and simplest way to sell that kind of product is with a piece of paper looking web page such as Paper Template.
My question to you today is:
Where is your sales letter?
Be sure to post a URL below with a page of yours that has a WORKING buy button.
I'm curious and I'll be checking it out soon. Thanks.
COMPLETE: The Most Important Word for Your Online Business in 2015
If there's only one single "word" you should keep in mind for your online business in 2015 and 2016, it's this word: "complete."
If you have a buy button or an optin form online then you’re ahead of most people. It doesn’t have to be perfect as long as it’s complete. You can always improve later.
040: Self-Help for Internet Marketers & Entrerepreneurs (What to Do When No One Else Seems to Get It)
I'll admit it, I DON'T have it all figured out! But I'm right there with you when it feels like, as a home-based entrepreneur, no one else seems to be on the same track as you. In today's podcast I'm going to share a few tools with you to avoid burnout, information overload, fear of failure, and more. It's easier to edit crap than air!
(Lots of show notes this time around, please scroll down a little to see the audio player for today's action-packed super-sized episode.)
Self Help Advice You Might Have Heard Before (But Need to Hear Again)
- You are your own worst enemy: it feels good to complain, self fulfilling prophecy
- "We are what we repeatedly do" (you are what you eat)
- "Your income is the average of your 5 closest friends"
- Abundance mindset vs victimhood, resentment
- "Some people say self help doesn't last. Neither does showering, and that's why we recommend it daily"
- "Ask the computer called your brain the right questions" -- the phrasing is important, i.e. HOW can this be done and not CAN it be done
"Get Back on Track" Checklist
Don't share these answers with me or anyone else... it's explained in the second half of today's episode...
- Self sabotage: In what way do you SOMETIMES have one foot on the break? (So you can overcome it)
- What are you really afraid of and what sometimes stalls you out? (i.e. What if my websites go down, too many refunds, FTC, IRS)
- Why did you get started in the first place? (what excited you back then that maybe you lost track of)
- What gets you excited to grow your business and do what really needs to be done? (must be a different, better, more detailed and more emotional answer to the previous question)
- Based on all this, what do you REALLY want to become a reality in the next 6 months? (a thing or activity, not money)
Simple Solutions to Become Motivated & Productive Anytime You Want
- Willpower (iffy and unreliable but happens on occasion)
- Take the first step today towards that goal (i.e. make that one quick phone call to get the ball rolling)
- Lift app: take multivitamin, go to gym, read 30 minutes (just don't load it up with more than 3 things)
- Morning routine: walk or run to "change the channel" in your mind
- Mentor where you'll behave yourself (unmuted in a group), and you're looking for a SIMPLE SOLUTION to an EASILY EXPLAINABLE PROBLEM
- Countdown timer or record your computer screen of you performing the task you want
Like the Robert Plank Show on Facebook
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Secret Amazon Income
Many of the things you buy on Amazon aren't sold by Amazon. They're either mailed from regular sellers just like you (kind of like eBay but faster and more civilized), and even many times if you get an item with that 2-day "Prime" shipping, it mails out of Amazon's warehouse but the item (crackers, light bulbs, computer monitor) is "owned" by someone else (anyone can be an Amazon seller)
How To Make Your First Sale Online
Register an Amazon seller account, find an old book in your house you won't use anymore, "list" that book for sale (you can type any UPC code into what you want to list) for 0.01 plus 4.99 shipping.
If it doesn't sell, no harm done, if it does sell, Amazon gives you a label, you put this in a small box, make a dollar or two profit
1000 per Month Formula
Go into your local Walmart, Kmart, BigLots, Costco, Sam's Club, scan barcodes with the iPhone app until you find something that sells for 3x on Amazon compared to the "discount" price at this store. Tell Amazon what items you're sending in and what price you're charging (you'll match the lowest) price -- you'll outsell most other sellers because they're shipping from home with "slow" shipping... your stuff will be sent out of Amazon's warehouse.
Once it's on its way to Amazon your job is done, Amazon takes the orders, mails out the items, and sends you money...
Private Labeling
Find a decent selling item (we have criteria and it's usually not something on the 1st or 2nd page)... find their supplier in China (easy to do when you click around), get some samples, create your own listing for this product, buy a SMALL order from them and get them to mail it into Amazon's warehouse. Make your first few sales, run Amazon ads and get reviews... replenish your inventory... pretty simple.
Simple UNLESS you get stuck in this or that Amazon screen, or mess up your ads, product listing, choose the wrong product, or get a bunch of inventory you can't sell and lost money on... you want to avoid this by instead following the instructions in our Dropship CEO course...
For example, if you're outside the US, there's an easy way to get started with Amazon and it involves getting a US bank account (which you can do even if you're not in the US)...
What you do with this information and your own results are up to you. But this is a method of selling that doesn't require your own website, list, or joint ventures and it actually scales unlike most internet businesses...
Free Quickstart Report - Free Video Training
Join the "Dropship CEO" Training Course
Unlike "those" PowerPoint courses or slow-paced courses, we actually set this all up in front of you and get you to do it as well, including lots of goodies like our "feedback getting" software (boosts your Amazon ranking) which no one else has. And it closes in just a couple days, so I'm looking forward to you joining it TODAY.
039: Scanning, Thrifting, Sourcing & Private Labeling (Using Fulfilled by Amazon FBA Seller Dropshipping)
Check out today's Robert Plank Show (podcast) where we talk about making money using Amazon... no, I'm not talking about Amazon's affiliate program, Kindle, CreateSpace, or WebStores... this is their Amazon Seller Central program or Fulfilled by Amazon where you can sell any item they have in their catalog (such as books or cookware) OR create your own "gadget" that you buy for pennies and sell for tens of dollars all day long...
Productivity Corner
Those four things you completed today, how much money did they make you?
- Don't compare your insides to the outsides of others (your "behind the scenes" vs. their "highlight reel") and beware of someone who never shares their struggles & roadblocks (the most interesting part)
- Have an abundance mindset, not scarcity (be careful about bitterness & jealousy) -- there's room for all of us to make money
- Cycle through 4DT, accountability partner, calendar, countdown timer, Camtasia babysitter
Feature Presentation (Amazon FBA)
Yes, private labeling with Amazon FBA still works if you live outside the United States because you can send your shipping label to your supplier and they can mail directly into Amazon's warehouse...
- Your first sale: list a $0.01 used book plus shipping as a Merchant Fulfilled item
- Scanning & thrifting: Visit Kmart, BigLots, Walmart, Costco with the special iPhone app and find something listed on Amazon for 3x what you pay, send shipments in (Fulfilled by Amazon)
- Sourcing/private labeling: find their supplier, get UPC code, samples, break even on sales while you grow the ads and reviews, then increase the price for a profit
- CLOSING THOUGHTS: If people are making things too complicated for you, they haven't achieved mastery
Join Dropship CEO Right Now to Claim the Autopilot Amazon Income You've Always Wanted and Deserved
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Income Machine: How to Finally Stop Wasting Time, Generate the Income You Want and Live the Lifestyle You Deserve
Henry Ford says, "Whether you THINK you can or you can't, you're right!"
I turn 30 years old in less than 24 hours (be sure to leave me a quick "happy birthday" below) and I'm sure when you yourself turned 30, 40, 50 you probably got a little too nostalgic and made yourself feel bad about all the progress you didn't make while ignoring the progress you DID make...
I don't have all the answers, but I know that when I was 20 years old I was barely scraping by (trading time for dollars), when I was 25 I made some of the easiest money I'd ever made in my entire life (products and membership sites) and after age 25 I saw the cashflow cliff approaching... our niche getting too crowded and "tired" and I adjusted by making our courses high ticket and software low ticket to build the list...
I was introducing Lance Tamashiro (my business partner) on one of our webinars and I literally had no idea what to say to introduce him. Suddenly it hit me...
We all go through four stages in our online business: (1) bright shiny object mode, (2) learning mode, (3) fed-up mode and (4) making money from a "real" business
It's okay to build your test sites and goof around with WordPress or PHP plugins for the first few weeks... or maybe 1 day a week... but if you aren't making money from your online efforts, it's going to get boring FAST...
Most business owners also don't realize that they can BACKSLIDE from Level 4 (a real business that makes money) and fall way back into Level 2 (learning mode) -- for example, deleting old sites that no longer get traffic or spending 6 months moving everything to a new shopping cart system, eek!
I go through growing pains in my business all the time and I want to help you with those CHOICES you'll make (that no one else can make for you):
Decision #1: Fastest Way to Make Money?
The cop-out (but truthful) answer is: solve real problems that are hard for others, in demand by others (meaning lots of people already pay money for it) easy for you, and fun for you!
That means if you can show someone how to improve their golf game, you need to be firing on all cylinders. Setup a worker account on Fiverr.com and offer to critique peoples' golf swing (they send in a video). Record and post a quick 5 minute video every day about something golf related. Publish a quick article every day with something golf related. Buy other golf instructors' $97 courses and find what they're missing, or what unique twist you could bring to your own future "how to" golf membership course...
Decision #2: What Niche Do You Choose?
(a marketable skill like real estate, stock trading, playing guitar, dating, losing weight). This needs to be a "desperate" but not a "poor" niche. For example, coupon collecting and debt reduction seem like poor niches to me (unless you can find someone making good money with it).
A better alternative would be a course on people who want to build $500,000 of wealth into a million dollars or the 1 million dollars they saved for retirement into 5 million, don't you think?
Decision #3: What Price to Charge for Your Course?
Make it $97 with a 90 minute 4-step video plus a bonus report just to reduce the number of decisions you have to make at this point. The cliche is to have 10X the value and I agree with it. So sell a $97 course with $970 of value in your video and report
Decision #4: How Often and What Time of Day to Mail?
Controversy time. There's a Chinese proverb that says, "The best time to plant a tree was 10 years ago." The way it applies to you with internet marketing is that you should have made that information product (membership site, course, whatever you want to call it) 3 months ago, you should have started building a list 3 months ago... but!
Today is close enough so get to it now and clear everything out of your schedule THIS WEEK other than making that product so you can start to make money from it. A piece of advice you're not going to like, but you're going to follow if you want money: send an email to these subscribers (even if it's only a list of 100) at LEAST 3 times a week, preferably 5 times per week or every day.
I won't go off on a tangent here, but you will lose 1% of your subscriber list every day, that's just how internet marketing works, and if it's up to you to generate enough traffic to MORE than replace that 1% of your list. People unsubscribe, that's just what happens.
Be CAREFUL of this: when people say... you email too much. Or I'm unsubscribing from you because you're trying to sell me something. In my case, didn't these people join my list because they wanted to be better marketers and site builders? And yet they don't like it when I'm marketing to them? Or showing them how to solve this problem they signed up to my list to solve?
I hear all the time, "I like such-and-such marketer because he didn't have anything for sale and he didn't try to sell me anything." Is that really the person you want as a mentor? Just something for you to think about.
Decision #5: Best Way to Build a List and Get Traffic?
The toughest question of all, right? Once you create that site, how do you get people to see it? I'm always reluctant to answer this question because 80% of the time, people don't even have something for sale so they're trying to put the cart before the horse: looking at a problem they're going to have in 30 days to avoid doing anything TODAY.
The easy "traffic" answer is to use a site like Fiverr to get 10 articles written, submit them to article sites, setup a free blog where you post these articles with links back to your sites. Setup AdWords ads, Facebook ads, retargeting, find a marketplace like a forum where people can trickle in every day. Setup an affiliate program, recruit your buyers into affiliates and also contact at least 5 people per day for either you to interview them about their product or you to be interviewed about your product (I use TimeTrade for this).
Decision #6: How to Tie it All Together?
I'm probably getting ahead of myself AND revealing too much at the same time, but inside our Income Machine course, we show you how to get it all setup and we basically say...
- Use NameCheap to register a .com domain name (don't register this before joining our course because there are a few things to keep in mind that we don't have time to show here)
- Use HostGator to host your website itself and WordPress to make it point and click easy
- Inside Income Machine, we have a 1-click clone that will setup Paper Template on your "front-end" site (.com) to hold your opt-in page at Example.com/free (build a list) and sales letter at Example.com (sell a product)
- Next, you setup another WordPress blog at Example.com/blog to hold your free articles and videos, and link back to that optin page
- You 1-click clone our "back-end" site at Example.com/members to deliver your products, upsell and manage your members
- You can now do the fun "traffic" stuff like article marketing, joint ventures, an affiliate program, podcasting, paid traffic, and more...
These Are the Pieces of Your Income Machine Once It's Setup
- Niche & hook (domain name)
- Web hosting (online presence)
- Optin page (lead capture: Example.com/free)
- Autoresponder sequence (automatic email followups in case they don't buy)
- Blog (search engine traffic: Example.com/blog)
- Sales letter (something to buy: Example.com)
- Membership site (deliver what they bought: Example.com/members)
- Traffic (articles, joint ventures, affiliate program, podcasting, paid traffic)
Do you see what I mean that you have to crawl before you run? Once again, thinking back to my "not making money" days vs. making money now (I have been full-time since 2009) -- when I wasn't making money, I wasn't "really" trying and my focus was split 1000 different ways. Compared to now, when I do just ONE thing at a time.
Productivity Milestone #1: Four Daily Tasks
It frustrates me when people use productivity software or crazy mindmaps, grids, and schedules to complicate their lives. What ALSO frustrates me is when people say they took 3 weeks off of their business to "rest" or "clear their head." Here's an idea... take that vacation when your business is cranking out money for you!
Just complete three 45-minute tasks and one 15-minute task that moves you closer to you making more money. Multitasking is a MYTH. Checking Facebook and LinkedIn doesn't actually move your business forward, does it?
Productivity Milestone #2: Webinars & Membership Sites
Our Platinum coaching students tell us that these two things are what revolutionized and boosted their income. If you're selling a high ticket course (over $197) then you need to deliver it as one live session per week for 4 or 8 weeks...
If you want to sell several copies of that course, run a free webinar where you teach for 45 minutes and sell for 15 minutes at the end. You're also going to need a membership site to manage all those members. After paying you, they create an account and can login forever.
Productivity Milestone #3: The Right Mindset
Zig Ziglar says, "People often say that motivation doesn't last. Neither does showing, so that's why we recommend it daily." You are going to be your own worst enemy, but if you can nip your problems in the bud you can be one of those "entrepreneur" people with a good attitude who can also think themselves out of a problem even if the deck is stacked against you (i.e. small list).
Make Some Dang Money!
Beware of comparing yourself too much to others (you don't know what goes on with that "happy family" behind closed doors), keeping up with the Joneses (i.e. too big of a house with 3 cars), or living the nomad lifestyle (visiting a new foreign country every week) -- pay off your mortgage instead.
If someone's criticizing you, it's probably because they're deeply insecure about that subject.
Be careful of the "good" and "bad" language you use. I'm not saying you need to be in denial about a problem, but minimize complaining and only complain about something if you have a way to solve that problem, because we all have problems and it's up to YOU as a PROBLEM SOLVER to decide either how the problem doesn't matter or how to break that problem down and solve it!
80% of your activities are a waste so do a bunch of different things: coaching program, membership site, low ticket product, service... and figure out which 20% makes you the most money so you can increase that. HINT: you need to actually COMPLETE these projects and websites and get TRAFFIC and BUYERS to find out what makes money and what doesn't.
Separate the forest from the trees. If you've found a way to make $1000 dollars per week, that's great. But if you're working 50 hour weeks and you're scrambling to "launch" the next money making biz-opp that doesn't really help anyone and only makes money because people can't figure out how to cancel or refund... that's not sustainable.
What IS sustainable is solving a real problem someone has, AND you can do that most effectively by figuring out what makes you the most money. What makes the most money for our business... emailing the list and running pitch webinars. Things like podcasting and blogging, or even speaking at events... makes SOME money and it's fun to do on occasion but it's not the MAIN 20 percent, you see?
Model what you see the money makers doing in your niche. That means you need to "rise above being a geek." Instead of teaching some obscure traffic loophole or even a course about how to get better grades in school (who is really going to buy something like that?), how about you sell something that people are going to use every day?
Why do you think I stopped selling "how to learn PHP programming" courses and instead focused on how to add these things to your sales letter, or a popup plugin like Action PopUp? Or plugins like Backup Creator, Paper Template, and Member Genius? (Those three all available inside Income Machine, by the way.)
Because I experimented with services, coaching, products, and software and after seeing how each one sold, I was able to figure out what the BUYERS (and not just what the complainers) wanted, and moved our business into selling items that people use in their business every day...
If you too want to discover how to create a REAL online business that lasts through age 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 for you, so you don't have to "scramble" or "reinvent yourself" every 3 months, you'll want to check out our Income Machine course right away and setup the system and funnel that all successful online businesses have:
Click Here Now to Claim Your Free "Income Machine" Blueprint
Be sure to click over to that Income Machine training and while that's loading, can you leave me a quick "happy birthday" message below?
038: Sell a Complete Course (Info-Product Creation & Membership Sites)
Check out today's exciting edition of the Robert Plank Show to find out why some people seem to make all the money and others don't -- and of course quickly apply it to your own online business...
- QUICK THOUGHT #1: no one wants to buy tips or tid-bits
- QUICK THOUGHT #2: gang members make $3/hr (Freakonomics) -- you're not going to get just "one big break"
- QUICK THOUGHT #3: You need an Income Machine (niche, website, optin page, autoresponder, blog, sales letter, membership site, traffic) -- just YouTube, Twitter, podcasting isn't going to cut it (it's just traffic that points back to your Income Machine)
Eight Components to Selling a Complete Course
- Eat your own dog food (actually use what you sell, i.e. if you're selling an article marketing course, at least have a handful of articles under your name)
- Magic trick -- even in the course, something cool that only takes 2 minutes (think Siri or GPS)
- End goal
- Milestones
- Coaching upsell
- Templates
- Checklist
- Case study
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 45:05 — 41.3MB) | Embed
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037: What is Your Magic Trick? (This Should Change Your Copywriting, Webinars, Sales Letters and Membership Sites Forever)
Urgent Warning! Don't script your podcasts, blog posts, or webinar pitches... do "THIS" instead! (explained in today's Robert Plank Show)...
- How to make more sales and money and present your sales message with almost zero "prep time"
- Sell the sizzle and not the steak (and NOT the big box of crap)
- Exactly why our course launch about a "3 million word" transcription system flopped, but a "3 minute solution" fixed everything and more
- Teach long division, sell the calculator: you don't need 5 minutes to explain your product or course... AND... you can probably make all the sales you need in about 20 minutes... tune in to find out how!
Visio Diagram From Hell:
Siri vs. Cortana commercial:
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:27 — 32.5MB) | Embed
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036: Keep it Stupidly Simple (When It Comes to Your Membership Sites, Webinars and Sales Letters)
Welcome back to the Robert Plank Show, tune in today to discover:
- What it means to "sell what you sell" (sell one thing for $97 as opposed to a maze of $17, $27, and $37 upsells), separate the "forest from the trees" (stop throwing out what's working just to build yourself back up to what you have now), and reduce that clutter (if you haven't used an item in 1-5 years, do you still need it?)
- Why the knowledge taught in "Think & Grow Rich" (visualize), "4 Hour Work Week" (80/20), "Good to Great" (one thing), and "The E-Myth" (checklist) keep showing up over and over again
- Why I re-did my blog post as the plain WordPress 2012 theme (and I'm happier with it than my previous "custom blog theme"
- How all you need to have is an ugly website, then send traffic to it, then build a list and keep promoting to that list
- Welcome our brand new sponsor Membership Cube who will show you how to get all your paid (and free) content up and running, how to get your copywriting (sales letter) done in a flash, then add all the upsells, dashboard, etc. that you want
Here are the questions I asked you in today's call -- but keep the answers to yourself!
- Do you email every day?
- Is all your content (i.e. podcasts or videos) "one take content?"
- Do you have a payment button online where I can buy from you today?
- Are you completing four daily tasks every day?
- Do you publish one "piece" of content per week? (podcast, YouTube, pitch webinar, or webinar class) FACEBOOK does not count.
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:52 — 21.9MB) | Embed
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