What if you taught weight loss? Give me a 5x5 table (or dashboard) where I can choose the meal plan I want to lose weight.
Hypnosis membership site? Let me jump to the exact recording I want to listen to in order to feel good, fall asleep, get focused, etc. Let me choose the exact real estate form in your real estate membership site.
Catchphrase of the Week: When you copy the airplane for the first time, duplicate the dents, too.
Question of the Week: What's the One Word That You Own? Drip, clone. Template.
Quote of the Week: "No focus = overwhelm." -- Dan Blank
Marketer of the Week:Joe Lavery (put the pressure on your website visitors using scarcity)
Our Membership Cube course shows you how to setup WordPress, a domain name, sales letter, and use Wishlist Member as the "gatekeeper" to manage all your members: let them in once they pay, or kick them out if they cancel/refund.
Today we're talking about a silly way of making money using Fiverr. Our course for this is at Profit Dashboard. Everyone can do this. Even if you're bored, goofing around, looking for startup money, or starting a business that someone else can continue.
Phrase #2: Think about what you'd do if you were desperate for money. Then do some version of that (on a smaller scale) so you don't actually have to become desperate.
Quote of the Week from Revolutionary War Colonel William Prescott: "An obstacle is often a stepping stone."
Marketer of the Week: Daniel Hall from DanielHallPresents.com. Have a whole year of webinars booked. Book 2-3 different webinar swaps with someone if the first one works well.
First, make the money ($100). Then, scale it to make more money ($1000). Then, scale back the time so it doesn't take over your life ($100-$1000/hour)...
Today, think about living life on your terms: where no one tells you what to do, and you can do what you want. Run your own blog, webinars, podcasts, events, publish your books. Do what you want, but do something! Stop thinking.
What if you provided a coaching bonus when someone buys from you? (even for $17 or $97) -- TimeTrade.com
What if you send a personal postcard to people who bought, or even attended your webinars? -- WPKunaki.com and DoubleAgentCards.com
What if you asked QUESTIONS from your email subscribers? Most marketers don't know to do this.
Appointment-Based Business: Could you run your entire internet business in just 1 hour a day? You probably could, if you got off Facebook, emails, customer support. Guess what? You still have that time. It just shouldn't be "business time." You might need a day planner or a calendar.
Fiverr: A Silly But Effective Repeatable Income
Fiverr Marketplace: people buy things for $5, usually more with upsells, multiple "gigs", fast delivery
Based on ratings and rankings so it's not a sketchy marketplace like DigitalPoint, Craigslist, or even Upwork
Voiceovers, videos, run SEO software, transcriptions, article writing
Post your "gig" (or job) and choose your pricing (i.e. $5 for 50 flyers or 100 word voiceover)
Take steps to get traffic to your gig (this is unique to Profit Dashboard)
Check your orders, complete them in a few minutes, and deliver them
Get rated and rate your buyers -- rise in the rankings
Closing Thoughts: Small Increments
What if you read just 1 page of a book per day? (minimum)
What if you earned or saved an extra $100 per day? ($3k/mo = $36k/year = $720k in 20 years, even before compound interest)
What if you put in an extra 10 minutes into your business every morning? 5 hours per month or 60 hours per year
Most people bastardize "Think & Grow Rich" because they forget about FOCUS. Most marketers talk themselves out of taking any action because they're already "imagined" themselves doing it.
Stop thinking. Just do. You can course correct later.
Marketer of the week: Teresa King. She Taught me how to keep it simple. One of the first people I knew with a membership site (1999) -- BoxedScripts with me. Redirect Pro.
Feature Presentation: The Penny Test
Does your business pass these three tests?
Penny Test (what happens if you set your product's price to 0.01, actually purchase for real, then change the price back to normal later? Can you completely pay, check out, and create an account in your system? What about logging back in?)
Login Test (upsell, test user, MG user masquerading, dashboard page, login-logout)
Opt-in Test (single-double-triple optin, re-optin with existing address) fill in contact form)
Ten Bonus Tests
1. Is your mailing address on your website? 2. What about a contact form? 3. What do I see when I google your name? 4. Search your name on Amazon? 5. Search on YouTube? 6. Search on iTunes? 7. Do you own the .com? 8. Where can I optin on your site? 9. What can I buy? 10. If I only buy one thing from you, what should I buy?
Bonus test: where's the one place that I can find your "best stuff"? (best of page on your blog, blog post listing all your products, etc.)
If you feel like there are holes in your internet marketing knowledge, that maybe you're trying to learn college calculus but can't add two plus two, then this is the podcast episode for you!
Many marketers are obsessed with split testing, funnels, and setting up 1-click upsells, but they don't even have a buy button on a sales page.
Can I walk you through what I tell someone if they're struggling, can't get a sales page figured out, and just need a quick web page online?
The first thing is that you should have a copy of Paper Template (just $7 dollars) installed on WordPress, because you can easily click and create anything you want. But now what do you write on that web page where you want people to enter their email to subscribe? What magic words do you place on a web page where you want people to click and pay you money?
Marketer of the Week: Robert Puddy
I created a couple of products and launched a couple of services with Robert Puddy back in the day. His big thing then was creating traffic exchanges to bring in lots and lots of hungry traffic.
His biggest site is Launch Formula Marketing (now Login Frequency Marketing). Puddy monetizes unsubscribes from his list (link them to SpamAssassin with your affiliate link), even lost password pagees (Roboform). Make them login to your site every day, for example, to watch a webinar.
Wise Words This Week
When we get overwhelmed, we often use multitasking to get back on track. It often causes more problems than it solves. Usually when you split your attention, you’re giving half the effort and producing half the results. The solution is to develop "single-handling" activities. --- S.J. Scott
Copywriting Shortcut
AIDA/WWHW: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. Why, What, How-To, What-If. Keep it stoppable stupid, look with fresh eyes, bottlenecks
Who Else Wants To... (this headline is my squeeze page starter)
Imagine... (starter for emails)
What Would Happen If... (starter for webinars)
Quick Question... (starter for sales letters)
PHASE I: Minimum Viable Product
Headline: Who Else Wants To?
Ten bullet points: why should I get this?
Price and buy button
WWHW re-ordering
PHASE II: Fundamentals
Button, stack, headline (in that order)
Product breakdown (individual modules)
Problem agitate solve (story)
Four objections (no need, I don't believe you)
PHASE III: Persuasion
Four stages of awareness
Cialdini 6 elements
Typos and numbers not adding up
PHASE IV: Window Dressing
Case studies and testimonials
Graphics
Jump links
Resources
Paper Template (This is the WordPress plugin I use on all my sites for sales letters, optin pages, webinar replay pages, and more.)
Fast Food Copywriting (Here's how I churn out attention-grabbing, high-converting sales pages in just a few minutes on-demand.)
Speed Copy (The complete course on how to make a full-time income with money-making web pages)
Maybe you're bored in your internet business right now because there's no real risk, challenge, or excitement in your business? This especially happens if you fall into the trap of "lying" because nothing is real. Let's get you creative so you can think your way out of your current predicament (even if that problem is boredom)...
Creativity doesn't only mean "get a bunch of ideas." Notice how the word "create" is in it? Creativity = to create. Make something new and valuable. Idea or invention.
Why slow down? If you're on a roll, keep going, so during slow times when you're tired, your past self (on a timer) is like an extra employee you don't have to pay.
Four minute mile: 100 article days, book in an afternoon, class in an afternoon, airport product. $2k product twice a week. Hack a 100k income, how many products to sell to achieve that goal. $1000 per hour income (webinars). 1 hour per week full time income (Amazon). 1 hour per day income (Fiverr). Think your way out of a situation.
Albert Einstein made creative breakthroughs by asking interesting questions, such as: what would it be like to ride a wave of light?
Distill the noise down: do you take 20 pages of notes at a seminar/webinar or 5 bullet points / key takeaways?
Separate the forest from the trees! Getting so bogged down by the details you don't see the big picture, end goal, reason why, do's and dont's. Presentation on 187 types of content? A mile wide and an inch deep. Solve some problems instead. Good for pitching/presenting, bad for a product.
Our Marketer of the week is Ken Evoy from "Make Your Price Sell." He was the first marketer I've seen with a dynamic price. For example, you sell a product where the price increases by 1 penny every minute.
Let's break the stages of you unlocking your creativity and solving any problem into four steps: WHY (reframe), WHAT (mindmap), HOW (insight), and WHAT-IF (creative flow):
Step A: WHY Reframe (change the interpretation)
Hit the problem from multiple angles with probing questions. Questions must be answered! Here's what you need to ask from yourself:
A1: What's the big problem? What happens without this solution? (common enemy) A2: What am I solving? (specific goal) A3: What's the current way to solve it? A4: Why is my solution better?
Who am I solving it for?
Why does this even matter?
What can I learn from this?
What's funny about this?
How do I start this?
What do I do after this?
During this stage, our goal is childlike curiosity (kids ask lots of questions but adults are set in their ways). We want to limit perfectionism and take up exercise such as free-writing. Apply random words to your situation. Think of as many "C" words as possible, for instance. Criticizing in this stage is only good if you ask: how could I have done better? You need to think up good possibilities and ideas to shoot down later.
Step B: WHAT Mindmap (branch out)
Get the structure, outline, manipulation, trimming, and the sequence.
B1: Brain dump sub-problems. B2: Get it dialed in: Diverge (go big, seek out) vs. Converge (decide, connect, guidelines, reduce). Combine, split, add, remove, edit B3: Professor Elliot Eisner: boundary pushing (rules are constraining, let's bend them), inventing (useful combinations), boundary breaking (least common: opposite thinking, gap filling, the rules themselves are the problem), aesthetic organizing (order from chaos: most common)
Boundary pushing: can we shave one second off this plugin? Remove one step from the process
Boundary breaking: we host this software for them.
Aesthetic organizing: for example, in every 10-episode chunk of my podcast, I'll plan on having one episode about WordPress, a case study episode, a product pitch, mindset episode, marketing, writing, and so on.
Inventing: A or B eye doctor test: does it work better as "A" or work better as "B"?
Step C: HOW Insight (Professor Arne Dietrich Creativity Matrix)
This is the step where you think of the solution, but you don't implement yet. The reason why you might feel you've "hit a wall" is because you're only using one type of creativity. There are four:
C1: deliberate vs. spontaneous, cognitive vs. emotional.
Deliberate cognitive: Thomas Edison (I haven't failed, I've just found 10,000 ways it won't work). Build knowledge, pay attention, make connections
Deliberate emotional: ah-ha moment. Flash of insight, emotions/feelings. Bad chain of events leads to a revelation.
Spontaneous cognitive: Isaac Newton and the Apple. Eureka, dopamine, out of the box unconscious thinking.
Spontaneous emotional: Einstein. Epiphanies from artists and musicians. Least controlled.
C2: How to get to these quadrants: Knowledge + time = DC, Quiet time = DE, Escape (incubation) = SC, Random = SE
C3: You need all four.
Einstein's combinatory play: stop working on the problem. Ideas come to you when you're in the shower.
Don't let "that" person's negativity get inside your head.
Magic wand thinking: if there were no limitations, what would I come up with?
Paint yourself into a corner to get out of your comfort zone. Take a risk.
State change: exercise, take a break, Aaron Sorkin shower, Winston Churchill nap
Step D: NOW Creative Flow (it all falls into place)
Implement the solution!
D1: Anthony Robbins would say you're looking for a Type 1 experience that: feels good, is good for you, helps others and helps the greater good D2: Repetition is the mother of skill: Unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, unconscious competence.
Figure out your routine: write every day, certain hours of the day. What motivates and demotivates you.
Rush to get things done during alone time.
Blue backgrounds = creativity, red backgrounds = attention to detail
Brain tricks. Set a time limit. Get back to a state when you were excited, crazy, unstoppable
What's great about this system we've laid out is that there's a huge "well" of techniques and ideas you can draw from anytime you're stuck thinking of a save to "save" a dead launch, increase your income, revive a dead email list, or even flesh out the chapters of your next book.
Speaking of your next book and eliminating your writer's block, we highly recommend the Make a Product course to get your next book finished and published on Amazon within the next few days.
Are your goals S.M.A.R.T. goals? Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. Tune into today's program to uncover the tried and true techniques (16 total) to keep yourself motivated, focused, out of the procrastination zoned and focused on getting it all done and achieving that goal:
Our marketer of the week is Jim Edwards from TheNetReporter. My biggest takeaway from him: just point and shoot PowerPoint for your video. It doesn't need to have quick cuts, fancy edits or be professionally done -- at all.
General Motivation
Four Daily Tasks: Business-Building, Deliverable (no degrees of doneness, no chipping away, no to-do lists)
Seinfeld calendar (do something small every day so the cycle isn't broken) + 5 day sprint
Formula and checklist: for example, 3 part podcasts and "research heavy" blog posts: 100 solutions, group into 4-5 categories and whittle down so it's all meat and no grissle, which leads us to...
Reduce and rearrange the raw materials -- SIMPLE mindmapping with FreeMind helps with this.
Absolute Focus
Dual monitors: left for viewing, right for creating
Remove: distractions, phone, social media, email, TV, news
Clear the clutter: delete temporary EverNote notes and delete after you've made the blog post or product. Clear off desktop items at the end of the month. Quick calendar reminders later in the week to "check on" things and then delete.
Micro-projects: start on Monday, end on Friday or Saturday. You can restart on Monday, but don't leave things open-ended. (Optimistically pessimistic.)
Procrastination
What quick 10 minute activity have you been putting off? Do it now.
Accountability partner. Call every hour if you have a really bad "problem."
Shut down distractions. Close tabs, uninstall Facebook.
Change the pattern. Commit. Don't ask yourself how you "feel" about it. It's a must.
Concentration
What are the top 3 things to focus on? Avoid going an inch deep and a mile wide.
Meditation (meaning silence and reflectiveness).
A state change is as good as rest.
Appointment based business: webinars, meetings, Google calendar, TimeTrade coaching calls.
Wise Words to Live By
Three simple rules in life: 1. If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it. 2. If you don't ask, the answer will always be no. 3. If you don't step forward, you'll always be in the same place.
What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise. -- Oscar Wilde
You may think the grass is greener on the other side, but if you take the time to water your own grass, it would be just as green.
Philosopher Karl Popper: True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it.
I'm finally starting to get it. The newbie mindset (or clarity mindset). Your training should "lean" towards the newbies and making a sense of the mess, with some how-to thrown in.
If you don't have a blog, YouTube channel, an affiliate program, and lots of free content or search results where people can find you, then that's yet one more tool that your competitors have at their disposal, that you don't.
Useful content: weekly podcast, weekly video, weekly blog post.
Ideas: roundup your favorite links, post an embed reactor (a YouTube video and your opinion underneath it), become a "data scientist" and share your results
Think beyond just a blog: guest posts, podcast, book, viral videos
Mild keyword stuffing: use phrases people are searching
(Steve Celeste wasn't actually his real name, and his blog is long gone, but you can check out an archive on the Wayback Machine.)
Steve Celeste's blog and marketing training gave me the idea of creating a "build it to sell it" site. We used that model on DailySeminar.com. I didn't want to commit to a chore of having to crank out membership content on a regular basis, so we listed it for sale even as we were launching it. I also made sure things like the Clickbank account, membership software, etc. were all things that could be detached.
The site only had 53 members paying $47/month, but we had 55 "weeks" of content (20 minute Monday training, 20 minute Tuesday training, 20 minute Wednesday interview, Thursday bonus report, and Friday question day) created in advance. That part took about 40 hours of total "work" -- mostly recording training. We launched it on December 15th of (year removed but it was over 8 years ago). By February 27th of the following year, we had a buyer for $32,000 for everything. $32,000 from 40 hours? That's not a bad payday.
How do you decide what info to give away or charge for? The answer: Use the "William Shatner" model (he has 228 acting credits on IMDB, appeared as himself in 357 more appearances, 9 CDs on Amazon, and 70 books on Amazon). Keep putting stuff out there.
Reasons People Buy From You
They love you: they buy everything you put out (top 1%)
They want it (fad or trend): You got in front of a wave, i.e. everyone's talking about membership sites or one click funnels so you're teaching that
They need it: you're solving a real problem (people will always need to know about affiliate programs, copywriting, etc.)
Fear, convenience, entertainment
What path brings people to you? Our favorite Platinum studnet (Dr. Charles) came from a Jeff Mills guest webinar we presented, then he attended our live event in Salt Lake City and joined our Platinum there. Another Platinum client came from a one-time $997 mastermind session we both attended in Las Vegas. Yet another Platinum student of ours came from a speaking gig where I presented an pitched a $997 offer in San Diego.
Blogging and podcasting the "random-ness" (mindset etc) has put me on a path for the big ideas for books and courses. Here's where I stay in inspired and get a "feel" for what's popular and what people want to hear (without becoming a copycat or a me-too):
Facebook: Unfollow the negative nelly, political complainers or time vampires on Facebook and instead follow: BusinessInsider, Entrepreneur Magazine, Inc Magazine, Fast Company.
It's also been helpful seeing bloggers like Tim Ferriss from the Four Hour Workweek write long-form blog posts in an era where people are trying to tell you that attention spans are down. John Lee Dumas from Entrepreneur on Fire consistently publishes 5 podcast interviews per week (now well over 1100+) which I find super cool. IMNewsWatch is yet another example of sites that put out tons and tons of helpful free content that lead to things to buy.
Follow a formula with your writing, like this:
How to (3 things -- each crazier than the last), without (blank) -- add a keyword or two if you can
Questions, categories: create some kind of order or structure from the huge mess of possibilities
7 ways, 12 tweaks, 35 websites
You don't have to write "poetry" as you're not Seth Godin. Provide value and don't worry about rhyming, or being catchy.
Tip of the Week: I use Zapier to either propagate social media, or notify you every day to produce or publish that content. The most prolific writers have a schedule.
Five Steps to Profitable Content Marketing
Part 1: Consistent podcasting. Join us inside of PodcastCrusher.com to get your podcast up and running in 5 minutes, so you can double dip untapped search results and get listed in BOTH Google and iTunes.
Part 2: 5 minute YouTube videos all week to capture those searches. What do people actually search for? Check out 100 competing YouTube videos with high view counts and group them 4-5 categories. If you haven't experimented sending your subscribers to a video or blog post, you need to. It stirs up the list and gets people to login again.
Part 3: Blogging ideas. Here are some ideas if you're stuck:
A. Why did you get started? Early successes and failures B. What angers you? What's being done wrong in your industry and what are you reacting to? C. Or, just give me something helpful
Part 4: Book. Combine your your best stuff (greatest hits) into a Word document. MakeAProduct.com shows you how to use Kindle and CreateSpace to put out your hardcover and softcover books.
Part 5: Accidental sales. This is where you have so much free stuff out there, that it's hard to tell where your sales exactly came from... iTunes, YouTube, Kindle, your blog, or just a plain Google search. Put out something high ticket, or something with a payment plan and yearly support. This is great for software.
Now that you've used content marketing to feel your niche out... what does their business depend on? What tool or service could you put out there to 10X their business and make them depend on you, in a good way? Maybe you create template sites for offline businesses and charge $2400/mo to keep them going (like Lance and I do). Maybe you create a managed AdWords ad maintenance service, or a Facebook ad service.
The point is, many marketers have a scarcity mindset when it comes to being helpful and putting out content. They're "afraid" of sharing anything cool because they're worried that sharing something for free takes out of a paid product.
My answer to that is to use that free content marketing as a way of getting the bugs out, and build something software or service based into your products so it doesn't matter how much "free" information is out there. They still need your software (or tool) to make it happen.
What ways is your marketing talking you OUT of a sale? Some ways are ok: being true to your personality, because you're polarizing -- repelling some and attracting others. You don't have to apologze, and I'll explain why!
But if you repel the "serious buyers" and only attract the "tire-kickers" -- that hurts you long term. What's your goal?
Our marketer of the Week is Robert Cialdini, author of "Influence":
I've used his "six keys to influence" in my speaking, webinars, sales letters and more. The are: reciprocity, scarcity, liking, authority, social proof, and commitment/consistency. Are you missing one or two of them, or are you skewed way over towards one of these six factors?
Scenarios We're Talking About Today... Are You Guilty of Any Of These
I'm viewing a sales letter for a live chat plugin, but there's no live chat on the page. I'm about to buy a course on copywriting taught by some of the super-old "legends" until the sales letter tells me: by the end of module two, you'll have an idea of how to start your sales letter soon. What?!
I sold a WP sales letter that wasn't actually on WordPress. Better fix it.
Selling an "alternate" webinar service but you're pitching it on GoToWebinar.
Selling an "alternate" landing page plugin but you're selling it on LeadPages.
Blog post saying not to use "admin" as your WordPress login because it's easy to see if it's a valid account. I go to their WP login page, admin is a valid user on that blog.
Selling a podcast course, no podcast. Or just one short episode of a podcast. That tells me you're not a master.
Checklist to "Check For Holes" to Your Own Business
Background: What does someone find when they do their quick "research" on you, or Google search? Selling a book writing course, better have a book in print. Article course, better have some articles. Something impressive.
Testimonials: better check the URLs under each testimonials in your sales letter (don't hyperlink them though) to see if the websites are still there. If not, remove the URL and ask your list for some fresh testimonials.
Bottlenecks: is there an area of your sales letter that "scares" people? Long video, mentioning of too much work (3 weeks)
Negative Social Proof: 100 copies total, only 96 remaining? No one wants it!
Beware of Victim Copywriting: I suffered for 20 years making this so you don't have to. Great, so you'll only get buyers who "delight" in your pain. This is 500 pages, 50 hours, no one cares! Now you're talking me out of a sale.
Gray Areas: fake scarcity, countdown timer, launching/closing/reopening. Unpredictability and urgency to a point. It's a booster, but don't let it become a crutch.
Internet Marketing Lessons
Don't overthink it, but put your best foot forward.
You don't have to be a master with 20-50 years experience, but don't leave yourself vulnerable to research.
Be very careful with "distractions" like live action video, demos, lots of features and case studies to understand it -- less is more!
Because I Can: you're free to say whatever you want, the only consequence is they "vote with their wallets" -- don't condone customer bullying.
Life Lessons from Robert Plank
Any action is better than no action.
It's easier to edit crap than air.
Time sorts out impostors from those who are truthful. Meaning, people aren't going to pay for ads or pay to keep a site going forever if it's not making money.
What to Do Now
Check out Speed Copy to get the best copywriting training out there and close the bottlenecks on your websites
Download and install Paper Template to get your sales letter the best it can be (with a copywriter built into the software)
Setup Your Income Machine (SEO blog, autoresponder sequence, traffic, etc.) to setup a passive income business
Marketer of the week: Stu McLaren from stu.me and Wishlist Member. Rather than share a "breakthrough" I picked up from Stu, I want to tell you that when I present (a webinar or podcast), I imitate his speaking style.
When you speak, speak deliberately! Especially if you're an American and your natural tendency is to slur your words like I do.
Is there anyone in your life who speaks slowly and carefully, without becoming monotone? Then I would suggest you imitate that person's speaking style when you present.
(That's us a few years ago at Inc. Magazine headquarters at 7 World Trade Center in New York City.)
I often "channel" Stu to slow down my speaking, enunciate, and speak more clearly, focus, calm. You can be intense but still make sense. See also: Ray Edwards, Armand Morin.
Fourteen Key Principles: The Common Thread That Runs Through These Successes & Failures
Finishing everything that I start, less notebook doodling
$997, $47 every 2 weeks, 5 payment option, experimenting! Charging high ticket AND low ticket.
Investing in myself: attend conferences instead of stock trading which is gambling and a distraction. Dave Ramsey instead of Jim Cramer.
I don't trust myself: get to the Minimum Viable Product because of the 3 day window.
I'm not smart: I don't know what's going to sell without experimenting and I'm open to new ideas.
Weekly focus: email for the same thing all week. Stick to your guns, don't psych yourself out or let customers bully you
Membership sites: organize both high and low ticket, group multiple sites (but no all-in-one site)
Pitch webinars: do something unexpected, teach a lot and sell hard. Give them a wow moment and not necessarily an aha moment.
Re-marketing: phase out what's not selling and go back in future weeks to promote what's selling (Backup Creator)
Don't delete old sites or content
Your most popular content, marketing and products are the "beginner" stuff
It's ok to repeat your most "powerful" ideas and phrases. How many times have I mentioned Income Machine in podcasts and blog posts? A lot!
Don't be a timid marketer. Welcome pitch emails, upsells, ads. Don't have a buyers only email list or a monthly digest email list. Be on the lookout for what you can absorb/apply, for example, an affiliate bonus package.
Three Biggest Failures
ClickSensor: should have made it an online service
WPLetter (now Paper Template): should have built it out more and controlled the market faster (16k overnight from a 12 minute video)
Action PopUp: should have got the entire marketplace using it, added tons of templates
Bonus: all the PHP products, which made money, but not enough. Lesson: keep publishing things to get to "the good stuff."
Three Biggest Successes
Bulk content creation: books, Daily Seminar, Webinar Crusher monthly, blog, podcast. Just make 12 pieces of content to last you an entire year.
Must-have tool for everyone's business such as Backup Creator: pitch is all about what you can do with it, 100k sites, tie in with our other stuff (Membership Cube) -- yearly renewals, developer license
Pain of disconnect in Membership Cube: selling high ticket, playing with the payment plans, pitching on webinars! (35k in a couple hours)
Bonus: platinum coaching program. Lesson: the first step is getting the button online!
Wise Words to Live By
When you can't change the direction of the wind, adjust your sails.
If you don't change the direction you're going, then you're likely end up where you're heading.
Albert Einstein: "Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of value."
Napoleon Hill: "Keep your eyes and ears wide open--and your mouth CLOSED, if you wish to acquire the habit of prompt DECISION. Those who talk too much do little else. If you talk more than you listen, you not only deprive yourself of many opportunities to accumulate useful knowledge, but you also disclose your PLANS and PURPOSES to people who will take great delight in defeating you, because they envy you."
The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. -- Winston Churchill
When people say mean things about you, it's a reflection on themselves.
You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great. -- John C. Maxwell
INTERNET MARKETER OF THE WEEK: Marlon Sanders
He's from TheTrafficDashboard.com and the best piece of "strategic" advice I ever heard from him is to: Absorb the changes. This means, if you put out a great product, service, app, etc. and someone copies you, adding a few features, then copy them right back and make it even better. Use their copying of your idea to make your idea one step ahead of theirs.
People give "cliched" advice like: just serve one person, imagine a customer avatar, success leaves clues. Model successful people. What do you do when you're burnt out? Someone "steals" your idea? (No, they copied. Stealing suggests you don't have it anymore.) The best ideas are combinations of 2-3 things. iPhone, Facebook.
Most people have too many ideas, too scatterbrained, pulled in different directions. Most people can't tell the forest from the trees.
Successful FUNDAMENTALS to Model from Other Marketers
High ticket course (profit margin)
Low ticket solution or software (list)
Warm up: free blog posts, YouTube videos, autoresponder sequence with a blend of pitch and content. A short book couldn't hurt.
Platinum coaching program: easy money
Be a thought leader, speaker, innovator, teacher, even if it doesn't come "naturally"
Knock these out one at a time (series) and not all at once (parallel)
Things Angering Me This Week
No real mailing address on your websites? What are you afraid of?
Linking directly to an order form from an email? At least show the "contract" of what I'm getting.
Trying to piece together a solution (i.e. podcasting) when you should have just bought a damn course (Podcast Crusher, uDemy)
Get it working now and connect the pieces later, so you can whip up the interface when you're in that frame of mind. You don't want to over-engineer software OR your business.
8-Step Software Iteration Process (That Also Works for Non-Software Membership Sites)
psuedocode / "ugly" basic interface (text and buttons)
proof of concept
mock-up interface
test cases
working interface
connect it all together
debugging
interface again based on use-cases (iterate)
You might have to do 10-20% more "work" in the long run, but you'll have a more stable product, make the money faster. You sometimes have to "see" a design or interface in action.
Non-software example: first get the results. Show how you can get consistent AdWords traffic. Keep a swipe file. Develop a checklist. Make it easily do-able and easily relatable.
Resources
WP Notepad (Checklists and Fill in The Blank Forms for Your Membership Site)
Get all the latest insights with membership sites, passive income, mindset, and more.
About Robert & The Podcast
The Marketer of the Day Podcast interviews entrepreneurs who have been through “the struggle.”
They’ve experienced the headaches of repeat failure, trial-and-error, scaling, delegating, course-correcting, and getting their online businesses to succeed beyond their wildest dreams… and want to help you get to where you need to go.
