Product Creation
015: Run a Webinar Class to Create Instant Products and Make Recurring Money Online Using GoToWebinar, Camtasia, and PowerPoint
If you want to make a nice bundle of money online in a short amount of time, without doing a lot of work, and help the largest number of your customers at the same time, then you need to run a webinar class. I started doing this in 2008 (the same year I bought my house), more than doubled my online income the following year AND quit my job just a few shorts months after I started doing webinars...
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Do you like the sound of getting paid for a product before you create it? What about making $497 or $997 per sale instead of a measly $5, $10, or $20? Today we're going to cover how you can use this thing called a live webinar to create information products that make you money before you create them, as you create them, after you create them, and over and over again.
As someone who wants to make money from the information you have, this is the best, the fastest and the most profit-producing way to make money from your knowledge and create these things called information products. Topics covered:
- The exact steps you need to take today to go from idea to a real life rapid product launch
- The secret to modularizing your upcoming course (that way it's easy, fast, and fun for you to create -- PLUS your customers get quick and massive results from your training -- so they'll buy from you over and over again)
- My personal secret to customer engagement, retention, and results that most product creators miss -- but now you have the secret weapon
- How to run a webinar business so it doesn't take up any longer than 1-hour per week
Check it out right now! This is a "normal-length" episode so you can listen to it even if you're a hurry, this is perfect timing for you if you're sitting on the fence about joining our upcoming Webinar Crusher class and need one last thing to push you over the edge...
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014: Generate Unlimited Content, Blog Posts, Articles, Sales Letters, Books, Reports and More, That Make You Money Forever
If you've ever had "writer's block", struggled to create that quick 3-minute video, 400-word article, or even a sales letter, print book, or quick email, then you need to tune into today's podcast where I reveal my BEST content creation formulas -- many of them only available (up till now) in my paid products!
"How to Generate Unlimited Content" FREE Report
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Topics covered:
- How to go into a content creation frenzy any time you want and never deal with "writer's block" ever again
- How to generate a flood of good ideas, unlock your creativity, and create a store (or "pool") of renewable content anytime you need it
- How to achieve absolute focus and crank out as much content as you want, as quickly as you want
- My exact content creation formulas for book chapters (W.W.H.W.), email marketing (P.A.I.N.T.), blogging (R.A.T.G.U.M.), and sales letters (A.I.D.A.)
- Finding your hook (this is the most important part of content creation that most people overlook)
- And SO much more that you're going to want to stop everything you're doing and listen in right away!
Important: Once this post gets 10 comments, I'll post the transcript for this episode. Once we get 50 comments, you will no longer be able to post so hurry up and leave your comments right now!
Hint: I recommend listening to the podcast in your iPhone or iTunes app, or clicking the "Play in a New Window" link and listening in a new browser tab, that way you can comment here while you're still listening.
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013: Create and Sell Software on the Internet
If you've ever thought about creating and selling software in your niche but don't know a single line of code... or, if you've been wondering how to gain an advantage over your competitors (authors, speakers, coaches, and information marketer) then look no further to creating your own simple software.
"How to Create and Sell Software" FREE Report
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It's a lot easier, faster, and cheaper than you might think, and I want to tell you all about it in today's EXTENDED LENGTH edition of the Robert Plank Show. Topics covered:
- The secrets of creating a "simpleware" 1-button solution to vaccinate your sales against your competition
- Why you'll sell a lot more copies of your software product (hint: this works in any niche) compared to selling information (it's all about the live demo)
- The four types of software ideas including: a better solution to an existing problem (webinar service that uses S3, Twilio transcription service), simplify an existing process (WordPress screen capture plugin), combine multiple solutions (WP Security plus, podcast creation app, Kindle/CreateSpace/Kunaki cover generator), add-on to your existing product (Setup a Fan Page fangate & artwork creator, WordPress desktop installer, content feed service)
- How you too can create and sell your own software even if you can't code, no matter niche you're in... for example: real estate (mortgage calculator, listings tracker, geotargeted landing pages), weight loss (30 day meal plan, calorie counter, juicing log), self help (time management clock, mad libs productivity hypnosis)
- How to create a software spec -- no matter what kind of software you're creating -- that forces you to make "tough" decisions early (in plain English), decide what platform (i.e. web-based membership site, WordPress plugin, Adobe Air, iPhone app), data structure, user stories, and limits your initial features (in a good way)
- How to hire the right person to create your software including interview questions, the "whittling down" method, mini-projects, along with the exact "avatar" you'd want to hire in your business
- How to launch your software product in a marketplace such as the Apple App Store Android Store, Clickbank, Download.com, etc.
- And more!
Please listen and leave a comment below.
P.S. Any "unhelpful" comments about the length of the podcast, whether you do or don't like music in the podcast, whether you prefer PDF reports to podcasts, will be deleted. However, any positive OR NEGATIVE comments will be left here as long as they helpfully contribute to the conversation.
P.P.S. Once I get 10 comments on this post, I'll attach the PDF transcript for your personal reference.
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What’s the Upsell? It’s the Next Logical Step!
Early on in my internet marketing career I realized that I needed to build a list -- and I quickly realized that my best way to build that list was to launch low ticket products.
Years later, when Lance and I began selling high ticket training courses on a regular basis ($997) the list stagnated for a few months. Our business stopped growing. We had to make it a point to go back and create those low ticket products in order to keep building that list of buyers...
People would buy that $7, $27, $47 WordPress plugin -- many of them would buy the another $7, $27, $47 plugin every month after that -- and then a small portion of those new people would buy our high ticket $997 training courses (usually broken into a payment plan of $97 a month or so).
Trust me, life is so much easier when you've built up a list of even a few thousand buyers! Every time you need comments on a blog post, webinar attendees, or some good old fashioned sales, all you have to do is ask and then click the "Send" button!
But Just Like Everything Else, I See Everyone Overcomplicating This...
For example:
- The number one thing to remember is that THEY ARE JOINING YOUR BUYER'S LIST! That means even if you don't have an upsell ready for them, it's not the end of the world -- you'll be sending them followup emails in the future. If they want to buy something, they'll buy.
- Beware of "upsell hell" -- this is where people load 5 or more upsells, downsells, cross-sells... you just bought something from me for $7, how about something for $27? No? What about $97? How about this $37 product? This $27/month membership with a $1 trial? The next thing you know, I've loaded so many things into the cart, I don't even know what I bought...
- ONE upsell is fine. It doesn't have to be a one time offer. In fact, I've had great success offering an uspell just before the download, and even if they say no, take them to the download page, and then present that same exact upsell right under the download link, and I'll make extra sales there.
Here's what I've found is the best upsell to deliver to your buyers: a product that's in the same "class" (i.e. another plugin, or another report) at the exact same price point (i.e. $47 frontend product and $47 upsell) that directly complements the original product (it's the next logical step).
For example: someone buys Paper Template for $47, the upsell is Backup Creator for $47 -- another plugin, same price point, and after someone gets a website (sales letter) setup, they'll want to back it up or possibly clone it.
You sell a $97 video course on how to get traffic, make your upsell SEPARATE a $97 course on how to get that traffic to convert. You sell a $27 report on how to make quick money setting up website for local offline businesses, make your upsell a $27 report on how to get local traffic from Google+, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Yelp!
My mentor Armand Morin calls this selling them "the next logical step" -- a saying he borrowed from NASA.
Here's where I want to help you. For the past year or so, as Lance and I have been selling these low ticket products on lots of different storefronts, we keep getting the same questions like...
"What's The Upsell? What's The OTO?"
Basically, what are you going to sell me once I buy from you?
I'm reluctant to answer for a couple of reasons: I don't want to confuse the offer, I might change that upsell... and I didn't answer until I noticed a disturbing trend in how everyone else is selling information products!
Someone is teaching this and it sucks. It hurts your conversions as a seller, and it's an annoying process as a buyer.
Whoever it is, is teaching people to basically sell the same information product as 3 separate products -- good, better, best...
This means: I see a course promising me how to create and sell a bestselling book on Amazon for $7. I buy it -- but it turns out to be a 60 minute or so video product of someone going through a mindmap.
That's it. 100% theory. They "tell" me how to outline a book, how to choose a niche and a title, they talk about writing the content, but they don't do any of it in front of me. I have to buy the "better" package for $27 to actually see the person create a book in front of me.
And then to get the REAL answers, to get all the nooks and crannies answered so I don't get stuck anywhere, I have to buy the $47 or $97 "best" package which usually includes a 3 hour video "Q&A recording" where people sent in questions here and there, and the person answered the most random (but specific issues) and somewhere between the mindmap videos, the implementation videos, and the Q&A, I actually have what I need.
I basically call these "crippled front-end offers." It's a TERRIBLE way to teach and to learn. I buy a webinar course for $7, it gives me the basic "what-to" outline but no "how-to." I have to buy the $47 upsell to see it done, and then I have to buy the $97 Q&A to get all the parts they skipped over.
Why Not Just Charge Me $97?
Here's a better solution: if you're going to sell me a course about offline local businesses, plan to set one up as part of the course.
Decide where people are when they start (usually: no money, no website, no templates) and where they should end (one paying client, website setup for them, they've been paid, and they might even have some recurring passive income setup).
Break it up into exactly four "how-to" modules. Let's say you setup your course like this:
- Module 1: How to Find Your First Set of Offline Prospects
- Module 2: How to Sell Your Offline Prospects into Clients
- Module 3: How to Setup Your Client's Website
- Module 4: How to Earn Passive Recurring Income from a Maintenance Package
Plan each module as a 60-90 minute video where you switch from a PowerPoint to a screen capture format, and structure it as WWHW: Why, What, How-To, What-If. For module one...
- Why (10 minutes): why we're doing this module in the first place
- What (10-20 minutes): what we're going to do, the exact steps before we do them
- How-To (30-60 minutes): you actually performing the steps, like identifying which businesses you'll approach and maybe even contacting a few of them
- What-If (10 minutes): a recap of what you just created, a checklist so they can repeat your process, and a simple assignment so they can get started on it
The EXACT lengths don't matter so much as keeping in mind that the how-to is the BULK of your module. The other pieces are just there to prepare them for the how-to component, and to recap what you showed them so it's all easy to follow.
Once the course is finished, if you are really concerned about an upsell, then your NEXT course should also be priced at $97 and it should cover the Next Logical Step
What If They Don't Buy At $97?
Here's the reason I "think" people try selling you these courses... they're afraid of selling at 100 bucks. I have a couple of solutions for you...
Step #1: Get Over It! Your competitors are outselling you at way higher price points than 100 dollars. How? They actually run real businesses. They consistently pay for traffic, they have social proof, they have well-written sales letters, videos and webinars, they have an email followup sequence. Move your prices from $10 to $100+ and you'll get slightly less buyers, but more total money overall, especially if you actually market your product -- what a concept!
Step #2: Walk the Price Up. You don't HAVE to initially launch your product at $97. What about $47? Create a quick sales letter listing out the four modules of your course. Spend a week or so getting your list ready for it. Bring on some affiliates and joint venture partners.
Launch your product on a free 1-hour pitch webinar where you demonstrate value, solve a simple problem and then introduce your upcoming 4-week, 4-module LIVE class for $47 where you'll show everyone how to setup these website for offline businesses.
Throw in a few HTML templates or WordPress themes and plugins as bonuses, your introductory letters and sales scripts telling people what to say when they approach these businesses, and make it a point that you personally will be landing an offline client during the course and making $2,000 from one transaction. 47 bucks is a no brainer at that point.
After the live course is done, close it up and re-open it a few weeks later for the full $97. Collect results and testimonials in the meantime and make a couple extra passes at your sales letter.
Step #3: Enhance the Offer. After you've finished your course, you can make a couple of additions to your web page templates, get the recordings of your live classes transcribed into reports with screenshots.
If you've added an assignment to the end of each module, you now have lots of case studies of people who followed along with you. You can organize the modules into an easy to follow dashboard. Now instead of waiting 4 weeks for you to deliver the course (as you did live), people get it all at once and can go at their own pace... even land their own offline client TODAY if they're fast!
It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that. As usual, if you deliver a COMPLETE course that worked for you, that has real results and your own live case studies -- and there's just ONE thing to buy and it's all in one place, you'll stand out from the crowd.
011: Create Physical Information Products with Kunaki, CreateSpace, Kinkos & Lulu
Discover how to branch out into the real world and sell your information products as physical, high-ticket items!
"How to Create Physical Infoproducts" FREE Report
Topics covered:
- How to publish short reports on the fly with Kinkos.com
- How to upload a simple Word document to Amazon CreateSpace to become a published author
- How to print workbooks and manuals on demand using Lulu
- Instantly sell physical audio CDs or video DVDs using Kunaki and a few ultra low cost tools
- And more!
You know how this works... get 10 comments on this post and you'll get the transcript in return.
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003: How to Create an Information Product in 48 Hours and Sell 1000 Copies
If you'd like to explain something once (in a few minutes to an hour) and get paid over and over again, have fun doing it, stop trading your time for dollars and start trading your brain for dollars, then you need to create an information product. You need to use your information business to either function as its own passive autopilot income or to build up your service-based active income.
"How to Create an Information Product" FREE Report
Topics covered:
- What's a typical day or week like for me?
- PRODUCTIVITY TIP OF THE DAY: do it because you WANT to
- The "WWHW formula" for instant product creation (Why, What, How, What-If)
- How you'll always win finding a common need plus a hungry crowd
- The "1 product 1 solution" strategy that never fails
- How to create a PDF report, how-to videos, a live webinar class, or membership site using simple repeatable systems
- THOUGHT OF THE DAY: are you leaking content out your ears yet?
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Is It Evil to Have an Upsell?
You know what an upsell is, right? You buy thing #1 from me, I offer you thing #2 that's related but NOT required for thing #1 to work...
Lance and I released our "Backup Creator" WordPress plugin 6 months ago -- click a button, it backs up WordPress. Click a different button, it restores WordPress somewhere else... and it's now protecting over 20,000 WordPress sites!
- Some people bought "Backup Creator" for $7, some for $17, $27, $37, and $47
- We promised 1 years of bug fixes and "updates" but not "upgrades" (new features) -- important difference
- We recently released a "Backup Creator Ultimate" version that includes auto backup, FTP backup, FTP restore, and a few other things
- Anyone who buys today for $47 doesn't have a choice between the old "Backup Creator" and "Backup Creator Ultimate" -- they get Ultimate
- Anyone who already paid $47 for "Backup Creator" gets Ultimate for free
- Anyone who already paid $37 upgrades to Ultimate for $10, anyone who paid $27 can upgrade for $20, etc.
Most of our customers were thrilled that we released a new version with new features. Only a couple of people had complaints.
I want to share those few complaints with you and put this out in the open just to make sure we are "doing the right thing!"
Here's what's been said:
- "If I upgrade now for $40, and pay $47 total, I lose my $7 early bird discount. I'd be no better off than anyone else"
- "Many of us who Beta Tested your software spent quite a bit of time chasing down problems and reinstalling updates on all our blogs. I think you now have a wonderful product and will make a lot of money. I would suggest you reward all those who helped you get there."
- "I have been getting all these emails telling me how great the update to back up creator was going to be when the only update was that you wanted more money from us........... Sorry guys IMHO you blew this"
Those are actual unedited quotations. I thought long and hard about airing this kind of "dirty laundry" in public but I really want to know what YOU think.
I'm honestly not upset, or bitter in ANY way... just asking you personally, did we do the right thing releasing a new version, or should we have stuck to our "original" version that only backed up and restored, and did nothing else? Please post your response below...
Edit: From now on we will be sure to be 100% clear with the updates policy, and if we do offer an upgrade path for our software in the future, we will make it a "flat rate" or find some way to make sure those early birds keep their early bird discount. Thanks again for that discussion!
How to Make Your Words Sell: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action
Is it okay if I share with you the ONE formula that appears everywhere, again and again... and if you keep it in your back pocket every time you assemble a sales letter, create a blog post, make a product, send an email, and even deal with everyday relationships, you'll always win?
If I share this formula with you, will you check and make sure your web pages pass the test so you can convert as many people as possible?
I hope you've heard of this formula, and it's this: attention, interest, desire, action...
Every time you put out any piece of writing, video, or even live presentation -- run it through this filter. Here's what I mean...
- Get someone's attention using a shocking statement or headline
- Build interest by agitating your problem or setting up a question
- Setup the desire for your solution by revealing it and explaining it
- Tell people what to do now by telling them to take action
If you've even given (or read) a course, presentation, sales letter, or any other message that was missing an opening, seemed to "linger" too much on a problem, jump into a solution without addressing it, or had everything right except the end -- it was probably neglecting one or all of the above steps.
And I want to multiply your conversion rates by making sure you follow these simple rules. You can get as creative as you want as long as you follow this four step formula. Check it out...
ATTENTION:
Sales Letter Headline or Blog Post Title
When I write blog posts, I like to split the title into two parts: what I'm talking about (the feature), and the result of it (the benefit)... just look at my last few blog post titles here:
- Specialized Knowledge: How to Make $50 (or More) Every 5 Minutes, All Day Long, By Clicking a Few Buttons (Just Like I Did at Age 17)
- Speed Copywriting Explained (Assemble a Web Page That Gets People to Buy From You In the Next Few Minutes)
- It's Simple, So It Must Not Work: How You Too Can Make Several Thousand Dollars in a Weekend
- Website Backup: Keep Your Site Safe, Instantly Clone Your Blog, and Get Things Done Anywhere
- The Accordion Method (And Now You Never Run Out of Content Ever Again)
Now I have blog post titles that are both short, and long!
With sales letters, it's even simpler. The headline isn't necessarily the title of the web page we're on, it's just the HEADER that gets us to continue reading...
Think about the first thing you want to say to your visitor to keep them alert, on your web page, and hungry for more. Whatever you say should answer "most" of these questions:
- What's in it for me? (promises a clear benefit)
- What's my problem or solution? (without giving away your product yet)
- Why should I even listen to you? (get attention either with a question, challenge, or shocking statement)
- Is this newsworthy? (something new and unique that's worth reading about)
- Do I have a reason to continue reading? (does it lead to another thought?)
Yes, I'm saying that your headline should contain all of these items...
More often than not I'll have that headline big, red, centered, bolded, and in quotes at the top of that web page, but what's more important than the formatting is that the WORDS are impossible to ignore. For example:
- "How I Made an Extra $101,934.10 In 80 Days From 4 Low Ticket Products (With Zero Traffic and a Tiny List) Using One Very Special Piece of Affiliate Software..."
- Backup, Clone, Protect... WordPress Plugin Makes It Simple For You To Backup, Restore And Protect Your WordPress Blogs And Sites Anytime You Want With Just A Few Easy Clicks...
- "How Would You Like My Instant Formula For Creating High-Impact, Persuasive, Converting Sales Letters in the Next Few Minutes?"
- "If You're Feeling Completely Overloaded, Unorganized and Feel Like You're Always Running Out of Time..." You Need to Get a Grip on (and Control of) Your Time Management Skills!
And I'll usually add a subheadline that COMPLETES the thought that the headline first created. Why? Because it gets people reading further down, and then further, until the next thing you know, they've read the whole sales letter all the way down to the buy button.
INTEREST:
Problem or Big Picture
You've got my attention, but I'm not ready to buy your product yet. And even if I was, I need to know you can actually UNDERSTAND and SOLVE my problem... which is why you need to tell me what problem I'm having and how can you really help me solve it...
I need to stress here that we're not introducing your product yet. I see too many sales letters start off with, "I want you to buy my product right now." You're jumping the gun.
This is the STORYTELLING section. Introduce the problem so that I have to find out how it ends -- with the introduction of your product.
You should probably answer these questions:
- Who are you and why are you qualified to help me?
- What exactly is my problem and what's the "difficult" solution?
- What do I need to know and what issues did I not even consider yet?
- Why are you better than anyone else?
Check out the deck copy for "Membership Cube" to see what I mean...
For the last several years internet marketers have told you how easy it is to setup your membership site and get a flood of people paying you every month for your services, your expertise, and your information. But there are just a few problems...
It's Not As Easy As "They" Say It Is...
These Are The Same People That Told You
"All You Need Is a Website"
- Where will you get the content for this membership site?
- How will you get people into it, and keep them from dropping out?
- What software will you use for the membership, and what plugins?
- What the heck will you do next?
How Did That Work Out For You?
I Can Tell You From My Own Personal Experience:
Membership Sites Are The Best Thing
To Ever Happen To Me!It IS possible to profit from a membership site as long as you make the right decisions. But don't worry, we've already made the tough decisions for you in our simple step by step system.
I'm confident in those steps because these are the same steps Lance and I have implemented to create 20 membership sites -- 19 of those sites were created in the past 12 months. And guess what, they've all made money: some as little as $2,000 and some well over $100,000.
Do you see what we're doing? We're educating our prospect about why membership sites are so valuable and differentiating from the competition (especially membership software that doesn't come without training) and saying, you need to listen to us.
One reason I really like telling a story in copy is that it doesn't feel like an ad. But far too many copywriters get stuck on the story, the whole sales letter is one long story, and people still don't know what they're buying. That's why you need to get to the third stage WELL BEFORE the halfway point in your copy...
DESIRE:
Solution or Exact Offer
At this point, you'll reveal YOUR product in that sales letter, meaning a huge headline with the name of the course or item, and a graphical representation, it's just that simple. If I can't easily tell that you're selling an ebook, or video course, or membership site, or physical seminar, or physical item -- in under a minute just by scrolling through -- then you need to make it clearer.
In the "interest" stage you've already done the clever storytelling... now you need to tell me what it is you want me to buy:
- What's the exact name of your product and what's in it?
- What's in each module, why is each module important and why is it given in the order you show it?
- What bonuses are you giving me?
- What is each component worth on its own? (dollar value)
- What is the total value of this product you're about to give me? (total up the dollar values)
- What actual price is it going to cost today? (much lower than the total value)
You'll want to end the "desire" stage by listing everything people get in a two-column table... first column, the name of the module they're getting; second column, the price tag on it.
It may seem tedious to total up each $197 or $297 price tag on your individual modules to get a total of $2,217.00, but believe me, it'll look way more impressive when you then DROP the price to $97 or $47 or $27. Very few people do this on sales letters, but they need to!!!
It's super important that you lay out the ENTIRE offer in the "desire" section. Yes, even the bonuses. Lay out the ENTIRE offer before you ask for the sale, including bonuses.
Have you ever noticed that on some sales letters, you scroll to the bottom, then scroll back up to look at something, then back down? That's not good and when I do that, I notice it's usually because someone got my attention, laid out the story, the entire offer, even showed the guarantee and asked for the sale -- and THEN introduced bonuses! Big mistake.
Now people know we relate to their problem and have the credibility to solve it, we've revealed that product and explained our offer -- and at the end, listed everything in the package and revealed the price... what's left? People will know to order on their own, right?
Wrong! Every time I specifically tell people reading a blog post, sales letter, or email optin form -- to fill out the form, conversion rates go up. We can never make it OBVIOUS enough...
ACTION:
Why To Buy (or Comment) Now
This is probably the most cookie-cutter part of any sales letter, but it's still important. You need to tell me:
- What's your guarantee? (30 days or 60 days? Can I get my money back for any reason?)
- What price are you charging? (state it again, make it as simple and clear as possible)
- How do I order? (i.e., "click on the button and pay $97 to JumpX LLC")
- What are the technical requirements to run your product? (i.e., Adobe Reader, Windows Media Player, WordPress)
- How soon until I receive your product after downloading? (i.e., instant delivery)
In an optin form we're asking for their name and email address, in a blog post we're asking for a comment (easy to get if you ask a question at the end of your blog post), and on a sales letter we're asking for people to buy.
The Entire Formula Revealed
I know that was a lot to take in, but here's the whole AIDA formula laid out for you:
- A1: What's in it for me? (promises a clear benefit)
- A2: What's my problem or solution? (without giving away your product yet)
- A3: Why should I even listen to you? (get attention either with a question, challenge, or shocking statement)
- A4: Is this newsworthy? (something new and unique that's worth reading about)
- A5: Do I have a reason to continue reading? (does it lead to another thought?)
- I1: Who are you and why are you qualified to help me?
- I2: What exactly is my problem and what's the "difficult" solution?
- I3: What do I need to know and what issues did I not even consider yet?
- I4: Why are you better than anyone else?
- D1: What's the exact name of your product and what's in it?
- D2: What's in each module, why is each module important and why is it given in the order you show it?
- D3: What bonuses are you giving me?
- D4: What is each component worth on its own? (dollar value)
- D5: What is the total value of this product you're about to give me? (total up the dollar values)
- D6: What actual price is it going to cost today? (much lower than the total value)
- A1: What's your guarantee? (30 days or 60 days? Can I get my money back for any reason?)
- A2: What price are you charging? (state it again, make it as simple and clear as possible)
- A3: How do I order? (i.e., "click on the button and pay $97 to JumpX LLC")
- A4: What are the technical requirements to run your product? (i.e., Adobe Reader, Windows Media Player, WordPress)
- A5: How soon until I receive your product after downloading? (i.e., instant delivery)
I hope that pushes you in the right direction with your...
- Sales Letters: Attention-grabbing headline, interesting story, desirable offer, and order button as the call-to-action
- Webinar Pitches: Start with a big promise (attention), demonstrate something live on the call (interest), explain your offer (desire), and tell them where to buy (action)
- Email Marketing: Send an "attention" email hinting at a problem, an "interest" email agitating that problem, a "desire" email introducing your solution and URL, an "action" email with just your URL... and repeat the process
- Information Products: Start each chapter of your report with a bold claim (attention), give them the big picture (interest), explain the step by step process (desire), and end with an assignment (action)
So what's the verdict, does your sales letter pass this 20-point checklist? (It's okay if it doesn't yet.) What's the URL to it? Go ahead and respond with your answer below.
The Number 1 Way to Create Your Next $97 Or Higher Training Course
I really do want you to succeed and the way I made the change from a college student with no money to someone who had a residual income was by phasing out freelancing and creating info-products.
Freelancing is good to start off but you definitely need to establish yourself as an authority in your niche and make a product that people can buy that has your name on it that proves you know what you're talking about and teaches them what you know.
I have made all kinds of training courses about PHP, webinars, list building, WordPress and more and I want you to do the same in whatever niche is your favorite with these simple steps.
Step 1: Four Part Outline
You can take any problem and solve it in 4 steps. If you take it in even more steps, you aren't solving it simply enough. Let's use creating a website as an example. Here's 4 steps: Get a domain, get a web host, set up a WordPress blog, write your first post. How about writing a sales letter.
Have a headline that tells a story, list benefit bullets, explain features, then demand a call-to-action. If you're explaining something to someone, the best way is in 4 steps. No more, no less. Figure out how to solve a problem in 4 steps.
Step 2: Audio Dictation
Most people hate writing. I have gotten to the point where I liked writing but still it's not my favorite thing to do and I know that I could speak more consistently and faster than writing. 
I'm pretty sure you are the same way. Hence, you know your subject well enough that for each of the 4 steps, you can explain at least 3 things about it. Let's go back to the webpage example before where I said you need a domain name, a web host, a WordPress blog, and content.
When I explain how to get a domain name, I could tell people why you should only stick with dot com, how to decide on the perfect domain name that's not too long but is also short and explains what it is you're going to be offering.
I could tell people which registrar to get their domain and then what to do after, which could – this is into the second part, the web host – how to choose a web host, how to register with this web host, how to set up automatic billing, how to connect that domain name to the web host and how to get support from that web host and so on.
If you can talk for even 10 minutes about each of these 4 things, that's a 40-minute audio product. That's almost a complete CD. Chances are that especially on some of the advanced topics, you might talk for longer than 10 minutes, and if you can speak for an hour, you're doing great.
Step 3: Sales Letter
From that 60-minute audio, I'm sure you can find lots of things to talk about, reasons why your audio is the best, what people can expect to get out of the audio when they're done and why you are the most authoritative person to listen to. Your sales letter doesn't have to be that complicated.
If you can list 10 good reasons why people would want to buy what you have to offer, you can take some of the better reasons, turn them into sentences, take the really best reason, turn it into a headline, add an order button, and you have a basic sales letter.
Now, all you have to do is promote it to your list and to high-traffic areas, like forums, and get a handful of initial sales. Now, what re you going to do with that money?
Step 4: Reinvest Into a Transcript
Every minute that you speak is about 150 words of written material or a little over half a page.
That means your 60-minute audio is going to be over 30 pages in length. That's a complete report.
If you can add in things like bullet points or checklists, the report will be even longer, but the point is you now have a book and an audio book to distribute digitally, and that means that if your audio was only $10 or $20, now that it is bundled with the written version, it is now $30 to $40.
(Optional) Bonus Step #1: Membership Site
You do want to get that price point to $100, don't you?
Then put it all into a membership site. 
The simple fact that people can come back into your membership site for eternity, even if they lost their password, is worth slightly more. I have bought CDs of software before that charged me an additional $5 to have a lifetime download area. In this case, don't give people the choice, make them purchase access to this membership site where they will receive your report, your audio, and lifetime updates.
At any point in the future, if you decide to sit down and speak for 10 minutes, that is a bonus that can be found in your member's area. That means at this point, you now have your membership site priced at $50 or $60.
(Optional) Bonus Step #2: Live Q&A Bonus After Six Months
Now, here's the final step towards getting people to the $100 mark. There's something weird about the price point between $50 and $100 and that's why people don't really by in that range. If someone is willing to buy or pay you more than $47, they're probably willing to pay $97.
Don't bother pricing at $57, $67, $77, or $87. Just skip right to the $97 mark. I only price in this range if I am steadily increasing my price to $97.
Because you're a marketer, you could price your training at whatever it's worth and whatever you want. What I like to do is offer a live Q&A or a question and answer bonus, people can ask me any question they want for an hour or 90 minutes.
Once that's done, I will put the recording in the member's area and now, that member's area contains a report, an audio, additional bonus audios, and a Q&A video webinar recording, which is all worth much much more than $100 but just because you like your subscribers so much, you are going to price it at $97 and that price will be a bargain and that's why you take one idea and turn it into a $97 or a higher training course.
If in the future you want to increase the price beyond $97, throw in some live training and make it a webinar course.
Is this the way you create your $100 training courses? What is your method? Please explain it to me...
How to Create the Perfect Information Product and Make Money Doing It
I know you have at least one idea for a product. Maybe you haven't made a product yet or you've made many products in the past.
How do you know that your big idea is something that everyone else is going to pay money for? We're going to figure out right now if your idea will be profitable in two stages – the research stage and the creation stage.
Stage 1: Research
I don't believe in doing more than 30 minutes of research to figure out if your idea will make you money. I say this because I know of too many marketers who have spent a month or 6 months or a year researching as an excuse not to do anything. Let's spend 30 minutes and figure out if your idea is worth it.
The first thing you should do is check forums. What's the hot topic inside the #1 forum in your niche? When I go to my favorite marketing forum, I find that the threads with the most replies are about articles, membership sites, and ClickBank.
When I go to my favorite programming forum, most of the replies are about PHP frameworks, WordPress plugins, and outsourcing.
Don't bother making a report about something unless it's a hot topic that a lot of people in your small niche are talking about. I'm not a believer in going mass market unless you have a lot of money to invest. If you're just starting out on a niche, start in the niche.
Now that you know what everyone is talking about, figure out what people are paying for. You have friends in the same niche you're in, right? What have they all bought recently? What big launches are going on in your niche? What have you personally paid for? There's no point in getting into a niche unless people are willing to spend a bare minimum of $100 on you.
I have bought products showing me how to make a software outline, how to write faster, how to create video, how to make audio products, and they have all accelerated my path towards getting things done.
The final part of your research now that you know what people are talking about and what people are buying is finding out what your competitors are doing. Go to Google and search for the niche you're in.
If you are thinking about creating a course on how to sell on eBay, search the forum you're on for the word "ebay." Search Google for "eBay eBook," "eBay guide," "eBay course," "eBay video." Go on amazon.com and look for books in that niche and DVDs in that niche as well. This is good because not only does it show you what areas to target but also what your price point should be.
You should match your price point fairly well to your competitors but price slightly higher, that way you will have a higher perceived value.
Stage 2: Solve It
Now that you've done your research, you should know how to adjust your idea to deliver the best solution by answering people's questions on forums, figuring out what they're paying for and duplicating or doing the job better than your competitors. Now, it's time to create the product.
I have never spent more than a few days making a simple lead generation product, and by lead generation, I need a product that's $100 or cheaper. Your product will be a lot better if you write it without distractions and write it as fast as possible. You can always go back and make version 2.0 later.
What's more important than spending or wasting a lot of time on creating a product is to add your own "how to" information. I can go online right now and find lots of tips and advice about placing an eBay ad.
I can find lots of videos on YouTube showing me the mechanics of placing an eBay ad, but I want you to show me what makes an eBay ad profitable. I want you to tell me exactly what steps I should take from start to finish from having something to sell on eBay to actually placing the ad and making the sale and what to do after that.
Also think about what simple problem can you solve for them. For some people, an eBay problem might be that they cannot get people to read their ad.
The sooner you make your info-product not just "how to" but also problem and solution-based, the more people are going to benefit from your book, the better reviews it's going to get and you'll have an easier time making a sale. And finally, what success stories can you gather from the people who use your product?
Here's something to think about. If someone has not yet bought your eBook or home study course, all they have to go on is your pitch page or sales letter.
That's why you need to make your sales letter as best as it can possibly be and the way I like to make a sales letter better is to gather testimonials or proof and show that on the sales letter – so, people who have not yet bought can see that others have benefited from this training.
And that's how you're going to create the perfect info-product and make money doing it. First, researching it in forums by what's making money, what your competitors are doing, and then create that product by offering your own unique how to, solving a problem, and gathering success stories from those people whose problems you have solved and place it back on the sales letter.
Did this help you make your next info-product? Where have you been lacking?
In the research stage or in the creation stage? And how will you get better? Leave me a blog comment below right now while it's still fresh on your mind.
Don’t Tell People Everything You Know
I am going to tell you something right now that I hope will get you over that hump of making your next information product. It should also change your minds about what your customers are actually paying for and what information you should be giving away.
My mentor for many years was a guy called John Calder. He was really arrogant (which is a good thing!) and the best piece of advice he ever shared with me was, "Don't tell people everything you know."
But what does that mean?
Leave Room For A Sequel!
Here is something to think about: How come every movie you watch does not end with all the characters dying? Because there is a chance that the movie will get a sequel and that some or all of the characters can be in movie number two.
The same is true with your report creation. Do you try to put everything you know about a certain subject in one report? Sure! Can you put EVERYTHING there is to say in that report? Of course not!
A great example is my "Time Management on Crack" report. This is something that started off with me just explaining how I get things done, how I'm so productive. Then, I later added in formulas for writing, for blogging, for video creation and so on.
In fact, it has now tripled the size and got ten times' as much information - and I am still adding to it! But is that my only product about time management? Of course not!
Lance Tamashiro and I have a Membership site all about time management called, "IM Productivity Secrets." I also have a report called "100 Time Savers" that lists 100 quick and easy things you can use to save a minute a day.
Even though "Time Management on Crack" is the best report anyone could ever get about time management, I do have a prequel to "Time Management on Crack," called "100 Time Savers" that is at a lower price point and gets people ready for the main course, and I have a sequel to "Time Management on Crack" called "IM Productivity Secrets" which is a monthly membership site that contains ongoing training. And none of these products have any overlap.
You don't have to give away every single thing you know, because you might have a Volume II of your product.
Keep It Simple!
Here is the next thing to think about: Do you know how your cable internet gets from your computer out into the world? Probably not. I don't know either. But I still can USE my internet.
Do you know how your power company pumps electricity into your home? I don't either. But I still know how to turn on a light switch.
I can teach subjects, such as time management, without knowing exactly how psychology works, or how everything in my brain works. People don't have to know all the details.
My copywriting report, "Fast Food Copywriting," doesn't explain every single facet about copywriting, because I don't KNOW everything about copywriting. What I do know is how to accomplish a task. And that is all you really should be explaining in your paid materials, is how you accomplish a task and how other people can do the same thing you do.
I have many home study courses teaching people various things about PHP and WordPress. All I do is show how to use a certain script or WordPress plugin, and how to tweak it. That's it! Do I explain in every single report exactly what a function or a variable is? Not necessarily. I just show how to put those things into action.
And that leads me to my final point about not telling people everything you know: You deserve to get paid for your expertise.
Here is a really easy formula to decide what information you should charge for, and what to give away. If the information you are teaching about your subject is a step-by-step "How to" process, people should pay for that. But if all you are sharing is a simple tip, that is free article content or blog post content.
Inside "Fast Food Copywriting," I explain my step-by-step process for copywriting. But I also have hundreds of articles about copywriting that explain simple ideas like a headline or bullet points.
In "Time Management on Crack," there are five productivity levels you can master. There are also over 28 formulas when it comes to article writing, report writing, copywriting, and more.
I share my general time management advice in articles and in my blog posts. But the "How to", the Step-by-Step, people have to pay for that.
I hope you are now ready to knock out that next article or report - because guess what? You don't have to tell people everything you know!
Did this blog post help you? Tell me in what way... that comment form won't bite.
Top 21 Ways to Ruin Your Business
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: Continue Reading »
Keep it Shippable, Stupid!
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... Continue Reading »
4 Reasons Not to Have a Membership Site, Plus 8 Reasons You Should Start a Membership Site
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!)
Create a Product in 55 Seconds For Free
If you still have not launched your own product, and you have not at least tried to get any copywriting gigs, maybe you are cut out for affiliate marketing. When you're somebody's affiliate, you don't need your own product, all you need to do is send traffic to a page, people order and you collect a commission.
But the mistake most affiliate marketers make is: not having a list.
Here is the simplest way I can describe it. You need a list of buyers so you can drive them to your offers.
Even when you freelance, you keep a client list so you can follow up with them later for repeat business.
You need a page to build up that list (for people to subscribe) and a way to drive traffic to that page.
It's simple: Traffic... List... Offers. Continue Reading »
Product Creation Confessions
Be sure you're registered for the product creation call on Wednesday, July 1st at 5:00 PM Pacific. I can't stress this enough:
https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/408406978
But I have a confession to make before the call. The price of this course will be $997.
To be honest, I'm scared. I have charged $997 before, but never for an e-course.
Then again, most of my courses are $200 to $400 for a four week course, and this is an 8-week course, so it's really not that big of a jump.
I also remind myself that when you join this course, I'll show you how to create a 7 dollar product to sell FAST. How to create a freebie to build a list for that product. How to create a $27 and $97 product. How to establish a $27 a month membership site with almost no extra effort...
Plus, you get all the list and traffic in place to get some consistent sales.
Just one of those seven things would be worth $997 on its own. Even back in the day... I'm talking 2003 and 2004, I'd get an idea for a product, whip it out in a day or two, post it in the right community and pull out $400 overnight with no list.
400 bucks overnight... and then the product was still mine to continue marketing! Continue Reading »
Three Instant Product Improvements So You Can Double Your Prices Before Dinnertime
Today I'm asking you why the heck is your product (if you even have one) so freaking identical to everyone else's?
To be honest, most people think all they have to do to create a product is write some stuff in Microsoft Word, save as a PDF, and setup the thank you page and sales letter.
And guess what... they're right!
The good and bad news... most people stop there. Let's just say that's good news because when you put a tiny bit more effort into your product, you can rise above the rest of the crowd.
The first thing you can do is add a pre-sell funnel. All you need to do is write a couple of articles based on the content of your e-book. Flip to three random pages of that 10 or 20 page manual, think about what it describes, and write that thing it describes as a question. Then answer it... there's your article.
If writing an article is hard for you, then pay somebody $10 per article to write a question that answers it. Do that four times and you're only out 40 dollars.
Or even better, buy private label rights that allows you to turn the information into a free e-course (only if it's stated in the license) and setup your follow-up sequence in just a few minutes.
Don't even overthink it. Create a four-part follow-up sequence in Aweber, plus one additional follow-up asking people why they haven't purchased. Create a quick PDF report using EzineArticles. Use that PDF as a bribe to get people to opt-in on a squeeze page.
That way even if they don't purchase immediately, you can keep following up with them, automatically.
Speaking of private label rights, something else I do if I feel worried about getting sales... is buy a private label rights product in my niche, and tack it onto the offer as a bonus. (We even discussed this in the PLR Copywriting class last night.) Bam, you've just doubled the value of your product.
Now get this. The easiest, fastest, and CHEAPEST way to enhance your product's value is to hold a webinar. I tried launching an e-class ONLY on webinars a few months ago, but the launch bombed.
Do you want to know why? Because most people are CHICKEN about hosting their own webinars!
But the funny thing is, those people that actually overcame their fears and did it, admitted that once that actually tried it, it wasn't that hard. And using the proper shortcuts, these people became affluent in webinar hosting in just a few short weeks... when otherwise it could have taken months or years.
You simply can't argue with 50 products created in 28 days... especially when 11 of those were made on the same day!
I'm thinking about hosting a new product creation class. With all the products I've launched, plus the fact that I've co-hosted a product creation class before, and even spoken about the subject live, makes me more qualified to teach it than just about anyone else.
Add to that the fact that my webinars get people to actually go out and DO stuff, and you quickly realize there's no one else who can teach you and make you do it like I can.
Would you guys have any interest in taking a product creation class from me? Even if you've already created products, just to pick up the shortcuts (especially those I've picked up in the last six months), absorb new confidence and skills (like making webinars), and being accountable to take action and finally get that product out there?
Comment below with "yes" or "no"... "yes" meaning you'd join an 8-week product creation class if I offered it.
As your reward, I'll redirect you to a signup page where you can get on a free live webinar with me on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 to find out how to make a product a day...
Improve Your Speaking Skills on Video?
Do you want to speak on stage someday or host your own seminars? You can use the power of screen capture software (like Jing or Camtasia) to create your products faster and improve your public speaking skills.
My formula: record a video for a paid product, if I don't have time for that, keep the video rolling while I do something to improve my business... and don't stop the camera until I'm done. (This REALLY keeps me on task.) If that fails, open up Notepad and go over what I did that day. I plan for 5 minutes and that usually ends up taking 20 minutes.
Then, watch that video you just recorded from start to finish.
This is what professional actors and public speakers do to train themselves to actually look presentable.
You would be surprised at how many people DON'T do this. Just look at how many chipmunk-infested Camtasia videos are floating around out there.
There are so-called "experts" at video who are hard to watch.
When you talk with your hands, it's distracting and you look like an idiot! There is absolutely NO REASON for you to use 2-3 different nervous hand gestures with every sentence.
When you talk for 2 minutes before you start to say anything new, you have lost my interest. Do you have a lame video with flashy graphics than says nothing but, "Welcome to my web site?" Get rid of it! If someone missed the first 2 minutes of your video, would it still make sense? Then start at that 2 minute point next time.
The point of video is so you can communicate more information in less time, and hold someone's attention better than plain text can. That should be your goal as a public speaker as well. If you can master the art of keeping yourself entertained, you can become a great public speaker, or at least produce amazing videos.
Sell Based on Value, Not Price
Let's say you went to the store and saw two parachutes, side by side... one looks okay and costs 50 bucks. The parachute next to it looks HALF as good and costs 25 dollars. Which one do you choose?
The "regular" $50 one, right?
Then you notice there's also a 100 dollar parachute on the shelf. It comes with an extra emergency backup chute, a checklist for what you should check for before jumping out of an airplane, and a DVD with skydiving tutorials. You also get one free skydiving lesson included... and one free issue of "Skydiving Magazine." (Ok I'll admit, I've taken this analogy way too far.)
NOW which parachute would you go for... the regular one or the fancy one?
You might be able to get by with the regular parachute, but you'd feel a lot better if you had that checklist, the DVD, the magazine, and the lesson.
People will pay more for handholding. Don't try to sell the smallest amount for the lowest price, try to sell the most USEFUL stuff for the highest price.
But not at first. Put out a small product for a low price with a few features... if people buy that tells you it's worth your time to work on it... add value and increase the price.
That's exactly what I did with this week's launch of Time Management on Crack. 17 dollars JUST for the report.
After 150 people bought, I bumped the price to 27 dollars... and added videos with the same content as the book... so you get the same info with less work and in less time.
Another 150 people and the price is now 37 dollars... I added an additional three hours of video showing me writing a sales letter in one sitting, and gave a TON more details on productivity and articles.
When the price gets to 47 dollars, I'll throw in the recording of the 90 minute webinar where Jeanette Cates grilled me on everything time management.
Start with low ticket stuff... see if they buy... add more stuff and increase the price. But aim for that high price. A couple people missed the $17 offer and asked if they could still get that low price. My response: tell me what one bonus I can add to this package to make it worth $27 for you.
It's so easy to compete based on price, but you're killing your profits. Most people would have paid $100 for that $50 parachute you're selling... if you only included hand holding.
If you're worried about pricing too high, offer a barebones downsell.
p.s. You can still get Time Management on Crack for under $47... for now.
What do you guys think about selling based on value instead of price?
PowerPoint Camtasias
I can't believe I haven't given away this procedure on the blog before. I think I've mentioned it in passing once or twice via comments, and explained it in the private Product University membership last month, but I'm sick of repeating myself, so...
Here is the formula to turn an audio product into a video product. It requires Camtasia ($299 with 30 day free trial) and Microsoft PowerPoint (OpenOffice is free, or you can get the downloadable home edition of Office 2007 for only $80 on Amazon).
Let's pretend you have an audio product that's 27 minutes long.
1. Open up a blank PowerPoint and start playing the audio in your MP3 player. (The default black and white theme will work fine for this.)
2. Fast forward to 1:00 (one minute) in the audio and start listening. Type in the main point of 1:00 to 1:59 as the headline of the slide, and type three quick bullet points of 1 to 6 words each. (Pretend you're back in school and taking quick notes).
3. When the audio passes 2:00, skip to slide 2 by hitting ctrl+enter. Type in your headline and three bullet points for 2:00 to 2:59 in this.
4. Repeat for the duration of the audio. The beauty of this is if you need to stop at say, 15 minutes, you can come back and you'll know exactly where you left off. By the end of this, your 27 minute audio now has 27 slides.
5. Insert a slide in front of all the other slides in the PowerPoint. Change its layout to title slide, and type in the name of the product and the author.
6. (Optional) Edit the master slide and insert your URL at the footer, that way your URL appears on all slides.
7. Select all slides. In PowerPoint 2003, go to Slide Show... Slide Transition. In PowerPoint 2007, there should be an Animation tab. UNCHECK the "advance slide on mouse click" box, and click the "automatically after" box, then type in 01:00 for one minute.
8. Resize your screen to 640x480 resolution, fire up Camtasia Recorder and set it to capture WITHOUT sound, full screen, at 1 frame per second.
9. Start the slide show and hit record (once you get good at this you can actually do it in one click with the "Add-Ins" menu but let's not get ahead of ourselves). Leave the computer, because if you click around on other windows, even if you have multiple monitors, it will mess up the slide show. Don't take too long of a walk because you'll want to be there to hit Stop as soon as the slide show goes black.
10. Stop the slide show, save the camrec, open up Camtasia Studio to edit your recording and import both the camrec video and the MP3 audio. Add a 2nd audio track and drag the MP3 in as the audio.
Congratulations, you've just turned your 27 minute audio into a 27 minute video, and it only took you 27 minutes to listen to the audio and about 2 minutes to get it into Camtasia Studio.
Now export it to an SWF 1 frame per second video if you want to show it on the web. If you want a downloadable version, I prefer to export to WMV. Camtasia 5 has a checkbox that will also export into an iPod version. Cool beans!
Guess what, you can also export the PowerPoint slides into PDFs as well. You've just given yourself an excuse to charge $10 or $20 more for your product.
Don't even have an audio product? Read your book aloud, word for word. Record it into Camtasia and export just the audio (I don't even bother with programs like Audacity).
This is how I make audio products. I'll record text word for word into audio, then PowerPoint it to make it a video.
Most of the time I'll do it backwards, and write PowerPoints where 1 slide = 1 page, then record the PowerPoint with Camtasia running, capturing audio as I read each page aloud, and change the slide when I turn the page.
Then export the PowerPoints into PDF, camrecs into WMV, MP3 and iPod... $17 e-book becomes a $47 video product.
For the products Jason and I are creating for the Daily Seminar, most of the time we don't even bother with the text... who has time to write when you are recording a 20 to 60 minute seminar every day? Just record Camtasia PowerPoints and export video plus audio plus slides. If people really want text, we'll transcribe them, but those costs really add up.
What are your thoughts? Do you use something similar to my PowerPoint Camtasia method? Do you have an even BETTER system than me? Please tell me to know, I'm dying to hear about it!
Clickbank Allows You to Sell Physical Products
The other day I was on Clickbank requesting a price increase for my account. (So I can charge more for products.) Guess what? I discovered how you can sell physical products with Clickbank!
As you might know, Clickbank is a payment processor that you can use to handle payments. As far as I am concerned, PayPal is #1 and Clickbank #2. With PayPal you get paid instantly, but with Clickbank, you have access to 100,000+ affiliates to promote your stuff.
Clickbank handles all the affiliate payments and everything, and heck -- they even added support for recurring billing this year (membership sites) and an IPN so you can integrate it with a script.
The only problem? Clickbank only wants you to sell digital products. This is because they have a pretty buyer-centric refund policy and don't want to be like PayPal where it is a big issue to get the physical product back.
So with Clickbank you can have a membership site with affiliates, but no physical product delivery -- like Jim Edwards did with The Net Reporter. ($77 per month and in addition to access to the membership site, he mailed you a physical DVD video every month.)
Here's the loophole for selling physical products with Clickbank... I noticed the following in Clickbank's terms of service:
You may also offer shipped delivery of printed media (books, CD's, and DVD's) as a courtesy to qualified customers (e.g., US and Canada only), provided the shipped media is clearly complementary and not essential to the operation of the originally downloaded digital product.
After having a Clickbank account for 6 years, I never noticed that. What you have to do is provide your members with a hybrid delivery. (Coined by John Reese.) When someone buys this physical product from you, provide 100% of the content in downloadable form -- for instant gratification -- then ship the physical materials as bonuses, for added value.
That's what you should be doing with physical products in the first place and that's what I recommended to Steven Schwartzman when he was disappointed about the Five Minute Articles WSO. Sales picked up after he added the hybrid product delivery.
I am really resisting the push into physical products. I am looking at a gigantic map of how my upsells connect to one another (drawn in Visio). There are about 60 products in that map... not all of them are connected.
I showed that map to Steven Schwartzman and this is what he had to say:
In regards to the image...WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have nothing else to say about that except wow. It's amazing to see how many products you have when it's displayed like that. You can create a course on making those maps.
I recently recorded 4.5 hours of Camtasia PowerPoints for Software Secrets Exposed. This means now, not only do I offer the book, I also offer six 45 minute videos and six audio CDs.
The audio CDs are just the audio from the videos but it means you can burn them and listen to them in your car or whatever.
Should I have released this as a physical product?
- Maybe set the price low at $17 just for the PDF.
- They click to order, and have the chance to get just the audios at $37.
- They click to order, and have the chance to get the audios plus the videos for $47.
- They click to order, and have the chance to get the package for $97 as a set of 3 DVDs plus 6 audio CDs mailed to them.
There are some really good fulfillment services like SwiftCD where all the shipping info is grabbed from PayPal, but yet another drawback is getting my customers on my follow-up list as well for updates.
Could you please comment below and let me know if I should have released this update as a physical product? Have you yourself released a physical product?
Is it even worth the hassle dealing with the shipping problems and refunds... especially since with Clickbank, you can't get those physical items back?
Coaching: Do You Have Someone to Call?
For 2008 I told myself I was going to treat my internet business more like a business. As in, put work into it every single day (even if it was just a little bit) instead of putting a ton of work into it every now and then (which is a hobby).
It wasn't a "New Year's Resolution." Those never work. I just kept telling myself every day that I was going to have a business instead of a hobby, and after several weeks, it finally stuck.
Building A Business Requires Personal Coaching.
My friend Steven Schwartzman (I've mentioned him before) is my consultant. I have joint ventured with him on projects for the past five years and flew to New York last summer to meet him and attend a Warrior luncheon.
I make more money than him but that's only because I put out more products. As far as internet marketing experience goes, he and I are equals.
Earlier this year he got back into internet marketing after a break for several months -- he was studying for the LSATs to get into law school. I've made it a point to call him every weekday to ask him what he accomplished that day, then tell him what I accomplished that day.
I've noticed a gigantic boost in productivity by doing this. If I have nothing to report I feel like I'm letting him down, and I think it has the same effect on him. We motivate each other pretty darn well this way.
So far in 2008, I've earned $30,247.38 just from PayPal sales alone. That's not counting my day job, that's not counting my Clickbank income, that's not counting my stock trading income (usually that last one loses me money... I hardly do that nowadays anyway).
That's 1,762 sales in the past 100 days. That's right, doing some simple math in your head will tell you: 17 sales and $302.47 per day.
I've launched 24 products since New Year's.
I'm telling you, you need someone like this. I'm not talking about instant messaging, that is a huge time waster. You need someone to actually call on the phone (not Skype, you should be away from the computer) at the end of the day and talk for 5-10 minutes maximum about what you both accomplished.
It needs to be someone far away, it needs to be someone who does the same things you do (marketing on the internet). It can't be someone you know, it can't be a real friend or a family member.
At one point Steven was very sick, on the couch, watching Jeopardy, but we randomly got the idea to get him to watch some internet marketing videos so at least he can accomplish something until he gets better. In the meantime he assured me he was less than a day away from finishing his special report.
As soon as he was all-better, I'm bugged him on the phone every day until it was finished.
I have been feeling a little bit down from these product re-launches, because I put a lot of work into videos for existing products, but each launch only gets me a few hundred dollars because most of my list already owns these products and I deliver free upgrades. (For brand new products, I am used to bringing in a couple thousand dollars in the first few days.)
However, Steven assured me that, in his words, "A few hundred dollars a day is nothing to shake a stick at." It's consistent income and though I have seen several $100-$150 days lately.
My combined income, taking into account PayPal fees, Clickbank, and day job income, equals $34,000 year to date or $136,000 per year. Profit from the past 12 days equals $275 per day on average... or $100,000 annualized.
I must be doing something right. Considering I made $90,000-ish last year INCLUDING day job income, I could be in for quite a boost if I keep doing what I'm doing all year round.
Sometimes it only takes a simple comment like "it's nothing to shake a stick at" to put everything in perspective.
You don't need to spend $2,000 a month on professional personal coaching unless you are making so much money that you need to get rid of that $2,000 for a nice tax write-off... yeah, I wish I'd thought of that before getting my bigass five-figure tax bill this month.
(For the rest of 2008 I have to pay more money per QUARTER in taxes than I made in INCOME for an entire year just a few years ago!)
You just need someone to talk to on the phone. Someone who won't steal your ideas and won't lead you on the wrong path. They can be your equal, it doesn't matter... you just need someone to TALK to.
Could you comment below and tell me if you have a business mentor? Are they paid or free? How often do you communicate? Has it helped you?
Remove Chipmunks from Camtasia Videos
Eugene Humbert, cool guy that he is, sent me an e-mail the other day letting me know that my Camtasia videos were producing weird "chipmunk" sounds.
This only happens with recent (version 9) versions of the Adobe Flash player. There's an easy solution:
Download the Camtasia Audio Bug Fix.
(The zip file is located at the bottom of that page.)
TechSmith solved this in Camtasia 5.02.... but I still use Camtasia 4 because I want my videos to look the same. By the way, this is ADOBE's fault and not Camtasia's.
The cool thing about this tool is, you can drag a whole FOLDER containing your SWF files, and the tool will find the SWF files even if they are buried deep inside other folders.
Last night, I de-chipmunked 14 video products. It didn't take that long at all because I used the above method.If you want the technical explanation of why this had to be done, Flash 9 can't properly play MP3 in SWF files that is encoded at a non-standard bitrate (it only understands bitrates that are a multiple of 11.025 Hz). The audio fixer quickly re-encodes the MP3 audio stream in your Flash file.
Why was all this extra work for me a good thing? It enabled me to finish adding affiliate programs to ALL my infoproducts.
All my products now have the affiliate subdomain trick built-in, as well as solo ads, an affiliate page for quick copy and pasting, and a call-to-action in the final chapter explaining to readers how to join the affiliate program for the product.
Heck, I've even JV Plus enabled all those products on this blog.
Before I encountered this chipmunk emergency, I was lazily working away, putting up maybe 3 or 4 affiliate pages per day. That was a task that I told myself I'd finish FIRST before anything else. So, I had to hurry up and finish all the solo ads before I could begin de-chipmunking.
I whipped out Microsoft Excel, copy and pasted all the product links on this blog's sidebar, then made a column for each thing I had to do for the site (write the solo ad, link to the affiliate page, setup an upsell, write the call-to-action, update the PDF file, de-chipmunk) and I just plowed through it. Because I had to.
So, don't forget to de-chipmunk your Camtasia videos if you haven't already.
How to Reduce Refunds
Ben Prater is a guy I have never exchanged words with, unfortunately. He is an expert Internet marketer and has a way of reducing refunds that is pretty damn effective.
He is similar to me because he sells infoproducts in the "make your own software" niche, but he focuses more on the managerial, engineering part of that niche than I do. I am a do-it-yourselfer, he is an idea guy.
I'll never forget his best product… called,
"Software Secrets Exposed."
His sales letter sells you the story of what you can do with his book – his friend at Microsoft who worked in a high tech office and went to the Ferrari factory himself to make sure they painted his six-figure car the exact shade of purple he wanted.
I bought his book in 2003, before a lot of people had thought to direct sales into autoresponders or even save those leads at all. But Ben had thought of that.
You buy from him and you are automatically added to a follow-up series that sends you an automated, personalized message every few days.
When you first purchased, you got the book. After 7 days he sent a 30-page bonus report with a sample blueprint (just like the ones he talks about how to make in his original book).
He sent out more bonus reports after 14, 30, 45, and 60 day periods. They were either bonus chapters that wouldn't have fit anywhere in the book, or interviews with others – which are even easier to make than reports!
He didn't always simply give away the bonus materials… sometimes he asked for something in return.
For example, in one follow-up he offered a report on a related subject – but to get the report, you needed to provide a testimonial for his original "Software Secrets Exposed" e-book. Look at that sales page, it overflows with glowing testimonials!
If you can spread out the bonus items like he does, you will cut down on refunds because those people who refund immediately won't get the bonus items. If you can string them along for long enough, they might pass up the refund period!
When information is cut up into pieces it has a greater "thud" factor. Five twenty page reports all with their own sales letters have a higher value than a big 100 page book, even if contains the exact same information.
Spreading that information out over time gives it even MORE value, because your customer is more likely to read the information given to them in pieces than trying to sift through a huge pile of stuff the day they purchase.
I'll admit, I don't have a follow-up series for every product -- that would take time away from creating new products -- but every now and then I choose one product randomly and spend a minute or two writing a follow-up for it.
It doesn't have to be anything super valuable. You could:
- Remind them to download the product. (7-day followup)
- Ask what they thought of the product... which you can then use as a testimonial. (14-day followup)
- Offer an affiliate link and a solo ad they can copy and paste and send to their list. (30-day followup)
- Send a special discount link to another one of your related products. (45-day followup)
- Give them a surprise bonus report. (60-day followup)
That's how you reduce refunds. Advertise these items in the sales letter as a 7-day bonus, 14-day bonus, and so on.
On a forum I called this strategy:
"Turning a one-time product into a short-term membership site."
If you give a refund, immediately zap them from the update list and block their IP address from your site.
Recently, I paid through the nose for the rights to Software Secrets Exposed, setup a web site and an affiliate program, and added the bonus reports as autoresponder follow-ups just like Ben did.
Do you have any advice on how to reduce refunds? I don't mean legal issues like disputing transactions with PayPal, but ways to turn refunds into a good thing. (In this case adding more long-term value to a product.)
