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...

Filed in: Product CreationProduct Launches

Comments (12)

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  1. Gren Bingham says:

    Hi Robert,

    A very nice, clean, clear six step process. Now all everyone has to do is simply do it 🙂 !

    Best regards,

    Gren.

  2. Lance Tamashiro says:

    I am confused about Step 1 – Break it into a 4 step process…

    Why is creating a product a 6 step? lol

    Great post!

  3. Robert Plank says:

    Hey Lance, fair enough…

    I’ve just made it 4 “main” steps and then 2 extra optional steps people “should” get to after the product is out there and selling well.

  4. Dan Martin says:

    I get that there’s only a small step from $47 to $97. Making the point that it’s worth much more than $97 is a great help. Proving it by adding the extra add-ons usually avoided by most marketers makes the product that much more distinctive.

    I just ordered a Flip for making my videos. Now I’m ready for my next step.
    Thanks,
    Dan

  5. Rob says:

    Robert,

    Can you recomend some good dictating service?

  6. Great explanation of a domino or snowball effect for creating a training course!

    Thanks, Robert.

    Melanie

  7. Robert,
    Would you recommend a couple of good article directories that don’t cost an arm and a leg but make sense. Thanks.
    Ruthan

  8. Robert Plank says:

    I didn’t mention articles in these steps but yes you can recycle some of your free content into articles and post them to EzineArticles. I wouldn’t put them on any other directories.

  9. Josh Stinson says:

    For current membership site owners, what about approaching product creation from a different direction?

    If you’ve posted a continuous stream of content for several months into a membership site, consider bundling a few related pieces of that content into individual products. Build a small launch – including a live webinar – around each individual product. It will allow you to get more mileage out of the same content. You can even passively promote the larger membership site through exit-pop-type scripts while you’re launching the individual product, so you don’t fall into the trap of having your membership site fade away because you failed to continue to market it aggressively.

  10. Britt Malka says:

    Should Step 3 (Sales letter) come before step 2 (making the product)?

    I wonder if the biggest hurdle isn’t selfconfindence. I mean, I can make a product. I can even make one every month. But (for the English public) I would never dare to think that people would subscribe to a membership site to get my products. In Danish, yes, no problems, of course! That goes without saying. But in English? Naaaaah, they don’t know me, I’m just a nobody, they would never do that…

    I need English self-confindence 😉

  11. Jase says:

    Sheesh, man. I hate the way you make things sound so simple! Robs me of all my excuses. Now I’m gonna actually have to DO something. 🙂 The great thing about the 4-part is it stops you getting caught in overwhelm and prattling on unnecessarily. You end up with manageable-sized products. Good stuff … again.

  12. Thomas R says:

    Wow, what a challenge.

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