Recent Updates
005: Write an Article in 6 Minutes
Topics covered in today's episode...
- How to make a lot of money on automatic pilot by publishing digital e-books and letting your information products bring in traffic and sales for you
- Re-write your brain to justify your prices, and charge what you're worth!
- The easiest way to get links (backlinks) to your site
- How to get into the article writing mindset so you'll actually have fun creating content
- Why "conventional" article marketing hasn't worked for years (and what to do about it)
- The exact formula I use to create articles in 6 minutes and some as fast as 90 seconds
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"How to Write an Article in 6 Minutes" FREE Report
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004: Build an Email List of 1000 Subscribers or More in 7 Days
"How to Build an Email List of 1000 Subscribers" FREE Report
Topics covered...
- How "real" money is made on the internet
- How to create an "Aweber" autoresponder
- Double opt-in vs. Single opt-in
- RESOURCES OF THE DAY: ProvideSupport
- Beating "chicken and the egg" syndrome
- Subscribers, sublists, broadcasts, followups
- Optin page: headline + 3 bullet points + call to action + form
- Ethical bribes and how they're the fastest way to build a list
- Traffic (Facebook, social media, articles, YouTube videos, affiliates)
- THOUGHT OF THE DAY: are you emailing every single day?
Please let me know what you think of today's episode.
This week's listener shout-outs go to: Bryan Reid Bliss, A.j. Slivinski, Josef Mack, Oliver Ledinski, Tom Trush, Michael Cannon, Trevor Baret, Patt McGee, Annett Bone, Matthew Lee, Elvie Fandida Mones, Rakesh Singh, Simon Aktas, Jerold Johnson, Grigor Nalbandian, Les Martin, Kyle McGuigan, Christopher Duncan, Rocky Johnson, Masroor Tahreem, William Anzai, Joey Malit, Dustin Joel Olson, Tony Smith...
Also: Morgana Rae, Gabriel Machuret, Shane Massingham, Jonny Nastor, Stevie Knight, Marsha Anderson, Candace Fowler Chira, Tim Parker, Tuhin Hasan, Jason Tjoeng, Kalin Blagov, Clayton Mark Smith, Rob Anderson, Michelle Patterson, Sunil Dutt S, Greg Mah, Jeffrey Bush, Ellie Walsh, Jerry S. George, Julie Muller, Adi Vasile, Brian Petersen...
And let's not forget: David Doost, Kurt Scholle, Lance Tamashiro, Ann Moore, Scott Buendia, Donna Kim-Brand, Linette Montae Phd, Dana Sanders, Kerwin McKenzie, David Bibby, Neville Valerio, and Chet Rajani!
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Armand Morin from Big Seminar, Success Leaves Traces, and AM2 Talks Internet Marketing, Offline Seminars, Software, Online Memberships and Masterminds
Robert: Right now we are talking to Armand Morin who I would think is probably the most successful internet marketer that I have ever met, or that I have ever heard of. He used to run the big seminar which was the biggest and longest running seminar in the United States.
He makes $20 million dollars a year. He has made over $100,000 million dollars online in sales. He's a great trainer, he does software, he does a MasterMind, he speaks on the stage. He has spoken from a 90 minute presentation and made $995,000 dollars in sales. We are going to talk to him today about how he got started, what he's doing and what he's doing right that you can apply in your own business today. What's up Armand?
Armand: Hey Robert, thank you very much for having me.
Robert: Glad to have you. On top of what I have already told everyone about you, what would you say that you do, pretty much?
Armand: I would say, really my business is divided into two different things. Number one is teaching people how to market their businesses online, and number two I would actually say that my business is simply the same thing, which is product development. Meaning, finding products that actually people want, and developing them either through our own team or having somebody else develop them for us, or developing a course to teach something that someone wants to know.
Robert: Software and courses?
Armand: Yes, pretty much. Continue Reading »
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I Missed My Flight (3 Ways You’ll Make Money As a Result)
I'm supposed to be on a plane right now over the Pacific Ocean, but I'm not.
Why? What other reason is there? I was late to the airport! I'm "used" to arriving at an airport for a domestic flight two hours early -- 90 minutes if there's traffic. Never had a problem before.
But this time... I didn't realize that I had to arrive three hours early for international flights (this is only my third time leaving the country). The airport is a two hour drive away. I planned on leaving the house four hours before my flight. I was a little late getting going... a train crossed the tracks adding a delay, there was construction and traffic all up the freeway to the airport. I didn't factor the 15 minute shuttle ride from parking to the terminal since this isn't the airport I usually fly out of.
I was at that ticket counter 90 minutes before the flight. I was the last passenger to check in. By the time the ticket agent created a visa for me to travel, looked up my information, tried to figure out the computer to add me to the flight, I had an hour till takeoff. Too late.
No available flights to Australia tomorrow. I'd have to wait two days. That means my trip had been cut from four days in Australia into two days. I'm going to spend the same amount of time on the plane and at the airport, as I will be on the ground in Australia!
No way to cancel the flight and rebook with a different airline, no easy way to extend my trip either, especially since I have lots of things scheduled for when I get back.
I'm sure you've been in a similar situation at one point, so what can we learn from this?
Habit #1: "Paranoid" Scheduling
First of all, you better believe that I'm showing up at the airport very very early from now on. As in, even earlier than 2 hours for a domestic flight, even earlier than 3 hours for international.
Think about it... how many times have you stressed out about being late, how many times have you showed up somewhere 5 minutes late and felt bad... how many times have you missed out on something special just because you missed a different deadline?
Imagine how different your life would be if you rolled out of bed one hour earlier and jogged on the treadmill at the gym, or took a walk around your neighborhood, took a drive around town or went for a swim just to wake yourself up.
How different would things be if you had everything ready to go for your next product launch long before you needed it, before you even announced it, in fact?
Habit #2: Launch Scarcity
Speaking of product launches, Lance and I recently relaunched "Membership Cube 2.0." Here's what we did:
- We presented a "VIP webinar" to students who had completed the 1.0 course (some of them several years ago), already owned the membership license, and probably had a membership site, and sold many many people $197 for this updated training, until 11:59pm Eastern time that night
- For the next 24 hours, the price to upgrade for alumni students only was $297
- Then $397 for the next 24 hours
- Then $497 for the next 24 hours
- The following week, we opened up the brand new course to the public to join at $697, once again, only until 11:59pm Eastern time
- The next day, the price was $997 to join
- The day after that, we offered a 5-payment plan so people could choose to join either by paying the $997 in full, or subscribing to 5 payments of $225 (one every 30 days for 5 total payments)
- The day after that, we offered a choice between paying $997 upfront or choosing a 3-payment option (3 payments of $375)
- On the final day the price was simply $997, and can I tell you a secret?
We sold seats into Membership Cube 2.0 every single day of that launch, at every single price point above. What's also interesting is that the majority of our sales occurred within 1 hour of every deadline. In other words, if we announced the price was increasing from $697 to $997 at 11:59pm Eastern that night, a bulk of our sales came in between 11:00pm and 11:59pm Eastern.
But it makes sense, after all... how many times did you wait until the very very last minute in high school and college? When you had a boss? In your business now?
It's just human nature to wait until the pain is so great (I'm about to miss my flight or the product is about to become more expensive) to actually take some kind of action (something you take for granted like being able to travel to the opposite end of the world in a day or creating a website that takes payments).
Habit #3: Training Your List
I'm not saying that having scarcity will make or break your product launch, but if you have something good to sell, it's an easy tool to pull out of your arsenal to give you a nice little boost in your sales.
We used to cap the number of seats in a class. Only 30 available! What's the problem there? If we say 30 are available, 25 are remaining, it looks like no one wants the product. No social proof. If we sell all 30 seats in a day, we think... maybe we should have opened 50 or 60 slots?
The price increase strategy works great because the potential income is unlimited but it really pays off when we TRAIN OUR LIST.
Here's what I mean. Many, many people contacted us -- sometimes an hour after the price increased -- saying that the price was $997 but can I join at $497 or even $197?
Our response was "no" and the reason was usually because someone had already bought at $697 or $997 at that point. Why should we let someone else pay full price when you contacted us and asked for a favor?
I'm sorry if that sounds harsh. But in the same way I'll be sure not to miss another flight, I don't want you to miss another launch or a price increase!
At the end of the day, there's no point in getting angry or upset about paying more today simply because you don't have to buy. You missed a sale, and that's it.
Normally (what you see in the retail world) is something like this: this computer normally costs $1000, today only it's $500. If someone bought that computer for $1000 yesterday, they're screwed. If you miss today's sale at $500, you have to pay $1000 tomorrow.
It might feel weird for you to turn away customers, or be strict about your deadlines, but the way I see it, you have two choices:
Either train your list that your sales, deadlines, and scarcity means nothing, and that anyone can get around it with a quick email...
Or that you're serious about your business and your customers should be too. 11:59pm means 11:59pm and $997 means $997.
You can train your subscribers to have a sense of entitlement (they should get everything under the sun for 10 bucks) or that buying is a choice and that the price they pay is STILL much lower than the value they get.
And, whether you're a buyer or a seller, or both, the best thing to do is to make the best out of any situation.
- I missed my flight, is there anything I can do to change that? No, it's done.
- Did this event possibly prevent me from being late or making other mistakes in the future? Probably!
- Am I going to be a victim, feel sorry for myself, and mope around until my flight in two days? I think you know the answer to that question... time to get some coding done and get to the airport early tomorrow so I'm not in a rush
That's how you can profit from my mistake: change your habits to that you're early to everything. Product launches. Webinars. Meetings. Personal life events. Freelance jobs. Underpromise and overdeliver.
The next time you're launching a product or getting paid to provide a done-for-you service, think about what kind of scarcity you can add in to improve an already great offer and make that event "special."
And finally, keep in mind that you're always training your list. You're training your list to get used to how often you send emails, what price you charge (they get accustomed to high or low for sure), what kind of offers, whether you send out videos or perform live webinars... so what kind of subscribers do you want? It's up to you.
Go ahead in the comment box below and tell me what you think.
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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002: Sell Anything Using the Magic of Copywriting
You're going to want to listen to this podcast right away because it explains everything you need to know about saying (and doing) the right things to make money right away and start making money immediately...
- it's ok to be a sales person and there's a way easier approach to what you're doing now
- how to use "speed copy" to crank out any sales letter in minutes
- how to craft an irresistible offer
- PRODUCTIVITY TIP OF THE DAY: 4 daily tasks
- Contact me at robert@robertplank.com to be on the show (or have me on your show)
- The "newbie crusher" system to get your business online right away
- The "100 articles in a day" system enjoy creating unlimited content
- What to sell and what to give away?
- AIDA (the everything formula)
- The secret to killer headlines that get people tripping over themselves to buy
- How to craft an irresistible offer
- THOUGHT OF THE DAY: who are you talking to?
Please listen to it right now, subscribe on iTunes and 5-star rate it and of course let me know what you think.
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001: Start an Internet Business on Autopilot
I'm starting my own podcast (which means an online radio show) and the first episode is called "How to Start an Internet Business on Autopilot." Topics covered:
- why internet marketing?
- webinars & membership sites
- how to build a real business you can be proud of
- how wake up to a pile of money every morning
- return of podcasting & blogging
- THOUGHT OF THE DAY: why slow down?
- programming & systems (100 articles)
- interview me on your show, be a guest on my show, or just ask a question
- strategies vs tactics
- niche, optin page, sequence, sales letter, membership site, blog
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Can I Give You 30 Extra Hours Per Month?
This is pretty cool. At first it will "seem" like common sense... and then you'll think "that sounds great, but it's not for me" but FINALLY... once you get to the third step, it'll hit you like a ton of bricks. This has got to be the #1 boost to my productivity all year.
Please wake up early from now on. The "average" person wakes up at 7AM on weekdays, but you know what else? The "average" person...
- is 15 pounds overweight
- only has 0.8 friends
- has an IQ of only 100
- only earned "B's" and "C's" in high school
- attended college but didn't finish
- only earns $28,000 per year
- is $2,500 in debt...
Do you want to be average or better than average?
Here's something to be said about above average people... what do the CEO's of Disney, Apple, General Motors, Virgin America, and Starbucks have in common? They're all out of bed by 5:00 AM!
My first reaction to this was, "What a bunch of workaholics! Glad I'm not one of those..." Until I discovered that although many successful people wake up early in order to get a "jump" on the day... the primary reason is for personal, quiet, reflective time.
If you're here, then chances you are:
- A student (you usually wait until the last minute)
- Self employed (self motivation is ultra-important)
- Employed (your time is not your own from 8am-5pm)
- A parent (enough said)
- Retired (possibly fixed income, health concerns or time limitations)
Either way, waking up even one hour is the solution to most of your problems. In college I discovered firsthand that staying up late or "burning the midnight oil" does NOT work. It only leaves you stressed, tired, overworked, and burned out because you half-ass rush your assignments the night before, or the morning-of, don't you?
On the other hand, here's how I became financially independent (by that I mean property owning and self employed)... I woke up early, spent about ONE (maybe 1.5) VERY FOCUSED HOURS in the morning, and once that was done, I went in to my day job for 8 hours of loyal servitude. Here's what happened...
- I separated "church" and "state" -- internet business stays at home, work stays at work
- I actually had time to eat a good breakfast
- I had time for a walk (or a run or swim for the crazy people)
- I began the day with excitement
What's also great is after work, I could do other things... relax, personal time, visit friends and family. This broke me out of the Work-TV-Sleep cycle most people are stuck in.
I could go on about studies that have shown that the parts of our brain that affect judgment get tired over the course of the day which explains why people overeat, drink, and commit crimes late at night instead of early in the morning... but let's talk about you!
Step #1: Sleep Smarter
I'm not saying you have to go to sleep early, or sleep less hours, but you need to be a little more careful about how you go to sleep...
- Have a set time that you "usually" go to sleep
- Avoid using your computer, TV, phone or iPad one hour before sleeping (the glowing light causes sleep problems)
- Your bed is for sleeping only -- if you need to nap or perform other activities, use your couch
- Sleep in a dark, quiet area that's just a few degrees colder than you have during the day (a no brainer but so many people miss this)
- Avoid eating right before bed (another no brainer)
- Hypnosis & sleep headphones (my secret weapon)
If I really can't sleep or my sleep schedule is out of whack, I use hypnosis. (I used to experiment with melatonin and valerian root but it caused more problems than it solved.) Here's what I do...
I put on a pair of sleeping headphones (basically a headband with very thin headphones so you can lay however you want).
I plug the headphone into my iPad, activate airplane mode and open a hypnosis app -- I used to use the "BinauralBeat" app but now I use one called "Lucid Dreams."
Hypnosis only works if you let it. It takes about 10-20 minutes for me. The narrator tells me to relax this and that, imagine this and that, breath in this way, count down to this number, the next thing I know I wake up the next morning and I'm no longer wearing the headphones around my head.
Step #2: Wake Up Smarter
Having better sleep habits alone might help you. But we have those days where we don't have time for 8 hours of sleep, or we wake up groggy and keep snoozing for 10 more minutes... 10 more minutes... and now you've slept too long and you're running late.
With my limited understanding, we usually wake up groggy because our sleep pattern is interrupted. Haven't you slept too long, or had a dream that was interrupted, and you woke up feeling like crap? On the other hand, you've "accidentally" only slept 5 hours and felt fine the next day, because you had your REM sleep and woke up during a "light sleep" cycle.
The most amazing iPhone app ever (you can also run if you only own a $99 iPod Touch) is called Sleep Cycle. You place it under your pillow and it "somehow" tracks when you're awake, asleep, or in a deep sleep... based on its gyroscope and the movements you make in bed. You set a 30 minute window for the time you want to wake up, and it waits until "the best time" to do it.
- Use "Sleep Cycle" instead of a traditional alarm clock to wake you up
- Get in the habit of waking up at the same time every day
- Get out of bed, out of your bedroom, and preferably outside as soon as you wake up
- Use a "Philips GoLite" and multiple alarm clocks if waking up is still a problem
- Don't check email in the morning, relax and be productive instead
Step #3: Four Daily Tasks
Now that you wake up early, you have extra quiet time in the morning to wake up, relax, and get ready for the day. Once you start your day you'll get so much done even before lunchtime (before anyone has a chance to disrupt you) you'll want to use your time wisely.
I've said this so many times I'm almost sick of it. But this is what you need -- FOUR DAILY TASKS.
Have four tasks to complete every single day. COMPLETE. Not start, not do, not try, COMPLETE. "Checking email" is not a task. Getting "35% complete with ebook" is not a task. Writing one ebook chapter, that's a task. Sending an email to your autoresponder list, that's a money making task. Setting up a web page, that's a task. What works best for me: three 45 minute tasks and one 15 minute task.
Use those three techniques to use your time better, claim your additional 365 days in the year and live longer, and accomplish at least double what you did before.
Quick question: what time do you normally wake up to get started on your business, and what's your secret to waking up at that time?
Pain of Disconnect: How to Get More, Make More, and Keep More (As Soon As You Understand This Very Simple Idea)
Can I let you in on a couple of quick, little secrets?
Secret #1: We are using "drip content" less and less in our business -- it's almost obsolete for us!
Secret #2: The marketplace goes through "cycles." Notice how one month articles are really hot, then next month it's all about making short reports. The month after, webinars are the "next big thing" -- then it's social media. Then it's membership sites... more on that in a minute.
Secret #3: We all have a $2,000 membership site inside of us -- as long as we can get over price reluctance...
Here's something I even have to remind myself sometimes... a membership site is just a download page on steroids. Someone pays you money (even a one time fee), or joins for free, fills in a quick signup form containing: first name, last name, email address, account username, and password...
And now they get the digital product (PDF, video, software, service) they just paid for -- plus you're building a mailing list. Plus they can get back to that page anytime they want -- recover the password if they forgot it. You can easily update or add bonuses, throw in a forum.
What You Probably Didn't Know About Drip Content...
Drip your content even if it's a single payment site.
Example: I charge $97 for my "Time Management on Crack" course. It contains a PDF report and a series of videos, people can post comments. But what's really cool is that new short videos are dripped out once per week 26 times. That means we stay in contact for six months even after they've paid me money.
I have links to other products in the sidebar of that site. Login offers when they come back to view more content. And, of course, if they refund (within the first 30 days), they no longer have access to the site.
Pain of disconnect. This makes it interesting because I could split up the payments and make it a 2-pay, 3-pay, 5-pay, 10-pay. Maybe something ridiculous like $9.95 for 10 months and then it's paid off.
Throw in a live monthly Q&A session where I setup a "recurring webinar" in GoToWebinar, schedule 12 of them, put it on my Google Calendar, schedule some email reminders so my members show up, hop on a call and talk about whatever's on my mind, and answer any questions people submit -- no big deal if there are only a couple questions or even no questions.
"The Last Thing You'd Ever Shut Off"
Quick question: What do you pay for on a recurring basis? What do you pay for on a recurring basis that's FUN? What do you pay for on a recurring basis, that would be one of the last things you'd turn off? How about...
- Web hosting (HostGator)
- Webinar service (GoToWebinar)
- Email autoresponder service (Aweber or SendGrid)
- Online storage (Amazon S3)
- Mastermind group (Double Agent Marketing)
- Paid advertising
If you had to shut off any one of these items, you'd be in serious trouble, wouldn't you? So if you want to make "real" money online, create a paid site that people simply can't live without.
Add a forum or community in your site where people can interact -- but keep it alive (that's the secret)...
Bundle your site with software that shuts off remotely upon cancellation. Adobe is going this right now with their "Creative Cloud Suite." For $49/month you get the latest Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, their audio editor, all of that -- and you'd probably pay that same price just to buy the software outright and keep it updated every year. But, you stop paying, and now you can't use Photoshop.
"Pain of Disconnect" Explained
Were you on the internet when "audio buttons" on sales letters were popular? Armand Morin had a service called Audio Generator. You place an audio button on your website, and can call a phone number, leave a message in their voicemail, and that's your audio message...
BUT!!! If you forget to pay your monthly bill, the audio messages changes to something like -- "This customer's service has been discontinued for non-payment. Add audio buttons to your site right now at AudioGenerator.com."
Now... with that pain of disconnect, you have an easy time getting people to stay in, and they'll reactivate if they have even more than a couple of audio buttons around the internet -- no one wants to hear that message!
And that's why we have this "remote activation" built into our WP Drip, Video Player, Webinar Optin, Backup Creator, Plugin Dashboard, WP Import, WP Notepad, and WP Kunaki plugins. We can put these plugins on a payment plan (probably not a monthly charge forever). We can offer a trial period -- as we've done with 99 cent trials in the past.
I don't mind if someone joins for 99 cents, or makes 4 out of 5 payments and then cancels, because they'll be shut off if they do! The plugin will no longer function.
Eugene Schwartz: Marketplace Cycles
Getting back on track. Marketplace cycles. A really smart copywriter named Eugene Schwartz had a couple of ideas about finding a demand and filling it. First of all... unless you're Coca-Cola and spend millions and millions on "branding" ... you can't "create" demand. It's much cheaper to find out what people are buying right now and sell that.
But... the marketplace has its ups and downs. (Articles are popular, then not, then webinars, etc.) It goes in four stages...
- "Novelty" stage: brand new course teaches a "simple" technique to lose 10 pounds (i.e. diet & exercise)
- "Enlargement" stage: competitors flood the market showing how to lose 50 pounds
- "Sophistication" stage: even more competitors show how to lose 100 pounds, from just 5 minutes a day, in your sleep, without changing your diet or any exercise whatsoever
- "Abandonment" stage: the marketplace is so fed up with complex solutions, and not knowing what to buy, that they lose interest
That is why you see these trends coming in style, getting too crowded, going out of style, then becoming popular again. That's why we sell multiple software products and have webinar training on different topics.
That's why if you're in the weight loss niche, you have one product based on Exercise. One product based on Diet. One weight loss product based on Mindset/Hypnosis/Goal Setting. One weight loss product based on Supplements. And now they can all sell year-round, although you'll cycle through what the marketplace is asking for right now.
Membership Sites!
Here's how I see marketplace cycles when it comes to recurring membership sites...
"Novelty" iteration: Drip content. Most marketers in your industry aren't using the "membership" aspect of their products so you create a site that drips out content over time, like 1 new video or interview per week with some assignments and tools in between.
Problem: you have to keep creating new "content" every month, and your customers have to wait to get it...
"Enlargement" iteration: Big box of crap. Now everyone is dripping out courses. You set things up so that when someone buys from you, they get that drip content, but are able to download a bunch of stuff when they first sign up. 10 hours of videos the first day. Keep putting out one new $97 product each month and say, you can either pay $97 for this one product, or get on this $97/month membership to get ALL my products at once.
Problem: when someone buys into your membership site, they're overwhelmed and have no way of consuming all that content before it's time to pay again... until they get frustrated and give up...
"Sophistication" iteration: Multi-tiered membership. Now you're saying, I want this site to be accessible to my low-ticket buyers, but I also want to make enough money to justify keeping the site open. I'll offer a "Silver" level for $17/month that contains all my products. The "Gold" level is $47/month and also contains a monthly live group Q&A webinar. Then the "Platinum" level might be $97/month and offer 1-on-1 coaching.
Problem: Can people easily tell the difference between each level? Is there an easy way to upgrade to a higher level? (Good news for you PayPal users: you can now edit the price your recurring members pay you every month... pretty cool!)
"Abandonment" iteration: Pain of disconnect model. We set our membership site at a fair price and bundle it with some software that'll shut off (WP Drip), or build a really useful tool right into the membership site (Make a Product or Newbie Crusher). Now it doesn't matter what we price the site at. How many payments we split this into. If we have a trial period or not. If they pay, they can use it, if not, they don't.
What's my point? Well, I see far too many people asking the wrong questions. What should I price my membership site at? Should I bill for a set number of payments or continue billing forever? Offer a trial period? How do I reduce refunds? How do I keep them paying?
This is backwards logic. Create a site, look at your competitors, and go with a price that "feels" right. There are some recurring sites like LinkedIn (job finder), eHarmony (dating service), or Angie's List (consumer reviews) where I don't "get" that monthly pricing model. I'm not going to pay a monthly fee just to find a local plumber in my area, I'll search Google. Someone might pay for LinkedIn for a month, then get a job, and cancel.
Lynda, GoToWebinar & Hulu
Can I tell you what I think is one of the coolest, most ridiculous recurring offers out there? Lynda.com. For $25/month, you get access to 1,427 different training courses on everything from Microsoft Word, to PHP programming, Apple software creation, video editing, audio editing, photo editing, any tutorial you'd need.
They don't worry about dripping content. It kind of is a "big box of crap" site, but even if you only took one course from them every month, you'd stay in.
GoToWebinar. You can run an unlimited number of webinar sessions in a given month, run free ones, charge for others, use them for meetings and coaching calls, run them for others -- if it costs you $99 per month, all you need to do is get $99.01 of value from it every month...
Hulu Plus. 7 dollars and 99 cents per month and I can watch many TV shows on demand, even several TV shows that were on-air yesterday.
I'll be honest with you. The first time I charged $200 for a product (I was 19 years old) I was terrified. The first time I charged $300 for a simple web page design (I was 17 years old) it was scary. But since then we've sold $297, $497 membership sites. $997 live webinar courses. $2,497 per person physical seminars -- and though it took a lot of marketing, follow-up, and course correction... even though it was "scary" to charge higher than $10, higher than $100, higher than $1000... we got over it...
How to Get People to Buy (Easily)...
Not because of "X number of videos" or "X number of hours" or "X number of pages" -- but because if they didn't pay the $2497, they'd lose $2497 in future profits by missing out on that training. Because if they refunded $2497 or didn't make all the payments, they'd lose $2497 in opportunity and lost profits.
Pleasure vs. pain. People buy access to your membership site because it's more painful not to have access and more pleasurable to get results from your training. The value has outweighed the cost of your course! Then, there's more pleasure (value) that comes from making those recurring payments than there is pain (cost) so they keep paying, and they stay out of the refund zone.
Create a tool and bundle it with training course that people will get much more than $2,000 of value from. Price it at $100 or higher. Cut it up into payments. Offer a trial period on it. Market the crap out of it (joint ventures, affiliates, pitch webinars) and create about 4 hot sellers so you'll be diversified enough to ride out the marketplace cycles in your niche.
Easy question: what "could" you add to your membership site (whether you have one or not) to give people the pain of disconnect if they refund or cancel? What are your favorite recurring membership sites and what pain of disconnect exists there to keep you in? Please let me know in a comment below, if comments are still open.
Productivity Booster: Decide to Have Fun Doing It & Enjoy Taking Any Action
It's funny, every time I ask my subscribers questions like: "Where are you stuck right now?" "How could things be better?" "If I could wave a magic wand and fix one thing about you to improve your live, what would it be?"
A very very very small percentage of people tell me things like: I need to improve this conversion rate by 1%... or I need to finish this product...
Most of the people who respond to me tell me they have a deeper problem: lack of focus, not being organized, time management, overwhelm, lack of creativity, or lack of productivity...
Why You Are Where You Are
The good news is these problems are easy to solve. Then why doesn't every one solve them? A few reasons...
First, it takes a lot of existing time and energy to break your existing habits. You'll actually put more work and effort into staying the way you are, even if it's "easier" to act a different way -- more on that in a minute.
Second, it's even easier to regress into your previous self. Think about "that one time" you took a morning run, "that one time" you went to the gym after a New Year's Resolution and then never went back, "that one time" you paid for advertising? Being a productive person is a continuous process, not a one time event!
Third, you self-sabotage yourself every step of the way. Don't feel bad, we all do it. I can't go drive to that place because I can't find my phone. I can't lift weights at the gym because I brought the wrong color shorts. I'm going to cut my run short because the battery in my iPod died. I can't run a webinar because that would mean I actually FINISHED something!
Are we agreed then? We all have a focus/productivity problem, we need to make a PERMANENT change and in a way "outsmart" ourselves to be better... BUT at the same time, we can't "just snap out of it" or "force ourselves to do it" because we won't repeat the process. Here's what you need to do instead...
How to Change Your Own Mind
Let me ask you something, do you enjoy every day going to the dentist, mowing the lawn, and doing the dishes? PROBABLY NOT!
I ask because this last week, I visited a dentist for the first time in 8 years. Don't worry, nothing was hurting, and it turns out I had no cavities. Why did I go? Because it was the right thing to do.
I thought to myself, if they find anything wrong... the damage has already been done, at least they caught it before it got any worse, I can stop worrying about it and I'm better than most people because I'm going to have a good attitude about thing this easy step.
This month, I also fired my landscaper and hired a new one. I've been meaning to get rid of this guy for a while. He stopped pulling the weeds, let the bushes grow into the walkways, began mowing the grass very unevenly, and somehow managed to break most of the sprinklers with his lawnmower.
It's something I've been meaning to do for a while... until one day, I looked out at that misshapen brown lawn and thought, I'm embarrassed to live here. One phone call, hi I'd like to terminate service, do I owe you anything, thanks bye... a second phone call, are you taking on new customers, here's the services I need, what day can you do it, here's my payment information, done.
There are two ways of looking at that. One way, "I have to get rid of this stupid idiot who can't mow my lawn." "Why does my yard suck so much." "I have to make these stupid phone calls." "I have to shell out even more money."
Or, how about this? Everything's been running on autopilot for a while, but it's no longer working out. The landscaper has other business, he has no problem with being fired. Things are a little bit broken, but I'll make two quick phone calls to fix it. And imagine how neat, clean, crisp, trimmed and green the yard will look once this new guy comes in and fixes things.
How This Affects You
You know that optin page you just can't get yourself to finish installing? That Kindle book you can't finish writing? Autoresponder broadcast email you can't seem to write and send?
Here's what WON'Tget you to do it:
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Here's what WILLget you to do it:
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And if you still doubt me... have you ever found yourself cleaning your apartment because you had an important term paper due? Because one was more "fun" and pleasurable than the other.
Have you ever washed your car or cleaned the dishes because you were delaying making some important phone call? Exactly.
Look... you can let this behavior guide you in one of two ways: self sabotage & procrastination (feeling that your unimportant tasks are more "fun" than the important ones)...
Or, focused action & productivity. First figure out what important task you need to do, then justify with it logic. And finally rationalize the following things:
- How taking action on that task will give you more pleasure than pain
- How NOT taking that action will give you more pain than pleasure
- How to enjoy taking that simple action, and have fun doing it, so you'll do it now, you'll do it quickly, and you'll do it over and over again
Question: What's something you've been delaying that you know you should be doing? It's ok if it's something simple, please don't include details if you are too embarrassed ... and what would get you to do it right away?
