Author Archive | Lawrence

Are there really any good reasons NOT to launch your amazing new product? Take this quiz to find out so you don’t make the same critical mistakes that have destroyed many other businesses and entrepreneurs from the word GO…

Ok, check all that apply:

1. __ Another marketer has just launched a product very similar to yours, and if you launch your product now, you’ll look like a copycat.

2. __ You just got word that another launch for a similar product bombed in a very big way – almost no one bought it. You’ll look like an idiot if you launch your product.

3. __ A big guru in your niche just started the launch process of a very similar product. His first video is out, and once he releases the fourth video everyone on the planet will be promoting his product.

4. __ There are already several free versions of products quite similar to yours – thus there is no reason anyone would buy your product when they can get the same info for free.

Did you pick which scenarios should stop you from launching your product right now?

Okay, let’s see how you did.

Answers:

1. This happens more often than you think. And yes, product creators do pull their product launch when they see someone else has just launched something similar. And you know what? Those product creators are fools. Here’s a true story to illustrate why:

Recently a popular marketer was just about to launch a product he’d worked on for a long time. He had everything in place to launch – all he had to do was press the button to send out the first email.

But someone else launched a VERY similar product that was selling like gangbusters. So he decided not to launch. Which made him sad. So late that night, when he was feeling down, he said, “Screw it!” and hit the launch button. $61,000 in profits later, he was very, VERY happy he had launched his look alike product.

Do not worry about what others are selling. If you’ve done your research into what your customers want, you WILL make sales. And sometimes you’ll make those sales to the exact same people who bought your competitor’s product, too! Don’t wait, don’t hesitate – launch your product.

2. If their product didn’t sell, yours won’t either, right? Wrong. You’ve done your research and you know what your customers want. Your customers trust you. They like you. They buy your stuff.

So of course you’re going to launch your product, because whatever that other marketer did or did not have going on does not affect you. And neither do rumors, so don’t pay any attention to them. Stop second guessing yourself and launch your product.

3. Oh no, you can’t compete with the “big cheese,” can you? Who says you have to? Your customers are YOUR customers. Your affiliates are YOUR affiliates. It’s common for similar products to hit the market at nearly the same time and have both do well. So don’t worry about it. Just launch your product.

Have you noticed a pattern yet? I hope so. Okay, onto the last one…

4. What is the perceived value of “free?” Low. Very low. In fact, no free product can compete with your paid product, because as everyone believes, they get what they pay for. That’s why free is never your competition. So launch your product. Now.

In fact the only real competition you ever have is in your mind. So don’t worry about who is launching what or when they are launching. In fact, stop reading your emails when you’re in product creation mode and just focus on your task – creating the content and products your customers want. Everything else will take care of itself.

Let’s say you run across an affiliate program for a product with recurring payments, such as a membership site or software. Because it’s recurring payments, you sell it once and you get paid over and over again, for months or possibly even years. Everything else being equal, these are always the best types of products to promote because the income just keeps coming and coming.

Naturally you want to make as many sales of these as possible, so the question becomes: Other than your usual methods of promotion, how can you get more subscribers to this affiliate program?

Try an old school method that still works – creating a viral report.

In the report, teach how to do whatever it is that the product does. Teach the method in detail, step-by-step. Leave nothing out. Then at the end, let the reader know that they don’t have to do any of what you just said. Instead, they can get the same results a whole lot faster and easier by subscribing to the affiliate program.

Simple, right? First you show how complicated it is to do it by hand. Then you give them an easy way to get the same result – by subscribing. And you give your affiliate link.

And by the way, this is the ONLY affiliate link you put in the entire report.

Now then, here are few tips to make this work:

– Create a report good enough to sell. This should be high quality.

– Make the report short enough that readers can easily finish it in one sitting. You want every reader to reach the end so they see the affiliate link.

– Whenever possible, focus on telling your reader what to do, but not how to do it. This way they’re more likely to take the easy way out and subscribe to your affiliate program, rather than figure out details for themselves.

– Give your report an absolutely KILLER title that makes people want to read it and share it.

– Leave your name off of your report. This will encourage others to share it with their lists.

– Give anyone and everyone who has the report the right to distribute the report exactly as it is with no alterations. They can use it as a bonus, as a list building incentive and so forth.

– If you’re written a sales page for the report, let others use the sales page and put their own name on it. Yes, they can absolutely charge for the report if they like, so long as they leave your affiliate link in place.

The idea is to get as many people as possible sharing your report. The more your report is distributed around the net, the more chances you have to make sales.

This is a very old school method that can still be quite effective if you follow these steps. And of course you can repeat this method as many times as you like.

Imagine if you have a dozen of these reports, each with an affiliate link to a recurring payment program. You let other marketers give your reports away as bonuses and whatnot. And you let marketers sell them and keep all the profits.

Thousands upon thousands of copies can be distributed using these methods. And even if only 1 out of 100 who get the report subscribe for a few months to your programs, you’ll still make out like a bandit.

Ready to avoid a big mistake and increase your bottom line? Do you have download pages? You know, pages where people pick up their product after buying it from you?…

If so, have you TESTED those download pages? Odds are it never even occurred to you. But why not? You test everything else, so why not test your download pages, too?

Oh-oh, let’s back up.

Any virtual real estate you have – including download pages – can be selling something for you. In fact, download pages can be the PERFECT place for promotion because your customer just made a purchase. This means they’re already in a buying mood. And who buys products? BUYERS do. If you’re not promoting something on your download pages, you are missing out on what might be thousands of dollars of revenue a month, depending on how much traffic those pages get.

So how do you best promote a product on your download page? Forget flashy banners and things that look like ads. Simple is better, which is why adding a link to your list of download links will usually give you the best results. For example, if your down load page has a list of videos, at the end of the list you will place a link in the same font and the same color offering them their customer discount on the product you’re promoting.

But don’t take my word for it – test it out for yourself.

When they click this link they are lead to a slightly altered version of your regular sales page. At the top of the page is a line or two letting them know that because of their purchase, they are entitled to a special discount on this product today.

Of course, you’ll want to remember to give them that discount, too.

So what should you test on your download page? The links you use, the placement of links and the pages you send them to. Remember to promote a product that is in some way directly related to the one they bought for best results.

Making this one simple change can potentially add thousands of dollars to your bottom line each and every year. Now that’s a great return on the investment of your time.

…yet it’s a technique most marketers aren’t even aware of yet. And it’s as easy as turning video PLR snippets into lists and cash. Here’s how it works…

Find some good, solid PLR videos that instruct on how to do something. They should cover the step by step method to achieve a goal. They don’t need to be fancy but they do need good information that people want.

Once you’ve got your videos, watch them to find the “good” parts. These are the little 2-3 minute segments that teach something especially useful most people don’t know. Really you only need one of these segments, but if you find several, that’s even better.

Copy that segment into a file of its own. You can use most any video program to do this. Basically you make a copy of that video, then cut out everything you don’t want, leaving that 2-3 minute segment.

Place that video segment on its own page on your website. Once you’ve gotten this far, you’ve got choices on what to do next – LOTS of choices. You can…

1. Add a lead capture form to build your list. “To get the entire 30 minute video series for free, just let us know where to send it.” Drive traffic to your lead capture page from social media, guest blogging, paid traffic and so forth.

Visitors watch the 2-3 minute segment and quickly learn something valuable. You’ve now earned a level of trust. And they are impressed and curious enough to give their email address in return for the rest of the video series.

Taking this a step further, you can monetize your lead capture page by adding an upsell to the sequence. Once they subscribe, you offer them another, related product. Done right this will make your list building profitable enough to pay for advertising.

And with a self-liquidating offer, you can build your list as fast as you like.

2. Promote your membership site. “This entire videos series is just one of many in my XYZ membership. Click here to get more info / sign up.”

You’ll find it’s much easier to drive traffic to your membership sales page by promoting your free video clip. And you can add this into your autoresponder sequence to make more sales of your membership as well.

3. You can sell the actual PLR series. Placing a clip on a stand-alone page is a great way to promote your product. Be sure to rename the video series and give it an entirely different look with a new cover as well.

Visitors watch the clip, like it, and click the link to get the rest of the video series. This takes them to a short sales page with an attractive price tag.

Guaranteed, you will make more sales using this method than if you simply send them straight to the sales page without letting them view the segment.

4. Give the video series away when they purchase an affiliate product. “Would you like to get this entire video series for free? Simply click his link, purchase ABC product and the video series is yours.

They are then taken to the sales page for ABC product. Of course this works best when the affiliate product is directly related to the video series you’re giving away.

5. Give the video series away when they buy your product. “This entire video series is just one of the bonuses you get when you purchase my product.”

Again, letting them preview the video series greatly increases the perceived value and heightens their desire to see the rest of the video series. Thus it’s a much better enticement to get them to buy your product.

BIG BONUS TIP: This tip alone can put thousands of dollars in your pocket, and it’s super simple. Ready?

For options 2-5, you can add them into your autoresponder sequences to make additional sales on autopilot.

And you can repeat this with as many PLR video products as you like, too.

Just show a teaser video and then offer the full course when they join your list, join your membership, buy your product, etc. It’s such a simple technique, yet very few marketers have caught on to this yet so it’s still wide open. Go for it!

This idea has been proven to work GREAT for insurance agents, and it can work phenomenally well for other businesses as well. Imagine you walk into Joe’s insurance to sell your marketing services. Joe is sitting at his desk, looking bored and sad. “Joe,” you say, “How’s business?”

“Not great, he answers.”

“Joe, I’ll bet you a steak dinner that I can get your phone ringing off the hook in days.”

Joe takes you up on your bet. You then launch an advertising campaign via social media or traditional media, in which Joe offers a big steak or shrimp dinner if he can’t save a customer money on his or her insurance. Because the offer is so attention getting and so bold, the phone does indeed ring off the hook.

Just make sure before you run a promotion like this that Joe can indeed save most people money.

You can do something similar with other trades, too, such as tax preparers, travel agents and even auto repair shops. That’s right – auto repair. The offer might be – “Bring in your estimate from any other shop. If we can’t do the work for less money, we’ll buy you dinner.”

Can you do something like this with online marketing? Why not?

“Follow my step by step system. Show me you did all the steps, and if you aren’t making “x” amount of money in 6 months, the course is one me.”

Or…

“Follow my recommendations, keep an exercise and eating journal for 6 weeks while following the program, and if you haven’t lost 10 pounds, I’ll send you my competitor’s program for free.”

The possibilities are endless. By making an offer no one else is making, you will stand out from the crowd, get noticed and make sales.

The fact is, most people have an expertise that would make a good product others would happily pay for. But some people either don’t feel confident enough to charge for what they know, or they really don’t know enough to charge.

So what kind of product can these folks create? That’s easy – software.

With software, you don’t have to record videos and write PDF’s and give case studies and examples and so forth, other than what you need to sell the software.

All you need to create a software product is basically two things: A good idea and a coder. Coders are easy to come by – just go to any of the freelancing sites and take your pick.

So how do you get a good idea for software? Study your market. See what people need. Make a note when you wish you had software that would do ____, because odds are other people are wishing for the same thing.

Look at the new software introduced in your niche – how could you improve it?

What are the latest, biggest, fastest growing trends? What software can you make to piggyback on these trends?

The fact is, new ideas for software are everywhere if you’re looking for them.

And software generally has a higher perceived value than information. This means you can either charge more than an information product, or keep your price low and get more buyers.

Either way, you’re making sales and building a list of buyers.

All you need now is an idea and the guts to see that idea through.

Let’s say you promote an affiliate product and it does pretty well, earning you some nice sales. The question is, now that you’ve found a product that is selling well to your list, how do you make even more sales? Here are 3 methods:

1. Send another email to those who opened your last email but didn’t click the link, and to those who didn’t open your last email. Offer them the same product, but with an additional 7 days of free email support from you.

This works if you’re familiar with the product, which you should be if you’re promoting it. The addition of real live support can often double your sales or better. And it can be fun making new friends with people on your list.

2. If it’s your product that you’re promoting, send out another promotion to those people on your list who didn’t click the link or open the email, offering the same product with a twist for more money.

The twist might be a special bonus, email support, a coaching call, etc. You can charge more because you’re offering more value. Again, some people will take you up on this offer who wouldn’t otherwise have purchased.

3. Send out the “bugging” email. This is the email that you again send to those who either haven’t opened your other emails or opened them and didn’t click the link.

Admit right up front that you are bugging them with your emails, but you have a very good reason for bugging them. You know this product can make a real difference in their lives. In fact, you’re so sure this product can make a difference that you’re willing to risk your friendship and their patronage just to get them to look at it. Because that is what friends do.

And if you think about it, that IS what friends do. If your friend knows you would be far better off if you only did ___, wouldn’t your friend bug you to do it? Of course. Your email list should be no different. Because you only promote the products you KNOW will help them, and because this product is a life-changer, you’re sending this email.

This technique flat out works – try it.

What NOT to do: Do not be the person who sends that annoying, “Frankly, we’re puzzled why you haven’t bought “x” product yet.” This conveys the message that you think they’re idiots for not buying it and is an instant turn off to any thinking person who receives the email.

Instead, always take the high road of, “I completely understand why you might be skeptical, which is why I’m throwing in free coaching, or which is why I’m offering email support to help you get started, or which is why I keep writing to you.”

By using any one of these 3 techniques, you can double your sales without a lot of effort. This means you can promote half as many products and yet make just as much money, or promote the same number of products and quite possibly double your income.

There is a super simple way to create products people want to buy. It’s so simple, in fact, that you might have heard of this technique and quickly dismissed it. Yet it works like marketing magic just about every time it’s used.

Here’s the secret: Write your sales page BEFORE you create the product.

That’s it. Now here’s why it works:

– The headline and bullet points basically give you an outline of the product to create.

– You don’t have to think of the bullet points yourself – just go to forums and find out what people are asking. Those are your bullet points.

– It is far easier to write the sales letter first and then create the product, rather than the other way around.

– As you write your letter, you can think about what your customer wants to know. Put yourself in their shoes. This almost guarantees a great sales page and product.

– If you outsource the product creation, you can simply hand your writer the sales page and let them create the product from that. You’ll get a far superior product created in less time than if you ask them to do it from scratch.

– There’s no need to hire an expensive copywriter using this method.

Here’s another secret – copywriters use this method all the time when creating their own products. And if they do it, you KNOW it works.

“But if I’m writing the bullet points first, how will I get the information?”

The same way you would doing it the traditional way – research. Either way you’ll be researching your product if you don’t already have the knowledge. But if you’ve already written your sale letter, then you’ll know exactly what information to look for, saving you time.

And if you find some gems of info as you do your research, you can always add those to your product as well as to your sales letter.

Write the sales letter first and you will nearly always produce a product people will want to buy.

Imagine if your products were as addictive as some drugs – only in a good way. Your customers derived tremendous satisfaction from using your products, and continued to buy and use them for months and years.

Your business would thrive, your customers would receive tremendous benefit, and everyone in this scenario would be happy.

But how do you build addiction into your products and services? And in fact, can it even be done?

The short answer is that not only can it be done, but it already has been done many, many times over. Look at any product or brand that people rave about and continue to buy over and over again and you’ll have a product or brand that people are in some way addicted to.

The Apple brand immediately comes to mind, as well as many video games, foods, certain authors and so forth.

In fact, bloggers and authors can use addiction to tremendous advantage, getting their readers to come back time and again for their latest post or book.

So the question is, how can you build addiction into your products and services? The answer is by meeting as many of these six human needs as possible. The more of these your product satisfies, the more addicted your customers will become:

– Certainty and security – avoiding pain and gaining pleasure. For example, the certainty of a continuous stream of income that means you never have money problems again.

– Uncertainty and variety – good surprises, positive changes, new stimuli. For example, when you play a video game there are always elements that can take you by surprise at any time.

– Significance – feeling unique, special, important or needed. A service that pampers makes us feel special. A new job title makes us feel important.

– Connection and love – feeling close to someone or a group of people. Social media helps us feel connected. An active forum centered on a product or goal can provide a strong tribal feeling.

– Growth – expansion of capability, capacity or understanding. Many information products can provide growth opportunities.

– Contribution – a sense of service and of helping others. A forum in which members help each other reach their goals can be especially effective for this.

We know if we can incorporate all 6 of these needs into a product, we’ll have something that is potentially addictive to our customers. So let’s try it with a membership on how to make money online, and see what that might look like:

– Certainty and security. This one is easy – if they learn how to make money online, they will have security. And in our sales information, we’re going to highlight the successes of current members to demonstrate the certainty that our program works.

– Uncertainty and variety. We can add special bonuses and surprises in the member’s section to keep things interesting. Plus we can run challenges and competitions.

– Significance. We find ways to acknowledge individual members as often as possible. We also respond quickly to all communication with personalized answers. And we continually let our members know how important they are to us, and remind them of the contributions that only they can make to the world.

– Connection and love. We provide a forum or a private Facebook page where members can interact and become part of our ‘tribe.’ We highly encourage this interaction and have key people who answer questions and help everyone.

– Growth. We can have different levels of mastery that members work through, so they can see the progress they are making. Their levels of achievement are displayed inside the members’ area (significance.)

– Contribution. In the forum we encourage and reward members for helping each other. And we remind them of the contribution they can make to the world by using their new skills.

As you can see, it’s not all that difficult to touch on all 6 needs within your product or membership. Many times you’ll see overlap from one need to the next. And the better job you do of meeting these 6 needs, the more people will become addicted in a positive way, and possibly even become your customers for life.

So next time you create a product or service, or start a membership site, ask yourself – how can I get my customers addicted – in a good way?

Someone asked me what I would do if I had to start my business over from scratch in 3 months. And that got me thinking – if I could take the experience I have and use it to start over from scratch, how would I do it?

Mind you, I wouldn’t have my mailing list. I wouldn’t have traffic, a following, name recognition – none of that. Just my experience as to what works and what doesn’t.

And let’s say that my life depends on me having a full time income at the end of those 3 months. No pressure there, right? But a lot of people find themselves in a very similar situation – make money or else. Or else they’re in trouble, or else the bills go unpaid, or else they’re facing losing their home, or… worse.

So with that in mind, here’s what I would do:

– I would stop looking for magic ‘make money online’ products and ideas. There is no secret combo of tricks and buttons to make money. It’s not a printing press. It’s a free market. And in that free market the way to make money is to stop focusing on the money, and simply make yourself indispensable to people who need your solution to their problem. Do that and the money follows.

When you’re focused on providing solutions, you no longer get distracted by all those shiny programs that steal your time and your money. I’m not saying all programs are bad. In fact, many of the “how-to” and “step-by-step” are useful as small pieces to the large puzzle. But that’s what they are – puzzle pieces – not full blown businesses.

– I would start with the outcome first. What is my market? My product or service? My goal? What is the solution I can provide that people will gladly pay for? What is THE ONE BIG BENEFIT I can provide to my customers? This is the starting point of everything that will come next.

– Next I would build my website. Odds are it’s going to be a blog. I’m not going to spend a world of time on setting this up because I only have 3 months. I’ll spend an hour maximum choosing the URL, I’ll get the hosting, I’ll choose a simple, streamlined theme, I’ll get the autoresponder and I’ll be ready to get started.

Yes, it takes money to get started. Not a lot, but some. You’re making an investment into your future. And if you think spending a couple of hundred dollars to set up your internet business is somehow a lot of money, consider the alternative: Spending at least that much each month just to drive to and from a job, or spending thousands for a brick and mortar business.

– Time to create content for that blog. But this isn’t about running a blog, it’s about running a business. The blog is just the tool to get the business done. So here’s what I would do: Look at the big benefit I deliver, and then write down all the stumbling blocks people encounter trying to get that big benefit. Then pick out 3 of these and write stellar posts on how to overcome those barriers. Then repurpose those posts into videos and podcasts, as well as an incentive to get people to join my list.

Notice I’m only creating 3 pieces of great content, not 300. And I’m repurposing those. Some folks spend years trying to get everything just right, but I’ve only got 3 months, so forget perfect and just get it done.

– Next, I would offer a service or coaching. Do you know why? Because it’s the quickest way to make real money. Offering products is great, but it takes time to create the products and more time to build the lists to promote the product to. When your list is small, it’s best to focus on services or coaching because it’s the fastest way to profit.

The blog posts should be highly focused on getting my prospects to take the next step, which is likely going to be a free consultation. It’s not easy to sell a $300 a month coaching program or a $1,000 website optimization package online. But it can be if you get them on the phone first.

– Now I’d focus on getting as many people on the phone as I can, because I know two things: The more prospects I get on the phone, the more likely it is some of them will say yes. Plus, I’ll get better and better at finding out their needs and selling them on the solutions.

– With my first customers or clients I would deliver like a madman (or mad woman.) I’d blow them away and earn myself raving testimonials which I would then use to earn more clients.

I’d also be Mr. or Ms. Communication, with both my clients and everyone else on my list and in social media. If someone writes to me, I answer quickly. If they mention me in social media, I am thanking them the same day and so forth. This is a people business and my goal is to please the people and thus build my name and my reputation.

– As I’m servicing my clients, I’m learning what they need and want. And I’m using that information to create my first product which I will then sell to my list, and hopefully through affiliates for a long time to come.

Selling time for money is a great way to get started, but as soon as possible you want to be creating assets that you use to systematize your sales funnel and your income.

– Time to focus on traffic and more traffic. Social media, guest blog posting and paying for advertising are methods that can be used long term to drive people to your site and onto your lists. Each one has a learning curve, but as you improve you’ll see quick returns for your time and monetary investments.

And I’d build relationships with other marketers in my niche. Almost nothing drives good quality traffic faster than an expert in your niche telling their list about you or your offer.

– Lastly, I would continually strive to improve the benefits I deliver to my customers. Great today is only good tomorrow and not good enough the day after. I know I have to stay on top of my market and provide my customers with what they need and want even before they know they need and want it.

Bottom Line: By delivering the solutions people seek, I can build a fully functioning business in a short amount of time. And yes, by diligently following these steps, you too might be earning a full time income in 3 months.