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.
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?
Print and keep this checklist handy for the next time you send a promotional email to your list or to a prospect if you want more email opens, product sales and online profits…
Do you get to the point right away? Do not tell them about the last four hours you spent watching television or mowing the lawn unless it’s pertinent to the story.
__ Are you telling a story? Ideally you should tell an interesting story in every email you send to increase your open rates.
__ WIIFT… What’s in it for them? Don’t just tell them how great your product is. Tell them what they get for taking the action you’re promoting.
__ “So what?” Read the email as if you were the recipient, and see if they would ask, “So what?” You want to fascinate and excite them to click that link.
__ Is your writing boring? Uh-oh. Not talking about what’s in it for them, or writing “so what” emails are leading causes of massive email boredom.
__ Are you using action verbs? Contrast these two sentences to see the importance of using action verbs: 1. The cat seems healthy. 2. The cat raced across the yard and dove into the bushes chasing the terrified ground squirrel. Which one keeps the reader awake and reading?
__ Is your email just long enough to get them to click the link, and no longer? You’d be surprised how many marketers talk themselves out of getting that link clicked by rambling too much.
__ Is the formatting super easy to read? Or is it all one long indistinguishable paragraph?
__ Have you read it through and cut out all the fat? Seriously. Get to the point. Now.
__ Have you established credibility? Give them a good, honest, believable and credible reason why this is THE product they should buy.
__ Are you using bullet points? If not, are you crazy? Bullet points are your best sales tool in an email or a sales letter.
__ Have you given them a reason to respond right now? Preferably one that doesn’t sound cheesy?
__ Have you included your call to action? Don’t assume they know what to do next.
Use this checklist on your next 5 emails, and compare the results with your last 5 emails. You should see a significant bump in conversions.
Would you like to add a new income stream to an existing business? Or are you looking for a brand new business? Then check this out.
First, you need knowledge. If you don’t have it, then obviously you can get it. It’s got to be specialized knowledge. Maybe you’re an expert at a certain software program, or a WordPress expert, or you know everything there is to know about how to drop to 5% body fat. Whatever it is, it’s got to be knowledge that other people want NOW.
Next, you need a way to get your consulting in front of the people who need it. Let’s say you’re an affiliate for a software or program that you personally know inside and out. You keep a mailing list of everyone who’s visited your site or bought the product from you.
These people sometimes email you with questions about the product. “How do I… ?” “Where is the… ?” “When so and so happens, what do I do?” And so forth. Being the good affiliate you are, you probably answer these questions. And you’re good at it, too.
But what if you could get paid to do it? Set up a page on your site offering your consulting service by email. Charge a reasonable fee, like $27 or $47 for the day or for the week, whatever is appropriate for the information you have to offer.
Remember, a certain percentage of people would much rather have someone show them how to do something than to have to figure it out for themselves. And they will gladly pay you for making their life easier.
That’s really all there is to it. Answer their questions by email, and remember – you are a consultant, not a technical advisor (unless you are.) This way you can focus on the types of questions you’re good at.
Bonus tip: Spend some time in forums finding out what the most common questions are about the topic, and then SEO your site to get high rankings for several of the well searched keywords. Then on every page of your site, point them in the direction of your consulting.
Your consulting can even help you to sell more affiliate products because you will be building trust with your readers that you are an expert. Thus when you recommend something, it’s really and truly worth buying.
I know I preach about picking something and staying focused on that something until you make it a success, but there are exceptions, and this is a big one. There are certain products you should probably grab whenever you see them. These are “how to” products on marketing techniques that contain three little words that can be a goldmine for you – “Step by step.”
The reason I love these is because for a very cheap price – usually less than $40 and sometimes only $10 – you get a complete step by step system on how to do something.
You might buy 2 or 3 of these a week. Then when you’ve got time, go through each one. Read the PDF’s and watch the videos.
Decide if you think the technique is something you can apply to your business. If it is, try it out. You might set aside one afternoon each week to try a new step by step technique.
Then wait and see what happens. Sometimes you see results right away and other times it takes a while, depending on what the technique might be.
You’re watching to see if it works. For example, if it’s a technique on how to get traffic then you’re watching to see if: You get traffic and if that traffic converts.
Once you know it works, you apply the fourth magic word – Outsourcing.
That’s right – you give your “how to” product to your outsourcer, along with any notes you’ve made when you implemented it yourself, and have them do it for you.
The first day they might send you a few emails with questions, but it won’t take you much time to answer them.
Then you just let them run with it and watch your numbers. Make sure you’re making more from results of the system than you’re paying the outsourcer and you’re good to go.
One of the best things about “step by step” products is they’re written for the average person, not a rocket scientist marketer. They have to be, or else the product creator would get a million questions. This makes it super easy to hand it off to another person to do the actual work for you. As long as the technique results in more income than outlay, it’s a winner.
And all you invested was the initial price of the ‘how to’ program, along with an afternoon to try it out for yourself.
To give an example: Let’s say you pick up 5 new ‘how to get traffic’ systems. 4 of them work well, so you outsource those and forget about the fifth one.
The new traffic results in X amount of new subscribers and X amount of new sales. Maybe it’s 1,000 new subscribers a month, and $1,500 in sales the first month, $500 the second month on those 1,000 subscribers.
So as long as you’re paying your outsourcer less than $2,000 a month (which is easy to do) you’re in profit.
This is a great way to add extra income to your existing business without a lot of time and effort on your part.
So remember to use these 4 magic words – “Step by step” and “Outsourcing.”
And one more thing: If you have a fistful of resell products sitting on your hard drive, take a look at those. You never know what step by step technique you’re going to find that you can use to help build your business through outsourcing.
You know webinars are a great way to sell products. Hop on a webinar, talk for 30 to 60 minutes and sell some products right there on the spot. Then rinse and repeat as many times as you like, buddying up with a different list owner each time. It’s simple, it’s fairly easy, and the more you do the better you’ll get.
But for many marketers, it’s scary to get on the Internet and talk to tens, hundreds and maybe even a thousand people at one time. “Me? Talk for an HOUR? To PEOPLE?”
Here’s something to consider: You don’t need your own list to run webinars. If you have a great product or service, you can go to list owners and split the money with them. What an outstanding way to get access to other people’s lists and make money doing it!
And most list owners love doing webinars because it’s almost hands off cash in the bank for them. All they do is send out one or more emails to their list, and you do the rest of the work. This means that webinars are an excellent way to get your foot in the door with people who have big, active lists.
Another thing to consider is that webinars mean almost instant and highly targeted traffic for you. Your partner promotes your webinar to their list and their people flock to your site to sign up.
Webinars create instant products in themselves. You can SELL your webinar if it’s packed full of good info. Think about that – what better way to create an instant product than by talking to an audience for an hour?
Or you can give your webinar recording away as a list building incentive of your own.
Plus, webinars can be REPLAYED to make even MORE sales. Again, you record it once and you can set it up on your own website to make more sales. You can also let your list-owner partner put it on their site as well, or send more traffic to your site to listen to the webinar.
And here’s the kicker you probably never even considered: Webinars are one of the best ways to build your own list. You partner with someone, they send traffic from their list, you get (for example) 500 sign-ups and 150 of those attend the webinar. 15-30 of the attendees buy your product, and now you have sales AND a new list of 500 people!
Webinars provide quality traffic, high conversion, partnerships and quick product creation for both free and paid products.
Webinars are truly great for selling products because nothing gets people more excited to buy your product than hearing from you – the expert – on how they can achieve their goal.
And they’re also one of the best ways to build your list.
Imagine if you do just one webinar a week or even once per month – how much more you could accomplish in your business… Believe in yourself and go for it!
Here’s a sneaky little underused tactic for making money before you even create your product: Decide what your product is going to be and write an outline for it. From this, create a list of bullet points that presell the product.
Now using these bullet points, offer your upcoming product to your list as a Beta test.
Tell your list:
The product is being created right now
They will get the product the moment it’s finished – expected delivery date is ___
They are getting a killer deal because you want and need their feedback
They are your beta testers. If it’s software, they will look for bugs. If it is written material, they will let you know about typos, what they think should be added, etc.
Once you get their feedback, you will fix any bugs, add what’s missing, fix typos, etc. and send them the finalized, polished version.
You will then offer the product to the public for a significantly higher price than they paid.
Not only does this give you some money up front to work with – it also provides you with valuable feedback you can use to make your product even better than you originally planned. Guaranteed a handful of your beta testers will give you suggestions you never would have thought of by yourself – suggestions that can greatly increase your sales later.
In fact, the feedback aspect alone makes this technique well worth doing. One caution: Do not be tempted to give away your Beta product – 9 out of 10 people you give it away to will never get back to you with feedback because they have nothing invested. When you charge something, even if it’s only a paltry sum, the number of users who give you feedback will greatly increase.
The one exception to the previous rule is people you personally know, like friends and JV partners. Because you already have a relationship with them, they don’t need to financially invest in order to feel vested in your success.
Special bonus for using this technique: Ask your Beta testers for testimonials you can use in your sales material.
Let me ask you a question: Are you on a certain marketer’s email list? You know the one – he sends out an email every day or two telling you to go check out “X” product because it’s new, revolutionary, exciting and the most amazing thing ever? Yeah, that guy. I’m on his list, too.
In fact, I’m on the list of a couple of dozen marketers who fit that description. And the fact is, I seldom open their emails anymore, much less buy their recommendations. And I bet you’re the same way.
So who do you buy from? The marketers you trust, right? Me too.
And here’s who I trust the most: The marketer who actually USES the product they promote to me, and then records a video of them using it, or writes an HONEST review of it.
It’s so simple. It’s so easy. And yet 99% of marketers never do these things.
You want to promote a product to your list. You get the product – maybe you buy it, maybe the product owner gives it to you. You open the product up and consume it. You read the pdf, you watch the videos and you take some notes. Then you implement the strategy and you see what kind of results you get.
Then you write a review telling me about the product. What you like, what you think sucks, what is missing and so forth. You tell me who should buy this (ie: newbies, website owners, etc.) and who shouldn’t. Maybe you record a little video showing either what’s in the product or how you used it or both.
You send me an email with this info. Wow! Talk about doing me a service. Maybe I buy, maybe I don’t, but you have now earned my trust. I open your next email and your next email and the one after that. I read your REAL reviews (notice the word ‘real’) and the more I read, the more I trust you. Pretty soon I’m not buying anything unless YOU recommend it.
Congratulations – you have just risen above 99% of email marketers out there. You have earned my trust and my business and as long as you keep it up, I will continue to buy from your links.
But you know what? 99% of list owners who read this will never do it. They won’t USE the products they recommend. They won’t write HONEST reviews. They won’t record videos of the results they’ve achieved through using the product.
And in the long run, they won’t build the audience or make nearly the sales of the few marketers who take the time to do these things.
If you market to Internet marketers, you might consider the following: 60-80% of your prospects are currently going through or have just gone through a major life change.
Maybe they were downsized, fired or retired. Maybe something at their job changed and now they want out. Maybe they’re going through a divorce or mid-life crisis. Maybe they have money problems or the opposite – They’ve come into money and want to invest it into an online business.
People who are suddenly looking for ways to make money online have experienced a major shift in their life. They’re probably unhappy with the way things are. They’re looking for guidance on how to make a change. Many of them want money FAST – as in yesterday. They want solutions now. They want to push a button and have it done for them. And if that’s not possible, they want to be told EXACTLY what to do to make it happen.
You can use this information to better communicate with your prospects, to let them know you know what they’re going through, and to show them that it can indeed be done.
And you CAN offer them “push button” solutions, too. The legitimate kind. As an example; “We’ll set up your WordPress site, create your first product in 3 different formats, build your squeeze page, write your autoresponder series and so forth, all for “x” amount of money.” That is truly a push button solution, because they push the “buy now” button and you do everything for them.
Of course, it will be too expensive for many, so you can also offer a downgrade, like this: “Too expensive? Then we can teach you how to do it yourself.” By offering two dramatically different price points, you can appeal to both the people who can afford the real push button method, and those who will have to invest their own work to make it happen. In fact, by wording your offer this way you will often get more sales. Your second option will look so low in price compared to the first option, they will find it difficult to say no.
Another great way to market to new Internet Marketers is to offer micro-continuity products that anyone can afford. For example, instead of charging $100 for your product, charge $9.99 a month. Then give them the option of receiving the entire course now for $89 more. Most will opt for the monthly charge, and a percentage will go for the $89 option because they don’t want to wait.
Once they’ve signed up as members, market other affordable products to them inside your members’ area. Plus, make an offer of a big ticket coaching program where you work with people personally.
You might use the Pareto principle when marketing to the Internet Marketing Community. 20% of your prospects are knowledgeable and perhaps even making money online. The other 80% are new, don’t know a great deal and haven’t yet made their first Dollar, Euro, Pound, Yen, Franc or Rand.
Which brings up my last point – unless you specifically target one geographical area, your market is GLOBAL. Yet the needs are very much the same. People who lose their job in China or Switzerland or Brazil or The United States all have the same concerns and fears – “How do I pay the bills and provide for my family now? What if I can’t? What if I fail to land on my feet?”
It’s scary for them, and what they want most of all is someone to take them by the hand, alleviate their fear and show them the way out of the dark and into the light.
The need for money is universal. Your target market is in distress, and they’re desperately hoping you can provide the very real and legitimate guidance that will see them through their financial crisis. Do so, and you will never want for business or income yourself.
Even the smallest changes can sometimes result in the biggest increases to your conversion rate. Take the headline split test, for example. Headlines A, B and C are tested against each other. Headline A converts at 1%, Headline C converts at 2.5%, and Headline B converts at 4.9%. Hmmm, which one should you pick? The choice is obvious, you go with Headline B.
But what if you hadn’t split tested? You would never have known. Just imagine: You write a terrific headline, which happens to be Headline A. It looks like a sure winner, so you don’t bother to test. And sure enough, it converts at a respectable 1%.
BUT, if you had tested, you would have chosen Headline B. And for every 100 people who hit your site, you would have made 3.9 more sales. If your product sells for $47, that’s another $183.30 you would have earned for every 100 visitors. But you didn’t test, and so you didn’t know, and so you lost thousands of dollars. Ouch.
Testing might seem like an irritation, but there are few things that can pay off as handsomely as a simple split-test.
That’s why I’ve made a list of things you might want to test in your next sales letter or even in your next email. I’ve left out the common things like headlines, pre-headlines, sub-headlines and calls to action. You already know about those. But have you thought about testing these?
Various bonuses tested against each other and against no bonus
Person next door tone versus formal business tone
Header versus no header
Placement and look of testimonials
Adding more images, arrows, underlining, etc.
Adding/changing the text underneath the images
For low priced items – Placing the price at the top (beginning) versus at the bottom (end)
A soft sell versus a hard sell approach
Adding more call to actions throughout
The design of the page itself
Wording directed to your best customer versus more generic copy
Changing the color scheme
Changing the color or text on the order button
Variations on your product image(s)
Variations on your product image size
Variations on your product image location(s)
Renaming your product
Focusing on benefits versus focusing on the pain of no solution
Placing bullets closer to the beginning versus further into the page
Focusing on one major benefit versus a laundry list of benefits
Having all copy or video on one page, versus using steps with a progress indicator
A trial offer versus asking for the entire sale up front
Sales – a percentage off versus a dollar amount off
Coupons versus sales
And perhaps the most interesting of all: Using dark emotions like jealousy or revenge to get the sale [“You know that snobby woman at your child’s school who thinks she’s so terrific? Right now she is praying you NEVER get this program, because if you do you’ll lose that weight and look ten times better than her. Imagine how envious she’ll be then!”] Heh heh.
Mind you, this list is to get you thinking and moving in the right direction. There’s no way you’re going to test all of these things unless you’re a compulsive profit-seeking entrepreneur who can’t rest until you’ve got the most finely tuned sales presentation in the history of the world.
For the rest of us, pick and choose what you test. If you haven’t already, start with the basics like your headlines and calls to action. Then choose something from this list and see if you can’t boost your conversion rate even higher.
To stay motivated, do the math to find out how much more you will earn on every 1,000 visitors for every tenth of a point you increase your conversions. Write this number down and post it where you’ll see it. Then every week, or every day if you’ve got the traffic, test something new. There’s no easier or faster way to give yourself raise after raise than continually split testing.
