Sometimes I’ll click on an ad (usually a display ad that I know will lead to an affiliate site) out of curiosity. While I have not been actively working on my own business lately, I still like to keep up with what internet marketers are doing. Today I ran across something that made me set down my lunch and type this post:
It is important to note that this site and the comments/answers depicted above is to be used as an illustrative example of what some individuals have achieved with this/these products. This website, and any page on the website, is based loosely off a true story, but has been modified in multiple ways including, but not limited to: the story, the photos, and the comments. Thus, this page, and any page on this website, are not to be taken literally or as a non-fiction story. This page, and the results mentioned on this page, although achievable for some, are not to be construed as the results that you may achieve on the same routine. I UNDERSTAND THIS WEBSITE IS ONLY ILLUSTRATIVE OF WHAT MIGHT BE ACHIEVABLE FROM USING THIS/THESE PRODUCTS, AND THAT THE STORY/COMMENTS DEPICTED ABOVE IS NOT TO BE TAKEN LITERALLY. This page receives compensation for clicks on or purchase of products featured on this site.
This is a disclaimer I found on an affiliate site. My guess is that most people who read the disclaimers at the bottom (which is probably 0.1% of visitors) are not even going to process the real message. Let me rewrite it for you:
I’M LYING TO YOU. THIS IS ALL BULLSHIT. BUT BUY THIS PRODUCT ANYWAY BECAUSE I’M GETTING PAID A COMMISSION.
I almost have to chuckle to myself. This is so reminiscent of an incredible marketer I used to work with. It sounds exactly like something he would do and later laugh about with his friends.
Whatever you can sleep with at night. I’ve certainly done some things in the name of hype and money. I guess this guy is at least honest about it.
If you’re involved in internet marketing, you probably see tons of high-priced products all the time. Seminars for thousands of dollars. Huge video courses for $997. That sort of thing.
Let me first say that I DO NOT charge that much for any of my current products. Nowhere near that much. But I want to let you in on a little secret that I have been discovering in that 6 months…
Selling a $97 product is no harder than selling a $7 product online.
Let that soak in for a minute. How much happier would you be if you sold a $97 product every single day versus selling a $7 product every day? I’m not trying to equate money with happiness here, but it makes a difference. Last summer I launched 2 products at the $97 price point. One of those products has taken off. I have 0ver 1,000 affiliates promoting it. I make sales nearly every single day. Think about that – that means nearly $100 in extra income every single day.
If you think it was difficult to create that product, market it, recruit affiliates, etc…. you’re dead wrong. The process was the same as when I was creating 10 page ebooks on little niche topics.
So decide what you would rather do: spend hours creating a $17 product, or pump the product up a little bit and have a great $97 product. Which product is worth your time?
For an example of the my product creation process, check out Product Creation with Skype.
There’s my tip. Take it or leave it. Go make some more money!
Best of luck,
Reuben D. Rock
I’ve been noticing a high rate of shopping cart abandonment on a few new products I created. After going through my checkout process, I think I have the problem nailed down. My receiving email address was wack. Yes, wack.
Consider this – you decide to drop $100 on an info product. Click the buy button, and suddenly you’re sending your cash to sk8rboi666@aol.com (not my email address, btw). How confident do you feel that your money is safe? Does it seem like you might get scammed? Probably. Or at the very least, the seller is incompetent.
So my quick suggestion for the day is to check out your Paypal emails. Make sure the payment is being sent to a related email. For me, payments are now being sent to 90minutebusiness (at) mydomain.com.
If you sell softballs, make sure the email is softball related. Trust me – it makes a difference.
Here’s to reduced cart abandonment!
Have you ever created a product, watched it sell, then watched as it slowly faded away?Over time, a product can lose relevance and sales can dwindle. This is especially true in techy niches, which is where I will be revamping an old product in the next few days. Never fear – your sales don’t have to disappear. You can continue to renew your domain and breathe new life into a product. I’ll talk about that for a few minutes here today.
Around 2 years ago, I created a very popular product in a tech niche. It sold like fire, I made some money, and I ignored it for a while. Affiliates were driving tons of traffic to the page, and they still are today. But the product itself has lost some glitter and glory. It’s a bit outdated. And I was considering ditching the site so I could clean up my portfolio of sites. Terrible idea! Instead, I’ve researched and found everything I need to update the product and give it a brand new face.
You can do the same thing, too. If you have an old dog, teach it a few new tricks, and watch your sales spike back up.
Google search your niche, see what has been happening in the past few months or years. Decide what your product is missing. What are searchers finding online that causes them to pass up your offer? Whatever information they are finding elsewhere, you should add it to your old product. This is a simple process, but you should dedicate some time and effort to it. Once the product has some new content, you can move on to…
Revamping your sales letter!!! This step gets missed by a lot of marketers. Just because your product is current and people will love it, your sales letter may be sending a stale message. Something as simple as updating the firmware version you list in a sales letter can make a big difference. Go through your sales copy with a keen eye toward the outdated details it may contain. Update your message so it fits with what people want today.
Finally, tell your affiliates what you did. This is vital. Your affiliates may not even be thinking about your product anymore. If you redo the sales copy and product, they need to know about it. It might cause them to renew interest in promoting your product. Just send your affiliates a quick email, explain that you updated your product and copy, and send them a review copy if necessary. This can really help your affiliates deliver better leads and convert better for you.
Doing this for your products every now and then can only help – rarely will it hurt your sales. Remember that times change, and your site might need to change, too!
Good luck,
Reuben D. Rock
Every year around this time, I’m reminded of the seasonal nature of some of my products. Actually my top sellers are seasonal. Once winter sets in, sales begin to dwindle until spring. It leaves a tough couple months where my ad spending remains unchanged, but the clicks just don’t convert.
This is an example of when you should consider diversifying your product offerings. Getting into a new niche can really help you out in this situation. That’s what I’ve been working on in the last year.
My site, 90MinuteBusiness.com is a line of products that I hope will boost my income during the slow season for my physical products. When physical sales drop off, my 90 Minute Business products continue to keep me afloat.
What’s your experience with seasonal shifts in your sales? Have you been diversifying and trying new niches to combat the effect? If not, maybe it’s something you could work on in 2010.
Best of luck,
Reuben D. Rock
Here’s a quick post and a quick tip: use your Google Adwords managed placements.
If you are using Adwords to drive traffic to your site, you are losing out on low cost clicks if you don’t use managed placements. Use the placement locator tool to find some good potential sites to target. Content clicks can be had for a low CPC, and you will get higher CTR if you target sites properly.
Let me give you some stats from one of my personal campaigns:
- Average cost per click – $0.09
- CTR’s ranging from 1.3% to 5.73%
No, those CTR’s are nothing too special – but for the content network, it’s pretty good. I’m happy with it, and I’m making money from it.
But what I really like is the CPC of $0.09. That’s incredibly low, especially considering my CPC for search is between $0.50 and $0.79.
So go use the placement locator tool, get some low cost clicks, and thank me later!
That’s all for today – good luck,
Reuben D. Rock
Internet marketing noobs seem to get hung up in one major place: product creation. That doesn’t surprise me. I’ve been doing this for a few years, and I still have trouble in that area from time to time. When I can’t just outsource my product creation, and all the pressure is on ME – what do I do?
Well, I recently started taking advantage of Skypefor creating information products. This is not a new concept or idea. I don’t claim to be the ground-breaking inventor of the Skype product. Not at all! In fact, it’s really just a simple variation on a method that many many other marketers use. For instance, check out Perry Belcher and Ryan Deiss’ free audio:
Making Money With Your Microphone
In that audio, Perry and Ryan discuss using simple interviews as products. That’s as easy as it gets, right? Find an expert (or be the expert), interview the expert, and record the interview. 1-2-3 done.
The only thing I have done differently is using Skype as my platform. Why would I use Skype? Why wouldn’t I just sit down with my expert interviewee and record our conversation? Well, I don’t always have physical access to my experts. Sometimes they are on the other side of the country, or they are just too busy to sit down in my home studio. Skype calls are convenient for those situations.
I know there are free services for recording phone calls. Dial in, give an access code, and they send you an mp3 recording of the call. That’s awesome. But hey – we don’t all have unlimited minutes on our phones. And like many people these days, I don’t even have a home phone! So Skype is an excellent free alternative to this route.
Next time you are stuck on product creation, ask yourself if Skype can be your savior? Could you hook up with a know-it-all on the topic and get them on Skype? I bet you can.
After you have the call recorded, you essentially have a finished and ready product. I like to add a few additional touches to bump up the value. First, I like to transcribe the call. Not everyone will sit down and listen to the audio at work. Sometimes they want to read it or print it out for later. Give them that option. Also, including a PDF version of the transcription gives you the opportunity to embed links and other resources.
Think about that – LINKS and other resources. While your customer sees that you have provided extra value by showing them other resources on the topic, you can also get them to click through on affiliate links you embedded in the PDF. There are so many ways to incorporate a few affiliate links into your products, and I would encourage you to experiment with this idea.
That’s all I have for today, but I hope that got your gears turning. Best of luck!
Reuben D. Rock
