« August 2005 | Main | October 2005 »
September 28, 2005
Oh no - Your Information Product Isn't Selling, Now What?
If you develop information products, then you know the feeling
of hitting the market with one of your infoproducts and having
to face the fact that results are not as great as you had planned
or hoped.
Believe me, we've all been there.
In fact, if you really dig deeply, the real TOP GUNS in almost
any business are the ones that have failed the most - they have
survived, in large part, based on their ability to keep plugging
away to find the secret sauce for getting it right.
To be able to join the elite group of information entrepreneurs,
you need to smash through these roadblocks.
To help, here's 3 tips for managing the growth of your own
information product empire:
1. Get Real! Its great to dream big, I'm a huge believer in setting
your goals high. You will never know your abilities until you
dream big. That said, your entire future income should not be
based on one single product. What you really want is a great lead-in
product that will sell at least $500-$1,000/month and pave the way
for additional products using the system we describe in the Ultimate
Information Entrepreneur's Success Package over at:
http://www.infoproductcreator.com
Posted by jbsmith at 10:21 AM | TrackBack
September 22, 2005
Uncovering Passionate Markets - and more...
We've just posted a brand new "Infoproduct Marketer's Success News"
issue RIGHT HERE
In this issue we cover one of the topics that keeps internet marketers, from beginners to superstars, scratching their head - how to uncover pockets of passionate demand.
Ask yourself this very important question.
How do people act when they are passionate about something?
You see, often we are looking for signs of demand that other people tell us we should look for - such as keyword searches, following markets where competition is high, etc...
Be smarter than the rest by understanding what the signs of passion really are. So, what do people REALLY do when they are passionate about something?
1. They talk about it - allot! Think, discussion forums, chats, user groups, interest groups, special interest education courses, etc...
2. They buy stuff related to their passion. Look for established buying patterns - for books and infoproducts look to Amazon, Ebay, B&N, classified ads that run again and again, etc...
Posted by jbsmith at 11:48 AM | TrackBack
September 15, 2005
Becoming Massively Motivated!
Can you recall a time in your life when you were highly motivated?
I remember back in school pulling all-nighters before exams, and spending extra time on my two favorite subjects - psychology and film studies.
Back then, the fact that all my research, studying, writing and preparing was "work" would have never entered into my mind.
Somehow I have no problem getting up at 4AM to make sure my boat is in the water right at sunrise, everyone knows that's when you get the big fish.
Jumping out of bed on a Saturday morning at 5AM to take my 6-year old to hockey practice - no problem, I look forward to it.
Yet, I used to have trouble dragging my sorry butt out of bed for 7:30AM when I worked in my corporate career.
What about you?
Do you think Donald Trump thinks of his job as work?
What about Bill Gates?
Can you list a few activities and experiences in your life when you have unleashed incredible energy, when you felt like there was no end to your endurance, when you barely had a care in the world?
Now, even more interesting, were these activities related to money or your bank account?
Perhaps indirectly, but likely your enjoyment, motivation and energy came from something much more.
Perhaps it was entertainment, enjoying friends, helping people, enjoying someone else's company, using the left side of your brain (right side for you lefties), doing what you just felt was right at the time.
Can you relate that back to your reasons for wanting to run your own business?
We give you a full system for taking action on your own online information product marketing business over at: The Ultimate Information Entrepreneur's Success Package, but you MUST be motivated to really turn your dreams into wonderful reality.
What if your online business, product development business, or other entrepreneurial endeavors made you feel the way I your best experiences did?
If you are thinking, planning or struggling with your own online marketing business, where you DON'T feel pure enjoyment and motivated - go back and ask yourself why.
Look for patterns in your past that really bring out the best in you - where time didn't matter, where you had unlimited energy.
I'll bet that once you know what the patterns are, you will be able to better structure your business to harness your infinite energy. Instead of easing forward, you will blast ahead with turbo boosters on full throttle.
Set yourself up for massive success by plugging into your inner energy source - you'll achieve more than you ever imagined without the inner turmoil that holds most people back.
Posted by jbsmith at 07:42 PM | TrackBack
September 14, 2005
Taking Advantage of the MINIPRENEUR Trend
To be a successful product developer, ensure your information products
are in front of a tidal wave of demand and ensure they will produce
long term demand, trend watchin is absolutely essential.
Even more important though is to be able to be able to read multiple
different markets and understand underlying macro level trends from
which you can really pull entire infoproduct topics and markets.
The challenge for most people is to step back from their own area of
interest, passion, market and see what is happening in other markets.
Dan Kennedy is one master at doing this - in fact built his entire
fascinating career doing this as does Jay Abraham.
We discuss many methods of uncovering lucrative trends and testing them
for market potential in "The Ultimate Information Entrepreneur's
Success Package"
One technique I like to use is to watch the patterns in bookstores.
Which topics are getting more floor space?
Which topics are getting the coveted front sections of the bookstore,
factoring out the discount books because they are typically on their
way out.
Another great source I use is the Trend Watching ezine - its free,
you can see this month's issue here:
http://www.trendwatching.com/newsletter/newsletter.html
In September's issue, the most important lesson you can take away is
the Opportunity section right near the end of the newsletter.
The message is loud and clear, successful entrepreneurs are moving
away from selling to consumers to simply CONSUME, and toward FACILITATING
the dreams and desires of consumers.
Take note - if you had any doubts about getting into the information
product publishing and marketing business, read the Trend Watching
Newsletter.
With your own "How To" Information product business, you will be
perfectly positioned to stand between the consumer's wallet, and
fulfillment of their goals and dreams.
Don't wait another minute - get started helping others reach their
goals today, its not often you can get in at the front end of a massive
trend.
Jeff
Posted by jbsmith at 07:38 PM | TrackBack
September 13, 2005
3 Titanic List-Building Techniques
3 Tips I've used to bring in thousands of subscribers in very little time.
Before I list them, the other factor in making money from your list though is relevance and responsiveness. You can have a list of 100,000 and it can still be worth less to you than a list of 10,000 based on relevance and responsiveness.
All this means that you can't sacrifice your area of focus or quality of information when building your list.
3 Techniques That I've Found Work Best:
1. Writing articles. Trick here is to spend 90% of your time on the article title (effectively your headline) and toward writing compelling articles consistently. Send them out to publishers and directories - but always build a strong publisher base which you can go back to again and again. Some of my better articles have been picked up by hundreds of ezines, and have been seen by millions of eyeballs resulting in very strong traffic and list signups.
Case in point, my article titled "How To Make Pay-Per-Click Advertising Payoff!" over at:
http://www.highertrustmarketing.com/articles/ppcpayoff.html
has been run by hundreds of online and offline magazines with total subscriptions into the millions.
Another example in another niche - this very simple article on Low Carb foods has been picked up by hundreds of websites:
http://www.rapid-weight-loss.com/1201-low-carb-food-list.html
Learn to write articles that attract attention is the single best way to rapidly build your own responsive list.
2. Use a capture page, often called Namesqueeze for first-time traffic. Rather than sending traffic right to your sales page, send them to a capture page first and target the page well to your market. For example: http://www.infoproductcreator.com/ebook/ is such
a page. Conversion is well over 40% on most days, so as you can see, any substantial traffic will result in very strong list building numbers.
3. Joint ventures: You should be seeking out at least 2 new joint ventures each month - some of these can instantly result in 100's - if not 1000's of signups. Long term joint ventures can also be repeated for months and months. Think in terms of joint mailings, interviews, viral ebooks, articles, special reports, etc... to use as tools to make joint ventures successful.
Finally - if I had to list a fourth, of course your own affiliate program would be the fourth. Takes a little longer to build momentum, but when you do - its like placing your list building on auto-pilot.
Jeff
Posted by jbsmith at 06:49 PM | TrackBack
September 08, 2005
Instant Attention For Your Infoproducts
To be successful in the information product business, your products need to stand out - they need to offer a unique slant on your topic ensuring that people will absolutely WANT to buy your product so they don't miss something important in your chosen market.
At first blush, being unique may seem too challenging.
In our Information Entrepreneur's Success Package, we cover idea generation, testing, packaging and product development techniques that only the most successful 2% of information product developers really understand.
Here's a really terrific way you can make sure you are on the right track to standing out from the crowd.
Start by making sure you are taking a different approach to identifying your target market's problem statement.
In fact, it may be as simple as re-wording your market's problem statement.
Here's what I mean.
Great information products address urgent and passionate need or wants within a given market.
How to write great sales letters.
How to generate more website traffic without a list.
How to catch more fish
And so on...
In each of these, the main problem statement is clear within the headline.
Say you wanted to create something very unique though - approach the problem differently than all others.
Then - you need to simply change some words in your statement of need.
This technique is covered by Michael Michalko in "Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Business Creativity" available at Amazon and all major bookstores.
Instead of answering the question "What is a faster way to write", you may instead ask "What is a spectacular way to write?" or "What is a funny way to write?"
Use synonymes, and different adjectives to mix up your problem statement to end up with a question that your competitors have NEVER asked.
By using this unique problem statement, you will have your own unique information product, simple to market, in high demand, all while branding you as a thinker in your field.
Posted by jbsmith at 02:46 PM | TrackBack
September 01, 2005
How To Get Your Message Through To Your List
There is no question, getting your email marketing through to (and read by) your subscribers is getting tougher and tougher.
You can certainly take some actions to improve your delivery rates - here are a few:
1. Ask your subscriber to "approve" your email address on your signup Thank You Page. Many people are using anti-spam services today such as Spam Arrest, many of these work based on default block rules with exception lists. You want to be on the exception list so your future emails get through.
2. Test your message before sending it out - there are a few tools out there you can use to test your messages for words that will trigger the filters. There is a no charge spam checker online at: http://www.ezinecheck.com./check.html
3. Start offering a read immediately online option for automated response sequences. If you offer an e-course, minicourse or email mini course, I am a huge fan of using the format recommended by Jimmy D Brown over at: http://www.create-e-mini-course.com
Instead of offering an email only version of the e-course, create a webpage for each lesson and offer a link to each lesson on your signup thank you page.
Let those people who really want your material to read it immediately, rather than having them wait for 2-days within emails. I've recently moved to this approach, and my results so far are very good - not to mention that it cut the number of emails starting with "I didn't get part 4 & 5...could you please resend?"
You really can get your message through, using some of these techniques.
