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31 Ways to Market on a Shoestring Budget

With these tips you can get more accomplished and grow your online business faster without spending a fortune.

31 Ways to Market on a Shoestring Budget

Mind you – some may seem too simple. But years of trial and error have taught me that these methods flat out work at bringing about extraordinary results.

1. Have a Plan – So many new online marketers simply start working on something without knowing where they’re going or what they hope to achieve (other than making money.) I think this is why Internet Marketers tend to hop from one thing to the next and have trouble settling down. But if you simply take the time to write out your plan of action (what you’re going to do and how you’ll do it) in a step-by-step fashion, then you’ll have a guide that you can follow. It will save you so much time and money in the long run, and make things that much easier as well.

2. Narrow Your Niche – One of the biggest mistakes is trying to make everyone your customer. By targeting a niche, it makes it easier for you to find your customers and easier for them to say yes to your offers. One example I like to use is the IM niche itself. If you’re marketing to ALL online marketers, you’ve got a HUGE niche with a lot of competition. But if you focus on teaching chiropractors how to market their businesses online, you’ve now got a tightly focused niche. Rule of thumb: The more focused the niche, the more you can charge for your products and services. Paradoxically your click through and conversion rates will be higher as well; thus you can earn more with fewer customers.

3. Fine Tune Your Slogan – Sure, you’ve picked a great name for your business (I hope) but what about your slogan? This is the sentence or sentence fragment found on your header, and it’s also what you tell people when they ask what you do. It needs to be short, clear and compelling. “Teaching Chiropractors how to optimize their online efforts resulting in a more diversified clientele and enhanced revenue” is NOT a good slogan. “Helping Chiropractors get more clients through simple marketing methods” is much better. It’s clear, it’s direct, the benefit is unmistakable, and it’s how people naturally speak.

4. Reach Out – Find the movers and shakers in your niche and reach out to them. Blog about them, buy their products, get on their mailing lists, and yes, email them. The more people you know in your niche, the better. You can ask them questions, become their affiliate, and eventually ask them to promote your products, but only when you’ve built the relationship.

5. Network at Live Events – Sometimes working online isolates us so much, we forget that there are real live PEOPLE out there who want to meet us. That’s why it’s good to go to as many live events as you can afford, not just for the training that might be offered, but for the networking opportunities. Take a stack of your cards and try to meet as many people as possible. Get their cards, or write down their info if they don’t have a card. One note: Do not try to sell anybody on anything at these events. Your job here is to make contacts – setting up JV’s and such comes later when they know, like and trust you.

6. Follow-up – You know all those business cards you collected at the event? Follow up with each one within seven days to continue building the relationship. Follow up by phone or email, or both. Remind them of your conversation and pick up where you left off.

7. Use Both Sides Of Your Business Card – You’re at events, handing them out anyway – why not use BOTH sides of the card? On the second side you can add a testimonial, a link to a free report, and invitation for a free consultation, etc.

8. Crank Up Your Signature – Use your email signature to promote your business. Name and contact info are a great start, but you need more. For example, add a link to your webpage with an offer for an excellent freebie. And use the offer in your signature line on forums, too, where it’s allowed.

9. Billboard Your Vehicle – If appropriate to your business, get inexpensive vinyl signs for your vehicle’s doors and rear to bring in new customers. Or if it’s in your budget, spring for the full coverage auto graphics that are so eye-catching, like ones you find at adsonwheels.com

10. Focus On The List – Really this should be titled: Become Obsessive About Building Your List With The Highest Quality (Best Targeted) Prospects Possible. Your first priority in list building should be QUALITY, not quantity. That said, don’t miss a chance to add to your list if the prospects are a good fit for your business.

11. Work Your List – Send them great info on a very frequent basis (3 to 5 times per week) so that you become the “go-to expert” in their eyes. Once they know you and trust what you say, you can recommend anything and get a great conversion, so be sure to only recommend the very best products that they will truly benefit from.

12. Create Fun Promotions Around Silly Holidays – While most every business is trying to leverage major holidays into sales and events, you can stand totally apart from the crowd (and avoid the competition on the big holidays) by focusing on the lesser known holidays. For example, Opposite Day, National Hugging Day and Do a Grouch a Favor Day. First, you need to find the holidays… Google something like, “strange holidays” or “weird holidays” or even “crazy holidays.” and you’ll find plenty of options to choose from.

Now choose a holiday that’s coming up soon, and think of how you can design a simple, eye-catching promotion around it. It doesn’t have to be anything too creative. For example, on Opposite Day you could send your list a product that they only pay for after they receive it and if they like it. That would certainly stir up some attention, and if you promote it in advance it could also grow your mailing list.

13. Hold Contests – You might give away your new digital product or anything else your prospects might like, in exchange for whatever you choose. It could be a new sign up to your mailing list, a suggestion for a new product, the answer to a trivia question (not found on the Internet), etc. If your prize is big enough and awesome enough, ask your readers to forward your contest to others in exchange for extra entries, and it could go viral, providing you with hundreds or even thousands of new prospects. And certainly it will help you with getting your name out there as well.

14. Volunteer Your Services – If you provide a service such as building websites or writing sales copy, volunteer to do it for a non-profit and grab yourself some great publicity in the process.

15. Stage a Launch – New product? New website? New service? Create a launch to turn it into a real event that gets people talking.

16. Take a Stand – If you want customers to feel strongly about you and your products, you need to take a strong stand that they can relate to. Most marketers are afraid to take a stand because they’re trying to appeal to everyone. The problem is, when you appeal to everyone, you end up appealing to no one. Guaranteed no matter what your niche might be, there are positions and opinions that you hold that you can share with your readers.

Taking a stand will bond you to the readers who agree. Those who don’t agree will also want to take a position, and in so doing they also bring attention to you. Think Rush Limbaugh – his fans are devoted and his enemies provide him with tons of free publicity. However, you always want to remain 100% professional – do not name call or denigrate others under any circumstance because it will only hurt you if you do.

17. Make Podcasts and Videos – Microphones and video cameras are cheap, and the payback can be huge. By dispensing great info via voice or video, you’re creating Internet ‘ambassadors’ that can bring you new prospects from places you never expected. BONUS: Someone who joins your list after listening to your podcast or watching your video is far more likely to open and read your emails in the future.

18. Build an Alliance With Non-Competitors – Look for non-competitors who service the same niche you do. Make contact and see about promoting each others products to your own lists, thereby expanding both your sales and your list of new customers and prospects.

19. Build an Alliance With Your Competitors – This works especially well in service niches because successful people have more business than they handle. Plus one competitor might specialize in a certain size or type of project that you prefer not to handle and vice versa. When you collaborate with your competitors, you can sometimes surprisingly double your business with very little effort.

20. Add Value – Whether you’re offering an affiliate product, your own product or just giving info away to build your list, add value. In the case of an affiliate offer, give away something that enhances the original product. In the case of your own product, give away the first chapter or two as a sample. And if you’re simply giving something away to build your list or as an added benefit to your readers, give them additional resources where they can get even more great information or the tools they need to implement your strategies.

21. Use Testimonials – Not just testimonials for the specific product you’re promoting, but also testimonials for yourself, your business, and even your methods. For example, you might use the left or right column of all your sales pages and web pages for testimonials from happy customers of all your products. And inside of your sales letters, place testimonials from people who back up what you say, such as experts who’ve done research that corroborate what you’re telling people in your sales message.

22. Ask for Referrals – This is one you want to be consistent on. Ask your readers to pass along your emails (make sure there is a link to your sign-up page) ask followers to retweet your messages, and ask fans to “like” your pages and messages. Next, put a referral program in place that rewards your customers for referring new, paying customers. And lastly, simply make it a policy to consistently ask and remind, in a very friendly, gently manner. Remember to always show your immense appreciation for those customers who do refer new business your way.

23. Do Teleseminars or Webinars – Teleseminars and webinars are excellent ways to connect with your customers and build your lists. You might do Q and A sessions or present a certain topic. Be sure to give lots of information, and save any product pitches for the very end. If you’re doing the webinar for a joint venture partner’s list, be respectful of the opportunity and make your partner look great for having invited you to speak to their people. You’ll build tremendous rapport with your listeners, and if you’ve presented them with great info, they won’t mind a little product pitch at the end.

24. Send Out A Newsletter On A Regular Basis – You might have a list and you might send them offers – but do you send them real news and stuff they can use? If not, you might want to start. By sending them great tips they can use, they will be more likely to open and read your future emails, thus increasing your conversion rates on the offers you do send.

25. Take Your Best Shot – A professional photograph of yourself is something you can use everywhere – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, your websites, article directories, business directories, etc. Build recognition by using the same great photo and it will pay off.

26. Blog – If you don’t have a blog yet, start one. Yes, even if you have a website, you should still have a blog because it allows you better connect with your community and create a personal connection. And btw, Google tends to love blogs, so if you set it up correctly you may also find you get some free traffic from your blog efforts.

27. Use Keywords – If you want to get found and ranked by Google, you need to use the keywords that people are looking for and that you have a chance of getting ranked on. It’s not always an easy balance, but investing in a good keyword tool and tutorial can help.

28. Bookmark It – Social bookmarking is a good way to help others find your best articles and blogposts. Join sites such as del.icio.us, reddit, digg and mix, and then bookmark your best stuff as well as other people’s best articles, pins and blog posts.

29. Do Press Releases – Do you have some real news to report? By all means do a press release and publish it on top press release websites.

30. Post in Forums – This comes with one caveat: Monitor the time you spend on forums or it can eat up your entire day. Spending 30 minutes a day posting on the best forums in your niche is a great way to increase your visibility. Add a link to your website in your signature and info about your business in your profile. This way when other forum members find your posts helpful, they’ll have somewhere to go to sign up for your list or just get more information about your business.

31. Capitalize on Social Media – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn are great places to find people in your niche, to network and to build your own list. An entire library can be written about using Social Media in your business, so I’m simply adding this one in as a reminder.

As you can see, there are a multitude of ways to promote your business without spending a fortune. An open mind and a little creativity go a long way towards reaching out towards others, thereby getting the business to come to you.

Will You Do What it Takes to Succeed?

I received an email the other day from a young man who has created six different products in four different niches – and sold a total of 37 copies. Not 37 copies of each – 37 copies all together. One of his products didn’t sell a single copy.

 Will You Do What it Takes to Succeed?

Should he quit? Most people would say he’s obviously in the wrong line of work and should do something else. I say that’s incorrect, and here’s why:

Anyone with the perseverance to continue creating products even though he’s not making sales is going to eventually be successful. Obviously he’s not afraid of failure – if he were, he would have stopped after the first product. And he’s got the drive and determination to keep going, even when everyone around him tells him to quit. Heck, even his sales are telling him to quit, yet when he emailed me he said he was working on his seventh product, and by the sound of it I think he’s got a winner this time.

There was another fellow by the name of Eddie who wanted to be a jockey something fierce. When he was 15 years old he traveled to Kentucky and went to work at galloping horses for $15 a week. But his boss told him that he was not good enough to ever be a jockey, so Eddie hid his tears, told his boss goodbye, and headed to California.

There he found a job with horse trainer Clarence Davison, who let Eddie ride in a race. Result? Eddie lost. He lost his next race, too. And his next.

In fact Eddie kept racing and losing for eight straight months, and after every race Clarence would sit down with Eddie and go over every mistake. Eddie kept persevering until two hundred and fifty losses later, he quit. That is, Eddie quit losing. A month before his sixteenth birthday, Eddie won his first race.

He steadily improved under Clarence’s guidance, but then two years later he cracked his skull, fractured two ribs and punctured his lung after falling off a horse in Chicago. Time to quit, right?

Not Eddie. Four years later he captured his first Kentucky Derby win. Then ten years after he was told he would never be good enough to become a jockey, he captured the U.S. Triple Crown. He went on to become the only jockey to win the U.S. Triple Crown more than once, and during his racing career he rode in 24,092 races, won 4,779 victories and placed in the top three 11,888 times. Not bad for someone “not good enough.”

Eddie Arcaco was known as the “Master” by his peers. Is it any wonder? Yet he could very easily have quit anytime during those first 250 losses and we never would have heard of him.

You have to remember that about 70 percent of the horses running don’t want to win. Horses are like people. Everybody doesn’t have the aggressiveness or ambition to knock himself out to become a success. -Eddie Arcaca

Do you have the ambition and perseverance to be a success? I think you do.

Don’t Blindly Imitate the Guru

Just a quick thought – you see a guru using a particular service, doing a particular technique, sending out a certain email, etc. And you think, “Hey! If he’s doing it, then it must be the thing to do, right?”

Don't Blindly Imitate the Guru

Well, not necessarily. Guru types make mistakes too. And because they are generally playing in a bigger arena, they sometimes make very big mistakes they quickly regret. The problem is, if you’re watching them then you can’t know for certain if what they just did was a good idea or the stupidest idea ever.

On top of that, you don’t know what their goals are. Maybe they’re selling a $2 ebook because they’re upselling a $97 course on the backend. So you sell a $2 ebook with no backend and then you wonder why you only made 6 sales and $12… It could be because you’re not a guru and so no one recognized your name and no one believed there could be value in something that costs $2.

That’s why you should never blindly imitate a guru – you don’t have the full story of what s/he’s doing and whether or not it’s working.

However, if you see him repeatedly doing something which he could easily change, then you might want to jump in and try it yourself. For example, you see a guru continually sending out emails with the same strange formulatic subject line. Try it.

If it wasn’t working for him, he wouldn’t keep doing it. Or at least we HOPE he wouldn’t – he might have someone in a faraway office sending those emails for him and he doesn’t even know the results.

Be cautious with imitating anyone, even the big dogs of marketing. Yes, it can be highly valuable to learn from others who are successful, but not everything that works for someone else is going to work for you.

Offer ‘A’ Class Service to ‘A’ Class Customers

There’s always going to be a small percentage of your customers who are more than happy to pay more to get things done faster and better.

Offer A Class Service to A Class Customers

Case in point: If you’re not familiar with it, there is a giant ferris wheel in London that is absolutely huge and offers spectacular views. It was built for the Y2K celebrations. Ironically, it didn’t open in time for Y2K, but that’s another story (perhaps about planning your business and hitting deadlines.)

To ride this ferris wheel, known as the London Eye, you’ve got to pay something like 20 pounds and stand in a que for about an hour and a half. For you Yanks, a que is a line. 😉

But if you’re willing to pay more – a good deal more – you will only have to wait about 15 minutes. That’s because they also offer something called the Fast Track, also know as the short line for rich people.

Now then, where in your business can you offer a “short line for rich customers?” That is, how can you upgrade your products or services for those customers who are more than happy to pay for better/faster service? Because these are the customers you need to spoil rotten. These are the customers who will make your business a pleasure to run and who will be the reason why you like getting up in the morning and you have a new car in the garage. Frankly, these are the customers who, when you get enough of them, will allow you focus exclusively on them if you choose.

Think of it this way – would you rather service 100 rich customers who pay whatever you charge without so much as a flinch, or a 1,000 customers all moaning about your latest $2 price increase? To be frank, you can earn far more by catering to your best customers than you can by trying to sell cheap stuff to cheap people. And yes, I realize it might not be politically correct for me to be saying this, but I bet you can already see the truth in it.

So it’s your decision – continue to focus only on selling to the masses, or begin locating those customers and clients who will gladly pay you top dollar for your extraordinary services without batting an eye.

The Incredible Magic Sales Closing Tool

Do you want to close more sales on your website? Then you need to answer more objections. If you were selling vacuum cleaners door to door, you’d find that prospects have questions they need answered before they will buy. Those questions are actually objections, and a skilled salesman will welcome them and answer them in such as way that the customer is more than satisfied with the answers.

The Incredible Magic Sales Closing Tool

Of course on a website we don’t have a star salesperson closing prospects, so we’ve got to rely on content to do it for us. Usually this is in the form of a sales letter, but the typical sales letter is rather lengthy. This is good, in that they cover the main objections and do a good job of explaining the benefits. But if a customer has a particular question, making them scroll through this long sales letter to find the answer may actually lose you the sale.

Imagine a customer on the brink of making the purchase. They just have one question, something that will be the deciding factor on whether they whip out the credit card or close the page. They’re busy, and they want the answer now. And no, they don’t want to scroll all the way through your sales letter 2 or 3 times searching for the information.

Solution? A Frequently Asked Questions section. That’s right. Adding an F.A.Q. to your sales process can increase your sales – sometimes dramatically. And it doesn’t have to be on your sales page. Installing a prominent F.A.Q. link to the top and bottom of the page is effective. So is having a F.A.Q. section either within the sales letter itself or off to the side of the page.

What should be in your F.A.Q.? Two things: First, all of the information a typical customer needs to make a decision. This includes what’s included in the offer, the major benefits, the price and guarantee, what they can expect, time frame to get results, etc.

Second, your F.A.Q. should include all of the questions you repeatedly get from prospects. These might be things you wouldn’t think they would ask, but they do, such as, “Does this work outside of the U.S.? Do I need to purchase anything else to make this work?” Etc.

Think of your F.A.Q. as a living, growing thing. Any time you think of a question that should be added, do it. Any time someone asks you a good question, add it. Typically, the better your F.A.Q., the more sales you will make.

Can I Pick Your Brain?

If you’re a success at almost anything, sooner or later someone is going to ask you, “Can I take you to lunch and pick your brain?” And interestingly enough, if you’re a successful marketer you’re going to get his question a LOT. So how do you answer?

Can I Pick Your Brain?

It’s up to you of course. Do you want to give your information away for free? Over and over? If you’re selling “how to market” type information, it’s perfectly reasonable for you to not give away services you normally charge for. After all, no one is asking doctors, “If I take you out to lunch will you look at my mole?”

Sere’s how you can answer that question…

Let’s say you teach Internet marketing, and you’ve got both free information that you give away and also paid products. Maybe you even do marketing consulting work. Someone asks you the take-you-out-to-lunch question, and you say, “I’d be happy to set up a consulting session with you next week, I’ll email you the details.”

Then you email them a link to your free information, along with the details of your paid product or service. Then they can choose if they want to move forward or not. It’s a nice way of letting them know that you don’t give away your best work for free.

Boost Sales by Discovering Your Buyers’ Secrets

Like it or not, the balance of power in the marketplace has shifted from sellers to buyers. Buyers have more information at their fingertips and more choices available than ever before. And because of this, if you don’t have a good understanding of your customers then your marketing is going to be akin to throwing mud against the wall in the hopes that something, somewhere sticks.

Maximize Sales By Discovering Your Buyers' Secrets

The trick to knowing your customers? It’s as simple – and as difficult – as turning halfway around so that rather than viewing your business through your eyes, you’re now looking at it through your customers’ eyes.

The more attuned you are to seeing your business through your customers’ eyes, the more successful you will become. Here then are steps you can take to make this transition…

Ask yourself, “What do your customers need?” What is the customer trying to accomplish and how are you going to help them accomplish it? What’s the result they’re looking for, and why are they going to contact you to get that result?

Understand the context in which they’re seeing your marketing message. Are they getting input from friends and family? From experts? What websites are they visiting? What kinds of offers are they exposed to?

What’s important to your customer? What is your buyer thinking, feeling, doing and saying?

What’s your customers fears? What kind of pain are they in? What keeps them up at night?

What are your customers’ aspirations and goals? What are they seeking, and what do they want to achieve?

Try to get in their head and speak as they would speak and think as they would think. Rather than saying, “My customer is afraid of losing her husband if she doesn’t lose weight,” say it from her point of view. “I’m afraid (terrified?) of losing my husband if I don’t lose this ugly fat.” See the difference? Your goal is to really channel that person and find out what it feels like to be them. As you can imagine, this is going to help you tremendously with your marketing message.

How does your customer perceive you, your business and your product? Your customers want to know how your product is going to really help them, if they can trust you, if they feel comfortable buying from you. Imagine being them: “Is this going to work? Will I get the results I want? “Does this guy know what he’s doing?”

And now we come to an element almost no marketer thinks about – justification. Your customer may have to justify their purchase to a spouse or boss. They’ve got to explain their decision. “What am I going to tell my wife? How will I explain to the boss that this is the best choice?”

Next – what style of buyer is your typical customer? Are they:

– The person who wants to have all the facts and details before they make a decision?

– Spontaneous, living in the moment, disliking details, making quick decisions and afraid they’ll miss out on something great?

– Slow to make decisions, placing others needs ahead of their own, looking at the big picture?

– Or are they curious, goal-oriented, highly motivated and focused on doing whatever it takes to be competitive?

Once you understand which general type of buyer your customers tend to be, you can personalize your marketing for that particular type of buyer, all the way from how they like to receive their information to how they make that final buying decision.

And lastly, where are your customers found? Not only in terms of geographic location, but also in terms of what websites do they frequent, when do they go there, and how can you attract their attention?

The more you can get into your customer’s head, the more you can tailor your products and the marketing of those products to exactly suit your customers, the more successful you will be.

I simply cannot stress this enough: Buyers hold the cards, and until you learn to sit down at the same table with them and play by their rules, your business won’t be nearly as profitable as it could be.

Maximize Sales by Discovering Your Buyers’ Secrets

Like it or not, the balance of power in the marketplace has shifted from sellers to buyers. Buyers have more information at their fingertips and more choices available than ever before. And because of this, if you don’t have a good understanding of your customers then your marketing is going to be akin to throwing mud against the wall in the hopes that something, somewhere sticks.
Maximize Sales By Discovering Your Buyers' Secrets
The trick to knowing your customers? It’s as simple – and as difficult – as turning halfway around so that rather than viewing your business through your eyes, you’re now looking at it through your customers’ eyes.
The more attuned you are to seeing your business through your customers’ eyes, the more successful you will become. Here then are steps you can take to make this transition…
Ask yourself, “What do your customers need?” What is the customer trying to accomplish and how are you going to help them accomplish it? What’s the result they’re looking for, and why are they going to contact you to get that result?
Understand the context in which they’re seeing your marketing message. Are they getting input from friends and family? From experts? What websites are they visiting? What kinds of offers are they exposed to?
What’s important to your customer? What is your buyer thinking, feeling, doing and saying?
What’s your customers fears? What kind of pain are they in? What keeps them up at night?
What are your customers’ aspirations and goals? What are they seeking, and what do they want to achieve?
Try to get in their head and speak as they would speak and think as they would think. Rather than saying, “My customer is afraid of losing her husband if she doesn’t lose weight,” say it from her point of view. “I’m afraid (terrified?) of losing my husband if I don’t lose this ugly fat.” See the difference? Your goal is to really channel that person and find out what it feels like to be them. As you can imagine, this is going to help you tremendously with your marketing message.
How does your customer perceive you, your business and your product? Your customers want to know how your product is going to really help them, if they can trust you, if they feel comfortable buying from you. Imagine being them: “Is this going to work? Will I get the results I want? “Does this guy know what he’s doing?”
And now we come to an element almost no marketer thinks about – justification. Your customer may have to justify their purchase to a spouse or boss. They’ve got to explain their decision. “What am I going to tell my wife? How will I explain to the boss that this is the best choice?”
Next – what style of buyer is your typical customer? Are they:
– The person who wants to have all the facts and details before they make a decision?
– Spontaneous, living in the moment, disliking details, making quick decisions and afraid they’ll miss out on something great?
– Slow to make decisions, placing others needs ahead of their own, looking at the big picture?
– Or are they curious, goal-oriented, highly motivated and focused on doing whatever it takes to be competitive?
Once you understand which general type of buyer your customers tend to be, you can personalize your marketing for that particular type of buyer, all the way from how they like to receive their information to how they make that final buying decision.
And lastly, where are your customers found? Not only in terms of geographic location, but also in terms of what websites do they frequent, when do they go there, and how can you attract their attention?
The more you can get into your customer’s head, the more you can tailor your products and the marketing of those products to exactly suit your customers, the more successful you will be.
I simply cannot stress this enough: Buyers hold the cards, and until you learn to sit down at the same table with them and play by their rules, your business won’t be nearly as profitable as it could be.

Don’t Buy Until You’re Ready to APPLY

Don’t buy an Internet Marketing product unless you know you’re going to use at least one piece of information inside that product immediately.

Don't Buy Until You're Ready to APPLY

For example, you’re creating a forum and you see a product on how to get people really active inside your forum and you know you’ll use that product immediately, so you buy it. You’re making your money back on that product almost immediately.

But then you see a great looking product on how to do webinars, but you don’t do webinars and you have no immediate plans to do any in the future. Should you buy it? After all, you may use it down the road and you may make money from it, right? I think you already know the answer from your past experiences – don’t buy it.

All you have to do is look at your hard drive at all the products you’ve purchased in the past that you haven’t touched to know that unless you’re going to use the product immediately, odds are very good you will never use it.

Because what happens? A year from now you decide to do webinars. Great. The only thing is, you’ve totally forgotten that webinar product you bought a year ago. Or you remember it, spend a half hour searching for it, only to discover halfway into it that the info is outdated and you would have been better offer buying a new info product on webinars.

I call this just-in-time learning. You buy an info product “just in time” to learn from it and USE THAT INFO to further your business. You’ll be surprised how much money you’ll save this way, and how much more you’ll earn from the products you actually do purchase, because you APPLY what you learn from them to grow your business.

How to Make Big Money Online by Talking

Do you enjoy speaking and explaining things? Do you have a topic you’re knowledgeable about, even passionate about that others want to know more about?

How to Make Big Money Online by Talking

And do you know someone who can intelligently talk with you about that topic? Then you can make fantastic money by speaking. Here’s how…

First, choose your topic. Use the same criteria you would use for creating any kind of info product – are people willing to pay for this info? Next, find a partner, preferably someone just as knowledgeable about the topic as you, or someone who has complimentary information and knowledge to share.

Next, write an outline of what you will cover. Make sure the two of you agree on what will be covered and that you’re not leaving anything out. Now talk on the phone and record the conversations using your conferencing service of your choice. It might take you one or several calls to cover everything. Really more calls are better, since the product you’re creating will have a higher perceived value.

Now get transcripts of the calls made, and sell the entire package as one product. You can do this from start to finish, including transcripts and sales letter, in 7 to 10 days. Result? You’ll have a product you can sell for months and years to come. Split the profits with your partner, promote to both of your lists, place it on ClickBank, sell it through forums, etc. I know people who’ve cleared $50,000 to $100,000 on a product like this. Splitting the profits with your partner, you would walk away with $25,000 to $50,000. Not bad for spending a few hours on the phone.

The shortcut you probably don’t want to take: Yes, you can do this by yourself. Sure, you get to keep 100% of the profits after affiliate commissions. The problem? Your product will almost certainly not be half as good as it would be if you had a partner who knew as much about your topic as you do.

First, there is a synergy and energy that develops between two people having a conversation that you just don’t get talking to yourself. Second, your partner is bound to have information and stories you don’t have. Third, one person lecturing can be – let’s face it – boring. Fourth, a partner with their own list will double initial sales and help you to spread the word with affiliates, creating momentum from the first day you launch.

Can you make a recorded product by yourself? Absolutely, and some people have been very successful doing just that. But everything else being equal, you’re almost always better off partnering with someone else.

Tips for making the calls/recordings: Keep the energy high and the umms, errs and ahhs to an absolute minimum. Have fun, smile, laugh and joke when appropriate, and give great, timely, usable information that will truly make a difference for your listeners. You’re value is to quicken their learning curve so be sure to do this to the very best of your ability, and not only will you make money once, but some of these customers will be eager to buy future products you develop in the future as well!

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