Prashant Shanbhag here…
There are reasons why some beginners are able to build successful online businesses…
… while others don't or can't.
One of those reasons is choosing the right model.
Whether you’re a beginner to online marketing or you’ve not found anything that seems to work with you, you need something simple, that will work.
The following models are the ones I’ve seen work time and time again for beginners and struggling marketers I’ve worked with as a coach and observed as a marketer.
Just to drill the point home…
The following models will work for beginners starting out with their new online business.
They’ll also work if you’ve been involved in online marketing for a while but have gone round in circles trying every strategy you’ve ever heard of and nothing seems to have worked.
Either way, knock everything down, start from a clean slate and choose the one that appeals to you.
The first model takes the least amount of skill and is the quickest one to integrate into the marketplace.
The others are slightly more complex and with all of them you’ll need to put the effort in, but they all work.
I’ll mention traffic sources at the end of the report
The Low Price Report Model
Depending on how fast you work, this is quick and profitable.
That makes it very powerful because it allows you to put something out there, get feedback so you’re able to make changes, course corrections and adjustments.
It’s also an easy model to grasp and get your head round, which for me (I’m a stripped-back, bare-bones, simplistic model kind of bloke these days) makes it perfect for beginners.
Ok here we go…
First, Find ONE simple desperate problem.
It MUST be a simple, SINGLE problem though, not a complex issue. So wanting to make money online is NOT a simple, single issue*.
It’s a bloody big, complex problem that you can’t provide a simple solution to unless you break it down some more.
*You might think ‘Then what is the point of this report? Well it’s exactly THAT – to take the simplest and most effective strategies of the entire ‘want to make money online’ thing and break it down into a single strategy
If someone needs to know how to cloak an affiliate link or automatically add JVZoo buyers names to their email list then YES you can provide a fast, comprehensive solution to that because it’s a SINGLE problem.
You see where I’m going with this?
Most beginners try to solve EVERYTHING when they begin
to create products or start to email their list.
Instead, a better and much more effective way is take just a chunk of a large problem and provide a fast easy solution.
I’ve tried both ways and it’s SO much easier (and writing the sales page is so much easier too) to solve a small part of a bigger problem.
I’ve had small $5-$7 reports make tens of thousands for me.
In the early days of online makreting when installing WordPress wsn't so user friendly I’ve made nice profits selling ‘How to install WordPress on your server in 3 minutes’ (step by step with images) because the only real tutorial was WordPress's own document which was technical and dreadful.
You look at these now and think that times have changed and there are no issues like this that can’t be solved by Googling or finding a plugin that does it for you.
Really?
Facebook is the most popular site in the world but how many beginners know how to get a simple Facebook Ad campaign up and running in 30 minutes?
Or know which is the easiest CPA affiliate network that you can get approved for without having to get on the phone to them?
Or a step by step of how to integrate ‘bumps’ (one click upsells) into your Stripe payment processor in just 10 minutes?
If someone is building a business these aren’t just small things to them – they’re major roadblocks, and if you provide step-by-step solutions with images and bullet points they’ll love you for it.
But where do you get the info to put into your reports?
First off, break down your problem into single chunks.
And then go research those problems.
So for example a client of mine made a very nice profit from training beginner
YouTube marketers about the importance of basic SEO tactics when they’re uploading their videos.
We did some research and it turned out that while there might be plenty
of ‘advice’ about how to efficiency SEO your YouTube videos, there was
very little in terms of a solution to the problem of doing it FAST and getting it to WORK.
But some research threw up quite a few interesting articles on SEO for videos.
Quite obviously from the findings of this study, some basic SEO rules
could be compiled into a very valuable report.
Another marketer I know who uses a similar approach offers a fantastically valuable resource guide to free online services available for internet marketers
Simple things like online background remover, watermark remvoer for photos and images, etc.
This sort of thing (this is just one of the sites found).
Simple and available but if you’re not aware it’s out there, it’s well worth $5-$7
to save money and remove the roadblocks from your business right? Solving problems.
‘How can I remove the background from my photos for free’?
That’s the kind of thing you’d be solving.
You could be in the home video niche, the hobbyist niche, targeting
amateur musicians on a budget or a dozen other niches.
So find your idea for a report.
Then create it fast and get it out there to get some feedback.
You should be able to research and write a 25-page report in two days maximum.
Write some sales copy.
So get it out there and see how it sells. Try selling it for $5-$7 initially
If it doesn’t sell, no big deal, go back to the drawing board. Not much time lost.
Here’s the BIG takeaway:
You’re never going to lose money even if it doesn’t sell
because you just go back out there and offer it with PLR!
And that’s pretty much always going to sell.
Especially if it comes with a sales page, which yours will. It’s a win-win situation.
If your report only takes two days to put together and it sells then that’s great.
If it doesn’t sell offer it with PLR rights and move on.
You’ll make enough money to make it worth your while.
In fact creating reports and selling them with PLR is another
angle on the low price report that you could run with.
If it DOES sell you have a proven winner.
If they’ll buy at $7 then you can work on trying higher prices.
Add a video to the package where you read through the report
to give it higher perceived value.
Add a mind-map and you can sell it for at least $14
Better still add personal coaching and charge accordingly.
Personally I’d go with the $7 report option and add personal coaching
to work through the method with them for $1000 for two weeks.
Charge less (or more) if that figure doesn’t suit.
You’re not going to get rich selling $7 reports so you need to
resell to your buyers over and over again.
The best way to do this initially as a beginner is to
seek out highly related products from other marketers and
offer them through your affiliate link.
For example, when my coaching program is closed or full, I make sure that where applicable I offer someone’s ELSE’s coaching as an affiliate.
Quick heads-up though…
I don’t really want to touch on the mindset approach too much but I find that the people who contact me with arguments such as ‘If the information is free to be researched why would anyone pay for it?’ or ‘Why should they buy anything from me when I’m an unknown’ are often just trying to put off doing any work
(Yeah sorry but it needs to be said)
There’s perhaps two day’s work here at most, and the outcome could be
something that changes your life, makes you see possibilities and opens the
world of internet marketing wide to you.
Suspend disbelief and TRY IT.
How can anyone say something doesn’t work until they’ve tried it? 😉
Interview Experts
Ok, ok… I know you've heard this before.
But just give me a chance. What I am saying is a bit different.
Why?
Because… in my opinion this doesn’t work as well as it did a few years back.
It’s harder to get interviews and they have less perceived value. So you’ve got to tweak…
Go OUTSIDE the online marketing niche, or even just to the fringes of the online marketing niche and find experts who know their subjects inside out, but don’t have a clue about marketing, and you’re laughing all the way to the bank 🙂
This is a great solution if you want to make money selling information products but don’t have any expertise, proof or ‘insider secrets’
The shortcut is to find someone who HAS the secrets but doesn’t really know about marketing. And then you interview them.
I’ve done this in the restless lazy eye syndrome niche (this is quite unpleasant actually and people who suffer badly really want a cure and fast!).
Also in the outsourcing niche. If you’re a new ghostwriter or coder or virtual assistant and you want to start earning money from home doing your thing, finding someone who already does it and knows how to write biographies, how to pitch their fees, how to use the freelancing platforms and interviewing them can lead to a very saleable product for people wanting to learn how it’s done.
Acne is another great niche because there’s little solid medical proof for it, yet it obviously exists and there are forums for sufferers and many people have cured themselves and written blogs or reports about it.
Interview these people and turn it into a report or ebook or video series and this becomes very attractive to new ‘Acne’ sufferers who both want a cure AND want to feel they’re ready for the party scene.
On the fringes of the online marketing world, we’ve interviewed domain flippers and published a report based on that information.
In return we either pay an hourly rate for the interview, include links to the person’s site or book, give them a cut of profits, or just hire them to create regular content.
Works nicely. It's easy money for them.
Remember you’re not ripping anyone off. These people usually aren’t entrepreneurial and are more than happy to be paid a good hourly rate for talking about what they do.
Those are the kind of people you’re after. So you set up the interview.
Then what?
We find Skype is best and you if you Google free Skype recording you’ll find the current solutions.
If your expert is a bit shy and don’t want to chat, email questions work well. There are two ways we go about interview.
One is an in-depth interview with ONE expert and then use that info to create your own product.
The other is to take the (for example) THREE most popular questions in any niche and getting four or five experts to give their own ways of solving them.
The latter is more interesting in my view but finding four or five experts can be bloody hard work so sometimes the first way is best.
How you sell it is up to you.
We usually extract the information and make our own products from it, but I’ve seen some cracking interviews and transcripts that offer the whole uncut interview.
If they’re willing, video is also a great way to go to, and you don’t even have to be on camera – just set up your iphone or digital camera pointing at the subject then stand behind it asking the questions.
If you’re doing this buy a lapel mic and record the sound through it. They’re very inexpensive but make a lot of difference to the end result. Echoey audio is off putting to the listener.
You don’t have to mic yourself up.
Your voice should pick up well because you’re nearer the camera but if it doesn’t you can just edit the vid and put titles with the questions up where needed.
You can package this into a PDF transcript or write it up in your own words or release the audio or whatever you want.
One done this you see if it sells. If it does, you have two options:
You can either replicate the procedure in a different niche
Or go deeper into the same niche.
The latter is maybe best because you can sell the ‘deeper’ products to the people who bought the first product. You already know they’re interested because they bought.
If you’re sharp you can even survey the people who bought the first product and ask what further information they’d like to see, then go out and find the interviews, then sell it to your existing buyers!
If you like this idea but are terrified of doing interviews read on to the next method I’ve seen working very well.
‘Pick' Info From Books In Almost Any Niche
This is how you can borrow credibility in a new market if you are totally new
and if interviewing people isn't for you.
For this method doesn't involve speaking to anyone.
You simply find a new niche that has desparate buyers in them, and is big enough t0 have books written by authors.
Here's a secret:
This is how I got started in the crowdfunding niche.
I collected information from books, research reports and interviews because I love reading and compiled this info into reports, blueprints and ebooks.
And it’s doable by anyone. Well, anyone who actually gives it a go that is 🙂
That’s the secret of success by the way, not thinking too much about why something won’t work, rather just getting on with it.
Anyway, back to getting info from books…
I’m not talking about slavishly rewriting a whole book here. I’m talking about sitting comfortably with a cup of coffee and having a relaxing read to get the general concept of the book in your head.
Then (and just like the low priced reports section at the start of this plan), choose ONE aspect of the book that can be rewritten in your own words, forms a complete concept and will make a great product.
Nick Kolenda's blog had a great article on pricing psychology, which has a section on ‘decoy pricing'. This whole section could make a great report on how to increase the average order value without changing your product in any way.
Makes sense?
Things like offering three options of your product and pricing them such that the most expensive option appears to be a no-brainer.
In NLP there's a concept of modelling your behavior after a successful individual.
What you do is, you decide a behavior you wish to develop in yourself. Then you search for an individual who possesses that behaviour. And then you imagine you're that person and exhibiting the behavior you wish to develop. A similar concept exists in sports and martial arts too.
This is something like that.
See how amazingly simple it is?
The knowledge you need is just waiting for you on Amazon. The books don’t have to be best-sellers or new, or old for that matter, they just need to be informative in their particular niche so that you can extract one of the key components to make into a product of your own.
There’s are literally MILLIONS of books out there with top class
information in all niches that are just waiting for you to read and deliver the information in your own words.
Don’t pretend to be something you’re not. Don’t pretend to have done something you haven’t.
Simply credit the source. It’s basic journalism.
It’s a great way for getting into a new niche and establishing yourself as an expert.
I’ll be honest – I don’t even think you need to ‘dominate’ or ‘steamroller’ a new niche in any way. You don’t even need to be seen as THE major expert.
You just have to be interesting.
INTERESTING.
And you’ll get followers.
Read books in your niche or area of interest and cherry pick the ideas you like, and make them into YOUR cohesive theory.
Keep it light-hearted an interesting, and do it on your own terms.
With Kindle, you can be reading pretty much any book on Amazon within 30 seconds. And if it’s not available on Kindle, certainly within a couple of days using Amazon Prime.
And it need not cost a fortune either.
I buy second hand books for pennies rather than new ones that cost ten times as much because I know I’ll read and re-read them and scrawl notes in the margin.
Books. Wonderful source of knowledge 🙂
Hi, I got a better understanding from this. I’ll keep this bookmarked.