Archive | April, 2018

A friend of mine has been doing this for years, yet he’s the only one I’ve heard of doing it.

Frankly, I think there is a ton of room here for more people to do the same thing, and maybe even in different niches, too.

In my friend’s case, he noticed a lot of these online memberships in the IM niche all had one thing in common: Regardless of what they were teaching, they all had to teach the basics, as well.

So if they were teaching how to do newsletters, or set up sales funnels, or how to blog, or whatever… they also had to teach how to setup a website, get hosting, use an autoresponder and so forth.

And it’s a real pain for these membership site owners to do this.

Not only do they have to make a big set of videos, but then they have to keep them updated as well.

Each time something changed – like Aweber added more features, or Hostgator changed things – the videos need to be updated. If they’re not, the members will flood the help desk with questions and frankly be unhappy.

My friend thought, ‘Why not help all of these membership site owners?’ So he created a membership FOR membership sites.

Yeah, pretty ingenious, I thought.

He creates all of these videos on how to do the basics of online marketing, and he keeps them up to date, too.

Then he sells access to his site to IM membership site owners. He charges a flat fee based on the number of subscribers, but he could also charge per member.

I think the flat fee might be easier to calculate each month, though, since it won’t always be radically changing.

He charges one price for 50 members or less, a bigger price for 50 to 100 members, a bigger price for 100 to 200 members, and the largest price for any amount of members over 200.

Of course, you can charge whatever you like, or make it flat fee for every membership site owner.

Now when someone joins any of those sites, they also get access to my friend’s site, too.

From the first month on, my friend was pulling in over $5,000 a month doing this. And once it’s set up, it’s simply a matter of updating videos when needed.

I think this model could work in a lot of other areas, as well.

For example, in the online marketing niche, memberships sites for social media, driving traffic and building funnels could all work.

You could also build sites in the health and self-improvements arenas, as well.

The membership site owners feature this extra membership they give to their members as a bonus, and it really helps with their sales, too.

Imagine someone is selling a diet program, and as a bonus they give a free membership to a comprehensive health site or exercise site or recipe site.

Or imagine someone is selling a meditation program, and as a bonus they give a free membership to a self-improvement site.

The possibilities are huge.

The membership site owners LOVE this because they don’t need to create nearly as much content, and they get higher conversion rates.

Their customers love this, because they get 2 memberships for the price of one.

And I haven’t even covered the best part yet… to access my friend’s basic online marketing site, every member has to register their email address to get the passcode.

This means my friend is automatically building a list of BUYERS for free. This alone is probably making him MORE money than selling the memberships to membership site owners.

Of course, my friend is very careful not to abuse the trust of his main customers, the membership site owners.

That’s why he sends out only great info to his lists, as well as promoting his customers other products to his lists, too.

For example, he gets new subscribers from Alex’s membership program, and then promotes Bob’s product to Alex’s customers, and Alex’s product to Bob’s customers. Not the membership sites, but related products.

He’s very up front about this, and his membership site owners love it because they get more sales, too.

This is a truly win, win, win idea that can be used in many different niches. And as far as I know, very few people are doing it yet.

When you enter online marketing, you’re told to pick a niche.

And you’re told that health, wealth and relationships are the big three. Pick a subniche in any of these, and you’ll likely do well.

But what if you want to do better than “well?” What if you want to dominate your market?

The first people into the big three markets had it easy, since there was ton of demand and very little competition.

Those who followed had it tougher.

And today, while the demand is still there, the competition can be brutal.

Unless…

Unless you continue to niche it down.

Markets (heath, wealth, relationships) are saturated.

Sub-markets (weight loss, forex, dating) are saturated.

Which is why you’ve got to specialize even further.

Study the competition and the processes they use, and then create your own market.

Here’s how:

1: Audience and Slogan

Your first step is to choose your audience and then target them with the right slogan – a slogan that promotes change.

If you look at recent American presidential campaigns, you’ll notice a trend:

George Bush Sr’s slogan – “A Proud Tradition”

vs.

Bill Clinton’s slogan, “Time to Change America”

I’ve noticed marketers who are moving the free line all the way to, ‘never.’

They no longer give away anything for free, and might even go so far as to actively discourage freebie seekers.

While I understand the sentiment behind this, I’m not sure I agree. True, it can get discouraging if it seems like your lists are only interested in what they can get for free.

You work hard to create your products – why in the world would you give away your best stuff?

The answer is, you wouldn’t, of course. Not unless it leads to a bigger upsell of some kind.

But removing all the freebies from your funnels is, in my opinion, a big mistake.

Take a look at the marketers you follow – aren’t these the same ones you purchase products from, with or without a fancy sales letter?

So why do you follow these people and buy their recommendations? Odds are it’s because you discovered them through a free offer of some sort, like the kind you get in exchange for your email address.

You read their free report or watched their video or listened to their podcast, and you found out you like and trust them. You wanted to see what else they offer, and so you opened their emails, read their blogposts, and started buying their products.

Frankly, I think your freebies are your best sales letters. They tell your future customers what to expect from you and give them a reason to keep coming back for more, whether it’s free or paid.

Take a cold customer who doesn’t know me, give them my very best sales letter, and it’s really questionable whether they will buy or not.

But give me a customer who has read my free reports and come back, and I’ll show you a sale – with or without the fancy sales letter.

Furthermore, because I do offer free products first as a way of introducing myself and my business, and offer paid products afterwards, my retention rates are higher and my refund rates are lower.

In my opinion, the freebies we offer our prospects can be our very best selling tools.