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I know a guy who lives in a remote part of Oregon.

He’s got a long scraggly beard, dresses in jeans and flannel shirts, and drives a new car.

By day he fishes and hikes.

By night he visits with his friends in the bar, or kicks back and watches TV.

He takes several long vacations each year.

He hires someone to do his yard work and maintain his house.

He never works – because he doesn’t have to.

And he’s lived like this since the 70’s.

Did he inherit a lot of money? Win the lottery? Rob a bank?

Nope. He grew up poor, never went to college, and hasn’t worked since he was 22.

What he did do was write a hit song. Just one.

And that song continues to pay him residuals to this day.

He did something once, and is still getting paid for it all these decades later.

So there you have it. Just write a hit song performed by a very famous person, and you are set for life.

What’s that? You don’t write songs?

Okay, then you might try the online marketing version of this residual game.

It’s called make a ‘sale once, get paid for months or maybe even years.’

Of course we’re talking about residual programs, and there are two basic ways you can profit: Promote someone else’s program, or create your own.

If you’re promoting someone else’s residual program, you’ve got several benefits.

• You never have to create membership content or maintain and update the software as a service
• You never have to worry about customer service concerning the program
• You don’t have to create the sales page, the membership site and so forth.
• All you do is send traffic and profit. That’s it.

Pretty sweet deal, right?

And don’t be fooled by the first month’s commission, either.

For example, let’s say you’re trying to decide between promoting Program A and Program B. Both programs are converting at the same rate.

Program A pays out $50 one time on a $100 sale.

Program B pays out $15 each month on a $30 sale.

Members of Program B tend to stick for a long time, because the product is something they need for their business. In fact, the average customer retention rate is 7.2 months, which is fantastic.

With Program A, you make $50. But with Program B, you make $108.

As you can see, if possible you want to find out how long the average customer ‘sticks’ to the program.

Software as a service tends to retain people for longer periods of time, assuming the software does what it’s supposed to. Hosting is a great example of this, because once people set up their website with a host, they tend to stick with that same host for years or for as long as there is no problem.

However, there are many information oriented membership programs that also retain members for a good long time as well.

To find residual programs you might want to promote, you can begin by Googling, “affiliate residual programs.” You’ll find lists full of them – more than you can ever promote yourself.

But having your own program can be even better, if you’re willing to put in the work.

• You can have affiliates promote it for you, making hundreds and even thousands of sales you would never get on your own
• You can make a lot more money – a LOT more money
• You can build a stable of affiliates who like and trust you, and will promote future programs for you.

But…

You have to create the program. And make no mistake, there is work involved.

If you’re selling software as a service, then you need to have the software developed, tested, tweaked and hopefully glitch free when you launch.

If you’re selling informational memberships, you’ll need to create a membership site and add content to it on a very regular basis.

And in either case you’ll need to deal with customer service, building the sites, writing the sales letters and so forth.

That said, it’s not as difficult as it sounds.

For your first membership site, I recommend you keep it simple. Find a target market that is eager for great information on their topic.

Then create a newsletter targeted to this market. Write the sales letter and newsletter as though you are speaking to just one person. Keep the price low – so low that it’s a no-brainer.

See? Not so hard after all.

If you’re going to do the work of bringing customers to a sales page, why not get paid for it over and over again?

Imagine this: One year from now you are earning money from not one, but twelve different residual programs.

Month after month you get checks for work you did six months or even a year ago.

How great will that feel?

If that feeling excites you, get to work and go make it happen!

Here’s a ridiculously easy business you can run from Facebook using Facebook groups. It won’t take you much time, and it can net you a tidy little profit each month.

Better still, you can create as many of these as you like. Grow them big enough, and you might make far more than $1,000 a month, too.

Plus, you can either do it yourself, or outsource the work – it’s up to you.

Here’s how it works:

First, create a private Facebook group. This is going to be a free group, and you can do it for any niche where money is spent.

For example, if you’re in the IM niche, you might title your group something like:

• Shortcut copywriting techniques for non-copywriters
• Easy and fast SEO for non-SEO people
• Latest and hottest ways to get tons of traffic to your offer
• Techniques for doubling and tripling your conversions
• Simple methods for building massive emails lists fast
• Etc.

You can populate your groups with free WSO’s, from Facebook itself, as bonuses to other people’s products and so forth. You’re offering a tremendous benefit for free, so it’s not going to be difficult to get members to your groups.

You might even limit the number of members you take, since that will make it seem much more exclusive and valuable.

For content you’re going to do one or more of the following:

• Write your own content
• Hire outsourcers to write the content for you
• Get guests to write your content for free
• Use high quality PLR. Not junk, just the good stuff

Whatever content you use, be sure to break it down into brief daily posts.

All you need is short snippets of content, because the members will do the rest of the work for you. They’ll ask questions, respond to questions, give opinions and so forth.

Your group will take on a life of its own, which is terrific. You want to encourage as much interaction as possible to keep people coming back time and time again.

So now the big question is… How do you monetize this?

There are three ways:

First, promote your own products. You’ve got to do this in a very soft, non-pushy way. Done right, you’ll make plenty of sales without turning anyone off.

For example, you might answer someone’s question, then refer them to your product for even more info.

Second, promote other people’s products (affiliate products) using the same method.

Third, if you don’t want to sell products or you want to make even more money, you can sell advertising on the timeline.

If you think about it, you’ve got a highly targeted group of people who are super focused on this one area of interest.

Basically, you have a terrific prospect list of active, interested people.

Whether you are selling your own products, affiliate products or advertising, you’re going to make money.

Let’s talk more about getting advertisers. These advertisers would LOVE to convert your members to their deal.

Limit your ads to just one per day, and call them the “Sponsor of the Day.”

Of course, advertisers can book as many days as they like.

Post the ad in the morning and keep it as the pinned post for the rest of the day.

Charge maybe $50 to display the ad for a day, which compares favorably to solo ads.

If you sell all 30 days of the month, you’ve made $1,500.

Only allow that one ad per day, and don’t let your members post affiliate links.

How do you find advertisers? Many times your best source will be from within the group itself. You can also let your email list know about the opportunity, and you can offer your ad slots to anyone who is in your niche and has a product to sell.

I recommend starting one group and learning the in’s and out’s of running this type of business. You’ll need to invest perhaps 15 minutes each morning for adding content and answering questions, and then check back 3 or 4 times during the day.

Once you get a good feel for what you’re doing, expand to related niches and even branch out to completely unrelated niches, too.

And of course you can outsource the entire process.

While you’re not going to make a fortune from just one group, several groups can yield you a full-time income.

It’s amazing what a little personalization can do to increase sales…

Quick example: You go into a store looking to buy something. A sales person helps you, but you leave without making a purchase. You go back a week later, and the sales person greets you by calling you by name.

How do you feel? Maybe respected, appreciated and memorable? And do you want to do business with someone who cares enough to remember your name? Of course.

When Coca-Cola introduced Coke bottles personalized with people’s names, sales jumped 2%. Now I know 2% might not sound like much, but to a company as big as Coke, it’s huge.

Personalization – when used properly – can double your conversions. Here are 10 ideas on how to personalize not just words, but actual images – and how you might use these ideas in your own business…

1: Inactive Customers or Subscribers:

Re-engage with customers and even subscribers who are no longer active.

For example, for customers who haven’t made a purchase in 90 days, or subscribers who haven’t clicked a link in a month, send them a photo of you in front of a whiteboard looking sad.

The whiteboard has a simple mathematical equation with your business name, minus their name and a frowny face, like this:

Your Business Name

– Your customer’s name

☹

2: New Customers and Subscribers:

Create life-long customers and communities by taking the time to welcome someone when they join you. For example, you might send them a picture of you holding a sign that says, “Welcome Paul!”

3: Product Sales:

When your customers buy a product that you are shipping out, keep them engaged by sending them an email with a picture of their package. This keeps them excited and tells them it’s on the way.

Bonus: Get a clear shot of the address label, and it will help them to confirm their shipping address before it’s too late.

4: Webinar Attendance:

Get people to show up for your webinars by sending them a personalized reminder email in the form of a photo of a handwritten note, or of you standing next to a whiteboard with the written words, “Are you coming to the webinar, Joan?”

This will capture their attention, be far more memorable and do more to get them on the webinar than the standard email that webinar services send out as reminders.

5: Cart Abandonment:

Send out a photo of an empty box with their name on it, such as, “Order for Bob Smith.”

This emphasizes the sense of loss in not ordering, and will get some of your customers to come back and finalize their purchase.

6: Text Messages:

If you use text messages for following up with customers, how about adding an image of a newspaper that features their name and the reason for the follow up?

It’s guaranteed that you’ll have their attention.

7: Customer Anniversaries:

Send out a personalized image that contains congratulations on their anniversary – perhaps the anniversary of purchasing a product, subscribing to your list, joining your membership site, etc.

You’ll make them feel special and important.

8: Upsells:

This is a brilliant idea that can put serious money in your pocket almost immediately – send out an image letting your customer know they forgot something.

It might be a picture of the upsell they didn’t take, along with words such as, “You forgot something John! (It’s our best offer).

9: Certificates:

Do you offer any kind of courses or online training?

Send out personalized and official looking certificates of completion with their name, the training level achieved, the date, signatures and seal.

10: Online Order Confirmation:

When someone places an order, send them a photo of you and your team with a sign that welcomes them by name. It might say something like, “Welcome to the family, Aaron.” Make sure everyone in the photo looks especially happy.

Now then, you might be saying: “Sure, this is all well and good and I can see how it will help me to retain customers and make more sales, but who has time to do all this?”

Good question. The answer is, you do – if you get PicSnippets.

PicSnippets creates personalized images for marketing, sales and customer follow-up. You can create your PicSnippet and use it on nearly any platform such as Infusionsoft, ClickFunnels, Shopify, ManyChat, Klaviyo, FixYourFUnnel and more.

Put personalization to work in your business and get ready for your customer engagement and sales to reach new all-time highs!