Last year, you FINALLY finished that ebook you'd been
"planning" for years. You wrote a quick website, added
some order links, told a few people about it, and
amazingly, people started buying your ebook. You had
successfully entered the realm of the information marketer.
Now let's look at how you can step into the big league,
and at a minimum, quadruple your profits this year.
First, let's examine your backend. No, not that backend...
but the products and services you offer your subscribers
after they've made the initial purchase. This is actually
something you should've flowed out even BEFORE you wrote
your ebook. Your system should automatically offer other
related goods and services to your customers. The hardest
part of the whole process is making that first sale. After
that, if you offer your customers what they want, they will
continue to buy from you.
For the backend you have two options that you should consider.
If you haven't developed any additional products of your own,
then you should offer your customers related affiliate products.
This is often the best option for many marketers because all you
have to do is the promoting. All of the order fulfillment,
delivery, and customer service "headaches" are handled by
someone else. Just locate high quality products that are a
perfect match for your customers, make them aware of the
products, and cash affiliate checks.
Your second option is to develop more of your own products.
This isn't as hard as it first seems. When you wrote that
ebook, you probably did a lot of research. Turn the research
that you did for the ebook into other similar products. The
secret... is just capitalizing on the fact that people
have different preferred methods of digesting information.
Some people prefer print books, some prefer audio, some
prefer video, and others prefer workshops (experiential). If
you fail to offer your information in all of those formats
you're leaving money on the table because you're ignoring
entire segments of the market which often only buys
information in their preferred format. Ebook buyers may
insist upon that format because it's generally cheaper,
and they can get instant downloads.
Sometimes, the different formats are a natural product
progression. It's a way of offering more and more comprehensive
versions of your basic product. Different customers will be
ready for different levels of product. They will buy different
products as their first purchase. Some will even buy ALL
of your products!
Assuming your ebook is more than a compilation of affiliate
links thinly disguised as an ebook, you should already have the
core information for a full line of products. You offer the
different products at a range of prices because your customers
also have different price sensitivities. Here is the
progression:
- Offer the ebook - perhaps priced below $50. Think of that
ebook as a lead generator. It's bringing in highly qualified
leads and helping you to build a list of people who have
demonstrated a willingness to pay to solve their problems.
- Perhaps turn the ebook into a print book. Having an
actual print book separates you from those who only have
an ebook since most ebook authors don't have enough
confidence in their work to actually have it printed up.
You can use a print-on-demand publisher if you don't want to
have hundreds, or thousands, of copies printed up at first.
Here's the print-on-demand publisher that I recommend:
http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/aftrack.asp?afid=146382
Although a print book is a step up from an ebook, a print book
often doesn't command a much higher price. This is because
people are conditioned (by the bookstores) to pay a certain
price for a book. In order to get much more than that
price, you have to conclusively demonstrate that your book
contains unusual or hard to find information. Still, an
actual printed book is an important credential.
- Offer audio in the form of MP3, audiocassettes, and audio
CDs. The physically delivered forms will command
a higher price than the digitally downloaded version so
offer both. Offer the MP3 for those who want instant
gratification. To create your audio, all you need to do is
set up a teleconference where you discuss, or expand upon,
the material in the ebook. You can also invite other experts
on the topic to join you to generate a product - for all the
"experts" involved to market. Record the teleconference and
have it converted into the various audio formats.
You can market attendance to the teleseminar itself as a
separate product. That way, you're getting paid
to produce a product. NEVER conduct a teleseminar
without recording it. The information shared in these
events are pure gold nuggets that people will happily
pay for. Even if the recording isn't something you want
to sell, it can make a nice bonus to offer with another
product.
For an added value product you could have the recorded
teleseminar transcribed. Offer the printed or PDF transcript
as a bonus with the recordings, or offer it as an upsell.
- Conduct live workshops on the topic of your ebook.
Use the chapters to develop an outline and to create
PowerPoint slides to use. Record the workshop and produce
videotapes and DVD's to offer your market.
- Package any combination of audiotapes, audio CDs, DVD's
and videotapes with a workbook comprised of your notes,
transcripts, or the text of your ebook, and call this a
course. This course will easily sell for $197 to prices
over $1000 depending upon how you position it in
the marketplace.
- Offer your content through a membership site focused
on your niche. Charge for access on a monthly, quarterly,
or annual basis. With a membership site you will need to
continuously add content or make changes to keep it
from getting stale. To see how I've set up a successful
membership site, check out: http://TheRealSecrets.com
As you can see, the content of that simple ebook can
easily be turned into a product worth over $1000. Most
ebook authors will stop with just the ebook though.
Most ebook authors will never offer their customers
upsells at the order form! However, since you'll have a
complete line of products, you WILL offer the person,
initially interested in buying just the ebook, the more
expensive forms of the product. Many of them will upgrade
right at the point of purchase. That's why fast food
restaurants offer to "super-size” a meal or add fries.
Offer them the regular, deluxe, and platinum versions!
After you've made that initial sale, you need to
follow up with the customer and offer them additional,
related products. Don't ignore the most valuable asset
in your business - a customer who has proven that he is
willing to spend money on products like yours. As that
customer's circumstances change, he WILL be interested in
upgrading and getting other related products. Don't
ignore that fact.
Your system, even before you wrote your ebook, should
have flowed out what else you were going to offer your
customers after the purchase... and at what point in time.
As you're writing the ebook and developing the upgraded
products, you should also be developing a series of
autoresponder messages to make your customers aware of
your additional solutions to their problems.
Read back through this entire article with a pen in
hand. Make notes of how you can and will expand upon
that ebook or info product that you've already created.
Then just do it. You'll easily quadruple your profits
this year. Do it right, and the increase could be
astronomical. It's all just a matter of giving your
hungry market of proven buyers what it wants.
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