This is really what makes me more money
than almost anything else that I do.
That is to improve my funnel.
If you think about any sales process,
there are at minimum three parts:
1. Driving traffic
2. Converting the traffic into customers
3. Increasing the value of the sale
There are SO many things that you can
do to improve your funnel that it would
be impossible to list everything on one
blog post…or probably on the whole blog.
However, what I am asking of you is to
take ONE thing and implement it before
midnight tonight.
It’s almost impossible for it not to
make you money.
So, here is what you have to do:
1. Find one thing that is making you
money or close to making you money.
And then choose just ONE thing from
the list below:
2. Drive more traffic to your offer.
Some ways to do this may be:
a. Adwords
b. Facebook ads
c. Banner ads
d. Posting on your Facebook wall
e. Posting on Twitter
f. Build some incoming links
g. Post a Press Release
h. Create a WSO
i. Send out an email
j. Buy a solo ad
k. Post an article to article sites
l. Contact a JV partner to mail for you
3. Increase your conversion:
a. Split test a new headline
b. Put an email in your followup series
c. Put an optin form on your site
d. Create an exit popup for emails or a discount
e. Do some other split-testing
f. Change your offer
4. Increase the value of your sale:
a. Increase your price
b. Add an OTO
c. Add an exit popup with a discount
d. Add a followup to your customer list
e. Add a downsell
f. Add a downsell OTO
g. Put an offer for another product on your download page
h. Add some affiliate links into your product
These are just some ideas, but you may think
of something else.
So, here is your favor to me which ultimately
will help you make more money:
Try something above and post in the comments
below what you are going to do or what you
have done with any results.
I thought that I would write a post for you telling you some tips for publishing on Kindle. In my opinion, it is one of the easiest ways to make money at the moment.
Not overnight riches, but a steadily increasing ongoing income.
I currently have nearly 20 titles selling. All apart from 1 are non-fiction.
In no particular order, here are my top 10 tips:
1. See what is already selling. If you are going to write about dog training, then look at the dog training category (if it exists) and see what the top 5 books are. As a rough estimate, if a book is ranked under 50,000 then it is selling more than a copy a day.
2. I advise selling your book at $2.99 rather than $0.99. At this price you will be getting 70% royalties rather than 35% royalties. So, you will get approximately $2 a sale rather than 35c a sale. Or putting it another way, to make the same money at $0.99, you will need to sell about 6 times as many copies. Personally, I have not found that sales differ at all between the 0.99 and $2.99 pricepoints.
3. Make sure that your cover is high quality. You can get some really good covers done for $5 on fiverr.com . Make sure that the title of your book is clearly visible even at the smallest size. People scan, so you want to let them read your title when scanning.
4. Before people buy, over 80% will look inside your book at the sample which Amazon gives for free. Make sure that it is enticing, and if possible actually presells your book.
5. Make sure to tell your customers to leave a review and give a link to your Amazon page. If your book is not live yet, then create a redirect link which you can fill in later.
6. Put a link in your ebook to an optin page. When you release your next book, you will already have a list that knows you and are likely to buy your next one.
7. Try and release books on the same or a similar topic. This means that you can cross promote within your books and will make a massive difference on your bottom line.
8. Reviews make a massive difference. In any honest way possible, gets reviews for your book. Send your book as gift to people, send vouchers for the value of your book etc.
9. The best salesletter that you have is the description. Use it well and answer any questions that a potential customer may have so that they can make an easy purchase. At the low pricepoint, it is an impulse buy. They only need to click one button to purchase. Make it easy for them to click that button.
10. Carry on creating books. If the first isn’t successful then try in a different niche or from a different angle. At some point you will have a ‘success’. That makes it far easier to make the next success.
Would love to hear any tips that you have or if you disagree with anything I have said.
A year or so ago, I bought my friend Alex a present from the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog. The product was actually from a client that my wife was doing work for and it happened that I found it for the cheapest price on their website.
Since then, they have sent me a catalog every month with their latest offerings. Their motto is:
“Offering the Best, the Only and the Unexpected for 164 years”
If you are not familiar with them, then you can check out their website at hammacher.com
In short though, they offer unusual gifts and household items.
I have never ordered anything from them since. However, every single month when I receive their catalog, I always read it cover to cover.
For two reasons:
1. I am a bit of a gadget freak and enjoy seeing the gadgets that they have.
2. Their copywriting is first-class. Even with products which I never knew that I wanted, I feel that I do want!
Sidenote: The reason why I haven’t ordered anything from them since is because I always ask my wife what she thinks and she gently explains that we probably don’t need a Headache Wrap (or whatever my fancy is) as neither of us suffer from headaches!
Headache Relieving Wrap from Hammacher Schlemmer
Anyway…
What I want to do, is to take a look at some of the products which Hammacher Schlemmer has and how they write their descriptions. After you take a look at a few, you can clearly see that it is not coincidental how they are written. And hopefully, you will be able to use this takeaway for your own copywriting.
On purpose, I have tried to choose products which I clearly wouldn’t have a use for, so that we can see how persuasive they are.
Number 1: The Stainless Steel Wallet
Stainless Steel Wallet
What more could you want than a stainless steel wallet?! Haven’t you ever thought:
“Wouldn’t it be amazing if there were such a thing as a stainless steel wallet? I would definitely pay $60-$100 for it!”
Well, yeah. Nor have I. But yet, they have been selling it in this catalog ever since I have received it, so it must be selling very well or else they would take it out.
TITLE: THE STAINLESS STEEL WALLET
For every item, they use the word “THE” before. I am certain this is not coincidental. They are trying to convey that there may be other stainless steel wallets out there, but this is THE one that you want. A bit like Coca Cola is the REAL thing.
FIRST THREE WORDS: This is the
These three words aren’t used at the beginning of every item in the catalog but seems to be the majority.
FEATURE: This is the wallet woven from flexible stainless steel fabric
BENEFIT: with a hand as smooth as silk and a strength that surpasses leather.
Do I care that it is smooth? Well, silk sure feels nice and a wallet that feels like silk also sounds really great
And strong? Well, hell yeah! Leather is strong and this is stronger than leather so must be good 🙂
COOL FACT 1: 25,000 stainless steel threads
COOL FACT 2: Three times thinner than a piece of paper
BENEFIT FROM COOL FACTS 1&2: lacks the inherent bulk of other wallets and fits into a front pocket
BENEFIT: Impervious to stretching
BENEFIT: Resistant to corrosive salts and acids
COOL FACT 3: the stainless steel is the same metal fabric used in architecture and aerospace applications
BENEFIT FROM COOL FACT 3: for its unsurpassed durability
Then it goes on to list a few features that consumers want to know.
As I mentioned before, it has been in their catalog for a long time so is obviously selling well. And I think you can see why. Is perfect as a unique gift for any man. And someone may also buy it for themselves as it is sure to make a great conversation piece.
“Fancy looking at my 25,000 stainless steel threads which are three times thinner than paper?” 😉
Or you could buy it from Amazon instead for $12.95 instead of $69.95!
Amazon Stainless Steel Wallet
Number 2: THE SANDLESS BEACH MAT
The Sandless Beach Mat
Aah. Now here we have something. For those people who go to the beach and don’t like sand. 1 sec…if you don’t like sand, why not go to a swimming pool?!
Or shake off the sand?
TITLE: THE SANDLESS BEACH MAT.
Once again, notice use of the word ‘THE’. Seems to insinuate that there are no others which may be as good.
FIRST FEW WORDS: Developed for military use, this is the beach mat that is impossible to cover with sand
So here, they didn’t start with “This is the”, but did put it after the first ‘,’
They have managed to fit in the fact though that it was developed for military use. Seems to insinuate that therefore it must be good as the military spends major money to make sure that ‘lives are saved’.
Then they say that it is impossible to cover with sand. I find this something that is a bit strange. I would tend to bet that if you were to pour a whole truckload of sand on it at once then it would cover it. In addition, I later found out that it doesn’t work so well with wet sand either.
COOL FACT 1: Used in military operations to contain sand and dust when military helicopters land and take off
COOL FACT 2: mat is made from two layers of patented wove polyurethane
BENEFIT: instantly filter sand to the beach as soon as it falls on its surface
How great is that? It first gives me two facts that are definitely very impressive on the surface, but dig a bit deeper and, well, kinda irrelevant. The benefit however does matter to me and I believe it because of the facts. Reminds me of the study about the queue for the photocopy machine where someone is able to skip line more often if they give a ‘reason why’. ie. “Can I cut in line because I am in a hurry?” was way more successful than “Can I cut in line?”
It then goes on to give further features which a purchaser would want to know in order to make a buying decision.
And this could be your’s for $70!
Now, personally I would have improved this description by agitating the problem.
For example: Do you get annoyed when you go to the beach and there is sand on your towel? How about when you kids complain about getting sand in their food? etc.
But who am I to talk 😉
So, you fancy buying this towel? Well, you could also pick one up from $24 at Amazon…
Amazon Sand Free Mat
So, let’s get down to the Nitty Gritty.
I actually think that the way that they write their descriptions are incredible. And have no doubt that they are constantly testing and tracking the changes. It wouldn’t even surprise me if they split test different descriptions in the same catalog between different customers.
There really is a lot that we can learn about copywriting that we can apply to our own businesses.
As John Carlton speaks about, what they really zone into is the ‘hook’ and then the story of that hook.
We don’t really care whether the military uses it (unless we are buying a gun)
We don’t even care whether there are 25,000 threads being used or 10,000 threads.
The point is, that they find something unique about the product and then use that to create an incredible story.
Think about how you can do that in your own marketing…
Keeping it real in an unreal world,
Ben Shaffer
(Before you go, please can you like and/or leave a comment on this post)
[wptexttospeech]I saw that this was coming, but details were fairly scant and therefore had no intention of letting you know about it.
However, when I woke up this morning, I received an email from Mike Filsaime about his latest mastermind which I think looks pretty damn good.
So much so, that I actually purchased!
Paypal Purchase
And generally if I purchase something, then I let you know about it also…
So, what does it involve and why did I join?
1. Subscription to an interactive email list.
What this means is that you will have access to every other single person who is a member of the mastermind. The nice thing about this, is that you know that every single person on this list has actually paid $1k which is a qualification which doesn’t happen on the majority of forums.
If you have a new product coming out or want to recruit JV partners from people that you KNOW are serious enough about their business to spend $1k then this would seem a great way to do it.
Also remember, that these are people who have shown that they are actively interested in internet marketing products.
2. A number of Mike Filsaime products
Includes:
– Evergreen Business System
– Profit Platform
– AffiliateDotCom
– Magic Cart Button (resale rights)
– Digital access to MDC Monthly
TBH, although this does have a value of over $2k, I probably would not have bought it just for this. I spent $500 just for the Evergreen Business System a few months ago, so if you don’t have that then definitely an added bonus. Affiliate Dot Com is also a really great product to have if you don’t have it already.
3. Personal One on One Time with Mike Filsaime
This really does have massive value if you want to spend time with Mike himself. Apart from the free lunch (!), there are extremely valuable ways which you could spend time with Mike.
I will probably use mine by persuading him to promote one of my products. With his massive list, he really could make you a lot of money just doing that. Last time he emailed for me, he made $13k of sales. If you are in the internet marketing space and have a decent product, just this thing alone really does make it a no-brainer.
Filsaime's Sales for my product
4. The Rolodex
A list of the top 100+ names (currently 121) in the industry. Not really sure how or if I will use this, but always useful to know who and how to approach if you want JV Partners. Glad to see that I made the list (!).
IMHO, this would have been far more use had contact details been there also or a form that you could enter a message and it would be mailed to them. The way that it is at current, you have to contact the VIP Concierge who will then introduce you.
5. New Industry Product Specials
Basically a discount on certain products. Once again, not overly of use to me but if you do buy a lot of products or are about to buy something and it is on this list, then this could save you money.
6. Email to Mike’s 6000 Affiliates
You get a chance to promote 3 of your products to Mike’s affiliates to get them to promote for you. In my mind, this is pure GOLD. I would easily pay $5k for this and infact have offered other large marketers this kind of money in the past if they would do this for me.
If you are in the internet marketing space, then this could literally catapault your career up a notch.
7. VIP Dinners
See 3. above, but only really useful if you do go to conferences which Mike does also.
8. Members Forum
Yet to be seen how this develops, but could either be incredibly valuable or next to valueless.
9. Two mastermind retreats a year
Ridiculously valuable. Even though I live way outside of the US, definitely worth the airfare for me to get there. See you there!
SUMMARY
In summary, if you are selling in the internet marketing space and have $1k, then IMHO you would be pretty mad not to buy this. I did…and didn’t even get any affiliate commission as it was my own purchase (if you are interested).
Obviously, we are different and have different priorities and businesses.
However, the parts which I will be placing an emphasis on and am sure that they will bring back my purchase many times are:
1. Subscription to the interactive mailing list
2. (If you don’t have Evergreen Business System, then buy it just for that)
3. Personal One on One time – (Hey Mike…here I come!)
4. Email to Mike’s affiliates – this is a MASSIVE benefit. Advise you to use it asap
5. Mastermind Retreat – EVERY time I go in person to a mastermind or a small conference it makes a massive difference to my bottom line.
So, what now?
If you buy through my link, then I make a commission. You won’t buy one if you buy through your own link, so I’ll offer you something that will make it really worthwhile for you.
Once you have purchased, be in touch at my helpdesk and you will be given my personal email address as well as my Skype username. I’m not going to say that we will talk for a certain number of hours or anything like that. But I want you to have the added benefit of being able to ask my opinion and brainstorm with me when you do want to.
PS. I know that this is not my normal kind of product recommendation. That is because I am pretty sure that you will know whether it is for you or not. If you are in the internet marketing niche and want a step up and a boost in income then this is definitely a way. I did as have over a hundred others so far.
