Physical Info Product Creation: Using Multiple Formats to Multiply Profits

No matter what type of products you're creating or what market you're in, you should seriously consider offering your products in a variety of formats. This is relatively easy to do and is something you can phase in over time (so you don't necessarily need to hold off releasing your product because you're waiting to add an additional format).

Here are just a few reasons why it makes sense to offer your products in multiple media, including benefits for your customers and for YOU: Read more

Popularity: 8% [?]

Excuse #9: I Need Money Now, With Minimal Work

Here's the next in our lineup of common excuses for not getting an online business going…

Excuse #9: I need money now, with minimal work…this all sounds like a lot of work, like it will take a long time, blah blah blah

Yes, there's work involved. 

The push-button, "we'll do all the work, you just cash the checks" stuff can be saved for crappy sales letters and late night infomercials. 

In the real world, real work is required.  But…consider the alternatives. 

What if you need some extra money and you're considering a part-time job.  Say you work an extra 4 hours a day during the work week (80 hours a month) and you make $10 an hour at this part-time gig (let's assume that's your take-home pay, after taxes and what not). 

That lands you a whopping $800/month - $800 that goes away when you stop "doing stuff". 

Alrighty, let's say you decide to focus on building your business instead.  It's still a good bit of work, so let's assume the same 80 hour schedule while you're getting things going.  That means 80 hours of real work, not 80 hours of "research", "checking stats" and so on. You create a few products, build a list and get some momentum. 

Even if it took you THREE months to get things ramped up, you'd still be better off having focused your time on building your business.  Hopefully you'll be building an income stream that works without you, or at least with very little input.  It'll certainly be less hassle than that part-time gig you were considering before you came to your senses.

(Note: The only exception here is if you truly need "now money" to keep a roof over your head or other absolute necessities.  If that's the case, the surefire job is unfortunately the smart way to go, at least to get to a stable point where you can focus on your escape plan.)

Popularity: 3% [?]

Excuse #10: You Can Already Find That Stuff Online for Free

Here we are with #10 on our "Worst Excuses Countdown"…

Excuse #10: You can already find all that stuff online for free

This is probably one of the most common excuses for inaction, especially when it comes to information products. 

With that in mind, consider the lowly book, the most common information product
(and NOT the one you should start with - a discussion for another time). 

Go check out Amazon.com.  Find nearly ANY topic (nonfiction stuff for our purposes here).  You'll find tons of books on that topic, more than likely. 

Now go to Google and search for that same topic.  Lots of websites too, huh? 

So why would these authors create these infoproducts when all this info is already available online for free? 

Because someone's still willing to buy the book.  The info has already been researched, compiled, and organized into an easy-to-use format.  Even my 10 year old cousin would understand the idea of saving time by buying a "finished product" versus researching stuff on her own.  We still make her do it the hard way though. 

Some of your prospects will choose the same option.  But are those types really your ideal prospects anyway?

Popularity: 3% [?]

Six New Reasons Why You Need to Use Aweber

It still baffles me why some people don't use Aweber for their online business.  I'm not sure if the same is true for you, but I know most of the lists I'm on that come from some of the other popular services all end up in my SPAM folder.  Not cool!  Especially when you realize that your subscriber list is the part of your business with the real value (unless you destroy your relationship with them). 

Someone could take all your products, delete your blog, even destroy your computer, but you'd probably land on your feet as long as
you were able to keep your subscriber list.

(Hmmm…reminds me I better be sure to pay my Aweber bill).

Anyway, one other great thing about Aweber is that they give out so much valuable info on their blog.  Good lessons to learn for how to use AWeber and how to provide great content to help people use your product. You should subscribe to their RSS feed or email list if you haven't already.

One of the things they've been posting about recently are at least 6 new analytics features being added to AWeber .

You can read about them here:

• New AWeber Analytics Sneak Peak (Part 1)
• New AWeber Analytics Sneak Peak (Part 2)

Now you'll be able to track the unique number of users opening your email (right now it's just a raw total, including duplicates).  You'll also be able to track actual sales that come from your email campaigns, and even more features.  Check it out. 

And if you're not using Aweber to manage your email lists, seriously, why not?  I mean, they offer the best:

• Deliverability
• Features
• Ease-of-use
• Killer support
• Ongoing education and tips to improve your campaigns

And it's all dirt cheap.

Take a look at the cool new stuff they're adding.

And if you agree that it's time to get serious & make the switch or get your account started, then sign up here for a free test drive  (at the bottom of the following page)

 

 

Popularity: 5% [?]

Stop Taking Care of Your Customers and Maybe They'll Leave You Alone

(Want to keep your buyers from looking like this guy? Read on…)

There seem to have been quite a few blog posts recently on the topic of customer service…like Terry Dean's post here & Ed Rivis' post here.  I figured I'd chime in on this topic too. 

Most of us would probably agree that it's pretty crazy to think you can totally ignore customer service or completely leave it up to automated systems.  For some issues, you'll need a person in the loop (but no, it doesn't HAVE to be YOU).

It seems like too many people online try so hard to be completely inaccessible…no contact info, email, phone number…NOTHING!  With the Internet being a pretty impersonal media to start with, that strategy seems like shooting yourself in the foot.  So much for know, like and trust.

Not that you should allow your support system to go completely out of control and turn into a free coaching program.  But it just makes good sense to offer some basic level of support to help people if needed.  This is especially true if you're offering software, but still applies across the board for all of us online if you have any sort of product or service.  People expect a bare minimum of support in case issues come up, especially if they're shelling out their cash for your products…and it's not that difficult to offer. 

Just taking the extra effort to have an easily accessible, OBVIOUS frequently asked questions page or knowledgebase that people can search at their convenience is a good start…maybe good enough.  The point is, you got them to your site and have them as a customer now.  You either paid for the traffic with cash or with time.  So you may as well do what you can (within reason) to KEEP them as a customer.

On a side note, one other thing people seem to overlook with this whole "inaccessibility" thing is how on Earth are non-customers, but potentially good business contacts supposed to contact you? 

What if someone wants to partner with you on a project, give you an outlet for some good PR, or other opportunities that would help further your business?  Then again, maybe some people don't want that sort of exposure.

I had an idea for an interview I wanted to do with a handful of people awhile back.  But I tabled the idea when I discovered not ONE of them had an obvious way to contact them on their site.  Sure, I could have done a WHOIS lookup and gone all stalker-style, but do you really think MOST people are going to know to do that?  Or take the time to do that?

I've always had a means of contact on this site (since I started actively posting that is).  Just click the contact link here or at the top of the page. 

You'll see that I recently changed from a plain ol' contact form to a support ticket system, and there are several very important reasons for this:

1. To handle all support issues / contacts at once & easily track the back-and-forth
2. To offer support across all my products/sites, including some new projects in the works
3. To add info to an easy-to-use KnowledgBase so people can self-help before needing to submit a ticket (yes, I know it's empty now, but I'm getting there)
4. So I can easily outsource some of these tasks to contractors, etc.

The software I chose isn't free, though there are free alternatives available.  Oh, and there are a few things I wish it did, like automatically adding email replies to the correct ticket, sort of like what some of the more expensive solutions do.

But hey, that's a pretty minor downside and a whole lot of upside.  And I can say from an admin perspective, it's pretty easy to setup and use.  I've also used this software to get support for products on other sites and can say that from a user's perspective, it also works like a champ.

So if your online business use a streamlined, user-friendly support system, then this software gets my "green light" and you should check it out.

But DON'T buy this if you don't have any products or don't need to provide customer support yet.  Focus on other stuff first…it'll still be around when you actually need it.

Oh, you can see a working demo of the admin area and get more info here:

Customer Support Software demo and more info

Popularity: 6% [?]

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