Can You Really Make Money Showing People "How To"?
December 13, 2007 by Kenton Newby · 11 Comments
I had a talk with a family member the other day. I'm not sure how we got on the subject of business because I try to avoid talking about my business when I know it's going to involve lots of explaining to others, but that's where the conversation led. He commented that he just didn't understand how you can make money showing someone "how to" - in this case, how to make money online but it really could have been any topic. Do you have that same blind spot?
Let's consider an example and I'll let you do the math and be the judge.
Say you're a real estate investor in the Washington, DC area. You've been at it for awhile and know how to find great deals, have a network of other investors to turn to for support if needed. Let's say you just fix them up and sell them to landlords, so you have a bunch of landlords that are willing and able to buy whatever projects you finish. It's all systemized, more or less, and after banging your head against a wall for a few years, you have it all documented in a course - actually just a PDF file and a few MP3's on your computer.
The short-sighted view would be that you shouldn't "go public" with your info because you'll just be creating a bunch of competitors. Short-sighted, scarcity-minded thinking. First of all, those students will probably become partners and even if not, who cares? There are plenty of deals out there. Second, and most importantly, the implementation of what you've learned will be the most important aspect, not just the words on paper. Whoever ends up buying your course probably won't have access to the same network of investors, certainly not with the solid relationship you've built. The same goes for the contractors doing the repairs for you…you simply can't "package" that, which means people will still have to go fill those gaps on their own.
That being said, there's still ENORMOUS value in what you've put into your course. You have scripts that tell you exactly what to say when someone calls in response to one of your ads, signs or postcards. You have quick analysis sheets that people can use to evaluate deals. You even had your contractors scope out the estimated repair costs for the most common items and have it tailored to your part of the country (since parts and labor vary from place to place). You have a website, phone system, email follow-up system and marketing system all integrated so people don't have to figure out which vendors are the best (or find out later on that one of them is a dud).
Based on the chat with my family member, you'd be a fool to let the cat out of the bag on this one, right? But what if…
- …it led to an infoproduct that sold for $497? How about a volume 2? Or volume 3?
- …and a monthly newsletter that was $360/year ($30/month) covering the latest goings-on in your area?
- …and a monthly teleseminar/CD at $47/month where you and a partner talked about strategies people can use for improving your business, and things you're doing right now that are working in your own business?
- …a coaching program, either email or in person @ 300/month?
- …and you could get affiliates selling the course for you, making your marketing costs nearly zero?
- …and it was mostly on autopilot thanks to sharp outsourced workers and automated systems?
- …and you had 200 people active in each of the above (keep in mind there are millions of people in town, 200 ain't exactly a stretch!)
Could this happen? Yes?
Overnight? No.
But a good friend of mine has a business similar to this (though I don't know, nor would I publish, his exact numbers). In addition, he's still an active investor.
The point is that valuable information has VALUE!
And showing someone how to do something can be quite a valuable thing if it's something people want to know.
I just bought 3 DVDs about video editing from a guy for over $100. It was a quick start for me, rather than reading through some 400-page book. And it was a good day for him because at that rate of one sale like that per day, he's at $3,000 per month. Win-Win.
Don't think for a second that you can't make money showing people "how to".
Don't think for a second that what you have is so "super secret" that no one else is teaching it.
They're gonna' learn it from someone - may as well be from you.
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