How I made $20,054 in 7 days... Some Concepts and Ideas.

[LincolnKK]

Hi guys, I recently closed a succesful launch in a non-making-money niche... with a list of only 2301 emails.

I wanted to share with you some concepts and ideas that have been pretty useful to make $20,000 in my first business venture.

1) You HAVE TO know your prospects... I mean - VERY well!

You have to know your prospects better than they know themselves. You have to know exactly what keep them awake at night... what are their frustrations... Basically, you need to enter a conversation they already have in their head!

There's nothing new here: You can go to related forums and read about your prospects! The best thing I did in the research phase was to go to amazon and to print all the book reviews related to my niche. They will tell you EXACTLY what they want! Read them all over and over again. Extract all pertinent informations.

For my case, after 2 hours of reading reviews over and over, it was crystal clear. I knew exactly what my prospect wanted from me.

2) Forget about short term gratification... Build a BUSINESS instead

If you want to make money quick by doing the latest cool *trick* available out there to cheat the system. Fine. But I'm not this type of guy.

I want to build a BUSINESS and ASSETS, not make money by tricking Google. What happen when one month later they change their algorythm? Come on. Build businesses - Stop spamming Google with fake blogs, link-wheeling everything...

3) Take ACTION - You don't need to have to create the perfect stuff before putting it online.

While I was working on my product, I added an opt-in page on my website to get emails. I simply swiped a well-known opt-in page and changed the text.

You know what? I offered absolutely nothing. Niet. Nada.
Just a "You'll get more info and updates later by email".

Guess what? Within a week, I had 15 opt-ins.
Not that much! But better than... 0! To be honest here... I've never thought that someone would opt-in while I was offering nothing concrete!

... it was a aH-Ah moment for me.

You don't need to have the best, perfect thing before putting it online.
Just take ACTION. Massive ACTION and put in online.

A half-way done thing online is better than a 95% perfect sitting in your computer.

4) The money is in the list.

When you are creating the product, create a d*mn email list at the same time!

Send them update emails. Ask them questions. Discuss with them. The money isn't really in the list... the money is more in the relation with the list. Build rapport with them.

There are some avantages to that:
1) They get to know you, so they'll buy at a higher ratio.
2) They'll tell you exactly what they want. Not what YOU think they want.
2) You'll discover talented people in your niche for future projects.

5) Don't think like a *corporate* business.

Building a business is great. But don't do the same mistakes that other businesses do. Don't talk to your prospects like you are the sh*t, the top leader in your niche, etc. It seems like if you go to every businesses website, all of them are the top dog in their niche. Come on. Admit your strengths and your weaknesses... Be human for god sake.

Also don't use corporate talk. "Our company is the top leader in ...". Your prospect really don't care about your company. You need to focus only on the prospect. Make your marketing all about them and forget all the corporate crap.

Be personal. (I don't mean to send emails with their first name, I don't capture them... It's a waste of leads to be honest... I have an opt-in rate at 45% now by removing this field) I mean by that, use your first name all the time... ALL THE TIME. Don't hide yourself behind some company name.

If your name is Patrick, add Pat at every emails you send. Make sure your first name is in the From field of the email too.

Have fun in your emails. Add smilies. Be human.

People don't want to communicate with businesses. They want to communicate with HUMANS.

Remember the last time you called your telephone or cable company. Did you feel that the call was personal? Of course not...

-----------------------------------------------------

Ok it was all I can think on the top of my head.
Sorry if some phrases are not right. I'm doing a lot of stuff to get this handled with private classes (I'm French-Canadian).

Take Care. Hope it will help one or two people!

[Mr Money Maker]

nice write up...I like the way you think...way to go !!

[TLTheLiberator]

1 for 1 , not bad.

The info-product model can bring lots of money real quick.

Congrats!!

TL

[Miguel Oliveira]

I really like the idea about using Amazon reviews for research. I've never heard it before.

[MaryT]

Congratulation on your launch ,
i totally agree with you,
i also use amazon for brainstomring the niche. The real reviews worth much more than even the best surveys, as they are spontaneous.

Mary

Originally Posted by LincolnKK

Hi guys, I recently closed a succesful launch in a non-making-money niche... with a list of only 2301 emails.

I wanted to share with you some concepts and ideas that have been pretty useful to make $20,000 in my first business venture.

1) You HAVE TO know your prospects... I mean - VERY well!

You have to know your prospects better than they know themselves. You have to know exactly what keep them awake at night... what are their frustrations... Basically, you need to enter a conversation they already have in their head!

There's nothing new here: You can go to related forums and read about your prospects! The best thing I did in the research phase was to go to amazon and to print all the book reviews related to my niche. They will tell you EXACTLY what they want! Read them all over and over again. Extract all pertinent informations.

For my case, after 2 hours of reading reviews over and over, it was crystal clear. I knew exactly what my prospect wanted from me.

2) Forget about short term gratification... Build a BUSINESS instead

If you want to make money quick money by doing the latest cool *trick* available out there to cheat the system. Fine. But I'm not this type of guy.

I want to build a BUSINESS and ASSETS, not make money by tricking Google. What happen when one month later they change their algorythm? Come on. Build businesses - Stop spamming Google with fake blogs, link-wheeling everything...

3) Take ACTION - You don't need to have to create the perfect stuff before putting it online.

While I was working on my product, I added an opt-in page on my website to get emails. I simply swiped a well-known opt-in page and changed the text.

You know what? I offered absolutely nothing. Niet. Nada.
Just a "You'll get more info and updates later by email".

Guess what? Within a week, I had 15 opt-ins.
Not that much! But better than... 0! To be honest here... I've never thought that someone would opt-in while I was offering nothing concrete!

... it was a aH-Ah moment for me.

You don't need to have the best, perfect thing before putting it online.
Just take ACTION. Massive ACTION and put in online.

A half-way done thing online is better than a 95% perfect sitting in your computer.

4) The money is in the list.

When you are creating the product, create a d*mn email list at the same time!

Send them update emails. Ask them questions. Discuss with them. The money isn't really in the list... the money is more in the relation with the list. Build rapport with them.

There are some avantages to that:
1) They get to know you, so they'll buy at a higher ratio.
2) They'll tell you exactly what they want. Not what YOU think they want.
2) You'll discover talented people in your niche for future projects.

5) Don't think like a *corporate* business.

Building a business is great. But don't do the same mistakes that other businesses do. Don't talk to your prospects like you are the sh*t, the top leader in your niche, etc. It seems like if you go to every businesses website, all of them are the top dog in their niche. Come on. Admit your strengths and your weaknesses... Be human for god sake.

Also don't use corporate talk. "Our company is the top leader in ...". Your prospect really don't care about your company. You need to focus only on the prospect. Make your marketing all about them and forget all the corporate crap.

Be personal. (I don't mean to send emails with their first name, I don't capture them... It's a waste of leads to be honest... I have an opt-in rate at 45% now by removing this field) I mean by that, use your first name all the time... ALL THE TIME. Don't hide yourself behind some company name.

If your name is Patrick, add Pat at every emails you send. Make sure your first name is in the From field of the email too.

Have fun in your emails. Add smilies. Be human.

People don't want to communicate with businesses. They want to communicate with HUMANS.

Remember the last time you called your telephone or cable company. Did you feel that the call was personal? Of course not...

-----------------------------------------------------

Ok it was all I can think on the top of my head.
Sorry if some phrases are not right. I'm doing a lot of stuff to get this handled with private classes (I'm French-Canadian).

Take Care. Hope it will help one or two people!

[JohnMcCabe]

I used to use the Amazon reviews a lot, and somehow got away from it. Thanks for the reminder.

Also for the reminder to test not asking for a name when building a niche list.

[LincolnKK]

Hi guys,

Amazon Reviews are so useful. If you are fortunate enough to have access to a lot of reviews on Amazon, it's a goldmine.

Because they'll tell you exactly what they want.

There's also one more advantage of using Amazon:

You'll be able to know if you're if there's some signs of a market.
As an example: If all the books in your niche are ranked #340,239... Don't waste your time... there's not enough demand. I should not say that because it all depends of what is your goal. If you are passionate about your niche and you want to make 500$/month with it... Yes no problem. Go for it.

I'd say that a #50,000 ranking and better is a good estimate of a potential viable niche.
After that, look at how many reviews books have. The more -- the better!

Lkk

[Adam Carn]

Originally Posted by LincolnKK

Be human for god sake.

I totally agree.

Adam

[Ross Vegas]

Many moons ago, I cut my teeth in internet marketing and learned those lessons quite by random.

I had put my phone number into my responder emails. People would call me up and ask lots of questions and it would usually result in $500 sales orders. Sure selling by phone was more than most people are willing to do, but I made some really good money and learned a lot about answering objections, and building rapport.

My most frequent comment is that I'm genuine. That doesn't come from a sterile sales process. You can only get that with interaction and good support.

I think people just want to believe you can throw any old sh*t online and magically people will buy it if you send traffic.

You can make it easier to sell without needing interaction and relationship stuff, but you really have to match your offers to the market very well, and ironically that comes from first doing the relationship stuff haha.

From there, a well crafted targeted offer will go a long way towards your auto-pilot income dreams (he says as another random auto-pilot order comes through)

[ejfern22]

Great concept of not acting like a "corporate" business. Acting like a human makes a great business relationship with you and your customers, especially when having an email list.

[jefferybaxter]

You're smart! I like people who think like you!

[LincolnKK]

Being human is the way to go.

If your business is all about offering the lowest price, you don't need to be human. Look at WalMart or Costco.

Or look at Monoprice (cable/adapters/HDMI stuff etc). Do they need to be human? Absolutely not. Because their selling proposition is all about the lowest price.

But when you sell your own stuff... this is a different ball game. You now have to justify your price.

Why does this course is worth 197$ or 1997$?

With a *non-corporate* relationship with your list, it will help you to close the deal way more often. No doubt here. They'll love to get emails from you instead of a "ahhh... this business is trying to sell me something again...@%@!" reaction.

I don't know... I have an open rate in the 40%+... (one hit 57%). Maybe I'm doing something right!

Lkk.

[JC-PureProfitsHQ]

Great stuff here, LincolnKK! I especially agree with building a business for the long-term. Also, you're right -- the money IS in the list, that's why I never just send hard sell emails to my list once they've opted in! A mixture of both is just what the doctor ordered.

Congratulations on your successful launch! Out of curiosity was this in the IM market or some other niche (like software or weight loss or something)?

[1960Texan]

Great post, and thanks for the advice!

[homeworkin]

Perfect. Great advice.

I would add two things I have learned.

First, create a tiny little bonus, it really helps boost the optins. For years, because I was lazy, I used a bonus that was 2 pages. Yup, just two pages. I called it "10 ways to ----- Now." That is all it took to get thousands of optins.

Second, I was really, really stupid. I did not treat that first list like the business it was. I got sidetracked by my desperate need for money at that time (was newly married to a guy who quit his job.....). I started working full time again and let my list sit around with no love. Yes, they did buy my book when I finally finished it, but I was too overwhelmed to develop the relationship. So, my advice is to write like 5-6 quick autoresponder messages when you start your list. They can be no big deal. Just a 200 word tip that you think your readers will like. Space them out a bit (like every 2 weeks). That way, you will be less intimidated by keeping in touch with them and you will not get a bunch of spam reports when you do get around to communicating.

[LincolnKK]

Originally Posted by JC-PureProfitsHQ

Great stuff here, LincolnKK! I especially agree with building a business for the long-term. Also, you're right -- the money IS in the list, that's why I never just send hard sell emails to my list once they've opted in! A mixture of both is just what the doctor ordered.

Congratulations on your successful launch! Out of curiosity was this in the IM market or some other niche (like software or weight loss or something)?

Hi JC, no it was not in the IM market. It was in a pretty narrow niche that I won't talk about.

[ivana]

Congrats to you...It still is amazing how many people DO NOT build that list. Just look at all the "big" marketers, their secret is that list. Not only do they work less since they only have to create content for their auto responder!

And it is so much easier to go back to people who know you to recommend something, than to the person who does not know you at all! Would you buy based on the friends recommendation, or based on the the opinion of the stranger.

[JR Rich]

Originally Posted by ivana

Congrats to you...It still is amazing how many people DO NOT build that list. Just look at all the "big" marketers, their secret is that list. Not only do they work less since they only have to create content for their auto responder!

And it is so much easier to go back to people who know you to recommend something, than to the person who does not know you at all! Would you buy based on the friends recommendation, or based on the the opinion of the stranger.

Agreed - a properly maintained list is truly the secret to serious Internet income.

It could be said that a series of WSO's that did nothing more than harvest list members would be worth far more than charging $20 or so for an ebook or video creation.

So, instead of selling some new product that you created for ten or twenty bucks, simply give it away in return for joining your list.

I would think that you would get far more 'hits' to the WSO plus a rapidly-growing list of targeted clients.

Something (more) to think about.

Regards,
--JR

[opportunites]

Thank You so much LincolnKK!

I appreciate it, well explained!

[St Croix]

To be honest here - the IM game evolves like everything.

I'm actually tired of the whole "Whoah! 'Your_Name_Here'" emails.

Yes I understand that I entered my name into your script when I signed on for the free ebook. But using my name all through your email does not impress me anymore.
In 1997 OK yeah that made me feel valued, but now? The technology is cool, but you using it isn't. Really. I KNOW it's not personally made for me. I KNOW it's some cool hacker guys script. As always, the sell is in the content. Wanna get my attention? you can get it by just sending me some useful **** that I'm interested in.

Whoah, BRAD! I just learned how to pick locks!

or

Whoah, I just learned how to pick locks!

Still get's me excited! I'm under 30 man! Of course I want to learn to break into my own apartment when the situation lends itself.

I actually think a lot of the Guru email list stuff is now behind the game.

Learn what's working, and make it sound cool, not cheesy.

Happy Marketing.

[LincolnKK]

Originally Posted by St Croix

To be honest here - the IM game evolves like everything.

I'm actually tired of the whole "Whoah! 'Your_Name_Here'" emails.

Yes I understand that I entered my name into your script when I signed on for the free ebook. But using my name all through your email does not impress me anymore.
In 1997 OK yeah that made me feel valued, but now? The technology is cool, but you using it isn't. Really. I KNOW it's not personally made for me. I KNOW it's some cool hacker guys script. As always, the sell is in the content. Wanna get my attention? you can get it by just sending me some useful **** that I'm interested in.

Whoah, BRAD! I just learned how to pick locks!

or

Whoah, I just learned how to pick locks!

Still get's me excited! I'm under 30 man! Of course I want to learn to break into my own apartment when the situation lends itself.

I actually think a lot of the Guru email list stuff is now behind the game.

Learn what's working, and make it sound cool, not cheesy.

Happy Marketing.

I think you didn't get the point.
I said I was NOT capturing the name on my squeeze page.

The point was, be human, not a business and use your name (the marketer) in every emails sent instead of a company name.

I really DO think that using the recipient name is cheesy as hell. I can't prove if it hurts sales conversion or not. But I got a 15% bump in opt-in conversion by removing the name field.

[JR Rich]

Originally Posted by St Croix

To be honest here - the IM game evolves like everything.

I'm actually tired of the whole "Whoah! 'Your_Name_Here'" emails.

Yes I understand that I entered my name into your script when I signed on for the free ebook. But using my name all through your email does not impress me anymore.
In 1997 OK yeah that made me feel valued, but now? The technology is cool, but you using it isn't. Really. I KNOW it's not personally made for me. I KNOW it's some cool hacker guys script. As always, the sell is in the content. Wanna get my attention? you can get it by just sending me some useful **** that I'm interested in.

Whoah, BRAD! I just learned how to pick locks!

or

Whoah, I just learned how to pick locks!

Still get's me excited! I'm under 30 man! Of course I want to learn to break into my own apartment when the situation lends itself.

I actually think a lot of the Guru email list stuff is now behind the game.

Learn what's working, and make it sound cool, not cheesy.

Happy Marketing.

Absolutely right!

The FIRSTNAME fields used ( or should I say mis-used) throughout the autoresponder world really detract from the email message. Personally, I don't want to see my first name splattered throughout the message like a handful of green M&M's in a bowl of rice!

I know that they're put there automatically by the autoresponder code and this does nothing to endear me to the sender.

But, that said, there is a place for using the FIRSTNAME field and that's in the initial greeting -- "Hey There Bob" -- and that should be the last time you use it.

You need that personalization in order to establish that the sender is talking to you and not some vast email list (even though it IS some vast email list!)

But, more than that is unnecessary and counter-productive.

Let the message convey the theme and don't rely on cheesy automation to try and make the connection.

Regards,
--JR

[seven7bh]

Interesting...I never thought about removing the Name field in an opt-in form. I will have to try that to see if conversions jump or not.

What I don't understand, the title, although let me say I enjoyed the information you posted. It was plain and to the point, with good info and it started a great conversation.

But why the title...."How I made $20,054 in 7 days... Some Concepts and Ideas."

Granted...I clicked on it, but that still begs the question of why I clicked, which was to see how you made the money, but what you provided was just some info about how you operate, be personal, communicate with your list, etc...

So why the dramatic title? Because no one would read if you just said - "Here are some concepts to help your business." Sad but true, but really gives an idea of what exactly happens when people look for info. The title brings people in because they expect to get information on Making $20k in 7 days, but really the info is about operations of a IM business and emailing etc. This is exactly why I dislike the IM niche, always some sort of bait and switch.

And don't tell me, "well I said in the title some concepts and ides" you knew what you were doing adding the $20k reference. We all know what we are doing, I am just saying that I know you can make money doing something, but it's not exactly ethical.

I want to start a post " You can make $50k tomorrow!...read this post about ......"

Wonder how well that would do for my marketing...

Again I am not bashing you personally - just making a general observation and wondering why so many people become disillusioned.



Robert

[infocraze]

An interesting thread, though I would agree with seven7bh, the first post ever on this forum was this thread that I clicked through to find out how you made the amount in the title. Great tips there.

[talfighel]

The money in the list is correct but having a relationship with them is critical to your long term success.

I see a lot of people who have lists, email those lists JUNK, make a few bucks here and there, but never succeed long term.

Here is another great point:

From my own experience, it is also very important to build a LARGE list. If you really want to make it BIG online, focus almost all your efforts to generating a consistent amount of new email leads on a daily basis.

Tal

[Paid Surveys]

Thanks for sharing this information you make some excellent observations that will be very useful to newbies and experienced professionals alike.

[LincolnKK]

Originally Posted by seven7bh

And don't tell me, "well I said in the title some concepts and ides" you knew what you were doing adding the $20k reference. We all know what we are doing, I am just saying that I know you can make money doing something, but it's not exactly ethical.

You are totally right. I added the 20k product launch as a way to make people click on it. Yes my ego played a role too in the choice of my title. I'm guilty :P. That's a pretty cool thing to say when you generate 20k in 7 days on your first business venture.

All that being said.

This launch has been done in a niche totally unrelated to IM, that was the first time they saw a product launch.

It's a cool little niche that I'm very passionated about. Damn it's so cool to be part of this community . I really truly enjoy making interesting product for my niche. It's my first one and not the last!

I love internet marketing but i'm not an internet marketer. I don't sell stuff to IM crowd. I just hate hypee-stuff just like you.

Despite of the 20k eye-grabber, I think a lot of people enjoyed this post... 15 people thanked me so far.

I just want to make something crystal clear here.
The harsh reality here is that...

A step-by-step process how to make 20k in 7 days doesn't exist.
If you find people who guarantee you 20k in 7 days... yep... they are scammers.

BUT. If you have a product that your prospect really need and you understand at a deep level how to market your product you definitly can do launches of $100k+. No doubt here.

Making money is all about understanding marketing and there's no step-by-step for that.