In desperate need of help!

[avetiquette]

A couple of weeks ago I decided to quit my job and make trillions of dollars in a few days from internet marketing. I made a great product, put up a great site, started a clickbank account, and nothing. Obviously, I'm joking about the trillions of dollars, but I did have the expectation of at least making one sale. That hasn't happened.

I really believe in my product and believe its a great untapped niche. I admit I'm new to this and have a lot to learn, but I can't figure out why I haven't sold a single product. My biggest question is if I should just keep making products for my brand and concentrate on attracting affiliates, or should I start getting more into being an affiliate myself. I really think I'm strongest at designing and putting together products. That's my passion.

I'm down to my last $35, but I think I'm going to buy the membership to the Warrior Forum anyway. I just hope it will provide the information I need to get things rolling. It's been really frustrating working on my product for three weeks straight, mostly 18-hour days, and seeing no sales whatsoever. I want someone to tell me what I'm doing wrong, or tell me my expectations are too high. I didn't think it was unreasonable to expect at least one sale in two weeks.

If there's anyone willing to give some desperately needed advice to a newbie vendor, I'd be greatly appreciative. I will say that even though I've made no money so far, its been extremely fun! I feel like I've found my niche. This is my passion, money or no money. Although money would be good so that I could at least buy some Ramen noodles.

Thanks!

[Adam Carn]

You're definitely going in the right direction, you already got your own product and it's ready to be sold on Clickbank. What you should do now is concentrate on getting affiliates. You should stick to concentrating on your product and not being an affiliate yourself.

I think joining the War room should help you sell your product.

Thanks,
Adam

[avetiquette]

Thanks Adam. That's reassuring, and just the kind of advice I was hoping for. I really appreciate it.

[Adam Carn]

Originally Posted by avetiquette

Thanks Adam. That's reassuring, and just the kind of advice I was hoping for. I really appreciate it.

No problem.

Adam

[Scott Million]

"Untapped niche" can often mean there is no market for a product

Ask Chris Rempel about the "Boomerang Niche"

[steve-wilkins]

I went thorugh the exact same problem, I spent 6 months creating a product , listed it on clickbank then had no sales for around 6 weeks.

So I spent some time sending traffic to my landing page by:

1) submitting articles to directories related to my product and linking to the landing page in the resource box at the bottom

2) sending out around 3-5 JV proposals for my product daily

3) sending tweets about my product daily to a list of around 2,000 followers

4) wrote a free report about my new product and gave it away with rebranding rights as incentive to make it go viral with a link back to my product

5) wrote posts on high profile blogs again with links back to the product..

I could go on but these were just a few of the actions I put in place and after around a week started making some regular sales via clickbank.

Hope it helps!

oh by the way I am also joining the WF member scheme and think the WSO will be a great place to promote your product.

Best if luck!

Steve.

[George Wright]

Hi,

I am not one to advise new Warriors to do a WSO right out of the gate, however, you might be an exception. My advice: Join The War Room. Spend a day looking around. Look at successful WSOs in the WSO forum. Then, Look at the different Warrior Profiles until you find 3 to 5 long time members who you trust to give you an honest review/testimonial of your product and then run a WSO to make some money and give you a much needed confidence boost.

I'm Only Recommending this because you already have a product and you worked very hard on making it.

George Wright P.S. Everyone please don't confuse this with advice given to many newbies, "To make a quick buck do a WSO." This person already has a product and says he worked 18 hours a day. It might be something great. We'll see.

[Debbie Songster]

If you are down to your last $35 I wouldn't spend it on the war room.
I'm not saying its not worth it because it is but its probably not the most appropriate use of your remaining money.
You do have to eat!

On first impression to your sales page, you've done a nice job. Visually its attractive. I haven't taken the time to really read the sales page yet.

I would say you need to switch hats now and try to sell that product to get some cash flow going. If that means being the sales person yourself then go for it. Yes, continue to try to recruit affiliates but remember that less than 10% of affiliates make sales for you - it becomes a numbers game.

Have you had traffic to the sales page?

Just because you build it and list it with Clickbank doesn't mean people will flock to it and promote it.
You may need to see if you can get someone in that industry who would be willing to promote it. Do some research and contact these people personally. Do a few personal invites to promote your product.

Thats free - save your remaining money

[avetiquette]

Originally Posted by Scott Million

"Untapped niche" can often mean there is no market for a product

Ah, good point Scott. Maybe I should cut that out of my sensational, unbelievable, amazing, "buy my product" Vocabulary.

[avenuegirl]

Your site looks nice (if that is it in your sigi)

One thing you definitely want to add is a pop up or something to get some names and emails.

Right now, If I don't buy right away I have no reason to come back to your site and you have no way of reminding me to come back.

Consider offering something free to get me to sign up, so you can later entice me to come back for more.

In addition, when you do create more products you'll be able to drag that traffic back in again with ease. Especially the buyers if they enjoyed your first product.

I would rename the home page.

Looks like your site is extremely new. I'm not seeing any backlinks or any way traffic has been driven in. I'm unable to pull up any additional pages on the site either.

You may want to add a blog into the back end and some articles into the directories.

I hate to say spend your last dollars - if that is all you have left.

Perhaps when you are in a better position you will want to join the forum here as you'll be able to enjoy the benefit of the other ways you can market your product here.

I would also suggest considering to offer a couple of review copies and get some feedback and testimonials on your product that you can use in the future.

Jill

PS: You have your first Twitter Follower.

[Scott Million]

Originally Posted by avetiquette

Ah, good point Scott. Maybe I should cut that out of my sensational, unbelievable, amazing, "buy my product" Vocabulary.

Actually, I didn't see your sig link. I assume that's your salespage, and that market definitely has a lot of successful products in it. It can also be repackaged, rebranded, and resold outside of 'public speaking' and 'presentational speaking'.

[avenuegirl]

Originally Posted by George Wright

Hi,

I am not one to advise new Warriors to do a WSO right out of the gate, however, you might be an exception. My advice: Join The War Room. Spend a day looking around. Look at successful WSOs in the WSO forum. Then, Look at the different Warrior Profiles until you find 3 to 5 long time members who you trust to give you an honest review/testimonial of your product and then run a WSO to make some money and give you a much needed confidence boost.

I'm Only Recommending this because you already have a product and you worked very hard on making it.

George Wright P.S. Everyone please don't confuse this with advice given to many newbies, "To make a quick buck do a WSO." This person already has a product and says he worked 18 hours a day. It might be something great. We'll see.

I was thinking the same thing George, but he will need an additional 20 bucks on top of the War Room to get a WSO started. If there is really no money for necessities, he needs to call a friend or sell something quick.

[Frank Donovan]

Originally Posted by avetiquette

I really believe in my product and believe its a great untapped niche. I admit I'm new to this and have a lot to learn, but I can't figure out why I haven't sold a single product. My biggest question is if I should just keep making products for my brand and concentrate on attracting affiliates, or should I start getting more into being an affiliate myself.

I think you've made it unnecessarily difficult for yourself. You'd have a far higher chance of success if you'd researched your niche before creating a product.

That means:

Finding out if there's a buying market
Finding out exactly what that market is currently buying
Checking out the competition
Determining how you'd best position yourself in the market
Finding out whether your target market can be easily/cost-effectively reached
Deciding on your promotion methods
Finding out whether your market has upsell potential
Setting up a free trial product/report to test demand and build a list of prospects

Then, if everything else is in place, start creating your product.


Frank

[rodie151]

Hi,
Have you checked out the market place? Is there actually a market for your product? If there's a demand and your product is great, the problems your marketing, I have have a feeling though you problem is possibly a lack of market research.

You need to start with the market and work backwards to the product.

Best of luck

[avetiquette]

WOW! So many great responses and advice in less than an hour! This is really amazing. Now, if I could only find the "Thank You" button on this thing. Until I find it, I'm telling all of you THANK YOU.

As far as the money thing goes, I'm not too concerned about being broke. There's always ebay, and I guess I don't need that Faberge Egg collection anymore. If paying to join, and doing a WSO is worth it, then its a no-brainer, right?

Keep in mind that I am new, and talk of "pop ups" and "back ends" can be a little over my head right now, plus it makes me wonder what sort of forum I joined.

[joshril]

I agree. I wonder what the market is like for a product like this. I hope there is one, and best of luck with your venture!

Originally Posted by rodie151

Hi,
Have you checked out the market place? Is there actually a market for your product? If there's a demand and your product is great, the problems your marketing, I have have a feeling though you problem is possibly a lack of market research.

You need to start with the market and work backwards to the product.

Best of luck

[avenuegirl]

Originally Posted by avetiquette

WOW! So many great responses and advice in less than an hour! This is really amazing. Now, if I could only find the "Thank You" button on this thing. Until I find it, I'm telling all of you THANK YOU.

As far as the money thing goes, I'm not too concerned about being broke. There's always ebay, and I guess I don't need that Faberge Egg collection anymore. If paying to join, and doing a WSO is worth it, then its a no-brainer, right?

Keep in mind that I am new, and talk of "pop ups" and "back ends" can be a little over my head right now, plus it makes me wonder what sort of forum I joined.

Thats the spirit! Go sell some stuff!

As far as research for your niche, Public speaking is a niche, I'm just not sure how most people are monetizing on it - although there do seem to be some additional clickbank offers.

I found this little site (on flippa) that can give you some blog ideas:

mypublicspeakingtips.com

[mgkimsal]

When you've got more money, I'd suggest snapping up publicspeakertoolbox.com and/or publicspeakingtoolbox.com. Both say much more to me than 'avetiquette' does - I 'get it' immediately. You've even got the product with the catchy name already on your page, it's just buried way at the bottom.

Good luck! Perhaps finding and getting some Toastmaster reviews from others would help on the testimonial side of things?

Also, not to nitpick too much, but in your "earn more money" graphic, the phrase "better salesperson for your message" probably shouldn't end with a period, because you pick it up again on the next line. Given that your whole product is about professional presentation tips, that sort of awkwardness might be turning off some people, or hurting the credibility of the product.

[avetiquette]

The job that I quit was as an audiovisual lead for corporate conferences and such. I spent four years dealing with public speakers all over the country. Over those 4 years I realized that most of these people have trained for things like making eye contact, and projecting their voice. There are very few products that deal with the audiovisual aspect of public speaking, but the vast majority of speakers could really benefit from learning these AV techniques.

I think back on all of the speakers I've worked with that either walked in front of an audio speaker with a microphone, or forgot to include the video file for their powerpoint on their thumb drive, or did something else that hurt their presentation. I believe that most of the speakers I've worked with realize their need to have a basic understanding of audiovisual concepts.

I would've probably created this product regardless of what market research I found. Its what I know, its what I do, and I want to help people that need this information. I'm no marketing guru, I'm an AV guy that created a product to help public speakers and anyone else that wants to improve any type of presentation.

Due to my time in the AV industry, I've got some great contacts. I'm good friends with a presenter that concentrates on doing presentations on this very topic. We will be working together on getting more face to face contact with customers at various conferences and conventions.

Am I just dreaming thinking that I might be able to find some people to concentrate on the IM part of this, while I concentrate on improving the product itself?

Again, thanks to everyone for the great advice!

[joshril]

Offline consulting and seminars is a pretty big thing right now. You could always focus on that niche... or even the real estate or money making sector that does public speaking.

I am not an AV expert like you, so I don't know the market incredibly well, but it sounds like there could be some demand for your product based on what you have mentioned.

Don't be everything to everyone. Pick a niche market, and focus on marketing to that niche. Become an expert in your niche market's business and you will do well with any product.

You mentioned you have some contacts... work them!

Originally Posted by avetiquette

The job that I quit was as an audiovisual lead for corporate conferences and such. I spent four years dealing with public speakers all over the country. Over those 4 years I realized that most of these people have trained for things like making eye contact, and projecting their voice. There are very few products that deal with the audiovisual aspect of public speaking, but the vast majority of speakers could really benefit from learning these AV techniques.

I think back on all of the speakers I've worked with that either walked in front of an audio speaker with a microphone, or forgot to include the video file for their powerpoint on their thumb drive, or did something else that hurt their presentation. I believe that most of the speakers I've worked with realize their need to have a basic understanding of audiovisual concepts.

I would've probably created this product regardless of what market research I found. Its what I know, its what I do, and I want to help people that need this information. I'm no marketing guru, I'm an AV guy that created a product to help public speakers and anyone else that wants to improve any type of presentation.

Due to my time in the AV industry, I've got some great contacts. I'm good friends with a presenter that concentrates on doing presentations on this very topic. We will be working together on getting more face to face contact with customers at various conferences and conventions.

Am I just dreaming thinking that I might be able to find some people to concentrate on the IM part of this, while I concentrate on improving the product itself?

Again, thanks to everyone for the great advice!

[devilishsaint]

Try to market them in related niche blog and forums. Tell people about the features and why should they buy your product. If possible clearly mention contact details for queries.

[avenuegirl]

Originally Posted by avetiquette

Am I just dreaming thinking that I might be able to find some people to concentrate on the IM part of this, while I concentrate on improving the product itself?

Again, thanks to everyone for the great advice!

Well, in a way, yes. If you want others to do the marketing for you, it will take a push on it to get the ball rolling. You can pay for the push and hire someone here to do it for you or you can start pushing yourself.

Unfortunately, it is next to impossible to pop a product up on clickbank as an unknown person or having an unknown reputation and expect it to just sell on its own and explode.

If you are looking to find "free help" you will need to network yourself a bit. Oh, you just got a facebook friend request.

Recommendation:

If you want a leg up and some inspiration to start the ball rolling yourself, look at this post:

IM Plan Seeker is Thrust into Hidden Web Vortex - This Discovery Will Shock You

You have already done part 2 - which is the product creation.

If you join the War Room, you can have a look at step one which will be right up your alley

After that, step 3 will put you in the position you sound like you want to be in, which is devoting your time to the products.

[Chris Morris]

Jill, you ROCK girl!

Thanks for your posts, you help deliver solid content and value consistently and are a truly valued Warrior!

[RussRave]

Hi there,

I've read all the other warrior comments and whilst there's some encouraging advice I must say that with all due respect I disagree with most of it.

Firtly, to your issue of being down to your last $35,.. I know how that feels,.. in fact,.. many times in the past I have had to scratch around for the $9.95 hosting fee just to keep my sites live. I'm not a member of the War room but I intend to be shortly. I think the $39.95 fee is more than a solif investment. But for now I'd say this to you,... if you're working with "scared money" (i.e. money you can't afford to lose and really should be spending on food perhaps) then you'll make wrong choices and the "scared money theory" will tend to prevail and you'll end up losing that resource as well. Someone said "call a friend" or "sell something" and I think that's great advice. Perhaps even get back into employment or freelance yourself out part time to those speakers that must surely know you after 4 years of industry involvement. You need more than $35 to sustain you at this stage and the reality is that whilst you do indeed have a great conceptual product here (IMHO),.. you need to free yourself up from the financial pressure by other means because I doubt that right now your ebook is going to "save your bacon"... here's why...

To your sales page and sales strategy:
1) your sales page presentation (style and graphics) is great,.. but in terms of actually "Selling" or motivating an urgent call to action.... it sucks!
2) You've told us warriors here more about yourself and your personal expert background than you have in your sales letter! I mean... even then we don't know who you are personally (not even a first name such as John, Steve, Tom Dick or Harry,.. we only know you as "AVetiquette".. the same as your sales page visitors know you!). So how can you expect your potential product purchasers to believe in you or have any faith in the expertise you say is inherant in your course?
Tell people who you are,... show them your photo,.. you talk about AV... but WHERE'S YOUR AV??,.. I mean there's no Video on the page at all!

Frankly,.. you're wasting your time trying to sell this neatly boxed product on clickbank or hoping traffic will gravitate towards your sales page. You can only get traffic either by paying for it (which you cant do right now and I wouldn't recomment it) or by organic means which is your best bet but even then you REALLY need to know what you're doing and get stuck into keyword research and keyword mining and then plug the daylights out of it via the article directories and Youtube and video directories as well as the Web2.0 networks such as Digg Sphinn, Facebook, etc etc.

My concluding advice to you is that you should forget about trying to sell a $29.95 product. It's too hard that route and also you can only hope to sell it once and then what? Let's face it brother,.. the type of people that you're aiming at are usually making lots of moola on the speaking circuit or getting ample salaries from their companies. They can afford wayyyy more than $29.95 and probably would be more comfortable paying $297 or even a lot more than that.
You need to turn your product into membership site continuity content in which you offer the content by way of the very AV medium that you speak about,... use video.. incorporate Powerpoint, add graphics and music and then get the members to pay at least $47 every month ($97 is better!) to access your content.... which you drip feed to them. You can and should also set up an affiliate program through which members can introduce their colleagues and get paid for it (at least 50% of revenues),.. that way it can spread by word of mouth and you'll be giving members a way of virtually getting free membership because of the affiliate credits they earn.
I wish you the best with this my friend.
If I can be of further assistance please PM me.
Cheers,.. Russ

[avetiquette]

Thanks Russ. It's tough love, but I can handle it.

[MannyT]

Hey T.R

Love your passion and you did more than 99% of the people in this country. But you have FAILED to learn the MOST IMPORTANT thing about marketing. AND THAT IS... You are WAY BETTER OFF finding a LIST or a GROUP of people who WANT SOMETHING...

The LIST is WAY more important than the product. Also, you have created only one product. All you have done up to now is TEST.. Marketing is about doing things over and over until you find the thing that works. Hope that helps.

Manny

[avetiquette]

Thanks Manny. I have a good product. There are lots of people that need it. The issue is getting the news of this product to those people. This is not the usual, "1 BILLION DOLLARS IN 5 MINUTES!!!!!!!" product. Its an actual product for people that aren't involved in IM. It's for public speakers.

I didn't come on this forum to try to sell my product to forum members. I came here to try and get some help. I've received a lot of great advice from a lot of great people. Please don't take this the wrong way, but telling me I've FAILED, isn't much help. I don't know internet marketing, I don't necessarily want to learn internet marketing. I want to create great products, and I think I've got a great start. That's why I'm here, to find someone that does know internet marketing to help me out with my product.

Honestly, I don't see how you guys do it. After looking around for a few days, I've realized that everything is the same. Everyone is trying to convince everyone else that their IM product will make more money than the next guy's. 99% of the posts are the same. I would think that some of you would want to break out of the mold and try something a little different.

As far as looking at a list before creating a product, that's not my style. I make products that I KNOW a lot about and can provide excellent customer service for. I KNOW there is a market for my product because I've worked face-to-face with customers who need it for years now.

I fully expect my product (and subsequent products) to eventually be sold in stores and at events. To me, this is not easy money. This is my business, and its not limited to the internet. I just figured that there would be at least one warrior here that would want the chance to get in on a great brand like this.

Maybe you haven't read my previous posts. But I explained how I was extremely new to this and didn't know anything. I've being extremely humble on these posts in regards to my expertise in IM, which is none at all.
If you're interested in helping, and I mean REALLY helping, let me know.

[rhj12345]

T.R.

I like your site, but let’s talk SEO. First things first.

Website grader, this will tell you a lot about your site.

Website Grader - SEO Tool - Report For www.avetiquette.com

Your grade is 21 out of 100, work at 40 or better.

Spider your site.

Search Engine Spider Simulator

This will show you, you have no meta keywords or meta descriptions. Also all of your URL’s have really no effective keywords. What do you expect Google to deliver on a keyword search if, you have no defined keywords in your pages.

Indexed
You have only three pages, for someone to find you organically.
site:avetiquette.com/ - Google Search
No pages indexed no traffic.

Backlinks
You have none. Go to http://www.linkdiagnosis.com

You need to work out a backlink plan. Build authority to your site.

I suggest you try looking at these keywords I found for you using Market Samurai; they are all 100 to 400 exact phase searches a day. Competition on all is under 50,000. Create articles for many of these and use them in the article, title, meta, and URL.

public speaking jobs
public speaking skills
art of public speaking
the art of public speaking
public speaking courses
public speaking training
public speaking course
public speaking topics
fear of public speaking
presentation skill
motivational speaking
effective presentation skills
effective presentation
presentation techniques
effective presentations

Go back and make your front page less informative. This job is for your articles. People do not read on the internet, they scan. When people come to your first page there should be mainly bullet points and a video with testimonials of people sitting in a chair, just talking about your product would create sales for you off the charts.

I don’t like your big bold tag line. THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE FOR ANY TYPE OF PRESENTATION!

Take the main problem your product solves and go with that. If you can solve their pain, you will get sales. Something like “Are your pretentions BORING! This will Blow Your Audience Away! People Will Stand Up and Clap When YOUR Presentation is Over.

Make your site be found, solve the pain, the money will come.

Hope this helps.

Rob

[Fun to Write]

Who is your target audience?

You've got to zero in on exactly who would buy this product.

I think you should use those keyword suggestions.

Also . . .

I agree that the headline doesn't address a problem - it's just a boring claim.

The Most Comprehensive Guide for Any Type of Presentation - who cares?

Try something like this: Did Your Last Presentation Bomb Because People Were Nodding Off?

Add Pizzazz to Your Next Public Speaking Gig With Our Complete Audio Visual Guide

Good luck.

[avetiquette]

Okay, I changed the headline. It's now "Stop putting people to sleep with the same boring presentation, and become a public speaking rockstar!"

So what do you think?

Originally Posted by Fun to Write

Who is your target audience?

You've got to zero in on exactly who would buy this product.

I think you should use those keyword suggestions.

Also . . .

I agree that the headline doesn't address a problem - it's just a boring claim.

The Most Comprehensive Guide for Any Type of Presentation - who cares?

Try something like this: Did Your Last Presentation Bomb Because People Were Nodding Off?

Add Pizzazz to Your Next Public Speaking Gig With Our Complete Audio Visual Guide

Good luck.

[Fun to Write]

Awesome, T.R.!

Wow. That really makes a difference. I love it.

Turns a ho hum headline into a real attention getter.

Good job.

Now go work on attracting targeted buyers for your product.

The two obvious choices would be:

Article Marketing
PPC

[avetiquette]

Sweet. Okay, I first need to just figure out what Article Marketing and PPC is, and then I'm rich, right?

Originally Posted by Fun to Write

Awesome, T.R.!

Wow. That really makes a difference. I love it.

Turns a ho hum headline into a real attention getter.

Good job.

Now go work on attracting targeted buyers for your product.

The two obvious choices would be:

Article Marketing
PPC

[Fun to Write]

The quick way to start article marketing would be:

Take those keywords that Rob gave you.

Go to the WSO section and start looking for affordable article writers that do high quality work. Commission about 5 - 10 articles for an agreed upon price. Give them the list of keywords phrases that you'd like to appear in your articles.

Meanwhile, join some article directories like: Ezine Articles, Go Articles, Articlesbase, etc. It's free to set up an account. At some like EZA, you can set up one account, then have as many pen names as you want.

Get the articles back from the writers and make sure they're to your liking.

Post the articles on the article directories.

You should ask that the title of each article contain at least one keyword phrase like:
Effective Presentation Skills: 7 Ways to Create a Memorable Talk

Hire a writer that's knowledgeable about how to insert keywords into an article.

In a few weeks, those articles will show up in the search engines like Google and Yahoo - hopefully on the 1st or 2nd page.

Someone will come along and type into the Google box "effective presentation skills" this means that they are someone who does presentations and wants to improve - your target audience!

This person will scan the results and in an ideal situation, click on your article. When they reach the bottom of the article, they'll be inspired to read your author bio or signature box and click on the url link to your website. Your signature box is where you can promote your product. You want to highlight a big benefit of what kind of problem your product can solve for them in 1 - 3 lines. It's important for you to get good at this part.

Back to the searcher . . .

This person lands on your site and sees exactly the kind of product they need to boost their skills.

Cha ching!

You just made a sale.

This is, of course, is an ideal scenario, but it happens every day.

The whole PPC thing will have to be explained to you by someone else.

[Fun to Write]

T.R.

One more thing . . .

I notice that on your product page you don't have a way to capture email addresses.

Capturing leads is another internet marketing technique that you must learn.
Most people who visit your site will not buy right away.
If you offer them some free information - say a free report on something like "10 Surefire Tips on Breaking the Ice with Your Audience"

They'll sign up to get the free report and you get to have their email address. This is called an opt in list. They've freely opted in to get your information, which also means you can promote your product as well.

However, there's a skill to this too.

Most here use Aweber or Get Response autoresponder services.

You can probably outsource the writing of your report, as well as, the writing of some email messages to put into your autoresponder.

It will cost you a monthly fee to sign up with an autoresponder service. I think it's worth it because you have a way to keep people on your list interested in your product and coming back to your site, well after they've read that article.

There's lots of information on all of this on this forum. Just do a search and start reading.

[avetiquette]

Thanks so much!
I really do enjoy writing, and I think I'd actually do fine at writing articles, or anything else related to my product like the free offer you mentioned to get e-mail addresses. Ideally, I'd like to spend my time creating these articles and things and then hand then hand them over to someone to do the rest. Obviously, there is a ton of stuff to learn, and I plan on learning it. Its just going to take years to get to the point that most people are at. I'm really trying to find someone to handle that aspect of my products. I put up a JV post. We'll see if anything comes out of it.
Thanks again!

Originally Posted by Fun to Write

T.R.

One more thing . . .

I notice that on your product page you don't have a way to capture email addresses.

Capturing leads is another internet marketing technique that you must learn.
Most people who visit your site will not buy right away.
If you offer them some free information - say a free report on something like "10 Surefire Tips on Breaking the Ice with Your Audience"

They'll sign up to get the free report and you get to have their email address. This is called an opt in list. They've freely opted in to get your information, which also means you can promote your product as well.

However, there's a skill to this too.

Most here use Aweber or Get Response autoresponder services.

You can probably outsource the writing of your report, as well as, the writing of some email messages to put into your autoresponder.

It will cost you a monthly fee to sign up with an autoresponder service. I think it's worth it because you have a way to keep people on your list interested in your product and coming back to your site, well after they've read that article.

There's lots of information on all of this on this forum. Just do a search and start reading.

[AllyW]

Very good info posted so far, I agree with all of it, especially that you need to have a free report of some kind to give away so you can collect names.

Having said that, I have a question for you. How much research have you done on how to sell on the internet? Do you know about Keywords? Niches? E-mail and list marketing? From reading your posts, it sounds like you haven't done much. You want to make a product and find someone else to handle all the selling and details. While I understand your impatience, if you don't want to lose your shirt and/or get taken by some fast-talking hustler, you'd better slow down and learn the basics of how marketing on the internet is done. Seriously.

Another thing -- you said you know people need your product -- but DO THEY WANT IT? Are they buying any other similar product or products? I didn't see many searches for the keywords that fit your product (go to freekeywords.wordtracker.com and search on public speaking or public speaking tips or presentation tips, the number that comes up at the top of the list is the number of searches in the last month). And if you do a search on your keywords and look at the Google ads listed on the right of the search results page, there are very few ads, and almost none for products like yours. This is a bad sign -- people are not buying ads. That usually means no one is buying.

Sorry to be a wet blanket, I'm sure your product is good, but you might want to think seriously about the way you're selling it. Offline might be your best bet. Market it to companies that sell AV equipment as something they can give away to buyers. Maybe have a printed product to sell to companies instead of a digital product. You really need to think all this through.

[avetiquette]

I don't know much at all about selling on the internet. That's why I'm here. I've already learned quite a bit. One thing I've learned is that there is a wide range of responses to my product. Some people say it's great, some people say it won't work. Some people have great advice, others are wet blankets. Some people need to think outside of the box a little more. One of the top internet sellers of all time sold POOL TABLES on ebay. Do you think anybody at all told him that was a good idea? Do you think anyone thought Marconi's idea of sending sounds magically through space was good?

I'm certain sooner or later, I'll find that IM genius who's ready for a challenge and isn't looking for the sure thing.
"Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something." - Thomas A. Edison

Originally Posted by AllyW

Very good info posted so far, I agree with all of it, especially that you need to have a free report of some kind to give away so you can collect names.

Having said that, I have a question for you. How much research have you done on how to sell on the internet? Do you know about Keywords? Niches? E-mail and list marketing? From reading your posts, it sounds like you haven't done much. You want to make a product and find someone else to handle all the selling and details. While I understand your impatience, if you don't want to lose your shirt and/or get taken by some fast-talking hustler, you'd better slow down and learn the basics of how marketing on the internet is done. Seriously.

Another thing -- you said you know people need your product -- but DO THEY WANT IT? Are they buying any other similar product or products? I didn't see many searches for the keywords that fit your product (go to freekeywords.wordtracker.com and search on public speaking or public speaking tips or presentation tips, the number that comes up at the top of the list is the number of searches in the last month). And if you do a search on your keywords and look at the Google ads listed on the right of the search results page, there are very few ads, and almost none for products like yours. This is a bad sign -- people are not buying ads. That usually means no one is buying.

Sorry to be a wet blanket, I'm sure your product is good, but you might want to think seriously about the way you're selling it. Offline might be your best bet. Market it to companies that sell AV equipment as something they can give away to buyers. Maybe have a printed product to sell to companies instead of a digital product. You really need to think all this through.

[Jose]

T.R.,

You've already gotten great information and advise from savvy Warriors.

When I clicked on your AV Etiquette hyperlink in your sig, the first thing I see is the whole screen taken over by an orange rectangle with two hardly visible titles. Only when I scrolled past that section did I get to your sales page (which has been rightly praised).

I wonder if the other Warriors have seen the same...

[fagnant]

It does seem to me to be quite a sophisticated high level product that should be priced more and be sold to an audience that is not on the Internet, as most on the Internet are buying more of a product that is for the mass audience. Yours is a niche market that could address companies that specialized in presentations and sales groups. For our company, the presentation takes about 15 minutes because we have a simple product offering FREE money with a free tax audit amendment what the Big 4 use to do for Ford Motors. So, this is an easy sale but selling, for instance, a computer setup to do ERP for hospitals would take elaborate presentations. Sales groups and teachers that specialize in this sort of stuff would be one of your targeted markets, as a previous warrior just mentioned above.

[Nikhil V Nair]

I am not an expert in IM but these are my thoughts

It is really great that you developed a product about a subject you are PASSIONATE about.

As a new comer to Internet Marketing(IM),I always suggest you to do affiliate marketing first.That gives a lot of ideas about how IM works and why people buy products.

As compared to most other long sales copy,you have a short copy.

Testimonials without name and place are difficult to believe.

Try to observe what your competitors are doing and how their copy look like.

TESTING is the only way to determine what the exact problem is.

Test your copy,price,headline etc.Make only one change at a time.

Try to sell your product for $9.95 and see what happens.

Marketing techniques are more important than the actual quality of your product.Don't hesitate to use any marketing techniques since you have a good quality product.

[jrrich814]

Well, your sales page is okay. But, it is absolutely Screaming for a short video demonstration. It is not immediately clear what it is that you're trying to sell here. If people have to figure that out, they're just going to hit that 'ol back button!

People here know that I'm a big-time list advocate - I see email lists as a "cure-all" for most IM difficulties. And, I see a list in your future as well!

Here's what to do:

-- Move your sales page (with that new video) to a sub-page on your domain.

-- Turn your home page into a lead capture page by offering a nice video or 10-page PDF report covering your presentation topic.

-- Feed your list with mountains of valuable info concerning this niche.

-- Hit your subscribers with occasional targeted offers to buy your product (and raise your price!)

People need to be exposed to an offer anywhere from 7 to 11 times before they're ready to buy. It's the nature of the animal.

Somewhere down the line, you're going to create another product, right? When you do, you'll already have a targeted list ready and willing to buy.

That's the beauty and magic of a list!

Regards,
--JR Rich

[avetiquette]

Thanks everyone for the great advice. I haven't had much response at all on the request for review post. I've decided I just need to hunker down and really start learning (and doing). I think I've been trying to avoid doing IM myself because right now it all seems so complicated and involved to me, but I suppose a lot of things are like that. It'll just take getting into it for a little while, and before you know it, I'll be giving people advice on here.