Build a list, test and make money all at the same time.

12 replies
Hey Warriors,

I just wanted to give something back to the forum here.

After spending 1300 hours creating a product that can't sell I went back to the drawing board to come up with some solutions on how I can better research a market before committing time and money too. This is now my strategy and it works very well:

1. Pick a product to model from Clickbank, CJ, Paydotcom etc.

2. Build a simple squeeze page that relates to the product you want to model. Keep it simple! Make sure it is all above the fold. Give away a simple free product. It does not have to be long. Maybe a simple 5-7 page report or video.

3. When the prospect enters their data and clicks the download button it takes them to a confirm page that says "Your free product is on the way. If you fill out this survey you can have our full-version product for free when we finish it."

4. Put affiliate links or product links within the report or video as "soft-sells" to your prospect.

5. Now put an affiliate link at the bottom of the confirm page to the offer you are testing from Clickbank.

6. After the prospect confirms their email, have your autoresponder automatically send them to the survey. I use getresponse.com and you can build a simple survey in a couple of minutes.

7. Let it run for a couple of days

8. Assess the data and decide if you want to proceed in that particular market.

So here's what you get out of this.

1. A new subscriber

2. A filled out survey that gives you critical data about price points, customer wants, upsell ideas, back end etc.

3. Cash from the affiliate promotions! Believe or not we are converting at over 2.5% and we are not even trying. This helps to pay for our PPC campaign.

4. MOST OF ALL, it saves you wasting time possibly pursuing a market that could be a dud. Remember, you created a simple freebee. You did not create a sales page. You did not even create a product yet.

One last thing that is pretty cool.....You can even use an exit pop-up with a survey on your squeeze page to find out why the prospect is leaving. It's easy. Just say "Hey, fill out this 3 question survey and get this cool thing!" Then use the data from the survey to make improvements to your squeeze page.

We use this strategy before we decide to enter any market. From start to finish you could have this up and running in a couple of days max.

I hope this helps all of you.

Happy testing!

Brandon
#build #list #make #money #product #time
  • Profile picture of the author Samuel Baker
    Pretty cunning but would be very interesting to see how many subscribers you would manage to convert and get to confirm overall If I was confronted with that above method and the "Product" I signed up to get was "Down" I would just leave. As you said its all about enticing them in regards to the other "Product" and promotional item of value.

    Could be worth a try.
    So you use the method yourself. Does It work well for your research / data gathering purposes? It would due to you posting about it but refering to what I mentioned above, does any of that come in to play with what you see your visitors doing?
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    • Profile picture of the author moneyblogger1
      Hey Samuel,

      Conversions are lower than normal for sure, having said that we are still converting at 6-9% from dead cold traffic from Adwords. The opt-in rate is important, howver, my main focus is gather data about the market. If I decide to proceed then I will test and tweak to optimize conversions.

      I started this method with a new market last week and I already have 25 opt-ins and 10 survey's filled out. I realize this is not crazy but my budget for Adwords is only $5 a day. Plus we are also converting as an affiliate at about 2.5%

      Cheers!

      Brandon



      Originally Posted by Samuel Baker View Post

      Pretty cunning but would be very interesting to see how many subscribers you would manage to convert and get to confirm overall If I was confronted with that above method and the "Product" I signed up to get was "Down" I would just leave. As you said its all about enticing them in regards to the other "Product" and promotional item of value.

      Could be worth a try.
      So you use the method yourself. Does It work well for your research / data gathering purposes? It would due to you posting about it but refering to what I mentioned above, does any of that come in to play with what you see your visitors doing?
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  • Is that a method of deception though? Anyway I reckon that if you can get that working then kudos to you....

    Market research and knowing what product the consumer wants is key to product marketing and creation success...
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  • Profile picture of the author Andyhenry
    This is just down right lying.

    Saying you're selling a product you haven't created would get any normal business closed down by trading standards organisations.

    Just because you're using the internet - it doesn't mean it's ok to lie to people and call it a cool marketing strategy.
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    nothing to see here.

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    • Profile picture of the author butters
      Or you could just know and understand your market... Or, you could just find a similar product, yes it exists and offer them that and see how it converts. No one likes a liar, customers don't like to be treated as idiots either.
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    • Profile picture of the author moneyblogger1
      I am not lying at all. What I said is that I am giving them a product in exchange for their email on the squeeze page, which I do (Which is the MRR product).

      I told them that I am in the process of creating the product (I am creating more modules) which I am. An important part of creating any product is research.

      I never told them I am selling anything. I told them I am in the process of creating a product, plus I still do give them a free product as well.

      Cheers!

      Originally Posted by Andyhenry View Post

      This is just down right lying.

      Saying you're selling a product you haven't created would get any normal business closed down by trading standards organisations.

      Just because you're using the internet - it doesn't mean it's ok to lie to people and call it a cool marketing strategy.
      Signature

      Suck a video? Hate creating them? Let us do it for you. Get a custom video for 1/10th the industry standard price: http://www.angulusmarketing.com/Video.html

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      • Profile picture of the author theemperor
        moneyblogger1, having spent 1300 hours on a product that didn't sell it seems you want to swing to the other extreme and spend less than 1 minute on a squeeze page!

        However I think the method will alienate some of your subscribers. It would annoy me that's for sure.

        So why not spend just 60 minutes creating a decent freebie. Here is how:

        All you need to do is create a "5 ways to solve problem X" or "7 tips for success in Y" type document. Maybe 3-4 pages.

        You can find niche-specific ideas by searching on Google. Then rewrite the information you find into your own wonderful PDF, in your own words. Bear in mind to do a deep and wide Google search don't just rewrite the stuff on page #1 for the obvious keyword - you'll be spotted for that!

        As a bonus for you, the PDF can have links to yourdomain.com/goto/product which redirects them to your affiliate links.

        I have used this method to get a few options and to get 50 customers to fill in a survey. It's nice bait

        And it will take you just an hour to prepare, or if you hate writing just pay someone $20 to create such a report for you.
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        Learn to code faster, and remove the roadblocks. Get stuff done and shipped! PM me and I can help you with programming tutoring, specialising in Web and the following languages: Javascript ~ HTML ~ CSS ~ React ~ JQuery ~ Typescript ~ NodeJS ~ C#.
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        • Profile picture of the author moneyblogger1
          Hey Theemperor,

          I believe you are absolutely right. I think I got so caught up in the process that I totally forgot to consider my customers and prospects...I will admit that this was a HUGH mistake on my part and I take full responsibility for it.

          So what I am going to do is modify steps 2 and 3 to reflect our own free product that we are going to create. I will take the time to create a simple free product therefore I will deliver on my promise within the squeeze page.

          The most important thing to me is integrity and feel ashamed and embarrassed that I didn't notice the deception of this strategy. I am working to immediately fix this strategy and better deliver to my prospects.

          I admit I was wrong and I am doing everything in my power to fix it.

          Cheers!

          Brandon




          Originally Posted by theemperor View Post

          moneyblogger1, having spent 1300 hours on a product that didn't sell it seems you want to swing to the other extreme and spend less than 1 minute on a squeeze page!

          However I think the method will alienate some of your subscribers. It would annoy me that's for sure.

          So why not spend just 60 minutes creating a decent freebie. Here is how:

          All you need to do is create a "5 ways to solve problem X" or "7 tips for success in Y" type document. Maybe 3-4 pages.

          You can find niche-specific ideas by searching on Google. Then rewrite the information you find into your own wonderful PDF, in your own words. Bear in mind to do a deep and wide Google search don't just rewrite the stuff on page #1 for the obvious keyword - you'll be spotted for that!

          As a bonus for you, the PDF can have links to yourdomain.com/goto/product which redirects them to your affiliate links.

          I have used this method to get a few options and to get 50 customers to fill in a survey. It's nice bait

          And it will take you just an hour to prepare, or if you hate writing just pay someone $20 to create such a report for you.
          Signature

          Suck a video? Hate creating them? Let us do it for you. Get a custom video for 1/10th the industry standard price: http://www.angulusmarketing.com/Video.html

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  • Profile picture of the author Deepak Media
    A similar method was preached in 4 hour work week book by Tim Ferris. This is good, practical and we can create more value in the long run!
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    Digital Marketing Author | Speaker | Consultant

    Read my Blog: DigitalDeepak.com

    @ Bangalore, India.
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  • Profile picture of the author Daniel Deegan
    Hey Brandon, regarding the product you created that didn't do well. Have you tried leveraging it in other ways? Maybe using it as a bonus for a related product in your market or sister market that you could sell as an affiliate. Or giving it a way as lead magnet like the front end to an affiliate promotion?
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    • Profile picture of the author moneyblogger1
      Hey Gorilla,

      Funny you should say that. I just started a 7-day promo yesterday in which I give it away for free and then have an upsell after they download. Not bad, I had 7 sales yesterday.

      I think the main problem was the market. I was in the "get out of debt" market which is a funny one. The more someone needed my product the less likely they had the money for it. A major oversight on my part but I have learned and moved on

      Cheers

      Originally Posted by Gorilla Writer View Post

      Hey Brandon, regarding the product you created that didn't do well. Have you tried leveraging it in other ways? Maybe using it as a bonus for a related product in your market or sister market that you could sell as an affiliate. Or giving it a way as lead magnet like the front end to an affiliate promotion?
      Signature

      Suck a video? Hate creating them? Let us do it for you. Get a custom video for 1/10th the industry standard price: http://www.angulusmarketing.com/Video.html

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  • Profile picture of the author jbsmith
    Moneyblogger - you are definitely on the right track putting the market testing and validation before product creation...we get so many "trainwreck" stories of people who put everything they had into a product only to figure out AFTER the fact that they missed the mark.

    I'm working with someone right now that not only put in hundreds of hours of effort, but put in 10's of thousands in training and marketing dollars to learn how to market the product that missed the mark - ouch!!

    That said - the process I like better is to setup a test site & blog with strong focus on building a list. Especially if this is a market that I know I want to target, but haven't quite worked out the niche or topic. With a growing list I can put different offers in front of them (CB products, Freebies, surveys, etc...) to help guage the real buying motivations and desires that lead to highly successful product ideas.

    As long as you control the list, you are building profit potential regardless of what direction you take.

    Jeff
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