Advise on very new product and getting affiliates or sales?

Your Q is a bit disjointed, but

Ask them why they have not secured their domain/site. Should be https, not https

Is it a viable, hungy market?

Build you own site (so that YOU have ownership)

Register your domain with an SSL

How much do you know about this company/offer/results, Gridd?

The "I'll just throw some money at the problem, hire some affiliates or pay for some sales" bit has me worried. It's simply not that easy.

Every business needs three systems:

1. Lead generation

2. Qualification

3. Closing.

It doesn't look like you have lead generation figured out, do you.

I don't see qualification anywhere in here: separating people into those who are a good fit for the offer and those who are not.

And confidence in the sales page of the offer seems low. Conversion (closing the sale) is their job, and from what I'm reading it doesn't seem like you have a lot of confidence in their ability to do so.

Having looked briefly at the site myself, I am alarmed about a few things:

-no SSL, as mentioned above. Not the end of the world, but...why not?

-wasn't clear what the concept was...seems to be something about burial insurance...but it doesn't leap out at you. No clarity. Biggest takeaway from scanning that page was what a great guy the founder believes he is

-where's the lead capture element? People visiting this page either have to look around, which they're unlikely to as people are lazy, or leave

-where's the conversion tool? Maybe it's that video you have to click to see (why?), or on a hidden page? Have you seen a sales letter or VSL?

-"pyramid" is the strangest choice IMO -- too much like "pyramid scheme" and together with the lack of clarity that will send people away.

If you are set on continuing with this idea, I'd make your own website, with clarity, to capture and warm up leads. In other words, do the first and second systems yourself. You must see the third system, the conversion tool, and how they are going about it. Don't let that be done "behind a curtain" as that would leave you out of control.

Your job is to get a consistent process going here, with these three systems providing a steady result.

Eg. 100 leads in, 20 qualified leads proceed to the conversion tool, 1 buys.

That would be consistency and that you can then make improvements on.

OK. Here's how I look at it:

You can make a $2K commission on sales.

That means you can spend up to $2K in getting that customer. Naturally you may want to make a profit here, which means you can deduct the profit amount you want from that $2K spend...

...and/or have a back end offer, which is something that many people forget about.

Ideally you are building a list here of people interested in this kind of service.

Surely they have related interests. If they will spend money on this thing, or at least seriously consider it, they will consider spending money on related things.

People with financial sense and a willingness to invest

Having run a high ticket third party sales business, I recommend you get the Pyramid people to set you up a trackable, private sales page that only you have access to. You go there when the sale is to be made, take the info from the customer over the phone, and process the payment while the buyer is on the line.

You need to have an arrangement of when Pyramid pays you after the sale has been made. We waited at least a few days and up to a week to head off errors or buyers remorse (never had a case of that, but you never know.)

Now as to Steps 1 and 2, leadgen and qualifying.

Prospects can go into one of several buckets.

a) freebie seekers

b) interested but don't want to invest

c) interested and can invest

d) buyers.

Any autoresponder will let you do this, either by automatically moving them from one list to another by rules you set up, or tagging them into segments.

The freebie seekers you can either ditch or test on one or more different offers later.

The b-types I'd test on a lower dollar offer later.

The c and d types you can offer a similar kind of product/service to. You know they qualify. This list could become quite valuable and you could rent access out.

Point being, think Developing An Asset, beyond making immediate sales.

That's all I'm gonna give for free.

Thanks again Jason,
Some very good points, and I believe a great direction to get moving in. I will get them to setup a track-able private sales page as you mentioned, and discuss the pay arrangement. The additional advise is something I had not considered yet so that free advise is quite valuable already. Best Regards.

So, essentially you are selling "futures."

You say you are an affiliate but you also seem to have some control of the site.

That site is not optimized for conversions or even to sign-up interested prospects. If you expect people to cough up a minimum six grand you better have a sales page that grabs them by the "short hairs" and doesn't let go.

The site has been up for a year, how many blocks have been sold?

Brent

Thank you Brent,
I have some input for the website, and am working on gaining more control. The FAQ answers you have quoted are currently incorrect as the site is located at, in fact, most of the FAQ needs serious updating.

I completely agree it should get some optimization for sign-up and conversion as well as almost everything. There are currently 5 blocks sold (closed) and a few being closed currently. It is pretty obviously in the very early stages which is the reason I wanted to ask some warriors what would be an effective direction to focus in. Possibly helping grow this from the ground up, (pun possibly intended).
Thank you.

Just out of curiosity have you done any sort of market analysis to determine how much of a demand for this service there is? And from what I understand, the pyramid will take 100+ years to complete. Does this mean it looks half built or is there a structure that will be filled? I mean if I bury someone there, I want to visit and it shouldn't be a construction site right? I also agree with Jason in that if you can build out multiple services (info on burials, how to write a eulogy, etc...) then it may not matter nearly as much how many "blocks" you sell. For me, I always ask - what is the customer looking for and that suddenly answers a lot of questions!

Thank you Obermair,

I personally have not done any market research. There has been some done from what I have been told but I have not seen that yet. Currently the Site is bare. The actual construction will be handled away from the site, except the construction for the visitor center, gardens, parking etc.

I agree on the multiple service's and am currently looking into including those. Looking at it from the perspective on what the customer is looking for is an excellent view imo and definitely gives direction to the next process.

Thanks again,

Glad to help. Analyze the customer process around the whole burial thing. They are probably purchasing the "plot" well ahead of the time they need it. Think about other services that they can prepay - perhaps flowers, accommodation (I am assuming folks with have the burial at the pyramid location). Also, I was thinking about they have to do from a legal side of things - an eBook on tax filings, life insurance, dealing with the will or if there is no will, stuff like that. I see a significant opportunity here for you...

100% build your own site. That gives you flexibility. If they happen to go out of business, but there's another company similar to them, you already have a system/site in place. If you don't have your own site, you're up a creek without a paddle.

Thank you again Obermair and thanks Benjamin Ehinger

Great information and additions. I do plan to build my own site and start working on the niche. I have a few points on the list to get working on for sure.