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Have I cracked the code?

by Chris Koltai
15 replies
I think I may have figured out what separates the overwhelmingly successful, million-dollar-launch-having, $2000-product-selling ubermarketers like Frank Kern, the Stompernet crew, Jeff Walker, and an elite few others from the average Clickbank product creators pushing a $67 product and a couple of $197 upsells on the back end. Hear me out here...

See, I was browsing this thread and noticing that everyone was saying the $77 front end product was crap, super basic and geared towards newbies.

That's when it hit home.

The really successful guys at the top of the IM food chain? They give that kind of product away for FREE. For an example of this, I'm sure most people on here checked out the free promotional vids for Andy Jenkins' Video Boss training, right? He could have easily rounded the 3 freebie videos with a 4th "putting it all together video", slapped a PDF guide on there, and sold it for $97 on Clickbank, and it would be on par with or better than a lot of the products out there.

But he didn't. He gave it away for free, and rather than selling the rest (read: meat) of the course as 2 pricey upsells and a continuity offer, he sold the whole shebang for the kingly sum of $1997.

You can trace this whole methodology to the vast majority of impressively successful marketers. Now maybe this is common knowledge and I'm just late to the party here, but this was quite the breakthrough for me.

For the TLDR crowd: Seems to me like the marketers who are really killing it online are giving away the "front end" product for free.

Thoughts, comments? Have I nailed it or am I way off the mark?
#code #cracked
  • Profile picture of the author Killer Joe
    The term that has been used for the past few years is "Moving the free line".

    And it's exactly what you pointed out.

    Who cares if you're a little late noticing it...you got it, so kudos.

    KJ
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  • Profile picture of the author michael_nguyen
    My problem is that I don't want to piss of my customers that have paid for it. When would you say is a good time to give your product away?

    1 / 2 years after creation ? (Assuming you want to give it away)
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    • Profile picture of the author Troy_Phillips
      Originally Posted by michael_nguyen View Post

      My problem is that I don't want to piss of my customers that have paid for it. When would you say is a good time to give your product away?

      1 / 2 years after creation ? (Assuming you want to give it away)
      Most of the stuff I give away is re-purposed to sell the programs offspring . The majority of my stuff comes with life time upgrades . Past buyers will get the offspring anyway .

      Does it cost me money to give the lifetime upgrades . In short term .. a little . In the long run... customers know I do upgrade and they buy other products with this in mind
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    • Profile picture of the author petelta
      Originally Posted by michael_nguyen View Post

      My problem is that I don't want to piss of my customers that have paid for it. When would you say is a good time to give your product away?

      1 / 2 years after creation ? (Assuming you want to give it away)
      They won't get pissed off...price changes happen everyday. Look at gas prices. Just make sure to deliver on your quality and they will keep listening.

      I give a 50% discount on my next product to ease it a little though. I also give a lot of free special gifts to my list so they are happy.

      Travis
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    • Profile picture of the author Chris Koltai
      Originally Posted by michael_nguyen View Post

      My problem is that I don't want to piss of my customers that have paid for it. When would you say is a good time to give your product away?

      1 / 2 years after creation ? (Assuming you want to give it away)
      When you're getting ready to launch your next product (higher end and of course more expensive), create a separate mailing list for it. Email your previous buyers and say something to the effect of:

      "I wanted you guys to hear this from me before it hit the grapevine. As you know, I'm launching PRODUCT Y in a couple of weeks, and I've decided to give away PRODUCT X as part of the promotion. Now obviously you all paid for PRODUCT X, and I don't want you guys feeling like you got screwed. So here's the deal. Because you're on my VIP buyer's list, you're not only going to get X% (make it work out similar to or slightly higher than the cost of the first product) off of PRODUCT Y, and on top of that, whether or not you choose to buy PRODUCT Y, you're going to get this new extended module for PRODUCT X that will show you how to ... "

      Make a quick video or PDF that adds value to your original course, make it an exclusive for your buyer's list, and you're done. Everyone gets something for free, they get a discount on your new product, hell, you can even offer them early bird access if you're using scarcity. Hard to get mad at that, no?

      It may just be easier to give away the newbie component of a new product you're working on if you're really worried about pissing customers off, but I would be pretty happy to get an email like the one I outlined above from most of the people I've bought from in the past.
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  • Profile picture of the author Not So New
    In my opinion, going from free to $1997 is going to be a tough sell for most people. If he would have started a little lower, he could have probably had more buyers.

    That being said, sounds like he has been doing this for awhile so he must know what works.

    Sid
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  • Profile picture of the author petelta
    Originally Posted by Chris Koltai View Post

    I think I may have figured out what separates the overwhelmingly successful, million-dollar-launch-having, $2000-product-selling ubermarketers like Frank Kern, the Stompernet crew, Jeff Walker, and an elite few others from the average Clickbank product creators pushing a $67 product and a couple of $197 upsells on the back end. Hear me out here...

    See, I was browsing this thread and noticing that everyone was saying the $77 front end product was crap, super basic and geared towards newbies.

    That's when it hit home.

    The really successful guys at the top of the IM food chain? They give that kind of product away for FREE. For an example of this, I'm sure most people on here checked out the free promotional vids for Andy Jenkins' Video Boss training, right? He could have easily rounded the 3 freebie videos with a 4th "putting it all together video", slapped a PDF guide on there, and sold it for $97 on Clickbank, and it would be on par with or better than a lot of the products out there.

    But he didn't. He gave it away for free, and rather than selling the rest (read: meat) of the course as 2 pricey upsells and a continuity offer, he sold the whole shebang for the kingly sum of $1997.

    You can trace this whole methodology to the vast majority of impressively successful marketers. Now maybe this is common knowledge and I'm just late to the party here, but this was quite the breakthrough for me.

    For the TLDR crowd: Seems to me like the marketers who are really killing it online are giving away the "front end" product for free.

    Thoughts, comments? Have I nailed it or am I way off the mark?
    Give away stuff and people are more likely to listen to what you have to say. Give away your best stuff and people want to hear more.

    Travis
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  • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
    Originally Posted by Chris Koltai View Post

    Thoughts, comments? Have I nailed it or am I way off the mark?
    You have very nearly nailed it. This isn't the only thing that separates them.

    They don't just move their own free products. They help other people move THEIR free products.

    When one of the big gurus comes out with a free, useful video that the IM world should see... he sends it out on his list, sure.

    But so do a dozen other people who don't stand to make a dime from it.

    In a coaching course I was in recently, the coach kept giving the same advice over and over again every time we met: "If you are not making enough money, you are not helping enough people."

    And that doesn't mean whoring your own stuff all the time.
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    • Profile picture of the author Chris Koltai
      Originally Posted by CDarklock View Post

      You have very nearly nailed it. This isn't the only thing that separates them.

      They don't just move their own free products. They help other people move THEIR free products.

      When one of the big gurus comes out with a free, useful video that the IM world should see... he sends it out on his list, sure.

      But so do a dozen other people who don't stand to make a dime from it.

      In a coaching course I was in recently, the coach kept giving the same advice over and over again every time we met: "If you are not making enough money, you are not helping enough people."

      And that doesn't mean whoring your own stuff all the time.
      I can count the number of times I've read a post of yours and not been compelled to click the "Thanks" button on less than one hand. As always, your insight is appreciated.

      I completely agree on your above statement, if that somehow failed to make it through in my praise. It's really a win-win situation...

      You get:
      • Free, high-quality to stuff to give to your list, thereby building your relationship with them
      • A chance to generate good will from potentially lucrative JV partners
      • A reputation for promoting high quality products rather than the average barrel-scrapings (assuming you use some discretion with what you promote)

      They get:
      • Traffic, and hopefully conversions, to their offer
      • An opportunity to reach an audience that may not have otherwise been aware of them
      • A new person to send THEM free stuff that they can pass on to their list, thus netting them all of the benefits under the "You get" heading

      How can you turn down those kinds of benefits?
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      • Profile picture of the author petelta
        Originally Posted by Chris Koltai View Post

        • A new person to send THEM free stuff that they can pass on to their list, thus netting them all of the benefits under the "You get" heading
        And to have another contact to possibly promote your not free product in the future. Your little army of salesmen. Like Stephen Covey says, Win/Win situations are the way to go.

        This whole internet marketing thing can be done completely with networking. You don't need article marketing, blogging, etc.

        Travis
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        • Profile picture of the author RMC
          Without giving away all of product launch formula(PLF) there's some psychological tricks going on as well under the surface.

          However, the main idea here, is that you should strive to be in a place where you know/have so much to offer that you can afford to give away tons of great info and still have some left in the tank.

          The biggest problem I hear from folks regarding "moving the free line" is that they are afraid they won't have anything left.

          This was a big mental block I had for a long time. Finally, the more I tried to put into a free product, the more I realized the areas left for expansion and going more in depth.

          If you struggle with that, consider that maybe you need to re-evaluate how much you actually know on the subject and or your ability to affect perceived value.

          Try separating the content out into levels of detail, and complexity. Look for areas to expand and go more in depth. Also put it into mixed media. Maybe add examples, resources, outlines, transcripts, etc.... again PLF goes way in depth on this, which is my point exactly...the more you know, the easier it gets to give out meaty portions.

          Finally, a big production budget has a lot to do with it as well. Lesser products often aren't developed further due to time and money constraints.

          You've found a piece of the puzzle, but the rabbit hole goes much deeper. Look at the packaging, and the rest of the promotion around these events to uncover more.
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    • Profile picture of the author rapidscc
      Originally Posted by CDarklock View Post

      "If you are not making enough money, you are not helping enough people."

      And that doesn't mean whoring your own stuff all the time.
      Well that makes sense..
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