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Remember: It's all about the 'first sale'

by scubasteve-cr
21 replies
So, I'm not new to IM (I still remember way back when the original warriorforum was completely about a form of marketing that is strictly evil and forbidden now - *gasp* email spamming!), but everytime I start a new site in a new niche, I always get the butterflies again. I love it. It is my crack.

I registered my domain. I installed OptimizePress and a few other choice WP plugins. After over 10 years of doing this, I've gotten very good at writing my own salesletters, so I spend a few days perfecting my ad copy. I login to my icontact account and setup a new list for my new niche. I submit my new product to clickbank for approval. I anxiously await for their response. I know that it's going to be approved, but I still get a tad bit nervous anyway. Did I mention that I LOVE this entire process? It seriously is my crack.

Earlier today, the email arrives from clickbank letting me know that product has been approved. Now it's time to go into attack mode. Since it's a completely different niche than my other niches, I refuse to poison my existing lists by sending them a completely unrelated offer. So now, the question that everybody is dying to know the answer to...

So now what? How do I get my traffic?

I've already joined some forums related to this niche, and have been posting, helping out others; basically establishing myself as a guy that knows what he's talking about; an expert/authority figure, if you may. I contact a few people on the forum, offering them my product for free, in exchange for their review of the product.

Never under-estimate the power of forums. On forums, once you spend enough time there, you are a real person. People know you, and connect with you. Selling online is all about personal relationships.

I already know that sometime this weekend, I will have my first sale. Then I'll drop the baby off at my mother-in-law's house, and I'll take my wife out for a nice dinner. It's all about that first sale. Once you get the first sale, it's all smooth sailing from there. You know what you have to do. Now it's just a matter of getting it done.

So get it done. Go get your first sale. Or start a new site in a new niche, and go get that first sale all over again. Ahhh, don't ya'll just love internet marketing?
#remember #sale
  • Profile picture of the author AdappMedia
    Great post scubasteve (hilarious name by the way). I own my own forum and would have to agree with everything you said
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  • Profile picture of the author Cee
    Originally Posted by scubasteve-cr View Post

    I already know that sometime this weekend, I will have my first sale.

    Having already had success will do that for you. Like millionaires thinking they'll make another couple of million by next week. It's a little different for the person first starting out wondering IF they will make their first sale. Did this kind of confidence come with success for you or were you always convinced that you would make sales?
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    • Profile picture of the author scubasteve-cr
      Originally Posted by Cee View Post

      Having already had success will do that for you. Like millionaires thinking they'll make another couple of million by next week. It's a little different for the person first starting out wondering IF they will make their first sale. Did this kind of confidence come with success for you or were you always convinced that you would make sales?
      The confidence came with success and experience in IM. Monday morning could roll around and I hadn't made a sale. Sure, it's definitely possible. I think that the confidence that I have in my abilities as a marketer make it a lot easier for me.

      If you believe in yourself and your product enough, and your marketing and adcopy reflect that, then the sale will come. It always does.

      People usually don't buy your product; they buy you. I prefer to sell myself first, then the product second. It's incredibly easy to sell a product when somebody already trusts you.
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      • Profile picture of the author rlhurst
        Originally Posted by scubasteve-cr View Post

        People usually don't buy your product; they buy you. I prefer to sell myself first, then the product second. It's incredibly easy to sell a product when somebody already trusts you.
        That's a VERY good point!
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      • Profile picture of the author Cee
        Originally Posted by scubasteve-cr View Post

        The confidence came with success and experience in IM. Monday morning could roll around and I hadn't made a sale. Sure, it's definitely possible. I think that the confidence that I have in my abilities as a marketer make it a lot easier for me.

        If you believe in yourself and your product enough, and your marketing and adcopy reflect that, then the sale will come. It always does.

        People usually don't buy your product; they buy you. I prefer to sell myself first, then the product second. It's incredibly easy to sell a product when somebody already trusts you.
        Thanks for the insight. The right mindset definitely is a big part of being successful and I'm always interested in how successful marketers think differently then the unsuccessful ones.
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  • Profile picture of the author MatthewNeer
    Love it man! Thats some top notch advise right there and its funny how you get so excited about the whole approval/sales process. Thata awesome dude. Keep rockin' da house!
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    • Profile picture of the author scubasteve-cr
      Originally Posted by Cee View Post

      Thanks for the insight. The right mindset definitely is a big part of being successful and I'm always interested in how successful marketers think differently then the unsuccessful ones.
      Sure, thinking that you're going to succeed is way better than thinking that you're going to fail, right? Besides, who wants to fail, that's no fun!

      Originally Posted by MatthewNeer View Post

      Love it man! Thats some top notch advise right there and its funny how you get so excited about the whole approval/sales process. Thata awesome dude. Keep rockin' da house!
      Yup, I love this so much. It's the furthest thing away from 'work' that you could call it. It's truly fun to me.
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  • Profile picture of the author scubasteve-cr
    And ....

    I DID IT!

    At precisely 8:03:29 AM, just mere moments ago, I got that wonderful email notification:

    "ClickBank Recurring Billing Sale Notification"

    Didn't even need to wait until Monday for that first sale. Did I mention how much I love this business? It's all about the first sale. Now for the rest? I just have to duplicate and scale up what I did to get the first sale.
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  • Profile picture of the author DonMarketer
    It's very true. It's all about having that First Sale

    Somethings seem to happen in our psychic when we make our first sale. For some reason it tends to catapult ourselves to a new high...
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  • Profile picture of the author scubasteve-cr
    Just a small update on my new membership site, recently launched just a few days ago on Friday the 17th. I now have 12 recurring customers paying $50 a month, with 73 people on my optin list that I'm going to be annoying the hell out of until they finally have a nervous breakdown and pay me my extortion fee so that I'll leave them alone. SEO of the site is taking time, and traffic will increase even more when I achieve first page of google for my target keyword (and I will!). As of now, I've worked up to 100 daily uniques, slowly increasing every day.

    So, $600/month in income so far over a 5 day period. Not too bad at all. I've got a To-Do list a mile long, but I'm crossing things off like crazy. I'm sure ya'll know what I'm talking about. When you get into 'the zone' and the only thing on your mind is marketing.

    My driving force behind all of this is that my wife just had our first child 6 weeks ago, and has to return to work on September 1. So, my goal is to have 100 customers paying me $50 month each, and she'll never have to go back to work again. Ahhh, I love a good challenge.
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    • Profile picture of the author mindmarketing
      Excellent post for a burst of inspiration. Thanks for sharing.

      I've got a wife trying not to go back to work myself so I know how you feel.

      Good luck and keep us posted.
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    • Profile picture of the author rlhurst
      Originally Posted by scubasteve-cr View Post


      My driving force behind all of this is that my wife just had our first child 6 weeks ago, and has to return to work on September 1. So, my goal is to have 100 customers paying me $50 month each, and she'll never have to go back to work again. Ahhh, I love a good challenge.
      A worthy goal! Congratulations on your new family member!!
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    • Profile picture of the author yesacpow
      Good luck man. And Congrats on becoming a father!!

      I know once you stick to your plan and work hard, you'll achieve your goal.


      Originally Posted by scubasteve-cr View Post

      Just a small update on my new membership site, recently launched just a few days ago on Friday the 17th. I now have 12 recurring customers paying $50 a month, with 73 people on my optin list that I'm going to be annoying the hell out of until they finally have a nervous breakdown and pay me my extortion fee so that I'll leave them alone. SEO of the site is taking time, and traffic will increase even more when I achieve first page of google for my target keyword (and I will!). As of now, I've worked up to 100 daily uniques, slowly increasing every day.

      So, $600/month in income so far over a 5 day period. Not too bad at all. I've got a To-Do list a mile long, but I'm crossing things off like crazy. I'm sure ya'll know what I'm talking about. When you get into 'the zone' and the only thing on your mind is marketing.

      My driving force behind all of this is that my wife just had our first child 6 weeks ago, and has to return to work on September 1. So, my goal is to have 100 customers paying me $50 month each, and she'll never have to go back to work again. Ahhh, I love a good challenge.
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    • Profile picture of the author Targeted Traffic
      Originally Posted by scubasteve-cr View Post

      My driving force behind all of this is that my wife just had our first child 6 weeks ago, and has to return to work on September 1. So, my goal is to have 100 customers paying me $50 month each, and she'll never have to go back to work again. Ahhh, I love a good challenge.
      Truly a commendable goal...Good luck and I hope you'd even top your goal
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    • Profile picture of the author Cee
      Originally Posted by scubasteve-cr View Post

      Just a small update on my new membership site, recently launched just a few days ago on Friday the 17th. I now have 12 recurring customers paying $50 a month, with 73 people on my optin list that I'm going to be annoying the hell out of until they finally have a nervous breakdown and pay me my extortion fee so that I'll leave them alone. SEO of the site is taking time, and traffic will increase even more when I achieve first page of google for my target keyword (and I will!).
      Hey, good stuff. You have such a great success attitude.


      My driving force behind all of this is that my wife just had our first child 6 weeks ago, and has to return to work on September 1. So, my goal is to have 100 customers paying me $50 month each, and she'll never have to go back to work again. Ahhh, I love a good challenge.
      Congratulations. I'm sure you'll reach your goal.
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  • Profile picture of the author Scott B
    Steve,
    Congratulations on both the sale and the new addition!
    Your strategy of treating your wife to dinner is a great idea...and that's a proven fact. In my pre-IM life I was in a different commission-based business and we were encouraged to take some percentage of the commission and use it to have a great time. Doing so creates a positive psychological anchor that can motivate us in the future.
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  • Profile picture of the author Stephen Adams
    My fellow Scuba Steve ... Great post! I wish you the best of luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alastair McDermott
    I love the meta aspect of the first post

    Out of interest, what are the "few other choice WP plugins"?

    Originally Posted by scubasteve-cr

    People usually don't buy your product; they buy you. I prefer to sell myself first, then the product second. It's incredibly easy to sell a product when somebody already trusts you.
    +1000
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  • Profile picture of the author Aplletree
    I'd like to say something about first sale
    Three month ago, I lived in another city and worked as a teacher there, so my life was full of students ,most of time, I asked myself about my future dream, I thought I could not only stay in this small city, I want to go to the big city to value myself. Then, I quit my last job, and went to this city. I'm so lucky, I found two jobs at that time, one job was to be as a customer service in a foreign trade company, it's a big company, another job was to be a sales here,it's a new established company, smaller than before, but full of challenge, so I choose this small company finally. During working here, I found everything is not very good , the higher pressure make you feel depressed, I begin to upset about my decision. So begin to ask myself again, " Am I right if I choose here,or just made a stupid choice?" Because, I worked hard to promote the products, still cannot find the customer, no one can believe a new site in the first sight, our boss also feel unhappy. I still encourage my boss to carry on, I believe nothing is impossible. About three weeks' later, one day morning, when I open my site, I found we have an order, then I called my boss and moved to crying it's really a surprise for us to come an order, so that's our first sale, a good beginning for us. I will remember that day and my first customer. It gives me hope and makes me be more patient. Although being as a sales is not easy, especially for a freshmen, but I do believe myself. Now I open my heart and hostly to face everyone, hope one day can make an achievement. First sale, my hope
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  • Profile picture of the author scubasteve-cr
    So, 1 week into this, and in 1 week alone, I have 19 recurring customers so far paying me a grand total of $1,200/month (not each, collectively). The goal is to have 100 rebilling customers by September 1, when my wife's maternity leave is supposed to be over with. I got this in the bag!

    It's all completely about personal relationships, and working your list. If you don't have a list, you're throwing money away. If you have a list, and you're sending them offers daily, you're throwing money away (and I bet that you're getting a good chunk of cancellations). I don't send daily offers, but I do send daily emails. I pitch a sale usually every 3 days.

    Imagine that you had a friend that came over to your house every day just to try to sell you something, and rarely giving you anything. How long would it take you before you quit inviting that friend over to your house? I'd say not too long at all.
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  • Profile picture of the author pathart
    Ah yes, I remembered the first time I ever got a notification from PayPal 'notification of payment received' probably the best phrase in the world
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