Ard555 Journal
- Thread starter ard555
- Start date
Thanks for the comments above. Definitely going to seek out referrals next time.
As for this time, been a delay in updating this thread due to personal shit. I won't cloud the waters with that, but let's just quote Judas Priest and say that "love bites."
The upshot is that we're not married, and since the confirmation of my divorce arrived two days ago, I truly am free!
Update Part One: Amazon
Amazon revenue sunk last month from over 2k to 1200. I'm not sure why the swing, but so far September isn't proving any better. I've been playing with the fancy Kindle Countdown feature, which I think has an effect.
Here's my suspicion for the slump:
No one has reviewed any of my books lately, either positive or negative. I think the real trick to staying high in the rankings is to have a regular stream of reviews.
To date, I've never purchased reviews, though I have come up with shenanigans to get them. The best seems to be appealing to my list for them in exchange for some new book. But one can only do this so often, especially when you have a daily newsletter.
I belong to a review network too, but the people there are so burned that it barely works.
Why?
Because reciprocation is not the beast many people think it is.
Anyhow, I've still gotten some good reviews there and I always personally reciprocate.
However, it's ultimately a dead end if you can't get a steady stream of reviews once the kickstart is over. At least, so it seems to me.
As a side note, a book that had been generating several hundred a month was slaughtered by "organic" reviews simply because it has a pitch to a video course. I'm not sure what to do to revive it, but the good think is that I wrote it as a stick letter for people already in my courses, so it can still serve that function.
One thing that also seems to spike up Amazon response is adding new books. But more than 2 years later, a book a month is starting to get to me. Still, I've got two halfway finished and so long as my books are purchased, they do create good leads. Not the best possible leads, but enough people to convert to video courses to have some amazing months in conjunction with ...
Update Part Two: Udemy
I think Udemy is pretty awesome. In conjunction with Amazon, I've had an 8k and 10k month back to back. Plus, the way that I can email thousands of students there, even if it isn't my own list, has been a great training ground for learning and seeing the power of long copy.
This month is slumping, however, and I made a big mistake - or so it seems. Another instructor introduced the concept of a "super coupon" in which a large number of us promoted a large number of courses as a kind of syndicate.
This was cool on the one hand because it led to 3k revenue in 4 days.
Not cool was the Udemyslap. It seems that they've removed me from organic search after emailing me about the inappropriateness of having participated in the promotion. They claim that thousands of people unsubbed from Udemy as a result of getting sometimes dozens of emails from this "syndicate" of coupon senders.
Weird thing is that I didn't merely send out this coupon.
Oh no. I like to sweeten every deal. Wiseguy that I am, I told people that I would give them access to one other of my courses if they participated. This is good because some of my other courses experienced a large boost in attendance, which is an important part of social proof there, but it was a lot of work because I couldn't exactly use a holiday responder to automate it the way I sometimes do with other things.
It's especially to be in trouble with them because in combination with Amazon, right now ...
These two platforms are still all that I've got because ...
Update Part Three: Clickbank Powered Is Dead
Here's something amazing: CB Powered wasn't that great, but it was a third leg on my chair. Although expensive, I opted to use it because at the time I didn't want to buy OptimizePress or whatever (now I have OP).
Anyhow, I often pulled enough to pay the rent based on an ebook. Yes, an ebook even in 2014. I believe that the book could pull lots and lots of money if I just could get traffic to it ...
Nonetheless, they closed it down and now have CB University and Site Builder. I asked them how much these services are going to cost following the 3 month free trial they threw CB Powered people into.
They told me to call them to have a chat about it.
I told them to cancel me right the fuck out of there. I'll thrive on hoplinks if I have to, thank you very much. But if I'm to pay for a service, please don't give me "lines are open between 9 am and 5 pm Monday to Friday" nonsense.
Update Part Four: Membership Site Construction
So far so good, but it's not done yet. My strategy is this:
1) New opt-in top-centre on my site with a side bar opt-in and opt-ins at the bottom of every post (side and bottom already in play)
2) Prospects sent a 4-video sequence. I'll be split-testing these. One version, each video ends with a sales-pitch, i.e. "your next video will be coming tomorrow, but if you loved this, you're really going to love ..." My gut tells me this isn't going to be effective.
But here's the thing about your gut: You simply cannot know without testing. So I'll be testing.
The logical disconnect in this version is that if people buy on say video 2, then I've got to have them removed from the mailing list so that they aren't pummeled with more free content when they should now be in the member's area. I can't figure out how to get this working in Aweber, so I need to outsource help with it.
The other part of the split-test will be straight, high-value four video sequence with a final sales presentation video and a 3 email follow-up offering them to look at the sales video again or go straight to a sales page.
For all of these, I have audio testimonials, written testimonials, all with photos. It's going to look super good. Can't wait to get it done.
Update Part Five: Crippled Internet
I decided to move out of an apartment I was never in that had Wi-fi into my girlfriend's that doesn't. I used to go there to work like it was my office, but what an expensive office!
At my gf's, I use a usb connection, one of these shit things with 5gb for 15 Euro a month with severe throttling after those gb are gone. I cannot believe it's impossible to buy a usb unlimited streaming service, but I can't find a solution.
This bad internet, in addition to having an outsourced dude who has really started to drop the ball, is really slowing down the membership site development, which still has the following to go:
1) The two full autoresponder sequences.
2) Recording the second set of videos (really just recording new endings for each one)
3) Getting the delayed buy button working correctly
4) Some final touches to the membership site itself, which really looks great inside. I'm using VimeoPro to embed vids, but have to get a right-click to download video function going.
5) Get traffic. I'm not at 10-20 signups a day, but need more. Which leads me to:
Update Part Six: Guest Posting
Not much to say here. So far almost all of my guest posting efforts have been rejected. People just don't like my quirky, say-it-like-it-is style.
Plus, I'm not so hot with the "4 Reasons Your Feet Will Always Stink After Walking In Shit" junk posts that most of the high traffic sites feature. But I'm not at traffic-buying levels yet, so it's got to be done.
For these purposes, I started using this writing app:
Hemingway
I'm not using it now to compose this, but it's really cool. Even cooler is that after using it for a few weeks, I notice that my brain is rewiring to write differently. Slowly but surely.
Overall, this is a good thing. I'm going to pump a novel through it and see what happens. I hear that Hemingway did pretty good for himself, after all.
Update Part Seven: My own blog
I've been upping the game here with longer, much higher value posts than ever before. I usually make some kind of video now and incorporate all kinds of graphics. I still never get discussion posts, but that's not really what I'm after. The blog is for capturing email addresses. Sure, I get some sales now and then, but I'm hoping that my higher quality posts will draw more attention and maybe I can work on getting shares.
I need to work on:
1) CCarter speed-up tactics
2) Keeping going
Update Part 8: My Podcast
I've been meeting some interesting people through this and getting good people to interview who send traffic.
Rinse and repeat.
Update Part 9: Wikipedia
At one point the page I arranged for got taken down. The fiverr guy who put it up in the first place held true to his word that he would get it back up and now it's seems to be sticking. I am a person of note!
Update Part 10: Outsourced Editor
So, I outsourced an editor with some ghostwriting functions to compile over 1500 pages from my daily newsletter into a book. I should be hearing back in another week or so with a draft of it. Really looking forward to seeing what she comes up with.
Then, I will outsource someone to collect a list of 150-200 or so agents, write my proposal with 2 sample chapters and whizz these suckers through the door. The goal is to have a NYT bestseller.
As for this time, been a delay in updating this thread due to personal shit. I won't cloud the waters with that, but let's just quote Judas Priest and say that "love bites."
The upshot is that we're not married, and since the confirmation of my divorce arrived two days ago, I truly am free!
Update Part One: Amazon
Amazon revenue sunk last month from over 2k to 1200. I'm not sure why the swing, but so far September isn't proving any better. I've been playing with the fancy Kindle Countdown feature, which I think has an effect.
Here's my suspicion for the slump:
No one has reviewed any of my books lately, either positive or negative. I think the real trick to staying high in the rankings is to have a regular stream of reviews.
To date, I've never purchased reviews, though I have come up with shenanigans to get them. The best seems to be appealing to my list for them in exchange for some new book. But one can only do this so often, especially when you have a daily newsletter.
I belong to a review network too, but the people there are so burned that it barely works.
Why?
Because reciprocation is not the beast many people think it is.
Anyhow, I've still gotten some good reviews there and I always personally reciprocate.
However, it's ultimately a dead end if you can't get a steady stream of reviews once the kickstart is over. At least, so it seems to me.
As a side note, a book that had been generating several hundred a month was slaughtered by "organic" reviews simply because it has a pitch to a video course. I'm not sure what to do to revive it, but the good think is that I wrote it as a stick letter for people already in my courses, so it can still serve that function.
One thing that also seems to spike up Amazon response is adding new books. But more than 2 years later, a book a month is starting to get to me. Still, I've got two halfway finished and so long as my books are purchased, they do create good leads. Not the best possible leads, but enough people to convert to video courses to have some amazing months in conjunction with ...
Update Part Two: Udemy
I think Udemy is pretty awesome. In conjunction with Amazon, I've had an 8k and 10k month back to back. Plus, the way that I can email thousands of students there, even if it isn't my own list, has been a great training ground for learning and seeing the power of long copy.
This month is slumping, however, and I made a big mistake - or so it seems. Another instructor introduced the concept of a "super coupon" in which a large number of us promoted a large number of courses as a kind of syndicate.
This was cool on the one hand because it led to 3k revenue in 4 days.
Not cool was the Udemyslap. It seems that they've removed me from organic search after emailing me about the inappropriateness of having participated in the promotion. They claim that thousands of people unsubbed from Udemy as a result of getting sometimes dozens of emails from this "syndicate" of coupon senders.
Weird thing is that I didn't merely send out this coupon.
Oh no. I like to sweeten every deal. Wiseguy that I am, I told people that I would give them access to one other of my courses if they participated. This is good because some of my other courses experienced a large boost in attendance, which is an important part of social proof there, but it was a lot of work because I couldn't exactly use a holiday responder to automate it the way I sometimes do with other things.
It's especially to be in trouble with them because in combination with Amazon, right now ...
These two platforms are still all that I've got because ...
Update Part Three: Clickbank Powered Is Dead
Here's something amazing: CB Powered wasn't that great, but it was a third leg on my chair. Although expensive, I opted to use it because at the time I didn't want to buy OptimizePress or whatever (now I have OP).
Anyhow, I often pulled enough to pay the rent based on an ebook. Yes, an ebook even in 2014. I believe that the book could pull lots and lots of money if I just could get traffic to it ...
Nonetheless, they closed it down and now have CB University and Site Builder. I asked them how much these services are going to cost following the 3 month free trial they threw CB Powered people into.
They told me to call them to have a chat about it.
I told them to cancel me right the fuck out of there. I'll thrive on hoplinks if I have to, thank you very much. But if I'm to pay for a service, please don't give me "lines are open between 9 am and 5 pm Monday to Friday" nonsense.
Update Part Four: Membership Site Construction
So far so good, but it's not done yet. My strategy is this:
1) New opt-in top-centre on my site with a side bar opt-in and opt-ins at the bottom of every post (side and bottom already in play)
2) Prospects sent a 4-video sequence. I'll be split-testing these. One version, each video ends with a sales-pitch, i.e. "your next video will be coming tomorrow, but if you loved this, you're really going to love ..." My gut tells me this isn't going to be effective.
But here's the thing about your gut: You simply cannot know without testing. So I'll be testing.
The logical disconnect in this version is that if people buy on say video 2, then I've got to have them removed from the mailing list so that they aren't pummeled with more free content when they should now be in the member's area. I can't figure out how to get this working in Aweber, so I need to outsource help with it.
The other part of the split-test will be straight, high-value four video sequence with a final sales presentation video and a 3 email follow-up offering them to look at the sales video again or go straight to a sales page.
For all of these, I have audio testimonials, written testimonials, all with photos. It's going to look super good. Can't wait to get it done.
Update Part Five: Crippled Internet
I decided to move out of an apartment I was never in that had Wi-fi into my girlfriend's that doesn't. I used to go there to work like it was my office, but what an expensive office!
At my gf's, I use a usb connection, one of these shit things with 5gb for 15 Euro a month with severe throttling after those gb are gone. I cannot believe it's impossible to buy a usb unlimited streaming service, but I can't find a solution.
This bad internet, in addition to having an outsourced dude who has really started to drop the ball, is really slowing down the membership site development, which still has the following to go:
1) The two full autoresponder sequences.
2) Recording the second set of videos (really just recording new endings for each one)
3) Getting the delayed buy button working correctly
4) Some final touches to the membership site itself, which really looks great inside. I'm using VimeoPro to embed vids, but have to get a right-click to download video function going.
5) Get traffic. I'm not at 10-20 signups a day, but need more. Which leads me to:
Update Part Six: Guest Posting
Not much to say here. So far almost all of my guest posting efforts have been rejected. People just don't like my quirky, say-it-like-it-is style.
Plus, I'm not so hot with the "4 Reasons Your Feet Will Always Stink After Walking In Shit" junk posts that most of the high traffic sites feature. But I'm not at traffic-buying levels yet, so it's got to be done.
For these purposes, I started using this writing app:
Hemingway
I'm not using it now to compose this, but it's really cool. Even cooler is that after using it for a few weeks, I notice that my brain is rewiring to write differently. Slowly but surely.
Overall, this is a good thing. I'm going to pump a novel through it and see what happens. I hear that Hemingway did pretty good for himself, after all.
Update Part Seven: My own blog
I've been upping the game here with longer, much higher value posts than ever before. I usually make some kind of video now and incorporate all kinds of graphics. I still never get discussion posts, but that's not really what I'm after. The blog is for capturing email addresses. Sure, I get some sales now and then, but I'm hoping that my higher quality posts will draw more attention and maybe I can work on getting shares.
I need to work on:
1) CCarter speed-up tactics
2) Keeping going
Update Part 8: My Podcast
I've been meeting some interesting people through this and getting good people to interview who send traffic.
Rinse and repeat.
Update Part 9: Wikipedia
At one point the page I arranged for got taken down. The fiverr guy who put it up in the first place held true to his word that he would get it back up and now it's seems to be sticking. I am a person of note!
Update Part 10: Outsourced Editor
So, I outsourced an editor with some ghostwriting functions to compile over 1500 pages from my daily newsletter into a book. I should be hearing back in another week or so with a draft of it. Really looking forward to seeing what she comes up with.
Then, I will outsource someone to collect a list of 150-200 or so agents, write my proposal with 2 sample chapters and whizz these suckers through the door. The goal is to have a NYT bestseller.
[... character count tapped, this is a continuation ...]
Why?
Because a very high up dude who could take my stuff to an astronomical level said to come back when I have one.
I figured it can't really be that hard.
We shall see.
Concluding Thoughts
* I still struggle with the fantasy that people are going to magically do things for me. This is not helped by the fact that sometimes they do. For example:
- young dude is developing an app for me pro bono
- dude with great game history asked me to collab on a game based out of my stuff
- dude got one of my video courses closed-captioned so that it can be shown in high schools and universities
Still, the brunt of things rests on my shoulders, even though things like this are happening only because I'm pushing so hard to keep this game going without the crippling effects of a job.
* My need to get off the backs of Amazon and Udemy is ever-present on my mind.
* My confidence in how I'm going to market my membership area wavers. Only testing, refining, more testing, more refining will tell.
And that's the mindgame: I know that this can succeed on its own without Amazon and Udemy. Making a good living off my stuff - certainly more at the moment than I ever would as see as a professor - is possible. It's just a matter of getting all the parts moving and then optimizing them.
* As soon as possible I want to join a blog network and see what happens when I do.
* As my revenue has grown, so too has my risk tolerance. This is amazing to see. Also, my generosity has grown. I don't know if you believe in the idea that contribution will bring you more wealth, but I do. I also believe it's good for the psychology and mindset to share back, just so long as it's not hand outs. It took me a long time to find a charity I feel good about supporting, but now that I have, it's great. It's actually not really a charity, but a kind of entrepreneurial thing.
This is what appealed to me:
The guy who founded it pays all the overhead. Every dollar goes exactly where it's supposed to (at least, that's the promise).
Because it's really small, you get to see a lot more of what's going on.
Basically, you contribute to the funding of other charitable projects that people have for which they applied for funding. Like the dude who wanted to bring bicycles to villages in destitute places. Sounds retarded on the surface, but just imagine the difference between having to walk 3 hours for water or medicine or whatever, and having just one bike so just one dude can commute and achieve this or that.
Whatever. That kind of thing appealed to me, and I liked the entrepreneurial spirit of the guy who came up with the idea. There are other things like that, some of which are really ingenious, others of which are practical, like helping poor old people get hearing aids. Others are just basic survival-inducing projects.
And that's my update.
... eighteenth transmission out ...
Why?
Because a very high up dude who could take my stuff to an astronomical level said to come back when I have one.
I figured it can't really be that hard.
We shall see.
Concluding Thoughts
* I still struggle with the fantasy that people are going to magically do things for me. This is not helped by the fact that sometimes they do. For example:
- young dude is developing an app for me pro bono
- dude with great game history asked me to collab on a game based out of my stuff
- dude got one of my video courses closed-captioned so that it can be shown in high schools and universities
Still, the brunt of things rests on my shoulders, even though things like this are happening only because I'm pushing so hard to keep this game going without the crippling effects of a job.
* My need to get off the backs of Amazon and Udemy is ever-present on my mind.
* My confidence in how I'm going to market my membership area wavers. Only testing, refining, more testing, more refining will tell.
And that's the mindgame: I know that this can succeed on its own without Amazon and Udemy. Making a good living off my stuff - certainly more at the moment than I ever would as see as a professor - is possible. It's just a matter of getting all the parts moving and then optimizing them.
* As soon as possible I want to join a blog network and see what happens when I do.
* As my revenue has grown, so too has my risk tolerance. This is amazing to see. Also, my generosity has grown. I don't know if you believe in the idea that contribution will bring you more wealth, but I do. I also believe it's good for the psychology and mindset to share back, just so long as it's not hand outs. It took me a long time to find a charity I feel good about supporting, but now that I have, it's great. It's actually not really a charity, but a kind of entrepreneurial thing.
This is what appealed to me:
The guy who founded it pays all the overhead. Every dollar goes exactly where it's supposed to (at least, that's the promise).
Because it's really small, you get to see a lot more of what's going on.
Basically, you contribute to the funding of other charitable projects that people have for which they applied for funding. Like the dude who wanted to bring bicycles to villages in destitute places. Sounds retarded on the surface, but just imagine the difference between having to walk 3 hours for water or medicine or whatever, and having just one bike so just one dude can commute and achieve this or that.
Whatever. That kind of thing appealed to me, and I liked the entrepreneurial spirit of the guy who came up with the idea. There are other things like that, some of which are really ingenious, others of which are practical, like helping poor old people get hearing aids. Others are just basic survival-inducing projects.
And that's my update.
... eighteenth transmission out ...
<~~ This guy is impressed! Keep going, keep going!
Sidenote - My 1k is slightly relevant, hope it helps you in what you've set out to achieve.
Sidenote - My 1k is slightly relevant, hope it helps you in what you've set out to achieve.
Thanks for this, BlogHue. I'm rolling and rolling.
No news for this update other than that Clickbank Powered is dying soon and I'm not upgrading to their Clickbank Sitebuilder. They want $67 a month which is $20 more than CBPowered.
The pages you can build look fairly good, but the problem is that you can't make multiple sales pages that link to the same product! That is completely useless for not only split-testing but the fact that I want to do milestone testing.
Milestone testing, by the way, is when you have one of these long sequence videos, but instead of waiting for people to buy at the end of the sequence, you have a pitch at the end of every video. If they purchase, they're removed from the promotion, receive your product and then go onto an ascension list. I'm not going to do an immediate upsell (at least not yet) but will upsell based on the new list buyers belong to.
Recent to-do list:
* Learn Aweber's unsubscribe-on-subscribe for the sales milestone videos.
Unsubscribe quote of not only the day but probably the year:
Too much! Every damn day! You're worse than those pushy evangelical Jesus-peddlers.
I really love this one!
... 20th transmission out ...
Keep on, man.
As far as the sharing thing... meh, I contribute the success of other people.. and sometimes things flow back... still not as much as I give out.
Anyhow..
Thanks for sharing the Hemingway app link. Working on making my writing clearer. As a German, I am prone to having at least 4 seperate sentences structured into one mega-long structure, complete with tons of commas and - if needs must - even hyphens, and parentheses (a semicolon is seldom needed, but can come in handy), and it makes my sentences less readable to an American audience (as well as most people reading this sentence have either given up by now, don't understand it, or haven't gotten the joke).
This will help a lot.
::emp::
As far as the sharing thing... meh, I contribute the success of other people.. and sometimes things flow back... still not as much as I give out.
Anyhow..
Thanks for sharing the Hemingway app link. Working on making my writing clearer. As a German, I am prone to having at least 4 seperate sentences structured into one mega-long structure, complete with tons of commas and - if needs must - even hyphens, and parentheses (a semicolon is seldom needed, but can come in handy), and it makes my sentences less readable to an American audience (as well as most people reading this sentence have either given up by now, don't understand it, or haven't gotten the joke).
This will help a lot.
::emp::
Thanks emp and CPR_dummy.
I added Grammarly | Instant Grammar Check - Plagiarism Checker - Online Proofreader to the mix, but I don't think it really adds anything to what old Hemingway can do. But I was too late to opt-out before they dinged me with a year one fee so I guess I'll have to use it for at least that long. And why not?
While I'm here, can anyone recommend an Aweber freelance expert. I'm having a hell of a time figuring out how to set up my sales sequence. It's a bit more elaborate than most, but elegant. It's just a matter of setting it up, but my talent does not lie with techno-mucking.
I'm going to post a request for suggestions elsewhere on WF too. So far what I've been finding on Elance is not a whole lot of people who look like they can help.
I added Grammarly | Instant Grammar Check - Plagiarism Checker - Online Proofreader to the mix, but I don't think it really adds anything to what old Hemingway can do. But I was too late to opt-out before they dinged me with a year one fee so I guess I'll have to use it for at least that long. And why not?
While I'm here, can anyone recommend an Aweber freelance expert. I'm having a hell of a time figuring out how to set up my sales sequence. It's a bit more elaborate than most, but elegant. It's just a matter of setting it up, but my talent does not lie with techno-mucking.
I'm going to post a request for suggestions elsewhere on WF too. So far what I've been finding on Elance is not a whole lot of people who look like they can help.
This, incidentally, is my cry for Aweber help:
http://www.wickedfire.com/design-de...xpert-anyone-know-someone-who-freelances.html
http://www.wickedfire.com/design-de...xpert-anyone-know-someone-who-freelances.html
Well, no one knows any Aweber experts, so I went to Aweber Pro Tools, popped $399 on the table and they're going to walk me through everything and make a recording of the personalized training.
The power of coin. I'm a bit reckless with my investing in tools and services, but I don't care. It's only numbers. I want to get this stuff done and prosper.
And so I shall.
Listening/editing now to a 30 minute guest podcast someone sent to me extolling the praises of what I do in my niche. It's awesome. You know you have a cult when people not only send you fan mail, but fan audio too!
New book out, almost done another, hard to avoid tinkering on the fourth draft of a novel. But fuck, it's fun.
Discipline. Not. Working.
... 21st transmission out ...
The power of coin. I'm a bit reckless with my investing in tools and services, but I don't care. It's only numbers. I want to get this stuff done and prosper.
And so I shall.
Listening/editing now to a 30 minute guest podcast someone sent to me extolling the praises of what I do in my niche. It's awesome. You know you have a cult when people not only send you fan mail, but fan audio too!
New book out, almost done another, hard to avoid tinkering on the fourth draft of a novel. But fuck, it's fun.
Discipline. Not. Working.
... 21st transmission out ...
Unsubscribe comment of the day:
Too much coming into my inbox... and this requires more than a cursory glance each time. Thanks.
Ah, success ...
In other news, I'm meeting with a dude from Aweber Pro Tools. He's going to walk me through everything I need to know about setting up the advanced funnel I'm working on.
Basically, that funnel works like this:
Following email capture, the prospect is invited to watch video one of a four video sequence.
If they don't watch it, they stay on that initial list that prompts them to watch the video periodically and gives them huge value over months and months until that they finally do click that dang link.
When they do, they got to list two. This list gives them video one of the sequence. If they buy access to my member's area, they go to the member's area and are taken to list 3, which is an ascension list where I continue to motivate, educate and upsell them on something else that I haven't quite decided yet. We shall see. In any case, they're removed from list 2 whenever in the 4 video sequence they buy.
If they don't buy, list 2 becomes similar to list 1. High value followed by engagement. This list will essentially be exactly like my daily newsletter, only after the fact and a bit more refined.
Exciting times! (Assuming the Aweber Pro Tools guy can actually help me figure out how to get it running).
... 22nd transmission out ...
Too much coming into my inbox... and this requires more than a cursory glance each time. Thanks.
Ah, success ...
In other news, I'm meeting with a dude from Aweber Pro Tools. He's going to walk me through everything I need to know about setting up the advanced funnel I'm working on.
Basically, that funnel works like this:
Following email capture, the prospect is invited to watch video one of a four video sequence.
If they don't watch it, they stay on that initial list that prompts them to watch the video periodically and gives them huge value over months and months until that they finally do click that dang link.
When they do, they got to list two. This list gives them video one of the sequence. If they buy access to my member's area, they go to the member's area and are taken to list 3, which is an ascension list where I continue to motivate, educate and upsell them on something else that I haven't quite decided yet. We shall see. In any case, they're removed from list 2 whenever in the 4 video sequence they buy.
If they don't buy, list 2 becomes similar to list 1. High value followed by engagement. This list will essentially be exactly like my daily newsletter, only after the fact and a bit more refined.
Exciting times! (Assuming the Aweber Pro Tools guy can actually help me figure out how to get it running).
... 22nd transmission out ...
Loving it, good read buddy. Thought about releasing videos for free on places like Udemy to build an audience?
Thanks for this!
I have a strong Udemy presence, yes. One of my courses is a bestseller there and they've got me on their "Council" etc.
I just released a new course there as well and quickly accumulated 1100 new people with a free blast. They should be useful. If not for future sales (probably not) for generating reviews and other fun things.
In my own news, I'll soon be working on optimizing my site. I found this interesting article about getting speeds up:
15 Easy Ways To Speed Up WordPress: Why Slow Page Load Equals Slow Blog Growth via @sniply
We'll see if it helps traffic and signups to put some of these things to work.
My funnel is almost done.
Aweber Pro Tools is awesome. Highly recommend them if you want to up your game.
Other than that, all is well. I had an interview transcribed that came out nicely and will add 18 pages to a new Kindle book that was going to be too short. It can be offered as a bonus in other places, a bribe for reviews, etc.
Always much to do.
... 23rd transmission out ...
With respect to Andrew's question:
There's no point in making a free course to get leads because Udemy won't let you market paid courses to these people.
The better strategy is to make a paid course and give it away free so that you can market other courses to these people. I get sales from this all the time.
In my news ... Man, it's been awhile since I could post because I've been so busy.
Progress:
New free 4 video series for my optin box. Each video has a pitch. Getting great conversions (from 10 sign ups a day to sometimes 80).
But in 3 weeks only 2 sales. Something's wrong with my videos and the sales page.
That means, you guessed it, more work!
Luckily I've got Udemy, however. That's paying the bills.
Amazon is starting to limp, however. Down from 2k in August to 1600 in September and it looks like October will be even lower.
But Amazon has also made some crazy changes. They're encouraging people to subscribe. Then, if they get your book, you only get paid if they scroll past the first 10 pages.
You all know where this is going to lead:
Soon you won't get your commission until they've scrolled the end.
After that, you won't get coin until they've gone to the end and left a review to acknowledge that you've read the book.
Back to my funnel:
I'm so glad to have it done and be on the optimizing stage. Because I'm getting decent amounts of optins, it's just a matter of testing and testing and testing for conversion.
What else?
I'm writing two books at the same time having just finished a short video course and recorded the audio for another.
One of these books will become my biggest and most ambitious video course ever. I've also sat down and created operating protocol to help myself instead of going willy nilly.
Here is that protocol:
1) Write the course as a book
2) Record the audio (I record the audio with screenflow while narrating the book and then chop the video out)
3) Make the slides from the audio while editing the video
4) Upload to Udemy
5) Put in all the descriptions
6) Sales copy
7) Promote with deadline
8) Promote again a few days later
9) Add some bonuses and create an announcement to help the buyers "stick" when they see a pleasant surprise. This is not necessary (and maybe doesn't even work), but I like to create good will. I also like to slip in a little suggestion that they buy something else too with a coupon code.
There's more going on, but that's all the news for now.
Oh, but I should say that I've more than doubled last year's revenue and there's still two months to go. I feel like I'm going about things ass backward with respect to most of the things people are talking about here, but for a content creator who has no affiliates apart from the ones who find me through Udemy, not bad. Not bad at all.
... 24th transmission out ...
There's no point in making a free course to get leads because Udemy won't let you market paid courses to these people.
The better strategy is to make a paid course and give it away free so that you can market other courses to these people. I get sales from this all the time.
In my news ... Man, it's been awhile since I could post because I've been so busy.
Progress:
New free 4 video series for my optin box. Each video has a pitch. Getting great conversions (from 10 sign ups a day to sometimes 80).
But in 3 weeks only 2 sales. Something's wrong with my videos and the sales page.
That means, you guessed it, more work!
Luckily I've got Udemy, however. That's paying the bills.
Amazon is starting to limp, however. Down from 2k in August to 1600 in September and it looks like October will be even lower.
But Amazon has also made some crazy changes. They're encouraging people to subscribe. Then, if they get your book, you only get paid if they scroll past the first 10 pages.
You all know where this is going to lead:
Soon you won't get your commission until they've scrolled the end.
After that, you won't get coin until they've gone to the end and left a review to acknowledge that you've read the book.
Back to my funnel:
I'm so glad to have it done and be on the optimizing stage. Because I'm getting decent amounts of optins, it's just a matter of testing and testing and testing for conversion.
What else?
I'm writing two books at the same time having just finished a short video course and recorded the audio for another.
One of these books will become my biggest and most ambitious video course ever. I've also sat down and created operating protocol to help myself instead of going willy nilly.
Here is that protocol:
1) Write the course as a book
2) Record the audio (I record the audio with screenflow while narrating the book and then chop the video out)
3) Make the slides from the audio while editing the video
4) Upload to Udemy
5) Put in all the descriptions
6) Sales copy
7) Promote with deadline
8) Promote again a few days later
9) Add some bonuses and create an announcement to help the buyers "stick" when they see a pleasant surprise. This is not necessary (and maybe doesn't even work), but I like to create good will. I also like to slip in a little suggestion that they buy something else too with a coupon code.
There's more going on, but that's all the news for now.
Oh, but I should say that I've more than doubled last year's revenue and there's still two months to go. I feel like I'm going about things ass backward with respect to most of the things people are talking about here, but for a content creator who has no affiliates apart from the ones who find me through Udemy, not bad. Not bad at all.
... 24th transmission out ...
Tonnes of updates, including a funnel that's almost done.
But of most interest is some site speed stuff I had someone work on.
I'm now at 2.7 seconds load time. Pops on like lightning.
I now have Optin Monster running too. Snagging email addresses left right and center.
A lot of it is complex and over my head. Outsourced to the best. Having fun.
... 25th transmission out ...
But of most interest is some site speed stuff I had someone work on.
I'm now at 2.7 seconds load time. Pops on like lightning.
I now have Optin Monster running too. Snagging email addresses left right and center.
A lot of it is complex and over my head. Outsourced to the best. Having fun.
... 25th transmission out ...
Pushing hard.
Got a new Kindle book on free promo into the top 100. Never been that high. Helps that the KING of my niche tweeted the promo.
Will soon be working on the video course version.
So tired.
The best time to push harder, I suppose.
I suppose.
In the meantime, I've realized that I need to hire a damn good copywriter.
The kind who can write copy like for the recent SourcePhoenix launch.
If anyone here knows those guys and can get me in touch for a consult, I ain't asking for a freebie.
... 26th transmission out ...
Got a new Kindle book on free promo into the top 100. Never been that high. Helps that the KING of my niche tweeted the promo.
Will soon be working on the video course version.
So tired.
The best time to push harder, I suppose.
I suppose.
In the meantime, I've realized that I need to hire a damn good copywriter.
The kind who can write copy like for the recent SourcePhoenix launch.
If anyone here knows those guys and can get me in touch for a consult, I ain't asking for a freebie.
... 26th transmission out ...