Tag Archives: product launch formula reviews

5 Ways To Use Bonuses To Increase Your Product Launch Profits

While using the Product Launch Formula process to launch (or re-launch) your product or service can give you an unfair advantage, it’s not always understood how much adding strategically designed bonuses to your core offer can increase your product launch profits.

Not only can great bonuses increase your sales, they can also reduce refunds and retain customers. Of course you can’t just throw any old thing into the mix and expect magical results. But if you create bonuses that people in your market will see as desirable, you can supercharge your product launch results

Here are 5 ways you can use bonuses to grow your sales and profits…

1. Increase Conversions on Your Launch Offer

The most basic way to use bonuses is to offer them for free as part of your product launch offer. This helps boost conversions by giving your customers even more incentive to buy from you. This works particularly well when you offer a bonus that helps your customers optimise or enhance the usefulness of your main offer.

For example, if the core offer is a copywriting course, then you might offer a set of sales page templates as a bonus.

2. To Gain And Retain Members

If you are launching a membership site or some kind of program involving continuity (a SAAS for example) another great way to use bonuses is to retain members and keep them coming back again and again. Here are the keys to this method:

1. Space out multiple bonuses over a period of time. For example, if you have a fixed-term membership that lasts for 12 months, you might give members the first bonus immediately, followed by a new bonus every two or three months. You can also give your best bonus as a “graduation bonus” for those who stay with you through the entire training.
2. Be sure your bonuses are highly attractive. This strategy only works if your bonuses are valuable and something that your members really want. That means you have to do some market research so you have a better understanding of what your audience wants. So for example, if your market is already purchasing a certain type of product, then giving them a product similar to what people are buying, or even a better version, would be a great bonus.

3. To Increase ‘Stick’ And Reduce Refunds

There are two ways to increase the ‘stick rate’ of your offer and reduce refunds with bonuses:

Offer a surprise bonus. Give buyers an unannounced bonus on the download page or in a followup email. This can help you to exceed your customers’ expectations, which leads to higher customer satisfaction and lower refund rages.
Offer a delayed bonus. The idea here is to announce the bonus, but let customers know the bonus will be sent to them after a certain time period (which should be after the refund period has expired).

Here’s another way to use bonuses to grow your business…

4. Motivate Your Affiliates To Promote Your Product Launch

Want to see a quick boost to your sales? Then offer your affiliates an awesome bonus for good performance. In most cases, using cash as a bonus will get you the best results. Most of the big launches have huge cash prizes for the top couple of affiliates, and nice prizes for the rest of the top 10.

Here are three popular ways to use this method:

Create an affiliate contest and offer a cash bonus to the top five or ten affiliates. You might also create a random drawing where everyone who makes at least two sales during the contest period is eligible to win.
Create an lead generation contest and offer a smaller cash bonus to the top five people. Your goal with this strategy is to encourage your affiliates to work overtime helping you grow your email list. As you know, a product launch is one of the best ways to quickly grow your list. Incentivising your affiliates to help you with this can have a massive ROI when you consider the future sales you’ll make to the prospects referred to you.
Offer a bonus every month for any affiliate who crosses a specific sales threshold. For example, if an affiliate makes at least 25 sales, they’ll either get a flat cash bonus or an increase in their commission rate.

And finally…

5. Add Value to Your Future Affiliate Offers

One of the biggest assets you’ll end up with from using the Product Launch Formula process to do a JV Launch is the email list you build from all the traffic your affiliate partners send you.

And once you’ve finished your launch, you can then return the favor by promoting suitable products and services as one of their launch affiliates. Of course when you participate in launches, you have competition from dozens if not hundreds of other people who’re all promoting the same offer.

The way you can set yourself apart is by offering an in-demand, valuable bonus to anyone who purchases the affiliate product you are promoting through your link. Not only does this boost conversions on the frontend, it also gives you a chance to make sales on the backend via offers you embed inside the bonus.

In other words, embed links to your other products and services (or affiliate offers) inside the product you are giving away as a bonus, and when people purchase something from a link in your bonus, you get paid.

So there you have it. 5 simple ways you can use bonuses to grow your sales during your product launch. Your homework for this lesson is to write down all the ways in which bonuses could benefit YOUR business.

For example, if you have a sales page, then you’ll want to add bonuses to boost conversions.

If you have an affiliate program, then you should work out what sort of bonuses you could use to motivate affiliates.

The key is to make sure your bonus is valuable, highly related to the main offer, and something that your prospects really want. If your bonuses meet these qualifications, then you are very likely to see increased sales and profits.

I really hope this helps you to increase the value of your product as you use the Product Launch Formula Process to build your business.

Warm regards,

Rocky Tapscott

PLUS: When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you to grow your business using product launches:

1. How To Create A Signature Product Out Of Thin Air In 72 Hours Or Less
Creating your product does not need to take weeks or months. My 72 Hour Product Creation Guide shows you how to build high value products one after the other in 72 hours or less. Click Here.

2. How To Outsource Your Product Creation And Make It Hands Free.
Outsourcing the creation of some or all of your products and bonuses is a great way to save your time for the more important (and more fun) things you’d rather be doing. Grab my Hands Free Outsourcing Cheat Sheet to learn more. Click Here.

3. How To Build A Profitable Launch List.
Building an email list is critical if you plan on doing a launch for your product, service or business. My 1-2-3 List Building Cheat Sheet will show you how to build a responsive list of prospects who are ready to buy from you during your launch. Click Here.

Also, check this out 🙂

Jeff Walker’s free Product Launch Formula training.

Disclaimer: If you purchase PLF through my affiliate link I may receive a referral fee from Jeff Walker, however you will pay no more to purchase the program through me than if you went directly to the Product Launch Formula website. If you would like my personal help as you create your first launch using the PLF process, check out my PLF Bonus offer here.

How To Use Product Launch Formula To Persuade Rather Than Manipulate

I’ve always been fascinated by the subtle difference between persuasion and manipulation. And because the multi-stage sales process Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula uses is so powerful, it can be used to either persuade people… or to manipulate them.

Let me explain…

The difference between persuasion and manipulation can be very subtle, but I’ve found it comes down to one core idea – your intent.

Persuasion is when your intent is to move somebody towards making a decision that benefits THEM much more than it benefits you. Manipulation is trying to move people towards a decision that benefits YOU, and can often mean negative consequences for the other person.

We see this every day. The stereotypical ‘dodgy’ salesman who’s trying to get a prospect to buy an overpriced or shoddy product or service that pays them an exorbitant commission, when they know what they are selling of little or no use to the customer.

Or some ‘health guru’ promoting their miracle weight loss product knowing full well it’s not going to help people lose weight, and could actually harm their health.

Persuasion leads to having happy customers who trust you and often buy from you over the long-term. Manipulation usually leads to being exposed and labeled as a fraud and a scammer, which is not the way to create a valuable legacy for yourself and your family.

So when you use the powerful Product Launch Formula process of multiple, timed releases of valuable content (what Jeff Walker calls The Sideways Salesletter), make sure your focus is on persuading your prospects using emotion, facts and logic, rather than manipulating them using deception and hype.

Note: Jeff is going to start rolling out his latest Product Launch Formula launch in a couple of weeks, so it’s probably a good idea for you to register for the waiting list for this PLF launch and watch how he does it. The free training you’ll get from watching how the creator of the online product launch ‘launches’ his flagship product will give you ideas you can ‘swipe and deploy’ in your own business, even if you never purchase the full PLF program.

And make sure you download all of the worksheets and checklists you’ll be given, and take screen shots of the key pages and make notes about how he goes through the process. These are all wonderful examples you can model for yourself.

I really hope this helps you with your business,

Cheers

Rocky Tapscott

PLUS: When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you to grow your business using product launches:

Also, check this out 🙂

Jeff Walker’s free Product Launch Formula training.

How Building A Strong Brand Can Help Your Product Launch

If you’re running a product launch for your new product or service, you’ll be using direct-response marketing campaigns to get the word out. That means you’ll be putting ads in front of people, most likely using an email sequence.

And if you’re able to build a strong brand in the lead up to your launch, you’ll already have the necessary “top of mind” awareness to generate sales. If you’ve neglected your branding, your prospect is often going to feel like they can get what you are offering from one of your competitors.

To get awareness from people in your market, branding is very important. That’s why I’ve created this frequently asked question list with answers. Take a look…

Q: Some say a brand is about the feeling you get as a customer. What does this mean?

A: This means that your brand should evoke the same feeling that your customers experience when they use your products or service.

For example, gourmet chocolatier Godiva is all about creating a feeling of sophisticated decadence an indulgence. From their golden wrappers to their writing style, to the gourmet products themselves, Godiva makes people feel special and indulged when they eat the chocolate (or receive iGodiva chocolate as a gift).

Now compare that to the branding of Mountain Dew, which is positioned to appeal to the “dudes” who like skateboarding, surfing, bungee jumping and extreme sports. Mountain Dew is all about creating excitement.

Q: What sort of factors does my branding entail?

A: The short answer: pretty much everything.

You see, a lot of people think about branding in terms of a logo. So they pick some colors and a logo design to convey their brand’s feeling, and then they call it a day. But the truth is, your brand should permeate every facet of your business. This includes:

Your logo
Your slogan
The colors and designs for your website and marketing materials
Your product packaging, and how your stuff looks when your customer receives it
Your online and offline content and marketing materials
Your customer service
Your reputation
Your Vision and Mission

And much more…

So whenever you do anything for your business, whether it’s creating the new product you’re about to launch, putting together your pre-launch content, or designing a landing page, think about how this activity or item reflects your brand.

Q: How can I build “top of mind” awareness?

A: When your prospects think about their niche-specific problems, you want them to associate your business with the solution to those problems. And the way to do this is by building brand awareness.

For example:

Sign off emails, social media posts and other content with something related to your brand. E.G., John The Copy Doctor.
Create contests with a focus on building brand awareness. For example, ask entrants to create a short video commercial based around your brand.
Be sure your ad campaigns strongly incorporate your brand (with your slogan, logo, etc.).

Example, Product Launch Strategy is creating a brand around “launching products and services” which help business owners make money building and launching their dream business so they can spend money enjoying their lives with the people they love.

To sum up…

Creating a product launch for your product or service from scratch can give you awesome results. But the real magic happens when you build the top of mind awareness needed to generate sales even when your ads and launch messages aren’t sitting right in front of your prospect’s nose!

If you can build that kind of awareness, both before and after your initial launch, you can create a long-term, sustainable business for yourself and your family that will allow you to prosper for many years to come. To learn more, check out Jeff Walker’s free Product Launch Masterclass here.

Talk soon,

Rocky

PLUS: When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you to grow your business using product launches:

Also, check this out 🙂

Jeff Walker’s free Product Launch Formula training.

7 Steps To Creating An Engaged Audience For Your Product Launch

Engaging your audience during your product launch is the key to developing relationships, building trust, and creating more profits. That’s why you’ll want to use this handy-dandy checklist to help you capture and keep your audience’s attention. Take a look…

Create A Highly Targeted Audience

The absolute first step in engaging your audience is to make sure your audience is targeted. That means bringing traffic in from targeted sources.

For example, if you’re running a Facebook ad campaign, then be sure to narrow your audience down by demographics and interests so that the traffic is as targeted as possible.

And it’s always a good idea to follow what Todd Brown recommends, which is look for an audience that is a “Large, hungry, accessible mob of addicts flush with cash.”

Cater To The Needs Of Your Audience

Once you’ve selected a targeted audience, then publish content that really appeals to them. This includes:

Solving their problems.
Sending them your best tips, tricks and strategies.
Sharing niche news and how it affects your audience.
Selling products to solve their problems (preferably with exclusive discounts).

Next…

Create Attention-Getting Headlines

The next way to engage your audience is by crafting headlines that really resonate with the audience. This means showcasing a benefit and/or arousing curiosity. For example:

Who Else Wants to Know The #1 Secret For Doubling Conversion Rates?
Here’s The Super Simple Way To Never Three-Putt Again
You Won’t Believe This Easy Weight-Loss Trick!

Next…

Call Your Audience to Action

Every piece of content you create should be designed with a goal in mind. You can help improve your response rate (and engagement) by specifically telling your audience what you want them to do next.

For example:

Click here to watch the video!
Share this post now with your friends!
Click here to get your copy of this app!
Register for the free webinar by clicking here (and hurry, seating is limited)!

Next…

Connect With Your Audience

Sending out great content is one way to connect with your audience. Another way to connect with them on a more personal level is to interact with them.

For example:

Like their posts and comments on social media.
Reply thoughtfully to their comments, posts and emails.
Share their content with your network.
Showcase particularly good content on your social media pages or other platforms.

Next…

Challenge Your Audience

Another good way to engage your audience is by challenging them regularly in a niche-relevant way. For example:

Challenge a writer’s group to write an extra 1000 words today.
Challenge a weight-loss group to find a way to slice an extra 100 calories off their meals.
Challenge a business group to work an extra 30 minutes today.

If you do these challenges regularly, people will look forward to them because they’ll like the end results. In turn, this creates a more engaged audience.

Celebrate Your Audience

The idea here is to showcase your members’ achievements. You can do this on a small scale by sharing their content (with permission). You can engage your audience even more by showcasing bigger achievements.

For example: Create a “Member of the Week” feature where you interview a member to showcase their good work. For example, in a weight loss group you might interview a member who has made consistently good progress.

To Sum Up

One of the keys to building a loyal tribe is to create an engaged audience of people who know, like and trust you. Use this 7-step checklist to make sure you’ve covered the best ways to engage your people in the process of launching your new product or service.

And to learn more about engaging with your audience before, during and after you use Product Launch Formula to launch or re-launch your product or service, check out Jeff Walker’s free Product Launch Masterclass here.

Talk soon,

Rocky

PLUS: When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you to grow your business using product launches:

Also, check this out 🙂

Jeff Walker’s free Product Launch Formula training.

6 Essential Tools You Need For Building Your Product Launch Audience

Building a product launch audience for your upcoming PLF launch mostly revolves around you communicating with your members and developing relationships. Nothing can replace this human touch, but you can make the process easier by using these 6 tools…

Tool 1: Social Media

This is the big one, because social media is where you’ll find and connect with a lot of your community members during every stage of your launch.

Social media is a great way to deliver all of your content, from your pre-launch communications, to notifications and feedback about your launch content itself. Quite often you’ll see product launch videos with hundreds or thousands of Facebook comments below them. This gives you powerful social proof…

The social media platforms you’ll want to consider in order of their importance, when it comes to launching your product are:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn (if your tribe includes professionals)
• YouTube (if you intend to connect with videos)
• Instagram (if you intend to connect with photos)
• Pinterest (if you’re targeting women in a visually based field)
• Google+ (especially if you’re connecting with technical professionals)

If you use one or more of these platforms, then you’ll also need these tools…

Tool 2: Social Media Tools

Social media tools can help you find your audience, find content that will help you connect with them, and gauge reactions to see if your content and campaigns are doing what you intended for the to do. Here are two tools you may consider using:

HootSuite.com – an all-in-one tool that does everything from scheduling content to tracking performance
SproutSocial.com – another all-in-one tool you can use to manage your social media campaigns
ViralReach.in – Helps you to find great content and spread it virally

Next…

Tool 3: A CRM or Autoresponder To Reach Your Product Launch Audience

Even though you may find and interact with your audience or tribe on social media, ultimately you want to get them on your own mailing list. And that’s why you need to set up an autoresponder or CRM where you upload and schedule content to help you build relationships the hands-free way.

Examples of good autoresponders and CRM’s include:

ConvertKit.com
ActiveCampaign.com
MailChimp.com
Aweber.com
GetResponse.com

Just be sure to read the terms of service of your selected service before you sign up, to be sure your intended use of the autoresponder falls within their acceptable use. For example, some companies don’t like their customers to promote some types of products, and others don’t like you using their service for affiliate marketing (even though they have their own affiliate programs – go figure).

The 5 listed above, SHOULD be fine, but just make sure you read their terms and conditions so you don’t get half way through your launch and they decide to shut you down for some obscure reason.

Tool 4: A Blogging Platform Or Content Management System

Another good way to connect with your audience is via your own blog. Fortunately, setting up a blog is both simple and free, if you use a platform such as WordPress.org, or use a self hosted WordPress Blog on your own domain.

Tool 5: An Automated Content Scheduler

One of the keys to connecting with your audience is to send them regular content to help them solve their problems. This includes posting to social media daily, as well as posting to your blog and sending out newsletters.

Fortunately, you don’t need to be tied to your computer in order to send this content. Instead, you can use tools to upload and schedule it. This includes:

Using your email service provider’s autoresponder to upload and schedule content.
Using tools like HootSuite.com to schedule social media content, as well as post across multiple channels at once.
Using WordPress’s built-in scheduling tools to post content to your blog.

Tool 6: Freelance Sites

While nothing can replace the “human touch” needed to build a tribe, you don’t need to do it all on your own. Instead, you can find freelancers to help you create content and interact with your community members. Good places to find these freelancers include:

UpWork.com
Guru.com
Freelance.com

To sum up…

Building an audience or tribe in preparation for your product launch can take time, but you don’t need to do it all manually. Use these tools and platforms to reduce the workload, and you’ll take less time to get your product or service into the hands of your new customers.

And to learn more about building and communicating with your community before, during and after you use Product Launch Formula to launch or re-launch your product or service, check out Jeff Walker’s free Product Launch Masterclass here.

Talk soon,

Rocky

PLUS: When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you to grow your business using product launches:

Also, check this out 🙂

Jeff Walker’s free Product Launch Formula training.

The #1 Key To Having People See You As An Authority

If you’re an author, coach, consultant or any other kind of expert or business owner considering using a Product Launch Formula style of launch to start or grow your business, and you want people to see you as an authority here’s a big secret…

Your potential prospects (and of course your existing audience) are really just looking for one thing: someone trustworthy they can follow. As marketing expert Dan Kennedy is fond of saying, “Most people are walking around with their umbilical chords in their hands, looking for somewhere to plug them in”.

I think Dan nails it perfectly. Most people have been lied to, deceived and disappointed so many times, they’re looking for a strong leader in the field who can actually help them. They’re looking for a true authority who will deliver the results they want.

And if you’re using Product Launch Formula as the basis of your launch, positioning yourself as the expert who can deliver those results will not only increase your sales for your Seed Launch and your Internal Launch, but will make it easier to attract affiliates and JV partners for your JV Launch.

The beauty of using the PLF process is that Jeff Walker’s Sideways Salesletter technique allows you to prove you are an expert in your topic while not coming across as a high pressure sales person who’s just trying to flog a product or service.

It’s not surprising when you think about it.

Just take a look around your market and you’ll see a whole lot of experts and authorities all promising to help people to achieve their goals or solve their problems. The problem is many of these authorities are giving inaccurate and/or conflicting information. This confuses people, and quite often they end up getting analysis paralysis.

So if you want to stand out from the crowd and be seen as THE preeminent expert in your market, here’s what you need to do: write / share / teach with confidence.

Convey an air of authority in everything you share with your visitors. Because when you present yourself as a strong leader and it’s clear you can get people results, they will naturally want to follow you.

Plus when people trust you because you’ve helped them by actually helping them, you create the type of relationship that generates big payoffs for both you and your prospects and customers.

So how do you write or speak in a way that naturally conveys authority? The easiest way I know of is by using these two techniques…

#1: Convey Confidence

Some people feel like being too blunt with the facts can appear abrupt or even rude. And so they tend to share information in a way that comes across as weak or lacking confidence. When that happens, no matter how subtle, people are naturally going to turn away. We humans are hard wired to want to follow strong, confident leaders.

Let me give you an example…

Let’s suppose you walk up to two random people on the street and ask them for directions to the nearest petrol station, and here’s what they say:

Random Person #1: The nearest petrol station is the Shell on Allen Street. Go three blocks North, take a right at Allen Street intersection, and you’ll see it on your left.

Random Person #2: I think the closest petrol station is on Jones Street. Or it might be on Estelle Road. Head down this street for around four or five blocks, and you’ll see them on a side street. Not sure which one. Hope that helps.

So which person’s directions would you be more likely to follow? If you’re like most of us, you would take Person #1’s advice, because he seemed confident that he knew what he was talking about (even if he didn’t have a clue :-).

The point is you should be doing the same when you share information, especially your pre-launch content, with people. Be confident, be clear, be consistent, and avoid fluff, filler and industry jargon.

Speaking with authority because of your knowledge and experience leads to being recognised and respected as an authority. And people are much more lily to buy during your launch (and afterwards) if they see you as the solution to their problems or as the leader who can help them achieve their goals.

#2: Give Reasons Why

A lot of experts can give others directions for completing some task, but they don’t explain WHY the task should be completed in that specific way. And that’s why when the reader runs into conflicting information from another source, they don’t know what to believe.

That’s why you need to tell your readers WHY they should follow your specific advice.

For example, some health experts tell us that doing cardio first thing in the morning on an empty stomach is the best way to go. But others say you should have a small meal first.

So if you’re advocating one of those options to your readers, you’ll bet much more traction as an authority when tell them WHY you’ve made that specific suggestion. And to remove any doubt yours is the correct option, you should back your opinion up with scientific data.

Again, your goal here is to show people that it’s not merely that you THINK a particular course of action is accurate or best, but that you KNOW it is the solution from personal experience.

Explaining the reason why shows that you UNDERSTAND not just the correct steps to achieve their desired result, but the way things work so that the steps you suggest are the right steps to take.

To Sum Up

If you are preparing for a product launch and you want to be seen and respected as an authority in your market, then you need to start writing and presenting information with authority.

This means:

Be confident when you share information with your audience (don’t waiver or second-guess yourself)
Share good information that helps people by actually helping them (don’t leave the best ideas out)
Offer reasons why what you say is THE solution

If you do these three things correctly, you’re sure to see your authority increase and the relationships you have with your prospects grow in a positive way, which can only help to increase your product launch profits.

And to learn more about creating authority before, during and after you use Product Launch Formula to launch or re-launch your product or service, check out Jeff Walker’s free Product Launch Masterclass here.

Talk soon,

Rocky

PLUS: When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you to grow your business using product launches:

Also, check this out 🙂

Jeff Walker’s free Product Launch Formula training.

15 Of My Favorite “Splinters” To Create From Your Product Launch Content

So far in this series on creating the components of your product for your upcoming product launch, we’ve looked at what product Splintering is and how to use it to boost your product launch profits…

And you’ve learned 6 ways to splinter off products to both increase your front-end sales along with the back-end sales of your core product.

But there are still a lot of additional ways you can put this “product splitting” idea to work for you.

In this post, you’ll find 15 of my favorite “splinters” to create.

Let’s run through some Product Launch Content Splinters…

• Reports. This can be short, perhaps only 7-15 pages long.

For example, you might create a report about choosing the right shoes to help promote your marathon-running course, or perhaps you’d offer a report about cleaning a carburettor to go along with a classic car restoration course.

• Swipe files. Here’s where you provide a collection of materials for someone to use as inspiration.

For example, you might give a collection of headlines to a copywriter, or action verbs to people who’re writing a resume.

• Templates. You can save your customers time by providing “fill in the blank” templates.

For example, you might offer sales letter templates for copywriters, or survey templates for those doing market research.

• Worksheets. The idea here is to provide worksheets to help customers accomplish some specific task.

For example, you might offer a budgeting worksheet for those who’re trying to get rid of debt, or an exercise worksheet for those who want to lose weight.

• Interviews. This can be an interview with you, or it can be an interview that you conducted with another expert in the niche.

Examples include interviewing me about how to create products people want to buy, or interviewing a bestselling novelist about how where they get their book ideas.

• Q&A sessions. You can think of this as a list of frequently asked questions in your niche.

For example, you might offer a Q&A session about how you as a marketer plans your day, or perhaps you’d offer questions and answers about meal planning for a diet program.

• Checklists. These tools help people take action.

Examples include a checklist for setting up a website, or a checklist for applying for a job.

• Mind maps. These give customers a non-linear view of some process.

Examples include a mind map depicting how to write a novel, or a mind map about how to get healthier.

• Infographics. These are graphical representations of data, which makes large chunks of data or complex topics easier to digest.

Examples include an infographic describing exactly how metabolism works, or an infographic about how to improve conversion rates.

• Demo videos. Here you can show how your product works, or how to do some specific task.

For example, you might offer demo videos of specific kettlebell exercises for a strength training course.

Another example is a demo video showing how to teach a puppy to sit for a dog training course.

• Audios. People love listening to MP3s while they’re driving, working out, gardening and so on.

You might excerpt out a portion of your product and offer the audio.

Examples include inspirational quotes for a self-improvement course, or a guided meditation for a meditation product.

• Spreadsheets. These are tools for helping customers keep track of something, such as business expenses for a business owner, or workouts for a bodybuilder.

• Calculators. These could be any tools that perform a specific task, such as a loan calculator to go along with a home-buying course, or a calorie calculator for a dieting course.

• Legal documents. You’ll want to get an attorney to create these, of course.

Examples include a freelancing contract or a privacy policy for a website.

• Plugins. These are tools for WordPress blogs, such as an SEO plugin to go along with a search engine optimization product, or a split-testing plugin to help sell a course about improving conversions.

And this isn’t even an exhaustive list – if you can sell it and if it goes along with your main course, then you can splinter it off into a $7 front end product.

A few closing thoughts for creating your Product Launch Content…

Whew – at this point I bet your mind is just swimming with great ideas for ways to start using splintering in your business.

As you’ve discovered, there are a whole lot of good reasons to do it, from quickly increasing your profits to being able to build a hot customer list rather than merely a lukewarm leads list.

Best of all, there are just so many ways to use splintering to grow your results from your product launch.

In fact, you discovered six proven ways to do it inside this series of posts.

No matter what you’re using a product launch for, or what product your selling, there’s a way to use splintering to boost your profits.

So you know what you need to do next – pick out one method and put it to work for you.

And do it as soon as possible, because I think you’ll really like the results!

Warm regards,

Rocky

PLUS: When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you to grow your business using product launches:

Also, check this out 🙂

Jeff Walker’s free Product Launch Formula training.

Six Surefire Ways To Put Product Splintering To Work In Your Product Launch

So at this point after reading the previous post on using product splintering in conjunction with your product launch, you have a pretty good idea of how the process works.

But what you need now are specific ideas that you can put to work to boost revenue in your information business.

Here are six of ‘em for you…

1. Splinter bonuses

Including bonuses along with your core product is an important way to both fill any gaps in the core content, and increase the value you are offering during your product launch. Splintering off reports from your core product is a simple choice, because you can quickly and easily create a call to action at the end of the report to up-sell your main product or a package of related information for a higher price.

For example:

Sell a bonus cookbook for $27 to help sell a $197 diet program.
Sell a report about perfecting a golfer’s grip to promote your main video-based golfing package.

2. Splinter membership content

Some people balk at purchasing a membership, because they’re not sure if they want to keep paying a monthly fee if the content isn’t up to par or if they don’t have tome to consume everything provided.

That’s why splintering out some of the content to sell separately works to sell the main membership site.

Selling content (like reports or videos) works best, but you can sell access to any content or any part of your site.

For example:

Sell one month’s worth of training materials separately from a four-month fixed-termmembership course.
Sell access to a private membership forum as a way to promote full access to a membership site once people see how good the interaction with other is.

3. Splinter excerpts of your main product

The idea here is to excerpt out chapters of your book, modules in your video course, or other portions of your products.

For example:

Offer the first three chapters of a tomato-growing guide for $7, with a call to action at the end of the excerpt promoting the full course.
Let’s suppose you have a 24-module video course about online marketing. You can pull out four modules or so and sell them separately. The way I’ve done this is to sell a module that allows buyers to make money immediately from what they learn, and this puts them into a frame of mind where they’ll happily pay for the full course because it’s basically free for them.

4. Splinter your curriculum from a training class

Let’s imagine you have a class that lasts a week, a month or more.

During this class you provide training materials (curriculum), as well as one-on-one coaching.

You can offer the training materials at a low cost, which will entice people to purchase the full class in order to take advantage of your personal coaching.

For example:

People who purchase copywriting curriculum will want to buy the full course so that they can get personal sales letter critiques.
Customers who purchase weight-loss training will want to purchase the full class so they can get personalized coaching to help them plan their diet and exercise program.

5. Splinter features of a software program

The idea here is to create a “lite” version of your software, which has fewer features than the full version.

Naturally, some people who like the lite version will want to upgrade to the full version.

For example:

You offer an autoresponder service. The lite version can only handle 500 subscribers, so buyers will need to upgrade once they reach that level.
You offer meal planning software that counts calories, as well as macronutrient breakdowns (carbs, fats and protein) in each meal. The lite version counts calories but not macronutrients, so buyers will need to upgrade to the full version when they get serious about eating healthy.

6. Create additional splinters

While typically you simply splinter your existing product, another thing you can do is create products for the specific purpose of using them primarily as $7 or $19 pieces of “bait” to generate a small up-front income while enticing people to purchase the full product. (You can then add these products to the main offer as a bonus.)

So there you have it. 6 surefire ways to put product splintering to work for your business either before, during or after you’ve finished your product launch.

Now there are a whole lot of different ways to put this idea to work for you, and in our next post, we’ll look at some of the best ones.

Until then, take care,

Rocky

PLUS: When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you to grow your business using product launches:

Also, check this out 🙂

Jeff Walker’s free Product Launch Formula training.

Double Your JV Product Launch Profits With Product Splintering

The money you make directly through a JV product launch is just the start of the profitable opportunities you have once you’ve made all those sales with the help of affiliates and JV partners.

That’s because the most valuable asset you end up with from a launch is the email database you build from all the options your partners send you.

Why?

Because not only can you continue to sell your core product to those prospects after the launch, but you can “splinter” off all kinds of smaller products and sell them to those people who either didn’t want or need the bigger product you launched.

Here’s why “product splintering” is so effective as a followup to your JV product launch…

If you walk into just about any regular restaurant in most cities, and you’re likely to see a page somewhere in the menu that lists the restaurant’s ala carte offerings.

Sometimes you may see these offerings listed under different names, such as “Sides” or even “Light Appetites.”

But in all cases, this is the part of the menu where you can order something like a bowl of soup, a basket of fries or an English muffin.

You see, typically these items come with a meal.

The English muffin goes with your bacon and eggs. The fries go with your burger. The soup goes with your sandwich.

However, restaurant owners quickly figured out that they could make a whole lot more money by offering these items separately to patrons who didn’t want a full meal.

This is referred to as product splintering, and it turns out that restaurant owners aren’t the only savvy business folks on the block.

You’ll see product splintering everywhere you look.

For example, you can buy a pair of shoelaces by themselves without having to buy a whole new pair of shoes.
You can buy ski poles without buying skis.
You can purchase a computer hard drive without having to invest in a whole new computer.

And product sellers do it because product splintering is a great way to make more money without having to work any harder.

And the best news of all…

As we discussed, you too can use product splintering to slide more money into your pocket every day of the week with your information business.

It doesn’t matter what you’re selling or who you’re selling it to, because product splintering will work for you. (And just a bit later you’ll get plenty of ways to use it in your business.)

Let me give you an example…

Example: Take a look at The Simple Copywriting System and you will find a very good course that helps people to quickly create high converting sales copy for any product or service.

The Simple Copywriting System is a “splintered product” from my Online Marketing Masterclass.

Look at the difference…

The Simple Copywriting System sells for $27.00 and is focused specifically on writing persuasive sales copy.
The Online Marketing Masterclass sells for $97.00 and is focused on other forms of product creation, productivity, copywriting, outsourcing and traffic generation.

This gives me an opportunity to sell a lower-priced product to people who…

1. Aren’t willing or able to pay for the $97.00 product.

2. Are ONLY looking for “sales copy” products to buy.

3. Don’t yet fully trust me because they don’t know me.

4. Don’t even know about the Online Marketing Masterclass.

And so forth.

Once they buy the lower-priced Copywriting System course, I invite them to upgrade to the $97.00 Online Marketing Masterclass course, even offering to credit them their $27.00 purchase toward the $97.00 purchase.

Many upgrade and I turn $27 into $97 just like that.

But even for those that don’t upgrade, people spend $27 with me when they would have spent ZERO.

And you can do exactly the same thing with YOUR products.

Or if you don’t already have a bigger product you can “splinter”, you can go the other way and use what you learn in The Profitable Product System to create the “splintered” products first, and then package them up into a big-ticket program you an sell for a bunch of money during your product launch 🙂

Either way, you and your customers win…

Talk soon,

Rocky

PLUS: When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you to grow your business using product launches:

Also, check this out 🙂

Jeff Walker’s free Product Launch Formula training.

Product Launch Outsourcing – Managing Your Outsourcing Projects

So far in this series on getting help with your product launch, we’ve covered…

…knowing when and what to outsource, how to write a compelling ad to attract the most qualified people, and how to recruit the best person for your needs.

In this message, we’re going to look at Step Four: Managing Your Product Launch Outsourcing Projects

Once you hire one or more people to complete a job, it’s up to you to manage the project.

Here’s what you need to know to make everything go more smoothly:

• Make your expectations clear. Same as when you’re writing a project ad, you need to be clear about your expectations.

For example, if you prefer files to be delivered in a Zip file, let your freelancer know.

If you want them uploaded to DropBox, be clear about it.

Your freelancer isn’t a mind reader, and you’ll get better results when you are very clear about what you want.

• Explain what you like and want more of. When your freelancer does something the right way, let them know you’re really happy with the work and that you want more work in that style.

For example, if you hire a video producer who adds a “doodle style” demo to a video that you really like, let them know what you liked about it and that you want more videos like that.

• Let them know how often you want updates/communication. Some people prefer daily updates, some prefer every other day, some are fine with weekly or twice-monthly updates.

You need to be clear upfront about what you want.

TIP: You may ask for more frequent updates in the beginning, and then request less frequent communication once you and your freelancer have established a good relationship.

Be sure your freelancer knows you’re always available for questions, and let them know to alert you immediately whenever there is a problem or potential problem.

• Provide the required resources and information. In other words, give your freelancer the tools he or she needs to complete the job.

For example, if you’re asking your freelancer to write an article, provide resources with the facts and other information needed to complete that article.

• Consider giving a bonus for exceptional work. This bonus might come in the form of a direct financial reward on top of the regular payment, which is the preferred bonus for most freelancers.

However, in some cases you might give your freelancer a gift certificate to their favorite restaurant or another surprise reward for exceptional work.

• Praise good work along the way. Obviously, your freelancer is doing the work in exchange for money.

However, frequent praise for good work can make the project feel much more rewarding for your freelancer.

TIP: Praise for good work helps build a good relationship between you and your freelancer.

In turn, a freelancer may make special accommodations for you in the future, such as scheduling your projects first or giving you an unexpected discount.

• Be cordial and specific when tweaks are needed. From time to time your freelancer may not complete the work exactly as you envisioned.

Your first step is to go back to your brief and written communications to check if you were clear about what was needed.

Then politely let the freelancer know what specific tweaks you need to complete the project.

TIP: If the fault rests with your communication, then take responsibility for not being more clear, pay for the necessary corrections, and vow to do better in the future.

• Be aware of time zone differences. In addition, ask your freelancer their preferred hours for conference calls and other communications.

For example, someone may have a six-hour time difference from you, but they may be night owls or early risers who work much the same hours as you do.

TIP: If you’re hiring someone from another country, be aware of holidays, power outages and other circumstances that may affect your freelancer’s regular work days.

Also, if you’re in the United States and you hire someone from a country like Australia, take note that while you’re right in the middle of your Friday, they’re already into Saturday (and thus they may not be working).

• Complete the project with appropriate feedback. Here you should mention both the good things, and the things you want changed for the future.

Then be sure to follow up with a prompt payment to close out the project. (In other words, once your freelancer has delivered the final project, review it quickly so that you can make the final payment promptly.)

One last tip: if you’re using an outsourcing site, then communicate through the channels provided on the site.

This offers you some degree of protection in case there is a problem, plus it helps ensure that you’re not sending emails back and forth that may end up in a bulk email folder or otherwise get lost.

Now let’s wrap things up…

Closing Thoughts

Now that you know the four-step process for finding, hiring and managing people to help you with your product launch or with ongoing business activities, you too can start enjoying the results soon!

While the entire process can take some time upfront to comb through candidates to find the ones most suited for your needs, it’s time well spent.

So get started on the process today, and start reaping the rewards of hands-free outsourcing!

Warm regards,

Rocky

PLUS: When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you to grow your business using product launches:

Also, check this out 🙂

Jeff Walker’s free Product Launch Formula training.

Product Launch Outsourcing – Evaluating And Hiring Freelancers

In this previous post, we looked at how to create a compelling advertisement that will attract the most qualified outsourcing candidates to help you with your product launch outsourcing.

Today we’re going to look at Step Three: Evaluating And Hiring Freelancers.

Because you’ve crafted such a good ad, you’re probably going to attract plenty of people offering you a variety of bids and turnaround times for your project.

So here’s how to evaluate your options…

Step 1: Check the Freelancers’ Feedback

If you’re hiring through a freelancing platform like Upwork.com, then you’ll have access to his or her ratings and feedback.

The key is to look for multiple good ratings from multiple people over an extended period of time.

That last part is important.

Sometimes freelancers who are new to a site can gather a lot of great ratings in a short period of time, such as a month or so.

They look like stellar candidates. But then, for a variety of reasons, the quality of their work can start to suffer, and/or and their delivery times can blow out substantially.

That’s why you want to look for someone who has a long, established history of providing great work, which demonstrates their professionalism and attention to detail.

TIP: Plug the freelancer’s name and/or company name into Google to uncover still more information about his business history, professionalism and quality of work.

Next…

Step 2: Browse the Freelancers’ Portfolios

Next, you want to make sure the freelancer does good work.

Take a look at samples of their work, and see if they matche your expectations.

If you don’t see a sample in the portfolio that is similar to what you’re doing, ask for one.

Step 3: Ask These Key Questions

As you evaluate freelancers, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Did the freelancer send a personal reply along with his bid?

Many freelancers bid on every project without even really understanding the project, and then they send generic responses along with their bid.

If a freelancer sends a personalized response that includes details about the project, that shows you they’ve read and understood the project.

2. Have they completed projects similar to the one you’re proposing?

f there is a certain type of skill set required to complete your project, then be sure your freelancer has experience.

For example, if you’re creating an games app for iPhones, then make sure your developer has experience creating both iPhone apps AND game apps.

3. Are there any red flags warranting choosing a different person instead?

For example, if your Google search reveals that a freelancer has complaints from his business partners, that’s a red flag that he may eventually get complaints from customers too.

Go with your gut. If it’s telling you something isn’t right, believe it.

Next…

Step 4: Review the Candidate’s Rates

You don’t want to shop around based on cost alone, which is why this is not the first step of this process.

Once you’ve created a smaller list of the highest-qualified candidates, then review their pricing to see which of these people fall into your budgeted range.

You can then hire the most qualified candidate within that range.

So now you know how to evaluate and choose the most qualified outsourcers.

But there’s one more critical thing you’ll need to know if you want to get the best results, and that’s how to manage your projects without taking up too much of your time.

And that’s what we’ll be covering for you in the next post.

Warm regards,

Rocky

PLUS: When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you to grow your business using product launches:

Also, check this out 🙂

Jeff Walker’s free Product Launch Formula training.

Product Launch Outsourcing – How To Advertise For The Best Candidates

In this previous post, we looked at how to know if you should be using outsourcing some of your product launch projects, and what tasks and jobs you should be handing off to other people.

Today, we’re going to cover Step Two: Advertising To Attract The Best Candidate

Let’s get started…

If you want to attract the perfect, qualified people to your position, while repelling those who are unlikely to be a good fit, then you need to create a specific and detailed project description (or what’s called a brief) if you want to get the best results.

Here are the sorts of details to provide when you post parts of your product launch outsourcing project on a freelancing site:

• The scope of the project. Be specific about what the job entails. For example, list exactly how many words you need for a report, or how many minutes of video footage you want.

• Deadline. You can list your preferred project-delivery deadline in your ad. If you have some flexibility, then mention that as well. Later you and the freelancer sign an agreement that includes a deadline you both agree on.

• Project milestones and goals. If this is a big project, then you’ll want to outline when you expect to receive certain pieces of the project. Many people tie their payment terms into these project milestones so they don’t pay up-front for work that is never completed, or is of substandard quality.

• Delivery format. For example, if you’re hiring some to write articles, then let the freelancers know if you want them in a .txt file, .doc, .pdf or something else. (Note: It helps to be flexible, because you may miss working with a really great freelancer simply because they’re not using your preferred tools.)

• Usage of the completed project. If your freelancer knows how you’ll use the work, that may affect how they create it. For example, freelancers will create Search Engine Optimised articles differently than pre-selling articles if that’s what you specify.

• Specific expectations. For example, do you expect your freelancer to give you a daily update via email? Or do you need him or her to jump on a once-a-week phone call? If you have these sorts of expectations and requirements, let the freelancer know upfront.

• Exclusive rights for a completed project. You should be very clear (and it should be in the contract) that you get exclusive rights to the project once your final payment has cleared. You don’t want stuff you paid for turning up all over the internet after the outsourcer sells it to other people.

• Encouragement to ask questions. Sometimes freelancers don’t want to “bother” you with questions. Be sure your freelancers know they can and should reach out any time with questions and clarifications.

• Payment terms. Here’s where you list how much you’ll pay for the project, how you’ll pay (e.g., with PayPal) and when you’ll pay. Generally, most freelancers prefer to work on a 50% down, 50% on delivery for smaller projects. For larger projects, you may create milestones tied to payments.

• Examples to use as a role model. It’s helpful to show your freelancer specific examples – not for copying purposes, but to show your freelancer the “flavor” you want. For example, you might show your content writer an example of two or three articles you really like.

• Company mission, vision and philosophy. This helps your freelancer create work that matches the company mission. For example, a customer service rep can answer inquiries in a way that matches your company’s philosophy.

• Preferred skills and abilities. This is particularly important if you’re hiring an assistant for a variety of tasks. Be very clear about they need to be able to do, what types of software they must be comfortable using, and so on.

It’s a good idea to look at other projects posted on freelancing sites to get a feel as for what types of ads get the best results.

Let me give you an example. Let’s suppose you’re posting a very simple job for five blog articles.

Here’s an example…

———SAMPLE AD———

Wanted: Skilled writer to create five blog articles about organic gardening.

You should have experience writing about gardening topics, and be able to produce samples in this niche. I’m looking for someone who can create entertaining yet educational articles that will engage readers. Some sales or copywriting experience is a plus, but not required.

Length of articles: 1000 words each (so this project is 5000 words total). I’ll provide you with titles, outlines and three to five research resources for each article. Here are the five topics: [insert topics and descriptions of each of the five articles].

Examples: Please see my blog at [yourblog.com] for examples of the style and quality of work I’m looking for. If you can meet or exceed this quality, then please bid on this job.

Style: Please check my company’s mission statement to understand how we operate. You’ll need to write articles that reflect this mission, when appropriate. [Insert mission statement or link.]

Deadline: Prefer to have these articles within three weeks, but I will make an exception for the right person.

Payment: Full payment upfront through the site’s escrow service, which you’ll receive once I approve the final work. Exclusive and full rights to the work will transfer to me once final payment is received.

Expectations: Once you begin the project, please send me daily updates to let me know how things are progressing. I prefer if the project is delivered in a .doc file.

Budget: [insert a budget range here]

If this sounds like something you can do, send me a link to your portfolio along with your bid. I look forward to hearing from you!
__________________

If you write a good ad or project description, you’ll get lots of really good people wanting the job…

So, now you know how to write a compelling ad, to attract qualified outsourcers to help you create some or all of your product launch content, or content or tasks for your general business needs.

But before you can choose the right person for your job, you’ll need to know how to evaluate and hire best candidate.

And that’s what we’ll be covering for you in the next post in this series.

Warm regards,

Rocky Tapscott

PLUS: When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you to grow your business using product launches:

Also, check this out 🙂

Jeff Walker’s free Product Launch Formula training.

Create A Highly Targeted Audience

Cater To The Needs Of Your Audience

Create Attention-Getting Headlines

Call Your Audience to Action

Connect With Your Audience

Challenge Your Audience

Celebrate Your Audience

To Sum Up

Tool 1: Social Media

Tool 2: Social Media Tools

Tool 3: A CRM or Autoresponder To Reach Your Product Launch Audience

Tool 4: A Blogging Platform Or Content Management System

Tool 5: An Automated Content Scheduler

Tool 6: Freelance Sites

To sum up…

#1: Convey Confidence

#2: Give Reasons Why

To Sum Up

Let’s run through some Product Launch Content Splinters…

A few closing thoughts for creating your Product Launch Content…

1. Splinter bonuses

2. Splinter membership content

3. Splinter excerpts of your main product

4. Splinter your curriculum from a training class

5. Splinter features of a software program

6. Create additional splinters

Here’s why “product splintering” is so effective as a followup to your JV product launch…

In this message, we’re going to look at Step Four: Managing Your Product Launch Outsourcing Projects

Today we’re going to look at Step Three: Evaluating And Hiring Freelancers.

Here are the sorts of details to provide when you post parts of your product launch outsourcing project on a freelancing site:

———SAMPLE AD———