Tips and Tricks for Making Money with Interviews

My recent interview with content creator and online marketer Rob Booker got me thinking about the first email we send to subscribers for our various niche content sites.

One of the things Rob said was that the trick to keeping subscribers on your email list, even while you are pitching something, is to set the stage early and simply tell them to expect it.

It’s a simple idea. Manage your subscriber’s expectation right up front and when the sale pitch comes, they won’t be surprised. Even with this website, which focuses on on how to make money online with content, I just assumed that our subscribers knew we would pitch them occasionally. This site is about making money, right? So isn’t it obvious that we’re making money ourselves? No, it isn’t.

Even though we haven’t pitched much to Membercon list yet, when we did about a month ago, we still got replies saying something to the effect of, “Hey I thought you were giving us free info – what the heck?” I take full responsibility for that – we never said straight up that we would be occasionally asking subscribers to buy something.

So, to make sure we are managing expectations of our subscribers right up front, this morning we changed the first email to what you see below. Using straight talk and a bit of humor, we’ll be doing this with all of our sites going forward.

It’s a bit like how Zappos.com offers new employees $2,000 to quit after the training program. They end up with committed employees who understand what they are getting into.

Let me know what you think. Does this do the trick? How are you managing the expectations of your list subscribers?

Well howdy doody! You found our secret mailing list. Welcome to the
potluck and party! The secret handshake lesson comes later…

Glad you decided to leave that boring “internet marketing guru”
party at that website down the street. Their stories are getting
pretty old, don’t you agree?

Leave your car keys in the bowl next to the door, because you’re
about to experience the intoxicating sounds, tastes and smells
of real online success.

Let’s get something straight right away. Can you handle the truth?

Here it is: we’re going to be emailing you ideas and tricks we use
but never publish on our blog. And we’ll explain it in a step-by-step
way that you’ll be able to understand and use them on your own website
right away to make some coin (or euros, pounds, dollars, pesos, etc.).

That’s what makes our list so valuable to subscribers.

But we’re also going to introduce you to products and services we
think are top notch and worthy of your attention and dollars – things we’ve
bought ourselves.

In other words, we’re going to ask you to buy stuff too.

So if capitalism, grandma’s apple pie, or marketing offends you,
you’ll want to find that unsubscribe link at the bottom of this email
and put yourself out of your misery right now. Go ahead, we’ll wait….

Still here? Wonderful! You’re in for a real treat. Stay tuned for the
next email and get ready to finally make some real money online by
selling content.

You can call or email us anytime.

All the best,

Tim and Emile (brothers and all-around good guys)

——————————-
Tim Bourquin | Emile Bourquin
MemberCon | Interview Income

30251 Golden Lantern Suite E-358
Laguna Niguel, CA 92677-5993

phone: 1-949-829-3049
email: tim@membercon.com
——————————-

Each of our sites will have a similar email so let them know that while we are going to be sending them great information, we’ll also be asking them to buy things we trust and feel are worthwhile.

I’ve been in this game long enough to know that when I sign up for an email list, I’ll be pitched occasionally. But it’s not obvious to everyone, so I want to make sure we make it obvious!

email marketing, selling content online internet marketing, online marketing

We have a hunch about something and we just started testing it.

Here’s the hypothesis: A list of subscribers that has paid for something is as valuable as a list of prospects that received something for free – that is 100 times as large.

In other words, we think that a list of 100 people who paid for content is as valuable as a free list of 10,000.

Are we right in our assumption? We’re going to find out!

I’ve always said that I would rather have a small, well-trained list than a large list that isn’t so. But there is probably a point where a freebie list will match the profit potential of a smaller list simply because the people willing to buy something are also on that freebie list.

But can we actually make more money from a tiny list where the subscriber has paid $1.99 for the squeeze page content rather than just giving their email address? We think so and we think it’s time to be tested.

So a few days ago we changed the squeeze page for InterviewIncome.com to charge $1.99 for the series of 4 videos that we previously gave away for free in exchange for their email address. We think that not only will we get higher quality email addresses, but that the people who do pay $1.99 will convert to other paid products at a much higher rate than those that paid nothing.

The 4-part video series is one hour in length when combined, and we do give solid information in the series. It’s easily worth $25 or more, but I doubt we could get that kind of spend from a squeeze page. But $1.99 seems more than reasonable for a one-hour class and we’re curious as heck to see if this works.

Old school internet marketers are probably rolling their eyes at this point, and that’s OK. We may be totally wrong on this – that’s what a test is all about.

But there is no denying that when someone pays for something, they give it much higher value – even if it is just a dime.

Our list will grow at a much slower rate, but dollar for dollar we think we can make more money charging for our squeeze page content. We will be growing an instant list of buyers and it also sets the right tone for the list – content is valuable and we are going to charge for it.

What do you think? Are we crazy? Wouldn’t be the first time someone called us that. Let is know in the comments.

creating content, selling content online, subscription pricing squeeze page content

Think of Amazon as an incredible search engine for content. You can offer your E-book for sale in the Kindle store in a few easy steps and my guest for this interview, Rob Booker, has listed his book for sale in the Kindle store.

Not only has he made over $1,000 since it was listed 40 days ago, more importantly it’s been an incredible new source of leads for his higher-priced website content. In this discussion we talk about how you can list your E-Book for sale in the Kindle store and some tips, tricks and lessons learned that Rob shares to save you literally days of time getting it uploaded and listed.

Most of the information out there about how to publish for the Kindle is flat out wrong. Rob talks about his experiences and how it has helped him get new traffic to his content website.

4 ways to watch/listen/read:

1) Listen to the audio here (click on the triangle play button):

2) Download the mp3 file here
3) Read the transcript (below the video)
4) Watch the video:

Related Links:

- Kindle Publishing page on Amazon
- Rob’s book in the Kindle store

Transcript:

Tim Bourquin: Well, let’s kind of move on to the distribution and the way you find new people that haven’t heard about you because –

Rob Booker: Right.

Tim Bourquin: Trader Interviews has been around for five to six years now and everyday there are people that have never ever heard of us and you think that at some point that’ll end, but it never does.

Rob Booker: Yeah, right.

Tim Bourquin: I like the idea of you put out some content — one of the things you do is sell a book for the Kindle on Amazon for $1.99.

Rob Booker: Right.

Tim Bourquin: The book we talked about. Why did you decide to do that? What’s the process of getting of my eBook put on for sale there? How does that work?

Rob Booker: Everything that I’ve ever done well that has generated interest in my membership website — and I honestly and humbly submit to you — has been done by mistake; trial and error. And I have for a long time wanted to publish for the Kindle, not because I thought that it would generate a lot of interest, but because I was fascinated by this platform. I was fascinated by the idea that it would be a new outlet for distribution. But I had no idea whether it would work or not and I simply, I originally did it more out of interest in the process than I did out of sort of generating interest. Because I just can’t pick the one thing that’s going to do it. I’ve just given up on picking the one thing that’s going to do it.

So, I did it out of interest to begin with because I realized that digital publishing probably five years from now is going to have an even greater — almost every book that I read myself, I’m reading on my iPhone on the Kindle application. And I had a Kindle but I gave it to my friend in Japan where the Kindle wasn’t available yet years ago. So, I gave him a first generation one. And I’ve told like 50 people they’ve got to start reading on it, and I just realized that it’s catching on and that people can go anywhere with all of their books.

So, it started out as this I want to publish for that and I want to be an early adapter if I can. I still consider it very early on in the process. I wanted to be an early adapter in figuring that process out for myself. Of course I could outsource it, but I did every single step of the way on this project by myself.

Tim Bourquin: And at $1.99 I can’t imagine you’re getting rich off of this.

Rob Booker: Correct.

Tim Bourquin: It’s definitely — so they’re paying for it which is always good.

Rob Booker: Right.

Tim Bourquin: But it’s a promotional tool in the end.

Rob Booker: It’s a promotional tool in the end. And that eBook is actually free and has been for actually five years, six years. It’s been free. It’s been downloaded; it’s probably a million times. Five hundred thousand is when I lost count because I switched servers and I no longer counted physical file downloads and that was three years ago, it was at 500,000.

Tim Bourquin: Wow.

Rob Booker: I mean the eBook in its free form has been downloaded maybe more than any other — it was the single greatest promotional tool that I ever did and it was the first eBook I wrote. I saved the Microsoft Word document with Adobe Distiller all those years ago and then I put it on the web and it just like – and I mean it’s easy to share, you could put your email address in it. It would automatically send it to you and then you could put — this is kind of like a no-no but you could put your friend’s email address in and it would send a copy to your friend.

Tim Bourquin: Right sure.

Rob Booker: And it would say that you know, “Bob thinks you should read this.” And then it went from person to person to person very quickly. And this is an expanded version. So I thought I improved it, I expanded it, I could charge for it and it would the best version of what I’ve done or the best issue of my eBooks or whatever you want to call it to put on the Kindle because it had been downloaded so often I had a built-in audience that would be ready to say, “All right, I’m ready to download that and give it a try.” And it was my first attempt to see if I could even make it work, if the pictures would show up, if the text would be formatted correctly, and boy it was like wrestling with –

Tim Bourquin: Yeah.

Rob Booker: It just drove me crazy at first.

Tim Bourquin: Well talk about the process…

Read more…

creating content, selling content online, site marketing Amazon Kindle publishing, self-publishing

Rob Booker is a content superhero. I recently spoke with Rob, a friend of mine in the trading business, who creates content and sells it online in that industry. In this two-part interview, we discuss first how he balances giving away free content vs. selling his classes and information, and how he creates urgency and excitement about upcoming classes.

In part two we talk about how he published an E-book for the Amazon Kindle platform.

But first, our discussion about how he markets his content.

4 ways to watch/listen/read:

1) Listen to the audio here (click on the triangle play button):

2) Download the mp3 file here
3) Read the transcript (below the video)
4) Watch the video:

Related Links:

- Rob’s website

Transcript:

Tim Bourquin: All right everybody, hello and welcome to MemberCon. Another interview here today, I’m going to speak with Rob Booker. And actually, I’ve spoken with Rob at our other membership site over at Traders Interviews, but he’s also an entrepreneur outside of all the things he does in the trading realm. And so, I wanted to talk to him specifically about one thing today and that was the way he sells content. He just told me about a book that he’s selling on Amazon for the Kindle called, “Forex Strategy 10: Low Risk/High Return Currency Trading”. We’re not going to talk about that obviously, that part of it, but just about selling the content and his ideas for getting the word out there. So, Rob thanks for joining me here.

Rob Booker: It’s good to be here Tim.

Tim Bourquin: So, Rob lives nearby me now and is here in the office which is cool, I don’t have to do the interview over the phone. So, you’ve always had this kind of thing in the middle where you are a trader and you do all that and you’ve got your following there, but you’re an online entrepreneur too and you like to sell content, to put stuff out there. Most guys aren’t into it as much you. You read our MemberCon blog.

Rob Booker: Right. Right.

Tim Bourquin: So, how did that happen? How do you — kind of are in the middle there?

Rob Booker: Well, I’ve gone from trading for myself to being a CTA, which is a Commodities Trading Advisor, so I manage for families and friends and I’m licensed by the National Futures Association. As you know, trading and the world of the markets can be a really lonely endeavor especially early on when you feel like you don’t know very much. So, like some other people, including you and others, I started writing a blog maybe even before the term had been popularized, which turned into a regular column which turned into a newsletter service which turned into a membership site which turned into a huge ball and chain around my neck — no just kidding.

Tim Bourquin: Having to always update it?

Rob Booker: Yeah. And it became an excellent way for me to repeat the concepts that I believe in with respect to trading. It helped solidify those beliefs. It’s so you know everything that I gave out in the subscription site, I felt like I was getting back in spades and it just sort of took on a life of its own. So, it’s been about six years now that I’ve run the membership site, publishing eBooks, content, actual published books, and selling subscriptions right on the website to members that have been around for years and years.

Tim Bourquin: Have you found a good balance between offering the free blog content, offering free eBooks like I saw on your site that you offer and transition those people over to actually become buyers or something?

Read more…

creating content, membership pricing, selling content online free content vs. paid content, how long should a free trial be?, internet marketing, online marketing

Close your eyes. No, wait, that doesn’t work with a blog post. Open your mind. There. Open your mind and allow me to take you on a brief history tour of internet marketing.

1996: Even having a website was a novelty. Putting something for sale on that website was even more unique. People clicked the “Order Now” button and whipped out their credit card just to see what would happen. It was a lovely time. That stopped working around late 1999.

2000: The long sales page made it’s debut. People were so overwhelmed with paragraph after paragraph of information that they just assumed that anyone who could write that much text had to be smart. The “Buy Now” button was clicked feverishly. Still works, but people are wiser. The forever-scrolling, red-headlined, yellow-highlighted text is often associated with hype and eBooks on how to make millions on placing tiny ads on Google.

2007: The video sales page storms into action. No need for a long sales page everyone! Just make a video and put all the content of your long sales page into the video! No scrolling! No highlighter! Because people actually see your face, they BUY! BUY! BUY! Making the video on your yacht, porch that overlooks the beach, or while driving your car makes it super awesome. Still works, but now you need multiple videos that are released every few days.

2008: The Product Launch is launched with, well, a Product Launch! The product launch is today’s preferred method and I’ll vouch for this one. It creates both urgency and excitement – something you MUST have in order to sell online. I’ve talked a lot about the fact that quality content doesn’t sell itself. It just doesn’t. Urgency and a little bit of scarcity WORKS.

Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula 3.0 opens today (I’m an affiliate but I’m not going to bother putting my link here – I’m sure you received several dozen emails about it already and I was late to the game anyway). But it does work. I paid $2,000 in the past for it and it was worth it. We’ll be using many of the techniques to fully launch our Interview Income course this fall.

But I also realize that the process is changing faster and faster to sell products and content online. I feel like something new is coming. My sense is that it will be closely tied to Facebook, but that’s just a gut feeling. There is a massive movement to that site like nothing I’ve ever seen.

Sure, the long sales page still sells well for certain items, and people will be using product launches to sell their content and membership sites for years to come, but there will be a new technique that everyone will be using.

A lot of people say it will all be about building a relationship with your prospect. You’ll have to give them weeks and weeks of free stuff before they will trust you enough to buy. I disagree. People were making millions with impulse purchases of information products long before the whole “content as relationship builder” trend came about.

Relationships will be important, but because I see Facebook being a huge factor going forward, the relationship your “friends” have with a website will start to creep up to the top of importance.

2011: What’s next? Have an idea what it might be? What will Internet Marketing look like in 2011? 2015?

Let me know what you think in the comments…

Related reading:
- Success: Facebook Opt-in Page with Facebook Ads Pointing To It
- 5 Ways I’m Using Facebook to Drive Traffic and Build Brand (problogger.com)

selling content online product launch formula, relationship marketing