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

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

I’ve mentioned several times at MemberCon about the fact that when we turned our attention to growing an email list of buyers and action-takers rather than just subscribers, our revenue increased dramatically. The day we stopped worrying about every unsubscribe and decided that it was a good thing that people were taking themselves off our list because it kept our conversions high, was quite liberating.

I watch our email signups very closely, obsessively charting the rise and fall of our list numbers on a daily – sometimes hourly – basis. The faster we can clean the list of freebie-hounds, email accounts people never check and general dead-weight, the better off we are. It means our list may not grow as quickly as others, but I know the people that do stay subscribed are passionate and hungry for the information we provide.

Watching the list is also a good reminder of that fact that sometimes there is absolutely nothing you can do to keep everyone subscribed. I saw a perfect example today in the logs.

The very first email we send out on all of our membership or content sites is pure content – no pitch, no call to action and not even a hint that we’re going to try to sell them something down the road. It’s simply a high-value chunk of information as a thanks for checking us out.

The screenshot is below, followed by the explanation:

The subscriber:

1. Signed up to receive the free piece of content at 12:33 pm
2. Clicked the double opt-in confirm link at: 12:36 pm
3. Unsubscribed at 12:43 pm

Exactly 10 minutes from sign-up to unsubscribe (6 minutes really – from the confirm click is a better guage). The piece of content was an audio file, 45 minutes in length.

Now, this isn’t usual. It’s extraordinarily quick in terms of deciding that we weren’t worth his/her time. But it’s a good lesson that:

a) people can decide very quickly whether or not they value what you have – so what you send them even for free better be great
b) there are a million other reasons that they unsubscribe and it’s not always about the quality of your content

So don’t take it personally. I don’t (anymore). I simply am thankful for the fact that I can spend more time catering to those who truly want the content and less time (preferably NO time) on those that don’t.

building your list, email marketing email marketing, online marketing