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Introduction

In the past few years we have witnessed a revolution in our social lives; everything is online from our business to our pass time activities. More and more businesses are making it a priority to have a strong online presence simply because there is plenty of money in the online business. If you are reading this then it is safe to say you are also looking to have your slice of this online pie. As a marketer having and maintaining an online presence that is not only strong but reputable is supposed to be one of your top priorities if not the most important priority. There are so many ways that one can this, so many technical terms such as the ubiquitous Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and it is easy for you to be bogged down with this and forget about all else. Well, this is not in any way meant to downplay the importance of SEO; it is actually very brilliant in itself. However, it is quite easy for marketers to overlook the second largest search engine available on the internet; YouTube.

The Importance of s Strong Presence

At this point I am sure that there is a modicum of skepticism in you that is telling you that YouTube is not all that important because it is only a video search engine. Well, sorry to inform you that you are wrong because it is important. Here are the reasons why YouTube counts:

• YouTube alone is significantly larger than other search engines such as Yahoo, Bing, Ask and AOL....Put Together

• In each and every month the YouTube Search engine receive approximately 3 billion searches

• On average for every 2 searches on the internet, there is 1 search that is on YouTube. That is 50 per cent of the searches!!

• YouTube is able to attract more adults aged 18-35 living in the US than any other cable network in the market

• In each and every month, there are approximately 6 billion hours that are spent on YouTube alone.

This is just the tip of the iceberg on all the mind boggling statistics concerning YouTube. In the event that you are not interested in having a slice of this lucrative pie, then there is a chance that your marketing campaign has the bar set a tad bit too low.

Breaking Down a YouTube Video

Let us begin with a rhetorical question. When is the last time you took time off your busy schedule and logged in to YouTube to engage yourself in a few minutes of watching a self-promotional video that was poorly produces, boring and at the end of it all it was not meant to help you to achieve anything? Well, no need to answer that one. Nobody has time for such self-punishment. There are few reasons as to why people will visit YouTube and they are very simple:

1. They are faced with a specific problem and they need to find a quick answer to it.

2. They are looking to pass time and enjoy a few entertaining videos of cats playing the piano or whatever tickles their fancy.

Being a professional business, you should always seek to offer the first option: a solution to a problem. As a rule of thumb you should always steer clear of self-promotional videos. However, there is an exception for when you are aiming for a pre-roll advertising but that shall be covered later in the article. Your bread and butter should always be answers to specific problems or videos that are beneficial to the watchers in that they will walk away having gained some bit of information. If you are looking to launch a video marketing campaign on this YouTube platform then there are just but 3 essential steps that you need to be aware of.

1. Launching a Platform

2. Creating and Producing the right Video Content

3. Extensive YouTube SEO followed by Marketing

Launching a Platform

Let us begin with the first steps. You need to develop your platform through meticulous planning. This means that you need to come up with a strategy that is so sound that you will have no problem in risking a significant amount of your marketing funds on it. This may sound more daunting and formidable than it actually is; however, it is quite important. The chief components of a successful video marketing strategy are as follows:

1. Identifying the key objectives of your campaign

2. Identifying the right target audience

3. Identifying the most appropriate type of video that you will produce

Identifying your Key Objectives This is probably self-explanatory but for the sake of exhaustively covering all aspects there is need to cover this area. It is true for almost all aspects of life that if you do not have a clear cut objective then it follows that you do not know where you desire to go. Concomitantly, if you have no idea where it is you are going then there is no way that you will ever get there. A chief component of planning is setting up goals that are SMART. This means that your goals need to be specific and significant. They also need to be measurable in that you can keep track of your progress. Your goals need to be agreed upon; ensure that all the stakeholders of the strategy have agreed on the objectives so as to ensure that they commit themselves to ensuring that it is achieved. They also need to be realistic or attainable; do not set objective that cannot be achieved such as to get 3 billion views in one night. Your goals also need to be time bound; set a goal that is supposed to be achieved within a specific time period.
If you follow these simple guidelines then there is a high likelihood that you shall never be disappointed. For instructional purposes, let us consider an example of a company such as Globe Fastening Consultancy that may be looking into making a YouTube Video and the following will be the objectives.

1. Create an additional 2000visitors to the company website with 5 months of specific video marketing

2. Create an additional revenue stream of approximately $1,500 for every month within the first 6 months of the video marketing campaign

3. Double the overall number of clients within the first six months of video marketing.

Identifying your Target Audience The rapid shift of consumer behavior to the various online platforms has meant that has become more important for you to identify the right target audiences for your marketing campaign. There is however an upside to this shift as it has become easier for you to gain knowledge about your potential client base. To add to the basic information such as their demographics and locations, it is possible to get a better understanding of the types of sites they have a preference for, the content that they are interested in, and much more. Clearly defining this target audience for your market can aid you in custom fitting content such as social media posts, photos, paid adverts, and videos. It can also help you in identifying the marketing methods that would have the most positive impact to your business.

Targeting the right audience is certainly beneficial in ensuring that you get the most out of your marketing dollars. In identifying the right target audience, you need to look into the 5 Ws: Who, What, When, Where and Why. Who Who are the current customers? It is important to know who constitutes your current customer base. Given that they have already purchased from you in the past, you can make use of this information to get a better insight that will aid you in identifying the constitution of your core target audience. Here you can reach out to them via social media, email, or even within the store using a simple survey that will gather information concerning their interests, demographics, and their needs,. You can also capitalize on this opportunity to find out what the customers love most about your business and the products that they like the most. Who do you want to purchase your products? You also need to identify the audiences that you intend to target in order to aid you in the expansion of your customer base. However, it is vital that you are realistic in considering who will actually purchase your products. For instance, if the current customer base of your high end boutique shop is majorly comprised of college students and teens that are fashion conscious, then it would be realistic to consider expanding your customer base to young professional women. However, it would be far-fetched to consider moms that are budget conscious. Who are you currently marketing to?

If the focus of your targeted online marketing is a specific demographic that you are interested in then ensure that you keep track of the results in order to see the performance of your efforts. For example, you may begin by tracking phone calls just to get an insight as to how well your marketing is doing. If you get a positive result, continue to focus on these groups. If however they are not working consider solutions to these problems and tweak your message as well as strategy. Another positive that may come from monitoring your results is that you may reveal an audience that you had not been exclusively targeting. For instance, if your search advertising is resulting in more conversations over the phone than via desktop, then you may need to consider your mobile presence by designing an optimized mobile landing site in order to create a smart mobile experience for your mobile customers. What What is the background of your customers? This is arguably one of the most important questions that you should ask yourself when you are defining your target audience. If you are able to identify attributes such as age, gender, education level, hobbies, geographic location, income level, interests, family status, and much more then it will help you in determining the kind of online advertising that you need to make use of in order to reach the right customers for your business. What do they purchase?

Try to seek to know whether your customers purchase more of a certain item or are interested in one service. If you are able to identify the products that are your best sellers, you will in a better position to not only make smarter inventory choices but also in tailoring your message so as to reach as many customers who are interested in these items. Additionally, by closely monitoring review sites and social media, you can always keep abreast of what the customer’s think of your service; if it is good then you can maintain the standards and it is not then you get a chance to change. When When are your products bought? Try and identify whether your customers purchase your products at a specific time during the year or whether they are purchasing throughout the year. By understanding the seasonality or the frequency of your business, you can be able to create messages that will target the customers during the right time in the cycle. For instance, a plumber is often sought out whenever the need arises, therefore optimizing search ads and content for his plumbing services may be of help in targeting consumers that are looking for an on the spot purchasing decision. However, a customer that is looking to purchase a new car has a higher likelihood of researching on dealers, vehicles, reviews, and offers on a number of different sites for a stretched duration of time. Ergo, it is vital that you take the length of time of your normal buying cycle into account. When do the customers currently interact with your brand?

Ensuring that you target the right audience is not only crucial for gaining new sales but also for developing your online brand. For example, by monitoring the times when the fans interact with your posts on social media you can be in a better position of planning a schedule of when to post some content so as to get the optimum visibility as well as engagement. Here, let us imagine that your brand gets more traction on Fridays as compared to Mondays then you should take advantage of this knowledge to post content that is engaging or promotions and special offers for the followers and fans when they are most likely to see the content.

Where Where are your customers located? Defining the exact location of your current customers can be of significant help in terms of concentrating your target marketing efforts. By making use of geographic targeting in display and search advertising you can be able to create lead that are optimized through displaying your message only to audience that are in your service area. For instance, if you are a Dentist in your local town then there is a very low likelihood that you are going to receive a client from a different State or country through your adverts. Therefore, in order to target the right consumers for your products, you need to make use of the appropriate keywords, such as location-specific phases, within your content in order to improve the overall chance of them showing up when the customers such for businesses similar to yours in the directories or search engines. Where did your customers find you online? A very easy and effective way of identifying your target audience is in finding out where your customers presently first found out about your business. Whether it is from the local directories, search engines, social media, word of mouth, or online reviews, by knowing where they first found out about your business can aid you in planning where to concentrate your targeting efforts. Why Why do they purchase?

Ideally, a majority of the purchases can be grouped into two: needs and wants. By understanding your key products and services as well as the reasons why customers choose to purchase them can offer you with further insight into your target audience and the process they go through in finding your business. For example, a customer that is seeking the services of a plumber will have considerably different expectations as well as a journey compared to another customer that is looking for a spa. Ergo, in understanding the why behind the purchase, you are in a better position of determining the most probable path of purchase. Why do customers purchase from your competitors? With the highly competitive markets today, customers are often spoiled for choice when it comes to purchasing. Therefore, there are numerous reasons as to why customers may opt to buy their goods from your competitors. It may be the case that your competitors have a superior customer service, they are more engaging with their customers or their followers and fans online, offer appealing discounts, have a better reputation, or their content is better optimized such that the customers can find them easily when they search. Therefore, if you can clearly understand why they prefer to buy from your competitors and not from you may aid you in tailoring your approach in order for you to reach them and convert them to being your customers. Answering all these questions is quite crucial in identifying the target audience for your customers. Studies have shown that the average consumers will make use of more than 10 sources of information before they make a decision on purchasing a product. This makes it even more critical that you need to identify your target audience in order to build a marketing plan that is able to reach your desired target audience where they are most likely to see it and engage with it.

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Chapter 1: Introduction

To this day, it amazes me that more people aren’t aware of the HUGE potential that the internet represents when it comes to earning money.

This is not just an option for those lucky, tech-savvy entrepreneurs; this is something that anyone can start doing with amazing effects. If you know how to use a computer, then you could be earning money online. Not only that, but you could be earning passive income. That means you could be earning money while you sleep. And those passive income business models don’t need to be complicated to set up by the way. This is something you can start doing in days if not hours.

Some online business models are so shockingly simple that they literally involve doing little more than ‘copying and pasting’ an exciting business model to start making it work for you. And it’s not just money that you can stand to gain by doing all this. Running a business online gives you a way to make money doing something you love and that you’re truly passionate about. More than that, it will allow you to develop a small amount of fame. Can you imagine how rewarding it would be to get emails from strangers telling you that your videos or your blog posts changed their lives? This can be a stepping stone to great things. It can be a way to find yourself on TV some day. It can lead to a publishing contract. It can help you to create other products that you’ve always dreamed of – imagine the sense of accomplishment that comes from seeing something that you thought of in stores. And if you already run a business or if you’re someone that works for another company, then you can even use a basic understanding of internet marketing in order to promote that existing organization and grow it to entirely new heights. If the web can do all that for an individual, imagine how much it could grow your business. Imagine how many new visitors you can drive to your website, how many new customers you could drive to your products and just how little time, effort and money all of it could cost you… In short, there is no limit to what you can accomplish using internet business and it’s something that everyone should be involved in. Whether you like the idea of having a blog that people read and enjoy, whether you want to make a little money on the side, whether you want to boost your existing organization, or whether you want to grow your own internet empire.

That All Sounds Great! But I Don’t Have the Time or the Knowledge!

Maybe you’ve heard some of this pitch before. Maybe friends have told you how their lives changed when they started earning money online. Maybe you’ve read the blogs of other internet marketing gurus that promote the benefits of earning money on the web.

Maybe you’re just smart enough to see the opportunities there in front of you.

So why haven’t you don’t anything about it yet? Well, if you’re like a lot of other people, then the answer likely comes down to two factors:

Time

And knowledge

You probably don’t know enough about the web or how it operates in order to see the precise opportunities that are there for you. You probably don’t yet know how to go about setting up a website, let alone filling it with the kind of content that people fall over to read, creating a product to sell from it, or promoting it so that people all around the world are able to discover it (without trying to!). And perhaps you’re not yet familiar with all the different types of business that you can create online. Perhaps for instance, you didn’t know that you could start making money by selling books that you didn’t even create! And the other issue is time. You’d love to learn all this stuff, but do you really have the time?

Then there’s the idea of actually running the business day-to-day. If you’re already a busy professional, how can you possibly afford the time to build an additional business on top of the one that already takes up the vast majority of your time? Especially if you’re also a family man or woman, or even just someone with an active social life! That’s where this book comes in. In these pages, you’re going to discover everything you need to know to start running a massively successful business in your spare time. You don’t need to know a single thing about SEO, building a website or even business just yet: you’re going to learn how the web works, how people make their money and how you can get in on the action. We’re going to focus on the fastest and most effective ways to start making money online. You’re going to discover business models that you can easily implement in a matter of hours or even less. And you’re going to discover how you can create businesses that run themselves so that you don’t have to. I’m serious: you can start making thousands of dollars each month from a business that will take you less than a few hours to set up. There’s an element of luck involved sure, but the worst case scenario is that you’ll earn a few hundred a month. A few hundred a month. Indefinitely. From a few hours’ worth of work. It sounds mad, right? It sounds impossible! But it really isn’t. And you’re going to discover why not in this book. In the first few chapters you will discover multiple simple businesses that can be implemented this quickly and effectively.

If you want to take things a little further, we’ll look at some productivity tips that will allow you to leverage the power of the web in order to accomplish huge amounts of work in a very short amount of time. And you’re going to see how you can take these ideas and use them to grow your own business too. If you’re new to all this, then this book can change the way you approach your business. And in doing so, it can change your life…

Who is This Book For?

This book is really for anyone who wants to learn more about internet marketing and how to make money from the web, but who doesn’t have the time to invest countless hours into growing an online business or managing a blog. If you think you could benefit from earning several hundred dollars minimum for a few hours’ work a month, then this book is for you. But this book is particularly aimed at the business professional. If you’re someone who runs a business or is currently worked to near-breaking point by your existing employers, then you’re going to find that this book uses a lot of concepts and strategies you’re familiar with but in a new way. This will help you to understand how to use internet marketing in the workplace or how to use it to escape the rat race. This is Internet Marketing for Business People!

Chapter 2: What Makes the Internet Go Around

If you’re new to internet marketing, then a lot of the basic concepts might be lost on you. You may be yet to fully understand precisely how it’s possible to make money online.

And if you’re someone who’s a little more experienced, then you still might not grasp the intricacies of the systems that run the web’s economy. What is driving it? Where does all the money come from? Where is it going? Understanding this will help you to better manipulate those systems in order to start earning and it will help to demystify a lot of what we’re going to be looking at in subsequent chapters. This is a chapter I wish my gran would read. She’s constantly asking me how I’m making my money and whether or not it’s legal!

To people who don’t understand how to make internet marketing work for them, it can seem a little like magic! Like you’re some kind of sorcerer who can conjure money out of thin air (and of course this is part of the appeal of understanding internet marketing). When they learn that the money is rolling in while you’re snoring, you’ll find they’re even more amazed!

The Economy of the Web

Money comes and goes on the web and is driven by many of the same forces that drives it out here in the ‘real world’.

More specifically, most of the money is made by people buying things and for the most part, these are physical products (items from sites like eBay, Amazon, clothes shops or even grocers), digital products (eBooks on how to make money or get fit), services (legal services, consultation, dating websites, marketing, writing, photography), holidays and more. These days, you probably make a lot of your own purchases online and so you’re probably familiar with this. And even if you don’t make the purchase online, you might well do the research online – you might search for the nearest local hairdresser or place to eat for instance. Conventional businesses that you are likely very familiar with all make a lot of their money online and so too might yours.

But you probably don’t have time to set up a business like this. If you’re a busy professional then you’re not going to have time in the evenings to set up a hair salon, to start offering legal advice or to sell t-shirts.

These are business models that require monetary investment, lots of time, certain skills and knowledge etc. This is not a business that you set up in your evenings! One way you can get around this of course is to sell something that you can create in a short amount of time and that won’t involve too much of a financial investment. That might mean that you sell an ebook for example. An ebook is really nothing more than a Word Document or a PDF file that you can create in MS Word. As such, it will require no specialist skills or knowledge to create, it will cost you nothing and you don’t need to store it anywhere. What’s more, is that you can sell it countless times while only having to product it once. The same goes for apps, for games, for online courses and for other ‘digital products.

The Role of the Internet Marketer

The problem is that these types of product only appeal to a certain type of person and you need to do a lot of convincing in order to persuade someone to spend money on something they can’t physically hold in their hands. And that’s where internet marketing comes in. One simple form of internet marketing is to sell a digital product and then to start profiting nearly endlessly from a single file that they created just once. Your job in this case will largely revolve around paying for online advertising, trying to get to the top of Google (which takes more time) or mailing people in a mailing list.

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Step 1: A Recurring Income Membership Model

A recurring income membership model is appealing to many Internet marketers because you don’t have to create a new product from scratch every time you need to make some fast cash.

Membership sites only need to be built once, not every month or few months as new products need to be.

Once the membership site is built, you just need to maintain it and update it with quality, relevant information over time which is much simpler than creating a brand-new product from scratch.

To access the membership site and its content, customers need to pay a recurring monthly or annual fee.

If they choose to stop paying for access, they lose the valuable resources of that site, as they no longer have access to the site.

Step 2: Different Types of Products To Sell

There are many different types of products you can sell. Here are just a few:

You can sell a content-based membership site, which is a site that has content focused on a specific topic or industry.

You could have a membership site that is focused on one specific aspect of a topic, such as email marketing or social media marketing.

You can make the membership site as subject-specific as you want, but you have to make sure you don’t limit the topic too much or you may have trouble trying to keep the membership site updated with new, fresh material for your paying members to use and benefit from. Another type of membership site you can create is one focused around software products that help paying members conduct tasks more easily.

Membership Site Continuity

Another example of a membership site is one where articles and other content are presented in the form of articles and/or blog posts that paying members can use as they see fit, often referred to as private label rights (PLR) content.

The key to any successful membership site is providing continuous value over a long period of time.

You must know your target market’s wants and needs and be able to supply them with tools, resources, and/or content to fill those wants and needs. You must stay updated on your industry’s challenges and problems and be able to find ways to remedy or solve those challenges/problems in order for paying members to remain members of your site.

Step 3: Pricing Points And One-Dollar Trials

You must know the target market you are serving, how much they value the content and resources you are providing to them, and what competitors are charging for similar sites with comparable content and resources before setting a price.

You must consider whether you will only have one level of access for members or more than one.

Pricing for each membership tier will vary:

Lowest levels can be as low as free

The highest levels can be as high as $999.99/month or even more, depending on the value of the content and resources members get to use.

Many membership sites will provide several pricing options for members to choose from for some to all membership levels, including monthly, quarterly, bi-annually, annually (and even lifetime in some cases).

You must ensure that a monthly subscription costs less than an annual subscription in the short-term, but more over the course of a year so that the annual option is the better value- example is monthly subscription costings $20/mth x 12 = $240/yr vs an annual subscription costing $200/yr.

The key to remember is that you must know your target market’s needs and wants and how willing they are to pay for resources, content, and/or benefits that will help to alleviate the challenges and problems they face in their industry to know what prices are the best ones to charge for your membership site.

As a way to encourage more people to join their membership sites, many Internet marketers will provide a trial offer where people can pay a very small amount (usually $1) to access the membership site for a specified period of time (anywhere from 3 to 7 days).

The person can check out the membership site and see what it has to offer and see how much value and use it will be for the person; if it does, he/she will stay; if it doesn’t, he/she will cancel, not owe anything, but will lose access.

Step 4: Membership Site Platforms and Plugins

Membership platforms such as aMember, Wishlist Member, and DigitalAccessPass can help you to build and maintain your membership site.

The latter two also work with WordPress sites.

WordPress plugins can help you to build and maintain a membership site if you are using a WordPress site for the membership site. Here a few to start with:

MemberPress

Cart66

WP eMember

Features you should consider and look for in any platform or plugin you choose includes limiting access to members who have not paid for it, “dripping” your content over a period of time for members, enabling you to use coupons so members can get discounts, selling products, pausing and resuming memberships, and new content notifications.

Step 5: How To Simplify The End User Experience

In order for the members of your membership site to get the most value from your site, it has to be easy for them to use.

You want to focus on features that will make the site useful and valuable for your members, but also ensure that it restricts access to areas and content they should not have access to if they haven’t subscribed to the proper level for them.

You also want to ensure that your chosen membership platform or plugin restricts access to members who are not supposed to have access to specific areas and content/resources.

Be sure you test the platform or plug-in thoroughly and familiarize yourself with its features before you promote and sell access to your membership site.

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Introduction

Virtually every Internet marketer who wants to make money online is looking for a sustainable income to replace his/her 9-5 job. The challenge is that, unless you keep creating new products and/or promoting other people’s products as an affiliate, the income dries up and runs out after each launch or promotion.

Virtually no Internet marketer wants to work 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, just to make a decent living online. So, what’s the answer to this dilemma? The answer is membership sites. The reason why membership sites provide an answer to the aforementioned dilemma is because most membership sites run on a subscription basis. This means that customers will pay a monthly or annual membership fee to access the contents and/or resources of that site in order to be able to keep using it. So long as they remain a member of that site, they will continue to pay the monthly or annual fee, and they will continue to gain access to the contents and/or resources of that site.

This is a key reason why many Internet marketers look to create membership sites as part of their product offers. Instead of having to create products over and over again, they just need to host and update the membership site with relevant, quality information on their specific industry or topic. If they continue to do that, they will likely keep recurring paying customers to stay with them, providing them with a consistent online income. This is considerably less work than trying to create a new product from scratch time and time again.

Creating, maintaining, and promoting a membership site may sound overwhelming, but this ebook will help you to learn exactly what you need to do and what tools you will need to create and maintain your own membership site so that you can have a passive, consistent online income.

A Recurring Income Membership Model

As was described in the Introduction, a recurring income membership model is appealing to many Internet marketers because you don’t have to create a new product from scratch every time you need to get more cash. While product launches can be quite profitable, it often takes a great deal of time and effort to successfully launch a product. In addition, while successful product launches can bring in a great deal of cash in a relatively short period of time, eventually, even the highest-quality products will experience dwindling sales, and with it, dwindling profits.

This is why recurring income memberships are considered the “dream” for most Internet marketers. Membership sites only need to be built once, not every month or few months as new products need to be. Once the membership site is built, you just need to maintain it and update it with quality, relevant information over time, a task that is much simpler than creating a brand new product from scratch.

To access the membership site, customers need to pay a recurring monthly or annual fee. If they choose to stop paying for access, they lose the contents and/or resources of that site, as they no longer have access to the site. To continue having access to the content and resources within the site, they need to continue paying. This is where Internet marketers can continue getting passive, continuous income without having to create product after product or doing promotion after promotion for other people’s products.

Different Types of Products To Sell

When it comes to membership sites, there are several different types of products you can sell. You can sell a content-based membership site, which is a site that has content focused on a specific topic or industry. For instance, you could have a membership site that is focused around Internet marketing. Or, you could have a membership site that is focused on one specific aspect of a topic, such as email marketing or social media marketing. You can make the membership site as subject-specific as you want, but you have to make sure you don’t limit the topic too much or you may have trouble trying to keep the membership site updated with new, fresh material for your paying members to use and benefit from. Such a site would have useful information in it from the very beginning of the site’s creation. Over time, more useful information would be added; this is the enticement for people to remain paying members of the site. If they don’t remain paying members of the site, they will not get access to new information on the site as it is released, as they will lose access to the site.

Another type of membership site you can create is one focused around software products that help paying members conduct tasks more easily. For instance, you could have a membership site focused on Internet-marketing-related software programs that enable paying members to more easily conduct keyword research, email their lists, curate content to use in articles, blog posts, and ebooks, post to their social media accounts, etc.

Just as with content-based membership sites, there would be some software products available from the very beginning of the site’s existence. Over time, more software products would be added. In addition, updated versions of the software programs would be made available to paying members, often with additional features versus older versions. Just as with content-based membership sites, if paying members stop paying for access, they lose access to the site and access to the software programs.

Another example of a membership site is one where articles and other content are presented in the form of articles and/or blog posts that paying members can use as they see fit, often referred to as private label rights (PLR) content. Paying members can continuously access the site and use the content within the terms and conditions that the membership site lays out when the customer pays for access. As with any membership site, if the paying member stops paying for access, he/she loses access to the site and the content within. Thus, he/she can no longer use the content according to the terms of the membership.

The key to any successful membership site is providing continuous value over a long period of time. You must be able to continue providing value in order for paying members to see the value in continuously paying for membership. If the membership site’s value and usefulness drop in the eyes of the paying member, he/she will choose to stop paying for access, and, thus, you will have lost that customer, both in terms of the relationship and in terms of the present and future profits he/she would have brought you.

Thus, you must know your target market’s wants and needs and be able to supply them with tools, resources, and/or content to fill those wants and needs. You must stay updated on your industry’s challenges and problems and be able to find ways to remedy or solve those challenges/problems in order for paying members to remain members of your site.

Pricing Points And One-Dollar Trials

A common issue for many Internet marketers looking to create membership sites is, “what price should I charge for access?” There is no one right answer for this; you must know the target market you are serving, how much they value the content and/or resources you are providing to them, and what competitors are charging for similar sites with comparable content and/or resources.

Additionally, you must consider whether you will only have one level of access for members or more than one. This will determine whether you will charge one or more monthly or annual prices. Of course, the lowest monthly and/or annual price will get the least amount of access to the site and the content and/or resources within, while higher-priced monthly and/or annual prices will get greater amounts of access to the site’s content and/or resources.

For example, there are membership sites that provide some Internet marketing products and/or content to members paying the lowest monthly and/or annual price. In some cases, that price could even be free. Oftentimes, this membership level is called “basic” and only allows access to a specific number of products and/or content within the site. In addition, benefits to “basic” members are very limited.

Higher-priced levels are often referred to as “silver,” “gold,” and “platinum,” with each higher level of membership giving the paying customer access to more products and/or content and providing him/her with more benefits (such as getting a higher affiliate commission when promoting membership to the site, etc.).

Pricing for each membership tier will vary, but as mentioned before, the basic membership of a website can be as low as free. In other cases, basic membership is usually no higher than $9.99/month, since paying members only get limited products, content, and/or benefits to use.

Silver memberships provide members with more products, content, and/or benefits to use; thus, these memberships will often cost between $19.95- $29.99/month. Gold memberships provide members with even more products, content, and/or benefits to use; thus, these memberships will often cost between $29.95-$49.99/month. Platinum memberships usually provide members with all of the products, content, and/or benefits a membership site has to offer; thus, these memberships will often cost between $49.95-$199.99/month. Depending on the value of the products, content, and/or benefits, platinum memberships of some membership sites can even cost more than that stated range, even up to $495.00-$999.99/month.

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Step 1: Set Up Your JV Page And Get Partners Lined Up To Promote

You need JV partners to expand your reach and your sales potential; you will have the chance for far more sales if other people are also promoting your product.

Set up a joint venture page that outlines exactly the schedule of your pre-launch period (i.e. the weeks and even months before your product is released to the public) and then the day of the product launch itself.

• Recruit joint venture partners to join you in promoting your product.

• Be sure your product is a quality product.

• Provide early access to potential JV partners, incorporate any suggestions and feedback they have to make your product better.

Ask Internet marketing friends and those you know and respect if they’d be willing to promote your product- let them know about the benefits their subscribers and customers would receive from your product.
Recruit JV partners at least two to three months before the product launch date.

Step 2: Offer JV Prizes To Encourage More Sales

Offering JV prizes to the top JV partners who refer the most sales during a product launch will help to ensure they continue to promote your product throughout the entire launch period.

JV prizes you can consider using are cash, vacation packages, electronic items (iOS and Android mobile devices, laptops, digital assistants, TVs, Blu-Ray players, etc.), gift certificates to restaurants, retailers, and online retailers, etc.

You should at least award the top 3 JV partners at a minimum, though you could award the top 5, 10, or even 20 partners with the most sales of your product.

The most valuable prizes should be awarded to those JV partners with the most sales.

Step 2: Set A Launch Date And Stick To It

Once you set the launch date, you need to stick to it unless there is a death or serious illness in the family or there is some issue with the product launch that can’t be rectified before the date.

• If you change the launch date, you will confuse and annoy both subscribers/customers and JV partners.

• If you change the launch date, you will lose credibility with subscribers/customers and your Internet marketing peers.

Make sure your chosen launch date gives you enough time to have both a significant pre-launch period for your product and ensures you can compensate for any issues that arise before the product goes live.

If you are unsure whether you can make a specific product launch date due to possible complications, it’s better to make the launch date later and give yourself more time to get everything ready.

Step 4: Launch Your Product With JVs At The Ready

The appropriate emails indicating the product is now live need to be sent out to those who joined the pre-launch marketing list.

Ensure that everything is running smoothly in terms of the website, the ordering process, the download area, etc.

Be sure to monitor your email, Skype, Facebook Live, and social media to ensure that there are no problems.

If there are any issues, do everything possible to resolve them immediately.

As time permits, check to see which JV partners are providing you with the most sales; this will give you an indication of who is effectively marketing your product and who isn’t; this will give you a better insight into who you should especially recruit for future product launches.

Step 5: Create A Daily Sales Frenzy With JV Leaderboard Updates

To continue gaining sales momentum throughout the launch period, be sure to update your JV partners with daily JV Leaderboard updates.

It’s often best to put the JV leaderboard information directly on the Web page where you provided the sales copy; this will motivate JV partners to work harder to promote your product and make it easy for them to do so.

Virtually everyone loves to win; no one likes to lose or miss out on something; this is why having quality prizes and updating the leaderboard daily will encourage your JV partners to work harder in promoting your product throughout the launch period.

Your JV partners also want to show that they are an effective marketer by doing better in your JV contest than their peers, which will not only lead to greater joint venture opportunities for them in the future (and more profits), but also boost their reputation in the field so they have more joint venture opportunities and earn more profits.

Step 6: Keep The Momentum Going With Follow-Ups

Your product launch period could be anywhere from 3-4 days to 1-2 weeks; things will settle down over time and even slow to a crawl if you don’t continue to provide momentum to keep the product promotion strong throughout the period.

Providing daily updates of the JV leaderboard is one way of keeping the momentum during a product launch period so that sales continue to flow in.

Another way to keep up the momentum is to continuously stay in contact with your JV partners to ensure they have everything they need to promote your product effectively and successfully, including updated emails in the JV promotional area, responding to JV partners’ feedback and suggestions, etc.

Do everything you can to make it easy for your JV partners to promote your product throughout the launch period; this will make it more likely for them to continue promoting your product throughout the launch period.

You also need to ensure that everything is going smoothly in regards to your website, download area and links, etc.; anything that is not working properly needs to be fixed immediately.

As the launch period begins to wind down (the last two days or so), encourage your JV partners to ramp up their marketing efforts for the “final lap” by quoting the JV leaderboard and the top three or five standings, along with the prizes they will win if they are/stay in those positions.

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Step 1: Take Control Of The Buying Process

The most profits from Internet marketing come to those who own their own digital products and control the sales funnel.

A common sales funnel:

• Starts with a squeeze page to get a prospect’s name and email address.

• Then the main product offer.

• Then one or more upsells and downsells (often referred to as one-time offers or OTOs).

Theres two basic rules regarding sales funnels and corresponding upsells and downsells…

First - the one-time offers (i.e. upsells and downsells) relate to the main product offer in some way so that you add more value to the overall product offer.

Second - the one-time offers are optional purchases and NOT necessary to enable the main product offer to fulfill the value it is supposed to as described in the product’s sales letter.

The more people you can get to buy your main offer, the greater the chance that they will buy one or more of your one-time offers, since they have already purchased from you.

Step 2: It All Starts At The Squeeze Page

A squeeze page is just a Web page that offers the visitor something of value, such as a report on a specific topic of interest, in return for the person’s contact information (usually the person’s name and email address).

The information you provide in this free report should be useful to the person, but it should NOT include everything about the topic in question.

If you include all of the information in that free report, they’ll have no reason to buy any of your related offers, which is exactly the ultimate goal you have in mind for them.

The idea behind the squeeze page is to entice the visitor to willingly give up their name and email address so that you can follow up with them later with other relevant and useful information.

By doing this you can build a relationship with them and show that you are an expert in this industry or niche.

Once the prospect is comfortable enough with you, they will likely make a purchase, thereby entering your sales funnel.

Step 3: Offer A Directly Related PAID Product

Research has shown that it takes at least seven contacts with a prospect before they are willing to buy something from you.

Thus, you must contact the prospect by email to give them the link to download the free report offered on your squeeze page and to build up the relationship.

Good email marketing practices and building the relationship are key to making those sales.

Thus, you must provide more valuable information on the topic or subject in your follow-up emails to convince the prospect you are trustworthy and are respected in your field, eventually leading to him/her buying from you.

Don’t “hard-sell” in most of your follow-up emails; only “soft-sell” by providing valuable information about the topic, then adding a link to your main product page at the end of your emails.

Step 4: Now Is The Time To Slip In An Upsell or Downsell

After the prospect has turned into a customer by buying your main product offer, offer one or more offers designed to enhance the value of the main product offer, known as upsells and downsells.

Upsells are shown immediately after the main or previous product was purchased and are only available for that price at that moment; if the person leaves the page, the upsell deal is gone.

Downsells are shown immediately after an upsell offer is rejected; downsell offers are either the same upsell offer for a lower price or a slightly-reduced offer (one or more elements of the upsell offer is missing) at a lower price.

Upsells and downsells are not required to be purchased to get the value and benefits to the main offer; they are only optional purchases to enhance the value and features/benefits of the main offer.

Having a combination of upsells and downsells in your sales funnels will increase the chances for conversions and additional profits.

Most Internet marketers make the bulk of their profits on the back-end of the funnel (i.e. upsells and downsells), not from the front-end of the funnel (i.e. main product offer).

Step 5: Set Up Your Autoresponder Follow-Up Sequence

A series of around seven email messages will be sent out over about a two-week period after the prospect has requested the free report from your squeeze page.

The most convenient and easiest way to do this is to set up the email messages in your autoresponder; they’ll be sent out at pre-determined intervals automatically to the prospect.

• First message should include a link to download the free report and ensure the prospect has downloaded.

• Subsequent messages should look to build the relationship, show the prospect you’re trustworthy and knowledgeable in your field to build trust with him/her and convince him/her that he/she should buy your main product offer.

Out of seven email messages, no more than two should hard-sell your product; the others should only provide additional valuable information and include a link to your main product offer’s sales page at the end of your message.

Sample Content Preview

Step 1: Solve a problem

Pick a problem that you can solve that is wanted by your target market not what YOU think will work.

An in-demand product is one that will solve a specific problem or need.

Step 2: Do your research

Use your favorite search engine to find forums related to your industry and see what people in that industry identify as a problem or issue.

Look at few related things in the industry such as:

• Forums

• Newsletters

• Publications

Always be on the lookout for other sources to learn what problems you can potentially solve.

If you have experience dealing with the issue or problem in question, you can use that experience in your book as well to make your more product more unique and valuable.

Be sure to find and use relevant research and statistics from noted industry publications and experts in your book.

Use keywords or main ideas related to the problem or issue in the search engine to see what results come up you can also include in your book.

Modify the types of results you get in the search engines (images, videos, .pdf documents, etc.) to find more data and research.

Step 3: Pick a title that will sell

Your title must be interesting and must draw attention to it in order for it to sell well.

Make sure your title notes the problem or issue it will solve to alert people to what the information inside will do.

Ensure the title isn’t so long that it sounds boring and turns people off from buying it.

• Many good titles have subtitles.

• Look at comparable books on the same or similar topics that sell well, see if you can model (NOT copy) your title after theirs.

• Check Amazon, Barnes & Noble, other online bookstore sites with titles that sell well, model (NOT copy) your title after theirs.

Step 4: Choose a format

Decide on whether you are creating an eBook, software program, membership site, email series, audio product, video product, etc.

If you’re creating an eBook, decide on such formats as:

• .txt (text format)

• .doc or .docx (Microsoft Word format)

• .rtf (Rich Text Format, which allows for more styling elements than .txt)

• .odt (OpenOffice/LibreOffice’s format, similar to .doc and .docx formats)

• .pdf (Portable Document Format, capable of being opened by Adobe Reader and other similar PDF reader programs)

• .exe (executable file on Microsoft Windows machines).

Pdf eBooks are the most popular now because they can be read on virtually any operating system and even on mobile devices.

If you’re creating a software product, creating it on a cloud-based platform will allow users to access and use the software from anywhere, even on a mobile device.

If you’re creating a membership site, be sure to use a large-enough server so that it can hold all present and future data, be sure it’s mobile-friendly, and be sure to use a platform or plugin that ensures the right people get access to the site and denies all others who should haven’t access.