Naively, I set a ridiculous and audacious goal of selling 1Million copies of my eBook. This is a living, breathing experiment and everything here, you can copy to sell your first 1000 books, products or services with just 23 steps…
Read on
Introduction | 23 Steps to Selling 1000 eBooks, Products or Services
Step 1 | Get Creative, Why Create An eBook?
Step 2 | Publishing Your eBook For Fame and Fortune
Step 3 | Setting Big, Juicy Goals
Step 4 | Set Up Your Stall On The Marketplace
Step 5 | How About a Udemy Course
Step 6 | Become An Instructor on Linkedin Learning
Step 7 | Get Social With Your Social Media Profiles
Step 8 | Get Busy On Social Media Groups
Step 9 | Set Up In The Right Marketplace
Step 10 | Create A Killer Sales Landing Page
Step 11 | Get Functional With WordPress Plugins
Step 12 | Getting Paid!
Step 13 | The 10 Required Touchpoints
Step 14 | Sell In Your Sleep With Your Marketing Machine
Step 15 | Spread The News
Step 16 | Turn Visitors Into Paying Customers
Step 17 | Reach Out With Push Notifications
Step 18 | Blog, Blog and Blog Some More
Step 19 | Outreach, The Hot List
Step 20 | Build An Army Of Resellers
Step 21 | 5 Simple Steps to 40Million Visitors
Step 22 | Conversational Marketing & Smart Business Bots
Step 23 | How to Get The Most From Paid Advertising
Absolutely everything you could ever want to know about the science of creating, marketing and selling an ebook, product or service using low-cost and free methods based on our experiences selling How Why & i.
They claim that “we all have at least one good book in us”.
I wrote mine many years ago when I first started out in business, as I was learning established strategies and was putting into action the things I was discovering whilst researching and writing The Omniscience Principle.
The web was, and still is, infested with guru’s who claim they have THE answer … They didn’t then and many do not now.
I set out on my journey. My brief was this – I wrote it down to keep me focused: ‘To seek out the highest achievers on the planet, learn their secrets and emulate that success…’
And I did just that.
I learned that there really is a formula for ultimate accomplishment and it’s used over and over by a tiny group, tenacious enough to discover it for themselves. I discovered that contrary to what the ‘Rich Jerks’ will have you believe, there is no magic seed that when planted at the bottom of the garden flourishes into a blooming money tree, no higher order that lavishes the chosen few with great fortune; no super-system that pays out vast sums for little or no investment!
There is however a bedrock of timeless, solid steps all high-performance individuals take. Mix that with unbridled tenacity and success is simply a matter of time.
I wrote the book, then it came time to market it. I set big, audacious goals and followed the blueprint. This is a comprehensive, live study of everything I use to achieve my success.
About me!
Through The Omniscience Principle and The Philosophy of I … I broke free. I battled failure, depression and the enormous pressure to succeed for some twenty years … I won!
I am more wealthy then many but not a wealthy as some. I have been marketing, winning and failing for over 20 years on the net. I’ve set servers on fire, I’ve crashed and burned.
The experiences changed the way I think, the way I see the world, the way I interact with people, the way I work. They changed my attitude towards business and the way I live. They changed my life completely and WILL change yours … They WILL set you free.
I look forward to stepping out with you and hearing YOUR success stories.
P. J. Tranter
23 Steps to Selling 1000 eBooks, Products or Services
Never send people to your sales page!
If you follow conventional wisdom it is said that you create a great book, product or service, then get to work selling it. I created a better-than-average sales page and implemented some marketing. A rudimentary launch on my targeted market place and then I sat back and waited for the flood of orders.
It was slow!
I’ve been marketing online for some twenty years and decided to reevaluate the strategy. I quickly realised that I’d broken one of my fundamental rules … Don’t send people directly to your sales page.
It can take up to TEN touch points before people are persuaded to buy a product and with so many products competing for attention, it’s a hard sell indeed.
I went back to basics and what I know best. I pulled together everything that has worked and has worked an collated them into a blueprint I could reference whenever I needed.
I spent a few weeks setting up and relaunched. Suffice to say, I sailed past the 1,000 book goal I set myself as the first step on my Twelve Steps to Achievement strategy.
I’m now pushing to hit that ridiculous 1Million sales target. I’ve a long way to go and it’s hard work, but we’re getting there. I’ve also published my blueprint here for you to enjoy and hopefully profit from.
How to use this blueprint
I adopt an omni-channel approach, which builds brands, trust and referrals.
There are lots of moving parts. Individually each will not set the world alight, but as a whole they will give you the very best launch pad from where to fire off your marketing rocket. I created this list as a working document for every product launch. It is my roadmap and I refer to it weekly. As you’ll see, there’s a ‘Resources’ section at the end of each module. As I use this for my own marketing I check these resources regularly, adding and updating as things move on.
There should never be any dead links and the resources are also evaluated and tested in the real world with my own precious cash!
I make no promises, I can give you the tools and it’s up to you how you use them. Although the Internet is fast moving and constantly evolving, basic business principles are timeless:
- Find a great product
- Establish a market
- Reach out to the market
- Over deliver
- Repeat
It really is that simple! Add in a little (lot) of hard work and tenacity and you will be rewarded … just keep going!
Although this report concentrates on eBooks, you can pick and choose strategies and adopt them for your ‘thing’ you’re wanting to sell.
There are a number of steps that are universal, it’s simply a matter of adjusting them to your marketplace or niche.
Although my title states free and low cost methods, this isn’t a no cost exercise. Having said that I’ve not come across anything so potentially rewarding and profitable as selling informational and digital products online.
There are multiple moving parts in this blueprint and you can dip in and out as you see fit. Although this report is free and I sincerely hope you benefit from it, you will require an operating budget to set yourself up for success. I suggest you aim to invest $1,500 into the launch of your book/product. All of the steps are simple enough for anyone with the will to learn, some time and patience.
Having said that you may wish to outsource some of the work.
Outsourcing
Outsourcing is the business practice of hiring a party outside a company to perform services and create goods that traditionally were performed in-house by the company’s own employees and staff.
I outsource much of the work I do, simply because of my time constraints. But, when it comes to this sort of publication I build and write theses pages, simply because I’m fast and competent … I’m also so tight I squeak when I walk 🙂
Resources
I use two platforms for outsourcing:
- Fiverr: The Ultimate Guide to Fiverr
- Upwork: Top 7 Tips to Outsource on Upwork
If at any time you need help we’re here. We don’t work for free so think about your budget before contacting us.
Before we go further have you bought the book?
Step 1 | Get Creative and Create An eBook
There are several ways you can create a wonderful product.
- write one
- commission one
- sell one as an affiliate
Not everyone has the knowhow or even the inclination to write a book the scope of which simply cannot be covered here. After all, it takes a lot of time and effort and then nothing is guaranteed. But! There’s great news … there are other amazing options.
As well as those listed above I’ve put together a fascinating module detailing the systems I’ve used to knock out best selling publications in a matter of weeks, some making $hundreds of thousands in just a few months. Check out the resources below.
Writing an eBook
The most important things you’re going to need when starting out with writing your eBook:
- Research
- Establish a need
- Establish a price
Ask yourself the following:
- Do I have the time?
- Do I have the passion?
Commissioning an eBook
Those with a big idea, little time and a small budget will have the option of getting someone to write the book for them.
Writers can be found on the following platforms:
Selling as an affiliate
Affiliate marketing is an excellent way to get your foot on the ladder. The section below goes into more detail on how to suceed in affiliate marketing. In summary, when you create your first product you will look to build a team of resellers. An affiliate is a reseller of a publisher’s work. The publisher will pay a percentage commission for each product you sell.
Resources
- 10 Steps to Publishing Success
- Tips on writing your book
- How to Make Money by Finding, Re-organizing, Reworking, and Re-selling Other People’s Profit Churning Articles
- How To Steal Yourself Great Ideas, Products & Services!
Step 2 | Publishing Your eBook For Fame and Fortune
Once your ebook is ready you will need to publish it in the correct format.
Ensure it is edited and the very best it can be.
Checklist:
- Check copy and line edits
- Make sure the prose is polished
- Make sure there aren’t any errors or typos
- A team of beta readers can consist of friends and family
- Check typeset
- Check images. Readers do judge a book by its cover!
There are a number of publishing platform out there however you really only need Microsoft Word or I use Pages on a Mac. These are incredibly sophisticated programmes and contain everything you need.
When you’re finished you’ll simply need to save them in the right format:
Publishing in Pages for Mac
It’s super-simple:
Once you have saved your ebook on ePub format it’s simply a couple more steps to publish it to Apple Books.
Using the same menu as pictured above, click the ‘Publish to Apple Books’ option.
Publishing in Microsoft Word for PC
Saving in Microsoft Word is a little more complicated. Please use the resource links.
Resources
Step 3 | Setting Big, Juicy Goals
Although this section is numbered Step 3 it is actually only the beginning of the journey.
So many people get to this stage and fall over. This is because they’re about to step out onto the most difficult and arduous part. If you thought that getting your ebook written was hard, that’s nothing compared to what you’re about to achieve!
Once I’d finished The Omniscience Principle, I took a great big breath and relaxed … for a day!
With revisions and rewrites it took almost TWENTY YEARS to write (and still needs work!). I think if you only share one thing this year, my book deserves the honour … don’t you?
When you read the book you’ll learn about the false starts and why it took so long to get to this stage. Life, setbacks and business took over and the project got put on the back-burner. But that’s another story. The book was finished and now I had to look forward.
My son had left a copy of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, written by Richard Bach and illustrated by Russell Munson on the table. It’s a tatty little thing but something immediately caught my eye: ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD.
NOW THERE’S A GOAL!
I then discovered that a best seller in many of the charts only requires about 5,000 copies to be sold. Suddenly, that one million target became a little intimidating! The issue was, I’d set that target and to back down would be utterly defeatist wouldn’t it?
So the target: ONE MILLION COPIES.
“How the hell was I going to achieve that?”
Resources
Step 4 | Set Up Your Stall On The Marketplace
The next step is all about creating a presence in the marketplace.
Despite what these platforms claim, you’re not going to become a best-seller over night. I was convinced that the moment my book was uploaded to the great and mighty Amazon, I’d be on the David Letterman Show, the week after! It doesn’t work like that. We’re looking to generate momentum: Newton’s second law of motion states that a body’s rate of change in momentum is equal to the net force acting on it.
We are now in the business of generating that force.
Self publishing Amazon
Amazon: As I said above, this is not going to set the world alight. There are literally millions of self published books on Amazon and it’s almost impossible to get your book to appear in organic search. The second issue is Mr Bezos and his corporate greed! You have to virtually give your work away on this platform so even when you do sell well, you’re not going to get rich. But! It’s a great start and helps create reputation and social proof.
See the superb guide in resources below.
Self publishing Amazon
Lulu: Is another self-publishing platform with more options than Amazon. Since introducing self-publishing in 2002, Lulu.com has empowered creators in more than 225 countries and territories to produce nearly two million publications. Lulu.com is available in six languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian and Dutch. I have seen mixed reviews about Lulu. My reasoning for adding there is simply a matter of brand awareness.
Self publishing Smashwords
Smashwords: Founded in 2008. In the first year, they published 140 books from 90 authors. The catalog reached 6,000 books in 2009, 28,800 in 2010, 92,000 in 2011, 191,000 in 2012 and as of this writing (November 2018) stands at over 500,000 titles.
Self publishing Google books
Google books: See Step 2 for publishing to Google Books. This platform is about extending visibility in search. When you upload, give Google permission to show a preview of the book, and in some cases the entire text. If it’s in the public domain, searchers are able to download a PDF copy. I have noticed that the book is appearing on page one for a multitude of search terms. Google presents certain paragraphs as a search result.
Self publishing IngramSpark
IngramSpark: This is another option for creating a bedrock for an online presence.
Set up Medium profile
Medium: Why post on Medium?
Medium is an online publishing platform developed by Evan Williams and launched in August 2012. Due to the fact there is a fee and an active community focused on quality content it has grown into a huge site … and Google loves it! When you post relevant and interesting articles geared to your product, it’ll help your results in Google.
Set up Quora profile
Quora: is an online question and answers platform. Posting here delivers the same benefits as Medium.
Set up on eBay
eBay: is a great platform for the occasional sale. Ensure you have a comprehensive, keyword relevant product description page as this is another great way to pop up in search results.
Set up on Craig’s List
Craigslist: Talk about breaking all the rules. Craigslist is massive. Something like ‘a lot’ of the US GDP goes through the site boasting more than a billion monthly online visitors.
Consider Etsy
Etsy: Not really for books but a marketplace for products. I’ve included this as you may be tempted to spend time and resources on it. I’ve used it but ended up closing my account. They change their shipping and search algorithm often and I found it too time hungry. But it’s worth a look as people do well. Read this first
Resources
- How To Start eBook Promotions on Amazon
- Step by Step guide to publishing on Amazon
- Self-Publishing Platforms by Rating
Step 5 | How About a Udemy Course?
This step may not always be possible but if you can break your ebook into practical lessons then this is a must, if only for presence.
Udemy is one of the leading world wide online learning marketplaces (e-learning) offering a plethora of courses. Ecourses from various domains are available in 80 languages.
More than 9 million students participate worldwide. With more than 80,000 courses, most topics are covered and taught by experts.
Courses are available on demand so that the learning is possible anywhere at any time, on the own pace.
Instruction is delivered by teachers from universities and colleges but by removing the university name and accreditation process it makes top quality training much more affordable.
Many of the courses are available free of charge and regularly heavily discounted. There is definitely something for everyone from business to personal interests.
- Check Out The Udemy Wealthness Course HERE (coming soon)
Fiverr Courses
If your product is suitable you can also add it to Fiverr* Courses
Resources
- How to create a Udemy Course
- The Udemy Blog is packed with ideas and instruction
Step 6 | Become An Instructor on Linkedin Learning
This one is by no means guaranteed!
In fact it’s a long shot but I’ve included it in the hope that one of you at least, will be accepted. I’m still waiting :).
LinkedIn Learning is an online educational platform that helps you discover and develop business, technology-related, and creative skills through expert-led course videos.
With more than 5,000 courses and personalized recommendations, you can discover, complete, and track courses related to your field and interests. You can also choose to add these courses and related skills to your LinkedIn profile once you’ve completed them.
Resources
Apply to Linkedin Learning
Step 7 | Get Social With Your Social Media Profiles
This is another of those steps that will not pay immediate dividends.
In fact, organic growth on social media platforms is almost impossible due to the manifested greed of the platform owners. It really pisses me off that without our input, these platforms would not exist. We build and invest in followings and then the likes of Zuckerberg who put shareholders first, throttle our reach in favour of charging us to deliver the posts our contacts have subscribed to see.
Whinge over!
This is the way of the world and we have to deal with it. Although they will not admit it, extensive research shows that Facebook have throttled organic post reach to some 10%, meaning that even if you have an enviable following of some one million people, the very best reach you’ll get on an organic post … is less than 100,000.
We don’t ignore social media and we don’t pin our success on it.
Create a professional profile on all the major platforms, we then use Hootsuite to manage posts.
- FB
- Tumblr
- YouTube
Resources
Step 8 | Get Busy On Social Media Groups
Joining social media groups is all about spreading your exposure.
My experience has been mixed and it never fails to astonish me just how difficult it is to be heard. There is a vast river of people flowing. I sit on the bank, throw my hook in and mostly catch minnows or very little at all.
However, consistency and momentum are key.
8 Golden Rules to Follow When Joining Facebook and Linkedin Groups
1. Research relevant groups
Finding the right audience is key, The Eskimo group wont appreciate you extolling the virtues of ice in their vodka! Use LinkedIn’s search to discover groups groups created around industries, professions, skills and topics relevant to your products. View the profiles of the most valuable connections and see what groups they frequent.
2. Always follow the rules
Before joining a group, spend a little quality time reading comments and checking out the kind of content getting shared. It’s a good idea to check out the published group rules and abide by them. They’re generally common sense. Most groups simply want quality content, which you’re going to deliver, right!.
3. Be social
Again, it’s really common sense. Think about what you’d want to get out of a group. If you see a comment that is practically begging for your product, they’ll actually thank you for providing a solution. Don’t be that person who simply joined to self-promote. It’s a good idea to spend a few weeks easing in. Introduce yourself first, like comments, offer thoughts and enter discussions others have started. There will be idiots, fact! Resist the urge and ignore them. You will be judged by people with nothing in their lives!
4. Post as you, not a company
Being social is about you, not the organisation you represent. Infact people seem to recent any form of corporate intrusion, the reason being is that the ulterior motive to sell something is blindingly obvious. People do business with people. Your profile can do the work of presenting your business. You’re the brand ambassador.
5. Stay on topic
Of course, 90% of the members will only be there to self-promote and the hypocrisy is tangible. Just play the game making sure that the content you share is valuable and contributes. The higher the quality of content, the better your reputation so when you do recommend a product, it’ll be well received.
A fresh perspective is always interesting. Challenge the stereotypes but don’t be controversial, simply for the sake of it.
6. Post unique content
At present you’re allowed to be a member of up to 50 groups at a time on Linkedin and 6000 on Facebook. I’ve found any more than 100 across the platforms becomes unmanageable. It’s all about reward and there’s simply not enough organic reach to warrant more time. Spend a couple of hours a day mixing it up and alternating. Experiment with Hootsuite by scheduling posts. There are no hard and fast rules especially when trying to get a post to go viral.
7. Extend beyond the group
As you’re presence grows you’ll begin to build a network. Use Hubspot* to manage these private conversations. Private conversations are a great way to make valuable new connections and nurture fledgling relationships.
8. Start a group of your own.
Before you consider this option, first consider how much time you’re willing to input. My experience with this option is not positive. Building and running a group takes an enormous toll in time and resources. Then I ask, is it really worth it? I refer back to the organic reach. It’s abysmal.
Facebook Groups
Do a search in your marketplace.
Linkedin Groups
Not so well known but Linkedin host groups also. Linkedin is a more mature audience. They are harder to find and unless you know they are there they are often missed.
Strategy
I recommend a change in mindset when looking at social media platforms. We’re taught to build our profiles. I disagree, I maintain that we use social media to build a valuable group at our site. A place where we can add real value. Why spend your energy lining the pockets of the big players? (more on this in the relevant section)
The method here is to be consistent and relevant. Once you join the group, take a little time to see what others are posting and start commenting. Don’t just go hard out. Facebook has vandalised the platform with advertising and often group members gather for sanctuary. Of course we’re not really interested in what most members have to say as we’re there to sell our wares. Just be conscious of how you slip in that marketing message!
As I said, I’m amazed at how small the response is to posts. And it’s not just the fact that I’m spamm… oops! posting relevant material. I see that very few posts in the feed get huge exposure. I am a member of over one hundred groups, numbering millions of members. When I post, unless something goes viral I get less then 10,000 views. However, as I said, this is about consistency and exposure. Selling by a million paper cuts.
Do this daily. Mix it up. Video does well but not always.
And keep on-topic. You’re building a reputation for the product you’re selling and that means being respectful and contributing with quality content. This will earn respect over time.
Answer all comments on your posts, good and bad. Don’t get into any public argument with keyboard warriors, no matter how tempting it may be.
Indie Publishing Community
There’s an online #WritingCommunity that’s incredibly active. Whether you’re on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, every day there are writers and authors sharing tips and encouragement to help each other succeed.
The indie publishing community is a tight-knit, supportive group of creators, entrepreneurs, and go-getters. Find like-minded people who want to see you succeed. Share your work with them and ask for feedback along the way.
Your community might have a writing collective that offers courses, workshops, and meetups. Your local independent bookstore likely has resources to help you succeed in publishing, and the booksellers can help you understand what they look for when they choose whether or not to stock a book. Your local librarians can give you insight into what they look for in a self-published book, and what the local community is most interested in reading. Take the time to immerse yourself in your local literary community before you publish your book. This will make your job much easier when it’s time to turn around and ask for their support.
Top Tip: Big isn’t always better!
Some communities number in their millions and contrary to the expected flood of visitors you’d expect, the opposite is often the case. You end up getting lost. Better to find smaller, more engaged groups where you’ll be loved and appreciated 🙂
Resourses
Step 9 | Set Up On eBay, Gumtree and Facebook Marketplace
Sell on Facebook Marketplace
Facebook have being growing their marketplace platform under the radar for a number of years now.
How does Facebook Marketplace fit in to our online marketing?
Facebook Marketplace works!
It possesses the potential to rival the likes of Gumtree, ebay and Amazon Marketplace as an essential platform for small-scale commerce.
Astonishingly, Buy and Sell groups on Facebook are visited by around 450 million people per month worldwide. Facebook are moving a large share of this activity to a central marketplace, which we will be able to better manage and capitalise upon.
Strategy
Add a listing daily. Mix up and test the locations. When you make a listing it asks you to set a location. I have found that by changing this I get different results. eg I get far more views when I set the location to London.
eBay Marketplace
eBay enjoys 182 million buyers worldwide. It’s one of the largest global online marketplaces, with over 1.3 billion product listings a day.
The key to selling on ebay is a great listing. We don’t have ebay here in New Zealand, a copycat site called Trade Me has the market share. Kiwis have this annoying habit of writing the most bland, information-less descriptions! “Buy my car, it’s great mate!”. I want to know all there is to know and I want that information now!
- Critical: Use high-quality images and photos.
- Critical: Ensure you choose the correct categories.
- Always apply SEO to your title and descriptions.
- Promote your listing with eBay advertising (more in relevant section).
- Always maintain a high seller rating.
- Offer generous shipping and returns.
Gumtree Marketplace
Gumtree is a rapidly growing online buy and sell marketplace where you can sell just about anything. Creating a listing on Gumtree is essentially the same as eBay because they now own it!
That said, here are a few simple steps to increase the chances of success:
- As with eBay your listing is critical. Carefully craft the title and description. Many just throw together an ad in a couple of minutes. Provide a well-written, detailed description and several high-quality pictures.
- Research the right price. Search through the market to find out how similar products are priced.
- Be responsive to inquiries. Ensure you’re available to respond quickly to inquiries on your ad. When you can’t be contacted promptly, buyers will inevitably look elsewhere.
Resources
- How To Sell On Gumtree
- Determining What To Sell on eBay To Make Money
- How to Create a Top-Selling eBay Listing
Step 10 | Create A Killer Sales Landing Page
Whether you know them as sales pages, landing pages or splash pages, everything you see is created with beautiful, simple to use software.
Over the years we have developed some very sophisticated sites. We have a team of developers working on our Auctions* and Classic Cars* apps. Over the years I have tried every web building platform out there. With the benefit of that extensive experience in mind I’ll save you a ton of time, effort and brain-ache!
WordPress
The only platform you need to succeed is WordPress. Over the years WordPress has grown from a simple blogging app to a highly sophisticated web publishing platform.
WordPress has come of age and is now the Daddy.
It is estimated that the number of total active websites is over 1.3 billion according to a survey published by Netcraft, that translates to WordPress* powering approx 455,000,000 websites now, that’s 20% of all self-hosted websites!
Setting a Theme
The second part of the equation is to theme your site. For this you’ll only ever need Divi* by Elegant Themes. There’s a bit of a learning curve but once you get the hang of it, you’ll fall in love!
Why do I use Elegant Themes?
It’s not the cheapest but that’s a great thing. There are free and cheap themes available and you may be tempted to cut corners but believe me, you pay peanuts, you get monkeys!
When a developer is not making money, they’re not interested in the upkeep of their software. WordPress is constantly evolving, driven by a huge community and the themes need to keep pace. When they don’t you’ve got a headache.
Trust me on this!
Setting up WordPress
The service by WP beginner will help you get set up:
Having helped over 370,000+ users create a blog, we have decided to create the most comprehensive guide on how to start a WordPress blog without any technical knowledge.
Setting up Jetpack
Jetpack* is a plugin that now comes with WordPress. Sold as security essentials for every WordPress site, the Lite version is free with upgrade options. Jetpack is the obvious solution to get started with keeping your personal or small business site backed up and spam-free.
Setting up Divi by Elegant Themes
Once you have WordPress set up and installed it will come with a free demo theme. You wil also have the option to choose from the standard theme library.
Next step is to get your site rocking!
- Set up an account at Elegant Themes and download the zip file to your desktop.
- Navigate to ‘Themes’ in your WordPress menu and upload your zipped Divi file.
- Activate
- If you need help with this we can set it up for you but there is a charge. Contact Us For WordPress Divi Theme Set Up Details
Choosing a Divi template
Divi comes with an extensive library of templates with an infinite number of customization. Everything you are reading is published on a Divi template. We have multiple sites built like this.
Once you have chosen your template it’s time to create a stunning sales page. It may help to you get ideas: The Omniscience Sales Page* but be sure to make yours look unique!
Video
Video can bring your pages to life. There are a number of resourses to get great video these days at little or no cost:
- Do a search on YouTube for royality free clips. You are free to use these clips in your vids. Create vids with iMovie
- You can buy video effects and stock fotage at VideoHive
- For whiteboard presentations I use Doodly
Resources
- 20 Free Online Stock Video Sites
- Get WordPress*
- How to set up a WordPress Site in 7 easy steps
- Get Jetpack*
- Elegant Themes*
- How To Build A Landing Page That Converts
- 44 Reasons Why WordPress is Best
Step 11 | Get Functional With WordPress Plugins
Now it’s time to turn your landing page into an automated marketing machine.
We achieve this through a number of plugins.
Plugins are small programs developed by a community of developers to enhance the functionality of your WordPress application. As with themes, there are good ones and bad.
WordPress Plugins
Bloom Email – more about autoresponders in step 14. You’ll see the pop up when you go to leave this page. When you do that’s the plug in working to perfection. If you don’t see it then ignore what I just wrote!
Monarch Social sharing from Divi. See those share buttons over there on the left … This is the Monarch plug in. Give it a test drive!
One Signal Browser push notifications, customer engagement, powering mobile push, web push, email, and in-app messages. Add the One Signal plug in and follow the instructions.
Yeost SEO: SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation. WordPress is developed to be highly compatible with search requirements. Despite all the hype around search optimisation I am forming an opinion that it is becoming less and less relevant. My reasoning is that I believe the Google algorithm, the programme that determines SERPS (your results in search), is becoming so sophisticated that there is little we can do to influence it. I’ve spent countless hours and cash climbing the ladder only to see Google stick it to me and wipe out the good work overnight.
Having said that we do not ignore SEO, we do the very best we can do and move on.
Google is looking to deliver great results and this is only achieved with great content. Yeost will help with keyword relevancy and other essential elements.
Images and Icons
Your sales page needs to pop!
We achieve this with high quality images and icons. Here are the platforms I use … and they’re free!
- Iconfinder High quality icons
- Freepik Free graphics, vectors, PSD and AI files and images. All that you need for your Creative Projects.
- Unsplash Royality free images
- Mid Journey Ai If you like the images on Wealthness most are generated with MidJourney – I like it the best!
Image manipulation software
I use Photoshop for working with images. I had to go to college for a year to learn it! Luckily there is a great alternative that’s easy to use and free!
- Canva Design anything in minutes with thousands of beautiful templates and images.
When creating and adding images always name the image with relevant keywords. When saving in the WordPress media library always add a relevant ‘alt tag‘ for SEO.
Step 12 | Getting Paid!
Set up shop and payment accounts
Again, there are other options – people swear by Shopify. Having tested this extensively I have moved our shop FortyandDeuce back to WordPress and WooCommerce*. I found Shopify expensive and when you ended up having to pay for every little add on it became frustrating to say the least. There was even a monthly fee just to be able to use third part plug ins.
And that’s where I really began to get pissed off!
Additional functionality plugins were buggy and extremely expensive. Moving back to WordPress was a no brainier, especially when much of the functionality you are charged for at Shopify comes as standard.
Add your product to WooCommerce
WooCommerce comes already installed with Divi and access to all support. WooCommerce is more intuitive than many shopping carts. You will also need a Paypal and/or Stripe account to receive that lovely cash!
Resources
- Getting started with Paypal
- Get WooCommerce*
- How to Set up WooCommerce
- Open a Stripe account
- Open Paypal account
Step 13 | Keep in Touch, Set Up An Email Account
It’s all in the list
I have been selling product for over twenty years. I’ve not only seen marketing systems come and go, I’ve been responsible for some quite sophisticated apps that have moved vast quantities of product.
One thing remains constant and everything we’ve built up to this point and everything we implement in the coming weeks will all be about building the list.
Success online is as simple as this: “Turn visitors into friends, turn friends into customers” … That’s it!
The requirements are:
- Permission
- Content
- Outreach
Through multiple streams we make contact and gain a visitor’s permission to engage. We introduce them to our content. We reach out and encourage them to purchase.
I use a number of eMail Marketing Platforms and to be honest, they’re all much of a muchness.
I’ll recommend AWeber* at this point because it’s been around for years, is integrated into most apps, is reasonably priced, and I get a commission! (see affiliate marketing section)
Email Marketing Platforms
- Email Octopus (Our Favourite)
- AWeber*
- SendGrid – Works with OneSignal Push Notifications
- Hubspot*
- Constant Contact
- SendInBlue
- GetResponse
- MailChimp
- ConvertKit
- Drip
- Keap
Resources
Step 14 | Sell In Your Sleep With Your Marketing Machine | Email Autoresponders
If the email list is your bread and butter, then the autoresponder is the jam and clotted cream!
An autoresponder is what it says on the tin. They are automatic email messages sent out through various triggers.
The most basic ones are a series of emails sent at intervals of normally a day apart delivered after someone subscribes to a list. Once you have your email account set up on a platform such as AWeber* it is just a matter of setting up the sequence. The power of autoresponders simply cannot be underestimated. They are working away in the background freeing you up to work on other areas of your business.
The scope of autoresponders is extensive and fully explored in the module below:
Resources
Step 15 | Spread The News With Your Newsletter
This is so important I’ll write it again! Success online is as simple as this: “Turn visitors into friends, turn friends into customers” … That’s it!
All of the major email delivery services are designed to help you keep in contact with your customers. More about building those lists below.
There are a number of tools that allow you to target and segment your lists as you go. It’s not complicated to create your newsletter and once set up, sending one will become part of your outreach campaign (see the relevant section).
A few seconds after you visited this page a popup will have triggered inviting you to subscribe to the The Mighty Wealtheness Newsletter. This is a weekly email we send out with all sorts of wonderful stuff. It will often reference ‘Must Read’ articles published in The Wealthness Blog.
You don’t have to send a weekly newsletter. Infact it’s better to wait until you have something of value rather than piss people off with trivia, they’ll only unsubscribe or worse, mark you mail as Spam, which affects your reputation and deliverability.
So we onboard subscribers with popups, viral campaigns and landing pages.
We are currently using Email Octopus because it is integrated into many platforms and it’s one of the best value services. As our lists grow we move them over to other options such as SendGrid.
Resources
Step 16 | Turn Visitors Into Paying Customers With Optin Forms
Now you have your email accounts set up it’s time to start building those lists!
Your optin forms are your first point of contact. It never ceases to amaze me how high street shops still allow us to leave without grabbing our contact details and following up to see what they can sell us. Your optin form allows you to capture visitor details and work together with your autoresponder and newsletter.
The forms can be triggered in a number of ways and often webmasters will use them all wrong!
The general mindset of marketers in this evermore crowded Internet is to shout louder than anyone else … a BIG mistake!
Remember, this is all about turning visitors into friends. It’s called permission marketing. Banging someone over the head with a big stick just alienates them. There’s nothing more annoying than being interrupted with a dirty great pop up demanding that you Sign up Now!
You haven’t even had time to evaluate the site and the information on offer. You can view exit pop ups on our website for Motors*
You’ll also se an exit Intent popup up as you leave this page. The strategy is to keep you in the loop. I did think about offering a discount for those who hadn’t bought the book but that would piss off those that had just bought it at full price. By keeping visitors in the ecosystem I’ve got many more opportunities to slip in a discount or two.
Unless there’s a good reason, I generally like to use ‘Exit Intent Popups‘ for a couple of reasons:
- Visitors are leaving so you’re not interrupting their browsing
- You’ve got nothing to lose, they’re leaving anyway
- Exit intent triggers are a good way to call people back to you with an enticing offer
- Allow you to be personal, “Hey! You’re leaving…”
At this point some will have noticed the newsletter pop up trigger after six seconds on this page. I encourage you to sign up. You can subscribe to this invaluable newsletter HERE if you missed it. The reason I triggered it ‘against my advice’ is so that you can see the plugin I’m recommending in action.
You’ll have seen newsletter opt in forms all over the web, probably on most of the sites you visit. The reason they are so popular is because they’re an essential element to powering your business. The issue is that 99% of marketers not only trigger them at the wrong time they even get the message all wrong too.
People will only subscribe if you offer something of real value. Their time is short and with so many options you need to stand out.
If you follow my recommendations with regard to using Elegant Themes you will need to download their opt in plug in Bloom.
There are a number of options but after years of trial and error I would say, “stick to the plan!”
Resources
- Everything You Could Ever Need To Build Your Own ‘gold Dust’ Mailing List
- How To Build Your Own Highly Responsive Opt-in Email List
Step 17 | Reach Out With Push Notifications
Push notifications are browser alerts.
You often see them drop down from the browser when visiting certain websites.
They are slightly more advanced and will require some setting up.
I am using OneSignal on The Wealthness Blog. They are the market leader in customer engagement, powering mobile push, web push, email, and in-app messages.
Description
OneSignal is an easy way to increase user engagement. Use OneSignal to send visitors targeted push notifications so they keep coming back. It takes just a few minutes to install.
After setup, your visitors opt-in to receive push notifications when you publish a new post. Visitors receive these notifications even after they’ve left your website, thus driving re-engagement.
You can configure notification delivery at preset intervals, create user segments, and customize the opt-in process for visitors.
OneSignal’s free plan allows targeting up to 30,000 subscribers with push notifications.
Again, this page is a live blueprint. You will see when you arrive that a notification is triggered. It will look like this:
When a visitor allows Push Notifications via their browser, they are added to the OneSignal software. You create custom alerts and messages via the interface. Each time you create a new blog post, your visitors are alerted through browser, phone and email.
Add push notifications as another way to build engagement and turn visitors into friends who love your products.
Set up:
- Install the OneSignal Plugin
- Create a OneSignal account
- Follow the instructions and extensive documentation
Resources
Step 18 | Blog, Blog and Blog Some More
This is an important step. Every product and website needs an ‘engine’.
Your blog is the dirty, fat V8 powerhouse!
The issue with your product sales page is that once it’s set up it remains pretty much a done deal. Running a blog will take time and effort but it’s essential for success. A blog enables you to engage regularly and add new content which is vital for holistic growth and your SEO.
The key is to be relevant, publish high quality posts and add value.
When I first started out marketing on the internet we were able to simply find good content and paste it to a post. Google would soon pick it up and the site would grow organically. Unfortunately, this no longer works and that’s a good thing. The web was awash with duplicate and recycled content, most of it absolute garbage!
Running a quality blog such as The Wealthness Blog takes several hours a day. I write most articles from scratch. Finding relevant content is the hardest part.
Fortunately there are a few short cuts!
Transcribing videos
This is a good way to find unique content. Videos contain great information. There are several services that will send you a transcript of the video. A few tweaks will make a great unique article in double quick time.
Emails
Again, you’ll receive some great content in email newsletter. Often this information is only sent as an email so again, a few tweaks and you’ll have a nice, unique article.
Printed material
Yes! There’s such a thing as offline material. Get on a few mailing lists and you’ll soon be received a ton of junk mail … some of it will be relevant and can be scanned using OCR software. This turns print into editable content.
Resources
- How To Make Money By Finding, Re-organizing, Reworking, And Re-selling Public Domain Material
- Creating Articles That Hook The Reader
Step 19 | Outreach, The Hot List
Now you have all the blocks required for the foundation of your empire. Now let’s go out and conquer!
The steps are:
- Permission-Content-Outreach
- Establish your fan base even if you don’t have one already
- Connect with your fans regularly to build a group of dedicated followers
- Continually grow your fan base and avoid the ever-looming revenue cliff of death
- Reliably sell more books month after month
- Repeat
I have found this part the most frustrating. I am creative, I thrive on ideas and the process of setting up a new project. Then comes the monotony of reaching out every day, often with little or no reward!
I wrote a comprehensive guide on setting goals and how to overcome this and how to make it rewarding. The goal is to try and remove the expectation. treat it as a military operation. Don’t let rejection get you down, infact getting told “NO” is all part of the game.
Once you publish an article you will want to share it round. SEO experts will say that this creates a duplicate content issue. I have weighed up the pros and cons and have concluded that 2+2=5.
Ideally, every post you make will be unique but this is simply not practical. This post by Niel Patel busts some duplicate content myths.
After weighing up the available ‘authority’ thinking and what I see and hear, I believe that sharing your quality content will outweigh any duplicate content issues. After all, this is all about eyes on the prize. Google will do what Google wants, regardless.
The second part of the equation will be the value of backlinks. As I’ve said, I’m no SEO expert (if there is such a thing) I feel that the additional number of eyes on your product combined with a few, high quality backlinks will outweigh any perceived duplicate content issues.
This is a comprehensive list of high quality places to share. Pick and choose which ones work for you. Over time build out your sharing routine to become a content creation behemoth.
Content Calendar
Use something like Google Calendar and create a content creation alert. Make a certain day of the week your content creation day. This may take two days as the following day is sharing day:
60+ Awesome Resources For Sharing Your Blog Articles | A Checklist
- Make sure your social share plugins are set up
Ensure there are relevant links to your blog everywhere including your email signature - Hootsuite makes managing sharing easier allowing you to schedule posting on multiple networks at regular intervals, automatically
- Set up your Google Business Profile
- Publish your article on the blog
- Send out your weekly newsletter or alerts
- Share on Facebook Monthly active users 2.2 Billion
Facebook Groups
Facebook personal page
Facebook Business Page - Share on Twitter Monthly active users 330 Million
Twitter Brand Accounts
Twitter Personal Accounts
Twitter Chats - Share on Pinterest Monthly active users 200 Million
- Share on Instagram Monthly active users 800 Million
- Share on Reddit Monthly active users 2.75 Million. Reddit have upgraded their post UI allowing for media rich content.
- Share on Tumblr
- Share on Digg
- Submit to Zest
- Post to Growth Hacker
- Upload to Product Hunt
Create a truncated article (first few paragraphs) with link to original article on Linkedin - Share Linkedin article as a Linkedin post Monthly active users 200 Million
- Create a Slideshare
- Create a truncated article (first few paragraphs) with link to original article on Medium Monthly active users 60 Million
- Find and answer a question on Quora link to your article or create a new question.
- Create a Quora Space
- Find and answer a question on Yahoo! Answers link to your article or create a new question
- Edit Wikipedia. Not easy but I’ve managed to get several links to relevant articles approved.
Forums.
Get involved on forums in your sector (just get involved and watch the spam!) - Add to Snip.ly
- Add to Scoop.it
- Add to Outbrain
- Add to Taboola
- Consider Triberr
- Add to Mix (formally StumbleUpon)
- Submit to Blog Engage
- Check out Blog Lovin’
- Get thoughtful on Business 2 Community Monthly active users 1 Million
- Check out Flipboard
- Get Crypitic on Steemit
- Be a mastermind on BizSugar
- Consider Infographic Submission Sites
- Share on SnapChat
- Include updated on your Google Business page
- Bookmark and share on Instapaper
- Consider starting a podcast
- Save and share on Pocket
- Create a ‘How to’ and share. See link in resources below.
- Behance by Adobe for creative works
- Growth Hackers is a community for growth based articles.
- Indie Hackers A community for help, support and comment.
- ProductHunt Share your products and get support.
Video - If possible, upload YouTube video Monthly active users 1.57 Billion
- Upload to Vimeo Monthly active users 100 Million
- Instagram IGTV for video
Article Directories
Article directories used to be awesome for SEO but The World of Scum put paid to that too! They have gone out of favour with Google and SEO experts but I maintain there’s still a large number of eyes scanning those pages. For example, Ezine articles has an Alexa rank of some 23,000 which if you know about Alexa ranking is an indicative (not accurate) measure of how busy it is. There’s 360,000+ expert authors who share their best original articles with 30 million+ monthly visitors. As our goal is to get in front of readers then I upload to these directories regularly.
- Add your article to
Ezine Articles - LargeArticle
- ArticleBase
- IdeaMarketers
- ArticleCube
- OtherArticles
- Interesting Articles
- Great Feeds
- HubPage
- TrafficSwarm
Press Release
Create a regular press release. Press releases are an excellent way to drop into new rivers of eager readers. There are normally a selection of paid options and it’s a matter of testing in order to leverage the best ROI. For instance it may pay to get three lower priced releases than one all-singin-all-dancing option.
- eReleases (Best overall) Companies needing the widest potential distribution for a low price
- Newswire Teams that need extensive support and guidance via industry-leading customer service
- PRWeb Businesses that want a professional review of their press releases before distribution
- Send2Press Organizations that want to focus on reaching local and regional media outlets
- PR Distribution Businesses with news-worthy press releases looking to gain guaranteed press
Resources
- How Collecting ‘no’ Leads To Success!
- Setting Goals To Fail
- The 12 Ironclad Rules for Issuing Press Releases
- 6 Best Press Release Distribution Services
- How to Attract 9872 Visitors from Quora in One Month
- Wikipedia editing rules in a nutshell
- 80 How-To Sites Worth Bookmarking
Your thoughts
How is this list? Comment below with what’s working for you
Step 20 | Build An Army Of Resellers With Affiliate Networks & Influencers
John Getty once said “I would rather have 1% of 100 people’s efforts than 100% of my own”.
This is achieved by having a team of affiliates selling your product.
Use the links in the resources for a full module on affiliate marketing. To sum up quickly it’s the online version of resellers. An affiliate will sell your product and computer software tracks it and pays out a commission.
This entire page is a money-making machine!
I’ve marketed as an affiliate since I started selling on the net and have done really well. It’s been the staple of my business ever since. For instance, you’ll see links throughout this module highlighted with *. Now normally I don’t highlight affiliate links but in this case I have so you can see how they fit in with my multiple streams of income set up.
Each time you see a link with a * you see that it links to a product with a complex URL. These are my tracking links and I’ll either earn a commission for referring a sale or in some cases a visit.
I am making money for the owner or author of these products and they have to do absolutely nothing except count the cash!
You need to add your products to various affiliate networks and invite resellers to sell your them.
Influencers
This term applies to anyone with a good reputation and a following. Well I say that and then you get anomalies like Ms Kardashian …. and moving swiftly on!
Working with influencers is time consuming and hard work but if just one partners with you it can be a massive boost to your business.
Most just want paying the dirty, rotten whores that they are but I’ve found that some are open to affiliate commissions that can often pay more than a flat fee. You need to use your negotiating skills and work out whether the greater payout is worth the risk.
Affiliates
Affiliate Marketing is a 3-step process for earning income. It begins with signing up to sell someone’s online product or service for a fee, then actually going out and advertising that product/service with the intention of generating sales, and finally making those sales to earn an affiliate commission.
Affiliate Networks
Set up affiliate programmes for your products on:
- ClickBank
- JVZoo
- Cj
- ShareASale
- FlexOffers
- Pepperjam
- Rakuten Marketing (formerly LinkShare)
- PayKickstart
- PaidonResults
- Avangate
Resources
Step 21 | 5 Simple Steps to 40Million Visitors | Infect the World With Viral Marketing
2 x 2 = 4
4 x 4 = 16
16 x16 = 256
256 x 256 = 65,536
65,536 x 65,536 = 42,949672
If only it were that easy! (good clickbait though!)
OK, we’d all love it if we could see our marketing explode like this … the exciting part is that it can!
The power of viral marketing is unprecedented. Fortunately there are systems that help us leverage Viral Marketing.
This page is a living experiment. You’ll have come to it through a sophisticated, seamless, viral programme.
This is how it worked:
- You heard about this page via one of the above listed methods or via a friend. In fact, it’s so seamless, you probably can’t even remember how you came across it.
- The critical part is that you were asked to share this page before viewing. Now I’m hoping you did this and it wasn’t somehow bypassed – If so give it a share and help me hit that massive goal.
- When you shared, you entered your contact details. They were automatically added to my autoresponder and you’ll be receiving some cool emails helping and encouraging you in your goal of selling 1000 ebooks, products or services.
- When you shared this page, others would see the link and and be more likely to view as it was shared with the endorsement of a friend. They in turn fall into the same process…
This is how posts go viral. Personal recommendations. It’s probably the most powerful and effective asset in your arsenal.
So how do we do it?
How to set up a viral marketing campaign
- We use a software created by Wilco de Kreij called Upviral*
- Rather than send traffic directly to our sales page (this one) we create an awesome giveaway.
- We then promote the ‘Viral Landing Page’, which collects the visitor details and automatically adds them to the autoresponder.
- Upviral then presents a ‘Share’ page where we reward visitors for sharing a socila post … simple!
- Here is the Viral Landing page incase you missed it. 1,000 Books Viral Marketing
Promote 1000 Books Campaign And Build YOUR Lists.
This page is one of best converting articles in this marketplace.
Create a buzz … Not easy!
I’m not promoting the book page!
I’m promoting this page via Upviral*, which inturn is populating my lists and is driving massive traffic to my book page. You can copy this technique. Either create a campaign of your own or use this campaign to build your lists.
DO NOT copy this page or alter it in any way. You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry!
The Viral Marketing Cheat Sheet
Resources
Step 22 | Conversational Marketing, Smart Chat Bots
Conversational Chat Bot marketing is to email what email was to fax.
Back in the day email marketing was incredible. I would fire out an email and within minutes sales would start coming in. Then The World of Scum discovered it and the rest is history.
Email marketing forms the bedrock of your marketing efforts but Conversational Marketing will help it explode.
I am surprised on a daily basis as to how slow marketeers have been to jump on this. I can’t even remember seeing a messenger ad on my Facebook Feed.
Organic growth on Facebook is essentially dead in the water. Facebook have deliberately throttled reach in favor of paid advertising which is an abject betrayal of everything we’ve done to build the platform in my mind. But there you are. Facebook are moving towards chat with the acquisition of WhatsApp and Instagram. And I simply cannot see a future without it.
Our marketing chat bots deliver content through Facebook Messenger. We’re seeing incredible conversation rates. Unfortunately Conversational Marketing is way beyond the scope of this page so I’ve added some great links in the resources below to get you started.
It’s for more advanced users and I’ve put it at the end because it a big learning curve.
I use a chat bot builder called MobileMonkey* for no particular reason other than it used to give huge discounts. It does a great job so I’ve found no reason to change. There’s also a supportive community on their Facebook Group.
Facebook Messenger adverts are currently the cheapest form of advertising coupled with the fact that every time a visitor clicks, they are automatically added to messenger for email-like follow up sequences and promos.
Resources
- 9 Ways to Include Bots in Your Digital Marketing Strategy
- Create a Customers ai* Account
- Mobile Monkey Blog
- Chatbot University
- SmartConnectQR
- Facebook Messenger And Chatbots Are Revolutionising How Businesses Reach Out To Customers
Step 23 | How to Get The Most From Paid Advertising
The title for this article is ‘How to Sell 1000 Ebooks Using Gorilla and Viral Marketing’.
So! I’m hoping I’ve done a good job at delivering on that promise. Now we get to the ‘put your hand in your pocket’ part.
Most paid ads deliver a poor ROI because of conventional thinking. Marketers blow large budgets driving traffic straight to their poorly thought out product page.
As I’ve said previously, it can take up to 10 touch points before a user buys.
This is achieved through the systems you now have in place on this blueprint:
- We send people to our viral pages
- We send people to our landing pages
- We add people to our autoresponders and follow up
- We target and re-target those visitors through the various advertising platforms encouraging them to buy via special offers.
- We test and repeate the process untill all elements of the funnel are running smoothly.
A Comprehensive List Of PPC and Advertising Platforms
- Facebook Ads
- YouTube Adverts
- Instagram Ads (Through Facebook)
- Pinterest Ads
- Twitter Ads
- Linkedin Ads (Very expensive)
- Warrior Forum Offers
- BookBub
- Google Ads
- Bidvertiser
- RevContent
- AdRoll
- Bing Ads
- BuySellAds
- Advertise.com
- AdBlade
- Amazon Ads
- AdRecover
