I’ll bet there is something that is holding you back from greatness in your online business… And if you eliminated this one thing, you’d get more accomplished in a week than you’re currently getting done in a month. And not only would you get more done, but you’d make more money, too. Maybe exponentially more…

I know, because I’ve experienced this myself. There was something holding me back, and at first I didn’t even realize what it was or why it was stopping me from earning as much as I wanted to make.

This thing is in your business, and while almost every online marketer has this same problem, the issue itself differs from one market to another. Goodness, that’s about as clear as mud, isn’t it?

Let me try to illustrate…

Imagine you have a giant hourglass filled with gold nuggets. Any nugget that falls to the bottom of the hourglass is yours to keep, and there is an unlimited supply of gold nuggets at the top.

But here’s the problem: Because an hourglass is skinny in the middle, the nuggets have a hard time falling to the bottom. In fact, those nuggets are continuously getting jammed in the middle, and when that happens, you’re not getting any gold nuggets at all.

The solution is obvious – eliminate the area that is slowing down the flow of gold nuggets. In the case of your business, identify and eliminate the bottleneck.

Let’s say you’re a whiz at creating content, making products and doing social media. But building landing pages, sales pages, websites and all of that is hard work for you. It can take you days or weeks to build a funnel.

There’s your bottleneck! Get a program such as Leadpages or ClickFunnels to allow you to quickly and easily build those pages and you’ve just eliminated your bottleneck.

Or maybe you’re an expert at building pages but you’re terrible at writing content. Hire someone to write content for you or find another way to get content such as curation or maybe recording your own videos.

Perhaps the only thing you do well is social media. Then the answer might be to do social media for other marketers, teaming up with them and even taking a percentage of profits.

The idea here is to determine what you’re good at, what you’re NOT good at, and then find a way to eliminate, outsource or expedite the thing(s) you’re not good at – your bottleneck.

In my case, I was great at creating content, getting product ideas, setting up JV’s and a host of other things, but I didn’t like the technical aspect of building websites, pages and so forth. When I found a way to make it easy for myself, I freed up an amazing amount of time and energy which I then used to focus on my strengths. And when I did that, I literally tripled my income, had more fun in my business and for the first time found the entire experience to be thoroughly enjoyable.

I’d removed the bottleneck, removed a lot of stress and frustration, and replaced it with many more opportunities to build my list, gain new JV partners and make more money.

Find your bottleneck and eliminate it so that you can concentrate on your strengths, and that hourglass of gold nuggets will be replaced by a firehose of income.

I want to clear something up right now. Too many aspiring online marketers have bought into this fairy tale that says all you need is ONE BIG hit and you’ll magically go from broke to six-figures. 95% of the time it just doesn’t work like that. Nor is your online income going to magically grow like “clockwork” on “auto-pilot” with “zero effort” or investments.

Have you heard the expression, “Two steps forward, one step back?” That’s how almost every business grows, including any and all forms of online marketing.

Building an online business isn’t like winning the lottery, nor is it a movie. You don’t get struck by lightning and fall into a pot of gold. Instead, you do an affiliate promotion that costs you $500 in advertising and makes you $400 in commissions.

This is where most people quit. “SEE?! ONLINE MARKETING DOESN’T WORK!”

Baloney.

You earned $400 in commission AND you learned something, too.

You use that new knowledge on your next promotion where you spend $500 again, but now you make $900. You repeat that for awhile and you’re making pretty good money, all because you didn’t quit when you lost that initial $100.

Then you’re feeling pretty confident so you decide to expand your list with a solo ad that costs you $300, but you only earn $50.

Nuts!

But now you’ve got a bigger list, and you nurture that list and eventually over the course of weeks or months you earn an additional $2,000 from it.

Yeah!

Then you hire someone to create a product for you, and it’s a terrific product but no one wants it, and you lose $700.

Darn!

But you still have the product, so you break it up into pieces and use those as posts and free reports and combining that with social media you further build your list while promoting a related affiliate product and now you’re earning a cool $300 a week just from that while also watching your list grow.

Wow!

But you need to invest in a better website or software or whatever and there are expenses and so you’ve got to pay those and…

Do you see how this works?

Two steps forward and one step back.

The trick, therefore, is to simply keep moving forward no matter how many steps you take backwards.

If you graph out the growth of online businesses, you’ll find that 95% of the time the line goes up, dips down, goes up, dips down and so forth. But the downward dips don’t mean a thing as long as the overall trend is up.

And if you’re prepared for this and expecting that it won’t be all smooth sailing and that you will have setbacks small and large, then you’ll know enough to weather those setbacks and keep plugging away.

You’ll be far less afraid, too, knowing that it’s normal to have these setbacks. And in my experience, it’s much easier to work when you’re not terrified that your income will suddenly dry up if you make one wrong move.

The vast majority of online marketers experience a series of small successes and small failures, too. They go hand in hand, and that’s okay. Just make sure you either have more successes than failures, or that your successes are bigger than your failures and you keep moving forward.

Really, that’s the only ‘trick’ to online marketing.

You know I love residual income. And you know I think membership sites and newsletters are both outstanding ways to earn residual income. You make the sale once and you get paid for as long as that person remains a member. But there is something different about investment memberships and newsletters.

You might say they are in a league of their own, because the bulk of their profits seldom come from subscription fees.

Have you ever wondered why a millionaire (or billionaire) investor would bother to publish an investment newsletter? It’s not like they need your $99 a year.

And why would any investment expert charge $99 or even $499 for a newsletter or membership if it can really 10x or 20x your investments in a relatively short time? We’re talking about you receiving million-dollar gains in a few short years. All for just 99 bucks? What’s the catch?

Here’s what I think: That publisher wants as many people as possible following his or her recommendations because when they do, that publisher makes money.

Let’s say I run an investment newsletter and you’re a subscriber. I tell you to buy XYZ stock because I think they’re about to get a billion dollar contract with Amazon.

And maybe XYZ will get the contract, and maybe that stock will go to the moon because of it. But even if what I predict doesn’t come true, here’s what happened for me:

Because I bought the stock before I told you and thousands of other subscribers to invest in it, and because all those investors drove the stock price up, I made money. If an investor has enough followers, they can and will influence stock prices simply through their recommendations.

It’s no wonder why that ‘million-dollar’ newsletter costs $99.

I’m not suggesting you don’t subscribe to these newsletters if you have faith in the person making the recommendations. You can still make money, as many people do. Just be aware that the newsletter author is likely making even more money with their recommendations because of you and all the other investors buying into the stock the author already holds.

And if you’re wondering what type of membership or newsletter to start, well… this bit of insight might just help you to decide. 😉

As an marketing coach, which do you think would be easier: A: Taking someone who is earning $1,000 a month and showing them how to earn $10,000 a month, or B: Taking someone who is earning nothing online and showing them how to earn $500 a month…

As you’ve probably guessed, the answer is “A”.

But why is that true?

Because someone who is already earning $1,000 a month likely has systems in place to earn money. They have a squeeze page and maybe a website, they have one or more products to promote and they have a means of driving traffic and a list they can contact.

Most of all, they KNOW that $10,000 a month is an attainable goal because they’re already earning $1,000 a month. They believe it can be done.

But the person who is currently earning nothing likely has no online marketing infrastructure in place. They probably don’t have a list or an audience and they might feel overwhelmed and unsure of what to do and how to do it.

More importantly, they’re not entirely convinced online marketing is even REAL – at least not for them. They don’t yet believe they can do it. They want to believe, but their doubts are so great that it’s easier for them to think online marketing works only for other people and never for them.

If you take someone who is earning $1,000 and show them how to earn $10,000, they will be happy. But if you take the person who is earning nothing and show them how to make $500 a month, they will think you are a SUPER STAR and they will love you for it.

And if by chance you are not yet earning anything online yourself, then let me ask you this: Do YOU believe you can earn a full-time income online? Because if you have doubts, it will be that much more difficult for you to find success.

The $500 figure is arbitrary. Depending on the size of the promotion, you could gain an extra $100 to $2,000, or a whole lot more. Here’s how it works…

Anytime you promote a product, whether that product is yours or an affiliate product, consider adding a one-time deal for your own personal email support for an additional fee. For example, you’re selling a $47 product that teaches buyers how to train their horse. You offer your own personal email support for a fixed length of time to answer any questions they have that are directly related to implementing the information in the product.

The biggest obstacle many people face when learning something new is putting it into action. Having someone they can lean on for guidance can be tremendously helpful both from a psychological as well as a practical viewpoint.

Things to know:

1: You most likely won’t be overwhelmed by questions because only 10 – 15% of people who pay for your support option will use it. People have the best of intentions to use the products they buy, but as you know yourself, people get busy and things get set aside.

2: You’ll be getting paid for something you probably already do, especially on your own products. If people already email you with questions about how to implement information you teach, the difference now is they will be paying you for your answers.

3: Many of the questions will be the same. This is helpful for you in two ways – first, you get to discover what’s missing in the product. For example, if you forgot to include how people will take payments in the system you teach, you’ll know to add it to your course. If it’s an affiliate product, you’ll find the holes and have the option to either create a bonus that covers the missing areas, or even create your own, more comprehensive course.

Second, it’s helpful that people tend to ask the same questions because then you can write the answers once and copy and paste them each time the question is asked. Or you might create an FAQ to send out, or even create an FAQ page you can refer people to. This will greatly cut down on the number of questions you receive.

4: This does not undermine the pricing of your personal coaching. Think of answering questions about a particular product as being a FAQ, not a coach. Your answers will be shorter and more direct, and they generally won’t be tailored to the person asking the question since you don’t know their situation. You’re giving bite-sized answers, not in-depth personally-tailored step-by-step coaching. For that they need to upgrade to your much more expensive coaching program.

5: You’ll set a time limit, and if you want, an email limit. You’ll answer their questions for a set period of time, such as 30, 45 or 60 days. You’re not offering email support for the rest of their lives. Emailed questions are only taken if they are directly related to the product. And if you want, you can limit the number of emails they send to you to one per day. This last one sounds unnecessary and it usually is, but one time someone decided to write to me 4 and 5 times per day. Ever since then, I place the one email a day limit in my offers. You can also limit the number of questions per email to 1 or 2.

6: If you’re selling an affiliate product, you’ll need to be familiar with the contents of that product and how to implement what it teaches.

7: You don’t need to be an expert. The questions are coming by email, which means you can take time to look up anything that you don’t already know. If the answer isn’t in the product, use your friend Google to find it. And if the question is beyond the scope of the product, recommend another product to fill their need. For example, if they’re asking how to get traffic but that’s not covered in the product, suggest your own traffic course or one that you are promoting. If you’re giving them an affiliate link, say so.

Bonus: You’ll build rapport with the people who send you questions. Plus, you’ll demonstrate your ability and willingness to help them, too. When you follow up with these folks and offer your coaching program, you’ll find that some of them are not only receptive but also eager to grab the opportunity to join your more expensive program or service to receive even more help.

I’ve probably made this sound harder than it is. Realize that most people who buy the upgrade don’t use it, and those who do use it will email you 2 to 5 times with questions. It’s actually an incredibly easy way to make some extra money when promoting anything, and it’s an awesome stepping stone to your high level coaching as well.

Because competition is a real factor here, I’m not allowed to reveal the exact niche for this case study. Luckily, this method will work in any niche where you can save people money on something they’re already buying. And it will work in a lot of other niches, too, but for now let’s talk about the whole money saving deal.

For purposes of discussion, I’m going to change the niche to air travel, and we’ll assume it’s not during a pandemic.

This person – we’ll call him Vinnie – set up an information email list giving away free info on cheap flights. Again, I’ve changed the niche, but let’s roll with it. When airlines get cancellations, make mistakes and so forth, they sometimes offer crazy good deals just to get the seats filled. Vinnie keeps tabs of these offers and sends his list info that can save them a lot of money on their airline tickets.

But here’s where it gets good: While anyone can subscribe for free, he also has a paid version. The cost is low, about $40 for 3 months or $90 for a year. The savings on just one deal alone can be several hundred dollars, making it an easy sale to air travelers.

The difference between free and paid subscriptions is the free subscribers only get about one third of the deals in their inbox.

Paid subscribers get ALL the deals.

Here’s what’s great about this business model:

•   The content writes itself. All you would be doing is passing along the info that your readers want. Essentially it might sound something like, “Delta is offering 2 for 1 discounts for the next 24 hours for transatlantic flights. Here’s the link to their site.”

•   Readers can easily afford the subscription price. If they have the money for plane tickets, they can afford a $90 subscription.

•   Getting just one deal a year more than pays for the subscription. People who continue to fly do not unsubscribe.

•   Paid members get an ego bump because they have ‘inside knowledge’ they can brag about to others. “My guy saved me $400 on my ticket.”

•   It’s easy to get new subscribers. Since he has a free version and because people want to save money, his conversion rate on his squeeze page is extremely high.

•   Once free subscribers see how valuable the info is and realize they are missing two-thirds of it, upgrading is an easy sell.

He made $140,000 in just the first six months alone. He wouldn’t tell me how much he’s made since, but I do know he bought an expensive new house and he’s hired 3 people to handle most of the business for him.

One more thing: Once he realized how big this was going to become (and please remember, I have not revealed his true niche) he decided to bring on affiliates with a referral program. This made things explode and kept his competition to a minimum.

Here’s what you can do: Be on the lookout for any niche where people need quick, up to date info on something. It might not just be about saving money on a particular item. Maybe they need the latest news or methods in their niche such as investing and so forth.

When you find a good possibility, verify that people are paying money in the niche. Obviously, people pay for airline tickets so that would be easy. And some niches will surprise you. I’ve heard of a guy who is making a killing writing a monthly newsletter about collecting arrowheads. He works maybe 5 to 10 hours a month and pulls in $10,000 in monthly subscriptions in his one man operation.

Create a free version of your newsletter, find where your audience hangs out and get them signed up. Show them why it’s to their benefit to become an insider and upgrade to the paid version.

Learn your numbers and start advertising to scale the entire operation up. Vinnie advertises online and in publications.

Remember to sell your readers other stuff, too. If your niche is golf tips, sell them golf equipment and golf packages. If your niche is dog training, sell them high end dog food and so forth.

This is so simple, you can get started almost immediately, just as soon as you choose your profitable niche.

PLR or private label rights don’t always enjoy the best reputation. Most marketers figure PLR was written by someone who either doesn’t speak English well or has no background in the subject matter. Oftentimes the PLR is cobbled together with a lousy sales letter with amateur graphics and sold as a package to unsuspecting marketers.

Is that how you view PLR? If so, it’s no wonder. Many PLR packages aren’t worth the money which is why potential buyers are leery of new offers. But there is a way to still sell boatloads of PLR to marketers, and it works like this:

Before you sell PLR licenses, sell the product as it is. Launch the product on its own without rights. Sell it to your list, put it on JVZoo or wherever you want. Make no mention that you will be selling the PLR rights to it, not even as an upsell.

The idea is to let it stand on its own. Now it’s tried and tested, there is no question it sells, and it stands apart from every other PLR offer out there because it’s proven.

Wait a couple of weeks and then offer the rights to it. Often the people who purchased the product from you in the first place will be the first people to buy the rights, too, because they’ve seen the product and they value it.

If you want to sell the PLR licenses for a higher price, then simply restrict the number of people who can purchase a license. And you won’t need to convince anyone that your PLR is of great quality because it will already be a proven seller.

If you’ve followed me for any length of time, then you know I advocate testing everything to see what works rather than simply taking the advice of others. In fact, I tell my readers to test what I preach as well. Just because I say something works for me doesn’t necessarily mean it will work for you.

For example, let’s talk about bonuses – those things we’re all told to attach to offers to increase conversions. We sometimes spend as much time building bonuses as we do creating the product itself. But did you know that bonuses don’t always increase sales?

And that sometimes they can actually HURT your sales?

I’m not sure why that happens, but I can remember a time or two when I’ve been tempted to purchase a product and then noticed the bonuses. Inside I groaned… “You mean I have to download and read all that stuff, too?” It’s too much, and I close the page rather than make the purchase.

Bonuses can distract from the main product, dilute the main product’s value and even make the whole product package too big and too complicated.

Plus, bonuses sometimes cause confusion or point out a flaw in the product. “Why are they adding the bonus on getting traffic? Oh my gosh, that’s right, I’ll need to get traffic to make this work. How hard is it to get traffic? It must be difficult or they wouldn’t add that bonus. Forget it, I can’t do this…”

This is why the smart marketer tests out each bonus. Try making your offer with and without the bonuses and see what happens. If you have more than one bonus, you might also test having more or less of those bonuses until you find just the right combination or no bonuses at all, whichever converts the best.

And here’s a bonus for you: The next time you create a product, don’t assume you have to make a half dozen bonuses, too. Maybe you can save time and increase sales by simply offering your product as is. Now wouldn’t that be great?

Would you like to know how the highest-ranking affiliates are making their sales?

Here’s how to find out:

Research the top selling evergreen products at places like JVZoo and Warrior Plus. See who is winning the leaderboard competitions and then get on their lists.

You might have to do a little Googling to locate their sites, blogs, squeeze pages or whatever, but it’s not that difficult.

Join their lists and then watch their emails.

You’ll see how they warm their lists as well as the exact email sequences they use to sell products.

Don’t copy their emails word for word, but do study them and figure out what makes them work. Then write your own.

You’ll have email sequences for all of the best evergreen products, written in styles that you already know convert. Plug them into your autoresponder and make sales!

I once knew a marketer who wouldn’t lower his prices no matter what. He lived in constant terror that old customers would be mad that the course they bought last month or last year for $197 now cost $97. Heck, they might even demand a refund of the price difference. I’m pretty sure he imagined that every one of his customers was sitting at the computer just waiting for the price to drop so they could complain.

News flash: They weren’t.

And I’ve known plenty of marketers who wouldn’t raise their prices. Again, they were afraid of angering customers and losing business.

But Dan Kennedy’s first advice to almost every business owner is to immediately raise their prices. Most of his clients balk at this and some are so opposed they even throw a fit. But Dan wears them down until they acquiesce, and guess what happens? The sky doesn’t fall down, customers don’t disappear and the business starts making a whole lot more money.

As marketers we bring our own psychological ‘money baggage’ to the business. All those things we were told as kids about money can still cause us problems, and it’s usually our business that pays the price.

Next time you want to raise or lower your prices, you might refer to this list to find a way that makes both you and your customers comfortable with the process.

1: Timing. If you want to permanently raise prices, first make sure that your customers are happy with your product or service. Use the good feedback, reviews and testimonials when you explain your new pricing.

2: Sound the Alarm. Before you raise your prices across the board, consider telling EVERYONE that it’s going to happen. While some marketers prefer to make as little noise about price increases as possible, other marketers take advantage of the situation by telling the world that if they want the lower price, NOW is the time to jump in.

3: Add or Subtract Something. You can justify raising or lowering your price by adding or subtracting something from your offer. Maybe you add another product – such as an older course you stopped selling – to the mix to justify an increased price. Or if your product’s sales are dropping, you can remove one of the bonuses – such as coaching – and lower the price to make it more accessible to everyone.

4: Bundle. Offer discounts if they purchase more than one item.

5: Play with Numbers. Let’s say you sell a tangible product. You offer 10 units of a product for $100 but you want to raise the price to $115. Add two more, different-sized packages such as a 5 pack for $75 and a 3 pack for $50. This makes the 10 pack look like a good deal, even at the higher price.

6: Add fees. This only works with some product categories, such as gym memberships, mortgages, cars and so forth. But it can be possible to add in a ‘fee’ for signing up. You can call it an administration fee, set up fee or whatever you choose. If fees are standard in your industry, then it’s certainly an option.

I’m not fond of fees, but they can be especially effective as incentives when you offer to waive the fee if they join today. It’s like having a sale without having a sale, if you know what I mean. Yes, that is a gray area, but something to think about.

7: Improve the Offer. Do you want to sell your $197 course for $297? Update it and add some new content, making the old version look obsolete. Let the buyers of the old version know they can upgrade to the new version for whatever fee you choose (in this case, $0 to $100).

8: Change Sizes. If your product’s size can be adjusted – more or less of a product or service – then you can change the price accordingly.

9: Schedule Price Increases. If you schedule your price increases in advance – such as every January or July – and you let customers know about your schedule, they won’t be surprised or upset.

10: Target a Different Demographic. If you find you need to significantly raise your prices, consider targeting a different customer base altogether. For example, maybe you’re helping yoga instructors with their marketing and you realize they don’t make much money and thus can’t pay you much money. Switch to plumbers, dentists, chiropractors or lawyers and you can likely double or triple your prices without doing any extra work.

Last thoughts: If you’re raising your prices, it’s best to plan ahead. It doesn’t turn out well if you tell your customers you’re going to raise prices just once this year only to discover you have to do it a second time before the year is over.

If you lower prices, such as when you have a sale, then there might be a previous buyer or two who notices and sends you a disgruntled email. Write back and offer them a free electronic product of their choice. It costs you nothing and they will likely be happy that you responded to their concern.