Who Wants to Launch a Successful Site?

Comments:

1. Evan says:

   December 30, 2009 at 1:58 pm

   Which format? Do them all. Cater to as many different styles as you can.

   My blog is already started so I haven’t filled out the survey. It sounds like an excellent idea – I wish I had had it when I was starting. Wishing you every possible success.

   Reply
2. The Net Fool says:

   December 30, 2009 at 6:04 pm

   Great post, and I like the idea of starting a new product. However, my concern is that the subject matter that you are considering is way too flooded. Recently, ShoeMoney put out a product that is getting rave reviews about just the same thing. See the problem? People with more “pull” in the industry already have similar products. If you can present a solid argument as to why people would buy YOUR product over the others in the market, I think you would be more on your way to getting this thing of the ground. Let me know

   Reply
3. Natalie says:

   December 31, 2009 at 4:23 am

   I really like your idea because a) I like your style of communication and where you’re coming from and b) you plan to cover some kind of details that most people overlook but that can take a newbie hours to figure out on their own or gather from 100s of different sources – been there, done that!

   What I personally don’t like about the weekly release membership site is that I like to work in bursts, so I may work intensely for a few days covering a lot of tutorials, and then take a break to work on something else or focus on something else and I’d be frustrated if I was ready to move ahead but there wasn’t going to be another piece of the puzzle that I really needed for another week or even a few days. I’ve also seen that method used to keep people in a membership site and that didn’t feel good.

   I also tend to prefer a downloadable course so that I can work on a laptop out of broadband range if need be, rather than online streaming (inconvenient) or hard copies (expensive). My first option would be a downloadable course (video, audio and pdfs) with a hard copy upgrade. I’ve noticed that big names with membership sites don’t have their videos downloadable (they say for copyright reasons, but who knows), but do offer the audios of the video and a transcript for download.

   I have noticed that the big thing everyone seems to be selling on my lists right now is the coaching, one-on-one as well as the cheaper end with “call centre” coaching, but I just don’t see how the market is flooded. I really believe in an abundance mindset rather than a competitive one and so I believe that the market expands when new sellers come into the market (if that’s where you’re coming from and I think you do, Paul) rather than the available market needing to be cut up in smaller chunks.

   Have you had many surveys back yet?

   Reply
4. Paul Piotrowski says:

   December 31, 2009 at 11:02 am

   @The Net Fool: Your point is very valid. I am aware of the fact that there are similar products out there. Here is my view on it though:

   (1) I have been a student of most of those other products, and I have recommended a lot of them over the years, so I know exactly what they teach and what they don’t teach. Even though there is a lot of good programs out there, none of them are perfect in themselves. I’ve had to take dozens of courses to learn all the stuff I know. Some of the programs are outdated or slanted towards one way of doing things that may not appeal to everyone.

   (2) No matter what kind of information these products contain, they almost always focus only on the “strategy” component of making money online. That’s only one third of what you need. The second third is mindset, and I don’t know of any other courses out there on making money online that were created by someone with as much experience in Personal Development as me. I’m a personal development nut that learned Internet Marketing and how to make money online, so I think I can provide both “Strategy” and “Mindset” advice. The third pillar to making money online is “Action” which the person taking the course is going to have to provide.

   (3) It is a misconception to believe that once a product is created, and it is a good product that no other product of its kind can exist. If that was so, there would be like 100 books at a book store and that’s it – one book per topic. I have read over 1,000 books on Personal Development alone! In almost every case when I go and purchase book on a specific topic I pickup 3-5 books right off the bat and then expand from there.

   For example, learning about psychic development I bought three books right off the bat. All three of them on the exact same topic really, just written by different authors. Why? Because even though the content is the same, the point of view of each author is going to be different and sometimes it’s easier to learn things from different points of view.

   If you look around in the real world, there are so many different products of each kind. You’d think that once the iPhone came out there would be no need for any other kind of cell phone, since the iPhone is so cool. However, when I go to the store, I still see 35 other cell phones being sold and they actually SELL! There are 40 different types of LCD monitors at the local BestBuy, why? Why not just one?

   Everyone has a personal preference, and even though our “Make Money Online” community may seem big to us with some of the bigger bloggers having 50,000 or even 100,000 RSS subscribers, in the scope of the population of the US alone (what is it now, 300Million people?) that’s basically NOTHING. 99.999999% of the market is still totally untapped.

   We may think that names like Shoemoney and John Chow are big names, but 98% of the people I talk to every day about making money online, or starting a small business online have no clue who they are. Sometimes I’ll say “Yeah, John Chow wrote about that…” and they look at me like they’re supposed to know who John Chow is. In our community they may be big names, but in the “real world” they’re not that well known.

   Not to mention the fact that even when people DO hear about them, I know a lot of people who don’t resonate with some of these big names. Which brings me to my final point, which is…

   (4) No matter what other products are already out there and what they are offering, there is one thing that none of them can offer than I can… and that is ME, my personal energy, my personality, my perspective, my experience, my unique self that nobody else can copy.

   Honestly, the reason I liked most of the courses that I took out there was because I liked the person behind the courses. I like their energy, their personality, who they are etc., not just their content. To me, 90% of the decision is really the person themselves, not just what they teach.

   For example, I love Frank Kern’s personality. He’s such a cool guy. Any product that he comes out with, even if there is already 200 product exactly like his, I’ll probably buy his product instead because I’d rather learn from him than someone else.

   So if I create this product, that would ultimately be my #1 selling point – ME. If people like me, they’ll enjoy my product. Even if I cover the EXACT same information as someone else (I won’t, but just an example), it wouldn’t matter because no other program out there can copy me and my personality. That may be a good thing, or a bad thing. If people resonate with me, they’ll enjoy my course. If they don’t like me, then they won’t like the course – regardless of what the info in the course is.

   That’s my thinking of the subject.

   Reply
5. Girl Startup says:

   January 5, 2010 at 4:28 am

   I’ve subscribed to a couple of sites that teach AF marketing.

   To be honest none of them in my opinion are worth the monthly subscription. They all spew the same thing, with just a slightly different slant or pitch. I mean I did learn some, but at $100+ a month I think it’s a bit over the top to be honest…especially as the market is saturated with the same content. Some have the charisma to get away with $$$ like Frank Kern.

   The one thing is if you do have a online payed subscription site, you gonna have to have the proof to back-up your claims. I did niche profit classroom and they had a forum full with users with no actual results. Plus their video on demand was terrible. It was so laggy it was not funny. Not good when your paying $80 bucks a month.

   I actually am a teacher myself (in an actual school) and I think what works really well is a combination of video tutorials and pdf notes that mimics what you have said in the video tutorials, which can be downloaded and printed out.

   Personally I would just get 100 people to sign on for free to begin with and let them give you feedback to the product and what they did and didn’t like. Some may even give testimonials or recommend to their friends.

   Reply
6. Jennifer says:

   January 5, 2010 at 1:08 pm

   @Paul Piotrowski: I completely agree with you, affiliate marketing is not that easy. Moreover, there are really dozens of things that can give you passive income from the Internet.

   Reply
7. suna dumankaya says:

   January 9, 2010 at 11:37 am

   Do you share a very useful article. learned thanks to you

   Reply
8. Ruben@OurBlogLog says:

   January 10, 2010 at 4:51 pm

   If this is a course for payment , Did you figure you are going to invest alot of time into support.

   Reply
9. Cynthie says:

   January 12, 2010 at 3:26 pm

   I took the survey – count me in!
   Please make it more focused than say “warriorforum”- it’s a mess to read.

   I like tiers of membership as well. I’m a gold member on wealthywebwriter.com and it has a nice forum, blog, training, tools, and software in an easy to read format. Great for getting my feet wet before moving up to the next tier of membership.

   Reply
10. Voyage Montreal says:

    January 14, 2010 at 3:20 pm

    I took the survey to help you out

    I am would very much like to see this as course

    Reply
11. Logo Design Girl says:

    January 16, 2010 at 8:59 pm

    Your website is like your showroom, airy and attractive. When online, the equivalent of a showroom is an uncluttered website where the eyes can move freely up and down finding the details they need without much effort. It is extremely important that the website be easy to navigate since the surfer should not have to search for the product or details he or she is looking for. The website should project its products in a provocative way so the surfer wants to see more.

    Reply
12. jack aznac says:

    March 14, 2010 at 12:24 am

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    Reply
13. jack summer says:

    March 24, 2010 at 2:34 am

    Do you share a very useful article. learned thanks to you

    Reply
14. Paul Piotrowski says:

    December 31, 2009 at 11:20 am

    @Natalie: I’ve had seven survey replies yet, almost all positive. When it comes to surveys I know a lot of people are shy and don’t like to say anything. They just wait for someone else in the “group” to speak on their behalf.

    I would probably estimate that for every 1 person that fills out the survey favorably, there’s probably another 5 to 10 people interested who are either to shy or too lazy to fill out the survey right now. Also, it is the holidays so a lot of people are away until next week.

    Based on that, I’m actually quite impressed with the positive feedback. I’m going to wait to collect more data before I decide what to do. Maybe there is a different type of course all-together that I could put together that would be most beneficial to the people interested.

    I hear you on the “timed release content” downside. I’m like you. I do things in bursts and I don’t like to be slowed down waiting for the next lesson. However there are some benefits to it as well, such as forcing people to properly implement the lessons they do have access to before jumping ahead to something more “fun”. Some courses I’ve taken that gave me access to everything up front, I blasted through the “boring” lessons and jumped ahead into stuff that was “new and exciting”, and then later on found out that the “boring” stuff is what helped my site grow.

    Also, releasing the whole enchilada at once can be overwhelming to people too. When they see how much “stuff” there is to learn, it can get pretty overwhelming, but if you break it down into little pieces for them it can be a lot easier to do. But I also do see your point… There are some “6 month courses” that I’ve completed in 2 weeks because I just focused on them and nothing else, as I like to work in spurts.

    I’ll definitely keep all this in mind, and see if I can come up with something that makes everyone happy. I could maybe offer different options. Like a “Buy the whole course” option where you get the whole thing all at once, and also offer a monthly membership to timed released content for those who prefer to pace themselves… We’ll see, anything is possible at this point.

    Keep the questions / feedback coming as it helps me to understand what you’d like to see.

    THanks.

    Reply
15. Paul Piotrowski says:

    January 5, 2010 at 10:57 am

    @Girl Startup: I agree… I’ve cancelled more subscriptions than I’ve kept, but I have learned a lot overall. For example, combining the information from multiple subscriptions I’ve been able to make upwards of $2,500+ profit per month which is way more than all the subscriptions combined.

    However, I think that the biggest thing most of them are missing is the missing 2% that nobody wants to talk about, and also the proper mindset. Everyone teaches strategy but sometimes you’re like 2% away from breaking through but you’re just missing one little element and so you make $0.

    Also, this is exactly why for my course I wouldn’t want to focus just on affiliate marketing. It’s not an easy thing to learn for most people and things are always changing. I think there much easier ways to make money online that are more stable and long term for people who are not at the point where they can spend 12hours/day every day tweaking their campaigns and learning the newest things to stay ahead of Google etc.

    Reply

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