INTRODUCTION
When it comes to making significant income online, front end sales will be just a small part of your overall income.
That’s because you can sell all sorts of stuff on the backend of your business.
How? By implementing several of the following streams of additional revenue for your business. Take a look…
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Offer an Order-Form Upsell
One of the first places you can pull in extra money is right there on the order form.
All you have to do is promote a related product, which can be your own product or an affiliate offer.
For example, if you’re selling a weight-loss signature product, then you might offer a set of exercise videos and low-calorie cookbooks as an upsell.
Better yet, offer a discount on this upsell that’s ONLY available right there on the order form.
So if the customer doesn’t purchase the offer now but they want it later, they’ll have to pay more money.
Here are tips for maximizing this strategy…
Tip #1: Create an upsell that enhances the use or enjoyment of the main product.
Think of the classic McDonald’s example here. You order a burger, and they ask you if you want fries with that.
Those two things naturally go together, so a lot of people will accept the upsell.
You can do the same thing on your order form. For example:
- When someone orders a video from you, you can offer the transcripts for an additional fee.
- When someone orders a book about bodybuilding, you’d offer a set of exercise videos which demonstrate the lifts.
Next…
Tip #2: Think carefully about how you phrase the pricing.
Let’s go back to the McDonald’s example. When they ask you about an upsell or cross-sell, they only mention the price of the additional item.
For example, they’ll say, “Would you like to Biggie Size your order for just 39 cents more?”
This keeps the customer focused on the smaller amount (the 39 cents), versus the total cost of the order.
You can do the same thing.
For example, if you’re selling a main product for $100 and an upsell for $25, your call to action might look something like this: “Click here to get the exercise videos for just $25 more!”
Next…
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Put a Related Offer on the Confirmation Page
Another good place to put an offer is on the confirmation page that your customers see right after they complete a payment.
They’re already in the buying mood, so there’s a good chance they’ll jump on this other offer if it’s related to your signature product.
For example, if you’re selling a course on how to create a successful blog, then you might offer a package of themes and plugins on your confirmation page.
One note: be sure that the link to the backend offer opens in a new window.
That’s because some customers who are really excited to download their package may accidentally hit the offer link instead of the download link.
You want to be sure the download page remains open so that your customer gets everything that they paid for before they leave that page.
Second note: put the offer BELOW the download link. Again, customers who just purchased something are going to be very eager to download their purchase.
They may skim the page and click the first link they see.
So to create a good customer experience, you want to make it very clear which link is the download link and which one leads to another offer. (E.G., use a big button that says, “Click Here To Download Your Purchase.”)
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Send a Related Offer in the Thank-You Email
You can boost your revenue by putting an offer in the first email you send to new customers. This might be your own offer or an affiliate offer.
It might be a product or a service. But whatever form it takes, it should be highly related to your signature product.
For example, if you’re selling a copywriting course, you might offer a personalized copy critique for a headline, a postscript, or even an entire sales letter.
There are multiple ways to include an offer in the thank you email, including:
Put the offer in the main body of the text.
You might start off your email thanking customers and reminding them of the benefits of the product they just purchased, and then tell them about a related offer that will help them get even better results.
Put the offer in the P.S.
The postscript is one of the most-read parts of an email, so this is a very good place to put an offer.
Put the offer in the footer (below the P.S.).
You might make it stand out by putting it in a Johnson box (if you send html emails) with a headline such as “Featured Offer.”
Next idea…
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Create a “Lite” Version of a Product as a Lesson
Now here’s a cool way to make extra money on the backend of this product: create a module that’s a “lite” version of one of your products.
Then promote the full version on the backend.
For example, your lite product, the lesson, might teach people how to write engaging blog posts.
The full product goes more in-depth and includes plenty of examples, tips and even templates.
So while the lesson is a useful by itself, those who want all the details would purchase your full product.
NOTE: This is a strategy you can use no matter what you’re selling.
For example, if you’re selling software, then you might offer a “lite” version of the software that includes fewer features and benefits.
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Add a “Recommended Resources” Section
You can add a list of recommended resources at the end of each lesson. These might be your own products, affiliate offers, or even offers from advertisers.
Ideally, each lesson should include its own resource section with offers that are laser targeted to the lesson.
For example: if a lesson talks about how to create great headlines, then one of your resources might be a collection of headline swipes and templates.
Another example: if your content teaches people how to set up a Facebook ad campaign, then one of your resources might be a “done for you” service for setting up and managing ad campaigns.
Next idea…
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Include Recommendations In Your Bonus Materials
A great way to boost conversions on any product is to offer your customers access to additional material. My customers get access to a “vault” full of materials.
What you’ll find is that many of these materials include recommendations for additional products and services.
You should seek to do the same thing.
For example, if your customers get a traffic guide as part of their supplemental or bonus material, then you might sell SEO guides, social media guides, and blogging guides from within the traffic guide.
TIP: Don’t just list your recommended resources with links. For best results, provide a short summary of the product, which includes its best features.
In other words, insert a short advertisement next to each listing.
Here’s another revenue-boosting idea…
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Put Ads In the Lesson
Here you can put related offers at the top or bottom of each lesson.
For example, you might have a “Featured Product” right at the top of the lesson, which could be your own offer, an affiliate offer, or even an offer from an advertiser.
You can also close each lesson by introducing an offer.
For example, if your lesson is all about saving for retirement, you might pitch an investment app at the end of the module.
For example:
“You just discovered the secrets of [getting some good result]. Now if you want to maximize this strategy, then you’ll want to get your hands on this [type of product]. It’s called the [name of product], and it’s the best way I know to [get a great result], [get some other good result], and [get some other good result]. So check it out right now at [link]…”
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Soft-Sell Within a Lesson
This isn’t an “in your face” ad. Instead, you weave product recommendations right into the content.
These sorts of soft-sell recommendations are seen as helpful rather than pushy.
For example, if you’re writing a lesson about how much protein a bodybuilder should eat each day, you might include an include an affiliate link for a whey protein supplement.
Another example: if you’re writing about how to set up a mailing list, then you could include a link to your recommended email service provider.
TIP: For best results, give a personal recommendation for the tool or other product you’re promoting.
For example, if you’re linking to an email service provider, you might say something like this:
“You’ve probably noticed there are a lot of email service providers on the web. But there are only a few that I truly trust with my valuable data. And my #1 recommendation is [insert name of email service provider]. I like them because they provide 24/7 customer support, good deliverability, and lots of tracking data. Check them out at [link]…”
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Send Out a Solo Email
You’ve got an email list full of customers: use it!
As mentioned, you can send out emails with recommendations right within the content. However, from time to time you can even send out a solo email.
For example, if your signature product is a hydroponic gardening course, you might send out a solo email that promotes a hydroponic kit.
TIP: Most people who are looking to sell a physical product go on Amazon or CJ.com to find affiliate offers to sell. You can also use Google to find these offers.
For example, you might search for: hydroponic affiliate. This would uncover affiliate programs for a variety of hydroponic products.
If you have a specific product in mind, then feel free to narrow your search (e.g., hydroponic kit affiliate).
Don’t forget to also look for drop-shipping offers. Search Google for the type of product you want to sell alongside the words “drop ship” or “drop-shipping.”
TIP: Just be sure you don’t flood your mailing list with solo ads. If you’re sending a solo ad every other day, your customers are going to grow weary.
They’re going to feel like all you do is advertise to them.
So what’s the sweet spot in terms of frequency? That’s something you’ll need to test in order to determine for yourself.
Different lists have different tolerances for solo ads.
You might start with a weekly solo ad and then test that frequency against more-frequent ads and less-frequent ads.
Next up…
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Create Members-Only Groups
Certain types of signature products work really well with support forums or groups.
One example is a weight-loss group, where your customers can get support, information and motivation from other members.
Now here we have two potential profit streams:
Sell access to the group.
Sure, you can give access to the group as a free bonus to your customers. Or you can offer it as an upsell on the sales page or order form.
Sell additional offers within the group.
You can use banner ads or text ads for your own products or affiliate products. You can also sell advertising spots within the group or forum.
TIP: Have you ever noticed that whenever a group or forum owner posts within the community, that post gets a lot of “likes” and discussion?
People really pay attention to the owner. You can use this to your advantage by occasionally making a post about a product recommendation.
Just don’t overuse this strategy, or people may stop paying as much attention to your posts.
There are a couple additional benefits to creating this sort of community, including:
Improve retention rates.
Once people start interacting in your community, then requesting a refund or otherwise leaving the site doesn’t just mean they’ll leave information behind… instead, they’ll leave behind many friends.
That’s why a well-run community is a great way to improve customer retention (which in turn leads to more backend sales in the long run).
Build relationships with customers.
When you spend time interacting with your customers in your group or forum, they’ll start to know, like and trust you even more.
That leads to even more backend sales. In other words, running a community can boost your long-term conversion rates and profits.
Next idea…
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Bring in a Guest Author or Speaker
The idea here is to give your customers extra content, but you don’t need to create this content yourself. Instead, your guest provides the content.
It might be in the form of a report, an article or even a webinar or teleconference interview.
So where does the revenue come in with this idea? In two ways:
You use your affiliate link to promote the guest’s offers.
Just be upfront with your guest so they know you’re going to do this.
Most guests will happily agree, as you’ll both make money whenever someone buys through your affiliate link.
You can sell this interview as a standalone product.
Not only do you get another revenue stream from this, but you can also upsell the signature product to those who purchase the standalone content. (Just be sure you have the rights to sell it.)
So, where do you find guest authors or speakers? Chances are, you already have a few names in mind.
However, to find even more potential guests you can use these methods:
Search marketplaces.
The idea here is to go to marketplaces such as Amazon.com, Clickbank.com and JVZoo.com to find out who is selling the bestsellers in your niche.
These top-selling vendors are all potential guests for you.
Use Google.
Here you want to enter your niche keywords, and find out who has the biggest, most reputable and most popular sites in your niche.
These experts and authorities are all potential guests.
Check Facebook.
The idea here is to use the search bar to uncover the biggest groups or even Facebook Pages in your niche.
The people who control these big platforms are possible guests.
Ask for recommendations from colleagues.
Here’s an extra tip: if your colleague is friends with a potential guest, then ask that colleague to introduce you to his friend.
This sort of personal introduction makes it more likely the potential guest will say “yes” to your request.
Ask customers for their “wish lists.
”You can ask your newsletter subscribers, blog readers, and social media followers for their lists of favorite experts and marketers in your niche.
Next up…
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Offer a Related Service
Mainly we’ve been talking about products, but you can certainly offer a service as well. This might even take the form of coaching or consulting.
For example:
- Offer resume critiques to those who’re trying to land a new job.
- Offer personal nutrition and exercise coaching to weight-loss customers.
In some cases, you might even offer multiple related services. For example, let’s suppose your main product is all about how to write better sales copy.
You might consider offering these services:
- Offer a copywriting service, where you write sales letters and ads for your customers.
- Offer a sales letter critique. Here you might use a video-recording software such as Camtasia to go point-by-point through your customer’s sales letters, offering feedback and tips as you do.
You can place ads for these related services in your emails, in the lessons themselves, and directly on the site. You can also offer them as an upsell on the order form.
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Create “Done For You” Offer
If you’re teaching someone how to do a long and/or complex process, some folks would rather just have someone else do it.
Thus you can offer “done for you” packages to promote from within specific lessons.
For example:
- Your classic car restoration product teaches someone how to clean and tune a carburetor. You can offer to do this step for them if they ship the carburetor to you. (Yes, this service really exists.)
- A lesson within a blogging course talks about how to write content for the blog. You can offer a big package of PLR content for your customers to use.
TIP: To really maximize this revenue stream, you’ll want to create service-related upsells and backend offers.
For example, if your “done for you” service is to install and customize a WordPress blog, then you might offer ongoing monthly maintenance for an additional fee.
Another example: if your “done for you” service is to write a sales letter, then you might offer additional services such as creating autoresponder emails, Facebook ads, and blog posts.
Next up…
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Sell Software as a Service
One good way to get a continuous backend revenue stream is to sell software as a service (SAAS) from within your lessons or emails.
This is where your customers need to keep paying you every month in order to get continued access to the software.
One example is selling access to an autoresponder.
Customers pay every month, and they’ll lose access to their lists and opt-in forms if they stop paying their monthly fees.
You can do this in most any niche. The key is to make it difficult for someone to casually leave, since they’ll lose access to everything if they do.
For example, maybe you sell a web-based meal planning and goal-setting app.
If someone cancels six months down the line, they’ll lose access to all the data, charts, journaling and other activities they created with the app.
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Promote Physical Products
Selling physical products (such as printed books and DVDs) means you need to send a shipment to your customers.
This gives you a great opportunity to send a ride-along flyer with additional offers.
TIP: If you’ve finished creating the course, then you might offer an upsell on the order form for a physical copy of the course.
This might be the entire course on a CD, or you can offer it as a bonus book.
Alternatively, you can offer some of the bonus material in physical form. This lets send customers a backend offer in the shipment.
For example:
- You might send a limited-time coupon with an impressive discount on one of your related products or services.
- You might send a list of “recommended resources” which include affiliate links.
- You might sell advertising space on the flyer.
- You might trade ads with someone else in your niche who is selling physical products. This means you promote their stuff in your shipments, and they do the same for you. Win-win, and profitable for everyone since you’re effortlessly reaching new customers.
Naturally, you can do a combination of these methods to create additional revenue whenever you ship something out.
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Create a Members-Only Blog
The idea here is to create a blog that’s only accessible to your students, which you might keep private with a password.
You can then add occasional articles and other related content that helps people take the steps you’ve outlined in the signature course.
You can even use private label rights content or outsource this task so that you don’t have to do it yourself.
Now here’s the key: you can advertise related offers in multiple ways. For example:
Include product recommendations within articles.
For example, you write an article about how to set up a Facebook Page. You can then promote a Facebook marketing product at the end of the article.
Put product recommendations at the end of articles.
You can directly insert an ad for an offer that’s highly related to the article. This will get you the best response.
Alternatively, you can use a plugin that chooses and inserts ads based on your content.
Or, you can use a plugin that lets you change what product is being recommended (such as if you’re launching a new offer, you can change all ads to reflect that new offer).
Insert ads in the sidebar of the blog.
This includes both graphic ads such as banners, as well as text ads. Do this sparingly, so that your sidebar doesn’t look like a circus of ads.
Insert ads in the header or footer.
Again, you can use either banner ads or text ads. In most cases it’s better to advertise just one product, rather than to shove a bunch of smaller ads into the space.
Not only does it look cleaner, but it also gives your customers fewer choices (which often translates to a better conversion rate).
Write direct promos.
In other words, every so often you might make a post that is 100% geared towards selling a related offer.
As usual, you don’t want to do this too often, otherwise your customers will feel like they’ve paid good money to read a blog full of ads.
Next…
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Secure Exclusive Discounts From Others
The idea here is to give your customers something that they can’t get anywhere else, such as an exclusive discount or bonus offer on a popular product for which you’re an affiliate.
Now, you’ll need to approach the vendor about this to see what they can offer you.
Since you’re an affiliate for the product, you may set up a deal where you get a smaller commission in exchange for offering your customers a discount.
For example, if a product has a 50% commission, you might ask the vendor if you can give your customers a 30% discount (and then you pocket the remaining 20% as your commission).
You get a smaller commission, but you’ll make it up in volume. You can then promote this exclusive offer in your emails, the lessons, and on your website itself.
TIP: Some vendors who use this strategy don’t phrase it as a “discount.” Instead, they offer a “rebate.”
The reason they do it this way is because they pay the customer out of their own commissions once the refund period has passed.
Now, there are two potential problems with this idea. First, some vendors strictly prohibit offering this sort of deal.
That’s because they should be able to control the pricing on their own product, and not have affiliates lowering the price (and thus lowering the perceived value) at random.
Secondly, this method can also lower your conversion rate versus offering a discount.
That’s because a discount provides instant gratification, whereas a rebate may take weeks or months to redeem.
Bottom line? It’s best if you offer a discount directly through the vendor.
That way you know you’re doing everything legally, and you’re likely to have a better conversion rate to boot.
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Send Freemium Bonus Materials
The idea here is give your customers a freemium version of an information product or even software for free as part of their bonus/supplemental material.
If the customer likes the freemium product, they’ll likely upgrade to get the full product.
For example, let’s suppose you offer your weight-loss customers a “lite” version of a meal planning app for free.
Perhaps this app counts calories and helps people design their meals.
However, they’ll need to upgrade to unlock all features, such as balancing carbs, proteins and fats across meals.
Another example: you might provide your customers with a free video, which gives a great overview of a particular topic.
Your customers would then need to purchase a set of training videos from you in order to get all the information and details about how to achieve some specific result.
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Sell Advertising Spots
Another way to introduce a stream of revenue into your business is by selling advertising spots in your emails and/or lessons.
You can sell the ad spots directly for a flat price, or you can offer a flat price plus commission.
For example, you can sell ad spots in your “recommended resources” section of a lesson.
TIP: Be sure to thoroughly screen all potential advertisers before accepting their ads.
You’ll want to research both the vendor and the product to be sure you’re dealing with some reputable who produces high-quality products.
The reason for doing this is because you will be associated with anyone who advertises on your site.
If you accept money from a shady vendor who rips off your customers, then your customers will blame YOU.
If you allow people to advertise really low-quality products on the site, your customers will blame YOU.
Point is, be sure you deal with people who produce products you’d be proud to endorse.
You don’t have to specifically endorse them on your site since they’re third-party advertisers, but you should be comfortable enough with the product that you would be happy to recommend it to others.
Your reputation depends on it!
Next…
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Create Members-Only Webinars
The idea here is to offer a nice bonus to your customers, by giving them access to a free webinar. You can offer regular webinars, such as once per month.
You can then archive these webinars within the site so that new customers can download and watch all of them.
Now here’s where the profits come in:
You can pitch related offers during the webinar itself.
So if you’re running a “how to start a business” webinar, you might pitch a related membership site on the backend.
You can sell these webinars to others.
It’s a nice additional stream of revenue, but it also gives you the opportunity to upsell the entire course to anyone who purchases the webinar.
You can sell resell licenses to these webinars to other marketers.
Not only do you get a chunk of money upfront for every license you sell, but you also get the potential for a passive backend income.
That’s because your license holders will sell the webinars to their customers, and in turn those customers will purchase the recommendations made within the video.
Which brings us to the next idea…
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Splinter Lessons and Sell Individually
As you create more and more lessons, you’ll find that some of the lessons will work really well as standalone products.
You can splinter these lessons off and sell them individually for $7 to $20 each. Naturally, each lesson upsells the signature product.
If people loved the individual lesson, they’re sure to love getting access to all 52 lessons.
TIP: You can do this with a variety of different types of products. For example:
- You can splinter off one chapter in an eBook to sell individually.
- You can splinter off one video in a set of videos.
- You can splinter off one module in a home study course.
- You can splinter off one product from a package of products.
- For example, if you’re selling a package of WordPress plugins, you can splinter off one plugin to sell individually.
Next…
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Transform the Content Into a Different Product
Once you’re done creating a product, you’re going to have a lot of high-quality content on your hands.
You can repurpose this content and sell it again in a different format.
For example:
Pull out the highlights and turn the yearlong course into a one-month eCourse.
For example, you can condense the highlights into four meaty lessons, and then deliver one lesson each week for a month.
Use the content as the basis for a coaching course.
In other words, use the content as your curriculum, and then offer personal coaching as part of the deal so that you can charge a premium price.
Turn the lessons into a video course.
One good way to do this is to use slide presentation software (such as PowerPoint®), along with a screen recorder such as Camtasia.
Use part of the content to create a five-part free eCourse.
The idea here is to use the content as a lead magnet. You can then sell your main product from within the course, and/or you can sell other related products.
For example, if one of your lessons talks about how to set up a WordPress blog, then you can pitch a package of WP themes and plugins from within that email.
Naturally, you don’t need to limit yourself to digital products. Here’s the next idea…
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Create a Physical Product
You can take the existing content and turn it into a physical product, such as a home study course. This won’t take long, so you don’t need to change the content itself.
All you have to do is get it into a printed format (perhaps using a company like disk.com or even a local printer).
Since physical products carry a higher perceived value, you can charge more for the course.
TIP: You can also offer a printed version of the course as an upsell on the order form.
Perhaps the digital-only version is $97, and those who want a print version of the entire course pay $197.
Next up…
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Offer a Reseller’s Opportunity
The idea here is to sell resell-rights licenses to the course. Your resellers will keep 100% of the front end profits, but you do fulfillment of the course.
That means you have the customer mailing list, so you can continue enjoying the backend revenue.
Why not just offer an affiliate opportunity? Because in this case, you’ll actually make money by selling resell rights licenses to others.
For example, you might offer these licenses for $197. Resellers only need to sell two in order to break even, and every sale after that is pure profit for them.
Meanwhile, you get the license fees upfront, plus customers on your mailing list that you wouldn’t have been able to get on your own. It’s a win-win opportunity.
Now let’s wrap things up…
Closing Thoughts
So there you have it: you just discovered 24 solid ways to create additional revenue streams from your signature product.
Once you start snapping these various revenue boosters into place, you’ll see your income grow exponentially. But don’t take my word for it.
Instead, try it for yourself to see what it can do for you!
PROFITS MULTIPLIER CHECKLIST
Now if you’ve reviewed the Profits Multiplier Blueprint report, then you’re probably excited about the possibilities.
But you might also be a little confused about where to start. This checklist guide will give you a clear path to:
- Deciding which streams to implement. (Part 1)
- Determining how you’ll implement these streams. (Part 2)
Take a look…
Part 1: Decide WHICH Streams to Implement
Step 1: Eliminate any stream that’s not feasible for your business.
Not every stream is necessarily feasible for every niche. For example, you can’t do a “done for you” dog training offer, unless you are local to your members.
So start by eliminating any streams that won’t work.
Tips:
- Be honest in your assessment: are you eliminating it because it doesn’t fit into your business model or niche, or because you just don’t want to do it?
Example: Selling resell licenses may not be part of your business plan, so you might eliminate that revenue stream.
Example: Bringing in guest speakers fits your business model perfectly, but you just don’t feel like doing it because you don’t like networking and proposing joint ventures.
In this case, you might hire someone to find and recruit speakers for you.
- Before completely eliminating a stream, check if there is a way to modify it so it fits your plans.
Step 2: Start with streams of revenue you can implement easily for quick profits.
Ask yourself these questions:
- How quickly can you implement any particular stream of revenue?
- Would an experienced freelancer be able to do it more quickly?
- What is the turnaround time on a particular stream of revenue? In other words, how quickly can you make money after you implement it?
Examples:
- Inserting a promo into the thank you email is easy to do, it’s fast, and you’ll see instant results (profits). So this ranks as one of the first revenue streams to implement.
- Splintering a lesson and selling it individually takes various amounts of time, depending on your skills and experience. You may need to write a new intro and conclusion, write a call to action for the main course, create a sales letter, create a payment button, set up a mailing list, etc. Then you need to drive traffic to the offer. A freelancer could do some of these tasks for you. Even then, tasks such as email promos should be done first because that takes minutes (whereas other tasks could take days to implement and even longer to see results).
Step 3: Design your plan chronologically.
Some streams of income cannot be implemented until later. These include:
- Selling resell licenses to the course.(You need to have the course 100% complete before you do this.)
- Bringing in a guest author or speaker.(It’s better to have an established audience first so your guest gets plenty of exposure.)
- Repackaging the whole course into a new format.(Again, the course needs to be complete.)
So now that you’ve done these first three steps, here’s Part 2 of the process…
Part 2: Decide How You’ll Implement These Streams
Step 1: Rank your revenue streams in the order you’ll complete them.
Your first priority should be revenue streams that are both fast and easy to implement, as well as providing a quick turnaround on profits.
Middle priority tasks are those that take longer to implement and/or take longer to see profits.
Lower priority tasks are those that take the longest to implement and the longest to see profits.
The last items on your list should be those items that you’ll need to do later simply because of the nature of the task (such as selling resell rights licenses).
Step 2: Determine how to implement them.
Now you’ll decide if you should do each task yourself, or if you should hire a competent professional to do it for you.
Here are questions to ask yourself:
- What is your time worth?
Example: Your goal is to make $100,000 in a year working 20 hours per week for 50 weeks of the year. That’s 1,000 hours. If the goal is $100,000, then that means every hour of your time is worth $100.
Plug in your own hours worked and goal income to determine the value of your time.
- With that figure in mind, determine how much it “costs” for you to do a task.
Example: If a particular task would take you five hours to complete, and your time is worth $100 an hour, than it would cost you $500 to do it yourself.
- Could a freelancer do this task at less cost?
- Could a freelancer do the task better than you (regardless of cost)?
Example: If you need a sales letter written to sell a splintered product or reseller’s license, AND you don’t know anything about copywriting, then you may find it wiser to hire a pro (who’ll get good conversion rates) rather than writing it yourself.
- Could a freelancer do it faster than you? (This means you’ll start enjoying profits more quickly.)
Once you answer those questions, then you’ll know which tasks to do yourself, and which ones to outsource to a professional.
THE PROFITS MULTIPLIER FAQ
As you’re already discovering, there are plenty of ways to create extra streams of revenue on the backend of your business.
But when you go to integrate those streams of income, you might run into some questions. The good news is, we have answers. Check it out…
How do you choose which part of a product to splinter?
The idea here is to slice off a smaller section of your main product, and then sell that smaller piece separately. But how do you decide which part to splinter?
Here are two tips:
- Choose a highly desirable piece. If people are already purchasing similar content elsewhere, then they’ll purchase your splintered product too.
- Choose a high-impact piece. Your goal is to use your splintered product to get people to purchase the overall product. That’s why you want to be sure your splintered piece is a high quality, informative, and engaging piece that really impresses customers.
Next question…
How do you convince other marketers to give discounts on their products to your customers?
When you send a message or call these other marketers, you need to focus on what benefits they’ll get if they offer discounts to your customers. Here are the two top selling points:
- You have a waiting audience. Smart vendors are willing to work with affiliates who can create a lot of sales for them. So if you have a big list, then you have some leverage to make deals. And what if you don’t have a big list? Then you may opt for this selling point instead…
- You’re willing to take the discount out of your own commission rate. In this case, the vendor gets paid the exact same amount of money per sale. You’ll get paid less, because part of your commission goes to the customer in the form of a discount. Many vendors are willing to work with unproven affiliates if they aren’t taking on any sort of risk or loss of profits.
Next…
How do you find advertisers to purchase advertising spots?
There are a variety of ways to do this, including:
- Create a link for advertisers on your blog.
- Publish a blog post specifically seeking advertisers.
- Mention it in your newsletter.
- Tell your social media followers about it.
- Consider using a third party service such as BlogAds.com or The Deck (which matches advertisers with content publishers).
- Place “advertisers wanted” ads on Facebook, in related business newsletters or sites, and similar places.
- Network with business owners to find potential advertisers.
Next…
How do you determine pricing for reseller licenses?
This is a balancing act between the number of licenses you’re offering and the price per license.
The more licenses you offer, the lower the perceived value of the license (due to competition). So selling more licenses means charging less per license.
Generally, you can figure on selling license at a dollar amount between three times and ten times the price of your product.
For example, let’s suppose you’re selling licensing to a splintered product.
If your product is $10 and you’re only going to sell 10 licenses, then you can charge upwards of $100 per license.
On the other hand, if you intend to sell 1000 licenses, then you might only charge $40 for the licenses.
What are the keys to creating an effective order-form upsell?
Here are the top keys:
1. Create a sense of urgency. One way to do this is by offering a discount or other special offer to customers who purchase the upsell. If they want to purchase the product later (after they leave the order form), they’ll need to pay full price.
2. Be sure the upsell is highly related. Create an upsell that makes it easier for the customer to get the results you want. For example, if you’re selling a diet course, then your upsell might be a meal-planning app.
3. Offer an attractive price. Usually (but not necessarily always), an upsell is most effective when it’s a fraction of the price of the main product. For example, if your main product is $100, then you might offer an upsell for $25.
Here’s why this works: Your customer is already psychologically comfortable with a $100 purchase, so an extra $25 doesn’t seem like that much more.
Now if your upsell was just as much as the main product, then you’d be asking people to double their order. Most people won’t grab an upsell that is just as much as the main product.
Which brings us to the next point…
4. Test your upsells. The only way to tell for sure what is the best product and best price for your upsell is to test a variety of offers.
Then you’ll know exactly what dollar amount your customers are willing to spend above and beyond their original order.
5 TIPS & TRICKS FOR BOOSTING YOUR EMAIL RESPONSE RATES
Just because you have a “captive audience” of subscribers doesn’t mean these folks will open your emails, read them or click your links. The good news is that you can start making more money with your customer mailing list by using these five surefire tips and tricks…
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Write strong subject lines.
If you don’t have an eye-catching and enticing subject line, then no one is going to even bother opening your email. So to avoid having your emails end up straight in the trash, follow these tips:
- Lead with a benefit.In other words, tell your readers what’s in it for them if they click to open your email.
For example, “How To Lose 10 Pounds Fast (see inside)…”
- Arouse curiosity whenever possible.This is as easy as using words like “secrets” and “discover” in your email.
For example, “Discover the #1 way to lose fat fast…”
- Use social proof.Here’s where you let readers know that other people are doing something. This spurs your prospects into action, to “follow the crowd,” so to speak.
For example: “Why is everyone so excited about this book? (See inside…)”
- Use trigger words.There are some words that almost always grab people’s attention. Whenever you can, use these trigger words: you, how to, quickly, easily, amazing, guaranteed, proven, surefire, surprising, fast.
Next…
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Hook readers with a great opener.
Now that your readers have opened your emails, you need to keep them hooked with a strong opener. One really good way to do this is to tell a story.
Not only does this keep people reading, but it also engages them on an emotional level.
And pushing an emotional button puts you one big step closer to making a sale later on.
So, what kind of story should you share?
Any sort of well-told story will help you engage attention.
However, it’s even better if you can tell a story about how you or someone in your niche overcame the same problem that your prospects are facing.
For best results, the main character in your story should have many of the same characteristics as your audience.
It’s even better if this person had to overcome even more obstacles than the prospects.
This makes prospects think, “If this high school dropout ended up with a six-figure online business, then maybe I can do it too.”
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Insert a compelling call to action.
If you want more readers to click on your links, then you need to specifically tell them to click on your links. This specific instruction is your call to action.
For example, “Click here to watch the video now…”
If you really want to ramp up your conversion rate, then give your subscribers a good reason to click on that link.
This might be a limited-time discount or other special offer, or even just a reminder that nothing will change if they don’t take action.
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Put out a high-quality newsletter… consistently.
One of the best ways to get subscribers to consistently open your emails, read them, and click on your links is to build a good relationship with these subscribers.
And that means you need to consistently publish a high-quality newsletter.
Specifically…
- Don’t shove out a subpar newsletter on a Friday afternoon just because you want to take the weekend off.
- Don’t send out a barrage of ads.
- Don’t recommend shoddy products or shady vendors.
Instead, work hard to solve your prospect’s problems. Work hard to give them information they can’t find anywhere else.
If you do these things, then you’ll develop a loyal following that will naturally boost your conversion rates over time.
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Test and track everything.
The only way to know whether something is really working for you is to test and track it.
Fortunately, most major email service providers make this easy by providing tracking tools to you.
That means you can easily randomly split your newsletter into two or three groups to test some of these factors:
- Subject lines.
- Calls to action.
- The product itself.
- Pricing of the product.
- The P.S. at the end of your email.
- The list of benefits your present.
- The time of the day or day of the week when you send offers.
Simply put, testing and tracking is like giving yourself an instant pay raise.
So give it a try ASAP to see what kind of boost you can give to your conversion rates and profits.
Closing Thoughts
I’m sure you noticed that many of these tips above are things you can implement quickly and easily, starting today. In fact, I urge you to get started right now.
You can brainstorm new subject lines, you can tweak your calls to action, and you can start testing with the very next email you send. I think you’ll like your results!
SWIPE FILE: Multiple Streams Set Up Across Five Different Markets
So we’ve been talking about how to set up multiple streams of income all throughout your sales funnel.
Now it’s time to show you five examples across five different niche markets, so you can visualize how this actually works. Take a look…
Example 1: Make Money Online
Flagship/signature product = How to Drive Targeted Traffic to Your Website
- Include an upsell on the order form for the signature product, which gives customers an opportunity to purchase ad and article templates to help them create content.
- Splinter off one lesson on the topic of guest blogging and sell this as a stand-alone product.
- Offer customers a webinar, where you invite a guest expert to speak on the topic of search engine optimization.
- Include a link in your member’s area of the website for a “done for you service,” such as managing a Facebook ad campaign.
- Create a “Recommended Resources” list within the signature product that includes tools every marketer needs, such as an email service provider, payment processor, WordPress themes, WordPress plugins and more.
- Set up a private forum and sell access to the forum. Include ads for related offers within the forum.
- Send out an email offering customers personal consulting on how to put together an effective marketing strategy.
Here’s the next example…
Example 2: Health and Fitness
For this example, we’ll use the topic of training for a marathon.
In this case, the signature product will be a comprehensive course on all facets of marathon training, including training runs, nutrition, rest, equipment selection, motivation and more.
Here’s how you might generate multiple streams of income with this funnel…
- Create an order-form upsell where customers can purchase menu plans and recipes that are good for runners in training.
- Include a bonus report in the package, which is a report on the importance of selecting the right shoes, compression socks and other equipment. Each product recommendation would include an affiliate link to the product.
- Send out a follow-up email to customers which includes a promo for a training app.
- Create a members-only blog. Interview members and post about their progress to help build loyalty and community. Include ads within the content and in the sidebar of the blog.
- Give members a trial access to a “runner’s nutrition” membership site for one week. Give them a discount if they purchase a membership before the trial ends.
Example 3: Hobby
Here your hobbies could include most anything, such as fishing, car restoration, travel and more. For this example we’ll use car restoration.
Signature product = comprehensive set of videos that show people how to do major restoration tasks, such as changing the headliner and tuning the carburetor.
- Order form upsell is a set of videos showing how to complete restoration tasks not covered in the main course.
- The first video in the set is a welcome and overview video, which includes a link to another video that teaches people what to look for when purchasing a project car.
- The video in the set on tuning a carburetor gives complete instructions, but also links to a “done for you” service for those who’d rather have a pro complete the task.
- The videos that cover interior and exterior painting include “gear lists” with affiliate links to products such as paint, wet-sanding supplies, sprayers and more.
- After the site is up and running for several months, sell reseller’s licenses to other marketers.
Example 4: Personal Development
For this example, let’s imagine the main product is a productivity membership site aimed at business owners.
Here’s how to insert multiple streams of income into this sales funnel:
- Offer a “productivity hacks” report as an upsell on the order form.
- Promote a productivity app in the “Recommended Resources” section of the site.
- Send out a solo email advertising a set of business planners to help people save time doing common tasks.
- Put a “featured offer” at the front of each lesson, where you offer personal consulting to help people identify their weak spots and free up more time in their day.
- Secure product discounts from another productivity expert in your niche, and offer these discounts in the membership site area and via email.
Example 5: Organic Vegetable Gardening
The main product is a comprehensive course on organic vegetable gardening. Here’s what the multiple streams of revenue might look like…
- Upsell on the order form to purchase a video that helps gardeners identify common garden pests.
- Special offer on the confirmation page for a comprehensive “recipe book” of how to create homemade pest sprays and deterrents.
- Send out a series of emails with tips for creating different types of gardening beds, and then promote a video product that gives step-by-step instructions for building these beds.
- Sell advertising spots on the website to organic gardening supplies sellers.
- Splinter off one lesson in the course and sell it individually, both to make money and to draw more people into the sales funnel.
- Once all the content is created for the course, repurpose it to create new products, such as turning the text course into a video course and charging a premium.
CASE STUDY: How to Promote One Offer Across Multiple Locations in Your Sales Funnel
If there is one thing you should know about boosting your profits in your sales funnel, it’s that people often need multiple “touches” with a product before they’re willing to take out their credit card.
That’s why you can’t expect to promote a product once and get a flood of sales.
If you want to really boost that conversion rate, you need to promote your offers multiple times all throughout your sales funnel.
Let’s do a walkthrough “case study” of a fictional marketer named Joe…
Joe has a business selling bodybuilding information and supplies.
His flagship product is a comprehensive bodybuilding course that covers all facets of nutrition, lifting, supplements and motivation.
One of his most popular backend products is a set of bodybuilding videos that shows people the proper way to do dozens of lifts.
Here’s how Joe promotes these training videos in multiple places in his sales funnel…
Lead Magnet Promo
Joe has a free lead magnet that he uses to build his mailing list.
Cleverly enough, Joe actually splinters one of the bodybuilding training videos from his set and offers this as the freebie to subscribers.
That makes it really easy for him to promote the full set of bodybuilding videos, as anyone who watches the single video (and likes it) will want the full set.
TIP: If you splinter off part of a main product, you’ll need to insert a promo for the full product within the splintered version.
For example, you can tack a new ending onto the video, which promotes the full product.
Prospect List Emails
The next place where Joe’s prospects see his promo is within his emails.
All new subscribers get a five-part course entitled “The Five Secrets Every Bodybuilder Ought to Know.”
One of these emails talks about the importance of good form when lifting, which is where Joe promotes his training videos as the solution to learning correct form.
Take note: this eCourse primarily promotes Joe’s flagship bodybuilding course.
If a prospect purchases that flagship product, they’ll see a promo for the bodybuilding training videos soon enough.
Which brings us to the next point of contact in Joe’s sales funnel…
Order Form Upsell
Joe’s customers have their credit cards out. They click the “buy now” button at the bottom of the sales page so they can order the flagship training course for $100.
But right before they click the final confirmation of their order, they get asked if they want to purchase the training videos for just $20 more.
Lots of people jump on the offer, because there is a lot of added value with relatively little added expense.
Now, in Joe’s case his order form upsell is a discounted price on the training videos.
If the customer wants to purchase the training videos later, they can… but they’ll need to pay more.
This is an incentive that creates a sense of urgency, which in turn boosts conversions on the upsell.
And next…
Within the Flagship Product
The next place that Joe’s customers see a promo for the set of training videos is within the main bodybuilding course.
There is a section of this course will instructions and illustrations about how to do common lifts.
At the end of this section, Joe promotes the videos for those who want to be sure they’re getting their form and motion right when doing lifts.
And finally…
Customer Follow Up Emails
Joe has a list of customers who purchases his flagship training course.
He sends weekly emails to this list, which offer tips and articles about a variety of bodybuilding topics.
In the first couple weeks after ordering the flagship course, customers receive these emails:
- An email offering additional tips about the benefits of compound lifts, along with a promo for the training videos.
- A solo ad that directly promotes the training videos.
- Another content email that lists the five top mistakes bodybuilders make, including the mistake of using poor form. Joe promotes his videos as the solution to achieving good, safe form while lifting.
Now, a few people look at this list of sales funnel touches and say…
But wait… isn’t that too many promos?
Sure, this might seem like an overwhelming number of promos if someone received them all in one day.
But the key point here is that an average customer likely will see these promos over the course of several weeks.
Secondly, this isn’t the only promo they’ll see from Joe.
They’re also going to see physical products like whey protein, reports on topics such as supplements, tools such as meal-planning apps, and more.
The point is, they’re not going to get “promo fatigue” from seeing the same promo over and over.
What’s more, these promos come at the product from different angles.
One promo might focus on the safety issue, while another promo focuses on the benefit of achieving bodybuilding symmetry.
So that’s how Joe does it. Joe is smart. You can swipe this page from his playbook and see how well it works for you!