Internet Marketing Q&A - Issue 4

It’s time to answer another set of questions from my readers. You’re in that group, so you get the benefit of the great questions your peers ask me.

A lot of people wonder why I do this. There are really three big reasons…

First, I care about whether you succeed or not. Internet marketing really isn’t rocket science…once you know what you’re doing. Before you “get it”, though, it helps a ton to have somebody actually answer real questions that real people ask along the way.

Second, even after you’re an “expert”, it’s great to get new ideas from other people. You never know when an answer to a question will press just right button in your brain…and boost your profits.

Third, I get literally thousands of emails every week, and it’s impossible to answer them all. So I set up this system to help me manage email better, while still giving you the information you need.

So read on, and I hope you enjoy the learning.

————- CURRENT ISSUE ————-

Having been in Internet marketing for years, I pretty much taught myself everything I know about this business. But I definitely remember feeling a little lost when I started. It was overwhelming, to say the least. Two things in particular seemed to crop up a lot: how to set up a website, and how to create a product without working myself to death. These are still hot topics, because I get asked those questions all the time. This issue should give you some guidance.

1) How do I set up a simple website to sell a single product? (asked by Christin Tamburo)

This is probably THE question for people just getting started, and it really assumes you have a product already. Let’s say you do…

The first thing you’ll want to do is know what web pages you’ll need.

That’s not hard, and you only need three to start with:

* A sales page, where you pitch your product and ask people to click the order button

* A buyer registration page, where you send people after they purchase your product

* A thank you (or download) page where you actually deliver your product
I strongly recommend registering your buyers to build your buyer list, but if you want to start as simply as possible, you only need the first and third pages–a sales page and a thank you page. Either way, what you’re creating is called a mini-site.

The next natural question is, how in the world do you create this stuff? Do you need to know HTML? Maybe.

If you can get a mini-site template, you’ll probably be all set. Even if you have to buy it, it might cost you anywhere from $100 to $300, which might be less than you’d pay somebody to do create a site for you at a freelance site.

That’s really all there is to it. The biggest effort is creating your sales copy. That’s what sells your product. Most people just getting started can’t drop big money on an expensive copywriter, so they try to do it themselves.

An alternative, especially if doing it yourself scares you, is to visit popular marketing forums which allow members to post special offers. Sometimes you can get fantastic copy for less than $200 through these specials.

One you have the pages and copy, all you’ll have to do is plug in a payment processor, like ClickBank, so you can take credit card payments online. ClickBank has very helpful setup instructions, and it’s really easy to set up. It’ll cost you $50 to host your product there.

Adding it up, you might spend $550 to set up a pretty nice mini-site, if you don’t want to do it all yourself. And you won’t have to know HTML to do it!

2) I recently bought a package of website templates, complete with graphics. What do I do with it now? How can I get set up to sell it? (asked by Robin Guidotti)

This is related to the previous question, and the answer applies to more than just website templates.

If you’ve bought a product you can resell, all you have to do is set up a mini-site to sell it! Your expenses will be similar to the ones I gave in the previous answer.

If you’ve bought website templates, you might even be able to use one of them (or borrow material from several) and dramatically cut your costs.

You can pay a freelancer to install a template at your domain so you can just fill in the sales copy, and so on. That might cost you $100 to $300, but you pretty much avoid all other costs.

3) How do I come up with something to sell online? I mean, I’m not an “expert” at anything, so what kind of product can I create? (asked by Pete Feiner)

Most people new to online marketing make the mistake of thinking they have to be experts on something before they can create a product in that niche. Not at all!

Really, if you can get past that hang-up, you’ll be very far ahead of the game.

The easiest thing to do is to find a product with some kind of reprint rights in a niche you want to target. That could be:

* Resale Rights (RR), which give you the right to resell a product as-is (meaning no changes allowed)

* Master Resale Rights (MRR), which give you the right to resell the product and pass along the RR

* Rebranding Rights, which let you include your own affiliate links in a product, but typically no other changes

* Private Label Rights (PLR), which let you change a product however you want to resell it, and even put your name on it as the author.

Think about what those rights mean to you…you get a product with barely any work. It’s a great way to start. Focus on finding a good niche, then essentially buy a product. It won’t cost a ton, and you can get up and running fast.

Another option is to interview somebody (or several people) in your niche and record the interviews. That gives you a very popular audio product without doing much work to get it, other than setting up and preparing for the interview.

But back to those reprint rights products. I often get a question like the next one…

4) I just bought a huge package of resale rights and PLR products. How can I differentiate myself from everybody else selling these? (asked by Dorris Kearcher)

First, Dorris, it’s great that you know you need to differentiate yourself. Many people don’t, and then they wonder why their product doesn’t sell.

There are several ways to differentiate yourself when you resell products, whether PLR or otherwise:

* Add more value by including extra components you created on your own. This could be an additional “report” or ebook, an audio version of your ebook (Google “text to speech” for free tools) or something else.

* Get your own graphics. Most people will use the graphics that came with the package. If you get your own, you’ll probably stand out.

* Rename the product if you can. That’s another way to make your product not sound like everybody else’s.

* Edit the product if you can. If you’re allowed to, edit the content to put your own stamp on it.

Those are just a few suggestions. Feel free to get creative with your own twists and modifications. The bottom line is, you’re saving a ton of effort on product creation since you’re not starting from scratch. Invest some of that savings by working to make your product different. That effort can pay you back big-time.

5) What price should I put on my digital product? I’ve seen all kinds of numbers, and I’m a little confused. (asked by Johnathan Vassel)

Lots of people get confused by this. Contrary to popular notions out there, there are no “magic” prices. Sure, $19.95 is often better than $20, but a price of $19 can outsell a price of $17, or vice versa. Only testing will tell you the answer.

Here are some rules of thumb, though:

* See what other people in your niche are charging for similar products. Odds are good that those prices are what the market likes. Copy them!

* Don’t charge a price that’s silly high. Remember, the goal is to make the thing sell. If your 20-page ebook is really worth $1,797, great, but most aren’t. Charge something that seems to fit the product and you’ll do better.

* Don’t charge too little. If your product is good, don’t be afraid to put a good price on it. A nice piece of software should probably sell for more than $7, unless charging that little is a part of your on-purpose marketing strategy.

* There are no magic prices, but numbers ending in “7″ DO tend to perform well. So when in doubt, charge something that ends in “7″. I’d choose the multiple of 10 that feels about right for the product and the market, then tack a “7″ on it. For example, you might charge $37 for a meaty ebook, or maybe up to $97 if the information is really good enough.

Like I said, there’s no magic price. More often than not, you’ll need to guess at a decent price, then put it out there to see how it performs. If it doesn’t work, change the price and see if that helps.

———-

All right, that wraps it up for this time.

If you like getting answers to questions like this, ask your own question! You can submit your question by filling out the simple form at:

http://www.michaelrasmussen.com/questions/

Every couple weeks or so, I’ll go through the questions and pick out 5-6 to answer in an email to people on my lists.

Your questions are what will make this email helpful, so please keep them coming. I can’t guarantee I’ll answer your question, but if the same question gets asked several times, I’ll try to answer that one. So don’t think, "Somebody’s probably asked that already." Maybe so, but it’s worth asking anyway.

All the best,

Michael Rasmussen
CEO, BulletProof Marketing, Inc.

P.S. If you know any Internet marketers who would enjoy this article, just send them an email with this link:
http://www.michaelrasmussen.com/internet-marketing-qa-issue-4

About the Author

Michael Rasmussen is a successful Internet Marketing Consultant and author of many top-selling eBooks. Michael has been marketing online since the early days and he knows what it takes to make money and succeed online. Stop by his Web site and subscribe to his Free monthly newsletter full strategies and techniques for successful web site promotions that can help YOU! Go to http://www.MichaelRasmussen.com

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