Plan for Profits
Profits don’t just happen – no matter how much you want to believe in the sales copy hype of passive, automated income that appears in the middle of the night while you sleep.
They’re a signal of success that you reach once you make bona fide plans to reach certain milestones. If you look around at the people (maybe even yourself) who are floundering, you might notice they’re in a frenzied state of panic.
The mortgage is due. They’re getting tired of trying and failing. So what happens is, they try everything – fast. They slap content up, never think through strategies, and when they fail, they blame the system or the sellers – but never themselves.
It’s time to give up your excuses and get down to developing a streamlined planning process for your online profit generation. There are five easy ways you can fix this issue so that profits are planned, not hit or miss.
First, choose a niche with sustainability. There are many marketers who will clue you in about some hot, trendy niche you want to jump on right now! If you’ll notice, those emails usually promote something that will generate cash for them.
So of course, they’re going to recommend the niche. But you want something that you can work in long-term. That means that not only is the market going to support this niche topic for the long haul, but you will feel excited about working in it day in, day out for months and years to come.
Ask yourself, “Do I really see myself waking up and feeling excited about writing about this subject every day?” There might be a wonderful market for senior incontinence, with an abundance of keyword searches, and plenty of product to promote – but if you’re a 30-year-old male marketer, you end up dreading the decision to get in that niche if it doesn’t affect your life personally.
Think about how happy the niche will make you. If it’s a horribly depressing topic, like abuse or depression itself, it might make you approach each day with trepidation. Or, you could be the type of person who will get great satisfaction out of leading others to a better life!
Spend some time, before you set up a business, looking at all of the possible niche opportunities. Do you want digital only, tangible only, or a mix of the two? Look at digital platforms and even print book stores to see if any topics jump out at you.
Research it to see how comfortable you feel educating yourself about the topic to pass information along to your audience. Would you be able to write extensively about it? Make videos? You never want to get into a niche based on profit potential only.
Next, you want to develop a monetization plan for your profits. You don’t just hear about a niche, slap up a $7 report and expect that to build a business. Sadly, this is what most newbies do.
Instead, carve out an entire plan for the profits. What all potential is there? Let’s take the weight loss niche, because that’s broad enough and familiar enough for everyone to relate to.
You want to look at several options:
· Digital Content Sales
For your own product development, you want to ask yourself if you feel good about being able to write about this topic. Even if you educate yourself first, is it easy enough to write about?
If it’s something like Forex, would you understand the ins and outs of conveying information? Weight loss might be easy, but some topics (financial and detailed medical) might be more difficult.
Is there PLR (private label rights) readily available for this niche? Many marketers get into a niche, realize they need help content-wise (on a small budget), and get frustrated to learn that there’s not a lot of PLR available on the topic.
If you choose something like electroplating, then understand that not only are you going to not find PLR on it all of the time, but you’re going to find it very difficult to unearth a ghostwriter with the ability to write about the subject matter with ease, too.
Look at how the sales of the topic are going. Are they bestselling topics? Or scarce? You want something abundant in conversions – don’t worry about saturation – there’s room for everyone, since consumers love to buy multiple products about a topic.
Look at yourself – chances are, this isn’t the only “online success” book you’ve ever read, right? No – you look at various sources, pick whatever tips you enjoy from it, and leave the rest while you move on to another resource.
One of the worst pieces of advice marketers ever passed on to other entrepreneurs is to avoid “saturated” niches. Maybe they just didn’t want any more competition, but all you need to know is the more the merrier – it means ample affiliate opportunities for you!
· Digital Affiliate Commissions
Speaking of affiliate cash, this is another factor you need to plan for. Don’t pick a niche where you’re out there solo. You want and need fellow entrepreneurs to develop digital products that you can promote.
Affiliate earnings count for a large portion of an online entrepreneur’s income. What kinds of commissions are people offering? Are they reliable in paying out commissions? Are there products on all the top platforms – ClickBank, JVZoo, Amazon, and so on?
Whenever you want to promote something, go through a specific, streamlined process where you check off these tasks:
1. Review the sales copy to learn of what the product promises.
2. Buy it or contact the seller for a review copy.
3. Actively implement and review the product to pass on success or failure details to your readers.
4. Create a bonus for the product, if possible, to increase conversions.
5. Find out if there’s a way for you to get early bird promo access or any other perks, such as a bump in commissions (for those with a large, successful list).
You want to make sure the other digital sellers have the same values as you in terms of selling ethical, quality products. If they’re scare in number, then you may want to consider a different niche.
Next, take a look at the tangible product opportunities for you as an affiliate. In a niche like Internet Marketing, it’s more difficult, but not impossible, to recommend tangible items.
There are things like microphones for podcasting, headphones, software programs – even home office equipment like desks and chairs. But a niche like weight loss offers a whole lot more profit potential, and you need to take time to map out your options.
Let’s look at weight loss. You have all sorts of things you can promote in a tangible manner. All you have to do is look at Amazon, and when you enter weight loss, you’ll see items like:
- Supplements
- Exercise equipment
- Books and magazines
- Grocery items
- Video sets
- And more…
Your goal is to create a file, such as an Excel file, and keep track of what you promote and how well it converted for your list. If your list loves getting emails about supplements, but doesn’t convert whenever you email out about books, then you need to focus on what works – or find a different way to promote the books.
And guess what? There’s tons of cross over potential, too. Dieting and exercise, while it benefits the body, can take its toll on someone’s mind – when you combine it with everything else going on in their lives.
So don’t forget about any topic that might help – like stress relief, or even financial budgeting, since someone on a diet might need more money to purchase healthier (more expensive) quality foods.
If you want to become a really trusted authority figure, then order some of these products yourself and do reviews on them. Show them on video and talk about the pros and cons of them.
· Membership Sites
This is something that can work similar to how a digital eBook works – only you can get recurring payments to your PayPal account. The key here is to be actively involved in the site, to continually generate more content for your members so that it stays fresh, and to engage them on the site so that they feel they’re part of a community.
The best way for you to plan profits for a niche membership site is to see how others do it. What do they offer? What can you do better? How much are people willing to pay, and what would they pay if you did more for them?
· Coaching Potential
Is the niche you’re in ripe for coaching opportunities? Not all are, but many can be conducive to high ticket coaching income. People love hand holding, and if you can coach them in groups or one-on-one, you can charge a lot more than you’d be able to with an eBook.
And there are definite perks to you as a niche marketer when you roll your sleeves up and start coaching. You get to pick the brains of your target audience. You get real insight on what makes them tick, what holds them back, and what solutions help them achieve their goals.
You’re going to need to create a content development system. No matter which niche you’re in, content is and always will be, king. You need it in so many different areas, so you might as well commit to and plan for a streamlined process.
First, look at where you’re going to need content. Depending on your business model, these might be some of the areas you’ll need content:
- Your blog
- Info products (including eBook, sales copy, bonuses, and more)
- Social networks (Twitter is easy, but G+ and Facebook are more content-laden)
- Email autoresponder system (including the opt in offer and emails)
It doesn’t look like a lot, but every one of those, except the opt in offer, is an on-going necessity. You can’t put a few articles up on your blog and be done. You can’t email out once or twice and consider it complete – and if you want more residual income, then you have to plan for more product development.
With these content needs comes the requirement to either write or outsource the information. Content isn’t one size fits all – it comes in text, audio and video formats. Most people use text, and more people are getting the courage up to supplement their text with audio and video so that their readers have a multi-media experience.
First, figure out if you have what it takes to write well. If so, start off your business developing your own voice and style by writing the content yourself. Make sure that whenever you write, you use your personality in your content.
This sets you apart and helps your readers build a connection to you. But what if you’re really bad at writing? Then you have to set aside some startup money for your outsourcing efforts.
Or, if you have some set of skills (like graphic design) that someone else doesn’t have, you can see if they will barter – content in exchange for your expertise. This is hard to find, though not impossible.
Make sure you don’t cut corners with your outsourcing. It’s better to have 10 really top-quality pages than 20 shoddy ones that make people turn away from your site. Do what you can, when you have the money – invest a little at a time.
Even if you’re having an eBook written, you can outline it and pay a ghostwriter for 5 pages at a time until you’re able to get the entire eBook completed. This shouldn’t be a rush job.
Don’t be afraid to try new ghostwriters. There are quality writers coming online every single day, needing their start – so you can often find a good deal just because someone doesn’t have a stable client list yet.
Go to places like Warriors for Hire on the Warrior Forum, Elance.com and individual freelance writer sites to start looking at what you can afford in terms of quality and turnaround time.
Level up with your residual income efforts. Some people never understand why they can’t get ahead with their online marketing. If you look closely at their promotions, you find that all they do is promote sales as an affiliate or do services for other marketers.
Residual income means you do the work, set it up, and it pays off for you again and again over time. Continue creating evergreen products – not just fad or trend-based items.
If you’re working as a service provider, then schedule yourself in as a client and create your own products. Working for one-time payment (like getting paid to write an eBook) won’t allow you to relax in the future.
Monthly promo planning is important. You need a calendar in place where you can track new launches and make it a point to join in. You have to find the right balance with your list in terms of how often they’re willing to hear from you.
Some marketers mail rarely, others daily. Every audience is different, and responds to different stimuli when it comes to the messages you put out there. If you send value in every email, with personalization, it will fare better for you than someone who spams and sells hardcore each time.
When you look at a launch list like MunchEye, jot down who has what coming out and see if it’s a good fit for your audience. If it is, ask for a review copy, get promo materials created, and make a bonus that complements the original product.
Affiliate planning like this helps keep you afloat while you’re busy working on your own residual products. It adds a hefty sum to your bottom line that you wouldn’t have if you simply relied on profits from your own product sales.