Thank You Thank you for downloading this e‐book. I hope you get a lot of value from it. Please feel free to pass it on to others who might find it useful. You have my permission to do so, provided you don’t charge any money for it and you don’t change it in any way. If you’d like to get even more value from it, I’ve created an e‐mail course (also free) to help you put these ideas into practice. Just sign up here and I’ll send you something useful every two weeks: www.WebSitesForSpeakers.info This e‐book is also available in print. If you’d like a printed copy, you can order it at www.GihanPerera.com. All profits from the sale of the book support Samata Sarana, a charity in Sri Lanka. If you get value from this e‐book, please consider making a $20 donation here: www.GihanPerera.com/donate Enjoy! Gihan Perera
Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants
Build a Web site that makes money instead of costing money
By Gihan Perera
Published by First Step Publishing 8 Windich Place Leederville WA 6007 Australia Phone +61 8 9444 1225 E‐mail publishing@firststep.com.au Copyright © 2009 Gihan Perera, First Step Communications. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism, or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part of this book may be reproduced by any process without written permission from the publisher. All effort was made to render this book free from error and omission. However, the authors, publisher, editor, their employees or agents shall not accept responsibility for injury, loss or damage to any person or body or organisation acting or refraining from action as a result of material in this book, whether or not such injury, loss or damage is in any way due to any negligent act or omission, breach of duty, or default on the part of the author, publisher, editor or their employees or agents. National Library of Australia Cataloguing in Publication data: Perera, Gihan. Web sites for speakers, trainers, coaches and consultants: build a web site that makes money instead of costing money / Gihan Perera. ISBN 9780980429121 (pbk.). 1. Internet marketing. 2. Web sites‐‐Design. 3. Electronic commerce. 4. Success in business.
658.872
Get More Out Of This Book “In theory, there’s no difference between theory and practice. But in practice, there is.” Dutch computer scientist Jan L. A. van de Snepscheut It’s easy to read a book, put it down and not do anything about it. This is a practical book, and I’d like you to put it to good use. So, to help you, I’ve created an e‐mail course to help you put these ideas into practice. Every two weeks, I’ll send you an e‐mail message with a tip or technique related to one of the 50 ideas you’ll get in this book. Use it for improving your own Web site – if you have one – or for planning it – if you don’t.
The course is free, and you can unsubscribe at any time. To sign up for it, please visit:
www.WebSitesForSpeakers.info
Nice Things People Say ʺMy Web site has paid for itself many times over, and is consistently rated as one of the best in my industry.ʺ Chris Rewell chrisrewell.com.au ʺWho says you canʹt make money from a Web site? My site paid for itself in the first three months. Now every transaction is straight profit!ʺ David Penglase davidpenglase.com ʺGihan has made an enormous difference to my web site. His unique skill is his ability to help you leverage everything you do, creating new income sources and stronger relationships with the people you deal with.ʺ David Thomas, CEO, Think Global Consulting, thinkglobal.com.au ʺ Iʹve been averaging $1,000 per week in sales! Thanks for making it easy for me to make money while I sleep!ʺ Domonique Bertolucci, Success Strategies success‐strategies.com.au
ʺWe got an amazing 2,000% return on investment in 6 months from all the enhancements you did to our Web site.ʺ Ian Hutchinson www.lifebydesign.com.au ʺI can remember winning one project worth $120,000 because we had your software.ʺ Keith Abraham keithabraham.com.au ʺGihan is one of the few computer people I know who not only knows his stuff but can also communicate well with people.ʺ Ken Warren kenwarren.com.au ʺI would enthusiastically recommend Gihan Perera for answers to your questions regarding web presence and on‐line marketing. With his guidance and assistance, my on‐line business has grown by more than 50% per year for the past 3 years.ʺ Kit Grant kitgrant.com
ʺGihan is the Number ONE resource for anyone wanting to be at the top of their internet business game.ʺ Leigh Farnell leighfarnell.com ʺFirst Step has always done a great job of our online presence. The Next Step work on leveraging existing value is just what we needed to refresh, renew and innovate our offering both online and offline.ʺ Matt Church www.mattchurch.com ʺYou offer up‐to‐date ideas and strategies which anyone can implement into their business. Your newsletters and on‐line courses are loaded with simple ideas which if you take action on will easily increase your profits.ʺ Lorraine Pirihi office‐organiser.com.au ʺJust three weeks after launching our Web site, we got to #1 in Google for our main keywords. Well done guys ... Iʹm proud to be associated with you.ʺ Max Hitchins www.hospitalitydoctor.com
ʺGihan is far more than a webmaster – he is a marketing guru as well and thatʹs what makes him so special. And so valuable. ʺ Rachel Green rachelgreen.com ʺIn our first year of website operation my estimate of return on investment is in the order of 300%.ʺ Peter Webb intentional.com.au ʺThrough four generations of websites, First Step has provided the professional advice and expertise to pay for each generation of development many times over.ʺ Rob Redenbach redenbach.com ʺProbably one of the top thinkers and practical implementors in the Internet field. Even half‐way around the world I look forward to receiving his practical insights into the wonderful world of the web. Top class stuff Gihan ..thanks!ʺ Sean Weafer, Weafer Consulting ʺOnly a small percentage of Internet Marketers offer anything of real value and very few of those are prepared to provide useful information free to their subscribers. You are part of the 3% who do. ʺ David Gilbert
Acknowledgements I have an academic background in Computer Science, but that didn’t give me the authority to write this book. Rather, that authority – and confidence – comes from twelve years of working with speakers, trainers, coaches and consultants, helping them leverage their expertise on‐line. So I dedicate this book to my clients. In particular, I thank the far‐sighted early adopters – Max Hitchins, David Price, Matt Church, Rachel Green, Glenn Capelli, David Penglase, Candy Tymson, Colin Pearce, Kit Grant, Keith Abraham, Tony Fountain, Genevieve Armson, Rikki Arundel and Anne Riches – who embarked on this journey with me before the turn of the century, when a Web site was a novelty, not a necessity. They are still with me now, as we navigate new Internet waters, still not knowing what the future brings, but knowing we’ll be ready for it. If I had to single out one person, it would be Matt Church, who has been a friend, mentor and role model over the years. I thank him not only for his work with the Internet – where he’s been a pioneer in the speaking industry – but for his dedication to better thinking and better business through the Thought Leaders community, which he founded (www.thoughtleaders.com.au). Finally, I thank my most difficult and challenging clients – who for obvious reasons shall remain nameless here! Although it might have felt like a struggle at the time, they forced me test my assumptions, clarify my ideas, stretch my thinking and question my understanding. As a result, the ideas, techniques and examples you’re about to see are more practical, more robust, and more widely applicable.
Support Samata Sarana I was born in Sri Lanka, and lived the first six years of my life there. Although I have only been back there once since the time I left, this background has given me an appreciation of the privileged life we enjoy in Australia. All profits from the sale of this book go directly to Samata Sarana, a charity in Sri Lanka that helps the needy and hungry. Every day, they provide food, shelter, day care, education, health care and other resources for those who need these services. The director of Samata Sarana is my mother’s uncle (my great‐uncle) Father Joe de Mel. Thank you for buying this book and supporting Samata Sarana. If you would like to make an additional donation, please visit www.GihanPerera.com/donate.
Table of Contents Introduction.............................................................................................. 1 The Lure of Passive Income ................................................................... 7 PART ONE: Your Strategy ................................................................... 13 The Right Strategy ................................................................................. 24 Active Income ..............................................................................................26 Bundled Income...........................................................................................28 Recurring Income ........................................................................................32 Passive Income.............................................................................................36
Summary................................................................................................. 41 PART TWO: Tactics............................................................................... 43 Active Income ........................................................................................ 44 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
Home Page ...........................................................................................45 Services .................................................................................................50 Testimonials .........................................................................................55 Biography .............................................................................................59 Client List .............................................................................................64 Demonstration .....................................................................................66 E‐Mail Newsletter ...............................................................................70 Articles..................................................................................................77 Free Report ...........................................................................................82 Blog ..................................................................................................86 Podcast ............................................................................................90 Calendar ..........................................................................................92 Virtual Office ..................................................................................94 Feedback Surveys...........................................................................96 Easy Editing ..................................................................................101
Bundled Income................................................................................... 103 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21.
Product List...................................................................................104 Order Forms..................................................................................105 Members‐Only Area ....................................................................107 Audio/Video Products.................................................................109 Slide Shows ...................................................................................111 Articles...........................................................................................113
22. 23. 24. 25.
E‐Books and Special Reports ......................................................115 E‐Mail Courses .............................................................................119 Self‐Assessment Quizzes.............................................................121 Resource Directory.......................................................................124
Recurring Income ................................................................................ 127 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35.
Resource Library ..........................................................................129 Self‐Paced Learning .....................................................................134 Teleseminars and Webinars........................................................136 Other Experts................................................................................140 Member Profiles ...........................................................................143 Private Mailing List .....................................................................146 Marketing Partnerships...............................................................147 Membership Tracking .................................................................150 Payment Processing System .......................................................151 Outsourcing ..................................................................................153
Passive Income..................................................................................... 161 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50.
Sales Links.....................................................................................165 Strong Sales Letters......................................................................166 Shopping Cart...............................................................................177 Separate Web Sites .......................................................................182 Analytics........................................................................................184 Split Testing ..................................................................................185 Article Marketing .........................................................................187 Forum Participation.....................................................................190 Social Networking........................................................................194 Affiliate Program..........................................................................199 Viral Marketing ............................................................................204 Communication Platforms..........................................................209 Search Engine Optimisation .......................................................210 Pay‐Per‐Click Advertising ..........................................................214 Delegate Marketing......................................................................219
The Last Word...................................................................................... 222
Introduction 1
Introduction This book is for you if you are an information expert – an entrepreneur who markets and sells their intellectual property (information, ideas, skills, knowledge, wisdom, or all of the above) in a form other people value and pay for. That’s a bit vague, so you and your market might be more comfortable with the terms professional speaker, trainer, author, coach, consultant or facilitator. For simplicity, I’m going to use the word “speaker” throughout this book to refer to all these things. Any fool can build a Web site. And many fools do. You probably have a Web site already, or you’re planning it. But is it really working for you? The truth is, most experts’ Web sites cost money and lose money. This book shows you how to build a Web site that makes money for you. It’s not about selling directly from your Web site. Rather, it’s about building a Web site that supports your business by promoting, selling and complementing what you do in the “real world”.
Why should you believe me? First, if you’ve never heard of me or my company First Step www.firststep.com.au, you might be wondering why I’m claiming the right to tell you about your Web site.
2 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants I’ve been using the Internet since 1988, long before many people even knew it existed. More importantly, I’ve worked with over 100 speaker clients in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, the U.K. and Singapore. In the time I’ve been using the Internet, I’ve seen it go through many changes. I’ve seen people make money from it, and I’ve seen them lose money from it. In both my Web design business and my consulting practice, most of my clients are information experts of some form. I know how the speaking industry works; I understand about leveraging expertise; and I appreciate the “exchanging time for money” dilemma more than most technical people. I’m also a speaker, trainer, facilitator, author and interviewer myself. So I know about this from the inside as well, not just as an external observer. I’ve been around the block a few times, and I know what works and what doesn’t work. Now I get to share with you the secrets I’ve learned over the years.
What has changed? Internet marketing has changed, particularly with the “Web 2.0” revolution. You don’t have to know what Web 2.0 means – but you do have to know what it means for you. The Internet has shifted from a promotional medium to a content medium. Itʹs about community, not authority; villages, not islands; collaboration, not hierarchy. If you’ve been using the Internet for as long as I have, you’ll realise it’s shifted back to a content medium. It used to be like this when I first started using it in the late 1980s. Then businesses flooded it
Introduction 3
with commercial material ten years later. Now it’s going back to its roots. Broadly, Internet users today are looking for three things: 1.
High quality content, not just sales letters and promotional material.
2.
Trusted communities, where they “hang out” and share experiences with like‐minded people. There’s no such thing as the Internet community – it’s just too big and diverse. But there are small, trusted communities of people with similar interests and goals.
3.
Different ways of consuming information – not just text on a Web page, but audio on their iPod, video on YouTube, e‐books they can read on their Kindle or iPhone, and so on.
As a speaker, you can no longer rely on your positional authority alone to deliver your message. You are no longer an expert because you say you’re an expert; rather, you’re an expert because we say you’re an expert. It’s all about authority with community. This is a radical shift in the way the Internet now views expertise. Google makes your knowledge available to anybody; Twitter makes everybody an expert; and YouTube has stolen your audiences. So what’s left? A clear, compelling message that’s relevant and engaging; and the perfect medium – the Internet – for promoting and delivering it.
Why is this good news for you? The good news is this shift is perfect for speakers: ⇒ High‐quality content: You have plenty of that, don’t you? You talk about it, you teach it, you coach it, you write about it, you
4 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants live and breathe it. Most businesses don’t, so they have to work at creating content. You don’t. ⇒ Trusted communities: This is exactly what you provide in the “real world”. Conference audiences, workshop participants, and facilitated discussion groups are all examples of communities who look up to you. ⇒ Different ways to consume information: It’s never been easier for you as a producer of information to deliver it in different formats for different users. That’s the good news! The bad news is if you don’t take advantage of these opportunities, somebody else will. Your competitors arenʹt other speakers, other trainers and other consultants. Your competitors are the people who deliver the same message as you, but in different ways. And increasingly, those different ways use the Internet. And those competitors are reaching out to your clients from anywhere in the world. I hope I’ve convinced you – and perhaps comfortably disturbed you, as my colleague David Penglase would say – to keep reading.
What’s wrong with your Web site? I’ve surveyed hundreds of speaker Web sites around the world to find what’s “best practice” (and its opposite!). When I speak at conferences, attend networking events, or meet speakers for the first time, they often ask me to “take a quick look” at their Web site. I do offer a Web site review service, with detailed and specific ideas for improving a speaker’s Web site. But if you just want the one‐ sentence, no‐cost executive summary, here’s what I predict: Your Web site is too cluttered.
Introduction 5
You might have started with a “glorified electronic brochure”. Then you wrote a couple of articles. Then added a newsletter. Perhaps you took a brief stab at some Google advertising. Then somebody told you blogs were the Next Big Thing, so you started a blog ... and stopped it a few weeks later. You might have created a demo video for bureaus. But then you gave up on your site because it’s not really bringing in the bookings. What about this new Web 2.0 stuff? Maybe that’s the solution! But that didn’t work either. It seems like every day, somebody else is coming up with a new idea for making your Web site work better. But after a while, you discover it’s just a new idea for making your money disappear faster.
So what’s the solution? Simple (but not necessarily easy): Get your strategy right. You see, all those other things are tactics. And tactics will always keep changing. You’ll feel like you’re running on ice, unable to get any traction. Or you’ll feel like a ball in a pinball machine, bouncing around at somebody else’s whim, jumping from one tactic to another, but never finding something that works. It’s different when you focus on strategy first. Get your strategy right, then move on to the tactics.
What will you learn? The rest of this book is in two parts: Strategy and tactics. In Part One, I’ll give you a big picture view of your business – based on how you’re earning money in it. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing to earn money; it’s more about what kind of money
6 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants you’re earning. We’ll break down your income into four different kinds. The key is to understand your Web site can support all four types, but should focus only on those most relevant and appropriate for you now. Then, in Part Two, we’ll look at each of the four income types in detail, and I’ll show you exactly what you need on your Web site for each type. If you already have a Web site, use this as a checklist to assess its effectiveness. If you don’t have a Web site yet, use this as a blueprint for planning it. You might be tempted to jump straight into Part Two, because that’s where you’ll find the individual, practical, specific tactics and techniques for your Web site. I urge you not to do this yet. Please read Part One first – at least to the level where you understand the four income types and where your business fits into this model. We’ll get to that soon. But first, I need to convince you to stop chasing passive income on the Internet …
The Lure of Passive Income 7
The Lure of Passive Income As a speaker, you probably generate most of your income exchanging time for money. You know a lot about your area of expertise, you know how to present it in an engaging way, and you genuinely improve the lives of the people you work with. But you might still be limited by the “money for time” problem: You can only make more money by working longer hours. It’s tempting to believe you can solve this problem by creating a Web site that’s an instant money‐making machine. It’s particularly tempting for you as a speaker, because your “product” is easy to package in electronic form. It’s low cost, high value, and you don’t have any suppliers, inventory, warehousing, postage or shipping. Unfortunately, for most speakers there’s no profit either! Generating passive income on the Internet is possible, but difficult. It’s easy – deceptively easy – to create a Web site, but it’s another thing altogether to create an effective passive income Web site.
A shop in every city If you’re successful delivering value to audiences, it’s tempting to think the Internet opens you to a world‐wide audience. That’s the wrong analogy. Instead, think of the Internet as giving you a retail shop front in every city in the world. On the surface, that sounds appealing! But have you ever operated a retail shop before? It takes a completely different set of skills than delivering a presentation to an audience.
8 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants For example, consider a fictitious sales trainer Jill, based in Sydney, Australia, who successfully delivers keynote presentations and training workshops, and who’s also written a book about selling in the 21st century. Although there are hundreds of other books about sales, she knows hers is good – because her mum says so. No, just kidding! She knows it’s good because audiences buy it at the end of her keynote presentation, clients buy it in bulk for their staff who attend training workshops, and other speakers sell her book along with theirs. Jill earns very good income through these presentations, but she’s now had enough of spending time in taxis, hotels and airports. So she turns to generating passive income from her book. She has no illusions about it being an instant success. So she’s happy to continue delivering keynotes and workshops, expecting them to decrease over time as the passive income grows. For her book sales, she picks China as her target market. She knows the Chinese market is responsive; they have a large population of educated English‐speaking people; they’re eager to learn from Western experts; and with a billion people, if she sells just one book to just one‐tenth of one percent of that market, she can make enough money for a lifetime. So Jill creates a Web site, complete with shopping cart and order forms, for Internet users to buy her book. This instantly gives her a virtual shop front in every city in the world – including those she wants in China. This gives her instant success, right? Well, not quite. Her Web site has given her the potential to reach her market, but that’s all. It’s only one small step in a much larger business model around making money selling books. For instance, what would Jill have to do if the Internet didn’t exist?
The Lure of Passive Income 9
She would travel to Shanghai, set up a little retail shop there (maybe it’s just a tiny kiosk if she only has one book to sell!), employ staff to work in it, and stock the shelves. That takes care of the operations side of the business. What about marketing? She would also have to understand the local market, know what’s important to them, know what her competitors are doing, create a unique selling proposition, test various price points, develop a marketing strategy and gradually build her reputation. What about the on‐going running of the business? She would have to provide support to customers who are implementing her sales ideas, watch her existing competitors, look out for new competitors, understand new rules and regulations that could affect her business, fine‐tune the marketing strategy to improve sales, manage her staff, and constantly monitor the key financial indicators of her business. It’s exhausting, isn’t it? Most people wouldn’t do all that work. Some do – and a few even succeed – but it’s a completely different business. It’s certainly very different from Jill’s existing speaker business doing keynotes and workshops from Sydney. That’s not to say she can’t do it if she applies herself. Of course she can; it’s just that it’s a completely different set of skills. What’s more – and this is the point – the Internet does not make this much easier. It makes it a little easier, because Jill can do some things without physically being in China. But even that isn’t necessarily a good thing. It’s convenient for her, but it’s not necessarily the right business decision for her to try this from the comfort of her home in Sydney.
10 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants More importantly, unless Jill is serious about her quest for passive income, it’s easy for all the other things to fall by the wayside – things like the marketing, the price testing, the competitive analysis, the sales strategies, the advertising and the financial indicators. That’s the problem. It’s not as simple as creating a Web site and hoping for the best. Unfortunately, many speakers, trainers and other information experts do just that – and then wonder why it doesn’t work.
The best marketer wins On the Internet, the best marketer wins. Not the best speaker; the best marketer. And most speakers are poor marketers – at least, when they’re not there in person to do the marketing. If you’re a successful speaker running live programs, more often than not people buy you as much as they buy your topic. After you’re successful, it almost doesn’t matter what your topic is. When people know and trust you, they’ll trust you to present it effectively. If you’ve successfully built an organisation with licensed or accredited trainers and facilitators, your clients might no longer be buying you to deliver the programs, but they’re probably still buying from you. So you’re still a crucial part of the sales process. This doesn’t apply when you reach out to strangers on the Internet. Now you not only have to find a hungry crowd with an appetite for what you’re offering, you’re also competing with everybody else out there chasing the same crowd. You can no longer rely on trust, because these people don’t have a relationship with you at all.
The Lure of Passive Income 11
So, just because you’re successful with your live programs, that does not necessarily mean you’ll be equally successful selling on‐ line. It might be true, but don’t assume it. Sadly, I see many people who make this assumption, and spend too much time, money, energy and effort chasing this out‐of‐reach dream.
Passive income is possible I don’t want you to think passive income is impossible. Far from it. It is possible. But it’s a whole new ball game. It requires an entirely different set of skills, knowledge and expertise than your topic expertise. If you don’t have those skills, and you don’t learn or buy them, you can quickly go broke trying to create passive income. For example: ⇒ It’s about looking for a market first, not selling an existing product. ⇒ It’s about direct‐response sales letters – the kind you probably find annoying to read. ⇒ It’s about being happy with a 3% response rate to your marketing campaigns, which might be a new mindset for you (Imagine if 97% of every audience hated you!). ⇒ It’s about crunching the numbers: How much does each Google ad click cost? What percentage of people who click buy? How much profit is there in each sale? ⇒ It’s about testing and refining, testing and refining, testing and refining. So yes, it’s possible. But it’s probably not what you had in mind when you thought about selling products on your Web site.
12 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants Summary If you want to generate truly passive income, you have to invest time, energy and money. I’m not just talking about passive income on your Web site. The same applies to other passive income streams. Being an expert in sales, leadership, emotional intelligence, relationships, mindfulness, or any other topic area doesn’t mean you’ll succeed in property investment, the stock market, government bonds or ostrich eggs. So why should it be any different for Internet marketing? The truth is: It’s not different. To succeed, you have to become an expert in these areas – or you buy other people’s expertise. In the rest of this book, I’m not going to talk any more about this model of generating passive income. I am going to be talking about passive income – quite a lot, in fact. In this context, what I mean by “passive income” is income you generate without you having to be there in person. It’s not truly “make money in your sleep” income, although it could be “make money in your pyjamas” income. It does take time, effort, skills and application; but it doesn’t necessarily require you to physically turn up in front of an audience. The rest of this book is about making money with the Internet rather than making money on the Internet.
PART ONE: Your Strategy 13
PART ONE: Your Strategy In a nutshell, this is a book about building a Web site that helps you make money in your speaking business. That’s a simple statement, but it includes four key things that set your overall strategy – and lie at the foundation of this entire book. First, it’s about making money. Your strategy depends on what kind of money you’re making now, and what kind of money you’d like to make in the near future. Second, it’s about your business, which is uniquely yours. Your strategy depends greatly on you, your personal evolution and four key character traits. Third, it’s about your business. Your strategy depends on where you are in your business, and four key platforms you’ve built for making money. Finally, it’s about a Web site. Although this is a book about Web sites, your Web site is not the first thing to consider. First assess your position regarding your income sources, your key character traits and your business platforms. Then you’ll be in a position to build a Web site that supports those income sources, matches those traits and builds on those platforms. And when you want to move to generate income in other ways, you’ll know what character traits to develop, what new business platform to build, and what to add to your Web site.
14 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants We should start by talking about money, because it will drive your Web site strategy. But I’m going to start with the other two first – personal character traits and business platforms – for three reasons: 1.
They aren’t as obvious as money, so I need to convince you of their importance.
2.
They aren’t always as easy to measure as money, so it’s important for you to be thinking about them while we have the money conversation.
3.
They will determine how much money you make, so I’d like you to understand them before we get into the money discussion.
Some people will see the business platforms as “hard” skills, and the character traits as “soft” skills. But don’t under‐value the character traits – in some ways, they are “harder” than the business platforms! In a solo business, it’s your character more than your skill that will let you down – or lead you to success.
Your character traits For the first twenty‐eight years of my life, I had no idea about wealth creation, investments, passive income or anything else about making money – except you had to earn it by working for somebody else. My financial world changed when I was exposed to two leading thinkers in this area: Paul Counsel, one of my first Web site clients and a personal mentor in wealth creation; and Robert Kiyosaki, whose book Rich Dad, Poor Dad opened my eyes even further to the idea of creating wealth rather than just cash. I started my business at about the same time. Being an avid reader, I immersed myself in the leading books about business – including Michael Gerber’s The E‐Myth, Kiyosaki’s The Cash Flow Quadrant, and, more recently, Tim Ferriss’s The Four Hour Work Week.
PART ONE: Your Strategy 15
These great authors all advocated the idea of building a business rather than a job – something you could own, not work in; and something that would work without you. For years, my goal for my business was to answer “Yes” to Robert Kiyosaki’s question, “Could you leave your business for six months and come back to find it more profitable than when you left?” Gerber urges you to build systems and processes to take yourself out of the business. Kiyosaki points out that if you don’t do this, you’re self‐employed but not a business owner. Ferriss takes this even further, and encourages you to automate your business. However, I now realise this advice isn’t appropriate for a speaking business. You are your business, and it’s difficult to separate yourself from it. Even if other people now deliver your material, you’re probably still the main salesperson, the driving force and the Chief Energy Officer. My friend Matt Church, who founded the Thought Leaders movement (at www.ThoughtLeaders.com.au), makes the point that you’re really running a practice, not a business. Like a doctor, accountant or lawyer, your cash strategy is to work in the practice, and your wealth strategy is something else entirely (Mine is to buy high‐quality residential real estate with good capital growth potential, never sell it, and eventually live off the equity). Because your business depends so heavily on you, your business success depends on your level of personal development. You can learn all the theory in the world, but it won’t make any difference if you don’t apply it properly. In a speaking business, so much of this depends on you having the right mindset and being at the right level of personal evolution. This is why copying somebody else’s business model won’t work for you. It works if you buy a franchise, because the franchise
16 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants system deliberately separates you from the business, so it can succeed despite you. But it doesn’t work when you’re so closely tied to the business. This isn’t a personal development book, so I’m not going to teach you the path to personal evolution. However, I will identify four key character traits that could make or break your business success. We’ll talk about them soon, after we discuss business platforms and income sources.
Your business platforms If you’ve spent time around other speakers, you know your business is different from every other speaking business. It sounds obvious to say every speaker’s business is different and unique, but it’s true anyway. It’s rare to find two speakers with the same business model – even if they speak on the same topic to the same market. One of the most important things to understand for your own business is its current stage – or level – in its life cycle. If you’re at a certain stage of business, you can do certain things; and until you get to that stage, you can’t. To take just one small example, when you’re just starting your business, you tend to be more flexible with the type of work you accept, and under what conditions. A client wants three half‐day workshops instead of your standard full‐day workshop? Fine. A coaching client wants you to deliver face‐to‐face rather than telephone coaching? No problem. A conference organiser wants your keynote on a slightly different topic than your usual topic? You’ll do it. This is not necessarily because you’re desperate to get the work – although generating income is a part of your initial goal. It’s also
PART ONE: Your Strategy 17
because you’re testing the market to discover their wants and needs. Over time, based on your experience working with your first few clients, you refine this and develop a series of standard offerings for your market. Again, this is why following somebody else’s business model won’t work for you. If they are at a different stage of business, you won’t necessarily be able to apply their tactics to your business. This is an advanced topic, and I won’t pretend to know your business. However, I’ll describe four different stages of business – based on four different types of income – and the key business skill or platform you require at each of those stages. These aren’t the only things you need, but they are essential.
Follow the money! Now let’s talk about making money. In particular, I don’t care how you make money (whether it’s through speaking, training, coaching, and so on; or in what topic area; or to what market). Rather, I care about what kind of money you’re making. Most speakers make money in four ways, and this typically follows their business growth over time: ⇒ Active Income: You turn up, you present (speak, train, consult, coach, write and so on), and you get paid. If you don’t turn up, you don’t get paid. ⇒ Bundled Income: You turn up, you present and offer additional resources (for example, back of room sales, products sold in bulk to corporate clients, or password access to your Web site), so you get paid more.
18 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants ⇒ Recurring Income: You turn up, you present, and you do this over and over again for the same client, so you get paid again and again. ⇒ Passive income: You donʹt have to physically turn up any more, and you still get paid. Most speakers make the bulk of their income from Active Income – that is, from personal exertion. You exchange time for money. When you do a keynote presentation, run a training day, present a public seminar, facilitate a strategic retreat, write a book or lead a coaching session, you get paid. If you stop, you stop getting paid. The next income source is Bundled Income, where you still have to make that personal exertion to get paid for your time, but now you can sell your time for more money. For example: ⇒ You create books and audio programs to sell after your keynote presentation. ⇒ You write a book and include it as part of the seminar ticket, at a higher price. ⇒ You run a training workshop with an automated follow‐up on‐ line course. Your Bundled Income source is generating more income than before, but it still relies on you making an effort each time. What if you could leverage that effort into creating a Recurring Income source every time you present your ideas? For example: ⇒ You offer a public seminar at a low price in order to build a database of customers who keep buying from you over and over again. ⇒ You run an accreditation workshop for other people to teach your material and pay you on‐going royalties.
PART ONE: Your Strategy 19
⇒ You create some form of subscription service, such as a printed newsletter, a seminar club or an on‐line membership site. The final income source is the Holy Grail for people who pursue financial freedom: Passive Income. For example: ⇒ You sell products to strangers directly on your Web site, based on Web site traffic from Google and other on‐line sources. ⇒ You create a viral marketing campaign, where you create a free product people willingly pass on to others, who eventually return to your Web site to buy from you. ⇒ You create strong connections in social networks, so other people sell your products for you. ⇒ You foster and grow a database of people who love your material, and you make offers to them regularly in your e‐mail newsletter. ⇒ You develop materials so good and so widely applicable that other speakers sell them to their clients and audiences.
Case study: David Penglase Over the years, I’ve seen some of my clients go through this sequence from active to bundled to recurring and maybe even to passive income. One is David Penglase, who kindly allowed me to share his story here. If you had to describe him in one sentence, you might say David Penglase is a sales trainer. But that doesn’t do him justice. He’s a true thought leader in the area of sales and influence, and doing both ethically and with respect. He’s a very successful keynote speaker and trainer who initially spent most of his time earning Active Income. He would run sales
20 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants training courses, speak at sales conferences and do some consulting work. The proof of his value was that almost all his work was from repeat or referral work. It was the perfect example of how to be successful while earning only Active Income. He then took the next step, to Bundled Income. He took his workbook from his sales training course and used that as the basis for an on‐line course, which he delivered by e‐mail. Attendees at his workshops would sign up to the course, which would give them three months’ worth of reinforcement of the ideas. Because he did most of his work for corporate clients, the client would pay in bulk for their people to subscribe to the course. Although this was presented as an option, almost every client would buy it, because it represented tremendous added value. For David, it immediately increased every speaking fee. More recently, he’s moved into Recurring Income, with his membership site www.SalesCoachCentral.com, a sales resource site for sales professionals and sales managers. It’s suitable for people anywhere, but he’s starting with Australia. He’s selling this as part of his standard speaking package now, and it fosters loyalty with clients – as well as providing them with a resource centre for life. Importantly, he didn’t do that too soon. He waited until he had compiled a suite of products and a network of clients and colleagues.
PART ONE: Your Strategy 21
He’s also moving into Passive Income, promoting SalesCoach Central throughout the world. This requires smart and sophisticated marketing, which he’s doing with a combination of his own skills and paying for Internet marketing experts. He’s smart enough to get the right people on board with the right skills to help him take SalesCoach Central out to every sales professional and every sales manager in the world. I’ve known David since 1998. In that time, I’ve seen him go through this evolution. Importantly, he hasn’t rushed it, and he hasn’t tried to reach further than is appropriate. That’s not to say he hasn’t stretched himself. In fact, David keeps surprising me with his innovative and forward‐thinking ideas. But he’s done it in an appropriate way, with each stage building on those that went before them.
22 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants What’s your main income source? If you’d like to be similarly successful at this process, the first step is to take stock. In the diagram below, in the left column, write down the percentage of your current business income (Note: Not your Web site income; rather, your total business income) in each of the four income sources. In the right column, do the same for where you’d like to be in the next 12 months:
I hope you did this! It’s crucial to your success, and the rest of this book will make much more sense if you do it. Even if you don’t know the exact numbers, just make an educated guess for now. There’s no “right” or “wrong” way to fill in the numbers. Whatever you do is right for you. Don’t be concerned if you’re close to 100% in Active Income. Many successful keynote speakers fit into that category, and they’re more than happy with their business progress. Don’t be concerned if you’re not planning to change the balance much either. For instance, one of my clients gave me this profile for her business:
PART ONE: Your Strategy 23
This isn’t flawed – it’s focussed! She knows exactly where she’s going, and can focus on the 15 things her Web site needs to do to get there (More about those magic 15 things later). Another client gave me this profile:
Based on that, we’ll be doing very different things on his Web site than on the first client’s site. So, before you proceed, please do this exercise for yourself.
24 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants
The Right Strategy Here’s the key principle that underpins everything else in this book: Build a Web site to support your current main income source(s). Match your Web site strategy to your main income source; and don’t build a Web site that goes off on a tangent to serve some other purpose. This is the key difference between Active Income and Passive Income; between marketing to clients and marketing to strangers; and between presenting live programs and selling on‐line products. For instance, if you’re like most speakers, you’re currently making most of your income from turning up and doing what you do best. So build a Web site that supports Active Income. And then look to the next level: Bundled Income. If you try to do it all at once, you’ll fail. But if you focus on a Web site that supports what you’re doing now, it will all fit together with everything else in your business. Broadly, this means your Web site does the following at each phase: ⇒ If your income is mostly from live presentations (Active Income), your Web site helps you get more jobs and at a higher fee. ⇒ If your calendar is full and you require more income from each job (Bundled Income), your Web site helps you add value to each job. ⇒ If you’re generating a lot of long‐term repeat business (Recurring Income), your Web site can offer a subscription service.
The Right Strategy 25
⇒ If you want to stop presenting and still make money (Passive Income), your Web site needs to sell your products. It sounds simple, but please realise the importance of knowing your income sources first – before you tackle your Web site. To remind you, here they are again: ⇒ Active Income: You turn up, deliver value, and you get paid. ⇒ Bundled Income: You turn up, deliver value, sell products, and get paid more. ⇒ Recurring Income: You turn up, deliver value, sell an on‐going product or service, and get paid again and again. ⇒ Passive income: You donʹt have to physically turn up any more, and you still get paid. So what does it take to be successful at each level? For each of them, I’m going to describe three things: 1.
The business platform you require in your business to generate income at this level.
2.
The character trait you require in your own personal development path to make this work.
3.
The Web site focus that then supports this income stream.
If you’re already earning income successfully at a particular level, you will recognise its business platform and character trait already. If you’re not yet earning at this level, you can use this to assess what business platform and character trait you require.
26 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants Active Income In earning Active Income, you exchange time for money. You turn up, you do your stuff, you get paid, and you leave. The good news is you can get paid very well for turning up and doing your stuff. The bad news is if you stop turning up, you stop getting paid.
positioning value
worth
Business platform: Value The key business platform for generating Active Income is value. If you’ve already established your speaking business, you know this is true. Clients pay you for the value you deliver – whether it’s changing energy and shifting attitudes in a keynote presentation, teaching skills and competencies in a training room, bringing focus and accountability to a coaching client, working closely with an organisation in a consulting role or giving people greater meaning in their lives through a personal development topic you deliver at a public seminar. Value is measured in different ways, and it’s not always about money. However, it’s always measured by the client, not by you. For instance, if you’re a conference speaker, you might think your value is in your content and the way you deliver it. But for the conference organiser, they want to be sure you won’t fail on stage. So their most important values could be consistency and reliability, rather than your content expertise.
The Right Strategy 27
The better you understand the value you offer to clients, the more value you can create in their lives, and hence the higher the fees you can charge – which of course increases your Active Income.
Personal character: Worth I’m now going to contradict myself. I just said the fee you charge is directly related to the value you offer. That’s true, but there’s another factor as well: Your own self‐worth. As David Price, my first mentor in the speaking industry, says, “The fee you charge is directly related to your self esteem”. Of course, that doesn’t mean you can bluff your way to higher fees if you’re not delivering value. But it does often mean you’ll under‐ sell yourself if you don’t value yourself or the work you do. For example, I was recently mentoring a client who is a very successful consultant in the corporate world, and now she’s looking at taking her talents into the not‐for‐profit area, serving people in an area she’s really passionate about. She knows her worth to her corporate clients, but she’s uncomfortable expressing that in her new area. She said to me, “I’m uncomfortable charging them money, because that is taking money away from them, money they could be using for doing their good work”. When I showed her that her work with them would give them even more money, she realised how little value she was placing on her own worth. If you have been under‐valuing yourself in the past, that’s good news! It means you can generate more income easily – simply by increasing your fees.
28 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants Web site focus: Positioning For supporting Active Income, the primary purpose of your Web site is for positioning. Your Web site positions you, your message, your value and your offerings to your target market. Some people will say this is nothing more than a “glorified electronic brochure”, and they usually say this with a sneer in their voice. The truth is, you do need this electronic brochure when you’re working towards Active Income. It’s not all you need, but it is an important first step. In Part Two, when we look at Active Income in more detail, I’ll show you the 15 things you include on your Web site for positioning.
Bundled Income In generating Bundled Income, you still exchange time for money, but now you’re doing it for more money because you create more value through physical and electronic products.
delivery products
respect
Business platform: Products To move from Active Income to Bundled Income, you require products, so clients pay more for your personal exertion. Instead of
The Right Strategy 29
replacing speaking engagements with other income streams, you simply make each speaking engagement more profitable. You can do this with either physical products or electronic products; and your Web site supports you. For example, if you’re a conference keynote speaker, you can sell your books (one per participant) to the meeting planner or client who booked you. Your Web site promotes the book – including the retail price – allowing you to offer it to your client at a reduced rate as part of your contract. Alternatively, you can give the client access to your “Members Resource Centre”, which is a password‐protected area of your Web site. On your Web site, you can advertise the price for individual access, which again sets a benchmark for your negotiations with the client. Of course, you can use the same principle for other types of presentations – such as training workshops, public seminars, even individual coaching and consulting.
Personal character: Respect The key character trait for Bundled Income is respect. This turns up in a number of ways: ⇒ Do you respect your audience enough to give them additional resources? ⇒ Do you respect your intellectual property enough to put it into resources somebody may be listening to or reading 10 years later and you’re not going to be embarrassed by it? ⇒ Do you respect the process of turning your ideas into products?
30 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants When I mentor clients about products and Bundled Income, they like the idea of getting the income, but they sometimes don’t yet respect their own material enough to create products from it. This is the “Ph.D Syndrome”, where a Ph.D student thinks their thesis is never good enough because there’s always one more study to conduct, one more source to cite, one more conference to attend, and so on. Here’s another way to look at it: Dan Kennedy, a world‐famous direct marketer who has made millions selling products to audiences, asks, “How arrogant are you to think you can change somebody’s life in an hour (keynote) or a day (training)?” His point is your audiences need additional resources, and you’re doing them a disservice if you don’t offer them. If you don’t like the term “arrogance”, ask instead, “How compassionate are you to provide suitable resources?” Either way, you’re respecting your audience – not taking advantage of them. I’ve been to presentations where I’ve eagerly bought the presenter’s product, because it’s exactly what I need for the next step. For example, when I bought my second investment property, I went to a seminar where the presenter talked about the state of the property market, recommended certain areas in which to buy, and ended by offering a service where his team would assist in the buying process. I snapped up his offer, because I wanted to buy property, but I didn’t have the time and energy to focus on the process itself. If he hadn’t made the offer, I would have walked away disappointed. As it was, I was more than happy to pay thousands of dollars for this service, because it was exactly what I needed to put his ideas into action. That said, I’ve also been to presentations where I’ve resented the speaker promoting their products at the end. You’ve probably seen presentations like this as well. Usually, this is because the entire
The Right Strategy 31
presentation has been about selling a product, and you feel like you’ve just sat through a long sales pitch. That’s why I’ve put value first, and then products.
Web site focus: Delivery When you’re looking at your Web site supporting your Bundled Income stream, its main purpose is delivery. It’s about getting your products and services to the buyer with minimal effort on your part. Broadly, this means you promote your products on your Web site, and create a password‐protected area for delivering electronic products. The products themselves could be things like e‐books, worksheets, handouts, templates, on‐line courses, audio downloads, videos and self‐assessment tools. The point is, you’re making them available not as individual products for sale, but as part of a bundle you offer along with your speaking engagements. One of my first clients to do this well – in fact, one of the first people in the world to do this well – was Matt Church, at www.mattchurch.com.au. Matt’s very first Web site was not a public site at all. Instead, the entire Web site was password‐ protected! You went to the home page and there was nothing on there except the password box. This was a (clever) strategic decision, because he sold Web site access as part of his conference keynote package. You don’t have to go to this extreme, and in fact Matt now has a lot of public information on it as well. However, it still has the member’s area, which he either sells directly to attendees or continues to bundle in with the keynote package.
32 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants
Recurring Income We now move on to Recurring Income, where you still turn up to make the initial sale, but that leads to an automatic on‐going income stream. By the way, some people call this “passive income”, and that’s a reasonable definition. But in this book, I’m using the term “passive income” for the specific situation where you make the initial sale without having to turn up to present – and we’ll talk about that later.
loyalty network
trust
The Right Strategy 33
Business platform: Network Now you’re at the stage where you create Recurring Income from your personal exertion. The focus at this stage is on your network. The most obvious interpretation of “network” is your database or mailing list, because they will be the primary source of that Recurring Income. They are the people who will buy subscriptions, join a “seminar club”, or pay you a retainer. We’ll call them “members”. But it goes further than that. Your network also includes people you collaborate with, delegate to and affiliate with – the people who work with you, for you and through you. More specifically: ⇒ You collaborate with other experts to bring their expertise to your members. Your members value not only you, but also other experts you know and recommend. For example, you could interview them in a teleseminar, record an audio program with them, conduct a joint event or send their books to your members. ⇒ You delegate to other people to run your membership service for you. With Active Income and Bundled Income, you can do it all yourself. But when you start earning Recurring Income, it’s no longer easy to manage yourself – especially as your membership grows. You have to either outsource the work or in‐source it. Either way, you just haven’t got the time and focus to manage the service yourself. ⇒ You affiliate with key people who have access to – and influence with – your target market. These are people who know you, trust you and like you, and are happy to refer members to you for a commission. They do
34 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants this not just for the financial incentive, but because they genuinely believe in the value you offer. That said, they do also understand the financial incentive, and value the opportunity to create a new income source for themselves.
Personal character: Trust By its nature, Recurring Income involves other people on an on‐ going basis. So the key character trait you require here is trust. If you’re used to doing everything yourself, and you have trouble trusting people, it will be difficult to create Recurring Income. This might sound like a strong statement, and you might not agree with it. But I’ve seen it over and over again, where a speaker with value, products and a network couldn’t create a successful Recurring Income source because they didn’t have enough trust. For example: ⇒ Do your members trust you to keep delivering high‐value content in exchange for their subscription fee? ⇒ Do you trust your members aren’t buying one membership and then sharing the password with all their friends? ⇒ Do you trust your members won’t sign up for a month, download everything you’ve got and then cancel their membership? ⇒ Do you trust the people you’ve delegated work to will follow through and deliver on time and with high quality? ⇒ Do you trust the quality of the material your guest experts bring to your members? ⇒ Do you trust that your joint venture partners are giving you the agreed share of profits?
The Right Strategy 35
⇒ Do you trust your affiliates to represent you in a professional, appropriate way? ⇒ Do you trust your affiliates to send you suitably qualified leads, not poor prospects who will waste your time and money? You don’t have to have complete and implicit trust in everybody, and it does make sense to create appropriate processes and safeguards to protect yourself. But these should be done for good business reasons, not because you’ve got personal problems with trusting people!
Web site focus: Loyalty Now you’re building Recurring Income, the main purpose of your Web site is loyalty. You’ve already demonstrated your value and delivered products. Now it’s time to turn those clients into long‐ term “subscribers”. Of course, it’s always a good idea to build long‐term relationships with your clients, because repeat business is almost always easier and cheaper to get than new business. However, it’s even more important now, because you’re probably only charging a small subscription fee, so you must get the on‐going renewals to make it profitable and sustainable. It’s also important to understand Recurring Income takes work. It’s tempting to think you can go straight from Active Income to Recurring Income, and skip Bundled Income – or to jump too soon into Recurring Income. It is possible, but only if you’ve got the right foundation. For example, you might have a members‐only page on your Web site, which you provide to audiences after a presentation. That is an
36 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants example of Bundled Income; because you have negotiated they get access to the Web site as part of your speaking fee. In that situation, it’s easy to think, “If I can give them members‐ only access to my Web site for a one‐off fee, why don’t I create a membership site and reap an on‐going subscription fee?” But it’s difficult if you don’t have the network and you don’t have suitable levels of trust. For instance: ⇒ It’s difficult to sell, because you’re asking your customer to make a commitment to an on‐going payment. ⇒ You have to keep up‐to‐date with your area of expertise, because your members are expecting you to give them current information, not out‐of‐date information (When you simply sell them access to a members‐only area, you’re not promising the information in it will remain current at all times). ⇒ You have to keep devoting time to the site, to keep your members satisfied. ⇒ If you only have a few members, you might not be happy with what you’re getting paid for your time. ⇒ Regardless of how good your membership site is, members will leave from time to time, so you have to keep bringing in new members. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t aim for Recurring Income; it just means you should wait for the appropriate time.
Passive Income Finally, let’s consider Passive Income. Remember in the context of this book, this means generating income without you physically having to deliver your material. It doesn’t mean you’re completely
The Right Strategy 37
“passive” in the process – it might still involve you marketing, networking and interacting on‐line in order to generate income.
sales marketing
commitment
Business platform: Marketing To generate truly passive income, you have to be good at marketing. If you’ve already got a successful speaking business, you might think you’re already good at marketing – and you’re right. But now I’m talking about marketing that doesn’t rely on you being there in person. It’s one thing to make a sale when you’re face to face, belly to belly, with a potential client. It’s another thing altogether when you’re relying on a Web site, a Facebook profile, a blog post or a YouTube video to make that sale for you. Some speakers say in order to be successful in this business, it’s more important to be a great marketer than a great speaker. One of my mentors, Glenn Capelli, has a different view: He thinks a great speech is your best marketing tool. I agree with Glenn when you’re marketing yourself and when you’re doing the marketing yourself. So it’s certainly true for Active Income (selling yourself), Bundled Income (selling your products as part of a package that includes yourself) and Recurring Income (selling a subscription to your products).
38 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants If you’re good at what you do as a presenter, you can succeed even without being a good marketer. Of course, it’s not ideal, but some clients will buy you anyway, despite your lack of marketing skills. This is no longer true when you’re seeking Passive Income. Now you’ll be judged on your marketing skills. Look at all these obstacles you face: ⇒ You’re selling to strangers, who don’t even know you exist; ⇒ Even if they do stumble across you, they don’t know who you are; ⇒ Even if they learn who you are, they don’t want you (they want your expertise); ⇒ Even if they learn about your expertise, they’re comparing it with the world experts in your topic area; ⇒ Even if they get through all of the above, they are just one click away from moving on and forgetting about you altogether! Make no mistake about it: Passive Income marketing is a challenge, especially when it’s so different from any marketing you’ve ever done before.
Personal character: Commitment As I mentioned earlier in the book, generating passive income is like running a completely new business. It takes new skills, a different kind of energy and a whole new set of challenges and opportunities. Most importantly, you need commitment to make it work. Otherwise, it’s too easy to throw in the towel when it gets hard, and it’s too easy to fall back on what you do know.
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Another way to think about this is to know the purpose driving your Passive Income. Having a compelling purpose can give you the commitment to succeed. This doesn’t have to be a high‐level purpose, such as your life mission or what you believe you were put here on this earth to do. If it is a high‐level purpose, that’s wonderful, because it gives you even more motivation. However, it can be something more prosaic, such as earning extra cash for an extended holiday, a home renovation, an investment portfolio or a world cruise. Choose whatever works for you. But do choose something. Otherwise, it’s very easy to get disillusioned and lose interest along the way.
Web site focus: Sales The purpose of a Passive Income Web site is simple: Sales. Some people think the purpose of every Web site is to sell. But if you’ve followed me so far, you’ll know that’s not necessarily the case. Now, finally, we’re at the stage where you want people to take out their credit card and buy something. When we get to Passive Income in Part Two, I’ll identify 15 things to put on your Web site to facilitate sales. You’ll notice these things are almost completely different from what you use for, say, Active Income, where the purpose of your Web site is for positioning. This is important to understand, because some speakers resist the sort of advice they get from experts who truly understand how to make passive income work. For example, you might have seen those one‐page Web sites with a very long sales letter, a long headline, no logos or branding, and urgent calls to action throughout the site. These Web sites work, but you might be reluctant to build one yourself because you think it’s
40 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants “hyped”, “over the top” or “too American”. These are legitimate concerns, but don’t let them get in the way of your success. The reason this is a legitimate concern for many speakers is they think these clunky one‐page Web sites will harm their positioning. However, realise you’re aiming at two entirely different markets. You don’t promote this sort of Web site to your Active Income market – the clients who book you for conference keynotes, workshops, coaching and seminars. For those people, positioning is important, so you build a Web site that positions you appropriately (If you’re Joe Bloggs the sales trainer, these clients are buying Joe first and the sales training second). Conversely, your beautifully‐branded positioning‐oriented Web site doesn’t help your Passive Income sales. You might think it does, but it doesn’t. If anything, it’s a distraction. That market is interested in the benefits they gain from buying your products. They want the long sales letter, with the full list of benefits, money‐ back guarantee and long video testimonials (These people are buying the sales training first, and don’t really care about Joe Blogger the sales trainer). So don’t worry about these two things interfering with each other. They won’t.
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Summary Now let’s put these four income types together into a single model, stacked together like four Zen‐like pebbles neatly balanced on each other. For each income type, the business platform is on the left, the character trait on the right, and the Web site focus in the middle:
marketing
Passive
Recurring
network
sales
loyalty
Bundled
products
delivery
Active
value
positioning
commitment
trust respect
worth
The first three stages build on each other – you do Active Income first, then Bundled, then Recurring. The top stage – Passive Income – is different and stands alone because, as I’ve said already, it’s a completely different business. Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean every speaker’s Web site will fit this model perfectly. However, I’ve worked with many speakers over the years, and this model describes so many of their
42 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants businesses that it’s useful to follow. As statistician George E. P. Box said, “All models are inadequate, but some are useful”. So even if you’re not fully convinced of its value yet, apply it to your Web site strategy. It forms a useful framework for thinking, and keeps you focussed on why you’re adding the latest Internet feature on your site, and then how to use it appropriately.
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PART TWO: Tactics Remember the key principle I mentioned earlier: Build a Web site to support your current main income source(s). Now we’re ready to look at the components, features, and tactics for your Web site – based on your current income source. As a quick overview: ⇒ For Active Income, build a Web site with 15 things for positioning you in the marketplace. ⇒ For Bundled Income, add 10 components for delivering electronic products. ⇒ For Recurring Income, add another 10 components for building loyalty that keeps that income flowing. ⇒ For Passive Income, add another 15 components for creating sales directly from the site. That leads to 50 items in all. Remember you don’t need them all – you just need whatever supports your current main income sources. This is the meaty, detailed, practical part of the book. However, it’s all based on the foundation I’ve set in Part One. So if you’ve flicked past everything so far, I highly recommend you go back and read Part One. Everything coming up will make so much more sense if you do.
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Active Income To recap: The key business platform for generating active income is value; the key character trait is worth (which of course is related to value); and the primary purpose of your Web site is for positioning. Your Web site should provide three things to position you for more Active Income: 1.
Credibility: Present marketing material, such as a description of services, client list, testimonials, biography, a demonstration of you in action, and a compelling home page that guides them to take the most relevant next step.
2.
Added value: Provide high‐quality material in the form of articles, an e‐mail newsletter, a free report, a blog and a podcast.
3.
Support: Offer on‐demand support material, such as a calendar of events, surveys, high‐resolution photographs and contract material.
It’s also essential you have a “content management system” so you can update the site yourself. At this rapid‐growth stage of your business, you must be able to make changes quickly and cost‐ effectively.
Coming up … This is a big chapter – in the sense that it’s the foundation for virtually everything else on your site. Although it’s specifically about Active Income, it also forms the basis for Bundled Income and Recurring Income.
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I’ll give you 15 things to include on your site for Active Income, grouped as I’ve described above: ⇒ Credibility: Home page, services, testimonials, biography, client list, demonstration ⇒ Added value: E‐Mail newsletter, articles, free report, blog, podcast ⇒ Support: Calendar, Virtual Office, feedback surveys, easy editing You will notice this Web site does not include some of the “traditional” features, like search engine marketing and a shopping cart. That’s because it’s supporting your Active Income stream, and these other features are not relevant yet.
1. Home Page In A Nutshell Design a home page that grabs your site visitor’s attention immediately, confirms this is worth investigating further, and leads them to the most appropriate section of the site for solving their problems.
Your home page will probably be the most visited page of your site. It’s the page people find when they see your Web address on your business cards, brochures, handouts, PowerPoint slides, training materials, and everywhere else you can fit the letters “www”. Unfortunately, many Web site owners waste the opportunity to make an impact on this most important page of your site. Some
46 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants research shows if you don’t capture your site visitor’s attention within eight seconds, they will leave – probably never to return. So don’t greet your visitors with a slick, graphical animation (technically known as a “splash page”) that just gets in their way. Don’t start with “Welcome to my Web site”, and then talk all about yourself. Don’t fill it with bland, meaningless “corporate speak” that uses a lot of words to say nothing. Don’t leave the site visitor hanging, not sure what to do next. I’ll briefly describe three approaches to designing an engaging home page.
1. Identify problems Use your home page to identify your different market niches and the specific problems you solve, and then direct site visitors to specific areas of the site that solve those problems. For example, if you’re a conference speaker, you might be catering for these visitors: ⇒ Conference organisers looking for a speaker; ⇒ Conference organisers looking for further information after booking you; ⇒ Audience members who have attended a conference; ⇒ Customers who have bought products; ⇒ Students looking for information. The home page would identify each of these in turn, and direct them to the appropriate part of the site, like this:
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The home page acts like a signpost at crossroads. It identifies each of your target markets in turn, and sends them in the right direction. The key principle is it’s all about the site visitor, not about you. Even if you don’t follow my exact formula, follow this principle. For example, Ann Rolfe www.mentoring‐works.com.au does this on her home page:
48 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants Rachel Green www.RachelGreen.com does the same thing by quickly identifying their likely requirements:
2. Write a persuasive article The next option is to write your home page as a persuasive article that leads your reader to one or more specific actions. As with the first option, focus on the reader, not yourself. In the section about articles (coming up soon), I describe a simple formula for writing a persuasive article. This formula applies equally well to the home page. This is the approach I use on my own home page at www.GihanPerera.com:
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3. Chat informally The third approach is to use your home page to “chat” informally with your site visitors. This isn’t right for everybody, but it does work for some speakers because it suits their natural style. You do start with a “Welcome to my Web site” type of statement, but move quickly to focus on the site visitor. Typically, you do this by describing briefly what’s on the site, and leading site visitors to the appropriate section. For example, Matt Church www.MattChurch.com.au does this very effectively on his home page:
50 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants 2. Services In A Nutshell Promote each of your services on a separate Web page, summarising the ideal target market (and audience), the benefits, how you deliver the service, and what action you’d like them to take next.
As a speaker, you offer a number of services – such as keynote sessions, workshops, coaching, consulting and mentoring. You might offer these in different topic areas, and possibly to different niche markets. If you have a Web site, you’re probably describing your services on it already. But are you doing this as effectively as possible? There are two key things to consider: 1.
Navigation: How easy is it for site visitors to find a particular service?
2.
Persuasion: How compelling are you when describing the service?
Let’s look at these in turn.
Navigation If you only have a small list of services, you might list them all on a single page. This might be the case if you’re purely a conference speaker with a handful of topics; or you have one area of expertise,
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delivered in different ways; or you have one area of expertise delivering to specific niche markets. However, many speakers go beyond this stage very quickly, and potentially have a large number of service offerings. For example, even if you have a single area of expertise – such as “sales” – you might have different topics within that area (closing, sales management, negotiation), and might deliver each topic in different ways (a conference keynote, a three‐day workshop, one‐on‐one coaching, group facilitation, or mentoring). Even that simple example gives 15 possible services! That’s too many to list on one page. Broadly, every service you offer has three components: A target market, a topic area, and a delivery method. So group your services according to what your clients are likely to value most: ⇒ Market: If you serve different markets, with clear differences between the services you offer these markets, group the services by market first. ⇒ Topic: If you work in well‐known topic areas (leadership, change management, time management, and so on) that you know your clients will be searching by name, group the services by topic. ⇒ Service: If your clients are looking for a particular kind of delivery (for example, they’re looking for a conference speaker), group the services by delivery mode. Whichever way you group the services, you should eventually have a single Web page for each service. This makes it easy for clients to read and understand each service, print a page, and forward the Web page address in e‐mail. For you, it’s easy for you to refer people to a specific service, search engines like you better and it makes it easier for you to focus the reader.
52 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants Persuasion If you’ve already created brochures, flyers or other promotional pieces for a service, it might be sufficient to copy this material to your Web site. However, be sure your words are persuasive, not just informative. Include these components on each service page. TITLE Describe the service in simple, clear, unambiguous language – for example: ⇒ “Time management for busy professionals” ⇒ “The shy person’s guide to networking” ⇒ “Strategic business coaching for small/medium business owners” ⇒ “Stress in the workplace” If you use a catchy title when promoting the service (“Waist Not, Want Not”), make sure you add a sub‐title that explains it (“Healthy Eating for the Busy Corporate Woman”). AUDIENCE (“WHO IS THIS FOR?”) List the specific situations people are in when they most require this service – for example: ⇒ “You’re looking for a speaker to lift the energy at your conference” ⇒ “You’ve just moved into a competitive market” ⇒ “You feel nervous and tongue‐tied when asked to make a presentation”
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⇒ “You’re about to be promoted to senior management” Choose situations that prospects are already thinking about, so it’s easy for them to identify with you. The broader you make these situations, the more likely your site visitor will identify with them. However, don’t become so broad you’re no longer credible. For example, if you say, “You want to make more money”, that’s so broad it’s meaningless. BENEFITS (“WHAT WILL YOU LEARN?”) List the benefit‐oriented results they will achieve from your service – for example ⇒ “All your sales team will perform at the level of your ‘Stars’” ⇒ “You’ll have a happier and more productive team” ⇒ “You’ll save an hour each day” The more general your claims, the more your prospects will identify with them. However, again if you make your claims too broad, especially if there isn’t a clear link to your service, you run the risk of being seen as not credible. For example, if you’re teaching office productivity, it’s reasonable to promise, “You’ll save an hour each day”, but it’s stretching credibility to claim, “You’ll boost your profits by 50%”. This is also a good place for inserting benefit‐oriented testimonials relevant to this particular service. PROCESS (“HOW DOES IT WORK?”) Describe the process you use to deliver the service – for example, an initial consultation with the client, followed by a diagnostic questionnaire sent out to team members, followed by a report to management, followed by a roll‐out of monthly workshops.
54 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants Don’t go into gory detail, but don’t be afraid of listing the broad process either. You’re not making a rigid, set‐in‐stone commitment; you’re just giving the prospect some idea of how the process works. You can always negotiate the specific steps with the client. And you can add the phrase “Each program is customised to your specific needs” if it makes you feel more comfortable. ACTION (“SO WHAT HAPPENS NOW?”) End with a clear call to action. Tell them exactly what you would like them to do next – pick up the phone and book an appointment, complete an on‐line enquiry form, register for the introductory seminar, or whatever.
Terminology Choose consistent terminology for describing your services. This varies from one person to another, and there’s no “right” choice. But do be consistent throughout the site, and choose the terminology most familiar to your market. Here are some examples of the terminology options for various services: ⇒ Training programs: Training, Workshops, Seminars, Public Seminars ⇒ Conference presentations: Conference Presentations, Keynotes, Presentations, Conferences ⇒ One‐on‐one programs: Coaching, Mentoring, Consulting
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3. Testimonials In A Nutshell Include benefit-oriented testimonials or case studies throughout the site. To add credibility, use names and contact details, photographs, audio clips or video clips.
You probably already realise the importance of testimonials in your speaking business. It’s no different for your Web site, where strong, benefit‐oriented, verifiable testimonials help establish your credibility in your site visitor’s mind. In general, use testimonials that focus on results (“We made a 2000% return on investment from your work”) rather than “feel good” statements (“Everybody was talking about your presentation for weeks afterwards”). However, some “feel good” statements can be strong testimonials if they demonstrate a competitive advantage (“You’re the only technology person I can understand”). Use specific numbers to add further credibility. Don’t necessarily use round numbers; the more specific numbers demonstrate actual measurements (“Sales across the board increased 18%, compared to just 2% in the rest of the company”). Get testimonials from authority figures – for example, the president of an industry association, a celebrity, or a business leader. Also get testimonials from “ordinary people” who are similar to your ideal client. Get permission to use their names and as much contact information as they are comfortable divulging – job title, organisation, e‐mail
56 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants address, phone number, etc. The more you provide, the more credible it appears. But you must get permission.
Formats The simplest format is just plain text – the person’s words, their name and contact details. Don’t underestimate this just because it’s plain text. Example: www.anneriches.com.au:
If possible, add credibility by including a photograph:
You can demonstrate authenticity even further by scanning a written testimonial and displaying the scanned image. This is particularly powerful for testimonials on letterhead from “important” organisations. But it can be effective even in simpler ways (gihanperera.com):
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An audio recording is even more authentic, because your site visitors hear the person speaking. Include a photo as well to make a more personal connection. Be aware not everybody will bother listening to the audio clip. So it’s also useful to include a written extract from that testimonial as well. A video clip is probably the most authentic form of testimonial. However, as with audio clips, it’s a good idea to include a written extract as well. Fred Gleeck at www.fredgleeck.com uses video testimonials:
58 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants Placing testimonials Some Web sites put all their testimonials on a “Testimonials” page – and nowhere else. That’s a mistake, because most site visitors won’t bother clicking over to that page. They might, but why leave it to them? Testimonials are so powerful you should sprinkle them liberally around your Web site. There are three places to put testimonials: ⇒ Products and services pages: For pages that promote your products or services, look for specific testimonials relating to them, and insert them directly onto those pages. For example, I do this on my page about the interviewing service I offer (at gihanperera.com):
⇒ Testimonials page: If you would still like a separate testimonials page, group them by industry category to make it easy for site visitors to find testimonials that most closely match themselves. Example www.mattchurch.com.au:
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⇒ Random testimonials: Some Web sites allow you to display a random client/customer testimonial anywhere on your Web site (for example, essencecomms.com.au):
4. Biography In A Nutshell Write a one-page biography, briefly describing your background, and then providing material that demonstrates your authority and credibility.
As a speaker, you probably realise already your clients are buying you as much as they’re buying your services. This isn’t necessarily
60 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants the case when you’re aiming for Passive Income, but it’s certainly true when you’re generating Active Income. So, whether you call it “About Us”, “Biography”, “About Joe”, “The Team” or “Profile”, you’ll have a page on your Web site about yourself. This is one of the most common pages on a Web site, and if you’ve been working successfully as a speaker you’ve probably got it right already. Just be sure you have these four components covered: Expertise, Experience, Education and Eloquence.
Expertise You don’t choose an expert on price (If you require a heart transplant, you don’t say “Get me the cheapest heart surgeon”). Promoting yourself as an expert allows you to charge higher fees; focus on clients’ problems, not your services; and positions you as a trusted adviser, not a slick salesperson. So don’t be shy about positioning yourself as an expert, and describing your expertise – right at the top of your profile. For example, Matt Church www.MattChurch.com does it like this:
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Ross Clennett www.RossClennett.com does it like this:
Experience One of the best ways to prove your expertise is to describe your experience. Focus on relevant experience with relevant clients – how you’ve done work with clients similar to your site visitor, solving the same sort of problems. It’s not necessary to go into detail here – that’s for other parts of your Web site. On your biography page, just summarise the relevant experience – for example: “As a professional recruiter, between 1989 and 2003, Ross screened over 80,000 resumes, interviewed over 3,000 people and successfully placed over 500 people in work.” www.RossClennett.com “Anne works with some of Australia’s largest organisations including Qantas, AMP, Fosters, Challenger, Simplot and
62 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants governments at state and federal levels together with international clients in 8 countries.” www.AnneRiches.com.au “Penny Burke has worked in marketing and advertising in Melbourne, Sydney and London for all her 22 years in the workforce. Most recently she spent 12 years at Clemenger BBDO as Strategy Planning Director, overseeing strategic developments for major communications projects.” www.EssenceComms.com.au “Dr Ron Woods is regarded as one of Australia’s leading market economists and has a knack for being far ahead of the curve in assessing the direction of the economy.” www.Econoclast.com.au
Education The other main factor contributing to your expertise is your education – either as formal education or professional qualifications. Again, only include it if it’s relevant for clients. Examples: “David has a degree in business and human resource development. He holds an MBA, and a Masters Degree in Professional Ethics.” www.DavidPenglase.com “Gihan has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Western Australia and an NLP practitioner certification from the Neuro‐Linguistic Training Center of San Diego.” www.GihanPerera.com
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“Dr Justus H Lewis, PhD: PhD, (Edinburgh); MA(Hons) (Edinburgh); DipEd (Tertiary) (Monash, Melbourne); Dip & Adv Dip Solution‐Oriented Hypnosis (CET, Melbourne); Certificate IV in Workplace Assessment and Training.” www.TransformAsia.com.au
Eloquence If you’ve been recognised with industry, professional or government awards for the way you deliver your material, list them here – for example: “The Meetings Industry recognised him as one of Australia’s top 10 conference speakers.” www.MattChurch.com.au “After a world wide poll of Speakers Bureaus conducted by Dottie Walterʹs Sharing Ideas International Speaking Magazine, Max was selected as the World’s Consummate Speaker of the Year for 1999 (The only other non‐American to receive this award is Dame Margaret Thatcher, the former U.K. Prime Minister)” www.HospitalityDoctor.com
Photograph Include a photograph (of yourself, of course!) on this page, unless it’s already incorporated in the overall site design. This doesn’t have to be a high‐resolution downloadable picture (that’s for the “Virtual Office”, which I’ll describe later); it’s simply to put a face to the name.
64 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants Personal information It’s a nice touch to add a brief personal note at the end of the biography, similar to that often seen on book sleeves: “David, Liz, Matthew and Anthony (and their over‐excitable dog Buddy) now call Sydney Australia home and live on the majestic shores of Kogarah Bay in Sans Souci.” www.DavidPenglase.com “Ken is married to Christy and has 3 beautiful sons, Damian, Robbie and Jamie. Christy is on her way to Sainthood for putting up with Ken’s passion for road cycling.” www.KenWarren.com.au
Your team If you work within a team, of course it’s appropriate to profile them as well. Keep in mind if you’re the principal speaker, you should get the most prominent position and have the most detailed profile.
5. Client List In A Nutshell Include a relevant list of past clients, to demonstrate your experience, credibility and authority.
As with testimonials, a list of past clients shows site visitors that people just like them have used your services. As this implies, this
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works best when you make the list relevant – both for yourself and for your prospects. If you’re no longer doing free speeches at Rotary clubs and business breakfasts, don’t list them in your client list; it decreases your credibility. Using client logos looks visually appealing, but always ask for permission first. Many organisations have strict guidelines about the use of their logo in any promotional material – theirs or yours. As your client list grows, group them by industry type, to make it easier for site visitors to quickly find other people just like them. Most speakers simply have a “Clients” page, listing the name of their clients. However, you can take this a step further by briefly describing the work you did for each client. This helps the site visitor understand the sort of work you do, particularly if it’s not a “standard” service. For some businesses, it’s not possible to identify clients publicly. For example, Sonia Grimaldi www.TantraFlow.com works with clients’ intimate and private personal issues, so it’s not appropriate for her to publish their names:
If you’re in a similar position, compensate by providing more detailed case studies.
66 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants 6. Demonstration In A Nutshell Add something to your site that gives prospects an experience of you in action – in whatever mode you deliver information.
So far we’ve talked a lot about marketing yourself on your Web site by promoting the value you offer. However, it’s also true clients buy you, not just the knowledge in your head. For this reason, provide something on your site that demonstrates you in action, so they get to experience you before they book you. This is your opportunity to give them a tangible experience of you, so do invest some time and effort into it.
Video clips If you conduct group presentations, the obvious choice is a sample video clip of you in action. This doesn’t have to be a professionally‐ produced “demo video” of the type you’d send to bureaus – although that sort of video is fine. It’s more important to give them an experience of you than to give them a slick marketing presentation. Until recently, it’s been slow and difficult to put video clips on your Web site, because of poor production tools and low Internet speeds. However, that has changed now, and there’s almost no excuse for not providing video clips on your Web site. In fact, on‐line video has replaced the old method of creating a demo video or DVD to send to clients.
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For example, Kit Grant www.KitGrant.com puts a demo video clip on his home page:
David Penglase www.DavidPenglase.com does something similar on the Conference Presentations page of his site:
Rob Redenbach www.redenbach.com is often seen in the media, so he leverages that by providing a video clip from a television appearance:
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For more about on‐line video, get the e‐book and audio program Show Me at my Web site www.GihanPerera.com. You’ll learn how to create video clips that deliver value and promote you at the same time.
Audio clips Although video clips deliver the best experience to your site visitors, they take some skill and expertise to produce. Publishing to your Web site is easy, but the filming itself requires some technical knowledge – for example, lighting, audio quality, camera angles, zooming, and the like. It’s much easier to create an audio recording, and that will suffice until you can produce a professional video clip. You can create an audio recording with just a hand‐held digital voice recorder
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attached to your lapel mic. The quality won’t be CD quality, but that doesn’t matter anyway for the Web. If you do use an audio clip as a demonstration, put a photograph of yourself next to it, to give the listener some visual impact as well.
Other techniques Audio clips and video clips are ideal demonstration tools for presenters, but they don’t necessarily apply to all speakers. For example, they might be completely inappropriate for coaches, mentors, authors and consultants. If you fall into these categories, consider what else you could do to demonstrate you “in action”. For example, if you’re a coach, interview one of your clients about your coaching and the results they gained, and record that in audio or video form. Of course, you can convey the same information in a testimonial or a transcript. However, I do urge you to take advantage of the audio and video capabilities of the Web. It’s so easy to do that it would be a pity if you missed out on it altogether.
For more about on‐line audio, get the e‐book and audio Listen Up at my Web site www.GihanPerera.com. You’ll learn how to record and publish audio clips on your Web site, blog and other on‐line platforms.
70 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants 7. E-Mail Newsletter In A Nutshell Publish a high-content newsletter, delivered by e-mail to subscribers – with their permission – every two weeks if possible (or at worst, once a month).
Don’t assume people will keep returning to your Web site. Even with the best of intentions, it’s extremely unlikely somebody will visit your site regularly unless you prompt them. Remember that most major news Web sites – including CNN, the Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian – have e‐mail services. If sites like these, which change daily, think it’s important to prompt their readers by e‐mail, then so should you! So publish a high‐content e‐mail newsletter, regularly and with permission. It not only brings people back to your site, it has other benefits: ⇒ Build a relationship: By staying in regular, consistent communication with your clients and prospects (with their permission), you’re building your relationship with them. If they’re coming to your Web site for the first time, your newsletter starts that relationship. For those who are already in relationship with you – including your current clients – the newsletter continues and strengthens that relationship. ⇒ Stay “front of mind”: Most people won’t buy from you on their first contact, especially for the typical services most speakers offer – conference presentations, workshops, coaching, mentoring and the like. The clients are there; they just haven’t yet moved from “interested” to “ready to buy”. When are they
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going to be ready? You don’t know. But if you stay in touch with them, giving them value regularly, when they are ready, there’s a good chance they’ll think of you first. ⇒ Lead with value: Your clients buy the value you offer. So the more you can be seen as an expert who offers value, the more likely they are to buy from you. A good e‐mail newsletter delivers value. It demonstrates expertise. It builds trust. It establishes credibility. It positions you as an authority. ⇒ Express your ideas: Finally, an e‐mail newsletter helps you to create content. It gives you the discipline of clarifying, distilling and expressing your ideas. It’s also a fast and effective way to write and test new material. My first book Secrets of Internet Business Success started life as an e‐ mail newsletter. I wrote myself an outline (in effect, the Table of Contents) and then set myself the task of writing about one idea every week. I asked for readers’ comments on each newsletter, and used that feedback to improve the material. It gave me discipline, kept me focused, and improved the value of the published book.
The sign-up page When I started my business, it was easy to get people to sign up to my e‐mail newsletter, because it was such a novelty. But that’s no longer the case; Internet users are very, very wary about giving out their e‐mail address; even to people they think they know and they trust. Put some thought and effort into your sign‐up page. Don’t just create a Web page with a form and expect hundreds of people to sign up. A few will, but the more effort you put into convincing them to sign up, the more people will sign up. And it really is
72 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants worthwhile because your newsletter is going to make a lot of money for you in the long term. 1. GIVE THEM A SAMPLE Show a few sample newsletters so they know what to expect. For example, I do this at www.GihanPerera.com:
Some Web sites even offer an archive of all past newsletters. This is an excellent way of demonstrating what new subscribers will get. It also adds more valuable content to your Web site, which makes it more appealing to site visitors and search engines. For example, Hanne Christensen of Mindcraft (www.mindcraft.com.au) does this:
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Rachel Green www.RachelGreen.com does the same thing for her newsletter Rachel’s Reflections:
2. GIVE THEM AN INCENTIVE Give site visitors something of value in return for signing up. For most speakers, this would be an e‐book, a special report or a free audio clip. For example, I give away two bonus e‐books to new subscribers at www.GihanPerera.com:
74 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants Your incentive doesn’t have to be big (for example, one of my e‐ books is only 12 pages long). But it does have to be valuable. There are already too many low‐quality “e‐books” and “special reports” floating around the Internet. Don’t fall into this trap – it diminishes your credibility and brand. I’ll explain later how you can create your own high‐value special report. In the meantime, you can make do by giving away somebody else’s material (as long as you have their permission, of course). For example, at www.ChangeThis.com, you’ll find many high‐quality e‐books (they call them “manifestos”!) you can share freely. 3. SHOW TESTIMONIALS Survey your readers and ask them for testimonials about your newsletter. If you consistently deliver value, you’ll get a range of glowing comments from happy readers. Use these on your sign‐up page to convince new subscribers to join the list. Here is a small sample of the sort of comments readers have given me: “Your newsletters are outstanding. I get a fair number of different newsletters, and unlike almost all of them I actually look forward to yours.” “You are awesome! I love your style, your mind, your big A attitude! I love being on your email list.” “After 3 years it is the ONLY e‐mail newsletter that I ALWAYS read and save every copy. It virtually always has something that is directly of value to me, whether it is a free give‐away or an e‐book packed with practical tips. I have purchased from Gihan’s website and the ease of purchasing, the money‐back guarantee, the follow up e‐mail and the usefulness of the materials have always made it a remarkably pleasant
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experience. I have recommended Gihan’s newsletter to others ‐ and again, this is not something I do lightly. Well done Gihan for the ongoing value you provide to me and other readers and the longevity of your newsletter.” “Gihan you are a master at leveraging ideas and turning them into income streams. I really enjoy your down to earth, easy to read and no nonsense approach which follows throughout your books, audio products and newsletters. I would highly recommend you to anyone!” If you don’t have testimonials about the newsletter itself, start by using more general testimonials about your business, your products and services, and the value you offer; and replace them over time. 4. REASSURE THEM Reassure them about their privacy and how well you’ll protect their e‐mail address. Either link to the privacy policy on your Web site (you do have one, don’t you?), or just make a simple statement about privacy. Even something as simple as this is a good start: We respect your e‐mail privacy and will never disclose your e‐ mail address to anybody else without your permission. Also reassure them they can unsubscribe at any time. That allays their fear you’re going to keep bombarding them with e‐mail, over and over and over again, and they can’t get off the list. 5. TALK IT UP! Finally, sell them on the idea of signing up! Put as much effort into your sign‐up page as you do for selling a product on your Web site or selling your services. Your newsletter will become an on‐going cash flow pipeline, so treat it with the same importance as your other products.
76 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants Writing the newsletter There’s an art to writing a great newsletter. I won’t go into the details here, but I’ll give you a simple formula to get started. ⇒ A one‐paragraph welcome message. ⇒ A one‐sentence summary of your feature article. This helps busy readers who are looking for a quick overview before reading the article in detail. ⇒ The feature article. This makes up the bulk of the newsletter. You don’t have to write new material every time. It’s entirely appropriate to re‐use material you’ve already written in articles, blog posts, e‐books, chapters of a book or e‐mail correspondence. ⇒ A brief promotional piece. Keep this brief, and include a link to your Web site for more information. Ideally, write your feature article on the same topic as the promotional piece, so one leads naturally to the other. ⇒ A testimonial from a happy client. Pick a good testimonial from your site and include it here. Ideally, this will relate to the promotional piece, but even if it doesn’t, it still adds to your credibility. ⇒ A quotation related to your topic area. A quotation is an easy but valuable ʺgimmickʺ to use in your newsletter. If you don’t have a collection already stored up, go to any of the popular quotation sites, such as www.QuoteWorld.com. ⇒ A notice about whatʹs coming up in the next issue. By doing this, you give yourself a slight edge if somebody is thinking about unsubscribing. They might not have found this issue of interest, but they just might be interested in the next one.
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As you can see, this formula is simple, and easy to reproduce for each issue. You don’t have to stick to it rigidly, but it gives you a simple starting point for writing each newsletter. Many people start with good intentions for their newsletter, but then get caught up in everything else thatʹs happening in their business. So their newsletter takes a lower priority, and eventually disappears from their To Do list altogether. If you stick to my formula, it will take you an hour at most to write a newsletter. That should give you enough incentive to write one every two weeks – or at least one a month.
For more about your e‐mail newsletter, get the e‐book and audio program Be Their First Choice at my Web site www.GihanPerera.com. It goes into more detail about exactly how to build, deliver and promote an effective e‐mail newsletter.
8. Articles In A Nutshell Publish articles, one per page, to demonstrate your expertise, highlight problems that lead to your services, and provide highvalue content on your site.
78 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants As a speaker, articles are an easy way to demonstrate value. Well‐ written articles give you these benefits: ⇒ They give you credibility and authority as an expert in your field. ⇒ Most Web searchers are looking for information rather than products or services. So people who visit your Web site first read the articles, and only then get directed to your services. ⇒ For the same reason, Google will probably give a higher ranking to these article pages than to sales pages. ⇒ Many of your competitors probably won’t do this, so you create a point of difference. Write high‐content articles that first address problems in your ideal client’s life, and then lead them to solutions you provide. You might already be writing articles in industry journals, syndicated columns, and of course your own e‐mail newsletter. If so, these are an excellent start for copying to your Web site. The biggest problem I see with articles on speaker Web sites is they don’t sell anything. They educate (which is useful, because it demonstrates expertise), but they don’t explicitly highlight problems, describe solutions, and end with a clear call to action. Of course, there’s a balance between content and sales. If your articles focus on selling without providing any real value, they’re really sales letters, not articles. On the other hand, if they don’t sell enough, you’re wasting an opportunity.
The PIPES process I’ll describe here a five‐step formula to help you write articles that balance content and sales. This is just one of many ways to
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structure an article. So if you already use a method that works for you, by all means continue using it. Just be sure you do persuade your readers. I developed this process because I saw too many low‐impact articles on speaker Web sites, and the only alternative model seemed to be the “pushy” sales letters direct marketers use. This process gives you a balance – it’s about 80% content and 20% selling. Here’s the process in a nutshell: 1.
State the problem they are experiencing. Describe it in the words they use, not the words you use.
2.
Tell them the implications of the problem. Explain the consequences, and if possible quantify how much it is really costing them.
3.
Point out the possibilities if they didn’t have the problem. Paint a rosy picture of how their life would be better if they didn’t have that problem.
4.
Give them an explanation of how to solve the problem. Keep this brief, but point them in the right direction.
5.
Tell them what services you offer to solve it for them.
This process takes the reader on an emotional journey. You start with the “problem”. But at this stage, your reader might be only mildly concerned about it, or might even be neutral. That’s why you move on to the implications of the problem, which makes them realise the consequences of having that problem. You then get them excited about the possibilities if they didn’t have the problem in their life. By following this sequence, you increase the gap between the negatives (implications) and the positives (possibilities). This usually makes your reader more motivated. If you had gone from
80 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants the problem directly to the possibilities, you might not have created enough pain for your readers to move to a solution.
Example Suppose you’re an expert in customer service for the banking industry, and you work with call centre staff who have sufficient technical knowledge, but lack the interpersonal skills to deal with frustrated, angry and confused customers. You’re now going to write an article to persuade managers to book your in‐house training program for their staff. I won’t write out a full article, but I’ll give you an outline here of how to write it using the PIPES formula: 1.
Problem: Their customer satisfaction surveys show complaints about call centre staff are increasing steadily.
2.
Implications (What does this cost them?) −
Customers are closing their accounts and moving to other banks. − Call centre staff are frustrated and stressed, and hence less productive. − Call centre staff burn out, so staff turnover is higher than ever before. Your goal is to make them realise how much more it’s costing them than they realised. They can see the wound, but it’s your job here to pour salt into the wound and rub it in! So consider all the negative consequences and list them here. Where possible, use numbers to quantify these issues. However, be careful not to make claims you can’t support. As much as possible, justify your statements with research, case studies, media reports and other sources.
3.
Possibilities (What could their life be like?)
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− Happier – and hence more loyal – customers − Happier – and hence more productive and loyal – staff − Fewer personal issues for managers to handle Again, your goal is to make them realise the consequences of the problem, but now we’re talking about positive consequences of not having the problem. To begin with, simply consider the opposite scenarios to the implications you’ve already listed. The more you can provide concrete examples, numbers and research, the more persuasive your argument will be. 4.
Explanation: Now you explain how they could solve the problem. This is not an advertisement for your training program (that comes later). Rather, you describe what needs to happen to solve the problem (in other words, the outcomes of your program). For example: −
The staff member acknowledges the callers’ emotions without getting emotionally involved themselves. − The staff member then separates the technical issue from the emotional issue. − The staff member creates an agreed plan of action with the caller. Give a reasonable explanation here – even if it’s just in summary form – so they don’t feel resentful you’re holding back a “secret”. Somebody with the time and inclination could now go ahead and do these things themselves, without using your services. Some people are like that, and they were probably going to do that anyway. But in the next step, we’ll give them a compelling reason to choose you. 5.
Service: Finally, tell them how you can help them implement the solution you’ve described. This can be as simple as a link to the Web page that promotes the in‐house training program.
Of course, this is not the only way to write an article, but it’s fairly easy to follow, even if you’re a novice writer.
82 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants For more about articles, get the e‐book and audio program Write Now at my Web site www.GihanPerera.com. You’ll learn how to write articles – and even books – in an engaging and persuasive way.
9. Free Report In A Nutshell Write a report that highlights the most common problems in your clients’ lives, and how you can assist them. Publish this in PDF format, and make it available free to site visitors who sign up to your e-mail newsletter. Give them permission to forward it to others.
In technical terms, a free report is just a Microsoft Word document converted into PDF format. However, its impact is much greater. A well‐written report is a powerful tool for demonstrating your expertise and enhancing your brand. For example, Ross Clennett gives a high‐value e‐book to his newsletter subscribers:
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You don’t have to spend hundreds – or thousands – of dollars for graphic design and layout, as you would with a printed book. However, I do recommend investing some time and effort in a professional look. For example, Matt Church had a clean, elegant design created for his free report Sell Your Thoughts, and he uses that same theme for other e‐books:
84 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants I create my reports in landscape mode, with a full‐page photograph on the front cover – for example:
Structure Naturally, the main content of your report depends on your area of expertise. However, it will probably contain some standard components. If you’re new to creating a free report, follow this broad outline for the sequence: ⇒ Cover page: As I mentioned above, it looks more professional if you design a cover page, rather than using a plain cover (or no cover at all). ⇒ Table of Contents ⇒ Permission to Reprint: More about this below. ⇒ Introduction: A brief overview of the content, including the benefits for the reader. ⇒ Why Me?: A brief biography of yourself, particularly the bits that highlight your credibility and authority for writing this report.
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⇒ The main content of the report. ⇒ Testimonials from clients
⇒ Next Steps: The action you’d like them to take, including promotion for you and your services.
Permission to reprint Some speakers jealously guard their intellectual property, and go to great lengths to protect it. This is appropriate in some situations, of course, but is exactly the wrong attitude for your free report. Encourage people to copy it and pass it on to others. You might as well get as much value out of it as possible, so I recommend you make it “better than free”: Give your readers explicit permission to copy it and distribute it to others. This is the specific wording I use to encourage copying while still maintaining copyright:
For more about free e‐books and special reports, get the e‐book and audio Spread the Word at my Web site www.GihanPerera.com. You’ll learn how to write and promote a special report that provides value and promotes you as well.
86 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants 10. Blog In A Nutshell Publish a regular blog that demonstrates your authority and currency (that is, you’ve got your finger on the pulse) in your area of expertise.
Briefly, a blog is a Web‐based diary or journal. The earliest blogs were in fact just created by people recording their random thoughts and ideas on the Web. However, as “blogging” has become more sophisticated, businesses are using them as well. In particular, for speakers, a blog is an ideal tool for demonstrating authority, because you write about your thoughts, ideas, insights and comments. When used correctly, your blog can be a powerful marketing tool for your business. However, there are many different uses of blogs, and not all of them will be relevant for you. More specifically, when looking at Active Income, use your blog for these reasons: ⇒ Writing material that demonstrates your credibility, expertise and authority. ⇒ Writing material that links to a specific service on your main Web site. ⇒ Writing “mini‐articles” that can later be expanded into full articles, newsletters, reports, e‐books or books. ⇒ Keeping a private record of your ideas. ⇒ Creating a collection of frequently asked questions (and answers!)
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It’s easy (almost too easy!) to start a blog. Just sign up at www.blogger.com and you’ll have your blog up and running in five minutes. Alternatively, you can use a more sophisticated blogging service like WordPress, which you install on your Web server. Unfortunately, I see many speakers get excited by blogs initially, but then they lose their enthusiasm, and their blog becomes out of date, which diminishes their credibility as an expert. To avoid this trap, I suggest you set yourself this rule: No more than 10 minutes to write a blog post. You might choose to break this rule on a few occasions, but it’s a good rule of thumb to follow in general. It means you won’t look on your blog as a chore, so you’re more likely to make the time to post to it. So what can you do in 10‐minute chunks? ⇒ Every time you write a newsletter, copy the feature article to your blog. ⇒ Every time you add an article to your Web site, put it in your blog as well. ⇒ When you read a book, write a brief book review in your blog. ⇒ When you present at a conference, take a photograph (for example, you with the client; or an audience member; or a group photograph) and publish it in your blog, along with a brief note about the conference. ⇒ When a client sends you a great testimonial, put it in your blog. ⇒ When something in the news is related to your area of expertise, write a brief commentary on it. If it’s reported in an on‐line newspaper, link to that article.
88 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants ⇒ If you see a relevant video clip on YouTube, Google Video or a similar video‐sharing service, copy it to your blog, with a brief comment. The idea is to be publishing regularly (so you’re seen as current and informed) without it taking up too much of your time.
Examples Matt Church publishes the Thought Leaders blog at www.thoughtleadersblog.com. Most of the blog posts are simply copied from his regular newsletter:
Ian Berry publishes a blog So What’s www.ianberry.au.com/ianberrysblog.html, with insights, book reviews and other brief comments:
Next? at thoughts,
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Matt Hern publishes The Financial Futurist at www.financialfuturist.com, with a mix of news commentary, thoughts, newsletter articles, surveys and more:
90 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants For more about blogging, get the e‐ book and audio Share Your Thoughts at my Web site www.GihanPerera.com. You’ll learn what to write for an effective blog, and how to put it together using Blogger.com.
11. Podcast In A Nutshell Publish a regular podcast – that is, an audio newsletter – to create a stronger personal connection than just the written word. Start by simply reading out your newsletter articles, recording them and posting them to your podcast.
Podcasting has become very popular, but it’s often misunderstood and misused. Think of a podcast as an audio newsletter. Instead of writing a newsletter, you speak it, record it and send it directly to your listeners’ iPods (and other audio players).A printed newsletter is delivered to a physical mail box; an e‐mail newsletter is delivered to an e‐mail in‐box; and a podcast is delivered to an iPod (That’s an over‐simplification, but it’s good enough). Strictly speaking, podcasting is not the same as putting audio clips on your Web site for people to download, although many people do refer to that as “podcasting”. The main difference is a podcast is
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delivered automatically to listeners, rather than relying on them visiting your Web site to download them. In this sense, it’s similar to your e‐mail newsletter, which sends articles automatically to readers, rather than relying on them visiting your Web site.
Why podcast? The main purpose of your podcast is to create a more personal connection. It doesn’t provide the same experience as video, but it’s still more personal than the written word. Many new podcasters struggle for this very reason, because they’re not used to delivering their expertise by speaking. But for speakers, that’s exactly the way you generally deliver your material. So podcasting is a natural fit. Like your newsletter, your podcast allows you to maintain an on‐ going relationship with your site visitors. So it’s a powerful prospecting tool, because you’re “front of mind” when they’re ready to take action. Another advantage of podcasting is it delivers material in audio format, which for many people is the easiest format for multi‐ tasking. People can listen to your podcasts while doing other things – including driving, exercising and at other times. This is much harder with written material and even with video. Finally, although podcasting is very popular, it’s still relatively new. So there’s an uncluttered space, and you still create a point of difference with your clients and prospects.
Publishing a podcast Broadly, you go through four steps every time you publish to your podcast: Record, edit, upload and publish. In this sense, it’s similar to your e‐mail newsletter, but using a different medium.
92 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants The main challenge you’ll have with podcasting is not the technology. That part is easy, once you know how to do it. Rather, as with your blog, your newsletter and other new content you put on your Web site, the biggest challenge is finding time to do it. For this reason, if you’re new to podcasting and you’re concerned about the time it takes to produce the content, I recommend you start by simply using exactly the same material as your newsletter. Every time you write a newsletter, read the feature article out loud, record it, and publish that to your podcast. That way, it only takes a few minutes each time, which is easy to do.
For more about podcasting, get the e‐ book and audio Speak Your Mind at my Web site www.GihanPerera.com. You’ll learn how to record, edit, publish and promote a podcast.
12. Calendar In A Nutshell Publish an up-to-date calendar of your current commitments, to help prospects and clients book your services.
It’s not essential to publish a calendar on your Web site, but it does have a number of benefits:
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⇒ If you conduct public events – seminars, free introductory workshops, book launches, and the like – list them here and allow people to make a booking; ⇒ If you travel, list your itineraries so clients can contact you when you’re in their city; ⇒ If you set aside certain times for client contact – for example, coaching sessions – list them here to show you’re unavailable during those times. There are sophisticated calendar systems for speakers, such as that provided by www.eSpeakers.com, which manages bureau bookings, holds, and provides other interactive features. However, it’s not necessary to go to this extent unless that’s a core part of your business. For most speakers, a simple list of events is sufficient – for example:
If you’ve got a busy schedule, the traditional calendar view might be more useful to site visitors:
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Of course, a calendar is only valuable if it’s current and active. If it’s out of date, it works against you, because your Web site looks inaccurate. And if it’s sparse, it also works against you because it shows you’re not in high demand!
13. Virtual Office In A Nutshell Put your “paperwork” on your Web site, to make it easy for meeting planners, bureaus, conference organisers and clients to deal with you.
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Include a section on your site where you deposit “paperwork” for your presentations. This section goes by many names – “Virtual Office”, “Working With Us”, “Working With Jane Smith” and “Event Support” are the most common. It could include things such as: ⇒ terms and conditions ⇒ room layout ⇒ speaking introduction ⇒ travel guidelines ⇒ contracts ⇒ high‐resolution photos for use in print material ⇒ low‐resolution photos for use in electronic material This serves two purposes. First, of course it makes life easier for clients, meeting planners, bureaus, agents and others to do business with you. Second – and no less important – it positions you as a professional who is easy to work with. For example, David Penglase www.davidpenglase.com does it like this:
96 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants Matt Church www.MattChurch.com.au does something similar:
14. Feedback Surveys In A Nutshell Include a way to survey your clients, audiences and newsletter subscribers to find out what topics are most interesting to them – for use in session preparation, client research and follow-up programs.
When Max Hitchins www.HospitalityDoctor.com released his e‐ book 365 Marketing Ideas For The Hospitality, Tourism & Travel Industries, he made more than $4,000 in the first 24 hours.
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Was he just lucky? No. He ran a monthly competition on his Web site, and asked site visitors which of his products they would like to win as a prize:
What we discovered over a period of months was almost everybody was asking for the “365 Marketing Ideas” book. It was the first in the list, so we moved it around – and the results were the same. That’s why Max put so much time into producing this particular e‐book, and gave that priority over all his other products. Sometimes we’re too close to our own products and services. You might think you know why clients buy, book and re‐book you. But do you really know? I often conduct surveys before conducting workshops, promoting public programs and creating products – asking people to tell me their biggest question, challenge, problem, concern or fear about the topic. Invariably, I’m amazed by the responses I receive; and they’re often very different from what I would have guessed myself. So, even if you have years of experience under your belt, survey your clients, prospects and readers from time to time. The surveys don’t necessarily have to be available publicly on your Web site. They can be “on demand”, whenever you have a particular question to ask.
98 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants For example, Anne Riches www.AnneRiches.com.au does this prior to some live presentations, to get an idea of the audience’s main questions:
Erica Bagshaw did this prior to writing her e‐book Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Energy at Work, so she knew exactly what questions to answer in the e‐book. I do this before creating new programs or products:
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Open vs closed questions Ask open‐ended questions to gather information. Use closed questions to refine information you’ve already gathered. For example, when Matt Hern www.financialdreams.com.au was surveying his newsletter readers, he asked a single open‐ended question:
However, when he starts working with a client, he asks them to complete a – more detailed – Financial Health Check Questionnaire:
100 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants What question do you ask? If you’re asking an open‐ended question, you must ask the right question. The best question addresses their needs, and their needs vary depending on their knowledge of your topic area. For example, a novice in this area will be evaluating whether it has any relevance. An expert, on the other hand, is already convinced of its value – they just need to know how to apply it. More specifically, when somebody’s evaluating something, they generally go through four stages: 1.
(Why) Is this right for me at all?
2.
(What) If so, what specifically is the best option for me?
3.
(Who) Who is the right person to offer this service?
4.
(How) How do I work with them?
For example, if you’re a financial planner, your potential clients are asking these four questions: 1.
Do I require financial planning?
2.
If so, exactly what services does a financial planner offer that are right for me?
3.
How do I choose the right financial planner?
4.
How do I work with a financial planner?
So, when you’re doing your survey to discover their needs, focus on one of these four stages – the one you think applies to most people in your audience. In the financial planner example, you might ask one of these questions, depending on where you think they are:
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1.
“What is your biggest concern about managing your money?”
2.
“What is your biggest question about financial planning?”
3.
“What is your biggest question about choosing a financial planner?”
4.
“What is your biggest question about working with me?”
For more about surveys and market research, get the e‐book and audio Find Your Market at my Web site www.GihanPerera.com. You’ll learn about doing market research, surveys and using the Internet to discover what people want.
15. Easy Editing In A Nutshell Ensure you have control of your Web site, so you can add and change the content whenever you require it.
Stanford University in California, USA surveyed 4,000 Internet users in North America and Europe to discover how they assess a Web site’s credibility. You probably won’t be surprised to find the answers included things like client testimonials and easy‐to‐find contact information. But one of the least‐expected responses was
102 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants that people find a Web site credible if it’s current and up‐to‐date. Or, putting it the other way around: Your Web site’s credibility decreases if it’s out‐of‐date and hasn’t been changed in a long time. Some speakers fall into the trap of thinking creating their Web site is the end of the journey. It’s not – it’s only the beginning. It’s vital you can change your site regularly to reflect changes in your business. If you can’t, or it’s too expensive, then you’re harming your credibility. Broadly, you have three options for managing updates to your Web site. The first is to pay somebody else to do it for you. If you do choose this option, I recommend you negotiate a retainer agreement with the person doing the work. Otherwise you’ll be weighing up the cost of each and every change, and perhaps choosing not to make certain changes purely because of the cost. The second option is to learn to be a Web designer. For many speakers this is a bad option, because it takes you away from your core business. However, in a few cases this might be a reasonable choice, especially if you have an interest in tinkering with technology. Just be sure it’s an effective use of your time! The third option falls between the other two: Use a “content management system”. A content management system lets you update the content of individual pages, but not the overall look and feel of the site. This gives you control over the areas you will change frequently, while leaving the technical areas to the experts. Whatever software you use, the key is to have simple tools to update your Web site. If it seems too hard, it’s easy to find reasons not to do it!
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Bundled Income To recap: The key character trait for Bundled Income is respect, and the key business platform is having products. The purpose of your Web site at this stage is the delivery – getting the electronic products to the buyer with minimal effort on your part. Broadly, we can group the Web site components for Bundled Income into three areas: 1.
Pricing: A list of your products.
2.
Passwords: A “members‐only area” of your site, where you place all your electronic products. Members have a password, which they use to get access to this area.
3.
Resources: The material you make available in the password‐ protected area.
Coming Up … In this chapter, we list the 10 things you add to your Web site for Bundled Income: ⇒ Pricing: Product list, order Forms ⇒ Passwords: Members‐only area ⇒ Resources: Audio/video products, slide shows, articles, e‐books and special reports, e‐mail courses, self‐assessment quizzes, resource directory Although this Web site has products, it still doesn’t require a full‐ featured shopping cart facility. Because you’re looking for Bundled
104 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants Income, most of your product sales will come from bulk sales to corporate clients or back‐of‐room sales to audiences.
16. Product List In A Nutshell List all your products on your Web site, grouped in some logical way – by topic area, target market or product type. Make it easy and obvious for people who are looking for them to find them.
The most common way to arrange the products is to list them all on a single Web page, with each product having just a brief summary, a link to more information and perhaps a photograph. If there are many products on the page, group them by topic area. Many Web sites do it this way, with a simple and obvious menu button labelled “Products”, “The Shop”, “Online Shop”, or similar. Because this is widely used and familiar to most of your users, do the same – unless you have a reason to do it differently. There are two main reasons for doing it differently: 1.
You have too many products to list on a single page (20 is about the maximum for comfortable viewing). Create a separate product list in each topic area. Alternatively, you can create a separate product list for each product type (books, CDs, e‐books, and so on); but that is rarer, because customers are more likely to be interested in browsing by topic than by type.
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2.
Different products apply to different markets, so it’s confusing to list them all together. Create a separate product list for each target market. Some products might appear in more than one list, of course. However, if you find a lot of overlap between the lists, it’s better to combine them anyway.
Because you’re not trying to sell products directly from your Web site at this stage, it’s not important to write compelling a sales letter for each product. Remember this, because many Internet marketers say otherwise! But they are thinking of Passive Income, and at this stage we’re only looking at Bundled Income. So your product pages are simply there to support the sale you will be making – in person – with clients. Use a similar outline to the services pages, as described in the section on Active Income: Product title, audience, benefits, format, price, and of course a link to the order form.
17. Order Forms In A Nutshell Even if you’re not expecting many on-line orders, ask for the order and give site visitors a way of ordering your products.
At this stage, don’t worry about creating a sophisticated on‐line ordering system, with a shopping cart, immediate processing of credit card payments, and automatic order fulfillment. That all comes later, when we look at Passive Income.
106 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants Rather, your goal here is to offer some way of taking orders. For example, here are three simple ways of asking for orders: 1.
Ask your customer to print the page and post it to you with a cheque.
2.
Create an order form in PDF, and ask them to print that and post it to you (with a cheque).
3.
Ask them to e‐mail you with their order, including contact details and credit card details.
To be frank, it’s very unlikely you’ll get many orders if these are the only payment methods you offer (especially asking them to send credit card details by e‐mail)! But that’s not the point. Remember all we’re doing is setting a comparison point here. By making your products available on your Web site, you give yourself the opportunity to bundle them together elsewhere. For example, if you’re a keynote speaker who makes back‐of‐room sales, your printed order form lists the individual price of each item – as displayed on the Web site – and then offers it all at a heavy discount as an “event special”. Similarly, if you’re a coach or mentor, your three‐month mentoring package can include a number of products bundled in. Your promotional material describes the products and their individual prices, which your clients can check on the Web site. If your Web site package already has a more sophisticated ordering process in place – with a shopping cart and secure server – then by all means use it. However, keep in mind it’s not necessary at this stage.
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18. Members-Only Area In A Nutshell Add a simple password mechanism so you can protect certain areas of the site and make them only available to certain people.
In principle, a password‐protected area requires just three things: 1.
A way for you to create new pages on your Web site, without those pages being visible to the public.
2.
A way for users to “log in” to view the password‐protected area.
3.
A way for you to manage (i.e. add, delete and change) passwords.
If you don’t already have this facility in your Web site, you’ll probably require some technical assistance from your Webmaster. However, once it’s in place, it’s easy to manage. The simplest option is to have a single members‐only page, accessible with just one password you change from time to time. However, it’s better if you can create different pages with different passwords. For example, if you customise a presentation for a particular audience, you might choose to give them a special password so they can download the slides from that particular presentation. You start by creating the private pages on your Web site, just as you would create any other pages. The only difference is there are
108 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants no links to these new pages, because they will be only available via a password. You then add passwords to the system. You can choose to have just one password, which you give to everybody, but it’s usually better to have different passwords, even if they all lead to the same page. It gives you better control (for example, if you want to stop giving access to somebody, you simply remove their password) and can add perceived value (for example, if you use the client’s name as part of their password, it can seem better). Finally, you add a page on your site where users type in their password. If you’re going to send people to this page from live presentations, make it easy to find! You might even add a password box on the home page, as Glenn Cardwell does at the top right of his site at www.GlennCardwell.com:
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19. Audio/Video Products In A Nutshell Find high-quality video clips relevant to your topic and put them in your members-only area.
YouTube, at www.YouTube.com, has made video publishing available to the masses. It wasn’t the first video sharing site, and it’s not necessarily the best. However, for many people it’s their first exposure to on‐line video.
In particular, it does three things that help us as speakers: 1.
It’s extremely easy for people to publish their video clips to the Web. This means there’s a huge amount of material available on YouTube (and other video sharing sites) for us to browse and use.
110 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants 2.
It allows – in fact, it encourages – users to copy their videos to their own Web sites, blogs, e‐mail, Facebook accounts, MySpace accounts, and so on.
3.
Its underlying video technology, known as Flash, is widely available on most personal computers. But even many people who didn’t have it would upgrade their Web browser in order to watch a YouTube video a friend sent them.
There are a number of video sharing sites available, and they all work in a similar way. Google Video video.google.com and Metacafe www.metacafe.com are two others; for even more, search Google for “video sharing sites”. It’s easy to search these video sharing sites for suitable material. You’ll find a fair share of rubbish, but there is high‐quality content as well, if you look carefully. Strictly speaking, you’re not copying their video clips to your Web page; rather, you’re embedding them in the page. The video clip is still being stored on the YouTube page, and when somebody views it, they’re playing it from the YouTube Web site. This might seem like an unnecessary detail, but it does have one important consequence: YouTube allows you to embed their video clips in your Web pages or blog posts, but it does not allow you to download or copy the video files to your computer and use them in any other way. Most of the other video sharing sites are similar. So, for example, you’re not allowed to download a YouTube video clip and insert it into a PowerPoint file for use in a live presentation. On the other hand, you are allowed to play a YouTube video clip during a live presentation if you play it directly from the Internet.
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For more about finding video clips, get the e‐book and audio Other People’s Expertise at my Web site www.GihanPerera.com. You’ll learn how to find video clips, slide shows, articles, e‐books and other material you can use and share with others.
20. Slide Shows In A Nutshell Create slide presentations, or find other authors’ relevant slide presentations, for your clients.
Now we’ll move on to SlideShare, at www.slideshare.net, a wonderful site for finding PowerPoint presentations you can use. Think of it like YouTube for presentations: Anybody can upload their presentations, you can view them, and you can embed them in your Web pages or blog posts. For our purposes, this can be a better source of material than the video sharing sites, for two reasons: 1.
Because PowerPoint is a common tool for delivering ideas, you’ll probably find more relevant material here.
2.
Because PowerPoint is a less common format than video, you’ll find the site less cluttered with amateurs’ work.
112 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants This doesn’t mean everything there is professional, either in terms of content or design. But it does mean you generally won’t have to wade through too much rubbish to find something suitable.
You use this site in pretty much the same way as you use YouTube or the other video‐sharing services: ⇒ Search for items matching your key words and phrases. ⇒ Watch the slide shows you find, and evaluate whether they’re suitable for sharing with your network. ⇒ Look for the embedding code for each slide show, and copy it. ⇒ Paste it into a Web page or blog.
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21. Articles In A Nutshell Write high-content articles in your area of expertise, and find other authors’ high-content articles in complementary areas of expertise.
As a general rule, I recommend you write your own articles, rather than using other people’s articles. After all, you’re supposed to be the expert in your field, so you should be publishing your own material. However, for your members‐only area, it’s useful to include relevant articles from other authors. Some authors place restrictions on the use of their articles – for example, you might only have permission to use the articles in free, not paid, products. So read their conditions of use carefully.
Articles on blogs, Web sites and e-mail newsletters Many Web sites, blogs and e‐mail newsletters contain articles you might be interested in sharing with your network. Some authors give you explicit permission to copy their article. For example, I do this for the articles at www.GihanPerera.com, with this “permission to reprint” notice at the bottom of every article:
114 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants If an author doesn’t give explicit permission, but you really like the article, write to them and ask for permission. Explain how you’re planning to use it, and you’ll happily credit them as the author. Alternatively, instead of copying the article, you can simply link to it on the Web. If it’s on a public Web page or blog anybody else can find as well, you don’t require the author’s permission to link to it. In fact, they will be happy for you to give them extra exposure this way.
Article directories There are also Web sites with collections of articles, designed specifically for sharing these articles. These are known as “article directories”, although you can think of them as “article sharing sites” if you prefer to keep the same theme we’ve been following with the video sharing sites. As with the video sharing sites, anybody can list their articles with these sites, and anybody else – including you! – can copy them. In return, you’re required to include a “resource box”, which is a brief paragraph or two crediting the author, promoting what they do, and (usually) including a link back to their Web site. Search “article directory” in Google and you’ll find the best article directories as sources for articles to offer in your members‐only area. A few of the most popular are: ⇒ www.ezinearticles.com ⇒ www.articledashboard.com ⇒ www.goarticles.com ⇒ www.ideamarketers.com
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22. E-Books and Special Reports In A Nutshell Write short, high-quality “how to” e-books and special reports for your clients. These can either be stand-alone products or products that supplement your presentations.
There are many e‐books and special reports available for redistribution on the Internet. However, I’ve discovered this area – more than any other – requires careful review and filtering. Some of the free e‐books have very little content, and are in fact nothing more than long sales letters disguised as “e‐books” or “special reports”. They don’t offer any real value, and will damage your credibility if you recommend them to your network. That said, there are some promotional e‐books that do have high content. So don’t discard an e‐book just because it heavily promotes the author or is packed with affiliate links. For example, I found a 28‐page special report about creating surveys. Three of the first four pages were purely self‐promotion. However, the rest of the report does have useful, valuable content. So I’m happy to offer this to my clients, but I always do so with the comment that they should ignore the hype at the start of the report.
Permission As usual, read the conditions of use carefully to see how you’re allowed to pass on the e‐book. This area is where you’ll probably find the widest variety of rules.
116 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants ⇒ Permission to re‐brand as your own: This is the best option, but it’s rare. It means you can copy the e‐book content and paste it into your own layout, with your own branding, own style, and even claim it as your own authorship. In effect, it’s like having a public domain document, though you might have to buy it first in order to get these rights. I don’t necessarily think it’s a good idea to publish it as if you wrote it yourself, unless you feel extremely comfortable with the material. I have re‐published some e‐books of this sort, and I include this text at the start which makes it clear it’s not my own writing:
⇒ Permission to reprint and redistribute: This means you have permission to pass it on to others, but you’re generally not allowed to edit it in any way. Some authors add extra conditions about how you’re allowed to distribute it – for example: − you must/mustn’t give it away free − you can/can’t include it in product bundles − you can/can’t include it in password‐protected areas − you can/can’t use it as a free bonus ⇒ Permission to pass on the redistribution rights: This is known as a “master reprint licence”, and means other people also have the same rights as you.
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Most e‐books or special reports don’t have any reprint permissions at all. You’re not allowed to pass them on to others, even if they were free to you. So, when you’re looking for e‐books and special reports you are allowed to share, always look for explicit permission to do so. Most authors who give reprint rights make a big deal of it, because it does add value to their product. So it shouldn’t be hard to find, even before you download or buy the e‐book itself. Let’s now look at three Web sites that give you free e‐books you’re allowed to freely distribute to others.
ChangeThis.com The Change This site www.ChangeThis.com is one of the best resources for high‐quality (that is, high content and high design quality) e‐books and special reports (They grandly call their products “manifestos”).
118 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants Many of the authors here have written full books, and use the report as a way of getting the word out about their book. There’s a significant approval process involved in publishing a report on the site, which weeds out the low‐quality material. So this is an excellent source of high‐quality reports to share with your network. The reports on the site are also formatted and laid out the same way. The site owners put a lot of effort into the design of the reports, and they look very professional. So you can also feel confident you’re sharing visually appealing material, not something that looks like a basic Microsoft Word document converted to PDF.
issuu.com and scribd.com The sites www.issuu.com and www.scribd.com are document sharing sites – think of them as “YouTube for e‐books”. Both are excellent sources for finding e‐books and special reports to share with your network.
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As with video‐sharing sites, anybody can upload documents to the sites, anybody else can view them, and anybody can embed these documents in their blogs or Web pages. The process for sharing the documents is the same as for YouTube or SlideShare. Broadly, you look for the “Embed” or “Share” code next to a document, and paste the code into your Web page or blog.
23. E-Mail Courses In A Nutshell Convert some of your material into follow-up courses which are delivered to audiences automatically after your presentations.
Many speakers are excited by the possibility of replacing their live presentations with e‐mail courses, delivered automatically to your participants. This is possible, but difficult. It’s easier to start by supplementing your presentations with e‐mail courses. You’re not trying to sell the e‐mail courses independently; you sell them as part of your presentation.
120 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants Matt Church (at www.MattChurch.com.au) did this by creating e‐ mail courses to sell as a follow‐up program to his keynote presentations. He negotiated an additional fee with each client, to give the audience a password for all the on‐line courses on his Web site. David Penglase (at www.DavidPenglase.com) does something similar, as I’ve mentioned already. In his case, because he’s working with smaller groups than a keynote audience, he negotiated a per‐person fee for the on‐line courses. The key benefit you’re offering clients is the course material being delivered automatically to each participant’s e‐mail in‐box. This means it’s delivered according a schedule (usually every week, every two weeks or every month), and doesn’t rely on them remembering to retrieve it. The e‐mail itself can of course link to other material, such as self‐assessment quizzes, audio clips, video clips and documents to download. You require special software – technically known as a “sequential auto‐responder” – to deliver your course material, because it needs to keep track of when participants first sign up to a course. Some speakers attempt to manage this manually, but this soon becomes unwieldy as your participant list grows.
For more about e‐mail courses, get the e‐book and audio program Keep the Learning Alive at my Web site www.GihanPerera.com. You’ll learn how to convert your presentation materials into e‐mail courses that deliver the same value.
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24. Self-Assessment Quizzes In A Nutshell Create multiple-choice, self-marking self-assessment quizzes so your clients can assess their current skills and knowledge.
One of the easiest ways to make your members‐only area more interactive is to provide simple multiple‐choice quizzes. You can use these as diagnostic tools before learning or assessment tools after learning. Broadly, there are two types of these quizzes: 1.
Correct answer: You show a number of answers for each question, with only one correct answer. This is commonly used for testing knowledge.
2.
Scale: Users answer each question on a scale – for example, 1‐ 10, or 0‐5. There is no right answer – merely a rating for each question.
These are similar, and the only real difference is in the way you specify the options for answering each question. For example, Ian Hutchinson www.mecentral.com uses the first type of quiz in a “How Well Do You Manage Your Cash Flow?” test:
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Leigh Farnell www.leighfarnell.com uses the other type of quiz for managers to assess their innovation culture:
These quizzes are different from the “feedback forms” or “surveys” you see on many Web sites, where the answers are e‐mailed to the
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Web site owner. In contrast, these quizzes must be self‐marking, so they don’t involve any effort at all from you. So you require software that calculates their score immediately and shows them the results. Some quiz software is more sophisticated, and might include these features: ⇒ You can choose what text to display for each answer. For example, if this is the correct answer, you might have some additional information as well. Or if itʹs an incorrect answer, you might provide a reason why itʹs incorrect or a hint to help them get the correct answer. ⇒ You can also display some text at the end of the quiz, depending on the personʹs score. This can be done by score ranges – for example, if they score from 1‐10, display certain text; if they score 11‐20, display other text; and so on. ⇒ The software compares the userʹs score with the average score of other people who have done that quiz, and shows a graph showing this comparison. ⇒ The software stores the quiz results on the site, so you can download them later into, say, Microsoft Excel, for further processing. These other features aren’t essential, but can make the quiz more attractive to you and your clients. Even by itself, a quiz can be quite useful to help your clients test their understanding. By combining it with other resources in your members‐only area, you can make it even more powerful. For example, each “module” of an e‐mail course can end with a self‐ assessment quiz to test the student’s understanding of the material.
124 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants 25. Resource Directory In A Nutshell Organise all these resources in a directory that’s easy to search and browse.
Your members‐only area might start as a single Web page, with links to the relevant resources. However, if \this keeps growing, it will soon become unwieldy to have all the resources listed on a single page. So you’ll require a way to organise all this material so it’s easy for your members to find the appropriate material. One way to manage this is to make your members‐only area a completely separate Web site, which requires a password for access. For example, Andrew May does this at his members‐only site www.pluggedinresource.com:
The main Web site is public, but as soon as you choose a link that leads to useful resources, the site asks the user for a password:
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Another option is to create a hierarchy of documents, which users can browse by clicking through headings and sub‐headings. For example, early versions of Yahoo.com organised the Web in this way:
You can do something similar, except it only includes the relevant resources you’ve collected, and it hides them behind a password. For example, the Thought Leaders site includes a document vault at www.thoughtleaderscentral.com for members:
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As the resource directory grows even more, you’ll start thinking about it as a product in its own right. That’s the time to consider building a membership site – as we’ll discuss in the next chapter.
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Recurring Income To recap: The key business platform is your network, and your key character trait is trust. Your Web site’s purpose now is loyalty – to ensure your subscribers remain members. For Recurring Income, we create a “membership site” rather than the “members‐only area” we discussed for Bundled Income. This is more than just changing the name; it’s also a shift in your thinking. You’re no longer dealing only with clients; you’re dealing with “members” (or “subscribers”, but I’ll use the term “member” here), who have a perceived value about their membership. They expect a better level of service, so be prepared to provide it to them. Most of your members will know you personally, because they come from your clients and audiences – as for Bundled Income. However, this isn’t always the case, and some members will find the membership site through other people. Again, this creates a different relationship between you and them. In particular, they will assess their membership based on the value you offer in the membership site, not on their relationship with you. Broadly, your membership site offers three things: 1.
Resources: The material that members download at their leisure. As with Bundled Income, this can be material you create yourself, or material you find elsewhere. An attraction of a membership site is that the owner sorts through the overwhelming amount of information available elsewhere and presents only what’s relevant.
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Community: A way for your members to interact with each other; for example, individual profiles, blogs, a chat room, and an on‐line forum.
3.
Access: Special access to you and other experts in your network via teleseminars, member‐only events, discounts on other events and SMS access.
One of the biggest advantages of a membership site is the recurring stream of income it generates for you. On the flip side, it commits you to providing value regularly. So be sure you’re ready to make that on‐going commitment.
Coming Up … I’ll now give you another 10 things to add to your Web site for Recurring Income: ⇒ Resources: Resource library, self‐paced learning, teleseminars and webinars ⇒ Access: Other experts ⇒ Community: Profiles, private mailing list ⇒ Management: Marketing partnerships, membership tracking, payment processing, outsourcing You might find at this stage that you no longer require the members‐only area you created for Bundled Income, because much of that material goes into your membership site. However, you might choose to keep it anyway, because it can still serve a useful purpose. For instance, you can still use it to deliver post‐ presentation material to audiences, even if they haven’t subscribed to your membership site.
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For more about membership sites, get the e‐book and audio Join the Club at my Web site www.GihanPerera.com. You’ll learn how to build an effective membership site and keep it running effectively.
26. Resource Library In A Nutshell Create a library of relevant resources for your members.
In the previous section about Bundled Income, we talked about creating a resource library for your clients. This extends that idea, with three significant differences: 1.
It must be stand‐alone material that’s complete in itself. So it’s no longer good enough to only provide follow‐up material to your presentations or coaching sessions.
2.
You’ll be expected to keep the resource library current, partly by constantly adding new material and partly by weeding out old, irrelevant material (for example, deleting links to Web sites that no longer exist).
3.
You’ll probably have a greater mix of other people’s material now. Your members value your ability to filter, sort and present other people’s material in a relevant and engaging way.
130 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants Here are some examples of the kind of material you can provide in your resource library: Self‐assessments, e‐books, audio programs, video tutorials, articles, links to Web sites, workbooks, templates, slide shows, on‐line tutorials and on‐line courses. As the resource library grows, it’s important to provide ways for your members to find information easily. Broadly, you can provide access in five ways: Browsing, tagging, searching, personalising and sharing. You don’t have to provide all five methods, and most membership sites don’t. But it’s worth knowing about them so you can plan for them in the future.
Browsing The simplest option is browsing, where you organise your material in a hierarchy of documents, which users can browse by clicking through headings and sub‐headings. We’ve seen this already in the section on Bundled Income, and I mentioned the Thought Leaders site, which has a membership site at thoughtleaderscentral.com, as an example:
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This organisational method has three advantages: 1.
It’s clear and neat, and easy for your members to understand.
2.
It’s useful for members who are browsing the library to see what’s available.
3.
It’s useful for members who only have a vague idea of their needs, and don’t know exactly what to search for.
However, it does have one major drawback, which is common to all filing systems: It relies on you and your members thinking the same way. Otherwise, they may waste a lot of time looking for something that is there, but in a different part of the library. A related drawback is that some items can reasonably belong in more than one place. For example, does an article “Personal Branding for Entrepreneurs” belong in the Entrepreneur section or the Branding section? The answer is, of course, both. This leads to the next option.
Tagging Because items in your document library can be classified in different ways, tagging allows you to put labels, or “tags”, on each. This makes it easy for your members to easily find all items with the same tag. This is common on Web 2.0 sites like YouTube, Flickr, Blogger and Wikipedia. You can do the same, choosing appropriate tags for each item. For example, on the Thought Leaders membership site mentioned earlier, items are tagged with the author’s name, the source and other relevant keywords. This makes it easy for members to quickly
132 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants find other items by the same author, from the same source, or on the same topic. Here’s an example:
Tagging helps to solve the problem of a single hierarchy. However, members are still restricted to finding material by the tags you’ve chosen for them.
Searching At some point, your resource library will grow to a point where browsing and tagging alone aren’t enough. The next option – and one I’m sure is familiar to you – is searching. This is the same concept as searching on Google, though of course you don’t require anything as powerful as Google’s search. A simple word search is usually sufficient, where the member types a word or phrase, and the resource library finds all matching documents. As an extra feature, it’s nice to allow members to search for recent additions to the library – for example, by letting them choose a time frame, like this:
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These first three options will cover most of your members’ needs for finding information. The next two options are icing on the cake for your members.
Personalising If your members use the resource library regularly – as you hope they will – it’s a nice touch to let them personalise the results. For example, you could: ⇒ Remember the most recent and most frequent pages they visit (like their Web browser’s history), to make it easy for them to find information again. ⇒ Let them choose how many search results they see per page. ⇒ Let them create a Bookmarks or Favorites list, just like their browser does. These are advanced features, and not necessary for an effective membership site. However, they do provide that added personal touch that makes life easier for your members. You can also provide many of these features using the same system as the next option.
Sharing Finally, you can allow your members to share their search experiences with other members. For example, Amazon.com pioneered this idea with the “People who bought this book also bought …” service, which helped readers find other books on related topics. The beauty of this system is it’s self‐organising. You don’t have to create all the links between related products; and your members
134 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants don’t have to do this either. They simply share their preferences with others, and the system facilitates the sharing. Although this might sound difficult to do, you can use third‐party services to do most of the work for you. For example, Digg.com and Clipmarks.com are both widely‐used “bookmarking” services that help users share their favourite on‐line places. Rather than re‐ inventing the wheel, you could teach your members how to use these services for your resource library. One word of caution, though: If you do use these services, be sure your password protection system is robust. Your members will be exposing your membership site to the world, so be sure only registered members can get access to the protected material.
27. Self-Paced Learning In A Nutshell Create ways for members to enrol in on-line training courses on demand.
Although I’ve mentioned e‐mail courses already, I want to highlight them here, because they could become a significant part of your membership offering. In the Bundled Income section, we talked about an e‐mail course as a way to complement, supplement and reinforce your live presentations and sessions. Now consider it as a way to completely replace the live version. You re‐package the content of your live events into electronic form, and bundle it together into a coherent
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learning experience. The package might be a mix of articles, worksheets, self‐assessment quizzes, audio clips, e‐mail courses, video tutorials and more. You then make it available in your membership site, and allow members to enroll in it at any time. It does take some skill to re‐package content for on‐line learning, especially if you’re a keynote speaker, because so much of the value you offer is based on a live experience. It’s also unlikely a conference organiser will subscribe their delegates to your membership site in place of a presentation slot! However, even in this case, you can focus on the lessons in your keynote presentation, and then create supporting material to put them into practice. Of course, you need to think carefully about taking this step into on‐line learning, because it might harm your live events. However, despite this potential drawback, it could have significant benefits: ⇒ It opens up new geographical markets, for people who are too far away to attend your live events. ⇒ It opens up new economic markets, for people who can’t afford to attend the live events. ⇒ It could salvage a relationship with a client who’s feeling the pinch and is cutting costs. ⇒ Even if it does adversely affect income from live events, you’re turning one‐off income into Recurring Income, which could be a good long‐term strategy. Finally, keep in mind the world is a much smaller place, and somebody somewhere else is probably planning this or doing it already. So ignoring or deferring this opportunity might be dangerous to your long‐term future. That said, in my experience, many speakers, coaches, trainers are too eager to convert their live presentations into on‐line training.
136 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants The reason this is a mistake is because it’s difficult to sell anything on‐line. If you’re keen to pursue this option of on‐line training, it’s far easier to start by offering it to your members instead. It’s free (or at least, it’s included in their membership), so it’s an easy “sell”; it’s an added service to your members; and you test and refine it in a trusted environment.
For more about e‐mail courses, get the e‐book and audio program Keep the Learning Alive at my Web site www.GihanPerera.com. You’ll learn how to convert your presentation materials into e‐mail courses.
28. Teleseminars and Webinars In A Nutshell Create regular “live” educational programs to give members additional value.
Although a membership site has many advantages, one of its drawbacks is it creates distance between you and your members. This is especially a problem if many of your members came from your clients and audiences, who valued the experience of you, not just your material.
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One way to resolve this problem is to give them access to you again, in the form of teleseminars and webinars. They’re inexpensive, convenient, efficient, high value to your audience, and they re‐ connect you with your members. A teleseminar is simply a telephone conference call, where you and the participants all dial a common telephone number, and you conduct your seminar over the phone. There are no visual aids, though of course you can – and usually will – send them a handout, workbook or slide presentation in advance. A webinar is similar, except your participants also have access to a Web page where they can watch your presentation slides while listening to the call. Some webinar services include advanced features, such as a virtual whiteboard, a chat facility for Q&A, interactive polling during your presentation, and even the audience viewing selected windows on your computer (so you can demonstrate things in action). For convenience, I’ll use the term “teleseminar” here to cover both teleseminars and webinars. A third option is a video conference, which – as the name implies – includes video as well (not just your slide presentation, but live video of you on their computer screen). Although this is notionally better than just audio, in practice it’s more expensive, more complex to set up, and might not add any real value to your audience. So we’re not going to discuss this any further here.
Why now? Teleseminars aren’t new, but they have recently become more attractive, for three reasons:
138 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants 1.
Teleseminar services are inexpensive and easy to use. That wasn’t always the case, but it’s certainly true now.
2.
Long‐distance phone calls are cheap. They’re even cheaper if your audience uses phone cards, Skype, or other VOIP services. Even if they don’t understand what that means and just use their standard telephone line, it’s easy to get a cheap long‐distance telephone plan nowadays.
3.
People are more comfortable with them. It doesn’t take much for somebody to participate in a teleseminar – all they do is dial a telephone number or visit a Web site. But some people still have a fear of them, simply because they’re novel. Fortunately, this perception is changing, as teleseminars become more common.
Conducting a teleseminar If you’re new to this technology, start by participating in some teleseminars as an audience member. Discover for yourself what it’s like to listen, then to ask questions. You’ll learn a lot just by that experience alone. When it comes to designing your own program, forget you’re doing a teleseminar, and design it just like any other program. There’s nothing magical about the teleseminar format. You don’t have to design the program differently just because you’re doing it as a teleseminar (Well, this is not strictly true. There are some things you can do to make best use of the teleseminar format. But they are minor details, not major structural design issues). The fact is, whatever type of program you deliver now, you can probably adapt it to the teleseminar format. For example: ⇒ If you give keynote presentations, design your teleseminar as a keynote‐style presentation, with the aim of changing their
Recurring Income 139 attitudes or shifting their beliefs. It will probably run for 45‐60 minutes, with you doing most of the talking, and perhaps a brief Q&A session towards the end.
⇒ If you offer your teleseminar as a training session, you’ll be teaching them skills. It might be about an hour long, with a handout they download in advance, exercises they complete during the session. You’ll still do most of the talking, but you might have more than one break for them to ask you questions, and you’ll allow more time for questions.
⇒ If you run a teleseminar as a group coaching session, you’ll be asking lots of questions and giving the audience more time to answer them.
⇒ Similar, if you do facilitation by teleseminar, you’ll set the scene, and then open the line for the audience to do most of the talking (with your guidance, of course).
140 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants ⇒ If you’re conducting mentoring sessions by teleseminar, you’ll combine the training and coaching modes – that is, a mix of teaching and asking, with some time for you to speak and some time for them to interact with you and with each other. ⇒ If you’re using teleseminars to conduct interviews, treat this like a one‐on‐one facilitation, where you and a guest do most of the talking, and your audience listens silently. There’s more to it than the brief overview I’ve given here. But I hope it helps you to put teleseminars in perspective.
For more about teleseminars, get the e‐book and audio Tell the World at my Web site www.GihanPerera.com. You’ll learn how to plan, deliver and promote teleseminars effectively.
29. Other Experts In A Nutshell Give your members access to other experts you know and trust.
As much as your members value your expertise, they also value your ability to give them access to other experts. Don’t underestimate this feature – for some people, it might be the most important part of their membership.
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This is where you tap into your own network of colleagues and clients (sometimes called “your million dollar Rolodex”) to find suitable people to introduce to your member community. The easiest way to involve them is to interview them for a teleseminar or for a recorded audio program. Look for experts in these broad areas: ⇒ Niche experts: You’re the expert in the broad area, but these experts have skills in a narrower field. For example, if you teach sales skills, you might bring in experts on relationship selling (a topic niche), selling to professional service firms (a market niche), selling to Generation Y (a demographic niche), or selling in China (a geographical niche). ⇒ Strategic experts: This is the opposite, where you’re the niche expert and they have broader expertise. ⇒ Complementary experts: These people operate in a related field of expertise. For example, if you teach sales skills, you might bring in experts on negotiation, key account management and supply chain logistics. ⇒ Member Needs experts: These experts might have nothing at all to do with your topic area, but they fit other areas of your members’ lives. For example, in December or January, you might bring in an expert on goal setting and strategic planning; or if there’s an economic downturn, you might bring in an expert on financial planning. ⇒ Celebrities: If you have access to celebrities, media personalities or other public figures, it could be worth bringing them to your clients. Sometimes it’s not even necessary to create a link between them and your area of expertise – it’s enough they are a celebrity. ⇒ Clients: Finally, if you have clients who have successfully implemented your ideas and strategies, interview them as a
142 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants case study for your members. Often, they will be happy to share their experiences with others, simply for the opportunity to help other people.
Making it worth their while If your guest experts serve the same market as you, there’s an obvious advantage to them when you expose them to your members. This might be sufficient motivation for them to take part. However, this isn’t always the case, and you might like to invite experts who don’t have anything to gain from their participation. In this case, of course it’s fair to give them something in return. Sometimes this might have to be money, but often they will be happy with payment in other ways. For example: ⇒ For people who don’t operate a business themselves, it can be exciting and rewarding to be treated as an expert. So if you’re recording an interview, create some CDs for them to give to family and friends. ⇒ For those who do operate a business and can use the recording for their own promotion, give them a master copy of the recording and the rights to create as many copies as they wish. ⇒ Some people will be happy with a gift or gift voucher. ⇒ Some will do it without expecting anything in return, simply as part of their relationship with you. If you do give your experts the right to distribute the recording themselves, don’t worry too much about what price they will charge and who they will reach. It’s unlikely they will overlap much with your market, so just let them use it as they wish.
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30. Member Profiles In A Nutshell Allow members to create their own profiles, promote themselves and interact with each other – like a private version of Facebook.
When I first started using the Internet in 1988, we didn’t have membership sites, but we did have on‐line communities in the form of mailing lists and discussion forums. As a member of those communities, we had very limited ability to position ourselves. It was nothing more than a name, e‐mail address and perhaps a three‐ line “signature” (There was no Web at the time, so even the signature couldn’t include a link to more information). It’s different now. Sites like Facebook and Myspace have introduced Internet users to the idea of creating a full‐page profile – sometimes even more than a full page. Many membership sites and on‐line communities have followed suit. Not all of them provide this service, but if your software platform does allow it, I highly recommend you enable this feature and encourage members to use it. This is their “home” in the community, so it gives them a greater sense of belonging, and hence a greater commitment to it. Allow them to add photos, post videos, link to their Web site and blog, give away reports and e‐books, and even promote themselves as loudly as they wish. Some membership site software even allows members to personalise the look and feel of their profile page. They can change
144 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants the colour scheme, move elements around on the page, and even add interesting “widgets” (for example, quotations, cartoons, jokes and news feeds) to show off their personality. Unless there’s a good reason to block these features (if, for example, your members are corporate employees whose employers don’t want this customisation), allow as much as possible. Give your members the chance to express themselves, and they’re more likely to remain loyal. Of course, some markets lend themselves more to this than others. If your members are business owners, who understand the importance of positioning, branding and self‐promotion, they are more likely to use their profile actively. For example, here’s a snapshot showing photos of the 16 most recent members of one membership site I manage – this is a group of entrepreneurs:
As you can see, almost all of them have included a photograph on their profile – and in many cases, they have paid for professional
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photographs. Only two haven’t included photos – the two near the top left, who just have a placeholder. In contrast, here’s the same snapshot view of another community I manage – this time of public service employees, who have far less need to promote themselves:
However, although these members haven’t published their photos, they are far more active within the community, connecting with each other, asking questions and engaging in discussions. In contrast, members of the first community position themselves more strongly when they first join, but don’t use the community as actively afterwards. Every community is different! So don’t expect your members to jump in and fill their profile pages with relevant, engaging information. They’ll do it if it matters to them; otherwise they won’t.
146 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants That said, of course it helps if you encourage them to do so – and perhaps even give them instructions and some examples to follow.
31. Private Mailing List In A Nutshell Publish a private newsletter for members, giving them access to exclusive resources and special offers.
Use a special e‐mail newsletter to keep in touch regularly with your members, so they continue to know what value you’re offering them in the membership site. Here are some of the things you might include in it: ⇒ Latest additions to the resource library; ⇒ Special offers and discounts to your products and services; ⇒ Advance notice of events; ⇒ Summary of questions, answers and discussions from members in the community (This is particularly useful for helping to build momentum within the community); ⇒ Special features about members – for example, congratulating a member for an award; This is a private list, exclusively for your members. So ensure they know it’s not for them to forward to others. For example, here is the text I include at the end of each member newsletter:
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There’s not much more I can say about this newsletter, except to urge you to publish it regularly. It does mean more work, especially if you’re already publishing a public newsletter as well. However, your members are among the most valuable people in your database, so treat them well and keep in touch regularly.
32. Marketing Partnerships In A Nutshell Create affiliate agreements with key people who have access to potential members, and pay them a commission for successful referrals.
Start your membership list by promoting it to people you already know – particularly your clients. This gives you the opportunity to test, experiment and adapt the site with a small, trusted group of people. When the process is running smoothly, start promoting it to wider networks, so you attract members who haven’t heard of you before.
148 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants You might be tempted to do this by advertising it as widely as possible – for example, in search engines, other people’s newsletters, and even in print. However, that’s probably too big a jump at this stage. It’s expensive, time‐consuming, and probably won’t give you a high return on investment. Instead, start by inviting a few trusted people to promote your membership site to their network. In return, you offer them a commission on successful referrals. To make it as attractive as possible, offer them an on‐going commission (for example, 50% of the member’s subscription fee, for the life of their membership). In Internet marketing jargon, this is known as conducting an “affiliate program”. The people who refer business to you are your “affiliates”, and you are the “merchant”. Affiliate programs are widely used by successful Internet marketers, and we’ll discuss them in more detail in the Passive Income chapter. However, I’m not suggesting you use a sophisticated affiliate marketing system here. Instead, start slowly, inviting a handful of people to be your affiliates. Don’t even use the term “affiliate” when dealing with them – ask them to “partner” with you, or just “refer” people to you.
Choosing partners Broadly, you’re looking for key centres of influence with access to your target market. More specifically, look for people who: ⇒ Have access to the right target market for your membership site; ⇒ You know and trust, so you can discuss a simple, informal arrangement for bringing you members;
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⇒ Know and trust you, and are willing to recommend you to their database – not just for the financial incentive, but because they genuinely believe in the value you offer; ⇒ Also understand the financial incentive, and value the opportunity to create a new income stream for themselves.
Operating the process At this stage, you don’t need a formal affiliate program or any sort of affiliate software to track the referrals. Because you’re starting this on a small scale, it’s sufficient to just ask each new member how they found the site, and keep track of the referrals that way. Similarly, you’ll come to mutually agreeable payment terms with each partner. For example, one might like to be paid each month by direct deposit; another could take money into their PayPal account whenever their commission reaches a certain amount; another might ask for their commission to be sent to their favourite charity instead. Be flexible. Although it takes extra work to manage different types of payment, it’s worth the effort in the early days.
For more about affiliate partnerships, get the e‐book and audio program Reach New Markets at my Web site www.GihanPerera.com. You’ll learn how to get started with affiliate programs effectively, without getting bogged down in the details.
150 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants 33. Membership Tracking In A Nutshell Devise a system for managing the membership list – sending renewal notices, following up late payments, cancelling unpaid subscriptions, and so on.
New members can join your membership program at any time, which leads to some logistical issues. For example: ⇒ Will you charge a subscription monthly, annually or at some other interval? ⇒ Whatever interval you choose, what’s your policy for people who join during that interval? Do you charge them a pro rata rate, or give them free access until the end of the interval? ⇒ If a member cancels, do you offer a pro rata refund? The common policy seems to be yes if it’s an annual subscription, no if it’s a monthly subscription. ⇒ If somebody doesn’t renew on time, how much grace do you give them before removing them from the system? ⇒ If their renewal doesn’t work (for example, if their credit card payment fails), how much grace do you give them? ⇒ Do they have to renew their membership manually, or is it processed automatically for them? Most monthly subscriptions are automatic, while most annual subscriptions are manual. ⇒ If they do have to renew it manually, when will you send renewal notices?
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Initially, when you only have a small number of members, you can keep track of all this information in, say, an Excel spreadsheet. However, as the list grows, you’ll want to move to a more automated system. For example, aMember Pro at www.amember.com is a widely‐used membership management system that operates entirely from your Web site, and works with most of the common Internet payment systems.
34. Payment Processing System In A Nutshell Have a way of taking their money and having it arrive in your bank account automatically.
In the previous sections on Active Income and Bundled Income, I haven’t paid much attention to your shopping cart or payment system. In fact, I’ve explicitly said it’s not important until now, because you won’t be taking many – if any – orders directly from your Web site. That’s no longer the case. Although you might still not initiate many orders directly from your Web site, you’ll still need some way to process your subscription payments automatically.
Direct deposit If you can convince all your members to pay you by direct deposit into your bank account, this solves the problem entirely, because
152 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants the money appears directly in your bank account and their bank takes care of the regular payment schedule. However, this isn’t always feasible or practical. Some members won’t have access to this facility through their bank, those in foreign countries might not be able to pay into your bank, and others won’t want to do it this way anyway. So you do require some other payment processing system as well.
Direct debit Another option is for you to create a direct debit system with your bank, where each member signs a Direct Debit Authority giving you permission to withdraw regular subscription payments from their bank account. This gives you control over the payments, so you don’t have to rely on your members correctly setting up the automatic payment with their bank. However, banks don’t hand out these direct debit facilities easily, even if you’ve been a long‐term customer of the bank. In Australia, an alternative is to use www.stratapay.com.au, a third‐party service that allows you to piggy‐back onto their direct debit facility.
PayPal Another option is PayPal, at www.paypal.com, which has a Subscription Payment facility that allows you to create a recurring payment schedule for customers. The customer gives their credit card details to PayPal, which automatically charges them every month (or at whatever interval you choose). If a payment fails (for example, a credit card transaction fails), PayPal sends reminder notices to the customer and tries the
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payment again a number of times (You can control how often and how many times). For customers who pay by credit card, PayPal is a simple, reliable option for processing their subscription payments.
Payment gateway The final option is to use a payment gateway, which processes credit card transactions over the Internet. You create a merchant facility with your bank, which allows you to take credit card payments (you might have this already if you’re already taking other payments by credit card), and the payment gateway links this to your Web site. Some banks provide the gateway facility themselves, so you don’t need a third party. This does require some technical expertise, and it’s important to choose something compatible with your Web site and your bank. So discuss this with your Web designer before signing up with a particular gateway.
35. Outsourcing In A Nutshell Create a system for managing and administering the membership site, so you can delegate it to other people.
Remember the key character trait for Recurring Income is trust. Part of that means trusting other people to manage and administer your
154 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants membership site. This is essential if you expect it to keep growing; otherwise it will always be limited by you. The Internet makes it so much easier for you to delegate and out‐ source work to people all around the world, sometimes for ridiculously low rates because of exchange rates. However, this is not just about cost; it’s also about parcelling out the work to people who are skilled at doing it – and enjoy doing it.
What you can outsource Many speakers think only about outsourcing process‐oriented secretarial or administration tasks, like billing, following up late payments, transcribing recordings and managing subscriptions. However, you can even find the right people to do more “intelligent” things, such as: ⇒ Converting transcripts into e‐books, articles and blog posts; ⇒ Finding relevant Web sites, podcasts, articles, e‐books, slide shows, videos and other material for your resource library. ⇒ Sending invitations to teleseminars, webinars and other events; and managing the questions you get before and after the event; ⇒ Designing e‐book covers; ⇒ Alerting you to interesting or controversial discussions in the community forums and blogs.
How to outsource You can find individual outsourcing companies on‐line, but an easier way to get started is with an outsourcing community site like Elance (www.elance.com), Guru (www.guru.com) or Rent‐a‐Coder (www.rentacoder.com). These sites give you the opportunity to compare and select from many providers. After you find reliable
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providers for certain tasks, you’ll want to work with them directly. But to find them initially, it’s useful to start with these communities. I’ll talk about Elance here; the others are similar. Broadly, it works like this: ⇒ You advertise your job requirements on Elance; ⇒ A number of providers bid on your project; ⇒ You choose one of the providers; ⇒ They complete the project for you, and you pay them the agreed amount. The whole process is easy and cost‐effective. You don’t have to pay for advertising your project, and you only pay the agreed price. Elance gets its money by taking a commission from the seller. You’re also not obliged to accept any of the bids you receive. If none of them seem suitable, simply ignore them all. Of course, another option is to outsource your work to somebody local. There are pros and cons to this approach. First, here are some of the benefits of Elance over a local provider: ⇒ Price: You can often get work done for a fraction of the price of local providers. This doesn’t mean you have to deal with amateurs, either; many of the Elance sellers run professional businesses. ⇒ Skills: Elance providers come from all over the world, so you have a better chance of finding people with the specific skills you require.
156 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants ⇒ Range: You’ll often get a range of providers bidding on your job, and you can choose the provider that most closely matches what you require. ⇒ Speed: If your local provider is unavailable or has a long waiting list, it’s sometimes quicker to find somebody on Elance to do a particular project. On the other hand, there might be reasons why you would choose a local provider instead, such as: ⇒ Reputation: If you’ve worked with somebody before, it might be risky to switch to an Elance provider, especially if they are on the other side of the world. ⇒ Convenience: Some jobs might require you to work with your provider face to face; most Elance providers deal with you by e‐ mail. Similarly, if you choose an Elance provider in a different time zone, it might be less convenient to work with them. ⇒ Speed: In my experience, some Elance providers don’t keep to deadlines. This can be true of other providers as well, of course, but it can be harder to “put the squeeze” on an Elance provider on the other side of the world. ⇒ Language: Elance providers are all around the world, so you have to be careful whom you choose for certain projects. For example, if they are writing content, make sure they have good written English skills.
Getting started If outsourcing is new to you, you might feel a bit nervous about it, and that’s natural. Start with something small and safe, not something big, complex and with a tight deadline.
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Write a full description of your project, giving all the information providers will require to make a reasonable bid. In general, the more information you can provide the better; that way, they don’t have to pad their fee to cover for contingencies. If possible, give them samples of similar work, so they know your standards and expectations. For example, here’s the start of a description for a recent research project I commissioned on Elance:
Decide on a reasonable budget (if you’re not sure, search Elance for similar projects), and specify this when you submit your project. If it’s too low, you’ll only get low‐quality providers; if it’s too high, you could waste money because providers tend to bid close to your budget amount. However, it’s usually better to err on the side of bidding high, so you attract higher‐quality bids and more reliable providers.
Choosing a bidder After you post your project on Elance, you’ll receive a number of bids – usually a big rush within 24‐48 hours, and then a few others trickle in later. Now it’s up to you to choose a bidder. Don’t just choose the cheapest bidder. Look for other criteria, such as the following:
158 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants ⇒ Check they’re responding specifically and individually to your project, not just pasting a standard generic response. If they can’t even be bothered putting some effort into the bid, it doesn’t say much about their work ethic. ⇒ Look at the number of projects they’ve done to assess their experience, reliability and commitment. ⇒ Read the feedback other buyers have left for them. If they get a lot of positive feedback from other buyers, that’s a very strong sign in their favour. Unhappy customers don’t hold back when venting their frustration on Elance! ⇒ Look for samples of similar work they’ve done. If they’re smart, they’ll attach the most relevant examples to their bid itself. If they haven’t, look at their portfolio page for samples. ⇒ If relevant, consider distance issues, such as country, time zone and English language skills. Finally, sometimes it’s appropriate to ignore these guidelines and trust your instinct. For instance, I’ve taken a chance on new providers who don’t have a long history on Elance and hence can’t show me testimonials or positive feedback. After all, somebody has to give them their first job, and it might as well be me. However, I’ll only do this for small, easily‐defined, non‐critical jobs.
Keeping track Set intermediate deadlines with specific deliverables and progress payments, especially if it’s the first time you’re working with a provider. This is not only for you to keep an eye on them; it’s also an opportunity for them to ask for feedback as early as possible. If they do ask questions, give them priority, even when you’re busy. You’re probably not their only client, so if you delay your
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response, it could mess up their entire schedule, which could force an even bigger delay. If things seem to be going off track, raise the issue sooner rather than later. Be polite but assertive, and take responsibility for your feelings. If you’re feeling concerned or worried, say so. It’s far better to say, “I’m a bit worried because I haven’t heard from you in three days. Is everything OK? Is there anything I can do to help? Just drop me a line to reassure me we’re still going to be fine for the Friday deadline” than, “What’s going on??? I haven’t heard from you for 3 days. This is totally unprofessional!!! Answer me immediately or I’ll cancel the project and complain to Elance!” Now of course you wouldn’t write something like that, would you? Yet I’m constantly surprised by the things some people write in e‐ mail – things they would never say face to face. So just be careful; it can be the difference between a working relationship and a broken relationship. That said, if a provider is consistently failing to meet agreed requirements, it is appropriate to tackle that issue directly. Don’t wait in silence, hoping things will correct themselves. There might be a real problem at their end, so you need to know this as soon as possible – even if it means jettisoning this provider and finding somebody else at short notice. Of course, you can withhold payments for incomplete or shoddy work. But before it gets to that stage, warn them they are jeopardising the chances of a high feedback rating. This rating is important to their chances of getting future work, so it’s very valuable to them. I’ve never had to do this myself, but I’ve heard from other Elance buyers that this is the best way to bring providers back on track.
160 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants Completing the project Outsourcing is a two‐way street, so build a reputation as a good customer. It not only helps you get more work with that provider, but they’ll give you public praise that influences other providers as well. Most importantly, if you’re outsourcing any work on your membership site, you’ll probably be working consistently with this same provider. So ensure you do have a positive working relationship with them, because it will affect what your members see. So pay promptly. Thank them for doing a good job. Leave them positive feedback (Go wild and rave about them if appropriate). And give them more work soon!
For more about free e‐books and special reports, get the e‐book Outsourcing Your Jobs at my Web site www.GihanPerera.com. You’ll learn how to work with Elance providers to outsource a range of jobs.
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Passive Income Now it’s time to turn our attention to Passive Income. I suspect some people will have jumped directly to this section without reading the rest of this book. If that’s you, fair enough – but I do think you’ll get much more value from it if you read and understand Part One of this book first. But in case you’d like a reminder, here’s a quick summary of what I mean by Passive Income. In this context, Passive Income means income you generate without physically turning up to do your stuff. It’s not about making money in your sleep; it’s about making money without having to “perform”. And it’s not about turning up once and signing up people to a subscription program. That’s what I call Recurring Income, which we’ve just covered in the previous chapter. To generate Passive Income on the Internet, understand it’s a totally different set of skills than those for running a successful speaking business. The fact you’ve got unique expertise that can easily be turned into information products to sell on‐line isn’t an advantage. In fact, it could be a distinct drawback, because it can blind you to what the market actually wants. The key business platform for Passive Income is marketing. You’ve got to sell even if you aren’t physically in front of your prospect; and you’ve got to sell products, not just yourself. The key character trait for Passive Income is commitment. If you don’t have that commitment, it’s too easy to get disheartened and
162 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants disillusioned, and you fall back on to other sources of income that are easier to create. To generate Passive Income, the primary purpose of your Web site is to generate sales (finally!). Broadly, you now focus on these areas: 1.
Conversion: Measuring, monitoring and managing your on‐line sales process to turn site visitors into paying customers.
2.
Distribution: Promoting your Web site to strangers on the Internet. This is often known as “getting more Web traffic”.
3.
Automation: Ensuring the entire sales process – from enquiry, order, transaction and fulfillment – happens without your involvement.
Many people think about distribution before conversion – they focus on getting more visitors to their Web site rather than turning more visitors into paying customers. But for most Web sites, it’s easier, cheaper and more profitable to increase your conversion rate than your traffic. It’s absolutely true if you get more traffic, chances are you’ll make more sales. But it’s also true if you were able to improve the conversion rate of the people you’re already getting, then you’ll also make more sales. Often, the latter process is easier, faster and cheaper. This is important, so let’s look at them in more detail, and I’ll then tell you the 15 things for Passive Income.
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Conversion In general, conversion rates on most Web sites are very low, so it doesn’t take much of an improvement to make a big difference. For example, the Internet marketing experts consider themselves very good if they get a 1% conversion rate (Which means of every 100 people who come to the site, one person buys). If they get 2% then they’re extremely good, and if they get 5% they’re pretty much at the top of the Internet marketing field. So don’t be disheartened if you’re not getting many sales, when you consider even the experts are getting about one in every 100 to convert. The positive thing, of course, is 99 people out of 100 are not buying every time they visit your site. If you can reduce that to just 98, you just doubled your conversion rate, which means you’ve doubled your sales, you’ve doubled your profits, you’ve doubled everything. So if at the moment you’re not getting a lot of sales that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It could be the perfect opportunity! Soon we’ll look at six ways to increase the conversion rate on your Web site.
Distribution Now let’s turn our attention to getting more people to the site – known as improving your “Web site traffic”. It’s important to understand this process has changed recently, particularly with the Web 2.0 shift. Prior to this, the best way to get traffic was through advertising – in Google’s free listings, in Google’s paid advertising program, through links from other people’s newsletters, through links from other Web sites, and so on.
164 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants That’s no longer the case. Advertising still works, but it’s not as important as before. Until recently, when somebody wanted to find out about you, they would go to your Web site. But now they don’t have the time to do that. Now you have to convince people you’re an expert before they ever visit your Web site. You do this by blogging. And podcasting. And participating in forums. And updating pages on Wikipedia. And putting video clips on YouTube. And commenting on other people’s YouTube videos. And writing an e‐book you freely pass on to others. And publishing an e‐mail newsletter. And writing articles and submitting them to article directories. In other words, the key skill – even for generating Passive Income – is participation. It’s no longer enough to build a tiny little Web site in one corner of the Web and hope people will come streaming by. Don’t be an on‐line hermit – it doesn’t work any more.
Coming Up … Now let’s look at the 15 things you do on your Web site for Passive Income: ⇒ Conversion techniques: Content plus sales, strong sales letters, shopping cart, separate Web sites, analytics, split testing ⇒ Distributing your expertise: Article marketing, forum participation, social networking, affiliate program, viral marketing, communication platforms ⇒ Distribution using search engines: Search engine optimisation, pay‐per‐click advertising ⇒ Administration: Delegating your marketing
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36. Sales Links In A Nutshell Connect each piece of public content on your site to a related product for sale. This applies to articles, blog postings, e-mail newsletter, free e-books, and the like.
The first conversion idea is by no means at the top of most marketers’ lists, but it’s easy for speakers with an established on‐ line presence to do. The principle is simple: Sell more often. In practice, this means turning every piece of content you publish into a marketing tool for you. Of course, every piece of content is already a marketing tool, because it helps establish your credibility and authority. But that’s helping you with Active Income, not Passive Income. I’m now suggesting you explicitly add links to your products. Here’s an example of one of my blog posts which provides information and then links to a product sales page:
166 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants Here are some places for adding promotional links: ⇒ Every article you’ve published on your Web site should end with a link to a relevant product people can buy. ⇒ Every blog post should include a link to a product page on your site. ⇒ Every time you write an article in an e‐mail newsletter, it could end with a link to a relevant product that provides more information. ⇒ Every time you reply to an e‐mail message answering somebody’s question, add a little paragraph with a link selling them something. I’ve suggested you do this for every piece of content. Of course, I know you’ll take this advice with a grain of salt, and know I don’t mean this for literally everything. For instance, if a conference organiser contacts you about a $5,000 speaking engagement, you might decide to focus on that rather than promoting your $50 e‐ book! So please apply this principle appropriately. But now you’re thinking about Passive Income, keep this at the front of your mind every time you produce some new content.
37. Strong Sales Letters In A Nutshell Write a strong benefit-oriented direct-marketing style of sales letter for each product.
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There are many excellent books about writing strong compelling sales copy, particularly copy that works well on‐line. I’m not going to cover this in detail here, but I will teach you some principles that apply to all your copywriting. Broadly, when somebody visits your Web site, they are asking three key questions: ⇒ “Why this?” What are the benefits of what you’re offering? ⇒ “Why you?” What authority do you have to say it? ⇒ “Why now?” What is the urgency to take action now? Your job is to answer all three questions. Let’s look at some specific techniques you can use for answering each of those three questions on your Web site.
Why this? Benefits Make sure the words you use on your Web site are benefit‐oriented rather than feature‐oriented. Instead of telling your potential clients what your product can do (features), tell them what it can do for them (benefits). Describe the product in terms of the result it offers rather than the product itself. Entire books have been written about converting features to benefits. However, there are three phrases that can help you do this quickly and easily: “because”, “so that” and “which means that”. List all the features of your product, and then for each, add these words and complete the sentence with a benefit. For example, if you’re selling a DVD home study course, you could say any of the following:
168 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants ⇒ “This course is available on DVD, because we know you’ll want to watch it over and over again.” ⇒ “This course is available on DVD, so that you can watch it over and over again.” ⇒ “This course is available on DVD, which means that you can watch it over and over again.” All three phrases mean the same thing. Sometimes one is more readable than the other two, and it’s a good idea to mix them up in your sales copy.
Why This? Contrast Where possible, compare the cost of your product or service with something more expensive. For example, if you sell the video or audio recording of your seminars, compare the cost of that product with the price that people paid to attend the seminar in person. Or, if you’re selling any sort of information product, compare that with the cost of somebody learning that information for themselves. When selling a high‐ticket item, you can invoke the contrast principle by breaking the price down into a number that’s easy for customers to understand – for example, “Less than the price of a cup of coffee each day”.
Why This? Social proof People don’t make decisions in isolation. They rely on external cues to guide them in their actions, and one of the most powerful cues is the action of other people around them. Visiting a Web site is a lonely experience. Your site visitor is probably sitting alone at a computer, wondering whether to
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continue on your Web site or not, and has to make that decision alone. It’s up to you to provide the social proof that guides them. The most common option is to do exactly what the movie theatres, detergent companies and car salespeople do: Put verifiable testimonials from past clients on your site. This gives your site visitor “proof” the product worked for other people. A testimonial on a Web site doesn’t have to be just text, either. It can be an audio clip, an audio clip with a still photograph, or even a short video clip. We’ve talked about testimonials in detail in the Active Income chapter, so refer to that for more information.
Why This? Authority People are influenced by people with perceived authority. Sometimes it’s the position (President, Pope or prominent sportsperson), sometimes it’s the uniform (a police uniform, a construction worker’s overalls, or even a business suit), sometimes it’s the title (Doctor, Professor or Judge) and sometimes it’s their general prestige and reputation in their community. If possible, find well‐known and well‐respected people among your clients, and include their testimonials on your Web site. This is different from the “social proof” testimonials, where you’re looking for people who are similar to your new site visitors. When playing the authority card, you’re looking for people who are authorities because they are different from the average client. If you don’t have testimonials or reviews for your product or from your own clients, look for reviews or testimonials that endorse the general product category. For example, if you’re selling a fitness
170 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants program, quote experts who talk about the benefits of better health in general.
Why This? Simplicity We live in a complicated world, so if you can simplify it for your clients, they are more likely to buy from you. Emphasise how your product or service will make their life easier and simpler. This also applies to your copywriting itself: Simple writing sells more. Use these principles to simplify the writing on your Web site: ⇒ Break up your text into chunks using sub‐headings, short paragraphs and bullet lists. ⇒ Make each paragraph about one idea only, and summarise that idea in the first sentence of that paragraph. ⇒ Use short sentences. ⇒ Use small words instead of technical jargon. ⇒ Simplify “space filler” phrases – for example, “in the event that” becomes “if”.
Why you? Liking Study after study has shown people are influenced by people they like. You’re more likely to believe something said by somebody from the political party you support than the same statement from an opposition party. You’re more likely to believe friends than strangers. You’re more likely to believe people who are like you than those who are different. How do you get your Web site visitors to like you? One obvious way is to give them something free – and we’ll cover that next in the principle of reciprocity.
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Another way is to show them you understand them. To really get to know your clients on the Internet, hang out where they hang out. Join their mailing lists; take part in their discussion forums; pay to attend their teleseminars, webinars and virtual conferences; join in their chat rooms, and visit the same Web sites they visit; ask them about their biggest problems. You’ll then be able to provide a far better level of service when they visit your Web site: ⇒ Organise the site so it addresses their most important problems first. ⇒ Write in their language, using their jargon. ⇒ Create products in formats they like. ⇒ Your “frequently asked questions” page can answer real questions they ask. ⇒ You know all their objections, so you raise them yourself and then address them effectively.
Why You? Reciprocity When you do somebody a favour, they feel an obligation to return the favour. Social psychology research shows this to be extremely strong in our culture, even to the extent that the return favour is disproportionately bigger than the original favour. On your Web site, give away something for nothing. It could be a free e‐book, a useful spreadsheet, a free entry in a competition, a gift voucher, a self‐assessment quiz, a free sample, a training course, or any number of other similar things.
172 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants Why You? Commitment and consistency If you can get somebody to agree to something small first (that’s the commitment part), they are more likely to agree to something bigger later (that’s the consistency part). This is also known as the “foot‐in‐the‐door technique”. On your Web site, engage your site visitor in something immediately. Offering them a free article, e‐book, special report or mini‐course is a good start. Even better, engage them in something interactive, such as a survey or self‐assessment questionnaire. If they complete a questionnaire, especially one in which they score poorly, you’ve got them motivated to do something about it. Another technique is to break up a large product into smaller parts, and to sell them individually. Clients who buy the first few will be eager to complete the collection. Another technique is to sell your product or service as a subscription service, with a “until further notice” agreement on their credit card payment, just like the mobile phone and cable TV companies do. This turns a Passive Income sale into a Recurring Income stream.
Why You? Framing People evaluate information differently based on their frame of mind. You are more tolerant of a salesperson if she mentions a friend told her to call you. An innocent remark to a friend or spouse can be misinterpreted if that person is defensive or suspicious of your motives. If you can control your client’s frame of mind before they visit your Web site, you can make a huge difference to the way they view you when they do reach your site.
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As we’ve discussed earlier, one powerful technique is to give away a special report or e‐book with free information. Not only does this establish you as an authority and invoke the reciprocity principle (which we’ve discussed earlier), it also puts clients in a more favourable frame of mind when they contact you. Another technique is to build a strong referral system, where others refer people in their network to you. On the Web, this is known as an “affiliate program”, where others sign up as your affiliates, and make a commission on every sale. I’ve mentioned this in passing when we talked about Recurring Income; we’ll talk about this in more detail later. Later I’ll also talk about the importance of using communities, forums and social networking tools for getting more people to your Web site. These people have a different frame of mind than those who just clicked on a Google link.
Why You? Authority I talked about the authority principle earlier, when talking about how to answer the “Why this?” question for your Web site visitors. For example, if a recognised authority endorses your type of product – or even better, your unique product itself – you have a better chance of selling it. The same principle applies if you are the recognised authority. Although this might not have the same credibility as a third‐party endorsement from an equal authority, it can have more authority if you’re the established authority in the field. If you have relevant formal credentials or qualifications that add to your credibility, promote them prominently on your Web site.
174 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants If you don’t have formal qualifications, but you do have personal experience, that also helps. For example, one Internet marketing seminar was presented by an “ordinary housewife who was 8½ months pregnant [invoking the liking principle] when she first started making money on‐line [the authority principle].”
Why now? Scarcity When people think there’s a limited supply of something, they are more eager to buy it and perceive it to have higher value. That’s why unique properties fetch higher prices at real estate auctions. It’s why scalpers can sell last‐minute tickets to events at highly inflated prices. It’s why people sometimes engage in mad panic when faced with stocking up supplies for emergency situations. These are examples of scarcity driven by fear: There’s a limited supply, so if you don’t get it soon, you’ll miss out. The scarcity principle also works the other way, and in that case we call it exclusivity. If something is limited because it’s only available to an exclusive group of people, that also makes it more valuable. If your product or service has a limited supply, state this on your Web site. This is easy to apply to physical products (“limited number in stock”), events (“places limited”) and time‐for‐money services (“limited number of clients per week”). It’s more difficult for products that don’t genuinely have a limited supply – such as electronic products or commodities. In this case, you can create scarcity by imposing your own limits. Often, this takes the form of a time‐restricted offer – such as an early bird cut‐ off date for bookings, a limited market‐testing period, “specials this week”, and the like. Remember you can also use exclusivity in your offers. For example, if you’re offering a subscription service, you can restrict
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membership numbers simply for the sake of keeping it exclusive; or you can offer “foundation membership for the first 50 people who apply”. When promoting the scarcity of your product or service, make sure your reasons are genuine. Falsely advertising scarcity can upset your clients, and could even be illegal under various fair trading laws.
Why Now? Environment As we move to a more digital culture, selling through scarcity is becoming more difficult. For example, in the past, you could sell books that way because of “a limited print run”, “damaged stock” or “a few remaining copies before reprint”; but that doesn’t work with, say, e‐books! Similarly, when selling seminar seats, you could legitimately advertise “limited seating”, “selling out fast” and “early bird rate to secure the venue”; but again that’s less plausible for, say, teleseminars where you have virtually unlimited capacity. Another way to answer the “Why now?” question is to explain why your products are more relevant now than ever before. Explain how your customer’s world has changed in ways that now make your products more valuable, more relevant and perhaps even essential. For example, if you’re sell training courses for salespeople, you could say: ⇒ You’re selling on‐line training because in today’s busy world, they don’t have the time to attend live workshops. ⇒ Older sales training material no longer works, because salespeople are now competing with sites like eBay.
176 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants ⇒ The Internet gives customers more information, knowledge and power than ever before; so salespeople have to deal with savvy customers who know exactly what they want. ⇒ Generation Y customers are different from other customers. The power of this technique is that you’re not making your customers feel like they’re wrong; you’re simply explaining how what used to be right might not be appropriate any more.
Why Now? Risk reversal When somebody buys from you and the money goes into your bank, the transaction is complete for you. On the other hand, the client takes all the risk. What if the product isn’t what they expected? What if it breaks down? What if it doesn’t deliver everything they promised? The principle of risk reversal says you, the Web site owner, should take all the risk. The most common – and most obvious – option is to offer a money‐ back guarantee. The client still takes a small risk because they have to trust you’ll honour the guarantee. However, provided you can convince them of that, they enter the transaction entirely risk‐free. Follow these three guidelines for setting your guarantee: 1.
The longer the guarantee, the more sales you’ll get. A 30‐day guarantee isn’t as good as a 90‐day guarantee, which in turn isn’t as good as a 12‐month guarantee. And all of these are trumped by a lifetime guarantee. Internet conversion strategist Alex Mandossian puts it this way: “If you want 30‐ day clients, use a 30‐day guarantee; if you want lifetime clients, use a lifetime guarantee”.
2.
The less restrictive the guarantee, the more sales you’ll get.
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A no‐questions‐asked 100% money‐back guarantee works far better than getting an unhappy client to jump through hoops (for example, forcing them to pay for return postage, return it in the original box, or show proof they have given the product “a fair try”). 3.
The stronger the guarantee, the more sales you’ll get. I’ve seen some people offer a 200% money‐back guarantee, or even more. Some of my own e‐books come with a “10 Times Your Money Guarantee”, which says you’ll make ten times your investment within 12 months, or you can ask for your money back.
For more about free e‐books and special reports, get the e‐book and audio program Make More Sales at my Web site www.GihanPerera.com. You’ll learn how to be more persuasive on your Web site, so you turn more browsers into buyers.
38. Shopping Cart In A Nutshell Build a secure, robust, easy-to-use system for taking orders on your Web site. This must include a real-time payment gateway, so the money is banked directly into your account.
178 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants You now require some form of secure ordering system for taking orders and banking money. Make it as automatic as possible, so you don’t have to be involved in the process. There are many shopping systems available, including PayPal at www.PayPal.com. I’m not going to recommend any particular solution, but I will talk about some principles for making the process efficient and effective. Studies have shown most shoppers who start buying on a Web site abandon the process before completing it. In the real world, this would be bizarre (It’s the equivalent of somebody going to a shop, filling up their shopping trolley, taking it to the checkout line, and then abandoning it and walking away before it’s their turn to pay). On the Web, this is usually because the Web site makes it too difficult to buy. The Internet is the least‐trusted shopping medium in history. Make your ordering process easy to use. The more obstacles you put in the way of your customer, the less likely the sale. You could be losing most of your customers simply because it’s too difficult for them to complete their order.
The display process The biggest Internet retail sites set up sophisticated “shopping cart” systems for clients to order products. But this is not necessarily the best system to use for your site. If you’re only selling one product, promote it with a one‐page “flyer” or sales page that then links to a simple order form. You don’t require a “shopping cart”, because the customer only ever puts one thing into the cart.
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If you have more than one product but they are unrelated and possibly for different markets, create a separate sales page for each product, and use a separate order form for each. Again, it’s not necessary to use a shopping cart because each customer will only buy one product. If you do have related products, but only a few of them, you could still have a separate sales page for each, but they all link to a common order form listing all the products. You still don’t require a shopping cart – just an order form. Finally, if you do have many products on your site, and you want to give your customer maximum flexibility in browsing them, a shopping cart might be appropriate. This is known as a “catalogue site”, where the customer is browsing a catalogue, adding products to a shopping cart, and then finally going to the “checkout” to complete the sale. However, be aware most Passive Income Web sites are not catalogue sites.
The order process After selecting their products, the client goes to the next step of the ordering process: The order form (If you have a shopping cart, the order form appears after they choose the “Checkout” option, so it’s one extra step). Again, make this as easy as possible for the customer. Broadly, it involves three steps: Order form, confirmation page and invoice/receipt.
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Again, it’s your job to make this as easy as possible for your customer – for example: ⇒ Use a secure server to protect their credit card details, and reassure them of this on the page. ⇒ Invite them to send an order by fax or cheque, if you accept these options. ⇒ State your privacy policy and returns policy. ⇒ If there are postage and shipping costs, explain them clearly. In some cases, you can skip the second step – the confirmation page. For example, if you’re selling an e‐book, the customer will only order one copy, and there are no shipping or postage costs. So you can omit the confirmation page and go directly to the invoice/receipt. As you can see, the process is easy to follow and doesn’t have any unnecessary steps, like forcing the client to “register” before making a purchase. It makes sense every step of the way, just like it does in the supermarket when the client wheels their shopping trolley to the checkout.
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Checklist Whatever system you use for taking orders, evaluate your order form against the following checklist: ⇒ It uses a secure server to reassure the client their credit card information is being transmitted safely across the Internet. ⇒ It lists the products or services being ordered. This might seem obvious, but it’s surprising how many Web sites forget to re‐ state the exact details of the order. ⇒ It shows the total price, including shipping and taxes. Again, this seems obvious, but some order forms leave out this information. Sometimes they will include vague phrasing like “Shipping and taxes will be added automatically to your order”, but that hardly inspires trust in the client. ⇒ It includes a currency converter, if you’re taking international orders. ⇒ It describes the expected delivery time, or – in the case of electronic products that can be downloaded immediately – the delivery format and expected download time. ⇒ It re‐states any special offers, such as time‐limited offers, quantity discounts, “VIP codes” or bonuses. ⇒ It takes credit card orders. In all but exceptional cases, taking credit card orders is essential if you’re realistic about selling directly on your Web site. ⇒ It offers other payment options – such as cheque, fax, PayPal, or invoicing – for clients who are wary of paying on‐line by credit card. ⇒ It shows your full contact information, including telephone number, for clients who require more reassurance than a Web site can offer.
182 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants ⇒ It re‐states the guarantee, which ideally should be a 100% money‐back guarantee, and the returns policy. ⇒ It states your privacy policy, reassuring the client you will keep their information confidential.
39. Separate Web Sites In A Nutshell Create a Web site for each product, each with its own domain name.
I mentioned earlier that if you’re selling more than one product, you create a separate sales letter for each. You can take this one step further and create a separate Web site, including its own domain name, for each product. This is in fact what seasoned Internet marketers do. They treat each product as its own mini‐business, and create a separate Web site for it. There are no links to related products, and in fact no links at all except to the order form. The idea is they target a specific kind of customer, attract them to the Web page, and then lead them through a single path until they buy or click the Back button. You can see an example of this at www.SriLankanCooking.com, a one‐page sales letter I created for an e‐book my mother wrote:
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The purpose of this Web site is to sell the e‐book. That’s all. It’s not about promoting my mother and her cooking classes; it’s not about any of my other services; it’s not about selling other e‐books at the same time. It has one simple, clear purpose. Because of that simple, clear purpose, this Web site also omits most of the branding features of other Web sites: A logo, menu buttons, contact information, animation, special fonts, even a colour scheme that matches other brand colours. Many speakers don’t like this approach, because it doesn’t match their brand (they’re right) and doesn’t fit in with the rest of their Web site (they’re right again). But seasoned Internet marketers know it works. The customers they attract are only interested in solving one problem, so the marketers only lead them to the solution for that problem.
184 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants 40. Analytics In A Nutshell Keep track of visitors to your site to find out what words they are searching for, which links they click most, and so on.
Traditional media advertising – such as in newspapers, TV, radio and magazines – is notoriously difficult to track accurately. If you buy advertising space in a newspaper, you don’t know how many people saw the newspaper, how many saw your ad and how many read it. It’s different on the Internet. Now you do know how many times you ad appears, how many times it’s clicked, and even how many people bought your product from a particular ad. This is extremely powerful information. Some speakers want this information even when they’re focussed on Active Income, but frankly most of them don’t use this information anyway, so it’s of no use to them. But when your aim is Passive Income, these numbers become crucial. For example, if one of your colleagues gives you cheap advertising in her e‐mail newsletter, and that brings in 1,000 Web site visitors a month, is that better than a more expensive advertisement in somebody else’s newsletter that brings only 100 visitors a month? It depends on how many of those visitors turn into paying customers. It may turn out the cheap advertising doesn’t even pay for itself, while the expensive advertising might be very profitable. The only way you’ll know is by tracking each visitor.
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Fortunately, this sort of sophisticated tracking process, known as “Web analytics”, is readily available. One of the best – and, at the time of writing, free – tools for Web analytics is Google Analytics, available at analytics.google.com, which produces visually informative graphs like this:
Google developed this system initially to help the advertisers in its Google AdWords program (more about this later), but has now made it available to all Web site owners. Entire books have been written about Google Analytics, so I won’t go into details here. I do encourage you to sign up and start tracking your Web site visitors right away. But remember all the statistics you collect are no use to you unless you’re constantly testing, measuring and monitoring the results (Remember: Passive Income requires commitment!)
41. Split Testing In A Nutshell Run side-by-side promotions for the same product with minor variations to test what works best.
186 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants I’ve just touched on the idea of testing and measuring, which leads to the concept of “split testing”. Put simply, you run two advertising campaigns side by side, and determine which one gives the better results. You then throw out the weaker advertisement, replace it with a third, and repeat the test. You can do this as often as you like, each time keeping the stronger advertisement. The alternative, of course, is to write the strongest, most compelling advertisement right from the start. However, that’s easier said than done! Even experienced marketers sometimes find it difficult to predict which ad will perform better. For example, I’ve already mentioned my mother’s e‐book about Sri Lankan cooking. When we promoted this on Google, we started by using two similar – but not identical – advertisements:
We discovered people clicked the first 3.9% of the time, and the second 1.6% of the time. Now those numbers may not sound like much, but those are good response rates for Google. But the most important point is the first got almost two and a half times as many clicks as the second. Why do you think there’s such a difference between the response rates? Is it because “Cooking” is more attractive than “Recipes”? Maybe the word “Secrets” in the second headline sounds cheesy? Or perhaps using the word “Secrets” twice was a mistake? The real answer is: Nobody knows. There’s nothing obvious that would tell you why one would perform better than the other. The only way to know is to show both and watch what happens.
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And that’s the whole point of split testing. It’s the marketing equivalent of biological evolution. You start with different versions and it becomes “survival of the fittest”. Over time, through a natural process of selection by your customers, you find out what works best. It’s a simple idea to explain, and it’s also a simple idea to implement (Google helps you automate this process). The only difficult thing is to accept the idea that it’s a good thing to do. Many Web site owners think they know what’s best, so they never do any real testing.
42. Article Marketing In A Nutshell Write high-content articles and submit them to free article directories, in exchange for a link back to your Web site.
In the chapter about Active Income, I talked about the importance of writing articles to demonstrate your authority and deliver value to Web site visitors. At that time, we were talking about publishing the articles on your own Web site. Now let’s look at promoting the articles elsewhere on the Web, so people learn about your expertise before they ever visit your Web site. Despite advances in other delivery formats – such as audio, video and Flash presentations – articles still offer extremely high value for you and your readers. In particular, articles contain written words, which are still the most important thing used by the major search engines when evaluating Web pages.
188 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants What to write If you’ve written articles already, they are probably high‐content informative articles that teach your readers something. Those are exactly the sort of articles to use here. Resist the temptation to promote or sell in your articles. You’ll be offering them to other people to use in their Web sites and newsletters, so make them useful rather than promotional.
How to promote your articles Although you don’t promote yourself in the article itself, you do have to promote yourself somehow – after all, that’s the point of offering your articles to other people on the Web. The way you do this is with a “resource box”. A resource box is a small paragraph at the end of the article, describing you, your area of expertise and a link back to your Web site. When people use your article, one of the conditions of use is they include your resource box, exactly as you provide it. This is your payment for your expertise. The purpose of the resource box is not to make a sale; it’s to get a click to your Web site. At the very least, it just says something like, “For more about Joe Bloggs, visit …”. But that’s missing an opportunity. Make it more compelling by offering them a special report, free assessment, white paper or something else that makes it more likely for them to visit your site. Here’s an example of a resource box I use with some of my articles:
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Where to promote them In the Bundled Income chapter, I talked about “article directories”, where you can find high‐quality articles other people have written about your area of expertise. Now use the same article directories to publish your articles for others to use. For example, www.ezinearticles.com is one of the best article directories for submitting articles:
There are now dozens – maybe even hundreds – of article directories, but you don’t need to use them all. A few of them get the highest volume of traffic, and they will give you the best return on investment (investment of time, that is; it doesn’t cost any money to submit your articles). Install the Google Toolbar (get it
190 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants free from toolbar.google.com), then search Google for “article directories” and look in the toolbar for Web sites with PR (page rank) 5 or above.
43. Forum Participation In A Nutshell Participate actively in on-line discussion groups, chat rooms and communities related to your area of expertise.
As I mentioned in the introduction to this book, one of the most significant on‐line trends recently is the move towards community. This is not just an on‐line phenomenon – it’s also true in “the real world” – read Seth Godin’s book Tribes, Daniel Atkin’s book The Cult of Branding or Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams’ book Wikinomics for more about this recent trend. On‐line, this means people are moving away from Google as their sole and primary source of on‐line information. Make no mistake about it – Google is still important. But so are small, tightly‐knit, niche communities of people with common interests. If these are the communities where your target market “hangs out”, you need to be there as well.
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For example, Alicia Curtis, at www.aliciacurtis.com, provides an on‐line community for young professionals:
If you’re marketing to this group, it makes sense to join the group yourself and participate in this community.
Find on-line communities The first step, of course, is to find these communities. Start by searching Google. For example, if you teach property investment, search for things like “property investment community”, “real estate investment community” and “property investment forum”. Sometimes it’s enough to just search for the topic (“property investment”) and you’ll see forums and communities among the top listings. Also search Ning (www.ning.com), a Web site that allows anybody to create their own on‐line community. Many Ning communities are small and not very active; but occasionally you’ll find an active, thriving community in exactly your area of expertise.
192 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants For example, I work with speakers, so www.SpeakerSite.com is an obvious match for me, because it’s an on‐line community for speakers, trainers and other information experts:
If you’re working actively in your area of expertise, you probably also knows your target market’s associations, clubs, societies and professional networking groups. Ask around and find out whether they have their own on‐line communities, which might be worth joining.
The right attitude Most on‐line communities are not for commercial use. This means you can’t explicitly promote yourself, your products and your services. You can promote yourself as an expert by answering questions, engaging in discussions, and in general being seen as somebody who knows what they are talking about. In this way, some community members will be encouraged to visit your Web site and find out more about you.
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Forum marketing requires commitment, as well as responsibility and respect. Visit the forum regularly, at first to watch and read, and later to participate and contribute. Build a good relationship with other members and the moderators, and take an active interest in helping others. This builds a reputation, which in turn leads to Web site traffic, which in turn leads to sales. When you join an on‐line community, read its rules carefully – they are usually available from a very prominent link on the home page – and follow them scrupulously. Some communities don’t allow any advertising at all; others allow any advertising you like; most fall somewhere between these extremes. If you’re not sure whether you’re crossing the line, ask some long‐ time members first. This is definitely one place where it’s better to ask for permission rather than forgiveness, not the other way around. It only takes one mistake to destroy your reputation permanently in an on‐line community. This is not because on‐line users are more cynical; it’s just that unethical marketers frequently exploit on‐line communities by bombarding them with advertising. Even if they apologise and back down, they’ve already achieved their objective, and they then move on to the next community.
How to promote yourself The first rule is: Wait! First be a “lurker” – that is, just read, absorb and understand how the community works. If the community allows you to create a “profile page”, you’ll probably be safe promoting yourself on this page (but again, check the rules just to be sure). Some communities allow you to add a few lines (known as a “signature” or “sig file”) automatically to the end of every message you write in a discussion forum. This is a good opportunity to
194 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants include a small promotional message and link – again, provided it’s allowed by the rules of the community. If you can help answer a question by referring people to something free on your Web site, that’s usually acceptable. However, again be careful, because in some communities that’s seen as a sneaky way around the anti‐promotion rules, especially if you answer a lot of questions this way. If you’re referring them to a paid product, you’re on even shakier ground. Again, this is sometimes acceptable, especially if you’ve already gained a reputation for your generosity and expertise at other times. Finally, some communities will happily accept paid advertising or sponsorship, which might be a worthwhile option. Again, it’s better to build up a reputation within the community first, because you’ll get a better response rate from your advertising.
44. Social Networking In A Nutshell Use “social networking” techniques to promote yourself and your Web site.
The other side of on‐line communities – apart from discussion groups and forums, which we’ve just discussed – is social networking. I’m talking here about sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and others designed to help you keep in touch with “friends”.
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You might have ignored these sites in the past, and maybe even considered them to be too social and frivolous, without enough of a business focus or return on time investment. That can be true, but equally they can be powerful marketing tools if you use them appropriately. The secret to success in social networking is choice. Choose carefully and make strategic decisions about how to use them to your advantage.
Choose your network It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the number of social networks you’re invited to join. I recommend you limit your selection to a few; otherwise you’ll dilute your efforts. At the time of writing, I actively use Facebook (www.facebook.com) and LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com), and nothing else. That might change over time, but for now I’m comfortable with these two. Facebook is widely seen as a personal resource, but if you apply the principles here effectively, it can be an excellent business networking tool. LinkedIn is more obviously a business resource, so it’s easier to understand how to use this appropriately.
Choose your “friends” Social networking sites help you connect with other people, so decide what types of people you’re going to invite into your community. Broadly, there are four groups: 1.
Personal connections (family and friends): If you invite only family and friends, then you’re using this purely for social, not business, purposes. You can be more open and expressive than
196 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants in your professional life. There’s nothing wrong with this choice, as long as you make it consciously. Be careful about later extending your network to business contacts, though, because you might be exposing them to more of you than is appropriate or safe. 2.
Business colleagues: If you invite professional colleagues, you’re building up your business network, so you do have to be more appropriate and professional. However, you can still share things you wouldn’t discuss with clients – such as industry trends, managing your business, travel plans, and so on.
3.
Clients: Now you’re including clients in your network, so you have to be even more careful about what you say and do. Your professional brand and reputation are on show, so no photos of drunken parties or other embarrassing personal situations.
4.
Strangers: The broadest choice is to invite and accept strangers into your network. Although this increases your reach, it also gives you less control. For instance, you might think twice about telling people you’re having a great holiday in Europe if it means you’re advertising to burglars that your home is empty.
Personally, for my Facebook network, I only invite people I know, trust and like. This limits the size of my network, but in return I have a strong level of trust with the people in it. For LinkedIn, I’m more open and will connect with anybody I know – even if I don’t know them well. However, I still ignore requests from strangers, unless they have been referred by somebody in my network. You might choose different cut‐off points. That’s fine – just make sure it’s a conscious choice.
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As an example of an inappropriate choice, here’s the cover of a magazine for taxi drivers:
This is an industry magazine for taxi drivers, and by itself there’s nothing inappropriate about it. However, I found it on the back seat of a taxi in Sydney, and that is inappropriate. For example, customers certainly shouldn’t be reading that “Operators can go on screwing their Drivers”!
Choose your target Social networking sites are for networking, not marketing. It’s considered rude to send blatant advertising messages to people in your network. In fact, it’s worse than spam e‐mail, because now you’re spamming people you know. By the same token, the people in your network are the people most likely to want to help you succeed. So it seems to be a wasted opportunity if you don’t tell them what you’re doing. To reconcile these competing ideas, follow these three principles: 1.
Market through your network, not to your network.
198 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants 2.
Give them the bumper sticker, not the brochure.
3.
Let them opt in, not opt out.
Marketing through your network means they help you get business rather than buying directly from you. For example: ⇒ Ask clients to give you endorsements on LinkedIn. ⇒ Look for joint venture partners, affiliates and other collaborators from among your network. ⇒ Invite them to attend your events free, but ask them to bring a prospective client. ⇒ Ask them to forward your free report to their network. ⇒ Ask them to introduce you to somebody in their network (This was the key founding principle of LinkedIn, to facilitate connections through referrals). ⇒ Tell them what you’re doing, and ask for help. ⇒ Craft an informative, persuasive profile, so when they do want more information, you have it available. ⇒ Include your blog in your Facebook profile, so everything you publish in your blog appears automatically on Facebook. Giving them the “bumper sticker” means you give them a brief description, and let them choose whether they’d like to know more. For example, in Facebook you can update your “status”, a one‐line description of what you’re doing. If you say, for example, you’re “planning a goal setting seminar in December”, you are promoting yourself, but in a subtle, non‐intrusive way. People in your network who’d like to learn more about it can contact you directly. This leads to the third point: Opt‐in. This means people choose to get more information from you if they want it, rather than choosing not to get it if they don’t. By all means, give them the whole kit and
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caboodle if they ask for it, but only if they do ask for it. This is an important principle in general (read Seth Godin’s book Permission Marketing for more), but even more so when you’re communicating with people close to you.
45. Affiliate Program In A Nutshell Allow other people to sell your products for you, in return for a commission.
In the chapter about Recurring Income, I talked about carefully selecting a few key influential people to promote your membership site, in return for a commission. That’s a basic affiliate program. For Passive Income, you do the same thing, but on a bigger scale. Broadly, you allow anybody to be an affiliate, and you automate the affiliate program as much as possible. Although businesses have been conducting joint ventures for decades, Amazon.com brought it to public prominence on‐line when it started its affiliate program (which it called an “associate program”), where anybody could refer people to the Amazon.com Web site, and they received a commission on every sale. Since then, affiliate programs have flourished on the Web.
Benefits An affiliate program has a number of potential benefits for you:
200 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants ⇒ Somebody else has done all the work in acquiring a client list and building a relationship with them. This could have taken months, or even years, and usually involves a considerable cost in time and money. ⇒ You can reach markets that would otherwise be outside your reach (Or are too expensive to reach). ⇒ Providing you pick the right affiliates, with the right sort of people in their list, you’ll get more highly targeted visitors to your Web site. Twenty of these visitors could be worth more to you than two thousand random visitors who find you in search engines. ⇒ If your affiliate endorses you when they refer their clients to you, you overcome most of the trust issues people have when buying on the Internet. In effect, you piggy‐back on the trust the list owner has already established. ⇒ It’s a no‐risk proposition, because you only pay affiliates for successful referrals. It’s free marketing for you, and you only pay out of profits you would never have had otherwise. In case you think affiliate programs are the best thing since sliced bread, I’ll insert a word of caution here. Web site owners are usually too optimistic about the results they think they will get from their affiliate programs. So they end up paying for something that never gives them a fair return on investment. Don’t expect your affiliate program to turn into an overnight success. Few people know how to market well on the Internet. They probably have enough trouble trying to sell their own products, let alone yours. Most Web site owners find only a few affiliates make a significant volume of sales, while most affiliates contribute nothing at all. Unfortunately, sometimes the non‐performing majority take up most of your time.
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That’s not to say you should not conduct an affiliate program! Just go in there with your eyes open.
Doing the numbers Before you launch your affiliate program, make sure the numbers work for you. COMMISSION RATE What percentage of profits are you willing to offer to affiliates? Obviously, the higher your offer, the more incentive it gives them to sell for you. On the other hand, the lower your offer, the more profit you get to keep. You will only know the best answer to this by testing various options over time. If you’re not sure, start with a simple 50/50 split. It’s not necessarily the best split, but many people see it as “fair”, so they probably won’t haggle over it. If your product has a significant cost to deliver, you might choose to offer 50% of the profit rather than 50% of the income. Your affiliates will probably also see this as fair, as long as they know the exact payment amount ahead of time. In any case, I recommend you start by being too generous rather than too stingy, so your affiliates are more motivated to work on your behalf. LIFETIME VALUE At first, you might set your affiliate commissions based on the initial sale. However, I’ve seen some people offer 100% or even more of the price of a sale to their affiliates.
202 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants This works for them because they know the lifetime value of their customers. They’re willing to give away all the profit from the initial sale – and sometimes even more – in order to get a loyal customer. Of course, this is extremely attractive to their affiliates, who get a large commission on each sale. ON-GOING COMMISSIONS Are you paying the affiliate a commission only on the first sale or on all future sales? Again, it’s more attractive to them if you promise them an on‐going income stream, especially if they don’t have to do any work for the recurring income. However, that also means you require a more sophisticated tracking program, so you can give them the commission they deserve. Many Web site owners simply offer a higher commission of the first sale in order to make up the fact they don’t offer commissions on future sales. CONVERSION RATE Before you launch your affiliate program, know your conversion rate: What percentage of site visitors ends up becoming customers? Many – in fact, most – Web site owners have no idea about their Web site conversion rate. But if you don’t know it yourself, you’re expecting your affiliates to base their referrals on hope and faith – which is hardly an incentive for them. On the other hand, if you can prove you’re already converting a lot of visitors, it makes it more attractive for affiliates. For example, if you know you make one sale for every 100 people who visit your site, that gives your affiliate an indication of the sort of result they might get as well. Of course, this isn’t guaranteed (because the people they send to your site might be different from your typical site visitors), but it is an indication.
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PRICE TAG
If you sell high‐priced products, your affiliates naturally get bigger commissions. They might be willing to settle for a lower percentage or a lower conversion rate, as long as they know they are still getting a significant payment for each sale. For instance, if you’re selling a high‐ticket item, like a home study course, a video series, or a big membership site, you can offer a smaller percentage commission to affiliates, because they still earn big money anyway.
Making it work Some shopping cart systems (such as ClickBank at www.clickbank.com) come with affiliate programs built in. This makes it easy for you to offer this opportunity to potential affiliates. If you don’t have an affiliate program built in, you’ll have to buy an external package or have somebody create it for you. As the merchant, it’s up to you to provide all the marketing material for your affiliates. Give them the right code to link to your Web site (don’t assume they will know this already), banners or images to put on their Web site, and even direct marketing letters to send out to their mailing list. Set up a formal agreement with the affiliate. This doesn’t have to be full of complicated legal terms, but it does have to contain some basic things, such as: 1.
What products and services fall under the agreement;
2.
The commission you pay on each sale;
3.
Any “trail commissions” for future sales;
4.
How each party could terminate the agreement.
204 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants If you’ve never done this before, it’s worth engaging an experienced Internet marketing expert to set it up for you.
For more about affiliate partnerships, get the e‐book and audio program Reach New Markets at my Web site www.GihanPerera.com. You’ll learn how to get started with affiliate programs effectively, without getting bogged down in the details.
46. Viral Marketing In A Nutshell Create something valuable and/or entertaining people want to pass around to others.
Viral marketing operates on the principle that we like to share stuff we like with people we like. The “stuff” could be jokes, funny videos, educational e‐books, gossip and rumours, software, screen savers, and the like. It spreads faster if it’s free, interesting, has a wide appeal and is easy to share. You can use viral tactics to get traffic to your newsletter (to get more subscribers) or to your Web site (to sell more products). You create something free, send it out to the world, and wait for the increase in traffic.
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At least, that’s the theory. The catch, of course, is finding or creating such material. It’s always hard to know exactly what people will find interesting enough to share with others. Just today, for example, I saw a YouTube video clip that had “gone viral”: A three‐ minute video of a distraught airline passenger in Hong Kong who had missed an important flight. Who knew that would get three million views in a week? As another example, for a while some speakers had great success creating short inspirational slide shows – such as thetimemovie.com. At the time, these were rare; but now it’s easy for anybody to create such a slide show, so it’s more common and less viral.
What to create Sex sells. But so does controversy, news, humour, quirkiness, shock value, inspiration, motivation and insider knowledge. As with some other marketing techniques, there’s no magic formula that guarantees success. It’s largely a matter of trial and error. Here are some guidelines that can help identify what could work virally: ⇒ What’s happening now? If it’s topical, it’s more likely to spread fast. On the down side, it might also only have a short life, so don’t rely on this for long‐term success. Max Hitchins (at www.hospitalitydoctor.com) is a master at tapping into the buzz around current events. Whether it’s the Melbourne Cup, the Olympics, an election or a Global Financial Crisis, he finds a way to tie his marketing to that event. Not only does this engage customers, it’s also brought him a lot of media publicity.
206 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants ⇒ What can you teach them? If you can teach them something others don’t know, they’ll use it to “show off” – and spread your message in the process. ⇒ “Sneeze” in the right direction. Look for the few key people who have access to a community of people who know and like them. Those key people can give your message greater momentum. ⇒ Push without being pushy. If you’re already in relationship with people (for example, they receive your e‐mail newsletter), promote your viral marketing piece more than once. It might take more than one attempt before they even take a look at it. ⇒ Go where the traffic is. Some Web sites are already designed for viral marketing. If you create free videos, publish them to YouTube; if you create slide shows, publish them to SlideShare; if you write articles, publish them to article marketing directories. You might have other marketing strategies as well, but you as might as well do the most obvious thing as well.
Product formats A few years ago, most viral messages were plain text e‐mail – because that was the easiest format for spreading a message. Now it’s on‐line video, because that too has become easier to create. Tomorrow, who knows? E‐mail is still a popular option for viral marketing, and you shouldn’t ignore it just because there are other options available now. If you have compelling free material, it might be enough to just encourage them to “forward this to a friend”. If you’re promoting something, take this a step further and give them a reason to share it – such as a two‐for‐one offer, a discount, or some other bonus if the friend buys.
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Video clips are also popular now, especially as most people are able to watch them easily (In the past, it could involve a slow and complicated download and installation procedure just to watch a video clip). Make use of the visual medium to create an interesting and engaging video presentation. It doesn’t have to be professionally produced – it’s sometimes more compelling if it isn’t – but it does have to be engaging. Think carefully about lighting, background, framing and what you can do to break up the monotony of just “a talking head”. For example, Tony Fountain, at www.fountainandco.com, is an auctioneer who featured in an entertaining presentation called “The Auctioneer’s Aria”, which he uses as a promotional tool:
Audio offers similar opportunities and similar challenges. It’s not as popular as video on the Web, but it’s certainly more popular for people to download and take with them on CDs, iPods and other
208 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants MP3 players. If you create something compelling enough, you’ll be happy for people to “pirate” it and share it with their friends. We’ve already talked about free e‐books and special reports in the chapter about Active Income. I won’t say anything else about them here, except to remind you they are viral marketing tools. The same applies to article marketing, which I’ve described earlier in this chapter. Submitting articles to article directories is one way for them to spread virally. Even in other places, if you’re happy for people to copy your articles, say so. Another viral marketing tool, which is less common but can be very powerful, is a quiz, self‐assessment tool or questionnaire. If you can design this in a way that encourages users to test themselves against their friends, this automatically makes it more viral. For example, one of Facebook’s most popular applications is a simple ranking game, where you rank some items from 1 to 10 (for example, your favourite thing to do if you have free time, or what you look for in a partner) and then it matches your results with your friends’ results.
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The final option – and probably the most expensive – is to create free software that people can share virally. This could be as simple as a screen saver or as complex as, say, a productivity tool, personality test or game. If it’s good enough, and you encourage people to share it virally, it can reap huge benefits for you.
47. Communication Platforms In A Nutshell Use blogs, e-mail newsletters and podcasts to keep in touch with people regularly.
All the distribution techniques we’ve discussed so far have been sporadic, one‐off methods to reach your target market. Of course, you do want to keep applying them consistently, but each is a one‐ off activity: Promote an article, write a viral e‐book, contribute to a community forum, and so on. In the Active Income chapter, I talked about the importance of your blog, podcast and e‐mail newsletter. These communication platforms are just as valuable for Passive Income. They all allow you to consistently market to a group of people who want to keep hearing from you. This is especially important in today’s busy world, when people have so many other distractions. It’s easy for them to forget to log in to their Facebook account, or to stay away from their on‐line forums, or to put aside an e‐book for later reading (and never get back to it).
210 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants Of course, they might put aside your blog post, e‐mail newsletter or podcast for later as well. But at least you’ve sent it to them, so you’re not relying on them to actively go out and find it. You’re making their life easier – the newsletter magically appears in their in‐box, the podcast episode magically appears on their iPod, the blog post magically appears in their blog reader. More importantly, you’re reaching them consistently and with their permission. You’re a welcome part of their routine, not a distraction. Everything I’ve said about blogs, newsletters and podcasts in the context of Active Income still applies now, for Passive Income: Deliver value first; keep it short and sharp; focus on the relationship; take the opportunity to sell. The only difference is you’re now promoting and selling products, not your own speaking services.
48. Search Engine Optimisation In A Nutshell “Optimise” your Web site to increase its search engine ranking.
Now let’s talk about Google (and other search engines, but Google is still the most important). First we’ll talk about search engine optimisation, which is the process of getting a high ranking in Google’s free listings; then I’ll talk about paid advertising in Google.
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Search engine optimisation, or SEO, used to be easy when there were fewer Web sites on the Internet. It’s now become very competitive, so it takes time, energy and specialised knowledge to make it work. Make no mistake about it, it does take time. It’s not as simple as scattering a few important keywords on a few pages and hoping for the best. There are no shortcuts, and if you are looking for a way to get quick and easy results, then this isn’t it. You will also need plenty of patience, as results do not happen overnight. This is definitely one area where I recommend you enlist the help of an Internet marketing expert, unless you’re willing to put in considerable time and energy to learn it all yourself. If you do decide to tackle it yourself, I’ll give you some broad guidelines to help you get started.
Write good content Write clear, simple and informative high‐quality content that appeals to humans looking for information on‐line. This is the single most important piece of advice I can give you. Although Google has a very sophisticated way of ranking Web sites, it all boils down to one thing: Is this what the searcher was looking for? Everything it does aims to answer that question, because its success depends on giving users relevant search results. Remember most Internet users are searching for information first, not to buy something. They look at the Web as a library, not a book shop. So the better the information you provide, the more attractive it is to Google. That’s why – in general – your articles and blog posts will get a higher ranking than your sales pages or product descriptions.
212 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants The other guidelines I’ll give you here are more technical. But this one trumps them all. If you don’t write high‐quality content, you’ll almost certainly fail.
Focus on pages, but don’t ignore the site Google leads searchers to pages, not Web sites. So you have to put in the SEO effort into every page of your site – or at least, all the important pages. That said, Google does also place some value on the entire Web site. A site with many high‐content pages about the same topic will rank higher than a one‐page site on that topic. Again, this makes sense – the first site is likely to be more relevant than the second.
Use descriptive page titles Google gives a high priority to the “title tag” of each page, so make them simple, descriptive and as relevant as possible. Some SEO experts consider this to be the most important part of any page. If you’re not sure what the title tag is, ask your Webmaster to show you – it’s not just the main heading for each page.
Get incoming links If you have a lot of other Web sites linking to you, Google thinks your site must have value, because other people have consciously made the effort to refer their site visitors to you. In fact, this was Google’s big point of difference from its competitors when it came on to the search engine market. You may find this is the hardest part of SEO to implement, because it involves time and effort asking other people to link to you. There are some automated processes that supposedly make this easier,
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but there’s no substitute for individually searching for sites that are likely to link to you, and then asking for a link. Of course, you must give them a good reason to do so, and that’s likely to be because of your excellent content. This goes back to my first guideline: Write great content. If people find it valuable, they will link to it, and that in turn will alert Google to its value.
Use appropriate keywords Use the words and phrases your searchers are likely to be using, even if they’re not exactly the same way you describe your products. For instance, if you’re selling a home study course on presentation skills, the first phrase that comes to mind might be “presentation skills”. However, more people are searching for “public speaking”, so that’s a better phrase to use if you want to attract that market. In general, being more specific is better than being too general. If you sell a real estate investment e‐book, target the phrases “real estate investment” and “property investment”, not the phrase “real estate”. The phrase “real estate” is so general it’s useless – only a small amount of people using that phrase are interested in your e‐ book (They are more likely to be looking for real estate).
Don’t use frames Some Web designers will encourage you to use “frames” on your site – where different parts of the screen can move independently. Don’t do this – it makes it more difficult for Google and other search engines. Even if they do list your pages, they will have trouble creating correct links to the framed pages, which will confuse your site visitors.
214 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants Make it accessible Unless you specifically work in a market with many vision‐ impaired people, you probably haven’t done anything specific to make your site accessible to them. But remember that, in effect, Google is vision‐impaired! It can’t see pictures, colours, layouts, video clips and anything else that’s visual. It relies on words and links. So use words, and use them in a “normal” way. Use headings, sub‐ headings, paragraphs, lists – in brief, just as you’d expect to see them in a book. That’s all Google sees. Anything else you do can help your site visitor, but it won’t help Google.
Don’t try to fool Google Finally, don’t do sneaky things to try to trick Google, with techniques like cloaking, keyword stuffing, link farms and invisible text (If you don’t know what these are, that’s not such a bad thing). Although they may work for a short time, you not only risk getting your site penalised, but it could be banned from search engines altogether. As search engines like their results to be accurate, they just do not take kindly to people trying to trick them.
49. Pay-Per-Click Advertising In A Nutshell Use Google and other pay-per-click advertising systems to drive traffic to your site.
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As we’ve just discussed, you can get free search engine results from search engine optimisation (SEO). But, you can spend thousands of dollars constantly trying to improve your rankings, and still not appear high up in the results. It can also take weeks and months for search engines to find and evaluate your site. And if you make changes, it takes additional weeks or months before those changes are then reflected in your rankings. Fortunately there’s another option: Pay‐per‐click advertising. With this tool, you buy advertising in search engines, and – as the name implies – you only pay when somebody clicks on your ad. It’s fast, easy and affordable – even for a small business. When you search Google, it shows the paid advertising on the right‐hand side and along the top; and the free listings in the main area of the page:
The paid advertising shouldn’t necessarily replace your SEO efforts, although it can if you choose. But you can do both, and they work hand in hand. Many Web site owners make the mistake of using SEO only, because they don’t want to pay for advertising. This is usually flawed thinking. It will cost you more in time, energy and lost opportunity trying to get SEO right. It’s often better
216 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants to start with paid advertising to understand the market quickly, and then add SEO to the mix. We’ll talk here about Google’s pay‐per‐click system, called AdWords. Briefly, AdWords offers four main benefits for most advertisers: 1.
Control: You have full control over your ad campaign.
2.
Speed: You can start immediately, and your advertisements appear almost instantly.
3.
Tracking: You can test various ads, compare different campaigns and track visitors very closely.
4.
Cost: Yes, even though there’s a cost, you can carefully control those costs. Google’s auction system also rewards smart marketers, so if you do the right thing you’ll pay a lot less than others for the same advertising space.
Cost The biggest perceived barrier to paid advertising is its cost. So let’s tackle that first. AdWords is a pay‐per‐click advertising system. Your advertisement can appear thousands of times (each of these is known as an impression) but you only pay when someone clicks on it to go to your site. AdWords is an auction‐based system. You offer to pay a certain price for each click (which is actually a maximum you’re willing to pay), and you compete with other bidders for higher placement. The cost varies depending on the keywords you choose. Some keywords are very popular, receiving hundreds of thousands of searches per month, and others are not as popular. Most keywords
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have more than one bidder, so a number of ads can be displayed for that individual keyword. Broadly speaking, the higher your bid, the higher your position on the page. It’s slightly more complex than that, because Google also considers your “click‐through rate” when determining your position. If you construct a compelling ad that convinces people to click it often, and leads to a relevant Web page, Google rewards you with a higher position on the page. Conversely, if your ad appears a lot and doesn’t get clicked, or users click the Back button immediately after clicking your ad, Google penalises you by charging you more or moving you lower down the page. So it’s not just the person with the bigger wallet who wins – it’s the smartest marketer.
Preparing your ad campaign The biggest mistake most people make with Google advertising is they don’t invest enough time preparing their campaign. The actual step‐by‐step process to conduct the campaign is easy, but if you don’t put in the time to prepare for it, you’ll waste money. First, research the right keywords (most important words and phrases). Be specific, not general. Put yourself in the searcher’s shoes and use their language, not yours. For example, if you’re advertising a membership site for salespeople, the keyword “sales” is useless because it’s far too general. Next, your ad should direct people to the page most suited for that keyword. This is rarely the home page! This is very important, and it’s a mistake many beginners make when using AdWords. Rather than having the customer land on your home page, and hope they’ll find their way to the product (and running the risk of losing the sale because they give up or lose interest), take them directly to the sales page for that product or service.
218 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants Finally, put some thought into writing your ad. There is no strict formula for writing ads, but the main rule is to write from the perspective of your potential client and their needs. With Google AdWords, you have two (short) lines of content. One easy formula to follow is to describe the benefit of your product on the first line and the features on the second. Writing effective ads isn’t easy, but one quick trick is to borrow ideas from magazine covers of publications like Cosmopolitan or Vogue. The covers are full of short headlines, which of course are advertisements intended to encourage an impulse purchase. These headlines have to instantly grab the attention of potential readers, and are usually as compact and concise as Google ads. So they are perfect to use as samples and examples for your own advertising copy. If you don’t want to actually buy the magazines, go to magazines.com and you can look at the latest covers for a number of different magazines. Google provides detailed explanations of all their guidelines at adwords.google.com.
Monitoring Most ad campaigns won’t be an instant success – although I have known people to achieve great results on their first attempt. That’s rare, though, and it will usually take some time to fine‐tune your advertising to get the best results. You really need to invest time in monitoring your campaign (Remember: Passive Income requires commitment!) and changing it regularly to improve it. Here are some questions to ask yourself to determine the direction of your changes: ⇒ Did I do the right market research to make sure there is a market for my products or services?
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⇒ Are my keywords specific enough? Do they target the right audience? Am I using terms my customers use? ⇒ Is my ad copy relevant? Do I concisely show the benefits and features of my product? Have I run split tests to evaluate my ads? ⇒ Have I experimented with ranking position? Does a higher or lower ranking improve my conversion rate? Remember, your AdWords campaign will evolve and grow as you gain more experience and confidence. Study your market, evaluate your results, and modify your campaign appropriately.
For more about Google advertising, get the e‐book and audio program Get Traffic Fast at my Web site www.GihanPerera.com. You’ll learn how to get started with Google AdWords, and avoid some of the common mistakes.
50. Delegate Marketing In A Nutshell Delegate your on-going marketing efforts to other people, freeing you to manage your customer relationships.
220 Web Sites for Speakers, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants Finally, I recommend you delegate and automate as much of your Passive Income process as possible. This won’t be easy at first – and in fact it’s wise to keep close track of your results initially, even if you’re paying experts for their advice. Every business is different, so you should monitor progress personally until you’re confident things are running smoothly and reliably. There are also some things you might continue to keep doing yourself – such as writing newsletters and blog posts. However, even for these tasks, you can delegate or automate part of them – for example, writing a series of newsletters in advance and scheduling them to be sent automatically on certain dates. Tim Ferriss is the master of delegation and automation, so I highly recommend his book The Four Hour Work Week. He’s always looking for ways to eliminate unnecessary work and automate what’s left. For example, if you’re spending a lot of time answering simple customer queries, perhaps you should be giving somebody else that responsibility. And if you’ve done that but you’re still spending too much time on this task, perhaps you should give them more responsibility – and the authority that goes along with it. In the chapter about Recurring Income, we talked about using services like Elance.com to out‐source repetitive tasks to a team of contractors around the world. The same applies here, but on an even bigger scale. Although I’ve said Passive Income doesn’t mean you do nothing to earn that income, it doesn’t mean you have to keep doing things that can be outsourced easily. If you do choose to be involved in your Passive Income business, focus on the most important asset in that business. It’s not the product, because that’s easy for somebody to duplicate. It’s probably not your production, fulfillment and delivery process,
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because somebody else can outdo you with cheap labour. It’s not even your marketing, because somebody else can copy your sales copy and advertising in minutes. The most important asset in your Passive Income business is your customer database and the relationship they have with you. As my marketing mentor Mal Emery says, “The money is in the customer”. So if you are going to be active in your Passive Income business, be active in building and maintaining strong relationships with your customers. This doesn’t contradict what I said earlier about outsourcing simple customer service queries to other people. I certainly don’t mean you should get bogged down in help desk queries when somebody else can do that as well as you. I’m talking about a more strategic approach. For instance, make a list of all your customers and rank them by annual spend. According to the 80/20 rule, you’ll find you get more than half your income from just a few customers. Treat them especially well – just like the airlines do with their Platinum Frequent Flyers.
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The Last Word So we’ve come to the end of the book – but the start of your journey. To put this into practice, I suggest you do four things. First, identify your current income types (Active, Bundled, Recurring or Passive). Second, go to that chapter in Part Two of the book and look at the 10 or 15 items in that chapter. If you already have a Web site, use this as a checklist to assess its effectiveness. If you don’t have a Web site yet, use this as a blueprint for planning it. Third and fourth, repeat these two steps for your next income type. This will give you a checklist for the future.
Will you catch the wave? Mark Twain once wrote, “The man who doesnʹt read good books has no advantage over the man who canʹt read them”. I like that advice, but I’ll take it one step further: If you read a good book but don’t put it into action, it’s even worse. At the time I’m writing this, many people in my home town of Perth, Australia are wealthier than ever before, because they took advantage of the mining and resources boom that we enjoyed for the last few years. However, I often saw letters to the editor in our daily newspaper complaining about the fact that the boom was just passing them by.
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I think there’s a curious flaw in their thinking, because they assumed they would automatically benefit from the boom. I don’t think booms create wealth; rather, they create opportunities for wealth. Those who take advantage of those opportunities will succeed in a big way. In 2006, I lived in Coolangatta, on the beautiful Gold Coast of Australia. From my apartment looking out over Coolangatta Beach, I saw surfers out on the water every day. I saw the surfers already in the water, paddling away prepared for the waves, catching the biggest waves. Those who stood on the shore waiting missed out. I think we’re all standing within touching distance of huge opportunities. It’s up to you to take advantage of them.
There’ll never be a better moment! When I was in high school, I read an article in Newsweek about a rocket that was heading to Saturn. But it didn’t have the technology to reach Saturn! NASA had launched the rocket without the technology to reach its destination, but with the ability to upload new technology as it became available. It’s a good thing that NASA didn’t wait until it had the perfect technology before launching the rocket; otherwise it would never have left Earth. I’m no rocket scientist, but the message is clear to me: Start before you’re ready. If you’re waiting for the perfect moment you’ll be waiting a long time. The perfect moment is now.
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More Resources If you enjoyed the ideas, strategies and tactics in this book, I encourage you to join my on‐line speaker community, an active, resource‐rich site where you can get even more in‐depth material and access to the experience of leading speakers, trainers, coaches, consultants and other information experts. Find out more about the First Step Member Community at www.first‐step‐community.info. Visit my Web site at www.GihanPerera.com for many more resources – articles, podcasts, video clips, e‐books and more – to help you put this material into action (I do practise what I preach)! Do sign up to my newsletter Expert Gold for on‐going additional material about your Web site and your speaking business. If you’re interested in our Web site services, my company First Step at www.firststep.com.au specialises in Web sites for speakers, trainers, coaches, consultants and other information experts. We can help you whether or not you have a Web site already. Our philosophy is based on the model of income types I’ve covered in this book, so if you like what you’ve read, you’ll find it easy to use our services. When you’re on either of these sites, use the password “active” on the home page, and I’ll give you a complimentary e‐book and audio The Five Essential Internet Tools for Experts. Finally, if you’d like to know what I’m thinking about (and willing to share with the world!), visit my blog at www.GihanPerera.info.
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About Gihan Perera Gihan Perera is a consultant, speaker and author who helps his clients to leverage their products, services and business practices. His Web design company First Step Communications serves clients throughout Australia, as well as in New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Canada. He is the author of the books Secrets of Internet Business Success, Low Cost Promotion, Write Now, Get Traffic Fast (now in e‐book form), Write Profitable E‐Books (also now in e‐book form) and Magnetic Messages. He has also written numerous e‐books and created audio products on effective Web sites and success with information products. Visit www.GihanPerera.com for more about Gihan’s speaking, consulting and mentoring services.