Spiritual Business Kit

I'm trying something new.  Drupal has something they call the "book module" which is supposed to be a way to create books on a website.  This is the first page intended to be a part of the Spiritual Business Kit, and if it works, I'll try it out as I create the Kit.

 

For now, here is the outline I produced today.  Feel free to let me know what you think.

 

Spiritual Business Kit Outline

5 Content Modules: 1-2 hours per module
+ 1 Resource Module

 

  1. Core Concepts / Strategies

    1. Everything must be SOLD

      1. Products, Services, Free Stuff, Ideas, Viewpoints, Inspiration, etc.

    2. Value Equation

      1. THEIR values, not yours. (Be market-centric) / Needs vs. Wants

      2. (High Value * Few Customers) = (Low Value * Many Customers)

    3. Leverage

      1. Products / Services

      2. Multiplication of Value

    4. Irresistible Offer (3-second sale)

    5. Proving Your Point vs. Social Proof

    6. Business Format

      1. Shopping site

      2. Membership site

      3. Fan site

    7. Marketing Strategies

      1. Branding / Direct Response

      2. Buying / Being Sold

      3. Paid Ads

      4. Publicity

      5. PPC

      6. Affiliates

      7. Free Content

      8. Grassroots (Viral) Marketing

  2. Market Research / Idea Generation

    1. Step 1: Surveys / PPC Ads

      1. Find out what people want, expect, and respond to

      2. Biggest Question campaign – helps create product & salesletter

      3. Google AdWords to mini-site survey form

      4. Offer copy of final product for completed survey form

      5. 10% survey responses for viable market (track keyword performance)

      6. Collect demographic / psychographic data if possible

      7. Analyze collected data for trends

        1. most burning question

        2. phraseology

        3. correlations

    2. Step 2: Affiliate Promotions

      1. Further tests market response to product / offer

      2. Provides early income

      3. Provides insight into profitability of competitors ($/visitor, $/sale, etc.)

      4. Allows testing of promotional / marketing materials & strategy

    3. Step 3: Test Product

      1. Quick Project

        1. low time/money investment

        2. Uses beyond testing – Viral Marketing, Enhanced coaching service, etc.

      2. Compare your material to affiliate material

        1. If low response, improve materials or presentation before going forward

        2. If good response, expand to a larger product

      3. Collect feedback & testimonials for larger product

        1. Feedback can help improve product

        2. Testimonials are more valuable than early income

  3. Product Creation

    1. Research

      1. Topic questions – what are people looking for?

      2. Topic solutions – what information will solve people’s problems?

    2. Outlining

      1. Organizing collected information

        1. May find holes to be filled

        2. Process helps personal understanding

      2. Break whole subject into 3-4 main sections

      3. Break each main section into 3-5 subsections

      4. Break each subsection into minor points

      5. Include facts, figures, notes, supporting stories, etc.

    3. Supporting Forms / Documents

      1. Do this here so you can discuss them in presentation

      2. Supporting forms/worksheets help customer use information better

    4. Oral Presentation

      1. Present information to others for practice and feedback

      2. Make sure they understand information enough to use it

      3. Record all presentations for reference and possible use

      4. Record polished presentation for audio product

    5. Transcription

      1. Transcribe audio presentation to capture main information

      2. Doing this ensures phrasing of information ‘flows’ and is easy to read

      3. Much quicker than writing directly

      4. Editing for content & style will be done anyways, even when writing directly

      5. Professional editing & layout will produce a quality book

    6. Polish & Package

      1. Have audio professionally ‘mastered’ with intro/outro music, copyright notice, etc.

      2. Have professional cover graphics created for all packaging

      3. Register ISBNs & get bar codes for physical products

  4. Karmic Marketing

    1. Give to get

      1. Free Samples - How much is too much?

      2. Training your audience to buy.

    2. Share the wealth (Affiliates & JVs)

    3. Grassroots (Viral) Marketing (Combining A & B)

    4. JV’s & PLF

      1. Major event to focus promotion

      2. Sideways Salesletter concept

        1. Each module of salesletter released as free content

        2. Must be value-based – entertaining and/or educational

      3. Prelaunch

        1. Builds buzz and attention

        2. Sells product

        3. Answers objections

      4. Launch Scarcity

        1. Time / Quantity

        2. Bonuses, price, availability

      5. Postlaunch

        1. Customers

        2. JVs

        3. non-customers

    5. Publicity

      1. Reasons Why

      2. Foundational Principles

        1. News (Developments, survey results, events, etc.)

        2. Helpful Tips (9 Ways any ____________ can ___________ )

        3. Impact of other news

      3. Media Kit

        1. News Release

        2. Bio

        3. Q&A Sheet

        4. Supporting Materials (Photos, excerpts, testimonials, etc.)

    6. Copywriting

      1. Long vs. Short

      2. Establishing Trust

      3. Communicating Value

      4. Step by Step Process

      5. Editing For Maximum Impact (Conversational Hypnosis)

  5. Implementing Your Website

    1. Website types & supporting software

      1. Brochure site - describes offline products & services (OpenOffice / SeaMonkey)

      2. Mini-site - sells a single product/service "package", possibly with options (Same)

      3. Shopping Cart site - sells multiple products /services (CubeCart / ViArt / UberCart)

      4. Membership site - free & paid content, members automatically become promotional partners (Butterfly Marketing, aMemberPro, Post Member Pro)

      5. Resource site - lists information / provides tool(s) to be used on the site (Varies)

      6. Community site - brings people together (social media/networks) (Drupal)

      7. Media site - publishes free content (Drupal)

    2. Best Practices for Each Website Type

      1. Brochure site

        1. Best for: offline services

        2. Home Page – What I can do for you

        3. About Me – Credentials and Background

        4. My Services – Overview of benefits offered (pre-sale process)

        5. Contact Me – Contact Form & other means of contact

      2. Mini-site - sells a single product/service "package", possibly with options

        1. Best for: single product/package

        2. Single page – no distractions

        3. Salesletter with optional mailing list offer

        4. Link to Order Page (separate)

        5. Order Page summarizes offer and benefits

        6. Thank You page provides necessary details and followup offer (affiliate/in-house)

      3. Shopping Cart site - sells multiple products /services (CubeCart recommended)

        1. Best for: large-scale retail sales (more than 2 dozen product choices)

        2. Home Page sets context – usually lots of graphics and news of special offers

        3. Browse categories and search easily found

        4. Informational pages to establish trust, value, and motivate sales

        5. Product (or category) descriptions as sales pages

        6. Focus on simplicity, value, and benefits

      4. Membership site - free & paid content, members automatically become promotional partners (Butterfly Marketing)

        1. Best for: Few product choices, regularly updated material

        2. Home page offers free membership option, describes paid options at regular price

        3. OTO for paid option at reduced price

        4. Members given affiliate status and extensive collection of marketing tools

        5. Members area includes ads for other products

        6. Content updates to encourage membership upgrades, renewals, and referrals

      5. Resource site - lists information / provides tool(s) to be used on the site

        1. Best for: promoting affiliate products & advertising

        2. Home page sells the directory service / tool(s), offers mailing list for updates

        3. Directory pages categorize content and provides short descriptions

        4. Detail pages provide complete reviews, gives affiliate link

        5. Once you know your average $/visitor, you can maximize your advertising

      6. Community site - brings people together (social media/networks)

        1. Best for: Attracting groups of people to a topic or cause

        2. Home page describes the main topic and leads visitor to join

        3. CMS used to manage content & communication (Drupal recommended)

        4. Provide for: forums, private messages, personal pages, blogging, etc.

        5. Make sure everything is easy to understand and use

      7. Media site - publishes free content (Drupal recommended)

        1. Best for: news sites supported by advertising

        2. Content provided by authors / reporters / news wires

        3. Think: NYT, YouTube, Yahoo, Blogger, Wikipedia, etc.

        4. Popular content categories directly accessible, browsing for other categories

        5. Frequent content updates focusing on audience preferences

    3. Minimal cost approach (Mini-site w/ PayPal)

    4. Maximum results approach (Butterfly Marketing site w/ Shopping Cart & More)

      1. Butterfly Marketing site (free content w/ OTO upsells & downsells, 2-tier affiliates)

      2. Members-only community sub-site w/ ads for affiliate & in-house products

      3. Members-only shopping cart sub-site

  6. References & Resources

    1. Website Software & Services

      1. OpenOffice / SeaMonkey for HTML-based Brochure / Mini-site / Resource sites

      2. CubeCart / ViArt / UberCart for Shopping cart / catalog sites

      3. aMemberPro / Post Member Pro / Butterfly Marketing for membership sites

      4. Drupal / Wordpress for Community / Media sites

    2. Further Information

    3. Consulting, Technical, & Copywriting Services

 

Alan, from what I have read

Submitted by Mary K on Mon, 03/23/2009 - 00:51.

Alan, from what I have read you have covered everything in the Kit.   It's a fantastic layout and worth mega-bucks!.

 

I've seen a few, which promise a lot and deliver very little.   This Kit covered everything a person needs to know to be able to start on-line, or take their business to the next level.

 

Will you be including templates?  Of say, sales letters?   Which can be altered to suit an individual company/person.  

 

Also template web sites?   I know that the editors have their own but will you have an 'example' page for each type of site?   As layout is important, I was wondering if you were going to include examples.

Thanks for your comments,

Submitted by AlanTutt on Mon, 03/23/2009 - 10:15.

Thanks for your comments, Mary.  My intention is for this first version of the Kit to be easily worth $297 or more.  Eventually, I'll add enough detailed material to push it up to the $1000 level.

 

Templates would be a great idea, and I'll probably add them later.  For the moment, I'll probably just point to good examples of the different types of sites.  Actually, what I will eventually do is very similar to what Mike Filsaime did with his Butterfly Marketing course, which is to include software to run the recommended type(s) of websites.  Or at least include a subscription to a service that will handle the server details, much like 1ShoppingCart.com, where they provide checkout services, affiliate management, ad tracking, autoresponders, etc.  It will be AT LEAST a year before that happens, though.

 

For sales letters, I purchased resale rights to an excellent guide to writing sales copy.  Bob Serling's "Power Copywriting for the Internet" is the BEST course on copywriting I've ever seen.  Very detailed and step-by-step, while also covering the overall picture.  I'll also be including my own Keys To Power Persuasion course, which covers a lot of great information on both the underlying principles as well as the actual implementation of persuasive language.  Between the two, you'll have everything you need to write compelling sales letters.  (And these 2 alone are easily worth $200+.)

 

After I posted the outline, I realized there was more I wanted to include with the Core Concepts / Strategies section.  So I pulled out my Jay Abraham and Dan Kennedy books and skimmed though for ideas.  Came up with over 3 pages of notes of things I forgot to write down in the outline, yet are very important for creating business success.  I'll post an updated outline later.

Alan, hit the wrong button,

Submitted by Mary K on Mon, 03/23/2009 - 20:42.

Alan, hit the wrong button, so hope this doesn't get posted twice:).

 

First, I personally think you are under valuing the kit at $297+ it's worth a lot more than that.  A conservative figure I feel is $500 +.  I know of one kit available, no names, which is priced at $999.00 and promises a lot but actually delivers very little, a friend tried it and was very disappointed.

 

Great idea to bring out an 'up dated' kit in about a year's time.   It will be a good one, for there will already be a hot market.   It could be in two 'pieces' an update for the original or the option to buy the  entire original kit plus the update.  Double selling power?.  Capture a new buyer plus update the existing buyers.

 

That's a great idea to point the way to good well laid out sites.   As layout is a key point (at least it appears to be from what I have read around the traps) having a very good example would be great.   Templates can at times be frustrating, as you cannot always do exactly what you want...I know I've tried:).

 

The Keys to Power Persuasion is excellent, I have the mini report and re-read it constantly, it's helped me so much.  The full version I am sure is worth $200. alone.  I don't know the other person but can well believe he's very good if he comes recommended by yourself.

 

In the strategies section will you be including anything on Keyword Research?.   There is so much information around and a lot is very conflicting.  It appears to me to be a very subjective area.   Also a lot of the information is out of date.   I realize that the internet, especially the big search engines, keep changing/updating their programs but even so, it can be very frustrating for a new person to keep reading so much conflicting information and to find that so many 'excellent' totally reliable services are no longer in existence, or change beyond recognition.

 

Personally, I follow some advice I saw on a forum.  It was simple, made sense and has worked pretty well for me.

 

Write for the reader FIRST.  use your keywords in the title, scattered through the body and in the closing paragraph.  

 

But with all the information about 'long tail keywords' etc. a succint guide would be very useful:).

 

Some keyword research

Submitted by AlanTutt on Tue, 03/24/2009 - 14:33.

Some keyword research information will be included in this first version of the Kit, although not a lot.  I do very little SEO work on my sites and pretty much depend on referrals from PEOPLE, not search engines.  I figure that there are so many people tring to get their websites listed on the first page, that it would be an uphill battle to get anywhere close to it.  And with the search engines changing their formulas every so often, it's a never ending process.  Personally, I don't want to work that hard.

 

So I focus on writing my websites for my visitors and let the search engines do what they want with it.  Yes, doing the little things like putting a hot keyword in the title, headings, and throughout the page does help, as do a few other tricks here and there, like linking to other sites that list high in the search engines for the keyword you're targeting on that specific page.  Amazingly enough, one way links OUT of your site can actually help your own rankings in the search engines -- or at least this tactic worked when I used it a few years ago.  Haven't tried it recently, so the data is old.

 

When I price my products, I try to find a balance between what I feel it's worth and what I think others will pay for it.  Considering that I'm not well-known as a "marketing guru", and the Kit is focused more on marketing than anything else, it's better for me to price it lower than it should be to overcome the lack of recognition in this field.  One of the major mistakes I made early on was in not releasing low-cost products to get my name "out there" and build my reputation.  Since the marketing field is practically a new business for me, I'm doing it different now.

Thank goodness!  I am totally

Submitted by Mary K on Tue, 03/24/2009 - 22:50.

Thank goodness!  I am totally fed-up with spending time on keyword research.  Alan your approach works for you, so it's the one I am going to adopt from now on.   I spent days and days stretching into weeks originally, trying to fathom out what everyone was talking about (they must have a lot of spare time) on the forums.   There were posts/replies ad infinitum until my head was just spinning and I honestly thought I would never get "it" at all.   I kinda gave up and decided to just allow the Universe to work things out for me.   Which it did, because without even really trying I have managed to get consistently decent rankings with the three top search engines & some smaller ones too, with quite often more than one page...I do check periodically when I have nothing else to do.  But I stopped obessing over it.  I have actually found Twitter is a good source, though I am by no means an expert on that.  There's now a flood of videos etc. on how to become a  Twitter expert".  Again, I don't obses over it, just take a quick look at the good ones and do my own thing:).

 

 

I have a relatively large number of links going out from my site, so that one appears to be working well. 

 

I also did the comment on other people's sites etc. and still do ocassionally when I have a spare moment.  I did try a piece of software, which a friend sent to me, which is supposed to find good sites/blogs relevant to your subject.  However, I found that it wasn't all that effective, bringing up some really weird sites not at all relevant to my subject matter.  So again, I just give it a shot when I feel so inclined, or have a few minutes to spare where I don't want to start anything big.

So glad to know I am in good company:).

 

I see your point Alan about the pricing but to be honest, whilst you are not maybe a 'guru' on marketing, you offer more than the 'gurus'.  Plus of course your own time and honesty.   I am glad though that you are keeping the price lower, because what you offer is so needed and a lot of people just cannot afford the huge prices charged.

 

I will adopt that principle myself in pricing anything.  I have never really wanted to have 'big ticket' items which only a few select people can afford.  I want to reach out to the people who REALLY need help and most importantly have the desire to succeed.

 

I think from memory Willie Crawford used the lower price higher turnover, I know he never appeared to go for the massive prices.   He's semi-retired now so he's not really promoting his wares.  He's one of the few people I would trust.  I'm not saying that all 'gurus' are dishonest but I do think they forget where they themselves quite often started out from...dead broke!.  And as such, sell/promote only the high price tags.

 

I saw what I considered to be a very arrogant comment on a forum that if people cannot afford to spend money on software etc. then they shouldn't be in internet-marketing.   Well I personally know one person who was dead broke four years ago and is now making quite a good living from internet-marketing.  He may not be in the top bracket wealth wise but he's not exactly broke either.  He too helps others...what goes around comes around!.