There's an elephant in the internet marketing community that no one wants to talk about...
IF You Knew That Only 3 People Out of 100 That Purchased an Internet Marketing Program Would Earn a Profit…
... Would you invest your money and time in it?
Have you ever considered that only 2 or 3 out of every 100 people that buy a $1,000 online marketing program or attend a $5,000 marketing seminar ever earn a profit on that education?
Therefore, if a guru has a $5 million dollar launch of a $1,000 program ... they sold to 5,000 people. Of those 5,000 people only maybe 100 or 150 will actually earn more than the $1,000 they spent.
Think about that for a minute ... the other 4,900 are real people, with real families depending on them, with real hopes and real plans for their future ... can we do better?
Please understand … this group was NOT started to criticize the gurus having million dollar launches. Most of them are offering very valuable information. I don't think anyone really believes that Frank Kern, Jeff Walker, Eban Pagan, Rich Schefren, Perry Marshall, Ken McCarthy or any of the other biggies in this market are selling crap. In fact I personally believe they are all offering their best ideas and experience on how to start and grow your own business.
BUT … there is something missing between the delivery of information and the implementation or use of that information. I'm sure, even most of the gurus themselves struggle with how to address this very issue ... no one can be happy that 97 people out of every 100 that buy their stuff never earn more than they paid for it.
I'm sure that Ken McCarthy and others would say something like, "All I can do is work my butt off to deliver the best possible information. What people do with it is out of my hands…"
Which is kind of true … but can we strive for better?
This elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about is made up of thousands of real people. Real people with real credit cards that just keep growing and growing ...
Now I certainly am not interested in all the headaches that come with owning a franchise. But maybe we can learn a few things from the franchise industry. They do enjoy a 92% success rate (92 out of every 100 opened earn a profit). And according to the Beacon Business Journal, a McDonalds owner's average income is between $250,000 and $500,000 per year ... which means even though it costs about $1 million to buy your own McDonald's franchise you would be earning a mid-level six figure pure profit income by the 3rd year. And you would continue to enjoy that lifestyle for years to come... |
Of course McDonald's is building thousands of restaurants that are all exactly the same.
But aren't there marketing techniques that work in virtually every niche?
Aren't there business concepts and designs that work in virtually every niche?
Aren't there more businesses in need of a great marketing consultant than there are consultants? (just in case you doubt that last one, do a couple of searches on google ... there are thousands of businesses wasting millions of dollars begging for help)
Therefore...
My open question to anyone willing to throw out their ideas [no matter how crazy they might sound] is this …
"If YOU were going to address this issue, what are YOUR ideas/suggestions/concepts/etc.?"
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=> THINK BIG!!! <=
Could we get 20% or 30% or even 50% of people to a positive return on investment … in other words; could half of everyone who makes an investment in a guru's information earn more than they spent on the information?
Is this kind of success rate even possible?
I suspect Frank Kern and others would say something like, "You can't even get 50% of people to press their send button …"
But I hope I'm wrong. I hope some you will get excited about this issue, about how we might go about producing such an unbelievably high success rate?
=> What would it take to make 50% possible? <=
Please share your ideas below...
Who knows, maybe TOGETHER we can come up with something REVOLUTIONARY?
**Yes, this will add you to a list. And yes, you will have to confirm that you are a real person. I believe this is the least we can expect if we are to include you in this MOST IMPORTANT discussion.
(if you just want to follow the discussion? You can fill in your name & email only, without including a comment and you will be added to the notification list)
And in many cases that initial million dollar startup cost includes the money for advertising. (ie. if it costs a million for startup, the store, equipment, initial payroll, etc. may only cost half that and some of the remaining will be used for advertising). In essence you are pre-paying for your advertising, which is where many new businesses fail because they haven't budgeted properly for ads to bring in their initial customers.
… suggestion from … Withheld
A really confident guru should put their money where their mouth is and offer their information in exchange for a commission from the earnings received using their information!
… suggestion from … Withheld
The first step is to unsubscribe from all of the guru's email list. It's their interruptions that keep us from using the techniques they teach to do some work and make some money.
… suggestion from … Withheld
Maybe we can use some of those franchise ideas? I'm sure many people would rather have spent $100 bucks for an application and been rejected ... instead of $5,000 and have nothing to show for it.
We've actually done business on commission with clients for years ... but I'm not convinced it can work within this market or with a very large group of people.
However, I'm certainly willing to try it...
I'm also quite surprised that the first 3 suggestions were from people that didn't want their name shared ... anyone understand that? I thought all three offered a very good point and something that could be a part of a potential solution.
… suggestion from … Joseph Smith (An Actual 'Joe')
Ok, I'm not an Internet Marketing Firm, I'm a small ecommerce business guy. So let me give you my perspective: Most (not all, but most)SEO companies (based on my experience) have the greatest gig ever. They commit to NOTHING. "Pay me an 1 arm up front and 1 leg per month therafter, and we'll do our best. No guarentees though; can't control Google, ya know...". When asked what they are going to actually DO, they talk a bout basic keyword analysis and submitting to directories ("Woohoo!"). Most people have no idea what that is, so they say "ok", and if you DO happen to know a little more about SEO that the average Joe (get it...Joe?) then they tell you their tactics are proprietary trade secrets. I have interviewed TONS of SEO firms and I know of exactly ONE that would put their money where their mouth is; and take a guess if they are taking any new business. SEOs in general can work as little or as hard as they want, becasue their fees aren't tied to any performance benchmarks. No one expects for a marketing firm to guarantee an ROI, the product itself has a little something to do with that, but there should be some way to contractually prove your worth. (I guess I was supposed to come up with a suggestion, not just rant, huh. Oh, well...) FYI - I'm anonymous because my SEO guy may visit and read this. Am I happy with him? No. Do I feel like I have any other options? No.
… suggestion from … Withheld
Great idea! You seem to understand the struggles of a part-time newbie trying to make it full time online. I am a member of a web mastermind group and although I have learned a tremendous amount about online marketing and tools and skills needed to grow my business the problem is that there are just so many hours in the day. My strength is product creation. I love the online marketing aspect but I really need "people" to execute for me. I'd like to be part of this solution.
… suggestion from … Matt (but my Dad's name is Joe!)
Here's the problem. If I need a programmer I can go to Craigslist and find a million of GOOD ones - cheap. Why? Because they're programmers not marketing gurus. Same with most industries, I write children's books. I needed an artist and EASILY found a great starving artist. My web hosting guy lives down the street and does a wonderful job. But marketing people can to do for themselves what they do for others, which separates the playing field into 2 categories:
1) the ones everyone knows about because they have marketing themselves well: This group is too busy or too expensive for me
2) the Craigslist guy that has no internet presence who claims to be able to do for me, what he can't do for himself.
So that either leaves me breaking the bank and praying the GOOD marketing folks will hit the Home Run ball for me or being risk averse and hoping the craigslist guy is the diamond in the rough. Odds are I'm screwed either way. There's gotta be some middle ground...
… suggestion from … Eric
Hello all Joe brought up the same thing I have been thinking since I started getting these silly e-mails from Jeff Walker, how many people are actually going to make money off this stuff.
First off after listening to yesterdays video from Jeff, and his comments about stealth sales, and feedback I am wondering if this is yet another one of his ways of getting feedback to improve his product for the next version. He seems a little sneaky to me. My thoughts have been running along these lines since the first video.
1) Buy a Used copy of his new book/course somewhere online in a month or two.
2) Read through it.
3a) Use his techniques to gather customers.
3b) Also use his Blogs to gather customers (ie I now have your email address Joe@whatevergroup.com)I am sure you can grab up 1000 names that way. Here is the sale pitch to jeffs hacked list..... "I am working on implementing jeffs course on line and would like your opinion, feel free to use it and offer comments on any changes and or additions you may want. Please note the $10 dollar sign up fee is waived" ... LOL... Damn from just listening to his videos I used 3 of his techniques.
4) create a web site that follows his plan and charge $10 as a user registration fee.
5) get the person applying to sign a document stating they agree to give 10%-30%of the profits from the launch and residual sales for mentoring and usage of the utilities provided to them.
6) charge $1 per course/chapter they go through. The reson for the $1 dollar is to cover bandwidth costs because even with the mentoring and the tools alot of people are self failing.
7) For each course they go through open up another section of the web site to them in one easy to use interface. They start with the todo list. The first two courses are free. Each course opens another tool to them in the interface.
8) Each tool requires you to take a no charge course on its use.
9) at each stage we walk them through the set up of which external things they need to do, domain name, web hosting (this we could supply so if they are having problems we can help), Groups to post in, blogs, etc.
10) at each stage of development they are adding content to their project, Video, e-mails, people to their list, web pages, merchant account or paypal.
10a) they will be notified when they are behind schedual in the courses, and in what is needed out side the courses (hosting, web page dev,etc), via e-mail
11) come start day (the day of the first email, Blog Posting, yahoo group posting, MySpace whatever, etc) everything will be set up and on a timer that can be reset by them. ie: move this event forward, insert this here, don't use this item.
12) they are notified of every event via e-mail
12a) they are notified of every blog enty via e-mail.
12b) Fill in the blanks for other notifications All 12's will end up in the todo section of the interface.
14) the interface/system will be set up in such a way that multiple paths can be followed.
This idea is simple in that Jeffs course most people won't finish it, I intend to nag people via e-mail until they comply with each and every step. Most people will be over whelmed by a 1000 page course and ~20 CD's, with this way of doing it you see a small section and get a teaser of the next one or two sections which keeps you wanting more. Meaning I will use Jeff Walkers techniques to teach and assist the clients to succeed. I like Jeffs W's multi comment section, one for each video, it keeps the comments specifiec to the video. It also allows changing of the timeline of e-mails and videos.
David
… suggestion from … David
Yes, what you say rings true......so what is the best way to fix it? If you take a look at societies like The Association of Licensing Executives or CFAs (Chartered Financial Analysts) or even Toastmasters you will find that there is a mentoring program which is ongoing plus there is some kind of testing.
While I loath testing it may be that successful online marketing does need some kind of certification process plus a peer reviewed case study (mini thesis) to demonstrate that the "student" has in fact mastered the materials provided by the gurus. At the moment I am taking a "free" 90 day program in this area.
While I truly appreciate the eye opening information I am not sure that I am clicking correctly and it is taking an inordinately long time to identify niches and add autoresponders and so on. What I need is a reasonably priced "coach" that I can find through a web interface that can spend a few minutes to an hour with me at a time guiding me and reinforcing...shall I say this again reinforcing a pattern of behavior.
So to sum up, I am making 2 suggestions:
1) set up some kind of non profit or association to professionalize this field, organize state chapters and create an ongoing face-to-face/meet-up meetings network ...globally via the net; and
2) set up a coaching network that offers 24/7 service for a fair fee. Of course these ideas aren't going to make 90 out of a 100 succeed but perhaps we can get to 50 out of 100.
And of course we need to carefully define what we mean by success. Realistic benchmarks, achievable goals, realistic time frames.... I liked Eric's post...very savvy!
… suggestion from … Barton
By the way, that 92% franchise success figure is actually inflated. There have been studies that show that an independent small business survives at a higher percentage after 4 years vs. a franchise. I seem to recall a 4 yr. survivalship rate of 68% vs 62% in favor of the independent shop in one study. Consider the source of the 92% figure. It's probably coming from a franchise association.
Anyway, I think a good part of the failure rate can be attributed to laziness and/or fear of failure. I used to struggle with the fear of failure due to my own insecurities. Now after taking a few lumps, I realize it is not the end of the world to screw up now and then. In fact, I focus on screwing up at an increased rate, so I can get to what works much faster. Pretty trippy, eh?
IMO you can't put success in a bottle and package it for public consumption. I actually thought the guru efficacy figure would be more like 1 in 100 (I'm a cynical bastard) considering some of the prices these dudes charge for their "golden" advice. To my surprise, the folks who buy these courses are doing better than I thought.
So how can we improve this figure? Beats the hell out of me. My only advice (its free advice, so take it for what its worth) is to test a bunch of ideas out (most will fail despite your best intentions), but in the end, maybe you will stumble upon one that actually works.
… suggestion from … Grant