Month: August 2020

Million Dollar Video Ad Script Templates | Feel Free to Use

The other day I wanted to create some ads to place on YouTube.

No big deal, right?

Except that the right ad can make a fortune, while the wrong ad would cost me time and money with no return. I knew I had to get this right, so I did what most people do… I went online and searched for help.

And searched.

And searched.

Surprisingly, I could find very little about how to craft a 30-60 second ad for YouTube that will pull in the customers.

And maybe you’ve been faced with the same dilemma. Asking around, I discovered that for most marketers who want to use short video ads on YouTube, Facebook and so forth, the sticking point is creating the ad itself.

When a great ad can literally give you a license to print money on demand, and a lousy ad will rob you of time and money, there should be more information on how to craft these ads.

In fact, there should be TEMPLATES.

Follow the template, outline your ad and then create it and profit.

Good news! With further research and help from people who run video ads all the time, I now know how to create profitable video ads for almost anything.

And today I’m going to share this information with you, giving you not just one, but 10 simple templates you can use to create high converting ads that target your very best prospects.

No matter what you might be selling or what action you want your prospects to take, I think you’ll find a video ad script below that will work for your purpose.

First, let’s cover a few general principles that apply to all video ads…

Getting Ready to Write Your Script

There are certain elements that are consistent, regardless of what type of video you are making.

The process begins not with a template, but with questions you need to answer about your target audience, your offer and exactly what you want to happen next. The better you can answer these questions, the more effective your video can be at converting your prospect to the next step, whatever that might be.

Questions:

What’s the main purpose of this video?

Is it to get viewers to your sales page?

To get them to sign up for your email list?

To visit your blog, view a more in-depth video, sign up for a webinar or join your social media group?

Do you want them to text or call you?

You must have a concrete idea of what you want your viewers to do once they’ve finished watching your video. You only get ONE choice here – one place to send them.

It’s almost always a terrible idea to try to sell them on a purchase in a short video ad, but 60 seconds is plenty of time to convince them to take a smaller action, such as visiting your sales or squeeze page.

Who is your exact target audience?

It is freshly unemployed people looking to make extra income?

Middle aged women who want to lose weight?

Professionals who need help with retirement planning?

Beginning vegetable gardeners who need a game plan for raising, harvesting and processing enough produce to feed their family for a year?

It’s vital that you know EXACTLY who you are targeting. This should be your IDEAL customer, the one who is most likely to purchase your product or service.

You’re going to speak directly to them and not to the masses. Remember, if you try to appeal to everyone, then no one will be interested in what you offer. Every word you use should appeal to your very best prospect.

What is their problem that you are going to solve for them?

Not their 5 or 10 problems, but that one BIG problem that they need solved ASAP. Because this is a SHORT video, it must be focused on solving ONE problem with ONE solution – your solution.

How does your solution help them solve their problem?

After answering the previous questions, this one should be easy and clear cut. If it’s not, you’re on the wrong track. Exactly how is your solution the right solution for them?

For example, let’s say you’re targeting busy, intelligent women age 40 – 60 who are 50 pounds or more overweight and just learned their health is deteriorating because of their weight. Your goal is to get them onto your list and sell them on your $500 coaching program. Your solution to their problem is your program designed just for their needs. This program helps them lose 2 – 3 pounds every week without going hungry, without time-consuming meal prep, without expensive foods and supplements and without hours of painful exercise. And you’re going to give them this solution with a free 5-day training program (that sells your $500 coaching course) which they receive just for visiting your page (where you capture their email address and ask them to sign up to your Facebook Group, where you hold the live lessons).

That was just an example, of course. Maybe you’re simply sending them a free cheat sheet or lead magnet. Or sending them to your sales page (be sure to capture their email address) and using retargeting for those who don’t buy the first time. The options are limitless when you’ve got the templates to do high-converting video ads.

Let’s dive into those templates right now…

1: Classic Video Ad

This is the simplest copy framework – the same one used in many sales letters – and it works like this:

Problem – Spotlight the painful problem your prospects are facing

Agitate – Magnify the underlying pain behind the problem, accessing your viewer’s emotions

Solution – Show them how to solve this painful problem with your solution

The problem
should be the biggest, most painful problem that your prospects are facing that your product solves. In a one-minute video ad, for example, you do not have time to cover more than one problem. Pick your best one and make it good. This might even be a hidden problem beneath the obvious problem. For example, the hidden problem might be embarrassment at not having any energy and always feeling tired, when the main problem is needing to lose weight.

Main problem: Do you want to lose weight?

Hidden problem: Do you avoid certain activities with friends because you are embarrassed by your appearance and your inability to keep up?

You can see that the second approach can be much more compelling than the first one.

Agitating the problem is when you make your viewers feel the pain of having this problem. Ideally, you want to create contrast between the painful problem and the relief you are about to offer in the solution.

Be sure the agitation is as relevant to the type of person you are targeting as the problem itself.

Problem: Do you avoid certain activities with friends because you are embarrassed by your appearance and your inability to keep up?

Agitation: Do you wonder if your friends secretly joke about your weight when you’re not there? Are you worried that your spouse will leave you for someone thinner who can keep up with their active lifestyle?

To find pain points and ways to agitate the problem, research what others say about the problem. Dig deep and find out why they really want the solution they seek, and then use their own words in the video.

The solution is ideally reached in 30 seconds or sooner in your video.

Here’s what that might look like:

Do you avoid certain activities with friends because you are embarrassed by your appearance and your inability to keep up?

Do you wonder if your friends secretly joke about your weight when you’re not there? Are you worried that your spouse will leave you for someone thinner who can keep up with their active lifestyle?

Despite what everyone tells you, if you’re more than 25 pounds overweight then simply eating less and exercising more will not help you to lose significant weight. That’s because metabolic syndrome is very likely keeping you fat as well as endangering your health.

But it is possible to naturally reset your damaged metabolism and lose the weight without starving, without crazy exercise and without dangerous pills or potions.

Now introduce your solution and explain how your product will fulfill the promise you’ve made. This section will likely be the bulk of your script, but don’t go overboard here. Simply communicate enough information to get your viewers to take the next action you seek, whether that’s signing up to get your lead magnet, visiting a website, joining a Facebook Group or anything else.

2: The Before, After and Bridge Script

This is somewhat similar to the first script. In fact, most of these scripts have similarities.

Here’s the outline for this one:

Before: “This is your life right now, and it stinks.”

After: “Just imagine how glorious your life would be without this problem or with this benefit.”

Bridge:
“Here’s how you get from the stinky before to the glorious after.”

Your goal here is to paint two pictures in your prospect’s brain – the before and the after – and then show how to get from the awful place they are in to the wonderful place they want to be.

Real estate agents do this when they hold open houses. You might not even be seriously interested in moving. Maybe you’re just bored and looking for a way to pass the time, so you figure you’ll snoop in other people’s homes during the open houses held by real estate agents to show off homes.

Did you know that most homes are NOT sold through these open houses? And yet agents still hold them because they know this is a great way to find buyers. When you start looking at the gorgeous homes you DON’T have and then you go home to your small, dull house and compare what you’ve seen to where you’re living, you’ve got a ‘before’ and an ‘after’ stuck in your mind. And the difference between these two pictures might be all it takes to get you to start seriously shopping for a new house.

This is what you want to accomplish in your video. Remind your prospect of how miserable their current situation is and contrast that with what they could have if they get your solution.

3: The Promise, Picture, Proof and Push Script

What if your product doesn’t solve a big problem? Or what if your audience is not yet aware they have this problem?

Then it’s time to try the 4 P’s.

Promise – Make a bold claim that causes viewers to snap to attention

Picture – Get viewers to imagine their life once they get this promised benefit

Proof – Explain how your solution works and back it with supporting proof.

Push – Recap what you’ve just explained in a very clear manner and then give viewers specific instructions on what to do next.

This is your go-to script when you there is no major pain to be solved. For example, when computers were first introduced, few people felt there was a major gap in their lives because they didn’t have one. The same goes for MP3 players, smart phones and just about any new technological advance.

When you’re filling a need people don’t know they have, you can’t talk about the pain of not fulfilling this unknown and uncared about need. Instead, you talk about the big benefit or claim, paint a pretty picture of having this product, prove that it works and give viewers a little push in the right direction.

More Video Ad Templates:

Those first 3 templates are enough to cover 80% or more of your video ad needs.

But because I’m pretty sure you can’t have too many video ad templates in your arsenal, and because there will be times when you need something different, I’m going to quickly share a few more with you in just a moment.

Also, there might be times when the purpose of your video isn’t to directly sell, but instead to explain something, make an announcement and so forth.

Your video is still short, direct and to the point like a video ad, but the main goal isn’t necessarily selling the click. At least, you’re not looking like you’re selling the click. Paradoxically, there can be times when you will get a greater response from not selling than selling.

For example, when an icon in your industry passes on, you might do a short tribute video to that individual. That last thing you want to do here is end the video with, “Buy our product!” Companies get lambasted, flamed, roasted and toasted for doing this. But tactfully placing your business name in the closing frame is fine. People who loved this person see your video and are moved to find your site or reach out to you on social media.

That’s just one example, and I’m sure you’ll run into many more as you do more and more marketing.

And there are even more occasions when you need a quick video that adds to the selling experience, such as a video to explain how your service fulfillment works, a video testimonial for your product, an interview of a case study and so forth.

But since the main purpose of the majority of your videos ads will likely be to sell, most of the following scripts I’ve chosen here can also be used to promote your products as well.

Here then are 5 more templates you can use for making your next video ads:

4: The Video Announcement

This can be to announce anything newsworthy to your audience, including the release of new products, adding more features to an existing product, an awesome offer or sale of a product they’re already familiar with and so forth.

In general, you’ll use an outline like this:

Short introduction – This is one of two sentences designed to grab attention and introduce the BIG NEWS you have. This might be in the form of a question, such as…

“Are you sick and tired of being terrified of catching the Coronavirus every time you leave your home? When you come home, do you spend the next 14 days waiting to see if you get sick?”

Main message
– Next is the big picture of the news you’re sharing.

“Vira-Shield can protect you from 99% of airborne virus and bacteria particles in the air.”

Details – You’ve given them the big picture, now zoom in and give them the details.

“It’s comfortable, it keeps you cool and breathing is a breeze. Not only that, but when worn correctly it is proven to filter out 99% of dust, bacteria and viruses – including Covid-19 – by a double-blind University of Nox scientific study. Plus, you look like a total badass when you wear it, too.”

Call to action
– What should they do right now?

“Click here right now to choose one of 14 colors and finally enjoy peace of mind whenever you leave home.”

I gotta tell you, If I saw this video I would be clicking that link so fast my mouse would melt.

5: The Struggling Hero Video

This video is great for explaining almost anything that involves solving a problem. Added points if you can make it memorable, too.

The struggling hero starts with a character who is struggling with the same problem as your audience (I know, what a coincidence, right?). This works spectacularly in animation, but you can use real people or a slideshow.

Introduction and Problem – Introduce your character and his/her problem.

“Meet Bob. Bob is feeling sad because people have been avoiding him lately – even his wife Jill, and Bob’s afraid it’s because of his bad breath. In fact, it’s gotten so bad, even his dog Rex has been staying a leash length away from Bob.”

Solution – Introduce the solution, giving the big benefit. Your hero can be introduced to the solution by another person, stumble upon it by himself, or the narrator can speak directly to him.

“Bob, have you tried Tasty8 Mouth Rinse? It’s proven to eliminate even the worst mouth odors for 8 whole hours.”

How it Works and Results – Now go into detail.

“Tasty8 Mouth Rinse uses three different kinds of bacteria neutralizing agents to completely rid your mouth of odors and leave your breath fresh and tingly clean for a whole 8 hours. Just rinse for 30 seconds and you’ll have breath so fresh your confidence will soar and women will throw themselves at you. Or at any rate, your wife will at least kiss you again.”

(You do realize I’m making this up off the top of my head, right?)

Call to Action
– “Visit our site right now for a 20% off coupon when you sign up for our plain brown wrapper auto ship program.”

6: Breakthrough Video

This type of video explains something new of a breakthrough nature. If you have a unique solution to a problem, for example, then this is the script to use. Because you want to get to your breakthrough as fast as possible, you’re going to immediately start with the…

Problem – what is the problem and why is it so terrible?

“Your friends are afraid to tell you that your cat’s litter box smells worse than you think – a LOT worse. In fact, they’re talking behind your back about how they hate visiting your house because it’s so bad.”

Hopelessness
– there was no real solution until YOUR solution.

“Until now, all you could do was try to cover the smell with scents or clean the litter boxes multiple times per day.

Unique Solution and Why it Works – why and how is your solution so much better or more advanced than anything else out there?

“But thanks to our exciting discovery, your friends will never again be afraid to enter your house. Miracle Cat Litter with exclusive odor absorbing clay beads harvested from the Valley of the Picas removes 99.979% of all odors. These amazing clay beads are just the size of pinheads, yet they can remove 1000 times their own weight in odor. And they’re completely natural and healthy, with no toxic chemicals or perfumes to hurt your kitty.”

Call to Action

“Visit our website now to see Miracle Cat Litter in action with our exclusive Smell-o-Vision technology and get your coupon for 25% off your first bag.”

Smell-O-Vision?? Sure, why not…

7: One of the Gang Videos

Your first goal with this video is to establish common ground. It could be “us against them” such as a common enemy, or simply “you’re not alone” in having this problem.

Establish the Common Interest – You can ask a question, make a statement, let them know they are not alone or point out the common enemy.

“Don’t you hate it when your coworker in the next cubicle just won’t shut up? This happened to me and she almost got me fired.”

Problem – what’s the problem you’re going to solve?

“I know exactly what it’s like to continuously be bothered with distractions at work. Because I couldn’t get any work done or even think straight with this coworker continuously talking, my boss thought I was slacking off. He was going to fire me and I knew I had to do something quick.”

Solution – “Thank goodness, I discovered Pure Quiet Headphones. When I slip these on all background noise disappears. I can’t even hear my coworker, and she’s only 6 feet away.”

How it Works
– “These headphones work by canceling out all incoming noise, as well as generating a very soft brown noise that helps my brain to intensely focus on my work. Now I get twice as much work done in half the time. I’ve gotten two promotions in 14 months and my pay has doubled. Just imagine what these Pure Quiet Headphones can do for you!”

Call to Action – “Visit our website for a no-risk trial today.”

8: The Talk Show Sales Ad

I love these because they’re ads cleverly disguised as interviews. Most everyone likes interviews and talk shows. The back and forth repartee keeps it lively and interesting, like listening in on a private conversation between an expert and someone who knows how to extract all the best info from him or her.

Place a video interview in your sales funnel and people won’t even realize at first that they are being sold to. If we think about the webinar in which someone interviews the expert – but you call it an interview instead – then you’ll get the idea.

One note about the talk show or interview ad is this: If you’re looking for brevity, this format is seldom the answer. When is the last time you heard a one-minute talk show? But if you have at least 5 minutes or more, then you might consider this one.

For your ‘interview,’ write down the key points and then have a real conversation using this outline:

Introduction
– the person doing the interview introduces herself and then the expert, explaining what problem they’re going to discuss (solve) in this interview.

Establish credibility – The person doing the interview asks a question to get things rolling such as this person’s experience in solving this problem.

Agitate the problem – Then they might go in depth on the problem; why it’s terrible and why it needs to be solved.

Give hope – The person being interviewed can talk about how they had this problem or how some of their customers or clients had this problem and what an enormous difference it made when the problem was solved.

Other solutions
– Then they talk about various well-known solutions, and what is wrong with each solution or why they are problematic or difficult to implement, all while letting listeners know there is a better way which they will talk about in just a moment.

The Solution
– Finally they talk about the solution they want the audience to embrace. Time wise this takes about one third of the interview.

Call to action
– And lastly there is the call to action.

9: Video Testimonial

This is super simple and short. But never underestimate the power of a video testimonial, especially if the speaker is well-known or has some sort of implied credibility such as being the CEO of a company.

Introduction
– the speaker introduces herself. “Hello, I’m Elizabeth Michaels, Marketing Vice President for Incapacitated Pharmaceuticals.”

The Problem Statement – this is what came before your brilliant solution.

“Before the Hypnotized Doctor App, we had to send sales reps out to convince doctors to prescribe our drugs.”

Results – what’s the result of using your solution?

“But then we got smart and hired Bob’s Hackers to break into every doctor’s phone and install the Hypnotized Doctor App. Now we never need to send out sales reps because every doctor in the country is continually hypnotized while they sleep to prescribe our drugs to every patient they see. Our sales are through the roof, our shareholders are happy and I’m about to retire to a South Seas island with no extradition laws.”

Conclusion – the person giving the testimonial can make a recommendation to anyone watching.

“If you want to influence doctors, just do what we did and in a few short weeks you can be retiring, too!”

To any pharma reps or companies out there… just kidding!

To any doctors reading this… you might want to check your phone. Just in case.

10: Story Video

This one is my favorite. I should probably use it more because everyone – EVERYONE – pays attention to a story that captivates them. And the payoff for a story video can be high if it happens to go viral on social media. But this one also seems like more work to me, which is why I don’t often take the time to use it.

To be fair, most of the other scripts do incorporate a bit of a story arc. For example, here’s where you are (it sucks!) here’s where you could be (it’s wonderful!) and here’s how to get there.

But to do a real story video, you’ll want to use this basic story structure that has been working for literally thousands of years:

Inciting Incident – The hero’s normal life is disrupted by some event that provides a challenge or goal.

(Woman receives an invitation to her 25th high school reunion and is horrified to realize the ex-cheerleaders will make cruel jokes about how she looks.)

Turning Point – The hero gets busy and accepts the challenge or goes on the adventure or makes a decision to right a wrong, etc.

(Our hero decides she will absolutely lose the weight and get in shape for the reunion.)

Midpoint – After some success and some failure, the hero reaches a point of no return.

(Our hero loses a little weight but is starving and exhausted and can’t go on. Then one of the dreadful cheerleaders calls her to see if she’s coming, and she accidentally brags to this cheerleader about wearing the same outfit she wore on graduation day. Now she HAS TO lose the weight.)

Escalation – The hero has to risk everything to win, or the stakes have become unbearably high, or something has made it even more imperative that the hero wins.

(She has everything on the line now, because word has spread and everyone is expecting her to wear her graduation outfit.)

Final battle – the exhausted hero learns her biggest lesson from her worst failure.

(Her weight is right where it was and there are only 4 weeks left to the reunion. Starving and working out like crazy did NOT work. She is about to throw in the towel and not go to the reunion when she finds your program. She dives in and in 4 weeks she loses 30 pounds.)

Hero defeats the antagonist and finally achieves her goal.

(She wears that same sexy outfit she wore at graduation. The cheerleaders (who have all gained weight) are green with envy. The high school quarterback asks her to dance. Sparks fly. The end.)

That’s a LOT to fit into a short video but it can be done. Animation works really well for this.

And there you have it – 10 different scripts you can use for your ads and a whole lot more. Keep these handy because you’ll find they can also work well for other mediums beside video. For example, doing live calls, writing sales copy, email marketing and more.

A few things:

• Watch your pacing
• Never use more words than you need
• Make every word you do use count
• Never, ever be boring

And have fun! Making video ads can be a blast because they are so short. It’s excellent practice for making longer videos, and it’s a skill you’ll always be able to use in your marketing.

Irving

What are Seth Godin’s 10 Rules for Your Success?

What are Seth Godin’s 10 Rules for Your Success?

Seth has published 17 books and has the number one blog in marketing, according to Ad Age Power.

Here are Seth’s 10 Golden Rules for Your Success.

1: Do it Your Way. Seth has a blog but until very recently he didn’t have a podcast. He still doesn’t have Twitter. Or video. Or even comments on his blog. Seth decided that it would just be him and his blog, one post per day, and we weren’t going to pay attention to what other people told him he was ‘supposed’ to be doing. As he says, you don’t have to like his blog, but it’s the only one like it because he did it his way instead of copying what others are doing.

Seth has chosen not to focus on his blog stats, either, because he doesn’t want to work towards having a more popular blog. Instead, he wants to receive the kind of emails that say, “I’ve been reading your blog for six weeks and look what I changed in my life. Thank you for inspiring me to do that.”

2: Tell Your Story. Tell a story that resonates with your audience. People remember stories that match the way they want to see the world. When Seth meets small-business people, he’s not interested in their balance sheet. He wants to know their story.

Why should the customer pick you? Why should the customer care about what you’re doing? 2% better than your competitor doesn’t win you the business. Having your own unique story that sets you apart from everyone else does.

3: Be Patiently Impatient. Or perhaps impatiently patient. Do what you have to do to succeed and do it fast if at all possible. But realize that success can take time.

You set up a brand new social media channel in no time at all, but no one is using it – should you close it down and do something else? It took Twitter 2 years to catch on. Imagine if they had given up after a few weeks or months.

4: Refuse to Settle for Average. Anyone can be average, and any business can be average. But what’s the point? No one has ever said, “Ooh, that business is so average, let’s use them!”

You can choose to stand out in your field, or you can choose to create an entirely new field. Either one works.

5: Your Product is Your Marketing. Did Google advertise? Did Facebook, Amazon or eBay advertise? No. But what they did do is make something people talked about.

If you can come up with a profitable idea that gets people talking then you’ll never have to advertise.

6: Spread Your Ideas. Hold your idea close, tell no one and soon you’ll see another business using that very same idea to make their next fortune. “Hey, they stole that idea from me,” you’ll say.

Nope. Ideas are everywhere and your ideas are not exclusive to you. Other people are having the exact same great idea you’re having. That’s why when you have a great idea, you should act upon it immediately and spread it in such a way that people take notice and pass it forward to others.

7: Choose Carefully. There are an infinite number of things you could be doing now, tomorrow, next week. And there are an almost infinite number of businesses you can start, choices to make, roads to follow… choose carefully.

But once you choose something, don’t second guess your choice.

8: Life is a Series of Dips and Rises. Things won’t always work out perfectly. You might make a mistake so big it looks like things are over.

But as long as you get back up one more time than you fall, you’ll be better than okay.

9: Navigate without a Map. Going to work for one company and retiring there 40 years later is what your grandpa did, not you. For the last 2 -3 decades, Fortune 500 companies have created zero jobs.

The future is being built by people like you – entrepreneurs. There are no rule books and no maps, except for this one: Help others get what they want and you can get what you want.

10: Create Something Remarkable. Remarkable means quite literally, something worth remarking about. Something worth telling others. A black and white cow is not remarkable, but a purple one is.

Be the purple cow.

Irving

Online Marketers: The One Simple Shift that will Catapult You to Success

It’s my opinion that any online marketer – regardless of niche – who doesn’t do the following is essentially hiking up a rocky mountain barefoot when s/he could be taking the ski lift.

Online marketing boils down to this: We either create our own products or choose affiliate products, and then we spend our precious time, energy and money getting people to BUY those products.

But only a relatively small percentage of marketers make the one simple shift that will catapult them to success.

I’m going to focus on product creators here but this applies to affiliate marketing as well.

Here’s the traditional launch a product method:

• You get an idea for a product.
• You do some research and you believe this product will sell well.
• You create the entire product.
• You create the entire sales funnel that will sell the product, including squeeze page, upsells, downsells, sales page, product delivery page, affiliate page, etc.
• You line up affiliates and convince them to promote your launch.
• You launch and you make sales and you don’t sleep for a week because of all the customer service requests and affiliate hand holding necessary.
• Then you pay affiliate commissions, pay affiliate bonuses, pay your web designers and copywriters and all of that if you haven’t already.
• You’re exhausted. And this didn’t make the kind of money you thought it would, so you…
• …start over with a new product and new sales funnel.
• You do this as quickly and as often as you can without going insane.
• Idea – product – funnel – affiliates – launch – repeat.
• You realize you’re working 60 hours a week.
• Within a few months or years, you are so burned out you wish you still held a job working for someone else.

Sound familiar?

Let’s add a twist.

• You get an idea for a continuity product like a membership, newsletter or software as a service.
• You do research to confirm this product will likely sell well.
• You create just a small portion of the product if it’s informational – about one month of content. If it’s software, you outsource the creation of it (unless you’re a coder, which you’re probably not, so let someone else do it for you).
• You create a page to offer either a free or $1 trial of the product. You could create an entire funnel, but you’re lazy so you just create the one page.
• You drive traffic (free or paid) and you get your initial members.
• You continue to get paid on those sales every single month.
• You see which traffic methods are working and you keep using those.
• You regularly update the product.
• You continue to get trial members, many of which continue as full paying members.
• You may or may not use affiliates – that’s totally up to you.
• This same membership sells for years. YEARS. Because you keep updating it.
• Life is good. You know how much money you will make next month. You work 10-20 hours a month.
• You’re not breaking your own spirit by continually having to create new products. There is no way you would ever get a ‘real’ job again.

This second scenario can be just a small launch, perhaps to your own list just to see if it’s going to sell well. You don’t have to sweat the 101 things that go along with a huge launch because this isn’t a: “Sell it hard and get out fast.” kind of thing. You’re selling this membership, newsletter or SAAS for months or years to come, and earning residual income, too.

You can start a membership site in a week and buy enough traffic to see if it’s a winner. If not, tweak it and try again, or get a better idea. You’re not out much money or time. (A full-blown launch can cost you hundreds of hours and a small fortune in copywriting, page design, affiliate contests and so forth.)

You’re essentially giving away initial access, so affiliates are optional. Fancy sales copy is optional. If you’re offering the right product to the right audience at the right price (free or $1) then selling just got a lot easier.

And it’s residual. $10 a month. $20 a month. $47 a month. You pick the price. You get 200 new trial members the first week and 100 stick with you – you can do the math. You get 200 new trial members every single week for 52 weeks and half of those stay in the membership for several months – you can do the math.

Yes, there is attrition. But if you’re offering the right newsletter or membership or software, that attrition rate can be surprisingly low. Think of a software someone needs to run their business. Are they going to cancel? Not unless you stop updating.

Think of a newsletter or membership that gives them the crucial info they need to succeed (business or personal, doesn’t matter). Are they going to cancel? No way.

I love products that pay residual income.

I sell my own and I sell other people’s residual products as an affiliate.

My reasoning is simple: Why work myself to death to create products that only pay me one time when I can create products that pay me over and over again? And these are products that I can keep selling for years to come.

Consider this: Do you want to do 2 to 4 major product launches each year? I know guys who do one per month. It’s crazy.

Or do you want to have maybe 1 or 2 products that you can continually sell for years that happen to bring you residual income, too?

Residual income might well be considered the 8th wonder of the business world. When you’re earning residual income, you have income security with LESS work than if you did a big fancy launch every 2 to 6 months.

Do you know what it takes to do a big launch? It’s exhausting. And when it’s over and the affiliates are paid and the bonuses are paid and all the expenses are handled, you realize that even though the launch went great (assuming it didn’t flop) you still didn’t make as much money as you thought you would.

Which is why you see marketers doing one big launch after another. It’s work and frankly it’s not fun.

If you wonder why so many ‘big name’ marketers come and go after a few years, this is the reason.

Be kind to yourself and work smart. Sell products with residual income.

Irving

Conversion Factors to Sell More Books | Try These Methods Now

(Plus Your Launch Schedule for Amazon’s Latest Algorithm Change)

To increase conversions of your book on Amazon, pay attention to these 6 items:

1: Your Book Cover – Don’t skimp here. Make it professional looking, eye-catching and readable in thumbnail size.

2: Your Book Title – Everything else being the same, a change of book title has been known to move a loser into the best-selling category.

3: Book Description – Think of your book description as a mini-sales letter. Every word should work to turn the prospect into a customer.

4: The Look Inside Sample (This is the table of contents and the first 5 to 10 pages) Make your table of contents compelling, with plenty of benefits and curiosity. Your first pages should highlight what the reader will get from reading your book – the benefits and changes they can expect, or the entertainment value. If it’s a work of fiction, your first pages and lead character need to capture the reader’s interest to the point where they care about the hero and MUST find out what happens next.

5: Price Point – This will depend on your genre. In some niches, 99 cents and even $2.99 books sell well. In other niches, that low price point implies the book isn’t worth the customer’s time.

5.5: Reviews – Quantity of reviews can be almost as important as how many stars you average. Don’t panic when you get the occasional negative review – it makes your positive reviews that much more believable, and some negative reviews can actually increase sales. For example, a book on herbal remedies with a negative review from someone who only believes in pharma drugs is a positive to that book’s target market.

The higher your conversions – in other words, the more traffic you can convert into a sale – the more traffic Amazon will continue to send to your book page.

Focus on higher traffic, lower competition keywords. Choose categories with plenty of visibility that you can rank for (not so popular that you can’t compete and not so obscure that no one cares).

If possible, get pre-orders to help you reach the hot new releases list when your book launches. Plan to send an initial boost of traffic to your Amazon book page the day you launch as well as the next two days after that (72 hours total). This primes the Amazon traffic pump. When Amazon’s algorithm sees that traffic is purchasing your book, it will begin to send its own traffic.

To please Amazon’s latest algorithm change, your launch schedule might look like this:

Pre-launch – discount your book price and get pre-orders*, the more the merrier.

Day 1 of Launch – email your list and use social media. Today you’re sending all of your warm traffic to get your conversions high.

Day 2 and 3 – do everything you can to get more traffic, such as promotions, guesting on blogs and podcasts, getting your book featured on book blogs and so forth.

Days 4 – 7 – if you can continue the hard push, do so.

Day 8 – move your book to full price.

And as long as your book continues to convert well, Amazon will continue to send traffic your way.

*Let’s talk a little bit about Pre-orders

Pre-orders are obviously a great way to guarantee you’ll have sales on launch day, and you can start getting pre-orders before your book is even written, much less published.

(HINT: If you have a book idea, put it on Amazon for pre-orders. Then push traffic to it to see if it converts. If it doesn’t convert, tweak the 5.5 conversion factors listed above. If it still doesn’t convert, you might want to consider writing something else instead.)

Amazon has changed the preorder period from 90 days to a full 12 months.

And you can put your entire series of books up for sale before they are written – up to 10 books in a series. The power of writing a series – fiction or non-fiction – is that when a person buys one book and likes it, they are much more likely to buy more books in the same series.

Plus, you can promote all the other series’ books in each of the individual volumes.

Just make sure you can write and publish your entire series within 12 months.

Irving