Special
Update: I've just learned that Corey Rudl (the
man who took a failing business and turned it into a $40 million
internet success story) is giving away FREE
ACCESS to his "Secrets To Their Success"
Private Web Site so that you can quickly discover the exact secrets
of "regular" people earning
extraordinary and STAGGERING 6-7 figure incomes EVERY SINGLE YEAR
online! Read and pay close attention to the...
"Case
study of a booming online cash-machine
that earned $400,000 last year -- with
a single product!"
By
Corey
Rudl
For
over a year and a half, my marketing team and I have published a
private web site -- "Secrets
To Their Success" -- that every month profiles two
successful entrepreneurs who are making $30,000 to $2,000,000 per
year with their Internet home businesses.
Each
interview tells a real-life story of hard work and dedication, but
every once in a while a success story really strikes a chord... and
I'm reminded of my own early start in the world of online marketing.
When
I interviewed 19-year-old Jermaine Griggs -- a college student who
earned $400,000 from his HearandPlay.com
web site last year -- I knew I simply had to share at least some of
his story with my "Marketing Tips" subscribers for a
couple of reasons.
First,
Jermaine's story is a lot like my own. He didn't start with any kind
of special knowledge or a whole lot of money. In fact, he grew up in
a rough neighborhood where his life could have easily gone wrong.
And
second, Jermaine is successfully using a ton of the strategies I
teach to my subscribers. So by sharing his interview with you, I'll
be showing you a real-life example of the success it's possible to
achieve with a few of the simple techniques I recommend.
As
you read this very special interview, keep in mind that the success
Jermaine has already achieved is just the beginnning... since he
keeps testing and refining his marketing strategies every day!
So
let's dive in and see exactly how Jermaine's doing it!
QUESTION:
Jermaine, to start with, would you mind giving our
readers some background on what your site is all about?
Jermaine:
HearandPlay.com
specializes in teaching students how to play the piano by ear.
The
site features over 60 free piano lessons and six newsletters ranging
from beginner lessons to advanced music theory. So there is a wide
variety of topics musicians can explore.
QUESTION: Can you tell us about how you
first got started on the Internet? What was your first web site, and
how did you grow from there?
Jermaine:
I
started on the Internet when I was about 15 years old. Basically, I
had become an affiliate of over 1,000 online merchants and had my
own virtual shopping mall. It took weeks to create -- but it only
made money from ONE web site that was willing to pay me $.50 per
click!
To
my surprise, at the age of 15, I received my first check for $800
(all based on click-throughs from my site to theirs). This was a
quarterly check, however, so I definitely couldn't get rich making
$266.66 a month.
After
that experience, I was thirsty for another venture. I had taught
myself how to play the piano by ear at the age of nine and had been
asked to teach several children in the community. I developed
workbooks for all of my students, composed of several exercises and
worksheets.
Then
one day a parent said to me, “You should sell these workbooks to
other piano students.” That thought had never really crossed my
mind. So I took what I had and I made some flyers and posted them in
laundromats, grocery stores, thrift shops, etc. No one called.
Then
I thought: “What about creating a web site marketing these piano
workbooks?” And to make a very long story short, that was how HearandPlay.com
started.
QUESTION: How did this site do when you
first launched it?
Jermaine:
Well,
I sold my first set of five music workbooks in November of 2000.
Boy, was I overjoyed. Since then, I have combined the five-book
series into a 300-page book (released in March 2002), which has been
a great success with revenues of over $200,000 so far!
I've
also created a software program aimed at helping students train
their ears. Basically, while students are studying my 300-page
course, this program will test them on the various sounds of
different scales and chords. I offer this program as a bonus item to
encourage customer orders.
QUESTION: Can you give us some
background on yourself? What was your experience before you first
got started online?
Jermaine:
Fortunately,
I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I say fortunately
because perhaps if I was, I wouldn't have had a reason to work so
hard for my success. My mom raised my sister and me all by herself
for most of our childhood. We grew up in the inner city and I could
have easily hung out with the wrong crowd, but my mom raised us in
the church.
When
I was 15, I went to live with my grandmother because she needed
someone around to help. That's when my first web site was conceived.
My grandmother would beg me to go to bed at night, but I would hear
this imaginary voice telling me to stay awake and work.
I
was always studying how to make money, how to market, what customers
wanted, what customers needed, what to do, and what not to do.
So
I am proof that it is possible to start a company from your home
with very little money and the right “know-how.” It all started
from my small office in the corner of the living room of my
grandma's one-bedroom apartment.
QUESTION: And how big is your site
today?
Jermaine:
Annual
revenues last year were about $200,000. This year, we project sales
to be in the $350,000 to $400,000 range, with 2004 forecast to hit
$500,000.
QUESTION: How long did it take for HearandPlay.com
to start making a profit?
Jermaine:
I
made just $60 my first month. It wasn't until March of 2002 that I
started making over $5,000 a month. That soon doubled, then
quadrupled.
QUESTION: How much
time and money did it take for you to initially get the site up and
running?
Jermaine:
I
spent $70 because I wanted a real domain name. Besides that initial
investment, I never really spent a dime to get started, just a lot
of time.
QUESTION: Did you design the site
yourself?
Jermaine:
I've
never outsourced any of my design, advertising, or other functions
of my business. Everything that you see on the site, I had to learn
how to do. That's why I stayed up so late at night, read so many
books, and invested in products that would teach me how to do what I
needed to do.
QUESTION: How much traffic are you
seeing to your site? And where is your traffic predominantly coming
from?
Jermaine:
We
get about 30,000 to 40,000 visitors a month, and roughly 15,000 of
them are new to the site. From that, I pull in about 3,000 to 3,500
new subscribers to my general newsletter each month. We currently
have a growing list of about 23,000 pianists who I've managed to
build a lot of credibility with.
The
bulk of our traffic comes from search engines and pay-per-click
placements.
QUESTION: What are you doing to collect
the opt-in e-mail addresses of potential customers?
Jermaine:
I've
included a pull-down menu on my homepage that lists all 60 of the
free lessons (as though you could actually click on one and go to
that lesson). But right next to the pull-down menu are fields that
ask for your first name and e-mail address. This form adds
subscribers to my general mailing list.
But
that's just the beginning...
After
they choose a lesson on the homepage, I take them to the second part
of the sign-up process, where they can subscribe to one of my six
specialized newsletters. (According to my stats, about 70% will do
this.) This second page collects more detailed information.
After
completing this form (which takes about a minute), they get access
to the member's section. That's how I collect so many names. Out of
15,000 new visitors a month, you have to admit that 3,000 sign-ups
is pretty good!
QUESTION: No kidding! That's a 20%
conversion rate! What strategies have you used to get your sign-up
rate so high?
Jermaine:
In
the beginning, I was averaging about 10 to 15 subscribers a day. I
needed a way to increase this number, so I did some research on how
other sites increase their newsletter lists quickly.
I
soon found out that all the sites I believed were making real money
at the time had one thing in common: They all had pop-ups. Not just
basic pop-ups, but more sophisticated ones. Some popped under where
you couldn't see them until you left the site. Some could pop up 10,
30, or 120 seconds after you left the site.
So
I thought, why not put some pop-ups on my site? I figured it
wouldn't annoy someone who actually wanted good information on
playing the piano by ear. Why risk the chance of them not seeing my
newsletter sign-up form when I can put it right in front of their
face?
No
matter what anyone says about pop-ups, they have increased my
subscriber rate by 10 times! I now get about 100 new members every
day!
QUESTION: How often
do you make a point of following up with your leads and previous
customers?
Jermaine:
Well,
I actually have a number of systems in place. I mail out my regular
newsletter once a month, but the specialized newsletters are all a
bit different.
For
the beginner's newsletter, for instance, I send new subscribers a
welcome letter and inform them that I will be sending them a 10-day
beginner's course by e-mail for free. If they don't want this free
e-mail course, they are instructed to unsubscribe (but of course, no
one does).
So
I get an opportunity to send them 10 consecutive e-mails for 10
days. You know how many end up ordering my 300-page course? About
60%!
I
have a 1% to 1.5% unsubscribe rate for my general newsletter, but
the unsubscribe rates for my specialized letters are under 1%.
Beyond
the monthly and specialized newsletters, each opt-in is
automatically put in a rotation to receive a message every 60 days
saying: “How is your piano playing coming along, Bob...?”
This
works out well because customers feel that we really want to help
them (which we do!). We even send out a message one year from the
date they first joined, saying: “It's been a year since your first
piano lessons with us, Marge...”
Not
only does each message contain a plug for my course, but each one
also helps establish credibility when they see how much they can
learn.
Follow
up is so important for me! I wouldn't be able to survive without it.
QUESTION: So what would you say are the
top marketing strategies that you use on a regular basis?
Jermaine:
- Search
engine sponsorship -- I make sure to stay in the top three
search results on Overture
pertaining to “piano lessons,” “learn piano,” “learn
piano by ear,” or any combination like that. I have about 250
to 300 search terms I use. I also use Google
AdWords from time to time.
My rule is that if a search engine doesn't produce $2 profit for
every $1 spent, I won't do it. So if I invest $1, I would expect
to make $3, of which $2 would be profit. The formula really
works and ultimately search engine sponsorship becomes a numbers
game.
- Affiliate
program -- I have about 350+ affiliates. Some draw thousands
of visitors a month, which turns into thousands of dollars in
sales a year.
- Advertising
on highly related sites -- I look for sites with massive
amounts of my target audience. If you find a site that attracts
exactly who you are looking for, you've probably got a goldmine
waiting to be tapped.
I've also noticed that banners at the top of a site's homepage
get click-through rates as high as 4%. Bottom banners only get a
1% click-through rate.
- Partnerships
and joint ventures -- I use LinkPartner
Pro to find related web sites. I then contact those
webmasters and ask them if they'd be interested in partnering
for a certain period of time. From these e-mails, I've had
instructors buy my course for their gospel piano workshops.
In fact, from one e-mail and phone conversation, I closed a deal
that makes HearandPlay.com
the sole provider of material for a traveling gospel music
workshop (which reaches 500 students a year and means 500 more
courses sold that wouldn't have been sold otherwise). Joint
ventures work!
NOTE
FROM COREY:
You
probably don't know this, but my original interview with Jermaine
was over 20+ pages -- far too long to include here in full
-- so I've just chosen some of the juicier tidbits to share with all
of my subscribers.
The
full interview included tons more tips and strategies that
I just couldn't fit into this newsletter, including:
- The
exact tools Jermaine's using to automate
everything from order processing to toll-free calls
- The
exact pop-up Jermaine uses to convert 20% of
his vistors to subscribers
- The
one strategy Jermaine uses to get 3,000 free ads
for his web site every day!
Jermaine
was really generous about sharing EXACTLY what he's doing to make
his business work, so I would highly recommend taking the
time to check out the full interview.
Just
go to: www.SecretsToTheirSuccess.com
--
INTERVIEW CONTINUED --
QUESTION:
You mention that you're tracking the visitor-to-sale
conversion rate of your traffic, both from the pay-per-click search
engines and your banner advertising... How do you do this, and how
do you monitor your conversion rates?
Jermaine:
I
just assign each banner or keyword campaign a unique ID in AssocTRAC,
which lets me keep track of a person from their first visit to my
site to any purchases they make. That way I know exactly where I'm
getting my best customers, which is crucial to get the best return
on pay-per-click campaigns.
For
example, according to AssocTRAC,
when someone clicks on my listing after searching for “piano
lessons” in the pay-per-click search engines, one out of 33 will
buy. So if the listing “piano lessons” costs me $.25 per click,
it takes $.25 x 33 to get one sale. That is, it takes $8.25 to get
one sale, which brings in an average of $75).
So
in terms of numbers, $8.25 yields $75 (but that's just for this
particular listing). Now wait, $75 is just for their first sale.
This person is now a lifetime customer!
QUESTION: Could you
tell us about a “light bulb” moment that you've had? A moment
when you've thought to yourself, “If only I'd known that
earlier...”
Jermaine:
Originally,
I was just focused on getting the sale. But I soon realized that my
mission was to help musicians reach their music goals. After that
realization, I added message boards, chat rooms, and the like, and
sales skyrocketed! Why? Because members saw that we were a
legitimate company willing to help them.
People
have no reservations buying from a company they trust and feel
helped by.
QUESTION: What have you done to automate
your site?
Jermaine:
Well,
pretty much everything is automated. I don't really do anything
anymore other than look for new partners.
My
shopping cart takes the order, confirms it, and sends it to my
credit card processor. The customer then automatically receives a
thank-you e-mail.
After
two weeks, the customer automatically gets an e-mail asking how
their course is coming along. Customers are thrilled at our customer
service and actually believe that I sit down each time to send them
e-mails.
QUESTION: What
would you consider to be your major achievements?
Jermaine:
My
all-time greatest achievement would be the fact that I took
absolutely nothing and made something out of it.
I
hope this encourages people not to give up because start-up capital
may be low. Make the best out of what you have! With research,
dedication, and patience, a “little” will eventually turn into a
“little more,” and a “little more” will turn into
“some,” and “some” will turn into “a lot” -- I know
because I've been there, and I'm still working on getting “a
lot”!
QUESTION: What do you think has helped
to make your site so successful?
Jermaine:
It
wasn't until I created a long, catchy information-packed salesletter
(set up as one long piano lesson) and asked for the sale that my
sales skyrocketed! No matter what I sell in the future, I will never
ever use a simple “buy me” link again. People aren't online with
the intention of buying, they are online for information -- and
that's just what I give them! Lots of it!
Corey,
you're my main influence and I like to use your structure (even
though we're selling totally different products). I hardly ever got
sales when I just listed a few points about the book and a picture
of it. Now, despite what anyone says about people not reading long
sales material, sales continue to pour in day after day.
QUESTION: What is
the biggest mistake you have made since you first launched your
site?
Jermaine:
Hmm...
When I first got started, the biggest mistake I made was placing
advertisements on my site because I thought they looked good.
Now
I understand that this is one of the biggest mistakes a webmaster
can make (especially with untargeted ads). I will never again show a
banner advertisement on my site unless it is advertising another
product of mine.
QUESTION: What major mistakes do you see
other Internet entrepreneurs making?
Jermaine:
I
think the number-one mistake Internet entrepreneurs make is not
taking the time to make their site as professional as possible.
Credibility is a huge issue on the Internet and if you can't
convince your customer that you are a trustworthy company, then you
won't get a sale from them
QUESTION: What advice do you have for
beginners who are interested in selling over the Web?
Jermaine:
You
need a good product! And you also need good marketing, because a
good product without the proper marketing techniques yields nothing!
I
would say, design your product and your sales page first, test it
with various audiences, and release it to the public to see how it
does -- and never quit testing ideas and new products. Always ask
yourself, “What can I do to increase sales?” I ask this question
every night before I go to bed. It has led to so many new thoughts
and concepts. With a good product and effective marketing, you're
destined to succeed.
QUESTION: Finally, how has running HearandPlay.com
impacted your personal and professional life?
Jermaine:
The
site has allowed me to become independent from my parents at an
early age while everyone else I know either still lives at home or
depends on their parents. I have been able to live alone, furnish my
home, upgrade my music studio, and attend college without worrying
about finances.
Most
importantly, it has allowed me to employ my mom, who was laid off
last year. I soon look to employ my sister and grandmother
(part-time because she loves to have something to do). Basically,
everyone around us knows about HearandPlay.com
and I think it will be in the family for generations to come (if it
doesn't get bought by a major corporation).
Without
this site, I would still be living at home depending on my parents
for money. I feel blessed and thankful for the ability and mindset
to start a business at such an early age, and I pray that I'll have
the know-how to take this venture and other endeavors to the next
level!
Final
Thoughts from Corey:
HearandPlay.com
is a perfect example of how to profit from a niche you're passionate
about! Jermaine has studied all the marketing strategies he could
get his hands on and adopted the winning techniques of successful
sites.
What
can you learn from Jermaine's success? Well, if you have a service
business, sell information, or want to boost your subscription
rates, here are some of Jermaine's strategies you can start using
right away.
- Help
people, don't sell people:
Once Jermaine realized that his visitors were looking for
information and were not necessarily ready to buy right away, he
focused on creating credibility and offering tons of value
through free courses and e-mail newsletters.
- Follow
up with your visitors:
Offering free courses as daily e-mails over the space of a week
or more is a great way of building a relationship with your
vistors. If you have any information that lends itself to a
daily or weekly "lesson," experiment with presenting
it as an autoresponder series from your site!
- Create
a great opt-in offer -- and make sure people see it:
No matter what your opt-in offer, make sure your vistors see it!
Jermaine reports that his subscription rates jumped to nearly
ten times previous levels once he introduced strategic pop-ups
to encourage visitors to sign up for one of his newsletters.
- Know
the value of your marketing:
Jermaine manages to squeeze great value out of his $1,500 a
month marketing budget, thanks to his ability to use AssocTRAC
to track the value of every single cent he spends on
pay-per-clicks, banner campaigns, and any other advertising. If
a specific keyword or web site is under- performing, he can pull
it right away (or tweak it to boost value). By not relying on
instinct alone, he's making the most of every penny.
- Long
copy sells:
Jermaine reports an explosive growth in sales once he switched
from simply listing the features of his course to providing a
full-length salesletter -- presented as a lesson -- and asking
for the sale.
Remember,
Jermaine's story is just one of the in-depth interviews at Secrets
To Their Success. Every month, I post two new interviews and a site
review, so there's always tons of great material for you to check
out.
In
fact, right now there are over 250 pages of information already
posted on the site. And I always make sure to get the real
"nitty-gritty" info from the netrepreneurs I interview so
that you can literally model their success. (And find out exactly
which tools and resources they're using!)
It's
a really great resource site that I'm actually pretty proud of, so
I'd love it if you could check it out. Just go to: www.SecretsToTheirSuccess.com
"Still
NOT Convinced Yet?"
Here's
a little something for you...
Exclusive
Case Studies: Three “Regular People” Share Their Secrets to
Earning $100,000+ with Their Internet Home Businesses
Below
are the stories of three successful online entrepreneurs, each of
whom has taken a different approach to profiting on the Internet.
What do they have in common? They all made the decision to focus on
just one marketing technique at a time and to do it really
well!
This
is a great lesson for any business. All too often, I see
entrepreneurs trying to market their businesses a dozen different
ways... and not really succeeding at any of them! The problem isn't
a lack of great marketing ideas, but TOO MANY marketing ideas!
If
you have many different marketing strategies in place and you find
that none of them are really getting you the results you need, try
focusing on just one and giving it all you've got. I think
the results might surprise you!
As
you read the case studies below, remember that these are "real
people" just like you and me. Each one of these
entrepreneurs focuses on just one marketing strategy at a time, does
it well, maximizes profits, and then moves on to the next one. They
all say they know there is much more they can do -- but they
recognize that they don't have to do it all right now.
PLEASE
NOTE: The three profiles I've included for you here have
been heavily edited and condensed. The success stories that are
posted at the SecretsToTheirSuccess.com
Private Site are typically 15 - 20 pages each, so there is no way I
could reprint them in full in this newsletter.
Case
Study #1: Truck-Bed-Covers.com
When
Eric Weeks of Truck-Bed-Covers.com decided to start an online
business, he knew it was critically important that he get traffic to
his site -- so he decided to focus all of his attention on search
engine optimization. This one technique has brought Eric
huge success. Using this single strategy, he sold $800,000
worth of product in his first year online -- over $200,000 of which
was pure profit!
When
Eric first started optimizing his web site for high search engine
positions, he saw it as a challenge.
“The
opportunity to compete for top search engine positions was exciting
to me,” Eric says. “I love competition. It gave me a target, a
bow, and the arrow.”
So
he started educating himself on how to achieve Top 10 search
engine placement -- focusing all his energy on this one
aspect of building an Internet business.
“I
studied every article I could get my hands on pertaining to the
subject,” Eric says. “And the site began turning a profit day
one. Top listings on Yahoo! and Google for the term ‘truck bed
covers' (which gets roughly 800 searches daily according to
WordTracker) and a healthy profit margin
ensured early success.”