This year will be the third year that Justin and I have done a challenge to help our subscribers find success online and every year we find the participants run into the same few problems that we had when we first got started.
Today’s task is to take out your trash!
You see everyone comes in with the same preconceived notions that there are certain things that will work and certain things that don’t. So, they end up following a harder path than they need to. This was a really hard lesson that we learned a long while ago, but it didn’t really hit us until last year just before Justin and I moved back to Florida. I’m going to be real honest here and pullback the curtains a little so you can understand the importance of the lesson.
Last spring, we were working on building passive income so that we’d have more time to enjoy the beautiful Florida beaches… so we built up a membership site in a couple niches and started charging $9.99-29.99 depending on the niche and the content.
About a month later as we were slowly increasing our memberships and about 1/2 way to our passive income goals, one of our friends asked us to promote one of their products to the subscribers in one of the niches… We new the product was great (partially because we had a hand in making it) but thought the price was too high and our list wouldn’t buy just because of the pricing.
We ran a big promotion (7 days, plus some seo and paid advertising) for our friends membership site where we’d make $27 up front and then a small portion of their continuity. Well the promotion went well and we ended up putting more than 150 people on a $97 a month membership site. That was awesome – a great boost payment up front and a small monthly recurring to put towards our passive income goals. In all we made around $4000.00 up front and added $3,000/month in continuity (that would dwindle after a while, but would be an addition to our goals).
Not bad for a weeks work and I’d call it a success. Except that a couple days after our promotion, Justin was reflecting on the promotion and realized it wasn’t a success at all… because, if we had just taken a step back then we could have put those 150 people on our own recurring site and made the it all our own. The word part about it all was that the only reason we didn’t do that promotion at that price before was that we “thought” our subscribers would never pay the much per month for that content. Boy were we wrong….
You see, it was our own mental block (or what we now call “mental garbage”) that blinded us from seeing the value that our subscribers would see. So here’s where we went wrong and some of the lessons we learned that I hope we can pass on to you (so you don’t make the same mistakes)…
1. We didn’t see the value in the product.
Now don’t get upset that we would promote a product that didn’t have value – that’s not the case. It wasn’t that the content was valuable – it was that we already knew the content and it didn’t have value to us. So we assumed it wouldn’t be valued by our subscribers would.
2. We assumed that our subscribers wouldn’t pay that much for content. Now this is normally a limitation you have on yourself because you don’t see the value in yourself or you don’t see how smart you actually are. You actually start to discredit yourself because you know others who are smarter, but this thinking is hurting you – there will always be more to learn. You need to value what you know and how you can help people with that information… and now is the time to start. Then as you learn more you’ll share more with your subscribers and they’ll appreciate you more for continuing to teach them.
3. We didn’t do our research to find out what content our subscribers want to hear about next. We were limiting the amount of content we shared with our subscribers because we felt they wouldn’t want to hear about it. Just because you build a website and sell content on one topic doesn’t mean you can’t branch out to other topics. When Justin first started he sold content only on website flipping because that’s what he was an “expert” in…but we soon learned that we could branch out and talk on list building, seo, traffic and more because it was all part of website flipping. The benefit here is that you already have a subscriber based that love how you teach and trust the content you put out – so when you branch out to the other topics, then they’ll follow you because of the great experiences they’ve had with you in the past.
So here’s how to take out your trash….
1. Research your niche… Find out what other products are are already selling and the price points (to get an idea of what the niche is already comfortable with) but remember to test your price points because you don’t want to get stuck with the same be sure you split test different options.
2. Do even more research and get to know your subscribers… Think of your niche. What’s the main topic you are good at or interested in? Now, what are related products or subtopics that you can also talk about? Research what your customers are doing, where they shop, what other things are they interested in? Thinking this way will help you find more product topics, bonus lesson topics, or even content for free reports where you can start building your list.
3. Believe in yourself! You know your niche (even if you aren’t the expert in your product and you use interviews for content) You’ve done the research and know what will help them. Now value the content you created – if you don’t see the value then your customers wont. Make a list of how your content will help your customers (note you can even use this for your salesletters), but this will help you to see how your helping people and motivate you to keep making it better.
So today – take out your garbage. Think about the mental blocks you have set in place
“I’m not an expert at anything”
“I’m not good at sales”
“I’m not just out for this”
“It’s not the right time”
“I’ll never be good”
“I’m too old to learn new stuff”
“Everything I try always fails”
Pretty much anything that starts with, “I can’t” or “I’m not” you should write down.. then below that write down three ways you CAN. You are good enough, you can do this, and you will be great at it. You just have to take out the trash first 
Have a great day
Chaunna
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Sooo important to be confident and open minded. I still find myself saying “no that won’t work, I’ve tried it before” then trying and make a killing. Sometimes you try to be too much of an expert and look over the simple things that work.
Hey Chaunna, great post. I totally agree.
I have several blogs now all self writing except my personal one maggiedavid.com PLUS in have branched out into little “Niche” sites made with WP. I researched a niche and the price of buying a product in this niche was between $6,000 upward and over $15,000 ++++ man, (why did I stumble on this particular one – ‘cos I WANT ONE and I wanted a piccie of it on my dream board) – I did keyword research, I got Lyndon to sit and double check my findings and then I sat a couple of days and quivered … Well they say feel the fear and do it anyways, and I could see Justins big boot, coming towards my backside and him saying, “Why are you waiting? – you did the research girl, – get movin’ so I spent the time signing up as an affiliate and making the site and may I say with a BIG HUGE CHEESY SMILE it is worth it!
You know my story, at one stage I couldn’t even afford $9.99 monthly, but thanks to you guys, (I follow EVERYTHING YOU SAY TO THE LETTERand will continue to do so) my life is changing and the $$$’s rolling in.
Yes, it has taken time, yes, you need to learn, yes you need to make mistakes. If anyone is reading this, take yourself off everyones list except these guys, follow EVERYTHING they say, they will not confuse you, they tell it like it is, don’t think your gonna get stinking rich the very next day, but stick to it and BELIEVE in yourself, and you will make it.
Just remember, you have no right thinking for anyone else except yourself, if a person really wants something, price is no barrier.
Love and Light
The website name is after a lot of keyword research, not sure if I have got the hang of it, but I seem to have followed the rules and learnt a lot along the way.
Chaunna, great advice in this post and well supported by Maggie, thank you both, great inspirations from each of you. enjoy the day, Sharyn
Hey Sharyn
You will get the hang of it. Just take it one step at a time. I loved the fact that you said you got your website name (I hope you mean your URL) after a lot of keyword research, that means you have taken in what Justin and Chaunna said. I honestly have made some huge mistakes, but I have seem them as stepping stones to my success. Little by little. Let me tell you about a little site I made, following instructions from Justin when I first came across this fabulous pair – way back. Just a little Free weebly site. http://www.frostingandicingrecipes.com – took me ages, but I followed instructions etc. The name came from keyword research, well this little site earns me around $95 to $120 per month, just sitting there! Now you multiply this by 10 sites etc what have you got?
Keep up the good work Sharyn – I hope you dont mind me replying to your post, but I just love it when people try and want to spur you on even more!
Love and Light
Very cool. So many people ignore the “mental game” of making money.
Glad to have found this site. Subscribing to your RSS in a few secs.
-Paul
Good post,I was thinking about it. I think I will split test the price and see what happens.
Increasing value is another option.
Thanks C.
have a nice vacation
Was this the Micro-Continuity thing of Russell Brunson?
Great insights, Chaunna… especially about the part where we undermine ourselves just because “we know someone smarter.” That really spoke to me.
Thanks Chaunna
I am reluctantly going to agree with you on this taking out the “mental trash”, I have been studying ways to make money in the stock market for years and have even taught some how to make over a 100% return safely every year. The reason I say reluctantly is because what you are saying about “mental trash” is exactly the conversations I have with myself all the time about some of the web site i want to try. I have so much info in my head that I assume everyone knows this stuff when in reality I have found myself several times in front of groups of seasoned traders and they look dumbfounded at some of what i’m saying. When I try to carry on a conversation with the average person about my topic of study I find I quickly loose them in a fog of TMI (to much information).
So I am going to bite the bullet and just do it….I am confident that some people out there will be greatful of what I have to share.
Hello again
One more thing if I may. Maggie wrote “I have several blogs now all self writing”
“self writing”? am I to assume that there is a way to automate a blog?
Hi James
Yes there is, you need to buy a plug in called Caffienated Content. Once you buy this, you can install it on any amount of blogs you set up. It then goes and pulls in content as per a keyword you give it, from article sites etc. VERY EASY to use. It has to be as I am no Technical person believe me. When I purchased it oh about 8 months ago, it cost me $77 best ever investment I have made.
comes with great instructions on how to set it up etc……
kansieo.com/members/buynow/ is the link if I may be so bold as to put it here. (Sorry Justin if I am breaking the rules.
Love and Light