AP 0113: How Do I Keep from Missing Out on Monetization Opportunities?

AskPat 113 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: What's up, everybody? Pat Flynn here, and welcome to Episode 113 of AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me today, and thank you all of you who have asked a question here on the show because this show wouldn't be here without you of course. This show also wouldn't be here without our amazing sponsors. Today's sponsor is Stamps.com.

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Now let's get to today's awesome question from Chris.

Chris: Hey, what's up, Pat? It's Chris Greenwood (aka Manafest). My blog is ImaFighter.net. First of all, just want to say thank you so much for all you do. You've impacted me and helped me out so much. My question is, for those of us that already have a platform or we have an audience, but maybe we're not monetizing it properly or we're missing something. Because I feel like every time I'm listening to one of your episodes, I'm like, “Oh! I need to do that. Or I should implement that.” And it's helping and making such a difference, so maybe what are the five or ten common mistakes those that already have audiences, but aren't monetizing it and missing out. Because that's what I feel sometimes is that I'm missing out on some opportunities and could be making more money and also serving my audience better. Thanks again so much for all you do. Keep it coming.

Pat Flynn: Chris, thank you so much for the question. And, first of all, thank you for all the support as well and I appreciate you letting everybody know that the stuff I do has helped you. And I'm hoping that these answers to your question will help you too, and everybody else listening out there.

And so I did what you said, I'm giving you the top ten things that I think everybody can do to make sure they're not missing out on monetization opportunities with their audience.

The first one actually starts with your audience, because most people who I talk to who are struggling with monetization and earning an income online are not doing what they can and tapping into their audience. Because of course it's our audience that provides all the readership and the subscribers and they become our customers eventually. So you have to understand exactly what it is that their pains, problems, and issues are, and ask questions. Get deep into their psyche and exactly what they’re going through. People are missing out on opportunities. As soon as you ask what's going on and what you could do to better help them, they will tell you. If you could solve their pains, they're going to give you that green light for an opportunity to monetize.

I can't tell you how often this works, whether you do a survey to your audience and they tell you what they’re struggling with and then you can provide solutions for that, or you reach out and talk to people one on one. I did that in the food trucker industry with my site FoodTruckr.com—and the moment I started talking to people who owned a food truck in person here in San Diego, I was getting light bulbs everywhere above my head and on different business opportunities. It didn't happen because I did the research by just looking online or seeing what everybody else was doing. I just went directly to the target customer and asked what they would like. And that's all you have to do. So that's one thing and that's the biggest thing I think, and I wanted to start off with that one.

The second thing is doing more of what's working. People aren't doing that. What's working for you? What's making money for you right now? Instead of trying to figure out all this other stuff and try some new stuff, make sure that what you have that's working is optimized. You can take something that exists and just make it better. Or take it to the next level. Or add a second version of it. Or optimized version of it. And you'll be able to make more money that way, perhaps even charge more as a result of these new things that you're creating based on something that you've already done, instead of trying something completely new. So that's the second thing. Do more of what's working instead of going new first.

Third. Selling to your existing customers. We're always trying to get new customers for our business. But what about creating stuff for your existing customers? You could even do sort of like what I said with number one and tap in to your existing customers, your paying customers, the people who are exactly in your target audience and have them guide you on what else that they need that you can create for them. And then also new people as well. But there's no easier person to sell to than somebody that you've already sold to. One of the easiest things, and the best things I did in my business when I first started was after I sold an ebook, I then sold an audiobook on top of that. Exact same content, but I gave people an option to buy the audio version so that it would be easier for them to listen and study for this exam that this book was about—in their cars, at the gym, wherever the case may be. That worked really well, and because those people were already paying customers, the conversion rates were through the roof, like seventy-five percent because those were the people I was building it for and I already had their email. So, there's that.

Four. The bonus sandwich, including bonuses in general. So when you sell something, even if you're selling something as an affiliate, you can always include bonuses and that's a great way to make sure that those people who are on the fence that you're giving them really the kick that they need to make a purchase with you. The bonus sandwich is something you could look up. There's an episode of The Smart Passive Income Podcast with Derek Halpern; you could just look up “Smart Passive Income Derek Halpern” in Google and you'll come up with this episode about something called the bonus sandwich.

So really quick, the bonus sandwich is your product. Think of that as the meat of your hamburger or sandwich or maybe if you're a vegetarian just the tofu or whatever, the veggie patty. Your part is the middle.

Now there's going to be bread on the bottom and bread on the top. The bread on the bottom is your bottom part of your bonus sandwich, which for your target customer are the things that help qualify that person to actually use that product of yours. There could be a specific segment of your audience who isn't quite ready or doesn't have the information yet to make whatever it is that you're selling useful for them. An example of this is, for example, if you're selling WordPress themes. If WordPress themes is your meat, then there's going to be a number of people out there who don't even have WordPress and they wouldn't even qualify to get a WordPress theme if they don't have WordPress. So you give away your bottom bread, which is a bonus, a completely free theme that is added if you purchase that helps you get setup on WordPress. And then they'd be able to use that theme.

And then the top bread is a bonus for people who have that capability that sort of takes what they're doing with your product to the next level. So in terms of WordPress themes, if that's your business, remember the bottom bread is having people be introduced to WordPress and giving them tutorials on how to get up and running which they can then allow them to use their themes. But then the top bonus, or the top part of the sandwich, would be something like, “Here's a bonus course to help you understand SEO.” You know, how to take that theme to the next level. Something like that. “How to optimize your theme for social media.” Or whatever the case may be. That will help you a lot. So that's the bonus sandwich. That's number four.

Number five, and this is where a lot of people miss out, even people who are and have been doing this for a while, including myself. We could always be doing more testing and conversions. We could always test more, we can always convert more. Because we always worry so much about traffic. “More traffic, we want more traffic. Traffic. Traffic. Traffic.” But you know, if zero percent of the people who come to your site convert then it doesn't matter how much traffic you have. You have many opportunities to make more money by also working on what happens after people come to your site, after people click the “Buy Now” button and go through that checkout process. There are . . . every click is the moment where some people aren't going to go onto the next click, you know, after that. So you want to minimize the dropout rate and make that funnel completely cylindrical instead of triangular, or conical, if that makes sense.

Okay, number six: the price. One of the easiest ways to make more money is to raise your price. I remember back when I first started, and I tell this story in a previous episode recently as well so I apologize if it's duplicate, but it's important to know.

I sold my first study guide on GreenExamAcademy.com for $19.99 and it did really well. One of my customers, however, who was a business . . . he had his master’s in business and owned an architectural firm. He emailed me and said, “Pat, thank you so much for your guide. You could charge way more for this.” And I was like, “Yeah, you know, I'm just trying to low-ball and make sure that people get their hands on it.” And he's like, “No. Trust me. Raise the price. You'll be surprised. You might even sell more.” And I was like, “Okay. Whatever.” And then I went to my Mastermind Group, and they're like, “Yeah. Do it.” And so I did it and I figured, “What the heck? I'll just see what happens. You can experiment. You can test. You can try and test out conversions.” Just like I just said. Well, what ended up happening is I raised the price and I ended up selling more, like the quantity was more when the price was higher. It's because that perceived value. And of course I just went from $19.99 to $29.99, I made 50 percent more for the equal number for selling the same amount the next month. But I made way more because I actually sold more product.

So it's pretty incredible how that works. But there's a perceived value there. If you price low, the perceived value of your product is going to be low. If you price high, it'll be much higher. Now of course, you could charge too high and you can charge too low, but you want to find that sweet spot and again you can test and convert to find that sweet spot.

Number seven. Don't forget about affiliate marketing. You might be selling your own products, but there are products that other people have created that you can't create yourself but that are still useful to you audience. Those are things you want to sell to your audience. But make sure, and I have a whole presentation about this if you look up “Affiliate Marketing The Smart Way” on Google or even on Smart Passive Income, you'll find it, this hour-long presentation about affiliate marketing and the way you should do it. There's a lot of wrong ways to do it, but probably the top thing is make sure you know these products and you trust these products and you've used these products before you share them. Because, you know, if you recommend a product and it doesn't work really well for the customer that purchases it, that customer's going to be mad at that product and the product owner, but they're going to be even more mad at you because you were the one that recommended it. And you do not want to lose that trust with your audience. That's the hardest thing in the world to get and you don't want to lose it.

Number eight. There's a lot of opportunity, some higher level opportunities to work one-on-one with people. And I know I don't do this and I don't do this because I don't have time, but a lot of people who sell courses and they do affiliate marketing, they sell one or two spots a month for upwards of $10,00-$15,000 sometimes for just a few hours a week to consult and work with somebody. You imagine working with one person for one month for $10,000 but giving them a good amount of attention and time, one person for $10,000. I mean if the value exchange is there or not it could be an obvious buy for somebody depending on what it is. But, how many ebooks would it take to sell $10,000 worth? How many Amazon books at $2.99 would it take? Thousands. But then, you might able to help just one person really well, even on top of everything else you're already doing, for significantly more money and it would make sense because they're paying for access directly to you. So one-on-ones and higher level sort of gatherings or interactions like that.

Number nine is another way to make sure you're not missing out is just stay connected with the people who are doing it right. And Chris, it sounds like you're doing that. You're following SPI, I'm sure you're following a lot other great minds out there in the online business space and getting advice from them, and I would definitely recommend that you continue to do that. However, I would also recommend that you don't get pulled by all the bright lights that are out there. There are a ton. I suffer from that as well. There are so many opportunities out there but I got to make sure that the opportunities that I'm working on right now finish. Because guess what? Ninety percent of something that you do, you know, if you're only ninety percent completed with it, is zero percent complete to those who it's for. So make sure you finish what you started before you move on. That's the biggest thing I would say for there.

And number ten, in terms of creating those opportunities for yourself, just don't wait to start. Create them. But when you do, finish them so you can give them a chance. So number nine was stay connected to those doing it right, but make sure that you're not doing too many things at the same time. Well, number ten is also, “Okay, don't wait. Just go. Do it. And finish. Follow through. You got this.”

Chris, I hope this top ten list for you has helped answer your question and everybody else's questions out there. Hopefully you got some idea on how you can do further research and dig deeper in to your audience or figure out ways to make more money from what it is that you're doing already whether you have a platform or not.

Chris, an AskPat t-shirt is going to be headed your way. I'd love to see a picture of it someday. Thank you so much.

For those of you who have a question, just head on over to AskPat.com, and ask a question right there from the page. I'll be looking forward to it. And today's quote comes from Lily Tomlin. She says, “The problem with the rat race is that even if you win you're still a rat.”

Cheers, thanks so much, and I'll see in the next episode of AskPat.