$300 A day business but no idea how to market it

Hi Folks. I am new here and I've spent the past couple of weeks just reading all the insightful posts from members such as Dien Rice, GordonJ, Phil, Sandi Bowman, Skip Rosell, Don Alm, TW, Marty, Ankesh and many others. I want to thank you all for sharing your knowledge. The reason I am posting here is because I need help and I think you all are the right folks who can help me.

Two years ago, I created a balloon distribution business that was earning me upwards of $300 per day every day, but last November, I got into a terrible accident that has disabled me and I can no longer do the work.

So I decided to write an ebook about my business and sell it on the Internet. I had someone setup a nice website that was linked to my paypal account and I placed ads on Google, Yahoo, and Facebook to attract customers. I spent $100 to advertise on each site and after my $300 was used up, I had received only 11 orders. Since I was only charging $10 per copy, I only made $110. I received great feedback from the people who bought the book but only 11 people? What am I doing wrong? I know there are a lot of scams out there but how do I convince people when I have a real proven way of making money? I even offered money back guarantee but even that didn't do the trick.

Many people on this forum make a living selling information products so I am really hoping you all can shed some light.

Thanks
-Samir

Originally Posted by Samir

Hi Folks. I am new here and I've spent the past couple of weeks just reading all the insightful posts from members such as Dien Rice, GordonJ, Phil, Sandi Bowman, Skip Rosell, Don Alm, TW, Marty, Ankesh and many others. I want to thank you all for sharing your knowledge. The reason I am posting here is because I need help and I think you all are the right folks who can help me.

Two years ago, I created a balloon distribution business that was earning me upwards of $300 per day every day, but last November, I got into a terrible accident that has disabled me and I can no longer do the work.

So I decided to write an ebook about my business and sell it on the Internet. I had someone setup a nice website that was linked to my paypal account and I placed ads on Google, Yahoo, and Facebook to attract customers. I spent $100 to advertise on each site and after my $300 was used up, I had received only 11 orders. Since I was only charging $10 per copy, I only made $110. I received great feedback from the people who bought the book but only 11 people? What am I doing wrong? I know there are a lot of scams out there but how do I convince people when I have a real proven way of making money? I even offered money back guarantee but even that didn't do the trick.

Many people on this forum make a living selling information products so I am really hoping you all can shed some light.

Thanks
-Samir

Hi Samir,

Sorry to hear about your accident.

I sell reports on line for the last 6 years. There is a lot that goes into the winners & the losers. But there are a few things that you can do before you spend money to know if you have a winner or loser. Not 100% guaranteed but a way to evaluate the market for your report.

PPC is a tough game and if you are new or do not know the ropes you can lose money quickly.

Getting 11 sales may be great if you did everything wrong and still made sales. That means there is an interest (hungry crowd) and they are people that are willing to spend money (even if it was $10 bucks)

Here are a few things I would look at before I called it a loser.

* Keywords---What prospects are you targeting
* Ad set up---AIDA Attention, Interest, Desire, Action
* Beark even point---On your example you needed to sell it for $27 to break even (there is a lot more to this but not time or room here)
* List building---Did you capture names and email? If you did then you can still make sales by email and still break even or better @ the $10 price point.
* Sales page---is it converting? If you paid $1.00 per click then you got 300 visitors and converted @ almost 4%. Which is GREAT. But if you paid 5 cent per click then you got 6000 visitors and 11 sales means the conversion rate is really poor.

* and at least a hundred other things, You can get most of the information by tracking. After tracking results---You may have a big winner on your hands.

If you got the traffic for free you would have a profit of $110 instead of a loss of $190.

Not knowing any of your stats it is hard to recommend a plan of action. But I will say this, don't spend any more money on advertising for now. If you can not make it work with free ways you will not make it work with paid ways. 90% of what I sell is with free marketing. I use the 10% paid to find out quickly if I have a winner or loser.

If you would like to ask specific questions here or by PM or email just ask away. I will try to help you to the extent of my knowledge.

Best of success,
Skip Rosell

Hi:

If your web site is still live on the internet, post it here and let us take a look at it.

I also am sending you an email....watch for it...will have - Cornell here - in the subject.

Cornell

Hi Samir,

Welcome to SowPub's...

Glad to hear that you're Taking the Time to Read through some of the Many Great threads throughout...

Definitely! ... Don't Forget to Dig through the Golden Archives for More Never-ending Great ideas...
http://www.sowpub.com/forum/archive/index.php?f-3.html

Please feel free to Join in and Post your own Insights on Threads of interest including Sharing your Knowledge and Learning experience(s) throughout your own business Travels...

So sorry to hear about your terrible accident...

Hopefully, some Positive Life Changes are instore for you including a few Entrepreneurial ways and Possibilities that Might Help get you Re-started in the Right direction...

Regarding ebooks/info products... Skip touched on some Good information to consider...

Although... Unless you're Planning on Developing an Expanding... Line of ''Samir'' Specialty Publications! ...

I'm just ''Not'' sure if a $10 price tag is Going to Re-Place A $300 A day business model...

But I'd Love to Hear more about your ''Balloon distribution business'' Bet a few other's Would Too...

Instead of the Ebook route... Is there A Chance that your Balloon distribution business Can be “Twisted” into a few Different directions...

Such as a Dealership related Ballooning (type) Concept(s) etc...

Could be Set-up in Various ways Using Customized methods... Contracting Students... The Unemployed etc. etc...
http://retail.about.com/od/startinga...dealership.htm

Also, through the Home Party Selling related business model(s)... Outsourced through Consultants...

Quick examples...
http://smallbiztrends.com/2007/06/se...e-parties.html
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...5/b3989650.htm
http://www.directsellingopportunitie..._opportunities
http://wildcat.arizona.edu/wildlife/...ties-1.2184674

Good ol' Direct Marketing! ...
http://directmag.com/
http://www.dmnews.com/
http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/

Once you Respond back with more Details about your $300 A day ''Balloon distribution business''...

We'll Understand a little more on How it Blends into the Overall Ballooning industry... Possibly with more ideas and interest...
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&c... aqi=&aql=&oq=
http://www.balloontwistingwithsam.com/

All the best...

Phil

[Ankesh]

For a stand alone product - the price point of $10 is too low. You should price it at $50-100 range. Of course, you also need to make the product good enough to be worth that much.

Don't know how good your salesletter is - or how well did you run the ad campaigns on google and facebook - so can't comment on that. If it was your first time running ads, then I can say with quite some certainty that someone with more experience with PPC will be able to at least half the expenses. But that does not help you now - unless you do have a budget to hire an expert.

Before you spend more money on advertising, first try the free route. Research for blogs / newsletters where your prospects hang out. Contact the owner - send him a review copy of your ebook. And ask him to write about it if he likes it.

Create an affiliate program to increase your chances of these people reviewing your product and promoting it.

Thank you for taking time to write back.

Skip, I definitely have a lot to learn. The total number of visitors I received from all three campaigns were 283. I am not even sure if the problem is with my sales copy or the ad because on Facebook, my ads received 187,924 impressions but only 68 clicks. I used two different ads, one said "Earn $300 A day distributing balloons to local businesses" and the other said "Earn extra cash distributing balloons to local businesses" I believe most of my orders came from Google AdWords where my CPC was $0.80. I used hundreds of keywords but only "extra cash" and "earn extra money" performed. I would like to capture emails but I do not have anything else to offer and I don't think it would be right to offer a badly written PLR as gift to people who subscribe. Plus, without paid advertisement, how do I get people to visit my site to begin with?

Phil, you're right, a $10 price tag is not going to replace a $300 a day business but the idea is so simple, I am not sure how to twist it into another business model. It doesn't really have any secret formula that I can keep to myself or maybe I am just not smart enough to think of one. The basic premise is that if you make something easier for someone, you will be rewarded.

Think about it, why is Apple one of the most successful companies in the world? MP3 players existed before Apple introduced the iPod and smart phones existed before the iPhone was introduced. So what did Apple do different? Well, with the iPod, they made it easy to download music into an MP3 player. With the iPhone, they made it easy to navigate using the touch screen.

Convenience stores are another example. They make it easy to buy everyday items, that's why they're so successful and that's why you find one on every corner. People pay for convenience and people pay for ease.

My balloon distribution business makes it easy for people to buy a certain type of balloon and it also makes it easy for certain businesses to sell them.

I would love to get some feedback on the sales copy. My website is easilydoable dot com. This forum does not let me post links.

Thanks
-Samir

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by Samir

I would love to get some feedback on the sales copy. My website is easilydoable dot com. This forum does not let me post links.

Hi Samir,

I think that's an anti-spam thing (so it's harder for spammers to post tons of links)...

I think you can post links once you have 5 posts...

Anyway, if anyone else wants a link that's "easy to click" to see his website, Samir's website is at www.easilydoable.com

Best wishes!

Dien

Originally Posted by Ankesh

For a stand alone product - the price point of $10 is too low. You should price it at $50-100 range. Of course, you also need to make the product good enough to be worth that much.

Hi Ankesh...I would love to sell it for that price range and I think it's totally worth it for the amount of money you can make from it, but my ebook is only 12 pages long. Does size matter?

Thanks Dien!

[Ankesh]

Size matters is the wrong questions. Its all about perception. And packaging.

If you sell 12 pages biz-opp report for $50 - you will face a high refund rate. Because the consumers in this market have set expectations formed by other products they've bought before. But maybe you can repackage things?

Bulk up the content and provide 3-4 pdf files. One with the main idea. One with FAQ. One with legal form templates or ad / brochure / cold calling templates. One with success stories / case studies.

Or maybe make a video along with the PDF files.

If you can't bulk the content up - look for 1 big buyer instead of 100 small ones. Try licensing your report to the balloon sellers - they can give away the report to anyone and everyone. And you earn a royalty per report printed and given away.

Or else - try to become a reseller of balloons yourself. Sell the report for $10 and make a loss. But recover that on balloons sold to these guys. (Or maybe sell the report and a box of balloons for $50.)