What are "toll positions"? (A refresher post!)

Originally Posted by Dien Rice

Hi Mike,

Thanks for sharing this...! Fascinating!

So (to make it clear) - his books are the "front end"... The consulting, copywriting, and possible associated royalties are the "back end"... and where he makes the "real money"...

As for Maxwell Maltz, yes, I think Dan Kennedy and a bunch of others (I think Jeff Paul was also involved) did buy the copyright to Maxwell Maltz's "Psycho-Cybernetics"... I think they even put out a new edition - "The New Psycho-Cybernetics."

Of course, that's only one toll position product. I don't know what they paid, but if they got a good deal, they would have gotten many times their money back, and I'm sure they're still making money from it now. Of course, there's nothing stopping anyone from getting many toll positions... There's no reason to stop at just one.

The problem I see with consulting is that you get paid... and that's it. In most cases, you have no further "ownership" of your work. (Copywriting at the "high end," where you can also get paid royalties for sales, may be a little bit different from other types of consulting regarding this - but only as long as they keep running your ad... Plus, it's not like you can provide the same ad to a different client if the first client tires of it.)

With a "product-based" toll position, you can potentially get paid for a longer period into the future... The other thing is, when you "own" the toll position, there are also other things you can do with that. For example, if you owned "Psycho-Cybernetics," you could put out an audio version (they've done that already), make a movie out of it, or a documentary, or have it included as part of a larger collection of similar works (with books or articles owned by others), create a version for teenagers, you could license out excerpts of it to be reprinted in promotional materials, turn the book into a paid seminar tour, have a "Psycho-Cybernetics" coaching program (where others do the coaching under your license), if you have a list of customers, there are further things you can do with that list, create collaborative works, e.g. a Rich Dad / Psycho-Cybernetics product, or a Donald Trump / Psycho-Cybernetics product, etc. For all these other ideas, you can get others to do the work, because you own the valuable "toll position" - so they can't bypass you.

Best wishes,

Dien

Hey Dien,

No question a consulting toll position is a different animal from a product toll position.

Different strokes for different folks kind of things. Some prefer sitting on the couch eating Cheetos while their product or products sell without their involvement.

Yes in the consulting toll position it's a swop time for money thing, but there's a certain amount of "Hey I'm a celebrity (in my niche)" kind of thing and some like that.

I don't think there's a right or wrong way to go.

I'd rather see folks just get out and try to find their own toll position in whichever area appeals to them... but I'm probably getting way ahead of myself.

Quite honestly I think getting or earning a toll position is pretty hard. It's most likely not going to happen without a lot of time and other resources invested– at least for a "big potatoes" toll position.