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SubscribeMe Online Courses, Membership Sites, Content Marketing and Digital Marketing

How to Create an Online Course, a Membership Site, Create Digital Content, Promote and Sell it online with Digital Marketing, Make Money Online and create a profitable online business. Create One-time products and Recurring Subscription-based products and services that bring in recurring income month after month, where you don't have to go hunting for new customers all the time, which allows you to focus on creating a remarkable product that your customers love and appreciate and are willing to pay a subscription fee for. Listen online at https://SubscribeMe.fm
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Now displaying: Page 3
Mar 15, 2018

Should you create a Facebook Group? Or an Online Forum on your own site, your own domain, on your own hosting account?

This episode is for you if you have a Facebook group that doesn't have too many members, or has many members, but not enough engagement, or maybe you're planning to start a community, but you're torn between a Facebook group and creating your own Forum.

And even if you have a successful Facebook group right now, and have absolutely no plans of starting your own forum, I would still urge you to listen to the entire episode, because I hope - actually, I know - that there is going to be something in here that you may not have thought of before.

Listen online at http://SubscribeMe.fm/

Feb 10, 2018

What Shark Tank has taught us about getting some skin in the game, why you must pay to play in order to get the best, and fastest results, and how you can come up with the money to pay for promoting just about anything!

You've probably heard the saying "Put your money where your mouth is". Which basically means: Stop TALKING about things, and start putting in some money into whatever you're trying to accomplish. If you just TALK about how passionate you are about something, and TALK some more about how much you care about something, then if you have NOTHING invested in it financially, then it makes it that much easier to just walk away from it. Which shows a lack of commitment.

So, don't TELL me, SHOW me that you care - about your online business, or your online course, or your audio course, or your Kindle book, or your podcast.

(listen to the show for the rest)

Listen online at http://SubscribeMe.fm/

Jan 7, 2018

Do you want to take your online business to the next level in 2018?

Here are 13 things that will help you reset, refocus and reprioritize by revisiting everything - starting with your goals, your priorities, your web site, sales offer, content marketing, lead magnet, website performance and more.

Likes and Comments won't pay the bills. You have to build a business, you have to market and monetize your content, create offers, make sales, and work on attracting your 1000 true fans.

(listen to the show for the rest)

Listen online at http://SubscribeMe.fm/

Dec 13, 2017

Do you remember the last time you signed up for a webinar, showed up at the pre-scheduled time, then watched it start to finish? If you have, then congratulations - you're among the minority of folks theses days.

And that's because most people are getting jaded by so-called "webinars", which are nothing but a pre-recorded video, with a long, drawn-out intro, where the presenter usually starts off really slow, welcomes users as if there are real users listening live, and sometimes it may actually be true - that it was probably a recording of an actual live webinar when there WERE real people listening. Either way, it usually takes about 10 minutes or so to get into the meat of the content. There's the obligatory self-praise in the beginning, showing some warm-and-cuddly family pictures with kids and pets, and vacation shots, and a bunch of "see, this is why I'm cool" type of accomplishments.

Honestly, most webinars are a waste of time because there's way too much fluff.

Have you ever been at a Karaoke party? I've been at many, especially holiday and New Year's parties. EVERYBODY thinks that they're rockstars, EVERYBODY thinks they've got an amazing voice. And the HUGE gap between their imagination and reality, is just mind-numbing.

And the problem with Facebook live videos is that most people think that they can just hit "go live" and start winging it. For the average person, doing a great live video that is interesting, fast-paced, offers value to their target audience, is still super hard. And what's worse, like the karaoke night, they don't know that their live performance sucks, that they may not have the talent, training or technique to pull of a live video, maybe they don't have the right equipment, and sometimes, let's admit it - some people are just not that interesting.

(listen to the show for the rest)

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Nov 29, 2017

Is there a "Discoverability Problem" in Podcasting? Yes, absolutely! Unless you're Tom Hanks' character in the movie Castaway, and your show is titled "PodCast Away" :-), and you're the only podcaster on the island and you have a completely attentive audience with no other options for entertainment, like you know, Wilson, the volleyball, then there is going to be a discoverability issue.

And this discoverability issue doesn't affect just podcasting, but it applies to pretty much everything else in life, whether that's people discovering your website, blog, your product, or service. Heck, there is a discovery issue even when it comes to meeting the woman or man of your dreams!

The goal of this episode, is to acknowledge the issue, find out the root cause, and then also talk about what we can do about it as Podcasters.

The issue of discoverability in podcasting is exponentially magnified, for a few different reasons.

Check it out the show-notes at http://SubscribeMe.fm/65/

(listen to the show for the rest)

Listen online at http://SubscribeMe.fm/

Nov 9, 2017

My "Brilliant-5, Blah-95" Rule For Making or Marketing Anything, Hobbyist vs Entrepreneur, Death (of your business) by a 1000 cuts, my Guinness World Record, the Worst Title Ever for a free report or Facebook post or just about any type of list post, and finding out: Are you a Performer, or a Pretender?

When I published my first, real, paperback book back in 2007, called "No Business Like E-Business", I wanted to quickly figure out how to promote my book. So back then, if I wanted to learn something quick, I just went to Amazon and bought the best couple of books on the subject. So for promoting my book, I bought a book called "1001 Ways to Market Your Books". Back then, it had like a massive number of reviews, highly rated, lots of folks all over the web singing its praise. So naturally, I bought the book.

Long story short, there's a reason why it has 1001 ways to promote a book, because it lists every dang method there is, however basic, like Print a business card, Attend meetings and hand out your cards, Accept credit cards on your site, and so on.

Like me telling you, hey, if you want to promote your web site, I have 3 amazing tips for you. Ready? 1) Register for a free account on Facebook.com 2) Friend as many people as you can. 3) Post the link to your Amazon product page. BOOM. AWESOME SAUCE, right???

Nope, not very awesome. That's downright stupid. It's the most basic of basic things.

So if a list is showing you 1001 of ways of doing something, then that list is usually full of obvious things, and so watered down, that only 5% of it is actually going to be useful and impactful. I call it the 5/95 rule. 5% of it is brilliant, 95% is blah.

That's how my new rule was born: My "Brilliant-5, Blah-95" Rule.

Other links:

Free Facebook Group that you can join to see behind the scenes of my membership site: http://SubscribeMe.fm/group/

For the show notes or to listen to this episode online, go to http://SubscribeMe.fm/64/

(listen to the show for the rest)

Listen online at http://SubscribeMe.fm/

Oct 10, 2017

I'm currently working on "SubscribeMe Academy" - my Online Hub of Courses, Coaching & Community - that I'll be launching shortly.

I have so far completed just over 160 hours of work on it so far - mostly with the video creation for my first major course, called Premium Podcasting.

On this episode, I'm going to take you behind the scenes of this new membership web site that I'm creating, as much as I can do on a podcast, of course, and talk about the tools and strategies I've been using, so that you can get an idea as to not just how much work this thing is, but also that it is very much doable if you have the know-how, and the right tools.

Other links mentioned on this episode:

TOC Technique: http://SubscribeMe.fm/24/

Start with the Pricing Table: http://SubscribeMe.fm/62/

Free Facebook Group that you can join to see behind the scenes of my upcoming membership site: http://SubscribeMe.fm/group/

To see the rest of the show notes, go to http://SubscribeMe.fm/63/

(listen to the show for the rest)

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Sep 16, 2017

Start with the last thing first.

You may have have heard of variations of that. Like start with the end in mind.

So when I say start with the last thing first, I'm talking about starting with the pricing table, which is the LAST thing most people would think about when it comes to creating their membership site.

People worry about themes, and plugins, the design of the web site, what colors to use, what logo to use, creating all social media properties for their membership site - like creating a Twitter account, a Facebook page, an Instagram account and on and on. And then they completely lose track of one critical piece to all of this.

When I say pricing table, I'm talking about your OFFER as a whole

So start with the pricing table FIRST. BEFORE you create any content, BEFORE you create any products, BEFORE you even design a landing page on your web site... the very first thing you should brainstorm and strategize, is your pricing table because everything starts and ends with your offer.

And you don't need a fancy theme or WordPress plugin to create a pricing table. You can do it real easy with a simple Microsoft Excel spreadsheet - or a Google Sheet.

I have a picture of my new pricing table that I created, for my upcoming membership site, and you can see it at http://SubscribeMe.fm/62/

Other links mentioned on this episode:

Episode 24: TOC Technique - http://SubscribeMe.fm/24/

Show notes: http://SubscribeMe.fm/62/

Free Facebook Group that you can join to see behind the scenes of my upcoming membership site: http://SubscribeMe.fm/group/

(listen to the show for the rest)

Sep 2, 2017

I'm going to share a very stark and dark truth: That when you're first getting started, selling a one-time product for 99 dollars is Better Than selling a Recurring Subscription for 9 dollars a month.

You're probably like "Wait... whaaaat? But Ravi... You're the guy who has a podcast about membership sites and recurring subscriptions, who talks about DOGPOO vs DOSAA" (which stands for Do Once, get Paid Only Once, which is DOGPOO, and stinks.. versus DOSAA - Do Once, Sell Again and Again - so DOGPOO stinks and DOSAA rocks). Now back to your voice...

"But Ravi, you're the guy who is always saying that you have to add a recurring subscription model if you want your business to flourish in the long-term - so you're now telling me I'm better off with a one-time product rather than a recurring subscription?"

Yes and No. There are some disclaimers. So don't freak out just yet. You should plan big, but start small. You should plan and prepare to add a subscription model, but you should start with a one-time product.

Be sure to listen to the full episode to understand my perspective. where I also talk about 2 of the biggest Membership Site Pricing Mistakes that people make when it comes to charging Subscription Fees.

(listen to the show for the rest)

Listen online at http://SubscribeMe.fm/

Aug 9, 2017

Welcome to Episode #60 of the SubscribeMe show from SubscribeMe.fm, where I talk about creating membership sites & online courses, how to make, market and monetize digital content, the world of WordPress, and tools, techniques and tips that you can use to create a long term, profitable online business. I'm Ravi Jayagopal. I'm the creator of CoolCastPlayer.com, a pretty yet powerful audio player and podcast player plugin for your WordPress site.

In today's episode, I'm going to give you a few reasons for both why you SHOULD and why you should NOT start a podcast.

You know how in shows and movies, someone walks up to a main character and says "I have both Good news and bad news", and the main character always says, "give me the bad news first". So that's what I'm going to do here as well, because, you know, you are the main character in this show.

So, first... Reasons why you should NOT start a podcast.

Audio is actually easier than video - at least, most forms of face-on-camera videos, because if you're going to be in the video, then you have to think about your clothes, hair, shaving, or makeup, lighting, are you going to do it indoors or outdoors. If you're doing it outdoors, are you going to use just natural sun light, if yes, then if you shoot for an hour or two, then you'll see the lighting differ in the final output because of clouds and the position of the sun itself changing, all of the outdoor noises that you have to consider because I don't know about you, but the second I walk into my backyard to shoot a quick 3 minute video, it feels like the entire universe conspires against me.

And my neighbor, who probably hasn't mowed his lawn in weeks, comes out of the blue and starts his lawn mower or leaf blower. Another neighbor down the street starts doing some construction work, all of the kids come out to play, especially the cute little ones with such high-pitched screams that only your dog can hear it. Of course, your mic picks up EVERY thing, including the A/C unit in your own backyard going off all of a sudden. But think about how many talking-head or face-on-camera videos a typical person creates over their lifetime. Probably not too many, unless they're doing the occasional sales video for their web site.

That number is however tripling by the day thanks to Facebook Live and Instagram and Snapchat and what not. But still, that's still a very small percentage. Of course, there are those casual screencast and how-to videos which are actually easier to produce than a typical podcast, because of the long-term commitment that a podcast brings. So don't compare audio to the much harder selfie videos.

We're going to compare creating audio - or a series of audio files - as in, a podcast - we're going to compare creating a podcast all the mostly written-word blog posts and Facebook posts and Instagram posts and Medium posts that you would create.

So podcasting, in spite of what some people would have you believe, is actually way harder compared to most other form of content generation.

And then I also talk about all the reasons why you SHOULD start a podcast... like today!

(listen to the show for the rest)

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Jul 17, 2017

Welcome to Episode #59 of the SubscribeMe show from http://SubscribeMe.fm, where I talk about creating membership sites & online courses, how to make, market and monetize digital content, the world of WordPress, and tools, techniques and tips that you can use to create a long term, profitable online business.

I'm Ravi Jayagopal. I'm the creator of http://CoolCastPlayer.com, a pretty yet powerful audio player and podcast player plugin for your WordPress site.

Asking how long your videos in your online course should be, is very similar to asking...

How long should your sales page be?

How long should your podcast be?

How long should your blog post be?

How long should a movie be?

I just have one simple answer to this:

There is no such thing as "too long" - only "too boring".

And as much as I would like to take credit for that line, it's not from me, and unfortunately I don't remember who originally said it. But it is such a great truth, that it applies to pretty much every type of content produced in every single format - whether it is Video, Audio, Blog Post, or Sales Page.

And that's what I talk about on today's episode.

(listen to the show for the rest)

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Jun 21, 2017

On today's episode, I interview Brian Swichkow from GhostInfluence.com, a brilliant marketer who has some refreshing ideas about creating content that goes viral. Brian has done some really cool stuff in the past.. like, he once pulled of a massive prank on his roommate using Facebook ads, which made his room mate completely paranoid, like... Will Smith in the movie Enemy of the state.

Reddit.com is one of the biggest social sharing site and online communities in the world, and is the 4th most visited site in the US and the 9th in the world. Reddit.com users are just brutally honest and educated and geeked out. They're super hard to impress, as much as a popup form on a web site is likely to impress someone in 2017.

But if you can post great content that is genuinely great, and there's no element of trickery or sales-pagery - if that's even a word - and they don't sense that you're trying to sell people something or trying to get them to sign up for something and there's no ulterior motives that they can sense in your content, then your content can go explosively viral.

But... if you can't link back to your site, if you can't get them to follow you back to your site so you can put them on your list or sell them something, what's even the point of posting on Reddit?

I asked Brian the exact same question, knowing that you would be thinking about exactly that too about Reddit. And the answers he gives on this interview, are absolutely worth 10x the price of your attention. And I am not exaggerating in the least bit, when I say, he's the most interesting man I've met in a very long time...

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Jun 6, 2017

Have you ever visited JKRowling.com? JK Rowling, as you probably know, is the author of probably one of the greatest ever series of fantasy books, Harry Potter. And I'm guessing you have never visited her blog, or her web site, to buy her books.

Have you ever visited GaryVee.com? Did you know his now famous WineLibrary.TV - which most people have probably never even heard of, but still probably know who GaryVee is - wouldn't have become popular if not for YouTube. And there would be no Gary Vaynerchuk if all he did was create his own self-hosted Wistia videos on his own site, and blog on his own site.

That is the crazy new world of content marketing in 2017. Your web site, can no longer be the focus of your marketing efforts. Your web site is no longer the spearhead of your content marketing. Let me explain.

The old model of content marketing was, to publish something on your own web site - whether it is a blog post, or a video, or a podcast - and then post a link to that piece of content on various platforms and web sites and try to get EVERYONE back to YOUR website in order to consume the full content, so that you can cookie them for retargeting, or make them join your list. So basically post a teaser everywhere, and they have to come back to your site to get the full scoop.

That content marketing model is outdated for many reasons. People today spend a lot of time - and I mean, a LOT of time - on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram and Snapchat and YouTube. And they actually prefer to stay on those platforms to get their daily fix of news, entertainment, politics, sports, and cat-videos. The social platforms themselves are encouraging content that keeps their viewers within the platform, and they don't take kindly to outgoing links, doesn't matter if it is to your own web site.

Have a video? Facebook wants you to upload it directly to Facebook, and not just post a link to the video on your site. In fact, I know this for a fact, that a video that is uploaded natively to Facebook, gets a ton more views, likes and comments, than a link that simply takes someone outside of Facebook back to, say, YouTube.com, or to a page on your site where you have a youtube or self-hosted video. Instagram doesn't even allow links within the body of a post. Instagram wants you to upload pictures and videos directly to Instagram, not just use Instagram as a way to get people to click to your web site.

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May 23, 2017

Cross-Posting is NOT the same as Repurposing. Repurposing has completely different goals. It lets you take content you create in one medium, say you start with a written blog post, and then later on, over time, whether that is a few days or few weeks or even over a few months, reformat and restructure that content, maybe even recreate it from scratch for a different format, and then publish it on to various platforms or mediums. Repurposing is about leveraging your message. But cross-posting is leveraging your actual content, the actual format itself, and it is done in real-time, and is more useful for solopreneurs, or small businesses that don't have a dedicated social media manager or content marketer.

The problem with repurposing is that it takes time and effort. So if I write a blog post, repurposing it into a video, or a podcast, is a completely separate project. So repurposing is basically transforming your content and adapting it for completely different media. But cross-posting is taking the exact same content - which is, Message, Photo, Call-to-Action, which was the title of episode at http://SubscribeMe.fm/54/ - and taking those 3 universal content marketing elements, and leveraging that across as many suitable platforms as possible.

(listen to the show for the rest)

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May 12, 2017

"Better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing perfectly", said Robert H. Schuller.

I actually recommend cross-posting content, because this is not about "perfection". It's NOT about meticulously formatting content and making it perfectly native to each platform. Most people don't have the time for that. They just don't. Every platform has an "Edit" button - you can ALWAYS go in later and tweak the post to your heart's content. There's nothing wrong with editing your posts. I do this myself. Like adding shortlinks to my FB posts, removing some of those hashtags that came over from Instagram, because hashtags don't matter as much in Facebook. My cross-posting automation is about "productivity, not perfection". And I tell you how to set up IFTTT - If This Then That - to create this cross-posting.

And ever since I started doing this cross-posting, I was able to create 20+ posts blog in April alone. And I'm not talking junk posts - I'm talking really useful content, VERY relevant to my target audience, and if someone went to my blog first, they'll no longer think wow, this guy last posted on his blog in August 2016, and before that in Jan 2016. So they won't think my blog is gotten outdated. There's useful content to consume. And it keeps my blog fresh in Google's perspective, creates lots of long-tail traffic because it has lots of keywords and real, non-spammy content, so it's all win-win.

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Apr 25, 2017

What I talk about here is not about spamming the social networks. It's not about "auto-posting" or blasting your content and re-posting it multiple times throughout the day or throughout the week and flooding the feeds of your followers. This is not about twitter-bombing where you use a content scheduling tool like Edgar or Social Juke Box and just recycle content endlessly. All of that has its place too, when done the right way, in the right amount. I'll talk about social content recycling and scheduling and stuff in a different episode.

But today's episode is about productivity. About leveraging your time. Your team's time. It's like setting off a mini social media snowball, where what you're doing picks up steam - picks up momentum, as it goes along. When I first posted this content on my own social networks, someone on Facebook said something about how this is not a good idea. I'll address that comment as well, and talk about the real purpose behind this funnel.

This entire funnel starts with Instagram, but you could set yours up differently while still following the same concept. And here's how it works...

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Apr 11, 2017

Here's How Your Online Course Can Be Better Than Disneyland (hint: Be like Universal Studios). There will always be people who wouldn't mind paying more in order to get faster service, more access to you, premium access, front-of-line access to your products and services, so to speak. People are willing to pay more as long as they get a lot more value from the deal.

So it's all in the offer. And how you package it. And how you position it. And how you present it. And of course, it's also in how you deliver it, and deliver on the promises, and keep delivering month after month, if you want them to keep paying you month after month.

And don't be afraid to create bigger, more expensive packages, that gives people faster service, better access, direct access to you, or your team, better training, one-on-one calls, faster set up, more hand-holding, that will help them implement your products and services faster, with less headache, with a shorter learning curve, with better support, and faster support. So don't forget to create more "Front of Line" access offers. Don't be like Disney. Treating everyone the same and not allowing anyone to pay extra to get extra, is all find and dandy. But when it comes to business, your customers will pay to be pampered. That's what leads to a bigger bottomline and more profits for you, and also the happiest, easy-to-please and lowest-overhead customers, who will happily pay extra, to get extra, and they will also be the ones to praise you and recommend you the most.

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Mar 29, 2017

On today's show, I interview Chris Farrell from SetbacksAndSuccess.com.

Chris gives you 7 powerful, yet easy to implement, tips for keeping your members.

Especially because it is so much harder to get a new member, compared to keeping an existing member. So don't underestimate the power of Member Retention.

So listen to the full show to hear Chris' 7 Successful Strategies you can use in your membership site to retain your paying Members.

(listen to the show for the rest)

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Mar 10, 2017

There are three ways to pay commissions to your affiliates: Which I jokingly refer to as one right way, and 2 wrong ways.

And those 3 ways are:

1. Instant commissions

2. Delayed commissions and

3. Fake Commissions.

And I talk about all 3 ways on this episode of the SubscribeMe.fm show.

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Feb 18, 2017

I deliver a fun and inspiring State of the Internet Address that throws light on the world wide web in 2017, and how far we've come since I got started online (1998).

I also wanted to celebrate the occasion by inviting a very special guest on the show. And that guest is Rohan Prashanth, my 13 year old son, who has started his own podcast called "Zombies and Heroes". It's a movie and TV show review podcast, and his most recent episode, in which he reviews the movie "Split" starring James McAvoy and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, the same guy who directed the 6th Sense, and this episode is easily his best one yet. So I asked him if he can create a solo segment for this show, and for you and all other future podcasters, and I wanted him to tell you first hand, about his experiences with being a first-time podcaster, and also talk about his full workflow, and take us from the time he comes up with an idea, to the time he publishes it and it goes live on iTunes. Just so you know, he does all of this, end to end, all by himself, with absolutely no help from anyone.

And I also talk about my favorite tools and services that I use in my business.

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Feb 2, 2017

Why bother setting up a webinar when you can be putting a pre-recorded video on a page that they can consume right then and there, and not have to schedule a time and come back to it at another time?

What really is the difference between a webinar and a video on a squeeze page?

What are some of the biggest mistakes people make when designing or executing a webinar?

Am I an exception in not having time to attend a webinar at the scheduled time?

There's the live webinar, pre-recorded webinar that only plays at certain times and the hybrid. What are some of the pros and cons of those types?

How to find out which one is best for your audience?

Most of them say that they're not going to record it, because they want you to attend it live, that is IF they're doing it live. So should you make a recording available?

When I go to Facebook, I see literally half the people promoting some kind of a webinar or other. There's so much noise. How do you distinguish your webinar from the rest, and other than promoting it using Facebook ads, are there any other creative ways to promote a webinar?

These are some of the questions Jon Schumacher from WebinarMasterySummit.com answers on today's show.

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Jan 17, 2017

MMA is my acronym for Money Making Activities. If you listened to episode #4 of this podcast, titled "Too much content, too little revenue" , which you do at SubscribeMe.fm, I talked about a listener, Michael, who at the time, had been super-successful at creating lots of content, had millions of downloads of his podcast and his YouTube videos, but had not had much success at monetizing 9 years of hard work.

Imagine that: 9 years of putting out great content, more than a thousand episodes published of his podcast and YouTube videos, millions of downloads and views, yet he was making ALMOST NOTHING from all that work. Practically ZERO. And I'm not saying that you need to make money from your passion projects.

But that's exactly what it comes down to: Is your podcast, your web site, your product or service - is it just a passion project for you? Is it just a hobby? Is it a past-time? Then I'll tell you right now, that this podcast is probably not a good fit for you, because the title of this podcast, is Making, Marketing & Monetizing Online Digital Content with Membership Sites, Online Courses and Subscriptions and about building a long-term profitable online business. It's not about how to create a successful hobby.

The biggest mistake a lot of people make, is that they spin their wheels on activities that they THINK is helping them move their business forward. And I tell you how to avoid those same mistakes.

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Dec 29, 2016

Let's start with how affiliate links can help your SEO efforts - especially when the affiliate links have your domain in them.

As you know, the number of incoming links to your web site is an essential part of SEO. The more incoming links you have, the more "popular" Google believes your web site to be, and the higher your site shows in search results. Sure, “do-follow” is better than “no-follow”. But no-follow links are still way better than no links at all! And that's where having an in-house affiliate program - like the built-in affiliate module that DigitalAccessPass.com (DAP) comes with - can be such a HUGE advantage over, say, a third-party affiliate program like with ClickBank.

Now, there definitely are some advantages to using a third-party affiliate program like ClickBank - like getting access to their built-in network of affiliates. But remember that just because you sell through ClickBank does not mean you're going to get all of them - or even most of them - to promote your product. You will still need to promote your program to recruit any of them. So I don't recommend using ClickBank just because you think all those affiliates will promote you. There are other real benefits to using ClickBank, which I will be addressing in an upcoming part of this affiliate series.

So, unless you're already making 5 or 6 figures a month, having an in-house affiliate program can give you a huge advantage.

Then I talk about Refunds and Clawbacks.

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Dec 7, 2016

So How Much Should you Pay Your Affiliates? The answer to that depends on a bunch of different things. Let's start with your product funnel - like... is this a lead-generator or a loss-leader followed by one or more back-end products?

Is there an instant 1-Click Upsell after the purchase?

Do you have a mature product line where you can upsell them in the future?

And it also depends on your sales goals: How much do your products and services cost, how much do you wish to make per sale - is it just for this specific launch, or is this a lifetime funnel? What's your cost of after-sales support? What is your profit margin?

Is it digital product or a physical product? With physical products, you have overhead - like shipping and handling and return shipping and damage and delays - you won't have any of that with a digital product.

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Nov 10, 2016

An affiliate program is the lowest hanging fruit that you can grab without even stretching your arms. Like, you can grab this even if you were 4 feet tall. And it always amazes me why EVERY SINGLE business does not have one.

Another thing that amazes me, is that people will spend months and months on the technology and all the tricks and tactics in the book, but they won't spend a darn minute on thinking - how the heck am I going to market this thing and get people to come to my site, read my sales page, click on a buy button and actually agree to give me real money! And in the case of a membership site, you want them to voluntarily sign up to automatically give you money again and again, month after month.

The hardest thing in the world is marketing and converting visitors into buyers, and buyers into members. Yet people will spend literally 90% of their time tweaking buttons and colors and how many upsells they need to have, and trying to get the fanciest of fancy CRM and funnel building and email marketing tactics.

The EASIEST thing in the world is to add an affiliate program to your business. It's so easy to do, that it actually kills me to see most people not even giving it a few seconds of thought. And I don't want you to make the same mistake. So be sure to listen to this entire series about having your own affiliate program.

Now, one of the biggest features you need from your affiliate software, is that it has to make it super simple for new buyers to become an affiliate.

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