A couple of weeks ago, my very dear friend Megan Morris released her first product. (She’d been running an exclusively service business up until that point. If that’s you and YOU want to release your first product, read this post on products for service businesses. Dave stepped up to the plate to write while I was crying in my gin about my step-dad being dead and wrote a very good post about it. His advice in the comments is pretty darned inspirational.)

Anyway, because I am a Big Deal On The Internet, I figured I’d help Megan out a little bit with her launch, her having saved my life repeatedly and all. So I wrote an email – one email – to some of my peeps to see if we could rustle up some sales that she wouldn’t have to bust her ass to make on her own.

Normally I wouldn’t tell you about this, but we sold 183 copies of a forty-seven dollar product from that one email, and I figured that might be useful information to you.

Here’s what it said:

Part of having so-called expert status (excuse me while I heave… maybe we could toss in “guru” and “diva” and I can seal the deal and just throw up already) is that people ask you what they should and should not read, own, study, and whatnot. I try to not give too many recommendations because I think it weakens the effect and makes. But when something very, very good comes out, I want to let you know.

There’s a new product out, and I really, really think you should get it.

Megan Morris (the wand waver of IttyBiz and driving force behind IdeaSchema) has created her first ebook/infoproduct/audio thingamajig. And it’s very, very good. If enough people get their hands on it, I think it’ll change the way these things are done.

(You can read her blog post about how it happened here.)

It’s about ideas. Ideas for businesses, ideas for what to do when you’ve created your business, ideas for how to make money appear from nowhere, ideas for when you think you’re well and truly screwed.

Got a great thing going but no list? She’s got ideas.

Got a great list but don’t know what to do with it? She’s got ideas.

Got nothing but must quit your job by Wednesday or die? She’s got ideas.

When she sent me her initial draft, I planned to scan it. I ended up reading every word. And then I begged her to let me add some marketing stuff. I’ve done it for free, because I think it needs to be done. Her stuff should be out there because I very strongly feel that the information she’s packed into this kit will change lives, if used properly.

If you check out the sales page, and it’s also a VERY good example of an effective but SO not sleazy sales page, you’ll see some pretty glowing testimonials from some pretty smart people.

Jonathan Fields loved it.

Pam Slim loved it.

Sonia Simone loved it.

Michael Bungay-Stanier loved it.

James Chartrand loved it.

And I love it.

(Brian Clark would’ve loved it too, if we’d had the guts to send it to him.)

I get no money from this. I just think it’s that great. I also think the two audios I did for it are the best stuff I’ve ever done.

She’s launching at a discount so the people who want it but can’t afford a lot can still get it. It’s forty-seven, with an optional coaching add-on. If you’re floundering, this will be the best less than fifty bucks you ever spend.

xx
ND

I thought maybe it might be cool to dissect why this worked. There are a lot of reasons you’ll find obvious, but there might be some in there that you didn’t think of.

1. These people know, like, and trust me.

I have never sold junk to these people. When I say something’s good, they believe me.

2. I don’t do this very often.

I very rarely sell other people’s stuff. There is no history of me hyping stuff every week. Sure, I could. I’m a pretty persuasive person – the last time I did a concerted affiliate push, I made enough money to build a school, for God’s sake – and I could probably add a fair amount of money to my bottom line if I did this all the time. But that would be short-term thinking. I’d rather only bug you when something is really, really great or already being so talked about that you were thinking of buying it anyway.

Too many bloggers and list-owners come out as an affiliate for everything, and that weakens both the effect of their sales effort and their reputation as a source for good stuff.

3. This isn’t my product and I’m not an affiliate.

It could be argued that this is the primary reason I sold as many as I did, but that would be a tunnel-visioned claim. In this case, it was a factor, sure. But I’ve made damn good money being very clear that I was making bank when you bought the thing I was selling too. (This one did extremely well, and I actually said the words “I don’t need your cash and I don’t give a shit what you buy, if anything.”)

Anybody who’s been at least mildly involved in this niche – problogging, ittybizzing, making money on the interwebs – knows that EVERYTHING has an affiliate program. You can be an affiliate for anything. If you give a shit about your brand at all, you may as well shill the stuff that’s good. There’s just as much money in the short term and WAY more in the long term if you shill the good stuff.

I would argue that the reason me saying I wasn’t an affiliate helped here is that I was transparent about my reasoning. If I tell you why I’m selling something, you are not forced to figure it out for yourself, and the odds are good that if you trust me (see # 1) you’ll believe me rather than come to your own sinister conclusions. When you trust someone, it’s easier to keep trusting them than continually re-evaluate.

4. I used strong, relevant and known social proof.

Pam Slim is an expert most of you know. She said:

Lack of ideas is not what keeps hoards of people trapped in Cubicle Nation – rather it is the lack of actionable, marketable, feasible ideas. Thank goodness Megan whipped up her entertaining, inspiring and extremely useful Idea Catalyst Kit so you not only generate killer ideas for improving your life and starting your business, but have fun while doing it.

(I will not lie, what sold me was proof that you generate profitable ideas while in the bathtub. I always knew it, but now have Naomi’s $11,000 testimonial to back it up. Worth the price of the ebook for this tip alone.)

Jon Fields is an expert most of you know. He said:

The Idea Catalyst Kit is an ass-kicking, action-inspiring ideation toolbox. It wrangles together the critical importance of mindset with a series of mini-case studies and immediately actionable tools and worksheets that actually deliver you into a place of clarity, inspiration and momentum. This isn’t a magic bullet, nor does it claim to be. You’ve still got to do the work. But, if you’re willing, it’s one hell of a guide.

James Chartrand is an expert most of you know. She said:

There are a lot of great ideas out there. You probably have a few of those half-formulated ideas floating around yourself. But half-formulated isn’t much good, is it? Half-formulated is just a vague idea that you might be onto something cool, but there’s no real, tangible goal that you can reach. It’s just a feeling you have. Just a dream.

Want some good news? You can give your dreams some glue and turn them into something awesome. The Idea Catalyst Kit is specifically designed to help you get those feelings of something great out of that semi-formed state and onto paper so you can do something about them. It helps you grab your ideas, overcome the creative obstacles and helps you set your dreams into motion.

The Idea Catalyst Kit doesn’t let those dreams of yours float away. What more could you want?

Sonia Simone is an expert most of you know. She said:

She has, in her usual style, overdelivered like crazy on this kit. She dives into all of the stuff that tends to slow us down when we’re trying to start a business. She has a wonderfully gentle way of rearranging your thinking so it’s in line with what you want, and so you actually know you can reach it.

Because she’s a sap sweetheart, she’s underpriced the Idea Catalyst Kit (for now) so you might not realize how valuable it is. Don’t be a dope, grab it now before it’s a zillion dollars.

Michael Bungay-Stanier is an expert most of you know. He said:

The truth is, ideas are cheap. They pop into our head, they pop out of our head. I know this – I was the first ever employee of what’s now the world’s largest independent innovation company. But being able to take an idea and do something with it? Ah now…. that’s a whole different story. That’s why I’m a big fan of Megan’s program. It’s a lovely balance of encouragement, insight and butt-kicking to go from, as she puts it, ’scratch to expression.’

One of my favourite quotes is from Lou Holtz – a football coach – who said “when all is said and done, a lot more is said than done.” If you want to start doing rather than just talking, take a look at The Idea Catalyst Kit.

The people I sent this to are not likely to quibble too much about price. They’re not looking at it going, “Well, maybe I would’ve paid $45. But $47? Not a chance, honey.” They care about getting great, easy-to-implement stuff that will have a mind-blowing return on investment. If you’re on that list, you’re not there because you have nothing better to do than read junk mail. You’re smart and sophisticated and you’re on the lookout for good stuff. So five paragraphs of killer recommendations are more important to you than “LOOK!!! IT’S CHEAP!!!”

5. It was time sensitive, but not TOO time sensitive.

Megan was launching at one price ($47) and putting the price up to another price ($97). That’s pretty standard in the industry, but usually, everybody makes a BIG! STUPID! SCREAMING! FUSS! that you MUST! BUY! RIGHT! NOW! or you’ll HATE! YOURSELF! FOREVER!

I will never say that people are too smart for that. We’re not. We fall for it all the time. We even fall for it repeatedly when it’s the same people doing it to us over and over and over. You just can’t rely on us doing it repeatedly. Because the minute you do that, you’re too invested. And if just one time we don’t fall for it, you’re totally fucked.

Here, we simply said that the launch price was X, and that was significantly lower than Y. We relied on people’s brains to make the connection. If they come to the conclusion on their own, they don’t blame you for hyping them.

(Note: That last sentence was worth the price of a college-level marketing course. Please send me $1100.)

6. Most importantly, I raved.

This is far and above the most important aspect here. You could have read nothing else on this list but I had to include them so that you didn’t fill the comments with crap about, “Yeah, but…”

Most affiliate marketers are under the extremely misguided impression that they have to be objective. Go find a wall somewhere and write this on it in big letters:

Objectivity is death.

We said it before… you can be an affiliate for anything. You can join the affiliate program for Jelly Belly jelly beans, for Christ’s sake. You could sell lawn chairs or Marketing School or hockey gloves or Teaching Sells or whatever the hell you want. You may as well sell the stuff that you adore. And if you adore it, fucking SAY you adore it.

I have said a product is so good that if my people didn’t like it, I’d give them their money back myself. Out of my own pocket. THAT is an endorsement. I’ve said a product is so good that if the buyer didn’t understand it afterwards, I would personally consult with them, for free, until they did. THAT is an endorsement.

It’s big talk, and I back it up.

There is a place for objectivity. If you’re reviewing a book you got on Amazon and you’re doing it simply for content on your blog, feel free to give a weighed and measured pros and cons list. If a new book has come out in your industry and you’re trying to become a recognized expert, give it a well-reasoned and rational review to show you know what the hell you’re talking about.

But if you’re trying to SELL something? For God’s sake, be enthusiastic.

This product is the most useful, helpful, inspirational and applicable product I’ve ever seen.

The stuff I added to it is probably the best stuff I’ve ever done. Two hours of me giving my best stuff about marketing is generally not cheap and here, you get it free. (If you bought this and you haven’t listened to it yet, I STRONGLY recommend you’re not drinking any beverages at around eight minutes into the first audio. Just sayin’.)

The information in here dislodged so much of the stupid stuck shit in my brain that I was able to make an unconscionable amount of money while working about a quarter of what I was working before.

I would be doing you a massive disservice if I said, “Well, it’s graphics heavy, so if you plan to print it out, you’ll want to make sure you have enough toner.” Who fucking cares about toner?! This is going to change your goddamn life, and I’m not going to quibble about a sneeze at minute 31 of an audio. (To my knowledge, there is no such sneeze. It’s an example, people.)

Anyway, yeah. That’s how to do a review that sells tons of stuff and makes you lots of money. Fun, huh?