Can The 'Net Make You Money?
Trainers ask me all the time if I think they can use the internet to make more money. I think they've seen the success of guys like Ryan Lee and Jim Labadie marketing to trainers and others like Alwyn Cosgrove and Craig Ballantyne marketing to the fitness consumer and get dollar signs in their eyes. Well, I have no doubt that any smart trainer can generate a steady stream of revenue through the internet, so I thought I'd list several ways you can improve your bottom line through using the internet...and a couple of the ways that I don't think will work.
1. A Lead Generator For Your Offline Services - This is the obvious and underutilized route for making more money online. By marketing your services online, you know have a 24 hour salesperson working for you. My good friend Brian Calkins has made over $12,000 in a month strictly from online lead generation. Now don't go thinking that just slapping up a site with your bio and credentials will make you money...Because it won't. You need strong, benefit rich copy, a way to drive people to your site and a call to action if you want to have anything more than an online shrine to your business. However, if you do it right, a lead generation site can become one of your biggest marketing tools.
2. A Means Of Increasing Your Lifetime Client Value - If you don't have an online newsletter, you're definintely leaving money on the table. You can keep in touch with your clients each week or two with newsletter that provides valuable information (so they actually read it.) If you provide good enough content that compels your clients to look forward to getting your newsletter, you've already kept them engaged as a customer. They already are more likely to use your services frequently and for a longer period. But you can also upsell them to bigger purchases, perriphial purchases and cause them generate referrals when you present well constructed offers. Another benefit of newsletters is that they allow you to stay in contact with inactive clients and prospects - continually building value in your services.
3. Sell Your Knowledge - If you can deliver results, the internet provides you a worldwide platform to market to. You can package your techniques, systems and strategies into e-books, videos or membership sites (or any combination of those or other delivery methods) and sell them to a much bigger pool of prospects than you could ever hope to reach through other means. The weight loss / fitness market is among the biggest pool of hungry consumers available (just watch infomercials, they keep you up to date about what's "hot.")
4. Create A Niche - Guys like Bill Hartman have found niches of really hungry prospective customers (in in his case, golfers) and developed offerings around that. Niching is a great approach for any business to more effectively target prospects and cater to their needs and online the results can be magnified. If you can position yourself as the (or one of the) experts in a particular niche, you can parlay that into sales and profits pretty easily.
5. Forums - If you can put together a successful forum, you now are the gathering area for a particular group of people. You can monetize forums by selling ads, making the forum membership based or selling relevant products. This is a little less popular approach, but it can be one of the best because it keeps people engaged and returning.
And what I think won't work:
1. A Lead Generator For Your Offline Services - This is the obvious and underutilized route for making more money online. By marketing your services online, you know have a 24 hour salesperson working for you. My good friend Brian Calkins has made over $12,000 in a month strictly from online lead generation. Now don't go thinking that just slapping up a site with your bio and credentials will make you money...Because it won't. You need strong, benefit rich copy, a way to drive people to your site and a call to action if you want to have anything more than an online shrine to your business. However, if you do it right, a lead generation site can become one of your biggest marketing tools.
2. A Means Of Increasing Your Lifetime Client Value - If you don't have an online newsletter, you're definintely leaving money on the table. You can keep in touch with your clients each week or two with newsletter that provides valuable information (so they actually read it.) If you provide good enough content that compels your clients to look forward to getting your newsletter, you've already kept them engaged as a customer. They already are more likely to use your services frequently and for a longer period. But you can also upsell them to bigger purchases, perriphial purchases and cause them generate referrals when you present well constructed offers. Another benefit of newsletters is that they allow you to stay in contact with inactive clients and prospects - continually building value in your services.
3. Sell Your Knowledge - If you can deliver results, the internet provides you a worldwide platform to market to. You can package your techniques, systems and strategies into e-books, videos or membership sites (or any combination of those or other delivery methods) and sell them to a much bigger pool of prospects than you could ever hope to reach through other means. The weight loss / fitness market is among the biggest pool of hungry consumers available (just watch infomercials, they keep you up to date about what's "hot.")
4. Create A Niche - Guys like Bill Hartman have found niches of really hungry prospective customers (in in his case, golfers) and developed offerings around that. Niching is a great approach for any business to more effectively target prospects and cater to their needs and online the results can be magnified. If you can position yourself as the (or one of the) experts in a particular niche, you can parlay that into sales and profits pretty easily.
5. Forums - If you can put together a successful forum, you now are the gathering area for a particular group of people. You can monetize forums by selling ads, making the forum membership based or selling relevant products. This is a little less popular approach, but it can be one of the best because it keeps people engaged and returning.
And what I think won't work:
- Selling shitty stuff. It's no different than offline businesses...the best marketing in the world will just put you out of business quicker - people will soon figure out that it's all sizzle and no steak.
- Try to jump on the bandwagon when you have no new or relevant information to share. Whether your marketing to trainers, golfers or martial artists, there are already established, reputable "experts" in those and most all other niches. This doesn't mean you can't have success selling to these markets - or any market - it just means you better have something new, different and valuable if you're going to break into the market.
- Gimmicks. All the stuff like link farms and work clouds are shit. You may make a quick buck but you'll soon establish yourself as someone with no integrity or credibility.
If you want to start integrating online streams of profits into your business or want to improve the internet presence that you already have - in my mind there is one expert and one alone - Allen Hill. He's the guru of fitness websites. Allen just launched a new product, The Ultimate Fitness Website Profit System (I was fortunate enough to be asked to interview him for this kick-ass product) - a comprehensive approach to building your own online fitness empire. Everyone from Eric Ruth and Alwyn Cosgrove to Jim Labadie and Craig Ballantyne have sought out Allen for his expertise. You now have the chance to use his strategies and techniques to help you enjoy the same success these guys do. Check it out at:
http://www.fitnesswebsiteprofits.com
You'll be happy you did.
Later.
posted by Pat Rigsby at 9:17 AM
<< Home