mailing list or build visibility for your business is to
write and give away seven-part ecourses.
Ecourses are a great way to build visibility; increase
trust in you, and build an expert status.
Why seven parts? Because in marketing, research proves
that it takes seven contacts with someone before readers or
prospects begin to trust you or your product. This isn't
different whether you are a writer or other professional.
Because e-courses are delivered through auto responders, you
are also making it easier to track who subscribers or buys
with little monitoring.
The number one challenge I'm asked in my programs is, "What
should I write about?" Usually they have thousands of ideas
that have weighted them down.
Okay, dust off those mites; take a couple of deep breaths.
Now, no cheating, take the breaths and let’s begin on
picking a topic.
Finding the Topic Possibilities
One possibility is to teach what you are learning about now
while it is fresh in your mind.
As you learn, track your steps and what works and doesn't
work. Look for small how-tos that can be completed in five
or seven steps. Write up
each step afterwards. How does it fit into your business or
what you sell? Is there an angle that does? You will be
surprised what appears when you set the universal laws of
energy in the right direction.
Second, what do you already know how to do? Can you narrow
it down to a 10 step or less process? Be very specific.
Choose a small segment. Real small. Tiny bite size piece.
It is easier to move outward with a topic and then barrel it
down after you begin.
Create a list of many or just one or two, it doesn't matter.
You can only begin with one anyway. Don't be concerned
about choosing the best one. Just choose one and run with
that one for the learning experience.
Now that you choose a topic, how does it mesh with what you
want to attract to your business? Brainstorm with someone
else to pull the two together.
Are there any topics that cover any fad that is on the
Internet currently? If yes, send that one to the top of the
list.
If you don't know what you are selling, then you have a
different challenge. One that isn't covered in this topic.
If you have been experience this challenge for some time,
you have two choices: (1) get some outside expert help. (2)
Choose that you don't really want to solve this because you
will then have to start -- no more excuses. Realize that
either choice is costing you at least $1,000 a day in
revenue, energy or both. Don't choose to mull it over for
another year, decide to let it go or get it done and move
on.
Third, make a list of your "pet peeves." What gets you
angry? What do you wish people wouldn't do? What do you
want people to "get" or "get sooner?"
One of my pet peeves is a teacher telling students how hard
something is going to be for them "before" the student
starts. It sets up their failure; it sets it up to be hard.
I do not believe any teacher has the right to say what is
hard for someone else. It just might be easy for them.
This pet peeve didn't come out until I started attending
many writing conferences throughout the United States.
Every single author kept telling other writers how hard
writing is. When I talked with many successful and to be
successful writers, they told me they always found writing
easy not hard.
Yours could be "people changing lanes without signaling." A
challenging one to connect with you and your expertise. I
did this as an ecourse and sold it to AAA for their web site
use. They used it for a whole year on their web site.
There are branch offs to these, like, "How to stay in the
NOW while you are driving," or "How to stay present when
driving."
If you don't know what your pet peeves are, ask your spouse,
your friends, your coach. I bet they know yours.
Three Ways to Market Ecourses
1. Add to your web site and ezine.
2. Submit to every online newsletter (ezine) you can find.
Do a search on Google to generate a list of sites that
will allow you to submit your link.
3. In your e-mail software, create a signature with the
announcement for this ecourse.
Strategy
Complete one course a week if you are aggressive until you
have ten. Draft, edit two or three times, and have it
professionally edited. Write a marketing paragraph and your
signature lines. After ten, you will begin to see topic
possibilities everywhere and you will have the techniques
and system fairly down pat. After 10, pick one or two days
a month and just write ecourses. Then begin seeing topics
and creating ecourses that you can sell. Now you can start
creating residual revenue. Write and market, write and
market, and keep on going. You can do this for a year and
have 50 or 60 of them done. Then you can skip writing any
for the next year or two and focus in on another marketing
tactic.
Another strategy is to hire someone else to write them for
you and you focus on the marketing only. On the other hand,
you write and have someone else market. The more you can
leverage to other people’s time, the money and success you
will have.
Internet marketing and making money online is serious
business, just like any business in the "real" world. Just
like any business, you have to put forth an effort in order
to succeed. You need to invest time and money. It never
ceases to amaze me how some people relentlessly expect to
succeed without making an investment of any kind.
Go ahead, give it an honest try. I believe it will work for
YOU if you work with it! Let me know about your success.
Catherine Franz, a Business Coach, specialized in writing,
marketing and product development. Newsletters and
additional articles: http://www.abundancecenter.com
