KAJABI BLOG

How Much Time, Money Do Small Businesses Spend on Social Media?

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:17:00 -0700

Courtesy of: VerticalResponse

7 Pricing Mistakes That Can Seriously Hurt Your Sales

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 12:24:00 -0800

Gregory Ciotti on pricing your product:

When it comes to evaluating price, most of us don’t have a clue what we’re doing. According to Priceless author William Poundstone, much of our strategy boils down to “just winging it,” and that’s not an effective way to do business:

“People tend to be clueless about prices. Contrary to economic theory, we don’t really decide between A and B by consulting our invisible price tags and purchasing the one that yields the higher utility. We make do with guesstimates and a vague recollection of what things are ‘supposed to cost.’”

How can you stay ahead of the curve and price your offerings the smart way? The answer is to rely on rigorously tested behavioral psychology research. Today, I’m going to do some of the heavy lifting for you, and below you’ll get a breakdown (in plain English) of some of the worst pricing mistakes you can make, informed by some of my favorite research studies on pricing. Let’s begin!

Increase Your YouTube Views & Rankings With Annotations

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 14:16:00 -0800

Tim Schmoyer on YouTube video annotations:

YouTube’s video annotations functionality is one of the most effective features you can leverage in your videos to drive traffic and views to other videos, solicit engagement with viewers, increase subscribers, drive traffic to websites, and more. Not only that, but annotations are a ranking factor in YouTube’s search algorithm.

On this week’s Creator’s Tip, we collaborated with Matt Ballek of VidiSEO to share with you some of the top reasons why you should be utilizing annotations regularly in your videos and to show you several tips and tricks to use annotations effectively.

What Your Visitors Think Of Ads

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

76% of people think advertising is exaggerated. Doesn’t say very much for its credibility.

Are you guilty of adding to this perception? Check out the infographic above to see how people view advertising today.

Source: lab42.com

Small Businesses Marketing Trends In 2013

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 10:43:00 -0800

Thanks to our friends at AWeber

Article Marketing: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 07:00:00 -0800

Some types of article marketing are really scammy - making terrible content and trying to pass it off as something people should read is bad for users and bad for SEO. This week, Rand discusses some reasons article marketing has such a bad reputation and some user-friendly alternatives.

Source: seomoz.org

Create A Powerful PR Funnel

Sun, 30 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Link building strategies often include targeting PR professionals and other journalists. Mike Essex from koozai.com shows us his method to target PR notables and convert them to a link or share using the “PR Funnel.”

Source: seomoz.org

IT'S A NUMBERS GAME...

Thu, 17 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

How does online gaming stack up against online dating? It’s bigger, younger, and more frequented. So what is it about gaming?

Created by: onlineuniversity.net

THE 7 DEADLY LIST BUILDING SINS

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

When it comes to building a list, you’re always going to hear about the latest and greatest ninja marketing tactics on how to do it. Problem is, most wannabe marketers are always searching for those “secret” strategies, while failing to implement the obvious building blocks of list building to their own sites.

The following are the seven deadly list building sins - are you guilty of committing any one (or all) of them?

1.) Sloth: Being Too Lazy To Build A List

The first and most obvious list building sin is to simply not build a list at all. This is probably the most common of all the seven. Let’s be honest - most people are just lazy or too scared to figure it out.

That said, we understand that there’s a good group of you who need to be educated on some of the possibilities if you’re going to be inspired to take the first step.

Here are just a few great reasons to have a mailing list:

You have direct communication: Having access to a list means direct communication with your audience. With social networks or blogs, you are dependent on your audience being online at the right time to see your latest news or coming to your website. Email marketing on the other hand, allows you to get right into your audiences’ inbox – something that they are most likely not going to miss.
You can keep your audience updated: With a list, you have the ability to keep your readers, customers, and fans up to date with the latest information about your blog or business.
You’ll become the go-to person: Emailing your audience regularly will keep you on the top of their mind. Even if they don’t need your information, products, or services now, they will remember you when they do need them.

So if you aren’t building a subscriber list, begin today! You can get started with any of these email marketing / mailing list providers (Kajabi integrates with all of them):

Be sure not to make your decision on an email marketing provider only by price. Watch some videos to check out how user-friendly each one looks. You’ll be using your email marketing service to mail to your list often, so you’re going to want it to be easy to use and figure out. When in doubt, find businesses similar to yours. Subscribe to their newsletters and mailing lists, and find out what they use.

2.) Pride: Thinking You Don’t Need To Make It Easy For Visitors To Sign Up For Your List

You can incorporate sign up or opt-in forms for your mailing list in a variety of ways. Be sure when you include yours that it’s available for anyone, anywhere on your website.

Some great places for an opt-in form are:

On your sidebar
At the end of your content / post
At the top of your website in the header area
In the website footer
As a popup when visitors arrive at your website

Most email marketing services provide you a way to create an opt-in form and deploy it on your website. You’ll get a simple piece of code that you can copy and paste in to your site’s code, wherever you see appropriate to place an opt-in form.

You can even create popup or hover opt-in forms with all kinds of fancy options (when they show, how they appear, etc.). Though popups are a controversial way to get additional opt-ins to your mailing list, most people using popups can attest to their results. While you may lose some visitors based on their annoyance, you will also gain more sign ups to your mailing list.

3.) Lust: Coveting Attractive People On Facebook, But Not Attracting Your Own Facebook Visitors To Opt In

Facebook is one of the few social networks that allows you to have custom content on your business page. You used to be able to take advantage of this in a big way by adding an opt-in form for you mailing list on a custom content tab on your Facebook page.

However, Facebook Timeline for Business arrived and changed a lot of things. The new update removes the option of choosing a default landing page, dramatically reducing the results you could have had with it.

But don’t fret! Initial studies are showing that Facebook visitors engage more with the Timeline format than they ever did with the old fan pages, so take advantage of this. The good news is that with Timeline, you have new options for getting your content in front of Facebook visitors.

First, you can highlight important posts. This will stretch the content on the timeline so that it takes up the full width, putting it front and center as visitors scroll down your timeline.

Second (and probably more effective), you can pin any of your posts top the top of your Timeline, making it one of the first things users see at the top of your Facebook page.

Pinned content gets unpinned after 7 days, so just remember to repin it, or better yet, create new content or offers that you can pin. Some appropriate content to pin would be Facebook-only deals, product announcements, and new blog posts.

4.) Greed: Not Offering Your Visitors Something Free For Signing Up

If you’re not trying to build a massive email list, you can probably skip this one. But if you do want to get as many signups to your email list as possible, probably the most compelling reason you can give someone for joining is a freebie.

A freebie can be something as simple as packaging a series of blog posts into PDF format and calling it a free eBook, or offering a percentage or dollar off discount for your products / services to mailing list subscribers. It can be a video or audio training that you’re making only available for those that opt in.

Just be sure that the freebie offered is something that attracts your target audience. Sure, an iPad giveaway is likely to attract lots of sign ups, but the important thing is whether those subscribers will care about your emails once the contest is over.

Think about why someone would have come to your site. Where did they come from? What was on their mind when they came to your site? What were they looking for, or what did they need? Once you determine the answers to these questions, figuring out the right type of freebie that will convert new leads for you becomes much easier.

5.) Envy: Always Wanting & Wishing, But Never Creating Your Own Squeeze Page

How can you do more for building your mailing list than having well-placed opt-in forms? Try a squeeze page. Chances are you’ve come across numerous ones in your time online that you wished you could have, but never took the time to make a beautiful one for yourself.

This is a page that is solely dedicated to getting people to sign up for your mailing list. It’s a page where the main and only call to action is getting someone to give you their email address.

Your visitor arrives at your page and you hit them with an offer. Here’s what you could say on video: “Have you ever wanted to learn how to (insert visitor’s need)? I am an expert at (your relevant expertise) because I’ve (list your relevant credentials). I’ll show you just how to (insert visitor’s need) in (number) easy steps. Just enter your email address and I’ll send you the info, right now.”

As you can see, squeeze pages work best with a freebie. It’s also commonly referred to as an “ethical bribe”. You are offering them something of value to them (that’s the ethical part) in exchange (the bribe) for their email.

The part that people get hung up on is how to design the darn squeeze page. Here at Kajabi, we understand that. So we’ve made the process extremely simple. Choose a theme, enter in your marketing copy (above), and add an eye-catching headline for good measure. Publish your squeeze page, and you’re ready to start capturing leads.

Here’s a squeeze page we built using Kajabi:

Yeah, Kajabi’s pretty friggin’ awesome like that. Learn more here.

6.) Anger: Only Getting Rid Of Subscribers, But Never Wisely Segmenting Them

Over time, you’re bound to build up certain kinds of subscribers you don’t want or need on your mailing list. Therefore it is essential that you occasionally prune & regularly segment your email list. The problem is, if people ever take action on any, it’s the first and not the latter.

Pruning Subscribers

Most mailing list providers charge you based on your number of subscribers. While you may not get many of the above referenced subscribers, remember that even 100 bad subscriptions could be the difference between one pricing level and the next.

For example, you’ll inevitably get several visitors who register using fake email addresses (if you don’t use an email confirmation requirement). If the email address is gyxcicoows @ hotmail.com, then it is probably a fake or spam registration.

You’ll want to get rid of these, as they have no potential or value for you. Filter your list for email bounces, and remove emails that have bounced a few or more times.

Also, some email marketing providers will still count unsubscribed emails toward your list total. Download and backup these email addresses if you need to, but you should also trim them from your list too.

Segmenting Your List

It’s obvious why most people focus on pruning their list. Doing away with the surplus of unnecessary emails on your mailing list is going to save you money right away.

Having said that, segmenting your list will actually make you multiple amounts of money over what you might save by only pruning it. When you segment your list, you can deliver more targeted messages to each of your subscribers, giving them more of what they’re looking for, and not hitting them with messages that are irrelevant to them.

You can segment your subscribers by a variety of criteria based on how they’ve responded while being on your list. You can separate them depending on which emails they’ve opened, which emails they followed links (clicked) on, how recently they engaged with your emails, amongst several other factors. Tailor your messages to these segments and guarantee better open and conversion rates from your future email blasts.

For instance, with a segment that never opened a particular email for your newest product, you can try sending them an email with a headline that offers a special discount or free trial to that new product. This way, you’re sending only this segment another email, without burning out the other part of your list that’s already opened your previous email.

7.) Gluttony: Mailing Your List A Bunch Of Crap They Don’t Want

The last (but certainly not least committed) list building sin is sending your subscribers stuff they don’t want, need, or find value in! There’s no sense in collecting leads and in building a mailing list if you’re just going to start obliterating the relationship from the getco.

The biggest mental hump for many marketers to get over once they have a list is to just start mailing their subscribers. They stop themselves with mind talk like, “what if they get mad at me for mailing them? What if they unsubscribe? What does that say about me? I can’t handle that kind of rejection… :( “

That’s the kind of conversation many people have in their head - sad, but true. They’ll pay a monthly fee for a list, but are initially scared to do anything with it. So if that’s you, you need to get over that real quick! :)

Be careful though. Once you can muster up the courage to start taking action with your list, the tendency is to go guns blazing and start spamming your readers with useless sales offers in hopes of monetizing your efforts thus far.

Needless to say, if that’s you, you may be a little lost at this point. And we get it, it’s common. We’ve all been there. You have a mailing list. You want to make the most of it. But how do you know what kind of stuff to send to your subscribers so that you’re building your list, and not tearing it down?

You can find several resources online of how to communicate with your subscribers, but the bottom line is, you want to send them as much cool and valuable info as you can, while simultaneously selling to them. Yes, not one or the other, do both!

If you find a way to sell entertainingly, you can do it in every relevant message. There’s no “6 days of info, 1 day of selling” magic formula. Your best bet is to offer value while cleverly selling, in every email.

Sometimes it’s selling yourself, sometimes it’s selling your product, sometime’s it’s selling someone else’s product. If you’re relevant and you teach something worthwhile with every sales message, believe it or not, people will love to get sales messages from you! Makes sense, right?

The point is, if they subscribed to you at one point, they’re willing to listen. In fact, they’re probably waiting to hear more from you, and hoping it’s good. You get to determine how that subscriber relationship gets built. So don’t let them down - communicate with them and add value to their inbox!

Even if you don’t have a new product to promote, simply get in touch with your subscribers by sharing a new blog post, video, or article that they shouldn’t miss. Whether it is your post (which is preferable) or someone else’s, that simple bit of contact might be the difference between keeping your business in mind the next time they need something vs. forgetting about you completely.

These aren’t the only list building sins out there, but they are some of the ones committed most often. What are some others you would avoid for successful list building? Let us know below…

Les Brown Interviews Co-Founders Kenny & Travis

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

This past Thursday, we were guests on Les Brown’s radio show. We’ve posted the replay in case you missed it.

Check it out to hear us talking about the how it all began and more cool stuff!

HURRY! YOU COULD PREVENT A MURDER.

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Over 80% of Americans work in jobs that require little to no physical activity, and the effects are starting to show. From a growing trend in obesity to unprecedented stress levels to a growth in heart disease, the question arises: is work killing you?

Graphic: onlineuniversity.net

WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF EMAIL?

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

“What is the future of email? Will it continue as a ubiquitous form of communication, or will it fade away in favor of Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and other newer communication platforms?

We decided to get away from the rhetoric around email marketing and social media and ask the next generation what they think.

167 students wrote essays on the topic and sent them to us. After reading and analyzing the essays, here’s what we found they think about email and social media.”

Data and infographic by AWeber

Take A Tour Of The New Kajabi HQ!

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800

Happy new year! We thought it’d be appropriate to start off 2012 by giving you a fresh look at the newly revamped Kajabi HQ.

Join Travis as he takes you on a brand new office tour (you can see the old one - what everything used to look like - inside Flight Academy):

WHAT'S A QR CODE?

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700

A QR code (abbreviated from Quick Response code) is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code) designed to be read by smartphones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. The information encoded may be text, a URL, or other data.

Lab42 surveyed 500 Americans over the age of 13 to discover where people saw QR codes, how they were using them, and why they were scanning (or not).

Infographic from: http://blog.lab42.com/scanapalooza-qr-codes

21 WAYS YOU CAN MAKE MONEY ONLINE

Sun, 31 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Hearing the everyday “rags-to-riches” story about someone making a small fortune on the internet can bring out all sorts of emotions inside you. You might be cautiously impressed by their story at first, then puzzled at how it could actually all work, and finally intimidated to believe that anything like that could happen to you.

The result? Either you write it off as not your cup of tea, or you start half-heartedly and cry foul when you encounter anything that looks remotely difficult in pursuing your own success.

Owning an online business really isn’t for everybody. But it is more commonplace than you think. In an effort to remove some of the skepticism in seeing yourself succeeding with an internet business, we’re highlighting a few ways you can make it happen.

Disclaimer: You may be tempted to chase down some of the ideas featured here. If you’ve already got something cooking, don’t do it. Our intention is not to sidetrack you, but to broaden your horizons to realize that people are making money online in all sorts of niches and in several different ways. More importantly, you can too!

We’ve always believed the best way to start building your first business online is to take the steps outlined in our Flight Academy (http://KajabiFlightAcademy.com). So, continue on with your “mission” (Flight Academy vocabulary) and let the examples below serve as inspiration for your current Kajabi project.

Without further ado, here are 21 ways you can make money online:

1.) Write an ebook –

Dr. Darwin Smith claims that at 26 years old, he was able to grow 4 inches taller. He’s written about all the methods he believes helped him do it inside “Grow Taller 4 Idiots”, catered to the vertically challenged.

http://GrowTaller4Idiots.com

How you can make money online: % of sales of ebook (Clickbank)

2.) Record an audio / video course-

Though not as slick-looking as some of its competitors, “Piano For All” is still raved about by its students. This home study course aims to teach you how to play piano by ear, and comes packed with 10 workbooks, 200 videos, and 500 audio lessons.

http://PianoForAll.com

How you can make money online: % of sales of course (Clickbank)

3.) Give access to a monthly membership -

Led by David Taub, the “Next Level Guitar” members area currently holds over 850 guitar lessons. Reviews from NLG members highlight the humor and entertainment value of the training videos, which they say makes the process of learning guitar more fun for them.

http://NextLevelGuitar.com

How you can make money online: membership fees

4.) Sell advertising spots on your website -

“Serious Eats” is a popular food blog with a passionate following. The site’s loyal community members share food commentary, recipes, and advice with each other.

http://SeriousEats.com/

How you can make money online: text / image ads (Google Adsense, FeatureLink)

5.) Review products & compare prices -

DPReview.com strives to be the #1 destination for everything digital photography related. The site has hundreds of reviews, detailed specifications, buying guides, and comparisons for anyone in the market for a new camera.

http://dpreview.com/

How you can make money online: image ads, affiliate links

6.) Earn commissions on leads / sales -

If you wanted to make money as an affiliate marketer, here’s a great place to start and get your feet wet. Commission Junction is the largest affiliate network in North America. Of all the top 500 retailers using affiliate marketing software, almost 2/3 of them are powered by Commission Junction.

http://CJ.com/

How you can make money online: affiliate commissions

7.) Offer a freelance service -

You might consider offering a service on Guru.com. Touted as “the world’s largest online marketplace for freelance talent,” Guru.com provides more than 100 job categories. While other freelance sites tend to focus only on computer related jobs, Guru.com offers a much wider variety.

http://Guru.com

How you can make money online: freelance project fees

8.) Consult for local businesses –

Alan De Herrera started with food photography In 2007 and fell in love with the art of getting the right shot. He’s known for his aggressive approach in getting the most unique and exotic shots. Not settling for the status quo, Alan constantly pushes the boundaries of food photography with his complicated lighting and equipment setups. He’s been consulting for restaurants and businesses in Southern California for the past four years.

http://OrangeCountyFoodPhotographer.com/

How you can make money online: consulting fees

9.) “Flip” websites -

Ever wanted to try your hand at “website flipping”? Flippa is the place for you. It’s a marketplace where people who want to sell a website and people who want to buy a website can be brought together. The system works in an auction format. If you’re more interested in buying and selling domains, try Sedo.com .

Example: http://Flippa.com

How you can make money online: selling a website for profit

10.) Join an MLM opportunity –

The MLM concept is fairly simple: you join first, and if you can get others to join, you make money. MLMs are a dime a dozen, but they attempt to differentiate themseves by the products they promote or their methods of recruitment.

http://ProWealthSolutions.com

How you can make money online: % of referrals’ fees

11.) Invent iPhone apps -

Building an iPhone app on your own is not as difficult as you may think. It does require some technological savviness, but you can hire a developer to help you out, use software created by Apple, or take advantage of do-it-yourself web apps that guide you through the process.

http://iTunes.Apple.com

How you can make money online: app sales, ad revenue

12.) Monetize Facebook games -

FarmVille became a pop culture phenomenon as it was the most popular Facebook game between August 2009 and December 2010. It proved to the online world (on a large scale) one way to monetize Facebook games: via virtual currency, where users could exchange real money for in-game money. This gave players a greater ability to cultivate their virtual farms and care for their virtual farm animals.

http://Facebook.com/FarmVille

How you can make money online: virtual currency, in-game ads

13.) Market a specialized physical product -

“The Perfect Pushup” became a fitness craze as an exercise tool created to take the classic pushup to the next level. Invented by a Navy SEAL commander, the device’s rotating handles were crafted to work more of the upper body muscles than a regular pushup.

http://PerfectPushup.com

How you can make money online: product sales

14.) Own a hobby / ecommerce store -

In 2008, Matthew Glanfield moved away from a successful internet marketing business to start a new online venture centered on a hobby of his, tabletop miniature gaming. That first year, he grossed almost $90,000. In the second year, he made over $650,000 in gross revenue. He strategically uses video marketing to drive traffic to his MiniWarGaming.com site and has amassed over 40,000 subscribers on YouTube to date. He has since expanded MiniWarGaming.com to a traditional brick and mortar store in his hometown, where local gamers come in from neighboring cities to shop, demo, paint, and compete with each other.

http://MiniWarGaming.com

How you can make money online: ecommerce sales, in-store product sales

15.) Run an eBay store -

Superior Tattoo Equipment boasts a full line of tattoo equipment for all levels, from the novice to the professional. Their wide selection of inventory makes them the leading online provider of tattoo kits & supplies.

http://Stores.eBay.com/Superior-Tattoo-Equipment

How you can make money online: eBay store product sales

16.) Get rid of your junk on Craigslist -

Got junk? Chances are your trash is another man’s treasure. Get the most return for it on Craigslist, a network of online communities with an active “for sale” section that connects buyers and sellers. It’s a great way to let others local to you know you have something to offer.

http://LosAngeles.Craigslist.org/gms /

How you can make money online: selling junk

17.) Trade forex -

Imagine working at any time of day from anywhere in the world (with an internet connection). Couple that dream with a low barrier to entry (as little as $100 to start), and you have one of the most popular online crazes today, Forex trading. Also known as foreign exchange trading, the basic goal of the trader is to turn a profit by trading one currency for another. With a 24-hour market, low transaction cost, and high profit potential, it’s not hard to see why this opportunity has become so attractive.

http://Forex.com

How you can make money online: profit from trading currencies

18.) Gamble online

Yeah, it’s not likely a profitable business model, but hey, if we covered Forex trading, we had to cover this (I kid, I kid). Entertain the thought for a second - why would you go to a casino to play video poker when you can have pretty much the same experience in your own home? You won’t have to drive, you won’t have to breathe in another man’s smoke, and you won’t have to tip any waitresses for your drink. Heck, you won’t even have to get out of bed… sign me up?

http://Bodog.com

How you can make money online: virtual poker chip moneyz

19.) Become a YouTube superstar -

Rising to YouTube superstardom is not easy. Regardless of your audience, you need the right mix of creativity, relevance, and consistency to build a large YouTube following. Or, you can take the shortcut to fame and become an overnight success byrecording an auto-tuned song about the fifth day of the week. Oh wait, nevermind, that’s been done already.

http://YouTube.com/nigahiga

How you can make money online: in-video ads, image ads

20.) Devise a brilliant online to offline service -

It’s pure genius. As the original online “Letter from Santa” company, SantaMail.org has written over 300,000 personalized Christmas letters since 2002. At $10 a pop, if you do the math, you’ll see that good ol’ Saint Nick ain’t doing too bad up there every year! Only having to work during the Christmas season, he’s already got a pretty good gig. And, the parents of the world can rest easy on Christmas night knowing their child will receive a personalized letter from Santa with an official address from the North Pole. Imagine the self-esteem and confidence their child will have, knowing that “the Big Guy” has indeed placed them on his “good” list! Christmas morning will be all smiles, and now Mrs. Claus gets some extra spending money for their Cancun vacation in January.

http://SantaMail.org

How you can make money online: service fees

21.) Create amazingly awesome web softwareeverybody loves -

Kenny and Travis were just two regular guys who wanted to get their small ebook out to the world. They kept getting hung up on all the technology (“install this, plugin that”) they needed to learn to put a simple marketing process together from beginning to end. They decided to scratch their own itch and birthed Kajabi. Launched to the public in October 2010, Kajabi allowed everyday marketers to quickly and easily build a beautiful private membership site and sell access to it. *Read the uncensored version of the story here…

http://Kajabi.com

How you can make money online: unknown???

It’s Your Turn…

What do you think? Got another make-money-online method? Other sites we could mention here? Share them with everyone below:

FLIRTING WITH THE WRONG NICHES? 3 EXERCISES TO FIND "THE ONE"

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

One of the biggest reasons people don’t build a business online is that they simply haven’t found the right niche – one that really excites them and gives them energy to wake up every morning and work hard. They’re experimenting with theories and strategies that will never succeed unless applied as a personal mission.

If that’s you, you’re probably still flirting with ideas and oppportunities online, or just plain bored with what you’re promoting. If you want to find something that totally fits you, that drives you to finally get serious about building a business and making money online, read on.

You owe it to yourself to find the best outlet for your God-given talents (what you’re gifted to do) and ambitions (what you’re inspired to do). First things first, before even researching a niche or thinking about starting an online business, you need to give yourself a gut-check:

1.) What am I already good or skilled at?

2.) What do I have experience in?

3.) What would I LOVE to make my business about?

Download the worksheet below to help you with the following exercises:

Click here to download the worksheet

1.) Take a rundown of all your skillz

Take out a sheet of paper, open up Notepad, Microsoft Word, TextEdit, or Pages (shoutout to Mac users!) and start writing down every single skill you have, from “I know how to do this”, or “people tell me I’m good at this”, “I’ve excelled at this”, or “I get laser focused when I’m doing this”.

2.) Go for a walk down memory lane

Write down everything you have experience in, from your background, surroundings growing up, trouble you’ve been in, hurts and pains you’ve gone through, things you’ve overcome, successes you’ve had.

3.) Stretch your head into the clouds

Make a list of everything you would love to make your business about. Take an inventory of your personality traits (how you work best, who you work best with), interests (hobbies, free time activities), and goals (ambitions, dreams, desires). Even though every idea may not be hugely profitable online, don’t count anything out from the getco.

Notice the themes. What did you learn about yourself that you weren’t conscious or aware of before?

With all the skills, experiences, and desires you have, you can be left running in several different directions. But you’ve got to narrow it down. The great thing about starting your own business is that you get to set the terms. Focus right from the beginning and make sure you’re going to work on something that you believe you’re shaped to make a difference in.

John Assaraf once said that at the end of the day, you’re trading your time for money – so you better make sure that what you’re doing for money matters! So get clear about what you’re great at and what you’re passionate about.

How A Smart Launch Rocketed This Membership Platform - with Kenny Rueter & Travis Rosser

Fri, 27 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

How did Kajabi go from $0 to $1 million in 5 months?

Kenny and Travis did it by laying out a marketing strategy that involved clever networking and customer development before they launched.

Watch this interview by Mixergy’s Andrew Warner to learn the story of how they hit it out of the park after multiple entrepreneurial attempts.

6 TIPS TO SURVIVE THE INFORMATION BUBBLE!

Thu, 19 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

We are in an information bubble. Or as some call it, an “education bubble.”

The founder of Paypal recently touched upon this issue, as outlined in TechCrunch:

“A true bubble is when something is overvalued and intensely believed,” he says. “Education may be the only thing people still believe in in the United States. To question education is really dangerous. It is the absolute taboo. It’s like telling the world there’s no Santa Claus.”

Like the housing bubble, the education bubble is about security and insurance against the future. Both whisper a seductive promise into the ears of worried Americans: Do this and you will be safe. The excesses of both were always excused by a core national belief that no matter what happens in the world, these were the best investments you could make.

Housing prices would always go up, and you will always make more money if you are college educated.

Yet, the housing bubble burst. And soon the same will happen to our information bubble.

With the rise of innovation within technology and the internet, we’re presented with billions of new ways to connect with each other. We’re also presented with instant access to billions of data.

In addition to this, recent college grads are rushing off to higher education so that instead of being labelled “unemployed,” they can be labelled, “Unemployed, Ph.D.”

There has been no other time in history where people have both curated and consumed as much information.

The one thing everyone seems to be missing is that information alone is worthless.

However, information, when applied, becomes valuable.

The biggest problem is that consumers have increased their level of information consumption, but not their level of information application (meaning, the ability to apply and implement the knowledge one receives).

So in our current information bubble, how do you survive the near collapse of information consumption?

The answer is simple:

Stop selling hope, and start selling results.

Products today are filled with information, but not actionable tips (be that a degree, a seminar, a course, an eBook, an audio-tape, a membership site, or whatever). When you’re selling only information, you’re selling hope, when you’re selling actionable tips, you’re selling results.

Those who survive our information bubble and become the leading marketers online are those that implement actionable tips into their product.

So how does one make their product actionable? By implementing the following 6 tips below.

1) Case Studies

The Harvard Business School continues to dominate the top business school rankings not because of their name, but because of their results.

HBS set the standard by implementing a teaching method called the “Case Method.” Basically, the case method revolves around creating a real-life business scenario, and giving the students a framework or model to solve that problem.

Instead of lecturing from a text book, students are, #1 broken into teams, #2 are taught about a specific framework or business model, #3 given a real-life situation, and then #4 asked to solve that business problem using the framework they just learned.

Here’s an overview below:

2) Templates

The second tool for creating an actionable product is to break your video, chapter, lesson or tutorial into a template. Outline what the person was taught in either an overview or a mind map.

You can find a variety of templates at Scribd.com, and some great mind maps at mindmeister.com

3) Challenges / Missions / Roadmap

The third tool for creating an actionable product centers on creating a guide for your customers.

Using a challenge (i.e. a 30-day challenge), or missions, you can break up your course into small actionable pieces of information, and then task your customers with carrying out those missions on a daily/weekly/monthly basis.

This concept allows your customers to avoid “information overload” and gives them the action plan to apply what you’re teaching them.

4) Welcome video

One of the most important components of making your product actionable rests on their first experience with your product. When they first come into contact with your product, the customer must be hand-held. Otherwise, they may either give up or ask for a refund.

For your welcome video, introduce yourself, reassure them that they made a great investment, and tell them what to do next.

Get them started on the right foot, and you’ll find yourself a life-long customer and someone who applies your material.

5) Cater to all types of learners

In a previous post we outlined the four types of learners:

It’s important that you cater your course to all types of learners; otherwise, one type of learner may find your material virtually worthless and impossible to apply.

The four types of learners are:

A) Content Learners:

Those that learn through reading content.

Examples: Books, eBooks, Textbooks

B) Visual Learners:

Those that prefer visual depictions when learning about something new.

Examples:, videos, live seminars, powerpoint, graphs, charts, infographics

C) Kinesthetic Learners:

Those that learn by touching, moving or doing something themselves.

Examples: Athletic training, Lab experiments, Case studies, Experiments, Application

D) Auditory Learners:

Those that learn by hearing and listening to information.

Examples: Audiobooks, Audio courses, Interviews, Podcasts

6) A community that holds you accountable

Last, it’s critical that your customers feel supported and are held accountable. For this reason, we built a social community into Kajabi where users can interact with one another.

Summary:

We are in an information bubble, and in order to survive the bubble, it’s important that you carry out the following 6 tips:

1) Case Studies

2) Templates

3) Challenges / Missions / Roadmap

4) Welcome video

5) Cater to all types of learners

6) A community that holds you accountable

6 SIMPLE STEPS TO BECOMING A COPYWRITING BADASS

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Let’s cut straight to the meat and not fart around:

Step 1: Write drunk, edit sober

Edgar Allen Poe, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner all have one thing in common (besides being dead): they wrote under the influence.

There’s nothing worse than uptight writing. Readers can sense when you’re holding something back from them. With your first draft, avoid contemplating what’s appropriate and what’s not. Writing offers something many wish life offered: the ability to edit your mistakes in the morning.

Step 2: Stalk your readers

Knowing your audience has never been easier with stalker tools like Facebook and Twitter.

Simply slap on a Facebook Fan Widget (like the one we have on our blog here) and check out your fans.

After viewing a couple dozen profile pages, you can soon get to know your audience.

Here’s a checklist of our audience that you may want to use:

Meet Kajabi Joe

Favorite Movies:

Rocky
Rudy
Dead Poets Society
Gladiator

Interests:

Self Help
Kaizen
Self Improvement
Internet Marketing
Spirituality
Inspirational Quotes

Favorite Books/Authors:

Chicken Soup for the Soul
Guy Kawasaki
Think and Grow Rich
E-Myth
PPC Marketing
Gary Vaynerchuck
4 Hour Work Week

Quotes:

“You can get what you want by helping other people get what they want.”
“Learning is the key to success.”

Political Affiliation:

Moderate-Conservative

Favorite Music:

U2
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Sting
Coldplay
Bruce Springsteen

By knowing more about your reader, you’ll increase chances of writing a dud post.

Step 3: Don’t use the word “is” ever again

In grammar class, you may have heard, Use the Active Voice, not the Passive Voice. After which, a boring, forgettable lesson proceeds that teaches you the difference between the “Active” and “Passive” voice. For instance:

Passive Voice:
A rainbow unicorn is inspired by magic.

Active Voice:
Magic inspires rainbow unicorns.

But there exists a simpler, and just-as-effective rule to memorize:

Drop the word “is” from your vocabulary.

Instead, replace “is” with verbs that encapsulate what you communicate.

Step 4: Cut the fat

Step 5: Write your headline first

The headline stands as the most critical component of your writing piece. For that reason, do write it first.

Listed below are two resources to bookmark:

1. Copyblogger
Check out Brian Clark’s list of “Magnetic Headline” posts:http://www.copyblogger.com/magnetic-headlines/

2. Sphinn
Visit Sphinn (www.sphinn.com) and scan the top articles and note the headlines that make it to the top. Then reverse-engineer the psychology behind, A) why the author chose the wording for the headline, and B) why it became so popular.

Step 6: Write on paper first

Nothing beats writing on paper. No constraints exist. The mind simply frees itself with pen and pad. Try it the next time you write in any form (even sending an email). Writing on paper may take longer, but the improvement in your writing will show immediately.

Summary:

Scientists have found that following those 6 steps will improve your copywriting skills and round-house kick skills.

Therefore, implement them.

Godspeed and good luck.

9 LITTLE KNOWN WAYS TO DECREASE YOUR REFUND RATE... FOREVER

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Too often we marketers and businesses focus too much on the front-end sales process and not enough on the most critical piece component of business: making customers happy.

Front-end marketing strategies present a more exciting challenge to marketers than customer support or tech support. Who wants to spend a huge amount of time focusing on their product’s bugs or issues? For every blog post on customer support, you’ll find thousands on A/B testing, optimization, SEO and PPC articles.

But the best businesses online know that there’s one small difference between companies who succeed long-term and those that wither away. And that difference is your ability to consistently make your customer happy.

The most important metric that nobody likes to track
Of the many ways to gauge how your product or business is doing (unique visitors, new signups, conversion rate), the figure that’s most telling and also the least enjoyable is your refund rate.

If you haven’t already done so, please make a note somewhere on your desk (via sticky note, or by writing on your forehead), that you need to track your refund rate (or cancellation rate).

After you’ve done so, you’ll then need to answer the following question:

“How can we lower our refund rate?”

Below, we’ve outlined 9 ways that will allow you to lower your refund rate and make your customers happier:

1. Swift and soothing gratification (professionally speaking, that is)

Today, people are much more comfortable purchasing a product or service online than they were in the early 90’s. Even so, a feeling of uneasiness still exists when it comes to purchasing products online from unfamiliar brands.

The Rule of Instant Thanks and 15 Second Confirmation:
In order to ease people’s tension, it becomes necessary to deliver their product as fast as possible. As a rule of thumb, your aim should be to, a) take your customers immediately to a Thank You page (and perhaps even include a video literally telling them, “Thank you!”), and b) email the customer a summary of their order within 15 seconds of the user clicking “Purchase.”

If you leave the user unsure about what to do next within 15 seconds, you lose trust.

Right from the get-go you signal that you’re not detailed or prompt. As a result, they’ll expect that’s how the entire experience will be.

How you start is how you’ll end
In communication studies, researchers find that how one begins the conversation is how it will end. For instance, if you walk in the door from a stressful day at work and in a negative tone, ask your spouse, “What did YOU do today???”, you can bet that the rest of the conversation will be negative and end negative.

The same occurrence also takes place with your customers. If you start off on the wrong foot with them, you’ll end on the wrong foot.

Actionable soothing gratification methods:

i. After your customer clicks “Buy” take them immediately to a page that tells them the next steps.

In Kajabi this means that you should add a personalized message to the Thank You page when editing your Sales Page (see pic below).

ii. Send them an email confirmation with a summary of what they purchased (within 15 seconds).

iii. After they enter your membership area show them a video that gives an overview and a “What you should do now”

iv. If you’re selling access to a private course, set it up so that they are immediately sent a username/password to their site.

For instance, when using Kajabi with Clickbank, the user is sent their login credentials immediately after purchasing the item from Clickbank. This gives the user a stronger sense that the product is valuable, and not just some eBook. In turn, you’ll experience a lower refund rate.

2. Cater to all learning styles

There are basically four types of learners:

A) Content Learners:
Those that learn through reading content.

Examples:

Books
eBooks
Textbooks

B) Visual Learners:
Those that prefer visual depictions when learning about something new.

Examples:

videos
live seminars
powerpoint
graphs
charts
infographics

C) Kinesthetic Learners:
Those that learn by touching, moving or doing something themselves.

Examples:

Athletic training
Lab experiments
Case studies
Experiments
Application

D) Auditory Learners:
Those that learn by hearing and listening to information.

Examples:

Audiobooks
Audio courses
Interviews
Podcasts

Chances are, you enjoy a combination of these learning styles. Maybe you prefer Kinesthetic Learning, but cannot stand Content Learning (i.e. learning by reading a textbook). The problem arises when your product (let’s say an eBook), only speaks to the Content Learners and not any other type of learner. When your product caters to only one type of learner, you significantly increase your chance of refunds.

In other words, if your product is an eBook, you’re leaving out 75% of the other learning styles!

The advantage with selling eBooks centers on the fact that it’s digital. The delivery is automated. Meaning, there’s no costs of shipping a product and there’s virtually zero delay for the user, it’s delivered instantly after their purchase. However, it is possible to create a digital product that caters to all four types of learners. One can do this by creating a private membership community and selling access to the community. And that’s what Kajabi enables you to do

3. Wrap your product in social
Pretend you’re the president of a university and you were faced with the challenge of student retention.

What would you do to keep kids in school?

Would you assign them more work? Would you make everyone double major?

If you did, you’d encourage losing even more students.

Many colleges have found that adding social activities, athletics and clubs actually increases student retention. Colleges have found these types of activities to be so beneficial that some colleges even require students to be a part of a social group. For instance, California Institute of Technology (CalTech), requires students to participate in sports even if they’ve never played the sport before in their life. Side note: This may also explain why CalTech set the record for the longest conference losing streak in basketball of 26 years (yes, from 1985 - 2011, CalTech never won a conference game).

Bottom line:

Create a social environment around your product.

How to Add a Social Component to Your Product

i. Add a forum to your membership portal

In Kajabi, simply enable community in your “Settings” tab.

ii. Allow users to comment on your content

In Kajabi, make sure you select “Allow Comments” in your content area.

iii. Enable the social dashboard

In your dashboard area, choose the social option so that users will see interaction when logging into the membership portal.

iv. Get involved

Last, and most important, actively interact with your customers. Respond to every single comment or forum topic. It shows that you do care about your community and will lower your refund rate.

We’ve found that even the massive product launches that only happen once a year still remain active and alive through the interraction within the product’s community. This is a powerful element that shouldn’t be overlooked.

4. Get OCD with your product

Believe it or not, small things go a long way in reducing your refund rate. By giving your customers small, detailed bits of added value, it communicates that you truly care about every little detail in their experience with you.

For instance, when you login to Kajabi, you’ll find tips on every page and articles that take you through each detail on that screen.

Though it may not be natural for you to be OCD about your customer’s experience, it goes a long way in reducing your refund rate.

5. Stage additional value over time

Let’s say you were dating someone and things were going “so-so.” Let’s also pretend that the person you’re dating planned an all-inclusive trip for you to the British Virgin Islands and… paid for everything!

Would you break up with that person before the trip or give things a chance and consider breaking up after the trip? Assuming you’re not an albino, you’ll wait things out.

The same concept can be applied to your product.

Instead of giving your customers everything at once, stage-out value over time. If you were planning on giving your customers five bonuses, give them a bonus every quarter instead.

You may also want to consider building your business on a monthly membership and pushing out value to your customers on a regular basis. However, it’s important that you also understand the amount of dedication and work this entails.

Turning your product into a monthly membership model requires a commitment to releasing new features or content to your customers. This is the model we chose to implement with Kajabi, and as such, we refine our product and add new features regularly.

6. Try the “Homemade Grandma Trick”

Another thing we’ve seen work really well are homemade treats. Yes, homemade treats. A service called, Cookie’s By Design, allows you to automatically deliver cookies to your customers. When you send them something that reminds them of their grandma’s homemade treats (like chocolate chip cookies), there’s a higher probability that your customer will associate you with someone that’s kind than “just another company.”

Unexpected and thoughtful treats like not only will create long-term customers, it will create fans (for more on creating fans, check out how Hines Ward used Kajabi).

7. Gather feedback… and implement it!

One very powerful way to keep customers happy centers on giving them what they asked for. Seem like a no-brainer? It is. But companies and marketers rarely do so.

For Kajabi, our feedback forum is powered by a service called UserVoice. After logging into Kajabi, customers find a “Feedback” tab in the left hand side of their browser. After clicking the tab they are taken to our Feedback Forum where they can submit a feature and vote on other people’s feature requests. On a weekly basis we look at the top features and adjust our development to meet our customers’ needs. Our customers love it, as do we. It allows us to avoid building something our users don’t want.

A critical follow-up to this approach is that you should notify your customers when you’ve finished creating what they requested. We do so here on our blog. You can check out our product updates here.

8. Support, support, support, support

A book that inspired us recently was Delivering Happiness, by CEO of Zappos, Tony Hsieh. It tells the tale of Tony’s life and outlines his experiences as an entrepreneur. Much of the book revolves around Tony’s company, Zappos.

Zappos is a shoe company that struggled for multiple years in finding its identity. After facing multiple encounters of restructuring the business and near-bankruptcy, Zappos finally found its competitive edge: customer support.

Zappos made customer support their core focus. They introduced things like a 365-day guarantee and free shipping. They even gave their customers links to their competitors’ websites if they didn’t carry the brand the customer was looking for.

Not only did this focus on customer support result in lower refund rates, it also became a massive source of marketing for Zappos. Each customer was so happy with their purchase that they told their friends and family about Zappos.

For us at Kajabi, support is a constant and never-ending focus. We have of our customer support team read Delivering Happiness and even give free copies to candidates that are considering working for us.

If you invest resources in support, your refund rate and perhaps even your new customer acquisition cost will reflect that investment.

9. Rewards, whether virtual or real, are still rewards (and people love ‘em)

One last effective way to lower your refund rate is to reward your most active customers, as well as your longest customers. One can do this by giving their first customers special deals, or giving your members special badges that they can sport in public. Oftentimes you’ll find that message boards offer users the ability to sport badges (like bronze, silver, gold platinum, etc.). These badges can be rewarded to long-time customers or those who post the most.

It may seem rather insignificant, but “power users” care about these types of rewards and it’s a great way to publicly recognize such customers.

Summary:

Your refund rate and cancellation rate are the most important metric you should track.

In order to lower your refund rate and cancellation rate forever, implement the following 9 tactics:

Give your customers swift and soothing gratification.
Speak to all four learning styles: content, visual, kinesthetic and auditory.
Wrap your product in a social environment.
Get OCD with your product.
Stage additional value over time.
Try the “Homemade Grandma Trick”
Gather feedback and implement it!
Invest in support.
Reward your customers publicly.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this post and gained something valuable. By no means do we declare this list complete. And, by all means share more strategies that have helped you lower your refund rate in the comment section below!