BlackHat Money

As an Information Marketer, creating a new product while working with limited amounts of time can be a challenge.  For fastest results use the six week training program that can be implemented using only a few hours a week.

As the President of the Information Marketing Association, I host a monthly coaching call for info-marketers who have questions and are trying to launch their infopreneur business.  Here is a question from Nina in Las Vegas, Nevada about the steps and time necessary to create a six week teleseminar series.  Since this is a common question, I decided to prepare an article about this challenge to help you.

            When you start setting up your new coaching program, the first thing you want to do is create a format that will interest your customers. This is why the six week training series is an excellent tool. I prefer to use teleseminars, but if your customers happen to be local, you can deliver it in person.  It is usually more personal to do a live conference, but if you feel more comfortable about it, stick with the teleseminar.

The only thing you need to start with is a simple flyer. It should be a simple one-page thing you can send to people and just get out there to advertise your program. Your flyer should include a catching headline and probably a short description of each of the lessons you are going to be offering. Bullet point or short paragraphs work just fine. I would go ahead and mention that when they buy the course you will give them the entire thing on CD. There will always be the people who won’t join your program based on a conflict for one of the dates and if the entire thing is available on CD, this conflict won’t serve as a deterrent from joining your program.

  The next step is to develop your program. Personally, I find it easiest to make it into a workshop format. Maybe you speak for about an hour then lead them through an exercise to get them started in whatever you have been teaching on for about 15 to 20 minutes or so. The first session is easy enough to do. Start by giving examples of what other people are doing and show them the power that marketing has, not just locally, but internationally. After you are finished, you can ask for feedback. If you are doing your program locally, you can even go around the room asking questions such as, “Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you would like to get out of this course?” and “What is your top question about this?” After you ask the questions and get the answers, you have the feedback that you were hoping for and then you can build the rest of the classes as you go. 

What you will probably want to do is on week two or three, offer personal coaching.  The way you position this is by saying “You know, quite a few of you have asked me if there is a way that you and I could work directly.  As you know working with clients, they can have access to all the books and all the videos that are out there, but really working with a personal coach makes a big difference for them. I think I could be that coach for your business. So because you’ve asked for it, I’ve created this program.  It may not be for everybody, but if you’re having trouble getting some of this implemented and you need some more help, this is the program that I’ve put together.” After you present this, you outline how you will coach them personally in order to get this done. I would keep the pitch to less than 5 minutes and present it in weeks three, four, five and six.

Recording your program isn’t too complicated either. At Radio Shack, they have little Olympus brand mp3 recorders. They are about 150 dollars, so they aren’t cheap, but are worth the investment. The other thing that you may want to consider is a microphone.  They have microphones that clip to the lapel of your shirt and have a cord attaching to the mp3 recorder so you can record directly into it. If you sell this program for 200 or 300 dollars a person, which is pretty inexpensive for six sessions, once you get your first 2 or 3 customers, you’ll have made back everything you spent on the recording devices. You’re really only looking for maybe 15 to 20 people in your session and 5 to 10 people in your personal coaching program.  That figure gets you from zero to making a little bit of money.  And you’ll have a product in the can.  If you create handouts or anything like that for your training session, they now become handouts for your product.

Time wise, I would try to find a couple of hours on a weekend to create your flyer and layout your outline. It may seem unimaginable for those of you who are already stretched to breaking point, but look at what your upfront time commitment is to create this program. It’s a flyer that has the marketing for your seminar and the price.  The seminars may take you three or four hours to prepare and an hour to give, but after four or five hours and now you have a product.  You do that for three weeks and now you’re pitching your coaching program.

There have never been greater, more diverse, more lucrative opportunities for everyone—experienced, successful entrepreneurs to rank beginners—in the field of information marketing. If you can name a topic, there is a market for providing information about it. People buy information about almost everything—from hobbyist topics like dog training, to business topics like how to sell over the telephone, to self-improvement topics like fitness walking. The key is to find a responsive market and then package information that customers want in convenient forms such as DVD’s, books, e-books, CD’s, magazines, websites, teleseminars, webinars, coaching programs, seminars, and conferences. 

Watch a free video revealing how several info-marketers created their products and became infopreneurs at www.InfoMarketingStartup.com.