Internet Marketing Blog

The Internet Marketing blog of Mike Merz, Internet Marketing consultant, in regards to what's hot ... and what's not, in the world of Internet Marketing.

Monday, August 09, 2004

Jim Edwards - "5 Tips To Create A Kick-Butt Mini-Course ...

... That Pulls In Thousands of Rabid Subscribers... in a Flash!"

© Jim Edwards - All Rights Reserved

One of the fastest ways to develop, build, and grow your own

list of subscribers is to develop a "mini" course with an

incredibly compelling promise.

I have personally used "mini" courses to build lists of

several thousand subscribers in as little as a week.

A "mini" course is simply a series of e-mail's where you

teach people a specific skill, set of skills, or reveal

other information they really want to know.

In the process of providing this focused, valuable

information, you prove to your subscribers that you are THE

expert in a particular area - and, you also encourage people

to pay you to get even BETTER information from ebooks and

information products you've either written or recommend.

An example of a "mini" course offer I've used with great

success is the free mini course at

=> http://im4newbies.com/a/go.php?c=7dayebook_video2

that appears in the exit pop up window when you leave the

site. The promise of this "mini" course is strong and

compelling.

Here's what it says...

FREE eBook Mini-Course

"How to Write and Profit from your own eBook...

while you're still young enough to enjoy it!"

All the registration page asks for is first name and email

address... and this mini-course has generated thousands of

subscribers!

So here's the basic formula in a nutshell:

Strong promise+ low risk+ high perceived reward= Subscribers

Now, if you'd like to build your own list of rabid

subscribers, here are 5 sure-fire tips for creating a mini-

course that truly kicks butt!

Tip #1 - The Promise

If you want to launch a successful mini-course, target an

audience with a specific need and then make them the biggest

possible promise you can deliver on.

People are pressed for time and rarely see as much value in

something they get for free as opposed to something they pay

a lot of money for.

Add to this the fact that the Internet gets more and more

crowded everyday and you can see that the best offers are

the ones that grab people's attention by making a benefit-

driven promise they can't resist.

Even though you offer your mini-course for free, you still

must SELL people on WHY they should pay you with their time

and attention.

Example: If you want to do a mini-course on real estate

investing, look for the biggest and best promise you can

make for people.

Let's look at these various promises for identical mini-

course content:

Good: How to make a fortune in foreclosures.

Better: How to find and buy a profitable foreclosure within

2 weeks.

Best: How to find and buy a profitable foreclosure property

in your area within 2 weeks - using none of your own money!

** The promise you make has everything to do with whether or

not people sign up. IMPORTANT: After they sign up, make sure

you deliver on the promise.

Tip #2 - Don't reinvent the wheel

Look for existing content - your own or other people's - you

can adapt directly or indirectly into the mini-course.

Hey, I understand you're busy... I'm busy too!

Why would you want to spend 2 days coming up with all the

content for your mini-course if you already have past

information you can adapt!?

If you don't have any existing material, then find someone

else who has written an article and use that for part of

your mini-course - with their permission of course.

You'd be surprised at all the pieces of the puzzle that are

out there independently which you could combine into a great

mini-course without nearly the mountain of effort you might

expect.

Tip #3 - Give yourself lots of chances to make money

One way to build more value into your mini-course and make

sure people hang onto your messages instead of deleting them

is to put lots of quality links into your mini-course.

This allows people to get additional information on specific

aspects of the mini-course.

Some of those links can be to free resources, others to

resources where you earn an affiliate commission, and still

others to your own products and services.

The more links you have that actually contribute to your

students learning the subject of your mini-course and

fulfilling the promise you made to get them to sign up, the

better your chances of them clicking those links.

If you create lessons people save for future reference

because they have great links in them, you'll make more

money!

For an example look no further than your "in-box"! Almost

everybody has email messages they've saved from other people

because they contain links to sites you want to use now or

access in the future.

Tip #4 - Build anticipation for the next message

If you're going to take the time to put together the mini-

course, wouldn't it be great of the majority of people who

subscribed actually read your messages!?

If you want to launch a successful mini-course, you've got

to rise ABOVE the noise of all the other email messages

people receive every single day.

One way to do this is to always end each lesson with a small

"ad" or excitement builder for the next message. You do this

by really playing up a big benefit they'll receive as a

result of reading the next message you promise to send them.

Here's an example:

"The next and final installment in this mini-course will

give you five tips for how to get 10,000 visitors to your

website without spending a dime on pay-per-click traffic! So

stay tuned for the next lesson in 2 days..."

It's a simple, yet very powerful way to build anticipation

for the next message into EVERY message you send.

This simple step helps make them look forward to the next

message so it gets read... not trashed!

Tip #5 - Tell them what they don't know!

If you're using the mini-course to promote a product that

covers a much "bigger picture" of the topic as a whole,

constantly remind people that the mini-course is just a

"tiny piece" of the whole product.

Remind them of what else they need to know and tell them if

they buy the product then they'll get this benefit, and that

benefit, and even more specific information.

Remember, you didn't publish this mini-course to practice

your typing skills! You are in this to make money, to get

subscribers, and to make sales!

Once you deliver quality content that gives people a real

taste of what's in store when they actually purchase, then

it's time to close the sale... you deserve it!

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the

co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how

to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted

visitors to your website or affiliate links...

-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Need MORE TRAFFIC to your website or affiliate links?

"Turn Words Into Traffic" reveals the secrets for driving

Thousands of NEW visitors to your website or affiliate

links... without spending a dime on advertising!

Click Here> http://im4newbies.com/a/go.php?c=7dayebook_video2

-=-=-==-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Mike

posted by Mike Merz # 8/09/2004 05:26:00 PM

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