It seems we humans can’t go a day without watching something. It’s like we can’t live without it. Top news stories, celebrity gossip, major product releases, etc. can glue you to the TV or computer. But that’s great news for business owners and marketers. Why? Because video can sell more of any product, regardless of the product.

It would be fair to say that video is the most powerful mass marketing medium you can use today. If you think about it, video (regardless of the format) is used to influence others, to win elections, to spread an idea or a cause and to sell more stuff!

I love video! It’s fast, it’s effective and it’s easy to do (if you know a few tricks). So when I was asked to help put together the marketing campaign for a new novel (Tree of Life), my first thought was of course – video! A novel, especially for a self published author, or small publishing companies, can be very challenging to sell and market. However, using video delivers a whole new medium to the mix. It’s something that can be passed around by social media networks.

I’ll get to the video for the book in a minute, but first…

The single MOST important technique for making videos sell product

If I could only tell you one thing about making videos, videos that will sell your product or service,  it wouldn’t be about how to improve your lighting, or what kind of camera you should use, etc. It would be this…

… tell a great story!

Side note: I do have to point out that lighting, sound, etc… in other words “Production Value”, when added to a great story, will have even greater influence and impact. For now we’ll just focus on telling a great story.

If you build a story, or even stories, around a product using video – the product will sell even more. People want the story, they want the behind the scenes, they want to be on the inside.

To give an example; A new company recently released a series of videos showing how they made covers for iPads. Doesn’t sound that exciting right? So what videos did the owners make that helped them generate over half a million dollars in sales, within 6 months of starting the company? They took the customer behind the scenes of their manufacturing process. They showed the guy who makes it, the equipment he uses, the time they put into building them. They shared stories on how they came up with the idea for the product and the uniqueness behind it. Stories sell. It’s as simple as that.

The end result – they sold over 10,000 of their covers at around $60 a pop. And not only that, they now have a large following on YouTube, with tens of thousands of people watching their videos and many people asking for more. Not bad for a tiny start-up company. Even if they didn’t make any more videos, the ones they’ve created will go a long way, for many years to come, in selling more of their product.

How do you tell a great story?

It’s not as hard as you think. Usually all that’s required is to give the back story behind something, or show how something works. This kind of story telling falls into the “special interest” area. Once again, if you let people in on your own story, or your products story – that’s all you need. Simply share experiences, good and bad and you’ll have a great story.

If you want the easiest formula it’s….

• Story + Demonstration = interesting video that sells more product.

Just shoot a video explaining how or why you created something or how the product came about and then demonstrate how the product works. Simple.

How do we tell a great story when it comes to a novel? We have 2 choices…

1. Build the story around the author

2. Use the story or character from the book itself.

Both options should and will be used for the marketing campaign. But for this article, we’ll focus on using the story/character from the book itself. Just like Hollywood does, we created a video trailer for the book.

The making of a book trailer

Thanks to today’s resources it doesn’t cost a lot to make a high quality video. It does require a little bit of “know how” to get that professional edge, but it’s not as hard as you think.

I worked with my brother Orvon Gough, who’s a film school graduate and also lectures at a film school, when he’s not helping me create videos and video courses. Orvon worked with me on creating the book trailer. Despite his experience, we used basic tools that anyone can easily access. Here’s the break down.

- Sony camcorder – just the standard consumer end, that most people have in their home (or can borrow).

- Sony Vegas software (for editing).

- iStockVideo.com for purchased video footage used in the trailer

- A voice actor, to play the voice of the character in the book

- Sound scores, for adding sound effects and music

All up it only cost a few hundred dollars (not including the cost of the software and camera) to produce a “near Hollywood” style trailer. And that’s why I love video!

Running the book trailer ad on National TV

In my last blog post I spoke about creating an ad that would be tested on Google’s new TV ad service. I had a number of requests from customers and readers that I show one of the video ads we created. This will be one of the ads we test on Google. Naturally the video will also be distributed online through various distribution and social media networks.

As always I’ll keep you updated on the results.

With a little bit of practice and some great story telling, you can create video products and messages that make you famous, sell more products, or launch a business.

Ok, so here’s the trailer we created. Also there are some secret marketing techniques we use to create emotion in the video. It’s kinda like NLP for video. These techniques can be applied to any video you make. There are 4 specific techniques to create this emotional effect (which generates more sales, excitement, etc.). Feel free to take a guess at them and post on the forum.

I’ll be discussing these NLP style techniques for video making in an upcoming blog post. It’s pretty cool stuff -  Hollywood movie makers have mastered it. It’s so good you probably won’t even be able to resist buying a copy of the book after you see the trailer. Don’t say I didn’t warn you

By the way, the vision of the moon, storm clouds and lightning on the trailer were shot by my brother just outside of his house – which is about 13 minutes up the road from my house. He of course messed with the colors a bit to make the moon/clouds look red. Check it out.

Here’s the trailer…

If you’d like to check out the book site click the link below

> CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE SITE
(a new window will open)

Have you heard the buzz? Google has launched a new ad service that lets anyone run ads on national TV stations. Imagine your little web business, whether it’s a membership site, home study course, video, etc. running ads on TV to millions of viewers.

To put it simply, this is a “do-it-yourself” TV media buying system. They allow you to purchase TV ad spots, online, for your product or business – with an incredibly low entry price of $100. This basically opens up TV advertising to anyone. I’m already seeing the possibilities and I’m going to share some of them with you in just a minute. But first, check out Google’s ad…

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Bloggers are already jumping all over it, (me included). In the video case study video below the bloggers testing out this new service were able to get new visitors to their site for around a $1 a click (maybe a little more).

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My own personal case studies

I’ve decided I’m going to put it to the test for myself, and I’m going to document it here on the blog for all of you to watch/read. Here’s a quick breakdown on what we’ll cover…

1. We’ll show the TV ad making process – we’ll keep it simple.
2. Include the tools and resources we use to get the TV ad made quickly.
3. Teach some simple techniques to make the video look good for TV.
4. Show you the actual video of the TV ads (maybe before we even run it, to get your valued feedback).
5. I’m going to test two different products.

The first product I’m going to test will be for my standard online businesses. The second product…. well, it’s kinda top secret. It’s an up coming novel (I’m not the author, but I’m doing the marketing for it). The cool thing is, we just finished creating the video trailer for it last week. And I have to say the video ad for it looks like a block buster movie, even though it only cost a few hundred dollars to make it (including stock footage). It was a lot of fun making it and it looks pretty cool.

So, let me know what you think of Google’s new service. And, would you like to see the TV ads on my blog before running them on TV?

Here’s the deal. I think I’ve been spending too much time working in my home office. And I don’t want my home to start to feel like a job. Time to go mobile!

My plan – to run my membership site businesses and my blog from my iPod touch. At least for a few days. If all goes well, I’ll go mobile on a longer trip.

I don’t even want to touch my notebook computer. It’s just for back-up, in case there are any business emergencies.

So here’s what I did…

1. Had my virtual personal assistant book a beach front hotel room for me. Although I outsource a lot of things, I’ve never used my virtual assistant to book or take care of personal things for me. So this was new for me.

2. Put together my “going mobile kit”. This included my iPod touch, my notebook computer and my high speed wi-fi mobile broadband device (9GB of transfer).

3. Packed the SUV and gathered the family

I’m not a surfer boy, so I’ll have to stick to the boogie board.

Check out the video and feel free to comment below.

And my little disclaimer: I’m not affiliated with Apple and I’m not doing an endorsement for iPod touch.

Do you blog? In most cases a blog is an untapped source of revenue and you may not even realize it. If you don’t blog, you should. In a minute I’ll explain in a nutshell how I make money from blogging, even though I’m not that good at blogging.

But first…

I have a New Year’s resolution – to blog more! And I’m excited about it.

I have to admit I’m not the most consistent blogger. Why? Usually because I get an OCD kinda focus on new projects I’m doing, and don’t do anything else. But things are about to change. Not only am I going to cover strategies for membership sites, blogging, Internet marketing, etc., but I’m also going to cover other business and lifestyle topics.

How do I make money blogging? It’s not the conventional methods that most bloggers attempt – sponsored advertising. My blogs have generated 6 figure revenues, by following 3 critical rules. I try to follow these rules for every blog post I publish.

Rule #1: To serve your readers

Your blog should give readers results or insights on the subject matter. That’s the definition of quality content. It doesn’t matter if you’re not the greatest or most entertaining writer. Give people results and “ah ha” moments and you’ll develop a fan base. Other sites and blogs will link to you. You won’t even have to beg.

Rule #2: Become an “Authority Site”

An authority site is site people come to for information. In other words, an expert’s advice or opinions. Don’t worry about the “expert” status. All you have to do is know more than the average person. If you’re passionate about your topic, you probably already know more just from the reading and research you’ve done. If you’re following rule #1, your site will automatically become an authority site.

Rule #3: Build relationships

Building relationships will build readership traffic and reader loyalty like you wouldn’t believe. And it’s not that hard to do. All you have to do is share experiences. Just share experiences – including personal experiences. In other words let people get to know you. People want to know what other people (especially experts are doing).

You know, 2 of my highest hit blog posts (on two different blogs) hardly even gave any advice on the topic, it was just an insight into my every day life. The first one was “Lifestyle of a membership site publisher”, which showed some photos of a 3 month vacation I took several years ago traveling around selected spots in the US and Australia with my family. The second one was when I made my famous oat bran diet pancakes on a Monday morning.

Keep in mind that this only works if you are following rule #1 most of the time. In most cases you can’t just show your daily life, readers only want to hear about your daily life when they have respect for your other content. Therefore your “personal” posts should be peppered throughout your “authority content.”

How I monetize my blogs and the principle of “1,000 true fans!”

So if I’m not using sponsored ads, how do I monetize my blog? I’m glad you asked. Here’s how it works…

You only need 1000 fans to earn a full time income! Unfortunately this won’t work so well if you’re relying on income from sponsored advertising (you’ll probably need a lot more than 1000). This concept was formalized by author Kevin Kelly and his article “1000 True Fans“. Kelly sums it up best…

“A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author – in other words, anyone producing works of art – needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.

A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can’t wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.

[It's fair to say a] True Fan spends at $100 per year [on one of your products]. If you have 1,000 fans that sums up to $100,000 per year, which minus some modest expenses, is a living for most folks. One thousand is a feasible number. You could count to 1,000. If you added one fan a day, it would take only three years. True Fanship is ‘do-able’. Pleasing a True Fan is pleasurable, and invigorating.”

And there you have it! This is how I monetize my blogs and generate 6 figure revenues. You build a fan base, by honestly serving them and giving them results, their natural  inclination is to then want more results. You create a product to fill the void and offer it to your fan base. They’re happy and you’re happy.

Use your blog to create a fanship, and then offer valuable products. In other words your blog becomes your platform for other products. This doesn’t mean shameless self promotion and creating a blog that only sells products. If you follow rule #1, this will never happen to your blog.

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Afterthought: Just thought I’d mention that I’m not bashing sponsored advertising (like Adsense), I personally know and have interviewed people who make a lot of money from it. Heck, even I’ve made some money from it, but for most people the methods above will be easier to generate cash-flow. Not only that, but you can use these methods even if you decide to use sponsored advertising.
]]> http://news.membershipsiteadvisor.com/how-i-make-money-blogging-%e2%80%93-without-sponsored-advertising/feed/ 14 http://news.membershipsiteadvisor.com/membership-site-make-over-more-sales/ http://news.membershipsiteadvisor.com/membership-site-make-over-more-sales/#comments Sun, 13 Sep 2009 03:15:29 +0000 Ansel Gough http://news.membershipsiteadvisor.com/?p=71 Why did I take so long? That’s what I have been asking myself over the last 2 weeks. It took me a long time to finally get around to organizing a new design for www.MembershipSiteAdvisor.com As soon as I launched the new design new member sign-ups increased by a massive 140%. That means more sales, without any extra advertising costs. The new design below has more than paid for itself already.

To be fair, the sample data on this hasn’t even been a month yet, so it will probably change (could go higher or lower) but as of now that’s an instant increase in membership site subscriptions – simply by changing the design.

I first designed MembershipSiteAdvisor.com about 6 years ago. As you can probably tell,  I’m a pretty bad web designer. I was still learning how to put together websites back then. Not much has changed …. at least from the design viewpoint .  I always planned on having a designer create a new site. Unfortunately other projects kept coming up and I always put the new design on the backburner. The funny thing is, it only took about a day to implement the new design from our web design team, and that included our new blog. Here’s what it cost and some tips for working with outsourced designers.

Before and After shots….

So what do you think? I’m kinda embarrassed  when I look at the old design now. My wife had been telling me to “update that ugly thing” for years now.

Break down steps

Step 1: Hired logo designer to create the website logo. Most of the time I will just have the website designer create the top banner of the site, but if you want it to look a little more professional, create the logo first and then have the site designer match the site design to your logo design.

Step 2: Gave the new logo to the website designer and they built the template for us. They provided about 3 or 4 different mock-ups. Always get several mock-ups.

Step 3: Because we rank very high in the search engines we instructed the designer to keep our text the same, and to not replace any text with an image of text (it had to be kept as actual text).

Tip: To help improve conversion rates we also had the designer allow for a “Video of the Week” to be placed on the right hand side of the site. Videos increase conversion rates.

Logo cost: $80

Website design: $150 (It’s not normally this cheap. We had a number of other sites designed, which brought down the overall cost. A good designer might charge around $250).

TOTAL MAKE-OVER: $230

We outsourced the work via Elance.com

Bottom line is that a better design almost always means more sales. It’s worth the small investment to have it professionally designed or use a professional template.

Talk soon,
Ansel

www.MembershipSiteAdvisor.com

One of the biggest concerns often raised by blog owners, when it comes to turning a blog into a membership site is this – “don’t visitors expect a blog to provide FREE content?” I’m not only going to show you how to get around this problem  ( and still provide free content), but also why visitors to your blog WANT to pay for premium content.

2 Unique Membership Site Methods

This video covers 2 unique strategies that can be used to create your membership site. The first strategy is for people who are about to create their very first member site or blog and the second is for people who already have an established blog (established means you have recurring visitors to your site).

Strategy #1: The “Truncated Content Method”

Strategy #2: The “Branch Off Method”

I’ve used both strategies to generate high income – so feel free to select which method best suits you.

Enjoy the video,

Ansel Gough

PS: By the way, be sure to check out the end of the video where I’m trapped in a giant bird cage

We tried to migrate the data over from our old blog ( http://membershipsiteadvisor.com/blog ), but it was turning out to be a huge job. So, to keep things simply (if that’s possible in the techo world) – I decided to start off fresh. The old blog will remain, so if you are looking for some of our archieved articles feel free to search the old blog.

Hope you enjoy our new blog.

Talk soon,

Ansel