One the factors I like to hammer home to people when they create any kind of information, whether it’s blog or website content, membership content, or any kind of paid info product, is not to underestimate how much of your audience truly are beginners . Everyone starts as a beginner. If you are teaching something that requires any kind of practice or knowledge to become proficient in it, then you have a market of beginners ready to be helped. In growing industries, new people become beginners every day, especially online as more people to turn the web as a source of training resources. When I launched Blog Mastermind in 2007 I intended to create a course that would guide beginners through a process of learning how to build and eventually profit from a successful blog. I remember writing the first few lessons of the course, imagining what it would be like to be at the other end, reading my lesson having no experience at all with a blog. I referenced back to my own beginner phase and attempted to cover all the most important things I had learned that beginners need to know. I think I did a pretty good job of handholding people through the starting phase of blogging in Blog Mastermind (so much so that some people in the first test group quit the program early because they thought it was too basic, forcing me to create a second stream of advanced lessons to keep more experienced people interested long enough to reach the later lessons in the main stream of training). Despite this, I felt that there was one significant limitation that I wasn’t addressing that I knew many beginners wanted – I didn’t offer any video training to show people how to install a blog. Become A Blogger Is Born Although I initially said no to an offer from a reader of my blog to purchase the becomeablogger.com domain name, eventually I came back and purchased it once I had an idea how to use it. It is a good domain name, with good cadence, and a very clear message about what the site is about, given the plans I had for it. My idea was to release videos to show people how to install WordPress, which is something that definitely becomes easier to learn when you can visually see the process presented by someone else. Writing is my strong point, and although I had rudimentary camtasia video recording skills at the time, I didn’t feel I could do a good enough job to create the kind of polished and easy to follow video style to teach people how to set-up their first blog. I didn’t really want to spend the time doing it either, so I decided finding a person to create the videos was the way to go. Enter Gideon Shalwick . Gideon interviewed me in video format, we made friends over a period of a few weeks, and eventually I asked if he would be interested in the becomeablogger.com project. He quoted $5,000 to create the ten videos we talked about and I agreed. It was fortuitous that Gideon, who was learning a lot about online video at the time because it is his passion, was very capable of creating the kind of videos I wanted, and he also happens to have the perfect kind of voice and tone I was looking for – like a preschool teacher explaining to children what to do. I don’t mean this to sound condescending in anyway, but when creating content for beginners it is best you pretend you are dealing with children so you really do cover every little step with basic instructions. This is exactly what Gideon did with the ten introductory videos. We didn’t assume our students had any existing tech knowledge and just wanted to watch our videos and copy what we did and then get a result. The videos were challenging to produce and several times Gideon had to redo a video, but eventually the job was finished. Gideon also produced the very first Becomeablogger.com blog design to host the videos, which was one of the last times he did any web design work. We launched the site, I emailed my lists and told my blog readers about the videos and then sat back and watched what happened. It didn’t take long to see that we had a hit on our hands as the videos reached over 30,000 views in a short period of time, and we weren’t using YouTube as a traffic source at all. It was growing organically through word of mouth. Become A Blogger Goes Premium Due to the success of the free videos Gideon and I decided to team up and form a partnership to create a premium version of the videos that we would sell. We decided to follow my launch formula and market the course using the same methods I used to successfully launch Blog Mastermind (by then I had learned enough about launches that I knew the best format to promote our new course without making previous mistakes). When coming up with a new product it is really important you know who your target customer is , because your offer is derived from this knowledge. If you get your offer wrong, you won’t make sales. I was concerned that Become A Blogger Premium would be perceived as too similar to Blog Mastermind , since both courses fundamentally teach the same thing – how to build a profitable blog . Because of this I wanted to clearly define what made each course unique and different from the other. Become A Blogger was initially created to meet the needs of absolute beginners who want to do the technical things themselves by following step-by-step videos. Blog Mastermind has very few videos, most of the course is text (with audio versions of each lesson included) and I recommend that people outsource technology rather than do it themselves (and hence do not teach how to do it yourself in this course). This is how I saw the key difference, and as a result we would market Become A Blogger to a person who is an absolute beginner AND doesn’t have the money to outsource, so would rather learn how to do the necessary technical steps through video training. Despite doing my best to clarify the positioning of Become A Blogger Premium in our marketing materials I wasn’t sure at all how the course would sell. Gideon and I talked about taking on 100 members as a base level of “success”, where we would be happy to continue to build the course (we launched with about 10% to 20% of the course complete, as per my launch formula, the rest we built along with the first group of members). Anymore more than 100 people would be great of course, but I didn’t want to set expectations too high. We created the launch materials, went through the prelaunch process and opened the program at a charter price of $27/month for six months, raising it to $47 a month after the launch period was over (about two weeks if I recall). Much to my jubilant surprise, at the end of the opening campaign we topped over 700 members, which was incredibly successful, much better than I thought it would do. Soon after we added another 400 members even after the price rise when we conducted another marketing campaign. Within a matter of months we had created a course with over 1,000 paying members and an income stream in excess of $20,000 a month after affiliate commissions and expenses came out. Obviously I was pretty stoked at how successful the course was, and it went on from there to grow to over 2000 members and become the most successful program I’ve ever created based on total number of users. Don’t Underestimate The Beginners This experience taught me several things – Video is a viable and popular format for creating training products. Giving beginners the very basic steps to learn how to do something you might consider easy (and free to learn elsewhere online), is something you can charge money for, especially if you packet it up in a professional presentation. There are a lot of beginners out there – many more than you probably think there are. All these lessons can be applied to your situation. Even if there are plenty of free training resources, or other paid beginner training programs out there, don’t believe that you can’t create a product to target this market. You can pick a new media format or use your unique style or method and focus on beginners and create something unique that people will buy. Become A Blogger Premium Is Closing The story I just told you relates to a period from 2008 to 2009. Become A Blogger has since stayed perpetually available, although we did not do any more significant launch campaigns. Instead we focused on smaller promotions with individual affiliates and relied on existing traffic streams, such as this blog, to attract new members. The sign-up rate dropped significantly after the launches were over (I’ve yet to come across a better marketing method than a launch campaign, but they do take quite a bit of work), however the business continued to deliver a steady, albeit smaller income stream bolstered by affiliate income when we promoted other products and services. Gideon and I decided this year that it’s time to put to rest the current program because we are both focusing on other areas. We will likely replace it with something to service the same market, but that won’t be for a while. The course as it currently is, will be retired this week, and will not reopen. The program however remains full of great training videos, and although some of it has dated, much of the content is still very viable – especially the fundamental strategy videos I created on how to grow traffic and monetize your blog . As one last hurrah before we shut the doors on this course forever, we are offering a hefty discount on the course if you want to grab it before it closes. We’ve knocked over 30% off the price of the premium program, so you can grab the complete course for one payment of $147 (no monthly payments required). There is also an upgrade offer to bundle Blog Mastermind with Become A Blogger Premium (that’s definitely all you will ever need to know about making money with blogs in these two programs), which is also discounted at $200 off the original price . These are both one time fees, not monthly fees, and you get immediate access to the entire program after purchase. The course content will remain available to all new and past members, so although the doors to join will close, all the materials will be online for a long time still, so you have plenty of time to study the resources. You can find out more and join now at the special discount price here – http://www.becomeablogger.com/signup/ Don’t forget the course and sale price closes this Friday, 6th of May at midnight eastern US time . There won’t be any exceptions, once Become A Blogger Premium closes, that is it. Bonuses If You Join By Friday Gideon and I talked at the start of this week about what additional goodies we could give you as enticements to join (you have to have bonuses during a closing campaign!) and we came up with the following, which I think is a pretty cool bonus pack. You score the following SEVEN extra bonuses if you join Become A Blogger Premium during this closing down promo: 1. The Definitive Guide To SEO For Bloggers (by Yaro Starak) This is a comprehensive guide to search engine optimization specifically for bloggers, including 75 link building techniques and my methodology for dominating search results with a blog. 2. SEO In 2011 – Interview With David Jenyns David runs a search engine marketing company in Melbourne and thus has to keep up to date with all the latest SEO techniques. I grabbed him and asked what are the current SEO strategies used today and what has changed (this is a new unreleased interview, April 2011). 3. A Preview Copy of The 2-Hour Work Day Report (by Yaro Starak) This is my latest report, fresh of the press, 86 pages long, due for release later this year. If you want an advanced copy, this is the only way to get it. 4. The Ultimate Guide To Selecting The Perfect Video Camera (by Gideon Shalwick) This guide will save you a TON of time and money. It will help you select the exact camera you need for your exact situation, and prevent you from making costly mistakes! 5. YouTube Hacks For Building Your Email List Presentation (by Gideon Shalwick) This is a 90 minute long presentation Gideon did at an event where people paid 5k+ just to attend! Inside, you’ll learn all the tricks that Gideon uses for building his email lists in the tens of thousands using YouTube. 6. Six Figure Launch Email Sequence Swipe File (by Yaro Starak) This is 96 page PDF contains every email I sent for the prelaunch and launch of Blog Mastermind for the very first release, which netted over 400 members and created a six figure income. Not only do you get the emails, you also get hand-written commentary from me about why I sent each email when I did (you can copy these emails for your launch, or just take bits as you please). 7. Interview With Katie Freiling On The Power Of Social Media Inside this interview, Katie reveals how to easily build your tribe who loves spending money with you, using the latest social media strategies. You can order the course and score all these bonuses here – http://www.becomeablogger.com/signup/ We will send out the bonuses to all new members next week after the doors close. Thanks again for supporting our work and please please please , make sure after buying these products you take action and do something with them. I look forward to seeing you as one of our new members. Yaro Starak Blogging Since 2004 Get your bonus copy of my book “How To Start An Internet Business & Make Your First $1,000 Online” Download Here
