If you've been hanging out in the online entrepreneur space for any length of time, you've seen how people typically market themselves.
You'll start to see offers of free trainings all over social media that sound super awesome.
You sign up for them and you learn a TON.
And then they offer their big signature program after giving you a ton of value for free.
And you walk away more motivated to finally get your business off the ground than you’ve been in awhile.
But you're not motivated because you’re actually going to buy the program…
Leave me a comment if you've ever done this:
You watch this whole launch and marketing strategy from start to finish, and you're sure you can reverse-engineer it, launch your own signature program and make a crap-ton of money on your first shot.
Cue the champagne woohoo!!
Okay, so maybe I’m talking about you, maybe I’m talking about me from 2015. Whatevs.
Here’s what typically happens next:
First, you discover that the technology for running an online business is really confusing. There are too many options.
You don’t know how much you should be spending, you don’t know what you don’t know, and you’re not sure if you’re doing it right.
“OMG can someone just show me exactly what to do? I'm not trying to understand how the freaking engine in the car works, I just want to know how to drive the car!”
Second, as soon as you finally get the courage and motivation to finally do this thing, you come across someone on social media pretty much like the exact same thing you wanted to do.
“Seriously??? Ugh, there goes my idea. Someone’s already doing it. Who am I to do this, anyway?”
Third, it feels like there are waaaay too many things that need to be done, and seriously, you’ve got a life. A family. A day job.
Who’s got time to blog, pin, livestream, podcast, make a story, snap, tweet and post on Facebook. Oh and write a newsletter, make a sales page, create videos and do a fancy launch?
“Yeah, I’m just going to get back under the covers now…”
And if you don’t give up completely because of the tech, or having the time to do all the things, and you do actually manage to reverse-engineer a launch that made your favorite online marketer six-figures…
Instead of launching like a rocket, it fizzles out like a dud.
Then you decide that the only people that can make money online are the people that teach other people how to make money online.
And it sucks, because you know you’ve got a great idea inside of you, something that will truly help people, but yet you feel like it’s impossible.
BFF, it’s not your fault that it didn’t work out.
In my experience, I’ve found that there are four major myths to blame for why your master plan to launch your online business didn’t work out, and I’m going to debunk them for you now.
Myth #1: You have to launch a program to make money online.
You can launch a program to make money online, but you don’t have to. In fact, if you are just starting out, I wouldn’t recommend it.
If you try to launch a rocket from the ground without a launchpad, the ground’s gonna get totally destroyed.
Instead, you’ve gotta spend time building a strong foundation, which in our case means:
- Figuring out who you love to work with (and who you don’t love to work with)
- Finding them and learning how best to connect with them online
- Getting to know their dreams, goals, obstacles and fears
- Understanding how (and believing) you are uniquely qualified to help them.
- Putting the technical systems in place to support your online business.
Think of those things as your launchpad. Once you have all of that in place, then you can launch a rocket from it without destroying it.
Building the launchpad, the foundation – it takes time. That’s something a lot of online marketers, especially ones launching programs that talk about generating five, six and seven figures, don’t tell you.
Someone that does not have a full time job (like I did), or a family and has over 40 hours a week to dedicate to their online business can do it at a faster rate than someone who only has evenings and weekends, but it still takes time.
Don’t mistake building a foundation for not making any money, though.
Launching is not the only way to make money online, and it’s totally possible to make money in your business while you are building your foundation, even if you’re starting from total scratch.
Myth #2: You have to have a big email list to make money online.
Yes, the more subscribers you have on your email list, the more money you can make.
And to be totally honest, it’s my goal this year to double my email list, because I know from looking at the past three years of my business exactly how much I earn from each subscriber.
What most people think is that you have to hustle, hustle hustle to build a big email list before you can sell anything, and then you can launch a program to your list.
The formula goes something like this:
You can expect between a 1%-3% conversion rate depending on the price of your program, product or service, the higher the price, the lower the conversion percentage.
So first, decide how much you want to make, we’ll call it X, and Y is the number of subscribers you need to make X.
X = (0.03Y)50
So if I want to make $1000, here’s what my equation looks like:
1000 = (0.03Y)50
Put your own number in for X, and then you can paste this equation into this freaking awesome calculator that I wish I had in school to figure out Y (how many subscribers you need):
So if I’m selling a $50 program, and I want to make $1000, I need just 20 people to buy, BUT to get 20 people to actually buy, I need 667 subscribers, roughly.
I’ve looked at my own metrics from the past 3 years, and the formula holds up. My numbers line up with those percentages.
But what most people think is that they have to wait until they have 667 subscribers and then offer something for sale… And that’s a total myth.
I created a system where I made money from my very first subscriber (Hi Jen!), and have seen much more success from a steady, consistent growth of my email list where I’m offering opportunities to purchase from the start of the relationship, rather than trying to build up to some magic number of subscribers and then pull off a big launch.
If you’re not working on building an email list, it’s time to start.
Enter your name and email below to get my free mini-course, “Jumpstart Your Website Traffic”.
Myth #3: Someone is already doing this, I can’t do it too. They know more than me.
This one comes up a lot with the web designers that I coach, but I hear it throughout our community of thousands of bloggers, coaches, entrepreneurs, direct sales people and graphic and web designers.
Who am I to do this? I’m not an expert. I don’t know enough yet. I can’t charge people money for this. What if I put myself out there and I get shredded to pieces?
I don’t have a portfolio/testimonials/references.
Great, so and so is launching a program teaching exactly what I want to teach. Seriously? I just want this so bad, but I don’t see how I’m ever going to make this work…
This thought pattern can be totally devastating and can kill your dream before it ever has the chance to attempt a big launch and fail!
Here’s the deal, BFF:
You probably don’t know everything there is to know about your topic. There are always people out there doing what you do who are farther along than you.
This is a good thing!!
- It tells you that there is a market for your services.
- People learn from more than one person. I know I do, do you?
- Look to them as mentors rather than competitors.
There are also people out there that know less than you. They are the ones that need your help! You’re just a few steps ahead of them on your journey. You can relate to them. You’re not so far down the path of success (yet) that your results don’t seem attainable. It’s a great place to be!
And you are the ONLY one who has your unique perspective, your specific set of experiences and knowledge who can approach what you do the way you do it. No one else has your story.
If you share your knowledge from the perspective of what you have learned, what you have tried and what has (and hasn’t) worked for you instead of proclaiming to the world that you’re an expert, it’s SO MUCH EASIER.
And yes, you can charge for it. Because your knowledge and experience and skills have value to others, no matter how easy or obvious it seems to be for you, it’s not so easy and obvious for others.
So what’s holding you back?
That leads me to the the fourth and final myth.
Myth #4: You have to be techie.
Again, there’s more to the story here. Yes, if you’re going to build a business online, there’s tech involved. There’s no way around it!
But you don’t have to have access to a programmer or developer on speed dial to put the tech together to run your business online.
It IS possible to do it yourself. And in fact, if you’re just starting out, I highly recommend that you do it all yourself.
I know, I know. The tech can be totally frustrating. Especially if you’re trying to figure out strategically what to do to build your business online and then you have to freaking Google and research how to build a website, how to put an email optin on your site, how to use social media, how to set up email automation, how to make a logo, how to actually collect money…
And all the instructions are written for people that already understand it all, and all the YouTube videos give you only bits and pieces, and there are a thousand options and OMG I’m about to throw my laptop out the window!!!!
Let’s take a deep breath, and let me tell you a secret:
One, you don’t have to do all of that stuff when you’re just starting out. You literally need a website, and an email list. That’s it.
Two, there’s no such thing as being techie.
It’s not like you’re NOT techie, and everyone else out there understands something that you don’t.
The only difference between someone who is “techie” and someone who isn’t is PERSISTENCE.
Do you give up when you hit one roadblock, or do you keep looking for the answer? Do you quit when the first thing doesn’t work, or do you try to figure out why it didn’t work, adjust, and try something else?
If you’re not going to give up, then I promise you, you CAN understand how all of this works enough to be able to put it together. All of the answers are out there for you.
And the right teacher (ahem) can also be the shortcut that helps you pull together all the tech the right way to create a profitable SYSTEM for running your business online.
So there you have it, BFF!
You don’t have to do a big launch, or have a big email list, or be the top expert or even be techie to run a profitable online business.
And if you want to get started building a strong foundation, make sure you get this free marketing mini-course all about how to jumpstart your website traffic.
