I’ve been running my Create A Profitable Online Store Course for several years now and up until the middle of last year, it’s been selling reasonably well.
For example during 2012 and 2013, I averaged about 150K per year in revenue through affiliate marketing and selling my class using the principles I outlined in my 2013 FINCON talk.
But here’s the thing.
It’s really difficult to sell an informational product successfully online. And especially in my case, I find myself at a consistent disadvantage because of the following factors.
- My course is priced on the higher end – As a result, my class is definitely not an impulse buy and it often takes quite a while for someone to decide to make a purchase.
- I don’t have the time or energy to host large launches to sell my product online – As a result, I leave enrollment open all year long and there’s very little scarcity or sense of urgency to push people to sign up.
- I sell into an industry that traditionally has lots of scammers and poseurs – There are hundreds of “make money online” types of classes out there and most of them are terrible. So I often have to go the extra mile to convince people that my course is legit.
It also doesn’t help that I constantly raise the price of my course throughout the year which further deters new customers from making a purchase.
Back in 2011, my class was only $299 and today it’s $799.
Get My Free Mini Course On How To Start A Successful Ecommerce Store
If you are interested in starting an ecommerce business, I put together a comprehensive package of resources that will help you launch your own online store from complete scratch. Be sure to grab it before you leave!
What Changed Last Year
Now making $150K per year isn’t bad and I would have been perfectly happy with those numbers had I not interviewed my friend Dan Faggella on my podcast last year.
Click here to listen to the interview in case you missed it
Now if you’ve followed my blog for a while, you’ve probably all taken my free 6 day mini course on how to start an online store by now.
If not, then click here to check it out
Anyway, this free mini course (delivered via email) is a little teaser for my full blown class. It is also the primary way that I make sales for all of my affiliate offers and online courses.
In fact, I’d go as far as to say that this email autoresponder is responsible for 90% of my revenues and up until the middle of 2014, I thought that I’d been doing everything perfectly.
But after talking to Dan, I realized that I’d been leaving a lot of money on the table by not implementing a few key strategies with my sales funnel.
Long story short, in the latter half of 2014 I made some dramatic changes to my email autoresponder sequence which effectively tripled the number of sales of my online store course.
As a result, I ended the year making double what I did the previous year.
Click here to check out my 2014 blog income report for more details!
How I Tripled The Sales Of My Class
The video below is a presentation that I gave at the FINCON Expo in 2014. It’s roughly 30 minutes in length and it teaches you what I did to increase my sales so dramatically in 2014.
Specifically, I go over the following topics.
- How to double the rate of email signups for your website
- How to take advantage of human psychology to increase the conversion rate of your emails
- The exact changes I made to triple the sales of my Create A Profitable Online Store Course
Note: This video is the sequel to the first talk I gave in 2013 entitled How I Made Over $300K These Past 2 Years With An Email Autoresponder.
Click here to watch the first video in the series in case you missed it.
I also want to give my buddy Phil Taylor some props for letting me give this presentation at the FINCON Expo last year. If you enjoy the video below, come to FINCON as I will likely be talking again this year.
Ready To Get Serious About Starting An Online Business?
If you are really considering starting your own online business, then you have to check out my free mini course on How To Create A Niche Online Store In 5 Easy Steps.
In this 6 day mini course, I reveal the steps that my wife and I took to earn 100 thousand dollars in the span of just a year. Best of all, it's free and you'll receive weekly ecommerce tips and strategies!
Related Posts In Email Marketing
- How To Prevent Spam Email Signups And Cut Your Email Marketing Costs By 30%
- How I Made Over $300K These Past 2 Years With An Email Autoresponder
- How To Grow Your Email List By 56% Overnight With Group Giveaways
- MailChimp Vs Aweber – A Comparison Of Two Email Marketing Providers
- 16 Strategies To Avoid The Gmail Spam Folder And Promotions Tab
Steve Chou is a highly recognized influencer in the ecommerce space and has taught thousands of students how to effectively sell physical products online over at ProfitableOnlineStore.com.
His blog, MyWifeQuitHerJob.com, has been featured in Forbes, Inc, The New York Times, Entrepreneur and MSNBC.
He's also a contributing author for BigCommerce, Klaviyo, ManyChat, Printful, Privy, CXL, Ecommerce Fuel, GlockApps, Privy, Social Media Examiner, Web Designer Depot, Sumo and other leading business publications.
In addition, he runs a popular ecommerce podcast, My Wife Quit Her Job, which is a top 25 marketing show on all of Apple Podcasts.
To stay up to date with all of the latest ecommerce trends, Steve runs a 7 figure ecommerce store, BumblebeeLinens.com, with his wife and puts on an annual ecommerce conference called The Sellers Summit.
Steve carries both a bachelors and a masters degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University. Despite majoring in electrical engineering, he spent a good portion of his graduate education studying entrepreneurship and the mechanics of running small businesses.
Hi Steve,
I’m looking forward to viewing your video, but I wanted to leave a note here first to let you know that I’m your exact target market and your strategy definitely works!
My “readiness” wasn’t there when I first found you and the course was just $499. Each time the price went up, I wasn’t ready to pull the trigger. Then two things happened:
1. I decided I wanted to launch an online store, and
2. I got an email from you saying the price was going up the next day.
It was an easy decision to pull the trigger at $699 because I was committed. I didn’t mind paying that price because you offer a lifetime membership and the students have access to all past content.
I had previously joined another well-respected membership program but cancelled a couple of months in for two reasons. First, I hate monthly obligations; I’d rather pay a higher one-time fee and not add monthly financial overhead to my life. Second, the other person locked you out of content that was more than six months old. You only saw teasers and had to pay extra to get that material. It really felt like bait and switch to me…so I canceled.
You, on the other hand, have a kick-butt program and the forum is full of really engaged and helpful people. I’m honored to be a part of your world and think your program/strategy is a winner.
Cheers,
Ree
Thanks Ree!
I’m really glad to have you in the class as you’ve been super helpful and a great resource for the other students. So happy you joined!
,what do u mean by Rs99 website.
I have gone through ur classes and now I need ur further help.
I want vendor who are ready to sell their products from my On Line Store.
As u have advised me to put my products in Amazon,Flipkart etc.i did it
long back but I do nt get sale from their site.
Could u not arrange some vendor for me?
wow this is a great site to develop to personal skill thanks admin to your idea
I learned a lot just looking at how you structured this post. I’ve just signed up to receive your free course and can’t wait to look at your autoresponder emails. I’m impressed by how naturally your offer comes into the post and I’m wondering what pushes your readers to sign up for the full paid course.
Lookinf forward to receiving your emails 🙂
That video was gold dust!
I’m not setting up an online store but I’m in the setting up stage of running coaching sessions to help people set up a Virtual Assistant business. I have a few of those things set up already (free giveaways, an engaged and growing list, a 20 random things post, and an autoresponder with hit reply etc) but you’ve given me some amazing ideas for the new sales pages and ongoing promotion.
I’m currently running trialling the training with three guinea pigs so I can see how it will pan out and actually take etc, and I was going to use their testimonials / case studies on the sales page but hadn’t thought about doing them as guest posts then adding to autoresponder – even though I get yours in my inbox… duuur!
There were some other really fantastic tips in that video that I’ll definitely be adding to my own launch and promotional activities – so thank you very much for sharing Steve. I’ve also passed the video link to a couple of other friends who have online products as I know they’ll find this useful.
Jo.
@jojomunroro