I get so many great ideas from Paul Myers. I think I'm going to have to name my next child after him. What do you think?
Paul Myers Wagenheim?
Has kind of a ring to it. Anyway, that's not what this article is about so you can ditch that thought for now. Besides, as my wife has said, the baby factory is closed.
Back on topic.
Today I was going through one of Paul's products having to do with Skype. Now, at first, I wasn't really expecting much from it. After all, what could I possibly learn about Skype that I don't already know? Well, I was quite surprised to find out that there was quite a bit I didn't know.
But the part of the report that really caught my eye wasn't so much the section on Skype but the section about thinking.
Yeah - thinking.
You've heard the expression, "Use your head for more than just a hat rack" right? Well, I've run across quite a few people who wouldn't even MAKE good hat racks. Truth is, a lot of people go through their day mindlessly and don't think - not even for a second.
When it comes to Internet marketing, that can be detrimental. In fact, it can literally destroy your business.
Oh I know, I've heard all the arguments.
"This stuff is second nature to me. Why should I have to think?"
Did you ever wonder WHY it became second nature to you? I never really gave it much thought until today when I read this report where Paul talks about different stages of consciousness. It was then that the light bulb really went on for me. I realized that many of the things that I now take for granted as second nature were one totally foreign to me.
What I want to do now is use the info in Paul's report to demonstrate how useful it can be to just sit down and think about things and how, from doing that, you can come up with some great ideas.
Let's take the subject of product creation because I always found that so fascinating. In fact, I've found it so fascinating that I've created well over 100 products since I've been marketing online.
That's a LOT of product creating.
Anyway, let's take a theoretical product. We'll call it "How To Do XYZ" and let's say we created it as a PDF e-book as those are pretty common in our industry.
Now, most people who do this would stop the thought process right there. They'd create the e-book, sell it and that would be the end of it. Eventually, the e-book would become outdated and sales would dry up. Believe me, I am speaking from very cold, hard experience. Nothing in this business lasts forever, especially with how quickly things change.
So, looking at Paul's questions, (I won't go through all of them) I can take a look at my product and maybe think of ways to improve it or at least improve its shelf life.
One question Paul had me ask was "How could this be better?"
Now, there's a big problem with answering that question for most people. Know what it is?
It's called ego.
True story, so hang in there with me for a bit. I used to be heavily into this songwriting group where we critiqued each other's songs. The head of it was actually a big name in the industry. He was the guy who discovered Bon Jovi.
Well, this guy (his name was Steve Zuckerman) said something to us one day that has stayed with me ever since in regard to evaluating our own songs. He said that our songs are like our children and it's very hard to admit when our children have cancer. We go into denial. Not our children. Our children are perfect.
Once I began to realize that my children (my songs) were not perfect, I was better able to evaluate my own music in relation to other people's and also the industry itself. This is a hard skill to acquire, let alone get good at.
So let's take a look at our XYZ product and see if we can't list a few ways that it can be better. Maybe it can be better formatted. Maybe we can have better graphics in place of the ones we have. Maybe we can have a better disclaimer at the beginning so that we don't get sued.
Sure, you're going to reach a point of diminishing returns where tweaking and fiddling with the product just isn't worth it anymore. But to just sit down and write a first draft and zip it up and sell it as if it couldn't possibly be any better is really expecting a lot out of yourself. The trick is to know when it's time to put the editor away and just go with it. That takes time to master. But at least make the attempt by proof reading your work AFTER you've written it.
Another question Paul had me ask is "What else is like this?" Now, unless you've actually invented something, most likely the product you've created is like something else. After all, if you're a smart businessman, you've created something for which there is already a demand. And if there is a demand for it, in most cases, there is already something being sold to meet that demand. And that's WHY you've made this product - because people are already buying something similar.
So how does asking this question help you? Well, for starters, it gets you to actually take a look at what's out there. Is it better than your product? If so, how can you improve your product? If not, how is your product better? And, if it IS better, have you made that clear in your sales letter by doing a product comparison?
If you don't know what your competition is doing, how can you possibly know whether or not your product has a chance to compete with them?
Looking at the competition will help you to size it up and give you an idea of what you have to do to YOUR product, if anything, and also what your chances are of making a profit from your product. If nothing else, it will certainly give you an idea of what you should charge for it. If your competition is selling a similar product for $27, you're going to have to become very creative or add a ton of info to that e-book to get somebody to pay $127 for yours.
Let's take one more question.
Paul has this as one of the questions.
"Could this product be turned into a service?"
Now, without actually having a real product for this example, this is a hard question to answer specifically. But let's say that our XYZ e-book was about a step by step procedure for doing XYZ and it just so happens that the procedure itself could easily be turned into a service.
Great! But now what?
Well, you'd have to ask yourself additional questions such as "How much will it cost to create this service?"
If the service is so costly to make that the fee you'd have to charge for it in order to be profitable isn't worth the time it will save your customers, then they're not going to use it. I use Aweber's autoresponder service because it's affordable enough to choose over setting up my own autoresponder, which COULD end in disaster.
I could keep going but I think you got the point. Our marketing isn't going to improve unless we sit down and take some time to ask questions about what we're doing and where we're going?
If we discipline ourselves to do that, we'll find that our efforts produce results that are, if nothing else, at least a little better than had we not done any thinking at all beyond our initial "I think I'll make a widget and be done with it" mentality. And trust me, I'm as guilty of that as anybody else.
That's why it's time to make some changes, no matter how old and cranky I might be.
Care to join me?
I think you'll find it's a very stimulating and profitable exercise.
Unless of course your head looks good as a hat rack.
To YOUR Success,
Having trouble using your brain to come up with business ideas? Get my 4 Steps To Business Success and you'll be thinking of great business plans in no time flat.
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