Your Product Creation Questions
httpv://
Leave me a comment below to share your thoughts with me.
Notice: Only 28 More Comments Will Be Allowed in This Blog Post...
-->
Recent Comments
David Manning: Hi Lance, Thanks for an excellent post, the video was to your usual superb standard and also having...
marian: I need to know how to make a digital product on my niche, because they are in trouble and still not find...
Lance Tamashiro: I think that your response validates the message in this post beautifully. Everyone...
Lauren: Thanks for putting this information in text as well as video. I have stopped watching videos. They have...
Paul Irvine: Tremendous video there Lance. This can be a MASSIVE sticking point for me sometimes. I know the value...
Fripp: Well explained and useful for me. But I´m a beginner offering website design service, could this principal...
Mel: I hear you, Lance! When I’m reading delegate evaluations after a day of training I’ll get 20 that...
mrr ebook: Magnificent web site. Plenty of useful information here. I am sending it to a few buddies ans also...
Setup Your Membership Site
Profit From Webinars
Hey buddy,
I get the “pen name” question a lot too and like you said, people do it either as yet another excuse or just because it sounds cool.
I would do a co-product with someone instead of a pen name. If I was putting out an infoproduct on running marathons, I would go to your wife Martie who runs marathons and get the info from her, write the product and sales letter myself, get the product selling under her name and we’d split the profits 50/50.
We would use her as the proof and success story and all that good stuff and she would be in a way better position than me to get affiliates and JV’s.
co-creating does get you out of the situation all together…
People should figure out how brand and market themselves before they worry about an alternate identity.
the first is hard enough!
Hahah… “the first one is hard enough”… good one.
Also about the e-covers, most of the top selling Clickbank products have them, so it is important. People should make or get an e-cover as a reward for getting their 100th sale.
If you haven’t made 100 sales yet, focus on getting more traffic to that sales letter or presenting the offer better. If you’ve made it… fine… you deserve that e-cover
Hi Lance,
Great questions and even better answers.
I see you follow the Alex Jeffreys’ school of thought on product creation . . . “it doesn’t have to be perfect, just get it out there”.
What about that cookie JV deal?
I hear the cookies are well worth it. I still can’t figure out how I missed them!
I do think it is more important to “get it out there” than to “make it perfect”…
good content always will always win over flashy “perfect” products…
Hey Lance,
I like your mentality on this…
When in doubt make it simple… or something like that.
I’d say only add things that are going to make a significant difference in the product sales or value, …if you can crank out an ecover in 2 minutes go for it, but if it takes you an hour forget about it!
Like your new blog theme!
.-= Jeff Bode´s last blog ..5 Cool Twitter Tricks You Should Be Using =-.
thanks Jeff!
I am loving the new theme as well.
If anyone needs one done. Jeff here is your man.
One of the things I have learned is that “we” will use anything that we can find to use an excuse to NOT get something done.
It’s a strange thing…
Thanks for the blog theme!
Hey Lance!
Great video! Personally, I really like using ecovers for my products, but I agree with you that it’s much more important to get your product out there and not use the fact you don’t have an ecover as an excuse to not get it out there.
As you know, my most recent product ‘The Ultimate List Building Secret’ was initially released without any graphics (the graphics were still being made), but once I got the graphics I updated my squeeze pages to include them and my opt-in rates increased.
Again though, the key was I didn’t wait around for the graphics to be ready. I got it out there and updated it later.
Cheers!
Jit Uppal
ok… you do have a point here…
your squeeze pages DO look great!
In fact, I have seen them with and without graphics.
The difference you have an outsourced designer that knows how “to read your mind” after months of training.
I know that you can get graphics turned around in a couple of days…
but…
that didn’t happen overnight!
Hey Lance,
Great video. Although I would go yes with the e-covers.
Especially if you’re creating products outside of IM. I have a few reports where my target are baby boomers and the e-covers go a long way in the fuzzy, warm feelings department.
I had an email asking if the reason I didn’t put my name on an ecover is because I didn’t “stand behind the product” so yea now my name is going on all ecovers.
Plus you can get an ecover for 15-20 bucks at places like the Warrior Forum (WSO section), Rent-A-Coder, and elance. So it’s pretty easy even if we’re not big shots like Jit with our own “in-house” graphics designer.
Hi Lance,
You and Robert are the Really Authentic Guerilla Marketers (RAGMs).
)
No BS, get it done, forget the frills, essentials only. … What a concept!
How many times have we read in some promotion that we HAVE to have those e-covers or we’ll lose lots of sales? And you’re right, if a person cannot make 10 bucks back, why even start?
Thanks for all the great work you’re doing and see you at IMProductivity.
David
Hey Lance,
Great info, and good tip for someone wanting to get started with some income right away.
Co-creating is a great way to start, and I don’t think someone should stress too much about the graphics right away. Best to at least get going, then revise later.
Good product and info will sell anyway…
Paul
Hey Lance,
Nice video content, although I’d say yes to ecovers. If you’ve finished your report but don’t have an ecover yet, then don’t wait to have your ecover created before you can put your report out there.
I agree with Jit. You can always update your squeeze page later with you ecover once it’s ready.
Cheers!
Welly Mulia
Hi Lance,
Great info. I totally agree that it is SOOOOO important to ‘just get it out there’. I know, as I faffed about for a while when I first started wanting everything to be just so!
Now, I am more experienced though I do like to add an ecover.
Keep up the good work – loving your work!!!
Regards
Jon Lake
Hi Lance,
As always you are giving so much value. Keep it up.
It’s hard to get any thing perfect. Get it there and then work on it.
Regards
Jey
I agree with your take on the use of pen names. For my part, I try to brand my sites with “MaggNet” which is a play on my last name “Maggs” and inter”Net”. Some people have suggested I not do that. Any thoughts?
Thanks for the short, to-the-point video. That jv thing (which is the only reason I watched the video) helped give me a head’s up as I am nearing completion of a product. And I agree with you on the ecovers.
Personally I go back and forth on the pen name thing. I understand that some people don’t want a competitor to see every market that they are in, but I also understand the “I’m a marketer so I want to be branded” thing.
Stephen King, Anne Rice, and many other well-known authors use pen names and some authors use a different pen name for each genre they write in. Though I personally don’t know their specific reasoning, this does make sense to me.
Stephen King is immediately identified with horror, so if he wants to write a non-horror children’s book, yes, he could try to play on his popularity, but he may not want the stigma of people thinking his children’s book is horror. Hence a pen name as people don’t make the conversion in their heads very easily.
It would make sense if a person is a marketer and uses one name for their business and another name for any of their hobby or personal interest related stuff. This would help people not think that the only reason for the personal interest stuff is just to make money. Avoiding the stigma per say.
I use a pen name for one niche and my real name in another. I haven’t decided if I’m going to continue that trend, but I will for these two niches anyway.
– Jeffery
Love it!!!! You used to have better handwriting though….
Regarding pen names… like surely when someone buys from you using your paypal account it shows your paypal name (or can that be changed?).
So if you have like 3 products using 3 different names – then when they buy through PP they’ll see who you really are anyway … plus you’re address will be on the bottom of your autoresponder messages.
So is it really possible to use a pen name properly?
.-= Alex´s last undefined ..If you register your site for free at =-.
Its been a while since this post went up, but since I have an alternative perspective on the subject, I’ll go ahead an share.
Pen Names… I use one. But I use it for VERY specific reasons. In the new age of google, social media, reputation management, anything you put out there under a given name will be recorded for the world to see with just a simple search.
So, if you don’t want to be known for being a dog training expert (say because you also happen to be a six figure pr agent who has many high profile clients), but you are one – and have created multiple products, you hold seminars, and have built a following, it may be a good idea to have a pen name to separate the two personalities.
If somebody does a search under your real name, looking for your track record as a pr agent, you really don’t want information to pop up that brands you as a dog trainer. make sense?
This is one of many good, thought out, common sense reasons to use a pen name.
Cameron
Hi Cameron,
You have a good point about using a pen name in that situation.
My problem with this is that most people have a hard time figuring out a single niche. So I like to have them focus on one before even considering a second, let alone a whole new identity.
If you really must get into a new niche, I would rather see you JV with someone who is already in that niche and use their name along with yours.
I just find that the whole Pen Name thing just becomes a hassle.
Although I have never used one..
Lance
I have been told that Clickbank tries to make it complex to earn money by way of pressuring you to re-sell heaps of totally different e-books from totally different debit cards not to mention Paypal. I want to work with Clickbank however I’m worried about this process. Is it the case?