Blogging and marketing products are expensive. Especially the membership and coaching programs you see launching all the time. I’m in a few only because I found ways to make them affordable. People ask me whether they should buy them too.
But do you really need them? What if you just paid attention to what is going on around you?
There is a well-known product launch formula that a lot of these sites use. It’s expensive to buy the course. But if you follow enough launches (even ones you don’t really care about) then you can learn a lot through observation.
You don’t need to like someone’s offer to get value from being marketed to. And you don’t need to spend big to acquire new knowledge.
Tip: next time you feel the urge to hit the “Buy” button, stop and analyse the sequence of events that led to you feeling that urge. Emails, blog posts, Twitter activity, multiple mentions on other sites, interviews, etc.
Launch fatigue? Or a free lesson?
Want to drive some traffic to a new blog? How about a list of 50 people who will be flattered by their inclusion and willingly promote your site to their own audience. Right before you release your new book.
It’s easy to resent being the target of all this marketing all the time. Until you peel back the skin and see the free value you’re getting.
If you just pay attention.
Image Credit: Flickr
About Paul Cunningham
I have started to do this myself, but totally missed the correlation between Netsetters top 50 list and their new book. However, I did find a new blog on that list ManVsDebt – that made the whole process worthwhile.
I have become an avid launch follower, in the hope that if I ever release a product of my own, I will have a head start.
Subtle wasn’t it ;-)
What a great perspective. I’ve recently set up a ‘launch swipe file’ folder in my email program. Some of the emails I save because I want to be sure never to send anything so ridiculous, but most really do carry a person through a step-by-step process that makes them (me!) want the product.
Some of the earliest insights I received were from following people who taught me what I *didn’t* want to do. I still keep up with a few of them actually.
Yes, that was a subtle way to promote the book, if that was intended.. I am subscribed to tons of lists, so many i can now predict what is going to happen next. When JW launched PLF3.0, the pre-launch content was so familiar that it felt like i had gone through his course..
I would say it was intentional, not in a malicious way of course, just good buzz building.
I saw Collis speak at an event yesterday, the man has some positive energy flowing through him. It is infectious.
That’s the most interesting sales page I’ve seen in a long time. The design is brilliant. There’s almost no information except testimonials.
Honestly, I don’t really know what else to say about it.
I’ll be curious to read how well it converts, who designed it and who wrote the (minimal) copy.
I love it too. Every now and then a sales or squeeze page comes along that breaks through all of the familiarity and really stands out.
You can definitely learn a lot by paying attention at what others do and you can do a lot with that information, too. There are always some things in these courses that you won’t be able to figure out before you buy them, but those things are more advanced and you can’t really use them until you have taken your blog, or your business, to the next stage. Anyone who has the will to try to learn something on their own can do this. At least, that’s what I’ve learnt.