Fast Product Launching

A new product launch means lots of hard work, preparation, and time that needs to go in no matter where you work or for whom. The launch of the product is a critical event and everything has to go right in order for the product to succeed in the market. Once the product is launched there is no time to go back and fix things because all that should have been taken care of earlier. The only way a product can succeed is if it well planned before its creating begins and is carried through flawlessly through the launch. Here are some useful tips you can use during your product launch.

You need to start advertising your product before the product launch so that the market is aware of your launch plans and date. There are many ways to do this; both online and offline. The key thing is to spread the word that a new product is on the way.

Try finding business partners and tie up with them. If you happen to be selling cars then it does not hurt to have your ads show up on a website that offers car repair or runs a gas station. This way you get to cover two target markets at the same time.

Use press releases and other tools to generate news regarding your product. There are several ezines and printed publications that you can use for this purpose.

Make sure you test out everything before the product launch date. Your landing page and other associated elements must be working perfectly.

Creating Your Online Business

Creating your online business can be a long and arduous process, or it can be done relatively easily. Today is a great time to launch an online business. The secret is to find something unique, a niche market or where the competition is less, the technology is better and where you can get a better return on investment, quicker. Internet use is at an all-time high and is a great time to join the largest and biggest growth market of all time. The online games industry (not gambling) is currently the largest growth area with millions of people playing games at any one point in time.

Even countries like India and China have seen massive growth in this area. The USA, United Kingdom and other European countries have all seen an upsurge in online entertainment. Last year there were over 100,000 Internet cafes opened in India alone.

Internet cafes have sprung up all over the World trying to keep up with the insatiable appetite for games and entertainment. Simple games, wargames, role playing have become part of everyday life and for entrepreneurs this market can offer amazing rewards.

Imagine having your very own games website, fully populated with games that have massive play appeal, completely automated. With new games being introduced on a regular basis. One to games, tournaments, free games and games with a money prize, and all this for a remarkably low price.

The combination of social networking, blogs,online games and network marketing into one package has meant that for the first time the information will travel at light speed around the globe and build your games business much faster.

It's not just about games of course, it's about entertainment. It is the type of business that satisfies the basic human need to have fun and compete.

The inventors of the Internet could never have envisaged that what they were doing could give so much freedom and joy to millions of people all over the World.

There's no doubt about it the games industry is big and getting bigger by the minute. New technology has allowed the average person to become financially independent in a relatively short space of time, and being part of this Global phenomena will bring exceedingly great rewards for many people.

The great news is that you don't need to be a 'techie or geek' the system works for you so you don't have to. With the online games market growing four times quicker than the Internet as a whole the future looks extremely bright.

Internet Marketing Strategies - Generating Traffic Before a Product Launch

Are you developing your own product? Will be using the internet for distribution? If so start putting together your marketing strategy together to drive traffic to your website when you are ready to launch your product. To generate traffic to your website you will not need an expert to make this work, or your own prospect list. You need to a pre-launch marketing strategy and action plan prior to your product launch.

Most companies, in every industry, will start out at the bottom, but it is possible to be successful. Perhaps you know someone in your industry niche, if not get to know someone. If your prospects do not know of your company or your products start growing your customer list before your product is ready to launch.

Develop your pre-launch strategy. Start getting the word out about your product by using blogs, message boards, email blasts and videos. YouTube is a great way to get your videos to thousands of consumers directing them to your product blog or website.

Once you have their attention, provide information about your product and invite them to comment. Ask for their feedback and ideas then take their suggestions to provide a product which will meet their requests. Thank them for their comments and start an interactive conversation. This type of interaction keeps the search engines directing traffic your way.

Provide a means for your prospects to opt-in on your blog or website so you can start building your prospect and customer list before your product launched or while it is still in production. Continue updating your blog and website and continue making new videos about the progress you are making and the feedback you have received from viewers. Perhaps you can make an announcement periodically thanking them for their suggestions and you're your prospects interest high. Keep making announcements to get viewed to your blog or website.

The key to successfully use pre-launch strategy is to get your prospects excited about your soon to be released product. Continue to interact with them on your blog and website encouraging feedback along the way. Your goal is to get people talking about your product on other blogs and websites. Creating this pre-launch community will generate traffic to your website and ultimately sales of your product.

As you can see any company can apply this internet marketing strategy to create interest in your product before the actual launch. Build your prospect list and get people excited so they will spread the word to others on the internet.

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Product Launch Blueprint

Product launch strategies to use. At the low end, you write a couple articles promoting your product, submit them to directories--and that's your product launch. You sell one, maybe two copies of your ebook--and phoosh--it's over. Not much of a product launch is it?

At the high end, you hook up with a couple dozen super-affiliates in your niche to do mailings for you on launch day, they each send out 20, 50, 100,000 emails and within 72 hours you've sold a few thousand units. That sounds like a better option doesn't it?

So how can you find these big dogs with the big lists to help you promote your product on launch day? You could look in the phone book but I doubt if they've taken out ads saying, "Major super-affiliate looking for products to promote."

A better way to search online for "joint venture forums" and see what you find. There are quite a few. You can learn about new product launches, especially in the IM niche, and sign up for their launch. You will get periodic updates on their launch and most of the big ones have contests offering prizes to the top-selling affiliates.

Within a day or two after the launch they will post a "leader board" which will list the top-selling dozen or so affiliates. These are the big cats with the big lists. These guys can move product. Copy down their names and find them online. Make contact and give them you pitch for promoting your product.

Make sure you've got a great affiliate page set up and that your sales page is top notch. If all is in order and you can get a few of these individuals to do a mailing or two for you--you'll have a great product launch.

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Launching a Successful Product Online

Successfully launching a product online requires 2 main components: 1) a product that is successful and 2) an understanding of how to connect online with the appropriate target markets.

If you are going to focus on using social media marketing campaigns to launch your product, it's a good idea to consider which social networking sites are best for the product.

In other words, if you have a relatively inexpensive product that is geared at teens, MySpace may be a top social networking site to consider. If you have a mid-price product appealing more to middle-class adults, Facebook could be a good choice on which to concentrate your efforts. And if you have a product at any price appealing to innovators, Twitter may be your social networking site of choice.

Of course, in this example you could use all three social networking sites. Yet if you have limited time resources for running a social media marketing campaign, you do want to focus your efforts at the most likely places where your target markets hang out online.

With a worthwhile product, which of the product's benefits would most appeal to your top target market?

If you've decided to target the teen market on MySpace, then you might emphasize the cool factor of your product or "be the first one at your school" to have this new product.

If you're deciding between a Facebook target market and a Twitter target market, think about which of your product's benefits would more likely appeal to which group.

While contemplating the answers to these questions, you also have to consider that you must give people what they want, not what they need. Yes, you may be able to sneak in what they need as part of a product they want. But in general people are more likely to get out their credit card for a product that catches their fancy or answers a problem they actually want to solve rather than a product that's good for them but that they couldn't care less about. (Castor oil, anyone?)

Timing of a product launch is also important. If you have a seasonal product, launching in the wrong season is probably not a good idea. Or if you have a product that at first appears not to be seasonal, but can be tweaked to be seasonal, you might be able to increase the interest in your product. One example is a product that can be positioned as a "romantic" product - with Valentine's Day a holiday date that could work for the launch of the product.

If you want to launch a successful product online, start with a worthwhile product that fills a want and then target the social media networking sites where the target markets for that want are most likely to be found. Engage with your potential customers so that they can get to know, like and trust you.

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Top 7 Things to Guarantee You Will Have a Disastrous Product Launch As a Product Launch Manager

Working with clients during a launch can sometimes be a little stressful. Not all clients are equal, and some are much more preferred than others. Here are the top 7 things that a client does that will guarantee you have a disaster launch. As a Product Launch Manager, avoid them as much as possible to make sure you don't get a client that will cost you money and waste your time.

1. The Client Is Desperate - Having a desperate client is like having a rock tied around your neck. Desperate clients will allow any sort of deal from anyone during a launch. I've seen clients accept ridiculous offers from people who contact them just so they can have some sales. It is just a recipe for disaster. You want calm clients, and even if the launch doesn't go as planned, then they're in a position to regroup and relaunch, learning from the previous launch. Desperate clients will want every penny available, despite it not in their best interest, and also yours. When they're desperate, they will also doing things hastily which can mean that things are overlooked and major mistakes are made.

2. The Client Has Little Or NO List - Many people want to do a product launch, which a product that's just finished, or about to be finished, but don't have a list of any sort. They haven't even gone out to see if they can get access to other people's lists in their niche. They expect a Product Launch Manager to bring in Joint Venture Partners to sell their products, without any work on their behalf. Firstly, it's their product and their business. Any relationships that you bring in are for them. It's their responsibility to bring in those partners just as much it is their responsibility to provide a quality product with quality customer care. My recommendation to potential clients with no list is to find 10 people with 10 lists who will agree to mail for them. That way, they're going to have at least 1 person with a quality list who will generate some revenue for them.

3. The Client Doesn't Stick To Deadlines - Going through a launch takes up a lot of time, and if you're working remotely with a client, then when they don't have what they need to have done on time, then it's going to create a lot of problems. There are some people out there, no matter how good you manage them, they just don't get things done on time. Avoid them as much as possible. There's no point in you pulling an all nighter to get the site ready and the copy outstanding if they're not going to get the videos to you on time. If a client ever does that to me, I walk away from them. I finish the launch and tell them I can't work with them. For me, they're too much of a problem that definitely isn't needed during a launch.

4. Clients Lets Customers Pay The Price That Suits Them - I've seen clients take phone calls from people and the people on the phone told the client what they were going to pay. Not only that, but they accepted it! I couldn't believe it when I heard it. Needless to say, that launch wasn't a model to reproduce any time soon! Luckily I was drafted in to work on the launch with a colleague, so I was able to walk away. But it did leave me astounded when I found out the client did this. The client lost all authority with the customer then, and they'll more than likely never regain it. On their next launch, those same people will call them and tell them what they're going to pay, and they'll more than likely accept that too.

5. The Client Changes The Offer 1 Or More Times During The Launch - This goes on line with the previous point about accepting whatever the customer wants to pay them, and also with being desperate. If there is a time when there are no sales, a desperate client will want to change the offer before you know why the offer is not being taken up. It could simply be a case that the emails haven't been delivered yet, or that your target market isn't out of bed to read them yet. Sometimes the copy isn't compelling enough to get them to buy. Rarely is it the offer and some times you just have to wait to see what happens before you change the offer. But a desperate client will change the offer immediately before looking at the other elements in the equation and eliminating them first. Changing an offer DURING the launch means that those people who have already bought will want to get that better offer than the one they got before. Now, when I say changing the offer, I mean changing a split payment from 3 to 5 payments, or 5 to 6 maybe, rather than including extra products or services in the product. It's easy to include extra products for those who already bought, but changing the payments from 3 to 5 means issuing repayments to credit cards, changing the payment length and depending on your payment processor can mean lots of headaches. It also means annoyed customers too, who feel hard done by when you switch the offer.

6. The Client "Knows More Than You Do" - Working with a client who feels they know more than you do will always leave you in a bad position. It's OK to receive input from someone if they know what they're talking about. But if your client believes they can be doing a better job, then leave them to do it. Clients like this will always have you on the defensive making you account for what you're doing, no matter how much of an expert you are. They will dictate to you and you will have no authority with them. Make sure to establish who has the authority and whose job it is to do what you do. A launch is a benevolent dictatorship, not a democracy. As a Product Launch Manager, you are the leader, no one else!

7. The Client Doesn't Want To Delete Any Unprofitable Customers Or Prospects - Unprofitable customers or prospects cost the client money, and during a launch, they cost you money too. These people are rarely going to buy from you, no matter what the offer is. So you need to delete them from the list as quickly as possible so you can focus on the profitable customers and prospects. As a Product Launch Manager, you need to find the profitable people as quickly as possible so you can put all your efforts on converting them to the offer. Trying to convince people who aren't going to buy isn't your job and it's a total waste of time. Find those people who want to buy, and work with them. This makes your job a lot easier, and a lot more profitable. A client who doesn't want to eliminate those people who don't want to buy the product is a huge waste of time, and means you're working on something that isn't going to work. Get them to disqualify these people from the offer as quickly as possible and then sell to them. Deleting unprofitable people will boost their profits quickly and save a lot of time and effort.

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Product Launching 101 - More Questions to Consider Before Promoting a Launch

Who is the launch team? A launch is a team effort and so its success is heavily dependent on the team that is running it. Who is the project manager? Who is the launch architect? Who is the copywriter? We have seen more than one launch totally implode because of poor project management, poor launch architecture and weak JV support. All of these issues originate from a lack of experience by the launch team.

Has there been an internal launch and if so, what were the conversion stats? In many cases, a well known speaker will announce his product launch and based on his reputation, many other speakers will immediately support his launch...only to find that the offer doesn't convert and they have given away their best opt-ins to the product owner for next to nothing. Next time somebody asks you to promote, ask them if they have done an internal launch and if they are prepared to share those stats. If they are being evasive, then that's a red flag. On our launches, we have seen as high as a 30% conversion from a free CD offer ($19.97 postage and handling) to a $997 upsell. That's on the high side, but anything less than 10% indicates that it's a poorly constructed offer.

How compelling is the landing page? The initial offer starts at the landing page. If the visitor doesn't opt in, then he will never see all the follow up steps. Thus, if the landing page does not convert, then the launch will die before it has a chance to start. On a landing page that requests only the email, we have seen as high as an 85% opt-in rate (remember that this is not cold traffic: it is highly endorsed traffic from your JVs). Anything less than 50% is cause for concern. It either indicates that the landing page has not been properly architected or the quality of the JV's list is weak (you can isolate and compare each JV's list quality through the affiliate links generated by your shopping cart).

Are you expected to sell the big ticket item or do you have deliver only the initial opt-in? Broadly speaking, there are 2 types of launches: the one where you are expected to get your list members to opt-in and then the ones where you are expected to sell the big ticket item. As an affiliate, you will make far more money if the launch is structured such as that you only have to get your list members to opt-in and a proven, tested sales process converts your opt-ins. As a rule of thumb, if you're in the money making industry (real estate, stock investing, small business, etc.), expect to make 50 cents per list member (we have had a small handful of clients that have paid out $1 per JV list member).

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Product Launch Mistakes - Avoid These Or Risk Failure

The expense of launching products on the internet has recently created a lot of interest. There are many success stories of companies creating pre-launch excitement around their product making large amounts of money the day of their product launch. Many internet marketers are becoming more conscious about how to make successful product launches. Launching a product is a huge undertaking for any business and for a company providing products on the internet it is even more challenging. The reality is that there are more companies who fail at launching their products than those who succeed.

Most failed product launches stem from poor planning. Understanding the strategies and techniques of a successful product launch is important to any online marketing campaign. As a business you need to learn effective and successful methods for launching your products. Learn from those who have been successful. Listen to their strategies and apply them to your own product launch. Learn from your and other's mistakes and use them to implement improvements to your approach.

Learn to recognize where others have fallen short and attempt to avoid known mistakes and mitigate your risks for your product launch. Learning from other's mistakes can help you execute a cost-effective product launch. Take your time and properly plan, if you rush your product launch you could fail. Observe and research your market in attempts to avoid problems. Doing all this can help you prepare for worst case scenarios and avoid come common mistakes made by others.

Research of your target market's need and wants is vital when developing your product. Understanding essential information about your market and prospects will allow you to make modifications to your product prior to launch. This is where many companies fail. They fail to see the need for extensive market and prospect research or business planning. Once your product has been developed and is available for release you need to focus your efforts on your product launch techniques. Create a comprehensive plan and work that plan. Keep in mind that a unique message around your product can create a lot of attention.

Make sure your plan includes risks and mitigation to those risks. Emergencies will happen so you need to be prepared with a plan of action to reduce the effects of that emergency. Include extensive customer service in your plan so all your customers are satisfied with your product and anything related to obtaining your product. Include pre-launch communications in your plan to get pre-launch customers and excitement generated. If you focus and work your plan you will be successful at selling your product.

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Getting Ready For Your Launch

You need lots of planning before executing your launch. However, even before that, you should do one other key step: participate in as many launches as possible as an affiliate first. This means joining the launch as an affiliate and then promoting the product (make sure it's a fit first). In many cases, the product owner may require certain qualifications such as a minimum list size. In most markets, there's an unwritten "players club" and you have to be able to start showing up on the radar of these members. The fastest way to do so is sell their stuff, preferably lots of copies.

If your list is small, consider buying traffic or creating enormous packages to get the buyer from your affiliate link. You must be perceived as a player (or an up and coming player) in order to get the support of these JVs when it comes time to do your launch.

Additionally, just as you learn copywriting by studying proven marketing pieces and building a swipe file, you should do the same to build up your launch expertise. Each launch requires an enormous amount of promotional materials and you should study closely the marketing materials and sales process of these launches.

Here's an abbreviated checklist of what to observe from other launches to get ready for your launch:

What is the hook or big promise to the JV?

What is the hook or big promise to the JVs list members?

What is the sales process? What is the initial sale, the upsell, the downsell, the backup downsell, etc? Is there even a downsell?

Who is the launch team that is running the launch? Who is the project manager, the launch architect, the copywriter and the JV manager?

How do they communicate with their prospects? Email only or are there other channels such as phone and direct mail?

Be sure to opt-in yourself to the launch process and read the emails. Here's an insider secret: the successful launches are the ones that take the time to create different conversations, depending on how and when you've opted into the launch.

What is your launch host telling your subscribers? How might that impact what you tell your subscribers during your launch? It will also give you insight into how that host is going to treat your students that you send. Do you care? You definitely should.

How do subscribers communicate with the JVs?

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Why Product Launches Fail to Achieve Sales Velocity

Product launches often fail to produce the results expected, especially in revenue. The reasons aren't complicated and are easy to pinpoint. Here are some common ones...

1. The product doesn't solve a market problem. This is common in technology companies in which a handful of brilliant engineers create something in a vacuum and then blame everyone else when the product doesn't sell.

2. The product misses the window of opportunity. Even a product that brilliantly solves a market problem doesn't stand a chance if it misses the window of opportunity.

3. Operational readiness. A great product is useless if the organization can't sell and support it. If you're expecting your sales team or your channel to figure it out on their own, you're mistaken, and you're product will wind up in the deep end of the deadpool. And operational readiness goes beyond the sales channel. What about finance, support, legal, delivery, professional services, alliances, etc.?

4. The product is so good it will sell itself. Or in other words, we spent all our cash on developing the product and we don't have any money left for marketing it. The market needs to know about your great product. You will likely need to spend more money here than you think, but if you have a great product it will be worth it.

5. Lack of clear launch goals. An initiative as important as a product launch needs goals that are clearly understood by everyone on your team. The absence of launch goals sets the stage for mismatched expectations. They do more than define success criteria. They help align the entire team.

6. Misidentified constraints. Every organization has constraints. Some are overlooked. Others aren't even acknowledged. Constraints define your organization's ability to execute and deliver. Identify them early and fix them quickly.

7. Wrong launch strategy. A one-size-fits-all launch strategy doesn't work. Different launch strategies are needed for different targets within a market segment. It's likely you will need multiple launch strategies by product and by target to achieve your launch goals, especially when you are going after multiple market segments.

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Starting an Online Business - Part 3 - Finding and Selecting a Product

Selecting the best products for your niche market can, if you are not careful, determine the success or failure of your online business. When starting an online business you will want to find a quality product that has market demand and one that will provide an acceptable return on your investment of time and money.

If you are starting an online business with your own product then you have no need in finding a product. The only thing you will need to do is make sure there is a market for your product. However, it maybe to your benefit to find a niche related product or two that you can also market along with your own product. This can maximize the profit potential of your website. Adding an Amazon link to related products can not only afford an opportunity for additional income but it can enhance the value of your website to your visitors.

If you do not have your own product then you will need to find a product or products to market on your website. Again, selecting the right product can determine your success or failure.

How To Find Products:

Since you do not have your own product then you will be using affiliate marketing products. The many available affiliate programs afford a wide variety of affiliate products. If, by chance, you are not familiar with affiliate programs, they are simply programs where someone else has a product to sell and they are willing to pay other marketers a commission to market and sell their product or service. Two of the oldest affiliate programs are Amazon and eBay.

Amazon.com has an affiliate marketing program as does eBay and Commission Junction. Amazon's commission rate is around 10 to 15 percent but they have a wider and more mainstream product line. Commission Junction also has a large mainstream product line and offer affiliate programs from some of the nation largest companies. The commission rate varies by product and company but with most of their vendors your site must qualify for acceptance into their affiliate program. Once you have established yourself and your business you may want to add some of Commission Junctions products.

One of, if not the biggest is ClickBank. ClickBank pays the highest commission rate, usually between 50 and 75 percent. You do not need an account to search their affiliate product data base and if you have found it difficult to settle on a niche market, looking at the products available at ClickBank may help you settle on a market. For those just starting their online business, ClickBank is my choice.

Selecting the right product can be the difference between success and failure for your online business. You MUST select your affiliate products carefully. Do not select a product because it pays a high commission. It may be paying a high commission because the vendor can not find a sufficient number of affiliates to promote his product. You need to know how to select the right product for your market.

How To Select A Product:

o Product Quality: The quality of the product should be unquestionable. Your name and reputation are directly tied to the quality of the product. Test or use the product yourself if there are any question about the products quality.

o Relevance: Make sure that the products you promote are relevant to your target audience and to your ads.

o Popularity: Is the product being promoted by other affiliates. Sometimes it is necessary to test the products with a campaign before you really know if it is a profitable product.

o Commission: Will the amount of commission you receive afford you a reasonable profit after you cost.

o Sales Page: The sales page (landing page) is the most important element of affiliate products. If the sales page does not convert your visitor into a buyer your time and money has been wasted.

o Affiliate Resources: A good affiliate product will provide you will all the resources needed to promote the product.

o Cookie Retention: It is important that your affiliate link remain with the cookie an affiliate sales page leaves when someone visits the page. The best affiliate products have ninety (90) day cookie retention.

To help insure the success of your online business, take the time and make the effort to select the best affiliate product available for your business.

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Effective Product Launches Made Simple

So you've created a terrific product and now you want to get the word out. If you've put a lot of work into creating your product, then you'll want at least enough sales to make it all worthwhile, right? It simply won't do to submit the ebook, if your product is indeed an ebook, to directories and hope for the best. If you have a small list that isn't too responsive, you're not going to make enough sales to make the whole project worthwhile. The answer is to make an event out of your product launch.

I'd like to clarify that point a little first. Mailing your list about your own product is just that: a mailing. However, if you get your list psyched about something and drill a date into their heads, then they'll be excited as that date approaches and when it does, bam, you've suddenly got a ton of sales notifications.

Don't get me wrong though: rolling launches, which don't count as an event, are effective as well. This is where you officially make your product available to the public, but instead of having a one-time launch involving tons of JV partners mass promoting within a short timeframe, you actually slowly recruit JV partners so their mailings are staggered. Normal product launches die out after a couple weeks while rolling launches are ongoing.

Normal product launches however, are the ones where you hear of marketers making a million bucks in a 24-hour period with another million going to affiliates or JV partners. These results are definitely not typical, but they do give you an idea of what's possible for you.

The point of having a traditional product launch is to build buzz for your product and then have a whole bunch of partners promoting for you to make big sales. The process of recruiting partners is simple: you create a killer product, you create the mini-site for it (sales letter, graphics, download page, etc.) you sell it to a test crowd like your list to see how well it converts, and then you create an awesome JV program to entice partners to join. Joint venture partners are attracted to products which have massive earning potential for them, JV programs with awesome prizes for the top earners, and a quality product that they'd be proud to promote.

The topic of "buzz building" is a complicated one. It takes a lot of skill to create an effective buzz campaign and it would take hours and hours to explain it, so I won't do it here. Let's pretend that you've taken care of that part for now. The final step, after the testing, JV recruitment, and buzz building parts of your product launch, is to keep your JV partners pumped about promoting your product.

There's nothing more disappointing than to recruit a hundred partners only to have one or two of them actually promote hard for you. Keep a list of your JV partners and mail them regularly to keep them apprised of updates. Marketers are busy people, so if you don't remind them about your launch, they'll get caught up in other projects and will forget about yours. Once you've assembled all the parts of a successful product launch and you've gotten all your partners stoked about your launch, the only thing left to do is to count down to zero and let the incoming flood of sales hit you.

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Affiliate Marketing Tips - What to Do With Lousy Product Launches You Want to Promote

You know what burns me up more than anything else? A great product with a lousy product launch. What do I mean by a lousy product launch? Well, read this article and you'll find out. And no, I'm not going to mention any names because I don't want to embarrass anybody. The point of the article is to allow you to still promote the product honestly, even though the launch is less than ideal.

A recent product I promoted, a great product in the IM niche, had a launch strategy that a lot of people would find very annoying. The launch had an upsell, downsell, OTO, forced continuity and whatever else you could think of. It was a real purchaser's nightmare. I know from first hand experience and feedback from people that they don't like being made to jump through a million hoops to buy a product. And forced continuity is a real hot topic today. Don't even get me started on that one.

Okay, so what do you do? You have a great product but a sales process that will most likely annoy the majority of people who go to the site. Well, here is the way I handle it.

For starters, any product I promote, I don't just send people directly to a sales page. With every other affiliate doing that, where would be my advantage? Instead, what I do is send them to a review page of the product where I offer a comprehensive review of the product. This puts me ahead of the game over most affiliates. I suggest you try it sometime.

Now, in the case of a product with a lousy sales process, what I do in my review is simply mention the process itself. I tell people EXACTLY what they can expect to find at the sales page. This way there are no surprises when they get there. I even go as far as to say that I personally don't like the process either and only promote the product because it is so good. This kind of honesty goes a long way.

You might want to try it sometime. It sure beats having one of your prospects come back to you complaining that they were taken through a million OTOs before they could actually get to the page to download the product that they just paid for. They will appreciate the heads up and will know that they can depend on you to be straight with them.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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How to Add $1 Million to Your Business With a Successful Product Launch

The product launch is the rocket fuel that can be used to cost effectively and quickly grow your business, and we have seen many product owners leave millions of dollars on the table by not fully understanding this key concept.

Implement these strategies to add at least $1 million to your next product launch and your business.

Relaunch the same product: Amazingly enough, many product owners use an almost tissue-like mentality when it comes to launches: do one and then run to the next one and then repeat with a new one. This creates a hamster in a treadmill effect and can burn you out. Instead, polish your product and re-release it in 4-6 months. In the meantime, use these strategies to create post-launch income.

Launch another product: Having said that, you should have another product in the wing in case your product is seen as old and tired.

Launch into other markets: In many cases, with some tweaking, your product can do very well in other markets entirely, what are also known as blue ocean markets. In some cases, we have seen more money made in these markets than the original core target market. See the Blue Ocean textbook in the Resources section for more information.

Followup on the non-buyers via phone: Don't fall into the fantasy that all your buyers will come from email alone. Follow up with the non-buyers and convert them via the phone (you can outsource this step for a % of the sale, and explain to your affiliate that their commission will be adjusted by the commission of the phone staff).

Followup on the non-buyers via direct mail: Lastly, implement a direct mail strategy to follow-up with your non buyers as well. Most product owners hear about the 1% response rate and believe that it's too expensive to implement a direct mail campaign, but again, these are some of the hottest leads you can acquire. A 5% or higher response is more common when this list, and you can implement a 3 step postcard campaign, even in today's market, for about $1.

By implementing these simple steps, you can add 7 or even 8 figures to your business, as many of our clients have done.

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Preparing a Successful Product Launch Strategy

Generally speaking, don't expect to launch in less than 8 weeks and that assumes a top-notch dedicated team with a proven track record. Do this on the side, and you're looking at 6 months, at least to launch.

In today's fast moving market, your product will probably be irrelevant by that time.

Cover all of these issues and more to determine whether they are ready to launch and in what timeframe.

Compare the emails from as many launches as you can to see how many are being sent to the JV partners to send out. Each launch tends to take on its own personality and the main crux of this is the influence your launch host has.

Make sure you save the emails the launch owner asks you to send as it will provide insight to you on how you may ultimately communicate with your JV partner's lists during your launch.

How often do they communicate with their JVs? Is there a JV blog and how often are results posted?

Be very wary of launches that post only relative results without actual sales numbers. This is usually a red flag that the sales are weak.

Get actively involved with the interaction your launch host provides. Pay particular attention to the tactics they use to build hype, communicate results and most importantly motivate you.

Do they use different communication between the general list, the opt-in list and the buyers list?

How often do they communicate with their JVs and when do they communicate?

What is the style of communication? Short and to the point or more storytelling?

Is video used and if so, how is it used? Are the videos selling or are they teaching or both? How long are the videos?

What is the payment plan for the affiliates? Are residual commissions paid? Are backend sales paid as well?

Are there contests and prizes?

Ask yourself how inspired you are to push your list for both optins and sales?

Are the prizes being offered motivating? Exciting? What's the buzz about the prizes? You can use this to help you figure out how best to provide excitement and healthy competition in your launch.

The time to launch a product is when everybody's about to talk about your product. By the time everybody's talking about it and by the time you launch to take advantage of that buzz, it would already be too late.

In the words of hockey world champion Wayne Gretzsky: "I skate to where the puck will be, not where it is." You need to do the same.

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How Can I Get My Customer List to Get All Hot and Bothered Just Waiting For My Next Product Launch?

If you have a digital product, or any product for that matter, that you are trying to launch on-line, look no further. There is a fairly simple formula for getting a huge response out of your list. Read on to find out how you can make the most bang for your buck when launching your next product.

When you launch a product, the first thing you need is your own list. If you don't have your own list, start building one immediately and you can substitute this method by doing a joint venture with someone else's list, but your own list is always much better.

Product launches are a trickle-like process, slowly filling a bucket of anticipation one drop at a time. The more people anticipate something, the more they want it. If you give them the whole wad at once, they will be instantly turned off to the product and will slam their wallets shut.

Start by teasing your list and explain that you are working on a new project, giving them just a few details. Over the course of a few weeks, you slowly let out what you are offering, giving away one of the tips in your product, or explaining how it will help them.

As you get closer to launch time, you then tell your list that they will have a very small window (give them 24 hrs or less) in which they can purchase the new product for a substantial discount. You can even throw in a bunch of bonuses too. On the day of the launch, send multiple emails, giving the progress of the sales, telling them that they only have an hour left etc. People do not like to miss out on things that other people have and if you can work them into a frantic buying frenzy, you can make a ton of cash on launch day.

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Get Your Great Idea Funded

Do you have a great idea for a start-up company and lack only some cold hard cash to get it started? Well, you might be in luck because I found one possible solution that I thought was worth noting during my daily browsing for internet goodness. It's a site called Y Combinator and the idea behind it is quite simple: reward the entrepreneurs with the best ideas the financial backing they need to make their dreams a reality. Read on to see how your next idea could be the only thing stopping you from making it happen!

One of the hardest transitions to make is often going from idea to company. I previously wrote an article (The Entrepreneur Spotlight), which highlighted several great resources on the web that can be used to find financial backing for an idea. Y Combinator takes a new approach as a venture capital firm. They hold annual submission periods where anyone with a good technically sound idea can submit it through a quick application process. A group of individuals are then selected to come to California for a weekend where they decide who to fund going forward. More details can be found here including the ability to apply for the winter 2010 session. The only real catch is that in order to receive the initial funding, you need to agree to provide them roughly about 6-7% of all future earnings.

This might be a turnoff for some, but for the bleeding heart entrepreneur this is an acceptable agreement. What I really like about this is that they walk you through the entire process of creating a company (paper work, legal, etc...) and handle it all for you. They also give you full freedom to do your thing, but provide constant support in what almost feels like a entrepreneur program for newbies. As I write this, I've actually submitted a application for an idea I've had for sometime now, just to see what happens.

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