You have a product or service you want to sell…

So, you setup a website or sales funnel to try and buy it, but…

No one is buying it!

It sucks. But, I believe everyone who has ever tried to sell something has run into this problem… so, you're not alone.

This post serves as a guide to help you troubleshoot your problems so you can start to generate sales!

3 Thing To Look At / Think About

There are many reasons why people do and don't buy things; however, most (if not all) can be handled by focusing on 3 key areas:

1. Introduction – How a prospect is introduced to your product/service
2. Framing – The benefit/result your product/service provides
3. Offer – Your product/service wrapped up in a nice, pretty box

These 3 key areas should be thought about in order AND all at once. Let me explain…

The Introduction is important because you need make a good first impression; however, depending on your Offer, your Introduction may change to better suit what you're going to try to sell the individual.

The point is, each area is critical and you need to focus on all 3 individually, but you must think about them holistically (big picture) as well. If you don't, your results won't be as good as they can be!

1) Introduction

The Introduction is where you think about the Customer Journey:

Where, on their journey, are they when they come across your product/service? (Note: from now on, instead of typing “product/service” each time, I'm just going to say “widget”, but I mean both products and services).

• Are they aware they have a problem?
• Are they aware there's a solution out there?
• Are they aware of your widget?
• Are they looking for widgets to buy?
• Are they considering your widget?

Where they are in their journey will impact how you Introduce your widget.

If the individual has no idea they have a problem, then you can't scream, “Buy my widget!” at them – it's not going to work.

Conversely, if the individual is actively comparing widgets, screaming “Buy my widget at a discount!” might do the trick.

Also, you really need to consider your widget and align it with the Customer Journey. For example, if you sell a $10k coaching package, or even a $1,000 coaching, package for that matter – your prospect is going to need to know, like, and trust you before they hire you as a coach. Maybe they're aware they need coaching and they're aware of what you have to offer; however, they're trying to decide between you and two other coaching (Evaluation). What could you do, at this level of the Customer Journey, to move them onto the next level? Maybe a complimentary coaching call?

The point is, you may need to create other “widgets” to “sell” first, so they continue to move down the Customer Journey funnel with you and buy your “final” widget.

For example:

• Content – blog posts, videos, podcasts, etc. that generate awareness and position you and your business as an authority
• Lead Magnets – freebies in exchange for contact information. Usually PDFs, videos, coupons, etc.
• Consultation – hop on a quick call to see if you'll be a good fit for each other
• Cheap(er) Widget – a more affordable widget before purchasing more expensive widgets

To quickly summarize the Introduction section, you need to think about where your potential customer is in their Customer Journey and where your widget fits in. Then, you may need to backwards plan how to move the person through the Customer Journey by “selling” other “widgets” prior to them buying your “final” widget.

2) Framing

As previously mentioned, people buy and don't buy things for all types of reasons…

Some reasons are logical, while others are based on emotion.

Logical

Logical reasons are often results driven and “make sense”.

• Results – I want X. Product Y will help me get X.
  • I want a hole in my wall. A drill will help me make a hole in my wall.
  • I want to get better at Facebook Ads. Nathan's Facebook Ads course will help me do that.
• Makes Sense – There are “good” reasons to buy Product Y.
  • Cheaper
  • Faster
  • Stronger
  • Higher Quality
  • High Value

Emotional

They say, most purchases are driven by emotions first, then backed by logical reasoning, so it's important to consider people's emotions as you frame your widget.

For example, you probably don't need to drive a Ferrari to pick up lunch from Chipotle… but, people do. Why?

• Cool
• Fun
• Fast
• Makes Me Feel Like I “Made It”
• Make People Envy Me

Your objective now is to identify all of the Logical (results & makes sense) and Emotional reasons an individual would buy your widget. You then address each reason as you promote your widget!

3) Offer

The third step is to convert your widget into an offer.

A product or service is NOT an offer… and offers are what people buy.

So, what is an offer?

An offer is your product or service + everything else that comes with it…

• Guarantee
• Payment Option(s)
• Scarcity
• Other Benefits
• Bonuses (HUGE!)

By “offeratizing” your widget, you're able to dramatically increase it's perceived value (make people think it's worth more), which will make selling it much easier!

Guarantees

Your widget should come with a guarantee of some sort. Whether it's a simple money back guarantee, a double your money back guarantee, lifetime guarantee, a guarantee your widget will save X amount of time, etc….

The point is, you should have a guarantee of some sort for your widget.

Payment Option(s)

If your widget is big and expensive, you probably want to offer payment plan options to make paying for it more reasonable.

Alternatively, if you have a cheaper product, but people might want to buy multiple quantities; you could incentivize the purchase of greater quantities by offering price breaks. For example, buy 1 get 1 for 50% off.

Scarcity

Is your offer going away soon? Is the price about to increase? Are you about to stop taking new clients?

If there's a reason someone should act now, make sure you address it!

Other Benefits

Does a percentage of your profits go to help a charity?

What are you doing with the money people are giving you? If you're giving back to the community, make sure you let people know!

Bonuses (HUGE!)

Bonuses are important!!!

There have been many times when people buy a widget simply because they want the bonus that comes with it! I recently purchased a YouTube Ads tool… not because I wanted the tool, but I wanted the course that came with it!

Frank Kern also uses a lot of insane bonuses which often “push” me over the edge!

Bonuses can make or break your offer!

Here are a couple ways to add bonuses to your offer:

• Create multiple formats.
  • Ex. If you're selling a book, make sure you have a digital version, audio version, video version, abridged version, etc.
  • Ex. If you're selling videos, include a written version and/or checklists and other handouts to improve your offer
• Include additional widgets that enhance your original widget.
  • Ex. Other resources and courses if you're selling software, training, coaching, or even physical products. By adding digital products to physical product offers, you can dramatically increase your offer's perceived value with very little effort!
    • Ex. If you're selling a first aid kit, you could also include an ebook of 51 life saving skills.
      • Pro tip: Create multiple formats of your bonuses (ie. a video version) to really increase the perceived value!
  • Ex. Batteries if you're selling something electronic.
  • Ex. Free coaching session(s) with purchase of high-end training.
  • Ex. Free or expedited shipping if you purchase $X amount of product or within Y amount of time.

Coming up with bonuses shouldn't be too difficult either… simply think about the problems your widget creates!

For example:

• If you sell a training on one topic, it's going to open the door to dozens of other topics. For instance, I sell a course on ClickFunnels. It's a great course that teaches people everything they need to know about building sales funnels… but, then my student needs traffic (problem!). So, I have a training course on traffic, which opens more doors to more topics, and so on.
• If you sell a flashlight, what problems will it create for people? Batteries, light bulbs, insurance/warranty if it breaks, etc.

No matter what you sell, it's going to create more “problems” for people and you can use these “problems” to help you generate ideas for bonuses and additional offers!

Putting It All Together

After analyzing your Introduction, Framing, and Offer, you want to incorporate your discoveries with ALL of your marketing efforts…

• Your ads will target and speak to people based on where they are in their journey.
• You may bring people to different “widgets” first to help move them through their journey OR you may take people directly to your offer.
• Your widget's sales page and follow up will hit on the logical and emotional reasons people want your widget.
• Your sales page will outline your entire offer and all its bells and whistles.

As you can tell, the information uncovered by going through these three steps will be used throughout your entire marketing effort…

By doing a good job and really evaluating everything, it will surely help you sell your stuff!

We've all heard that most businesses fail in the first few years…

The thing is, this statistic accounts for ALL businesses…

From businesses that are started from some hair-brained idea or because the owner likes to bake/fish/collect stamps/etc. These businesses are typically doomed to fail because they're building a hobby, opposed to an actual business.

Compare that to businesses that are well thought out, planned, and follow proven business models and strategies. For obvious reasons, these businesses have a much higher success rate.

Going into 2019, my question to you is…

Do you want to build a hobby or a business?

This post is going to give you a proven system for starting a successful business in 2019 and beyond!

Step 1: Pick Your Market/Niche/Avatar

This first step is probably the most important step; however, it's often overlooked as people typically jump to Step 2.

But, here's the deal, you're going to be spending A LOT of time thinking about this topic and working with this group of people… you want to make sure it's something you like and that these are people you actually want to hang around with!

I've seen too many people try to chase the money and wind up miserable because they wind up hating the topic and/or their customer.

There Are 3 Profitable Markets

I'll be referencing Russell Brunson's book, Expert Secrets in this section.

Russell states there are 3 profitable markets:

1. Health – everyone wants to be healthier, live longer, etc.
2. Wealth – everyone wants enough money to be secure, some people want more than that.
3. Relationships – everyone wants to have great relationships; marriage, love, friends, etc.

These 3 markets have dozens of sub-markets:

1. Health – diet, nutrition, strength training, weight loss, etc.
2. Wealth – business, investing, real estate, sales, etc.
3. Relationships – love, dating advice, marriage, parenting, etc.

Then, if you go another level deeper, you have niches… and, this is what you want to figure out.

• Health –> Nutrition –> High Fat Diets
• Health –> Weight Loss –> Weight Loss For College Students
• Wealth –> Real Estate –> Flipping Houses On eBay
• Wealth –> Online Business –> Facebook Traffic For eCommerce Stores
• Relationships –> Parenting –> Dealing With Teenagers
• Relationships –> Dating –> How To Recover After A Breakup

Got a niche?

Cool, now let's figure out who your customers are!

Construct Your Customer Avatar

Your objective is to answer all of the questions below. Doing so will help with targeting your audience and with your messaging.

Some of these questions are pulled from the Customer Avatar Worksheet available from DigitalMarketer.com.

Demographics

• Name
• Age
• Gender
• Marital Status
• #/Ages Of Children
• Location
• Occupation
• Job Title
• Annual Income
• Level Of Education

Interests

• Celebrities/Gurus
• Causes
• Organizations
• Websites
• Apps
• TV Shows
• Clothing
• Musicians
• Books
• Magazines
• Movies

The 3 Whys

Go through the Demographics and Interests you came up with, asking “why” three times to uncover the individual's psyche.

Once you understand their psyche, you'll be better able to answer these questions as they pertain to your market/niche/business:

• Goals and Values
• Challenges and Pain Points
• Objections and Roles

How To Create Your Customer Avatar Quickly With Facebook's Audience Insights Tool

• Audience Insights Tool
• Avatar Sheet, Blank (file, make a copy)
• Avatar Sheet, Filled Out Example
• Expert Secrets Book
• Digital Marketer's Avatar Worksheet

Step 2: Figure Out What To Sell Them

Hopefully you've completed Step 1 and have a Niche and a Customer Avatar. If not, go do that first!

Now that you have your customer and you know their goals and values, challenges and pain points, and objections and roles… it's time to figure out how to help them!

Help them?

Yes! What you sell to people should help them… otherwise, why would they buy it?

So, with your helpful and caring mindset, it's time to go looking for products and services to sell.

But, where do you start?

5 Types Of Products You Can Start Selling Online TODAY!

Alternatively, if you don't want to watch another video, you can check out this blog post here.

To recap the video and blog post, here are the 5 types of products:

1. Dropshipping
2. Print on Demand
3. PLR/MRR
4. Productized Services
5. Sell Other Businesses' Products

Finally, you don't have to use one of aforementioned product types if you don't want to. If you want to create something from scratch or you already have products you want to sell – that's great, do that!

This list is simply for those that are stuck and don't know what to do.

Come Up With 3-5 Things To Sell

Your goal now is to come up with 3-5 products or services to sell.

JUST 3-5!

Yes, you can probably find thousands of options, but we want to get some momentum first. You can always expand your product line later.

If you try too many products at once, you'll spread yourself too thin and nothing will work out for you…

And, believe it or not, customers don't want a million options either…

Ever been to a restaurant that has a million items on the menu? How long did it take you or your significant other to make a decision? I bet one of you took “forever”!

Start simple. Give your products/services a fair shot. Adjust from there.

Uncover The Features & Benefits Of Your Product/Service

You've probably hard the saying, “people don't want a drill, they want a hole.”

You can take it a step further, “people don't want holes, they want to hang their shelves.”

And, further… “people don't want shelves, they want a place to store their extra stuff.”

(the 3 why's ringing any bells here?!)

The point is, people aren't buying a product/service… they're buying the result.

You need to take the 3-5 products/services you've come up with and merge the result they produce with the goals and values, challenges and pain points, and objections and roles your customers are facing.

An easy way to merge all of this is with feature/benefit bullet points.

Which feature of your product/service helps with…

• The goal(s) they're trying to accomplish
• The value(s) they hold dear
• The challenge(s) they're facing
• The pain(s) they're feeling
• The objection(s) they have
• The role(s) they play

What you may find, after doing this, is that the product/service you're selling is underwhelming.

Or, maybe there are too many objections or you're not directly addressing the decision maker.

This happens, and it's OK.

Everything you sell isn't going to change someone's life…

But, everything you sell can (and should) be of great perceived value!

“Offeratize” Your Products And Services

Your products and services are NOT offers…

While an offer includes a product/service and its features, benefits, and advantages… it also includes all the other bells and whistles:

• Bonuses (HUGE!)
  • This is how you increase the perceived value of your regular ol' product!
• Money Back Guarantees
• Pricing Terms (payment plans)
• Risk Reversal (how are you going to ensure they don’t waste time, money, etc. this includes your money back guarantee)

I recommend listening to Todd Brown’s “The Marketer’s Mind” episode 20 for this, click here for it.

Also, take a look at what your competition is offering. Are they selling products and services or are they selling offers? How can you offer more?!

The point is, you can take your underwhelming product/service that's facing too many objections and “soup it up” to make it irresistible!

An Example

Let's take Josh from our avatar example discussed in the video above – 35 year old male, interested in Keto Diets, in the military, etc.

After asking the 3 why questions, we know he's interested in enhancing his performance, in order to perform his job well. He's willing to workout hard, eat right, and even take supplements. (note: we've uncovered 3 categories of products we can sell our avatar: exercise stuff, nutrition stuff, and supplement stuff)

We decide to work with a white label supplement manufacturer to produce a performance enhancing supplement…

Pretty cool looking container, right?!

Of course, I'm being sarcastic… it's a lame looking container, but you get the idea. It's a performance enhancing supplement designed specifically for our customer avatar!

Now, let's extract the features and benefits of our product by comparing it to…

• Goals: Optimal performance on the job
  • Get Some! has a sustained release, ensuring you're performing your best all day without any ups, downs, or crashes!
• Values: Eating healthy foods, ketosis
  • Get Some! contains 100% organic ingredients and is the only FDA approved performance enhancer on the market!
  • Get Some! contains no sugars or fillers that hinder ketosis!
• Challenges: Works a lot, limited time, sometimes has to eat MREs (unhealthy Army food)
  • You'll feel the power of Get Some! within 5 minutes of ingestion! Our fast action formula makes sure you feel good when you need it most!
  • Get Some! contains Exogenous Ketones which have been proven to offset the negative effects of sugar and other high carb foods!
• Pains: Worried about being off his game when it's time to make hard, on-the-job decisions
  • After 2 years and 10,000 scientific tests, Get Some! is proven 100% effective for maximizing the decision making part of the brain! (lateral frontal cortex)
  • Doctors and scientist everywhere are calling it “The Limitless Pill” because it unlocks your whole brain!
• Objections: Has tried performance enhancing supplements before, they don't work
  • Get Some! contains a brand new, proprietary blend of ingredients never before released on the market, until today!
• Roles: Key decision maker
  • Take control of your performance with Get Some!

We now have some features and benefit bullets for our product that align with our Customer Avatar.

Now, it's time to offeratize our product!

• Bonuses
  • Waterproof pill container so they are with you on the go
  • Mobile app with 5 minute puzzles that activate certain parts of your brain so you can prepare for what's ahead
  • 31 day workout program for increasing day-to-day performance (PDF and Video)
  • 31 quick recipes for increasing day-to-day performance (PDF and Video)
• Money Back Guarantee
  • If you don't feel a significant difference in your performance within 30 days, you let us know and we'll refund your payment AND give you a $100 Amazon Gift Card for wasting your time!
• Pricing Terms (payment plans)
  • Free Shipping on all orders
  • Buy 2, save 10%
  • Buy 3, save 20%

Step 3: Build Micro Sales Funnels To Sell Your Offers

You should have a couple offers created for your customer avatar.

Now you need a way to display your offer and collect money from your customer.

The best way to do this is with a Micro Sales Funnel.

What is a Micro Sales Funnel?

It's a collection of web pages, engagements (email, text messages, phone calls, etc.), and retargeting ads that act like a digital sales rep that works for you 24/7/365!

Think about ordering food at McDonalds. You order a burger, then the cashier asks, “Would you like fries with that?” Then, they offer a drink, the chance to Super Size it, etc. Instead of spending $4, you've spent $14. That's a Micro Sales Funnel.

Here's an example:

Micro Sales Funnels come in all shapes and sizes, depending on what you're trying to sell and who you're trying to sell it to. If you'd like to learn more about the various models, I recommend checking out this post: What Kind Of Sales Funnel Should I Build?

The example funnel above is what I call a “Classic” Micro Sales Funnel. Here's a breakdown of the funnel:

• Opt-in: An individual enters their contact information in exchange for a Lead Magnet. A Lead Magnet is simply a freebie offer someone wants, like a coupon, checklist, video training, trial, etc.
• Welcome & Pre-sell: After the individual has given you their contact information, they land on a Welcome & Pre-sell page that tells them the Lead Magnet they requested is on its way and while they wait, here's some info about our company and how we can best serve them!
• Sales Page: This is the page that's selling one of your offers.
• OTO #: Stands for One-Time-Offer. These are typically 1-click upsell offers, where the individual can add additional offers to their order with 1-click.
• Downsell: These are pages shown to individuals that turn down the OTO. Usually, you try to sell your OTO again; however, this time you incentivize it by including some bonuses, a discount, or payment plan.
• Order Confirmation: This is the final page of the Micro Sales Funnel that confirms the individuals order and may also link to other, complementary offer funnels.
• Engagements: These are emails, text messages, Facebook Messages, ringless voicemails, phone calls, direct mail, etc. that is typically automated and designed to help pull your customers through your funnel.
• Retargeting Ads: These are advertisements that follow individuals around the web, advertising your business and offers again and again, in an effort to drive more sales.

All of the pages, engagements, and ads are specifically designed to help you sell your offers.

You're not simply building a random website with some products on it and hoping someone buys something.

Everything you do with a funnel needs to be calculated and methodical.

Of course, it's going to take you some time to understand how these things work. It's going to take time to understand psychology and marketing…

But, it's all worth it because as Russell Brunson, founder of ClickFunnels, always says, “You're only one funnel away!”

Your goal: Build a Micro Sales Funnel for every. single. offer.

Watch Me Build A Micro Sales Funnel Quickly

• Get the Micro Sales Funnel I built off of in the video

Step 4: Connect Your Micro Sales Funnels With Marketing Automation

Let's recap everything you should have right now:

1. Your niche and a customer avatar
2. 3-5 different offers
3. 3-5 Micro Sales Funnels (1 for each offer)

For step 4, you want to connect all of your Micros Sales Funnels with marketing automation.

What's marketing automation?

Emails, text messages, ringless voicemail, direct mail, Facebook Messenger… any type of communication and engagement that can be automated, leaving you with something that looks like this…

Pretty cool, right?

Note: Even though the diagram above only shows emails, you can use other mediums like text messages, Facebook Messenger, ringless voicemail, direct mail, and more to connect your Micro Sales Funnels together.

What Do You Send To People?

We could spend months, if not years discussing this topic, so I'm going to keep it pretty high level for this post.

Your audience and customers go through a journey, right?

The “Customer Journey”:

1. Awareness: of pain, of need, of solution, of your business
2. Interest: they start conducting research
3. Evaluation: they’re going to buy something, but they want to make sure they get the “best” one
4. Decision: they buy
5. Retention: keep them happy, sell more
6. Advocacy: they tell everyone about your business

Depending on where they are in this journey will dictate the type of content you send them.

With that said, there's two types of content you will need to send to people:

1. Relationship Content
2. Action Content

Relationship Content

Relationship content, you guessed it… builds a relationship!

It's content that's educational and/or entertaining. Content people enjoy consuming.

This can include helpful how-to tutorials, funny stories, deep data analysis, back & forth communication, and so on.

You're also using this content to gauge your audience members' interests… what topics are they clicking on and viewing?

Are they interested in Keto recipes? Keto supps? Lifting heavy weights? All of the above?

While you're building a relationship, you're figuring out what the person is interested in so when it's time to sell them something, you can recommend a product or service they're most likely to actually buy!

Action Content

Action content drives the person to take action, ie. buy something, come visit your store, give you a call, etc.

You've spent time building a relationship while simultaneously figuring out their interests…

Now, it's time to recommend a product or service to them!

One of the simplest action pieces you can deliver to someone is one that highlights a sale or special promotion: “1 day only, get 30% off our Get Some! supplement… click here!”

Simple enough, right?!

Of course, you can get fancier by using copywriting formulas like the Problem-Agitate-Solve formula, or the Before-After-Bridge formula… but, typically, what I've found is that if you've spent the time establishing the relationship FIRST and then place a really attractive offer in front of them… you don't need to try and mind-hack them or anything!

You can be a normal person (a friend or trusted adviser) recommending a product/service to another normal person!

This is why it's critically important to take the time to understand your audience's needs, wants, and desires AND to craft super-awesome-amazing offers! It saves you so much time later on.

Watch Me Integrate My Micro Sales Funnel With Marketing Automation

• Get ClickFunnels
• Get ActiveCampaign

Step 5: Fill Your Sales Funnel With Traffic

By now, you should have…

1. Your audience/niche figured out. You know where they hangout and you're ready to approach them!
2. Your irresistible offers developed for your audience members.
3. A few Micro Sales Funnels setup to actually sell your irresistible offers.
4. Those Micro Sales Funnels interconnected with Marketing Automation that builds a relationship, gauges interests, and then promotes your irresistible offers.

Got all that?

Great! Now, lets fill your system up!

Introducing “The Triple Threat Strategy”

The Triple Threat Strategy is comprised of three parts:

• Acquisition: Convert cold traffic (people that don't know about you or your business) into warm traffic (people that know about you and/or your business)
• Direct: Convert cold traffic into hot traffic (leads and buyers)
• Retarget: Convert warm traffic into hot traffic

Also, notice how it's a funnel a giant funnel, just like the Customer Journey funnel displayed above… same exact concept here!

Acquisition Campaign

The main goal of the Acquisition Campaign is to convert cold traffic into warm traffic. (ie. grow your Custom Audiences [retargeting audiences])

This is accomplished by producing great pieces of content that connect with your prospects and helps them establish rapport with your business.

You want the prospect to know, like, and trust you at this stage.

Here are a couple Acquisition Ad examples…

This first one is a video. Videos work great as acquisition ads because you can build Custom Audiences (used for retargeting later) based upon how much of a video an individual watches. For example, 3 seconds, 10 seconds, 25%, 50%, etc.

It's typically a lot easier to get someone to watch 10 seconds to 25% of a video on Facebook than it is to get them to click away from Facebook to visit your site. Thus, you're able to grow your Custom Audiences for pennies on the dollar!

The second ad is an image ad that links to a high quality blog post…

Those are examples of Acquisition Ads.

As you can see, they're pure content and goodwill. Nothing for sale (at least not directly) in either of them!

Direct Campaign

There are two goals for the Direct Campaigns:

1. Convert cold traffic directly into a lead or customer. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't… but, it's usually worth giving it a shot.
2. Convert cold traffic into warm traffic. Introduce your business and what you have to offer.

Here are a couple Direct Ad examples…

This first one is a “direct to offer” ad where I'm trying to convince cold traffic to claim a “free” dog training clicker.

The tactic behind this ad is to make the offer soooo good, it's impossible to refuse. Basically, I'm looking for impulse buys…

The second Direct Ad brings people to an opt-in page where they can request my Lead Magnet: 100 Dog Training Tips.

The purpose is to convert cold traffic into leads that I can follow up later with email and retargeting.

Those are a couple Direct Ad examples.

As you can see, they bring people directly from Facebook to an offer… whether it's for a product or a just a lead magnet.

Retargeting Campaign

The main goal of the Retargeting Campaign is to take your warm traffic and convert them into leads, customers, and repeat buyers.

By this time, you will have warm audiences either from people engaging with your Acquisition or Direct Ads…

They know about your business and what you offer…

It's now time to promote offers to convert individuals into leads, customers, and repeat buyers!

Here's an example Retargeting Ad…

Since Retargeting Ads are used on warm audiences, you can make “bigger” offers. Basically, you don't have to try and sell some cheap product in order to attract impulse buyers.

Often, you'll lose money on the Direct Ads, but make up for it 10 fold during the retargeting phase!

How To Execute The Triple Threat Strategy

We've uncovered the Triple Threat Strategy and the 3 core campaigns…

But, how do you actually execute it?

How do you know when an ad is working? How do you know when it's not?

Don't worry, I have a flowchart to answer all of these questions and more!

Yup, she's a doozy!

Now, I'm not going to explain this whole thing right now since it would take hours…

But, hopefully it gives you some perspective of how that funnel diagram translates into real life actions you can take to execute the strategy!

Here's How To Launch A Facebook Ad

Links Mentioned:

• FB Pixel on WordPress
• FB Pixel on ClickFunnels
• FB Pixel on Kartra
• Facebook Ad Copy 101
• Facebook Campaign Objectives

Are You Ready To Make 2019 YOUR Year?!

This post has outlined an ENTIRE game plan for you from start to finish!

You now know what you have to do…

• Identify your audience/niche
• Develop your offers
• Build Micro Sales Funnels to sell your offers
• Connect your Micro Sales Funnels with Marketing Automation
• Fill your entire sales system with traffic

This is your chance to start that side hustle to get some extra cash flow or to even replace your 9-5!

People are making money every day with sales funnels, marketing automation, and traffic generation… why shouldn't you be able to make it work?

2 Reasons These 5 Steps Won't Work For You

1. You don't actually do anything with them. You keep doing what you're doing.
2. You do them halfway. Maybe you get overwhelmed by the technical stuff, so you quit. Or maybe you bounce over to some shiny object. Whatever the reason, you do things half-assed (excuse my french!)

The point is, if you do everything outlined in this post…

You avoid excuses…

And, you put in the time to make it happen…

I guarantee you'll be successful!

Finally…

I have a full blown training program that teaches you the nitty-gritty details of EVERYTHING outlined in this post.

Click here if you're ready to DOMINATE 2019!

NOTICE: I've come to realize most people are just here to checkout the $632 in bonuses they'll receive when they signup for ClickFunnels through my link… so, click here to see what ya get!

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What Is ClickFunnels?

If you ask 10 different people what a “sales funnel” is, you'll get 10 different answers.

For our purposes, a sales funnel is a series of web pages, engagements (emails, text messages, ringless voicemails, etc.), and advertisements that convince an individual to buy something from your business.

There are many sales funnel models and the one you choose will depend on what you're trying to sell and who you're trying to sell it to.

For example, if you're trying to sell a $10 flashlight, your sales funnel would probably look like this…

Compared to a $1,997 digital course…

Compared to a $10,000 service…

The point of ClickFunnels is to provide an all-in-one solution to help you build these various sales funnels.

Also, here's the official “what is ClickFunnels” video if you'd like to watch it:

The BIG ClickFunnels Lie

ClickFunnels gets positioned as something “magical” that's just going to make you tons of cash…

This is NOT true.

ClickFunnels isn't going to make you any money.

It's a tool. That's it.

A hammer is also a tool and you probably don't expect it to “magically” start building stuff for you, right?

Don't expect ClickFunnels to be the magic pill.

You still need the business fundamentals. You still need to have a great offer and you need to get that offer in front of the right audience.

Now, ClickFunnels can certainly make doing that much easier; however, it's not going to do it for you.

Clear?

#1 Question: Is ClickFunnels Easy To Use?

“Ease” is relative.

Is it easier than hand coding everything? Yes.

Will you have a fully functional funnel up and running in 10 minutes? No, not even if you're a seasoned pro.

Will you have a fully functional funnel up and running in 1 day? No, not if you're new to the platform.

Will you have a fully functional funnel up and running in 7 days? Maybe.

How about 14 days? Yes, probably! (hence, the 14 day free trial)

There is a steep learning curve with ClickFunnels and it's going to take 7-14 days to become comfortable with it.

You need to ask yourself… Am I willing to spend 7-14 days to master a tool that can potentially provide a massive upside to my business?

Of course, once you master the tool, you'll be able to build full funnels within a day and the world will be your oyster; however, the first 2 weeks will be rough.

Pros and Cons of ClickFunnels

In no particular order, here's a breakdown of the pros and cons of ClickFunnels…

Pros

• It does A LOT. You can build pages, funnels (1-click upsell/downsell), membership sites, automations, affiliate portals, and more. It's a very powerful tool.
• Intuitive page builder. You can become a “master” of the page builder in about 30 minutes. Once you understand Sections, Rows, Columns, and Elements – you'll be able to design beautiful pages in no time!
• Hundreds of pre-built templates & funnels. Create professional looking pages in minutes!
• No Coding. You don't have to be technically savvy to master ClickFunnels, ie. you don't need a background in code and web development to build amazing sales funnels. All you need to do is spend the 7-14 days learning the system.
• Shared/Import Funnels. You can share funnels with friends and clients. Alternatively, you can import other people's funnels into your account which can save you a tremendous amount of time! (note, if you join CF through my link, you're going to get access to 11 shared funnels!)
• Split Tests. It's very easy to split test your pages. Basically, click a button, make your changes, and click save.
• Has a lot of integrations. ClickFunnels makes it easy to integrate with autoresponder tools like ActiveCampaign, Aweber, Constant Contact, Drip, etc. As well as other tools like GoToWebinar, Kajabi, PushCrew, Twilio, ShipStation, Sly Broadcast, and more!
• Has several payment gateways. ClickFunnels integrates with Stripe, PayPal, BlueSnap, ClickBank, JVZoo, NMI, and more! No matter where you're located, there will be a way to integrate ClickFunnels with a payment gateway.
• Zapier Integration. ClickFunnels integrates both-ways with Zapier, ie. you can push info from ClickFunnels to another platform or from another platform directly into ClickFunnels! Therefore, the total number of integrations is 900+!
• Evergreen Webinar Funnels. You're able to host evergeen webinars inside of ClickFunnels which can easily save you $400/year.
• Desktop & Mobile Modes. The page builder allows you to build desktop and mobile versions so you're confident your funnel looks great no matter the device.
• Massive network of users. I believe ClickFunnels has over 60,000 users.  They have a massive Facebook group and 3rd party businesses dedicated to supporting the tool.
• Incredibly passionate founders. Russell Brunson and Todd Dickerson are tremendously passionate about marketing and building/programming tools. They're not in it just to make money, they're in it because they love it.

Cons

• It does a lot. Since it does so much, it can be very overwhelming and takes 7-14 days to actually learn how to use it.
• Some basic integrations. Some of their integrations are so basic, they do more harm than good. For instance, the Shopify integration is completely pointless because it doesn't combine all products into one order and it doesn't handle quantities.
• Doesn't easily support variants. If you offer products with several variants, think clothing with different colors and sizes, ClickFunnels does not support this well. You'll have to “hack” things together with a 3rd party tool called CF Pro Tools to make it work.
• Sometimes buggy. Being that it's a massive tool with a lot of moving parts, you can expect some bugs every now and again. It is what it is.
• 3mb limit on file storage. If you have large files you're trying to deliver to your customers, you're going to have to store them elsewhere as ClickFunnels only lets you upload files that are 3mb or less.
• No undo button. There's been at least 10 time when I've unintentionally deleted an entire section of my page. An undo button would prevent a lot of headaches!

Neutral

• Decent support. Support typically replies in about 4-12 hours and they're usually quit helpful. However, I have had instances where there's a bug/glitch and it does not get fixed… ever.
• It's “expensive”. The basic package, which only includes the page/funnel builder and 20 funnels, costs $97/mo. If you want to take advantage of Actionetics (marketing automation), Backpack (affiliate platform), and more funnels, you'll need the $297/mo package. Of course, the word “expensive” is relative. In theory, you should be using ClickFunnels to save you money (they host most everything, so you can ditch other services) and/or to help you make more money (funnels)… so, it should more than pay for itself. It's up to you to ensure ClickFunnels is an asset instead of a liability.

ClickFunnels Tour

Will ClickFunnels Work For My Business?

After everything you've read and seen above, you may still be wondering if ClickFunnels will actually work for your business…

Fortunately, ClickFunnels has put together a bunch of industry specific case studies that show you how different businesses are using ClickFunnels to find massive success…

• Agency/Freelancer
• Info Products
• Ecommerce
• Affiliate Marketing
• Blogger
• Coaching/Consulting
• Network Marketing
• Local Business
• B2B
• Non Profit

If you have a few minutes, I recommend checking them out!

Do I Recommend ClickFunnels?

I believe that ClickFunnels is THE BEST sales funnel building tool on the market today!

If you're wanting to build sales funnels for your business, then I HIGHLY recommend it… assuming you understand it's just a tool and it's going to take 7-14 days to master.

Finally, right now I'm offering $632 in bonuses when you join ClickFunnels via my link! 

Real quick – you're going to get…

• The Ultimate ClickFunnels Training Course + 7 Premium Funnels ($197 value)
• The AliExpress Sales Funnel Course ($97 value)
• The Shopify Sales Funnel Course ($97 value)
• The Get Clients Now Funnel & Training Course ($97 value)
• The 2-Step Lead Gen Funnel Course ($97 value)
• 28 Fill-In-The-Blank Email Templates ($47 value)
• Premium Support – Ask questions on the lessons or in the Private Facebook Group

To claim the bonuses:

1. Register for ClickFunnels by clicking here. (either plan is fine)
2. Forward your welcome email to support@crazyeyemarketing.com and let us know you want all of the bonuses!
3. We'll verify your order in the system and grant you access to everything within 24 hours!

 

As advertising on Facebook gets more expensive due to increased competition…

We simply can't send cold traffic directly to offers anymore…

We need to adapt and become more proficient in acquiring new leads and customers…

We need to take advantage of the tools Facebook gives us to get ahead of our competition and lower our costs!

Introducing…

The “Triple Threat” Facebook Ad Campaign Strategy

This Facebook Ad Campaign Strategy consists of 3 core campaigns:

• Acquisition
• Direct
• Retargeting

Acquisition Campaign

The main goal of the Acquisition Campaign is to convert cold traffic into warm traffic. (ie. grow your Custom Audiences [retargeting audiences])

This is accomplished by producing great pieces of content that connects with your prospects and helps them establish rapport with your business.

You want the prospect to know, like, and trust you at this stage.

Here are a couple Acquisition Ad examples…

This first one is a video. Videos work great as acquisition ads because you can build Custom Audiences (used for retargeting later) based upon how much of a video an individual watches. For example, 3 seconds, 10 seconds, 25%, 50%, etc.

It's typically a lot easier to get someone to watch 10 seconds to 25% of a video on Facebook than it is to get them to click away from Facebook to visit your site. Thus, you're able to grow your Custom Audiences for pennies on the dollar!

The second ad is an image ad that links to a high quality blog post…

Those are examples of Acquisition Ads.

As you can see, they're pure content and goodwill. Nothing for sale (at least not directly) in either of them!

Direct Campaign

There are two goals for the Direct Campaigns:

1. Convert cold traffic directly into a lead or customer. Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't… but, it's usually worth giving it a shot.
2. Convert cold traffic into warm traffic. Introduce your business and what you have to offer.

Here are a couple Direct Ad examples…

This first one is a “direct to offer” ad where I'm trying to convince cold traffic to claim a “free” dog training clicker.

The tactic behind this ad is to make the offer soooo good, it's impossible to refuse. Basically, I'm looking for impulse buys…

The second Direct Ad brings people to an opt-in page where they can request my Lead Magnet: 100 Dog Training Tips.

The purpose is to convert cold traffic into leads that I can follow up later with email and retargeting.

Those are a couple Direct Ad examples.

As you can see, they bring people directly from Facebook to an offer… whether it's for a product or a just a lead magnet.

Retargeting Campaign

The main goal of the Retargeting Campaign is to take your warm traffic and convert them into leads, customers, and repeat buyers.

By this time, you will have warm audiences either from people engaging with your Acquisition or Direct Ads…

They know about your business and what you offer…

It's now time to promote offers to convert individuals into leads, customers, and repeat buyers!

Here's an example Retargeting Ad…

Since Retargeting Ads are used on warm audiences, you can make “bigger” offers. Basically, you don't have to try and sell some cheap product in order to attract impulse buyers.

Often, you'll lose money on the Direct Ads, but make up for it 10 fold during the retargeting phase!

How To Execute The Triple Threat Strategy

We've uncovered the Triple Threat Strategy and the 3 core campaigns…

But, how do you actually execute it?

How do you know when an ad is working? How do you know when it's not?

Don't worry, I have a flowchart to answer all of these questions and more!

Yup, she's a doozy!

Now, I'm not going to explain this whole thing right now since it would take hours…

And, in fact… I break it down with step-by-step video instruction in my new course…

How To Increase Leads & Sales On Facebook With The Triple Threat Strategy

You've heard of affiliate marketing…

Maybe you've dabbled with it…

But, success has likely alluded you…

Which is why you're researching other ways to “do” affiliate marketing…

This post outlines how I do it successfully.

By the way, I have a 100% FREE Affiliate Marketing Course you can join by Clicking Here!

The Affiliate Marketing Funnel

This is it, the successful affiliate marketing strategy I follow…

Traffic

It doesn't really matter where your traffic comes from… assuming you're advertising where your audience actually hangs out.

For simplicity's sake, most people can find a portion of their audience on Facebook, so that's a good place to start.

Hook vs Offer

There are two elements to consider when creating your ads…

1. Hook: Main benefit, simplified
2. Offer: What you're actually offering (article, lead magnet, product, etc.)

Some examples:

• 4 Hour Work Week; Book
• 1,000 Songs In Your Pocket; iPod
• Big Profits From Small Stocks; Penny Stock Newsletter
• Eat More, Weigh Less; Training Program
• #MAGA; President

Ad Setup

• Text Copy: Short, uncover the hook and lead into the offer with a Call To Action (CTA)
• Image/Video: Typically reflects the Hook
• Headline Copy: Typically reflects the Offer
• Description Copy: Either hits on Hook again, or gives details about the Offer

Want more info on ads?

Click Here to join the FULL Affiliate Marketing Course for FREE!

Squeeze Page & Lead Magnet

I'm sure you already know what a Squeeze Page and Lead Magnet is, so I'm not going to waste time defining them…

Instead, we'll get straight into it.

Here are a few Lead Magnet ideas…

• Make a short PDF: Checklist, Cheat Sheet, Mind Map, Resource List, etc.

Here's how you can make a Lead Magnet in 20 minutes!

• Run a Contest/Drawing: Give away a product YOUR audience will like. It needs to be a specific product that ONLY YOUR audience will like. Don't give away an iPad or an Amazon gift card since everyone wants that and you'll attract people that don't actually care about the products/services you're going to offer them.
  • Side note: I've never had much success on turning Contest/Drawing subscribers into profitable customers. That doesn't mean you can't, just know that while they're “cheap” leads… you tend to get what you pay for.

Want more Squeeze Page & Lead Magnet ideas?

Click Here to join the FULL Affiliate Marketing Course for FREE!

Thank You Page

Most people aren't going to consume your Lead Magnet, even if it is only one page.

This kind of sucks because you want them to consume it as it establishes you and your business in their mind… so, when they see your emails and ads later on, they'll remember who you are.

So, on the Thank You page, you will want to include a video that introduces yourself,  your business, and walks the individual through the Lead Magnet they requested.

It can be a short, 3 minute video all the way to 90+ minutes. Just do what makes sense.

Finally, on this Thank You page, you will want to tell them what to do next…

• Go to this affiliate product
• Checkout this blog post
• Access more training
• etc.

Want more details on creating a successful Thank You Page?

Click Here to join the FULL Affiliate Marketing Course for FREE!

Series #

The Series represents both…

1. Emails
2. Retargeting Ads

You're going to “attack” people from multiple angles!

I recommend following the “Weekly Pushes Framework” for these series. Basically, you spend one week promoting one product, then move onto another affiliate product the next week.

• Step 1: Pick the affiliate product you want to promote for the week
• Step 2: Follow the pattern 3 and 2 for message delivery (ie. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday)
  • Bridge/Email 1: Fun/personal/customer story/testimonial/experience
  • Bridge/Email 2: Promotion of Product
  • Bridges/Emails 3-4: Content on topic of Product
  • Bridge/Email 5: Content or Promotion

Want to learn more about the “Weekly Pushes Framework” and how to incorporate Retargeting Ads?

Click Here to join the FULL Affiliate Marketing Course for FREE!

Bridges

This is how you connect YOUR audience to the affiliate offers you're promoting.

These bridges include the emails and ads you create…

But, they can be more complex than that…

They can also include standalone pages, videos, and even webinars if you REALLY want to promote the heck out of an affiliate offer!

Here's some common bridge type content:

• Reviews
• Training
• Behind the scenes/unboxing
• Stories
• Content
• Incentives

Want more Bridge ideas and to see a few examples?

Click Here to join the FULL Affiliate Marketing Course for FREE!

Affiliate Products

Finding affiliate products to promote is very easy since there are literally millions of products you can sell as an affiliate.

Two ways to find products to sell are:

1) Sell What You Already Use

• Take products you already use and believe your audience will also like.
• Head over to Google and search for that product while including the word “affiliate” in your search.
• See if they have an affiliate program.
• Register for it and begin promoting the product!

2) Browse Affiliate Network Directories

There are a bunch of affiliate networks to choose from. Here are a few of the bigger, more popular ones:

• ClickBank
• JVZoo
• CJ
• ShareASale
• Amazon Associates

Simply head over to one of those directories and browse around until you find something you believe your audience will like.

Side note: I recommend actually buying what you're promoting so you can ensure its quality is up to par… you never want to disappoint your audience!

Join The FREE Affiliate Marketing Funnel Training!

That's the strategy behind the Affiliate Marketing Funnel!

Now, if you want more details and want to learn how to actually build it…

Click Here to join the FULL Affiliate Marketing Course for FREE!

 

I failed you.

Somewhere along the way, I led you astray.

Unintentionally, I made it sound like all you had to do was build a random sales funnel, throw $10 at it, and you would become rich.

Allow me to clarify, THIS ISN'T GOING TO HAPPEN!!

You will NOT get rich sending some traffic to a sales funnel you put together in an hour.

IT'S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!

Even if you spend 10 hours of your life building sales funnels and spend some money on traffic… you STILL WON'T get rich!

While technically, this sales funnel “stuff” is as easy as its ever been…

It's still, strategically and executionally, VERY DIFFICULT!

By building random sales funnels with very little rhyme or reason other than thinking the product will sell…

YOU WILL FAIL 99% OF THE TIME!

YOU WILL FAIL 99% OF THE TIME!

Yes, I typed it twice because you need to see that stat.

That's what you have to look forward to when you spray and pray funnels across the web.

Scary, right?

If a 99% failure rate doesn't scare the crap out of you, then I think you should leave my site because you're not going to “get” what I'm about to share with you.

What I'm about to unveil is how you can decrease your chance of failure from 99% to say 20%… and, that's only if you stop trying.

If you do not give up, success in some form or another is imminent.

To quote the great Albert Einstein…

Mindset: I'm Building A Business, Not Funnels

Some people get this, some don't… and it's OK if you don't.

You hear sales funnels are freakin' awesome, which is totally true… so, you hop in without much clue. (hey, that rhymes!)

As addressed in the intro, building random sales funnels rarely ever works.

You need a plan. You need to be methodical. You need to see the bigger picture.

The bigger picture? You are going to build a business.

A business, for all intents and purposes, consists of two things:

• Products and/or services to sell
• Someone to buy those products/services, ie. customers

That's it.

Sales funnels then, are simply a means to connect your customers with your products/services.

Sales funnels are just a tool. If you don't have something to sell and someone to buy what you're selling, things aren't going to work out very well.

The question you should always be trying to answer is: “How can I best serve my customers?” (ie. what can I sell to my customers that will help them)

Once you have that answer, and only once you have that answer, can you ask yourself, “What funnel should I build?”

I'm Prepared To Invest Money & Time

Since you're building a business, you can expect to invest money and time.

It's not much money. You don't have to purchase a building. You don't have to hire employees. You don't have to buy inventory.

All you need are a few tools and money for ads. You're looking at about $500/mo to start.

Regarding time, it's going to take, at minimum, an hour or two a day, 6-7 days a week.

You will need to spend time learning the tools of the trade. You will need to spend time building funnels, running ads, and developing advanced automations. You will need to test and tweak, and test and tweak, and test and tweak… forever.

This is a commitment.

As I said in the intro, you're not going to be able to spend an hour building a funnel, and get rich. It doesn't happen that way.

With all that being said, are you prepared to invest the money ($500+/mo) and time (1-2 hours/day) required to find success?

• No? – You can stop reading this post and don't fret, there are a million business models out there and I'm confident one will be a good fit for you.
• Yes! – Read on…

Step 1: Pick Your Audience/Niche

I see most failure occur right here at Step 1.

And, if you fail this step, you're pretty much guaranteed to fail all subsequent steps too.

Obviously, this makes this step incredibly important.

#1 Reason For Failure?

Why are so many people failing this step?

Because, they're not doing it!

It's as simple as that.

Instead of picking an audience/niche first, they're picking products/services first… which is the wrong order! (you need to be able to build your lists (see next section))

Please take this step seriously!

What Makes This Step Important?

One word, lists.

You've heard having an email list is important because you “own” that list and you can reach out to your leads and customers whenever you want.

But, there are other lists besides email lists…

There are audience or retargeting lists, phone lists, Facebook Messenger lists, and direct mail lists that you can take advantage of as well.

By having a defined audience/niche, you can grow these lists and make different offers to them time and again.

Whereas, if you don't have a defined audience/niche, your lists won't have any pattern or consistency which makes it incredibly hard to follow up with other offers.

How To Pick Your Audience/Niche

There are a bunch of ways to do this and I don't care how you do it, just so long as you pick one.

This is how I do it… I pick a topic/niche I am personally interested in and that I've purchased products for. That's it.

I figure, if it's something I care about and buy stuff for, there's gotta be at least 1,000 other people in this country/world that also care and buy stuff. And, you can make good money off of only 1,000 people.

Step 2: Build A Break Even Funnel

This is the hardest part.

You need to get ONE funnel that allows you to acquire new customers for free, ie. you put $1 in and get $1+ back out.

There are many methods and funnel models you can use to accomplish this. This post goes into detail on how to select the right funnel: What Kind Of Sales Funnel Should I Build?

If you don't want to read that post right now, the bottom line is this – you can build a break even funnel with a Front-End or Trip Wire Funnel, Webinar Funnel, Product Launch Funnel, Application Funnel, etc… any funnel model can be used to create a break even funnel. It all comes down to what you're offering and who you're offering it to.

For example, you could have a front-end/tripwire funnel where you give away your book for free and the customer pays for shipping. You then “beef up” the offer with an order bump and One-Time-Offers (OTO) for an audio version and complementary training. This way, you can cover the costs to print the book and acquire the customer (ad spend). Russell Brunson is a master of the book funnel.

Or, you can have a webinar that converts cold traffic into buyers of your $500+ offer. Dan Henry started with a webinar funnel which turned into a million dollar business in less than 5 months.

Or, you can drive massive amounts of people to your physical location with a simple 2-Step funnel.

The point is, all the funnel models can work as your initial break even funnel. You simply have to figure out which model works for your audience and offer and make it happen.

Really Freakin' Close…

Depending on your audience/niche/offerings, it can be really hard to build a break even funnel.

Maybe you're able to build one where every dollar you put in, you get $0.90 back.

This might be OK.

You're still acquiring customers. You're still building your lists. You're still growing your business.

You simply have to make up the difference on the backend – ie. you have to sell to them again, and again, and again.

A Funnel A Day For 2 Weeks

To give you an idea of the intensity it can take to build a break even funnel…

While building AliExpress sales funnels…

I once spent 2 weeks straight, 14 days, launching a funnel a day… I did not sleep until I launched my funnel for the day…

• 7 of them completely failed, 0 sales.
• 6 of them made some sales, nothing significant.
• 1 hit. That's a 7% success rate.

To clarify, this wasn't a “million dollar funnel” hit… it was a “just above break even” hit ($1 in, $1.20ish out).

During this testing phase, I spent about $1,200 on ad spend and made about $550 back… I “lost” $650 doing this, but gained a break even funnel, found 6 funnels that kinda worked, and grew my audience and email lists in the process. (why it's important to decide on one audience/niche)

I took the 6 funnels that made some sales, tweaked them a little bit, and put them into the back-end of my break even funnel, ie. I retargeted my audience and pushed people to those funnels via email automation.

I've since launched other funnels/offers to this audience. Some have done well, others have failed entirely – but, it's been much cheaper to test these new funnels because I have my own audiences now!

By showing you this example, I'm hoping you can see that this is going to take time, money, methodical testing and tweaking, and that it's not as simple as launching a few random funnels in random niches and throwing $20 at some ads… it can take a lot of work… but, once you have it… man, it is worth it!

Step 3: Scale

Once you have your first break even funnel, it's time to scale!

There are several ways to scale and I'll outline a few here.

Scale Wide

I alluded to this scaling strategy in the “A Funnel A Day For 2 Weeks” section above.

It works by making more similar offers with similar funnels. Basically, you clone the funnel, swap out the products, and hit publish.

You typically scale wide with front-end/tripwire funnels that sell cheaper products, but you can also scale wide with lead gen funnels where you have multiple services you want people to see.

Scale Deep

To scale deep, you need different products and services at differing price points and value.

Scaling deep will also require multiple funnel models. For example:

• You may have a front-end/tripwire funnel that sells a book for $7.95 and a few digital resources for between $10-$300. Let's say this is your break even funnel.
• Then, you may have a webinar funnel that sells a $2,500 master class.
• Finally, you may have an application funnel that sells access to a $10,000 mastermind.

This is what's called a Value Ladder and I highly recommend you read this post about them: How To Create A value Ladder For Your Business

Scale Wide & Deep

Scaling both wide (multiple products on the same tier/same funnel model) and deep (multiple tiers of products/different funnel models) is the optimal scenario; however, you're not going to get there in one day…

It will take months, if not years to truly build out your business.

However, ultimately – this is what you're going for.

Retargeting & Automations

I want to quickly point out that no matter how you scale, you need to connect ALL your funnels together via retargeting and automations.

You should be building a HUGE “macro” sales funnel that brings people in, builds a relationship, and makes multiple, different offers to them… mostly on autopilot.

I call my “macro” sales funnel strategy – The Interest Driven Sales Funnel. (<< blog post series I highly recommend reading)

Step 4: Build A Brand-Brand

This is optional.

If you have several sales funnels that are all sustaining themselves and turning a profit… congrats! You've done it!

However, if you want to turn your sales funnels into something more, then you may want to build a brand-brand around them.

What do I mean by brand-brand?

Well, you should have a “brand” when you start… logo, color scheme, personality, etc. This way, everything is uniform. However, I don't consider that a brand-brand.

A true brand is known.

Think about Nike, everyone knows what they represent – sports.

Conversely, think about the last blanket you purchased. Unless you know things about blanket brands… you probably have no idea who made it even though they have a logo and color scheme.

How To Build A Brand-Brand

This is a massive topic that I can't possibly cover here or we'd be here for years.

However, for the 30,000 ft view of how to build a brand-brand, you need to gain authority.

How do you gain authority?

Amazing “content”.

This “content” can be in the form of blog posts or videos or podcasts or even the products/services themselves.

You have to become the G.O.A.T. in your niche. (Greatest Of All Time)

It can take years to become the G.O.A.T., but if you're able to get there, your organic sales, reach, growth, and value will increase exponentially!

Summary

• You will not get rich by building one random funnel and sending traffic to it
• You will likely fail if you only build random funnels without having a plan
• You need to be prepared to spend both time and money to have success
• The first thing you must do is pick your audience/niche
• The second, and hardest thing you must do is build a break even funnel ($1 out, $1+ in)
• The third thing you need to do is scale by going wide, deep, or both
• Finally, if you want to build a business that will be around for many years to come, you need to build a brand-brand

It happens a few times a week…

Some poor guy or gal sends me an email because they've heard of the magical power of Sales Funnels and they want to start building them, but…

They don't have anything to sell.

I then spend about 10 minutes writing them a reply on the various ways they could start selling products and services TODAY.

And, well – I'm tired of spending 10 minutes, 3-5 times a week, writing essentially the same thing…

Plus, I know if I'm getting that many emails with the `same question, there are probably 10X that number of people who aren't emailing me.

This post is to serve you.

5 Ways To Start Making Money Online TODAY Even If You Have Nothing To Sell

First things first, this is not an “end all, be all list” – there are more than these 5 ways to start selling something today.

So, if you don't like what I'm about to show you – that's fine. Try something else, it won't hurt my feelings.

However, I've used these 5 methods MANY times and know from personal experience they work and can prove to be incredibly lucrative.

1) Start Drop Shipping

Drop shipping is a model where you don't have to hold any inventory, yet you're able to offer hundreds to thousands of products.

How? Here's an example:

• You go to a site like AliExpress or work directly with a manufacturer
• You find a product you think people will like
• You list that product on an ecommerce store, or within a sales funnel 😉 and markup the price
• When someone buys the product, you take that money, buy it from the manufacturer, and ship it directly to your customer – pocketing the difference

Pros Of Drop Shipping

• Low startup costs – You can literally list products for free
• Low risk – Since there aren't many costs associated with it, you don't have much to lose
• You keep the customers – When someone buys a product, they buy it from you/your business. You get their information and can form a rapport with them

Cons Of Drop Shipping

• Highly competitive – Since there aren't any real costs associated with it, anyone can do it. But, don't let this discourage you, simply do it better!
• Low margins – Comes back to competition. You're not offering anything unique, anyone can offer the same product you are. It can wind up as a race to the bottom unless you're careful, strategic, and make yourself the best option
• Inventory syncing & management – It can be a massive headache to keep track of what is/isn't in stock and when prices change

The Drop Shipping Sales Funnel Model

The sales funnel model you will likely use to offer drop shipping products is what I call the “Front End” or “Classic” sales funnel model, and it looks like this:

Finally, I've written an extensive post on how to start drop shipping with AliExpress that can be found by clicking here.

2) Design Clothes And Other Items

In this day and age, you can print anything you want onto shirts, jackets, hats, socks, pillows, phone cases, shoes, dresses, towels, mouse pads, purses, backpacks, and more!

You also don't need to keep any inventory on hand. Simply upload your graphic to a print-on-demand website like Printful or Pillow Profits and violà, you have yourself a product to sell!

Pros Of Print-On-Demand

• Reasonably low startup costs – All you really need are designs and a website to sell them through
• Low risk – Since there aren't many costs associated with it, you don't have much to lose
• Upsells are pretty easy – Place the graphic on different items. For example, if they buy a shirt, they may also want a hat with that same design

Cons Of Print-On-Demand

• Coming up with a winning design can be difficult, especially when you don't have an audience/list available to poll
• Unless you're a designer, expect to spend a few hundred to a few thousand dollars to get high quality designs
• It's very easy for people to rip off your designs and then undercut you

The Print-On-Demand Sales Funnel Model

You'll likely use the same sales funnel model that's outlined in the drop shipping section above.

3) Take Advantage Of PLR And MRR

PLR stands for Private Label Rights and MRR stands for Master Resell Rights.

These are white label digital products like eBooks, guides, video training, and even software that you're able to slap your name on and sell as your own.

That's right! One minute you don't have anything to sell and the next, you've “published” an eBook!

Pros & Cons Of PLR And MRR

The pros and cons list for PLR and MRR are pretty much the same as drop shipping with a couple exceptions… incredibly high margins and no inventory management.

Since PLR/MRR are digital products, there's no cost of goods, which means it's pretty much 100% pure profit! Then, of course, since it's digital, you don't have to worry about inventory, selling out, or anything like that… there's an “infinite” amount.

Beyond that, selling PLR/MRR is incredibly competitive because it's easy, quick, and very low cost to get started. It's OK tho, that just means you need to find a way to stand out – and here are a few ways to do so:

• Changing the cover and title of the PLR/MRR product. This way, at least it looks different than what's out there
• Rewrite the PLR/MRR product and place your own spin on it. This can be a lot of work; however, it can pay off tremendously in the end
• Include other, complementary products and resources with the PLR/MRR you're selling

The PLR/MRR Sales Funnel Model

To sell your PLR/MRR products, you will likely use the same Front End sales funnel model that's outlined in the drop shipping section above.

Simply put, it's the best sales funnel model for selling “cheaper” products (<$50).

Find PLR/MRR To Sell

There are a TON of sites that sell PLR/MRR, but my favorite is MasterResellRights.com.

It offers a massive selection of PLR/MRR for only $19.97/month (hint: join for 1 month, download what you need, then cancel)

4) Offer Productized Services

A productized service is a set service that's sold for a set amount.

There's very little interaction and negotiation.

For example, I'll cut your grass for $40. You spend $40 and are left with a nice, freshly cut yard.

Need some productized service ideas? Checkout fiverr.com, there are hundreds of thousands of them! By browsing through fiverr, I'm confident you'll find a handful of productized services that you can also offer.

Pros Of Productized Services

• You can start offering a productized service this very second, there is nothing holding you back
• Repeat customers are quite easy, unless you mess up the first time
• It's easy to upsell. You can offer more of what they purchased, faster delivery speeds, enhancements, complementary productized services, etc. The possibilities are endless.

Cons Of Productized Services

• You're exchanging time for dollars… unless, you outsource the workload!
• It can be very competitive for simple tasks, so you need to have a unique value proposition (UVP). One of the simplest UVPs is to be the fastest. Most people who purchase productized services want that service accomplished yesterday. By being the fastest (while still providing quality, of course), you will stand out!

Tip To Getting Started

Most people will not purchase a productized service from you unless you have proof you can deliver what you promise.

When you're first getting started, you probably won't have much proof. To change this, offer your service for free in exchange for a review/testimonial and as work you can include in your portfolio.

Once you have proof, the sales will come much more easily!

The Productized Service Sales Funnel

The Front End sales funnel outlined in the drop shipping section above is the perfect funnel model for offering productized services because there are so many upsell opportunities.

However, if you don't want to get that complex, sticking with a simple sales page funnel can still yield amazing results:

5) Sell Other People's Products

If you don't have your own products to sell and you don't want to find one (drop shipping, PLR) or make one (productized service, clothing), you can always sell someone else's and earn a commission for making the sale.

Think about a car salesman for a second. He doesn't own the car he's trying to sell you, and he definitely didn't make the car. Yet, he's still trying to sell you the car and when he does, the car manufacturer “thanks” him by giving him a commission.

Why can't you do the same thing the car salesman is doing? Probably not with cars, but can't you help some other business try and sell their products?

Sure ya can! In Internet speak, it's called affiliate marketing.

Affiliate Marketing's Bad Rap

I want to address this real quick because I've seen people turn up their nose the second I mention “Affiliate Marketing”…

Affiliate marketing gets a bad rap because individuals blindly spam promotions for affiliate products without knowing a thing about the product or the customer they're trying to reach. They're selfish and chasing commissions which leads them to do sketchy things.

If you think about it, in any industry you'll find sleazy salesmen. It's just with affiliate marketing, it's so cheap to promote affiliate offers that sleazy salesman can spread the sleaze on a grand scale with ease…

But, you don't have to be a sleazy affiliate marketer.

You can be a good salesman that cares about the products you're offering and the customers you're offering them to.

It's your decision.

Pros Of Affiliate Marketing

• It's easy and costs nothing to start
• All you have to do is make the sale. You don't have to run customer support, deliver the product, or anything like that

Cons Of Affiliate Marketing

• While you may be the one to get the customer to purchase the product, they're not your customer… unless, you make them so! (read the sales funnel section below)
• You don't control the offer, commission, etc. If the seller decides to stop selling the product, or stops offering affiliate commissions, or changes your commission… there's nothing you can do about it. You're at the mercy of someone else. The key here is to promote multiple affiliate offers so you're diversified and not dependent upon one offer for your livelihood

The Affiliate Marketing Sales Funnel

When it comes to promoting affiliate offers, you probably don't want to send individuals directly to the sales page… instead you will want to use a Bridge Funnel:

A Bridge Funnel allows you to re-frame the affiliate offer and incentivize it with bonuses.

For example, let's say I want to promote ClickFunnels as an affiliate. It's a product I use, believe in, and feel good about recommending.

I could simply send you a link to register for ClickFunnels… and, maybe that works OK.

But, if I used a Bridge Funnel and incentivized you registering for ClickFunnels by offering you over $1,000 in free training and resources, you'd probably be more apt to sign up for a ClickFunnels account. Right?

Then, to claim your free training and resources,  you'll have to forward me your receipt and I can enter you into my database as one of MY customers. So, not only am I going to increase sales by offering bonuses, I'm able to turn people into MY customers too!

A Few Popular Affiliate Networks

Many companies offer an affiliate program, so if you have a product you want to be an affiliate for, simply Google: [product name] affiliate program. If that doesn't work, message the company to see if they offer one.

Here are a few of the most popular affiliate networks:

• Amazon Associates – sell any product on Amazon and earn a commission
• Clickbank & JVZoo – really big affiliate networks with mostly digital products and huge commissions. Some of the offers on these networks are spammy/scammy seeming, so use good judgement
• CJ & ShareASale – I find both of these platforms kind of hard to use; however, they offer a wide selection of products that you can promote

In Closing

There you have it…

1. Drop Shipping
2. Print-On-Demand
3. PLR & MRR
4. Productized Services
5. Affiliate Products

… 5 ways you can start making money online TODAY even if you have nothing to sell!

There's no reason why you can't get started!