When I got started in online marketing, I was lucky. Someone told me exactly what to do, and I didn’t know any better than to follow his instructions to the letter. I looked at it this way – the guy was a self-made millionaire. I was broke. So what was I going to do – take what he told me and ‘fix’ it?

Somehow make it better? Improve upon it? There’s an old expression: If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. I took his instructions as gospel and did what he said. Soon I was making so much money, I was frankly astounded.

The biggest mistake I see new marketers making is they try to innovate. They have a better idea. A better system. A better method. And they almost always fail.

Look, there is a place for innovation once you know what you’re doing…

… But not when you’re first getting started.

Imagine you’re teaching someone to drive, and they get a great idea: ‘Why not just beep the horn when they’re about to hit someone? This way that person can get out of the way, and they never need to step on the brakes.’

See how crazy that is?

But it’s exactly how new marketers tend to think: “Forget the old ways, I’ve thought of a better way no one has ever thought of before.”

Uh-huh.

Instead, if you want to meet success quickly in this business, take a system that is already working and copy it.
Yes, that’s right – I’m advocating that you flat out copy what’s already working.

Are you in the diet niche? Then do this: Purchase the top 5 or 10 diet information products. Pay close attention to every step of the funnel. Take screen shots and notes. Pour through the products and see what’s good about them and what’s missing.

Then create your own product based on what you’ve learned, and set up a sales funnel based on the funnels you went through. Do this and I almost guarantee you’ll have a good selling product.

Online marketing isn’t hard if you’ll simply do what’s already working. But being human, we tend to think we can do better. Or we think we should do better and that it’s not right to copy systems that others are using.

But all industries are built upon the knowledge of those who went before – even those that innovate like crazy.

I’ll give you an example: It’s July 2003 and you’ve just co-founded Tesla Motors with the intention of building cars.

Are you going to start from scratch, with zero knowledge of cars and engines and how they run?…

… or are you going to take all of the knowledge accumulated over the last century and a half of car making, and then BUILD UPON this knowledge to create your own cars?

See?

Even companies like Tesla don’t reinvent the wheel – they make it better AFTER they’ve learned everything they can about what’s working now.

When you’re just starting out, find a system you like that you know is working, and then copy it. Once you’ve got it working, then and only then do you start innovating.

This only takes a few minutes to apply, and it can result in a nice bump in your sales…

Here’s how it works:

When you create a product download file, put it in zip file, and add a “Read me first” document to it as well.

In the “read me first,” place another offer for your customer to check out. Or even more than one offer…

It can be as simple as a sentence or two directing them to the link where the additional offer can be found. Or you can get more creative and elaborate if you have time. Either way, you should see some additional sales using this simple, easy technique.

And you can add a “read me first” file to lead magnets and free offers, products you sell, and even add it to the bonuses you give away when selling affiliate products.

Apply this simple technique to products you sell online and you can significantly boost your bottom line, while also adding value for your customers in the process by including additional resources for them.

You see it – and possibly even do it – all the time. A product launch is announced. The date is set, affiliates are lined up and the process begins. Prospects are driven to a squeeze page. They watch a video, watch another video in a day or two, watch a third video a couple of days after that, and finally the product goes live.

For a week affiliates are working hard to get sales and everything goes great. Then comes the deadline. Only 48 hours left! Only 24 hours left! Only 6 hours left! The sales come pouring in, and then it’s over. Done. Finished. History.

Sigh.

Sort of feels like the day after Christmas, doesn’t it?

No more sales.

Sure, you (hopefully) made a mint.

But that’s it.

Now, I know what you’re thinking… “Maybe I could reopen it in a month or two.” Sure. You can. Of course by then you will have lost all momentum. And if you said you would NEVER reopen it, then you’ll lose your credibility, too.

There is another way – and I’ll give you a clue as to what it is:

What do you do when your new customer buys your $10 product, but turns down your $97 upsell? Usually, you offer a $47 downsell, right? Well, why don’t we do this with product launches?

Let’s say you’re launching a $997 coaching program. The very day after it closes, why not do a second launch of a $297 or $497 version?

Here’s how it might work:

The day after your product launch ends, send an email to everyone on your list who opened at least one of your emails promoting that product launch. Tell them, “I see you didn’t grab my XYZ product. No problem. Maybe the timing just wasn’t right for you.”

“I’ve got a more economical version for you that’s just as powerful.”

And then you launch into a problem that needs solving, and you’re going to solve it on an upcoming webinar, and here’s the link… On the webinar you give great information, and then you offer the downsized version of your original program that just closed.

Nice.

Your prospects are still warm from the big launch. Some of them really did want your product but couldn’t afford it. And they’re grateful for the opportunity to learn more on your webinar. Done right, you can make a lot of extra sales this way.

Things to know:

– Be sure NOT to send this email to people who bought your initial product. They might get irritated that you didn’t give them a choice between the two versions.

– You’ve already created the product – it just makes sense to repurpose the information into a second, smaller product to make additional sales.

– Make sure your more economical version does NOT contain everything your expensive version contains. It’s only fair that it doesn’t. For example, if your expensive version contains one-on-one coaching, you might leave that out.

– Deliver real value on the webinar. As always, tell them what to do but not HOW to do it. They have to buy your product for that.

– If you have a HUGE list of prospects who looked at your first product but didn’t buy, you might need to do more than one webinar to get them all on. It’s a good problem to have.

– It is entirely possible to double your initial sales using this method. Of course, since you are charging less, you won’t be doubling revenue. But still it can be a very nice second payday.

– Be sure to have everything in place for this second launch prior to initiating the first launch.

– Let affiliates know they will be earning commissions on both the first and the second launch.

This is a technique that doesn’t take a lot of extra work and can make your customers, your affiliates and your bank account very happy.

Of course this is just my opinion, but I think you’ll see the logic… As online marketers, if we build our business correctly then we can create money whenever we decide to do so.

For one marketer, it might be sending out a terrific offer to her list and getting orders back within hours.

For someone with a highly popular site, it might be putting an unbeatable offer on their site and collecting the cash.

For a membership site or software as a service site, it might mean offering a year’s membership for a low price.

For someone offering services, it might be offering a special deal to clients for the next 7 days.

You’ll notice that all of these boil down to one thing – keeping a list of customers, members or leads, and having permission to contact them at will.

There it is again… you need a list.

Because a list is and likely always will be the online ticket to cash on demand.