One of the most proven methods of a recurring income on the internet is to establish and maintain a continuation program. Read on for an explanation and an example…
Want to have a recurring income from your internet business? Set up a continuation program
With all of the violence constantly on the news a few months ago I decided to do some research and see if the self defence niche market was a good one to get into. I came across a rather interesting guy who’s worth looking at…
The mysterious Lieutenant X
I was watching the news a while back and was getting depressed at all the horror stories of unprovoked attacks on the innocent by nutcase morons with no morals. As per usual though when there’s a problem, there’s usually an opportunity to solve it. Now obviously I don’t mean I’m going to don a cape and clean up the streets myself but I wondered if there was a market for some kind of self-defence product.
Off I want to http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com/ to check the demand for an info product on the subject. I typed in “self defence” and got disheartened when I saw that only a few hundred daily searches were made on the subject. I really thought I was onto a winner.
I sat back down on my sofa and continued watching TV but couldn’t get the thought out of my head that I was missing something. Eventually I went back to my PC and started doing some searching and came to realise something. The Americans spell it “self defense”. Aha. When I typed that into word tracker there were a few thousand searches a day. That’s much more like it!
When going into a new market I always buy up the competitions products to see what I’m up against. And time and time again I came across a guy called Captain Chris.
Now the funny thing is I actually saw this guy’s web site when I first started out online. Back then, unless I’m very much mistaken, he was called “Lieutenant X”. And I remember watching his videos and in typical Essex boy fashion thinking “I could ’ave him. One kick in the goolies and it’d be game over”. Now I’m slightly more grown up I realise the guy would rip me limb from limb, and then feed those limbs to me.
Regardless of the guy’s slight insanity you need to check out his marketing…
Continuation programs
I covered this a few weeks ago with Mike Filsaimes offer. Continuation programs, whether they be for membership sites, monthly or annual newsletters, or whatever are an amazing way to earn big money. And Captain Chris has done it brilliantly.
Firstly “Cap” tries to sell you a twenty-dollar ebook. The price is so low you think to yourself you can’t turn it down. Just like Filsaime’s offer a couple of weeks ago where he was going to send you an entire manual for just the small shipping fee, you sit there wondering “is this guy nuts?” Well yes Captain Chris is, but his marketing is spot on.
Once you sign up to that twenty-dollar ebook you see a one time offer for a two hundred dollar DVD course. When I first signed up this wasn’t available. On top of that if you buy the ebook you get a month’s access to his monthly printed newsletter. After that you’ll be charged twenty dollars a month.
This morning I got the third month’s newsletter through. I keep telling myself to cancel (they’re pretty awful) but I constantly forget. And this my friend, is the key to recurring revenue. Inertia. People forget to cancel their subscription and even if they don’t read/like your stuff they stay on. I’ve done it. I’m pretty sure you’ve done it with a site or subscription offer. Recurring revenue is huge.
His publishing model is awesome. He has it all. He has a low priced front end product in the ebook, recurring revenue in the newsletter, a mid level product in the DVD set and then high end workshops. This is a great, great example of someone using the “funnel” technique (that Andrew Reynolds et al teach selling someone low to high) in a niche market and making a ton of cash doing so. Seriously you should sign up to this guy’s site at www.closecombattraining.com just to see his marketing and business model in action. Plus you can have a good laugh when he teaches you to “tiger claw” someone or “heart punch” another.
Now I must say here that if you are looking to sign up to this to learn about self defence I wouldn’t bother. This month’s newsletter is all about Safe Travel (because it’s holiday season) and I kid you not, he actually talks about a “vehicle checklist” with two pages full of information like “check your wiper blades”. What that has to do with protecting yourself from a hulk trying to steal your wallet I’ll never know. I suppose it’s reassuring to be thinking if approached by a maniac is “If I die here at least I know my car windscreen is clean”.
To say that this guy uses padding in his newsletter would be an understatement. If you want a real good and solid self defence product go to amazon.co.uk and get Geoff Thompsons ‘Dead Or Alive’. Down to earth and full of realistic information on self protection.
Lessons to be learnt
So what lessons are to be learnt from this? Well firstly, always make sure when you are checking for a niche market that you check the American spelling or meaning. For example “rubber” in America means something a whole lot different. You ask for one of them at the counter in a stationary shop in the States and you’ll get a few weird looks. So if you find a market you think is great, but results at word tracker don’t meet your expectations ask yourself if you may be using the wrong term.
Secondly always, always study your competition and steal their best ideas. I’m serious! I’m not talking blatantly copying them but if their business model is working take it and apply it to yours.
Finally use a bit of innovation to make yourself stand out from the crowd. Captain Chris doesn’t just send you a newsletter, oh no, you also get a pack of pills called “Close Combat Nutrition”. For the life of me I’m not sure what’s in these pills (from the back of the tub, the creators don’t either) and I sure as hell won’t be taking any, but from a marketing standpoint it’s genius to include something like this. If someone takes them and all of a sudden starts feeling great they’ll stay subscribed to the newsletter just for the pills. Also it adds even more value, but costs a pittance to supply the subscriber. I’m pretty sure he learnt this from Vincent James’ ‘Twelve Month Millionaire’ manual where he teaches this method.
Anyway take a look at Captain Chris’ website. It’s really clever marketing and as I have said before a lot can be learned just from seeing how the big guns do things.