Jim Cockrum
I’ve had several days now where I’ve put $100,000 in the bank. There are no big secrets to making this happen either. Time + consistency + a proven plan of action = what it takes. (Location 150)
More about the “Silent Sales Machine” models: In some cases, I’m selling physical products on Amazon or eBay while others handle the day-to-day aspects of sourcing and selling and, in other cases, the product is digital. A digital product could be an audio, video, or text file (a.k.a. info product). I also run membership sites, have authored books (eBooks and physical print books), run discussion forums (both free and paid), I run large Facebook groups and have large email lists full of readers who are eager to hear from me on various topics. There are clients who pay me very well to advise and assist them with their Internet endeavors, and I’ve also recently moved into live conferences as well. Finally, my team and I also offer coaching and consulting. All of these business models produce income because I’ve built a SYSTEM that requires as little day-to-day oversight by me as possible, while the system constantly improves and profits based on my management. (Location 259)
Side note: When I turn down clients or students who want to pay me for my time I often refer them instead to other trusted partner professionals in our community. These partners then pay me a percentage of all resulting billing. That’s another hands-free income stream I just now remembered! (Location 293)
I wasn’t going to try to “drive traffic,” to search out customers, or toy with tricks and gimmicks. Instead, I chose to focus on finding creative ways to engage with customers right where they were already gathered online. (Location 385)
Success on the Internet is rarely, if ever, about making a large upfront investment into new and uncharted waters. It’s rarely, if ever, about starting with a big beautiful website and then desperately chasing down traffic and customers. It’s almost never about buying 5,000 widgets and then trying to “market” them successfully for a profit while risking your retirement savings. Those risky strategies just aren’t necessary—or smart! Nearly all of the successful Internet entrepreneurs that I know are simply using inexpensive tools and slightly creative strategies in wildly successful ways. They are taking a piece of already proven, popular markets as they SERVE a niche market and CREATE VALUE in that market. Next, they automate...and repeat the process. (Location 390)
These “champions of success” simply go where the traffic is already gathered and give the people they find there exactly what they are asking for. These ideas might seem foreign to you for now, but we’ll explain more as we dive a bit deeper. (Location 396)
E = Expand. Find a profitable niche market, be a leader in that niche and give your followers fantastic content which leads to numerous monetization opportunities. (Location 456)
People with SKILLS work for people with IDEAS. Be an idea person. (Location 492)
If you find yourself working IN your business more than you are working ON your business, then something is out of order. (Location 495)
One of the vital skills you’ll need to acquire if you are going to live out the “Silent Sales Machine” lifestyle is OUTSOURCING (call it “delegation,” if you like). (Location 497)
For example, one of my rules I teach eBay sellers is “Never Touch Box Tape.” What does this mean? It means that you can pay a neighborhood kid a few dollars per hour and free up a BUNCH of your time by letting them pack and ship your boxes. Don’t ever allow yourself to get caught up in the mundane tasks. Any repetitive, mundane, or even any technically challenging projects that you find yourself trying to tackle on your own should be delegated. Find someone else who can do the job more easily, faster, and (in most cases) better than you could ever do it yourself. Your time is the premium asset that you should be protecting when it comes to making business decisions. The more time you can free up, and the less money you can spend freeing it up, the more successful you’ll become and the faster your business will grow. Outsourcing (using a site like upwork.com) is becoming a vital component of nearly all successful businesses on and offline. (Location 501)
Few business owners realize it, but you can hire AMAZINGLY hard-working, talented, honest, reliable, VERY educated help for a few dollars per hour from the Philippines. Filipinos love the U.S. dollar (and the Euro) because the currency goes SO FAR in their country. (Location 518)
I see many business owners become bogged down in doing the day-to-day tasks that could and should be passed off to someone else’s capable hands. Think through the tasks that you perform yourself on a day-to-day basis. Are any of those tasks ones that could be passed to someone else if they were willing to work remotely for a few dollars per hour? If so, you should be focused on transitioning those responsibilities to someone else. (Location 529)
What work should you as “the owner” actually be doing? Focus on working ON your business instead of IN your business. Think, create, plan, and only do the stuff that ONLY you can do. Over time, pass off all possible details to others. Even if you love the work you are doing, be sure that you are dedicating significant time to “replacing yourself.” If you are unable to remove yourself from the equation of the day-to-day responsibilities of your business, you will never be able to take a break without losing income. You will quickly lose the ability to focus on expanding your business to the next level. There is also the factor of making your business transportable so that a new owner could buy and take over the business if it ever became necessary or desirable. (Location 536)
If you are trapped in the mentality of thinking that you are the best person to tackle every aspect of your business, then your business will never be very large. (Location 543)
Your business will own you if it ever does grow because it will be entirely dependent upon YOU. Do not allow your business to own you. Outsource the tasks that could and should be getting done by someone else. (Location 544)
In order to succeed online, you DON’T need to be able to do these tasks: Build websites Add content to existing websites Program Create graphics Edit your writing (grammar, etc.) Edit video Edit audio Answer customer support email or phone calls Take great product pictures Edit or create graphics Put products up for sale on eBay or Amazon, etc. All of these tasks and many more can be handled for a few dollars per hour by someone else once you know how to find good help. (Location 554)
Bottom line for this first big idea: ONLY DO WHAT ONLY YOU CAN DO FOR YOUR BUSINESS. Hire good help for all other aspects of your business. If your business isn’t profitable enough yet to hire help, then one of three things is happening: 1) you are working on a dead-end or broken business model, or 2) you are still in the “startup” phase, doing all the work, and hope to start outsourcing soon, or 3) you aren’t spending your time or money wisely and you are stuck in a rut. If your business is growing at all, it’s time to bring in some help. (Location 567)
An example of how I “outsource”: In my Amazon and eBay business, I have others doing the sourcing, shopping, packing, and handling customer support. I never touch box tape unless there’s an emergency and I’m needed. It’s not that I consider myself to be “too good” for these tasks. Instead, I’m the one making the bigger decisions and adding income streams that support the weaker segments of my businesses. My only contribution to my Amazon and eBay selling business in any given month typically consists only of reviewing the numbers and checking in with the manager (right now, that’s my mom). This frees me up to build other income streams. (Location 573)
The truth is FYA comes first—ALWAYS, or you are doomed to face an abysmal success rate. (Location 610)
The real questions you should be asking (instead of seeking my opinion) are these: How will you FYA (Find Your Audience) online and get them interested and engaged enough to have them help shape your idea BEFORE you launch it? (Location 621)
What freely distributed content can easily be created that you can use to attract your ideal partners and clients? What’s your plan to win over these initial “fans” who will then eagerly give you input and partner up with you and help shape this project? Who are the other established, online thought leaders in this niche who will possibly agree to partner with you to expose your idea to their audience? Are you seeking out their partnership with a win/win strategy? How’s that going? These are the types of questions I always fire back at eager online dreamers. In other words... “Where is your audience and how will you connect with them?” (Location 624)
Instead FYA means finding out exactly WHERE online (what websites, blogs, Facebook groups, Twitter feeds, etc.) are the kind of people you want to reach already gathered? Who owns a mailing list full of eager engaged fans in that niche? I want to see you come up with a list of LEADERS in your target niche. I want to see the names and websites of LEADERS WITH LARGE FOLLOWINGS on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, etc. (I call these people gatekeepers.) (Location 634)
“How will you get the attention of your audience?” Here’s a great blog post that will really drill home these points: (Location 642)
If you are going to do any sort of “niche” marketing online, here’s the fail-proof system I’ve used to succeed on ALL of the projects I’ve gotten into in the last eight years: Niche Marketing 100% Success Formula Identify a hot niche market and then FYA. Give that audience great free content to grow your email list (by partnering with a gatekeeper and making the gatekeeper look good). Systematically ask the audience what else they want (they may not know, but a discussion with them will tell you a lot). Ask open-ended questions in a survey (use surveymonkey.com). CREATE A SIMPLE LOW-COST OR FREE PRODUCT OR WEBSITE that meets the needs of your audience and turns your audience into advocates of your message. Monetize in any number of ways by selling outstanding affiliate offers or, more ideally, your own products to your audience (no garbage allowed) based on the feedback the audience gives you. Automate your list-building and prospect follow-up efforts and continually improve your content and systems while seeking new partners (gatekeepers). The strange thing about this model is that the “product” isn’t first or even second on the list. You aren’t building websites, writing books, or creating a product until step four at the earliest. (You may never actually create your own products! You might just sell other people’s products!) (Location 646)
When selling physical goods, for example, it makes sense to GO TO WHERE THE AUDIENCE IS. This is why I advise most newbies to start on eBay, or better yet, Amazon. That’s where the shoppers are! (Location 673)
Don’t start out by building a website to sell your widgets! Instead, go to where the widget shoppers are already hanging out. Your customers are on Amazon and eBay—and if you can’t get their attention there, you’ll have an exponentially harder time selling products from your own website. (Location 675)
For many niche markets, the customer base is already hanging out online—on blogs, websites, and discussion forums related to that niche market. A quick search on the major search engines for each of the best keywords associated with your niche will produce several pages of potentially great partners. Each of these sites are potential “FYA” partners for you to work with. These websites are the places where your future customers are already hanging out—waiting for you to find them. (Location 704)
You’ll discover several other websites to add to your targeted list of “potential partners” if you add the word “blog” or “forum” to each of your Google, Bing, or Yahoo search queries. You can also research popular authors on Amazon to find gatekeepers. Once you have your list, it’s time to start forming relationships with the gatekeepers of each of the targeted groups. Even if you initially only end up working with one or two of the 50 sites you find, it will have been well worth the effort. (Location 708)
Your campaign to attract the attention of your target niche groups’ gatekeepers will be fueled by contributing to their success, and then by expressing your desire to partner up. Here are some specific creative ideas to try (many people have done these things to me when trying to get my attention for a partnership): Make useful comments on blog posts or articles on their site or where you find things written about their site elsewhere online. Send them links to useful content that may be of interest to them (Google Alerts are great for tracking this). Try to identify the people behind the website. You need to know who the key players are so that you can form real relationships with the second-level support personnel who support the gatekeeper. Follow the website—and, more importantly, the individual key players who run the site. Follow them on Twitter, Facebook, and/or YouTube. Make supportive and relevant comments on the content they post when you find it. Get their physical mailing address and send a creative card or gift expressing your appreciation and admiration for what they’ve done. Don’t have an agenda when you reach out—just form a real relationship and give honest feedback. Find places online where the key players or the website itself is mentioned or discussed. Pay special attention to anyone that says something negative, and make a thoughtful reply defending the key players or the site. Trust me—they’ll notice this. For example, a VP of PayPal once called to thank me a couple of years ago after I spent some time defending PayPal on an open discussion forum. I had no agenda when… (Location 716)
The first simple eBook I wrote earned me $600 and about 150 subscribers to my email list on the first day I launched it. This was well before I had any audience of my own. I simply found an email list owner who had an audience made up of people who I thought might be interested in my book. I offered a 50 percent cut (an affiliate commission) on all sales made and asked the list owner to send an informational promotion of my book to her email list. This resulted in several sales and also helped launch my online eBook career. I repeated this multiple more times with other influential leaders in my niche until I had a well-established following of my own. (Location 783)
Some of the best advice that I received early on in my business career was to be very careful about who I associated myself with. (Location 800)
From a marketing perspective, I find that the most powerful videos are the ones that let you into the “real world” of the person making the video. I’m talking about being authentic. Some of the most popular content on YouTube is the simple stuff. These are the videos that make it easy for the viewer to connect and relate with the maker of the video. Using too many slick graphics, intros, great backgrounds, etc., can actually work against you. This should be encouraging to those who are nervous about creating video content. Spend some time on YouTube checking out popular videos on topics related to your niche interest. You’ll quickly see what I mean about the “authentic videos” rising to the top. (Location 919)
Several people have attempted to identify a formula, or they have claimed to be able to make it happen repeatedly, but few have achieved any sort of predictable consistency. There are some common elements, though. These elements include videos that: Make people laugh Are cutting edge with their content or delivery Surprise the audience Feature an uplifting message Are cute (kids, animals) Tell a compelling story Are short (less than a 2-3 minutes) Establish you as ENTERTAINING or as an EXPERT—ideally, BOTH! While many of these factors can be fairly (Location 928)
A more predictable strategy for gaining attention on YouTube.com is to focus on creating a consistent stream of useful content that includes a clear call to action (e.g. “join our mailing list”). Even if only a handful of people ever see your video in the first year, there could easily come a time in the future where the subject matter of your video becomes fodder for a larger conversation and, at that point, it could get passed around virally. As long as the content of the video you create has some useful value, or is entertaining, then it is worth having been made. (Location 940)
His only strategy? He posted simple videos on YouTube using keywords related to his niche market in the description. These videos quickly showed up on Google for the desirable keywords that he had used in his descriptions. (Location 949)
I asked Tracy what his secrets were in gaining so much attention from the “right people” with his videos, and he told me, “I target keywords and do some research. I could literally pick a Google page and place a video there to get a first-page listing thanks to the power of video.” (Location 955)
Let me re-emphasize the point that you can easily get sucked into a “skill cycle” on the Internet and never escape! You could waste time for years learning how to: build websites use WordPress build a blog find profitable products to sell do “social marketing” all yourself return every customer phone call or email program php build a membership website update old content edit your writing and repurpose your content ship product post content to various sites edit and design video/audio/pictures transcribe your video/audio create Amazon and eBay listings All of these are TIME WASTERS, in my opinion! They are all a vital part of my various businesses, but I don’t do ANY of these activities myself NOR do I pay a lot of money to have these things done! I partner with great people and have them do the work while we share in the benefits of the results. (Location 1023)
If you aren’t in the business of creating content that consumers want and need, then I’m about to talk you into this business model. As long as you pick a niche where there are passionate prospects, it’s hard to go wrong. If you are going to attract loyal followers and prospects online, it all starts with creating good content for them to consume. (Location 1086)
1,000 times over, they need to seek out a niche with “passionate prospects.” You’ll know you have passionate prospects when you get into a niche market where people can’t sleep at night or they wake up each day thinking about your niche. The emotionally charged, polarizing, passionate niche markets are well documented in many cases, but there are many of them. You see the “how to make money,” “relationships,” and “beauty/fitness” niche markets everywhere for a reason. These are some of the most common and emotionally-charged niche markets. (Location 1091)
This means that great content is not a slick online brochure or fancy video touting all of the features of your latest and greatest products. Instead, great content is simply defined by your prospects as, “exactly the right information I want or need at exactly the right time I need or want it.” Ideally, it’s also free to consume (until you’ve proven the value of your content and your prospects are BEGGING for more and willing to pay a fair price to get it). (Location 1104)
If you can find a way to position yourself as an expert who frequently delivers great content (you’ll likely start with “free” content), you won’t be able to contain the number of leads and prospects who will beat a path to your door. Your best customers will also become your best salespeople as they spread the word about how great you are. I’ve already listed several types of content at the start of this chapter, but let me stress that the FORMAT of your content (audio, video, eBook, Kindle, blog article, etc.) is not nearly as important as the QUALITY of your ideas. If you are engaging, helpful, and “shareable” (meaning people want to spread the word once they hear or see your content), then you are all set and the media format becomes irrelevant. All forms of content delivery are open to those that have a message that is desirable. (Location 1108)
If the idea of having a “real book” is a bit intimidating, or if you don’t feel quite ready for it, consider the option of writing an eBook. When I say eBook, I mean any type of electronic or digitally delivered book. It could be a Kindle book, a PDF file, or some other future popular format for the written word that’s not yet common. The eBooks that I’ve written are simple PDF files that can be sent as an email attachment, or downloaded and easily distributed instantly anywhere in the world where there is an Internet connection. (Location 1119)
Writing your first eBook could be as simple as creating a 20-page document and then saving it as a PDF file. (Location 1124)
An eBook should be a lead-generating tool that gives away great content, while establishing your expertise. Don’t make it a big sales pitch, and don’t fill it with “fluff” content. Customers who buy, or even download something for free, are expecting a great first impression, so put great information inside. When I sell information it’s the starting line for a lifelong relationship (hopefully) with a new customer. It’s not the finish line where I finally made some money. The customer needs to feel like they got 10 times the value from the purchase or I’ve failed them. (Location 1137)
I collect the email addresses of my readers when they buy, and then send them free updates for life. There are readers of this very book who have devoured all previous versions of it, but they paid only once. (Location 1179)
Another benefit of an eBook is that I can interact more with the customer. I can include clickable links inside the book that take the readers to related blog posts, articles, or other supporting content online. I can even sell something from inside the book, and a click or two later, the customer has the product ordered and I have been paid. (Location 1191)
Content One of the great lessons that I learned a little late in my business career is the importance of the titles that I choose to use for my information products and content. (Location 1198)
Great titles give the content a feel of “exclusivity” and “simplicity” at the same time. Creating top-10 lists or step-by-step lists makes for great content. Examples: Seven things every puppy owner must know about housebreaking. Five back pain secrets your doctor won’t tell you. Special report: Getting out of debt step-by-step. Eight steps to landing your dream job fast. You’ll notice that I failed to follow my own advice in choosing a title for this book! The simple explanation is that I wrote this book very early in my career and it took off, in spite of my poor choice of title. (Location 1206)
The “free content” concept: Brian began taking digital pictures and documenting the process he used to modify various guitar pedals and turn them into the valuable “mods” that his local fans were enjoying. He turned these “digital courses” into PDF files that could be easily downloaded or printed and mailed to his increasingly eager fan base. Inevitably, each course that he produced and distributed would lead to more questions, more followers, and more fans of what he was trying to do. The more he distributed this free and inexpensive content online, the more his fan base grew. The demand for his guitar pedal “mods” and manuals and other related instructional material began to steadily increase to the point where he had to hire help to meet demand. (Location 1353)
You can get the full story at WamplerPedals.com and see where Brian’s passion and the word “free” have taken him lately. (Location 1366)
That summer, as I searched for new ideas, I found “The Silent Sales Machine” eBook. The message was clear—build an email list, and offer digital products to your existing customers. (Location 1384)
Finally that Fall we decided to trust Jim’s advice, and go digital. In September of 2009 we published our first four patterns. We sold 11 and gave away several hundred more as our “ethical bribe” to begin building our newsletter list. Within six months, our patterns were making as much as our eBay auctions ever had, and the decision to offer digital products had proven to be a no-brainer. None of our fears materialized, and we’ve discovered more benefits than we could have imagined. (Location 1393)
3. AUCTIONS ARE GOING OUT OF STYLE, FIXED PRICE RULES! When eBay first came on the scene, auctions were COOL and FUN. Several years later, eBay shoppers are spoiled by the Amazon 2-day shipping option, and they want to buy stuff NOW, and get it soon. (Location 1466)
Back in 2002, when I was pregnant with my second child, I was looking for ways to supplement our income without doing freelance web development and graphic design. I picked up a double stroller at a yard sale and realized it wasn’t what I was looking for—so I listed it on eBay and made over $100 on it. I was hooked. (Location 1472)