Shoemoney - Skills To Pay The Bills

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Should you sell a course on @udemy? Posted: 30 May 2013 05:00 AM PDT Udemy is becoming quite the player in the online education market space.  They have come a long way in a very short amount of time.  I have had courses on there for quite a while and I also consulted with them a little bit (they got out of me as much as they could for free). For some it can seem like an amazing solution and to some it may seem like a rip off. I think depending on where you are at with resources Udemy can be amazing for you.  I wanted to make a post about my experiences with it. Before we jump into Udemy specifics lets talk about what it takes to sell a info product. A product (duh). Customer service. A place to host the content. Landing pages and checkout pages. Merchant processing. Affiliate Program. Here is a little more in-depth form my experience Do it yourself. The most profitable one would be to do all of this yourself.  Someone would have to answer customer inquiries, administrate your server, setup your members area and the whole username/password user level system etc etc, build/optimize landing pages, get your own merchant accounts and run your own affiliate program.  This option gives you the flexibility on every front BUT as it becomes more successful be ready to hire several people.   In my case when my original ShoeMoney System went on sale we went from ZERO to 700 units per day.  I hired 6 customer service people from the local unemployment agency just to answer the phone and give refunds.  I hired a full time affiliate manager.   My server guy and I stayed up all night to build a astrix voice over ip system.  O ya and I ordered 10 voip phones overnighted.  I did have some merchant processing but it was limited to only 180k per month.  We were processing that every 2 days.  Craziest part tho was I wasn’t really sure if we were even making money.  Took about 2 months later to see that we did make money after all.  But sad end to that story is that we lost our merchanting and canned it.  But you have full control.  In most cases when you do it all yourself you DO NOT clawback against affiliates.  If a refund is made its on you and not the affiliate. Hyrbid yourself + Clickbank or JVZOO: The next way to do it is to use something like JVZOO or Clickbank.  You still have to host your own content and landing pages but they take care of the affiliate program for you and also merchanting.  For this service they take 7.5% of the price PLUS $1 per sale.  This is before anything goes out to affiliates.  Clickbank affiliate program is pretty flexible.  Allows you to give affiliates 25% to 75% of the sale price. Ok now lets get to the Udemy way: Udemy does everything for you.  But they take a heafty 30% of the price tag.  15% for people who use your coupon codes.  Affiliates get a flat 50% of the price AFTER Udemy takes their cut. But is it that bad? Price wise Its a GREAT DEAL.  You get 70% from sales that Udemy gets for you.  Sound hefty? QUIT WHINING this is just free money for you. You get 85% from sales that you make.  They determine this from sales that come from a code. You get 35% of the sales made by affiliates. Now instead of looking at all the things they do for you lets just look at what you do.  You upload content… promote it on your site and thats it.  Sometimes you answer questions from students but not too much.  No customer service to worry about,  no affiliate management,  no merchant processing issues, and best of all no server issues. But here is what I don’t like about it.  You may or may not feel the same way. You have no way to email your buyers.  This pisses me off cause when I update a course or something or even when I put out something new I can’t blast out and let my users know.  This is B.S. cause I have a right to email them as they have done a commercial transaction with me. With that said your users can follow you and you can message them on Udemy… although not sure how they would like me “messaging 5,000″ people at once.  Its still dependent on them getting notifications from Udemy. YOU ARE BUILDING THEIR BUSINESS.   just keep that in mind.  I have sent them thousands of buyers of my products.  These are all users they horde and will spam them promoting new products… of which they earn 30% of the money that they make. Most annoying thing about it is the messaging system.  I miss a TON of questions from my students because there is soooo much spam from other “instructors” asking you to promote their stuff.  But  I digress. So really in the end,  even after my complaints,  I would advise to probably 99.9% of the people out their who want to put a product online to use Udemy.  Would I use it for new products?  Nope.. but I will use it for older ones that I don’t want to maintain the web hosting and all that for. The real deal is that this platform is really just what it says its for, teachers to create courses and sell them to students.  And they make it very very easy. Trying to increase your Google rank that is like no other?

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“11 Quick Tips for Writing Compelling Posts On Your Blog” plus 1 more

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11 Quick Tips for Writing Compelling Posts On Your Blog Posted: 29 May 2013 07:58 AM PDT Yesterday I ran a workshop for a small group of bloggers here in Australia. One of the sessions I covered was on writing compelling content. Here’s a brief look at a few of the recurring themes in what I shared: Be Useful – if your post isn’t informing, inspiring, entertaining or making someone’s life better – don’t publish it until it does. Share your Opinion – opinions are often what sets bloggers apart from the pack. Cut out the Fluff – before you hit publish, revise your post and remove anything that doesn’t add value. Visualise Your Reader – writing with a reader in mind personalises your writing. Make Your Posts Scannable – only 16% of people read every word online. Format your posts so that your main points stand out. Work and Rework You Headlines – a good headline can be the difference between a blog post being read, or ignored. Write with Passion – when you show you care about what you’re writing, your readers are more likely to care too. Give your Readers something to do Next – ask your readers to DO something once they finish reading. It could be to read something else, comment, apply a lesson, share the post etc. Tell Stories – stories are powerful ways of connecting with, inspiring and teaching your readers – they also create memories Give Your Posts Visual Appeal – the inclusion of an eye-catching image or a well designed diagram can take your post to the next level. Practise – the best way to improve your writing is to write. Practise Makes Perfect. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger 11 Quick Tips for Writing Compelling Posts On Your Blog

Is Making Money from Blogging Passive Income? Posted: 28 May 2013 08:05 AM PDT Recently, I attended an event and heard a speaker talk about how they’d build a passive income from blogging. The person sitting next to me leant over toward me and at whispered: “Based on your Twitter Stream, I’m not so sure that blogging is ‘passive’ – is it?” I thought it might be an interesting discussion to re-open here on ProBlogger – do you think that income earned from blogging could be classified as ‘passive income’? Wikipedia defines ‘passive income’ as: Passive income is an income received on a regular basis, with little effort required to maintain it. Wikipedia also goes on to define it from a tax perspective, which I’m won’t get into here. I’m more interested talking about the ‘with little effort required to maintain it’ aspect of the definition, which I think is what many people are attracted to when they hear anyone talk about ‘passive income’. Let me kick off the discussion by making a few comments: Most Bloggers Making a Living from Blogging, Work Hard This has been a recurring theme here on ProBlogger, since I started the blog in 2004. While there’s no single way to make a living from blogging, most full time bloggers I know – who blog as their primary income stream - work pretty hard on their blogs. They: Post content on a daily basis Spend a significant amount of effort to maintain the community around their blogs Work hard on promoting their blogs and finding new readers Build relationships with other bloggers Work hard to maintain their income streams (whether that be by liaising and working with advertisers or developing and launching products) Also work on any number of other tasks including SEO, maintaining social media accounts, answering emails, moderating comments, blog design, racing other blogs, managing hosting etc Some full time bloggers have grown to the point where they are able to outsource some of the above – but then there’s the task of managing a team! Income from blogging is neither quick or easy. In short, if you expect to earn an income from your blog, you need to consistently put time and effort into it. Some Aspects of Blogging Will Generate Passive Income Having just said that blogging for income takes a significant amount of work, there are some elements of blogging that could be said to generate ‘passive income’. Let’s look at a few examples: There’s Gold in Those Archives Each post I publish could potentially generate an income for me, on the day it’s published but also tomorrow, next week, and next month. Even years into the future. Example 1 – when I dig into my Google Analytics account and drill down into the AdSense stats there, I see that last month my post ‘Aperture‘ on dPS earned me $233.23 and this Wedding Photography Tips post earned $222.61. Those posts were published in 2007, five and a half years ago! Example 2 – when I look at my Amazon Affiliate earnings, I can see that my Popular Digital Camera and Gear post generated $60 yesterday for me. That post has been up since 2009 and while I do update it from time to time, it has been over 2 months since I reviewed it. Of course, part of the reason those old posts continue to generate income for me is because I continue to publish new content on the site. Alongside the new content, the posts in my archives have the potential to earn income for years to come (if all goes well). You could argue that a blogger who spends years doing all of the above could then completely stop doing any work and still make some income based upon continued traffic from search engines. However, that traffic (and the income from it) would decrease in time without you maintaining your blog (depending a little on how evergreen the content of your blog might be). The Long Tail of Products In a similar manner, when you develop a product to sell to your readers that product can continue to generate an income for you into the future, without needing continual development. Example – when I first wrote and released 31 Days to Build a Better Blog, it took significant work to get ready to be published. There was the time I put into creating the content, the editing, the design, the setting up of shopping carts, the marketing etc. In return for that effort the eBook produced a good income when it launch during the launch period. However, it has continued to sell almost every day since then. I did a full update of the eBook and added new content in 2012 but other than that, the 31DBBB continues to sell (as do our other eBooks) thanks to it being promoted in our sidebar/navigation areas and through annual discount promotions we’ve run. This is the beauty of creating something to sell for your readership, particularly if it’s evergreen and doesn’t date. Is Making Money from Blogging Passive Income? I’d love to hear your thoughts on the topic – do you see the income you earn from blogging as ‘passive income’? Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger Is Making Money from Blogging Passive Income?

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