Online Coaching Clubs – A License to Print Money
For this blog post, I did a phone interview with my friend Phil MacNevin (http://about.me/philmacnevin) to get some more information regarding information product marketing and online coaching clubs. Phil and I have had many discussions about this type of business, and he stated that a successful online coaching club can be compared to having a license to print money. Here’s a little background info on Phil:
Phil has followed the path of his mentors and chose a life of entrepreneurship. Phil has had an early start, having sold his first company “Crowded Games Corporation” in 2007 at the young age of 24. He’s since joined Eben Pagan’s team, having worked on multi-million dollar product launches in the information marketing industry. He has been very fortunate to have worked on projects involving his mentors (Tony Robbins, Eben Pagan, Gary Vaynerchuk, Tim Ferriss, Wyatt Woodsmall, and others). Phil has recently partnered with nutrition expert and author Sherry Strong and marketing and sales expert James Mielnik on his next business venture.
Matt: How do you use technology for you and your clients?
Phil: It is very important to have a mobile access point. In today’s information age, you need to be accessible online. Valuable ways to do this is to tap into social media for your business and ensure that you have a website presence (even if it isn’t an e-commerce site). So many people are connected to technology that it is part of our culture.
Matt: Can you talk about your experience with coaching clubs?
Phil: Coaching clubs and information products came into play when I was working for Eben Pagan. I would assist in setting up and maintaining online training websites (which consist of blog material, videos, e-books, webinars, etc) where you teach clients your expertise. Coaching clubs are popular because the members are learning hands-on with the trainer. Coaching clubs are a great business to get into because there is a membership fee (usually monthly or annually) that provides a recurring revenue stream. One of the online coaching club / information products I’ve worked on is GURU MasterMind and it’s related information products like GURU MasterClass (http://gurumasterclassblog.com) which was an annual training program that contained webinars, online training programs, and summits. This program actually trained people that had an area of expertise, of how to start their own profitable coaching club or information product business by teaching and selling their knowledge online. The members receive value from the program as they get interactive with personal questions, and the webinars are available for access after the live shows.
A current information product I’m working on is called “7 Weeks to Slim” (www.simpleandnaturalweightloss.com). We had recently launched a very successful beta-test, and we’ll be launching the full program within the year.
Matt: What criteria do you feel should be met before you can see an opportunity for a person/company to have a coaching club?
Phil: Any person or company that has information of value can launch a coaching club. You don’t need to build everything beforehand, but you have to know where you want to go with it. Do market research by having a beta test with a small number of users; the beta test can be for free or for a reduced price. A saying in this business is “fail fast, fail cheap”, which means you want to see if there is a market for your product early on in the project before spending all your time creating the content, and you also want to do this on a frugal budget instead of investing a large sum of money into getting your coaching club off of the ground.
Matt: How can a business get their own coaching club off of the ground?
Phil: 2 of the best ways to enter are to 1) get in touch with someone who has done it, or 2) buy into a coaching club yourself. A great book to read on this is called “Millionaire Messenger” by Brendon Burchard (http://www.millionairemessenger.com/). It is a best-seller and is an overall great introduction to how to launch a successful coaching club, information product or expertise-based business. His book breaks it down into easy steps. Other people that provide helpful resources are Jeff Walker and Eben Pagan. Most of
the methods include, for example, a 5 step program, in which you give steps 1 and 2 for free, and then sell 3-5. Basically you want to build an audience and get them to trust you, and
once you have their loyalty then it is much easier to offer paid products.
Matt: What are some tips or best practices in launching a coaching club?
Phil: Be authentic! Don’t create a personality of something you are not. Allow people to get to know you. It is all about relationships. The more they know you, the more loyal of customers they become.
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Thanks to Phil MacNevin for taking the time to share his knowledge on information product marketing and online coaching clubs. I’m going to be test marketing an online coaching club in the near future for one of my businesses. What are your thoughts on this? Please share your opinions and/or questions in the comments section 
Indigo MBA’s Online Community
I enjoy reading business books, and a few months ago I was in the business section of Indigo and seen something very smart. It was a poster above the bookshelf that read:
It also included a url (http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/indigomba/) to learn more information. I was intrigued by the idea, and thought I would explore the idea some more. Whenever I went to the website, it had a very simple interface that stated there was a core reading list in different modules such as leadership, marketing, and strategy. The key element that I feel is the glue to this concept is that there is a community component to the program.
Whenever you join the MBA program, you are to read the material (which consists of 8 modules, with 3 books in each module) in a span of 12-13 months. That equals purchasing 24 books in 12 months, or 1 book roughly every 2 weeks. Here is where the upsell is: most businesspeople take their time reading a book by fitting in a few pages whenever they have some leisure time, however, this program expedites the process of reading each book by putting a suggested deadline for completing a book. However, just having a reading list with a suggested time likely isn’t enough for the average business reader to change their reading habits. The stickiness factor in this program is the development of a community.
The Community page is a forum open to all business book readers going through the Indigo MBA. There is a facilitator appropriately named the “Indigo Professor”, and all the rest of the users are currently reading the same book as all the other “students” where everyone can discuss their thoughts, insights, and potential debates regarding each book. I enjoy being able to pass along a good business book to like-minded business people and have a conversation with them about their opinions on the book, and that is where I feel the true value would come in actively participating in the Indigo MBA program.
Do I think that a self-directed book club is equivalent to an MBA degree from an accredited university? Of course not. But I do think that there is a lot of wisdom in the books, and I think that Indigo was very wise with the concept and completing it with an online community for engaging their customers in their products.
Next week’s blog post: Interview with Phil MacNevin about the concept of online coaching clubs
Website Tips – The Client’s Perspective
This blog post will consist of tips for your website (from the client’s perspective) – whether you are thinking about creating your first website, pondering a full-out redesign and scrapping your existing website, looking for minor improvements for your current website, or if you are just bored and want to read about websites.
The logical order (as I see it) for thinking about your website is 1) define your purpose, 2) empathize with your target market, 3) create meaningful content, 4) ensure your website design is CRAP (read on for explanation), 5) plan your website marketing, and 6) optimize website for search engines.
1) Define your purposeWhy do you want a website? Are you looking to gain new customers? Do you want to explore the opportunity of selling your products online? Do you want to keep your current clientele informed about your business? Do you need something to refer callers to that answers repetitive questions to lower administrative time? Figure out your purpose and have that as your guide along the rest of the website development process. This will help you feel less overwhelmed when deciding what content to include, the functionality of the website, etc. When in doubt, think back to your purpose.
2) Build for the End Consumer
It doesn’t matter what your graphic designer or web developer likes, it doesn’t matter what you like, all that really matters is that your target market likes your website. Does your ideal customer browse websites via a mobile device? Does your target market enjoy a humorous tone or are they strictly business? What design appeals to your clients? There are many other questions that could be asked depending on the nature of your business. Don’t be afraid to test market and find answers to these questions.
3) Content is King
Now that you know your purpose and have your target market in mind, it is time to put together the content of your website. Be selective of your content; ensure that it is informative and useful for your target market. Less is more: just because you may have 500 pictures related to your business, doesn’t mean that users will want to scroll through all of them.
4) Make sure your website is full of CRAP!
CRAP is an acronym that stands for Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity. I’m not going to go in-depth right here but here is a quick breakdown of each term:
- Contrast: Make different parts of your content POP out by using different font, colour, shape, and/or size. Things to change can be header, footer, blog content, different topics, advertisements, comments, etc.
- Repetition: Repeat design styles throughout consistent content. Think of this as a brand campaign, you can recognize a brand like Pepsi whether it’s their brand message on a tv ad, signage, or one of their trucks because they have an integrated marketing communications strategy in place where they repeat their colours, shapes, and designs through many different media. You can do this with your website by using a consistent template throughout your website pages.
- Alignment: Everything on each page of your website should be lined-up with something on the page. This rule basically states that your content should not be randomly placed, but visually aligned for a nice, clean look.
- Proximity: Arrange related things together, and separate unrelated content from each other.
5) Develop a Website Marketing Plan
This doesn’t need to be a formal business plan, the idea here is to have in mind how you are going to spread the word about your new website. This could be through social media, email your current clients, Google Adwords, banner ads on websites your target market may be viewing, or it can be done in a low-tech fashion by placing your website address in traditional marketing ads, on your brochures, business cards, on your signage, envelopes, door hangers, etc. Just like any marketing plan, different avenues are better for certain business. Things to think of here are 1) purpose, 2) monetary budget, 3) time devotion for execution of the plan.
6) Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of getting your website search engine friendly. A few of the main things in SEO are to include keywords related to your business in your website content, have those keywords placed in tags throughout the website (names of pictures, meta tags, website title, etc), and to have your website link on other websites and vice versa (think of links as being a way that Google can see how popular you are by tracking how many friends you have). Easy-peasy. There are a few other things I could talk about, but I’ll leave a full SEO lesson in another blog post. The thing to think about here is: what do you think/want your target market will type into Google, Bing, or any other search engine to get to your website? Then alter your content to ensure it includes those keywords over, and over, and over again.
And there you have it. Sometimes getting projects like these completed can be overwhelming because you simply don’t know where to start (especially when things seem so intertwined). This is how I’ve coached clients through Good Lookin Websites in their website journey, and it has worked for us. Hopefully it works for you as well. Let me know your thoughts in the comments section 
Crowdsourcing 101
What is crowdsourcing?
Crowdsourcing is essentially outsourcing to a group of freelancers, and only paying for your favorite submission. The website either charges a fee, or a small portion of the prize budget goes to the website, and the bulk goes to the freelancer. Although websites vary, services that can be crowdsourced include logo design, website interface creation, copywriting, business naming, and all sorts of illustrations and marketing designs (and much more). Some crowdsourcing websites include: www.crowdspring.com, www.99designs.com, and www.squadhelp.com. I’ve only used CrowdSpring, but I’ve used it 3 times for 3 different logos and have been happy with the process.
How does crowdsourcing work?
1) Choose your “prize” or budget, and send all info pertaining to your project and answer a few questions to give the freelancers an idea of what your expectations are.
2) Various designers from all over the world take their stab at the project in order to compete for the prize. Remember, only your favorite submission wins the prize.
3) As designers submit their work, you are expected to rate each submission and give them suggestions to how they can tailor it to your liking. This can be time consuming as I’ve had up to 100 submissions for a project, so dedicate some time to monitor and rate the submissions.
4) Choose the winner. Ask the designer to make any final tweaks. Then once you’ve received your files, the designer gets paid.
Benefits of Crowdsourcing:
-see the designs before committing to pay a designer
-lots of perspectives on your project (great for brainstorming when you aren’t exactly sure what you are looking for)
-easy process
Disadvantages of Crowdsourcing:
-typically amateur designers working on your designs (though there are some very talented designers)
-may be missing out on key marketing elements that a more experienced designer would implement
Get the best of both worlds:
Typically what I’ve done is use crowdsourcing as a source of insights and creativity. Whenever I didn’t have a concrete idea of what I wanted, I’d post the project on CrowdSpring (cost was roughly $350) then choose my favorite. From that, I would have a decent logo, but I’d have a much better idea of what I wanted. Then I’d take that logo and hire a more experienced graphic designer to improve it (only an hour or two of their time). The end result is a fantastic logo for less money than going through an experienced designer to create from scratch.
Lunch and Learn Presentation at the Queen Street Commons
Today I will be presenting a lunch and learn at the Queen Street Commons (www.queenstreetcommons.org) co-working space in downtown Charlottetown, PEI. This is a test presentation for some longer presentations I will be doing in the near future. The title of the presentation is “Tools for Keeping Organized, and Saving Time and Money”. A PDF of the slides for the initial presentation is attached.
Welcome to my blog!
Matt Sullivan, Web Marketing Network, PEI