| Blog Mastermind 2016 [ 14 Days To Go ] Sometimes You Have To Say Good Bye To Some, To Better Help Others... It hurts, but it's part of business. Not everyone is right for what you sell, but sometimes they still buy from you... and then ask for a refund. I don't need to explain why when I tell you that each refund email I receive is like a kick in the ba... guts. In a moment of 'inner child' innocence, my ego asks... Why don't you like me? :-( Then I quickly recover and remind myself that this has happened before and it will happen again. Refunds are a part of business. In fact I've heard several copywriters and marketers claim that if you're not getting at least 10% refunds you're not selling hard enough. Guarantees are there to protect your customers, and they increase sales, so I have no problem that refunds are a natural result of good marketing. However refunds can offer something more, something very insightful, when you know where to look... Searching For Your Ideal Customer A long time ago I realized refunds should not be feared, and instead you can use them as a useful tool to figure out more about who is wrong (and thus who is right) for your products. Over the last few years I've been carefully watching my refunds. We have a standing policy in my business to always ask why someone refunds or cancels a program. This sometimes can lead to 'saving' them as a customer, since we can deal with whatever issue they face that lead them to thinking about giving up. Sometimes though a refund request comes from someone who really shouldn't have purchased my product in the first place, and it's usually clear why. For example, someone joined my Blog Mastermind program who wanted to learn about affiliate marketing. Blog Mastermind is not an affiliate marketing course, so it's not right for them. Sometimes people join my program expecting a miracle, some kind of secret traffic trick that will lead to instant riches. When they discover there is work involved, they realize they better stick to their day job. The money isn't going to suddenly pour into their paypal account the instant they turn on their blog. Again, not the right type of person for my program. My job is to learn from this refund feedback and do better at REJECTING these types of people before they sign up in the first place. That's why I am writing this email, it's time to say good bye to some people... Redefining How I Can Help You Several years ago I made the choice to refine my business. It was a case of taking my own advice about narrowing your niche. I couldn't be that guy who 'teaches people how to make money blogging' anymore. The industry had grown to the point that many people were teaching how to make money blogging. Blogging had become mainstream, and as a marketing message, it had become generic. Generic = Death when it comes to marketing. It was time to specialize. Thankfully it was clear what my specialty was (in my head), however my marketing wasn't very clear about it. This is why I had to completely overhaul my business and redefine the message I presented to the world. In order to do this I had to answer three questions (the same questions I always ask my coaching community members)... - Who do I help
- What problem do I help them solve
- How do I help them do it
My answer to these questions was clear... 1. I help knowledge experts -- people like teachers, trainers, speakers, authors and coaches. 2. The problem I help them solve is to break free from getting paid by the hour, or per contract or as an employee or freelancer, so they can gain control over their time and income. 3. I do this by teaching them how to package up their knowledge into digital teaching products that they sell online automatically using their blog and email list. Given I have made most of my income online (over a million dollars) from selling digital teaching products through a blog, and most of my successful blogging graduates have done the same (multiple millions in sales), it was easy to choose this new focus. I was excited about restructuring my business on this new direction, but it did mean I had a lot of work to do to re-engineer all my marketing to get this new message out there. I'm Not The Right Person To Help You The one unfortunate aspect of this restructure is I have had to say good bye to certain topics, and thus certain people. For example, I used to teach and write a lot about how to make money from advertising on your blog. I also did the same with affiliate marketing from a blog. While my current blogging approach can still lead to income with these two channels, that's not the direction I guide people. What I am best at is selling teaching products on autopilot using just a blog and email list. If you have knowledge in your head that other people will pay for, then I know exactly how you can package it up into digital products and setup an automated system to sell them. That's what I am best at, and that is what I am focused on going forward in 2016. If this is what you also want to do, then stay tuned, you're going to love what I have for you in the coming weeks. You probably should also join my Blog Mastermind 2016 program, but more on that later. If that's not your focus, then you might want to look elsewhere for something more specific to your needs. Coming Up Next January is a big month. I spent much of December preparing some new free training videos for you... and it's all focused on how you can package the knowledge inside your head into products you sell online. Here's a little sneak-peek. I'll explain more soon. Yaro Starak
Entrepreneurs-Journey.com | 
Hi! I'm Yaro Starak. I've been living the laptop lifestyle thanks to blogging since 2005.
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