| I have some intriguing questions to deal with in this email, but first, an important announcement... The Laptop Lifestyle Academy closes tomorrow at midnight, Monday the 17th of October, 2016. 
If you're not 100% sure about joining us I recommend you read over the signup page so you can see if you're a good fit for our community -
Some Important Questions...
I've been sent some interesting emails during the week asking some questions that I suspect you might also have wondered at some point. Let's dive in and answer them. 1. I'm not a blogger so what's the point learning about blogging? Every time I talk about blogging I feel like I lose a ton of people simply because you don't want to write about personal subjects or any of that 'blogging' stuff. The truth is that a blog is just a website, and a website is just a platform to deliver content. What I really teach, and what all my most successful graduates do to make money, is CONTENT MARKETING. Content marketing is the art of using words to attract, engage, build trust and then sell to people. It doesn't matter what you sell -- physical products, services, digital courses, software, food, entertainment, travel -- if you want to sell online, you use content marketing. You must learn how to do this with your content, whether you use a podcast, videos, emails or articles (and most people use all of these things eventually!). Even people who use paid advertising like Facebook ads send people to content because they know that you MUST BUILD TRUST first, before you have any hope of making a sale. To put it simply, I teach people how to sell with words, which is a free method of growing a business and one of the most powerful skills you can learn.
2. I want someone to guide me step-by-step to build my website, setup a membership site or online course, do you do this? This question always comes from someone too caught up with technology as their challenge, when really they should be focusing on a much different issue. Even if I built the website for you, setup a membership site and created an entire course for you, without an audience you will never get any customers, and thus make zero money. Technology is a necessary step, but one that can be solved by hiring technical help. It's completely in your control. Yes you have to decide which particular tech tools to use -- a nice theme design for your website, a good email autoresponder, software to deliver your products, etc -- but there are no major roadblocks to make these choices. The problems you should be asking about are much more dynamic, like how do you build your audience, and who should be your audience, and then how do you turn them into paying customers. That's the real secret. Anyone can build a website, but someone who can teach you how to sell gives you a rare and powerful skill.
3. I'm an affiliate marketer, does what you teach help with affiliate products too? When you learn the fundamentals of selling with content, it doesn't matter what you sell. Affiliate products are just products. Someone else might create them, but you still have to go through the process of building an audience that trusts you, in order for them to buy something you recommend. Most people fail with affiliate marketing because they don't realize they still have to go through all the effort of finding the right target audience, fostering relationships and then using persuasive selling techniques to convince them to buy. The simple answer is yes, you can use what I teach to sell affiliate products too. Although I hope one day you sell your own product, because you will make a lot more money and find it much more satisfying.
4. I sell a physical product and I just want more customers, what's the point of creating content or blogging, shouldn't I just run ads direct to my products? I hope the answer to this one is pretty clear already based on all my previous answers in this email. If it was as simple as spending money on an ad direct to a sales page for a product, we'd all be rich! Getting people to look at your product sales page doesn't mean they will buy. You know that yourself because you've been a customer. You only buy something after you spend some time learning about it, come to trust the person or company behind it, read testimonials, reviews and case studies, hear your friends talking about it, etc These things are all content driven. A video showing your product demo is content. An article with pictures talking about how someone used your product, is content. A journalist writing a review of your product on a big blog, is content. Marketing online is content. You can't get around it, so you better learn how content works, no matter what you sell.
5. How much should I budget to pay for things like my website and email list and any other 'hidden' costs of setting up an online business? I like this question. Planning ahead is smart. I recommend you start by saving $500 to invest in your business. This money will first go to the basics like domain names, hosting and an email service like AWeber. You might also spend a $100 to hire someone to help you set up your website and email optin boxes. After that, how much you spend depends on how quickly you build things. There are an endless amount of tools you can invest in, but you won't absolutely need any of them. Personally I think the best use of money is to hire people on a contract or per task basis. You're going to need to do things like create landing pages, design product covers and graphics, format your lead magnets, do a logo, maybe podcast artwork, setup payment processors, checkout pages, and so on. The great thing about hiring other people for these kinds of small tasks is it frees you to focus on what really matters -- creating content and marketing your content. If you find yourself spending entire days just to design a logo, or format a document, you're wasting time on the wrong tasks. Yes you can do things on a budget. In general starting an online business takes more time than money, but if you can spend a few hundred dollars a month on help, it will make your life a lot easier. ****** I hope answering these common questions has helped you in some way. Don't forget, there is only one day left if you'd like to work with me as your coach, and join my community of Laptop Lifestyle entrepreneurs. Click here to sign up for the Laptop Lifestyle Academy I'll see you in the Academy, Yaro Starak
Entrepreneurs-Journey.com
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Hi! I'm Yaro Starak. I've been living the laptop lifestyle thanks to blogging since 2005.
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