Now that the price of starting or bumping a WSO has dropped to $20, you might be thinking about running more of them. Here then are my top tips for making a WSO pay off in a big, BIG way:
1. Write about what you KNOW about. The best way to make a killer product is to write about something you've done, whether that's a strategy to bring in super-targeted traffic, do affiliate marketing or whatever. If you've already done it, then not only do you know what you're talking about – you also have your own built in testimonial and case study.
2. Selling “what's hot” can be helpful, but you don't need to be a slave to it. Some WSO sellers continually check to see what's selling well, and then they make a similar product of their own. Obviously this works. But some of the biggest WSO's have been cutting edge, carving a niche into new, untouched territory. So if you've got a topic that hasn't been covered, don't wait for someone else to launch a product – go for it. Money love speed.
3. Format counts. Ideally you want your product in video format with a companion PDF. This has a high-perceived value and is great for people who like to learn via video AND people who prefer to read. But what if you don't want to do video? PDF's work well, but you'll have a higher perceived value if you add a little something extra. For example, doing a live conference call or webinar adds tremendous value. You can also add interviews, cheat sheets, mindmaps or workbooks.
4. Decrease the refunds. There are a certain percentage of buyers who are going to refund, no matter what. Some really don't like your product, which is okay. You can't please everyone. And sadly there are a few WSO buyers who think it's okay to take your work for free. But there are ways to decrease your refunds. First, give lots of value – see #5 for this. Second, if it's appropriate for your product, don't give everything at once. You might give them the first installment immediately, and then another installment each week for “x” number of weeks. This keeps them anticipating rather than refunding.
5. Build the value and make a great offer. You can sell a car for $1 with lousy sales copy, but even the best copy in the world won't sell yesterday's newspaper for $1,000. Why is that? Because a great offer practically sells itself. When you make your product, brainstorm everything you need to cover and how best you can cover it. Leave nothing out. No, you're not trying to pad it – you're trying to make it comprehensive. After all, would you rather buy a 1 page report briefly outlining the highlights of something you've never done – or a step by step 20 page report with videos that covers everything you need to know?
6. Create your product fast. Once you know your topic and everything you want to cover, write an outline. Then follow this outline to either write or video your product. Just having an outline to follow can cut your product creation time in half or better.
7. Line up affiliates in advance. You might build an affiliate page you can send affiliates to, and get them to sign up on your notification list. If you have time, communicate with each one personally and give them access to your product. An affiliate is much more likely to promote you if they've seen and like your product. And if they already know you, then it's usually a simple matter of asking them. Remember to thank each affiliate personally for the sales they bring, and keep them updated on your next WSO. This way each time you launch a new WSO, you should have more affiliates lined up and ready to go.
8. Create the RIGHT one time offer. This shouldn't be something they need to make the main product work – the main product needs to stand on its own merits, all by itself. But the OTO should be directly related to the main product. The two best bets are something that makes it EASIER to implement the information or software in the main product, or a similar product. For example, if you're teaching how to drive traffic, your OTO might be software the simplifies the system, or another traffic system they can use in addition to the main product.
9. Consider selling the OTO for LESS or the same price as the main product. Why? Because nearly everyone sells the OTO for MORE than the main product. Thus, when they get to your OTO and see that it costs less, it will look like a terrific bargain. If your OTO is good, this should send your OTO conversions through the roof. Plus it can get you some great feedback on your WSO thread.
10. Build a pre-launch list. Create anticipation for your new product by setting up a pre-launch page. Encourage people to get on the “notification list” or “early bird list” for when your WSO goes live. You can even bribe people to get on your early bird list by promising a special bonus just for them, which they receive the day your WSO goes live. Then you send out an email to that list on launch day, giving the link to the hidden bonus and also telling them they can get your WSO for the lowest price, right now.
11. Get some reviewers. These could be people you know, or you can start a thread on the forum to get reviews. Send them access to your product for free, and ask them to post their review on your thread, and again on your WSO the day it goes live. Copy and paste the reviews into your sales letter when you're building it, and then send your reviewers a friendly reminder on your WSO launch day to please copy and paste their reviews into the WSO thread as well.
OPTIONAL: You can let your WSO listing go live prior to launch, and have your reviewers post directly into your WSO thread. Remember, when you do launch, you'll probably want to bump your thread back to the top.
12. Use a dime sale. ALWAYS use a dime sale. You can make the increments tiny – for example, the price rises a penny per sale. Nothing motivates like scarcity, and the best way to create scarcity is to show there's only “x” number left at the current price.
13. Start with a low price to encourage sales. When an affiliate is looking for products to promote, they look to see how many have sold, what percentage is selling, and what the earnings per click are. You want to get at least 50 sales and preferably 100 sales as quickly as possible with a high conversion rate, and your pre-launch list will help a lot with this. And beginning with a low price will create even more sales quickly. Consider $5-$7 to start, and remember to place it on a dime sale.
14. Do you want money now or more money later? That's the question. Everything else being equal, if you pay 50% commission you'll get fewer affiliates, but you'll put more money in your pocket. If you pay 100% commission, you'll get more affiliates and less money in your pocket, BUT you'll have a BIGGER list of buyers you can continue to market to. To attract the most affiliates possible, pay 100% on the front end AND the back end.
15. Save the first comment on your WSO for questions. Then when you get questions from prospects, post these in the box with answers. It'll save you time in having to answer the same questions over and over, plus if done correctly it will help your sales.
16. Stay fairly glued to your WSO for the first 2-5 days of launch. This means checking your thread and your personal messages every hour you're awake. Respond quickly to questions and any issues people might have. Nothing scares buyers off quicker than a seller who appears to vanish. Reply to each question individually – this creates more comments and helps you get to that magic comment number of 51 quicker. The 51st comment starts on the second page – thus when someone visits your WSO, they'll see there are 2 pages of comments, which demonstrates your thread is popular and adds social proof and credibility to your offer.
I purposely haven't gone into things like product hosting (Amazon s3 works really well) writing your sales letter or the mechanics of actually posting your listing, since this information is readily available in abundance elsewhere.
The most important tip of all is this – just do it. It doesn't need to be perfect, it just needs to be done as quickly as possible. It's better to launch several WSO's with a few mistakes than one perfect WSO. It's the information people seek, not your pristine punctuation or your pretty download page.
If you're in the IM niche and you make a goal of launching one new WSO each month, in a year you can easily have a list of thousands of buyers you can continue to market to for years to come.
