David Frey’s #1 Tip for Internet Marketers
I came across a video the other day where David Frey reveals his biggest internet marketing secret. It's about "continuity" -- selling products that customers pay for repeatedly, like a monthly membership -- but there's more to it than that.
One thing you'll often hear when people talk about "membership sites" is that customers tend to stay on for an average of 3 to 4 months. Of course, that varies from site to site, but the number is so common that I suspect that a lot of membership sites have a similar average.
David's video reveals the secret to beating the average:
Ironically, it may be easier to maintain a site that that retains visitors longer (though it's harder to get it off the ground), because a membership site that provides an automated service doesn't need to have new content generated for it every month.
By the way, David Frey is one of a shrinking number of big-name internet marketers who I couldn't complain about even if I wanted to. From everything I've seen, he's an exemplary, upstanding guy who really cares about delivering honest value.
October 8th, 2010 at 1:54 pm
From the video, I gathered that:
You have to provide something amazing that your subscribers will not want to unsubscribe from.
That is the challenge.
October 8th, 2010 at 2:09 pm
Ned,
Yes, it is a challenge -- a challenge worth putting thought and work into until you manage to do it, because once you do, you can get paid for it for a long time. You also smooth over the valleys in income that come with having to always come up with and sell something new, or find new customers for an existing product.
I guess what I'd really like people to take away from this is, whenever you create a product, see if you can come up with a way to either offer it as a service or tie it into a service (even if it's a related service that you promote as an affiliate).
Even if, for example, you sell software, there will be customers who actually prefer to get it as a service rather than installing it on their own computer or server -- even though over the long run, it may cost them more. So even if you're going to sell your product as a one-time purchase, if you can figure out a way to offer it as a service too, by all means, do it.
If you watch the video or read this and dismiss the idea as being too hard (I'm not saying that that's what you're doing -- just making the point), and don't think about it as you develop products in the future, you're going to short change yourself. Considering possibilities for continuity should be part of your normal product development process.
October 9th, 2010 at 1:26 am
I have yet to create my own product for sale. I've written some free software and that's about as far as that goes. But I am an affiliate marketer. And I do see products that customers pay for month after month. A few have subscribed to certain services for over 4 years now. It does help to sell something once and get a stream of income from that one sale. And really, 4 years says a product has value to someone.
November 17th, 2010 at 2:23 pm
Hi Antone,
I just came across this post. That was an off-the-cuff brief interview I did with Alvaro Mendoza, the "mike filsaime" of Latin America.
The idea presented in this short video has set me free financially. I wish I would have understood this concept 10 years ago.
Think of most successful businesses and you'll see that they have a "subscription based" business model. And the best subscriptions are to mission critical software products.
So as Antone said, think of how you can provide a subscription based service to anything you sell. I think about this concept every day.
Thanks Antone.
David
P.S. I almost forgot that I even did this video interview!
November 17th, 2010 at 2:56 pm
Thanks for the comment, David, and for the content in the video.