The 2010 Challenge
This coming year I'm going to help you in three ways. At least.
In response to a survey I did in the middle of last year, it seems there are three things that concern most people, so I've set myself a challenge to provide all three, and get you into "the game".
This is what I've been told by people over and over again.
#1 – You WANT your own product to sell, and preferably not another ebook found in some enormous PLR library that's already being touted by thousands of people.
#2 – You WANT to be given a plan for online success, and you want it to be step by step and clearly achievable.
#3 – You WANT to know how to generate traffic as you realise it's the life blood of any web site.
Based on those three desires that YOU'VE told me, that's what I'm going to give you. Taking my own advice about 30 day projects, I've broken the plan down into achievable chunks, and the first part is coming sooner than you think.
If all goes well in the next couple of days, then 100 (and ONLY 100) fast movers will get access to the first part of my plan in a deal that I think will blow your socks off. If I'd had exactly this a few years ago, then things would have moved a lot faster for me, so pay close attention.
This is a reward for you for being a subscriber, no-one else will get this, and like I said this deal will only be for the first 100 people to claim it, so make sure to keep an eye on your email over the next few days.
As I said above, the money is (without a doubt in my mind) driven by having your own products you can sell. At some point in the path that got me to where I am today, I realised that software has a much higher perceived value then ebooks.
Think about it.
Software is much sexier because it generally saves you time and lets you automate and do cool things that would normally have to be done manually or not at all. Usually not at all.
I've found that people are more likely to part with money for software than they are for ebooks or videos – with very few exceptions.
So what I've done for you is I've arranged for a group of developers to provide you with a high quality software package each and every month.
Each month you will have at least one new really cool product that with a little tweaking you can call your own. By tweaking, I mean renaming. And I've made sure it's easy to do too. The software will usually be a PHP script or a WordPress plugin, but not always.
Let me explain what you can do with a product like this. I'll give you an idea.
When I release a new product, I usually run a cut price nickel sale to engender some interest, get the market seeded with the product, and attract affiliates. Word gets around and I typically make $2,000 – $3,000 in a couple of days and then see a steady trickle of sales after that once the official site goes live and affiliates start promoting.
It's really cool, and there's absolutely no reason why you shouldn't be able to do this too. I'm not a developer, I pay other people to do the coding for me, and that's exactly what I'm offering you too.
I come up with the ideas, I pay developers to come up with the product, and you get to do almost anything you like with it.
All for a fraction of the price it would have cost you if you'd done it on your own.
More importantly you haven't had all the heartache and pain that comes with dealing with developers. Please believe me when I say that it can be a nightmare to find someone who will do what they say when they say they will, and the fact is most developers just don't get sales and marketing and will tell you so.
That can make it very hard to get a finished product that meets the bill, and I've certainly had more than my share of frustrations over the last few years.
You can easily avoid all that heartache simply by allowing me to take all the hassle out of it and letting you take all the profits.
The deal I'm setting up for you is to offer you membership to a new site that will give you at least one brand new software product each and every month with almost completely unrestricted Private Label Rights.
In fact there's only TWO very reasonable restrictions for the products you'll get from me.
#1 – You can't sell or offer PLR to any of them.
#2 – You can't offer them as part of a mass product membership, paid or otherwise.
The reason is simple – that's what I do.
In most cases, one sale a month of just ONE product will pay for your entire membership – you'll be getting a new one EVERY month.
Even if you decide to give the product away in return for a name and email address, or as a loyalty bonus to your existing subscribers, you'll still make money on the deal when you promote other products.
And because I've made sure it's EASY to rename the product, you can call it anything your imagination can come up with to differentiate your version.
To me this is a no-brainer, especially at the special deal price I'm offering to just 100 people. I just wish I'd had something like this when I got started a few years ago, it would have made life a lot simpler.
There's one other point I want to make before closing.
Some people say that having the same product as 100 other people is no good because you'll all be competing with each other. I used to think the same thing – let me put you straight on that.
First of all, I'm supplying all the products without a name. The product name is the BIGGEST differentiator to any product, so by not supplying you with any idea of a name, you'll have to use your imagination to come up with something that works for you.
Secondly, the marketplace for software is HUGE! The chances of anyone spotting that you're selling the same product is unlikely. The closest you'll get is someone might notice and compare features, but a bit of creative thinking will give you the edge.
Finally, and this is an eye-opener if you've never seen anyone say this before. The product isn't as important as the marketing. You may be sceptical about that, but I know 100% for a fact that it's true, and that most marketers won't tell you that.
You pitch the product right, you generate traffic to your site, and you'll make sales.
And as I said, just ONE sale of ONE of the products per month will pay for your membership. And each month you'll have another product you can market which will give you nice steady growth.
Okay, that covers all I want to say for now for part 1 of my 2010 Challenge to get you into "the game" - all based on what you've told me you want and what I know you need.
Parts 2 and 3 – training and traffic – will come over the next few weeks. I hope you understand that I had to get part 1 running first to generate the initial income needed to fund the other parts. (Frank Haywood Projects Rule #1 – All projects must fund themselves ASAP.)
There's no doubt in my mind that the total three part package will put money in your pocket.
Okay?
Watch for another blog post and another email tomorrow. The product membership will be open in the next couple of days – in fact as soon as I can get the last few wrinkles sorted out.
And of course as well as the very low price, there's also a bonus for the 100 people who take up this special membership offer.
More on that tomorrow.
-Frank Haywood
Filed under Product Ideas, internet business by on Jan 13th, 2010. 
Comments on The 2010 Challenge
Hello Frank,
is your software working for no "english" speakers? Ca it handle specialised characters like "ä,ö,ü…" etc. Have you a Language file in each tool who is possible to translate?
Best regards
AJ
Frank
You amaze me with all the new ideas you come up with! Can't wait for all the details.
Ron Mahon
http://www.inmrc.com
Couldn't agree more. The one thing that I tend to buy are tools, which inevitably are software of some sort or other.
Can't wait, very intriguing.
Stan
Hi Frank,
I'm looking forward to your challenge and I await what should be a very good learning experience. As I have my own products online, I feel I just need a little more training in traffic but also know that software products can make you a lot of money.
Thanks for this chance and I hope I'm one of the lucky hundred.
Thanks
Edson
@AJ:
That's one of the things I've asked for in any standalone scripts that are being built. The WordPress plugins *shouldn't* be an issue I don't think?
-Frank
@Stan Craigie:
Yep, I'm quite sceptical of claims for make money ebooks, although there are some quite good ones out there. But as for tools that make my life easier or do something cool, then I'm a real sucker for them.
I like to think that most people are the same.
And I've got some absolutely brilliant ideas, even if I do say so myself.
Without giving anything away one particular tool coming in about 4 months time also has a built in back end profit system integrated. Essentially the more you distribute it, the more money you'll make. I think that one in particular will be the one that will change the game for those people who are members, and if I can get it out sooner I will.
-Frank
This sounds like a cool idea. Especially if this is limited to just 100 as you say.
I'd like to know if the software source code will be available? In the past I've done a lot of software development, but nowadays I'm more into the marketing but I'd like to be able to tweak stuff when I get ideas for improvements or new features. It also lets me keep the software from getting stale (I hate buying software that never gets upgrades or bug fixes). This would be a great way to differentiate the software I'm selling from the 99 other marketers selling the same product.
What kind of software support will be available for the products? (I realize that if I mod the software, you're not going to support that). Will there be documentation, install instructions, etc.? Is there a support desk? Taking care of support issues, like users who don't know how to install a WordPress plugin or who can't edit an .htaccess file, can be a royal pain.
Also, can you give us a sneak peek of what kinds of software you'll be producing? (Some things are easier to sell than others – i.e., I don't think the world needs another affiliate link cloaker.) I assume they'll all be in the Internet Marketing arena, but I hope some may be useful and sellable to non Internet Marketers, or useable for offline businesses.
Thanks,
Ed
@Edson Buchanan:
I'm hoping to make as much of the learning as possible completely free. What I'll probably end up doing is asking for a small task to be completed in return for the next learning module to be made available. So instead of it costing anything in cash terms it might take up a little of your time and also give you some hands-on learning while you're doing it.
I've always found that works well for me. Theory is all good and dandy, but it's when you do the task that you really start to learn things. At some point I'll probably also include some next-level-up training that WILL be paid-for learning, but it won't be compulsory to do it as you should get most of what you need with the free stuff.
I've found that people are always happy to pay for that little bit extra they can't get from anywhere else.
The learning part of my challenge will be done on a separate site to the one I'm announcing tomorrow (or Friday – TBA), and the traffic learning will probably be part of that, although I hope to also announce a site that will bring any product owner in another source of traffic in about a month or so.
I know someone else that is running a similar traffic site to the one I'm creating and people are getting a lot of traffic through it. It should be good for everybody.
-Frank
Hey, Frank. Just curious as to whether the software will all be for the IM market?
@Ed:
Yes, all the source code is supplied as many of the products will be either standalone PHP scripts or WordPress plugins.
All your support will be done by the developers, so no worries there, you'll be dealing with the people who created it directly. If you mod it, then you could well be on your own, but I can see you already know that. What you could do is offer suggestions for improvements as we do intend to update the software every so often for the very reasons you've stated.
Yes there'll be documentation, although it hadn't occurred to me that someone might not know or might not know how to find out how to install a WordPress plugin if they go ahead and buy it for their blog.
I'll think about that one. I have a video somewhere showing how to install a plugin, I'll check it out to see if it can be included, otherwise I'll probably redo it and include that.
Sneak peeks. Members will get a sneak peek or two for upcoming products, but that's it.
The software will mainly target the IM niche, but of course we'll include some general stuff if that's what people want.
Finally, I have to pick you up on your comment about the world not needing another affiliate link cloaker.
There are newbies coming online all the time, and at some point they realise they DO need a link cloaker, even though they'd never even heard of what one was until that day. From what I can tell there are a hundred times more newbies than experienced marketers, so offering a newbie that's joined your list a link cloaker would probably go down well with them.
That's my take on it anyway.
-Frank
@John:
Once the site is live we'll poll all the members and find out what it is they want. I have some great ideas I've been sitting on for quite a while and I'll just go through the list and provide them unless enough people say otherwise.
-Frank
"As I said above, the money is (without a doubt in my mind) driven by having your own products you can sell. At some point in the path that got me to where I am today, I realised that software has a much higher perceived value then ebooks."
Great instincts Frank! We have just being planning our strategies for the coming year. In the midddle of last year it would cost you about $2500 to get a good 50 page ebook ghostwritten. Now, in 2010 you can get a fairly decent 50 page PLR book for only $50 and there is so much competition out there the prices probably still have a few dollars to fall. It looks like all the marketing about "PLR riches" in ebooks is going to spawn 1000's of new PLR ebook websites for 2010. Thousands more people will be trying to sell the same ebook with a different title name. It has got to end in tears.
But, even with the "recession", software prices and plug-ins have not only held their own but are gradually increasing. There is also an expanding market as lots of commercial webdesigners are are going over to use wordpress as a basis, simply because the plug-ins make life so much simplier.
With software and plugins it does not matter if there is something similar out there, as long as it does the job and the price is competitive, it is like buying a favourite brand or buying from your favourite dealer. On the other hand, if I pay good money for an ebook, only to find it is the same as one I have already bought but with a diferent title….. Well, at the very least, I will be asking for a refund and seriously think twice about buying anything further from that person.
Damn, all that money and research and we could have just asked you! : )
Best wishes
Gareth Hogan
Hi, Frank,
I have a product (a unique offline prospecting method that converts every advertising business into a paying client) which I really do not know how to get to market. It's a 16,000 word, no fluff and no b.s. ebook so I am hoping to pick up some marketing tips. It seems that what you are offering will apply to just about anything that can be sold on line.
@Gareth Hogan:
Lol! Well thank you.
I still think there's a market for those PLR ebooks that cost $2500 as long as the author is a good one, ie high quality ghost written material is well worth it. It's a nice place to be if you can get the work.
Everything else you've said I completely agree with.
A couple of years ago you could charge $27 / month just for new ebooks with MRR, now you can just about charge that for PLR in the right niches and only if it's good enough quality.
Yes, the growing excitement in software and scripts currently seems to have no end. And you're spot on the ball with the expanding market of web designers, which just got a bit more competitive with the maturity of Wordpress and tools like Artisteer.
Now, even if you don't have an ounce of artistic skill or real technical competence, you can still set yourself up to supply small businesses with Wordpress based websites that your clients can edit themselves. It's very attractive to both the sellers and the buyers as it can all be done relatively cheaply.
The days of so-called "designers" selling 5 page static websites for $500 are coming to a close as almost anybody can set up a good looking site now, and with a bit of optional training can give their clients the ability to add as many pages as they like.
Very competitive.
Yes, if you have your own unique software you can sell, you're definitely setting yourself apart from the crowd as not everyone can do it.
And your point about duplicate ebooks is a great one. I've noticed more and more people saying on their ebook sales pages things like "This ebook was written by me based on my genuine experiences in the industry."
I've certainly bought a few duplicate ebooks in my purchasing career! The most memorable being a product launch ebook a few years ago, which I had almost 3 identical versions of, all "written" by different people.
-Frank
@Arthur Webster:
Check your email .
@Ron Mahon:
I have so many ideas rattling around in my head and in my ideas doc you wouldn't believe it.
The hard bit is finding out the golden nuggets and then refining them.
-Frank
Certainly sounds interesting. Will you supply a sample sales letter or anything to help with writing a sales letter, any graphics, etc? Any marketing tools? How hard will it be to rename the product?
Debra
Hi Frank!
Happy New Year!
Looks like you're on to yet another winner.
I expect your "100 only" list will fill up very fast, and I would like
to think that I just might be one of the lucky few.
Cheers,
Jan
Wow, Frank, no wonder I haven't heard from you in a couple of months… you've been busy hatching a marvelous egg! I love the idea! Will you be providing sales pages or graphics with these software gems or is that part up to the member to create?
Seriously hoping I will be among that first 100!! You always get my brain on fire… it's like synergy when I read your plans and goals. I do wish you ALL the success in the world & can't wait to see what's next!
Take care & be well,
Donna
@Debra:
Yes, all the products will come with at least a sales letter and unbranded site design and PSDs to begin with. My aspiration is to also provide a selection of banner graphics and a promo tools page, but there's a little bit of work to do to get to that point, maybe next month they'll be ready – as soon as possible anyway.
Renaming the product will be made easy – it's just a case of editing a file in a text editor. We also have plans to set something up server side so that you can just type in the product details in a few boxes and it will zip it all up for you in a custom bundle.
I'm releasing this 100 people only deal at a special low monthly price and when all the slots are gone, the door closes. Eventually there will be several other groups and you can join all of them if you wish, and as each one is announced I'll be allowing a short time when existing members can join at the same price they originally joined with before opening the door to affiliates and JV partners.
The FINAL price for membership of each group will be $47 / month, but the deal I'm offering to 100 fast movers will be MUCH lower than that. You'll see it's a really good deal when I announce it.
-Frank
@Jan Evensen:
Happy New Year to you too Jan.
I'm sure it will fill up very quickly when people see the value of what they're getting. The special offer price will make you spit coffee if you're drinking it so make sure you aren't if you want to keep your monitor clean.
The first month's product is very slightly black hat Wordpress plugin, but you know what? Buyers like stuff that's a little bit black hat, especially if it gives them an unfair advantage, and this first one certainly does that. That's all I'll say about it for now.
Next month's product is an incredibly useful tool that you'll really want to use yourself as well as sell. It will very definitely help you build your business by automating something that is usually very manual.
The plan that we currently have planned for the third monthwill have a very profitable backend built in. You'll want to distribute it as far and as wide as possible, and my guess is you'll want to give it away rather than sell it, and the more people you give it to, the more money you'll make – it's as simple as that.
We need to get that last one just perfectly right, so we may push it back to month 4, but we'd really like to get it out in month 3 if possible as it will help everybody.
-Frank
@Donna Maher:
Donna! I thought you'd forgotten about me! Hmm, I suspect email problems?
Let's get together after next week and cook something up.
-Frank.
Frank, this is a really great idea and I like that you are limiting it to just 100 people. I definitely agree with about developers too – dealing with them, in my experience, is often the hardest part of a job or project. It's not that they don't mean well, it's just that programmers and marketers think very differently and often have a hard time communicating with each other and trusting that the other really knows "what's best" for the end user. So any chance to circumvent having to do that directly is a good opportunity
-Mike