Low priced products build lists and make money.
November 1, 2007
I am always testing new ideas to see whether or not they may be a viable part of my long term business goals. To that end, you may recall, I created the $7 Secrets scripts (which I recently sold to Don Morris, who is doing a fine job of improving and maintaining the product). My tests with that product proved to me that low priced products (sold for $7) can be very successful.
My most recent test went even further with that idea. "Okay," I thought, "$7 sells very well, but what about $1?" It seemed to me that a product selling for $1 would sell very well, and have almost zero refunds. To that end, I created 3 "ideas" (simple one-page mini-reports) which I sold for $1 each: one which gave details about a high-converting pay-per-lead program, another that shows you where to get very cheap content created for your sites, and another which details how I got thousands of free one-way links to one of my web sites and ranked it well in Google.
Here's the link to the site where the reports can be found:
My results were so positive that I wanted to report my findings to you in case you could use the idea yourself.
Absolute Dollars
We're all interested in the immediate cash that can be earned from any new product we promote, and my One Dollar Ideas were not failures in this regard. I earned about $3,500 in 5 days from sales of the $1 products themselves plus the back-end offers I mention in the report.
The conversion rate of the first $1 product was about 25%. That means, on average, every single visitor I sent to that site earned me 25 cents. I wish AdSense paid out like that!
List Building
In order to build a subscriber list, I had people who wanted to be affiliates for the product opt-in to a mailing list in order to receive information on how they could get 100% instant commissions on the reports (plus 50% of back-end commissions for two out of the three products).
From that opt-in form I built a list of 1,458 subscribers in those 5 days. Certainly a successful test. About 50% of people who purchased the reports opted in to find out how they could become affiliates.
Having a list of 1,458 people who are willing to break out their wallets (or PayPal accounts) and spend even $1 is a great business tool. These are not freebie seekers. Each one was willing to part with a little money for some valuable information, and each one is wanting to be an affiliate for valuable products.
Conclusion
My conclusion is that low-cost informational products that have back-end products (or a one-time-offer) attached to them can certainly be a strong leg of your business. People are willing to pay a small amount of money for a useful tip or idea that you have which they haven't thought of yet.
So if you've got some information that you're using in your business, and you know that information would be useful to other people, then take the time to put together a one-page report on how to use that information. Turn around and sell that mini-report for $1, and watch the funds (and subscribers) roll in.
(FYI, I used the $7 Secrets scripts to power the sales process of the mini-reports.)
Post your thoughts and questions in a comment below!
Comments
35 Responses to “Low priced products build lists and make money.”
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Jonathan Leger has been earning his living online full-time since the fall of 2004. He regularly posts advice about search engine optimization (his current passion), AdSense and Internet Marketing. He is the creator of a suite of popular software tools, including: Jonathan L Leger 
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Well done!
I think anyone who has followed your marketing ideas in the past trusts your creative marketing ideas. After all, it's all about execution.
But a first time visitor may be wary of signing up thinking "what's the catch?". Only a dollar?
I look forward to other ideas other than the first 3.
Hi Jonathan,
I enjoyed your very first $1 promo, purchased it, and sent it to my GIGANTIC 336 person list. 20 clicked thru and I got 3 sales.
I also joined the Pay Per Lead affiliate offer in your $1 report and followed your advice on which landing page to use and published an article.
So I'd say you gave me quite a bang for my buck.
Well worth a dollar
Regards,
Jim
Hi Jon,
Interesting post… I agree entirely that people would pay just a little bit of money for a tip or some bit of information that is new to them, and not necessarily an elaborate or lengthy report, my apologies if the answer to my question is on the one dollar ideas site, as I have not been to it yet.. but I'm curious if your buyers were already part of your mailing list that you just sent out an email to, or did they find out about the product you were selling through organic searches?
Keep up the great work.
Roy Sencio
Roy:
Most were already on my list, but the affiliates who signed up made about 1,000 of the sales, some from their lists, some from organic traffic, etc.
You always have inspiring case studies Jonathan.
What would you do with this same project if you were starting from scratch with no mailing list?
Keep up the great work!
I bought your first report and of course!!! the upsell. I have started adding some pay per leads programs to my sites. I even did my very first slide-show video with a small $1.40 per lead program. Now I just need to repeat and improve my videos. I've also signed up with a few better leads programs with Shareasale (I was already a member). I've also bought a few great related expired domains to forward to my leads programs. At $8/lead the domain purchase is covered very quickly with free traffic.
Hi Jonathan,
Q: Did you use your own list or a JV partner's list (or any list) to test this idea? And if you didn't, how did you get traffic?
Thanks!
Charles
Steve:
Forums for sure. Busy ones like WarriorForum and Digital Point Forum, etc.
Charles:
I used my own list, plus the sales my affiliates made for me (about 1,000 of the sales were from affiliates).
Jonathan, I bought your $7 script before, but not yet install untill now. Can we get the enhanced and improved version for free or small charges?
kiatle:
If you purchased it directly from me, then you should be able to get updates for free from Don. Click here for his support page.
Hi Jon:
I bought all three products the end of last week… got my paypal affiliate links — then put up a page, bought advertising campaign & did not sell one product. I know they are clicking but they just are not buying.
I just don't understand — I really must be doing something wrong.
Jonathan:
No doubt that the internet is full of opportunities. And that there are people like you capable of create so many products, cheap or dear…and make much money. Good for you.
Jesus
Hi Jon,
I bought the $7 scrip and Instant Articles wizard before, and of course, your pay-per-lead program. How do I use the $7 script in junction to promote the insurance quote affiliate program? Does the Instant Articles Wizard only work on certain field? I try writing about health and beauty subject, it only shows a few (very few) sentences, and these should be big subjects. Any tips on that?
Thanks
Jonathan,
I purchased one of your reports-the one on article writing. Although the report was helpful, all it did was make me want to buy your article software. Any chance that you'll have it on sale again soon? I missed the $20 off offer.
Thanks,
Kathy
All fine, but the only thing I miss to replicate the success of your experiment is to products like yours to sell at the backend.
ciao
alexander
I like the way you find existing products and make them your own. Useful.
Jonathan,
I admire your imagination and ability to constantly come up with new ideas.
Thanks for sharing your results!
Ted
Overloaded internet business information cannot bring someone anywhere to earn money.I wish I can get something here.
Hi Johnny,
How about just a penny deals?
I tell you what Jonathan, that is pretty slick. Those are some amazing results. You got the wheels turning in my head on how to put together one of those reports. Where did you post this information or did you use a mailing list??
Thanks for all of the great information you send out.
Another great product Jonathan. Brought a smile when I saw the website.
A fantastic idea. The one part of the testing/result you mentioned, was the power of video. I know it! I keep reminding myself to do it. Your results prove a good point. And the dollars definetly put the icing on the business cake!
Well written. I'll be following your plan. Thanks.
Sincerely,
John Adams
The first report was useful. For a dollar I was able to see how a stronger industry than Internet marketing properly managed an affiliate network. And the methods they used to increase their worth to affiliates. I'd pay a dollar for that. Otherwise, the actual dollar program you had was indeed a starting point to creating an entire info product on it's own if one were to include sales mechanisms such as a squeeze page report with instructions for setup. Among other things.
The second dollar report was more of "Here's how I made alot of money." But totally useless for the newbie, unless they were going to invest in software development.
And I am aware of the rebuttal of "video being tied into your dollar idea and this has value." There was nothing new here that you did not already include on your website already for free. I could care less about the dollar. You'd have to pay me more just to ask for a refund.
Yet, if you want to continue putting out your dollar reports, I'll gladly pay for them, because I would always pay anyone a dollar to save me my own precious time in marketing research.
Want another money making idea Jon? Open a website and do these crazy marketing tests. Ask people who visit your website what results they would like to know about. Then each week pick five tests to run. (The ones with the most votes). Categorize the request on a blog. Let people post to their category on a website called, "whatireallyneedtoknow.com You can make I am sure $3,000 to $5,000 a week doing your little dollar tests.
You can even setup a membership site and get people to subscribe where they can get all your crazy little tests for a set price. Bundle them or sell each for a dollar.
Think about it: People will easily pay you a dollar each when they are able to duplicate your results. Think "alacarteim.com (internet marketing). I would gladly pay for you to waste your time doing each one of these little tests rather than me. I know I come off completely jaded and sharp in my tone, but to the point Jon.
You could easily turn your "wasted time" into a profitable time by selling the results 1,000 times over. The best part is you would keep selling your results over several months at least into the future as well to new people and you could easily allow new people to your website to pick one report for free if they sign up. This alone will balloon your email list.
The people who like what they red and find it useful will buy from you again. How about a weekly and monthly membership? How about an easy $20 monthly membership fee to get say 20 Internet Marketing Test Result Reports?
You liked making one dollar a thousand times over? How about $20,000 a month and growing? If you think you will run out of ideas for testing, try asking in any forums what people want to know. Here let me get you started:
1. I want to know the effects of one rss feed in any market. I would like you to create a content feed of 100% unique content and then promote that feed back to your website.
At the end of a week, I would like to know:
1. How many subscribers you got.
2. How many sales you got from your links in your feed.
3. How many email sign ups you got. (Use a free dollar report.)
4. How many websites were publishing your feed.
I'd gladly pay a dollar for that information. And I am sure you could get a thousand other requests to keep you busy for an entire year. Call your new site "iwanttoknow.com" or something like that. "Waste" your time dong other people's tests until you are getting paid so much, it is no longer a "waste of time" for you, but a very handsome business with endless back end possibilities.
For everyone else reading this, here is one formula for your online success: Take something that is not even worth the breath to say, nor the effort to type as far as time to money is concerned. And create it and sell it so cheap, thousands of people will buy it. Then you will make a very nice income online and be paid well for your time.
If you are still not sure what to create. Take everything you ever learned on the web, write it out in sections. Proof read it. Hire one of those people on the web who make a complete website and ebook cover for about $125. (you can get this even cheaper at Internet Marketing Warriors Forum). Get your document made into a pdf book online for free. (do a search for "free online pdf maker")Go to PayDotCom.com and register as a merchant for free. (First set up your PayPal Account for free as well.)
For everything else you need to know, such as a email catcher and auto responders, encourage Jon to open the above website and then ask him to set up a complete test result of doing just this. LOL.
Then instead of surfing for answers, you'll spend all your time marketing your new e-book in forums, article and web directories and such. The you can start to get paid enough money to keep doing this over and over again. Welcome to your new online income.:-)
Sincerely, Robert Lang
Digital Media Products Producer
Edmonton, Alberta
Well Robert, those are some really great ideas you have there. I will be revisiting your comments again — trust me on that one.
You´re incredible with your reports, they have changed the way I always look at affiliate marketing and making me bounce back from overhyped depression. I am going out promoting these $1 reports and others full-time. Also none of your softwares areredundant.Thanks for your mathematical proof of endless earning possibilities online.
Kenny Adeleke
Hi Jonathan,
I really like the way you avoid the hype and spammy sales letter-style sales sites that many marketers are producing. Keep up the good work!
I like the idea of $1 products, it takes the pressure off developing e-book covers, images of boxed-set DVDs and the cast iron guarantees etc.
Jon,
Very interesting. I bought all three of your $1 products and they really are eye-opening for me.
Also liked the backend product that you upsell. Nice!
Keep up the great work & keep those creative juices flowing.
-Gary
Thanks for the excellent work Jon. People that like the information on your niche will find it useful and purchase again in the future. I believe this in itself will create viral word of mouth advertising!
Can I ask with a $1 product minus the paypal fee's, how much do you actually make from this?
hey Jon,
another feather to the cap…
Great….
Thanks
Good points, Jon.
I personally buy 90% of products online which cost $17 or less.
And I probably buy 10% of products which cost $27 or more. I assume many other marketers share similar buying "tactics" so this proves your are on the right track.
Tomaz Mencinger
Hi Jon,
I also purchased the $1 product,what can i say great value for money -great idea -keep it up!
Jon,
Interesting reading. What percentage of the total traffic came from your opt-in's? How many completely new opt-in list members did you generate?
Thanks,
George
Jon,
I've been a fan (and customer) since the $7 Secrets report and you continue to spin my brain when it comes to building my online business.
I'm in the process of launching my first video training product on Rapid Website Development. My promotional strategy list has the usual suspects on it (article marketing, viral reports, USFreeAds listings, EBay Auctions, YouTube videos) but now you've introduced a whole new approach.
Over the past few months I've seen several people use a variation of what you are proposing by creating free or very low cost reports as special offers on the Warrior Forum and then loading the report with a pitch for a related product. This idea adds a viral component to the whole thing.
I'm quite sure that some version of this $1 concept will find its way into my marketing and promotion plan!
Keep up the great work!
Andrew Seltz
The Go-To Guy!
Jon,
I too bought your first $1 report and found the info quite useful. At first I thought you get what you pay for (negatively) but I also own the $7 dollar scrip and I've made a nice sum from using it.
It's a great idea and I actually got an idea from it myself with a slight twist that I'm promoting now.
Keep it coming…
Ed
Jonathan, you are my favorite internet marketer of all. Thank you for providing valuable information; what I've learned from you and by using Instant Article Wizard I have already made a lot of money online.
I am working on several other projects inspired in your teachings to target tiny niches, and will keep you updated with the results.
Thanks again!