KaChing: How to Run an Online Business that Pays and Pays

by Comm, Joel

  Today, publicity doesn’t have to mean a page in the New York Times or even exposure via your local newspaper or radio station. It can mean something as simple as a write-up on a blog. That won’t deliver as big a pile of prestige as a mention in a major media outlet, but it will still push your name out there and make it known.

  That means there are now two ways of writing press releases that win attention.

  The first is to write a press release that contains the basic information you want to get across. Following is an example of a press release that I produced when I launched my AdSense Coaching Club.

  Google AdSense Expert Announces Premier AdSense Coaching Club

  Edmond, OK (PRWEB) May 9, 2006—With Internet publishers looking for ways to monetize their sites, Google has become one of the most revered sites due to its contextual advertising program, Google AdSense. This text-based ad service is generating four-, five-, and six-figure incomes for many web site owners. With this increased interest in this revolutionary revenue-generating program, site owners are looking for ways to increase their AdSense income further.

  Today, Joel Comm announced the launch of his Premier AdSense Coaching Club, an exclusive member site designed to help Internet web site owners make more money with the AdSense program. Joel Comm is the Internet’s recognized Google AdSense expert, and as author of the Web’s best-selling AdSense e-book, “What Google Never Told You About Making Money with AdSense” (now in its third edition), Joel is distinctly qualified to teach others how to multiply their AdSense revenue.

  “Once you understand the basics of making more money with AdSense, you can instantly begin seeing an increase to your revenue stream,” says Joel Comm. “But many people are leaving a lot of money on the table by not taking advanced steps to increase revenue. My exclusive coaching club is designed for people who are serious about taking their AdSense and overall site revenue to the next level.”

  Joel’s Premier AdSense Coaching Club contains many features, all of which are instantly accessible to members around the clock. Features include: • How-To Videos—Narrated by Joel, these videos visually demonstrate strategies for increasing revenue designed for everyone from novice to advanced site publishers. Spotlighted this month are the Blogging and AdSense 101 videos, featuring 30 minutes of easy-to-follow instructions that can get anyone started with content creation and the Google AdSense program within minutes.

  • A monthly two-hour telecourse featuring interviews with leading industry experts that are guaranteed to present new opportunities for maximizing AdSense revenue. Past guests have included PR Secrets Expert Marc Harty, and Jeff Walker, the recognized Product Launch guru.

  • A monthly members-only special report revealing Joel’s latest strategies for creating wealth online. Current reports include the 30-page instantly downloadable documents, “Getting Started with AdSense and Blogging” and “The Yahoo! Publishing Network Quickstart Guide.”

  • Privileged access to Joel’s AdSense Mastermind Group, including opportunities to network with other Premium members and develop joint ventures.

  • Real-life case studies, featuring video examples with Joel’s narration. These real-life site critiques demonstrate strategies which can be immediately implemented on any web site.

  • Additional bonuses and surprises for Premier Members!

  The Premier AdSense Coaching Club is the result of high demand from Joel’s readers and is accessed online for a low monthly fee at www.joelcomm.com/coachingclub.html.

  “I am thrilled to provide a wealth of training information and resources to my premier members,” says Comm. “With over 1,000 members currently in the coaching club, many have stopped leaving money on the table and are now enjoying more in their bank accounts!”

  About Joel Comm

  Joel Comm is an author, technology buff, and entrepreneur who has been successfully marketing products and services online since 1995. He is the founder of InfoMedia, Inc., a company that strives to provide family-friendly entertainment and other useful resources through web sites that include DealofDay.com, WorldVillage.com, FamilyFirst.com, and FreeBitz.com. Joel is the author of many books focused on teaching people how to make money online and is frequently invited to speak and teach at conferences and seminars. For interviews or more information, contact InfoMedia, Inc., at (405) 348-2800, or visit www.JoelComm.com.

  You can see how this release contains all the elements that a press release should possess. There’s the headline, the quote, a bullet list, a quote at the end to round things off, and a short bio that tells reporters who I am.

  But this isn’t a media story. I don’t expect my local newspaper to pick up this story and run with it. The newspaper’s readers don’t care that I’ve just launched an AdSense Coaching Club. None of them know who I am, and many of them won’t know about AdSense.

  The only outlets that are going to pick up a press release like this are those that already know me and understand AdSense. It’s a story aimed at a core audience—an audience of Internet marketers who are most likely to become customers. While it’s unlikely to appear in a mainstream newspaper, it will be picked up by blogs and web sites that discuss AdSense and Internet marketing. I won’t get a great deal of expert branding, but I should get some sales.

  Compare that press release to the one on the next page.

  Google AdSense Guru’s Breakfast Up for Bid at eBay

  Edmond, OK (PRWEB) June 8, 2006—No one wants to buy a half-eaten breakfast on eBay ... unless that half-eaten breakfast belongs to a celebrity who is offering 30 minutes of one-on-one personal consulting for the lucky winner of the leftovers! That’s precisely what one attendee of Carl Galletti’s Internet Marketing Superconference decided to pursue when Google AdSense expert Joel Comm took the stage on Saturday, June 3, in Las Vegas, Nevada!

  Comm, known for his Amazon.com #1 best-selling book The AdSense Code, took the platform and offered anyone in the audience the opportunity to share his breakfast. Lin Ennis, sitting in the front row, seized the opportunity to enjoy the other half of Joel’s bagel with egg and bacon and roasted potatoes. Little did Comm know that his breakfast sandwich would appear on eBay.com, the world’s largest auction site, in the form of an auction!

  “When I saw my breakfast was up for auction, I thought I would offer the winner the same thing they would receive if they actually sat down to enjoy the breakfast with me,” says Joel Comm. “So the winner of the auction will also receive a free 30-minute telephone consultation providing the opportunity to discuss my best Internet moneymaking strategies.”

  Ennis, a resident of Sedona, Arizona, has vowed to donate all proceeds from the breakfast auction to the “Young Internet Entrepreneurs of Sedona.” She has also included an additional set of bonuses that would appeal to anyone wanting to learn how to make money online.

  Joel Comm’s breakfast auction is set to end on June 13, 2006, at 11 a.m. To view the breakfast and bid in this auction, go to www.adsense-secrets.com/breakfast.html.

  To read more about Joel Comm or his Amazon.com #1 best seller The AdSense Code, go to www.joelcomm.com.

  About Joel Comm

  Joel Comm is an author, technology buff, and entrepreneur who has been successfully marketing products and services online since 1995. He is the founder of InfoMedia, Inc., a company that strives to provide family-friendly entertainment and other useful resources through web sites that include www.DealofDay.com, www.WorldVillage.com, and www.FamilyFirst.com. Joel is the cofounder of Yahoo! Games and the author of many books focused on teaching people how to make money online. He is frequently invited to speak and teach at conferences and seminars. For interviews or more information, contact InfoMedia, Inc. at (405) 348-2800, or visit www.JoelComm.com.

  This is a press release aimed at a much more general audience. It’s entertaining rather than sales-y, and it could be picked up by anyone. Any publication looking for a funny story would be interested in running it. It touches on the Internet, on the range of go
ods available on eBay ... and it’s ridiculous.

  Although it’s meant to be funny, look at how I’m portrayed in the press release. I still come across as an expert. The press release describes me as an author, a speaker, and someone whom people will bid for in order to win half an hour’s coaching. It’s a light, attention-grabbing story. But the impression is serious.

  It’s a different way of writing press releases. The format remains the same. There are quotes that show reporters they’ll be getting usable sound bites. There’s still a headline, and I still include a bio at the end so that reporters know whom they’ll be talking to. But the subject is meant to appeal to anyone, not just to people who already know me or my subject. That will spread my name even further—and help with my branding.

  You can use both of these kinds of press releases. Whenever you want to win publicity, you can write one press release that’s filled with basic information for the blogs and web sites in your field. And you can write a more general release—one that’s entertaining, informative, or fun—pitched to a wider audience. If you get both releases right, you could pick up publicity in both channels.

  Distributing the press releases has changed, too. Once you had to program a long list of numbers into a fax machine. Then you could use a computer-based fax program to do the same thing. Many reporters still like to receive their press releases by fax, but it’s perfectly appropriate to send e-mails to them if you have their details—or use a distribution service. I like PRWeb (www.prweb.com) and Expert Click (www.ExpertClick.com). PRWeb prices start around $80 per press release, but Expert Click allows you to send 52 releases for approximately $800. Both can be very effective, and they are easy to use.

  Figure 7.3 This is speaking.joelcomm.com, the web site that I use to promote my public speaking work. Note how I use my press appearances to build my branding and reinforce the impression of expertise. If Fortune, CNN, and BusinessWeek want to speak to me, then I must know what I’m talking about, right? Once you’ve won publicity a few times with press releases, you might well find that the media view you as a trusted source and come back to you regularly.

  You should be using press releases as part of your business strategy. The more often you appear in the media, the more you’ll drive home the idea that you’re an expert. You’ll be able to add the logo of the outlet to your web site, thus building your credibility. Other reporters will see that you’ve been interviewed, know who you are, and feel easier about contacting you for interviews.

  Whenever you bring out a new product, you should send out a press release. Whenever you launch a new coaching workshop, you should send out a press release. Whenever you do anything, you should send out a press release and use that opportunity to build your brand as an expert across a wide audience (Figure 7.3).

  Getting Started: Low-End Coaching

  When you see a well-known speaker take to the stage, it’s easy to feel that you’ll never be doing that. You might not. Not everyone feels comfortable sharing their knowledge on the stage. But if it is something you want to do, then it is something you can do. Coaches—even the biggest names—aren’t superhuman individuals capable of leaping a 50-foot stage in a single bound. They’re just regular entrepreneurs—like you—who have built up their knowledge and want to share it. They’ve managed to build their brand and spread it to such an extent that they’re now invited to address conferences, put on workshops, and guide other entrepreneurs toward their dreams. They sell coaching kits that cost thousands of dollars, and when it comes to personal consulting, the sky’s the limit.

  Yet none of them started out that way. All of the biggest coaches you can think of started small, teaching their skills to small groups of people who were keen to learn.

  It’s a process that relies on your own skills and your own effort. You won’t need to depend on receiving an invitation from a conference organizer, and you won’t be left hoping that people will turn up so that you won’t be addressing an empty room.

  Organizing your own coaching events and selling your own consulting services might be hard work. It might even involve a little financial risk (although it doesn’t have to). But the immediate returns can be enormous, and it’s the best way to get your feet wet and build experience. You don’t want your very first coaching session to be with someone who has paid a giant sum for the privilege of being a guinea pig. After all, your coaching fees won’t just reflect the value of your knowledge; they’ll also reflect the ease with which you transfer that knowledge to your clients.

  A low-end coaching program—the kind best suited to someone just starting out as a coach—can consist of a number of different packages. The most basic is telephone coaching. The meat of the package will be a number of monthly telephone calls. These can last anywhere from half an hour to an hour and might take place once a week or three times a month. You can also toss in a few valuable information products, such as an e-book laying out your ideas, a free assessment of where the business stands at the moment, and a personalized action plan that can act as a guide for the client’s development over the course of the program. You might also want to make yourself available for e-mail correspondence in between phone calls.

  The rate for a program like that could easily be around $400 to $500 a month, with a six-month minimum commitment. Considering that the total amount of time actually spent working with the client might be only an hour on the phone, an hour preparing for the call, and the odd 10 minutes here and there to write an e-mail, it’s easy to see that even this simple formula can deliver great hourly rates.

  You wouldn’t need more than half a dozen telephone clients a month to give your income a meaningful boost and your business a loud KaChing.

  Alternatively, or additionally, you could offer coaching in person. This would also provide the assessment, action plan, and any other information products you want to toss in, but mostly it would consist of meetings at the client’s office once a week or several times a month. The meetings would last longer than the telephone calls and allow you to interact with the client a little better. Fees for this kind of coaching are often three times that of telephone consultations. They have to take into account the time spent traveling to and from the client’s office as well as the extra value of having you on the premises.

  Of course, personal coaching will usually be limited to people within your catchment area. As you grow your coaching business, you might well find that you’re getting requests from people farther away who will be willing to pay your travel expenses and even your hotel fees. When you’re putting in that much effort to coach someone, your fees will need to reflect the work involved. Considering the long flights and time spent away from home, you should charge enough to feel grateful when prospective clients either say no or agree to your terms.

  Those are the two most basic models for coaching, but you can also break out segments of your coaching to create niche products. Business coach Suzanne Muusers, for example, offers marketing consulting services and web site and SEO consultations from her site ProsperityCoaching.biz (www.prosperitycoaching.biz). These allow her to provide focused, personalized knowledge that solves one specific problem at a time for a client.

  It’s possible to market coaching in a number of different ways. As you launch a new program, you should certainly be writing a press release, and you should also write a press release when one of your clients reaches his or her goals. There’s nothing the media like more than a success story, especially if it contains lessons their readers can use, too. That’s always going to be valuable branding for you.

  Your web site will be helpful too, and if you link your coaching site to your main blog or web site, you should find that you receive a steady flow of readers who pass from that site and want your advice in person.

  Another option though is to put on miniworkshops. This can be a great way to make yourself known to people in your area who might be willing to sign up as personal clients. Entry to the workshop would be free. The content wo
uld contain an introduction to your topic and a few tips that people can take away with them. Pitch it as a lecture on “Turning Your Knitting Hobby into a Business” from a professional knitting expert or a talk on “Why Start-Ups Fail” from an experienced entrepreneur; make it clear that you’re not selling or charging, and you should find that you can even pick up free space in libraries and community centers.

  Some of the people who attend may become clients. Others may choose to order the information products that you make available at the back of the room. Either way, you get a chance to put your name in front of a targeted audience for little cost. You can even use that lecture as an introduction to a group course. This won’t be as personalized as one-on-one coaching, but if you keep the group small and emphasize that spaces are limited, you’ll create a sense of urgency that’s more likely to have people signing up.