“Follow your passion and the money will come.”
Ever heard this little tidbit of career advice?
It’s practically become Generation Y’s mantra.
Heck, the media even has a name for it:
“Passion problem”.
Yet, for every NY Times best selling author, rock star or mega-rich fashion designer, there are a million others who end up broke by “following their passion.”
However, the internet has made it possible for people to follow their passion in a different way:
Teaching.
It’s near impossible to become the next Lebron James or sell out Madison Square Garden. It’s much easier to teach thousands (maybe millions) of people how to play the solo from Stairway to Heaven…
…and then sell them $197 digital course.
As the saying goes, “those who can’t, teach.”
How?
With info products and Display advertising.
Can My Passion Really Make Me Money Online?
Most info products fit into the “Big 3″ markets:
Lose weight (health)
Make money (wealth)
Get more sex/meet the person of your dreams (relationships)
Read more in our previous post: The Business of Display Part 4: Information Products.
Which makes sense. These markets are hot because health, wealth and relationships are the three pillars to living a happy life.
However, what if your passion doesn’t fall into one of these categories?
Fear not.
In today’s post you’ll see three different businesses in three different markets that have zero to do with with money, health or getting it on.
You’ll even see one biblical product you might think would never make one single dollar, yet is likely doing in the high five to six-figures in revenue.
How?
With a little help from Display advertising.
Case Study #1: The Dog Training Secret
Do you love dogs?
Do you have experience training a dog, even if it’s just your own?
Now you can share your insights with the world.
This is what the folks over at TheDogTrainingSecret.com do with their flagship info product, the “Hands Off Dog Training System”, which appears to be making a pretty penny.
How do we know this?
Because they’ve spent over ~$180k on display in the past 6 months:
The Funnel
Now, this guy isn’t Cesar Milan. He’s not on Animal Planet. He’s not a celeb in any right. He’s just a normal guy who happens to know a thing or two about training dogs. He can’t use his name or reputation to make sales.
Yet, he’s set-up a simple, yet effective direct response sales funnel in a relatively uncrowded market..
Funnel Part #1: Opt-in Page
The funnel starts with a simple Leadpages opt-in page. Nothing fancy. Just a simple video, a bit of information and an opt-in button.
The video is very casual. It comes off like he’s having a casual conversation with a friend. There are no special effects and it’s not exactly HD quality. It simply explains his method and why you should opt-in.
This is a video anyone could make with their iPhone.
More importantly, this “I’m just like you” style is principle #1 of the 6 elements of landing page persuasion. People buy from people they like and people like people who are just like them.
Funnel Part #2: The VSL
Once the prospect opts-in, they immediately see an “ugly” VSL on the next page. The VSL sells their flagship product for $37.
Now, only a handful of people will buy at this point. A good conversion rate from cold traffic tends to hover around 5%.
Yet, remember the part where the prospect opted-in? They can now communicate with them through email. This is where most people buy; the backend.
TheDogTrainingSecret.com didn’t reinvent the wheel.
This opt-in > sales pages > email process is a traditional funnel that’s been working for years.
And guess what? It still works!
Advertiser #2: Blues Guitar Unleashed
Can you play an instrument?
Have you ever given private lessons?
The average price of a private guitar lesson is somewhere between $20 and $40.
However, BluesGuitarUnleashed.com has a suite of digital products that run in the $197 price range.
What does this mean?
You could put together a simple version of a digital product on learning guitar in the time it takes you to give a handful of lessons. The price of one person buying one product could be more than you’d make giving 4-5 hours of private lessons.
This is precisely what Griff Hamlin, owner of BluesGuitarUnleashed.com, does.
BGU.com is another “passion business” seeing success with Display advertising.
Griff has scaled to the point where he spends ~$3-4k+ per month on Display, and we’ve noticed an upward trending spend in the past couple of weeks.
The Funnel
BGU.com uses a funnel to the kind the The Dog Training Secret uses. There’s one simple difference, and it has to do with the fact that their flagship product is almost 5x the price.
It might be too expensive to try to sell immediately after the opt-in.
You’ll see what they do instead.
Funnel Part #1: Opt-in Page
Seen this before?
That’s right — a simple opt-in page using a Leadpages template.
However, instead of sending you directly to a sales page, you’re sent to just a simple “check your email” style thank you page.
What’s next? Email.
Email Marketing + Sales Page
Griff then sends you a ton of great content. Free videos, lessons, the whole shebang. Griff provides a lot of value upfront. You get to know him as a teacher and decide if his style is for you.
His emails come off very personal.
He pictures of himself, his band and gives you a window into his life.
This builds credibility as it shows he actually performs professionally.
Plus, it builds rapport. He shares intimate parts of his life with you. He seems like a real human being instead of some corporate entity trying to suck money from your wallet.
He eventually sends you a link to a long form sales page for his flagship product.
Again, there is nothing innovative about this sales funnel.
It’s simple and easy to set-up.
No point in reinventing the wheel.
Just take what other info product advertisers are seeing success with and use it as inspiration in your own business.
Advertiser #3: Teach Sunday School
That’s right.
Sunday School meets Display advertising.
TeachSundaySchool.com sells an info product with games, lesson plans, etc., for Sunday school teachers.
This advertiser spends much less than the other advertisers featured in this post.
However, $2,000 – $3,000 per month is a decent spend considering the Sunday School teacher market is much smaller.
The lesson here?
Catering to a tiny audience can work quite well.
Someone who is interested in this product will be VERY interested. It will be extremely on target. However, it might be harder to scale over the long run as the market is so small.
The Funnel
Again, similar to The Dog Training Secret and Blues Guitar Unleashed.
See a pattern?
This simple funnel just plain works.
Funnel Step #1: Opt-in
A simple opt-in form made with — you guessed it — Leadpages.
These opt-in pages follow a similar formula.
Give value up front in the form of free emails, videos and/or eBooks, and then make the sale.
Funnel Step #2: Sales Page
TSS’s product is also priced in the $47 dollar range. Therefore, they choose to hit the prospect with a sales page immediately after they opt-in. However, instead of a VSL, they chose to use a long form sales page.
(Side note: Sometimes the time it takes to record a VSL is not worth a potentially tiny uptick in conversions. VSLs often convert better, but it’s not a hard and fast rule. It’s much easier to write and maintain a text based sales page as opposed to video. Keep in mind that different markets respond differently to text vs. video pages. More often than not, VSLs work better. However, I’ve seen cases where a long-form sales page works MUCH better.
Takeaway? Test both.)
Copywriting Lesson: It’s Okay To Be Cheesy
A lot of copywriting resources talk about writing your copy as if you were talking to someone. What they don’t always cover is word choice. What sort of words, phrases and idioms do Sunday School teachers respond to? Let’s take a look at the first email you receive when you’re put into TeachSundaySchool.com’s email funnel.
—
Hi
Great to meet you!
Moments ago, we “met” when you were searching the
web for some Sunday School Bible Games.
I want to be certain you found what you were looking for.
Below you’ll find my online collection
of 94 Bible Games:
http://www.teachsundayschool.com/biblegames-sl.html
I think you’ll like them (& so will the kids!)
God Bless,
Mary-Kate
PS- I thought I’d take a moment and introduce myself…
My name is Mary-Kate Warner, and I’ve spent the last
decade figuring out how to be a more effective, creative
and de-stressed (lol) Sunday School Teacher.
These days, I share my “Greatest Hits” for making
the Bible come alive for kids via my email newsletter.
If you are looking for any specific Bible teaching tool, be
sure to check out my full resource list here:
http://teachsundayschool.com/i/resources/
—
Notice the language. It’s campy. It’s cheesy.
The copywriter included phrases like “we met”, “lol”, “God Bless” and a smily at the end.
These little details amp up the credibility to your emails.
Why? Because corporations don’t talk this way.
People do.
Also, this specific demographic is likely older and finds this type of language amusing.
Don’t be afraid to use a more colloquial style in your copy.
It works better, even if it feels cheesy.
Conclusion
Teaching your passion to other folks IS possible. It’s not that hard when you follow a proven formula, like these 3 businesses have. Follow their lead and you’ll be well on your way to success.