Welcome back!

I’ve installed and configured quite a few wordpress blogs in my time. During this time, I’ve compiled a core of 10 plugins which I install with every wordpress site I work with – some of which make it easier to track and manage readers, some help me to categorize and create posts, and more:

Akismet – Nowadays, (I’m dating myself here in internet-land) Akismet comes preinstalled in wordpress, you just have to configure it with your WordPress.com API key.  (FYI – find your API key by reading this) Akismet has been around for a long time, but it’s still the best spam filter for WordPress.

All in One SEO Pack – WordPress is fantastic for search engine optimization, but it’s difficult to change the meta settings for singular posts manually. This plugin allows you to change the description for each page, including keywords, meta description (the part that comes up in search engines) and more. The best part is it’s very simple to use as it’s placed on every write page.

GoCodes – Do you give out links to your blog posts? If so, GoCodes will help make this simpler and more effective. Let’s say, for example, you were going to link to this article – the full link would be http://www.trinityjacobs.com/blog/2008/08/06/10-must-have-plugins-for-wordpress/. What a PAIN to type out, right? However, if you’re using GoCodes, you can shorten that link to make it easier on you and your readers – for example, it would be trinityjacobs.com/go/10-Wordpress-Plugins. This great tool also works to shorten and track click-throughs with any affiliate links you may have.

Google Analytics Plugin – Google Analytics is a free website statitistics program from Google. It’s robust and has all the tools you need to track your website visitors – the only issue is getting the code placed correctly on the page.  This plugin will allow you to just enter your GA information in one area, and it will immediately propogate on the pages for you.

In Series – This is a new plugin for me, but it’s a fantastic tool. When you’re writing a series of posts, it can be tiresome to create the series links for each article. Instead of fooling around with it, use In Series, a simple tool which allows you to specify with each post a) if the post belongs in a series b) the name of the series c)what number the post is in the series. THEN, it automatically adds the links into your finished post! (And, if you upload the entire series at once to be published later, it won’t show the links for the future posts until the articles are live on the site!)

Simple Tags – The great thing about this plugin is that it allows you to enter tags directly into the writing interface (it can even display your most commonly used tags to choose from), and then it takes those tags to create a ‘related posts’ list at the end of each entry for the user to explore.

Sociable – Sociable adds user-defined social networking buttons to the end of every post, thus allowing your readers to easily Digg, Stumble, or otherwise share the information with others.

Twitter Widget – It’s no secret that I’m a newly-appointed Twitter addict – It’s a great networking medium and I’ve found a lot of like-minded entrepreneurs over there. The Twitter widget allows you to place your most recent twitter posts in your sidebar. (I’ve gotten quite a few Twitter Followers this way)

What Would Seth Godin Do? – This is a fantastic plugin! For the first 5 times a visitor comes to your site, it embedds a message (see top of post) that urges you to follow the rss feed. After 5 vists, it welcomes the visitor back. It’s a great way to get your readers to take action without being intrusive.

Feedburner Plugin – Feedburner is a great tool to help track your RSS readers, it gives you an overall count of subscribers plus some subscriber data – much like Google Analytics, but less robost and exclusively for your RSS feed (which Analytics doesn’t track). In order to get this to work, however, you have to replace all your RSS feed links with the feedburner RSS feed link, which can be a hassle if you’re not a WordPress Coding Wizard. Thankfully, the Feedburner plugin automatically changes all RSS feed links from the default WordPress version to the Feedburner version, with only a little configuration in the settings panel.  (Feedburner was purchased by Google about a year ago… hopefully, they’ll integrate this functionality with their Analytics program.)

Do you have any plugin suggestions? Let us know in the comments below!

Like this post? Check these out:

• AWeber and Feedburner Unite! (0)
• A Blog Subscription Rant (1)
• 5 Ways Twitter Boosts Business for Small Businesses (0)
• The Solopreneur’s Guide to Delegation (16)
• Social Networking in Plain English (0)

This is part 3 of a three-part series on how to productize your service-based business.

What systems can I use for my product?

If you’ve been doing business on the internet for any length of time, there’s no doubt you’ve bought a few info-products. As soon as you get into their funnel, you’re put on a list where you get follow-up emails, helpful advice, ideas on how to implement the product, a monthly (or more frequent) newsletter, and more.

All this follow-up is made to help you, the consumer, understand the product and for the author to build rapport with you. It’s been estimated that it takes between 7-10 contacts with a person for them to buy anything from you. These contacts not only reinforce the content you’ve bought, but it also allows you more face-time with the author – thereby getting through those 7-10 contacts. This system is invaluable to any business.

Your system will allows you to help your customer use the product, and it will also builds rapport and shortens the amount of time it takes for them to buy a product from you.

Building Your System: It starts with email

As we discussed in Part 1, AWeber is my #1 favorite follow-up tool. Why, you ask? AWeber is a robust tool that allows you to segment your list and send out messages specifically to that list.

For example, if you have three items in your product funnel – product a, product b, and product c, you can have all of them filtered into one main list (newsletter) as well as having them on separate lists. So, this way, when you’re sending out your newsletter you can send advertisements specific to where your leads are within your funnel.

Neat, huh?

With many other tools, it would take an eon to get this set up – but with AWeber it’s simple as pie. THAT is why I love AWeber so much.

I have an Autoresponder/Broadcast System – Now What?

Now it’s time to systemize.

This process is designed to allow you to communicate and build rapport with your clientele and readers without having to spend a lot of time speaking to each person individually.

Set up an autoresponder system for each product. During each phase of your funnel, you want to ensure you’re communicating with your customers, especially directly after they buy.

After each purchase, set up a series of autoresponders – anywhere from 5-100 messages – to help entice your customers to consume the product they just bought, to help educate them about other things going on in the area of interest, and to open dialog.

You can use your autoresponders to:

• Give step-by-step instructions on how to complete a task related to your product
• Give industry insights not included in the product
• Reference supplemental materials so customers can better utilize & understand your product
• Ask for feedback, testimonials, and questions

Following Up Systematically

Following up is the key ingredient in your funnel – you can have as many products as you like, but you’re not going to be as successful unless you follow-up using the autoresponder. This is how we generally follow-up in a product funnel:

1. 1. Free Report/Newsletter
   1. 7-message autoresponder series, supplemental tips to free report.
   2. 1 email inquiring for testimonial.
   3. Promote Tier2 Product at bottom of each message
2. 2. Tier 2 Product
   1. 7-message autoresponder series, supplemental tips to product.
   2. Additional 3-5 messages on topical information and interesting links.
   3. 1 email inquiring for testimonial
   4. Promote Tier 3 Product at bottom of each message
3. 3. Tier 3 Product
   1. 7-message autoresponder series, supplemental tips to product.
   2. Additional 3-5 messages on topical information and interesting links.
   3. 1 email inquiring for testimonial
   4. Promote Tier 4 Product at bottom of each message

And so on…

As you can see, with each product, the customer interacts with you between 8-15 times (not including regular newsletter). Each time you give the customer new information, it adds to their ‘rapport’ bank and the closer they get to moving up your list.

The funnel is a win-win situation for everyone involved. You increase the trust level of your clients and move them along the funnel, and your customers get the information they sorely needed as well as solving a problem with which they’d been struggling.

When you began reading this series, you were at the beginning of productizing your service-based business. Hopefully, this series has helped you to not only create products and systemize the process of moving your leads through the product funnel, but it has also helped you gain clarity with your upcoming products and systems.

Like this post? Check these out:

• How to Create Products for Your Service-Based Business – Part 2 (0)
• How to Create Products for Your Service-Based Business (2)
• The Solopreneur’s Guide to Delegation (16)
• Is Your Business The Next ‘Sliced Bread’? (0)
• Solo-press (0)

This is part 2 of a three-part series on how to productize your service-based business.
Find Part 1 “Are you Ready to Productize Your Business” here.

Productizing Your Business: Developing Your Products

In the last installment, we brainstormed your potential products, and we covered beginning your product funnel. In this installment, we’ll go more in-depth on developing products and getting your nose to the grindstone.

From the brainstorm, you figured out what you like to do, what your clients get from you, and the problems you solve. Now it’s time to take those ideas and flesh out your funnel into problem-solving info-products.

Won’t Developing Solution-Based Products Put Me Out of Business?

This is a common question from service-professionals creating info-products. When we’re creating products, we don’t want our customers to only buy the products and leave – right? We want them to buy the products and then eventually buy more products and/or upgrade to our one-on-one services.

By creating solution-based products you can:

• Save yourself energy from doing time-consuming repeat tasks – tasks that your customers want to know how to do anyway
• Give your clients time to work with you (without having to be with you in person) so they’re jazzed to learn more when you send out a newsletter or another problem-solving product
• ‘Systemize’ your revenue so you can focus on your ideal clients – which still helping everyone else.

Developing Your Product Line

Photo Courtesy Jim Sneddon

As we discussed in part 1, developing your product line to fit neatly in your funnel is tantamount to your success as an info-product creator. Let’s review the general funnel again:

1. Freebie (free newsletter w/report, etc.)
2. Small price point product ($10-$50)
3. Mid-Price product ($51-$100)
4. High-Price Product ($100-$700)
5. Highest Tier (reserved for your ‘ideal’ client – $700+)

As your customers move up the funnel, you will help them to solve bigger problems. A social networking expert might have a funnel that looks like this:

1. Freebie (“Social Networking 101″ + newsletter)
2. Small Price (“Can Twitter really make me a client magnet? A Twitter Strategy Guide”)
3. Mid-price – (Audio: “Using Your WordPress Blog To Increase Visibility using StumbleUpon, Digg, and del.icio.us”)
4. High Price Product – (Home Study Course – using Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn to increase get clients and become a web superstar”)
5. Highest Tier: One-on-One Social Networking strategy and ongoing Coaching

As you can see, there are multiple places where you can have a variety of products in your funnel – ranging from ebooks, reports, newsletters, software, audio, home-study courses, etc.

How do I know what format to use for my products?

The format, placement, and cost of your product are entirely dependent on how much value it has for your customers. The bigger problem it solves, the deeper in-depth it goes, the higher the cost. Your home-study course may be the top tier, and an ebook may be just below it.

In fact, if your product is better off learned in-person, you may hold a monthly free teleclass for 100-200 callers so they can learn hands-on. You must pay attention to your market, and cater to what they need.

Bundling multiple products together will allow you to charge more for your product. For example, your home study course may have some audio, an ebook, and a short coaching call included. Therefore, when you’re beginning this phase, look for ways in which you can combine different formats to appeal to more customers, and put those products in the higher-tiers of your funnel.

Order Of Operations: Start with FREE!

When you first get on your roll for creating products, you automatically want to begin with the highest-priced product – it is, after all, the one that has the most information and probably is most interesting.

You must create your free product first. The whole purpose of creating products is so that you don’t have to spend so much time with one-on-one clients, I know, so it seems like the best place to start. However, if you jump ahead and create the time-consuming ‘whole enchilada’ package, chances are it won’t sell very well.

Why? Because (and this is especially if you don’t have a list) going from nothing to hundreds of dollars is not an easy purchase for anyone to make. You may have a lot of people thinking about your product, but few will buy.

Instead, begin with your free product and work up:

1. Start off with your free product and newsletter, and begin to market it like crazy. People love to get free stuff, and when they sign up you immediately begin building a relationship.
2. Then, move on to the next product tier. And then the next, and the next. Move up the ladder, because as you go, you’ll have mucho inspiration – fodder for the high-tiered products higher in the funnel.
3. Stay the course – keep promoting your Ezine & Free Product – this is where your potential customers are coming in. You’ll treat them like gold – give them great information and treat them like family. In return, they’ll move through your product funnel and keep buying from you.

“The Internet will help achieve “friction free capitalism” by putting buyer and seller in direct contact and providing more information to both about each other”

Bill Gates

In our next installment, we’ll look at systemizing your product line – how to make it work days, nights, weekends, and when you’re on vacation.

This is part 2 of a three-part series on how to productize your service-based business.
Find Part 1 “Are you Ready to Productize Your Business” here.

Like this post? Check these out:

• How to Create Products for Your Service-Based Business – Part 3 (2)
• How to Create Products for Your Service-Based Business (2)
• The Solopreneur’s Guide to Delegation (16)
• Is Your Business The Next ‘Sliced Bread’? (0)
• Solo-press (0)

This is part 1 of a three-part series on how to productize your service-based business.

Are You Ready to Productize Your Service-Based Business?

Having a service-based business is highly rewarding – you get to work with people and see results first-hand, you increase your expertise and know-how with every project, and it defines you as a “client superstar” to your clientèle.

However, service-based businesses also have their limitations: you’re restricted by the number of hours that you can work and the number of clients you can have. You want to help more people – and you want to make a profit – so maybe it’s time to take it to the next level – it’s time to productize your business.

How do you create products for a service-based business?

When Carol first began the process of productizing her business, she was confused. She’d seen many internet ‘gurus’ launching products left and right, but she couldn’t find her inspiration. How could she create products appealing to her potential clients, without alienating them from future purchases?

Brainstorming Your Products

For many people, this is the most difficult part of the productizing process – finding out what to create! It’s important to remember here that the best-selling products solve a problem. It’s good and well to write about the things you love, but it’s even more important to create products that help your clients to fix something in their lives.

Finding the balance between your passions and your clients problems will take careful consideration:

• What are you most passionate about in your business?
  When you began your business – you had a driving force – you wanted to do something. What was it you wanted to do? What problem did you set out to solve?(Supplemental question: do your clients focus on that? If not, skip this section)
• What Makes You Unique?
  If you work with women in mid-life, or solopreneurs who need a website, they all come to you looking for your unique take on the world. The problem, as you see it, speaks to your clients and potential clients. What makes you a unique problem-solver for your clients, and how do you do ‘it’?
• What service do you do that you can outsource to your client?
  It’s not outsourcing in the traditional sense, it’s helping your clients help themselves. So, whether your clients need help with getting their relationships on the right foot or getting their Facebook marketing strategy in place – what steps of your processes can you outsource to your clients?

When you’re productizing your business, you want to create several products so customers can move through your sales funnel. By moving through your funnel, you can ensure that the clients you work with are not just ready to work with you, but they’re right in line with your ‘ideal’ client.

After a productive brainstorming session, Carol realized that most of her clientèle came to her with issues surrounding career growth. In realizing this, she formed several product ideas ranging from an eBook for developing a career strategy to Skill Growth Group Coaching Sessions. Armed with a cache of product ideas, she was ready to begin creating her products.

Build Your Marketing Funnel

“Build the Funnel” is your new mantra. Say it now, “build the funnel.” Ahh, that’s nice, isn’t it?

When you’re selling your services and products, it’s much easier to sell to people who know and trust you – and this is accomplished by having a list of customers in your product or marketing funnel.

The crux of your funnel is to bring in customers through low-price or free products, and then increase trust and rapport by developing a relationship with them through a newsletter. Using the newsletter will allow you the opportunity to build a relationship, and to sell your products and services in small increments without being pushy.

Essentially, your product funnel should look something like this:

1. Freebie (free newsletter w/report, etc.)
2. Small price point product ($10-$50)
3. Mid-Price product ($51-$100)
4. High-Price Product ($100-$700)
5. Highest Tier (reserved for your ‘ideal’ client – $700+)

Now, your list can be much bigger, or a bit smaller; your list can have higher price points or lower; but, this is the general outline you want to use.

Place each of your product ideas in one of the above categories. Make sure your highest point products have a lot of value added to them – so if you can add an audio, ebook, workbooks, complimentary products, and more with these products, the more valuable they’ll become to your customers. “Fill ‘er up!” as they say.

Don’t worry about having too much or too few products in your funnel. If you only have a couple of ideas right now – it’s fine! You’ll hit inspiration while you’re working on and promoting these products.

Once you’ve figured out your general outline,  the next step in productizing you business is to use an autoresponder/broadcasting service to bring customers into your funnel. An autoresponder/broadcasting service will allow you to keep all your leads in one place and automate much of your sales process. I use AWeber . I use AWeber for my personal and client lists, and they’re hands-down the best email broadcast service provider available.

When prospects come into your funnel, start by offering them a free product in exchange for their email address. From there, up-sell a bit at a time while giving some great information and useful advice – make your free information valuable and move them delicately through your product funnel.

“Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for. A product is not quality because it is hard to make and costs a lot of money, as manufacturers typically believe. This is incompetence. Customers pay only for what is of use to them and gives them value. Nothing else constitutes quality.”

~Peter F. Drucker

Learn More about the Marketing Funnel with Andrea J. Lee’s Pink Spoon Marketing and Robert Middleton’s Action Plan Marketing – two of my favorite and most-recommended ebooks.

This is part 1 of a three-part series on how to productize your service-based business.

Like this post? Check these out:

• How to Create Products for Your Service-Based Business – Part 2 (0)
• How to Create Products for Your Service-Based Business – Part 3 (2)
• The Solopreneur’s Guide to Delegation (16)
• Is Your Business The Next ‘Sliced Bread’? (0)
• Solo-press (0)

Working as a solopreneur is difficult, and getting help is often difficult. Finding out how an assistant (virtual assisstant or otherwise) can help you is instrumental in keeping your business successful. Delegation is the handing of a task over to another person; in order to do this, you should understand the few key points below:

1. Clarify the assignment with clear, unambiguous instructions

When you delegate, you need to be very specific about what you expect, and how you expect it to be done. The more specific you are about what you want, the better the chances are that your assignment will be done the way you desire.

2. Ensure the person has the necessary skills

You wouldn’t hire a woodworker to fix your toilet leak, would you? The same goes for your assistant, with one caveat. IF (and, that’s a big if) you’re willing to train a person in a specific skill (such as music notation), then have at it. But, if you don’t want to invest the time and energy into teaching someone every nuance of your trade – then you need to make sure you find someone with at least a little knowledge of your profession.

3. Specify how much responsibility the person has over the assignment

If you need portions of a larger assignment done, such as research for a book – then make sure that your assistant is aware of what you expect from them. If they’re responsible for an amount of research to be completed weekly, make sure they know that. If they have to have the research done in parts, or completed before turning it in… let them know.

The whole point of delegation is to remove time-consuming tasks off your plate. Begin by giving away smaller tasks, and then move on to more complex tasks as your relationship gels. In all effectiveness, delegation is more about partnership than
subordinate/superiority. When given the right fertilizer, your assistant will care just as much, if not more, about the end goal as you do.

4. Allow the other person to participate in the assignment

Listen to suggestions, and consider them. If you’re delegating a task and someone has a better/faster/more efficient way of doing it – use the technique if its’ appropriate. The way technology is changing, with calculated innovations and changes you’ll give your business the room to be very profitable.

5. Monitor the progress in regular intervals to allow time for remedial action if necessary

I’m not telling you here to monitor every breath and movement, but keep yourself abreast of the situation. Ask how things are going and where they’re at in the assignment. This way, if you see the task veering into the unknown, you can quickly steer it back on track without hurting any feelings… and without wasting precious time doing it all over again.

6. Feedback, feedback, feedback

Feedback is a crucial step – once the task is complete, if a good job has been done, let them know! And if something went wrong along the way, you need to be able to talk about that too. Take the time to speak or email your assistant with any concerns you had – and allow them the opportunity to do the same. This will not only help your VA understand the expectations in the future, it will also provide a good opportunity to realize what you could have done better as well!

Problogger Group Writing Project

This post is invovled in the Problogger Group Writing Project. Visit the site for a multitude of how-to posts on every subject imaginable!

Like this post? Check these out:

• How to Create Products for Your Service-Based Business – Part 2 (0)
• How to Create Products for Your Service-Based Business – Part 3 (2)
• How to Create Products for Your Service-Based Business (2)
• 10 Must-Have Plugins for WordPress (7)