A Lesson in Marketing and Accountability

I’m sure plenty of you guys have heard of Mike Filsaime. If not, he’s a well known marketer that has had massive success in his business.

I may not agree with everything he says but I certainly respect the way that he handles his business.

So recently, he came out with a new ‘product’ called The Seven Figure Secrets. The reason I surround the word ‘product’ this way with quotes is that while it is a physical product, it’s not something (in my mind) that he actually intended to sell.

Bold statement and I better back this one up…

To quote Mike:

After 1 week, I have shipped out over 10,000 copies of the Printed and Spiral bound copies of my new $297 product. The only thing is, I gave it away for FREE if anyone paid just the shipping and handling and signed up to test drive my new monthly magazine and newsletter.

That is over $3 Million Dollars in product value I gave away for free. Along with that I gave access to a free issue of my Magazine and 18 Full Color Process maps detailing the blueprints I use to run my Million Dollar Business valued at $197.

First off, yes, the product was free by definition in that you did not have to pay for the product itself. You did, however, have to pay shipping and handling.

No big deal - right?

Well, I’ll take you back a couple of years to a guy named Vincent James came out with a book called “The 12 Month Millionaire“. It was an excellent read and gave a lot of really good information.

If you search around a bit on the net, you’ll find some people who blast it saying that he is selling information that you could get for free by searching on the net…True. I won’t deny that. But this has got it all in one place.

I digress slightly but bear with me while I get to my point!

Vincent’s concept in the book was to show you how to set up a drop ship business and all of the ins and outs with that type of business.

As I said it was a great read - if you can snag a copy somewhere off of ebay or something, I’d recommend it although it is a bit pricey at $300 or so (that’s what I paid).

Now, back to my point…Vincent talked about the vitamin business in his book.

Specifically, he said you do the following:

1. Create a product.
2. Create a backend for the product (this is nothing more than another way to make money after the customer has purchased from you. The theory being that once a customer has purchased from you one time, they are more likely to do so again in the future because they trust you).
3. Get a company that will make the product for you.
4. Do a bit of marketing magic and sell the product.
5. Follow up with a backend or upsell.

Now, as I mentioned before, Mike’s product was free but you had to pay shipping and handling.

The method behind his madness is that the cost of printing the book (nice spiral bound black and white book) is probably less than or equal to the shipping and handling charges.

Think about that for a second please.

The product that is ‘free’ and only costs you shipping and handling is most likely not costing Mike a dime out of his pocket.

I say “most likely” because there is another method where you actually take a small loss when you sell your first product knowing that a certain percentage of folks will repurchase and/or buy the backend product/upsell.

Here’s the lesson for you…

Mike brilliantly handled this particular launch event in my ever so humble opinion.

More specifically, you had to pay for the cost of the 7 Figure Secrets book.

Once you purchased it, Mike came up with another message that basically said “BUT WAIT THERE IS MORE!”

He followed this up with several offers if you refused and would mix different products together at different price points.

So that was his upsell. It was all done in a legit manner and I saw nothing wrong with it. However, in my opinion, that was also the hardest ’sell’ that I’ve seen a network marketer do yet.

Not necessarily a bad thing mind you. Just something to keep in mind.

I bet if you copied what he did in that launch with just the upsell part you would have an increase in profits.

Ok, so continuing on, he did something sneaky…

He offered you a free copy of his color (this is where you go OOOHHHHH AHHHHH - COLOR OMG) magazine that is valued at $97.

And you could get it for the low low price of only $27 a month!

What a bargain!

So he has his backend to the free product as well.

It was a very slick marketing campaign…

Now, that’s the lesson…what is it about Accountability?

Well, I personally hold myself to a higher standard when I’m reporting stuff to my readers. I expect that I will give you value while you’re reading my blog.

Of course, value is determined in my eyes but hopefully you see it and continue to return.

Anyhow, one of those things with accountability is when I point out something that I think is awesome orcrap.

And in this particular case…well…my opinion is this newsletter named:

The Secrets to Building a 7 Figure Business Online

MARKETINGDOTCOM

The Best Damn Newsletter

is…well…to put it kindly, it’s crap.

Mike says he’s “raised the bar” again.

So let’s see what is in this first issue shall we?

• How to Drive Traffic
• A formula for driving traffic
• Banner Placements
• Joint Ventures
• The Keys to Fortune Online

Wow. That sounds awesome doesn’t it?

So let’s dig a bit deeper.

First off, if I’m going to pay $27 a month for something I expect there to be a LOT of good value in it - whatever it is.

In this particular case, if I were to pay $27 a month I would expect to get nuts and bolts information from Mike Filsaime.

Do I? Well…yes…one article is written by Mike (the longest one incidentally).

The rest are written by some “yahoos” that I’ve never heard of. Now, I honestly don’t mean that in a deragatory manner. It’s just that these are people I have not read about or heard of and they have zero ’street cred’ with me.

Ostensibly, of course, Mike has ‘vetted’ these people to the extent that what is put in the magazine he agrees with. Also, I should point out that some of the articles are written by employees.

Now on to a funny point…

What is actually in the magazine?

• Conversions - why people buy, the psychology of selling, etc.
• The Profitable world of PLR
• The Power of Clarity
• Customer Service
• How to Install your Own Blog Manually
• Fast Company Growth Lessons

Oh, lest I forget, there’s one full page ad on the back of the magazine for PayDotCom (which Mike owns of course).

About that funny point…did you notice that the stuff mentioned on the front isn’t in the magazine? (If I missed it, someone correct me please!)

And, finally, about that accountability thing I mentioned previously.

I have hopes that I will get to the level of success with some of my ventures that Mike has done. I wouldn’t mind JV’ing with him. Heck, who wouldn’t - right?

Well, I debated a couple of days if I should write this because I thought to myself, “But what if Mike sees it and hates it and thus hates me?”

Eventually I came to the conclusion that I would continue my policy of holding back no punches and let er rip!

If you’re trying to get started in your own internet business, I recommend taking a look at Eric Holmund’s online course that he’s doing over the next several months.

Great stuff in there and he’s going to walk everyone from A-Z through getting their own internet business up and running.

Did I mention it’s free? LOL - No, there is no shipping and handling fee either

G-Man