As you can guess, the majority of what we talk about in this episode is how Catholics can use social media to reach and evangelize a much larger community than they ever could before.  Not only that, parishes and ministries can communicate with their members in a much more effective and meaningful way.

Although there is a lot of fear and mistrust of social media among Catholics, Brandon shows us that it is just a tool that can be either used for good or for evil depending on how you choose to use it!

In this video you are going to learn what affiliate marketing is, where to find products to promote, why promote them is a good thing if done the right way, and how to do it effectively.

Check out the video below:

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The comment was from a visitor by the name of Kevin and he didn’t pull any punches when it came to what he though about my premium content:

Can’t afford your premium access until I cam [sic] generate more income from my Catholic content business. Not joking.

As you can see, it was very simple and to the point.  However, despite how short the comment was, it really says a great deal.

Is the price of the premium content too high?

Absolutely not! The material that is in the premium section cost me over 5K in self-investment to gather and learn.

Does that mean that Kevin is a liar or cheap!? No!  It just means that I am a poor salesman.

In selling there are two main things that you need to do: Give the buyer a reason to buy based on value, and destroy all possible obstacles that could be perceived as risk.

Here’s a great explanation by Jefferey Gitomer:

It is never the prospect’s fault if they don’t buy, it’s yours

Since content has been the primary goal for the premium section, the sales pages and copywriting has been lacking (for now).  For example, here is the current text that visitors see when they click into the premium section’s sale’s page:

Thank you for your interest in subscribing to the premium section of Productive Catholic.  We are constantly adding new content and it will only get better and better.

Premium membership is a monthly fee of $9.95. There is a 30-day risk-free trial. If you are not satisfied, simply cancel before the 30-days and you won’t pay anything.

10% of all proceeds go to a ministry to help out of work mothers and fathers to start their own business to support their family.

Now, does that show value or mitigate risk?  The fact is that there is nothing in that text at all that is selling anything.  It doesn’t explain what the premium section is or why it’s valuable.  Yes, it talks about the 30-day free trial, which is a risk mitigator, but overall it’s horrible sales copy.  It is any wonder why Kevin didn’t want to buy premium access?  Heck, he didn’t even want to chance the free trial because it the selling was so bad.

What real sales copy should look like

A real sales or squeeze page should be engaging and have a clear message showing the value of what you are offering and why the reward of your offer is worth far more than the risk.  Below is the new page for the productive Catholic Free Member Community

Become a Member of the Productive Catholic Community

Do you think that this page is more convincing?  What do you think the value statement?  What do you think is the risk mitigator(s)?  Let me know in the comments!

We talk about some of the productivity apps that we each use. JR introduces me to Diigo, a web-based application that lets you keep track of things that you find all over the Internet. He also shares his prized productivity tool called Task Coach, which let’s him stay organized while doing his doctorate studies. Both apps are free and pretty awesome!

In my neck of the woods, I share the tool that has been keeping me productive and sane for the past few week called Action Enforcer (affiliate link). I love this tool because of it’s ability to keep you on one task and racing against the clock! Unfortuantely it is not free, but is well worth the money. I’ll be doing some tutorial vids using it soon.

Using the techniques that I use with E-Junkie, you could hypothetically create a product every day of the week and have them up on your site to sell at the end of each day.  I’ll also show how you can batch products together to make bonuses while still keeping your costs low.

Lastly we’ll also explore where you can host a lot of your files that you create in order to produce a large amount of content and not break the bank.

Overall, by the end of this video you should have a good idea of how to get a digital product set up to sell.  In the next module we’ll talk about what kinds of digital products you can make!

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One thing that a lot of people forget is that businesses – especially with the economy today – need to find ways to generate revenue.  They don’t have the funds to hire a full-time sales staff, yet those are the types of people who are going to help them to grow (or save) their business – and this is where you come in.

Don’t wait for someone to call on you

What were job searches like before job boards?  Since when do we need Career Builder or Monster.com to tell us how to seek employment?  If you are already unemployed, why do you need a salary?

There are a lot of companies out there that are willing to contract folks out and give commissions based on how many leads or sales they get.  It’s a win-win for both parties since you as the sales-person has the opportunity to get a good amount of income based on how many people you bring to the business, and the business gets revenue and possibly loyal clients.  Now, this is often 100% commission-based, which means that you need to work your butt off.

I’ve been wanting to change gears for a while now.  My full-time position isn’t exciting me anymore and although my side business is doing well, I still need a little more income in order to support the family.  That being said, I recently started developing restaurant franchises for a friend of mine.  There’s no base pay, and what I earn is solely based on my performance – and it’s been absolutely exciting.

Startups need sales too

A friend of mine owns a startup that creates mobile web sites for businesses was struggling for a long time to get clients.  Being only one guy, it’s hard to go to networking event after networking event while still having the time to work on projects for already existing clients.  He recently “hired” a couple of sales people off of Craigslist and not only have they started generating income, they’ve “forced” him to raise his prices to a fair amount in order for them to get a fair commission.  How cool is that?

You could be one of those sales guys that helps a new business get off the ground.

But I’m Not a Salesperson…

One thing that I’ve realized is that some of the best salesmen out there are not “salesmen.”  If you can get yourself behind a product or service that you believe in, the only thing that you need to do is be yourself.  Of course, you should get some sales training in order to be effective with your sales pipeline, but ultimately it’s not that difficult.

I come from an information security/techie background, and if I can make sales, so can you!  Starting the sales process can be as easy as talking to someone at a business conference.

The point…

I know too many people who have been laid off and are submitting their resume to hundreds of positions, only to get rejected or hear nothing back at all.  Why wait?  What’s stopping you from talking to business owners in your area and asking if they would like to have a 100% commission contractor supporting their revenue generating efforts?  Is it the fear of being rejected? Let me know in the comments…