The Revenue Trifecta System - Selling Online From Beginner To Veteran
I've sold close to $10,000 in digital products & services online, here's how you can too
Full Disclaimer - Methods discussed in this article are based off what my mentors and me have used to produce results. Meaning they work, if used correctly
Entertain, Educate, Inspire
These 3 words will form the basis of your entire understanding when it comes to selling online
The path to success is filled with thorns, boulders, and enemies
Your journey won’t be easy, and you need to understand that
When it comes to selling online.. The potential is easily 100x that of a 9-5
But the work you have to put in while having zero idea what you are doing or whether its even going to work.. Is what you will have to face
Be ready to work hard. There is no such thing as a get rich quick hack
Some methods are easier than others
Normally, selling online is one of the hardest things you will ever have to figure out
But this article, will help you overcome that problem, by providing an established understanding of selling online, based on my years of experience
This system works whether you’re a YouTuber, an Influencer, An artist, a Writer, a Podcaster, An Actor etc. It doesn’t matter what you built your brand around
And it will tell you exactly how you can start making money online using sales, no matter where in life you currently are
And no, you DO NOT need to pick a niche or industry to make this work
If you want to learn how to build a system that makes money for you on autopilot by talking about whatever you want..
Using a business model that has made millions in the last 10 years
My suggestion is, go through this article first and then go through the nicheless creator article here
They compliment each other perfectly, and if you combine both methods you can build a profitable brand in the next 6-12 months of consistent hard work
The Product Hierarchy
If you’re selling anything on the internet, it will fall into one of these categories
Entertainment
People buy this product because they are bored, they want to enjoy themselves, or they want to distract themselves
People typically spend money on these things when they are relaxing
Why do you watch Netflix? For entertainment
In other words, a Netflix subscription falls under the entertainment section of the product hierarchy
Think about your favourite novel. Why do you read it?
Yes, you’re invested in the characters, but you became invested in the characters because you wanted to be entertained
If paying for your product or service results in entertainment, people will buy it
Educate
Human beings are constantly gathering resources, and on the internet its not any different.
But unlike the real world, the biggest resource people are gathering on the internet, is knowledge. If you can provide that knowledge, people will pay you money
Think about it. When you pay for a library subscription, you are paying not only for entertainment, but also for knowledge
When you pay for a college degree, you are paying for knowledge
When you buy a cook book with recipes, you are paying for knowledge
Let’s look at an online example:
The Utopia, possibly the best e-learning platform for digital marketers that exists
One of the biggest reasons people pay $40/mo+ for a subscription, is education
They want to learn how to build a business using the internet
Inspire
People wake up, and they work hard. But while they are working hard, they want some form of escape. Similarly to entertainment, people want to be inspired
Why do you think people love reading quotes from famous philosophers so much?
Its provides them with an escape..
It gives them a fresh perspective
I gives them the willpower to either keep going, or to bring about change in their life
In real life, physical books provide people with that inspiration
Online, there’s actually a business model that runs purely on entertainment and inspiration
Its called “niche pages”
Its where someone creates an account, and uses external sources combined with their personal experiences, to create social media posts that inspire or entertain their audience
I’ve seen people making from $1600-$20,000/mo using this business model
“But Ian, what do I sell?” To know what to sell, you need to pick your path
Product Type Paths
To sell, you need to understand yourself.
Are you going to build a brand and then sell, or are you the type of person who wants to sell right now while building your brand?
One requires patience, while the other requires hard work
But neither of the 2 is going to be easy
My advice is this - Work hard, while you are patient
Build a brand, while you are selling
Either create your own product, or sell other people’s products
If you want to start making money from sales today, you need to sell other people’s products. People who have a reputation, and an entire system setup already
Forget everything other people are telling you, just do the following
Build your brand → Sell other people’s products → Gain experience → Turn your experience into digital products → Use your brand to sell your products → Repeat
This will give you a steady stream of revenue, while you are building your brand till eventual profitability
“But Ian, I just want to build a brand and make money later”
That’s fine, but remember, your journey will take longer
Learn to be patient, because you are playing the long game
Further down I’m breaking down 2 vital concepts to selling online
But let’s address a misconception first:
The word “product” in this context, can refer to a digital product or a service
So now that you understand how the product hierarchy works, and you have an idea of what you are going to be selling, its time to decide on a vehicle
Because just understanding what people buy, and what type of things you can sell to people, doesn’t explain how you are going to do it.
For this section, we’re breaking down two concepts
Inbound vs Outbound
If you’ve been doing online business for a while, you probably already understand these concepts, but they will be playing a massive role with this system, so pay close attention
Inbound
This is when customers or clients come to you. This is how any business becomes profitable.
If you have a steady stream of people buying your product, and that stream of people keeps showing up in a predictable pattern, you’re already ahead of the 99%
To get inbound, you need digital real estate
How are people finding you? Let’s look at some ways they can
Social media
For people to find you on social media, you need a brand, and as we’ve discussed before, you should be building your brand as you sell
Your social media profile is a piece of digital real estate
Again, go check out my article breakdown on building your brand without picking a niche here
SEO
If you want people to buy your product, they need to know about you, and for them to know about you, you can abuse the google search engine.
You do that by creating things like articles that link back to you product or social media profiles, and then giving the article keywords that people typically search for
Then when people search something on google with that keyword, they might come across your article, and some of them might click on it
When people click on it, they are reading your digital real estate, and that might lead to them turning into a customer, a follower, or a subscribers
Newsletter
Every entrepreneur should have a newsletter.
Why? Because writing will be the basis of everything you do in online business
The better you are at writing, the better you are at selling, product development, and 99% of the things you will need when it comes to building a thriving online business
Then there’s the fact that your newsletter is a piece of digital real estate
Every time you send an email, you have the potential to reach thousands of people, and promote your products to those people
And if you built your newsletter like mine, then your newsletter issues are saved
A saved newsletter issue can later be used as a landing page where people can find you, your brand, and your product
These are the top 3 methods of letting people find you
But if you’re serious about selling right now, you’re going to use the next concept
Outbound
Outbound refers to “going out” or “external”
Meaning its something you “go to”, and not something that “comes to you”, like inbound
If you want to start making money right now, this is going to be the most powerful tool to selling you can find
Even if you’re just okay at outbound sales, you can basically make money from thin air
Is it going to be easy? NO
Does it work? YES
There’s only 1 difference between the guys making $20,000/mo from it, and the people making $0/mo from it
Consistency
In outbound, you identify a group of people who can pay you money to solve a problem, then you go directly to them and offer them the solution
Follow this process after setting up your brand
Find someone else’s product to sell → Identify a group of people who’d pay money for it → Add them to a list → Start reaching out to these people and offer the product as the solution to their problem → Update the list depending on how the conversation is going → Convert them during conversation → Link the product → Repeat
IMPORTANT - The more money the product costs, the harder it will be to sell, unless you narrow down the group of people you are targeting, and you have amazing results
You will be selling to 2 groups of people, namely
Warm Leads - People who like you and trust you
Warm leads are the best for long term client relationships, because you are not upsetting people by randomly trying to sell them something, you already have a connection
Cold Leads - People who don’t know or trust you
Cold leads are if you’re ready to land your first paying client within the next 24 hrs
You focus on numbers with cold leads, rather than relationships
The Stupidly Simple Insider Secret - A Proven Sales Niche For Beginners
I once worked with a guy who did around $55,000 in sales, and a large part of that was just outbound, and now I’m going to tell you how you can pull it off too..
Without worrying about selling the same product forever
Normally you’d need to worry about making sales every month to make enough money, but not if you use this method
Here’s how it works
If you’re selling someone else’s product, you’re their affiliate
So what you do, is find someone with a paid community that’s doing incredibly well
Make sure the community is pulling in a lot of money, and the members are happy
The reason you’re doing this, is because the lifetime value of the community needs to indicate that it will be around for a very long time
Then what you do, is join the community, make friends with the owner, and maybe even get the owner to push your commission rate as high as possible
Now what you do, is become an affiliate for the community, and you start selling
Because its a paid subscription, every time you make a sale, that person who paid money to join, will keep paying you every month, as long as they are a member of the community
You see now why the health of the community is so important?
Let’s assume your commission rate is 50%, and the paid community costs $30/mo
If you manage to convince 50 people to join the community using outbound or Inbound sales
You’re now making $750/mo
Depending on where you live, it might sound like a lot or
It might not sound like much, but here’s the catch..
The more people you convince to join, the more money you make per month
Then all you have to do is find a selling system that works, hire a VA from a third world country to do the selling for you, and the money you make will keep increasing
And to cover yourself, you just need to do the same for multiple communities that are doing well
I’ve worked with countless affiliate marketers that wish they did this 2 years ago
And remember, being an affiliate marketer doesn’t have to be a niche
Anyone can sell affiliate products, using Outbound or Inbound
Scaling
So you have your selling system setup, and your brand is starting to take off
You’ve got articles that are getting clicks, your email subscribers are growing in number, and your followers are growing monthly..
You’re ready to start selling your own products
But what do you sell?
Here’s how you can use the product hierarchy to sell
And to do that we’re starting with
Entertainment
You use entertainment as a way to pull your followers in. You entertain through content creation, social media posts, conversations
Products include novels and courses
Education
When it comes to selling your own products, these are the easiest to sell online, because as I mentioned before, they are in high demand
But before you develop your product, make sure you abuse your unfair advantages when it comes to product development, to increase revenue - Read how here
You use education to teach your followers the things you’ve learned on your journey, including any relevant information you picked up from your personal experiences
You educate using your newsletter, your posts, your articles, and your digital products
Products include courses, guides, ebooks, templates, and paid community access
Inspire
You can use your social media posts, articles, stories, writing, and digital products to inspire your followers to improve themselves, and make use of the educational material you also produce for them
These 3 combine to establish 3 things with you audience
Authority - They see you as someone who knows what they are talking about
Emotional Connection - Through your content, your audience builds a connection with you on an emotional level, that makes them invested in your brand, products, words, and personality
Credibility - Using your content and conversations, you establish that you are the real deal, and your followers look to you for guidance
I do a full masterclass on product development, and making sales even with no followers in my course “The Digital Domination Framework”, sign up for the waitlist here
But what now? Is this the end?
Do you just sell products and community subscriptions for $20-$50 repeatedly?
No, this is just the beginning
You might have been wondering where the services fall in
The Value Ladder
Your digital products form part of your customer’s journey
That’s right, they are not the end of what you’re selling
Your services should be based on your skill, and they should be related to your product and past experiences
Here’s the top performing services that anyone can offer as long as they have knowledge the other person does not
Consulting
Sit with the client one on one, answer their questions, and offer guidance
People charge from $110-$10,000+ for these (No that’s not a mistype)
Pricing depends on your market, your testimonials, and your ability to sell
Consulting is typically done over Zoom or Google Meet
Coaching
Coaching can be 1 on 1, or 1 on 5 most of the time
It provides an environment for 1 or multiple clients to get access to all of your resources and methods, while you guide them through the process of solving their problem
Pricing range is the in the same range of $110-$10,000, but its easier to charge more
Coaching typically solves a bigger problem, and you work with the client hands on, so you charge more based on how big the problem is
Pricing depends on your market, your testimonials, your ability to sell, the problem you solve, and the resources clients get access to
Coaching is typically done using Circle, Slack, Telegram, Discord, Zoom, and Notion
To make it simple, the way people will find your service is through 2 different methods
Method 1
They get your free product
They get your paid product
They go through your email sequence
They see your client results
They pay for your service
They turn into a client
Method 2
They engage with your content
You reach out to them
You identify their problem
You offer to solve their problem if you can
You ask payment in return for solving the problem
You officially take on the client
Again, I go over how to develop products and automate this entire process in my course “The Digital Domination Framework”, join the waitlist here
For Niche Audiences
“But Ian, what do I do if I have a niche audience and I only want to focus on 1 thing?”
The process works exactly the same, there’s only 1 difference
You need to keep creating products that cater to the your niche audience, because digital products eventually burn out, and provide 1 vital service that solves their niche problem (coaching or consulting)
And if you have a complimentary skill that goes well with your service, then offer them that too, but make sure it compliments your coaching or consulting service
“But Ian, what do I coach if I have a niche audience?”
Are you a voiceactor? Coach or consult on voice acting
Are you a YouTube? Coach or consult on building a YouTube channel
Do you have lots of successful sidehustles? Coach that
There’s 1 thing you have to do first.. Be an example
Your voiceacting needs to be amazing
Your YouTube channel needs to be successful
Your sidehustles need to make a lot of money
Because then people value your time & guidance
That’s it for today, cheers - Ian
When you’re ready to level up, here’s how I can help you:
Number 1 - Join the “7 day Successful Digital Product Launch Challenge” - FREE
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Instructions on making sales without followers
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Number 4 - My “Digital Domination Framework” - WIP
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