Desperate Buyers Only – by Alexis Dawes
Name: Desperate Buyers Only
Creator: Alexis Dawes
URL: www.desperatebuyersonly.com
Purpose: Learn how to create e-books for people who actually want them.
The ultimate guide for profiting selling e-books and short reports, with a focus on finding markets with buyers who have pressing problems and are willing to spend money to solve them. A great book for any person struggling to find a profitable topic to begin their quest to earn a living from the Internet – but does it provide all the answers?
Desperate Buyers Only Review
At the start of Desperate Buyers Only, an e-book by Alexis Dawes, is the following –
How To Choose Topics That Attract Buyers Like Bee’s to Honey – (It has NOTHING to do with “Doing What You Love”)
Online infopreneurs fail for 3 main reasons–
1) They focus on general topics.
2) They focus on so-called ‘hot’ niche topics.
3) They follow the all-time favorite, and frequently quoted, adage, “Do what you love and the money will follow.”
Nice. Very nice.
I found a book that teaches only what you need to know about the making money part of selling online. Forget anything about loving the topic, or having a passion for what you do – this is the book for those lost souls who are passionless, money-hungry, wannabe information sellers.
Okay, maybe that’s too harsh.
This is the book you need if you are still struggling to find a way to make money online and you need help picking a topic that has profit potential, despite it being the most dry and boring topic ever.
I come from the world of “do what you love” but I’m well aware there’s no point doing what you love when you can’t make money from it, at least if you want all the trappings that modern society offers. The harsh reality is, for some people – “what you love” is not going to be profitable.
It could be because you don’t have the marketing skills, maybe your passion is a saturated market or maybe what you love is not something that people spend money on.
For whatever reason, some people have to find ways to make money and what they love simply won’t cut it. In this case, no amount of passion for your topic can put food on the table.
Ideally, we all want the holy grail combination of passion and profit, where you make great money and love the work, which is why I direct my students towards looking at passions first. An important factor is motivation and, as I know from my own experience, sometimes the only way you stay motivated long enough to realize results, is to a choose a passion-based topic.
Thanks to Alexis and her e-book, you can use her techniques to chase the dollar by focusing on “desperate buyers”, people ready to spend money to solve urgent problems. Your motivation is your desire to make an income and if that is enough motivation for you to do the work (and it was for me when I first started Internet business), this is a book that offers a straight-to-the-point blueprint for turning on the cashflow.
The Challenge of Topic Selection – Solved
For most newbie Internet marketers, topic selection is the greatest challenge. Desperate Buyers Only provides an easy to follow breakdown of how to find topics that can make you money.
Here’s a rough breakdown of Alexis’ methodology for locating a profitable topic –
- Choose an audience – In this section Alexis provides a list of 13 types of people who all have desperate problems that need solving. People who are in trouble with the law, who want to lose weight, who are going through divorce, etc. Alexis provides a very frank description of each type of person, which is critical so you can establish a strong rapport with the audience you eventually choose to sell to.
- Find websites devoted to your chosen audience – The next step is to find the locations online where the type of person you identified in step one congregate. Alexis suggests you outsource this research and explains how she does it.
- Study your potential audience habits and language – This step is all about isolating the root problems people in your chosen audience have. You do this by monitoring conversations at the websites you found in step two.
- Isolate desperate problems – Taking what you learned in step three, you determine where the money is. What are the problems people are desperate enough to spend money on? Find the most common questions people are asking.
- Find the pain – Once the desperate problems are determined, the next step is to understand the psychology behind the problem. Alexis offers a great list of nine common psychological needs humans have. The problem you find must relate to at least one of these issues (for example, does this topic relate to helping someone keep their job? or maintain their health?).
- The Dealbreaker (as Alexis calls it) – This is all about traffic and reaching an audience. It’s not simply buying pay per click traffic for the hottest keywords you find in WordTracker, although that can be part of it. Alexis explains why it is critical to figure out how your desperate buyers go looking for solutions and not simply follow what is considered standard practice to drive traffic.
- Assess the competition – The last step may seem obvious, but I was impressed that Alexis focused on differentiation as a strategy if the market is very crowded and specified exactly how to do so (for example, by using different media like audio instead of text). She also provides a competitor assessment form to help with analyzing the competition.
Alexis definitely has a system behind how she chooses topic and there is nothing about needing a passion. It’s all about finding buyers.
Creating Content
Desperate Buyers Only focuses on publishing reports as the product you sell and Alexis provides a relatively easy formula for creating the content. It’s not in-depth and is designed for people who don’t like to write. This is a system for pumping out short reports that sell for under $30 and get straight to the point, usually researched and written by other people.
Alexis explains how she decides what content desperate people want – the “insider secrets” as she calls it – and outsources the research to find the answers. In some cases it seems all she does is use what is already freely available online, but pays people to do the hunting around to find the gold and then compiles the info into a report and sells it.
The idea is to provide all the best answers in one place to sell to people desperate enough to buy immediately. One prime example, which is a case study from Alexis that she talks about throughout the book, is a report she made that lists resources for people who are in the US Chexsystem.
People in the ChexSystem have trouble getting a bank account and Alexis was one of these people. She went online dug through all the useless information, found the right answers, got herself a bank account and then piled that information into a (very) short report.
Alexis notes that you don’t have to create 50 page reports to make this work. Her ChexSystem report is only 6 pages. Yep, that’s right – 6 pages – and she claims she makes $150 – $250 a day selling to this market.
If you have trouble coming up with content to sell online, this section of Desperate Buyers Only is very helpful, however in my opinion the best part of this book was the next section all about copywriting for sales pages.
Copywriting
If there was one reason I would pick this book up, it is for this section.
I hate writing copy. I totally understand how critical it is and I actually think I’m quite good at it when I write about something I understand, but because copywriting needs to cover so many elements I find the process quite tiresome. It’s fun – but there’s so many things to cover I always feel like I could do more.
Alexis provides a fantastic breakdown of how to write a sales page for virtually anything online. She’s not presenting herself as a copywriting expert and you won’t find an in-depth analysis of the psychology behind copy in this book, but what you do get is a REALLY simple list of elements your sales letter needs to address.
I plan to use Desperate Buyers Only as my checklist for any future sales page I write. I’ll sit down with her book beside me and write sections for my product sales page by “filling in the blanks” based on what Alexis does. This really is the highlight of the book in my opinion.
Alexis illustrates the copywriting section by drawing examples taken from her own sales page. You could almost take her sales pages and just copy what she does making changes based on whatever you are selling and who you are selling to.
Here’s a brief list of instructions taken from the chapter on writing a sales letter. Each section has about two pages of content explaining how to elicit the trigger and why it’s important to do so.
Your sales letter should…
#1 – Demonstrate you empathize with the reader more than your competition
#2 – Show that your competition (both free and paid for) sucks
#3 – Explain why your information is more valuable because of the way you have formatted, presented or researched it
#4 – State that your information is current and appropriate for what matters today
#5 – Prove that your information can deliver results for the reader NOW
This is just one area Alexis covers about writing a sales letter that works. She also talks about why it is important to point out a flaw in your product, why you need an FAQ page and how to use it to increase conversion, how to justify price, what to put in the order box and in your P.S. at the end, and a TON more.
As I said, Alexis is not a copywriting expert, which is why I love this section of the book. You won’t get anything more than what you need to put together your own powerful sales letter. You won’t have a perfect sales page after doing this of course, but you will definitely have a stronger page than if you attempt to write one without any guidance or a template.
Desperate Buyers Only provides exactly what you need to write the sales letter yourself. If I was you, I’d take this book, use it to copy the format presented for your product and then, if you can afford it, pay to have an expert do a copy-review, which can cost as little as a few hundred dollars, compared to a few thousand to have the page written for you from scratch.
Traffic
A book like this wouldn’t be complete without a discussion of how to get traffic. I have to admit I’m always curious about the traffic section when it comes to any Internet marketing book, specifically because I want to see if the author can surprise me with something new.
Unfortunately Desperate Buyers Only did not surprise me, the techniques mentioned are nothing that hasn’t been written about before. However what I do like is the real-world case study Alexis provides. She says she did “this” and “this” to get traffic and then shows you how to replicate her methods.
The book reveals how Alexis used the following techniques to generate traffic to her sales pages –
- Classified Ads – USFreeAds to be exact.
- Google AdWords – Alexis shows how she finds keywords and what headlines worked best for her against the headlines that did not work as well.
- Affiliate marketing – As I expected, Alexis relies heavily on a handful of top affiliates, who generate a lot of sales. Alexis suggests only seeking affiliates inside your existing customer base since they are best equipped to promote your products.
- Article marketing – Nothing new here, except Alexis does tie in her “desperation” strategy into her article marketing as well, which is definitely something worth talking about. Just throwing out articles is not the answer, using the right keywords and responding to a person’s desperation is key according to Alexis.
Case Studies
There’s a REALLY interesting case study on how Alexis used a Warrior Forum special offer to make $2600 in two weeks. I’m eager to do a Warrior Forum special offer for my own products so I found this section interesting.
In case you are not aware of it, the Warrior Forum is a website community full of thousands of Internet marketers of all experience levels. There is a section in the forum where you can offer your product for sale as a “special offer” and because of the sheer number of users you can often make a few thousand dollars in a matter of days.
Don’t Overestimate The Buyer
Alexis ends the book with a poignant point, similar to what I talked about in Get Rich Helping (And Selling To) Beginners.
The web is full of free information, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make money selling the information. Everyday net users are not necessarily good researchers and cannot find the best information on their own. If you package the quality content into a report and use the right marketing to sell it, you can help people and turn a profit, even if the information is available elsewhere online.
Should You Buy This Book?
Desperate Buyers Only is a great book and I have trouble finding any major faults with it. If anything, the only thing I don’t like about the book is the fact that money is the core focus, however that really is a moot point, because you can take the book and apply it to an area you are passionate about and use it to find where the money is.
I bought this book myself because I wanted to know what Alexis did that I don’t do. I’m not good at high-level research into niche markets and looking at things like keywords and profitability because I tend to focus on what I like and just “do it” rather than find out if I can make money from it. This isn’t a good strategy for everyone and I wanted to know alternatives for those who are struggling to find a profitable passion or if you desperately need money.
This book is ideal for you if you don’t have your topic yet and in particular good for people who in the past may have followed their passions and just not made any money.
It’s frustrating to spend months not making a penny – I totally understand that – and sometimes just making your first sale is the motivation boost you need. Alexis presents a very logical and systematic way to start making money, devoid of passion but potentially very profitable once you get the marketing mix right.
I recommend after finding a niche that you make profit in, you look for ways to dominate and go deep in that niche. Alexis recommends the use of back-end products, which is definitely a good idea and I’d suggest taking that even further by becoming one of the preeminent sources of information on that topic.
Finding buyers is aways the greatest challenge for people new to Internet marketing. If you are new, or just plain frustrated, pick up a copy of Desperate Buyers Only and try it out. This could be your ticket to cashflow and maybe even more, and if nothing else, you will never wonder how to pick profitable topics again after reading this book.
Here’s the link: http://www.desperatebuyersonly.com
Yaro
Just Plain Desperate
That’s a great review. I’m going to go look at it now.
I’ve already got “Earn an income by creating your own DVD” by James Brausch, which will probably be similar, but focuses on producing video based products on DVD instead.
thats a great review,i will try getting the book as soon as i can,as now i am more confident on making money online after making sales last week from affiliate marketing,
Thanks again Yaro.
Cheers.
This product can not be current any more. Is there a follow up that you can recommend, or is the popularity of this article due top the fact that it holds some timeless truths?
I agree that when I made my first sale a couple weeks ago it was awesome boost in confidence for me and gave me the feeling that this can be done. I haven’t heard much about this eBook yet but it sounds interesting as I know I’m blogging to make some money while also providing information for people. I will need to take a peak at the website listed and see what it’s all about.
-Scott
Nothing feels quite as good or the same as that first sale! Ok, maybe the only other similar feeling is when you’ve attained that magical number of sales/traffic where you realize you can now work for no one but yourself…that one’s pretty good too 🙂
This is definitely a tool I should implement to profit a bit more from my sites. I’m already writing a ton of articles to provide my readers with useful info and to increase my traffic. Doing an ebook would be a logical next step.
Thanks – how refreshing to read a long, thorough, and balanced review of a “make money online” product.
I’m on a self-imposed boycott of new product-buying, but if I fall off the wagon it’ll be because of reviews like this. Thanks again.
I’m for the passion side of things. Just chasing money is soul destroying.
But as you say it is great to make money from your passion. If I don’t make enough money I’ll certainly give it a look.
It sounds like a great read.
My problem is with the sales site. What I do not understand is:
– Why all these types of sales sites look like they were built in 1996
– Are so long and hard to read
– Dont tell me how much the product costs
– I have to scroll down for ages to find the buy now button.
– There is no navigation – give me quick links to buy now/testimonials etc
Does this not bother anyone else?
Hey Tom:
Yeah I feel the same exact way. As a matter of fact I kinda feel like all of this is just a huge money making machine. I really don’t buy ANY kind of “books” on “How To make money…”. I bought into Yaro’s course because I though and believed that it was different. And I still do believe that he and Gideon have a lot to offer an pass on, however, with that said I also feel that everything here is geared at US. To make money from US. Just like Yaro and the Alexa both say all of this information is available online and I’m sorry but I’m pretty good st research, so I think I’ll go on and research on my own. If anybody thinks that I’m wrong, just take a look at the comments. How many people are ready to go buy this “Book”? I’m sorry Yaro, I respect you and I do like what you have to offer but it’s beginning to feel like any review you do is geared to sell the product. Not so much to give us info. That’s just one persons opinion. And Tom your right about the look and feel of the ‘sales’ sites. I would be very hesitant to punch in my credit card number, it just looks really sleazy and low tech.
Okay I ahve said enough. By the way Yaro that was a well written review, regardless of the intent.
It is true, they all look the same, no design at all, and extremely long that by the end of the email, you lose any interest and all you think is: This is another scam.
Hi Yaro,
I actually got this ebook sometime last week and was thinking about reviewing this ebook along other products that I’ve bought.. I still haven’t finish reading it but so far its an awesome book so far.
Really awesome review of this product.
Cheers,
Carlo
This is in my to do list. Thanks for the review Yaro. It was a complete review of what’s in the book…
It was like I’m reading it.
My good friend is a great example of someone paying for something they could have easily found for free. Over coffee yesterday she told me she paid $3 on eBay to find out where to get OpenOffice software! I nearly fell out of my chair. But she said she was happy to pay it because it saved her research time (which I doubt, but her perception is what counts).
I have the DBO book, and one of the things I found useful in it was the research advice – specific sites to go to and how to look at the information.
I have had my eye on this ebook for a while. Glad you reviewed it. I love the copy for it, simple, and not to complicated with in your face graphics..
@Comment by Tom Beaton..
Tom, most sales letters are constructed that way, because there are certain elements within a “call to action” landing page that work..
Long copy and the other elements that annoy you about a sales page, are exactly what some people are looking for.
Long copy – much debated as to it’s effectiveness, still works, and some people will read the whole page before they make a purchase.
Especially if it is an expensive item. Personally, I don’t like slogging through a long sales page, but if I am interested in the product, I will read the whole thing..
As an example, when I created my first sales page, it was only about three page long. I now have 40, and get a lot more orders as a result…
Sometimes the old ways, are still the best ways..
Just my two cents..
Robert C.
The Wholesale Guy
Great review, Yaro!
I need such products and I might just go and buy a copy today. Alexis was right, we should sell what people wanted. I did just that last year, sold a silly eBook about helping Malaysians find ways to make money through Clickbank (Malaysians are not accepted as affiliates and publishers there). My sales were only about US500.00 but it certainly gave me a big surprise!
I agree with Tom!!
After you’ve read a few of these sales pages, they all look the same, and lame at that. I internally tone everything down by 200% as I’m reading, and my reaction is “yeah, yeah”. I guess we’d miss the sales hype if it weren’t there, and would be even less likely to buy, but I wish there were a way to get people’s attention without coming across like used car salesmen. Reviews like this are especially helpful because they ferret out the really useful stuff among the formula-style sales pages.
Anymore, I would not buy an online product/book/course without some trusted independent recommendations.
While I understand how the sales funnel works, it always seems done in such an obvious way that it becomes downright obnoxious. Can marketers devise a way to sell themselves with style? Can I? I don’t know.
aloha yaro,
great post! you have been putting all those blog money making ideas in my mind since i started reading your newsletter in 2006. this post completes the list.
i had never heard about the warrior forum and did take an immediate first glance. makes a good impression, especially that part of ‘special offers’. i will check that out for a possibility of my ‘hawaii special’. mahalo!
Yaro,
Kudos on a well-done review, but experience has shown me one can’t totally give up on passion.
At least I can’t. I’ve got to find something about whatever I’m doing that if I’m not passionate about, at least holds my attention.
On the other hand, if the passion is about making money, then the means may not matter too much.
What I mean is that if one sees making money as a game or challenge, the fun of it (or passion) may be in achieving success.
But still at the end of the day, I think that once successful, the game loses its allure, and if we can’t find some aspect of what were doing to stay passionate about, we’re in danger of losing any means of momentum.
Just a thought.
Hi Yaro,
I had a good laugh when I read,
‘They follow the all-time favorite, and frequently quoted, adage, “Do what you love and the money will follow.” ‘
Then I saw your comment about finding where the money is in any opportunity – I can totally relate. Great review.
Stephen Martile
Personal Development Made Simple
http://www.stephenmartile.com
@christine – I am glad someone does!
@Robert C (The Wholesale Products Guy) – I am not saying the long pitch or the actual copy isnt good, what I am saying is the presentation is not good. It looks like a shady sales pitch – whether it is or isn’t is irrelevant after you establish that.
Surely a nice fresh looking page (like this blog) would have been better? Maybe throw in some navigation and some obvious buy it now buttons.
Just my opinion.
Author: Tom Beaton
Comment:
@Robert C (The Wholesale Products Guy) – I am not saying the long pitch or the actual copy isnt good, what I am saying is the presentation is not good. It looks like a shady sales pitch – whether it is or isn’t is irrelevant after you establish that.
Surely a nice fresh looking page (like this blog) would have been better? Maybe throw in some navigation and some obvious buy it now buttons.
Tom..
I got it now. Sorry, I thought you were bummed by the long copy only, and I just picked that portion of your comments – to well – comment on!
My bad… And I do agree with you..
Revisiting the DB sales copy – while I love it’s simplicity – I am a little bit disappointed by the way it is structured.
Yes, the copy needs to flow a little better..
Some “buy it now” buttons or links placed at strategic points in the copy would be a plus..
But, I guess if it is working for the seller, so be it.
I am not a genius in the art of copywriting by any stretch of the imagination.
Really didn’t have much of clue when I wrote my own copy. Learned a lot of good design elements, colors, and structure from Mike Fortin, and some pointers from the CopyBlogger..
It is funny how some sales pitchs which may look not be very well designed can yeild some of the best information about a particular product.
I believe that Desperate Buyers is one of those products. Just wish it wasn;t 77 dollars!
“a href=”http://www.thelazymarketer.com”>
“Confessions Of A Lazy Affiliate” also has a “low ball” look to it.
But the copy is shorter and you do not have to go to far to find an order link..
Probably the only two ebooks I will buy this year.
I think they are two of the best in terms of the information they provide about ebook creation and affiliate marketing respectively..
That’s my rant..
Many apologies for any misunderstandings Tom..
Robert The Wholesale Products Guy..
It really true about the statement you mention. However I still found that was easily for people to find a geo targeting demand easily. In the internet there are too many ebooks around. Like paypal and clickbank not not available to withdraw the money in some country like indonesia and Malaysia. However, they are someone writting a books about how you still can sign up with paypal and clickbank, and to withdraw money locally in any ATM machine. The books is about 13 page short. After my research, I found many people become their affiliates.
No worries Robert.
That page for the lazy affiliate is much better in terms of it being cleaner and better presented. However – There is still no quick buy it now button above the fold.
Personally, I would like a quick summary of key points and the option to buy all above the fold. Then having the full blown pitch below that so those interested can read on.
Is this book only for doing sales in affiliate? Coz it’s stressed on sales. Does it work with ptc?
If Yaro hadn’t done this review on it, I’d probably have closed the browser without reading the sales page. It looks so.. well.. suspiciously scammy at first glance. I agree to some that if you do it this way, you may miss out the good ‘legit’ products but it’s hard to tell from the sales page (esp if it looks like that) – which is which. In fact, you can’t.
This is a pleasingly thorough review, nonetheless.
like tom and christine i am also turned off by those long sales pitches with almost the same layout, huge fonts, etc. they give me the impression that the whole thing is a scam. probably too hard sell?
but then i’m no expert at selling or marketing. obviously the formula works!
but i’m a bit heartbroken that we can’t just do what we love….
Hey Yaro – interesting review, indeed.
I’m in the passion camp. If I can’t get passionate about a topic then I can’t get motivated to get it done. I know I’m probably leaving money on the table but what’s the point in being your own boss and doing passionless things?
I got Alexis’s book a fair while back and did a review on it. I got a lot out of it, but only incorporated the best parts of it into my own system – and passion is a part of my system.
I’m a researcher at heart, but I could never do research on something I don’t care about. And I believe that if money IS the passion it can only take you so far.
BTW, love the way this has turned into a long sales page conversation 😉 I’m off to read your thoughts about it…
Wow, really deep going review. Glad I found your site 🙂 And like Martin said, this looks like a sales page to. And not a average small one!
Thanks for the info again Yaro!
Your site is great.
Yaro, I’m really intrigued by Alexis’s idea. It seems to be a new twist on an old problem of audience and product, and the long tail potential is HUGE.
I and two partners are implementing a test project to put Alexis’s ideas through the ringer. If this project works (makes sales), we’ll buy her book to learn how to do it right (backwards, I know), and we have other ideas. For our test project, we have a good product, or will have soon, know our desperate audience, and have written the looooong sales page (I can’t believe I did that!).
What back-end software do you recommend to finish the process of report delivery once a buyer has sent payment through PayPal? Will AWeber do that? I’m looking for something like Alexis describes on her “getcheckingnow.com” example, but am not sure how to go about finding it.
Thanks for the review Yaro and maybe I’ll pick up my own copy. I have so much to read at the moment. Tons of books with so little time.
Hi Yaro,
You really are doing a very good work although as it is often said, there is always a room for improvement. You are quite wonderful. I wish I knew you earlier on, I would not have been scammed by the so-called work-at-home internet fraudsters.
Ade
The 2005-2006 proof of income screenshots make me a little suspicious of how up-to-date the product’s information is. I even emailed the author to ask her if the information is still relevant, but a week later I still haven’t heard from her. However, if Yaro still likes it, that’s enough for me.
I just join and I look forward to reading the ebook…I have also found help on how to write better copy written letter…check out “Glyphius”…it sounding like someone comment on finding the same software in the first comment I read…
This is the third articles I read this morning talking about marketing in Warrior Forum. I must seriously look at this forum since becoming an “inactive member”
I’m sorry that this is not topic related but I wasn’t able to get help on the WordPress forums. Again, my apologies.
Yaro (or anyone that can help),
I am a subscriber of yours and have setup my own website. When I use the html from aweber (autoresponder) to embed a form on my page, the space to fill in the information doesn’t work. I was told in the forum that WordPress doesn’t support forms, but obviously you have a form on your site. Can you provide some help/insight? It would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Thanks for the review Yaro! I do have a passion for writing. It’s a good thing that I’m passionate about many topics. I am focusing on making money. In fact, I think I focus on it too much which is why it has eluded me up until this point. Well…no more!
Thanks for the review and the mention in the newsletter.
Hey Yaro,
I really enjoyed your Blog Profits Blueprint, it’s full of great advice.
The book you reviewed looks very interesting and I’m sure I could use it down the road.
I’m going through analysis paralysis right now and need to start taking more focused action. I will buy the book at some point.
Thanks for your emails updating us on information like this.
All the best
Cheers for the review; it seems to be getting harder and harder to find a good ebook these days (there seems to be so much crap around), and this is definitely one I will consider buying. I write a few ebooks myself but it is really hard to find a popular niche that isn’t over saturated, but hopefully this one will hold the answers I need!
Hey Yaro,
I have read every article and review that you sent me and this one takes the cake. Excellent review and I am definitely going to check it out.
Good work
Hi, Yaro
Thank’s for your tutorial abour how make money with blog.
I have a blog about tutorial visual basic, i build from march 2008
until now, i want my blog can make money, can you give me a suggest
what i can i do for my blog.
Thank’s
Peter Elisa Souhoka
Amateur Blogger
http://programmervb.wordpress.com
email:peter.elisasouhoka@gmail.com
Hi Peter,
Read the Blog Profits Blueprint and start following the steps. That’s the best free advice I can give you.
Yaro
From what I read,
this e-book is about knowing the physochology
of customers and also targeting by specific
niches. Telling customers about what the products
can do for them instead of explaining the features.
The only question that rising up in my head is,
“What softwares/sites that is being used for doing
analysis of the customers?”
If you are not passionate about it, isn’t it a waste of your time?
Dear Yaro,
I have read you e-book the Blog profits blue print, it is great but my blog is free, i use worpress. Can i get money with free blog.
Thank’s
Peter Elisa Souhoka
@Peter
Your question ….How you can earn from your blog?
Am i right?
Then first clear it …you can not earn money using adsence or other way in free wordpress blog. If you wand then you need to pay some $ to wordpress….
So what you can do?
Yes there is way for you…You can open a blog in blogger(www.blogger.com) and can import all your post from your current blog. then you can apply for adsence and other advertising and can use in your blog…
Whats my suggestion?
But i suggest you if you can spend some dollar then buy domain and hosting and make a blog using wordpress platfrom…If you dont have more money now then just buy domain and host it in blogger…cause its free…
If you have any question about blogging and blogger service then reply here or comment in my blog….
I love the ideas, I think the writer might be onto something. However,
$77!!!!! I wouldn’t pay that for a book in a bookstore why would
I pay that for an online book? It’s going to cost half that to
print it out. Yes, I want my newbie business to grow but
if I haven’t made money yet, and would like to learn how, how
am I supposed to justify spending $77 for a book? I’ll use your
review, and my own research skills, to find this info out for myself.
Maybe that’s what will set me apart from the pack and I
can write my own book? Bwahaha!
It is a great review and It make the book look really good.
But then you go to the sales page and you see the same sales pitch 3 miles long, overloaded with claims,. tons of testimonials, same fonts, same design… no, it doesn’t convince me!
I’m absolutely sure it isn’t worth $77. This trend of charging inflated prices for how-to books and reports is gone way too far and we all are feeding it. I personally won’t go for it!
Following Yaro’s advice, I started a blog last week and made my first sale of an affiliate product yesterday. I am not quitting my job or driving a limo, but it is nice to fill a need and make a little money doing it.
Thanks,
Steve
Steve,
Great job – first week blogging and one affiliate sale! I have waited for 2 months before making any affiliate sale 😛
This is in my to do list. Thanks for the review Yaro. It was a complete review of what’s in the book…
Great review very interesting thoughts by Alexis these are some new information that will be loved by any one!!
Great Yaro,
I would definitely buy the when I get enough money. As of now, I have no credit card and not in a position to buy it. But count on me I will come back. Infinite riches is flowing freely into my life. Great. Great success to all my friends here!
I usually don’t comment to blogs but this article really got my attention As a Bum Marketer we don’t like to spend money on anything you can get for free and this is just another example of that.Besides the fact that the sales page looks like armature hour the cost is ridicules and as a member of your happy little family I’m saddened that you would even bother to review it.I understand that money is money but my thoughts are that when you try to sell trash you cheapen what you are about.Nuf said have a nice day Mate
This is one of the best review about blogging I have seen in the past few months.
Save your money and just build a blog that deals with one of these 4 themes:
Time, Money, Sex (and Salvation). You can read the whole article here:
http://andywibbels.com/2008/11/time-money-sex-and-salvation/
(For example, losing weight, makes us more appealing to the opposite sex or it’s supposed to, so weight loss, diet and exercise belong in the Sex category).
Andy ends his article with this quote:
What are three ways your products and services help others increase the control they have over their lives?
P.S. I learned about Yaro from Andy Wibbels.
Great review. Very informative. The price may be high for information that can be got for free searching the internet. But what is your time worth? And some would not know how to search for what the need…
“If Yaro hadn’t done this review on it, I’d probably have closed the browser without reading the sales page”
I agree, i don’t like the look of sites like this but Yaro writes a persuasive review. : )
Might check it out.
Like many of the commenters here, I’m not sure that passion can be thrown out the window entirely – especially if a marketer wants to enjoy any sort of longevity in the internet marketing arena.
If I were going to entirely dismiss passion, I’d just go get a corporate job – there are plenty of opportunities for jobs that pay the rent but offer no real fulfillment (plus the benefits are a lot better than those available to pro-bloggers and internet marketers).
A lack of passion shows through in sales copy, blog posts, and other marketing content. Maybe its just in the nuances – but I can tell when a marketer is just in it for the money, and doesn’t have at least a moderate interest in the subject matter.
That said, I firmly believe that there is a place where passion and profitability intersect… though that place comes as a surprise to most internet marketers. That’s why I recommend that marketers fully explore their own spectrum of passions, and then pare those passions down through the filters of practicality and profitability. The end result is that out of dozens of passions, a marketer can find an angle for one or two that has the potential for making money.
Alexis’s material does touch on some very important points, though, such as accurately identifying and focusing on the “pain” of a particular niche audience. That’s a point that can’t be stressed strongly enough – many marketers think that people will buy what they want to sell, rather than tailoring products to specific needs.
And for anyone who doesn’t have the patience and technical interest to learn the nuts and bolts of sales writing and copywriting from someone like Dan Kennedy, this work does provide enough insights to write at least a decent sales letter.
All in all, I’d agree that this is a good resource for the beginner who doesn’t want to become overwhelmed. I’m just a little put off by instruction that places money over genuine interest.
My mom is wanting to do business online but was on the look out for some great info which would guide her all along. Thanx a lot for this great ebook. I’m sure many would benefit from the info provided.
Hi Yaro! I was introduced to your name and site during an Internet Marketing seminar done in Malaysia back in January and as curiosity creeps in, I surf your blogsite and was truly impress with how you manage to break down complex subjects into a simple to understand content.
This review was really well done and it entice me to go out and get the book. I bet a lot of newbie will benefit from this too. Thanks Yaro for the information.
Hi Yaro,
Thanks for the review. You were so thorough that I had to take a look at the product. After reading it I noticed that it was put up for sale in 2006, and I don’t think it was updated since.
I have no doubt that the system or concept may still be valid, but we’re in 2009. By internet standards… it’s a long time ago. My concerns are that any sites mentioned may not be valid anymore and those that are perhaps more relevant today would NOT be included in the book. If this is the case, then how useful would the book be today?
Further, in today’s recessionary times $77 is a bit steep for an ebook that may be outdated.
Hai Yaro,
A very honest review.Yes,as well said in desperate buyers money is in desperate buyers only not on tressapassers or window shoppers seeking information,its with the one who seeking solutions to their problems.
Thanks Yaro.
Mujib
seooptimizationtips dot com
I found a popular blog topic purely by accident. most of my blogs do not get much traffic even though i wrote lots of content every day. Then i made a new blog, wrote one sentence and it went nuts. I have over a thousand comments on it, and then i created a forum, and a private members area as spin off sites so everyone could discuss. This blog was very popular but I made no money off of it. I do want to monetize the site and i will as soon as i finish up school in two months. I took welding but all i really want to do is write articles for people, blog, seo work and link creation. I have 1 customer that pays me five hundred bucks a month to build links for them. I just wish i could get 4 more customers like that. I need to increase my website building skills so i am going to take a website design course and purchase adobe creative suites. I also want to sign up for gideon and yaros become a blogger. I have lots of blogs, and i love to write, but i need to finally start getting paid. Google adwords has not been cutting it. I know it will all come together, but I sure would like to make enough cash to impress my wife so i can keep on working at it. If i dont i will be working way up north in 40 below. As always love your blog yaro, it is very inspiring to me. Love the lifestyle you got going. Thats what i am looking for. I have had enough of these canadian winters.
Hi Yaro,
After reading this e-book I made quite a few small changes to my sales letter which is already proving to help increase sales. I plan to change a couple more things 1 step at a time.
Thanks Greg
Nice review and a useful message about choosing the right topic. Today, every second person has some personal or professional problems and it will really lead them to search for the targets…
Hi guys,
I just wanted to a a little bit about the discussion about long sales letters going on quite a bit above from where you are reading now (you probably passed through there…)
There are some advantages from the point of behavioural science about the long sales letter.
1. You can skim through. Most people will just be happy with and ideas of what they COULD read on the page if they WANTED to. Thez actually don’t do it, but it really helps to place that product into perspective.
2. Lots of people tell how they like the product. We are all sheep. If one sheep starts to run, we all follow suit (just look at Wall Street). If you can make the imporession that the “social vote”on yout product is good, than so be it! People will buy.
3. Time that went into creating the sales page. Obviously making a long sales letter takes way more time than writing a short bit. So there has been an investment (of time). People use this information unconsciously to form an impression about the product. So the thoguth goes: If someone has invested that much time and money in it, it must be good! This is the same psychological effect that makes the same wine for 20$ taste better than the for 5$. Or why the same fruit juice, when its placed in the cooling unit, can be sold for dubble the price. It is because we deduct information from the implicit information we gather about items in our world.
4. People know the format. People willing to spend money on information products are aquainted to the long-sales-letter. In some way you could see this as a brand. So people might feel more comfortable. Ont he other hand they could have been ripped of the last time…but hey…then they would probably not search for information products anyway!
Okay I hope this has shed some light into the psychological aspects of the long sales letter.
Okay…hope you profit from that!
Martin
Yaro, this one sound like just another ebook. Also it is outdated. Your review looks good and deep on the book but I am somehow not convinced on investing on this one.
If there was one product I am willing to invest in then which one would you recommend?
Studying the competition is definately mot helpful. Did just that this morning and picked up a few hot tips and then gave them my own spin.
Hi All,
I have to agree with Tom about the long sales letters. And in the past, I’ve seen some that told me everything I needed to know above the fold and put a buy link right at the fold.
Another thing about the “formula” sales pages that drives me nuts is they all seem to use the same Times New Roman over-sized font, with the same red headlines interspersed. Where else do you see red Times New Roman used on web pages? Nowhere. It’s cheesy in my opinion.
I suspect people use the formula only because nearly everyone else does. No originality, no guts. However, there are a few very successful niche marketers who don’t follow the formula. Check out http://www.bettafishcenter.com/bcme.shtml for an example. This guy makes a lot of money on small niches and he’ll teach you exactly how he does it. Hint: It’s not by boring readers with long sales pages.
Best to everyone,
Owen
Your MessaThats a great review, I will check it out.
I already have a product that is focused on creating video based products on DVD.ge
I’m definately needing that book! Selling is so hard sometimes lol. Great article. Keep it up!
Good stuff again and your are reviews is useful!
Hey all,
“this is the book for those lost souls who are passionless, money-hungry, wannabe information sellers.”
That’s me!! Sorta! Nothing harsh there, in fact, it made me laugh. Something I’ve been in short supply of lately.
Tom and others – as to long sales letters, if you’ve seen one, you’ve prolly seen them all. But… sales are a fact of marketing, can’t do without them. Still, I tend to skim through, stopping and reading if a section catches my eye and then I zip down to the cost at the end of the letter.
Have a great day!
Clare
the concept of having an idea is the IN – Thing in creating ideas for a unique blog or website, websites with unique features attract not only traffic but money and money attracts patronage, good post from you yaro
Hi Yaro,
I might get around to taking a look at this book myself sometime soon. Your recommendations about it were impressive and made it sound very much as though it should be well worth reading. I have a good mentor in the IM niche,
but I am still sort of floundering around to some degree because of the sheer immensity and scale of the learning curve involved in making money online, but
I remain determined to persevere and to overcome every obstacle that stands between me and success.
Have a great day.
Gary
Thanks for the review. I think is great the way you review books that are worth it pay attention to. I started follow your blog few week ago, and so far it is great information. Cheers
Do u have any of your articles or information translated to another language, more specific Spanish?
Thanks, Yaro, for an inspiring review of an equally inspiring book.
My vintage dreams continue to be modernised.
Cheers!
Thanks for the informative review. I’ve been trying to find the perfect balance between the “passion” -based and more pragmatic and financially-dictated ways of blogging. I’m going to look into the book.
Great post. Every info marketer has problems trying to find a profitable niche. In the beginning everybody looks for “hot niches” but in fact the money isn´t in them.
I keep hearing recommendations for this ebook – I’m getting close to snagging it up. Thanks for the full run down, I think it’s solidified my decision hehe
Hey Yaro,
Smart on you for incorporating this post into your autoresponder. You’re currently ranked #2 on first page of organic Google listings for the term “Desperate Buyers Only Review.”
Even better is that this is the best darn review of the ebook on the entire net. Great content always sells.
I had heard of this ebook in passing from something that Sonia Simone wrote once upon a time over at Copyblogger, or it may have been her blog called Remarkable Blueprint. I know she knows her stuff. And I know you know your stuff. So two people who know their stuff mention (and recommend) Desperate Buyers Only.
Now that’s social proof.
For everyone here in the comments who has griped about the price… bad news. The price went up from $77 — which must have been the price at the time of this posting — to $97.
I would urge all of you griping about price to look at it from a different perspective. In fact, look at it from two perspectives.
1. If you buy and implement, you’ll earn it back. The knowledge that is being offered is worth ten times the cost IF you implement.
2. If you focus and implement immediately, but you find that it stinks, you can get your money back within 60 days.
Thanks Yaro. I like this review. I find it helpful.
Eric Walker
Number two in the google organic rankings for the title of this post is quite groovy. It would be interesting to have a look at Yaro’s analytics to see how many keywords and keyword phrases he has got front page ranking on. Maybe this very subject will make a great future blog post?
Is this book still relevant today, I can see it’s about two years old (at least this review) so would it still be a good buy or is it outdated, I can see from many of the things you have wrote here about what’s in the book, that it seems like many of those things would still work this day, but it would be nice to hear what you think, thanks.
The book was updated about six months ago and the price went up too. It’s got plenty of relevant ideas because basically what it talks about is good marketing psychology and how to use it with copywriting online.
Well, you do make it sound like a valuable resource, but she wants an obscenely insane amount of money for it, so I won’t be getting it.
When people say, “Worth its weight in gold!” or “Easily worth 10 times its price!”, that’s a figure of speech and it doesn’t mean the person would actually pay that for it. 😉
Let her drop her prices to something reasonable, like 1/10 of the current price, and I’ll consider getting it. That would be more in line with what Kindle books go for (and personally, I think they’re overpriced).
Also agree with others about those horrible sales pages. To me, all they say is, “Scam up ahead, run!” and I immediately leave the page. It’s a total turn-off, and I’d never buy their product.
With you all the way Terry.
Great review Yaro, with nearly 3 years of comments here.
The sales page is fairly scarey, and I worry that with this being on sale at not far off a hundred bucks for nearly 3 years why hasn’t the site owner spent a little of her moolah on a nice site?
I think the thing that peeves most of the naysayer commentators here, (me included), is that we could have knocked up a better site for her in a couple of hours. I wouldn’t ask for money, I’d do it for a free copy of her book.
Terrys’ analogy with Kindle books is a good one, but this is the world of Internet Marketing, where everyone is paying ridiculous amounts of money for 30 or 40 papped out pages of ‘info’ that will supposedly change our lives. The emperor has no clothes on, but no one wants to be the first to stand up and say it.
To quote Yaro’s review:
“Thanks to Alexis and her e-book, you can use her techniques to chase the dollar by focusing on “desperate buyers”, people ready to spend money to solve urgent problems”.
I find it ironic that this ebook could easily be talking about all of us here in the IM community, and it will probably be offered as an opt in bonus two years from now.
Apologies for the tone everyone, shouldn’t have had that third cup of coffee.
Yaro, this is an excellent review. I have been pondering this angle of approach but not enough good back-up info. I am going to get this book, need it in my library …thanks!!
Well, I picked up a copy of Desperate Buyers last week based on your review. Thanks for taking the time to review this product positively and bringing it to your subscriber / reader base. I’m always amazed at your value-adding posts.
Your review rally touched on some important themes, and I’m sure sent a jolt of excitement through the nervous systems of many Internet marketers out there still looking to break into a viable method of earning a living (and more) online.
I like very much that this ebook appears to focus on “need to know” information without a lot of fluff and pumped up page content, as so often happens.
But the basic formula of “find someone’s pain and offer a solution” is as valid now as it was 100 years ago, and this sounds like good advice.
I got a kick out of your characterization of the potential audience for this ebook as those lost souls who are passionless, money-hungry, wannabe information sellers.” There is more truth than poetry there for many of us–and I don’t think there’s anything wroing with that if you’re upfront with yourself about your motives.
Thnsk for the post.
Hey Yaro…
Just picked this post up off your autoreponder email not sure if you will see this reply… thanks for reminding me about this I have a copy fishing around… I remember it was a great read but I picked it up b4 I had a real use for it… Only started my IM journey in Sep this year…
Cheers
Sell, sell and sell some more.
I’ve been thinking about this topic a lot lately. I feel that there could be a way to craft my passion in a certain way that makes it appeal to those who want to buy something immediately. But it would still have to be a somewhat popular passion. I certainly have a lot of passions that dont translate into “hot” products such as playing the harmonium and singing in made-up languages. Unless someone has any ideas for those, I just know that at the end of the day, I need to choose a passion that has some popularity. Oh yeah, btw- the sales page is horrific. But maybe that appeals to desperate people?
While I like Yaro’s review of this product, I don’t see anything in the testimonials on her sales page that state money has been made as a result of using these techniques. It is one thing to say you like someone’s writing or how they present ideas it is another to say, I followed her advice and now I have a business that is taking off..of course, no one will ever guarantee that…Just saying ..As usual, Yaro, thanks for all the information you provide..
Yep indeed, unfortunately doing what you love isn’t always the right way… Guilty of that, as well as of choosing a way too wide of a topic, as in, the all-encompassing topic that is fitness.
I am glad to see that so many people hate these long boring sales pages, so do I. I feel like I am being treated like someone with Alzheimers or an idiot because everything is repeated over and over.
I do trust anything that Yaro recommends though, but at $97 this is just too expensive and I can probably get most of the information by digging for free. $100 is a lot for new marketers.
I am desperate to buy products that help me in my business, but after reading these comments and seeing the price, the only desperation I see is Ms Dawes’s need for large amounts of money.
Hi guys, I m very new to blogging, I have read other people’s blogs but its just recently that I felt I the needed to blog too.
On the real though are you guys REALLY making money out of blogging? I m from South Africa and blogging or internet based business are not so popular but more and more people are starting to use the net.
I m asking this because my decision to blog was solely based on my passion for my field (Learning and Development but I would love to make some cash out of it and hopefully make it a part of my business.
So, is it really possible?
Wow, a lot of very informative tips. Thanks, Yaro. I am going to check out Alexis’ ebook. Sounds like anyone could use this information.
This is a great article and I might consider buying the book. Do you think the information that she has in the book is still relevant considering this article was written in 2008?
Was rather frustrated, reading the book and finding that some of the links, like “Build Your Own Word List” were not working. What happened?