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The
benefits to you of running an ezine or a course by email are
numerous. They can even extend beyond attracting ideal clients into
the wonderful area of passive revenue.
Here are the benefits that I've seen coaches enjoy from
having their own ezine or ecourse. All of the 15 items below have
also been true for me over the past 5 years. I'm a believer.
copyright 2001 by Thomas J. Leonard.
1. You WILL get more clients.
Between 2 and 5% of your readers will respond to something you offer
for sale during a typical year. Some of your readers will become
clients. You'll need to ramp up to 1,000 subscribers to start seeing
this type of return, but that should take less than a year.
2. You WILL get clients who are already presold on you.
This, because they have come to know and trust you as they read what
you write. And, increasingly, as you share stories of clients you've
been working with as it relates to your ezine topic.
3. You WILL get referrals from your subscribers.
As long as your subscribers know exactly what you can do for people,
they'll be able to forward your ezine to others and/or recommend you to a
friend or colleague of theirs. Remember, everyone of your
subscribers knows an average of at least 50 people. So, 1,000
subscribers is giving you a potential reach into a network of
50,000. Don't forget that.
4. You WILL raise your profile in the coaching community.
And a raised profile opens doors and opportunities for you.
Coaches with ezines gain instant credibility and ezines provide a way for
other coaches to get to know you. And the more they know you, the
easier it is for them to send you referrals or invite you into their
spheres.
5. You WILL create FAR more classes, courses, eproducts and services to
serve your subscribers than you would have otherwise done.
This, because, you'll learn quickly what your subscribers want from
you and are willing to pay for. All of my ideas come from
subscribers, clients and R&D Team. Just start interacting with them in
a collaborate (vs selling or hierarchal) way, and they'll start sharing
with you what they want and need.
6. At some point along the path, you WILL likely come up with a
reputation-defining idea, specialty or niche.
By starting with an ezine, you'll begin a path of increased creativity,
self discovery and learning about what people need and want in the
marketplace. In fact, thanks your ezine, it's quite likely that
you'll stumble upon something totally new or a new twist on a popular
subject which will lead you finding your perfect niche or skill set.
Having an ezine will evolve you and your coaching career, and quickly.
7. You WILL increase your cyber savviness when you create an ezine or
ecourse.
Just by launching your ezine, you'll find yourself getting more cyber
savvy in a hurry and learning more than you knew existed about email,
ebroadcasting systems, html ezines, autoresponders, emarketing and
sequential emailers. But don't worry, you can start small, and then
move forward at whatever cyber pace you wish. The point here is,
though, that you'll be learning, naturally, a very slick set of cyber
skills. And these skills will help you become a better coach to your
clients with a similar need.
8. You WILL increase the size of your network to 1,000 to 10,000 or
more.
It takes most coaches about a year to get 1,000 subscribers to their
ezine; the lucky coaches with a hot topic and good marketing will get
2,500 or even 5,000 subscribers in their first year. When you reach
the 5,000 or 10,000 subscriber mark, you should be doing anywhere from
$5,000 to $100,000 a year in business (mostly coaching and TeleClasses but
increasingly eproducts) if your topic is hot and you're a strong provider
of solutions that serve the needs of your subscribers. And, once you
have that size of a network, they'll be telling you what they want to buy
from you, if you'll simply listen and learn.
9. You WILL have something valuable to offer every single person
you meet.
If you're proud of your ezine or ecourse, you'll have something to
share with everyone who visits your website, reads your email signature or
runs into you in the supermarket check out line. (Ecourses work
particularly well for this given they are very very specific in
focus.) I know it sounds a little silly, but you'll 'walk taller'
knowing you have an ezine. Hey, you're now a coach, writer AND
publisher. Can't beat that.
10. You WILL find a way to turn your ezine/ecourse into a revenue
stream or revenue driver.
When you're writing your daily or ecourse, you ARE creating
intellectual property (IP). And IP can be packaged in numerous ways,
many of which carry a revenue stream, even if a typical ezine or ecourse
does not. (We cover this topic extensively in the Passive
Revenue for Coaches ecourse.)
11. You WILL make new friends along the way.
I've met some really special people who started as subscribers and
turned into customers and/or friends. See, when you 'put stuff out
there' and yourself out there, it's like sending out an invitation to the
many cool people who have a common interest. And common interests
are a great way to start a friendship. (And, in effect, your ezine
is creating a special interest community.)
12. You WILL set up a merchant account/shopping cart sooner.
After a couple of months of running your ezine or ecourse, you're
going to start packaging ebooks, teleclasses, ecourses, coaching and other
items that your subscribers can, and will, buy. And, you'll need a
merchant account and shopping cart to handle these online
transactions. And, you'll find yourself getting one sooner. All
because you started an ezine. The ezine is a catalyst for a lifetime
of passive revenue from related eproducts and services.
13. You WILL have developed a network of believers/users who will
buy other creations/services from you.
Starting an ezine is just the first step along your path of developing
a network FAR larger and more diverse than you could have ever developed
on your own. This, because subscribers pass on or broadcast selected
issues to their networks and some of those folks subscribe, and then they
pass issues on to their network, etc.
14. You WILL be able to instantly create your own R&D Team.
Between 10 and 25% of your subscribers will want to join your R&D
Team, either because they like you and/or your topic. They want to
hang around you and learn from you. And, they will also contribute
to you. A lot, if you let them. Why have an R&D
Team? So you can test ideas out and beta test actual products and
services. Your R&D Team acts as your sounding board, barometer,
buying indicator. And your R&D Team are often your best paying
customers as well. Because they believe in your and like what you're
doing.
15. You WILL have something valuable you can show clients and
your colleagues how to do.
Your success with your ezine gives clients another reason to hire you
and another way you can add value to your current clients. Which is
all part of being a model for your clients. And, even though most
coaches aren't in the business of being a tekkie to their clients, the
whole set of cyber, creativity, communication and marketing skills that
you'll be developing/expanding upon as you create and expand your ezine
are the EXACT skills that most, if not all, of your clients will benefit
from. This game is far larger than "just" an ezine...
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