Recently Terry Dean made a post about how he was creating two products in two days. He challenged readers to create a new product in 7 days so I decided to do it. It actually took me 8 days but only because last Monday was a US holiday. I basically did it at no cost too. Here’s how I did it.
First, I thought of three experts on various topics related to making money online and sent them an email asking for an interview. One of them agreed so now I had to figure out how to record the interview since I had never done it before. Several months ago, Richard Lee had mentioned The Basement Ventures. It’s a free conference calling service that allows you to record an mp3 of the call and download it. It took about 60 seconds to sign up for an account. (Note: To record the call, you must press “5″, then “#” on your keypad. This wasn’t very clear but I found it in the FAQs.)
The expert I interviewed was Fred Black. His site, PQInternet.com, is on my blogroll and is consistently ranked #1 for the highly-competitive search term “internet business.” That should be proof enough that he possesses valuable knowledge about how to rank highly in the most popular search engine, but there’s more. I also know he’s good at teaching others how to rank highly in the search engines because my site is now consistently ranked on the first page of the most popular search engine for the term “internet business” too. My results were achieved by following Fred’s simple advice.
Then I created an outline for the interview and sent it to Fred. I also made a post titled “What’s Your Most Vexing SEO Question?” to help my blog readers get their questions answered. Fred & I decided on a time last Tuesday afternoon and we did the interview. About 90 minutes after the call, the mp3 was available for download. The only cost was for the long distance. It was actually very simple and now I know how to create another type of product. This method could also be used for teleseminars.
My goal was to have about 45 - 60 minutes of content on how to get your sites ranked on the first page of the search engines. The interview actually lasted a little over 2 hours. I did not “grill” Fred or “hold his feet to the fire.” It’s just two guys who have figured out how to rank highly on the most popular search engine having a conversation and sharing how we do it.
It’s not real difficult when you know the “secrets” and I don’t even focus on the buzzwords you’ll hear like on-page & off-page optimization, keyword density, H1 tags, blah, blah, blah. I don’t consider myself an SEO expert and I’m not saying none of that stuff is relevant. I am saying it’s a lot simpler to rank highly in the search engines that many “SEO experts” will lead you to believe. After all, they need to sell their products & services so they’ll make something simple sound confusing in an effort to get you to buy their “magic” software tools…but that’s just my opinion.
I haven’t released the product yet. Originally I had planned to get the interview transcribed into a .pdf (a second product) and offer the .pdf as a gift for subscribing to my blog announcement list. Then there would be an inexpensive upsell for the mp3 recording…but I might have a different idea. I’m still deciding what I’ll do with it.
The main point here is how quick & easy it is to find an expert to interview and record the conversation in a very inexpensive manner but there are several other things you can take away here. First, follow the examples of successful people. Terry is one of the most successful online marketers around so when he issued a challenge I knew he had my best interests in mind and took him up on it. Secondly, just get started. I had no idea how I would record the call before I started looking for experts to interview. Who cares? Without having someone to interview that doesn’t really matter does it? Third, lose the innate fear of failure and criticism most people have. Two of the three experts I asked didn’t even respond. So what? One of them did respond and I only needed one to do an interview, right?
What will you do with this information? Will you be like most people who will read it, think it sounds simple, and then proceed to do absolutely nothing? Or will you create an audio product in the next week? You can even take it one step further and Create Your Own DVD Information Product Without Spending a Dime.
Note: I originally stated I would pick the best SEO question and send the person who asked it a complimentary copy of the interview but I’ve decided to send the mp3 to everyone who asked a question. I like people who take action and they were basically all good questions so instead of picking just one, I’ll send it to everyone who asked a question. Give me a few days, I’m going to split the 2 hour mp3 into two files so it’s easier to download but I have to figure out how to do that first.
Tags: Create Your Own Products, Testing & Tracking
Popularity: unranked [?]
8 Comments
Great job on taking action. That’s a key many people need to follow. You got out there and did the interview. I’m sure it will turn out to be a great product. On dividing it up, you could do some basic editing and cut it into 2 pieces using a free program such as Audacity.
Audacity is also my choice. It’s not immediately clear how it works, but after some experimentation it is quite simple.
bah, if only I had been reading your site earlier. I would have asked a question. I would love to have a copy of that mp3
I knew about your and Fred’s and impressive results in the search engines, so — even though I’m on a Tim Ferris low information diet — I started listening to this immediately after download. (And on a busy day when I _really_ should have been doing something else!
And…
FINALLY!! A no B.S. and highly detailed explanation of the usually smoke and mirrors world of SEO.
I’ve listened to, read, and watched loads of stuff about SEO by so called experts, and I can’t think of a single one where they actually mentioned they have a current page 1 top position ranking for a highly competitive phrase.
Yours and Fred’s rankings are there for everyone to see, which PROVES you know what you’re talking about and that this stuff works.
Thanks for making this available.
Great job. Once I am little more established in the blogging community I plan on using your advice and creating some other means to reach people. Audio is a great tool for reaching folks. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for submission your article to the 5th Edition of the “Bringing more traffic to your blog” Blog Carnival. The edition was published today: http://blogging4good.blogspot.com/2008/06/bringing-more-traffic-to-your-blog-june.html
Have a good weekend!
Thank you for you submission to the Weekend Quick Picks
Thanks for your submission to the eighth edition of the Blog Carnival: Blogging. Your post has been accepted and its live: http://thatsblog.com/?p=75
-ThatsBlog.com
13 Trackbacks/Pingbacks
a make money blogging carnival - June 6, 2008…
Welcome to the June 6, 2008 edition of a make money blogging carnival.
BlogMeTheMoney presents Adsense Alternatives: Part 1 of 4 posted at Blog Me The Money, saying, “Adsense is a great way to monetize a website but should not be your …
[...] Phillips presents How to Create an Audio Product Practically for Free posted at [...]
[...] Robert Phillips presents How to Create an Audio Product Practically for Free [...]
[...] Last week I described an example of how I followed this speed imperative to create a product by interviewing Fred Black about how to rank highly in the search engines. You can read that post here: How to Create An Audio Product Practically for FREE [...]
[...] Phillips presents How to Create an Audio Product Practically for Free posted at [...]
[...] Phillips presents How to Create an Audio Product Practically for Free posted at [...]
[...] Phillips presents How to Create an Audio Product Practically for Free posted at [...]
[...] Phillips presents How to Create an Audio Product Practically for Free posted at [...]
[...] Phillips presents How to Create an Audio Product Practically for Free posted at [...]
[...] Phillips presents How to Create an Audio Product Practically for Free posted at [...]
[...] Phillips presents How to Create an Audio Product Practically for Free posted at [...]
[...] Phillips presents How to Create an Audio Product Practically for Free posted at [...]
Blogging Tips Blog Carnival - Write Content, Drive Traffic, Make Money…
Welcome to the June 23, 2008 edition of blogging tips carnival. A whopping 83 articles were submitted for this edition! With this many articles I ran out of time to review them all. This will be a self-policing edition. If there……
Post a Comment