This is an excerpt of the Introduction to Part One of BE THE MEDIA
by David Mathison. Since this is long, we will be posting this in five parts.
If you like you can download a free version of the full introduction at
www.bethemedia.com
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BE THE MEDIA: Introduction to Part One: Rebooting the American Dream
by David Mathison
(PART THREE OF FIVE)
A Repurpose-Driven Life
Meet a leading light of
repurposing, particularly in the field of publishing: Janet Switzer, the
marketing guru behind some of the more successful publishing empires on the
planet. She created no fewer than 327 new products for Jay Abraham, who had just
a few products and a handful of special reports when they met.
With Jack
Canfield, she cowrote The Success
Principles, which hit the best-seller lists of the New York Times and USA Today.
She helped build the megaempire for Mark Victor Hansen’s Chicken Soup for the Soul, which has spawned numerous offshoots.
Switzer has since published the Instant Income series and Publishing
Mavericks: How Experts Build Empires, which teach people to package their
expertise into new products and services at higher prices.
The visualization of this model
is the Product Pricing Curve, which can be used by virtually anyone
with something to, well, emote.
According to Switzer,
“As the sophistication of
your buyer increases on the left (from book buyers up to corporations), the
products they will buy also get more elaborate along the bottom (from digital ezines
to corporate contracts).”
Product Pricing Curve and Author Publishing
Model © 2006 Janet Switzer.
All Rights Reserved. Reprinted with permission.
Where Are You on the Product
Pricing Curve?
Most artists are in the lower
left corner of the Curve—blithely giving away digital samples and offering a
single product: a $20 book, or CD, or DVD. Once the patron makes a purchase, even directly
from you, the artist, there is nothing else to buy.
Offering more products
enables you to increase the potential lifetime value of each customer, which is
worth vastly more than, say, a $20 book that will be read once.
Why is this important? As Switzer
says,
“Your book may never lead to a viable business model. Books are the
lowest profit margined item in an information empire.”
The same can be said for
sales of one-off songs, CDs, and DVDs.
Kevin Kelly agrees. Because multiple
copies of anything have little or no
value and are no longer the basis of wealth, he argues,
“The key is to offer
valuable intangibles that can not be reproduced at zero cost, and will thus be
paid for. Such intangibles might include accessibility to the artist;
authenticity; immediacy and priority access; patronage; curation; personalized
products and experiences; support and guidance.”
Think of the businesspeople, politicians,
and journalists who get big money to consult or give keynote speeches; they
know their way up the Curve.
We all learn and experience
things in different ways. Therefore, offering a variety of audio, video, print
products, and live events will satisfy the unique needs of a larger audience,
expand your opportunities and distribution outlets, and increase the likelihood
of making sales that continue into your rosy future.
Media conglomerates know this
well. They create multiple streams of income by selling products in various
formats—print, audio, video, and digital products—as well as experiences such
as conferences, concerts, and workshops.
Why should conglomerates do all the
conglomerating?
By packaging your expertise into various media properties, you too
can create multiple streams of income.
Let’s summarize three scenarios
for three different creative arenas.
Example 1: Authors, Writers, and Internet Entrepreneurs
Experts at all levels—no matter whether
they are just beginning their career, or already have a big following—can modify
and leverage Switzer’s Product Pricing Curve.
“Ezine Queen” Alexandria
Brown went from struggling author “in tons of debt” (her own words) to a
successful entrepreneur in just a few years. After having only one product to
offer for two years, she packaged her expertise into information products and
services, and now earns an average of $100,000—each month!
Robert Kiyosaki, the
ultrawealthy author of the Rich Dad, Poor Dad series (see BE THE MEDIA Chapter
2, books) is another person who has climbed the Curve.
Look closely at the chart and see
where it starts. On the bottom-left, the focus should be on low-cost ways to
get prospects into the marketing “funnel.” In exchange for a prospect’s e-mail
address (which is crucial for building your “true patron” database), offer
digital downloads that have no costs for shipping and handling, storage, fulfillment,
or returns.
For example, by giving away her free digital ezine, Brown grew her
list to over thirty thousand subscribers. Other giveaways could include a
special report, an MP3 file, a video trailer, or a digital course via autoresponder.
You can also generate leads inexpensively by blogging, podcasting, optimizing search
engines, and linking to affiliate programs. (See BE THE MEDIA Chapters 1, 5, and 9.)
As you move up and to the right
on the Curve, you offer higher-value products such as your book, CD, or DVD for
$30, or you provide a $40 teleseminar or audio book.
Based on her subscriber’s
interests, Ali Brown created new products to satisfy their varying requests—a
$19 book called Power and Soul and a
six-CD audio series for $297 called Think
to Grow Rich.
It’s easy to generate audio products by recording your
concerts, lectures, training sessions, workshops, speaking engagements,
seminars, phone calls, and radio interviews.
In the $497–$997 range, Brown
offers a variety of full multimedia systems, which consist of print manuals,
audio CDs, and video.
Multimedia products improve the perceived value of a
business and increase the likelihood of selling work through catalog companies
such as Nightingale Conant.
Kiyosaki augments his sales of print, audio, and
video products with interactive software at $29.95, his $195 board game Cashflow, and annual subscriptions to
his online community at $99.70 per year.
For those who prefer live
training, Brown offers a three-day event for $3,995 called the Online Success Blueprint Workshop, as
well as a $1,497 Home Study set, a recorded version of the Online Workshop on
twenty-one CDs.
At an average royalty of $1 per book sold, an author would need
to sell fifteen hundred books to equal the income from just one sale of this CD
audio series.
The most expensive offerings are
personalized programs that provide greater access to the artist.
Brown’s Silver MasterMind has one hundred eighty
superpatrons paying $560 per year (over $100,000) for monthly phone calls with
her for ongoing advice.
In 2006 she released a Platinum MasterMind inner-circle program, with just fifteen superpatrons
paying $19,000 each ($280,000 per year). Members meet three times a year at luxury
hotels.
It’s easier to manage fifteen superpatrons
paying $20,000 a year (or a hundred and eighty paying $560 per year) than three
thousand patrons paying only $100.
But these are not mutually exclusive.
There is
no reason you can’t have them all.
And this is exactly how Ali Brown
works the Curve to earn over $100,000—every month.
Why, you ask, would someone pay
$20,000 for VIP consulting?
Simple.
It may be a wise investment.
Say that you
as an author use a traditional publisher and sell ten thousand books at $30 a
book with a softcover royalty of 7.5 percent. Even if you earn the full percent
royalty, which is most unlikely, you net only $22,500 of the $300,000 total
revenue pool, some or all of which may be needed to pay back your advance.
By contrast, if you self-publish
and sell ten thousand books at $30 per book, the entire $300,000 in revenue is yours,
after covering costs.
From this $300,000 in revenues, subtract the $20,000 fee plus
the $22,500 you would have earned under the traditional publishing model, and you
are still $257,500 ahead of the game!
Engaging the right consultant may be well worth the investment. (See BE THE MEDIA Chapter 2, books.)
After all, as Janet Switzer says, “People buy results, not products.”

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