“Anyone can make you tired … not everyone can make you better” is one of my favorite fitness quotes.

It means that any personal trainer can work you to exhaustion. Heck, even I can do it: “Go do 1000 pushups.”

You’ll be exhausted. But you may not be any closer to your actual goals.

Work is not the same thing as productive work.

Marketing training works like that, too. There’s an old trick some have used to make to make their marketing training seem impressive. It’s called the ‘Big Box of Stuff.’

You’ve probably seen these — dozens and dozens (sometimes even hundreds) of small products stuffed together to make a big impression.

“Bonuses” that are just someone’s recycled $9 product that doesn’t sell any more.

It will definitely impress — maybe even overwhelm you. It may come with what seems like a “bargain” price tag. But it won’t get you any closer to where you want to be.

A comprehensive training course is more than just “a giant box of stuff”

You may well have looked at the course listing for Teaching Sells and decided to go get a gin and tonic and think about it later.

Because, you know, it really is a gigantic box of stuff.

The difference is, this “box” is really a series of logical steps. The course takes you from one step to the next to the next. And that’s how you get where you want to go.

If you look at all those lessons and modules, they’re there to take you on a path that’s actually pretty straightforward:

1. You decide on the right topic and the right target market. Get this right and everything else gets so much easier.
2. You start building your audience. If you don’t have a big audience now, that’s totally cool — we’ll walk you through how to ethically, effectively get your awesome self in front of someone else’s audience while you build your own.
3. You create what we call a “Level 3″ product. That means something you control — that you make 100% of the profit from. Is it going to be a huge Teaching-Sells level program? Of course not — it’s a small, valuable product that you should be able to create in a week or so.
4. You learn how to market this small product without feeling like some kind of creepy used car salesman. You’ll learn how to use social media effectively, how to create marketing content, and how to write two different kinds of sales letter. (The big complicated kind, and the quick simple kind. Quick and simple is usually right for these smaller products.)
5. You may launch a few of these small products until you find the right “groove” for your audience. When you do, if you choose, you can create a “Level 4″ product. That means a big, immensely valuable course. That’s when you learn some more advanced marketing tactics, product creation techniques, etc.
6. Progress to the level of products that lets you meet your personal and business goals. You can stay small, with lots of freedom, or you may be ambitious and feel ready to put more into your business. It’s your business and you get to decide. Which is a big part of what’s so cool about it.

We want to help you with that

If you’ve been paying fairly close attention to the content that we’ve sent, and the content we create for Copyblogger, you might have noticed something.

Some of our students have great little part-time businesses (these are sometimes called “lifestyle businesses”) where they don’t work too hard, and they make a nice comfortable living.

Some of our students create mega-valuable sites that charge hundreds of dollars each month, to thousands of customers. (Nice math on that one.) Let’s be clear: that’s more work. But it’s completely do-able, if that’s your goal.

Either way, there’s one factor that allows someone to go from “I always wanted to have a business” to “I love my business.”

Focus

The path, as I said above, isn’t super complex.

But it is loaded with distractions. Partly because no two people’s path is going to look exactly the same, so we can’t give you a pretty paint-by-numbers system and expect that to actually work.

Which is why Chris Garrett and I have added a personal coaching element to Teaching Sells. We first tried it with our last group of students, and it’s done even better than we hoped.

This is in addition (of course) to your 24/7 access to the member forums for anything that’s got you stuck or confused.

The biggest thing you’ll get from these sessions, whether you attend live or check out the recordings?

Focus.

There are a million things you could do. There are a handful of things you must do

Chris and I are going to make absolutely sure you keep those two clear. And we’re going to do everything we can (cajole, encourage, bribe, gently kick in the pants, etc.) to get you to do it.

That path I described up there? That’s the path we’re going to walk down with you. Because it’s a lot easier when you do it with someone beside you … someone who’s walked it before.

The first session is Thursday, December 6

We scheduled our first session for the first Thursday in December, at 12:00 (noon) Eastern U.S. Time. That will give you some time to settle in, start working on the material, and make some rough notes about where you want to go. And if you’re ambitious, there will be plenty to keep you busy between now and then.

(And yes, the sessions are recorded for those who can’t make them live.)

Our kickoff session is going to help you find the motivation and focus to work on the right things … right from your first days in Teaching Sells.

I’ll tell you a secret: You do not have to be one of these people who can implement a huge amount of work in a tiny amount of time. I admire those people too, but the truth is, they often burn out quickly. This really is one of those races that goes to the tortoise more often than it goes to the hare.

But you do have to focus. You have to do the 5% of the work that’s going to get 90-95% of your results. Then you can do anything else you have time for. But work on the first things first.

And one more thing …

When Chris Garrett joined our team, he added a “Minimum Viable Product” module to Teaching Sells that’s been hugely helpful in getting our students up and running much more quickly.

Based on responses from last session’s coaching classes, we’ll be adding material lessons on how to build your Minimum Viable Audience, Minimum Viable Website, and Minimum Viable Launch.

Why? Because attracting that initial audience, putting up a simple website, and how to run your first launch have consistently been among the most commonly asked questions from our new students.

This “MV” model lets you start doing very quickly. That lets you bring in some revenue sooner rather than later (always nice). But even more important, you’ll learn much more from doing a small project than you will in hours of study.

And if you get nervous, or overwhelmed, or don’t know how to go forward?

The short version

I know I tend to be wordy at times. So here’s the quick version of the additional material you’ll get, on top of the complete Teaching Sells and Remarkable Marketing Blueprint courses:

• 5 months of group coaching sessions with Sonia Simone and Chris Garrett. Student after student has told us that these are more than worth the cost of Teaching Sells. These sessions will get you moving, clear out your “stuck spots,” and help you keep your focus.
• A brand-new lesson on the Minimum Viable Audience — how to attract the initial audience that will support your business.
• A brand-new lesson on the Minimum Viable Website — how to build a good-looking, functional website in a day or so.
• A brand-new lesson on the Minimum Viable Launch — once you have a small product, how do you get it into customers’ hands?

If Chris still did individual coaching (which he doesn’t), his charge was $495 per month. My rate would be similar. Chris and I don’t do coaching because our time is reserved for people like you, who have joined us inside Teaching Sells.

We want you with us

Chris and I get a massive kick out of what we do.

When someone puts our advice into action and gets a fantastic result, that is an incredible feeling. Chris and I are slightly addicted to it, to tell you the truth.

We would love to have you with us. If you’re ready to see what the next level looks like, jump into Teaching Sells. We can’t wait to start working with you.

Just click that link and let’s get going.

Join us inside Teaching Sells now

Sonia Simone
CMO of Copyblogger Media and Co-Creator of Teaching Sells

P.S.

Obviously, Teaching Sells is a serious commitment … of both your time and your money. And that can be a little … well, scary. So we’d like to reassure you that of course, if you get into Teaching Sells and it isn’t for you, you can cancel any time in the first 30 days and we’ll refund every penny you pay. You’ll probably still have learned a few things you can use, and we’ll part as friends.

Ever notice that major life changes like to bunch up on you? Forest was laid off from a job he loved, moved to a new community, and found out his wife was pregnant … all events uncomfortably close together.

The great thing is, that kind of pressure can create terrific focus. Forest has created two sustainable businesses using Teaching Sells, and he’s still learning and growing.

1. What was your situation when you first joined Teaching Sells?

I had been working for a tech startup for a couple of years as a researcher for their user interface and user experience team. They had me researching a crazy array of topics, from quantum physics, to Buddhism, to the psychology of gamers in online games such as World of Warcraft.

My job was to find the common themes arising in each discipline and tie them together into a framework that could be used to guide the design of the user interface of a virtual holographic computer platform.

It was a dream job for someone like me who loves to learn, synthesize, and teach, but I was unexpectedly laid off in the fall of 2007. The company needed to hire more hardware engineers and didn’t have the budget to keep me on, since I was a “nice-to-have, but not vital” employee.

After being laid off, my wife and I decided to move back to where our community was so that we could start a family. A couple weeks later, I signed up for Teaching Sells, and the following week my wife was pregnant!

2. What was your pressing problem that needed to be solved?

I needed a new way to make a living, and needed it to be solid since we had a child on the way. I had just been stung pretty badly when the startup laid me off, and I needed to make a big change in my life.

I wanted to start a business of my own … to take my financial situation into my own hands, to not have the course of my life determined by venture capitalists and upper management.

With my deep love of learning and helping others through teaching, I had long dreamed of a way to make good money doing both of those things, but I had no idea how, aside from going back to school, geting a PhD, and trying to find a position as a professor at a university.

I wanted to learn and teach so badly that it hurt. But after I was laid off, I had no outlet for those things. I had no idea how I was going to do the things that made me feel like I was living on purpose, and I had no idea what I was going to teach. No topic, no niche, no outlet … but my passion and desire was enormous!

3. What did you learn that helped you?

I honestly don’t even know where to begin. I want to say that I learned everything, and then spend the next hour unpacking what I mean, but that would make for a long interview!

Teaching Sells opened up an entirely new universe of possibilities for me. For the first time, I grasped the massive opportunity before me: I could package up my knowledge into a multimedia format, sell access to it, deliver it online, and teach people around the world.

I could create my own university, be the professor, help people the way that felt right to me, not be subjected to the threat of being laid off, and remove the ceiling on my income potential. Crazy beautiful dream!

In terms of what I learned in Teaching Sells that would allow me to make that dream a reality, it gave me the foundation for everything I did in my previous business and the one I’m currently running.

To name a few things:

• How to find a niche with a problem that needs to be solved.
• How and why to position everything you say and do, both in your marketing materials and in your training content, to focus on the benefits and outcomes that your prospects and customers are longing for.
• How to build a tech system that allows you to create an interactive, multimedia learning environment to deliver your program.
• How to write persuasive copy, design a curriculum, create the content of your product, structure the business around your training, market your course, and on and on.

Like I said … everything.

4. How was the solution implemented? What challenges did you face?

It took a little while, but I eventually found my niche. I found a topic I had become an expert in, a subject I could teach online, and an area where people had a painful problem they wanted help with: how to use off the shelf software to build a website for their business … without knowing anything about web technology or programming.

I took everything I learned at Teaching Sells and partnered with a company called Joomlashack, where I created Joomlashack University. It’s an online, video-based training program that teaches people how to build websites with Joomla.

Within a few months of launching, it became the most popular place on the web to get training on Joomla, and within its first 9 months became a six-figure business.

After running it for a couple of years, I wanted to start something new, something that could have a bigger impact in people’s lives.

This time, I had found a bigger niche with a larger pain point that intersected with an area I was an expert in: women entrepreneurs who are starting or growing their own online businesses that sell things like online homestudy programs, live webinars, or coaching. When I found the intersection of that niche, need, and my expertise, Tech Husband was born.

Through this business, I help women entrepreneurs learn how to set up their entire web tech system to sell things like online home study programs, live webinars, or services like coaching. (I also get a fair number of men who either don’t mind the branding or who are becoming tech husbands for their partners, which is super fun!)

5. What was the outcome? What were the specific results?

I now get to help and care for an amazing, growing community of entrepreneurs who are making positive impacts in people’s lives with their own online programs and coaching. The joy I get from helping people who are helping other people is indescribable.

I’m using everything I learned in Teaching Sells to help make the world a little bit better, one person at a time … and each person I help goes on to touch the lives of many more people through their work. It’s like a spreading network of happiness … so amazing to be a part of it.

On a financial level, Tech Husband is on track to clear 6 figures within 5 months of launching its first product. The response has been enormous, and I can tell you, with unwavering sincerity, that none of this would have happened had I not joined Teaching Sells after I was laid off. I went from having no job and a child on the way to having a thriving online business that makes a positive impact in people’s lives while giving our family a lifestyle that we had only dreamed of.

Becoming a member of Teaching Sells was an absolutely pivotal moment in my life, and things have been getting better ever since.

Takeaway: Stress is tough to deal with, but it can also be a great catalyst for change. Take action, take stock of your assets and resources, and then take some more action. You provide the drive and the passion, we’ll take care of delivering the know-how and the framework for success.

You can check out Forest’s site at TechHusband.com

« Go back to the Teaching Sells Case Studies

Carole was in a tight spot — after some serious challenges, she needed to reinvent herself and find a new way to make a living. She signed up for Teaching Sells and energetically started putting the pieces together. After using the forums to refine her unique message, she turned her knowledge into a very specific niche — and learned how to translate opportunities into revenue. Now she has a business that meets her financial needs and feeds her passions.

1. What was your situation when you first came to Teaching Sells?

I had been working as a contractor doing a lot of garden design, but I was in an accident that precluded my ability to do that work any more. [Carole's truck was rear-ended by another car and she broke her neck.]

So I went to grad school with the intention to teach biology in college. But just a couple of months before graduation the economy crashed … and no college was hiring anybody. So my last semester in grad school, when I was supposed to be writing my thesis, I was scrambling trying to figure out what to do.

I started researching how to publish and promote a book, so whenever I need a little distraction from thesis writing, I did all this research on book publishing. I found out that people were talking about building blogs as a way to promote their books. In my search for information, I found a little blog called Remarkable Communication [this was Sonia's blog before she joined Copyblogger full time], and you were making so much sense about how to reach people with content from your blog.

I devoured everything you wrote, and I was on your autoresponder list, and you sent a thing about Teaching Sells. I realized that teaching was exactly what I wanted to do! That was the most fortuitous email I think I’ve ever received. You gave me the key.

2. What was your pressing problem that needed to be solved?

I was in pretty dire straits to find a way to make a living that didn’t require a lot of physical effort. My “Plan B” of teaching college wasn’t going to work either, so I needed to find something that did.

3. What did you learn that helped you?

First, big time, I learned that it was possible to make a living online. Just watching how Copyblogger started growing at that time, adding products, hiring employees. I figured if they can support all these people, I can support myself.

I learned how to figure out a business model that was going to work for me, how I wanted to structure things. Also, I’d always worked with power tools … computers were kind of foreign to me. Learning how to put the technical pieces together and discovering that there were things that I could do myself, because I didn’t have money to hire developers.

My site was ugly when I first did it, but it worked. I wasn’t focused on making it look good, I was focused on putting stuff out there. Then in the forums, I found a way to barter with my fellow student Pamela Wilson for my first design header.

And then when you opened the [Remarkable Marketing] Blueprint, I finally understood all of those pieces about who the audience is and how to reach them without sounding like a used car salesman. I had run a business for 20-some years, but I didn’t know how to market without in-person referrals.

Note: the complete Remarkable Marketing Blueprint is now part of Teaching Sells — students have complete access starting week 2 of the program.

4. How was the solution implemented? What challenges did you face?

I started just with publishing content, finding anybody remotely related to my field of what I call Ecosystem Gardening — transforming everyday backyards into habitat for wildlife.

I didn’t have a book out yet … but I was getting invitations to speak. This was unheard of in my field. You have to have written a book. But I was becoming a recognized authority because of what I was publishing on my blog.

I was incredibly shy, and I had to overcome being kind of a hermit. Because of my accident, I stayed home a lot, and the more you stay home, the harder it is to be social again. Just finding the confidence to stand up on stage was very difficult, but I overcame that, and now professional speaking is a major part of my revenue model.

When I started, there was just one other site talking about my topic — a huge organization. I developed a team blog so I wouldn’t have to write all the content, and that site quickly became a recognized authority resource. I then started a second blog attracting published authors and well-known speakers. That blog now has more than 40 writers and has really taken off.

Now I’m moving into making things more automated, so I have more time. I’m finally implementing an autoresponder, so I can do the work once and the content goes to new people who sign up every week. That autoresponder will have mini-courses attached to the messages, as well as links to published books from my team.

One challenge we face is that my audience isn’t very technical. We have to educate them to choose an online course. We’re using our autoresponder to do that.

5. What was the outcome? What were the specific results?

I got successful in ways I didn’t expect and wasn’t totally ready for. I never thought I could become an authority in my topic before I published a book.

Today I make most of my living as a paid speaker, and am in the process of building a series of online courses that will give me more free time. I also have some opportunities to move into related topics and reproduce my success there.

I’ve also done social media and website consulting for traditionally published authors. I don’t do a lot of that, because it’s not where my passion is, but sometimes it’s a nice way to bootstrap some income.

I’m still amazed. Teaching Sells transformed how I make my living, and actually transformed my life. And things are just getting started.

You can check out Carole’s site at EcosystemGardening.com

« Go back to the Teaching Sells Case Studies

Pay attention to the “Takeaway” section after each interview. You’ll also spot ideas that you can start applying right away. The more time you spend studying businesses that are already working, the more you’ll be able to adapt their success strategies to your own business. Creative adaptation can be very profitable.

Carole Sevilla Brown: Ecosystem Gardening

Carole was in a tight spot — after some serious challenges, she needed to reinvent herself and find a new way to make a living. She signed up for Teaching Sells and energetically started putting the pieces together.

After using the forums to refine her unique message, she turned her knowledge into a creating a new and highly specific niche — and learned how to translate opportunities into revenue. Now she has a business that meets her financial needs and feeds her passions.

Click here to read Carole’s story

Forest Linden: Tech Husband

Ever notice that major life changes like to bunch up on you? Forest was laid off from a job he loved, moved to a new community, and found out his wife was pregnant … all events uncomfortably close together.

The great thing is, that kind of pressure can create terrific focus. Forest has created two sustainable businesses using Teaching Sells, and he’s still learning and growing.

Click here to read Forest’s study

Pamela Wilson: Big Brand System

Pamela Wilson started out with some strong skills as a graphic designer and marketing consultant, but she was getting a little tired of trading hours for dollars. Teaching Sells allowed her to leverage her time and serve customers she’d never been able to serve. Now she’s on track to fully transitioning her business model for more freedom and more opportunities for growth.

Click here to read Pamela’s story

Jon Morrow: GuestBlogging.com

When you meet Jon, the first thing you realize is that he’s not big on excuses. He’s ambitious, he’s focused, and he has very little patience for the expression “I can’t.” Not everyone has Jon’s drive, but for those who do, an online business can reap some very attractive rewards.

Click here to read Jon’s story

Bonus: earlier case studies

We wanted to share with you some of the stories from earlier students as well. We’ll start with a student whose course isn’t in one of the “big” topics. It’s not fitness, it’s not technology, it’s not business education, it’s not real estate. It’s … pet sitting.

In fact, Teaching Sells graduate Josh Cary has created a terrific little business around this highly niche topic. Listen in to a recorded interview with Josh about how he decided on this topic, his view on why he’s successful, and some fascinating “twists” he’s introduced to establish himself as the foremost expert on his topic.

Josh will also talk about what to do if you aren’t a subject matter expert.

Download the MP3 of our session with Josh Cary at this link:
Case Study: Josh Cary and PetSittingology.com

You can download the MP3 to your own computer or device, or open it in another tab to listen.

And here are three more Teaching Sells students who built very different types of businesses around their varying goals and strengths:

• Real Estate Success (MP3) with Joseph and James Bridges
• Real Estate Success transcript (PDF)
• SEO Multimedia Training with Aaron Wall (MP3)
• SEO Multimedia Training transcript (PDF)
• Borrowing the Expertise of Others with Chad Board (MP3)
• Borrowing the Expertise of Others transcript (PDF)

When you meet Jon, the first thing you realize is that he’s not big on excuses.

He’s ambitious, he’s focused, and he has very little patience for the expression “I can’t.” Not everyone has Jon’s drive, but for those who do, an online business can reap some very attractive rewards.

1. What was your situation when you began developing your membership site?

Well, I was chillin’ down in Mexico, soaking up the rays, taking it easy, counting my money.

Not.

For the folks who haven’t read my story, I have a form of Muscular Dystrophy, and I need round-the-clock nurses to help keep me going. That’s enormously expensive, obviously, so in the U.S., I was completely dependent on Medicaid, which gave me excellent care but also demanded I give them every penny I earn to help defray the costs.

And eventually, I got fed up. I wanted control of my own life, my own finances, and my own future, so I started plotting ways to do that. As it turns out, the most realistic solution was to leave the U.S. entirely, so that’s what I did.

Practically penniless, I moved down to Mexico and worked my brains out. I could finally keep every penny I made, so at first, I focused on doing a lot of consulting with all kinds of clients, ranging from advertising agencies to individual bloggers.

It paid the bills, but I was on the phone all the time, and I worried about what would happen if I couldn’t work at some point, because pretty much all of my clients were paying me hourly. Also, it was kind of boring, because if you do enough consulting, you realize everyone asks you pretty much the same questions every time, so you end up repeating yourself over and over again.

Not fun, so after a while, I thought, “Well, everyone wants more traffic, and guest blogging works for everyone I teach how to do it. Why not create a membership site that teaches them what I’m telling them, so I don’t feel like an iPod stuck on autorepeat?”

And so that’s when I jumped into Teaching Sells and got busy creating GuestBlogging.com.

2. What was your pressing problem that needed to be solved?

Like most people, it was a cocktail of time and money.

I had enough money to pay my bills because I was working my butt off as a consultant, but at the end of the day, I was working SO hard there really wasn’t enough time left to create a product and start selling it. If I wanted to do that, I would have to cut down my hours, which would also reduce my income, which would put me in a difficult financial situation.

3. What did you learn that helped you?

The big revelation for me was that you can sell your product BEFORE you create it.

You set up a website, create a few videos to get people excited about the course, write a sales letter, and then promote the hell out of it. You get a pile of cash, you have a class of students eager and waiting to learn, and then you can take your time putting together the course without having to worry about paying the bills.

When I learned that, it was like the heavens opened up and angels started singing, because I realized it was a way out. I could work double time for a month or so, launch the site, and then scale back on my consulting work.

So, that’s what I did. I got the site launched and then called several of my biggest consulting clients and said I couldn’t help them anymore. It was a great feeling.

4. How was the solution implemented? What challenges did you face?

Aside from the time constraints in the beginning, the other big challenge was my own perfectionism.

I wanted the website, the marketing materials, and everything to be just right, so I really worked a lot harder than I should have. It took me like six weeks or something just to create like three videos and write a sales letter. It also took me like three or four months to finish creating all of the course materials after the class started.

Contrary to popular belief though, perfectionism isn’t totally a negative thing. Yes, it took me a long time to launch my site, but it also went VERY well, and it continues to go well. A lot of that is due to the time and effort I put into it, I think.

5. What was the outcome? What were the specific results?

For the first launch, I made something like $40,000. I can’t remember the exact number without digging through my records, but that’s close.

Granted, that’s not the multimillion dollar launch a lot of the big Internet marketing gurus pull off, but I was pretty happy. In Mexico, you can live a LONG time on $40,000, even if you’re paying a couple grand a month in healthcare costs like I was. I felt financially secure for the first time in a long time.

And of course, that was only the beginning.

As soon as I finished creating the course materials, I launched the course again and made another $12,000 or so. After that, I started launching a new one every month, and I don’t think I’ve ever made less than $5000 per month from it.

Nowadays, it’s also grown a lot. Quite a few of the most popular blogs in the world have endorsed it and recommend everyone goes through it before they start guest blogging. It makes about a quarter million per year these days, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it grows a bit bigger still.

Even if it doesn’t, I’m happy. The great thing about membership sites is you can launch more than one, so now I have three of them all earning nice incomes, and I’ll probably start another three next year.

It’s a nice business, and without a doubt, Teaching Sells was a huge part of helping me create it.

You can check out Jon’s site at GuestBlogging.com

« Go back to the Teaching Sells Case Studies

Pamela Wilson started out with strong skills as a graphic designer and marketing consultant, but she was getting a little tired of trading hours for dollars. Teaching Sells allowed her to leverage her time and serve customers she’d never been able to serve.

Now she’s on track to fully transitioning her business model for more freedom and more opportunities for growth.

1. What was your situation when you first joined Teaching Sells?

When I first joined Teaching Sells, I was a graphic designer and marketing consultant who had run my own successful business for almost 20 years.

At that point in time, I felt like I’d done it all (three times over), and I was ready for a new challenge.

I was also searching for a way to create income for my business that didn’t involve me typing at my keyboard or pushing pixels around on a screen.

2. What was your pressing problem that needed to be solved?

When you’re a marketing consultant and designer, you get asked lots of questions by people who are just starting their businesses. They can’t afford your services, but they do need to put their businesses out there and build their prospects and customers.

They’re stuck. They need to create marketing materials, but they can’t afford an expert, and they have no idea where to begin doing the work themselves.

I’ve never had anything to offer that slice of the population who desperately needed my help. Sitting down individually to advise each person didn’t scale.

So I created Big Brand System, where I share what I’ve learned about effective marketing for small businesses. What differentiates my information is that I talk about integrating design into everything you do, because well-designed pieces help even a small business look authoritative, polished and professional. They help your business grow.

3. What did you learn that helped you?

I came to Teaching Sells with minimal experience online.

I had a website, and that was about it. I hadn’t started my blog, and I knew nothing about offering products online, or creating a member site where I could allow people to access in-depth information in exchange for payments.

I was a blank slate, and had everything to learn. The information in the program set a firm foundation for my online business — one that I continue to build on today.

4. How was the solution implemented? What challenges did you face?

The year after Teaching Sells was all about scaling learning curves!

I got into WordPress for the first time, started my blog, slowly built an email list, began guest posting, created my course, got all the technical parts to work together (not a small feat), and had my first launch.

That first launch was small, but those who did go through my program loved it — the rave reviews are still coming in.

So I went back and continued to build my mailing list, and created new ways to stay in contact with them. I started a weekly newsletter, and now hold monthly “Brown Bag Webinars,” which are short, one-topic live events that give me a chance to share information and answer questions.

5. What was the outcome? What were the specific results?

Since that first year, I’ve launched again, and have recently reconfigured my online program based on user feedback. I’m preparing to re-open the doors as I write this. I’m confident that the current version is the most comprehensive solution out there for people who need to market their businesses themselves.

I’ve also co-created joint venture products with partners to meet specific challenges my market deals with; like creating a website that’s easy to maintain, writing and designing an ebook, and using images to market your business.

At this point, my financial goal — which was to replace the healthy income I made from my original business with income from my online business — is almost there. I’ve continued to do some marketing and design consultancy work on the side, so I’m on track to increase overall earnings with a completely different mix of income sources than what I had just three short years ago.

This makes me very happy.

It’s not an easy road, and it hasn’t been without its bumps, that’s for sure. But if you decide to learn how to put together an online business that builds your income by sharing information with a group you’d like to serve, I can think of no place better to learn it than inside Teaching Sells.

You can check out what Pamela is up to over at BigBrandSystem.com.

« Go back to the Teaching Sells Case Studies

(If there was, we wouldn’t use Twitter as heavily as we do. Or Google+.)

In fact, it’s smart. Web 2.0 in particular has given us a lot of nifty tools to play with. We’d be crazy to ignore them.

What isn’t smart is to build the core of your business around something that can change in a heartbeat.

That means you either structure your business on one of the core human drivers that motivate us no matter what culture or century we might find ourselves in.

Or you base your business on the one constant that’s going to hold for at least the rest of your lifetime … change.

Never mind 2019. Or 2029. Or 2099.

The current economic tangle isn’t (just) the result of some really stupid financial decisions. It’s also the result of today’s pace of change.

It makes sense, right? It’s communication that changes us as individuals. When communication becomes instant and global, so does change.

Don’t count on this being the last nasty economic meltdown you’ll see in your lifetime. Maybe not even in this decade.

Don’t count on the jobs that were whacked by the recession ever coming back. Whole professions are suddenly as extinct as T. Rex.

Of course we’ll always have good old human nature. People will do the same things. But we’ll do them in startlingly different ways.

So where does security come from?

In the 21st century, we have two choices.

We can stand helplessly on the beach while the tsunami carries us away.

Change, itself, is the new stability.

If you can build a business that benefits every time the environment changes, you’ve created something that’s recession-proof, competitor-proof, and even (yes) Google-proof.

Imagine that every time the Dow plummets, you perk up, knowing your business is about to do its best year ever.

Imagine that every time another entire industry gets sucked into an economic wormhole, you double your income.

Even better, imagine that you do this by helping people.

Not by being a scavenger or a bottom-feeder. But by helping other people navigate and thrive in tough times.

The smartest profession for the new century

Nope, it’s not software development or green business or anything in social media.

Nope, it’s not putting together obscure financial derivatives that only Gordon Gecko could love.

Nope, it’s not even being a spoiled heir/heiress. Daddy’s money could vanish in the blink of an eye, after all.

That also, by the way, translates into being nicely compensated.

Now doing it well takes some skill and a bit of work. Throwing together a few blog posts or a funny cat video on You Tube isn’t going to cut it.

But it’s a process that can be learned and mastered. It’s fun and interesting, especially for people like you who are a bit more curious (and — let’s face facts — brighter) than the average.

Can you do it on your own?

Of course you can. If you’re a self-starter who loves to do everything yourself, you can put the time and effort in and come up with your own flavor of success.

For you go-it-alone diehards, we’d like to help out. So next week, you’ll get some tools to help you put together a business that’s based on teaching and helping others.

We’ve got case studies, taking a close look at people who have built great teaching-based businesses. Read these carefully — sometimes the smallest insight can make a radical change in your own approach, and in your results.

We’ve got a process map that spells out all the steps you need to take.

And we’ve got a video on how to get more traffic, which is every content marketer’s first question.

You may have found this article through an email from a friend, or a link on social media. If so, you still have time to join us on the Teaching Sells interest list and get all of the information coming up in the next few weeks. To do that, just head over to TeachingSells.com and enter your email address, then click the link on the confirmation email you receive.

What if you get overwhelmed?

That’s where the Teaching Sells course comes in.

I won’t sugar-coat this. Creating a lucrative teaching-based business can get complicated. None of the steps is particularly difficult, but stringing them all together can be a bit overwhelming, particularly if you’re new to online business.

Teaching Sells was designed to walk you through the entire process. A to Z.

And this year, we’re adding some new bonuses that are designed specifically to start moving fast … and keep moving.

You might also take a look at this recent article on Copyblogger that has some useful advice for the overwhelmed:

Overwhelmed by the Complexity of Online Business? This May Help

But I don’t want to get ahead of myself. So stay tuned for all of the self-help information next week. And the following week, if you’d like to learn more about Teaching Sells, we’ll have lots of detailed information for you.

Earlier articles

Here are the first two articles in the series. Make sure you’re signed up so you get all the updates!

• What the Apple Store can Teach You About Creating a Remarkable Business
• If You’re Going to Put the Work In

So how do you feel about this scenario?

You take, say, 3 or 4 months to thoroughly research a topic.

You become a ninja, the world’s foremost authority.

You lock yourself in your basement for another 4 months to write a comprehensive ebook. A thing of beauty. The definitive guide. A masterpiece.

Sure, your spouse won’t talk to you and even your dog doesn’t remember what you look like. But it’s all worth it. Because success as an information entrepreneur comes from quality, you know that. And this product is pure quality.

Somehow you find the courage to approach some big names to promote it for you. You carefully copy the techniques of the giant launches we’re all so sick of.

You announce your launch far and wide. People on the science station in Antarctica are getting promotional emails for this thing.

And you sell six copies. Two of which are to your mom.

Your dog files for divorce.

Being good isn’t enough

Sure, having a good product is a given. It’s the cost of admission. But there’s a lot more to it than that.

If you build it, they won’t come.

Not unless what you build is something they really, really want.

Something that makes them itchy with desire. Something that lets them get back to sleep when they wake up with the 3 a.m. crazy worries.

It’s not enough that you’re sure it’s just what they want. You aren’t sure. Not unless you conduct some pretty thorough and specific research.

This is why so many inventors are broke. They fall in love with their own ideas, instead of falling in love with the needs, wants and desires of their target market.

Build on a solid foundation

Creating a business that depends on Twitter (and for which no other tool will work) just isn’t, frankly, very smart. The same goes for FaceBook. And especially Google.

Creating a business that relies on a particular set of economic conditions isn’t very smart. (Ask your cousin the mortgage broker.)

Creating a business that’s driven completely by fashion is going to feel a lot of pain when the pretty people find something new to play with.

You need to build your business on a foundation that’s
not going to radically change on you.

That’s not to say that you can’t use Twitter or Google or fashion or economic trends to fuel your business. They’re all good tools that can be leveraged.

But they’re not the foundation. Foundations need to stay put. You need to be able to rely on them. Concrete makes good foundations. Jell-O doesn’t.

As you’re putting together your own online business, ask yourself if it relies on specific tools (that couldn’t be replaced by some other tool down the line), or if it’s built on an enduring, solid structure.

Will your business model still be viable 5 years from now? 20?

Do you even have a business model?

Sit down this week and start to scribble some “back of the envelope” answers to these questions. The work you do here will repay you a thousand-fold as you build your business.

(And if you do end up joining us inside Teaching Sells, we have 10 business models for you to “mix and match” to make sure that you have a solid plan for getting revenue in the door. We’re also obsessed highly focused on exercises to make sure you absolutely know what your market needs and wil pay for. Get those things nailed down, and everything else gets so much easier.)

Later this week, we’ll be sending out an article on the strongest foundation for your business — the kind that doesn’t wiggle like Jell-O.

Did you miss this one?

We sent this article out to our Teaching Sells list last week. Make sure you’re signed up so you get all the updates!

• What the Apple Store can Teach You About Creating a Remarkable Business

P.S.

Did you get here via a link from a friend, or twitter? We’ve got a lot more to share with you, including articles, case studies, a nifty process map so you can do it yourself, and a live seminar with Sonia Simone and Brian Clark on getting more traffic.

All this is to let you know more about our flagship program, Teaching Sells. We think it’s the best online business model for the 21st century, period.

If you’re not already on the Teaching Sells interest list, why not sign up now? We’ll be launching the course in early November, and when it’s gone, it’s gone.

Sometimes it works slowly, sometimes it kills you off with sickening speed.

It’s YMSS: Your Marketing Sucks Syndrome. (Cue the scary music …)

• It keeps you chained to a business that looks more like a low-paying job with the worst boss you ever had: yourself.
• It eats more money than it makes, and every month it seems like it’s getting hungrier.
• You have an awesome product and you care so much about your customers. So why is it so hard to find people to serve?

When your marketing isn’t working, everything else in your business is miserable. And it’s one of the biggest reasons that so many new businesses fail … they just can’t find their customers.

Don’t worry, because YMSS is 100% preventable. And if you have this dread disease, the great news is, it can be completely reversed.

Here are five symptoms that mean you might have YMSS — along with cures for each one.

Symptom #1: You look like everyone else

The Symptom:
Real estate agents fall prey to it. Chiropractors. Dentists. Coaches of every stripe. Marketing teachers. Personal trainers. Graphic designers.

Your business looks like everyone else who does what you do. The pricing, the product, the promise — you could take the ad from one business, swap it out with another, and no one would see any difference.

When you’re in the Clone Wars, there’s usually just one point everyone fights over … price. One competitor drops prices, everyone follows suit, and before long your profit has been slashed to below zero.

That’s not a business. That’s an un-fun, expensive hobby.

The Cure:
We tackle this as lesson 1, week 1 of the Remarkable Marketing Blueprint, because it truly is the foundation for everything else that follows.

Warning:
Too many businesses get stuck in an endless loop trying to identify this. We’re going to get it knocked out in a day, so you can move on and start actually doing some business, instead of endlessly doing marketing exercises.

Symptom #2: You talk about yourself too much

The Symptom:
Maybe it took you a long time to develop your professional abilities. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears. A lot of time and money.

The sad truth is, your customers don’t care. It doesn’t matter to them what you’ve put into it. All they really care about is what they get out of it.

The Cure:
We get to this in week 2 of the Blueprint — reframing everything you do so that it gets the focus back where it belongs: onto your customer.

All success must flow from that. When you become customer-obsessed, customers can feel it … and they move toward your business.

Symptom #3: You think advertising is marketing

The Symptom:
“I don’t know why this isn’t working! I spent $10,000 on AdWords last month alone, and my business is still in the toilet.”

Advertising and marketing are related, but they aren’t the same thing.

If you’re focused on pay-per-click (or any other form of advertising, like radio or direct mail), you’ll see a big bill … but you may not see a big growth in your business.

The Cure:
Advertising exists to get the attention of your possible customers. That’s just the start of the process.

The Blueprint is based on the concept of the “Content Conveyor Belt.” This takes strangers and turns them over time into customers, then into that core group of raving fans who can really transform your business.

Symptom #4: You don’t live up to your own standards

The Symptom:
You care so much about your business. You’ve put so much into it. You want very badly for it to thrive and grow.

Sometimes, this can lead us to follow “gurus” who teach quick fixes, sleazy shortcuts, or other practices that just feel … gross.

The Cure:
You never need to be ashamed to market your business. You are in business to serve your customers. To solve their problems and make their lives better. There’s not a thing in the world wrong with that.

Don’t get seduced by the “quick fix” gurus who sell you a lot of what you don’t need.

You don’t need tricks. You don’t need half-truths. All you need is clear, honest communication about the benefits you provide.

There are plenty of tips and tactics that make marketing easier, and we’ll talk about those throughout the course. But when I created the Blueprint, I had no interest in teaching anything that would require you to check your ethics at the door.

I don’t want to teach it, and that’s not what you want to learn. So we don’t do it.

Symptom #5: Your marketing plan is “I really hope I get some customers”

The Symptom:
Probably the most dangerous symptom of YMSS is the belief that your product or service is going to “sell itself.”

I’ve been working in marketing organizations for around 20 years now, and I have yet to find the product that sells itself.

If you’re wearing yourself ragged in your business, spending 12 or 14 hours a day doing the thing you do, without any customers there to benefit from it, you probably have YMSS.

The Cure:
Usually this symptom pops up because business owners have seen the sleaze and hype that others call “marketing,” and they want no part of it. (Which I applaud you for.)

So what comes next?

You need customers. You need to understand how to create a marketing message that will attract those customers — without sacrificing your integrity.

And you need the information delivered to you in plain English, from someone who’s done what you’re doing now — running a business and finding customers.

I created the Remarkable Marketing Blueprint for people like you, who were struggling with the things that I struggled with.

Click here to learn all about the Blueprint — what’s in the course, what it will do for you, and what to do next.

We’ll be making the Blueprint available down the road, but we’ll never offer it at this price again. So if you want to see a serious difference in the health of your business, check out what the Blueprint has to offer you.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Sonia Simone
CMO of Copyblogger Media and Creator of the Remarkable Marketing Blueprint

We’ve all noticed that the economy — not just in the U.S. but worldwide — is changing. Shifting. Quickly, and radically.

It’s very interesting to see the numbers on where new jobs are being created. It’s not in the traditional huge mega-corporations … those companies are dumping jobs as quickly as possible, through greater efficiency, automation, outsourcing, or all three.

(Which probably explains why the service experience for the customers of these companies is getting worse every day, right?)

The new jobs are coming from small, privately held companies.

Now sometimes that means a fancy software startup, funded by lots of cash from a venture capital firm.

But far more often, it’s what we used to call a “mom and pop.”

In other words, a business started by a person, and funded by actually … you know, selling something. Not freemiums or advertising or any of the other fashionable pseudo business models that get more attention than they deserve.

The meteor is coming …

Really big businesses have a very predictable set of limitations.

Big companies lumber, slowly and without crisp direction. It’s incredibly difficult for a huge business to be agile. There are one or two that manage it, but those are almost always young companies. We’ll see what happens when those flashy, hip companies start to really mature.

Big companies sound like big companies. Lawyers and accountants tend to make the rules, which any small business will tell you is death if you’re trying to build high-quality customer relationships.

Big companies eat their own profit. Layers of bureaucracy, infrastructure, and legal snags nibble up profit day after day. Which sometimes leads big companies to do stupid things to try and rake some of that profit back, like mass layoffs that hurt customers and employees alike.

Speaking of which, big companies treat employees like cogs. Never mind that cogs don’t tend to bring much passion to work every day. Never mind that cogs treat customers as poorly as they’re treated themselves.

We used to put up with big companies because we had to

It was so difficult and expensive to communicate with customers that we had to tolerate everything we dislike about big companies.

We might still have to put up with it in some industries, like telecom. (Do you love, or even like your cell service provider? I don’t either.) For now.

But in so many arenas, more and more customers are going back to the small, nimble business. The experience is better, the products and services are better, and people running small business tend to actually give a damn.

Big is no longer beautiful

The 20th century loved centralized authority, and the designated authority figure that went with it.

The doctor in the white lab coat. The priest or minister. Even the politician.

(Yes, people used to actually kind of respect politicians. Hard to believe now.)

In the 21st century, we want a different kind of authority.

We want authority that comes from having walked the path we intend to walk. We insist on accountability. We disdain the traditional trappings of authority.

But we still, very much, want advice and direction from someone who knows more than we do.

Authority isn’t dead. It’s just evolving.

Most big business is doomed

The really huge mega-corps are powerful, but they don’t tend to be all that long-lived. They get too stiff, too top-heavy, and eventually they topple.

Combine that with the information and education revolution, and you’ll only accelerate that trend.

That’s why I talk about the meteor … just like a massive meteor took out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, we’ve got an economic and cultural meteor that’s about to take out many of today’s giant companies.

And just like the extinction of the dinosaurs made room for small, nimble, clever mammals, this extinction is going to make room for something smaller, smarter, and more adaptable.

It’s going to make room for you.

Think it can’t happen?

There was a time (that I can remember quite clearly) when it was completely inconceivable that Xerox or Polaroid or Lehman Brothers (or name any of dozens of other huge companies) could stumble. They were just too big.

It was inconceivable that the phone company (phone company used to be a singular noun, by the way) would be broken up, and the pieces allowed/forced to compete with one another.

It was inconceivable that AOL could buy Time/Warner. (OK, this was in fact a truly terrible idea, but nonetheless, it happened.)

It was inconceivable that the scrappy niche computer company Apple would some day enjoy the largest market capitalization on the planet (beating out oil giant Exxon), while the mighty Microsoft struggled for relevance.

It was inconceivable that companies like J.C. Penney and Nabisco would support gay rights as part of their advertising campaigns.

The inconceivable happens every day. That word does not mean what we think it means.

You get to make something better

If you work for a big company today (or even a medium-sized company), you need to have your eye on the meteor.

Companies usually work hard to hide the layoffs they’re planning. I’ve been there — working diligently in a company I thought was strong, when without warning they spun into round after round of layoffs.

It’s painful, and it’s very frightening. Especially if you have a family to support.

So, at the risk of sounding paranoid, anyone who works for someone else’s company needs to be making plans.

You need to get your entrepreneurial skills together. (And of these, the #1 skill you need is simple, straightforward marketing — and it doesn’t have to be nearly as painful as it might look now.)

You need to be thinking about what you can contribute to your potential customers.

Thinking like a business, rather than like an employee.

And launching something all your own — perhaps simply a small side business — as insurance.

The meteor doesn’t have to wipe you out. In fact, it might be one of the best things that will happen in your lifetime.

But be smart about it. Educate yourself. And get something rolling.

I’m really looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Sonia Simone
CMO of Copyblogger Media and Co-Creator of Teaching Sells

P.S.

Get here from twitter, Facebook, or a link from a friend?

If you’re serious about building a web-based business, we’d like to invite you to join the Teaching Sells mailing list. We’ve got additional articles about online business and how we can make teaching and contribution a cornerstone of a successful business. Just drop your email here and we’ll get you started.