How$to$Create$Passive$ IncomeandRecurring … ·...

How to Create Passive Income and Recurring

Revenue For Your Career Services Business

Transcript from Video Recording

Friday, October 12, 2012

Presented by Bridget (Weide) Brooks

www.BeResumeWriter.com

Transcript: How to Create Passive Income and Recurring Revenue For Your Career Services Business 2 © Résumé Writers’ Digest

This Transcript is for BeAResumeWriter.com Bronze Members Only You Do NOT Have the Right to Reprint or Resell this Report. You Also MAY NOT Give Away, Sell or Share the Content Herein If you obtained this report from anywhere other than http://www.bearesumewriter.com, you have a pirated copy. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this report may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any informational storage or retrieval system without express written, dated and signed permission from the author. DISCLAIMER AND/OR LEGAL NOTICES: The information presented herein represents the view of the author as of the date of publication. Because of the rate with which conditions change, the author reserves the right to alter and update his opinion based on the new conditions. The report is for informational purposes only. While every attempt has been made to verify the information provided in this report, neither the author nor his affiliates/partners assume any responsibility for errors, inaccuracies or omissions. DISCLOSURE: I may be an affiliate for products that I recommend. If you purchase these items through my links in this document, I will earn a small commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link. In fact, you may pay less — or receive a free or discounted trial — when using the affiliate link. Plus, when you order through my link, it helps me continue to offer you lots of free stuff. LOVE THIS CONTENT? TELL A FRIEND? We get most of our new members on BeAResumeWriter.com because they’ve heard about it from a résumé writing colleague or on a professional association E-‐List. If you like what you read in this report, please encourage them to sign up for a membership on BeAResumeWriter.com (Free members can listen to this teleseminar recording in the Free Level Resources section; Bronze members get access to the recording and the transcript.)


HOW TO CREATE PASSIVE INCOME AND RECURRING REVENUE FOR YOUR CAREER SERVICES BUSINESS

Hi! This is Bridget (Weide) Brooks from Résumé Writers’ Digest and BeAResumeWriter.com. On September 21, 2012, I presented this program, “How to Create Passive Income and Recurring Revenue for our Career Services Business” at the National Resume Writer’s Association’s 15th annual conference in Charleston. It was a breakout session, so some of my fabulous career industry colleagues at the conference missed out on the workshop. I’ve recorded this video to share this valuable information with those colleagues, as well as my fellow resume writers and career coaches that weren’t able to join us in South Carolina this year.


There are 18 pages of handouts that accompany this presentation. You can download them right now on the BeAResumeWriter.com website. Go to www.bearesumewriter.com/nrwa. They’re fill-‐in-‐the-‐blank worksheets and will help you follow along to this presentation. So, if you don’t have them yet, go ahead and click “Pause” on this video and go get them. Print them out, and then we can get started. Ok. Ready? Great. I’m thrilled to share information with you on a topic that I’m very passionate about. When I pitched this topic to the NRWA conference organizing committee, I mentioned that this is a unique angle that hasn’t been covered in recent conferences. Most conference sessions are focused on résumé writing principles or general marketing and business management topics. My session is going to teach you how to generate alternative income sources to smooth out the peaks and valleys of résumé writing. Many of these same techniques can also be used to boost the visibility of your résumé writing services as well as lead generators to attract prospective clients. Today’s information will offer tips for both beginning and veteran résumé writers and career coaches on how to generate passive income and recurring revenue. All of these are


strategies I’ve used in my own résumé writing business, and you’re going to get the benefit of my trial and error. So let’s get started!

While the Internal Revenue Service has a specific definition for “passive income” that limits it to rental income or income from “trade or business activities in which you do not materially participate,” what we’re going to be talking about today is how to make money in your career services business without trading your time for dollars. After all, for most resume writers and career coaches, you’re only making money when you’re billing a client for work you’re producing, whether that’s writing a résumé, cover letter, or LinkedIn profile, or conducting individual or group coaching sessions. Trading time for dollars is classified as “active income” — meaning, when you stop doing it, or being active in it, the money stops.


With active income, in order to increase your revenues, you have to do one of two things: bill more or charge more. You either have to do more work, or charge more money for the work you already provide. With an active income method, you hand over your work product once and get paid for it once. With a passive income method, your work product is delivered multiple times, and you get paid multiple times. Today, however, I want to talk to you about the kinds of things that you can do within your resume writing or career coaching business that you can produce once, but that that will earn you money at all times of the day, even while you’re sleeping, or even while you’re sitting here in this conference session. When you’re generating active income, you’re serving one customer at a time. With passive income, you’re doing one of two things: serving multiple customers simultaneously with one product (like with an ebook or online training program) OR providing a series of products to the same customers over and over, but without having to individually create or customize the product (like with a membership program).


Now that’s not to say that it’s completely hands-‐off. Many passive income programs still require daily, weekly, or monthly maintenance — such as answering questions from buyers or some ongoing updating — but it’s a small amount of time compared to the financial return overall.

A question I get a lot is about recurring revenue. Specifically, what’s the difference between passive income and recurring revenue. The answer is: Not all passive income is recurring revenue, but most recurring revenue comes from passive income. Let me explain. Passive income can come from a number of sources — we’re going to talk about four separate income streams today — but some of those are one-‐time payments. For example, if you buy one of my Resume Writers’ Digest special reports, that’s passive income for me, but it’s a single purchase for you. You may buy more of my special reports in the future — especially if you like the one you bought to start with — but there’s no guarantee of that. But it’s not like writing a résumé for you, where I’m completely customizing the content.


On the other hand, if you sign up for one of my membership programs — like BeAResumeWriter.com — you can provide your credit card information to PayPal so that you receive an uninterrupted membership from month to month, until you decide you don’t want to be a member anymore. That’s recurring revenue for me. I sign you up once, and as long as I deliver value to you, you’ll stay a member. It’s still passive income, because the member benefits I’m creating each month aren’t customized specifically for you, but for all the resume writers and career coaches who are members that month. It’s that “one-‐to-‐many” model I talked about earlier, but it’s an ongoing product or service. We’ll talk in more detail about some recurring revenue models later in today’s presentation.

Next, let’s talk about what’s possible, and what’s realistic for passive income and recurring revenue in your career services business. Instead of serving between 2 and 10 clients per week, you could have 100 customers, or 1000 customers. If the idea of serving 1000 customers a week scares you, don’t be afraid! I’m not talking about writing 100 résumés a week. I’m talking about serving a higher number of customers, but with a


low level of interaction. You could sell 100 ebooks in a week, and not even talk to 95 or 99 of the buyers! Let’s talk some numbers here. Each year, I conduct the Resume Writers’ Digest Annual Industry Survey to get an idea of what’s going on in the career services industry. Extrapolating from the 2010 survey results, which found that writers averaged four résumés per week at an average of about $500 per project, that’s $2000 per week. But you’re also only serving four clients. If you created a $20 ebook, and sold 100 of those per week, you’d also generate $2000. How much time would it take for you to sell the 100 ebooks, compared to how much time it takes to write four résumés? I’m guessing at least 16 hours — and more likely, 25-‐30 hours, especially when you consider the client management details. Ebooks, on the other hand, require very little interaction after the sale. You might have to re-‐send a download link, or answer a question via email. Is it reasonable to sell 100 ebooks per week? Probably not right away. But you could probably sell 10 — and that would be $200 per week, and you could sell those week after week, without a lot of additional work on your part. We’ll talk in the next part of the presentation about how to develop and sell information products, like ebooks. But first, let’s talk about setting some goals for your passive income and recurring revenue. There are three factors when deciding which direction to go with your passive income program. The first is: How much money do you want to earn each month from your passive income program. This is a specific dollar amount. Maybe your goal is to generate an additional $100 a month for the next 12 months, so you can attend next year’s NRWA Conference. The average cost to attend a conference is $1200 (considering registration, travel, hotel, and food), so $100 a month for 12 months would get you there. Just having a simple dollar goal in mind is also going to give you some good insights into what type of passive income program you want to put into place, because some programs are better at generating $1,000 a month than others. Second, you want to consider how long you expect your passive income stream to last. Again, there are programs that are better than others in terms of creating long-‐term passive income. Some programs are time-‐limited — for example, if you have a LinkedIn training program, that’s a hot topic right now, but your current program might only be usable for 6-‐9 months before you either have to revamp it to keep up with LinkedIn’s changes, or because there’s something newer or more effective for jobseekers. On the other hand, a special report outlining 12 tactics for effective networking in a job search is something that will sell month after month for years and years.


Finally, you need to set a deadline for receiving your first month’s income from that stream. This is very important because the sooner you get started implementing your passive income program, the faster you’ll start getting results.

I also want to point out that your first passive income stream isn’t likely to be a huge success. The point is to learn how to create your first passive income product so you can get better at it. We’re not looking to replace your active income — we’re looking to supplement it. And, you’ll also likely find that your passive income stream can produce prospective clients for your traditional career services — someone who buys an ebook on résumés might become frustrated with the do-‐it-‐yourself approach and decide to hire you to write the résumé after all. So let’s talk about four specific ways you can add passive income to your career services business.


The first way to generate passive income in your career services business is to develop and sell information products. Information products are defined as “electronically deliverable, knowledge-‐based products.” If the product delivers information and you can email it to a customer as a downloadable file, it qualifies as an information product. That’s not to say that you can’t also sell information products in physical form (such as print-‐on-‐demand books, home-‐study courses, or CDs), but they can be delivered via email. There are some great advantages to creating information products.

1. The cost of reproducing information products is quite low — in fact, it might be close to free, especially if you are sending files online. You might have some costs for the distribution method and payment systems, but it’s nowhere the cost of printing a physical book, for example.


2. There are no inventory challenges. Especially if you are delivering ebooks or other digital files, you don’t have to worry about keeping your inventory replenished. Again, it’s the “one-‐to-‐many” philosophy. You can create one PDF file and sell it to many buyers.

3. Related to number two, you also don’t have shipping costs or problems. Digital

delivery is instantaneous. There’s no delay in getting the buyer the product they purchased, and if you have to re-‐send a file, there’s often no cost for re-‐sending the information.

4. Information products can also increase your credibility and authority with

prospective clients. Publishing a book or ebook can increase your status among folks looking for a résumé writer or career coach.

5. Having an information product for sale on your website can also increase

visitors to your site. The increased traffic to your website can lead to new résumé clients.

6. A good information product can strengthen your brand as a résumé writer. It

showcases your knowledge and expertise and helps you become known.

7. Information products also help you get media attention for your business, because authors and speakers are often sought after to appear on TV and radio programs, and in print. Careers content (especially strategies to combat unemployment) is one of the top focuses of the media — so creating targeted information that will help jobseekers with a key element of their search is valuable content!

You want your information product to represent who you are as a résumé writer and what you’re about. Quality information and attention to detail are important. When buyers are impressed with your information product, they’ll buy more from you. In fact, that’s often the primary goal of launching an information product.


The term “information products” covers a wide variety of materials. These include:

• Books • Ebooks • Special reports • Booklets • Directories • Guidebooks • Tips sheets • Manuals • Home study courses • Tests and quizzes (either self-‐scoring or computer scoring) • Newsletters • Card Sets (for example, interview question flash cards) • Forms (for example, step-‐by-‐step guides to résumé development) • Posters • Multi-‐author publications • Teleseminars or webinars


• Recordings and transcripts of interviews or presentations (including podcasts)

• Audio how-‐to courses (MP3 or CD) • Audio instruction programs with workbooks • Video recordings of speeches or seminars (online or DVDs) • Video instruction programs with workbooks (online or DVDs) • E-‐courses/online courses • Downloadable worksheets, blueprints, mindmaps, checklists, and

templates • Workbooks or action guides

As we talked about earlier, which information product to produce will depend on your goals. In addition to the financial target you’ll want to hit — remember that earlier I said that some types of passive income programs make more money than others, and that’s certainly true with information products — you’ll also want to consider which type of information product will provide value to your prospects and customers. Also consider the format that your audience will best respond to. Do they prefer to read, listen, or watch? Long or short content? Do they want something they can consume at their own pace, or do they want to be directed step-‐by-‐step (like a 30-‐day program)? What do you do best? Do you like to write, or speak? Are you proficient with technology, or not? What information product best supports your skills and personality?


Pricing is another issue that will influence your information product development. Certain types of information products sell for more than other types. One question I get a lot about information products is: What should I charge? Really, it’s up to you, but there are some guidelines you can follow, depending on the product type:

• Ebook (50-‐100 pages) – $1 to $39 • Ebook (100+ pages) – $5 to $59 • Home Study Course – $39 to $249 • Special Report – $2 to $59 • Traditional book – $10 to $30 • Audio CD – $19 to $49 • MP3 downloads – $9 to $49 • DVDs – $19 to $79 • Teleseminars – Free to $149 • Webinars – Free to $199

Pricing for tip sheets, booklets, forms, templates, and other smaller products depends on the content and how it’s packaged.


Speaking of content, once you’ve decided on a topic, the next question is: What do I put in it? I have some ideas for you.

• Frequently-‐asked questions. Do you find yourself always answering the same questions over and over again? These are great topics for information products. Go through your sent emails and see the answers and information you provide frequently.

• Use social media. You can ask your clients (via email, Facebook, or Twitter) what

their most pressing problem is. Ask… “What is your most challenging problem with your job search?” and “What do you want to know about looking for a job?”

• Think through the problems of the clients you work with. Identify 5-‐10

potential problems your prospects want a solution to. Where do your clients get stuck in their job search? What can you help them with?


• Keyword research. What are the most common keyword phrases or questions for your clients? You can use the Google Keyword Tool to create a mindmap to give you ideas.

There is a four-‐step process to creating your content. The first is to research your topic and assess your knowledge of the subject. Next, organize your content. What’s the best way to present your subject matter? Is it a process with definite sequential steps that must be performed in a specific order, like setting up a LinkedIn profile? Next, teach your material to the reader. Use examples, stories, graphics and illustrations, case studies, photos, diagrams, tables, and comparisons. Share worksheets, models, and templates to help the buyer really understand the material. Finally, polish your material. Edit it for clarity, comprehensiveness, and to organize it into a format that makes sense. The next step is to name your product. Why name it before you create it? Because your product’s name will actually help you create your product. It will define your focus, your


audience, and your format. For example, “Seven Days to Securing Your Next Job Interview” will give you a structure. “Salary Negotiation Tips for Career Changers” targets your audience. When naming your information product, also consider the benefits to your target audience. Anything that can help them find a job easier, faster, or within a system, will likely be well received. Here are some more naming tips:

• [#] Ways to _____________ • Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About _______ But Were Afraid to Ask • How to __________ • The Definitive Guide to _______________ • The ________ Handbook • Secrets of _____________________ • _____________ Made Easy • A Guide to _________________ • ______________ Toolkit • The [#] Step Plan to ______________________ • The __________________ Manual • Quick and Easy ____________________ • [#] Most Common Questions About ________________ • Quick Tips for _________________ • [TOPIC]: The Complete Guide


Here is your checklist for your information product:

• Cover artwork. Is your cover artwork and the accompanying graphic on your website reflective of the image you want to portray? Does it support your brand? People’s impression of your information product begins with their first impression.

• Edit! Speaking of first impressions, make sure you go through your information

product with a fine-‐toothed comb to ensure there are no errors! • Copyright Notice. You don’t have to register your information product with the

U.S. Copyright office; however, a copyright notice on your information product is a potential deterrent to those considering copying your content.

• Build Your Brand. Make sure you’ve included your contact information in your

information — and a call-‐to-‐action to work with you further. What do you want your buyers to do once they’ve finished that information product? Have you included links to your other information products or to your résumé services?


• Check Your Links. If you have included website links in your information product,

make sure you check to be sure every link goes exactly where you want it to go. Make sure you go back and check your links every few months to make sure they’re still working.

• Security. If you are providing a PDF document format for your information

product, you can secure it with a password. Note, however, that this can increase your technical support issues, because sometimes people have problems with password-‐protected PDFs.

• Technical Support. Make sure your information product downloads correctly

(have a friend purchase it and test your downloads). In order to reduce your chargebacks or requests for a refund, make sure to include your contact information and tell them how they can get help if they’re having trouble with the product.

If you already have a shopping cart system set up for your résumé writing business website, and it can be configured for delivery of information products (look for information on digital downloads in your system’s technological documentation), that will work. If you’re not technologically savvy, the easiest way to handle the sale of your information product might be a third-‐party service that provides automatic, instant delivery information as soon as the payment is made. Some of these include:

• Payloadz • Clickbank • E-‐Junkie.com

All of these products can work with a PayPal account. Clickbank also offers direct deposit into your regular business checking account. The most important thing is to make sure that your buying system is easy to use. Make it easy for your buyer to click, pay, and download. Test your system and have others test it too. I could give an entire teleseminar just on digital delivery and payment systems for your information products. But any of these services can help you sell your information products.


Speaking of selling your information products, there are some specific things you should include in your sales materials:

• A Strong Headline. Often, the headline is the first and only thing a prospective buyer reads. It’s critical to making the sale of your information product. Target the biggest problem of your prospective buyer. The headline can also make a promise, grab your prospective buyer’s attention, and motivate them to read more on your sales page.

• Benefits, Not Features. Again, going back to the list of benefits you

brainstormed when coming up with the book idea, what you want to emphasize on your sales page is the benefits your buyers will receive by purchasing your information product. What’s in it for them? Review the “problem” your customers have (Not getting interviews? Not getting job offers? Not making enough in their current job?) and then demonstrate how your information product solves that problem.


• Emotional Copy. We buy based on our emotions. When your sales information can tap into your buyer’s emotions, you’re more likely to sell more information products.

• Testimonials. Nothing motivates buyers more than seeing that others have

achieved the results you’re promising. The more credible your testimonials, the better. Include your buyer’s name, photo (if possible), city and state, and website or social media contact information, if they will let you include those!

• Call to Action. Buyers need to be told what action to take next — even if you

think it’s obvious. Make sure you have a clear and compelling call to action on your sales page (INCLUDE CTA GRAPHIC) so they know exactly what to do.


Membership site are one of my favorite things to talk about. A long time ago, I had the idea of a membership site for jobseekers. I even wrote a mini business plan about it. Interestingly enough, I found the business plan in a notebook just before the NRWA conference and it was actually from 2000 or 2001. The general structure of it was that my résumé clients would pay a fee each month and have access to priority service for updates, and I even considered a phone support component to answer their questions. But the technology required for setting up that type of system back then was too sophisticated for my knowledge…and by too sophisticated, I mean, too expensive! That’s not the case today. There are lots of systems you can use for your membership program — some that integrate into your existing website (especially if you use WordPress), some that are turnkey systems where you just load in your content and go, and others that only require PayPal and an autoresponder. First, let’s talk about the benefits of a membership site or program. One of the biggest benefits is recurring revenue! The premise of membership sites is that you are a member for a period of time. We’ll talk in a little bit about fixed-‐length (or fixed-‐term)


sites versus ongoing programs — but the idea is that you’ll get people to join and that they will stay members for at least a while. Membership sites also allow you to create a community of interested customers — and that, in itself, can be a benefit! You can create a membership program just to connect job seekers! Depending on the content and structure, you could sell an online job support membership program that is based on peer-‐to-‐peer support! Another benefit of membership sites is that you’re building a mailing list. This is particularly the case if your membership site functions to introduce people to your services. For example, if the membership program is a training program to help clients learn to write their own résumés, you will find that some of them will end up becoming your résumé clients anyway (look at all the jobseekers that buy résumé books and then hire a professional résumé writer) — or, you may be able to sell them additional services, like LinkedIn profile writing services, interview training, salary negotiation coaching, etc. Once they are in your membership system, you can market directly to these folks. And, of course, two of the biggest benefits of membership sites is that they create consistent cash flow (as long as your membership recruitment and retention systems are in place), and they create a new source of passive income. The other neat thing about membership sites is that they allow you to monetize your knowledge in a whole new way. We’ll talk about that shortly. But first, the money. Let’s say you offer a $20/month membership program. If you have 35 members, that’s $700/month. The average length of time people stay in a membership program is 3-‐4 months. So each of those members is worth $60-‐$80 in membership revenue. It’s funny, because 3-‐4 months is also about the average amount of time a jobseeking client actively looks for employment. They usually work with us for about 1-‐3 weeks to get their résumé documents ready, and then they hit the pavement. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to offer them some structured support as they conduct their job search — but in a way that doesn’t require too much one-‐to-‐one involvement or hand-‐holding? We’ll talk about some ideas for that. Depending on the system you choose, a membership site can be a “set it and forget it” method for generating passive income. That’s particularly the case for fixed-‐term membership programs that offer what’s called “evergreen” content. That’s information that’s not terribly time-‐limited. It’s the kind of system that you could set up once and then only have to review and change the content once or twice a year. That isn’t the case with membership sites that teach clients how to use social media in their job search, that’s for sure! But it could be something about salary negotiation, or interviewing techniques, or “30 Days to Your Next Job.”


Here are seven potential models for your membership site.

• Publisher Model. The publisher model is the most common type of membership site. In this model, you provide content to members on an ongoing basis. This model allows members to have access to specialized information. The publisher model also works well with model number two. Those of you who are Bronze members of my membership site, BeAResumeWriter.com will recognize this as one of the models I use. I provide specialized content in the form of a unique Special Report each month. This model requires you to create a regular and consistent flow of information. You must know your topic well and understand what your audience is looking for when it comes to information on that subject. The most common way to monetize this model is to charge a monthly, quarterly, or annual subscription fee.

• Product Delivery Model. This model works by delivering a package of content to

members each month. This is the second part of the model I use for BeAResumeWriter.com. Each month, I produce Pass-‐Along Materials that


résumé writers can put their name on and give to their clients or use in their marketing. For jobseeker clients, you could provide them with job search-‐related samples each month. One month might be cover letter examples; the next month might be salary negotiation letters and proposals; another month might be letters of resignation. This model offers exclusivity, because the only people who are able to access and use the content are members. (You can, however, package and sell the information separately outside of the membership site, but you’ll want to charge more for it than what you offer it to folks who are part of your membership program.) You can monetize this model with a membership fee, and you can also upsell members (by offering to customize their content for them, for example, or consult with them on implementing the content in their own job search).

• Protected Download. This is a great model for résumé writers looking for a “set

it and forget it” type of system. Members subscribe to a secure area of your site and have access to download information. It gives you control over your downloaded material and helps protect against digital theft. You can monetize this model in one of two ways — either offering a monthly subscription with access to the download area, or an annual fee. The monthly subscription would offer recurring revenue, but requires more administration, since you’d have to disable access for those who don’t pay their renewal. Offering an annual fee, on the other hand, is low maintenance, and you could even offer a résumé update discount for folks who purchase the service. And for those of you who have purchased Pass-‐Along Materials from BeAResumeWriter.com, this is a great use for the products. Put your name on them and load them into your download area, and you’ve got ready-‐to-‐go special reports and ebooks to help your clients. The protected download model is a great way to present yourself as an authority in your industry.

• The Community Center. This model is a little different, because it doesn’t

provide direct revenue. Many people go online every day with the sole purpose of connecting with other people. You can create a membership site devoted to a particular topic — for example, support for jobseekers in a particular city, or a website for members of a particular occupation. People can become members — generally for free — and then share information on the niche topic in an online forum. The benefit for members is that they can learn and share information with like-‐minded people. You can make money by selling affiliate products (which we will talk about in the next section) — and you can build your mailing list of prospective clients, because your community center membership site will be targeted to acquiring your “ideal clients.”


• Micro-‐Continuity Membership Model. The model is the fixed-‐term membership program. Continuity membership means there is an implied automatic renewal system in place. Think of the magazines you subscribe to and how many of them automatically renew your subscription when they have your credit card information on file. Many people appreciate the convenience of not having to renew their membership on a monthly basis — but they love fixed-‐term membership programs because not only does it renew automatically, but they know how long the program will be! With a micro-‐continuity or fixed-‐term membership model, they’re signing up for three or six months, but they know exactly how long their membership will last. An example of a fixed-‐term membership site is an online course. I offer one on “Leveraging LinkedIn In Your Job Search,” that is an eight-‐day program, but the same curriculum can be offered as an eight week program, paid in two monthly installments. In a fixed-‐term program, members receive a predetermined amount of information or lessons. At the end of the course, they’re fully trained. This is an excellent model if you want to teach jobseekers something. People should be fully “trained” in the subject at the end of the pre-‐determined length of time. FTM programs can be as short as a week and as long as a year.

• Modular Course (Training Delivery). This model is also used for training delivery

— except, instead of it being a predetermined length of time, it’s open-‐ended. You can offer varying levels of membership in this program — for example: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. You can use membership software to automatically advance people from module to module using a sequential upgrade feature. Some programs allow you to require a test to prove “mastery” of the concepts before advancing to the next level. This actually motivates people to continue their membership because they want to achieve the next level. It’s a powerful motivator. This is the type of program that would work well with helping jobseekers with a career change, or graduating seniors prepare for the world of work. Ultimately, this membership model offers a system that helps someone learn at their own pace. This model can offer a single membership subscription rate (like $10/month, with 12-‐18 months worth of modules) or the option to upgrade the membership and access all the levels at once (for $99, for example), if they want to get the information all at once. Providing quality training is essential for success with this model. Unlike many of the other models, this can be “evergreen” content. Once your course is developed, you’re pretty much done with the content creation part of the site, and you can focus on membership recruitment.

• The Coaching Model. This last model is extremely easy to administer. Basically,

people are paying for “access” to your expertise. They pay a monthly fee and get access to a group coaching experience with you. You might have a theme for


each month’s call (like “Online Reputation Management,” where you share some tips and strategies, and then open it up for questions on that topic or anything they want to know — or, each month’s call can be a complete “free for all,” where members can submit their questions ahead of time or just ask you live on the call. These calls might last anywhere from 45 minutes to two hours, and you can record them for even more revenue potential. (You can turn them into downloadable recordings, have them transcribed, or use them as fodder for other information products.)


Affiliate programs are probably one of the least utilized systems for providing passive income for your résumé writing business … but also one of the easiest to use. If you add affiliate relationships to your careers practice, you can add income by recommending products and services to your clients — or even non-‐clients — that can be beneficial in their job search, but that you don’t offer yourself. An example of this is a résumé writer who offers an interview training module as an affiliate product. Today, we’ll be talking about using affiliate marketing relationships as a source of additional revenue, and as a means to provide clients (or even non-‐clients) with service offerings that will help them reach their career objectives. The two are not mutually exclusive. Most résumé writers and career coaches aren’t going to make a living off of affiliate marketing revenue. I doubt you’re going to make six figures from affiliate marketing. I’m guessing that’s not your goal. But you may add between $10 and $1000 a month to your revenues from this passive income source, without a lot of work.


I talked earlier about using your passive income to fund your conference expenses. I got that idea from a fellow résumé writer, who says she earmarks her affiliate marketing income for professional development, setting it aside to attend conferences. I personally know of several résumé writers who make several hundred — to several thousands — of dollars in affiliate income each year, but they didn’t take the survey. If you write executive resumes, and you send 2-‐3 clients a month to Bob Bronstein and ProFile Research, you’ll make your $100 a month goal easily. The same is true with ResumeSpider. Speaking of Bob, you may be doing affiliate marketing without even knowing it. For example, if you write a résumé and refer your client to Bob at ProFile Research to research employers and distribute the résumé and cover letter, you’re engaging in affiliate marketing. If your client mentions that you referred them to Bob, he will send you a check for a percentage of the order. That’s affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is a revenue sharing opportunity between two companies. Business one (the “advertiser”) pays business two, the “publisher” (that’s you) for sending new customers to them. They may pay you for “traffic” — which is visits to your site; they may pay you for “leads” — which are qualified customer names who may end up purchasing their products or services; or they may only pay for sales, or when a purchase is actually made. I called this section, “Profiting From the Work of Others” — but I wanted to emphasize that although you’re making money from the hard work of someone else, they WANT you to do so! If you’re making money by being their affiliate, that means they’re making money too! With affiliate income, you’re sharing in the profits because you’re helping them market their products and services. In fact, if you develop information products like I suggest in today’s presentation, recruiting affiliates is a great way to get the word out!


You can choose to be an affiliate for an individual company (on their website, look at the very bottom of the page and you might find a link for “Affiliates”) or join an affiliate network. Affiliate networks connect advertisers with publishers. Companies that offer their affiliate programs through networks often are making a significant commitment to their affiliate program, because they’re paying anywhere from $500 to $6000 or more to be a part of that affiliate network. Advertisers that also have a dedicated individual to serve as their affiliate relationship manager are also more committed to the success of their affiliate program — which means more support for you. You can also work with individual providers. Bob Bronstein’s ProFile Research is an example of this. He tracks the business you refer to him without the use of an affiliate network, and without a formal affiliate program. If you are a résumé writer, you might also set up this type of relationship with a career coach, if you don’t offer career coaching yourself. The client mentions they were referred by you, and the career coach might pay you a flat fee or percentage of the client’s order. The same might be true if you are a career coach who refers to a résumé writer.


When working as an affiliate, you don’t want to promote any product that you don’t have personal knowledge or experience with, or that you haven’t had a client work with, or that hasn’t been recommended by a colleague. After all, as an affiliate, you are basically endorsing these products. You are staking your reputation on the products and services you choose to affiliate with. One definition of the word affiliate is: A company in which another company has a minority interest; or more generally, a company that is related to another company in some way. So when you become an affiliate of a company, you are tying your brand to their brand. This is why it is important to carefully consider which products and services that you choose to promote. In today’s presentation, I’m going to give you some ideas of affiliate programs, but there are more resources in the handouts, and I’d also recommend my special report on “Résumé Writer’s Guide to Making Money from Affiliate Relationships.” How can you find products and programs to sell? Start with products and services you’re already familiar with, and that you’re a fan of already. You might also come across a provider’s affiliate program while you’re researching something for a client (for example, reference checking services). Or you might hear of one recommended by a colleague. Another great source is the NRWA’s partner affiliates: http://www.thenrwa.com/CareerExperts/NRWAAffiliates.asp You can also choose to work with an affiliate network. These are the easiest way for you to get started in affiliate marketing. The larger affiliate networks are pretty well known. Commission Junction (which can be found at www.commissionjunction.com, or just www.cj.com), is recognized as the largest affiliate network in North America, powering almost 50 percent of the top 500 web retailer’s affiliate marketing programs. Two others, Clickbank (www.clickbank.com) and Linkshare (www.linkshare.com), also offer a wide variety of affiliate opportunities. Two others that I’m not as familiar with are ShareASale (www.shareasale.com), and Buy.At (www.buy.at), which has a strong presence in the United Kingdom as well as the U.S.


Signing up with one of these affiliate networks offers a couple of advantages. First of all, affiliate opportunities with one of these networks will usually be pretty reputable, as the affiliate marketers that use these programs are pretty vocal about weeding out unsavory operators. If they get a complaint about an disreputable company, they’re likely to pull them from the program. Second, as I mentioned before, you can aggregate your affiliate income, leading to faster — and sometimes, larger — payouts. So instead of making $20 month with little individual programs, if you make $20 with one of the networks, you’re going to get that payment a lot faster. Also, companies that work with one of these network companies have made an investment in their affiliate program, so they’re likely to provide more support than an individual practitioner. On the downside, some affiliate networks require you to get approved by each affiliate vendor individually, which doesn’t save you much time. You still have to apply to each program. But it probably takes a maximum of five minutes to sign up for each program. Also, you might need to sign up with more than just one affiliate network, because they often offer “exclusive” affiliate opportunities — that is, you will often see an affiliate on


one of these sites — for example, Commission Junction, but not another. You can research what the opportunities are by signing up for an account with multiple networks.

Another easy affiliate program is to become an Associate for Amazon.com. If you’ve had your work featured in résumé writing books — or even if you haven’t — featuring links to job search-‐related books on your website can be profitable. Build a “Recommended Resources” page on your website, and start with links to books that you’re featured in, that you’ve written, and/or that you’d recommend to clients. At the bottom of the Amazon page, it says, “Join Associates.” That’s what you want to sign up for. While this isn’t a large income source, you are doing clients a favor by offering your recommendations, and any sales you make are gravy. You can also use your Amazon Affiliates link to include book links and graphics in your blog posts. I’ve found my top two book recommendations that have led to sales are Jason Alba’s book, “I’m on LinkedIn, Now What?” and “Career Distinction,” which is Kirsten Dixson and William


Arruda’s book on personal and career branding. I also used to sell a couple of copies of “The Insider’s Guide to the World of Pharmaceutical Sales,” but that hasn’t been published in a few years. It used to come out every year, and I would do a blog post and put it on my bookstore. If you have a blog geared to job seekers, I’d recommend doing regular book reviews — review books you’ve read and then include links to your Amazon Affiliate site. You can also excerpt your reviews on the book’s page on Amazon directly, which will help increase your “Digital Distinction” rating — and if you don’t know that that is, you should read Career Distinction.

Next up is your list. Those in the affiliate marketing world believe the list is the Holy Grail. But it’s not just the size of your list that matters. Frankly, the quality is more important. If I gave you a phone book, you’d have a list. But it wouldn’t necessarily guarantee you any sales, whether for résumé writing or affiliate marketing products because you haven’t qualified these individuals and they haven’t developed a relationship with you. Sure, you could probably get 1% of the folks you contacted to


buy, but the return on the time and money you’d have to invest to make that happen probably wouldn’t justify the effort. On the other hand, what if you could get 20% of your existing résumé clients to purchase some sort of product — let’s say, a recruiter targeting service or a reference check? A few years ago, I conducted an interview with Steve Shellist, of ResumeSpider, which bills itself as the “E-‐Harmony” of job search and he gave this example of the kind of revenue that a résumé writer could expect promoting ResumeSpider (and this was based on their relationships with actual résumé writers who were using their service at the time). If you write 5-‐7 résumés per week, and convert 5-‐6 of them each month to become ResumeSpider clients, you will earn $100 to $120 per month (and he based that on a $65 average sale price, resulting in a $20 commission per order). So he was saying, if you convert 20% of your clients, you’ll get $20 per order — based on that, it’s 100 a month. But remember, buyers don’t have to be one of your clients to be a client of ResumeSpider — meaning, every visitor to your website is a potential sale, even if they don’t become a client of yours. You can easily double your affiliate profits if you have a web site that gets decent traffic and you promote ResumeSpider visibly to your visitors. Even if you worked with 5-‐7 clients per week (which is average for most resume writers), you’re probably getting about that number of people looking at your website each week. If you’re the type of writer that generates a résumé each day (and/or you get 5-‐10 job seekers looking at your website or blog each day), you could conceivably convert 20% of them into affiliate marketing product users … and there you’d make that $100 per month goal. So how do you build your list? I could spend a couple hours teaching you just how to build a list. But the easiest way to start is with your existing clients. If you haven’t already, you need to be entering them into a database. The most cost-‐effective, efficient way to communicate with clients is through e-‐mail, so make sure you’re also collecting e-‐mail addresses for your clients. You should also be collecting this information from prospective clients as well. I always try to take that extra step to ask them for their e-‐mail address so I can continue to communicate with them. If you set up that “Community Center” model of a forum or special section on your website that I mentioned in the Membership Sites and Systems section, you can get them to opt-‐into an email list.


When becoming an affiliate, be sure to read the affiliate agreement. Some of them are only a few paragraphs. Others are pages. One is not necessarily better than the other. What is more important is clarity. Do you understand what you can — and cannot do — to promote the relationship? Do you understand how, and when, you will get paid? Is there anything prohibited by the arrangement? For example, some affiliate programs will allow you to use your own affiliate link to purchase products and services, and you’ll still get paid on the order — basically, giving you a discount. Others strictly prohibit you from using your own affiliate code. So it’s very important to know the rights, responsibilities, and obligations. Payment is also an area that isn’t often examined too closely by résumé writers and career coaches. You might be thrilled to learn you’ve earned a couple of 30% commissions — until you see that the payment is still “pending” in your account. It’s one thing if your payment was just held up a bit while you submitted a tax identification number form to the affiliate network — but it’s quite another if the affiliate provider has a $250 payment threshold…and you earn about $25 per quarter. Do you want to wait almost a year for your payment? That’s something to consider when choosing an affiliate program.


So there’s a balance. You might choose to affiliate with an independent program that pays a healthy commission on a regular basis — OR you can choose to go with an affiliate network that offers multiple affiliate opportunities, but at a smaller commission, because it’s easier for you to hit the payout threshold if you’re promoting multiple products. Don’t forget to disclose that you’re an affiliate! If you’re being compensated for your recommendation of products or services — which you are, as an affiliate — you need to disclose that. You’ll see that I have a disclaimer in your handouts, because some of the products and services I’m telling you about today are ones that I’m an affiliate for. It’s not a huge burden to disclose. But it is the law. And finally, do plan your affiliate promotions. For example, if you have a website, blog, and e-‐newsletter, you want to develop a schedule for when you will promote which affiliate relationships, and in which communication channels (your website, blog, e-‐newsletters, emails, direct mail, etc.) You can expect some support from your affiliate marketing partners when rolling out your promotional plan. Many of them offer content (articles, for example), and artwork (code for links and banners) you can use. You might also get ideas on how to market your products and services from the affiliate advertiser. Some of them will provide you with case studies of their most successful affiliates. Others will offer tutorials or videos to show you how to incorporate the code into your website, to show you how the product works (you have to have a knowledge of how it works to confidently recommend it). Finally, like anything else, the more work you put into promoting your affiliate relationships, the higher your likely return will be. However, one neat thing about affiliate marketing is that it can be the type of thing that you “set it and forget it.” Once you’ve set up the promotions — especially ads on your website or blog — you don’t have to “manage it” every day in order for it to bring you some revenue. If you have a “Resources” section set up on your website with a couple of key products, you might find yourself making sales without a whole lot of effort. One exception to “Set it and forget it” is when you work with an affiliate network. For example, you have to sign into your Commission Junction account every once in a while, or they’ll deactivate you. I recommend checking it about once every month or two. Another important thing to remember is not to invest more time/energy into your affiliate marketing efforts than the results you can reasonably expect to get out of it. Don’t over-‐invest the time you spend, versus the return that you expect. Don’t spend 10


hours a week managing your affiliate relationships if you only work with 5-‐7 clients a week, and your website draws a couple hundred visits per month. You’re just not going to get a good return on your investment of time. I would suggest you spend 2-‐3 hours initially getting started with affiliate marketing, and then add more relationships — and time promoting existing relationships — as time goes on. For example, I often set up programs and I get motivated when I get a commission check in the mail to go back and do additional promotions.


When I was talking about affiliate programs in the last section, I mentioned the terms “advertiser” and “publisher” to describe the companies. The placement of ads on your online content is also a type of affiliate marketing, and they’re one way you can get paid to write content (other than résumés). The most common of these relationships is with Google’s AdSense program. Any business can purchase ads through Google’s AdWords program. If your website or blog matches the demographics of the customer the advertiser is looking to reach, his or her ads will appear on your content, and you’ll get paid for people who look at the ad … and you’ll get paid more when they click on the ad. Most résumé writers will find that AdSense won’t make them rich. I make about $.02 a day from my traffic alone. I make a little more when someone clicks on one of my ads. I’m thrilled to tell you that I just got my first check from Google, for $100.


What you’re going to find is that many of the best-‐performing click ads are for résumé writing services – but those are usually the ones you’ll want to exclude when setting up your AdSense guidelines. (Otherwise, you’re promoting other résumé writing firms – and usually these are the under-‐$100 résumé writing “mills.”) You’ve got to have significant traffic to your blog (more than a thousand page views per day) and/or highly targeted content, in order to really make significant money from AdSense. There is also potential to make money from AdSense from résumé-‐related videos. You an also use your AdSense code with your YouTube channel, so if you make videos or screen-‐capture instructionals, you can make money from that. You can also sell ads yourself on your blog, and don’t forget promoting your affiliate partnerships on your blog too (either in the content, or in ads). You can also set up niche websites with content that are supported by ads. This can work in conjunction with some of the other passive income strategies we talked about earlier. For example, your Community membership site might be free to join, but offer affiliate links and in-‐site advertising (Google AdWords, for example) to monetize it. This strategy is not for the faint of heart, as it requires providing content on the front end


and strategies to drive traffic to the site in order to earn significant income. It requires some specialized knowledge of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques, and you’ll probably need to invest in some paid online traffic strategies in order to get momentum going.

Squidoo http://www.squidoo.com/ Squidoo is a community-‐created website that allows users to create pages (called “lenses”) for topics that interest them. As of October 2010, Squidoo had 1.5 million lenses. You can monetize your content through the use of affiliate links on your lenses. Fifty percent of all revenue from your page comes to you — and you can pocket it, or donate it to charity. There is also a social component to Squidoo, where you can earn recognition points and badges from other users for posting valuable content. Hubpages http://hubpages.com/ Hubpages is similar to Squidoo, offering user-‐generated content with a revenue-‐sharing model. You can post magazine-‐style articles that can include videos, links to external websites (including your own résumé writing website or blog), reader surveys, photos,


and reader comments. You earn revenue through advertising on your “Hubs” through Google AdSense, eBay, Amazon.com, and HubPages’ own ad program. Constant-‐Content http://www.constant-‐content.com/ Constant-‐Content is a little different. It allows website owners to commission unique articles from expert writers. As such, it’s geared more towards freelance writers than résumé writers, but I thought it was worth a mention anyway. They have a Careers sub-‐section within the Business category. What they have up there right now for sale is a little thin, so there are opportunities for posting careers-‐related articles and making some money from it. Payment ranges from about $20 up to $125 per article, depending on what rights the buyer is purchasing. They can buy “usage,” “unique,” or “full” rights. (As an aside, if you are looking for content for your website or blog, consider purchasing content from this site.) Textbroker http://www.textbroker.com/ If you like Constant-‐Content, you should also look into Textbroker, which is very similar. Yahoo! Contributor Network (formerly Associated Content; also known as Yahoo! Voices) https://contributor.yahoo.com/signup/ You can earn money through upfront payments, assignments, and performance bonuses based on the number of visitors your content draws. You can earn between $2 and $100 per article, plus performance payments, paid through PayPal once you reach the $500 earning threshold. Triond http://www.triond.com/ Triond publishes user-‐generated content across a variety of websites. Content can be articles, pictures, video, or audio. You submit your content for approval, and Triond publishes it on one of its affiliated websites. You receive 50% of the revenue generated from your content. All throughout my presentation today I talked about some strategies for repurposing your content for pay. Just to review, some of these include:

• If you’ve done any public speaking, turn that into a training course by either recording it and selling the transcript, or fleshing it out into an ebook or a home study course.


• If you’ve written a special report or an ebook, do a teleseminar, webinar, or live event on the same subject.

• Go through your emails and see what topics you have to address often with

clients. You can compile those into a “Frequently Asked Questions” guide. Or turn them into blog posts.

• Take the special reports you’ve written and put them in a paid membership site.

• If you’ve written offline materials for your clients, see if any of them would make

good articles or blog posts.

• If you’ve left feedback for a book on Amazon.com, repurpose the book review for your own blog and be sure to include an Amazon Affiliate link back to the book so you can earn a commission if someone buys from your link.

• After you’ve been blogging for a while, go back and review your blog posts and

see if you can compile related posts into a chapter of an ebook, or even a short special report on a particular topic.

For even more ideas on content creation and repurposing, listen to the audio recording of the “Using Content to Capture Career Clients” teleseminar.


Your handout materials will give you more resources to explore for each of the four strategies for developing passive income and recurring revenue in your career services business. I encourage you to think big, but start small. Your mind is likely whirling with lots of ideas, and some of you are probably completely overwhelmed. That’s natural. The most important step is to begin. One of my favorite quotes, is by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. He said, “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.” To conclude today, I want you to write down three things. 1. Your income goal. Fill in the blank: I want to make $______ per month in passive income. 2. Your deadline. I want to make my first dollar in passive income by _______________ (date). 3. Your first step. The first thing I am going to do to make my income goal by my deadline is ___________________________________________________________________________.


I invite you to begin your journey to unending streams of passive income and recurring revenue with a single step.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: BeAResumeWriter.com With a Bronze membership ($10/month), each month you’ll receive a Pass-‐Along Materials package of content that you can use to generate passive income and recurring revenue. Check out this page for more information (including a video). Building Affiliate Relationships to Grow Your Resume Business Recording and Transcript ($5) Using Content to Capture New Career Clients Recording and Transcript ($5) Why You Need a Lead Generation System in Your Resume Writing Business Free Special Report Resume Writers’ Digest Blog Ideas, information and resources for professional résumé writers Start, Operate, and Profit: The Ultimate Resource for Building a $100,000 Resume-‐Writing Business (Third Edition) Comprehensive resource for professional résumé writers looking to build a six-‐figure career services business.

How$to$Create$Passive$ IncomeandRecurring … ·...

Documents

Transcript of How$to$Create$Passive$ IncomeandRecurring … ·...