Hey there, I've been posting some critique requests on this board and read a lot of feedback from others as well. And I'm working on what is for my now the most important change in my business focus. I used to position myself as a internet research, and internet marketing expert to a lesser extent.

And now I want to position myself as a trainer and follow a method I've seen others like Michel Fortin and locall in South Africa have done very well. The formula I've seen is to
1. write a book
2. do (free) presentation and give talks based on the book
3. offer training and seminars based on the book

Now I've struck a deal with a leader Internet marketing expert in South Africa, Tony Roocroft to license his training material for a 2-day Internet marketing seminar. I've been learning from him over last two years. Read his ebook and assisted him with a 2-day seminar in December 2005. And I feel very comfortable with the material to teach it, especially because I've been using it to improve my own websites.

Now this is my question on the process or steps I'm following. Please tell me how I can improve the process even more:
1. produced sales letter for free ebook
2. place this on my website
3. email this to database of companies (1400)
4. after registration autoresponder sends them ebook
5. a few days later (not sure how many) send them sales letter for seminar

So I want to make money from the seminar. And I want to build a permission based list. Any suggestions?

Thanks
Ramon

I've gotten enough people who come to me with "challenges" to do a little research. The first thing to understand is you are in a business with a lot of people selling either identical or similar products.

You are in violation of your own formula, step number one "1. write a book." Because guess what -- you didn't write a book. You bought reprint/resale rights from someone else. And guess what -- in most cases their stuff makes them look like an expert people want to go to seminars to hear, not you.

I've found the people who made money selling reprint rights. Here's what they did...

1. Find a lucrative niche or three -- like the carpet cleaning business.
2. Get that database.
3. PROVE OUT the material by adapting the generic material to the specific niche from step one.
4. Sell at a Higher Price Point than the original product.
5. Create targeted training and seminars based on the original material.

Frankly, most people will refuse to do what it takes to succeed. They will not research, they will not test their assumptions. Instead they will convince themselves they are not in fact selling a similar generic product which 20,000 others sell. They will not understand that generic advice "to the masses" is not information -- people have to do the work to adapt it to their product or service. (And they especially refuse to understand they are not selling a solution -- adapting the product themselves is a problem for people reading your copy -- stragely enough it's the problem they naively thought you would be solving when they started reading your sales letter.)

And so they try to sell to the one, small, highly-competitive and overhyped market: People Who Buy Generic Reprint Rights. This represents, perhaps, a fraction of one percent of the people on the 'net now. Which leaves a practically untapped bonanza of business. In essense, the vast majority of participants starve with a loaf of bread in each hand.