How I Made $68,000 Teaching E-Classes (Or, What I Learned From
Wanting A Z3)
One day I pulled up beside a truck delivering new cars. One of
the cars on his flatbed made my heart leap and my blood dance. I
had never had a piece of machinery turn me on before. This one
did. I fell in love.
It was a BMW Z3. A Roadster. A hot-rod. One of the sexiest cars
ever known to man and made by gods. Okay, maybe I'm overplaying
it. But the point is, this car spoke to me. I wanted it. And
wanted it bad.
I also knew BMW's are pricey. So the first thing I did was try
to win one. I entered two contests where Z3's were the big
prizes. I knew I would win. I was destined to have that car. But
I didn't win. Alas. So much for the laws of chance. It was time
to create my future.
So I decided I would just buy the car, and that I would pay cash
for it. I had just completed a book on how to create miracles,
called "Spiritual Marketing," and I figured I would prove to
myself that I could create a Z3. So I used my own five-step
method to get the sexiest car of my hottest dreams.
I began by setting an intention for getting that car. Oprah once
said that "Intention rules the Earth." I know it. My car's
license plate holder says, "I am the power of intention." Once
you declare that something will be so, you send a signal into
the universe that begins to move that something to you, and you
to it. Call it Real Magic. I call it one of the most powerful
steps in the Spiritual Marketing process. From that step alone,
miracles can happen.
After I set my intention to have that car, I then acted on the
hunches that bubbled up within me and the opportunities that
came my way. To be more exact, here's what happened:
One day it occurred to me to offer a seminar on the subject of
my new book. I could rent a hotel. Write a sales letter. Invite
everyone I knew on my online and off-line list to it. I could
make a killing in a weekend. That's the ticket!
But then it occurred to me that I don't like to market seminars,
that I didn't know if it would sell, that postage and printing
to promote it would cost a fortune, and that I'm not such a big
fan of speaking in public, anyway.
And here's where the shift occurred:
I began to play with the idea that I could hold the seminar
online. I would simply announce the "Spiritual Marketing"
e-class to my email list. It would cost me zip. If no one signed
up, so what?
But---BUT!---if they *did* sign-up, I could teach the entire
class by email. Every week I would send out a lesson. I would
give assignments. They would complete them and email them back.
I would then comment on their homework. It would all be nice and
neat, easy and convenient. Sounded good to me.
I decided to teach five weeks of classes, mainly because there
were five chapters in the "Spiritual Marketing" book. I would
send out one chapter a week as a lesson. I would add assignments
to each one to make it more of a legit course.
Then I wondered, "What do I charge?" I spent a lot of time on
this question. Most people give away their e-classes, if they
teach them at all. A few charge low fees. But I wanted a BMW Z3.
They cost $30-$40,000 each. Yikes!
Well, I decided I wanted 15 people in my class. That was an
arbitrary number. I just figured if 15 people actually did their
homework over a 5 week period, I would have my hands full
reviewing it. So, like everything else in the developing of this
first e-class, I simply "made up" the class size.
I then divided 15 by how much I wanted to raise for my Z3. If 15
people paid me $2,000 each, I'd have enough to pay for the car
in cash. But two grand a person seemed a bit high. So I settled
for $1,500 a person.
I then issued a sales pitch/invitation to sign-up for the class
to my email list. I have about 800 good names on my list.
Sixteen of them immediately signed-up for the class. Talk about
easy money!
The class was easy to do, too. The students loved the lessons,
my assignments, and my feedback. Only one person immediately
asked to bow out, saying the class wasn't for him. So I ended up
with 15 people after all. I made $22,500. I was happy.
But I didn't stop there. A few weeks later I announced another
e-class. This one on how to write, publish and promote your own
e-book. I just followed the same model that already worked: I
issued an invite to my email list, I went after 15 people, I
charged $1,500 per person for a 5-week class. I got 12 paying
customers. I made $18,000. Boy, am I loving this!
At this point I had been thinking about writing a sequel to my
best-selling e-book, "Hypnotic Writing." But I didn't want to
write it and hope it would sell. I wanted *paid* to write it.
So I created yet another e-class. This one would be on "Advanced
Hypnotic Writing." It would be three weeks long, rather than
five, because I wanted to take it easy this time around. (I was
getting lazy.) I still charged $1,500 and I still went after 15
people. I then announced the class to my email list.
Here's where something wild happened:
Almost 18 people immediately signed-up for the class. But when I
asked them to pay the $1,500 fee, every single one of them said
they thought the class was free! I was stunned.
I re-read my invite. It clearly said there was a hefty fee. All
I can figure is that people skimmed the letter, got excited, and
just shot back emails to enroll in the class. Or maybe they read
the word "fee" as "free." Go figure.
But that's not the only odd thing that happened with this class:
I had trouble filling it from my own elist. So I went and asked
a person with a giant email list if he would promote my class to
his people. He would---for fifty percent of the pie. Yowsa! That
was a lot, but I wanted to get paid to write my sequel to
"Hypnotic Writing," and I'd still end up with good money,
anyway. So I agreed.
Well, twenty people signed up. And the really oddly wonderful
thing is that no one---no one!---did their assignments. So I got
their money (half of it, anyway: $15,000), I got paid to write
my "Advanced Hypnotic Writing" ebook, and I had no homework to
review or grade. What a cool business!
Most recently, I announced yet another e-class. I was about to
buy a large country estate and wanted more money fast. This new
class is on my new proprietary marketing formula, called
"Guaranteed Outcome Marketing." I raised the price on this
5-week e-class to signal its value. I asked for $2,500 a person.
Since I normally charge $25,000 to create a Guaranteed Outcome
Marketing strategy for someone, asking for only $2,500 to teach
someone how to do it seemed very fair.
I lowered the class size because I wanted to be sure to give
each student personal attention. I promoted this class to only
my own email list. I got five students. Which meant I raised
$12,500. Not bad for a month's "work."
And yes, I bought the country estate. I'm writing this article
from it.
The moral here? There are several:
1. Intention rules: You can float with the circumstances life
brings you or you can create you own direction and your own
circumstances. It begins with a decision. What do you want?
Decide. Choose. Declare.
2. Break the model: Just because others are selling their
services for a song doesn't mean you have to, as well. Respect
yourself. What are you worth?
3. Go for something other than money: Wanting my Z3 caused my
mind to stretch in new ways to raise the money needed to get the
car. If I were just going after money for money's sake, I might
not think so boldly in my ideas or my pricing. What do you
REALLY want?
4. You can do this, too. Just look at what you know that others
would pay you to learn. Then turn it into an e-class, complete
with lessons and assignments. After the class is over, you might
even compile the material into a book. Or a tapeset. Or--? Think
big! What would you teach if you had no fears?
5. The spiritual is not separate from the material. Since I've
focused on money in this article, it may be easy to declare my
focus was only on the dollar. Not so. I used spiritual
principles---as outlined in my new book---to create wealth. Once
you realize that the spiritual and material are two sides of the
same coin, you are free to have happiness as well as cash. As it
says on the dollar bill in your pocket, "In God we trust." Do
you trust?
Finally, yes, I got my Z3. It's a 1999 Montreal Blue stunning
piece of rolling beauty. I've never had so much fun in my life
driving. In fact, I think I'll aim it up and down some Texas
country roads right now...