passive income

In a recent post about e-commerce as a great way to get started in online marketing, I also mentioned Rachel Rofe’s “Low Hanging System”.

It really consists of 2 parts:

1. The original “Low Hanging System”: this is a step-by-step guide on how to creating ‘impulse purchase‘ products. Things like mugs, T-shirts, necklaces etc. that are produced on demand, and then shipped out. Selling is typically done via Amazon, eBay and Etsy.
2. The “Done For You Jumpstart”-component of LHS: a whole lot of “done for you” designs & manufacture. Meaning: they design and make those products for you, and have them shipped to Amazon for you.

Anyway, I do now have access to the LHS-membership site, so I’m happy to answer any questions you may have about it.

Now, I know that sometimes people don’t like asking questions because they think their question may be ‘too basic’.

Which is nonsense, there’s no such thing as ‘too basic’. (as I have to keep reminding my 2 teenage sons who keep laughing (condescendingly) when their baby-sisters ask ‘stupid’ questions)

Anyway, to help with that, here are some questions that have come up so far. So if you’re interested in LHS, and you’d like me to dig up some answers for you (so you can figure out if LHS is for you, or not), please let me know by voting below.

It’s all anonymous, I’m just counting votes. You can vote for multiple topics, just select what is important to you.

Any other questions, reach out to me, or leave a comment below.

Vote For Your Main Questions Around The Low Hanging System (DFY-Jumpstart edition)

Cheers

Veit

PS: in the next couple of days, Don & Rachel will be holding a “Low Hanging System – Jumpstart”-Webinar where they show you what’s in the box.

If you’re interested, you can find the LHS-Webinar here.

as you know, I’m not really *doing* mass-marketing. If anything, it’s the opposite of mass-marketing.

However, I am about to get into it … for the very reason I’m not doing it! (yeah, confusing, I know):

You see, one of my main principles (yeah, still reading Dalio’s Principles – stonking good read) is to “walk the talk” (so, that explains the “not doing it” above: walking the talk on NOT doing mass-marketing to my own clients).

Meaning: I can’t really teach and help people with their mass-marketing, if I don’t do it myself.

Why would I want to teach/help with mass-marketing?

Because one part of our business is coaching & consulting for offline businesses – and many of them are in what’s pretty much a mass-market (i.e. ‘persuasion’-methods absolutely work, because most of the stuff people buy are impulse purchases)

So, I would not be walking the talk if I advised them on using urgency and scarcity etc and I couldn’t point to my own numbers and say:

look, those are the numbers that PROVE that I know what I’m talking about

Now, personally, I have a couple of ideas for a typical ‘mass-market’ that have nothing to do with e-com …

… but, if I didn’t have those specific interests, e-com is probably exactly what I would be doing.

The reason is simple:

I have seen with my own eyes what damage you can do with seriously stupid simple things.

Now, sadly (for you), the things I’ve seen with my own eyes are the ‘behind the scenes’ results of a coaching client …

… and hence I can’t share those figures and niches with you.

Suffice to say: it’s mindboggling what people buy. (and in what volume)

Like I said before: it’s all about the impulse purchase. And that is helped along rather nicely with a good dose of ‘persuasion’.

(you simply don’t have the time to build out a big SOI-funnel, educate them, be their trusted adviser etc …

… because they will have bounced off after 3 seconds to pay attention to the cute kitten over there going meow)

The good thing about the whole thing is this: doing the ‘Cialdini’-thing, using scarcity, urgency, reciprocity, social proof etc …

… is a LOT less work than doing a proper SOI.

And as a result, you can test different ideas very quickly and dial in an offer that works…

… and then keeps working, because the market for most impulse purchases is absolutely endless.

Meaning: in those mass-markets it’s much easier to develop a set-and-forget marketing system than in the opposite world of building KLT first, then nurturing that relationship for a long time, and then finally asking for the sale.

And those set-and-forget marketing systems are the closest thing to having ‘passive’ income you’ll ever have with online-marketing

(re-watch the Rich Dad, Poor Dad video I shared the other day if you want a reminder of what an asset really is:

So, with that context in place,  …

… I feel comfortable pointing you towards Rachel Rofe’s “Low Hanging System Jumpstart” launch …

… which is (unsurprisingly;-) fully e-com oriented (but KISS-style)

in the first video you get there, Don (Rachel’s boyfriend) walks you through the whole process of what they’re doing and what’s involved, so you can see for yourself if this is something you’d enjoy doing.

(and it’s actually useful and helpful, not the ‘persuasive’ kind with all kinds of NLP tricks getting you frothing at the mouth with anticipation and telling you that the world will end if you don’t get their course)

This one is a little different from other launches in that space in that they have quite a bit done-for-you components of their final product – so it’s not just a ‘course’, but instead a lot of the design work actually done for you …​​​​​​​

… all the way to them actually creating physical products and having them shipped to FBA for you.

So this may well be your ticket, if you’ve been struggling with getting ‘information’, but then translating it into action.

The other reason I feel comfortable pointing you her way is that I’ve seen a lot of Rachel’s work before, and so far she’s always overdelivered and really takes care of her clients.

Veit

PS: lol, now after reading through my arguments for e-com I’m starting to wonder if I shouldn’t do ecom after all instead of one of those other ideas I had.

PPS: the ONE big, MASSIVE insight I can give you from my coaching client is this:

when you get started (well, he self-started, didn’t follow a course, he just tried things out) – stick with it!

His revenue curve was flat for around 4-5 months – enough income to get by, but nothing to brag about.

And then, 4-5 months in, it suddenly made ‘click’, and everything fell into place, and suddenly that flat curve turned into the hockey-stick-curve we all dream of.

And guess what it was: finding the right combination of impulse-triggering Cialdini-principles, and putting them in the right order.​​​​​​​

​​​​​​​That’s all it took to go from flat to hockey-stick.

(then again, he was doing Shopify with ‘proper’ funnels, and sourcing their own products … not the simple Amazon/eBay/Etsy model Rachel & Don are using)

But the key insight is this: sticking with it is the REAL secret!

well, that’s me messing with a quote by Robert Kiyosaki as you see in this video:

which I watch every now and then to remind myself of Robert’s explanation of the idea of “financial IQ” and what you need to do if you want to change your situation:

ignore your life-long programming to be a “good employee” and start a business

(watch his bit on “Financial IQ” and how smart you are at solving problems! Most people “work harder”, get a 2nd job … whereas the real solution to your problems is to start a 2nd business)

For me, it’s not even about the tax-side of things, but in a job, you’re basically limited to your personal capacity to do work.

But, when you take this online, that limit suddenly disappears.

The Internet, or Online Marketing has given us probably THE biggest opportunity so far in human evolution at LEVERAGING our own talents.

Create something once, then sell it a thousand/million/bazillion times over.

Writing a good email takes somewhere between 1 and 2 hours. Sending it out adds another 1min until you’ve pressed all the right buttons.

And that time does not change no matter if you’re sending it to 1, 10, 100 or a million subscribers.

Your results do though. (by factor 10, 100 or a million!)

Now, what’s even better:

if you’re willing to look at the results you’re getting, and learn from them … you can re-deploy something that works over and over again.

And now, suddenly, you have yourself an asset.

Again, watch Robert’s video for that brilliantly simple explanation of what an asset really is – because most people get that completely wrong:

Turns out, an email list by itself is not an asset.

Neither is an email list combined with a great relationship.

Nor is a big authority site … if there’s no traffic to it.

Nor is “the perfect product” an asset when nobody buys it

and so on

What is an asset though is things like:

• evergreen autoresponder sequences (tested and proven to convert of course)
• stupid simple mini-sites/pages/properties that provide enough value for someone to say “yes, I’ll give you my email address for that!”
• and if you’re not into email, of course stupid simple mini-sites/pages/properties that get people to say “yes, I’ll get my CC out for that!”
• and that could be something where you either convert paid traffic profitably … or of course the biggest prize of them all: organic traffic
• now in its simplest form, the asset could be something that has a flow of visitors to it … and then monetize it with the most passive forms of monetization: Adsense.

the possibilities are literally endless. (see this brilliant article on Tiny Asset Engines for further suggestions, opens in a new tab)

And yet, rather than build out one at a time and then STICKING WITH IT until it works … most people give up just before the final hurdle.

(and yes, I’ve been there, done that)

And I reckon, it goes back to the “financial IQ” Robert mentions in the video:

we are so brainwashed into “adding another job” when we’re in a tight spot, that the immediate reaction is: “ok, this isn’t enough, let me quickly do something else“.

Sadly, experience shows: this “tight spot” … the question: “is this really going to work for me” usually happens literally 1 step before the darn thing finally gets to escape velocity!

End-result:

you’ve got yourself a job manually slogging away … and if you were to count the hours and the income generated, you’d probably end up with a lousy hourly rate at best … and with a liability at worst.

So, my take (and the reason I keep watching the video, because I’ve been brainwashed all my life too, thanks mum….), and I guess my ‘recipe for improving your financial IQ’:

1. acknowledge that you’ve been conditioned to “work harder” …
2. … and one of the consequences is that you end up focusing on too many things, and getting none of them to where they actually spring into a life of the own (as in: they’re not only self-sustaining, but an asset for years to come)
3. and then use all the focus and will-power you can muster to F.O.C.U.S (follow one course until successful) with just one tiny asset.

Sure, the first one is (in all likelihood) not going to be at the same level as Robert’s “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” … but if you finish one and let’s say it makes you anywhere from $20-$100/day … then start the next, finish that, start the next, finish that … that does add up over time!

And to quote/paraphrase Robert one last time:

it’s not the school you went to, it’s where you focus your energy on

Get off your butt and start your own online passive income streams!

Veit

PS: I hope the subject line makes sense now: there really isn’t much of a (if any) difference between ‘passive income’ and ‘assets’. Our big advantage is that we’re effectively creating businesses … and they can be leveraged a whole lot further than the interest you’re getting on your deep-frozen assets like money in the bank, or gold-bullion under your bed. Heck, over time, I’m pretty confident they even out-do Bitcoin;-)