Elizabeth Potts Weinstein » Marketing and Making Money

The Experience Matters: Behind the Website Redesign

Elizabeth Potts Weinstein — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 18:25:41 +0000

Since you’re here, you’ve probably noticed that this site looks completely different than it did just a few days ago.

Yes, it’s a total redesign – but not just to freshen things up and look nice. I made calculated changes to both the look & feel and the working of the site to create a different experience for you here at Live Your Truth.

Because the experience matters.

Learn more by watching this video –>

What do you need from a website? What do you love to see when you go to a website?

What challenges are you facing in your website design?

I’d love to hear from you below!

Behind 18Days: Why’s of the Long Form Sales Letter, Pricing, 18 Days & Promo

Elizabeth Potts Weinstein — Fri, 27 May 2011 15:35:31 +0000

Program launches have this mystery to them – why do people craft their pages the way they do, who does calls versus classes versus scholarships versus give aways, pricing and levels and deadlines … all a mysterious combination that may or may not work because we don’t know what actually happens underneath the hype and promotion language.

Because I learn so much from posts where people share the behind the scenes & lessons learned from their launches – I’m sharing here why I’m doing what I’m doing for the 18 Days to Live Your Truth launch.

1. Why the Long Form Sales Letter?

I’ve tried other ways to communicate what you need to know to buy something – cool websites with sliders and tabs that all the marketers (who, ahem, are not clients or customers of mine) thought were awesome.

But those new-format sites don’t convert as well as the old school long form sales letter.

Maybe people don’t click on the tabs, or there are too many places to stop, or they get confused, or because it seems like less information so the offer looks less compelling or you just don’t get enough information to buy.

I don’t know for sure.

What I do know is that for the exact same program, the long form sales letter (even horrible ugly poorly written ones!) get a greater % of my visitors to make a decision and buy.

When I was writing this sales letter, I came across a wonderful email article about this from Naomi Dunford (of IttyBiz and now making something else). Among other things, she said — “fonts don’t have a morality.”

The thing is, I can write a sales letter that is the truth.

That’s not slimy. That helps you make a powerful decision that is right for you.

And if a red header fonts and red pointy arrows, break-out boxes and tables, a P.S. call to action and check mark bullets … if those things help you make the right decision … then frak, that’s what I’m going to do.

BTW – the sales page video is 20 minutes (my longest ever sales page video!) because it’s a parallel track.

In other words, the video has enough info to make a decision, and the sales page has enough info to make a decision.

I assume that people are either reading people or video people – so each one stands alone.

I also tried to make it possible to buy just from the headers & bolds & tables … which is how I buy. (Ironically, I don’t watch sales videos unless they are demos. Lol!)

2. Why the pricing?

Well … I could give you a bunch of calculations and charts of why I picked these prices.

I did do some calculations, comparing them to how much email/phone consulting costs, what I needed to sell to pay the bills, etc.

Yes, I have historical reasons for my pricing. I’ve found that $97 is a price point that converts well for my people on a new program (and then typically I can raise it to $127 or $147 the next time around, when there is more buzz and testimonials). I also have found that people are willing to pay a lot more money for one-on-one coaching with me.

But the real reason for these prices is that it’s what felt right in my gut.

I didn’t do payment plans on the $97 because I want to help people. If someone can’t afford that price then they would have more success in the program if they first take care of their money emergencies before they join. I do offer payment plans for the coaching upgrades, since those are higher price points.

I didn’t do an early-bird sale because lowering the price felt off, and raising it in a few days felt off. Not a scientific reason, but that’s the truth.

3. Why 18 Days?

I’ve done a bunch of four week and six week programs – and it seems that a bunch of people fall off after week three.

So my theory is … let’s see what happens if the program is just three weeks long!

To make the 18 Days format work and make it more easily digestible, I split the program into six small units instead of a big weekly class.

This also works better since I imagine that June is a hard month for people to plan (with schools getting out and vacations) & I’m moving in June, making it hard for me to schedule streaming video classes.

And … 18 Days sounded good.

4. Why the eCourse?

I picked the eCourse format because it was the best of two worlds.

Classes are great because the inherent deadline makes people more accountable, there’s a community of people doing the class together, and it makes the promotion have a natural deadline.

Information products are great because people can do on their own time and consume it easily from any time zone.

So I combined the best of both worlds by creating an eCourse that’s based on time (with content released on a schedule) and is all pre-recorded, so it’s convenient for everyone in everywhere.

I have no plans to make this into an information product, because it would lose the time aspect and the community aspect.

5. Why this promotion?

Well, this is not going exactly as I had envisioned.

Things are crazy for me right now – I’m finding an apartment and buying a car, G is graduating pre-school and getting set up for Kindergarden, I’m dealing with an underwater/unoccupied rental property, I only have a few hours of childcare each week, I keep getting sick, a few other personal things I’m not discussing here … and I completely underestimated how much all of the above would take from me.

I didn’t plan that the sales page would go up less than two weeks before the class starts. But really, that’s probably better.

Historically, shorter sales periods have worked better for me than longer ones.

In the upcoming week I plan to release more information and resources to help people make a decision, including a video tour of the membership site, some examples of what we’ll be doing in the program, an explanation of the hand analysis extra (included in the upgrades), and whatever else strikes my fancy.

G and I will be in Portland (at WDS) the last weekend of the launch.

So I’ll be closing out the sale in a hotel room with a 6 year old running around.

That will be interesting.

Hope you got something out of my brain dump of what’s behind the scenes at 18 Days to Live Your Truth.

I’ll update you afterwards to let you know how it went!

Hi. My name is Elizabeth. And I have a plan.

Elizabeth Potts Weinstein — Sat, 07 May 2011 03:35:56 +0000

But … I’m afraid to tell you my plan.

You see, my nature in plan-making-and-executing mode is to keep it secret. Keep it safe.

That’s what the caveperson inside of me desperately wants to do. Protect the plan. Prevent sabotage of the plan. Focus on the plan. Implement the plan.

And while all of that is awesome, it creates a problem.

If I keep the plan a secret, then you can’t help.

You can’t get excited about it. You can’t ask questions. You can’t see if you’d like to be part of the plan.

It can’t turn from my plan, into our plan.

It can’t turn from something small, into something kinda bigger. Kinda better.

Even into something lots bigger. Lots better. Bigger & better than I could ever create alone.

So against all of the frantic grunting of my caveperson (and also the nagging from the bitch in the corner who doesn’t want any of the plan disclosed until it is perfect), I’d like to share the plan with you, my fellow Live Your Truthers.

On May 23rd I will open the 18 Days to Live Your Truth ecourse for enrollment.

(that’s 18 days from today. hum, funny how that worked.)

The 18 Days to Live Your Truth ecourse is for those of you who:

want to live your truth but don’t know what that is.
know your truth & want to live it, but can’t because of time, energy, money, him, her or them.
want to do that thing that is your truth but something is holding you back …. and you don’t know what that thing is.
have been living your truth in certain areas of your life, but are totally not living your truth in other areas of your life (the “living two lives” problem).

What we’re going to do is find out what’s blocking you, so you can uncover your truth and how to go about living it.

We’re also going to figure out what is the most important area for you to focus on right now, so you can make the most upward progress on your spiral of living your truth.

And the best part, is that we’re going to do all this super-cool-yet-very-scary-stuff together. You’re not alone. Yay!

Dates: June 6-25, 2011 (sundays off)

Time: Pre-recorded videos/audio and downloadable pdf’s – so whatever time works for your life and schedule is cool.

Where: Everything will be on a password-protected site, so you can watch/download/listen whenever & connect w/ everyone else going through the program.

How: We’ll cover six units of material – for each unit I’ll share a video w/ the content (15-20 minutes), give you some exercises to think & write about, and give you some experiments to go & play with in the world.

Details: I’ll share all of that next week on the sales page!

(right now I’d like to make a bunch of disclosures like, this is not perfect yet! all the benefits aren’t here! this isn’t the story yet! it sounds much cooler than this looks! don’t hate it yet! etc. Okay. Now that I’ve done that, the bitch in the corner who likes to point out all the flaws feels much better.)

If you have any ideas, questions, suggestions, or ways you’d like to help, or if you’d just like to send some positive energy my way, please leave a comment below or contact me directly!

P.S. Did you download the How to Live Your Truth manifesto yet? (it’s free, no-opt in) You haven’t yet? Omg, get on that!

The Real Reason I’m Having a 30% Off Sale. Oh, and the token April Fools website story.

Elizabeth Potts Weinstein — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 04:08:03 +0000

You know the “internet sale” drill.

First I tell you the Amazing (somewhat-lame-excuse) Story.

How today I’m so crazy and embarrassed and sentimental that seven years ago I launched my first website at pottsweinstein.com, for Potts Weinstein Financial Consulting (personal financial & estate planning).

How ha! ha! ha! I launched a business on April Fools Day! How foolish of me!

And omg, the website was so ugly / badly marketed / terribly copywritten / had no CTA / acted as if I was a big corporation so clients would drive down my residential street and be like WTH where is the big office building.

And we all think to ourselves, ah yes, that first job / business / website / blog, we were also all so foolish / young / desperate / trying to pretend that we actually knew what we were doing.

And then I say, so, in celebration / anniversary / irony of that first website going up, I’m having a sale!

(As if that has anything to do with a sale? Why did we need an excuse anyway? Oh yes, because we have to have a story to sell things and the story is the excuse but really it’s just bullshit. Of course, this anti-story is just another story. So there you go.)

The real reason I’m having a sale is about necessity and deadlines.

I didn’t have time to launch a new virtual program in February or March (as you read this I’m hosting the Live Your Truth Adventure live event here in San Francisco) and some of you guys need a deadline to get you to make a decision on the stuff I already have available.

So, here’s your deadline, my dears.

Use the FOOL coupon code TODAY ONLY and get 30% OFF everything.

That’s one day only, April 1, 2011, from midnight to midnight EASTERN time.

And that’s everything I sell – including virtual programs AND consulting AND the other 2011 Live Your Truth Adventure events.

(how it works is you just go put the thing you want in the shopping cart, and then when you get to the page to enter your name etc. then you can enter the coupon code and hit “apply” and the 30% off will appear on your entire order, like magically and stuff. yay internet!)

Here’s your options of cool Live Your Truth stuff you can partake yourself of:

Want to catch up on the first year of Live Your Truth?

Get all of the blog posts and video transcripts in the Year One of Living Your Truth 400+ page ebook! Regular price $17, sale price $11.90

Go to the Year One of Living Your Truth ebook

Want my Advice/Ideas/Feedback, One-on-One?

Consulting via email, Skype, and telephone is available, starting with email consulting at regular price $27, now $18.90 per session (yes, you can buy now and use anytime!)

Go to One-on-One Consulting

Want to learn how to Live Your Truth on Video?

Learn how to create videos that speak your truth and engage with your tribe – Quickstart regular price $37, sale price $25.90 & 4 Weeks to Video regular price $147, sale price $102.90

Go to Live Your Truth on Video

Wish you were playing with us at today’s Live Your Truth Adventure?

Join the Adventure (with just 2 other people!) in September or November – regular price $497, sale price $347.90 (payment plans available!) [note: there are 5 seats available as of 4/1/11 at 9:35 AM Eastern]

Go to the Live Your Truth Adventure

If you have any questions, ask them asap to me via email at elizabeth[at]elizabethpw.com and I’ll get back to you as soon as we take a break at LYTA – and, don’t forget that the sale is over at Midnight Eastern (9 PM Pacific)!

~ Elizabeth

P.S. If you really want to get the best value, I suggest you look at the Live Your Truth Adventure Event or Consulting with me (especially if you’re thinking about phone consulting) – this is the lowest price LYTA will ever be, and I may not put consulting on sale again.

P.P.S. This isn’t a joke. You can count on this b/c I’m a dork and don’t know how to pull off April Fools Jokes. That is all.

Behind Annual Subscriptions, True Fans, and Going All In

Elizabeth Potts Weinstein — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 16:50:16 +0000

So if you’ve been around here for the last few months, you may have heard me talk about the 2011 Annual Subscriptions (only available until Dec 31, 2010) – where people can get 1/2 off of everything I offer in 2011 – but I didn’t yet share the backstory.

In this video I’m sharing the reasons for why I’m offering the annual subscriptions (what’s in it for me & why you may want to do them in your business) – including how this applies to the True Fans concept – and what’s in it for the subscribers.

Btw, +2 points for anyone who can guess whether or not I took a shower before I made this video.

If you have questions, feedback, or are considering how to add an annual subscription offering to your business, please leave a comment below!!