Would you buy an online marketing course tailored for small businesses?

[julienraby]

I've been looking for online marketing courses for small businesses but I didn't found anything relevant. It's either crappy products or expensive and time consuming.

I'm thinking about creating a set on online marketing lessons specifically for smb owners. Something along those lines:

Lesson 1: Create a simple website

Lesson 2: Simple SEO

Lesson 3: Blogging

Lesson 4: Social Medias

Lesson5: Email Marketing

Lesson 6: Advanced strategies

The price point would be at about 100$ (much lower than hubspot and other DIY ressources) and the total cost to setup everything would be at about 60$ (including domain name, hosting, etc).

So the promise is that for 160$ plus 1 hour a day for 30 days you can be up and running with a full fledge online marketing setup for your business.

Now the question: Would you buy a 100$ guide that would, in a step-by-step fashion, show you exactly how to setup your online marketing?

Please be honest!

Thanks,
Julien

[vangogh]

I wouldn't personally buy the guide, but that's mainly because I think I already know the information fairly well. I do think what you're looking to create definitely can sell though. I'm just not your market. What you're looking to set up can clearly work since it already exists and works as you pointed out. Your price point sounds fair to me. On your end the key is going to be creating a guide that delivers on its promise and then in raising awareness about it and convincing people to buy.

[Steve B]

I wouldn't personally buy it.

I think the struggle you will face is that everyone has a friend, brother-in-law, neighbor etc. that will all profess to be experts in those areas. The other thing is that customers will be looking for a successful track record from the person who is offering the guide. I also think your price point is too low. I wouldn't expect to get very much for that price - you may have better luck charging more. Why would you want to charge "much" lower than your competitor? Sometimes there's a reason they charge what they do - you'll probably find that out once you start marketing it.

[Harold Mansfield]

No I wouldn't. I wouldn't even give the pitch a chance. But this is the opinion of someone who has been online for a few years, have/had multiple websites and understand the complexities of internet marketing.

I also have a real aversion to "make Money Online" pitches. Even if you have a decent product, the years (since the 90's) of con men preying on desperate noobs looking to strike it rich online, that have been sucked in by such claims is too much to ever overcome at this point.

One of my favorites to mention is "Jeff Paul's Secrets to Internet Millions", who is now under indictment from the Justice Department and 100's of others before and after him.
To me it's the same as selling "untapped" claims during the Gold Rush years. (actually people are still selling claims). I haven't seen one of these yet that wasn't a automatic billing scam designed to keep people's hopes up that if they keep spending money, they will eventually buy enough product to make them successful.

I also don't think that you can teach anyone enough in 30 days to lead them down a path of eventual success. If it were that easy, everyone with a computer would be killing it right now. I don't even think you can teach anyone how to build a decent website in 30 days.

However, I also understand that this is not the reality of most people. The average person has no idea what Internet Marketing entails, and only sees the successful companies and never any understanding of what it takes to get there. Everyone who is not doing something online, thinks that it's easy money.

Most people still think that a good idea and a garage is enough to make millions, and will continue to buy these types of products and programs. I still speak with people that think Facebook is just a regular website run by a couple of people on a consumer level hosting account.

So do I think you could sell it? Probably. If it were marketed correctly. But you can also sell horoscopes, lottery systems, and psychic readings. There are enough people out there that want to beleive.

Would I, or let anyone I know buy it? Absolutely not.

[vangogh]

I wanted to reiterate that I think what you want to do can certainly work. There are other guides out there selling that are similar enough to what you want to offer to prove it can work. Whether or not you make it work for you will come down to how you execute on the idea. There is a market for what you're looking to do. That market isn't going to be all small business owners however. You'll find there are some small business owners who are web savvy and some who aren't. Those who aren't will tend to view guides about marketing online as spam and dismiss you without further thought. Another group though will more likely be seeking information that a guide like yours aims to promise so you'll need to find those people.

Your guide should be quality and offer value. There are enough get rich quick guides out there already and the internet doesn't need another. If you genuinely can create something of value it can definitely find its market and sell. However until people know who you are it's probably unlikely they'll be a guide from you. You need to establish that you give out good advice in advance. A typical path to selling information online is to first give away information via a blog or similar and build an audience. Down the line your audience will have grown and come to trust you and be wiling to buy from you. That doesn't happen overnight, but it does happen if you continue to provide good information.

[billbenson]

Owning a web based business I would only recommend a product like yours as a starting place to someone, not something that is actually going to give them everything they need to create and run a web based business. There is simply just to much information to learn and that has to be done over time like a 2 or 4 year college program.

Having said that, I agree with VanGogh. You can put together a quality product and sell it.

[synconlinemedia]

Dont buy expensive classes and guides. You can get lots and lots of info online for free. The only thing I will add to that is if a guide only a few bucks and its from someone with experience I may buy those...out of curiosity.

[billbenson]

Dont buy expensive classes and guides. You can get lots and lots of info online for free. The only thing I will add to that is if a guide only a few bucks and its from someone with experience I may buy those...out of curiosity.

Your out of work and can't find a job. You've heard about people making decent money online. You have no idea where to start. A "well done" program such as what was described by the OP has value. It can be a good starting point. Really its not much different than buying a dummies book. I do php programming and have found it to be a very useful skill in my business. I started with a dummies book 12 years ago.

While you are correct the information is free online, if you don't know anything how do you know what to search for.

[Harold Mansfield]

I'd like to see a good one for a change. An honest one.

One that starts out, "If you are sitting at home unemployed and think that you will quickly learn enough to start bringing in income by the end of the month, go out and get a job and then come back and read this."

That's my whole problem with Internet "Guides". They are always dishonest about what people can hope to expect.

[billbenson]

I'd like to see a good one for a change. An honest one.

One that starts out, "If you are sitting at home unemployed and think that you will quickly learn enough to start bringing in income by the end of the month, go out and get a job and then come back and read this."

That's my whole problem with Internet "Guides". They are always dishonest about what people can hope to expect.

Which is why I made the dummies book comparison. The implication of a Dummy's book is "this will get you started with the basics". Its not promises of wealth.

Because of the mass of the online garbage ebooks I think the OP will have a marketing nightmare trying to sell it. But that doesn't mean it can't be done!

The people that tend to buy" get rich quick" or "take the easy way out" stuff are probably people that are destined to fail anyway. They aren't really the target market for this type of ebook or program?

[vangogh]

You can get lots and lots of info online for free.

There may be a lot of free info, but how long does it take to find it all. If you bill out at $50 an hour, then a $100 is worth 2 hours of your time. If it takes 3 hours to find the same information and one hour to read the guide you're at break even. Odds are it would take you a lot longer to find the information and many people charge more than $50 an hour. Of course all this assumes the information is of equal quality between the free and paid guide.

What kind of online guides are you guys finding? Everyone seems down on them. There's definitely garbage out there, but plenty of good information too. I've bought quite a few guides, ebooks, and online courses and they've generally been worth the money. You can't just buy any that you find. However, if you trust the source and have been able to get some good information from them previously there's not a lot of risk. Most of the online information I've purchases was created by people who's blogs I read. I knew in advance I wasn't going to be buying spam. A few times I even made a purchase for something I wasn't sure I wanted because the author had given me so much good free information I wanted to support them.

Nothing in Julien's original post suggest he's trying to push a get rich quick scheme on people. If anything he's creating this guide after finding too much garbage information and wanting to offer something more valuable. I have no idea what the quality of the eventual guide would be or whether it would be worth the money, but I don't think we should be assuming it's spam just because it's in digital form. Why not offer thoughts about how to make it valuable? Julien seems to be interested in creating something of value so why don't we help by suggesting what could make it valuable.

[Harold Mansfield]

OK, here's the real issue.
These programs, e-books and guides are all hitting the wrong cylinder.

"Online" is not a business. "Internet Marketing" is not a product.

Saying that you can teach someone how to make money online, is like saying to can teach someone how to make money with billboards.
What's the product? What's the business?

It's the same as people that keep trying to make money blogging, but have no concept of what they are doing.
"Blogging" is not a product that you sell to people. It's a tool to promote a product or service.

Internet Marketing is a way to sell a product or service.
So to me, what all of these "Gurus" are selling is abstract. It's not an actual tangible lesson on running a business online, because there is no product or service.

If you were teaching how to sell a specific product online. Or how to make money with CPM ads, or affiliate links. At least that is a tangible business model.
You can't sell an Internet Marketing to people. Just like radio. Just like TV. Just like print. You have to have the business first.
You don't just put a blank ad in a magazine. Or buy the ad first and then come up with a business to advertise.
You don't learn how to make TV commercials, and then come up with a business to advertise on TV. That's now how it works.

Lastly, I don't care how good you are, you can't teach the average person, with no experience, and no web knowledge, anything that is going to help them make a dime in just 30 days.
30 days is just long enough for a noob to find out enough to get overwhelmed and confused.

I'm not bagging on your ability, nor doubting that you can sell it. I'm just saying the entire concept of teaching people to make money online is flawed from the initial statement because they are selling a concept. "here's what you do if you had an actual business that you could market online".

[julienraby]

Hi guys,

thanks a lot for the comments, it means a lot to me!

a few quick questions if you don't mind:

@Steve B: You're saying my price point is too low, what would you consider a good price point (one that don't scream "cheap value")

@synconlinemedia : You say you don't buy expensive class, it 100$ expensive for you?

@vangogh, eborg9 and billbenson: You're raising verid valid points! Now, one thing I should I've made clearer, I'm not looking to create a "make money online" guide, it's already really crowded out there and I don't want to compete in that area. Plus, I agree that you can't really start making money online after 30 days, it's just unrealistic.

No, my idea is to create a no-bullshit, actionable step by step process for a small SMB owner (with no online marketing skills) so he can quickly cover the basis of his online marketing. Something along those line:


- You get bluehost, install wordpress, pay a premium theme, create the usual 4 pages and some basic content.

- hop over the adwords tool, find 1 local, targeted keyword and optimize your homepage against it.

- Do some very basic article submission/directories/local resources sites to get a few links and start ranking.

- Determine a light content strategies and commit on creating a blog post every week or so.

- Create a simple facebook page (using free tools) with an opt-in mecanism (contest, whatever). Fuel you FB page with enternaining stuff, your own blog post, etc.

- Create a monthly newsletter with your optins (using a free mailchimp account), where you can reuse your blog post, plus unique content, deals, etc.

- etc

So for someone who is looking to get started, I think this type of stuff is clearly not advanced, but it's simple, very cheap, and efficient.

I'm just wondering if an SMB owner would care for that type of course and if he would commit to the work...

Thanks guys!
Julien

[billbenson]

I think there is a market there. Most of the respondents to your post can do some or all of what you are mentioning. Additionally pretty much everybody is web savvy and would make forum posts or research the web for things they can't figure out.

The people that could really use your product may not realize how much it could really help them and their business. That means you have a lot of pre-selling that needs to be done. You have to find the customers that could use your product, convince them that it would help their business, and then sell it to them.

There is a niche out there for your product IMO. But I personally would look for an easier product to sell.

[vangogh]

Saying that you can teach someone how to make money online

Where exactly is Julien saying that? I just see some thoughts about how to teach people to market online. I think everything outlined is teachable. True the average person isn't going to read a book and know how to build a website or become an expert SEO. I assume the simple website part will be about walking through a WordPress setup and the seo part will mostly be basics, which anyone willing to listen can understand.


I'm not looking to create a "make money online" guide

I haven't thought you were. I've assumed since the beginning your goals was to create a guide of useful information to help people get started with a website and marketing that site and their business. I think there's definitely a market for that kind of information. Your success or failure will come down to the quality of your guide and how well you're able to market it.

There are definitely people out there willing to pay for the information.

[Harold Mansfield]

H

No, my idea is to create a no-bullshit, actionable step by step process for a small SMB owner (with no online marketing skills) so he can quickly cover the basis of his online marketing. Something along those line:


- You get bluehost, install wordpress, pay a premium theme, create the usual 4 pages and some basic content.

- hop over the adwords tool, find 1 local, targeted keyword and optimize your homepage against it.

- Do some very basic article submission/directories/local resources sites to get a few links and start ranking.

- Determine a light content strategies and commit on creating a blog post every week or so.

- Create a simple facebook page (using free tools) with an opt-in mecanism (contest, whatever). Fuel you FB page with enternaining stuff, your own blog post, etc.

- Create a monthly newsletter with your optins (using a free mailchimp account), where you can reuse your blog post, plus unique content, deals, etc.

- etc

So for someone who is looking to get started, I think this type of stuff is clearly not advanced, but it's simple, very cheap, and efficient.

I'm just wondering if an SMB owner would care for that type of course and if he would commit to the work...

Thanks guys!
Julien
This is a little more realistic and probably very helpful. Completely different from where I thought you were going.

2 things are a little off.

Adwords is hard. Sure it's easy to spend money, but it does take a lot of research, tweaking, competitive analysis and your landing page has to be
compatible. That would probably be more like a book, than a chapter.

The other thing is, free Facebook tools are almost a thing of the past. Come June of 2012, all of those free apps and HTML tab apps will be obsolete.
We started talking about this over here:
http://www.small-business-forum.net/social-media/6307-facebook-pages-changing-html-apps-obsolete-june-2012-a.html

But I like that direction that you are thinking. Sort of like coverall of "how to get your business online".
I think there will always be a market for that.

[Steve B]

I think the right price is close to or a little higher than your competition.

[dacousin]

Charge more and offer more, including on going support and webinars, I think there is too much free information out there to get people to buy your course if it is purely an information product. Also give out some courses free to blog owners and social media users who will review them and refer you traffic, you may ant to setup an affiliate program.

[Vpan]

Hi Julien,

If I were someone with no web knowledge whatsoever, and I'm not tech savvy (as most smbs are) then I probably wouldn't pay $160 to do everything by myself unless there were:

1. Great reviews
2. Money-back guarantee
3. A sense of how easy it is to do everything (you're planning to teach this guy html and css?)
4. Understandable bottom-line benefit guarantees

At last, I can do all of what you've mentioned so I wouldn't pay for it. There's certainly a market though, but I think you're probably going to have to sell it on a more consultative nature (and not a one-size fits all price).

[vangogh]

Welcome to the forum Vpan


There's certainly a market though

That's what I think. Many of us here might not buy this course, but there are similar courses online selling well so I don't see why one more couldn't make it. I think how well the course does will have more to do with the specifics than the general idea.


you're planning to teach this guy html and css?

I think the plan is to teach people how to set up and use WordPress, rather than teach them how to code.

[phillips]

Thats a good lesson plan for beginners. For experience SEO's, Id only pay for lesson 5 and 6. I could actually find youtube tutorials on the other lessons.

[vangogh]

I don't think these would be aimed at experienced SEOs. These kind of lessons are typically aimed at beginners and in some cases intermediates. Most small businesses usually don't have a lot of seo experience, though of course some will.