Launch

An Internet Millionaire's Secret Formula to Sell Almost Anything Online, Build a Business You Love, and Live the Life of Your Dreams

Jeff Walker

• Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781630470180
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Digital Marketing
• Index: Business

Prepare for takeoff: "I won't launch another book without using Launch " (David Bach, New York Times –bestselling author of The Latte Factor ). Launch will build your business—fast. Whether you've already got a business or you're itching to start one, this is a recipe for getting more traction. Think about it: What if you could launch like Apple or the big Hollywood studios? What if your prospects eagerly counted down the days until they could buy your product? What if you could create such powerful positioning in your market that you all but eliminated your competition? And you could do all that no matter how humble your business or budget? Since 1996, Jeff Walker has been creating hugely successful online launches. After bootstrapping his first Internet business from his basement, he quickly developed an underground process for launching new products and businesses with unprecedented success. But the success train was just getting started. Once he started teaching his formula to other entrepreneurs, the results were simply breathtaking. Tiny, home-based businesses started doing launches that brought in tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and even millions of dollars. Launch is the treasure map into that world—an almost secret world of digital entrepreneurs who create cash-on-demand paydays with their product launches and business launches. Whether you have an existing business, or you have a service-based business and want to develop your own products so you can leverage your time and your impact, or you're still in the planning phase, this is how you start fast. This formula is how you engineer massive success. Now the question is this: Are you going to start slow, and fade away from there? Or are you ready for a launch that will change the future of your business and your life?

Chapter 1

From Stay-at-Home Dad to Six Figures in Seven Days

It was just another mouse click . . . just like the hundreds or even thousands of mouse clicks you make every day. But this was a really important click for me, and I hesitated. My finger hovered over that button before I clicked. Five seconds, ten seconds, and still I waited. The truth is, I was terrified. I had months of planning and years of hopes and dreams riding on that click. In fact, it felt like the future of my family was hanging in the balance.

Little did I know that mouse click was going to start a cascade of events that
would literally change the very face of marketing and business on the Internet. But as I sat there at the home-made desk I had shoved into a corner of my dimly lit basement, there were no grand thoughts of anything more than making a few extra bucks to help support my family. I was using a beat-up old computer, an old-school dial-up Internet connection, and I hadn’t held a job in more than seven years. Humble beginnings indeed.

But the real reason that I hesitated over that mouse click came down to one word—desperation. I was desperate for a change. I needed a success. I needed to make some money. I needed to turn my life around. And I had been waiting for (and working toward) this moment for too long …

This whole journey started when my wife, Mary, walked through the front door in tears—a moment etched in my memory forever. She had left work in the middle of the work day, and now she was standing in front of me, sobbing from the pressure of supporting our family. Mary could no longer stand having to leave for work every morning before her two young kids even woke up and coming home at night when it was almost time to tuck them in bed.

I had been home taking care of our babies. The politically correct term these days is “stay-at-home dad,” but back then we just called me “Mr. Mom,” and it was a whole lot less socially acceptable than it is now. Several years before that I had quit my corporate job—a job most people would probably consider a good one in operations management. I was the proverbial square peg in a round hole. I just didn’t fit in the corporate world. I didn’t understand the politics, and I felt like I was forever swimming upstream when I tried to get things done. I saw myself as a corporate failure. So when my son was about a year old and my wife graduated from the University of Colorado and landed a new job with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, I walked away from my corporate career.

I didn’t have a plan. I didn’t know what I was going to do. I just knew I couldn’t keep living in the corporate world.

The whole Mr. Mom thing went on for longer than I expected. Soon we had a second baby, which meant I was caring for two small children. As anyone who has been in that role knows, my days were busy. But I needed to make a change. I needed to figure out a way to support my family, to give my wife a break, and to relieve all the pressure that was crushing down on our family.

And that’s what that mouse click was all about—changing our lives, creating a new, more prosperous future. It was about launching a product and launching a business. It was about creating an income and changing my family’s fortunes. Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would change the world.

Go Ahead and Quit Your Day Job

When I finally built up the nerve to click the button, the reaction was breathtaking . . . like stomping on the gas pedal of a Porsche 911 Twin Turbo.

That click sent an email from my computer.

The email went to a server based just outside of Green Bay, Wisconsin.

And that triggered an email broadcast that went out to the people who had subscribed to my simple email newsletter.

Within seconds, that email broadcast landed in the inboxes of my subscribers.

The email was very short, containing less than 50 words. But at the end of the email there was a link to an order form on my web site where people could buy a product that I had just created. The product was a simple email newsletter about the stock market and what I thought was going to happen in the market in the near future.

(Actually, to be more accurate, I hadn’t even created the product yet, but I’ll get to that later on when I teach you about the Seed Launch™.)

Of course, all that took just a few seconds, but every single second after I clicked the “send” button seemed to drag on for an eternity. I felt like I held my breath the entire time. I needed to know . . . would anyone buy my new product?

After 30 seconds I optimistically checked to see if anyone had bought yet.

Nothing.

40 seconds. Nothing.

50 seconds. Nothing.

59 seconds . . . and the FIRST SALE came in!

A few seconds later, another order. And then another, and another, and then three more. Every time I clicked “refresh,” there were more orders!

Within an hour, the total sales were over $8,000. By the end of the day, sales had gone beyond $18,000. And by the end of the week my humble little offer had made over $34,000—almost as much as I had ever made in an entire YEAR back in my corporate job.

That was the launch that brought Mary home. It wasn’t my first-ever launch (that’s a crazy story I’ll get to a little later), but it was the one that convinced me that my little, fledgling business could support my family. Within a few months Mary had left her job and came home to stay. We were ecstatic. (We joke that she “retired”, but nothing could be further from the truth—in addition to being a full-time mom, she quickly took over back office operations in the business.)

You know, money is a funny thing. For some people, $34,000 is a crazy amount of money—an almost unbelievable number (and for me, it was life-changing). For others, it might not be big enough to get them excited. But no matter what group you’re in, if you stick with me throughout this book, I’ve got some pretty amazing results to share with you.

I didn’t know it at the time, but I was just getting started. And I was creating something that would literally change thousands of lives.

How I Got Rich Helping Thousands of Others Get Rich

So let’s get clear on one thing right from the start: This is not a “get rich quick” book.

Yes, what I’m about to share with you has created incredible riches and abundance in my life and in the lives of many of my students. But that money, wealth, and influence didn’t magically appear overnight.

There is a method—a formula, if you will—behind all the amazing success. And that’s what this book is all about—taking you behind the curtain and showing you that formula.

Along the way, I’m going to introduce you to a world that most people don’t know exists, a world where ordinary people are creating extraordinary businesses. A world where people are starting businesses with almost no investment or capital, often launching those businesses from a spare bedroom or their kitchen table. And a world where those people are going from start-up to profits in a remarkably short amount of time.

And then there are those people who own an existing business who are dropping this formula into that business and seeing a breathtaking increase in their sales.

This isn’t the world of high-flying, high-tech start-ups where a few geeky programmers get together, work 20 hours a day, try to “get funded” by some venture capitalists, then sell out to Google for $100 million dollars. (Or, more likely, go bust amidst a pile of greasy, old pizza boxes and empty Red Bull cans.)

If you want to go down that road, I wish you the best of luck. But this isn’t the book for you.

What I’m talking about is creating a business (or building an existing business) and generating profits right out of the gate. A business with low overhead, low start-up costs, and minimal or no staff. A business that is highly profitable and gives you great flexibility in your life.

And, last but not least, a business that creates great value in the world and allows you to “do good” at whatever level you choose.

I know, it all sounds like the land of milk and honey, right? All beauty and grace? Can’t possibly be true, right?

I know, I know.

In fact, I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t seen it for myself, over and over again.

The reality is this: The Internet has completely changed the game for anyone who wants to have their own business. It’s now easier, faster, and cheaper to start and run a business than at any time in history.

And if you already have your own business, the Internet gives you the power to grow your current business more quickly and easily than ever before.

And I say all that from experience. I started my first online business in the “Internet Dark Ages” of 1996, and I’ve been profitable every year since then. Right through the dot-com crash, right through the Great Recession, right through every Google update. I’ve sold tens of millions of dollars of my products online in four distinctly different markets. And along the way, I’ve taught thousands of online entrepreneurs how to start and grow their businesses. My students and clients have done more than $400 million dollars in sales (and counting).

And though I generally don’t like to toot my own horn, I think it’s safe to say that I’m widely regarded as one of the top Internet marketing experts and leaders ever. (I try to stay away from the term “guru,” but, yes, some people refer to me as a “marketing guru.”)

However, as you’re going to learn, it wasn’t always that way. I wasn’t born with any type of marketing super-powers. Before I started my first online business I had never run a business before. I had absolutely zero sales training and no marketing skills. In fact, I was always the kid who couldn’t sell more than one bag of doughnuts for the Boy Scouts fundraiser every year (and that was the bag that my parents bought).

The Rules Have Changed

The world is clearly in the midst of a huge transition. The very nature of our communications and daily lives has changed radically in just a few short years. We live in a more transparent world . . . a world with a seamlessly connected client base that can instantly pull up thousands of reviews about hundreds of competitors. A world with an ever-increasing level of competition for your prospects’ attention. A world where the “marketing fog” grows thicker with each passing day. A world that puts ever-greater value on authenticity and congruency.

The rules of business and marketing have changed, and those changes have killed many businesses. But the changes have also created enormous opportunity for thousands of others. If you understand the new playing field, grabbing your prospect’s attention and building a relationship with him or her has actually gotten a lot simpler in many ways. And that’s what this book is all about.

So whether you’re in a time of transition and you desperately want to start a business …

Or you’re running a department or a profit center at a major corporation …

Or you’re a solo practitioner or service-provider (such as a lawyer, massage therapist, Ayurvedic astrologer, etc.) and you’re sick of the dollars-for-hours sh...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• A Note to the Reader
• Chapter 1 From Stay-at-Home Dad to Six Figures in Seven Days
• Chapter 2 Food Stamps to Six Figures: The Product Launch Formula Explained
• Chapter 3 A License to Print Money: Your List
• Chapter 4 The Sideways Sales Letter: How to Sell Your Stuff Like Crazy without Being “Salesy”
• Chapter 5 Weapons of Mass Influence: The Mental Triggers
• Chapter 6 The Shot across the Bow: Your Pre-Prelaunch
• Chapter 7 Sell Them What They Want: The Magic of Prelaunch
• Chapter 8 Show Me the Money: It’s Time to Launch!
• Chapter 9 How to Start from Scratch: The Seed Launch
• Chapter 10 How I Made a Million Dollars in a Single Hour: The JV Launch
• Chapter 11 Creating a Business from the Ether: The Business Launch Formula
• Chapter 12 Creating a Business You Love
• Chapter 13 A Recipe for a Big Life
• Chapter 14 It’s Your Time to Launch
• Acknowledgments
• Glossary
• About the Author