The funnel jerk
Published: Tue, 02/16/16
Do what you want with this info, I'm not going to debate it with anyone, especially anyone with a financial or some other tie (i.e. you're an affiliate for one of them or just buddies with the owner, etc, and are biased) to one of the popular "funnel" software products. But if you're frustrated with all these new funnel software products popping up, here's another option:
Plain old "retro" 1shoppingcart.
That's all I have used since 2009.
Frankly, I’m about as tech un-savvy as you can get.
And, I probably have used 1SC's support maybe 2 or 3 times in 7 years (just haven't needed to). Everything hooks up seamlessly to your paypal or merchant account. They have 1-click upsells (with ways to test the winners) built in, autoresponders built in, and a shopping cart built in. They also have digital delivery built in. They have an affiliate program for your products built in. They have recurring ordering built in, and if you sell something physical, it can alert your fulfillment company of sales so you don't have to even think about it.
Anyway, why am I bringing this up?
To pimp out 1Shoppingcart?
Nopers.
I have zero affiliate or other agreement with them.
(Nor do I know the owner or anyone who works there.)
Frankly, I am not even saying they are the “best.”
And, probably, there are better solutions depending on your business.
I bring this up because, recently, my ex-copywriting apprentice has been telling me how frustrating all these funnel solutions (she's tried several) have been for her. I am not picking on any specific company. And, some of them come highly recommended from people I respect (or are owned by people I respect). But, at the same time, a lot of them (or maybe it’s just their mouth-breathing affiliates, who can tell anymore?) advertise themselves as being simple and easy, yet she spends way too much time talking to support. Even putting a simple page up with one of these sites was a frustrating process for her that plagued her for days as she couldn’t get anything to work. Ironically, while she was about to call support for the service she’s using now, I slapped up a plain HTML page for her instead (using the free sea monkey wysiwyg editor) in about 10 minutes, with traffic going to it immediately.
Yes, my page was fugly.
(It was the one promoting that interview we did recently).
But money is attracted to speed, not pretty.
And in 14+ years, I’ve seen very few instances were pretty out converted ugly anyway.
More:
She's not the only one I've heard talk about how such-and-such service (fill in any one you want) was supposed to be point-and-click easy as far as setting up a shopping cart, a funnel, a merchant account, a capture page, a sales page, etc. Yet thousands (yes, thousands) of dollars and dozens of frustrating hours later, she still pulls her hair out getting things to work on these “sexy” and “modern” and “cutting edge” funnel sites.
Anyway, the point?
It all reminds me of something Gary Halbert said.
He wrote in a newsletter once that the US spent billions to create a pen that would work upside down in outer space (something like that). While the Soviets used a 15-cent pencil.
Old school services like 1shoppingcart may not be sexy.
And it can be clunky and still living in 1999 in some cases.
And, yes, it has its limitations.
(There is no perfect solution and never will be.)
But it's been around a helluva lot longer than all these ninja funnel sites. And, it's served me well with very little problems for 7 years now. (I spent like $100 tops to get it set up originally.)
But, since I set it up it's been Ben-proof and easy to use.
Something else to think about:
I had a client a few years back who was the biggest marketer in the self defense niche (or certainly one of the biggest). He had a list of around 300k I think. He was using one of the more popular shoppingcart-autoresponder-affiliate-funnel solutions.
(Hint: a lot of big name gurus use it.)
And, he said they ended up having to go back to plain old 1SC.
Why?
Because it had a better infrastructure and was more reliable.
Again, I’m not selling 1SC.
Nor is this an endorsement of it over any specific solution.
(I don’t personally like their broadcast/autoresponder interface, but then again, I am not happy with any of them these days.)
And, again, I’m not saying you should even use them.
(Or that they won’t disappoint you or even be what you need.)
I only bring this up because in a world full of bright shiny objects being pimped out by affiliates as the Second Coming of Internet marketing, it’s the dull unpolished objects that have lasted the test of time but aren’t “sexy” that tend to be what I like to use and have been consistently reliable.
So anyway, like I said, do what you will with this info.
I’m just tired of seeing people struggle and piss away time and money trying to make the outer space pen write, when all they need is the 15 cent pencil that’s been around for over 100 years.
Which reminds me of another thing I want to mention.
Specifically, for newbies who just want to get started:
Many moons ago (2008) one of my marketing “heroes” Lloyd Irvin once did a training with Ken McCarthy especially for newbies. Combined, these two have sold tens of millions (maybe even hundreds of millions for all I know) worth of products and services online over the years. Ken in the IM niche, various entertainment niches, and fundraisers (as well as some cool YouTube stuff he’s got going on — and those are just the things I know about). Lloyd has a huge business selling info to martial arts school owners (and probably sells other things, too, but you get the gist).
And you know what these 8-figure earning marketers told the audience?
They still focus on the raw basics:
Capture page — sales letter — relentless email follow up.
That’s the whole “secret.”
(And can tell you my entire Email Players business was built on two static HTML pages — a capture page and sales letter — and daily *plain text* emails.)
Maybe those guys use more sophisticated funnel systems and software, too, and maybe they don’t. But at the end of the day, if you focus on those 15-cent pencils (capture page, sales page, email) instead of pouring all your time into the anti-gravity pens (social media, video, complex software, etc) to get started, you will be just fine.
And speaking of Lloyd Irvin:
His wife Vicki is going to be speaking at my ex-copywriting apprentice’s “Biz N Brewz” event in Portland next month.
The tl;dr version of Biz N Brewz is:
Sit in a clean, comfortable room and learn from some of the top marketing minds on the planet for 3-4 hours (you do NOT sit there the entire day, just a few hours, tops — perfect for low attention spans). Then, a lunch (paid for already). And then, we all pile into hummer limos and go beer tasting (that’s all paid for you, too) the rest of the afternoon and evening in Portland which has some great micro breweries from what I hear tell.
You also get to pick all the speakers’ brains.
i.e. None of us are going to speak then go to bed early.
(Or, worse, flying out right after our talks — unless someone has another event or urgent matter to attend the next or same day, etc, then that is the height of low class jackassery considering how much money and time people invest in going to events to see them.)
And you know what else?
If we're lucky, Sir Lloyd of Casa Irvin will be there too.
(Not as a speaker but to hang with us mere peons.)
If he does show (my ex-copywring apprentice is trying to pull some strings and cash in favors to make it happen…) he may even let you pick his brain as well.
(I certainly will be trying to…)
No promises.
But, there you go.
To get your Biz N Brewz ticket, go here before they sell out:
http://www.BizNBrewz.com/invitation
Word up.
Ben Settle