Success Story: How to Sell a Course and Make $1.5 Million

Welcome back, empire builders. Today, we have a long overdue interview with Felix from Giant Lifestyle. He’s been a part of our community in the past, and we haven’t talked to him since he was in our Inner Circle community years ago. Since then, he’s turned a $1,000 program of ours into well over a million dollars, and he knows all about how to sell a course profitably.

He’s here to show you how to take the same information we have here and use it to share your own information products. Felix has done this tremendously well — and thank you for jumping on here with us.

Back to the Beginning

For about ten years, Felix has been a full-time entrepreneur. But first, establishing a Giant Lifestyle YouTube channel was a labor of love. He wasn’t trying to make money out of it. He just enjoyed doing it. It was getting him by, but it just wasn’t hitting that next level. Then, he learned how to pitch his information products.

Eventually, Felix attracted enough interest in his online business, flipping diabetic testing supplies, and heeded a viewer’s encouragement to formally share his knowledge. We helped him learn how to package his offline skill set into a high-dollar course, and things started taking off. Felix went from making $5–10,000 per month to 30, 60, 90… and then he started hitting six-figure months.

“My life completely changed.” 

This is the power of online marketing; you’re amplifying a great idea others haven’t fully capitalized on yet.

How to Sell a Course: Stick With Your Foundational Idea

Screenshot of Peter and Felix discussing YouTube subscribers

Over 30 million people in America have diabetes, and they often wind up with a surplus of supplies. Felix glimpsed the profit potential of buying and selling diabetic test strips from a former colleague, though he was unwilling to show Felix how it was done. Felix persisted, reverse-engineering the process on his own and then sharing it with eager students.

It’s interesting how the obstacle he experienced with his former business partner corresponds exactly with the niche service he himself went on to conquer.

“I remember I was 20 or 21 when I made my first six figures…, providing a great service.”

As fast as it came, he needed better money management to keep it sustainable.

It’s exactly where I came from when I started Ecommerce Empire Builders on YouTube. I was just looking for a place to upload tutorial videos from a mastermind group I was in, where no one understood how funnels work — and to this day, I tell people, just go look at those videos.

It’s about more than selling courses. It’s about being an expert at what you do. This is how Felix was able to package his experience and strategies into a lucrative information product. Things that seemed like common sense to him were exactly what others needed to hear to achieve the same success.

You’ve Already Developed Your Pillar Content — Now Publish It

Whatever you’ve already gone through, the challenges you’ve overcome, we’re telling you: START A CHANNEL. That’s your pillar content, where all the other channels (Instagram, etc.) pull from — and it’s still a big, blue, wide-open ocean.

You don’t even need to generate subscribers at a massive scale to start making money. Felix, I’m sure you didn’t have your 50,000 subscribers back then, right?

“I had like 2,000. I just showed [my friend] how to do it in a partnership deal, and he just crossed 2,000 subs — and he’s making $2,000 a week.”

Felix is improving his own life and the lives of others by sharing his expertise on how to sell a course and other content.

“If you’ve got a skillset or an expertise in something, not only can you make a lot of money, but you could change a lot of lives. I’ve got students who make $10, $20, $30,000 a month from the information I gave them. It’s very fulfilling.”

Multiple Streams of Income

This is where multiple sources of income start happening. Your pillar idea/content sets you up for:

All along, you’re continually honing your original processes to a razor-sharp edge as you teach them.

“It’s still good to have some offline businesses — but with the power of the internet, all I need, really, is this laptop I’m talking to you on right now, an internet connection, cameras, and other equipment.”

It’s all about growing your channel/brand, deciding how to sell a course for continual success, and creating different experiences.

“I just want to make decent money, travel, and live life at the same time.”

Rhythms and Turning Points

Screenshot of Peter and Felix discussing the potential of niche content

This was when I asked Felix how he manages to travel with his most productive routines. Batching content whenever possible gets him through travel spurts, and he’s honest with himself about productivity. Establishing a temporary home base for a month or two becomes all the more valuable. Once it becomes exhausting, you can sign three-month leases between periods of jumping around.

Felix had this to say on the factors that initially brought his brand to the tipping point:

“I do four things. I have:

  1. Good titles
  2. Thumbnails
  3. Tags/descriptions
  4. Consistent content

If you can get a video to go viral… keep doubling down on it. Whatever… piece of content works, keep making content on that content.”

What about paid advertising as part of how to sell a course?

“I had some success, and then Facebook just shut my ad account down. My YouTube organic was so strong that there were times where, working maybe… 20 hours a month, it was almost completely automated. I just never could get into ads… I just stick to organic.”

Peaks and Plateaus

He was pulling up to $70,000 a month doing almost nothing. But he noted that he suspects ads would get him to the next level. It’s true, and it takes a lot of money and effort — especially at first, as you discover which messaging works.

Paid campaigns still need a core of organic content. It makes people want to pick you compared to people who only have content from five years ago. If you do have that consistency, mixing in paid advertising is a huge credibility boost. Even basic retargeting ads for your video audience could be just $10 a day.

Felix brought up the question of whether paid ads stifle your organic reach. For our channel, we built a second channel for running ads to avoid these potential issues.

Other Factors to Felix’s Success

In our 30-minute discussion about how to sell a course, Felix and I hit on many other elements that proved invaluable to big long-term profits.

  • Felix takes a one-man army approach, but he has a virtual assistant and continually supports his affiliate base. This creates a wider profit margin, and it’s when my own profit margins were largest (before radical scaling forced me to accept a slimmer margin).
  • Flexible thinking and confidence that “there’s so much going around for everybody… you could get started with any niche, any business, at any time” matter.
  • We’ve also found that the market is veritably infinite. There’s no need to stress about others taking away your hard-won niche. Your message, personality, and brand will attract or create a whole new niche for yourself.
  • Diligence matters. He made 100s of videos before they made him a ton of money. With every video you make, even with just a few consistent views, you’re building credibility.
  • With Ecommerce Empire Builders, I honestly feel conversions were stronger when I had very few subscribers. Those were the highest-quality views from the most determined viewers.
  • Accept the complexities behind creating your pillar content, even when it seems like just “one simple thing.” Again, Felix was diligent, operating with commitment and consistency.

It’s All About Mindset and Consistency

To set your own schedule and work in a field with limitless profit potential, you just have to get past that barrier to feeling comfortable with being uncomfortable. Even when you’re getting just 20 or 30 views with something, you still need to do it every single day. That’s just part of how to sell a course. This requires trust in yourself. I asked Felix how he got past any initial self-doubt, wondering, “What am I doing? Is this a waste of time?”

His was a project of passion first and foremost, and he wasn’t totally dependent on its success. Slow initial profits didn’t even get to him, but the low numbers of subscribers did. With humility, his self-talk revolved around the conviction that if others had cracked the code, he could do it, too. He reiterated the importance of:

  1. Good titles
  2. Good thumbnails
  3. Strong tags
  4. Consistent content

He also added SEO to that list.

“If there’s other people doing it, anybody could be like me, anybody could be like you; they just don’t know what they don’t know. And if they’re able to obtain that information, it could literally change overnight.”

We won’t be surprised if we talk again in another four years and see each other at even new heights. The power of the internet has been so impactful for both of us that we can live anywhere and take care of our loved ones.

Felix’s Prime Takeaway About How to Sell a Course and Other Information

With so much content about making money online out there, I wanted Felix to leave us with the one core piece of advice he hopes new online business owners remember:

“Take action. I started my entrepreneur journey — I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad — in 2013, and now it’s 2022. Don’t let the people on the internet with the watches, and the cars, and the success, and the mansions fool you… Just keep going, and don’t quit. You really only fail when you quit.”

“If you quit, you already know what you’re going to get… That’s why I try to stay humble because as high as you go up, in a snap of a finger, you could fall and lose everything. If you’re at the bottom, the only place you can go is up — but you can’t go anywhere if you stop taking action.”

You can’t just go back to what you were doing when you hit setbacks, and you only need one big win to really put you up on a plateau, to see what’s possible, and to permanently motivate you.

“If you miss 100 shots, the next time you go back and take another 100 shots, I bet you won’t miss all of them.”

We hope our audience doesn’t take this lightly. Responsibility levels rise even, or especially when you start making retirement money. One of the Ecommerce Empire Builders team members, Jordan, has a saying, “New level, new devil.” When you want to reap the reward, you have to be willing to face new sets of problems. The secret to handling them is, as Felix said, “Just keep going, and don’t quit.”

Keep Going on Your Journey and Focus on How to Sell a Course

New content creator making his first video

You can take action now, with no risk, by mastering the tightly honed funnel system I used to create a full-time income online by signing up for my free Ecommerce Masterclass. Because I want you to succeed, I also include the funnel template that helped me and others earn $100,000 each month. If you have the diligence, passion, and conviction that Felix and I held throughout our journey, I’m confident it will work for you, as well. For even more advice, subscribe to the Ecommerce Empire Builders YouTube channel.

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How to Create Info Products in 30 Minutes or Less

Empire builders, you already know that you need to present an irresistible offer to your customer to be successful in the dropshipping industry. One way to create an amazing offer is by pairing your physical products with high-quality information products. While I love bundling physical products with information products, producing high-quality info products can be challenging and time-consuming. Whether you’re starting to create info products from scratch or rebranding PLR products, it requires a great deal of time and effort. 

However, I’ve recently stumbled across a game-changing tool when it comes to creating fantastic products. Today, I will teach you the most efficient way you can start making these products to use in your own business bundles. Read on to learn how you can rebrand PLR products and create high-quality information products in just minutes. 

The Value of Information Products 

Having high-quality information products to bundle with your physical products is a game-changer in the dropshipping industry. Not only can you use these products for free giveaways or upsell products, but you can also sell them as stand-alone purchases. I love information products and PLR products. They really add perceived value to every cart. Getting this element right in your business is the key to success.

When talking about PLR products, I am referring to Private Label Rights Products. The cool thing about PLR products is that you can buy the rights to articles, ebooks, graphics, or videos at a low price and simply rebrand the information to make unique information products for your dropshipping business. PLR products are readily available online at stores like THEPLRSTORE.COM. Through buying PLR products, you can create some awesome information products if you are willing to take the time to rebrand the content to make it more engaging for the consumer. 

Two Paths for How to Create Info Products 

When it comes to creating information products, there are two main routes: 

  1. Buying a PLR product from a place like THEPLRSTORE.COM, or 
  2. Taking the time to research and write your own information. 

Either one is a viable option. You will just need to determine which works best for your specific situation. 

At Ecommerce Empire Builders, we love offering information products in the funnels that we build out. To create information products quickly, we used to hire someone on Fiverr or Upwork to create them. However, we’ve recently come across an incredible tool that allows us to create our own high-quality information products in-house. We have found great use out of this paid tool and know you can as well.

Sqribble Will Transform Your Information Products 

Showing how to plug in new content in Sqribble templates

The paid tool I have been using to create info products efficiently in the last few months is called Sqribble. You can get Sqribble for around $67, and it is well worth your investment. Through Sqribble, you can simply load in your PLR products and efficiently generate high-quality PDFs or eBooks within a 20- to 30-minute timeframe. This software is so effective and easy to use that you could even start creating and selling eBooks and information products for others. There is really no reason why you can’t create your own high-quality information products today. The benefits of Sqribble are countless as it adds so much value to every eCommerce endeavor. 

How to Get Started

Screen grab of exploring the different templates on Sqribble

Let’s say you just purchased a PLR product consisting of a few articles of around 600 words. The ability to purchase PLR products is fantastic. The drawback is that they are often long and dull when you first get your hands on them. What I like to do in this situation is to pick out the bullet points of these PLR product articles and place them in a Sqribble template. 

As you create info products, remember that you never want to overwhelm your customer with information. My advice to you is to hand-select the information that you believe will give the customer the most value. Then plug this information into an easily digestible ebook or PDF file. 

The Sqribble templates that are available to you have an incredibly high quality. Using one of these templates will allow you to create a high perceived value ebook or information product in as little as 20-30 minutes. There are hundreds of templates for you to utilize on Sqribble. Just find one that fits with the vibe of your business and just start plugging in your information. If you have a brand or color scheme already with your business, then try to find a template that aligns with your scheme. This will help keep everything nice and consistent in your branding. 

How Long Should Your Info Products Be?

Along with having a good visual appeal, there are some content guidelines you should try to adhere to as you make your information products, too. Keep in mind that the length of your information product or ebook should vary based on your plans for it. 

A good rule of thumb is to stick to around the five-page range when giving the information product as a free bonus item. When you’re going to sell the information product by itself or as an upsell option, aim for the 10-20 page range. Ultimately, using Sqribble has been a game-changer for us here at Ecommerce Empire Builders. I know you can experience the same kind of success with this paid tool, as well. 

Consult With the Pros As You Create Info Products and Build Your Business

dropshipper working on her ecommerce business at home

I hope this information will help you in the process of creating high-quality information products for your dropshipping business. If you feel like you need a little more guidance in setting up your own profitable ecommerce business, then feel free to reach out to us today. At Ecommerce Empire Builders, we can help you build, launch, and scale your own profitable dropshipping business. To get the ball rolling, sign up for our exclusive free webinar today. Be sure to check out our YouTube channel for even more free resources and insights. Remember, your empire starts now!

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How to Create and Sell Information Products

Information products are incredibly versatile and profitable products that you can sell as standalone items or bundle with your other products. Are you wondering where to get started? Let’s dive into what information products are and how you can create and sell them for maximum profit.

What Are Information Products, And How Can You Sell Them?

An information product is a piece of content that you create. They can be anything, such as a video course, a PDF, an ebook, or even a cheat sheet or template. It’s typically used in one of two ways:

1. You Can Sell the Information Products Directly

The first way to use information products is to sell them. They are considered high-margin because they are not physical products. You only spend time and resources when you first create the content, and then you can sell them over and over again for a very healthy margin.

2. Bundle Information Products for Free With Your Physical Products

The second way information products can be used is to bundle them for free with your physical products. If you’re doing dropshipping with fishing lures, for example, you can bundle in free information products. Information products don’t just enhance the value of your product and establish your expertise. They also create a differentiating factor your competitors don’t have.

The key takeaway is that Information products are very versatile, and there are A LOT of options for creating them. But what does your audience actually want? That’s where the first step comes in: research.

Research What Is Already Selling

screenshot of looking at information products

Check Out Learning Sites Like Udemy

Before you create an information product, you need to research what is already selling. Start by going to a learning site like Udemy and type in a search term for your topic of interest — for example, fly fishing. Then explore the top courses to see what customers are looking for. Your goal is to examine these entries and derive what the common questions and pain points are. That will help you decide how to focus your content.

Look at Shopping Sites Like Amazon

Don’t just stop at Udemy. Amazon is another great source for finding more information. On Amazon, select the ‘Books’ department and then search for ‘fly fishing.’ As you browse the top results, you have another window into what people are interested in reading and learning about. You can use the sources from several of these results as a basis for creating your own content.

Insider Tip: Check Out ‘For Dummies’ Books

The ‘For Dummies’ book results are great because they lay out exactly what people want to know, all nicely organized in the table of contents. These books are valuable because so much market research has gone into them. And you don’t have to buy the book. Just click into it, scroll through the first few pages, and browse the table of contents and pertinent topics.

Other Research Tools: YouTube, Lynda.com and Answer the Public

Search YouTube for tutorials and how-to videos, like ‘How to fly fish for bass.’ Just like with Amazon and Udemy, the search term itself will give you a peek into the keywords that people are using. Lynda.com is LinkedIn’s knowledge-sharing site where you can search for popular course topics. Another valuable resource is Answer the Public, which shows common questions and phrases that people are asking.

Plan Your Content

As you do these searches, you’ll see course and book results, videos, content, and, most importantly, sources. Compile, read, and watch several of the top results. Then create bullet points for the product you want to create.

Do a Quick Deep-Dive on One Topic

Don’t try to cover a dozen topics at once. Instead, pick one topic and go into detail so that you can quickly develop content and get it in front of your customers. For example, you might focus on ‘Best Fly Fishing Rods for Beginners’ and then dive deep on things like what kind of rod to buy, what case to choose, and what line to buy.

Keep Your Content Short

If you’re going to create PDFs, cheat sheets, or ebooks, remember that shorter is better. Avoid creating a 100-page ebook that no one will read. Aim for 10-15 pages instead. This way, you’ll create a product that is not only a quick win but something customers actually want to read. At the other end of the spectrum, you can create a full course. Customers will pay more for these, but they need to contain a lot more content. We recommend that first-time sellers stick with short, easy PDFs or cheat sheets. You can sell them in your funnels and your Shopify stores or even give away for free. You can always develop and sell longer video courses or content further down the road.

Select Your Niche

You might wonder why people would buy your content as opposed to all the other books and courses. The answer lies in niche selection. It’s crucial to go into a niche, whether you’re selling only information products or information products combined with physical products. You want to choose a niche that always has a stream of new people exploring it. That’s why we love hobby niches. Even as some people leave, a new audience is coming in and consuming information.

…And Become an Expert

We always recommend that you know what you are talking about. Don’t create information products about a topic if you’re not willing to create lots of videos about it or talk about it for hours and hours. Here at Empire Builders, we sell ecommerce information products, and as you know, we have 800 videos on it. Our team lives and breathes these topics every day. You don’t need to be as diehard as us, but it’s extremely important that you love what you do. Otherwise, you’re just creating another job for yourself.

Be Original — Don’t Plagiarize

We can’t stress this enough: you should not be stealing the exact content, titles, pictures, or anything that would be plagiarism or infringement of copyright. Not only is that wrong, but you will also get caught and get in trouble. Instead, take the sources from these multiple, top-selling books, courses, and videos, and use them for your research and your work. Steal Like an Artist is an amazing book that describes this. Take the information from these sources and use your understanding, your words, and your style to create your own unique product.

Creating Information Products

screenshot of looking through PLR sites

Now that you’re ready to create your information products, you have a few options.

1. Do It Yourself

It’s not that hard to make a video, a short lesson, or even a full-fledged course, especially if you like the topic. You can even make a Google Drive document and save it as a PDF.

2. Use PLR Websites

PLR (private label rights) sites let you license rights to information products. You purchase the product once, and then you have license rights to resell it. You don’t have to do anything besides brand the content with your logo, and then you can start using it.

One of our favorite PLR sites is plr.me, which has fairly mainstream content. While they may have niche content in big categories like fitness, they won’t have much in fly fishing. Our other favorite is ThePLRStore, which is another large, reputable repository of content that you can buy rights to. Note that these PLRs will generally be just plain text files. It is your job to hire a graphic designer to make them look attractive. Alternatively, you can do it yourself by putting the information into a Google Docs or Google Sheets document.

Getting Your Information Product Ready to Sell

Your next step is to package your information product and make it look attractive to customers. This step can actually make or break your information product’s success. People want that exciting feeling of purchasing and opening a nice-looking product with cover art and other features.

One option is to hire someone using a site like FreeUp, where you can find and hire freelancers to do this work for you. (Go to https://freeup.net/partners/empirebuilder/to get a free $50 coupon as you get started). You give them the PLRs and your sources, tell them your inspiration, and then let them do the work. Yes, it will be a little more expensive upfront because you’re outsourcing. But every subsequent sale after you get past the initial cost of $50-$100 will be all margin. Or, if you bundle it for free with your other products, it might drastically increase your store conversions. 

Another place you should check out is us! Our team at Ecommerce Empire Builder can actually build information products for you. Our services page has everything you need to know about our process as we build professional, high-quality information products to fit your vision.

Marketing and Next Steps to Success

entrepreneur planning her information products on her laptop

When you’ve researched and created your information product, your next step will be marketing that product. We recommend that you reserve your seat now for our upcoming Ecommerce Empire Builders Master Class, where we’ll take a deep dive not only into marketing but into all aspects of creating a profitable ecommerce business. Our exclusive free webinar will give you the tools you need to start your own ecommerce empire! 

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