How to Create a Profit Windfall When Launching a New Product
by Yanik Silver

I thought today was an especially appropriate time to release this article (if you don't know why you will before the end of this article).

Now unless you lived in a cave this Summer, you saw a bit of Harry Potter mania strike all over the world. In fact, I eagerly awaited the new Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince book release. (Yes, I'm a Harry Potter fan and devoured the new book in less than a day.) More interesting, from a business point of view - I was stunned when I saw the figures from the book's release - 6.9M copies sold in 24 hours. Wow!

Actually, I had my own "big" release just a few days before the boy wizard - it was for the tapes of my "Underground Online Seminar" (these are no longer available but you can get on the 'wait list' in case a set is returned): www.UndergroundOnlineSecrets.com/surveillance

However, I have to admit I didn't fare anywhere near the multi-million dollar pay-day J.K. Rowling had but it still wasn't too shabby. I raked in over six figures (actually $193,380.00 to be exact) in the first 24 hours of my release.

So what do these two releases have in common? One word...anticipation.

Whether it's for the next blockbuster Summer movie (think Star Wars) or for Harry Potter or even your product - if you really want a big, monster payday you've got to create an event. I'm going to let you step behind the curtain a little bit so you can use some of these same strategies I used.

First of all, I need to give credit where credit is due. My friend, Jeff Walker, helped me formulate the plan for this release. Jeff was one of my featured speakers during the same "Underground Online Seminar" and his topic was on exactly this same point - 'how to create six-figures in less than 7 days with a product release'.

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Or just from a marketing point-of-view I'd head over to the site and see how many elements from this article you identify and how many more Jeff uses that even I don't know. Personally, I've been carefully watching him roll out his launch and I've been 'swiping' every single piece. ;)
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So let's dive right in...

Secret #1: Create Anticipation -

We've already talked about this, but let's give it a few more specifics. I started an "early-bird" list from my subscribers and customers. I got people to raise their hands and say "Yes, I want to know first when you'll be releasing these DVDs".

Then once people were on this list we started 'dripping' on them. We used a blog to post everything from "spy photos" of the product (which came in a very cool individually numbered suitcase) to actual video clips from the event. Each communication whet the person's appetitive more and more for the upcoming release. Please keep in mind, these updates were planned out before the start of the promotion so it wasn't just thrown together by the seat of our pants.

Secret #2: Secure Associates Participation -

Over the years I've built up a network of friends and business associates. I don't "hit" up my Internet friends and associates too often to promote products so most of them were eager to help with this promotion. This is the same thing you can be doing in your own marketplace. Instead of thinking of competitors - you should consider them potential "Joint Venture" associates. Also start "digging your well before you are thirsty". That means building relationships and networking with people in your industry and marketplace who have influence and carry weight.

Secret #3: Promotion Tools -

Everybody has too much to do and too little time to do it so the more you can "spoon-feed" your associates the better. Yes, some people will take the extra effort to do their own promotions but most people would rather have a pre-done "cut and paste" email or letter to send. That's why I provided my guys with "content" in the form of unique video clips from the seminar which they could release to their list. This put more people on the early- bird list which were "glued" to the particular associate. Cater to everyone's laziness and make it "fill-in-the- blank" or turn-key simple.

Secret #4: Get People Buying -

I wanted to make sure people were really excited about the release so we'd remind them the day before and also 1 hour before the release time. Plus, I even added a special time- limited bonus that expired after 4pm on the first day of the launch. That gave people one more incentive to order right away. You can't stop with one notice about a launch - you've got to remind them multiple times when everything is happening.

Of course, this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are lots of little details and psychological hot buttons that go into a real successful launch. That's another reason why I recommend Jeff's course earlier - but something else I suggest you take a look at (and it's a freebie) is a transcript from a call I did along with Frank Kern, John Reese, Jim Edwards and Jason Potash on Social Proof. It was 2 1/2 hours of pure content. Productlaunchformula.com/productlaunch/report.html

Now go out there and roll out a winning product!

Copyright 2005 - Yanik Silver

Just 32-years old, Yanik Silver is recognized as the leading expert on creating automatic, moneymaking web sites...and he still doesn't know how to put up his own website.

He is the author, co-author or publisher of several best-selling online marketing books and tools, which can be found at www.SurefireMarketing.com