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About Ravi Jayagopal
He was the first Indian ever (back in 1998 when he was still living in India) to sell a physical book online to an international market. After failing at two brick-n-mortar businesses in India, he moved from India to New York in 2000, taking on a programming job. As a hobby, working nights and weekends, he developed and marketed the world's first download protector software for PayPal and ClickBank.
In 2007, he wrote his first book called "No Business Like E-Business" which went on to become an Amazon category best-seller at the time. He invented "Content Dripping" and co-founded the world's first membership plugin for WordPress, Digital Access Pass (DAP), that was the first software ever to do content dripping, along with his wife Veena Prashanth.
He is the host of a podcast at SubscribeMe.fm where he talks all about the making, marketing and monetizing of online digital content. He is also the author of a book by the same name, "Subscribe Me".
Coming from humble beginnings in India, Ravi today is a very successful internet entrepreneur, and through his family foundation in India, he and his wife give back to Indian children and communities in extreme poverty.
Ravi lives in San Diego, California with wife Veena (the other co-founder & co-developer of DAP) 2 amazing kids, and a male dog inexplicably named Vanilla!
He loves talking about himself in third person LOL! He is also officially the "Coolest Geek On The Planet", and the 2nd most interesting man in the world. Ravi is confident that he will one day write and star in a future smash-hit called "50 shades of Brown" :-)
Read more about Ravi at https://SubscribeMe.fm/ravi-jayagopal
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Blog postDo you have an Online Video Course? If yes, then don’t create another video before listening to this mini-series. You probably have a membership site or online course, or maybe you want to start one. Either way, you’re going to probably have a bunch of Video, Audio and PDF’s in your online course. In this […]
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Blog postProgramming concepts that you can apply to your online business, products and services Part 1: Episode #98 – Part 2: Episode #99 – Part 3: Episode #100 – Part 4: Episode #101 Welcome to episodes #98 – #101 of the SubscribeMe show from SubscribeMe.fm. I’m your host Ravi Jayagopal. This is the podcast to listen to, to […]
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Blog postI've been using WordPress since 2004 (less than a year after it launched). I launched my own WordPress blog and wrote my very first blog post on Jan 24, 2005. And in all those years of working with WordPress, developing WordPress plugins, building my own WordPress websites, and helping my clients build their own websites, I've […]
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Blog postMore free and freemium tools that I depend on almost every day Welcome to episode #97 of the SubscribeMe show from SubscribeMe.fm. I’m your host Ravi Jayagopal. This is the podcast to listen to, to learn about creating membership sites & online courses, making, marketing and monetizing digital content, WordPress, eCommerce, digital marketing, and tools, techniques and […]
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Blog postIf you’re an Online Course Creator you probably have Audio, Video, PDF and other files like Mindmaps, Powerpoints, Docs, Zips, Images etc, in your courses or on your website. If you use WordPress, the most important features you’re going to need from an WordPress Audio & Video player plugin, are the following: Easy to use […]
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Blog postIn case you didn’t realize how valuable Quora is in driving traffic and new users to your website, here’s proof (last 30 days). And I haven’t even been trying! But there’s a way to do it without getting banned or getting your answers deleted for self-promotion. And I talk about that in detail in my […]
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Blog postHow to Start a Podcast in 7 HoursThe Fastest way To Plan, Create, Publish and Launch a PodcastRavi Jayagopal I recently published my 7th book, "How to Start a Podcast in 7 Hours: The Fastest way To Plan, Create, Publish and Launch a Podcast". And in this post, I've publish the entirety of it, for free. Enjoy. […]
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Blog postMore free and freemium tools that I depend on almost every day Welcome to episode #96 of the SubscribeMe show from SubscribeMe.fm. I’m your host Ravi Jayagopal. This is the podcast to listen to, to learn about creating membership sites & online courses, making, marketing and monetizing digital content, WordPress, eCommerce, digital marketing, and tools, techniques and […]
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Blog postMore free and freemium tools that I depend on almost every day Welcome to episode #95 of the SubscribeMe show from SubscribeMe.fm. I’m your host Ravi Jayagopal. This is the podcast to listen to, to learn about creating membership sites & online courses, making, marketing and monetizing digital content, WordPress, eCommerce, digital marketing, and tools, techniques and […]
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Creating something once and being able to sell it over and over again - like an Online Video Course, Software or a Report – is way more profitable, productive and fun than simply putting a lot of your time and effort into something that is done just once where you get to benefit from it just once.
DOGPOO: Performing live on stage: You get to charge for tickets only once. The show happens one time. Once it’s over, it’s over.
DOSAA: Recording an album, or video recording of your live event and selling them to thousands.
DOGPOO: Speaking live on stage or doing a show live on the radio.
DOSAA: Doing a Podcast and getting a large number of people to listen to it.
Having a Day Job Sucks – And So Does Selling One-Time Products
Selling one-time products is much like depending on your day job for income.
Day Job (DJ): You have to go to work every day.
One-time Products (OTP): You have to make sales every day.
DJ: You stop working, you no longer get paid.
OTP: You stop selling, you get no new customers, and you no longer get paid.
DJ: You start every month at $0.00 from your employer. You work first, then you earn (you have to work for a certain period even to get paid vacation and other benefits)
OTP: Your business starts with $0.00 in revenue each month.
You can see how there is absolutely no stability or security in either case.
When you are selling one-time products, the big issue is that no matter how well you do this month, you have absolutely nothing to show for the next month. So let's say this month you made say $3,000, but what happens next month? On the first day of next month, on the very first day of every single month, you start at square 1 – with an income of $0.00. And that really sucks.
Sure, by selling one-time products, you still build a list of buyers, to whom you can continue selling other products. Simple, right? Not really. If your business model is to keep creating products that you can keep selling to your past customers, then over a period of 3 or 5 or 10 years, think about how many darn products you will need to create and launch just to get those past customers to come back and buy from you again? It's just mind boggling. No one can create 5, 10 or 20 new products every single year, year after year, just to stay in business. It is just a very exhausting and draining business model that is simply not sustainable.
80% Failure Rate
You've probably heard this statistic that says 8 out of 10 small businesses eventually fail. A colossal 80% failure rate. Only 20% survive. So why did they fail? The obvious answer: They failed to make more money than they were spending. So they went out of business. But let's dive deeper. Why did they not make enough money to keep going? Why couldn't they make enough sales?
The non-obvious answer: They were selling one-time products, and could not find enough new customers, and could not sell enough to old customers. With one-time products and services, you could have a huge surplus of business one month, and then very little the next month. So if you hired extra help when your business was doing well, you have to let people go when things get real slow. You cannot reliably plan ahead for anything.
Better Than Radio & TV: "It’s Radio… It’s a Podcast… It’s a Flash Briefing!" (by yours truly).
The goal is to entertain, educate, engage, enrich or help evolve your listener, who’s probably getting ready in the morning to go to work. So as they’re brushing their teeth, showering, getting ready, making coffee, they can say out loud "Alexa, what’s my flash briefing?" and their Alexa-powered device – whether it’s the Echo Spot, Show, Plus, or other – will start playing all of the flash briefings that they’ve "enabled" in their Alexa app (or Alexa web), one after the other.
So it’s similar to a podcast, because you basically subscribe to a bunch of Flash Briefings (just like you subscribe to a bunch of podcasts), and you listen to them one after the other, until you hit stop – or in Alexa’s case, you say "Alexa, stop" or "Alexa, cancel". And to skip the current one and start playing the next flash briefing, you would say "Alexa, skip".
But when it comes to the format of Flash Briefings – basically getting quick updates on a whole bunch of things on a whole bunch of topics, all within a short span of time – it can be more powerful than podcasts, because podcasts are not as quick to get into the meat of the content. There are extended intros, small talk, set up talk, announcements and updates, multiple ads or promotions, and so on. So it’s like a "Podcast on Steroids" (your truly, again :-). And because of the short-form nature of Alexa Flash Briefings, as a listener, they know they can expect maximum value (whatever that "value" you’re promising them in your show’s title and description) in minimum time, minus all the fluff.
And it’s better than regular cable TV news, because there are no extended commercial breaks, chit-chat, teasers or promos of what’s coming later in the show, and so on.
Why Create an Alexa Flash Briefing: I talked about this on Episode #73 of my podcast, titled "Audio and Voice Are The Future, All-In On Audio". Give it a listen at SubscribeMe.fm/73
As powerful as video is, Audio can go where Video can NOT go - like when you're driving to work, doing the dishes, in the gym, on a run, walking your dog, cleaning the garage, heck, even when showering!
If you've seen any science fiction movie, you have seen a super-smart voice assistant. The Computer from Star Trek, Jarvis in Iron Man. And that's what is coming soon to a world near you. Voice is the most natural and most powerful form of communication. Which is why I believe that audio is going to be one of the most powerful tools of the future.
An article from eMarketer.com states, "Not since the smartphone has any tech device been adopted as quickly as the smart speaker." And it goes on to say how they expect the number of US smart speaker users to grow at the rate of 47.9% between 2016 and 2020, and end up around 76.5 million. According to Strategy Analytics, sales of smart speakers could top $23 billion by 2023, or according to another company Global Market Insights, it could reach $30 billion by 2024. And according to Slate.
1. What to sell (products, services, advertisements or a brand)?
2. How to sell (web design, copy writing, technology, getting paid online)?
3. How to get visitors to your web site (generating traffic: free and paid)?
4. How to get them to buy your stuff (conversion: creating something remarkable, pre-selling, branding, trust building, giveaways)?
5. How to keep them and their friends coming back for more (up-selling, cross-selling, affiliate program, joint ventures, self-sustaining lead generation)?
Master these 5 areas, one item at a time, and you are golden. But the real secrets lie in knowing not just what to do, but more importantly, how to do it.
Do you wish to create and launch a Podcast?
Wish you had an easy-to-follow checklist of things to do, in the exact order, that you could just follow, keep checking the checkboxes, and end up with a podcast at the end of it?
Wish someone would give you a simple system with specific recommendations for microphone, recording and editing software, best-practices, avoiding unproductive rabbit-holes, where to submit your show, and just tell you step-by-step what to do, instead of giving you 20 different options for everything and leaving you with more questions than answers?
Stop wishing and start reading, because that's EXACTLY what this book helps you do: It shows you how to start a podast from scratch, really fast.
This book assumes that you kind-of have an idea about podcasting. So, if you're like “Hmm, I wonder what a podcast is and whether I should start one?”, then this is not for you.
But this is for you if you just want to dive right in to the actual creation, publishing and launching of a Podcast, and not spend hours reading about "What's your Why?". Even if you’re not fully sure about all of it, the Podcast Launch Checklist in the book will help you with that.
It gives you a list of questions to ask yourself - and answer honestly, before you even think about creating a podcast.
Crowd-Sourcing How-To and Business Advice is not the best idea
If you try to crowd-source information via Facebook groups - even if you’ve joined the biggest podcasting group - you’re still going to get so confused with the myriad of answers with differing opinions and options that you’ll get with every question.
There are screenshots in the book taken from a Facebook group - it had 33 comments - and it is just mind-blowing to think that the first 8 comments alone offer 8 different suggestions for a podcast microphone
Then there's a screenshot from another Facebook group where a question about editing software gets 83 comments, and almost every answer recommends a different tool.
“What mic should I use”? 50 suggestions – and that’s without the various permutations and combinations of pre-amps, mixers, noise gates, blah, blah, blah.
“Where should I host my podcast?” Another 60 suggestions.
“What editing software should I use?” Another 70. You get the idea.
It is practically impossible to get everyone’s opinion at every step of the way and still get something done.
So you’ve got to kind of take a leap of faith here with me, that I won’t misguide you. I’ll give you a few options for every step of the way, and you can decide based on various factors that I’ll be pointing out.
And trust me – there’ll be plenty of time and money for you to waste down the road on more expensive equipment, of which there’s no shortage :-)
But when you’re first getting started, you don’t have need to spend $1,000 on podcasting gear when you can do almost as well with gear that costs about $100.
And even if you could afford to throw away $1,000, that still doesn’t mean your show will get off to a great start or become a success. Buying an expensive basketball won't automatically turn you into an NBA player, and an expensive tennis racquet doesn't mean you'll get to play at Wimbledon.
And this book will show you how NOT to promote your podcast on social media, how NOT to promote your podcast on Twitter, how NOT to promote it to just your friends and family on social and reach new audiences.
ROI, as you know, stands for “Return on Investment”. Generally speaking, if you invest in something, you then track the returns, and then you figure out whether or not it was worth it.
If it was a positive ROI, then you do more of it. And if it’s a negative ROI, then you can investigate it, tweak it, test it, and worst-case, do less of it.
Like, say, you started on a special diet. Or a new workout-routine. One way to measure your ROI is to check your body weight, glucose levels, body-fat percentage, blood pressure, etc. So whatever it is that you’re trying to achieve, you have a way to test for the results, and know if your new routine (or a tweak to your existing routine) is working.
But what if there was no way to measure your weight, or glucose levels, or blood pressure, or heart-rate? What if there was no way for you to know if what you’re doing is working, or hurting? What if you keep investing, but can’t see the changes, can’t track the results, can’t predict if it’s working?
Like a shot in the dark - you know the target, but you don't know where it is, how far it is, or if your shots are even anywhere close to it!
That’s one the biggest issue with podcasting right now. With a regular web site, you can put Google Analytics code on it, look at your analytics and page-views and bounce-rate and email signups and eye-tracking heat-map software, knowing how long a video has been played, page scrolling, exit-intent, retargeting – so many ways to monitor traffic, behavior, engagement, conversions and so on.
With a podcast, other than the basic “Downloads” stats, there is not much else available to help you track, measure, improve and optimize your podcast content and marketing. You don’t know how long the average person listens to your show, at what point do they stop listening, are they streaming or downloading (yes, there is a difference in terms of delivery, not consumption), how many true “subscribers” you have who have subscribed to your feed, etc.
Apple Podcasts now offers some stats for podcasts subscribed-to and listened-to via the Apple Podcasts app. And while the Apple Podcasts app is currently the most popular app among regular podcast listeners, but among power-listeners, the app is not very good when it comes to usability - yes, a strange thing to say about an Apple product. And its search is one of the most primitive and feels more like a 1995 Yahoo Directory than what one of the world’s richest companies should be offering up.
So podcast listeners who are more tech- and web-savvy, have left the Apple Podcasts app and have moved on to other far-better apps like OverCast.fm (iOS) , Podcast Addict and PocketCasts (both Android). And there have been no indications from any non-Apple podcast apps (iOS or Android) about offering podcasters any kind of listener-stats.
It’s a great start from Apple, for sure. But there are still tens of other great podcast apps and podcast directories which don’t offer any insights into the listening behavior, and there’s no indication if they’re even likely to offer them anytime soon.
If you've ever asked yourself:
* How to grow my podcast
* How to grow my audience
* How to grow my show
* How to launch my podcast
* Best
* Things to think about BEFORE you think about writing a Book
* What is your book really about?
* Best way to Brainstorm ideas
* "Dream Book TOC" technique
* Coming up with Chapters & Sub-chapters
* What topics to write about
* How long should your Kindle eBook be
* Little-known facts about formatting
* Choosing a Title
* Templates for brainstorming title ideas
* Tools required for writing and publishing your Kindle eBook
* Simplest way to prepare your eBook for publishing
* ISBN and other details that you should know (but not care about)
* Turning your eBook into a real book for free
* What you should know if you want to sell your physical book in regular stores
* What are the ideal first pages and last pages
* How to incentivize your eBook readers to give you their email
* How to build an audience using your eBook
* Best ways to create your book cover
* Cover creation tools that are free and almost-free
* Super-powerful book cover tactic to get an expensive $1,300 cover designed by a talented graphic artist - for just $50
* Tips for getting the best out of your cover (yes, people will always judge a book by its cover)
* Previewing your Kindle eBook and seeing what it will look like to your readers on all devices
* How to fix formatting and other issues quickly with the least amount of time and effort
* Proof-reading tips
* A Step-by-step guide to Publishing your book on Amazon KDP, with detailed screenshots
* KDP Select: What is it and why you should (and when you should NOT) enroll your eBook
* Book Launch and Promotion tips
* Should you give away free copies of your book? How and when?
* Marketing your book to get the biggest bang for your buck
* Free promotion tips
* Paid promotion ideas
If you are a first-time author, you may be tempted into writing your greatest book ever and pack every single thing you know into one massive book that leaves no stone unturned, as your very first book. And that’s ok if that’s what you absolutely, passionately wish to do.
I recommend starting with a quick win for your first book. Get something done, get it out there into the real world, see it go live on Amazon Kindle, share it with your friends, family and audience, and soak in the joy and attention that comes from being a first-time author. That will give you immense motivation, excitement and momentum to write more books and share your message with the world.
And this book will show you the fastest, most-efficient way...
* How to Write a book
* How to Publish a book
* How to Launch a book
* How to Write a Kindle book
* How to Publish a Kindle book
* How to Launch a Kindle book
* How to write a kindle ebook
* Write kindle book software
* How to write a kindle book fast
* Get Kindle book reviews
* How to write a best selling kindle book
* Tips on writing a kindle book
* Write kindle books ridiculously fast
* Writing a kindle book in word
* Write short kindle books
* Writing a successful kindle book
* write a book in kindle format
* write amazon kindle books
I host two podcasts now. But when I was just getting started with podcasting, I didn't just want to be a Podcaster. I'm talking about wanting to be a PodcaSTAR. Small play on the word, but huge difference in meaning and impact!
Before I got started with my own podcast, one of the star attractions of podcasting was seeing Pat Flynn (SmartPassiveIncome.com) and John Lee Dumas (EOFire.com) put out crazy monthly income reports, where they were making gobs of money each month via their podcasts.
And then came Tim Ferriss with his 60 Million Downloads!
But more than the money itself, what truly blew me away was the kind of raving fans and engaged audiences they were building, which pretty much allowed them to point that massive audience's attention to whatever it was they were promoting.
Affiliate links? BOOM!
New book launches? BOOM!
Selling Journals with blank pages?? DOUBLE BOOM!
They could just say the word, and get their massive audience to take massive action.
That's the kind of influence I craved.
But after closely following – and intently listening – to podcasting veterans like Dave Jackson of the SchoolOfPodcasting.com, Daniel J Lewis of TheAudacityToPodcast.com and Cliff Ravenscraft of PodcastAnswerMan.com, I knew it wasn't going to be easy.
After all, I had been in the online business world selling digital products and doing digital marketing for over 18 years. I had even written a category best-seller called “No Business Like E-Business” back in 2007. And I am the Co-founder & Co-developer of a leading membership plugin since 2008. So of course, I knew what it took, and I could coast through it all, right?
*insert harsh sound of buzzer here*
Oh, how I was wrong!
Podcasting is nothing like selling a digital product, but is still everything like selling a digital product.
(Whaaaat?)
Yup, that's how much of a contradiction podcasting is.
Podcasting is hard. Churning out great content week after week, the research, the editing, the uploading, creating a page for it on your site and optimizing it, then promoting it… all of that is hard. It gets even harder when there simply aren't any tools to measure a lot of the key metrics – like how many people that downloaded your episode actually listened to it, how long did they listen, ability to track ROI on paid advertising when it comes to converting clicks to listeners to subscribers – a lot of that is not possible right now.
Podcasting takes a lot of passion, knowledge & persistence to do it long-enough and well-enough to build authority and influence - and most importantly, a lot of marketing – to get the word out and build a legion of raving fans.
So in this book, I lay bare my soul, open my heart, and lay it all out on the table: Everything I've learned from doing my own show a while now, and more importantly, everything I've learned NOT to do, thanks to being a podcasting super-junkie who listens to podcasts ALL the time – whether I'm grocery shopping, waiting to pick up my kids, on a walk with my dog, on a run, and even when lying with my mouth wide open at the dentist's table.