There’s a secret to the speaking business. It’s not just speaking fees that count. It’s how you create multiple streams of income that allow you to earn while you’re “off the airplaneâ€?. These nice little earners come from selling product from the back of the room after your speech or, better yet, from your website which will top up your bank account 7×24 – making money while you sleep! Guess what? You’ll also inoculate your business against the coming Avian Flu pandemic.

Pro-Track members heard from two very successful speakers who have supplemented their speaking fees with substantial earnings from product sales over the years.

Rebecca Morgan: Product Development for Speakers Part I

Rebecca, a member of the NSA National Board of Directors, took the whole morning to cover all the aspects of developing products. We’re all information peddlers. The same information that is spoken into the podium microphone can be repackaged into audio and printed product.

What products, and how to develop them, you ask?

First consider:

Next consider which of these vast array of product types works for your market:

A great example is classic Eight Ball Larry Winget who sells everything from books to bobble head dolls.

Another is Dr. Tony Allessandra who lists books, audio downloads and more. Check out the 4-page Platinum Self-Assessment product he sells for $8. This will give you a flavor of the type of product beginning speakers can easily create and charge for.

But wait, there’s more. Say you don’t have content of your own yet. What to do? Consider:

Some other tricks of the trade:

Consider that most people at your event have a $20 bill or three in their back pocket. Bundle 3 reports or whatever and sell them in $20 increments.

Take payments from customers using Paypal Mobile.

Bundle air with your products: Shrink wrap tapes and books at Kinko’s and include a certificate in the Cadillac version of your products. This is good for an hour of your consulting time (Value $200?) if people call before the expiry date. Experienced speakers know less than 5% will call, yet people flock to the deal.

Consider for each product you sell, what is the next product your customer will be led to when they purchase this one? Always include product lists at the back of each document.

Look for continuity programs. How can you get clients to subscribe to a series on a monthly basis?

When quoting a speech fee include 100 books in your price and offer the conference organizer a discount on buying enough for the rest of the audience. Often this will generate sales of hundreds before you even arrive at the event

Great example of best practices:

Check out the offerings of top speaker Robert Middleton. His Action Plan Marketing website has a teleclass, partner product sales, audio CDs with transcripts, books and manuals and more. It’s great stuff that’s designed to help the self-employed and independent owners small firms become better at marketing their services – something we all need!

Enough theory! How to put this into practice?

Rebecca had us start with a list of three things we know in our subject area that people would pay good money to learn. We later expanded this to a list of 10. Since blogging is an area that I’m investing an increasing amount of time into I thought the following list might form the basis of a laminate quick-start guide. What do you think? Would you pay $5.95 for a copy of this to have at hand by your computer? Let me know in the Comments section below.

Ian’s Handy-Dandy Ten Rules for Successful Blogging:

1. Write your blog regularly – at least once a week.
2. Find a sincere voice to write in.
3. Exercise your grammar and diction and spell check and proofread before publishing each post.
4. Welcome comments in your blog – open the conversation.
5. Be sure to include a photograph and your name in the blog – people like to know who is talking to them.
6. Include an ‘About Me’ link.
7. Use Google News ‘bots’ to capture topic ideas.
8. Link often to other blogs, websites and trackbacks to boost your “Google Juice�
9. Use iStockphoto for beautiful graphic images.
10. Remember to get a life and unhook yourself from the keyboard to experience life!
11. Bonus: Get started!

If you need more help

Consider working with one of the experts in the field. Paulette Ensign is The Booklet Queen and her services range from consulting to help you create a Tips Booklet to promoting your finished product on her popular web site. She’s written booklets that have sold over a million copies.

Michael Lee: Product Development for Speakers Part II

If you thought my “top 10� list above is too trivial, consider. Michael is one of the few professional speakers in the nation who makes more than $100,000 a year from product sales. And he started with a top 10 list for Realtors detailing ways they can justify their commission.

He’s expanded this list over the years to 122 tips that took him six months to collate, with variations for justifying commission to home sellers, home buyers, FISBOs and others. These sold for $9.95 each. He added real estate forms and upped the price to $19.95. A bundle of four sold at a discount $70. When he added a CD and workbook he had a manual for $99.95.

I won’t cover the details he shared on his costs to produce this material, but it’s pennies on the dollar.

It all started with a simple list.

And of course, clients are not gladly shelling out their money for the paper, but the countless hours of expertise Michael has invested to produce the material. Indeed, he offers an unconditional guarantee with all products and rarely has to offer a refund.

Michael delivered an expanded version of the NSA/NC presentation I attended back in May at his Danville home.

He stressed the need to raise the perceived value of the products you sell.

Some tips:

In conclusion: Don’ think of all the reasons you CAN NOT create products you can sell, think of all the reasons you CAN and JUST DO IT!

Resources: