Hey Mike...

I got your emails and I think you executed it really well.  Im curious to hear how it goes.  Ive used the 3 option deal before and its gone pretty well.  I think I actually got the idea from your site?  I usually use it like....mp3s for x amount, cd for x amount, cd plus immediate download of mp3s for same price as cd.  

I've had a few days to reflect on my limited time offer experience - overall I'm pleased with how it turned out as I got a fair amount of downloads amounting to pretty close to half my list. I was hoping that someone would take me up on the sale, but I also realized that I downplayed that particular part of the offer so much, plus buried it on the landing page that I'm not really surprised that nobody took me up on it. Next time, I'll be more aggressive with it.

What went well

I think the email campaign went smoothly. I was able to segment my list and a/b test headlines - two things that I haven't really played around with previously. I didn't have any problems setting up the landing pages and everything using my wordpress theme.

What can be improved:

• The method I used to 'enforce' my limited time offer didn't work according to plan after all - but I think this is my fault or perhaps something to do with a graphic element on my website. I plan to retest this and get back to everyone about this.
• The offer itself, I wanted to do a 72 hour special, but I think it amounted to more like 60-something hours instead!
• The download link - I included it on the landing/offer page (not really a sales page because the sale aspect was so underplayed) instead of linking to a thank you page with the download link on it. If I had done it with a Thank You page I could have set it up as a goal in Google Analytics and had a better idea of how many people downloaded.
• Assumption - Proved Wrong: Didn't take any active step to track my download link thinking that it would show up as a 'click' in my Wordpress stats. I was bummed out that nobody seemed to be downloading my guide and then was getting emails from people thanking me for getting it for free - doh! I had to dive into my awestats logs in cpanel to see what happened and even so, I don't feel quite as confident about the numbers as I would like.

All in all, not bad for a first foray into a limited time offer; I learned a lot and that's what counts. Will definitely do more when I can squeeze them in, and would like to do more of a salesletter next time outlining more clearly the benefits and all that. Definitely will set it up in Google Analytics for improved tracking as well.

As a side note, the sign ups to my list seem to have increased of late - since this was a "list-only" offer, it can't be directly related. However, I find sometimes just taking any kind of proactive action will result in positive benefits in other areas as well...

Hi John,

The LTO as you taught it I'm sure would have worked fine. I decided to be all 'smart' and attempt to blend a few different ideas that I've encountered and therefore ended up with a 'fuzzy' offer.

My original intention was to simply get some feedback on one of my products and to offer a free copy for a limited time to inspire the people on my list to take swift action - in that case it worked.

However, then I thought this might be a good time to promote the upgraded product that I'll be releasing in the new year and thought I'd offer them the chance to 'buy if they liked' the product to get the upgraded version at a discount before the price is raised. This option to buy was obscured and buried at the far bottom of the page.

So, my LTO technically worked, but I was hoping a few might take me up on the paid option and I realized in hindsight that I set the whole deal up (right down to the design of the page itself) to discourage paying - so lesson learned.

I guarantee my next offer will be much simpler and this time the goal will be to actually generate sales - imagine that!

OK, I am so geek impaired! I need help creating a custom page.

Do I create a page in word press?

How do I access my word press directory in DreamHost?

One thing that might help is signing up for some lists of the folks' in the forum and see what they do in their autoresponder series and LTO stuff. Could be some good ideas in there.

Hi Dave,

I've created a limited time offer of sorts with bandcamp and my autoresponder. 

I created a discount code good through May. When April rolls around, I'll segment my list and put in a new discount code in the autoresponder good until September. A week before the May discount ends I'll send a broadcast to the first segment to hurry up and get the album. Then I'll do the same thing with the next lists. It's not perfect because I have to remember to change things in the autoresponder, but I'm doing this as I build my list. Hope that makes sense. 

Dave Barnett said:

I have watched and am watching the videos over and over trying to figure this out on my own.

I think I have figured out that I can create the LTO page in WP ?

Creating a LTO in Wordpress only requires that you create a new page and install the "Page Expiry Robot" plugin that John teaches about in the training.l Put in your settings for the LTO and make any customizations (i.e. no sidebar if this is an option in the wordpress theme that you happen to use) add your copy for the page and you're golden.

You don't need to create a directory or anything like that.

The one thing to keep in mind is that ideally your LTO page should be hidden from view. Depending on how your wordpress site is setup, sometimes new pages are automatically added to the top menu/navigation bar and if you happen to have a sitemap on your site - they can often crawl your site and find your 'hidden' content and make them easy for any one mildly curious enough to look.

There's (of course) a plugin to address this: the "Exclude Pages From Navigation" plugin by Simon Wheatley is one that I've tried. You can also build a custom menu in Wordpress to display only what you want to show as well.

Dave Barnett said:

I use BandCamp as my Merch page, it's linked to my WP site, I can create discount codes there but I don't want a code that is indefinite or it's not really an LTO. I can set a time limit for the code but then it's not a permanent part of my Autoresponder.

I do have a PayPal merchant account so I guess my best solution for an LTO that works in my Autoresponder is to set up a Buy Now button on this page with the discounted price?

 

Thanks again and sorry to be such a pain in the ass but I am REALLY NEW to this stuff!

Things start to get complex when you use different payment systems - especially those that you don't have direct control over. I made some modifications for my LTO to be 'real time' and ran into some troubles that way as well. If you're using a combination of systems that none of the rest of us are using - you'll have to experiment and see what works.

Ideally, you should be able to do a redirect from a successful payment transaction to a 'hidden' Thank You page on your site. Paypal should allow you to do this (it should be the page you set to display or return to on your site after the payment is made) - so even if you're using Bandcamp the possibility should exist if they a) use Paypal b) have a similar redirect upon successful sale option.

The Thank You page is important because you can also set it up as a goal in Google Analytics to show how well your offer is converting; if you set your system up properly - your Thank You page should only be displayed to someone who has successfully purchased from you.

Hopefully this isn't too overwhelming for someone starting out. Even those of use who understand how this works can get tripped up when implementing (a.k.a. my posts earlier in this thread) so always test and monitor to make sure it works properly. Sending a guinea pig through to ensure everything works to a point wouldn't hurt either if you're still unsure.

Annie said:

Hi Dave,

I've created a limited time offer of sorts with bandcamp and my autoresponder. 

I created a discount code good through May. When April rolls around, I'll segment my list and put in a new discount code in the autoresponder good until September. A week before the May discount ends I'll send a broadcast to the first segment to hurry up and get the album. Then I'll do the same thing with the next lists. It's not perfect because I have to remember to change things in the autoresponder, but I'm doing this as I build my list. Hope that makes sense. 

Hey Annie!

Yeah that's the thing, I've been doing something similiar but not for as long a period of time as your offer. I really think the 72 hour offer would be very effective. In the video, unless I missed something, it wasn't metioned as to how to set up the actual offer, just how to set up an expiration page.

I'll be working on this and hopefully get a solution for both of us! Thanks Annie

Mike Ippersiel said:

Dave Barnett said:

I have watched and am watching the videos over and over trying to figure this out on my own.

I think I have figured out that I can create the LTO page in WP ?

Creating a LTO in Wordpress only requires that you create a new page and install the "Page Expiry Robot" plugin that John teaches about in the training.l Put in your settings for the LTO and make any customizations (i.e. no sidebar if this is an option in the wordpress theme that you happen to use) add your copy for the page and you're golden.

No sidebar is not an option in the theme I am using 

Dave Barnett said:

I use BandCamp as my Merch page, it's linked to my WP site, I can create discount codes there but I don't want a code that is indefinite or it's not really an LTO. I can set a time limit for the code but then it's not a permanent part of my Autoresponder.

I do have a PayPal merchant account so I guess my best solution for an LTO that works in my Autoresponder is to set up a Buy Now button on this page with the discounted price?

Thanks again and sorry to be such a pain in the ass but I am REALLY NEW to this stuff!

Things start to get complex when you use different payment systems - especially those that you don't have direct control over. I made some modifications for my LTO to be 'real time' and ran into some troubles that way as well. If you're using a combination of systems that none of the rest of us are using - you'll have to experiment and see what works.

BandCamp uses PayPal. I don't think their is an issue with selling outside of BC and still using PayPal?

I'll test it out and let you knpow if it works, Thanks Mike

Dave Barnett said:

No sidebar is not an option in the theme I am using 

....

BandCamp uses PayPal. I don't think their is an issue with selling outside of BC and still using PayPal? I'll test it out and let you knpow if it works, Thanks Mike

If you really want the counter, and you don't want to give up the theme you're using on your current word press site, you might consider getting a second word press site just for your LTO page. Remember that you don't have to use the counter. It's the counter that causes the side-bar issues.

And, if you want to continue using band camp, maybe you could set up a shopping cart on your second word press site that you only use for your LTO.  I don't sell from my word press site, but I see people selling who do, so the plugins must exist.

It might seem like overkill to get a second word press site just for your LTO, but I have one that I use just for my LTO. I figured that one less psychiatrist bill has paid for it. Like you, I'm really not tech savvy. I need to keep things simple so that I can continue to love my life.