Hi Mike,

I'm sorry to hear that you're having a hard time, but I gotta be honest, it's hard not to read your email as a bit of an attack on the effectiveness of MMM.

MMM has helped thousands of musicians generate a profit from their music over the years. I've shared many of those stories, and many of those wins are posted here in the Insider Circle forum. That said, I've always stressed that what I offer is not a magic bullet, but rather a sound business strategy that has proven effective many times over. 

This thread seems to be a follow up on your recent post where you asked fellow members who was profitable and how long it took to become profitable. You got two answers to that. One artist said they were profitable and became profitable fairly quickly, the other artist said they were generating around $500 a month above the ads from the membership site she launched, however she was choosing to reinvest that in ads to grow her list.

And while you say you are not breaking even above, I re-listened to our conversation on the recent coaching call and you did mention that you were breaking even on your ads, and implied that if you weren't paying money to someone to help you with the marketing you would be profitable. This is one of the reasons I caution people not to outsource. Moreover, you are doing all of this with no post-funnel promotions. To me this sounds like a win. Spending money on help is a personal choice, but you are describing a situation where you would be generating profit if you weren't choosing to outsource. And to my mind, that's a really good place to be. Especially given that you have not run any significant follow up promotions. You should be running promotions of different types of products at least quarterly. Very few businesses survive by only selling a single item to their customers.

For example, if you are breaking even on the ads, by simply adding a membership site or Patreon campaign to the funnel (or as a stand alone promotion), you should almost instantly be profitable. And that's only one promo. My best advice is to watch or re-watch this lesson, as it really sheds light on the big picture: https://www.mmmanifesto.com/in.....etization/

All I can do is stress the fact that this approach is very simple. Build a list, and then sell stuff to that list (over and over again). So long as your music is good and you are building a relationship with your subscribers, you will be profitable. From everything you've said in our various conversations, it feels like you have a winning premise for a business in your hands, you just need to sell more things to that list over time.

Hi Mike,

No one can tell you how long because it varies from artist to artist. Some artists buy MMM, set it up over a weekend and are running at a profit within a few days, others take weeks or months, some never get there. But as I said on the coaching call, I don't subscribe to the "it takes time" rational. It can take time, but the time it takes is typically just the amount of time it takes for you to test until you get a winning ad and funnel. Or the time it takes can be however long it takes you to introduce your list to enough offers that you become profitable. But throwing money at something that is not profitable because you think that just giving it time will somehow solve the problem, is a mistake. It is what you do with that time that will determine whether or not you are eventually profitable.

The one concept I have been consistently stressing to you, which it sounds like you have still not implemented is the fact that you may need to introduce additional offers (beyond the initial album and upsell) in order to become profitable. This is not always the case, but it often is, as outlined in the Long Term Monetization lesson I linked to above.

As to why your conversion rates are low... The honest answer is always: because your funnel and/or music are not doing a good enough job of connecting with your audience. 1.5% is far lower than average. Most decent funnels land between around 4% - 6%. 

In terms of your concerns that people don't buy music anymore, that just isn't the case. When we refer to the mainstream music industry, that is very true. But when we use direct to fan marketing techniques, and build a solid relationship with our fans, then they will absolutely spend money on music, especially when that music is not already available on the streaming platforms. I see it every day, and this forum is flooded with posts from people who can confirm that. It's always a matter of just connecting the right offer with the right audience. It's not necessarily always easy, but it's the only real path that musicians can take if they hope to generate revenue without playing the lottery with labels and streaming platforms, or touring for the rest of their lives.