With more reports saying that the idea of a life-long career is dead, it will be up to us when we graduate to develop our own forms of employment.
So I recently read the book Launch by Jeff Walker, and, without question, it was an enticing read. Midway through the book, I was committed to starting my own launch project, and ever since then I have been getting the education required to make the start-up a reality. Yet success with doing such a launch relies on a number of critical factors for students without the financial means to afford Walker’s instructional classes. For instance, starting up an e-commerce business, an online educational site, or a membership site with informational products requires that the online companies that provide these services also have the necessary support to make it a reality.
Jeff Walker’s Launch In Summary
Jeff Walker (2014) takes a very innovative approach to internet marketing that includes getting set up with an email auto-responder service that also supplies an opt-in form. One such example that I have discovered is ideal is AWeber, which has nice templates for the opt-in form and automatically generates the code you need to insert into your website html. I happen to have built websites using HTML, CSS, and a little JavaScript, so I had an easy start with the endeavour.
From there, he recommends a service called Kajabi, which provides you with a paid membership site that you can download your pdfs, videos, audio clips, and other information products onto that people pay memberships to access.
Jeff Walker uses his opt-in email list to send emails with links to quality content in the form of videos, audios, and pdfs (that are hosted on his Kajabi site and integrated with his AWeber account). He entices people to purchase his product through a strategy that you can access with his free book located at http://thelaunchbook.com.
So, I Took The Journey, Starting with the Sidetrack Ambition of Zazzle
Wanting to sell the information products of my partner, I embarked on the journey to learn more about online sales. Initially, I discovered an online store called Zazzle that enables you to place your designs on t-shirts and other products and sell them by setting up a store. You can link to that store using a hyperlink or you can set up a storefront as a folder in your website directory. Unfortunately, Zazzle has very little customer support for anything involving their store builder. I keep getting the same customer service representative each time I call in (with a fifteen minute wait on the line minimum), and this individual has little-to-no developer knowledge, although she is highly amicable and super sweet.
The Joy of Kajabi
Although I’m still attempting to make contact with someone different at Zazzle and hope there might be less of a phone wait if I hold off until after Christmas, I have begun attending what is called Kajabi University with the hopes of getting the support I need to get started on a project. Kajabi has no phone support, but, if you are a member, you can chat with them to get set up. The most prominent feature of Kajabi is that they have very good video tutorials that you can access for free from their site.
Kajabi offers you a site that hosts your membership forum where people come to pay to access your information products. Kajabi also has what they call a funnel, which is the free stuff that you can integrate with an email auto-responder program like AWeber. So, in other words, you can send emails with links to video squeeze pages encouraging the individual to sign up for your membership site when they sign in to your email list (with the opt-in form AWeber provides, which you then place on your WordPress or other Website).
In fact, Kajabi cites Jeff Walker (author of the book Launch) as one of its inspirations in the Kajabi videos. Also Kajabi has video tutorials on how to link to AWeber, as they have some type of integration system together.
Yet Difficulties Arose
After watching a vast majority of the Kajabi University video tutorials, I have found myself stumped on a number of situations. For one, AWeber doesn’t have very good video support, and the integration with Kajabi isn’t readily spelled out. For instance, I’m not sure conceptually what role AWeber exactly fulfills in relation to the emailing of the Kajabi products nor am I clear on how to integrate the two. AWeber offers a fifteen minute tutorial, but Kajabi is not mentioned in it.
Another difficulty is that Kajabi University brushes over how to integrate Kajabi with Paypal. I don’t have a PayPal account, so that is a significant limitation at the outset, but I initially thought this shortcoming could be surmounted by going onto YouTube and searching for related videos. However, for some stifling reason, the video tutorials on how to set up Paypal for ecommerce purposes are grossly lacking. Even lynda.com doesn’t seem to have a sufficient outlay of courses on the topic. Instead of video tutorials on PayPal integration, Kajabi has a heinous text document that blinds you with lines of confounding instructions devoid of meaningful graphic overlays.
To Move Forward or Not to Move Forward
So, with Christmas nearing, I’m planning on phoning Zazzle when the customer support service is more streamlined due to less customer demand. I also hope to finally access someone with a little developer knowledge to just give me the reassurance that there is someone available to help mitigate problems if I go ahead and install their store builder product.
As for Kajabi, their excellent video support is leaning me toward setting up a membership site filled with information products. The integration with PayPal may be a barrier, resulting in my closing shop, but I’m certain Kajabi wants to maintain my month-to-month contract by at least providing enough text support to get me started. The cost is nearly $100/month for three membership sites, if I’m correct, so the investment needs to be well thought through before making the initial investment.
Finally, as for AWeber, I have enough developer know-how to implement the HTML code on a site I’ve already built, and the cost isn’t too prohibitive. Any developer can get your opt-in form up-and-running within seconds, and all you really need to know from your developer is the width of your sidebar that the opt-in form will be issued on. The customer support and lack of excellent video tutorials make AWeber and PayPal integration the two biggest barriers to getting started with a membership site, but for those of you who don’t need to rely on documentation for learning purposes, with Kajabi’s video supports, you likely will be able to traverse safely.
