One could say I am marketer Derek Halpern’s “grandbaby” — even though he and I have never spoken.

Derek coached a former business coach of mine. And there was one piece of advice Derek gave my coach that transformed his online business:

“Launch something every month of the year.”

By “launch”, both Derek and I mean making an offer to your readers. Launching a new offer every month (Or even the *same* offer every month) forces you to explore the different ways in which you share your knowledge or skills — your “container”, if you will.

You’ve seen many of these containers before:

• Online course
• 1-on-1 coaching
• Group program
• Membership
• VIP Day (A half-day or full-day intensive)

And so on.

These are all different containers in which you can offer your same skill set. Whether you’re a personal trainer, an executive coach or a psychotherapist, you could offer your knowledge in many of the above formats.

(Side note: This is something I see a lot of aspiring online entrepreneurs struggle with. Newer entrepreneurs focus only on offering their knowledge in one format — “I’d like to create an online course” — when in fact it could be way more lucrative and fulfilling to offer the same information and guidance in a different container.)

So my coach did this. He launched every month for an entire year. And both his revenue and profits doubled.

Then he taught it to me, and my results have been similar. Here are some thoughts on why.

Why Launching Every Month Helps You Find What Works

Some of his launches launched a program he was already doing, and then other launches gauged interest in other formats of his expertise.

• One month, he offered a one-day intensive.
• Another month, he offered a program of his in online course format at a more palatable price point.
• Another month was quieter — ”Hey, I have two open coaching spots for the rest of the year, would you like to discuss?”

Then, in one month, he offered a high-level small group program that ended up becoming one of his main offers.

It was capped at 6 people, lasted 6 months, had weekly calls and a group chat on WhatsApp, and cost $5,000. People got results and networked with other business owners at their level along the way.

In fact, people loved this offer so much it became one of his main offers — even though he had been in business for years.

And it all came out of one of his monthly launch experiments.

So naturally, when coaching me, this coach passed down Derek’s advice. I implemented it this past year in what was one of my most scrappy years of my online business career.

Sure enough, both my revenue and profit also doubled.

What No One Tells You About Online Course Launches

…is that they are the hardest launches to build.

They also have the most risk because you have to build everything upfront without validating your value proposition first.

What if your offer is wrong, or positioned incorrectly? You’ve just wasted a TON of time and effort.

In addition to doing research, growing your list, and making the course itself, you need to create all the emails, create a webinar deck, create a sales page and/or checkout page, and create the automation that happens once someone makes a purchase.

People don’t think about this. They think a course will be the easiest way to make money on the internet because it is small, automated, and high profit.

Also — introverts love the idea of an online course business because it means less interacting with people. Introverts crush it on the internet, but then they try to do one of the hardest business models because it appeals to their introversion.

I get this because I was that person. (INTJs, where you at?)

Courses are a ton of buildout on the front end. Are you 100% — no, scratch that — 1,000% confident in your business idea and positioning?

No? Ok, got it — don’t do a course, then.

Do something else first that requires less effort and also lets you see first hand where your clients’ true snags are and how you can best help them.

Test out different containers and see what flies. The way to get true, brutally honest feedback on an offer is to launch it.

A Quiet Launch That Made $28,000 USD

Here’s an example.

Back in July, I soft-launched a PR market intelligence offer to my list. It was an offer that was $3,500 upfront, and then had a back-end offer that was $10,500 (Three months at $3,500/month).

This offer was/is too expensive for the aspiring online entrepreneur, and I knew that. But it was a great option for established business owners who are tired of being jerked around by publicists or PR agencies.

So I created a special lead magnet specifically on PR and sent it to my list. I noted that it was designed for established business owners, though anyone could sign up. About 5% of my email list took me up on it.

(Ahem — yet another reason to have an email list: You can segment your people and sell only to those who’ve shown interest if you want.) I sent a few emails to just these subscribers telling them about my offer, which was a two-week, done-for-you package.

I also sent them a link to book a sales call with me, with signups only being available for a limited time. I didn’t want this to turn into show-and-tell, so I listed the price upfront.

Eight people booked calls and three clients closed for a 37.5% sales call conversion rate.

• One client purchased the front end offer only. ($3,500 in revenue)
• One client purchased the front end offer and then also purchased the back end offer. ($14,000 in revenue).
• One client skipped over the front end offer and went straight to the back end offer. ($10,500 in revenue)

Total: $28,000.

There was no sales page and no Facebook ads. I put the details into a Google document and quietly test-drove this launch with people who might be interested; the other 95% of my list never even heard about it.

By all the usual standards of online business, this launch failed. I didn’t have hundreds of sales or tens of thousands of followers gushing over my latest selfie.

But I did test an offer that went well. And I could reuse that lead magnet and those emails in the future, which would make a future launch of this offer easier.

I’m old-school; this is how I like to do business.

Test more, fail more, learn more. Then, when you find the offer that works for you, you launch that more often. Or maybe you only launch that.

That’s what’s about to happen in my business: After years of iterating and testing, I will now have one offer and only one offer moving forward.

But Isn’t This Too Much Selling?

This is why I keep my audience on an email list and not on a social media platform: Email subscribers expect to be promoted to on a regular basis.

It’s also an audience you have to continuously earn: If readers don’t want to hear from you anymore, they can unsubscribe at any time.

Launching every month will be too much selling unless you fill the rest of your month with helpful content and reasons to stick around.

Your subscribers will tolerate you selling to them if you add value in your off weeks.

And if they can’t handle being sold to — even with the option of opting out of a launch — then they were never going to buy from you anyway.

Now Do This

If you’ve made it this far, you’re read more than about 60% of people who land on my articles. It would appear you’re at least somewhat interested in this approach.

Here are a few action steps to get yourself started.

• Brainstorm 10 different ways you could offer your knowledge. I already gave you five at the top of this article to get you started, can you come up with five more? This will challenge you to think about the different ways people could receive the benefit of your knowledge and skills.
• Develop an audience that can tolerate selling. When you launch every month, your list acclimates to you launching every month. The people who don’t like being sold to (Who will never, ever give you a penny, no matter how hard you work) unsubscribe, and the rest stay. An email list that is tiny and focused will outdo a bloated, disinterested audience any day of the week.
• Focus on benefits more than features. A tried-and-true formula in copywriting is “value stacking”, in which you offer 3 additional bonus videos, 9 bonus worksheets, and so on to make your offer seem more valuable. Sometimes entrepreneurs focus so much on this that they forget to tell readers about the transformation that will happen as a result of signing up. Remember: Consumers don’t buy a product; they buy a feeling or a transformation.

To launch every month, you need to keep giving your readers value. This never ends, so it’s important that you find the resources and mentors who can keep you accountable and consistent. Prioritize experimentation and learning and you’ll soon stumble across the idea that turns into your million-dollar offer.

Thanks for reading. 🙏🏼

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