The Ad I Ran on Glenn Beck That Earned Me $0: Learn From It

Worst business decision ever.

In 2012 I launched LibertyClassroom.com, a site for libertarians who’d like to learn the history and economics they didn’t get in school. Members can learn at their convenience, on the go, and from professors they can trust.

It did great.

But I soon decided I wanted to expand beyond my natural audience: libertarians familiar with my work.

For all his faults, Glenn Beck had been good to me. And his audience liked what I had to say. So I thought, why not advertise in his newsletter?

So I set up a beautiful landing page just for his subscribers, offering 30% off Liberty Classroom just for them.

We launched the ad, and I sat and waited.

Number of takers?

Zero.

Not three or four and I’m rounding it to zero. Literally zero.

First conclusion I drew: I guess this product is purchased only by people who are already familiar with my work. So there’s no point advertising it elsewhere.

But that was wrong.

My problem was that I didn’t know or appreciate the difference between warm and cold traffic.

People who already follow and are familiar with me, and have watched my videos or read my books, are warm traffic. They like what I do, and they trust I’ll put out a quality product.

People who have no idea who I am are cold traffic. It’s going to take a lot more work to get them to buy.

Here’s what I should have done:

(1) A much bigger discount.

(2) Given them access to a free course, so they could get to know my product.

(3) Followed up with email to give them a further sense of who I am and why I’m someone they’d want to learn and buy from.

That’s how you convert cold to warm traffic.

I know that NOW, but I sure didn’t know it then. I learned it the hard way.

So….

Let’s suppose YOU wanted to promote LibertyClassroom.com.

Would you just share the link all over the place? Of course not.

You might make a demo video showing people the product.

You might write a blog post about it, giving people reasons to join.

You might tell people about me, the product creator, and why I’m worth listening to.

In other words: make that cold traffic warm.

And guess what: you can try out these tactics yourself in my affiliate contest. In addition to 50% commissions (up to $173.50 per customer), I’m giving away prizes to my top ten affiliates, with the top prize being a new car.

Ain’t no other libertarians giving you a new car.

I’ve never held a contest before. I’m really thrilled about it.

Be a part of it:

http://www.WoodsContest.com

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Some of the links on this site are affiliate links, which means I earn a commission if you click on them and buy something. This helps me keep the lights on around here. Naturally, I don't recommend a product unless I have used and benefited from it myself, or I have researched it enough to determine it to be of good quality and likely to benefit my readers. I don't promote anything created by the swamp dwellers. Thanks for reading!