Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You ByWP Engine

Discover why more than 80,000 companies in 135 countries choose WP Engine for managed WordPress hosting.

Start getting more from your site today!

Rainmaker.FM

The Digital Commerce and Content Marketing Podcast Network

  • Home
  • Shows
  • Hosts
  • About
  • Home
  • Shows
  • Hosts
  • About
  • Member Area
  • Log In
Menu
  • Log In
  • Free Training
7-Figure Small with Brian Clark
Confessions of a Pink-Haired Marketer
Copyblogger FM: Content Marketing, Copywriting, Freelance Writing, and Social Media Marketing
Get More Clients With Smarter Email Marketing
Hack the Entrepreneur
Members Only
Rainmaker.FM Elsewhere
Site Success: Tips for Building Better WordPress Websites
StudioPress FM
Technology Translated
The Digital Entrepreneur
The Missing Link
The Showrunner
The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience
Youpreneur with Chris Ducker
Zero to Book
Copyblogger FM: Content Marketing, Copywriting, Freelance Writing, and Social Media Marketing
hosted by Darrell Vesterfelt and Tim Stoddart

Why Not Sell Physical Stuff With Digital Media?

  • Social:
  • Link:
  • Embed:
https://copyblogger.com/cdn-origin/audio/imfsp39.mp3
Download MP3 Subscribe by RSS Subscribe in iTunes
Previous Episode:Whether You Call it Blogging or Not, Online Content Still Rules More Episodes Next Episode:5 Tips for Affiliate Marketing Beginners

All Episodes:

March 30, 2020

The Advantage of Email Marketing, Featuring Nathan Barry of ConvertKit

March 15, 2020

How to Write Content That Resonates

March 9, 2020

How to Conquer Your Fear of Selling, with Leah Neaderthal

March 2, 2020

How to Build Remarkable Products to Grow Your Business, with Ramit Sethi

February 17, 2020

What You Should Talk about on Your Podcast, with Tara McMullin

February 9, 2020

How to Win at Search in 2020

February 3, 2020

How to Turn Pro as a Freelance Writer

January 27, 2020

Marketing Segmentation and Personalization with Brennan Dunn of RightMessage

January 20, 2020

Podcasting Still Matters, with Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income

January 13, 2020

The New Look Copyblogger in 2020

January 8, 2020

New Year, New Copyblogger

October 23, 2019

The Self-Reliant Entrepreneur with John Jantsch

October 2, 2019

Consistency Will Take You Further

September 25, 2019

The Past, Present, and Future of Online Learning

September 16, 2019

How to Get More of the Right Things Done

September 9, 2019

Why the Future Is Still Email

September 3, 2019

What’s Next for
Copyblogger Media?

August 26, 2019

How Smart, Nimble Companies Are Using Webinars Today

August 19, 2019

The Clarity Method: A Conversation with Tim Brownson

August 12, 2019

Digital Business Trends and the Latest on the Rainmaker Platform

August 5, 2019

4 ‘Naive’ Business Principles for Enduring Success

July 8, 2019

How to Write an Epic Blog Post, Part 3: Polishing and Promotion

July 1, 2019

How to Write an Epic Blog Post, Part 2: Getting It Written

June 24, 2019

How to Write an Epic Blog Post, Part 1: Thinking and Research

June 17, 2019

3 Almost Magical Headline Ingredients for More Traffic, Engagement, and Shares

June 10, 2019

Lessons Any Business Can Learn from an Impressive Influencer Marketing Fail

June 3, 2019

13 Ways of Looking at a Headline

May 27, 2019

The 7 ‘Bad’ Habits of Incredibly Successful People

May 20, 2019

Writers: How to Move from Making a Living to Driving Revenue

May 13, 2019

Choose the Right Frame to Boost the Power of Your Content

May 6, 2019

How Copywriting Teacher Belinda Weaver Reenergized Her Email List for Massive Engagement

April 29, 2019

3 Reasons Why Really Good Writers Sometimes Can’t Find Great Clients

April 22, 2019

3 Slightly Embarrassing Emotions that Drive Effective Copywriting

April 15, 2019

Get 10 Content Marketing Boosters in 20 Minutes

April 8, 2019

Becoming the ‘Chief Empathy Officer’ of Your Copy and Content

April 1, 2019

One of the Most Important Marketing Decisions You’ll Ever Make

March 18, 2019

What Nobody Wants to Hear about Content Marketing

March 11, 2019

Getting Your Big, Scary Projects Finished: A Conversation about Growing Gills

March 4, 2019

When Is It Time to Bring in a Professional Copywriter?

February 25, 2019

Using Content to Systematically Move Prospects Toward a Purchase

February 18, 2019

Understanding the Lifecycles of Your Website, with Pamela Wilson

February 11, 2019

5 Ways to Manage a Stress-Induced Creative Slump

February 4, 2019

3 Ways Strategic Content Can Drive Measurable Business Outcomes

January 28, 2019

The Social Media Platform Every Content Creator Should Be Using in 2019 (Nope, It’s Not Facebook)

January 21, 2019

Real Talk about Generating High-Quality Content

January 14, 2019

A Conversation with Paul Jarvis about Staying a ‘Company of One’

October 29, 2018

The 3 Plus 1 Foundational Elements of Effective Persuasion

October 22, 2018

5 Essential Copywriting Techniques from Copyblogger

October 15, 2018

5 Ways to Recover Your Professional and Creative Confidence

October 8, 2018

5 Stinky Sardine Secrets to Make Your Content More Fascinating

September 24, 2018

The Mindset ‘Hack’ that Frees Your Creativity and Makes You Happier

September 18, 2018

How to Kill Your Sales and Mess up Your Business: Lessons from a Used Car Salesman

September 4, 2018

The 7 Things Writers Need to Make a (Good) Living

August 27, 2018

Are You Making These Social Media Marketing Mistakes?

August 20, 2018

Fix These 7 About Page Mistakes for More Traffic and (Possibly) Better SEO

August 13, 2018

7 Ways to Boost Your Creativity

August 6, 2018

A 10-Step ‘Checklist’ for Your Content Marketing Site

July 30, 2018

The 3 Keys to Publishing Strong Content … Even If You Aren’t a ‘Great’ Writer (Yet)

July 23, 2018

Fix These 3 Points of Failure to Get Better Results for Your Content

July 16, 2018

Big Changes at ConvertKit: A Discussion with Founder Nathan Barry

July 9, 2018

3 Skills to Master to Become a Marketing Badass this Year

June 18, 2018

The Quiet Power of Conversational Copy

June 11, 2018

5 Rules of Thumb to Relieve SEO-Induced Stress

June 4, 2018

How to Use the GDPR to Make Your Business Stronger than Ever

May 14, 2018

‘Good Karma’ Selling that Works: A Conversation with Tim Paige

April 30, 2018

How to Get More Comfortable (and Effective) at Selling

April 23, 2018

Privacy and Permission in the Wake of Cambridge Analytica

April 16, 2018

Seth Godin and How to Create Change

April 9, 2018

Email? Chatbots? Social? How Are We Supposed to Reach People?

March 26, 2018

The Double-Edged Sword that Can Make (or Break) Your Content

March 19, 2018

Make More Progress by Getting (Gently) Out of Your Comfort Zone

March 12, 2018

Are You Doing Content Marketing Wrong?

March 5, 2018

Storytelling for Modern Content Marketing (Part 2 of 2)

February 26, 2018

Storytelling for Modern Content Marketing (Part 1 of 2)

February 19, 2018

10 Quality Factors Search Engines Need to See on Your Site

February 12, 2018

A Simple Content Strategy to Make Your Site Massively More Useful

February 5, 2018

How to Avoid a Heartbreaking Business Failure

January 29, 2018

Hey Writers: Let’s Get You Paid What You’re Worth

January 15, 2018

5 Keys to Making Your Content More Shareable

December 18, 2017

3 Observations on Trends (but not Predictions) for 2018

December 11, 2017

3 Tips Now to Build a Strong Foundation in 2018

December 4, 2017

The 3 Success Factors that Help Writers Earn a Great Living

November 27, 2017

How to Recognize a Great Content Idea

November 20, 2017

How to Cultivate a More Meaningful Gratitude Practice

November 13, 2017

Advice for Poets, Advice for Killers

October 30, 2017

Face Your Business Fears on Halloween Week

October 23, 2017

How to Make Smarter Decisions about Your Website

October 2, 2017

A Series of Unfortunate Content Events

September 18, 2017

The Evolution of a Successful Copywriter

August 28, 2017

7 Ways to Improve Your Marketing by Harnessing the Power of Evil

August 14, 2017

Smart Questions from our Brilliant Audience

August 7, 2017

Does the Web Have Enough Patience for Your In-Depth Content?

July 31, 2017

How to Write (Much Better) Blog Comments

July 17, 2017

Which Works Better: Positive or Negative Content?

July 10, 2017

How to Attract the Exact Customers You Want

July 3, 2017

How to Create Stability and Success as an Artist

June 19, 2017

Two Powerful Resources for Life-Changing Growth

June 12, 2017

How to Turn All that Marketing Advice into Action

June 5, 2017

How to Develop a Compelling Marketing Idea in 4 Steps

May 30, 2017

Getting Over the Fear of Selling

May 22, 2017

Talking Community and Digital Business with Tara Gentile

May 15, 2017

Plagiarism, Self-Deception, Bad Sandwiches, and Other Interesting Disasters

May 1, 2017

Professional Writers: Find Out How to Get Certified by Copyblogger

April 17, 2017

The Painful Core Lesson Taught by 3 Astonishing Big-Brand Fails

April 3, 2017

5 Mindset Habits that Actually Work

March 27, 2017

On Grammar, Usage, and Not Being a Great Big Jerk

March 20, 2017

Creative Strategies for Content Writers

March 13, 2017

A New Ultra-Easy Resource for Creating Excellent WordPress Sites

February 20, 2017

Thriving Freelancers and Clients from Hell

February 13, 2017

Politics, Content Marketing, and the 2017 Super Bowl Ads

February 6, 2017

Copyblogger Book Club: Winning the Story Wars

January 23, 2017

3 Content Marketing Strategy Fails (and How to Fix Them)

January 9, 2017

The 2017 Content Excellence Challenge: Your January Assignments

December 19, 2016

Bad Writing Advice: The ‘Post Truth’ Episode

December 12, 2016

Get Ready Now for a Creative and Productive 2017

December 5, 2016

The 4 Pillars Every Online Business Is Built On

November 28, 2016

Orbit Media’s Latest Survey of 1000 Bloggers

November 14, 2016

Have You Already Missed the Podcasting Gold Rush?

November 7, 2016

Getting More Traffic, Links, and Shares to Your Content

October 31, 2016

5 Quick Wins for Content Marketers

October 24, 2016

Announcing: An Intriguing New Tool for Collaborative Content

October 17, 2016

A New Book to Make Content Marketing Easier

October 10, 2016

Behind the Scenes at Copyblogger: Our New Email Approach

October 3, 2016

The ‘Obligatory’ Structure of Effective Content

September 26, 2016

7 Powerful Content Strategies Borrowed from Advertising Masters

September 15, 2016

How to Handle Demographic and Psychographic Segmentation (without Looking Like an Idiot)

September 8, 2016

Ethics, Professionalism, and Good Manners for Content Marketers

September 1, 2016

3 Questions that Can Haunt Creative Professionals

August 25, 2016

How to Give and Get Exceptional Testimonials, Part Two

August 18, 2016

How to Give and Get Exceptional Testimonials, Part One

August 11, 2016

Are You Leaving Money on the Table with Weak Headlines?

August 4, 2016

Content Marketing for Nonprofits

July 28, 2016

The One-Two Punch that Creates the Most Successful Copywriters

July 21, 2016

Pokémon Go: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

July 14, 2016

5 Suggestions When You’re Writing About Controversy

July 7, 2016

Announcing: A Breakthrough Educational Collaboration between Copyblogger and U.C. Davis

June 30, 2016

How to Break Past the #1 Conversion Killer

June 23, 2016

The New Age of Marketing Automation: Powerful, Simple, Cost-Effective

June 16, 2016

How to Make a (Really Good) Living as a Freelance Writer

June 9, 2016

Self-Publishing, Side Hustles, and Doing It All: A Conversation with Linda Formichelli

June 2, 2016

A Process for Content Marketing Success

May 26, 2016

Content Marketing Best Practices: Getting Email Opt-Ins

May 19, 2016

Behind the Scenes: Adventures in Advertising

May 12, 2016

Trump, Apple, and Facebook Advertising: Content Marketing News for May, 2016

May 5, 2016

Sally Hogshead and the Art of Fascination

April 28, 2016

Behind the Scenes at the Rainmaker Digital Company Meeting!

April 14, 2016

Social Media News, Social Media Constants

April 7, 2016

Strategies for B2B Podcasting, with Clark Buckner

March 31, 2016

Content Marketing Success Stories: Fitness Powerhouse Examine.com

March 24, 2016

Behind the Scenes: An Inside Look at the Rainmaker FM Redesign

March 17, 2016

Our Latest Advice and Resources for Digital Business Owners

March 10, 2016

Should Content Publishers Adopt Google’s New AMP?

March 3, 2016

7 Ways to Get Smarter with Social Media Listening

February 25, 2016

Content Marketing Shout-Out: Orbit Media and Andy Crestodina

February 18, 2016

The Tactic You Should Steal from Copyblogger

February 11, 2016

Content Marketing News for February, 2016

February 4, 2016

Email Marketing: The Misunderstood Powerhouse

January 28, 2016

The Secret Weapon Behind Great Websites: The Role of the Content Editor

January 21, 2016

Behind the Scenes: The Relaunch and Re-Imagining of Copyblogger.com

January 14, 2016

Trends and Predictions for Digital Commerce: A Conversation with Brian Clark

January 7, 2016

2016 Content Marketing Resolutions

December 28, 2015

The End of The Lede, The Beginning of Copyblogger FM

November 10, 2015

Constraints Can Be Blessings (Plus 2 Other Essential Lessons Jerod Re-Learned This Week)

November 3, 2015

Long or Short? The Content Length Question Answered, Once and For All

October 27, 2015

The Simple Publishing Hack That Gives Old Content New Life (Plus 3 More Tips)

October 20, 2015

The Surprising Truth about Earning a Profit from Your Content

October 13, 2015

How to Move Your Audience From Infatuation to Love

October 6, 2015

3 Things Your Audience Wants You to Know about Useful Content

September 29, 2015

Revisiting Authenticity: What It Is, What It’s Not, and Why It Matters

September 22, 2015

Publishing Lessons from Dave Pell, the Most Fascinating Email Newsletter Writer in the Business

September 15, 2015

Why Content Creators Should Kiss Their Programmers

September 8, 2015

Finally — A Podcast about the Superiority of Written Content

September 1, 2015

Hot Seat: Grilling Jerod on Using Audio Content to Seed a Content Arsenal

August 25, 2015

How to Optimize Your Headlines for Content Discovery with Vinegar (Before You Die of Cholera)

August 18, 2015

5 Stories That Explain Jerod Morris (Plus One Massive Marketing Lesson)

August 11, 2015

Lede Potpourri: A Big Idea, Talking About Demian Behind His Back, and Lessons from #PM15

August 4, 2015

How to Attend an Industry Conference Like a Boss

July 28, 2015

Getting the Most Out of a Conference When You’re There to Promote, Part 1

July 21, 2015

How Much Does the Modern Content Marketer Need to Know About SEO?

July 14, 2015

Are Podcasters Digitally Sharecropping Without Realizing It?

July 7, 2015

Celebrating Our 101st Episode (with a Special Guest Interviewer)

June 30, 2015

Why The Phrase ‘Leaders Are Readers’ Should Die

June 23, 2015

Why You Should Think Outside the Box About Online Courses

June 16, 2015

The Proper (and Safe) Way to Republish Old Articles

June 9, 2015

How to Grow an Audience on LinkedIn by Repurposing Content

June 2, 2015

Key Takeaways from Three-and-a-Half Hours with Henry Rollins

May 27, 2015

Rapid-Fire Takeaways from Authority Rainmaker

May 19, 2015

The Proper Way to Grow an Audience on Medium

May 12, 2015

The Introvert’s Guide to Launching a Successful Podcast

May 5, 2015

The One Quality All Popular Podcasts Share

April 28, 2015

Proof That Grit Is the Only Way to Reach Your Potential

April 21, 2015

Do We Celebrate Failure Too Much?

April 14, 2015

Choose Yourself Part 2: James Altucher Fights Back

April 7, 2015

Should We Fear Content Shock? (Or Could It Actually Be a Good Thing?)

March 31, 2015

Should You Really ‘Walk in the Direction of Your Fear’?

March 24, 2015

Is ‘Choose Yourself’ Good Advice … or New-Age Phooey?

March 17, 2015

Is Authority Earned or Bestowed?

March 3, 2015

Dan Pink on How to Succeed in the New Era of Selling

February 24, 2015

Here’s How to Answer the Most Important Question in Life (and Make a Living from It)

February 17, 2015

Sally Hogshead on How You Can Unlock Your Natural Ability to Fascinate

February 10, 2015

How to Learn from Your Successes

January 27, 2015

How to Learn From Your Mistakes

January 13, 2015

Lessons Learned from Conducting Two Monster Audience Surveys

December 16, 2014

Adaptive Content: A Trend to Pay Attention to in 2015

December 2, 2014

The Most Important Lessons You Should Have Learned in 2014

November 18, 2014

How We Built Our Careers Online (And What You Can Learn From It)

November 4, 2014

Interview with Brian Clark: How Customer Experience Maps Help You Develop a Smarter Content Strategy

October 21, 2014

How Empathy Maps Help You Speak Directly to the Hearts of Your Audience

October 7, 2014

How to Ignite a Feeling in Your Audience

September 23, 2014

Are You Overlooking This Cornerstone of a Smart Content Strategy?

June 26, 2014

How to Curate Knowledge, Turn it Into Wisdom, and Build Your Audience

June 19, 2014

How Successful Writers Curate Ideas

June 13, 2014

The 5 W’s of Link Curation

June 6, 2014

Why You Should Curate Content (And How to Do It Right)

May 30, 2014

How Freaks and Misfits Can Succeed in Business: A Conversation with Chris Brogan

May 23, 2014

The 2 Reasons People Don’t Click on Your Buttons … And How to Overcome Them

May 16, 2014

Chase Customers, Not Clicks

May 9, 2014

How to Be Authentic

May 2, 2014

How to Close With Style

April 25, 2014

The Best of Seth Godin on Copyblogger

April 17, 2014

How to Choose Arresting Images for Your Blog Posts (And Why You Should)

April 11, 2014

Removing Blog Comments: The View So Far

April 4, 2014

How to Use Internal Cliffhangers

March 28, 2014

Hangout Hot Seat with Brian Clark

March 21, 2014

How to Tell a Seductive Story

March 14, 2014

How to Create Exquisite Subheads

March 7, 2014

How to Write Killer Bullet Points

February 28, 2014

How to Write Damn Good Sentences

February 21, 2014

How to Use Persuasive Words

February 14, 2014

Michael Stelzner on Capturing Emails and Committing to Quality

February 7, 2014

How to Nail Your Opening

January 24, 2014

How to Write a Magnetic Headline (in Under 15 Minutes)

May 18, 2012

Seth Godin on When You Should Start Marketing Your Product, Service, or Idea

May 11, 2012

How to Attract an Audience by Integrating Content, Social, and Search

March 30, 2012

Why You Should Build an Audience Before You Build a Business

March 16, 2012

How Chris Brogan Built His Content Platform

March 9, 2012

Jay Baer on How to Turn Interested Prospects into Lifelong Customers

March 2, 2012

A 30-Minute Copywriting Course from a Master of the Craft

February 24, 2012

The Path to a Legendary Copywriting Career

February 17, 2012

5 Tips for Affiliate Marketing Beginners

February 10, 2012

Why Not Sell Physical Stuff With Digital Media?

February 3, 2012

Whether You Call it Blogging or Not, Online Content Still Rules

January 27, 2012

Answers to the 3 Biggest Email Marketing Questions We Get

January 20, 2012

How to Newsjack Your Way to Free Media Exposure with David Meerman Scott

January 13, 2012

Steven Pressfield and the War of Work

November 18, 2011

The Strategy Behind the Copyblogger Redesign

November 11, 2011

7 Ways to Create an Email Marketing "Snowball Effect"

November 4, 2011

Warning: If You're Not a Privacy Nut, You're Losing Sales

October 28, 2011

The 3 Kinds of Writing That Builds a Business

October 21, 2011

The Art of Seductive Writing: A Conversation with Robert Greene

October 7, 2011

Why Content Marketing Doesn't Suck

September 30, 2011

Are You Weird Enough to Succeed at Content Marketing?

September 23, 2011

What Works With SEO Right Now and Why No One Does What You Want

September 16, 2011

Are You Flushing Your Marketing Down the Social Media Toilet?

September 11, 2011

Seth Godin on Blogging, Business Books, and Creating Content that Matters

September 2, 2011

The Return of Copyblogger Radio …

June 10, 2011

Answered: Your Most Burning Content Marketing Questions

June 3, 2011

How to Get All the Clients and Customers You Can Handle

May 20, 2011

Is Content Marketing Worth the Work?

May 13, 2011

How to Write Nearly Undeletable Emails

May 6, 2011

Is the Online Gold Rush Over?

April 22, 2011

The Art of Enchanting Online Marketing with Guy Kawasaki

April 15, 2011

The Market for Something to Believe in is Infinite: An Interview with Hugh MacLeod

April 8, 2011

How to Constantly Create Compelling Content

March 25, 2011

The Content Marketing Question You Need to Answer … Now

March 18, 2011

Good SEO is Simple. Really.

March 4, 2011

Did Social Media Kill the Marketing Star?

February 25, 2011

How to Write (and Execute) a Simple but Powerful Business Plan

February 17, 2011

How to Kick Groupon to the Curb and Become a Local Hero

February 3, 2011

Convert … Or Die

January 27, 2011

Attention: Is Your Headline Getting Any?

January 20, 2011

How to Craft Landing Pages that Work

January 13, 2011

Why Every Smart Business is in the Media Business

January 5, 2011

2011 Content Marketing Predictions

December 15, 2010

Tim Ferriss on How to Reinvent Yourself with Blog Marketing

December 8, 2010

The 6 Elements of an Influential Web Experience

December 1, 2010

Your Staggeringly Unfair Marketing Advantage

November 17, 2010

How to Get Some Action

November 10, 2010

The Foundation of All Marketing that Works

November 3, 2010

Introducing Copyblogger Radio

February 10, 2012

Why Not Sell Physical Stuff With Digital Media?

We know that online marketing works when selling digital products.

When’s the last time you thought about selling physical products online?

Of course, the business of physical widgets is booming, even though Internet types tend to shy away from it. Online marketing doesn’t necessarily mean an exclusively online business.

Ben Settle jumped on the line with me this week to talk about his old school physical information product business.

Give it a listen to find how he gets it done, and how he gets his stuff into the hands of buyers …

In this episode, Ben Settle and I discuss:

  • Why physical information products work in the digital age
  • How to market and sell physical products online
  • The 3 myths of selling physical products online
  • The easy way to get information products printed and mailed
  • Why you should consider adding physical products to your lineup

Hit the flash player below to listen now:

Why Not Sell Physical Stuff With Digital Media?Robert Bruce
  • Social:
  • Link:
  • Embed:
https://copyblogger.com/cdn-origin/audio/imfsp39.mp3
Download Audio Subscribe

Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You ByWP Engine

Discover why more than 80,000 companies in 135 countries choose WP Engine for managed WordPress hosting.

Start getting more from your site today!

The Transcript

Please note that this transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and grammar.

________________

Robert: You are listening to Internet Marketing for Smart People Radio. I am Robert Bruce and today we’re going old school with our pal Ben Settle from bensettle.com. Ben how are you doing today man?

Ben: I am doing great and as usual, I appreciate you having me on.

Robert: Now before I grill you on this old school physical products business model that you’ve got going that’s powered by online marketing, by the way, I want to ask you a favor if you will. Could you please jump on your browser and head over to Copyblogger.com real quick.

Ben: Okay.

Robert: Tell me when you are there. I should have some music playing in the background.

Ben: I am there.

Robert: Okay, so now scroll down to about the middle of that page, until you hit the headline “grab our free 20-part internet marking course” and I just want to let people know briefly that this radio show is brought to you by the Internet Marketing for Smart People course. If you are looking at it on your browsers right now, that’s where you are you. What is this? In a nutshell, it’s 20 highly readable and useful emails covering everything from content marketing to email marketing, the basics of good copywriting to social media strategy, and much, much more.

It’s a systematic overview of the very best of Copyblogger.com and it’s dripped out to you about once a week, right to your inbox. So if you want to learn how to use the online marketing strategies and tactics that actually work, that Copyblogger has spent over six years using to build this multi-million dollar business, get on the bus with over 63,000 other folks. Just drop your email address into that little box there and click the red button and we’ll take care of the rest.

Why sell physical products in a digital age?

All right Ben, I asked you on the show today to talk about how you sell physical products online, because we know that online marketing can be much more than just digital products. This is one of those models that a lot of folks online either ignore or they just never think about doing.

We think it won’t work, we think it’s to difficult, or we think people today just won’t want a physical information product when they can easily download a PDF or an eBook, so I want to take a few minutes and ask you what you are doing and how you do it. Let me start by asking you generally, why sell physical products in this digital age?

Ben: Before I answer that, there are actually a lot of reasons for this, but I do want to say real quickly, that I am not an absolutist on this, I don’t think it’s never a good idea to sell digital, and we can talk about this later if you want. I sell digital products in other business formats, but physical products are something that people should at least consider if you are selling something somewhat high quality, high ticket, and something that you just want to have this air of quality about and there are some other reasons too.

To me, it’s something that people should at least consider in the business-to-business arena and one obvious reason for me to do it, and not everyone is going to get excited about this reason, but I find that doing this works for everything. It’s kind of like the old Earl Nightingale quote “just look around at what everyone else is doing and then do the opposite and you’ll succeed.” Everybody is digital right? By being the physical product person, you are going to stick out right off the bat in ways that other people aren’t.

It’s kind of like Christmas, when people get something in the mail; it’s a completely different experience then if they just download air. In fact, I am going to take this to a level that I don’t think most people realize, I didn’t even realize it until somewhat recently. When you get an email, and this is one reason people are so addicted to the internet, I think, is that you get this little drip of dopamine or something from your brain, it’s like a feel good chemical. So when you get that tweet or that email or that instant message, it’s kind of like a little jolt of excitement.

When it’s direct mail, physical, something that you get in your mailbox or delivered to your door step by the UPS guy, that effect is amplified I don’t know how many times, I don’t know if it’s 100 times or ten times, but it’s a lot. You are having a huge impact on that person, you are making the buying experience so much more interesting and so different, and it’s like an event. It’s not just “oh I am going to download some air right now and I’m going to see this eBook” it’s a completely different experience.

The example that I like to use and this is when this really dawned on me. A few years ago, a man named Gary Bencivenga who is considered the world’s top copywriter, I don’t know too many people who would argue with that, greatest living copywriter today. He put out a seminar where he revealed all of his tricks and all of his methodologies. He charged $5,000 for that seminar and now he is charging $5,000 for the DVD’s to that seminar.

Well a few years ago back in 2008, I bought that, and it’s high price tag thing, and I mean you would not have the same effect downloading that and paying $5,000. You’d almost feel kind of gypped. But it wasn’t just that, it was the whole experience. You are waiting for this really valuable thing to come and when it shows up, you place so much more value on it, you are far more likely to use it and consume it. You are far more likely to probably go through it and it’s not like something that just sits on your hard drive with a 1,000 other files that will probably get lost somewhere along the way. It’s like a big deal.

Now there are a lot more reasons than that, but those are some big ones. I think just the impact alone, where it’s like Christmas, it’s like receiving something really cool in the mail, and it just sets you apart from everybody else.

How Ben Settle incorporates physical products into his business

Robert: Thanks for making clear, we’re not making an argument that people should sell physical products alone, far from it. This is just an eye-opener for some folks who may not have constrained it at all or have some objections that I think Ben is going to address very specifically later on in the show to considering doing it. Thanks for clearing that up.

Before we get into how you are selling your stuff online, let’s just do a quick rundown of what you are actually selling so that folks can get an idea of what we are talking about here. All of us have seen kind of the rise of Etsy, that’s a great example recently for arts and crafts people being able to physically sell their arts and their crafts on the Esty website or through the Esty website, but you are still in, and talking about, the information business, right?

Ben: Yes. On my main site, my bensettle.com site, all I sell are physical products. Now I used to have a much bigger product line up then I do now, and I changed it for several reasons that are somewhat irrelevant to this conversation but my main product is a physical newsletter, that’s a very expensive newsletter, it’s almost a $100 a month. It’s physical, I mean I don’t have any online component to it, there is nothing to log in to, there are no passwords or anything like that. You just get this physical newsletter every month and I can tell you, if I were going to deliver that thing digitally, it would not have as nearly the impact that it does physically. It would probably not get read as readily, it would be easier to just put aside.

It’s a high-ticket thing and this is the thing, like I said, I don’t think physical products are always the best way to go. I am a partner in another business, a weight-loss business where all we sell is digital eBooks, low priced, inexpensive eBook, which is fine for what we’re doing. We don’t need physical products; everything is inexpensive and no big deal. Some people like to sell things on Kindle, so that’s obviously digital and there is a lot of wisdom to that actually for front-end products.

I think that when people are selling business-to-business especially or if you are a specialist in something and you really want to have that impact, I just think you should at least consider physical products and this is why I sell my newsletter that way. I have a copywriting product that’s a physical book with a CD; actually, it’s two books and a CD. Again, if I delivered that digitally, I don’t think it would have the impact, I don’t think that people would get as much value out of it. I don’t think they would place as much value on it.

Believe me, I am not the only one who is discovering this, I have friends who have been watching what I have been doing and they are starting to experiment with this and they are kind of catching on to this and seeing the same thing. People are sticking around longer if it’s continuity. We can talk about this later about this myth that physical get more refunds, I have not found that to be the case. Personally, I don’t offer refunds on things, but for people who do I think that they would find that they would get fewer refunds and that’s something to think about too.

The old-school secret to selling products online

Robert: Yes and we’re going to talk also very specifically about how you get this stuff done, getting your products produced and shipped. Before we go there, what is your basic marketing setup? This is going to be 101 for folks, you can look at CopyBlogger.com, dig into the archives there, go through our Internet Marketing for Smart People course to get the bigger overview of how we do things with online marketing.

What is your basic marketing setup: email, you do content marketing, and you do direct response through both of those mediums. How do you get these physical products, how do you raise awareness for your physical products online?

Ben: Well, this might disappoint people looking for the ninja tricks and all that, I am the first to admit that there is nothing complicated.

Robert: We are definitely talking general here.

Ben: Well good. My whole model is very 1990’s. It’s very retro, its like an oldies radio station compared to what most people are doing today. It’s really just opt-in sales letter, email follow up, sending them emails everyday. That’s my whole funnel, my whole front-end funnel; backend stuff is a little bit different.

For my newsletter, I have other products that I sell to newsletter subscribers and I use the physical newsletter to deliver my sales pitches for that. I use email for that. Now that’s not the only way to do it but my point is that it’s very simple. I am not the only one doing this, a few years ago I wrote the bullets for a Ken McCarthy System Seminars, his 2008 seminar. He had recorded and he hired me to write the bullet points for the sales letter, so I had to go through the course which is really cool and all the system seminar lectures and all that.

I remember that they did a beginners class, “here’s how to get started” and it was really great. It was Ken McCarthy and this guy, Lloyd Irving, I think his name is, who does like ten million dollars in the martial arts niche, and they are like “you know we really don’t do a whole lot of all this web 2.0 stuff.” I mean they do it, they still use all that stuff but at the end of the day it is opt-in, sales letter and follow-up. That’s it. Email and follow-up, that’s all I do and it’s been working out pretty good.

The 3 myths of selling physical products online

Robert: We’ve got to get you going with Premise for creating some of those landing pages that you are creating all over the place. I see them everywhere and they are fantastic but I think Premise would definitely help you out. Let’s get into a great post you wrote a while ago about the myths that people believe about selling physical products online. What are some of these myths?

Ben: There are a lot myths actually; I remember that post and the three that I talked about were that there was this myth that it’s a big hassle mailing and printing stuff. Another one was delayed gratification, people want things right away, and then other people thought you’d get more refunds with physical products and I’ll walk us through all three of these and why they are myths. At least I have not found these to be the case at all.

First is the hassle of mailing and printing thing. Nothing could be further from the truth. I don’t physically lick a stamp or anything. It’s all done by my print by fulfillment house. I don’t even think about it in fact I don’t have any tech support issues, I don’t get any emails from people saying “Oh I couldn’t download this PDF” which happens a lot, especially people using Chrome and that sort of thing, I noticed they have problems. I don’t get any of that, I don’t even think about it.

It’s actually for me, less hassle than digital. I don’t have to think about it.

It’s all done via auto-notification through my shopping cart where you can put another email address in there for order notification, that gets sent to the people who do my mailing and printing and there is a lady there by the name of Michele who’s like superwoman. She’s just awesome; she’s on everything like white on rice, no matter what comes up. So if there is a problem I simply email her and she just takes care of it.

By the way, I want to plug this place because I think they do such a great job, I don’t get any kickback, I don’t get any affiliates stuff for recommending them I just know that they will take care of you. It’s SelbyMarketing.com and just ask for Rich Selby and he’ll take care of you. So I don’t even think about it. It is completely hands-off. The only difference is that if there is a pain in the butt it’s that you have to have inventory printed up so you have to pay for that up front, but if you are making sales, it pays for itself anyways.

Again, this is why I don’t really recommend it for cheap, inexpensive front-end necessary, physical products, but if you are selling something that’s quality, something that’s kind of specialty information, I really think that you should consider it.

The other myth was the delayed gratification thing. People want everything now. There is some truth to that, I am not arguing with that. There are some people who want everything now, they want it fast, they want it free, and they want it yesterday. But I have found those to be like the biggest pain-in-ass customers that I have ever dealt with. If I am losing sales because of that, good, I am finding and this may not be the case for everybody, this is just what I experience, and the experience of some other people that I know of.

People who buy physical products are just a higher quality customer. I am not saying that digital customers aren’t high quality, I am just saying that as far as overall, and I am generalizing here. The customer base that you will get selling physical products, these are people who are more thinkers, they don’t need as much hand holding, they are excited to get the product that … they are sitting there waiting in eager anticipation for the mailman to show up and they are ready to rip into that product and use it.

What is the point of being in business if people don’t actually use your product? I don’t want people just downloading things and never using it. So I think that it’s kind of a myth, this whole delayed gratification that people have to have everything right away. There are times though when that is good and I am generalizing here, I am not saying never to do digital, I am just saying in cases like mine, I far more prefer the physical side of things.

Finally, this idea that you will get more refunds, I don’t know who started this thing. I don’t know who is spreading this around but if you think about it, they have a point when they say well people will download your digital product and then it’ll sit on their hard drive and they’ll forget about it until after the guarantee period. It’s almost like they are trying to get away with something. I just don’t look at business that way. I want them to use the product, and consume it.

One of your guys at Copyblogger, one of your writers that I see, Sean D’Souza I know he would agree with me on this at least, that you want people to consume your product. He teaches this and it’s just awesome information. You don’t want people letting it sit on your hard drive and never using it and oh, I got away with that one, they waited too long to ask for a guarantee. I just don’t see it that way.

Let’s take it beyond that, what’s easier to refund, a digital product, or a physical one? A physical one you gotta go pack it up, run it down to the post office, pay for the postage, it’s just a pain. Most people don’t even like going there to send their own stuff for other things much less a refund. I am not saying that there aren’t people out there who don’t make entire businesses out of refunding products, they do.

The biggest hurdle to selling physical products online

Robert: Okay, you are making a great case, in my opinion, for people to look into this and add physical products to their product list and what they are selling online. My final question for you is how do you get this done? How do you get your products printed, distributed, and mailed? What are some of the hurdles to selling physical products on line?

Ben: The biggest hurdle and really, the only hurdle that I can think of is finding a good printer. This can be a problem. I went through three; the third was the charm, luckily. The first one that I went through was back in early 2009 and it was a company that all the gurus out there were recommending, “now you gotta go with these people, they’ll take care of you.” So I went along with the game and I regretted it because they didn’t even print the products on site, they outsourced it to a local company. That’s not that big of a deal but it just opens up a door to more problems, the more people that are involved.

I would have orders that would just not get shipped and the customer service person would be like “Oh I am sorry about that.” Well sorry kind of doesn’t cut it when someone just spent $130 on my product, it’s a month later, and they are emailing me asking where it is. I think that is unacceptable. It happens once in a while, that’s okay, and that’s going to happen. It hasn’t happened with my current printer in two years, but it could happen.

It was happening way too often; so I went to a friend I had out there in the internet marketing world and I asked “who do you guys use?” because he was the CFO of a really, really big info publishing company. He told me who they were using, which happened to be the same company who did the printing that was outsourced from the original company that I was using. I talked to that guy, he was a great salesman, and he sold me on why they were the best and I should go with them. They were even worse!

They would get my shopping cart notifications and then they would email me back saying, “You know for some reason our email reader can’t read these notifications.” These are plain text emails, I don’t know. That was a whole other thing and I would ask them to please send me the tracking numbers and sometimes they would remember to and sometimes they wouldn’t.

Finally I went to Selby, who I should have gone to in the first place and I remember it like is was yesterday, it was late 2009 and I am like “look man I just want a printer where I don’t have to think about this stuff. Can you print things up, can you mail it out? Can you just send me or the customer preferably both a tracking number?” And I remember him saying “Ben you are not challenging me here!” Finally, the most basic thing … and they will do a lot more than that but it was refreshing and I have not had a problem with them ever.

The easy way to get information products printed and mailed

Robert: Let’s take a look at your email player’s monthly newsletter. Tell me how you get that done.

Ben: Okay well this is pretty simple. When somebody buys, they get into a recurring order, it’s in the shopping cart, and it’s all automatic. You set up a recurring ordering product and every month you can go on and download all the people who are on that recurring order list into an excel sheet. I just send that list along with the PDF to the printer. Actually, I send the PDF a month in advance, I have my newsletters usually written a couple months in advance, I don’t like being under the gun too much.

Robert: And it helps because it is evergreen content right? This is not new/used, time-based stuff.

Ben: And if it is, I’ll add it in at the last minute or something but 90% of these things are written in advance. I’ll send it in a month early, in fact just yesterday I sent in the PDF for the March newsletter because I want them to send me a proof of it first. They send me a proof, I’ll get that next week, and I can make sure that it looks okay and that’s it.

On the first of March, I’ll send that list in and I’ll say please send the “email players newsletter” to this list and they just do it. You can make special requests, you can say: well I want foreign orders, non US orders, I want those to have tracking numbers, which by the way, here is a big tip, if you are in the United States, and it doesn’t matter what printer you are using, and you are sending physical products overseas, it’s very important to have tracking numbers because the United States Postal Service has dropped the ball way too many times for my taste.

It used to be that I would get three or four people a month that say “the newsletter never showed up, or this product never showed up.” But when I have tracking attached to it, it shows up all of a sudden. That’s kind of a side tip. But that’s pretty much all there is to it. It’s all done via the shopping cart, notifies them of new sales. When somebody subscribes to my newsletter they get a book, that’s the premium I give away is a free book, so that is automatically printed and sent to them, I don’t even think about it and then they just kind of bill me for that every week or so, I’ll get a bill from the printer.

If you are doing inexpensive products with razor thin margins, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend physical products, unless you have your numbers really figured out but if you are selling something high ticket, it’s more than worth it. I’ve been saying that it’s good to do physical, in my opinion, if you sell specialty high ticket type products, but I am going to show you the other side of the thing, I am not saying it’s impossible to sell high ticket things digitally either.

There is a marketer named Jim Straw and he’s been in business forever. He owned banks and export companies and those kinds of things when most of us weren’t even born and now he focuses online and he sells, I don’t think it’s more than 150 page eBook that’s like $1,000. There is no refund guarantee on it or anything. So I am not saying it’s impossible. I would love to have a business like that where I can sell a few thousand-dollar eBooks every month and not have to think about anything. He is kind of the exception to the rule, I don’t know anyone else doing that, but it is possible.

Robert: Alright Ben, where can people find more of you? Do you have a home phone number that everybody can call or I hear you take calls up until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning?

Ben: Well the best number to call would be my URL which isBenSettle.com and when people go there, if you opt-in, I’ll send you free issues of my newsletter via PDF, not physical, but PDF, and there are a lot tips in there that people have used to just make money with whether you buy anything or not.

Robert: Well thanks for listening everybody. I hope this show got you thinking about the possibilities that selling physical products online might hold for you. If you like what we’re doing here, the best way to say thank you is to head over to iTunes and give us a rating and a comment, Mr. Settle, thank you for coming by and reminding us about the “physical” world.

Ben: Absolutely. I hope more people at least think about and experiment with it.

Other listening options:

  • Click here to download the mp3 | 30.9 MB | 25:45
  • Click here to subscribe via iTunes
  • Click here for the RSS feed (non iTunes)
  • Click here for the show archive

The Show Notes:

  • Internet Marketing for Smart People Course (free)
  • How to Push “Send” and Grow Your Business
  • Content Marketing 101
  • The “No Headache” Guide to Selling Physical Products Online
  • We left the building with Girl Talk …

About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media’s Chief Copywriter and Resident Recluse.

Never Miss New Shows and Episodes on Rainmaker.FM

Get the best of the Rainmaker.FM network in a single weekly email, along with two weeks
of free training that will change the way you think about online marketing ...

Free Registration

You might also like...

Youpreneur with Chris Ducker

Why Every Entrepreneur Should Become an Author, with Jim Kukral

Listen to episode
The Mainframe

Instant Digital Product Ideas

Listen to episode
Hit Publish

How to Use Humor in Content (Without Looking Like a Clown)

Listen to episode
The Writer Files: Writing, Productivity, Creativity, and Neuroscience

How New York Times Bestselling Author Daniel Pink Writes

Listen to episode
Rough Draft

082 Could Podcasting Make You a Better Writer?

Listen to episode
The Digital Entrepreneur

Michael Hyatt on Building a Media Platform and Becoming a 10-Year Overnight Success

Listen to episode

Comments

  1. Larry Bowditch says

    February 10, 2012 at 11:57 AM

    What a fantastic example of excellence in copywriting… at least for me, trying to comprehend how to write effectively. This article is brief, on point, and draws me to take action.

    I will read and listen to the business model recording, but just had to acknowledge your work, right now. Thank you.

    Reply
  2. Linda says

    February 10, 2012 at 12:52 PM

    I really enjoyed this! I’ve spent over a decade working with clients that sell tangible items and I have to say I agree with Ben — it’s a totally different game than selling downloads. When you’re expecting a customer to pay up front and wait for a product to arrive by mail, there’s a totally different level of trust and credibility involved than selling instant gratification. Also- I’d agree with everything he said about refunds. I’ve found them to be lower with tangibles, too. Now I’m off to check out Ben’s site! Thanks for a great interview and for the many great people and sites I find here!

    Reply
  3. Hector Cuevas says

    February 10, 2012 at 2:49 PM

    Ben, I tried getting started with physical products a few years back, but it didn’t go so well.. Nothing to do with the fulfillment company, just the fact that I sucked at marketing and sales. Now that I’m doing the blogging, email optin and follow up thing, I can probably do this.

    Kunaki is a great Option for those who want to sell DVDs and CDs without having to buy inventory. Thanks for this great podcast..

    Reply
  4. Anshul says

    February 10, 2012 at 3:59 PM

    Selling physical products definitely give me more joy than selling digital products. Building a great product line and dealing with real customers are all part of what I enjoy about selling physical products.

    Reply
  5. Ben Greenfield says

    February 10, 2012 at 6:14 PM

    Ben…I hope this isn’t too forward of a question, but how much does your fulfillment company bill you on a monthly basis to stock your product? That’s kind of an issue for me right now…

    Reply
  6. Marcie says

    February 11, 2012 at 10:52 AM

    I’m in the process of working on this. Wish me well…I have no idea, but I”m learning.

    Reply
  7. Andreas Pazer says

    February 12, 2012 at 9:04 AM

    Selling tangible goods online is a great way to start making money because it is a simple real world concept. Goods in exchange for money. Couldn’t be any simpler than that. This is why so many people have turned to amazon and eBay and other merchants to start their business. It gains almost instant income. This could also be risky, because what if you are like some people and you have a high inventory of tangible goods but people aren’t buying your products? That’s not a good place to be. You can also use a drop ship company, but that also costs you money. So what am I trying to say here you may be wondering, it is simple really- selling tangible goods is like opening a brick and mortar business.

    Reply
  8. Debbs Hosting says

    February 26, 2012 at 6:24 AM

    It has become a trend, isn’t it? I’ve always come across instances like this and I see that it always depend on the marketing strategy–how to get the attention of people, how to try to convince these people, etc. I think this topic will always be an open debate.

    Reply
  9. Lee says

    March 24, 2012 at 6:02 PM

    c’mon guys you can’t be serious. i’m from the uk, not from the us, and i can tell you this guy does only one thing, and not even good – he’s trying to justify his own beliefs and preferences and is assuming many people (based on few of his friends as the “sample” of people) like physical products? that guy is like what – 40 years old? go ask 18 years old how they consume media, or news letters. i’m 32 and can’t remember the last time i had printed paper in my hand (ok, it was today – local paper metro in london, uk). printed stuff is for single people who have shit load of time on them or for cave men like your mr. T. most people consume media online – there’s reason for that.

    if i paid for newsletter 140 usd, like the guy is saying, i’d consider myself the dumbest person in the class.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Rainmaker.FM is Brought to You ByWP Engine

Discover why more than 80,000 companies in 135 countries choose WP Engine for managed WordPress hosting.

Start getting more from your site today!

Copyright © 2023 Rainmaker Digital, LLC. Powered by the Rainmaker Platform.

Privacy Policy  ·  Refund Policy  ·  Cookie Policy  ·  Terms of Service  ·  Contact