Bellydance Class Gets High-Tech Update

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

Welcome to a brand new month. It is February 2020, episode 1127. We've got a strong story to kick off this month. We're going to talk about virtual belly dancing classes. That's right.

Not only that, I'll also tell you something I was wrong about. I always like to be transparent and say, here's where I thought I got it right. But actually, I was wrong. And what I was wrong about was bundles. In this case, I'm referring to a compilation of different products that are kind of brought together and sold in a discount flash sale over the course of a few days. And

speaking of flash sale, I kind of thought this was a flash in the pan business model. I actually had a whole chapter about one of them ran by two friends of mine in the $100 startup, which was published nine years ago. And at the time, I thought, well, this is really cool what these guys are doing. But surely it can't last. So lesson learned, urgency and scarcity are extremely powerful forces in getting people to make a purchase. If you don't know what I mean by bundles,

if you haven't heard of this before, I'll explain more as we go. This is definitely an important one to pay attention to and consider how you might apply something from it to your own idea, even if you don't want to sell online classes or aren't into belly dancing. Which on that point, why wouldn't you be belly dancing is for everyone. So let's shake those bellies and also thank our sponsor. Belly dance classes can be a fun way to stay active, learn a cool new skill and be part of a community. But if you don't live in an area with any studios that teach this ancient practice,

you're out of luck. Or at least you were before Tiffany hunter created the belly dance bundle in 2017. Tiffany was working as a virtual assistant for a bundle of online courses that teach people how to build a location free lifestyle when she had the idea to create a similar product just for belly dance. As a dancer, she knew the community well and thought that a different way to learn could help students and teachers alike. Online courses were growing in popularity, but her beloved art of belly dance was sadly behind the curve. And she thought she could change that.

With permission of her bosses, Tiffany borrowed from their format to create the belly dance bundle. In this package, Tiffany takes online classes from a variety of teachers and sells them as one compilation at an incredibly discounted price for a short period of time. Once a year, aspiring dancers have the opportunity to buy the package. It's on sale for seven days only because these same classes are already available online at a higher cost. The bundle is an incentive for dancers to get the classes at a discount and a way for the teachers to get exposure to more of the community. To kick things off, Tiffany spent $150 on a website. Specifically, she bought some stock

photos because she wanted the site to look nice. Unlike most other dance class focused sites at the time. She also spent $15 a month for Sendowl, a site that helps you sell digital goods online. Because the bundle sale happens once a year, it also means that much of the work takes place in the three to four months leading up to that sale. Tiffany spends about half the time working on administrative details, 25% on managing bundle contributors, and the final 25% on marketing initiatives. Before she launched, she worked on building up her affiliate program. These are the

folks whose classes she features in her bundle. She started reaching out to her network to see who might be interested, word started spreading, and soon she had 17 people excited about being included in that first bundle. She incentivized participation by promoting the teachers on social media, then offering them giveaways they could use for their own audiences. In return for the freebies, she asked the affiliates to direct their audience to sign up for her email list, so they can find out when the next bundle goes live. This strategy allowed Tiffany to grow her mailing list from zero to more than 1700 people during the first year. That word of mouth promotion also allowed

her first launch to be wildly successful with no paid advertising. Tiffany had hoped to sell 100 bundles, and she didn't. That's sad. I thought she did well. Oh, I see. Instead of selling 100,

she sold 305. She was glued to her computer all week, refreshing constantly to see how many new sales were coming in. And since each affiliate is paid after the bundles sell, she didn't have to worry about those payouts until sales were completed. Now, because working with affiliates is a key component of marketing, she puts in extra effort to do it really well. She has created a comprehensive affiliate guide for each year's bundle that clearly lays out resources and branding.

The more help she can provide her affiliates, the better off they're going to be in their marketing efforts. And if they do excel in those efforts, then of course, it's good for her too. Now, there are some challenges with building a business based on a once a year sale. Most important, there's a lot of work to do throughout the rest of the year to keep the audience engaged. So to help, she shares monthly newsletters, posts on social media, and runs special challenges at random times of the year. She also makes sure to continue the conversation with anyone who

purchases a bundle, making herself available to answer questions and offer support. As a result of her consistent communication, people are more likely to actually use the classes they purchased, which then encourages them to share their successes with friends. 2019 was Tiffany's third year selling the belly dance bundle, and she brought in enough profit to fully cover her full time salary. She keeps the cost of running the sale as low as possible, maintaining her affiliate strategy to promote the product and grow her audience. Now that she's built a recognizable brand, Tiffany is ready to branch out. She's working on other products that can be sold year round, including

a journal to help dancers keep track of what they're learning and a second bundle focused on a different part of the bountiful belly dance world. Well, never underestimate the power of a limited time offer, especially when marketing to an audience that isn't used to it, which I think is also key here, because belly dance fanatics just haven't been pitched a lot. So I imagine that they have or at least had less skepticism than another group might. They also have stronger core muscles, but that's not directly related. So with the bundle deal, you get this big discount, you have the chance to get more than you otherwise would, and a ticking clock that's counting down to the close of the offer. And that urgency can inspire a lot of sales. Okay, as I said, I thought bundles

were a flash in the pan. But I will concede now that they remain an effective force. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. To find the show notes for today's episode, as well as the beta version of a new belly dance course, I'm working on myself. Just check it out. Let me

know what you think first month's free. Go to solid school.com/1127. That is episode 1127. Thanks so much tomorrow. We've got a question about the pay what you will model. I'm going to give you

what may be a controversial opinion. So be sure you're subscribed to come back tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. From the Onward Project.