The term “TURN-KEY SYSTEM” is becoming more and more visible on the internet as a greater number of marketers attempt to jump on the profit bandwagon of this increasingly popular way to start a home business. This type of system is growing in popularity due to the claim that the potential business owner can “step” into the system and start making money immediately much in the same manner that a new home owner purchasing a “turn-key” house can expect to be able to move right in without changing, fixing, or adding anything.
If this is the way you want to go to start a business on the internet, it can be a viable source of income, but you had better make sure you understand what is meant by “turn-key”, and just what it actually takes to run a successful “turn-key” business. Some of them are more turn-key than others. None of them are so “turn-key” that you simply step into the system and it starts making money for you. All of them require some effort on your part in the area of advertising, and some of them require a lot more than that.
All “turn-key” systems have some level of automation. How much automation they have determines how “turn-key” they actually are. Being more “turn-key” does not equal being a better system, but then neither does being less “turn-key”. An optimal system will have just the right balance of a number of factors. You want the system to be minimal effort, but not so free of the human component that the depersonalization level reduces trust, thus requiring a much higher quotient of traffic to achieve your desired sales. You want the system to require minimal skill, but not to the point where no customization is possible at all on your part. You want to be able to set yourself apart in some manner from all those using the same system and the same type of support components.
All “Turn-key” Marketing Systems have the following components in common:
A Replicated Website. The company provides you with a website/s exactly like the one/s you viewed in the advertising of the system.
Upside: You do not have to create a website to start marketing.
Downside: Everyone else who is using the system has the same website so you are competing with other members of the system.
They all have a product or products they sell. As a marketer using their system you are now selling that product or products.
Upside: The product may be of real substance and quality, and may also be of a nature that it provides support for the marketing system.
Downside: The product may be of poor quality, such as common “e” material that can be found all over the internet for free. Low quality products, when found in these systems, are simply there to keep the system legal, and are really just a way to “legalize” a money scheme. The mark of a quality company offering one of these systems is one that has stand alone products. Meaning products that would be appealing and sellable even without the income opportunity.
They all provide an “income opportunity”. They all provide some type of compensation for the sales that you make through your website. The compensation plans vary in their structure and the level of income represented. They all correspond to the cost of the product/products. Some of them require you to pass up sales while others may not.
Upside: Large income compensation plans can provide an excellent income. Lower income compensation plans go hand in hand with a lower priced product, which may be easier to sell. Plans that require you to pass up sales allow you to receive passed up sales in turn as you develop a downline of marketers coming into the system behind you. Systems that do not require you to pass up sales mean immediate income to you as you make sales.
Downside: Large income compensation plans result from higher priced products, which may be more difficult to sell. Lower income compensation plans can take a long time to develop a lucrative residual income from the marketers coming into your line behind you. Systems that require you to pass up sales mean that you have to wait until you make one or more sales before you are “qualified” to receive compensation. The first sales can be the hardest to get, so this can be discouraging when trying to get started. Systems that do not require you to pass up sales may not have large enough commissions to compensate for the fact that you will not receive 100% commissions from any of your downline of marketers coming in behind you.
All of these systems use “auto responders”. Autoresponders are systems that allow you to send out e-mails to anyone who enters information into a webform on a website where you are advertising. Typically the autoresponder system will be set up so that e-mails are sent out periodically to the recipient prompting them in some form to reconsider purchasing your product and joining your system.
Upside: Some Turn-key systems provide an auto responder with the system. If this is the case you will not have to acquire your own system. You will also not have to attempt to write your own auto-responder e-mails.
Downside: Most systems do not provide an auto-responder. If they do not provide one, you must acquire one yourself and you must write the e-mails for them. If writing ad copy or compliments to ad copy is not a skill you have then you must get someone else to write them for you.
All of these systems use “Splash Pages”. Splash pages are websites separate from your primary replicated site that you use to draw people with catchy magnetic ad copy (written advertising material). These sites will have a webform on them that people fill out with their personal contact information. When they submit the information they will typically be directed to your main site. Sometimes in more complicated systems they are directed to other pages that eventually lead to your main site. The information they leave in the webform will then be used to contact them directly by phone and/or by e-mail with your responder depending on how automated your system is.
Upside: Splash pages can be a very affective way to capture leads (prospects that you will follow up with in an attempt to make a sale). They can also have a “warming” effect on your prospects by leading them in a magnetic way step by step toward wanting your product and income opportunity.
Downside: You may have to acquire other web pages if they do not include splash pages in the system, and you have to fill them with attractive ad copy. If you do not know how to create even simple web pages, or writing ad copy is not a skill you have, you will need to get someone else to do this for you.
All of these systems require that you engage in some kind of advertising. If you do not advertise, all the other aspects of the system will be useless. There are many ways to advertise both online and off line. Some of them require little skill, while others require a lot of seasoned skill. There is no escaping this aspect. There are almost no systems that advertise for you. The very few that offer this primarily use a kind of rotation advertising, where they procure a good advertising position in a particular medium and rotate the URLs of members websites through this position. It is very costly and the amount of advertising time afforded is small per dollar spent.
Learning the ins and outs and skills of advertising is the most challenging and costly aspect of running one of these businesses. This is where success or failure occurs for most.
Upside: If you are already knowledgeable and skilled in the advertising arena, one of these systems could be a quick way to a satisfying income for you. If you are a newcomer to internet advertising, some of these systems provide some training in this area, and a very precious few provide extensive training. Very rarely, extensive training, ongoing support, and extensive sharing among members is practiced. Also rarely, some systems may also provide “turn-key” advertising systems, where particular types of advertising are provided ready-made for adoption into an advertising campaign. If the system requires contact with the prospects to close sales this can provide an opportunity to develop trust and to exercise interactive skills in building your income.
Downside: If you require a big learning curve to become skillful at internet advertising, and your system does not provide extensive training and support, or you cannot afford to pay someone else to develop advertising and advertise for you, you may fail in your attempts to profit with one of these systems. Some systems claim to provide training, but what they provide is really not adequate and does not include ongoing support. If the system requires contact with prospects to close sales, and you do not have interactive skills or salesmanship skills, you may never profit with one of these systems.
Ultimately, only you can do the appropriate research and due diligence in determining if one of these systems is a viable business opportunity for you, but I would recommend in general that the system have the following qualities:
A website that is attractive and appealing to you. If you are not impressed with the website, if you are not sold, how likely is it that anyone else will be?
At some point in following through the website/s you should encounter either through the site itself or a human contact an introduction to a quality product. Sometimes the income opportunity is promoted first, sometimes the product. Neither approach is better or worse, but at some point you absolutely should be introduced to a product presentation and it should present a quality product that you could see purchasing with or without the income opportunity.
It should include a ready-made splash page or pages for your use with the option of creating your own if you so desire, so that your level of skill and ability is accommodated, present and future.
It should include an auto responder for your use with e-mails preloaded, with the option of using your own auto responder if you so desire, so that your level of skill and ability is accommodated, present and future.
It should provide extensive training in advertising. It should provide ongoing training in advertising and all other aspects of the business. Optimally there should be sharing among members as to what works in advertising and other aspects of the business.
It should have a human component, so that the system is not too depersonalized. This builds trust, in the prospective customer or future member. Ideally this human component should consist of seasoned skilled marketers who function as part of the system in closing the sales, with the option of closing your own sales if you so desire, so that your level of skill and ability is accommodated, present and future.
A good quality system should never require you to “cold call” anyone, or to go after a “warm market” (family and friends).
It should have some component integrated into the system that allows you to offset the cost of advertising. And, in advertising training it should include how to utilize free advertising .
Ideally, a quality system should have a very high quality product/s. The cost, commensurate with the worth of the product, should be high enough that a high commission can be earned per sale. There should be no requirement to pass up sales, with a commission structure high enough and skillfully designed, such that not accruing the total sale is irrelevant and residual income is substantial and minimizes your required effort over time. However, the product worth and cost of the product should not be so high that only the affluent can afford to enter the system, as that would greatly narrow your marketing arena.
In my opinion the worst “turn-key” systems out there are those with a low to very low quality product and a low cost to purchase . They have nothing with which to establish longevity. The only thing worse, in my opinion, is a system with a VERY high cost product, that requires you to pass up sales. Spending a huge amount of money (as in over $10,000) to purchase the product and enter the system, only to find yourself in a position where you now have to sell at that cost to one or two others before you make a penny of profit strikes me as just plain unethical. High cost is not bad if the product is worth the price and if you do NOT have to pass up sales.
In short it should be a system that creates the “perfect storm” of components with just the right amount of automation combined with just the right amount of human personalization joined with exceptional training and methods to offset operating cost, so that virtually anyone can come into the system and succeed.
Understanding The Turn Key Marketing System Concept And Avoiding Its Pitfalls
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