How DC Income Makes Money

This is going to be a weird case study, but I want to include it because there are some very inspiring lessons in here.

Okay, so there’s this dude called Dr Loop.  He’s a chiro, but most of his money comes from teaching other chiros how to market their business online (through social media, SEO, email marketing etc) and also teaching online entreprenuers how to make money online.

Now Dr Loop is an interesting character.  He doesn’t really go into too much detail on his successful ventures (I gather this is more reserved for his coaching clients), but he does share some very powerful tips, especially with this one software product he launched.

I think you may have heard me rant about the dangers of trying to create your own online software product without having technical experience.  That’s where Dr Loop comes in.

He talks about keeping things super simple, by seeking to solve a problem that annoys people and costs them 100s of hours of wasted time, but for which a relatively simple online program would satisfy.

I love that he follows up with numbers.  He recently created – I have no idea what – but some sort of online program (maybe for chiros) and it basically helps them automate things, thereby saving them 100s of hours of time.

He sells it for a one-off fee of about $50-$70.  Remember, the cost base is super low here, being a $400 website cost and $1000 online software app (both outsourced to people he already knows and can handle – important!).

And basically, without doing too much marketing – just some forum comments and direct ads – he is taking in just over $2,000 a month.  Boom, ROI up the wazoo.

I don’t care that we don’t know what the product is to be honest, because it’s the lessons he shares that interest me.  So let’s just think of it as something like a bill reminder app for chiropractors.

The big lessons from Dr Loop are…

Get into the forums in your niche and find out what people are having problems with, see if there are already automated software-esque solutions out there, be first to market (mooooooove!), engage the community where they are (in forums and your email list), offer a free trial of software in exchange for email, set them up with a 7+ day autoresponder, and well, hello 11% conversion!

By the way, for those of you not too sure what average conversion rates are for online software, it’s more like 1-2%.  So Dr Loop is obviously killing it, and no small part of this would be due to the free trial paired with the trust building and uber informative autoresponder.

I think we have one of the best case studies, without actually knowing what the product was! Hahaha.

It really re-frames the whole challenge of creating your own software and makes it a much more touchable goal…just remember to come up with the simplest solution to a simple but time-consuming problem and generally K.I.S.S.

Just always be looking to first release a minimum viable product…think Google’s newest products, which are rough around the edges, but good enough…then iterate from there over time as you get more customers and work out more specifically what they want and don’t want.

One other big thing Dr Loop mentions, which I can’t agree more with, is the need for repeat sales.

ie he is busting his gut to get people into his email sign up, so he doesn’t then just want the relationship to end with a one off $50 payment.  But without being able to charge a monthly fee for the software (apparently doesn’t suit this product offering), he aims to create and also promote other highly related and helpful products to that list.

If you adopt this approach things become less passive, but then the lifetime ROI of a customer goes through the roof.

And when lifetime ROI improves, you can spend a lot more money (on SEO, ads, affiliates etc) to acquire each new customer.  Hello aggressive, market beating expansion strategy!

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