19 Step Secret BluePrint How to Create a Profitable and Successful WSO
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This post is basically going to explain to you the 19 steps to you creating your first successful WSO.
Getting on the product creation ladder can be a bit tough but with resources like the warrior forum at your disposal it`s a great way for getting your first product out there.
Launching a WSO is a great way to get things moving and "getting your feet wet" and to date I have released 4 WSO`s and all of which have sold several hundred copies each so what I`m going to do is give you my exact blueprint that I use when I create a new WSO and all of the steps which you need to go through before launching your WSO.
I have spent hundreds of hours learning all of the technical aspects of doing WSO`s and hundreds of hours testing, tweaking and improving my launches, so you`re getting real information here backed up by proven and tested results.
In case you didn`t know, most WSO`s which get released are a complete flop because of many different reasons but after reading this article you will be far better prepared and you will be armed with the knowledge on what it takes to create a successful and profitable WSO.
I was in fact thinking about selling this information because it`s very valuable but because I love to provide great Free content I thought I would post it here instead.
So buckle up, Sit back, Grab a coffee, Coke, Beer or what ever your beverage of choice is and take note as I`m now about to spill the beans ;-)
Where do Your Skills and Experience Lay
So you want to create a product?, that`s cool and a great idea but just hold your horses for a second because the first thing you need to think about is where your skills and experience is. What are you good at? What have you had success in? The best type of product for you to create is something you know a lot about.
This is why before you try creating a product to sell, you must of had some type of success with a certain method, technique, strategy, system, model etc.
This is the easiest and most powerful way to create a killer product. For instance, say if you were a bit of a whizz kid at creating simple videos for youtube that rank high and get lots of traffic you could make a little product on this.
Let`s say you were making $500 per month using Fiverr by doing certain Gigs, you could then sell this information and make a product out of it.
Or perhaps you are really good at writing quality articles that get high click through rates. You could easily sell this information also in a little WSO.
You see, it does not have to be hard, but you do need to have some good skills and experience in a particular area that you create the product around and results to back it up. If you try creating anything and just base it on theory, you will be in for a long uphill battle.
WSO Research
The first thing you need to ask yourself is "is there a demand?" and "are people already buying this stuff?"
Now I`m not talking about general niche research here because when you do a WSO we are mainly focused on what is "Hot" within the forum and a great way to get a good idea is to look at the warrior plus dashboard.
Warrior plus is a "helper" site created for the Warrior Forum which has tools that are designed to make using the Warrior Forum easier and more efficient and you also get access to lots of valuable data such as "What is Hot" as you can see from the screenshot to the right.
When you`re thinking about creating a product it`s certainly worth taking a look at this list. If the product which you`re thinking about creating is not in this list then don`t worry about it. This popular list is just handy to keep an eye on and to keep your finger on the pulse so to speak.
I will tell you from experience that there is always a big demand for information based around SEO, Offline Marketing, Video Marketing, Wordpress Plugins, Software, Link Building, Niche Marketing (adsense & amazon) List Building, CPA, Facebook, PLR and any General making money online products.
Just because you create a product in these niches it does not mean you will do well because there are many other variables and factors that still come into play which I will cover in more detail through out the article.
Another way is to check to see how many products have already been released around your particular idea is to go to the search box and type in your keyword.
Let`s say we want to create a WSO around fiverr. We want to first check and see if there is a demand for fiverr information products. First we just type our keyword into the search box in warrior plus and click search.
What type of content
Once you have your product idea you need to think about how you`re going to give your customer the information.
Are you going to create videos or an Ebook or something else? What ever it is you need to get this crystal clear before you move onto the next step.
Rather than just tell you that you need to decide how you`re going to give your customer the information I will give you a few tips to help you.
Videos
I personally love creating videos and I find them really good fun to make but I know not everyone likes creating videos and some may not even know how to create them. When you sell an information product if you include videos within your product then this will automatically increase the perceived value of your product so bare that in mind. Not only that but I have found that more people like to learn through videos rather than just reading a report so you are also appealing to the majority too.
I use camtasia studio for creating all of my videos and if you want to check it out you can get a free 30 day trial. Some of the other software that works well too is screencast and windows movie maker. What ever video software you decide to use it probably will take a bit of time for you to learn how to use it so you need to have some patients.
Knowing how to create videos quickly is one of the best things you can learn in your online business because you are then able to make videos for future products, videos for traffic generation, sales page videos, launch page videos and videos for your Blog or website and the list goes on.
PDF Ebook
Back in 2008 when I was a bit "wet behind the ears" most of the products which I came across were in an Ebook format. Now, there is nothing wrong with creating your product and putting the content into an Ebook, it works well and is profitable however things have changed a little bit over the last 5 years. People love to watch and learn through videos a lot more than they used to. I guess it has something to do with the fact that we are getting more conditioned to watching and learning from videos through platforms like Youtube.
If you do decide to sell your product in an Ebook format just bare in mind that the perceived value is generally not going to be as high compared to if you sold your product as a video course.
Those are pretty much the two main ways you can use to deliver the information in your product.
If you want to add any extra ways for delivering information to your customers then below are a few more ways that you can do that:
- Webinar Series/Replay Webinars
- Mind Maps
- Interviews
- MP4`s
Creating the Product
The first thing you must do is have the intention of creating the best product you possibly can. If you put maximum effort in at this stage believe me it will pay off for a very long time afterwards.
Most of my products which I create are video courses so what I do is grab lots of paper and write down all of the information which I want to be included within the product.
Once I have a good list I then put that list to one side and use it as a guide for my next task which is creating each individual video.
The way I create all of the individual videos is I use a separate piece of paper for each video and write down exactly what I will cover in that video. I will then use that piece of paper when I am making the video so that I know exactly what to include and also so that I have a script to follow.
What you must do to keep your focus is just work on 1 video at a time and nothing else. Once that video is complete you can then move on to the next one and repeat the process as I have just explained.
I repeat this process as many times as I need to. If my video course has 15 videos then I will do this x15 times. It is an easy way to keep focused and organized and using this method I have created over 100 videos for various products. It may be a bit of an old fashioned way of doing things but it certainly works and when you actually write things down you absorb information much easier too.
On a closing note there is one thing which you also need to take into consideration when carrying out this step and you need to think about it at this stage otherwise it could mess things up and have a big impact on how well your product does.
You need to think about if you plan on creating a OTO (one time offer) or any upsells as part of your product. A OTO or an upsell is an offer which gets shown after someone has bought the main offer. So you need to decide wheather you want to include a OTO or not at this stage. If you do decide to use one then what ever you do, do not EVER make it a MUST HAVE product that people need to purchase in order to make your main product work.
It should simply be an "added extra"
So for instance in your main product could be the main working components of how your strategy/method works and then your OTO could be some additional tools to help automate the process. It could be a plug in, it could be an extra set of videos, a PDF or some mind maps or a combination of all of these. What ever it is the same rule applies. It has to be quality information.
Create a Pre-Launch List
If you already have an email list then you will be able to build your pre-launch list up pretty quickly and this will certainly help you to build some momentum in terms of sales when you first release your WSO.
Creating a pre-launch list is super powerful so never under estimate them. When I released my first WSO early in 2012 I built a pre-launch list of around 90 - 100 people. I thought to myself that if I made 10 - 20 sales that would be cool, but little did I know how well it was to go.
Over the first week of my WSO going live I ended up making almost 50 sales from my pre-launch list.
That is around a 50% conversion rate, which is absolutely un-heard of when it comes to selling information products online. They do work and work extremely well so make sure you take full advantage of them.
If you don`t have a list already then you can still build a good size pre-launch list you just have to work a little harder. If you have a blog then create a pre-launch page on there, add a link in your signature in the warrior forum going to your pre-launch page. Obviously the more people you can get on your early bird list the better but with a good solid list of 50 - 100 people should get you off to a good start.
Decide Your Priority, Profits or Buyers?
One of the deciding factors of how many sales you make can often be the commission that you give affiliates for promoting your WSO. You have the option of anything between 0% - 100%. I would recommend only going as low as 50% though as a bare minimum otherwise no affiliate will waste their time promoting your product. What commission rate you decide to use has a massive effect on how many sales you can potentially make so this is why I said you need to decide what your priority is.
If your priority is profits then go for maybe 50% - 75% on your main offer and then 50% on your OTO.
If your priority is to generate tones more buyers then giving 100% on your main product is a MUST and then you can giving anything between 50% - 100% on your OTO as well.
A good balance that I have found is giving 100% on your main offer and then 50% on your OTO. This way your affiliates are making good money, you are getting sent plenty of buyers and at the same time you are still making 50% of the profits from your OTO sales.
What ever you do don`t have tunnel vision and think if you give 100% commission on your main offer you will not make anything. You will still make a good amount of money yourself because remember you have your own pre-launch list if you built one plus you get passing by traffic and referral traffic from all over the web so by giving 100% your WSO can still be very profitable, it just means you are making things much more appealing to affiliates to promote your product and affiliates are the back bone of making a tonne of sales unless you already have thousands of buyers yourself that you can send to your new WSO and if that was the case you probably wouldn`t be reading this on tips to creating a successful WSO ;-)
Commission Structure
This goes hand in hand with what your priority is profits or buyers?
We did briefly cover this in the previous step but we will go over it in more detail here.
These are all the most popular types of commission structures that product owners offer to their affiliates when releasing WSO`s.
50% - 50% - This is 50% on your main offer and 50% on your OTO
75% - 50% - This is 75% on your main offer and 75% on your OTO
100% - 50% - This is 100% on your main offer and 50% on your OTO
100% - 100% - This is 100% commission on both your main offer and OTO
These are the 4 most popular types of commission structures that are used in WSO`s but don`t forget you are able to also add more upsells or downsells if you wish too.
Another powerful strategy that many use when selling WSO`s is to give 100% on the main offer and then 50% on their OTO which is a membership subscription so they are getting their membership site built for Free. If you wanted to go 1 stage further you could always do a $1 trial if you just wanted to get people through the door. This is a perfect strategy to build your membership site up really fast and get people through the door.
Once their $1 trial is over they will then be billed a full months subscription which could be $17, $27, $47 or even $97.
Those are just some extra tips for you to bare in mind when thinking about your commission structures. The big money is not always made on the main offer but on the upsells and back end sales this is why many product creators give away 100% commission because they know the value of getting buyers into their sales funnel.
Decide Price points
This is something that you need to pay a lot of attention to because the price which you charge for your WSO could make or break the success of your WSO.
As you can see from the screen shot the average price is only $15.76
The key to a good pricing structure if you want to make a lot of sales is to keep the price fairly low, doing this you will get more buyers through the door and then once you have them as a customer you have the ability to offer them upsells after their initial purchase. This is marketing after all and this is where you can drastically increase your profits.
I will share some of the strategies which have worked for me when it comes to pricing of your WSO.
(One of the powerful features which you have access to when you use an affiliate platform such as wso pro is the ability to create dime sale buttons where the price will go up every certain number of sales or you can set it to increase within a certain time frame as well)
Starting price of $5.95, $6.95, or $7 then increase the price by $0.05 every 1,2,3,4 or 5 sales has worked well for me.
OTO price of $9.95, $12.95, $17 or $27 but I don`t usually use a dime sale with these just a fixed price.
A good price to max it out at is $9.95 so if you plan on doing this then you need to work out how many sales you can make until you hit the $9.95 because using the dime sale button means that the price will continue to go up in increments which you set until you hit your maximum set price.
For instance if you were to release a WSO with a starting price of $7.00 and you used a dime sale and increased the price by $0.05 every 5 sales it means for every 100 sales your price would increase by $1
So based on the price going up $0.05 every 5 sales if you started your listing at $7 it would look like this:
100 sales = price would be at $8.00
200 sales = price would be at $9.00
300 sales = price would be maxed out at $9.95
This is all only based on 300 sales so just bare these numbers in mind when you do a dime sale.
Dime sales do work very well that is why they are used a lot in listings. They improve conversions and create a bit of scarcity so use them if you can they are proven to work.
The price which I have just given you are of course not set in stone because a lot depends on the type of product you have. Those figures are just a guide and those are the prices and things which have worked for me. If you were to sell some software for instance or a good plugin then the main offer price could be a lot higher. But for most products the prices which I have given you will be very suitable and will work well.
Affiliate Platform
Before you launch your WSO you need to think about what affiliate platform you want to use. You can of course not use any affiliate platform but you would literally be throwing money away because it means you will have no affiliate program set up and other people can`t promote your product.
The three main affiliate platforms that are used for WSO`s are Warrior Plus, Digi Results and JV Zoo. They are all good professional affiliate platforms but I always like to use wso pro myself.
I find the warrior plus affiliate platform is set up really well and everything
is simple to understand for both product owners and affiliates.
There are some fees involved when you use the wso pro platform but they are very small. The listing price is currently $19 and if you have a OTO then it will cost an additional $19.
You can also create WSO listings for Free by using the wso pro adaptive system where you will get charged per transaction made through the wso pro system. They both have their pro`s and con`s so just decide which one works best for you.
(I personally use the paid listing option because the tool which I use to secure my WSO`s is only compatible with the paid wso pro option but I will cover more about this in the security section)
Hosting and Delivering Your Product
Once your product is complete you now need to upload it somewhere so that it can be downloaded by your customers.
As they say "There's more than one way to skin a cat" however I will tell you the tools which I use which work very well.
Amazon s3 - I use this service to host all of my WSO files. This includes videos, PDF`s, mind maps and anything else which is part of my product. Amazon s3 is a fantastic service and is the same platform that Amazon uses themselves for all of their images and videos on their site so you can bet it`s a first class service. The cost is very cheap, I usually get billed around $2 - $5 per month on a normal month and if I launch a new product or WSO then it could go up to around $15 - $20 for the month as I will have a wave of people downloading my files.
This is what I use on my download pages. I create download links so my customers can download my product.
Ezs3 - This an extra service part of Amazon s3. You are able to create your own video players and host all of the videos on amazons server the same as what you do for your files. The speed is fantastic and you are able to create videos with a big selection of player skins which is a cool feature. With Ezs3 you can simply embed videos onto any of your websites and be confident that your video will never get taken down and because they are hosted on world class servers there is never any waiting around for any of the pain staking buffering that you get with cheap video hosting services.
You can use this if you would rather embed videos onto your download page instead of giving the download links, it`s really up to you. I also often use Ezs3 to create video players for my Blog as you can be sure that the videos will never get taken down and will always work.
Optimize Press - This little baby is one of my best tools in my business, I use it on every single one of my WSO`s and would quite literally be lost without it!. I use optimize press to create all of my Sales pages, Squeeze pages, JV Pages, Launch pages, Pre-Launch pages, OTO pages, Upsell pages, Download pages, confirmation pages, special video pages, Membership pages you name it I use optimize press for it.
One of the really handy things about it is I can just clone pages using the "copy to a new draft function" so I don`t have to keep creating the same pages over and over for different products.
It is $97 but it`s one of my most important tools in my business :-)
Create JV Page
If you want to stand the best chance of making your WSO a success then you need to create a JV page so that you can start to build a list of other list owners that are interested in promoting your product when it goes live.
You don`t need a spectacular all singing and all dancing JV page like the "Gooroos" as long as you give JV partners the main information such as:
- Commissions
- Price Points
- What their Buyers Get
- When is it going Live
- What is "Your Product"
- Where Can I get my Affiliate Links
- Where can I get a Review Copy
I always use optimize press to create my JV Pages and takes me only a few minutes as I just copy my previous JV Pages and change a few things.
One other great place to gain more exposure to potential affiliates and JV partners is Munch Eye
Munch Eye is a cool place where you can create your own JV Page and lots of other marketers will be able to see that you will shortly be launching a new product. This is a handy site to use because you have the opportunity of picking lots of JV Partners and affiliates up.
It`s also a great little tool where you can keep an eye on all other peoples up and coming WSO launches.
Secure Your WSO
When it comes to security I found out the hard way so that you don`t have to. Let me just say that if you plan on doing a WSO properly and you value all of your hard work then you MUST secure your download pages.
There are many different ways that you can do this but I will share the way I do it and the tool that I use. It works really well, it`s dead simple to set up and you will sleep better at night knowing that not every man and his dog will have easy access to your product for completely FREE.
I use a wordpress plugin called WP File Lock
It currently works with wso pro, digi results and clickbank, paypal and it secures all of your download pages so that the only people that can access the page are paying customers. The way it works is when someone buys either through one of the affiliate platforms above or paypal then they will get a username and password sent to them so they can log in to access the download page. It`s really that simple but saves you a lot of stress.
Here is a screen shot showing you how to set it up.
Where it says "Default members page after login" This is the url of your download page where your customers can download your WSO/Product
As you can see, if you want to use it with either wso pro, digi results or clickbank you simply fill out a couple of extra boxes and then put those urls into your affiliate account.
There are also tutorials within the wp file lock admin panel as well which give you step by step instructions of exactly how to set it all up.
There are probably lots of other ways to secure your pages but this works well for me so as they say "don`t fix it if it`s not broken" :-)
Creating the Sales Page
Creating your main sales page and oto pages is one of the most important parts of your entire WSO because it doesn`t matter how good your product is unless you have a fairly good sales page no one is going to want to buy your product and worse, no serious affiliate is going to want to promote it either.
When it comes to creating a sales page you have 1 ultimate goal and this is what every serious product creator aims to achieve.
It is only 3 letters long.
Have you guessed it yet?
Here it is:
===>> EPC or (earnings per click)
This is basically how much each unique visitor that goes to your wso is worth.
The reason why this number is so important is because when affiliates are thinking about promoting your product they can work out on average how much they will make back based on your EPC if they were to send targeted traffic to your offer. For instance if you have a $1.00 EPC on your main offer then every person that is sent to your sales page is worth $1.00. If they were to send 200 people to your page they would make around $200 from just your main offer.
If the EPC was only $0.25 then they would only make around $50 from 200 unique visitors which is shockingly bad and no serious affiliate will waste their time promoting offers that convert this badly.
Now do you see how important it is to get your EPC as high as you can?
It`s really that simple.
When you have one time offers and upsells then it works exactly the same and those will often convert way higher anyway because they are already proven buyers.
This is why it is so important to get your EPC as high as possible.
So now you have two options. Either outsource your sales page and copy to someone else or do it yourself.
I will Warn you that if you do it yourself it is not easy and you do need a bit of experience to know what works and what doesn`t. My first 3 wso`s I created all of my own sales pages and copy and they converted fairly well but if you don`t have a lot of Internet Marketing experience then you should consider outsourcing this task.
Please Note:
Before your WSO can go live you need to submit your sales page to the warrior forum moderators where they need to approve your WSO first before it goes live. If you want to test to see what your WSO sales page looks like on the warrior forum then use the Test Forum section to check everything is working correctly.
Remember that your payment buttons won`t be working until your WSO goes live.
Once they approve your WSO it still doesn`t go live until you pay the $40 listing fee. What I usually do is submit my WSO to the warrior forum on the morning of my launch. It usually only takes a couple of hours for it to be approved. I then Pay my $40 later in the day at the time I want my WSO to go live.
Create WSO List
It`s now time to create your new list in your auto-responder account.
This is a very simple step and should only take you a few minutes.
When ever I do this step there are a few extra things which I do which I will share.
1. Create the new buyers list for the WSO
2. Use the name of this list and insert it into your wp file lock "auto-responder settings" in wso pro
3. Create your first email follow up with a "Thank You for Your Purchase" email and with a link to the download page.
4. Create a mini email follow up sequence giving extra tips for all customers for your WSO. I usually have a 3 - 5 day mini course set up which goes out over 3 - 5 days.
Doing this will really help you stand out, that you go above and beyond than most other people do
When ever I create a new list for a WSO I usually name the main list "my-product1" and then the 2nd list "my-product2" for those that purchase the OTO.
WSO PRO Product Listing set up
This is when you actually set up your listing in wso pro. I have included two screen shots of my live listing so that you can see how it all works and what you need to fill out.
The 2 screen shots above is how to set up your wso pro listing.
If you have any oto`s you will need to set up a new listing just like the screen shot above but making a few changes such as the price and the list name which you want buyers added to.
If you`re using a one time offer then all you do is put your oto page in the "delivery url" box of your Main Listing.
If you don`t want to use a dime sale then simply leave that box empty.
Give out Review Copies
One of the things which I recommend you to do is give out some review copies to some respected members of your community and ask them to leave some feedback in your thread after it goes live.
Giving out review copies will help with the success of your WSO in two ways:
1. Firstly you are generating a bit of a buzz within your market and if you give out a fair few review copies then the word could easily get passed around and you may get more JV partners lining up wanting to promote for you.
I usually hand out around 10 review copies to some fellow trusted marketers that are well respected and I ask them to leave some feedback if they liked the product. To date I have never had anyone turn down a review copy because after all it`s completely Free and they may actually pick up a few golden nuggets up themselves :-)
2. Secondly by handing out review copies you are improving your chances of picking up more JV Partners because if they go over your product and like it they may want to do a promotion for you to their email list.
One thing you should NEVER do is approach lots of people and ask them to promote your product. There is nothing more annoying than getting messages saying "please promote my product" in your inbox.
99% of serious marketers won`t even consider it.
The best chance you have of people wanting to promote your product is by building some relationships with other marketers, building trust and doing something for others first and then in return there is a very good chance that at some point they will promote one of your products.
Give first and you shall receive.
The other way of getting affiliates wanting to promote your WSO is by creating a killer product, it`s that simple. If your product is good enough then you will attract lots of positive comments and feedback, people will start to talk and then affiliates will end up hearing about it and then may want to promote it.
If you are also able to get some video testimonials created then definitely do it. Video testimonials are very powerful and will certainly help with your EPC.
Launch WSO
We are now ready to launch our WSO. What you do need to do is go to your warrior forum message inbox and use the link they sent you to pay for your WSO listing. Once you have paid the $40 listing fee your WSO will instantly go live.
First thing to do is go to your live WSO thread and create a new comment with "FAQ" this is important.
Then you need to immediately go into your wso pro account and connect your wso pro with the wso listing you just purchased using the drop down box.
You then need to make sure your OTO is connected to your main WSO listing.
Lastly make sure all your payment buttons are working properly on your sales page and everything is where it`s supposed to be and you should be fine to start bringing in the sales.
Email Pre-Launch List
After your WSO is live you need to quickly go over to your auto-responder account and email your pre-launch list (if you have one) telling them it`s live. You don`t have to try to be some slick email marketer here because this list have already told you that they want to be notified when it goes live so this is all you have to do.
This is also a time for you to prepare an email for any additional lists that you think are relevant to your new WSO.
Make sure you track your links using the "vendor link" option in wso pro or sign up as an affiliate yourself to your own product, use the affiliate links and send those out within your email.
You need to track your clicks that YOU generate so that you can see how many sales you have managed to generate yourself from your own lists. If you don`t do this you won`t have any idea how effective your own marketing efforts were so you can`t make any improvements for the next time.
So ALWAYS track your links!
Support
Now that your WSO is live you will need to be at your computer for a good few hours after because you will have quite a lot to do. Just because your WSO is live it doesn`t mean you can just sit back and do nothing. The hard work is complete but you have to now take care of questions and any customer issues that you may get. Here are the things that you need to do after your WSO goes live.
1. Make sure YOU have the first comment as the FAQ
2. Keep an eye on new comments and questions appearing in your thread.
3. ALWAYS reply to every question or comment you get. This looks like you actually care about your customers and you take your business seriously.
4. Quickly reply to any private message you get as these can sometimes be
customers that are having technical issues with downloading your product.
5. Contact the people that you gave review copies to and ask them if they can leave their feedback in your thread.
6. Sometimes the difference between someone buying and walking away is the amount of feedback, comments and how helpful you are in your thread so make sure you take this area seriously.
Bonus tips:
The 19 steps which I just gave you I detailed each every step which you need to do if you have never done a WSO before.
These below are the 18 general steps which I take every time I create a new WSO.
- Create Product
- Create Pre-Launch List
- Create WSO Sales Page
- Install Optimize Press
- Create OTO Page
- Create Download Pages
- Create JV Page
- Install WP- File Lock
- Give Out Review Copies
- Set up Product in WSO PRO
- Set up List in Aweber
- Create Bonus Follow up Sequence
- Contact Affiliates / JV Partners
- Launch
- Email Pre-Launch List
- Email Other Relevant Lists
- Provide in Thread Support and Answer Emails and Messages
- Contact People that received Review Copies to Leave Feedback
Well, that is it, I have just given you my exact WSO blueprint when it comes to creating profitable WSO`s
It`s been a very long post but I hope you have enjoyed reading it and I hope you can take away lots of things which will help you when creating your first WSO or even if you have already created a WSO before you may still be able to pull out a few useful tips that will help with your future WSO`s.
If you`re fed up and still struggling to create an income online using a proven system then Click Here to Download your FREE List Building Course on How You Can Make $30 - $100 Per Day Online Using A Simple System that anyone Can Copy