Done for you packages are supposed to be just that – almost everything done for you.

But they also tend to assume you know lots of things.

I recently had an email from a subscriber who’d bought a supposedly “done for you” package but was definitely lacking.

“I download it on to my Desktop and Unzip it. But how do all the contents go together?”

He’d already got hosting and a domain name. It was the “other” stuff that didn’t make sense.

Much depends on the exact package you buy.

A lot of cheaper resale rights packages come with everything except the payment button code (which is unique to you). You just unzip the files, amend a few things and upload them to your website.

The negative with that kind of package is that they’re often replicated many times across the web and the chances of you making any money from them are very low.

More expensive packages tend to be delivered in what could best be called kit form:

• The main product files
• Probably the raw files as well so you can edit the documents and even the videos
• Possibly a sales letter

It’s then up to you to mix the ingredients and get as close as you can to creating your own product without the (perceived) stress of creating your own product.

Decide what’s going to be in the package

This could be just the product you’ve bought or – if the resale rights licences allow – it could be other products that complement the main product.

You may also decide to include one or more bonus items to help tip the balance and encourage more people to buy your product.

A lot of offers also have an exit pop-up that asks if you really want to leave and does its best to keep you on the page.

If you decide to include this kind of option, you’ll need some kind of software to handle that like this WordPress plugin (I’ve not used it but it gets reasonable reviews) and you’ll need to decide what happens when people click “yes, I’ll stay”. Sometimes that’s a price reduction, other times it’s a cut down version, other times it’s a cheap short trial followed by a second payment that takes the price up to roughly the same as the original purchase, other times it’s a simple giveaway product to get people to join your list.

While you’re at this stage of the process, think about the price you’re likely to charge and whether or not it’s going to be on a timed price rise, dime sale, introductory price, etc.

Write a sales letter

Even if your product came with a sales page there’s a good argument for writing your own one.

That’s especially true if you’ve bought a product that’s been around for a while, otherwise at least some of your potential customers could just run a quick search on Google and buy it cheaper from the same place you bought it or a reseller on a site like Tradebit or maybe Fiverr.

If you’ve got a pre-written sales letter, chances are it comes with graphics as well.

Depending on your viewpoint, they could be a giveaway for the fact that you’ve bought a resale rights product – a lot of them are churned out and look almost identical so although it seems wasteful to scrap them and start over, it’s not as dumb as it first seems.

You can get stock images free here so long as you check the individual licence terms.

If you decide to re-write the sales letter – something I’d definitely recommend that you do – then maybe read the one you’ve been given but definitely go through the product you’re selling, jot down the salient points and then write your own letter.

Use a headline creator to get ideas and tweak the suggestions for your main headline and the various sub headlines that are usually used on a sales page.

Use lots of white space and mix in occasional bullet points.

If you’re using WordPress, use a theme that allows you to have complete control of the page otherwise you’ll get all the usual WordPress navigation added on to your page.

If you’re not using WordPress then go to YouTube and check out some of the regular HTML tutorials or use a free WYSIWYG editor like NVU.

That could be an option even if you’re using WordPress – just create a static page where you’ve got control.

Save your work regularly but don’t edit until you’ve finished writing. Just brain dump the words and worry about editing in a different session.

And don’t worry about being too professional – it’s far better to write in your own voice and it can often convert well.

Create an upsell package

This is optional but can make a big difference to your profits.

It’s much the same as creating the initial package but is obviously an upsell.

It could be a more advanced version of the initial product or something that complements it or (really) anything that you can write a convincing sales letter to make it as close to a “must have” as possible

Write a sales letter for the upsell

This is much the same as writing a sales letter for the regular package but you need to keep in mind that your buyer – because that’s what they will be when they reach this stage of the process – is eager to get to the product they’ve purchased.

That’s why so many upsells are one time offers – or at least claim to be.

I’ve seen (and done) upsell pages where there’s an auto play button and the payment and no thanks links are delayed until the appropriate place. That can work or it can bug buyers. It’s a fine line and you need to decide what you want to do.

Either way, your upsell page should be set to “noindex” in the meta tags so that Google is encouraged not to index it because there will also be a no thanks link that takes people through to the regular download page. Some systems such as Warrior Plus handle that option so that even if a non-purchaser inadvertently finds the upsell page they can’t click the no thanks link and get to the product. Not all systems offer that – you’ll need to test.

Create a download page

The page name for the download page shouldn’t be easily guessable.

It should be set to “noindex” in the meta tags but not in your robots.txt file (otherwise people could simply look it up in that file).

I tend to make my download pages fairly simple but they can be as simple or as complicated as you like.

Personally, I put a short “thank you” note at the top of the page and then each section of the product below it.

I make each link clickable and set WordPress to open the links in a new browser window.

If you use the built-in WordPress media upload then you can do all this quite easily.

If you’re using HTML it’s relatively simple especially if you’re using something like NVU.

Your product files may be the PDFs, audios and videos that you promised. Or they could be bundles of files that you’ve put together in a zip file that get unzipped when the customer downloads them to their computer.

Near enough everyone knows how to unzip a file (it’s been built into Windows for years) so you shouldn’t need to include instructions on how to do that.

But now that browsers open PDF and other files automatically it’s still worth reminding people that they can right click the link and choose the save option if they want to download the file.

Always assuming you want to remind them to do this and that you’re not using, say, YouTube to host your videos and keep your web hosting within its limits.

Write at least one autoresponder message

You should subscribe buyers to an autoresponder series.

I make my first message a simple “thank you” and a link to the download page in case something broke on the internet.

Systems like Warrior Plus, JVZoo and PayPal make it quite easy to automatically subscribe people to your autoresponder. They all have instructions on how to do this with the main companies that are out there.

Keep adding autoresponder messages to your series if you like to communicate that way or send broadcasts on a regular basis if you prefer to do those. Or a mixture of the two.

Just remember to keep the messages relevant – there’s no point in sending Kindle author messages to a YouTube list as there’s no guarantee that they’ll be in both markets.

Choose a payment processor

Personally, I use PayPal as my payment processor but there are other options out there.

Systems like Warrior Plus and JVZoo integrate with PayPal.

Or you could choose to use a different payment processor completely – you’ll need to do your own research on those, sorry.

Upload all the files to the right places

If you didn’t upload the files when you created the download pages, now is the time to remember to do that.

Check everything is working

This is the boring but necessary part.

If you don’t check your links and all the other pieces in this jigsaw then you run the risk of irate customers.

If your payment processor allows you to make a test purchase, do so.

If they don’t, make sure that all the pages are present (rather than still sitting on your hard drive waiting to be uploaded) and the images work.

Check the download links work.

And sign up to your email list to check that works as expected.

Launch!

Tell the world about your new product.

That includes your list, launch announcement sites like MunchEye if you’re in the internet marketing area, your Facebook/Google+/LinkedIn/Twitter fans and followers, etc.