Three elements of successful offers

A major key to your side hustle success lies in learning how to craft the perfect offer. As soon as possible, early in the process, you want to start thinking about how your idea can transform into a specific offer. 

Think about it as a consumer. You don't buy ideas, right? You don't go to the idea store. Instead, you buy products and services. And these products and services are always presented to you in the form of an offer. 

All of us encounter offers every day. Whenever you have the opportunity to take out your wallet and buy something either offline or online. 

Get a $2 pastry with the purchase of any medium coffee. Airfare is on sale. Buy now for $39 one-way flights. Come in for a suit fitting and feel like a new man or woman, with prices starting at just 199. 

Every offer has three elements. A promise, a pitch, and a price. 

So let's break it down. 

The promise. 

Why you should care about this product or service. What will it do for you? How will it change your life to the point where you'd be crazy not to pull out your wallet and buy it right now. 

The pitch. 

Why you should take action right away, instead of just filing it away and thinking, oh that's interesting. I'll come back to it later. 

The price. 

Once you've hooked your customer and encouraged them to buy now, then you have to tell them how much it costs and how to actually purchase it. I'm always surprised at how many websites don't include pricing info. So let's take an example. The paleo bagel. Also known as the pagel. I recently did a story on the guy who popularized this food product. His promise is to eat bagels and stick to your paleo caveman diet. His pitch, once you go page, you'll never go bagel. His price, 9.95 for a four-pack. And if you buy more, you'll get a discount. It's a well-executed offer. I'm not even paleo myself, and I wanted to try it. So remember, no one buys an idea. A successful offer contains all three elements. And all three elements are simple and obvious. 

Don't make it too complicated.