Looking for a honest Dotcom Secrets review? Dotcom Secrets was written by ClickFunnels CEO and Co-Founder Russel Bronson in 2015, and most of it’s teachings are still pertinent today. With over 500 reviews on Amazon, carrying a 4.5 star rating out of 5 the book is a must have for anyone wanting to run a successful online business.
For those of you new to the online industry, ClickFunnels is arguably, the leading sales funnel and landing page creation tool. Many who start out in the affiliate marketing industry begin by promoting ClickFunnels, and naturally progress to using it themselves to create high converting sales funnels. Currently ClickFunnels has over 90,000 active users and has processed close to $4 billion in sales through over 5.5 million funnels.
Russell has an impressive background in online marketing, sales funnels and everything to do with lead generation and conversions. There is no doubt he knows exactly what he is talking about when it comes to the subject. So is the DotCom Secrets book a must read as everyone says it is? In a moment we will find out.
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DotCom Secrets Review
DotCom Secrets is the first book in a trilogy published by marketing guru, Clickfunnels CEO and co-founder Russell Brunson. His Other titles include, Traffic Secrets and Expert Secrets.
DotCom Secrets brands itself as the “Underground Playbook For Growing Your Company Online” and offers a step by step guide to growing your business online. Russell provides actionable steps and sales scripts that you can implement immediately to start to scale and grow your profitability.
DotCom Secrets focuses on lead generation techniques, sales and conversion methods that can be used both online and offline. As well as providing you example sales scripts and sales funnels that you can implement in your business. DotCom Secrets is a must have for anyone with an online business and is the perfect handbook for anyone starting out online. So before we take a look at the book, lets look at the man himself behind it, Russell Brunson.
DotCom Secrets Creator Russell Brunson
Russel Brunsons Early Career
Anyone who has read my reviews before knows I like to start from the very beginning by look at the creator or authors history and backstory. Often you can gauge the credibility and value of a program by looking at what they have done in their career. It’s like the example of an overweight & obese personal trainer who constantly consumes junk food and sits around. Would you go to them for advice on nutrition and working out? Probably not.
In the same vein we can look at what Russell has done, to see if he is even “qualified” to be writing a book like this and giving advice. The answer is a resounding yes, and here is why. Russell has over a decade of online marketing, lead generation and sales conversion experience. He is highly regarded in the industry and often features at the top of sales commission leader boards in any endeavour he undertakes.
Russells first foreray into online sales started in 2003 with a company called ZipBrander. A viral marketing tool designed to help drive traffic to your website, Russell quickly realised not only a passion, but a skill for lead generation and online sales. For nearly 2 years Russell honed his skills with the company before launching his first product, a DVD called “How To Create A Potato Gun”.
In doing so, Russell began to experiment with different uspelling and sales techniques to maximise conversions and cart values. It was here that Russell discovered the power of upselling and order bumps. Following the purchase, a customer was immediately offered a package that included all the materials needed to construct the potato gun. A rather obvious offer that was a huge success for Russell and gave him his first real taste of online marketing.
Following this early success Russell went on to sell everything from supplements, coaching services, books, t-shirts and tech products. He quickly scaled the ranks of multiple network marketing companies and went on to establish himself as one of the most successful and knowledgeable online marketers in the world. In fact his success lead to him winning a Ferrari and generating over 1.5 million leads in 6 short weeks.
ClickFunnels Launch 2014
It was during this time Russel became frustrated with the current sales funnel software options on the market, and identifed a gap that his software, ClickFunnels could easily fill. In 2014, Russell along with co-founder Todd Dickerson created ClickFunnels and in just 3 short years the two built the company to generate over $100 million in sales, with over 90,000 active users.
ClickFunnels has now become arguably the biggest Funnel building software in the world. As of 2020 Russells training, reaching, and ClickFunnels software has helped produce over 728 millionaires.
As if all of this wasn’t enough, he has a following of over 1 million entrepreneurs, has sold over 400,000 of his books and become synonymous with sales funnels. So now we have taken a look at his impressive resume, lets now dive into the book itself and see what is all about!
DotCom Secrets Review
Russell Brunsons DotCom Secrets is a 254 page step by step guide to launching or maximising the profits of your business online. Even though it was first launched in 2015, the book and its teachings still remains relevant in 2020. That is because the methods of selling have remained fairly unchanged for decades. At its core, online sales techniques are not so dissimilar from the offline marketing world. Online sales funnels are often rooted in similar offline techniques.
Russells writing style is engaging, and offers easy to read content with relatable stories from his own business, highlighting how himself implemented his teachings to be successful. Whilst explaining his methods and unveiling the secrets he has learnt, Russell provides actionable steps that allow you to take action immediately.
DotCom Secrets has helped countless of entrepreneurs both in offline businesses trying to make the jump to online sales, and online businesses. With over 500 amazon reviews, most are 5 stars giving the book an overall rating of 4.5 stars.
The book comes in 5 sections including;
- Section 1 – Ladders and Funnels
- Secret #1 – The Secret Formula
- Secret #2 – The Value Ladder
- Secret #3 – From A Ladder To A Funnel
- Secret #4 – How To Find Your Dream Customers
- Secret #5 – The Three Types Of Traffic
- Section 2 – Your Communication Funnel
- Secret #6 – The Attractive Character
- Secret #7 – The Soap Operate Sequence
- Secret #8 – Daily Seinfeld Sequence
- Section 3 – “Funnelology”
- Secret #9 – Reverse-Engineering A Successful Funnel
- Secret #10 – Seven Phases Of A Funnel
- Secret #11 – The Twenty-Three Building Blocks Of A Funnel
- Secret #12 – Frontend Vs Backend Funnels
- Secret #13 – The Best Bait
- Section 4 – Funnels and Scripts
- Section 5 – ClickFunnels
Each section breaks down and demystifies the topic building on the prior section piecing it all together in a full road map to success. So lets take a more in depth look at each section of the DotCom Secrets book.
What Will DotCom Secrets Teach You?
DotCom Secrets Section 1: Ladders and Funnels
In DotCom Secrets first section, Russell introduces the concept of a value ladder. The concept of a value ladder is quite simple, and most people have experienced it first hand wether they know it or not. As a customer goes through the sales process, they are offered increasingly more expensive offers that also increase in value.
The most common example of this is online software, which offer a free account with basic functionality. This enables the user to experience the product offering, but either disables key features, or through a limited free trial provides access to them for a short period of time.
In this time the user can appreciate the value of these features and once their trial runs out and they revert to a free account they are compelled to upgrade. As you can see from the illustration above, you start the customer at either a free or very low cost offering. It provides some basic value and converts your lead to a paying customer. This is crucial, as once you have them engaged it is far easier to move them up the ladder.
Value ladders also offer the chance to increase customer longevity and lifetime spend. Rather than having them purchase once, you can encourage them to purchase multiple products and increase the duration of their customer lifecycle.
Following this, Russel introduces the concept of a sales funnel. A sales funnel, whether offline or online, is a sequence of steps you take a lead through in order to convert them into a paying customer. It can also be used to move a paying customer through your value ladder pushing them up to the more expensive products in your product catalogue. From their Russell moves into the next section which is all about communicating with your audience.
Secret #1: The Secret Formula
The secret formula consists of answering four simple questions:
- Who are your dream clients?
- How do you find them?
- How do you attract them without being pushy?
- What benefit will they get from your business?
Through gaining the answers to these questions you can understand the direction your business needs to take, and what customers will get you there. This will position all of your marketing and branding strategy, and govern how you communicate with them.
Secret #2: The Value Ladder
As I already explained earlier the value ladder is a pricing structure that increases the value you offer to your customers increases. In this secret Russell goes over in detail the details you need to go through in order to push your dream customer through your value ladder.
The key a highly profitable online business is getting the most out of your paying customers. By increasing the amount each of your customers spend, you do not need to necessarily need to attract new customers which costs money.
The secret unlocks the key to doing this by structuring your ladder the right way.
Secret #3: From A Ladder To A Funnel
The third secret teaches you how to transition from your value ladder to a sales funnel. Your sales funnel is what will push them through your value ladder. Russell explains the psychology behind creating a profitable sales funnel, which if you get it right, will act almost as if on auto pilot.
Creating the right sales funnel using the right value ladder, will mean you will take warm leads from a free account or low value offer, eventually to a high ticket sale. Russell teaches you how to ensure your sales funnels are high converting, and how to ensure your customers will move through the funnel when they are read and willing.
Secret #4: How To Find Your Dream Customers
As the name suggests secret 4 teaches you how to find your dream customers. Unfortunately a lot of online business owners do not know who their ideal customers are. They may think they know who they are, but in reality they are an entirely different group of people.
Russell discusses how to define your target market so you can correctly identify who they are. This secret takes you through the process needed to identify where you dream customers are spending most of their time, and how you can easily divert them into your sales funnels.
Secret #5: The Three Types Of Traffic
Whether you are in eCommerce, affiliate marketing, direct sales or multi level marketing, traffic makes or breaks your business. If you run an online business the key is having people see your offer. You may have the greatest product and the best offering ever created. But if no one sees it, it may as well not exist.
In his 5th secret Russell defines the three types of traffic you will encounter online;
- Traffic we control
- The traffic we don’t control
- Traffic we own
Following this he reveals how to identify the traffic source you should focus on, and how to effective generate traffic to transform your business!
DotCom Secrets Section 2: Your Communication Funnel
Section two is centred around your communication with your audience. How you position yourself, your messaging style and content. Russell discusses the importance of creating your own online persona that can endear you to your customers and position you as relatable to their current situation.
This is done through what Russell describes as creating an Attractive Character.
Secret #6 – The Attractive Character
In order to create your attractive character you will need to cover the following 4 elements:
- Backstory – you need to present your backstory. Discuss what has bought you to this point, why you understand your customers needs and how you can relate to what they are going through.
- Parables – A parable is a short made up story that is used to present a particular topic of teaching.
- Character Flaws – You should be able to discuss your character flaws. This helps in making you relatable – no one is perfect, and you shouldnt pretend to be.
- Polarity – you character should be a polarising figure, meaning you have the ability to divide opinions and create strong emotions and opinions.
Russell also presents 4 main types of identity you can use to shape your character.
- The Leader
- The Adventurer / Crusader
- The Reporter / Evangelist
- The Reluctant Herd
Secret #7 – The Soap Opera Seqeunce
The Soap Opera Sequence is a 5 day sequence that aims to form a bond between your new leads and your attractive character.
In the sequence you move your lead through 5 key phases to form a bonded relationship with your character.
- Day 1 – Set the stage: Day 1 is the keystone to setting up the sequence, it prepares the lead for the follow stages they are going to move through.
- Day 2 – High Drama, Back Story & Wall: On day two you introduce your lead to the backstory with a high drama orientation story that presents a relatable road block, obstacle or wall.
- Day 3 – Epiphany, The One Thing: On day 3 the lead is presented with the “epiphany” the one thing they can change or do to overcome the obstacle or wall.
- Day 4 – Hidden Benefits: Following this epiphany day 4 drives home the hidden benefits of your solution.
- Day 5 – Urgency CTA: Finally on day 5 your lead is presented a strong call to action with a sense of urgency to convert them to a sale.
The key to this sequence is creating emails that your leads WANT to open. In DotCom Secrets Russell shares one of the exact sequences he uses himself and explains each email and the reasons he created it so you can adapt it to your business.
Secret #8 – Daily Seinfeld Sequence
Secret 8 revels the next email strategy that is vital to your online business, the Daily Seinfeld Sequence. These are emails you send your leads and subscribers to maintain a relationship with them.
Your customers are constantly being bombarded with sales messages, distractions and marketing material. It is important you connect with them on a regular basis so they do not forget you, and are receptive to your future marketing messages. Through this process they will start to expect your emails, and look forward to their content.
The concept behind the Seinfeld sequence is that they provide entertainment to your audience. Russell explains that each emails should consist of 10% content, and 90% entertainment. He presents examples so you can start doing this, which will see your open rates, click rates, and conversations dramatically increase.
DotCom Secrets Section 3: “Funnelology”
Section 3 of DotCom Secrets is termed “Funnelology” which in summary is all about strategies and techniques for building high converting sales funnels that can help you scale a profitable online business. Russell discusses in detail the different phases of a funnel, what you NEED to include in your funnel to ensure it is successful. As well as the 23 building blocks of a sales funnel and the difference between frontend and backend funnels.
He does this through revealing 5 key secrets he has learnt over his long and successful career.
Secret #9: Reverse-Engineering A Successful Funnel
Through this secret Russell explains how you can reverse engineer a successful funnel to recreate it for your business. As I explained early in the review, the keys to any successful marketing strategy have not fundamentally changed for decades. There is no reason to reinvent the wheel, countless competitors and other online entrepreneurs have successful sales funnels that you can leverage to build your own version that suits your business.
This is an incredibly common practice utilised by virtually all successful online entrepreneurs. Part of the growth of any budding 7 figure online entrepreneur is mimicking those who are already successful, taking the fundamentals of their winning methods and moulding them to suite your own needs.
In order to do this, Russell explains you must consider how the following key areas relate to your business, and what you need to change to create your own successful sales funnel:
- Demographics
- Ad copy and copies
- Traffic sources
- Offers
- Landing page
Russell unlocks all the secrets to reverse engineering any sales funnel, and gives clear examples to highlight how you can do this with ANY funnel.
Secret #10: Seven Phases Of A Funnel
Russell believes there are 7 phases of any sales funnel. Secret 10 centres around these phases, and understanding what they are, and how to use them. The 7 phases include;
- Phase #1 – Traffic Temperate: Hot, Warm or Cold
- Phase #2 – Your Pre-Frame Bridge
- Phase #3 – Qualify Subscribers
- Phase #4 – Qualify Buyers
- Phase #5 – Identify Hyperactive Buyers
- Phase #6 – Age And Ascend The Relationship
- Phase #7 – Change The Selling Environment
Russell explains that the only difference between average online entrepreneurs and six, seven and eight figure entrepreneurs is how well they understand the 7 phases, and how successfully that can monetize each phase along the way.
Through understanding the 7 phases of a sales funnel you can esnure you select the right type of page, offer, and traffic that will lead to sales.
Secret #11: The Twenty-Three Building Blocks Of A Funnel
Secret #11, The Twenty-Three Building Blocks Of A Funnel is fairly self explanatory. Russell explains in detail all the essential pieces of the puzzle when it comes to building a successful sales funnel.
The 23 building blocks can be grouped into four different groups;
- Pre-frame Bridge
- Qualifying Subscribers
- Qualifying Buyers
- Identifying Buyers in Heat
Russell goes through each of these groups, and discusses in detail each building block that comes in the group. Through understanding these building blocks you can create the PERFECT funnel for any product offer.
Secret #12: Frontend Vs. Backend Funnels
Ensuring you have the right funnel is often as important as the offer and product itself. Secret 12 helps to give you an understanding into the different between a frontend and a backend funnel. In short a frontend funnel serves unqualified leads and buyers. These are the bulk of your funnels and attract your new leads and customers. Backend funnels are for qualified buyers only. These for example may be a high ticket product offering that is only presented to a buyer after they have purchased a lower value product.
In this secret Russell outlines explains the process he undertakes when choosing which funnels to use in each area to ensure he maximising his conversions.
Secret #13: The Best Bait
Finally Russell comes to his last secret, The Best Bait. In this section Russell explains the secret that has lead him to generate millions of dollars worth of sales. He explains the importance of creating “Aha-Moments” that instantly provide clarity for your customers and edify your product.
Regardless of what type of business you run, which industry or niche it is in, or what product your offer, the most successful entrepreneurs understand how to create an irresistible offer, that your leads cannot skip over.
DotCom Secrets Section 4: Funnels and Scripts
This section takes a lot of the secrets previously discussed and expands about them, specifically Russell goes into detail about some of his best sales funnels and scripts. He also discusses the psychology he uses behind each funnel and how they work, before providing you with a template to use for your own business.
Russell then introduces the concept of the One Time Offer (OTO). As the name suggests its an offer that is presented only at a specific time, generally after a purchase has been made. The offer is available for a limited amount of time, and will never be offered again. The seven specific funnels he discusses.
- Two Step – Free plus shipping Funnel.
- Self Liquidating Offer Funnel
- Continuity Funnel
- The Perfect Webinar Funnel
- Invisible Funnel Webinar
- Product Launch Funnel
- High Ticket, Three Step application Funnel
In discussing each funnel he goes over in detail a real world example of how he implemented and used the funnel in his businesses. He also offers actionable steps you can take to implement each funnel in your business.
DotCom Secrets Section 5: ClickFunnels
The last section is essentially a sales pitch for ClickFunnels. Naturally ClickFunnels is the platform Russell created to implement every one of secrets and teachings he presented in the DotCom Secrets book. As you’d expect there isnt much you can learn from this section as its not intended to impart wisdom, moreso highlight a way you can implement everything from the book.
You can read my ClickFunnels review here for a more detailed look at how it works.
DotCom Secrets Price
As with all of Russells book offers, the book itself is promoted as FREE, all you have to do is pay the shipping. The shipping itself is what you’d expect to pay when buying anything online, so the book itself is in fact free. If you are based withing the US you will pay $9.95 for shipping and handling. Whereas international shipping and handling costs $19.95.
To put this into perspective, if you purchase the book elsewhere, for example Amazon, it will cost you upwards of $14.
Following the initial purchase you will be presented with a number of order bumps, upsells and one time offers. These include
DotCom Secrets Order Bump #1 – Audio Book $37
The first order bump is fairly self explanatory, an Audio book of the DotCom Secrets book, valued at $37. The audio book is a great alternative for those who do not have the time, or desire to dedicate specific time to sit down and read a book. Personally I love audio books as I can listen to them on the commute to work, driving my car, at the gym and virtually anywhere that I can wear my head phones!
DotCom Secrets Order Bump #2 – 2 Day Event $97
The DotCom Secrets second order bump is exclusive access to a previously held live 2 day event called ‘DotCom Secrets LIVE’ held by Russell himself. At this event, where his top students that pay $25,000 per year, he revealed dozens of never seen before secrets not discussed in the DotCom Secrets book.
It cost $97 and you can also get it as an upsell in the DotCom Secrets book funnel.
DotCom Secrets OTO #1 – Secrets Trilogy Box Set $97
When you purchase Dotcom Secrets book you are presented with a One Time Offer of the Secrets Trilogy Box Set. The Secrets Trilogy Set includes
- Traffic Secrets Hardback Copy Book – read a full review here
- Expert Secrets Hardback Copy Book – read a full review here
- Dotcom Secrets Hardback Copy Book
Along with these you will also receive a bonus book called, Unlock The Secrets. Unlock The Secrets states it is “Your underground playbook for scaling your company to the “Two Comma Club” and beyond”. The Two Comma Club is an exclusive invite only club for entrepreneurs who have generated $1 million or more through a ClickFunnels sales funnel.
The price for the box set is only $97.
DotCom Secrets OTO #2 – Funnelytics $397
The final one time offer is a subscription to Funnelytics. Funnelytics is a software tool that is often coupled with ClickFunnels and other funnel building software. It is not a replacement, rather an enhancement. Funnelytics is a lead magnet funnel mapping tool and analytics program that provides real time analytics to help optimise your funnels.
It was founded in 2018 by Mikael Dia and is an essential tool for any ClickFunnels user.
Funnelytics comes with an easy drag and drop visual interface with built-in analytics tools to track performance. The tool does not allow you, or help you create landing pages, funnels and send emails, rather it helps map out their sequence, and establishes the best sequence using real time data.
The Funnelytics OTO is only $397.
My ClickFunnels DotCom Secrets Verdict! Is it Worth It?
Definitely. Out of all of Russells books I found this want to most helpful, especially when I was starting out. DotCom Secrets offers an incredibly easy step by step guide with actionable steps to building your online business. I have no hesitation in recommending this book as I think knowledge is incredibly underrated and you cannot get learn enough.
The order bumps are also incredibly valuable, the box set gives you all of Russells books and Unlock The Secrets which in my opinion are must haves for any online entrepreneur. As I suggested earlier, the final OTO, Funnelytics is a MUST have for anyone who is using ClickFunnels.
The best way I can explain it is imagine driving a car with no dashboard – no speed indicator, gas levels, engine and warning lights. You may get to your destination but if anything goes wrong you will not even know where to start! Funnelytics gives you the ability to actively optimise your funnels in real time, identify and fix issues before they even occur. Funnelytics is the key to creating the highest converting sales funnels.
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One Last Thing Before You Go…
ClickFunnel’s is truely one of the top resources for any affiliate marketer, online businessperson or ecommerce entrepreneur. The products are the highest quality and often in my opinion overdeliver – which is almost a mantra of Russell. However it is not my number 1 recommendation for making money online.
I have tried so many programs and systems I have lost count. The ones that were not scams all have their strengths and weaknesses but the one that resonated the most with me, and has made me the most money, was developed by one of the 16 super affiliates, Jacob Caris.
Jacob has developed a simple 3 step system for building a super affiliate business – you could say his resume definitely shows he is cut out for the job! It is aptly named Super Affiliate Accelerator. The great thing about his system is it does not require any tech skills, and can be used from anyone to a complete beginner to a seasoned veteran.
In fact it has recently been so successful I have started to see other programs scrambled and doing damage control as students are leaving to come to Super Affiliate Accelerator.
If you are serious about building a profitable online business, and growing to become a super affiliate this program is for you. Jacob does not accept everyone however. You must be willing to put in work, and be committed to succeeding – otherwise he will turn you away. Sound like you? Click the link below to get started.
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