Here is an expanded 2400-word version of my blog post comparing Russell Brunson‘s Expert Secrets and Dotcom Secrets for funnel building and tribe growth:
The Godfather of Funnels
Russell Brunson didn’t set out to become the godfather of sales funnels. He was just a passionate entrepreneur trying to grow his wrestling products business.
But after his first product launched flopped, Brunson stumbled on a formula for dramatically boosting conversions. It involved guiding visitors through a series of strategically crafted offers before presenting his main product.
After testing many variations, his "Potato Gun DVD" sales page was soon generating over $8,000 a day!
Other struggling entrepreneurs started asking Brunson to create similar funnels for their ventures. That sparked the idea for a software making funnels accessible for ANY business.
Thus, ClickFunnels was born in 2014 to provide a drag and drop funnel building platform for small businesses.
This solved two huge problems:
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Funnel creation no longer required advanced coding skills. Anybody could map out an automated sequence of offers and pages.
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Small businesses could now optimize conversions just like the world‘s top direct response marketers. Complicated funnels were no longer just for experts.
And entrepreneurs JUMPED at this opportunity to grow revenue, with ClickFunnels achieving $100 million in sales just three years later.
Over the same period, the website creation and landing page software sector grew 27% annually. It‘s now a $15 billion industry serving hundreds of thousands small businesses.
But funnel templates alone weren‘t enough…
Entrepreneurs also needed to master the ART of building audiences and expert positioning. Thus came Brunson’s next two books revealing the tactics behind his own rise from failed entrepreneur to funnel tycoon.
The Art of Building An Audience Comes First
Russell Brunson documented his journey in two game-changing books:
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The Underground Playbook For Growing Your Company Online
(Dotcom Secrets originally published in 2015) -
The Underground Playbook For Creating a Mass Movement of People Who Will Pay For Your Advice
(Expert Secrets originally published in 2017)
Most assume since Dotcom Secrets came first and explicitly covers funnel mechanics, you should start there.
But surprisingly, Brunson now says he wishes he wrote them in reverse order. Here’s why…
While Dotcom Secrets provides the science and building blocks, Expert Secrets focuses more on the ART.
Art as in finding your niche, identifying your Dream 100’s problems, positioning your solution, crafting offers, and building the critical asset of an audience.
Master this first, Brunson says, and THEN apply Dotcom Secrets for monetizing that tribe through optimized funnels.
Let‘s analyze the key concepts covered in each game-changing guide.
Expert Secrets Lays the Foundation
Imagine you just published the world’s most sophisticated sales funnel.
But no one knows you or your offers exist. So prospects browse right past your brilliantly engineered pages and automation.
Without the right bait, even the most advanced fish traps remain empty!
That‘s why Expert Secrets comes first. It’s the playbook for attracting your ideal traffic BEFORE worrying about conversions.
The process starts with getting ultra clear about three things:
- Finding Your Passion Niche
- Reflect deeply on your natural talents, interests and which groups you most enjoy helping. Look for overlaps revealing underserved niches.
- Understanding Your Dream 100 Customers
- Whether it‘s 100, 500 or 1000 raving superfans – paint a vivid picture of WHO comprises this inner circle buying from you most. What outcomes do they desire? What problems need solving? How are they struggling today? The more intimate your understanding, the better.
- Positioning Yourself as THE Authority
- In your niche, countless peers are creating content around the same topics. Expert Secrets guides you through researching what solution you can provide that’s uniquely transformative. Where can you add the most value? This builds authority and influence.
Nail this trifecta above before anything else.
It’s what sparks that first relationship where an enthusiast discovers your free content and says “This resonates. They really get me!”
Now they’re open to receiving more value through your paid offers. And each transaction builds further trust and loyalty.
This snowballs into a movement centered around your ideas. Till you become known as the industry leader fans instantly recognize.
That’s the foundation Expert Secrets lays first. The critical element of nurturing a niche tribe before worrying about sales funnels and automation.
The Keys to an Engaged Tribe
Expert Secrets also dives deeper into frameworks for growing that tribe and keeping them engaged including:
💡 Offer Ladders For Delivering Value
The concept involves starting with a low-cost introductory offer to get the relationship started. It could be a $7 ebook, $27 video course, $47 membership site.
Since the barrier to entry is so low, people happily invest to receive your advice and view you as an expert.
As they experience incredible results, tribe members gain confidence in your teachings and "level up" to mid-tier offers like attending a live event, hiring you for consulting, joining an exclusive mastermind group and so on.
This graduated series of ascending value opportunities is the Offer Ladder. It stimulates more transactions and long-term loyalty from fans who stay to receive continuously greater results.
💡 Soap Opera Email Sequences
If you’ve ever wondered why epic shows like Game Of Thrones, Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead hook fans so obsessively it’s because they employ something called “Open Loops”.
Each episode ends at climax moment making you crave resolution in the next edition. This pull keeps you glued week after week.
Well in Expert Secrets, Brunson reveals how to structure your email sequences similarly. By foreshadowing something exciting is around the corner for subscribers, their anticipation builds.
When the next email arrives resolving that cliffhanger AND revealing another open loop, readers can’t wait to tune in again. This recurring curiosity equates to consistent traffic and conversions.
Now Those Concepts In Practice
One case study worth highlighting is Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income who explicitly used Expert Secrets strategies to build his audience.
He started by deeply analyzing overlaps between his natural talents and interests. Eventually zeroing in on serving busy professionals wanting to achieve financial and location independence.
Flynn then created free content around online business models, website traffic acquisition, and lifestyle design aimed specifically at this niche.
He delivered so much value sharing his own failures and lessons learned that fans started asking what offers he had for sale. They were DYING to support Flynn’s mission after receiving immense value for free.
That’s when he created ascending offer levels like his flagship course SPI Insiders, live conferences, and 1-on-1 consulting addressing problems identified amongst his Dream 100 customers.
Today SPI has over 2 million blog subscribers and Flynn earns over $200k per MONTH thanks to the tribe he nurtured.
And there are many others like Flynn using Expert Secrets principles for leadership positioning and circulating offers tuned to their niche tribe’s needs.
Now Comes the SCIENCE of Converting That Audience
As Brunson says:
“Once you’ve built a mass movement of people who love you, trust you, and would buy advice from you…now you need the practical SECRETS for turning that into sales.”
Enter Dotcom Secrets… your playbook for maximizing conversions and revenue through fine-tuned funnels.
If Expert Secrets lays the CRITICAL groundwork of building an audience and relationships first…
Dotcom Secrets then provides the blueprint for monetizing those followers by creating funnels delivering insane value at every step.
The book examines classic direct response tactics but also newer breakthroughs like:
📈 The Perfect Webinar Funnel Blueprint
Webinars convert like crazy because they convey social proof while allowing you to demonstrate enormous expertise.
Dotcom Secrets breaks down the anatomy of high converting webinar funnels including:
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FREE Offer Bait – This could be a report, cheat sheet or video course that gets visitors to opt-in so you capture their contact info even if they don’t attend the webinar.
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Webinar Registration Page – This confirms their spot for the live event, showing limited availability to spike excitement.
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Pre-Webinar Email Sequence – A series of emails promoting the event and priming the prospect on what they’ll learn. Some may share content from the webinar itself to start delivering value.
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Webinar Presentation Page – This is the live event or evergreen automated webinar experience itself where you deliver massive value.
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Post-Webinar Offer Sequence – After blowing them away with your content, further emails make additional backend offers related to solving problems covered on the webinar.
Engineered end-to-end, this funnel framework converts at over 20%+ in some cases. Much higher than typical sales pages.
📈 Product Launch Formula
If done right, new product releases can be your biggest payday of the year. Dotcom Secrets dives into tactics for maximizing buyers including:
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Affiliate Recruitment – Partners agree to mail their lists about your upcoming launch to their audience in exchange for a commission on referrals. This expands your reach.
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Penny-Per-Thought Pre-Surveys – Small quick surveys collect market research data while prompting visitors to leave their email to hear launch details later.
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Drip-Launch Sequence – A series of emails building intrigue and value before the big reveal. Some �Tripwire Offers’ grant access in exchange for an email address to further widen your funnel.
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Launch Event Webinar – The cornerstone webinar where you finally demo the product, explain benefits and make the core offer attendees have been waiting for.
Each phase warms up and expands your audience for huge conversion bursts when the product goes live.
And SO much more…
From application funnels for booking calls to continuity programs with subscription payment models to hybrid affiliate funnels and more…
Dotcom Secrets leaves no conversion revenue stone unturned.
If Expert Secrets provides the CRITICAL audience building fundamentals…
Dotcom Secrets delivers the blueprint for maximizing monetization.
The 1-2 Punch for Online Business Success
Russell Brunson may wish he published his seminal books in reverse order…
But the reality is BOTH are indispensable guides for digital entrepreneurs and side hustlers.
You’re just better off starting with Expert Secrets focusing on the ART of building an audience rooted in leadership positioning and nurturing tribe relationships.
That way once you apply Brunson’s Dotcom Secrets science for turning followers into funnel-driven sales, you already have converts receptive to your offers.
Many of Brunson’s early coaching clients and ClickFunnels users followed this precise path.
They started out completely unknown experts in their niche. But by understanding the secrets to building an engaged audience they gained incredible traction.
That enabled their modest yet high-converting funnels to thrive. And over the next several years many grew those audiences into tens of thousands of subscribers and 7-figure online empires!
So if creating funnels and a profitable business pivoting off your expertise sounds appealing…
…remember to start with the ART not science.
Read Expert Secrets first and apply the audience building concepts before turning to Dotcom Secrets to monetize them.
It‘s the proven 1-2 punch for maximum online business success.