Unless you've been in a cave, you know that Harry Potter mania is a worldwide phenomenon. Kids and grownups alike eagerly await the release of each book and movie, and I'm one of them. I even devoured the last book, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," in less than a day. But even more interesting than the stories, from a business point of view, anyway, is the fact that 6.9 million copies of that book were sold in just 24 hours. Wow!

Actually, I had my own "big" release just a few days before the boy wizard - it was for the tapes of my "Underground Online Seminar," which are now sold out. However, I have to admit I didn't fare anywhere near the multi-million dollar payday J.K. Rowling had, but it still wasn't too shabby. I raked in over six figures (actually $193,380 to be exact) in the first 24 hours of my release.

So what do these two releases have in common? One word...anticipation.

Whether it's for the next blockbuster summer movie (think"Star Wars") or for Harry Potter or even your product - if you really want a big, monster payday you've got to create an event. I'm going to let you step behind the curtain a little bit so you can use some of these same strategies I used.

First of all, I need to give credit where credit is due. My friend, Jeff Walker, helped me formulate the plan for this release. So let's dive right in…

Secret #1: Create Anticipation We've already talked about this, but let's give a few more specifics. I started an "early-bird" list from my subscribers and customers. I got people to raise their hands and say "Yes, I want to know first when you'll be releasing these DVDs." Then once people were on this list we started "dripping" on them. We used a blog to post everything from "spy photos" of the product (which came in a very cool, individually numbered suitcase) to actual video clips from the event. Each communication whet the person's appetitie for the upcoming release. Please keep in mind, these updates were planned out before the start of the promotion so it wasn't just thrown together by the seat of our pants.

Secret #2: Secure Partners' Participation Over the years I've built up a network of friends and business associates. I don't "hit up" my Internet friends and associates too often to promote products, so most of them were eager to help with this promotion. This is the same thing you can be doing in your own marketplace. Instead of thinking of competitors - you should consider them potential promotion partners. Also start "digging your well before you are thirsty." That means building relationships and networking with people in your industry and marketplace who have influence and carry weight.

Secret #3: Promotion Tools Everybody has too much to do and too little time to do it,so the more you can "spoon-feed" your partners the better. Yes, some people will take the extra effort to do their own promotions, but most people would rather have a pre-made "cut and paste" email or letter to send. That's why I provided my partners with "content" in the form of video clips from the seminar that they could release to their list. This put more people on the early-bird list who were "glued" to that particular partner. Cater to everyone's laziness and make it "fill-in-the-blank" or turn-key simple.

Secret #4: Get People Buying I wanted to make sure people were really excited about the release, so we reminded them the day before and also one hour before the release time. Plus, I even added a special time-limited bonus that expired after 4 p.m. on the first day of the launch. That gave people one more incentive to order right away. You can't stop with one notice about a launch - you've got to remind them multiple times when everything is happening.

Follow these 4 secrets and you'll see some big numbers in no time flat!