Archive | August, 2022

How do you influence others over the Internet? Whether you want to change a mind or make a sale, the better you are at influencing, the more you’ll get what it is that you want.

With that in mind here are 27 tips in no particular order to strengthen your own online influence and get more of what you seek.

Pick one niche and become the master of that niche. The thinner you spread yourself, the less influence you have. That’s why you want to thoroughly cover one niche rather than haphazardly trying to cover several of them.

Get out of your own online world and into new communities. We tend to get stuck in a rut of our own making, and we view the world from that one perspective that we’ve chosen. But if you’re going to influence others, you need to hang out with them, experience their world and see what makes them tick.

Build long term relationships. The longer and better you know someone, the more influence you have in that relationship. Work on making your customers stick to you for years, until they’re sure you’re a friend and there’s no hesitation on their part when you recommend something. The oldest customers are almost always the least skeptical and most trusting because you’ve taken the time to really get to know them.

Be authentic and consistent. If you are being your true authentic self, it will show. And in being authentic, you never have to worry about being consistent. You know how a liar has trouble keeping his stories straight? As the real, honest authentic you, you’ll only have one story – yours.

Know who your target prospects are and then find other people who already have your prospects on their lists. Now co-create products with those people to put yourself in front of your prospects. Instant influence!

Speak for those who are afraid to speak. Sometimes it takes guts to say what needs to be said. Become the person in the theater who asks the noisy patron to be silent, and the rest of the theater will love you. It works the same way online – be the one to speak up for others and you will have influence over those you speak for.

Give. Lots. Often. Too often we are focused on our goals, our business, and on ourselves. Try giving as much as you can and as often as you can without thought of what you might get in return.

Be passionate. No one follows a mediocre, middle of the road person. People follow others who are passionate in their beliefs. An ounce of passion will out sway and out influence a pound of reasoning and logic nearly every time.

Share the internal stuff. Having a nightmare moving your website? Confounded by the speaker in the conference you’re sitting in? Thrilled that you just got a great big order? We’re taught to always keep it professional, but it’s through sharing both the good and bad that people feel they know you and your business.

Create video content for your niche. In your videos, be bold, be passionate, be exciting. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, just correct them and keep going. Be human. Be fun. And distribute your videos like crazy.

Share good content today. Tomorrow. Every day.

Tell stories. Who doesn’t love stories? And who can’t be influenced by the right story? Learn to become a master at storytelling and you can persuade even the most ardent enemy into joining your side.

Focus on a smaller niche. It’s hard to exert influence when you are one of 10,000 bloggers writing about weight loss – it’s easy to be influential when you are writing about weight loss for new moms in the Phoenix area.

Choose 5 to 10 people you admire in your niche and gradually get to know them. Share their stuff with your readers, ‘like’ their posts, ask them questions and pull them into your circle of influence. And don’t forget to thank them for what they have done for you, how they have influenced you, for the insights they’ve given you along the way.

Share yourself. Share your ideas, your thoughts, your ambitions – share what you’re doing today or what you did today. Not the, “I ate oatmeal” stuff, but rather the, “I thought about my grandad today and wondered what he would do if faced with this decision.” People listen when you share what’s close to your heart.

Align yourself with the best people in your niche. Not necessarily those who are making the most money, but rather those who are doing the best work and helping the most people. Those are the people you want as partners.

Don’t worry about how you’re going to get attention. Instead, make or do something worthwhile, something worth talking about.

Be different. Defy convention and do what others aren’t doing and say what others aren’t saying. People notice those who dare to be different.

Do interviews. Even if you have to get a friend to interview you, just do it. Get it online and make sure it’s seen by your people.

Become an advocate. Identify people on their way up in your niche and help them to succeed. By becoming their advocate, they in turn become yours.

Get people talking. People want to express themselves and they want to be heard. But start simple. Ask if they prefer smooth or crunchy peanut butter, or what their favorite food is. Work up to the bigger stuff. There may be no greater source of influence than simply listening – REALLY listening – to your people.

Choose who to influence by micro-targeting to find just the right people for your blog – product – niche – service. Only want women in their 30’s who work in Albuquerque New Mexico? Use Facebook advertising to find those people.

Make connections online, and then every chance you get, meet them in the real world. This might be at a conference, or it might be locally. Nothing beats meeting face to face.

Put your business ahead of your own fame. Sure you can become the top dog on a forum, but is it enhancing your business? If not, why are you doing it – for the fame? Keep your eye on your business goals, and if what you’re doing doesn’t further those goals, you probably shouldn’t be doing it.

Stop talking about your products and services and start talking about your customer. No matter what you write or say, always keep in mind, “Is this what the customer wants to know? Am I communicating with them, or just tooting my own horn?” They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care is as true today as it was before the Internet.

Be the go-to person of your niche for content. Filter and aggregate your niche content so that your website is a one-stop-shop for the latest news.

Have a point of view. Sure, not everyone will share it – but that’s a good thing. Those who do share it will follow you anywhere.

Leverage some or all of these tips, and you’ll become a better influencer in all you do.

The post 27 Tips To Strengthen Your Online Influence appeared first on .

Source: hbio

There is so much disinformation on this that I just have to weigh in. No doubt you’ve been told or read that you should create a fancy autoresponder sequence where each email builds upon the previous email. And that if you make it fancy enough, and complicated enough, you can get prospects to take any action you like, blah blah blah…

But guess what? You don’t know how people are going to respond to it. You can make a prediction, but your guess might be 180 degrees off. So now you’ve come up with an elaborate system that accomplishes nothing.

More importantly, building a sequential series like sections of a story might have worked 10 years ago, but these days I guarantee that even your best customers will not read and digest every one of your emails. Some of your emails won’t even get through, and many will be lost in a sea of OTHER emails from other marketers.

No matter who you are or how famous you might be, not every message of yours will get read. Remember that. Thus each email needs to stand on its own and not rely on the reader having read and remembered something in a previous email.

So what should you place in your autoresponder sequences? Here are some ideas that flat out work at getting a response…

1. Send people to your blog. If you’ve got a blog with great posts full of good information, write up an email for each blog post and place it in your autoresponder. This only works for evergreen information and blog posts that don’t display a date.

2. You can even tie each blog post to a product you’re promoting. For example, “Here’s a great product that teaches you exactly how to get traffic. And before you get that traffic pouring into your website, you’ll want to make sure your page is optimized for the highest conversion possible. Here’s a post on how to do that.”

3. Don’t send your readers to your blog every day – break those messages up with other messages.

4. Emails that convert well. You send a broadcast email to your list and the response is phenomenal, or just plain good. So what do you do? Most marketers forget about it. But the smart money says to copy and paste that email into your autoresponder series. And yes, it’s okay to send out repeat information. Some of your readers will never see it the first time, and others who did see it will appreciate the reminder.

5. Send them a question. Yes, in the autoresponder series, send them an email that asks an either/or type of question. For example, “Which do you value more – exciting new diet news or easier fat-burning exercise techniques? Reply back with one or the other in the subject line.”

6. Then follow up with both. “Are you one of those who wants the latest new diet news? Well check this out!” “Are you one of those who said you want exercise techniques that burn fat? Look at this!” You’re hitting both (in two separate emails) regardless of which they answered.

7. Personal stories. You’ve got a ton of stories to share with others, you just don’t realize it. And so long as you can relate those stories to the interests of your readers, by all means share those. Anytime you can show that you are a real person with a real life and real challenges, you’re that much closer to forging a bond with your customers. After all, just like you, they want to do business with people they KNOW, like and trust.

As you can see, building an autoresponder series isn’t a cookie-cutter science. Best developed, it’s an authentic and organically developed series of follow up messages that help you create deeper connections with your subscribers so that you can build meaningful business relationships through building trust and connecting the value that your products offer with the needs and aspirations that your subscribers actually have.

Are you up to the task of building a great autoresponder series? I hope so because once developed and refined, your autoresponder follow up emails can work on autopilot for years to come helping to tirelessly deliver more sales and profits for your online business.

The post What Should Go into Your Autoresponder? appeared first on .

Source: hbio

Notice the headline doesn’t say, “How to Create a Product and Sell It.” Frankly, that’s exactly what most marketers do – they create a product without any thought to what the market wants, and then they try to figure out a way to sell it. Result? Most times: failure.

To create a product that sells, you want to first identify a niche that’s hungry, and then offer them whatever it is that they are hungry for. The hard work is in finding that target audience that is ready and eager to buy.

Once you’ve done that, creating the product is the easy part, as well as the fun part because you know in advance that you are about to make money.

So how do you identify a hungry niche?

Here are keys to look for when investigating a possible market:

Are they in pain? Are they seeking relief from that pain, and are they willing to pay for that relief?

Do they have a problem? If so, are they willing to pay to get the solution to that problem?

Are they seeking a specific pleasure? Are they willing to pay to receive that pleasure?

My advice is to focus as much as possible on the first two. While people are certainly willing to pay for pleasure, they will part with their money far faster to relieve pain or solve a pressing problem.

If you find competition in your prospective niche, it’s a good sign that there is money to be made, so don’t think you’ve got to find some great undiscovered niche – it’s not likely to happen. If there is no competition, realize that it’s probably because no one is buying.

Now then, you are going to allow your market niche to define your product. In other words, rather than creating the product and finding the market, you’ve now found your market and you’re going to create your product to satisfy the specific needs of that market.

Let’s say you’re targeting retirees who want to make extra income online. What do you know about your niche? You know that generally they’re not as computer savvy as teens and twenty-somethings, that they’re going to be more receptive to building long term income rather than something that’s supposed to make them rich overnight, that they’re likely to be more skeptical when it comes to making money from home, and so forth.

Thus you are going to target all of your marketing and your products using the information you gather from your research on this niche, and you’re going to always have your prospects in mind when you’re working on your business. You might even imagine a couple of your best prospects right there in the room with you as you’re creating your product and your marketing materials.

Let me give you a head start on finding a niche that’s just dying to purchase your product.

The three biggest, hottest and hungriest mega niches are…

1. Health, fitness and weight loss
2. Making money
3. Relationships, dating and personal development

These are excellent starting points, but of course you’re not going to target the ENTIRE health, fitness and weight loss market. If you’re trying to market to everyone, you are marketing to NO ONE.

Thus you’re going to drill down to find the specific group within these niches that you want to market to.

Examples: College women wanting to lose weight. Stay at home moms wanting to earn money. People married over 10 years wanting to put the spark back in their marriage.

And you could narrow it down from there. The point is, once you have a hungry niche, you extensively research and even interview that niche until you know exactly what they want, and then offer it to them.

Do you see the difference between guessing what people might want, and KNOWING in advance what they will pay for? It will save you time and frustration while growing your bank account 10 times faster than guessing ever would.

The post How to Create a Product That Sells appeared first on .

Source: hbio

When someone asks what you do for a living – what do you tell them?

That you own a business? That you write a blog? That you create products or build websites, or that you’re a doctor or a lawyer or a plumber or a race car driver?

I hope not, because while all those things are professions – they’re still NOT what pays your bills.

The only real answer to the question of what you do, regardless of what your profession is, is that you are a marketer!

Your specialty is attracting new customers or clients, persuading existing customers to make larger and more frequent purchases, and ensuring that they continue to buy from you – forever.

Your answer to “What do you do?” says a great deal about how YOU think about your business or job. If you’re defining yourself by the service you provide or the products you sell, you’re setting yourself up to lose business that otherwise could have been yours simply because your head is in the wrong place.

Every business is first and foremost a marketing enterprise, even if it’s a non-profit. After all, without customers, you have no business. Getting those customers and then getting those customers to spend their money with you is how you stay in business, stay profitable and grow.

When your mindset is on marketing first, you will base your decisions on what creates business, thus eliminating many of the wrong turns and mistakes that the “business owners” make.

You are a marketer. Say it loudly, state it proudly, act accordingly and you cannot help but be successful.

The post What Do You Do For A Living? appeared first on .

Source: hbio

Whether you’re doing product reviews or simply sending traffic to an affiliate page, here are 5 ways to capture attention and get your prospects seriously interested in purchasing the product you’re promoting…

1. Use screen captures. This might be of the vendor’s website, the product itself, the download page, etc. Anything that helps your reader to see themselves on the page and buying the product.

2. Use a benefit picture. Depending on the product, you might be able to find a photo that depicts a benefit of using the product. For example, if it’s an herbal supplement to provide energy, then a photo of a leaping, jumping or a somehow energized person may boost interest.

3. Use product pictures. If it’s a physical product, by all means use photos provided by the vendor or ones you’ve taken yourself. If it’s a digital product, only show the e-cover or product images if they look highly professional.

4. Show the data. Are there tables or charts on the sales page that present a good case? You might place one of these in your write up or your review.

5. Make a video. This is perhaps the best one of all – make a short video of you USING the product. If it’s a physical product, show it off and if possible use it in front of the camera. If it’s a digital product, take screen captures of you using it.

Small things make a difference, and product images sell. Try a few of these conversion boosters in your next affiliate promotion and I bet you’ll make more sales for your efforts.

The post 5 Ways to Boost Sales on Affiliate Products appeared first on .

Source: hbio

I mentioned in a previous article that you don’t want to become one of those many one hit wonders that make a big splash on the Internet and then vanish – but how do you make sure that you’re not? Because it’s really easy to say you won’t be, but the fact is that no one PLANS to be a one hit wonder; in fact it happens when you DON’T plan.

I’m going to offer some tips here for ensuring that your success is not the flash in the pan variety, but rather the type of success that continues to pay off day in and day out for years to come.

Really what we are talking about is becoming what you might call a “repeat success.” Because isn’t that the opposite of being a one hit wonder? There is nothing at all wrong with that initial success – it’s repeating that success over and over that gets you the outcome you’re seeking. Sort of like being a one hit wonder a hundred or even several hundred times. And when you view it like this, you see that it becomes easier.

The first thing I’m going to recommend will sound too easy, perhaps, but it’s extremely important that you try it out for the next 21 days. I say 21 days, because psychologists say it takes that long to make a new habit. Plus, it gives you the proper chance to evaluate the results and see that what I’m telling you is profound, to say the least.

Okay, are you ready? The first thing you need to do to ensure you have ongoing success is to pick a number from 2 to 5, and then do that many things in your business everyday.

Let’s say you are a super busy person with a full time job and a young family, so you don’t have much time to devote to your online business. Your number is going to be 2, because you’re only going to have time to do 2 things a day. If you’re working online full time, your number is 5. And if you’re in between, you can determine the right number for you.

Now then, every evening you’re going to make a list of the most important things you need to accomplish the following day in your business. If your number is 2, then write down the 2 things you want to do. If your number is 5, then you’ll list the 5 things.

Obviously, you’re not going to choose 5 really big things like “build a new website,” “create a new product,” etc. Instead, you’ll break down your tasks so that they’re manageable and doable in the time allotted. And then you’re going to do those things, no matter what. As in, NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS.

Doing the things on your list takes priority over your favorite TV shows, eating out, etc. These things are as important as brushing your teeth and sleeping, and once you realize that then you’re not arguing with yourself on whether or not to do them, you’re simply DOING them.

I told you this would seem too simple – does it? Because this one technique will do more for you than almost anything else. Certainly it will allow you to accomplish more than any self-help seminar you could attend, or any time management tool you could use. The list technique is not new, it’s old and it’s proven and you know what else? It flat out WORKS. So if you’re not already doing it, then I encourage you with all my heart to start using this method now, today, right this very moment.

A word of caution – I see students of Internet Marketing get very excited and say something like, “I am going to do TEN things every day!” But this is a trap. What happens is you get burned out and in less than 21 days you’re not doing ANYTHING in your business because it just became too overwhelming, too time consuming and too much like WORK. And isn’t that what so many of us are trying to escape, the drudgery of WORK?

So don’t fall into that trap. If you have lots of hours in your day then choose the number 5, do those 5 things in the morning and early afternoon, and then TAKE THE REST OF THE DAY OFF. That’s right – do not allow yourself to get burned out because you will find that your biggest asset in your business is actually your enthusiasm for the business.

Also, do take a day off. Not 2 days, at least not in the beginning, because if you take 2 days off those 2 days often become 3, and then 4, and then you’re not doing anything. But you can take one day off and go do something totally unrelated to your online business, and come back refreshed and re-energized the next day.

My second tip for ensuring you have long term success is so simple, and yet few people understand the power of it. Ready? It’s to FINISH WHAT YOU START. If you start creating a product, finish it and then promote it. It’s not finished until you get it out there and promote it. If you’re writing a blog, set a schedule and keep to it. True, your blog will never be “finished,” but if you stop writing then it’s as good as an unfinished project.

Look, I probably sound like your parents on this one. “Son, you’ve got to learn to finish what you start.” Why do you suppose your parents said that? Frankly, they probably said it because their parents said it, but there is a terrific amount of wisdom behind that thought.

First of all, if you don’t finish what you start then you have wasted your time and energy on that project. Second, you receive nothing in return for your effort – you can’t make sales and earn money on a product you didn’t finish.

Third, unfinished work breaks you down psychologically. Having unfinished tasks in your life is like having pesky little green goblins sitting on your shoulders tapping you on the side of your head and telling you that you’re a failure. Why? Because an unfinished project is a failure. It’s a constant reminder of something you intended to do but didn’t follow through on.

One note: If you’re in the middle of a project and you realize that it’s the WRONG thing for you to be doing (for whatever reason) then by all means bail out. There is no sense wasting more time on something once you’ve realized your project has little hope of success.

Careful planning and research should minimize the instances of this happening, but there are times when things aren’t in our control. For example, you’re writing a series of promotional emails for an affiliate product that suddenly gets pulled from the market. Best case scenario – re-adapt the emails to another product and move on.

Which brings me to my next tip for ensuring you are not a one hit wonder – success loves SPEED. If you are quick to move from idea to implementation, you’ll seldom have a project that goes unfinished or doesn’t pan out.

For example, if you’re writing code for a plug-in on a piece of software today and you get it finished next week, you can start selling it. If it takes you 6 months to write that code, and the software is obsolete in 5 months, you’ve wasted your time.

Not to mention the fact that speed also reduces competition, at least initially. Using the plug-in example, if you’re fast you can get that plug-in on the market 2 weeks ahead of any competitor, rather than weeks behind the competition. Again, success loves speed so when you get a great idea, don’t sit on it, ACT on it. NOW.

Next is your mailing list. Yes, you need to be building a list. I don’t care what kind of marketing you’re doing or want to do, what your product or service is, etc. It doesn’t matter, because everyone who enjoys long term success online is growing a list.

In fact they have TWO lists – a list of buyers and a list of interested prospects. And whatever else you are doing, you need to be building that list and sending them offers. This is KEY to long term online success. I know you’ve heard this before, but if you’re not aggressively building your list then you’re just not “getting” it and it’s high time you start.

I don’t mean to sound like a drill sergeant on this, but it’s simply not negotiable. Unless you want to be some flash in the pan marketer who creates a product, sells a few hundred copies and disappears off the Internet, you MUST build a list and never stop building that list.

The reason you can never stop is because some people on your list will lose interest in your niche, or they change email addresses and don’t tell you, or any of a number of reasons they are no longer a viable prospect, and so you always need to be adding new prospects in order to continue to grow your business.

Now some folks will say that you don’t need a list because of social media, to which I’ll vehemently disagree. Social media is an awesome tool to help you build your list, and I highly recommend you spend time on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube if it’s helping you build your list. But you still need a LIST of people who know you and like you so that you can send them emails and yes, SELL them stuff.

You’ll find that the majority of your income comes from emailing your list and either letting them know about your own products or suggesting an affiliate product on which you earn a commission.

The best thing you can do when it comes to list building? Build quickly, aggressively and without hesitation. What I’m saying is, find all the best ways that work for you to build your email list and then be relentless in using those methods to build your list even bigger and stronger.

Look at it this way – if you add 10 subscribers a day to your list, in a year you will have 3,650 subscribers. But if you really focus your time and resources on list building and instead of adding 10 subscribers a day you add 100 subscribers a day, in a year you will have over 30 THOUSAND subscribers.

This is a profound difference in just a year. Multiply it out over 3, 5 or 10 years, and you can see how worthwhile it is to be aggressive in your list building.

Of course quality matters as well. A list of buyers is worth far, far more than a list of prospects.

I’ll tell you my secret for quickly building a list of buyers: Create a product that sells for $5 to $10, and then give away 100% of the commission to your affiliates, paid immediately via PayPal. You’ll find software that automates this if you look for it. By paying your affiliates 100% commission that goes straight to them, they have a huge incentive to promote your product. And YOU get to keep the prospects and market to them time and time again.

The marketers who DON’T build a list? Those would be the one-hit wonder people. They do something, make some money, but don’t stay in touch with their customers and prospects. And the funny thing is, they left the lion’s share of the money on the table because it’s in the FOLLOW UP that you make the REAL money.

Think about this – you sell a $17 product, get a list of buyers and prospects, and then do nothing. Or you never bothered to gather the list in the first place. So whatever you made on your $17 product is ALL you are going to earn.

But if you captured the email addresses, you can continue to market to these folks for days, weeks, months and even years to come, earning thousands of dollars more in affiliate commissions and by selling your own products.

And the last bit of advice on how NOT to be a one hit wonder? Focus. That is, choose a niche and focus on that niche at least until it’s earning you a steady stream of income. Once you hit that level, if you think you want to try a second niche, go for it. But using a scattergun approach from the beginning to enter 2, 5 or 10 niches all at once is only going to yield you minimal results at best because your energies are so dispersed.

In other words, you can get a tiny bit of success in several niches simultaneously, or a whole lot of success in one niche – your choice. Personally I prefer to devote all of my time and energy to just one niche, and I’ve found it pays off quite well.

And by niche, I do mean NICHE. Weight loss is not a niche. Weight loss for women over 50 in the Dallas area is a niche. Or weight loss for work at home moms. Or weight loss for diabetics. The more narrow your focus, the easier it can be to reach your target audience and to get them to purchase because they feel you are speaking directly to them.

So don’t choose the “make money” niche because you’ll discover it’s too vast and too broad. Instead, choose the; “part time work for high schoolers” niche or the “supplement your social security with a profitable hobby” niche. See the difference?

I know I’ve given you a lot of tips here. You might want to go back and review (then implement aggressively), because it’s equivalent to rocket fuel for your business growth.

The post How NOT To Be a One-Hit Wonder appeared first on .

Source: hbio

So you slaved over your latest blogpost – and nobody tweeted it or shared it on Facebook? Or perhaps you wrote a dozen new articles – and all you hear are the sounds of tumbleweeds drifting across your screen?

It’s harder and harder these days to capture attention – namely because attention spans are getting shorter as people are deluged with more and more things to watch/read/do.

Here are some fast tips to make your writing – shall we say – more readable.

Forget your honors English class and write like people speak. Not sure if you are? Try reading your writing out loud. If it’s awkward or stilted, work on it.

Break it up. Seriously. Ever get an email that’s a one page paragraph? Could you read it? DID you read it?

Hit the enter key like this.

Often.

Use subheads. People like to scan what they’re reading, and if something captures their attention they dig deeper. That’s why you want to add subheads to your blog posts and articles.

Not Sure What A Subhead Is?

It’s like a mini headline inside your article or blog post. See the line above.

Bold your important points. If you make your key concepts bold, the scanning eye will see them and often stop to read the complete sentence.

Use photos. Photos catch the eye like nothing else. Better yet, use photos that have at least one face in them. Studies show the eyes will linger longer on a photo of a face.

Caption your photos. The second most read copy on a page is the photo caption, so make it count. Don’t just write one or two words – think of it as a headline to generate interest. If you need two or three lines, go for it.

Use bullets and numbered lists. What’s typically the third most read part of a sales letter? The bullets. (No surprise – headline and photo captions are the first 2.)

Use links. Link to relevant info on your own website and to your research on external websites. Internal links keep your readers on your website longer, while external links show that you’ve done your research and know what you’re talking about.

Implement these simple tips and you’ll get more people paying attention to your content. With a little bit of practice, you might even give late night television a run for their money.

The post How to Get More Eyeballs On Your Content appeared first on .

Source: hbio

To make your email stand out and get it opened, make it clear that your email is useful to the reader, that it’s specific to what they want or need to know, and that it is also unique.

Here are a few additional tips to help ensure you get the most bang for your email buck…

Identify yourself. Don’t send an email from a generic name in the hope of confusing them into opening it – they’ll just resent you for it. Use your own personal name.

Always send your emails from the SAME name. You’re building brand loyalty, even when that brand is you. So if you keep changing your “from” line, even if it changes from “Bob Smith” to “Robert Smith” to “Bob,” you’re confusing your recipients.

Don’t pretend your email is what it’s not. More and more we see emails that say, “Your order is complete” or “Here is your download link” something similar, when it’s got nothing to do with anything the receiver ordered. This is spammy at best and downright deceptive at worst.

Create urgency SOMETIMES. Urgency works best in moderation. If every email you send screams, “Time is running out!” “The price is going up!” “There are only 3 copies left!” Then you’re going to become like the boy who cried wolf, and you know what happened to him – he cried wolf so many times that when a real wolf actually showed up, nobody came to his rescue because nobody believed him. So the wolf ate him up.

Be brief. Yes, there are times when you have to send a longer email, but also send short ones. Remember, more and more of your subscribers are reading your emails on mobile devices, and in a distracted state. Keep your email messages succinct and to the point.

Email marketing remains one of the greatest forms of direct response marketing in history, and you can significantly improve your results if you keep these simple tips in mind when you prepare to send out your next email broadcast to your subscribers.

The post 5 Ways to Make Your Email Stand Out appeared first on .

Source: hbio

Has anyone ever told you to set goals? I know, silly question. People are always telling you to set goals because goal setting can and does work. But has anyone told you there is a right way and a wrong way to choose those goals?

For example, you want to earn $10,000 a month so you set a goal to reach that $10,000 mark. So far so good, right? Actually, no, because this is what’s known as a “static” goal rather than an action goal. Static goals sap your motivation because they’re focused on outcomes that are, for the most part, outside of your control.

Bottom line – they seldom work.

Imagine you’re in your living room and the house is a mess. You set a goal to have a clean, straightened, neat house in the next 2 hours. You visualize your house being clean, you look at pictures of your house taken when it was clean, you write down your goal, and 2 hours later? Your house looks exactly the same.

Why?

Because you didn’t DO anything. You took no action because it was a static goal, not an action goal. “Have a clean house” has no action tied to it.

But what if you reword that goal to the following:

“Straighten, vacuum and clean the living room, kitchen and dining room.”

Do you see how you are firmly in control of whether or not this goal is achieved? And now you’ve got a goal with ACTION in it. You could even break this goal down into several smaller, action oriented goals to make it even easier to achieve.

So let’s look at how action goals can help you in your business:

Instead of setting that, “I earn $10,000 a month” goal, how about…

Week 1: I create my first product on ____ (subject)
Week 2: I set up the website, sales letter and emails to promote this product.
Week 3: I contact my list to offer them my new product, I write 3 guest blog posts on this topic to promote my product, and I contact 25 potential affiliates and joint venture partners and ask them to promote my product.
Week 4: I create my second product.

If you’re using static goals you’re going to get frustrated. Still using the $10,000 a month goal as an example, it’s going to take you an investment of time and effort to reach that goal. In fact it could take months to get there, and if you’re not seeing results in the meantime, you’re likely to get frustrated and quit. Not to mention the fact that the goal has no action tied to it, and so you’re likely to “wait” for it to happen – which it never will if you’re not taking the right actions to achieve it.

By setting action goals that take you to where you want to go, you are always achieving, you’re always making progress, and you’re constantly being revitalized by the achievement of each action goal.

You might want to set some action goals right now, before you forget. I think you’ll find it becomes an addictive habit that pays off often and exponentially.

The post Are We Goal Setting All Wrong? appeared first on .

Source: hbio

We didn’t start online businesses to make 10 bucks an hour, right? Our goals are obviously much bigger. But here’s what newcomers need to know that only seasoned online pros can tell you – you’ve got to start somewhere.

There are three key components to that sentence – “You have got to start somewhere.”

First of course is “you,” because nobody is going to do it for you.

Second is “have got to start” – if you haven’t started to make money online, now is the time. Not tomorrow. Not next month. NOW.

And third is “somewhere.” Meaning you’re not going to start out making a thousand dollars an hour or a million dollars a year. It’s not going to happen. You start out making maybe 10 dollars an hour, and you move up from there.

I’m not saying you can’t move up fast – you can. But you have to START wherever it is that you’re able to start, and for nearly everybody it’s making a few dollars an hour and working from there.

For those who don’t want to work your way up, that’s no problem. Close this site and go find a get rich quick scheme or 2 or 20. Then get back to me when you’re rich (should be next week sometime, right?)

You might even get lucky and find yourself a one hit wonder. You know, like those musicians who get a song on the charts – and then can never duplicate their success so they just fade away. It’s almost worse then never getting success at all because then people say,

“I know that song, who did that?”

“Oh yeah, that was Jo Blo and the Tweektonics.”

“Whatever happened to them?”

“They were one of those one hit wonder bands. I think they’re playing airport lounges now, and the lead singer is the cook at Ma’s Take-in-Bake.”

Whoop-de-do. 5 minutes of fame and the rest of their life is a punchline.

I see that happen in online marketing. Some newbie makes a product that sells a few hundred copies, they get some money in their pocket, and then they just fade away, never to be heard from again.

Who the heck needs that? But it’s the get rich quick mentality that makes failure like that happen.

For the rest of us who have the common sense to know you don’t win a marathon by starting on the finish line, let’s get started.

And one more thing: As you begin making money online, a funny thing happens. You get addicted. You get to where you want to make more, and you do. You want to find ways to leverage yourself and your work, and you do. You want to find methods to make a lot more money in a shorter amount of time, and you do. But it all starts at the beginning – making a few dollars an hour and then working up from there.

Method #1 for making $10 an hour online – freelancing.

Maybe it’s freelancing writing articles or blog posts. Or building backlinks, or putting up websites, or whatever. Pick out that thing you do the best, and offer it as a service to others who either don’t do it as well as you, or would rather hire you than do it themselves.

What’s that? You don’t have a skill worthy of hiring out your services? Then get one. You’re going to need to master these skills to get good at online marketing anyway, so pick something that really appeals to you, then research the heck out of it for 10 hours. In 10 hours you can learn more about any topic than 99.9% of people know.

Then advertise your service on sites that let you sell services like Fiverr. Start out working for cheap, get some clients and some testimonials, and gradually increase your pricing.

Find faster ways to perform your service, and even hire out the work to someone else. In other words, LEVERAGE what you’re doing to increase your hourly rate.

For example, if you’re getting paid $5 an article and you write 2 articles an hour, you’re making $10 an hour. Get faster to where you can write 4 articles an hour and you’re earning $20 an hour. Hire someone overseas to write the articles for you for $2 apiece, and you’re earning $3 an article for simply reading them over and doing light editing. If you can edit 10 articles an hour, you’re earning $30 an hour. And so forth.

Of course what is the problem with all of this? You are trading time for money – something that by itself will generally not get you to that magical six figure per year income.

Unless, of course, you not only hire out the work – you also hire someone to take the orders, edit the articles and fill the orders. Now you have a completely hands free system for making money, and it all started with you earning $10 an hour and working your way up from there.

Method #2 for making $10 an hour online – writing and selling PLR.

In our previous example we were writing articles for others. Of course in freelancing you can choose to offer any service people are willing to pay for – writing articles was simply one example.

But what if, instead of writing articles for one person, we write a packet of 10 to 15 articles on one specific topic using the best keywords for that niche, and then SELL that packet of articles to fellow marketers for their own private use?

Now you can sell the same articles over and over again. If you sell that packet of 15 articles for $10, and you sell 15 packets, you’ve earned $150. If it took you 5 hours to write the articles, you’ve now earned $30 an hour. Of course, if it takes you less time, you earn more per hour. And if you sell more packets, you’ve again made more per hour.

There are PLR writers who do exactly this. They write packets of articles, offer those articles either on their own websites or a popular internet marketing forum, and do quite well.

Can you outsource the writing of the articles? Of course you can. And with PLR, you are not limited to just articles – you can write blog posts, reports, ebooks, make recordings, videos, etc. You are also not limited by how many times you can sell each PLR product you create, unless you choose to set a limit so as to create scarcity.

So now you’re naming your own price, and you’re creating a bank of products you can continue to sell for as long as you choose. And you’re also creating a loyal following of buyers because once your buyers see that you offer good quality at a good price, they will come back time and time again.

Maybe your first PLR product only sells 10 copies, but then your next one sells to 10 new buyers and 5 of your previous buyers, and your next one sells to 10 new buyers and 10 of your previous buyers, and so forth. Every time you offer a new PLR product you’ll have more customers who already know that you put out great stuff, and so they’ll snap it up in a heartbeat.

Plus, as new customers arrive they’ll see your previous PLR products and purchase some of those as well. So that packet of 15 articles you wrote 3 months ago is still selling a couple of copies a week, and if you’re putting out new products every week, you’ve got more and more to offer and thus more and more to sell.

Leverage this by outsourcing some or all of the writing, and you’ve not only created a method to earn $10 or more per hour – you’ve actually got yourself a nice little business where you are in control, you set the hours and you set the prices.

Do you see how you are progressing from a freelancer to a service provider? And it really is that easy, but the first step is you have to actually START. And that’s the step that trips most people up. The second step of course is that once you start, you keep going. You’ll find the more you do, the more you want to do, and it just gets easier as you go because you’re building momentum and you’re seeing success. Plus as you go you’ll get more and more testimonials, which will make it all that easier to make more and more sales and even to charge more money for your work.

Again, getting started is the hard part, yet it can be easy if you get started right now before you have a chance to put it off. There is nothing stopping you because if you have time to read this, then you have time to start your freelancing business or even jump straight into your PLR writing business.

Method #3 for making $10 an hour online – Write an Info Product on How You Did It.

Did you get started? Are you now making $10+ per hour freelancing? Or writing and selling PLR? Then your next step is to write your own case study on how you did it, and sell that. For example, you might title your report, “How I went from $0 to $10 an hour in one day, and now earn $30 an hour doing simple work online.” Or something like that (perhaps a bit shorter.) Then sell your report in a niche forum or on your website, ClickBank or wherever you choose.

In fact, no matter what you’re doing online to succeed, once you get good at this you can always write a report detailing what you did and sell it to make easy, extra money.

In our example, if you price your report at $7 and sell 50 copies, you’ve made $350. The cost to run a special offer in a popular niche forum is normally less than $100 so you could net $250 for something that probably took you 3-5 hours worth of work. That’s $50+ per hour, PLUS you now have 50 additional buyers on your list that you can sell to again and again.

More tips – whatever service you’re offering, be sure to offer it with a twist. If you’re writing articles, use a spinner to give them multiple versions of each article, or use a program to transfer them into video, or blast the articles to article directories. If you’re doing backlinking, don’t just offer a standard package of one type of backlink – offer a package that includes multiple types of backlinks so it looks far more natural to the search engines. And so forth.

Your service could be something as simple as creating videos using any of the video programs out there. There are programs that make videos that look like Hollywood trailers, and others that make videos that look like home movies. Do your research, find a program you like, and offer the service. Sure you might spend some money on software or access to a special website that produces these videos, but then it’s as easy as ‘plug in and create’ to fulfill your video orders.

Now I know a lot of people are going to want me to outline a detailed step-by-step plan on exactly what you should do to earn your $10 an hour and work up from there, and I’m not going to do it.

First, I’d have a hundred people all competing against each other and complaining of the competition. Second, it’s not about me telling you what to do – it’s about you finding what you’re best suited for and following that path.

More to the point, this is where you do your research and you find something that resonates with you, and then you learn everything you can about it. Set aside 10 hours and just learn, learn, learn. Then you’ll know more about your topic than most people, and you’ll be ready to offer your service. And it will truly be YOUR service, not something you copycatted from a step-by-step action plan like a hundred other automatons.

This isn’t just about earning $10 an hour – this is about you stepping out of your comfort zone and stretching yourself just a bit. This is about you taking your first steps without the aid of a hand railing, and it’s the best way to get started and realize just how simple all of this is if you’ll only just DO IT.

The post 3 Ways to Make $10 an Hour Online appeared first on .

Source: hbio

I don’t need to tell you how important the conversion rate on your squeeze page is. The better it converts, the more prospects you get. The more prospects you get, the more sales you can eventually make. So how do you get your squeeze pages converting like gangbusters? Here are 13 things you should be doing on every landing page you create to ensure you’re capturing every prospect possible:

Know who you’re talking to. On your squeeze page you are speaking directly to your prospective customer. So who are they and what do they want? You’ve got to know your customer and use the words and images that will appeal directly to them.

Keep it simple. Really. I’ve seen squeeze pages that are cluttered with so much stuff you don’t know what to look at first. So what happens? Rather than try to sort it all out, many people will simply close it. Remember, you’ve got about 3 seconds to capture attention and hold it. Keep the clutter out and only share enough to get them to take action right now. Any more than that and you’re confusing them – and losing sign-ups.

Split-test. Everything. Repeatedly. Use a good split test program to test your headlines, your colors, your fonts, graphics, form, opt-in button, EVERYTHING.

Use one strong focal point only. You can and should use different font colors and sizes, but you only want one focal point to draw the eye in and capture attention, and that should be your headline. Everything else should flow from the headline.

Your entire message should be consistent. In other words, don’t use a headline extolling the benefits of weight loss and then use bullet points about the benefits of exercise unless it’s in direct relation to weight loss. Keep it consistent or you’ll confuse and lose your prospects.

Match your landing page to your sales page. If your sales page is for a product that teaches traffic generation strategies, then your squeeze page should refer to traffic generation strategies, not Internet Marketing in general. This might sound basic, but it’s surprising how many times I’ve gone from a squeeze page on one topic to a sales page on something different.

Sell the benefits. Remember, you’re not selling a drill, you’re selling holes. You’re not selling steak, you’re selling the aroma, the taste and the satisfaction.

Forget what you think. So you think you’ve found the perfect headline? The magic bullets? Just the right color scheme? It doesn’t matter what you think – it matters what converts the best. See #3.

Think “above the fold.” Yes, your squeeze page might extend beyond the fold – that is, below the area that shows in the computer screen without scrolling. But the area above the fold should stand on its own. It should show the headline, the bullets and the opt-in form. The below-the-fold-area is for those prospects who haven’t quite decided to opt in yet and want more info.

Tell them what to do. Your visitors landed on your squeeze page because they’re looking for something. Don’t be coy or clever – make it clear what they will get and what they need to do to get it.

Color matters. Use opposing colors on the color wheel to create contrast, and then test, test, test. Yes, some colors really will convert better than others but it depends on your offer and your audience, so you’ve got to test it for yourself.

Be trustworthy. Use short, 1 sentence testimonials that rock. Display your logo, certification, etc. Place your contact info at the bottom of the page. If you’ve been in business for years, state how many. If you’ve won awards, place those on there as well. Don’t clutter your page with this info, but do make it available.

Ask. Perhaps the best squeeze page trick, outside of testing, is to ASK them a question that they must answer with a YES! “Do You Want to Look 10 years Younger?” “Are You Ready to Build Your List 10 Times Faster?” “Do You Want To Be Irresistible to Women?” Strategically placing these on your website puts them in a “YES!” frame of mind, making them more likely to opt into your list.

Implement these conversion hacks to increase your opt-in rates and grow your sales!

The post 13 Ways to Get More Subscribers & Sales appeared first on .

Source: hbio

There’s always a lot of talk on how to recruit affiliates to promote your products, right? But what if instead of recruiting affiliates, you TRAIN affiliates?

That is, announce you’re offering affiliate training once or twice a month, live on a webinar. The training is free, come one and come all. You put out the call, and then using your own products as examples, you train them in how to make money by promoting affiliate products, especially yours.

This reminds your list month after month that they can make money promoting your stuff. It also builds loyalty, since you’re giving free training on how to make money doing this. And it forges partnerships between you and your affiliates. When they can speak to you on the webinar, or at least ask their questions and hear your voice, you’re building rapport. At the very least you will most certainly sell more products to those who attend your trainings because they now know, like and trust you.

And in addition you will begin building your own army of affiliates to promote for you all over the web and reach people you could never reach on your own. It’s a win-win all the way around, and it will only take you a couple of hours a month to do this.

The post How To Build Your Own Army of Affiliates appeared first on .

Source: hbio

There’s more to making money from your list than simply getting people ON your list. In fact, it’s once they’re on your list that the real work begins because you not only don’t want them to unsubscribe – you want them to actively look forward to hearing from you, to open and read your emails, and to act on your suggestions.

Your subscribers will stay on your list if you are giving them value in the ways that they need. Tricky, huh? Because how do you know what it is that they need?

The answer is to create a feedback loop so they can tell what they want to learn and what they want to buy from you. This way you can design your products and services in a way that is exactly what your readers want.

You can get this information by using a survey to ask them for their number 1 questions on the niches or topics your list covers. SurveyMonkey.com can do this for you free.

Or you can write a blog post that asks readers to give you information on what they currently need. Be sure to specifically ask them to comment, and reply back to their comments. Commenting back encourages even more readers to comment, because they realize you are really paying attention to what they say.

A third option is to ask them a question in an email. It might be after your main email message, or the entire email might be you asking them to answer your question. Ask them to “hit reply right now” to send you their answer.

Once you know what their biggest questions are, you can write content or offer products that provide them with exactly what they need.

You want to condition your list to work with you, to give you the information you need so that you can help them. Think of it as a team effort – you’re asking what they need, they’re telling you, you’re creating it, they’re giving you feedback, etc.

It’s not about selling and more selling. It’s about offering your subscribers what they need, whether it’s in the form of free or paid content. And as long as you’re doing that, they will not only remain on your list – they’ll also become fans who enjoy reading your emails and buying your products.

The post How to Keep Your Email Subscribers appeared first on .

Source: hbio

Bloggers, email marketers, copywriters and writers of all genres, how do you keep your readers coming back for more? By utilizing that literary gem, the cliffhanger. I’ll show you how to use cliffhangers and teasers to increase your sales, but first a little background…

We’ve all been caught up in a story only to realize it was continued in the next chapter, installment, episode or issue. And wouldn’t you know it, they ended the present installment right when something HUGE was about to happen! Coincidence? Not at all.

When Dallas ended their season with “Who shot JR?” it was all people talked about for the entire summer. Heck, that was over 3 decades ago, and people still refer to it today. But what if they had shown you who shot JR before they ended the season? It’s likely no one would even remember that JR got shot at all.

Just this morning I was reading a work of fiction in which one of the main characters realized he was about to be ambushed when POOF! It was the end of the chapter. And wouldn’t you know it – the next chapter addressed an entirely different plot line of the story, thus leaving me in suspense until I can return to my reading.

It is the suspense that keeps us watching the movie or tuning in each week to the television show or watching the News at 11 because of that teaser they threw at us earlier in the evening that said, “Is your holiday turkey safe to eat? Find out at 6:00,” or “Is the water you’re drinking causing you cancer? Find out tonight at 11:00.”

You can use this technique in your own marketing, as well. For example, when writing a series of emails, end each one with a major benefit of what they’ll discover in the next email. When writing a sales letter, promise to teach them something they really want to know, but first delve more deeply into why they need your product. And when writing blog posts, either throw out a teaser at the end that sends them to another blog post or sales letter, or use the JR method and leave them hanging until your next post.

Cliffhangers and teasers can be your best friend when it comes to getting your emails opened, your sales letter read and people hanging on your every word. And if you look closely, you’ll notice I even deployed this technique in the first paragraph of this article. It got you to keep reading, now didn’t it?

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Source: hbio

You don’t need a humongous budget when you begin outsourcing, but what you do need is the knowledge of HOW to get the best online workers possible. After all, no matter how much work you outsource, it’s still your business and your reputation on the line. Not to mention the fact that better work equates to better profits, both short and long term. Doesn’t it just make sense to find the very best people possible to work in your business?

Whether you are a seasoned pro at outsourcing or you’ve never hired anyone to do anything before, here are some proven tips to get you moving with the least amount of hassle and the highest return for your money.

1. Be absolutely clear on what you want done. Whether you are posting a job or giving instructions to someone you’ve already hired, tell them step by step exactly what you want them to do. This will save you time, aggravation, and usually get the job done faster. Plus the bids you receive will tend to be lower, since the people doing the bidding can easily envision exactly what they’re doing and how long it will take. Lastly, if you are paying by the hour then this will save you money, as your worker doesn’t need to take the time to figure out how to accomplish what you want done.

2. In being clear, consider either writing out what needs to be done in a step by step fashion, or make a video showing them exactly what to do. This way you are not only showing your present worker what to do, you’re also creating a blueprint for future workers to follow. In addition, if there is a hole in your plan it will become quite clear when you’re going through the steps necessary to achieve your goal.

3. Have an agreement or contract between you and the worker. Things you might include are:

– Work to be done (Detailed description of what is expected)
– Deadline for the work to be done
– Payment arrangement (Amount to be paid, terms, method of payment, etc.)
– Copyright (You’ll want it to be crystal clear that you own all copyrights)
– Non-disclosure (Your worker is not to reveal anything that goes on inside your business, etc.)

4. Check out your worker prior to hiring them. Check their portfolio, references, feedback, etc. You might also Google them. Try to get an idea of the kind of work this person does and whether or not they meet deadlines. Also important: How well they communicate with you.

5. Start with something small and work up from there. If you’ve never hired someone before, choose a small job first. It makes it easier for you to get your feet wet, minimizes your risk, and allows you to experience how wonderful it is to have someone else handling that small chore that you don’t enjoy doing anyway.

6. Find the workers who do well with the small jobs and then give them bigger tasks to do. Rather than hiring someone for a large project, let them show you what they can do with a small one first. They’re testing the waters with you, finding that you do indeed pay on time and you’re someone they can work with. And you’re finding out what kind of work they do, if they meet deadlines and if their style meshes with yours. If it’s a good fit, offer them more work and bigger jobs. If not, move on.

7. For any big job, don’t pay all at once. For example, rather than paying all up front or all when the job is done, you might pay 25% up front, 25% when the job is half done, and 50% when the job is finished. This provides them with plenty of incentive to keep working, since they know you pay and there is more money to come. Plus, if the work isn’t to your satisfaction, you can stop the work before you’ve shelled out too much money.

8. Let them know to contact you if they have questions they can’t find the answer to. It’s important that they and your project not get stalled simply because they’re missing a key piece of information.

9. Have them keep in touch daily. You might ask them to send you a report at the end of the day detailing what they accomplished on the project, any challenges they’re facing and of course any questions they might have.

10. Keep your relationships professional. That is, don’t hire your best buddy because he needs the work – you’ll only end up with problems. Also, if someone you hire is really nice but not performing, you’ve got to set aside your feelings and deal with the situation from a business standpoint. This is, after all, your livelihood.

11. Let your workers know exactly what you expect and give lots of feedback. Don’t make them wonder if they’re doing a good job, tell them. Don’t just pick out the one mistake they made in the 100 articles they wrote for you, also tell them what they did right and let them know you appreciate their work. The more positive feedback you can give, the harder they will work for you, and the easier it will be for them to take constructive criticism as well.

12. If you think you might change your mind, let them know ahead of time. For example, you decide to take a project in a certain direction, all the while wondering if you shouldn’t be doing it differently. Let them know you might be changing things halfway through, and if it comes to pass they’ll be ready for it.

13. Always treat your workers with the utmost respect. It goes without saying, but I will anyway: Just because they’re working for you doesn’t mean they are less than you. Being respectful of your workers will yield you 10–fold in goodwill and hard work. Think back to when you had a boss – who did you go the extra mile for? The boss who yelled and screamed and put you down? Or the boss who was positive, treated you with respect and brought out the best in you? Be the good boss and you will have workers who are loyal and ready to set aside their other work to get yours done faster and better.

Apply some of these hard-earned tips working in the trenches of outsourcing and you’ll save yourself lots of frustration and find faster success getting others to help you grow your business online.

The post 13 Tricks to Find the Best Online Workers appeared first on .

Source: hbio

No doubt you’ve been told to avoid using “hype” in your copywriting and sales messages, right? And I’ll bet there have been times when you’ve closed a sales letter page because the hype was too ridiculous for words. But when it comes to defining hype and especially to determining how much is just right, the water gets murky and no two marketers can give you the same answer.

That’s because “hype” is subjective. One prospect’s perception of hype is another prospect’s perception of just the right sales message to get them to buy. In addition, you need some hype to sell. No hype = no excitement, which means no sale. Here’s what I mean:

Sales message example #1: “This system is for sale for $33.33, here’s the order button.”

Now you’ve got to admit, that’s hype free. It’s also benefit free, boring and will capture the interest of just about nobody. Of course, if the system is already well-known and you’re discounting it to 5 bucks, you’ve made a sale. But if you’re selling a good product at a reasonable price, you’re going to have to turn on the hype. Here goes:

Sales message example #2: “This Revolutionary New System Cuts Your Work in Half While Tripling Your Productivity.”

Not bad, and certainly worthy of further investigation if you’re interested in getting more work done in less time. And yes, there is hype for sure, especially in the words “revolutionary” and “new” – just not so much that it raises red flags and causes your prospect to tune out.

Sales message example #3: “The Easy System that Earns You a Thousand Dollars a Second with NO Work.”

Looking at the words themselves, there isn’t much in the way of hype. We didn’t say it’s the greatest system in the world, or that everyone loves it, or that there’s never been anything like it since the beginning of time. However, is it believable? No. And therefore, the promise is just so much hype in the ears of the prospect and doesn’t offer enough substance.

Sales Message Example #4: “Give Me 5 Hours and I’ll Show You How to Earn $1,439 Per Month on Autopilot.”

Hyped? I don’t think so. This message offers a specific benefit in exchange for a specified amount of work – 5 hours. The amount doesn’t sound unreasonable because we’ve all seen examples of a few hours of work resulting in a monthly income of several hundred or even a couple of thousand dollars per month. Most importantly, the reader isn’t being promised something for nothing, which will ALWAYS instill doubt in a prospect. It sounds honest, it doesn’t sound hyped, and it’s completely plausible.

What have we learned from these examples? Plenty. First, if you don’t use some hype you’re never going to sell much of anything. People need to get excited before they’ll whip out their wallets and they need to see a clear benefit to making the purchase. They WANT to be fired up, they want to feel their heart race a bit and experience that adrenaline rush of getting a great deal. The better you can extrapolate how the features of your product will benefit the consumer and improve their life, the more likely they are to click the order button.

Second, be believable. Making wild claims is the ultimate in hype – and if you can’t back those claims with rock solid absolute undeniable proof, you’re better off not making those claims at all.

Third, be specific. “Make $2,000 a month!” sounds much more like hype than “Earn $2,078.55 a month.” Why? Because the specific number is more credible, as though it’s already been done. “Type Faster” doesn’t mean much, but “Type 15 Words Per Minute Faster after Just 4 Lessons” tells the prospect exactly what to expect. Non-specific claims and rounded numbers just naturally sound like hype, regardless of whether or not they’re factual.

Fourth, tell them what the catch is. This goes right back to being believable, because if you tell someone they can get a great benefit, they immediately want to know what the catch is. Often this equates to price, but if you can show a different catch, such as “5 hours,” then you take their mind off of price and onto the question of, “What do I need to do for 5 hours to make that $1,439 a month?”

And by the way – normally an article like this would start out with the definition of hype, but I wanted to save this gem for the end. Here’s what hype really means:

Hype: Verb meaning to stimulate or excite
Hype: Noun meaning extravagant or exaggerated claims

As you can see, hype is good so long as we strive to stimulate and excite, rather than exaggerate or stretch the truth.

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Regardless of what you’re writing – a blog post, an article, a sales message, etc. – your copy should sound personal and relevant to the person reading it. You don’t want to sound like you’re writing a textbook to a class of students or a news article to the masses. Instead, your tone should be similar to a one on one conversation with a friend.

So how can you achieve this? With a little research and a healthy dose of imagination. This is one of those tricks that natural writers do without thinking about, and the rest of us can learn with just a little practice. What you’re going to do is create a “persona” of your ideal reader. For example, if you’re writing a sales letter, your persona is the customer. Hopefully you have a good idea of who your customers are, and if not you might want to engage in some research to find out.

Choose one customer: Someone who has purchased your products in the past and reads all your stuff. This person might be real or imaginary, it doesn’t really matter. Now write a bio for your customer, answering these questions: Male or female? Age? Where does s/he live? Occupation? Likes? Dislikes? Desires? Goals? You get the idea – you’re creating this person just as if they were real and sitting there in the room with you. Picture them in your mind, or choose a photo from the Internet.

Now for the fun part: Make friends with this customer. Imagine having a face to face chat about your latest product or the blogpost you’re about to write. What do you tell him or her? What questions do they have? Do they understand what you’re saying, or do they need clarification?

If you’re thinking you can’t do this, it simply means you’re out of practice. All children have imaginary conversations in their heads, and you did as well. This is your chance to let your subconscious mind go to work, filling in the words your persona would say to you in a conversation. You’ll be surprised by what you discover because you’re opening the door to knowledge you didn’t even know you had.

Now then, once you’ve got a good sense of who your persona is, go ahead and write that blog post or article or sales message directly to your persona, just as you would write a personal letter. Be sure to connect with them on an emotional as well as intellectual level. Your persona is the only one that matters when you are writing because it is just the two of you having an intimate conversation.

And if all of this sounds terribly silly, don’t worry. Just try it. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by how much better your writing can become when you’re writing to that one specific persona.

BONUS: As you get to know your persona better and better, you might try asking him or her questions and quietly listening for the answers. Your persona can tell you why your marketing is falling short, how to market your product for more sales, and even what product to create.

Once you’re well acquainted with your first persona, consider getting a second one that is quite different from the first. For example, if your niche is Internet marketing and your persona is a 50 year old male looking to make extra money to sock away for retirement, your second persona might be a 22 year old looking to earn a full time living online as fast as possible, or perhaps a newly divorced 35 year old mother of 3 trying to make ends meet.

These personas will make your writing come alive, as well as accessing useful and sometimes brilliant information and insights that take you by complete surprise and significantly add to your bottom line.

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When you’re struggling to write your latest blogpost, you probably don’t want to have to worry about SEO, too.

There is one theory that says you shouldn’t. After all, if you start focusing on SEO, then you won’t be writing the best content possible for your audience.

But is it really an either/or type of situation? It would be nice to get free Google traffic from your articles and blog posts without going crazy about how to structure your writing, what to add and what to leave out.

With that in mind, here are a few tips from the pros on how to do exactly that:

1: Your Writing Needs to Be Excellent

The content should be unique, high quality and written to professional standards.

Do this, and Google will likely reward you.

If any part of you is interested in buying those spun articles that were prevalent years ago – don’t even think about it. Don’t even consider using them simply to pad out your website – Google will look for them, Google will find them, and Google will penalize you for them.

(This sounds like a Liam Neeson movie…)

2: Longer is Not Necessarily Better

One popular strategy is to write a longer, more in-depth piece than anyone else. But it’s never that simple.

If you look at the webpages that have you beat in the SERPs right now, you can see for yourself how good they are and how long they are. But are they well-written? Do they answer the questions that customers are having? And do they understand what searchers are looking for?

You might be able to beat them by being more succinct and to the point. If you can convey the information in fewer words without losing anything, then do it. Any searcher will tell you they’re after the info, not a super long article because they have nothing better to do with their day.

That said, don’t write short just for the sake of fitting onto a mobile screen. Shortchanging your reader isn’t going to cut it, so remember to tell the whole story.

3: Write for People, Not Bots

True, your grammar and style should be the best. If it’s not, get yourself an editor who knows what s/he’s doing – it will pay dividends in the long run.

When you’re writing, ask yourself who your audience is and what their pain is. If you can put yourself in their shoes, you can write a better piece that your audience loves.

4: Use Good Copywriting Principles

For example, write an attention-grabbing headline that is based on your best keyword phrase.

Use subheads to keep your reader involved.

Write in short paragraphs and short sentences.

Do your editing days after you do your writing – you’ll be surprised how much better you can make your writing if you wait awhile.

And get someone else to read your work – they’ll spot mistakes you missed.

5: Key Phrases 2018

Yes, these are still alive and well, thank you. But their use in digital marketing today has changed somewhat.

When you’re doing your keyword research, focus on your audience. How big is your audience, where are they, what do you know about their demographics and what should your content be about?

Get the answers right and you’ll know how to write your copy.

Don’t write according to something Yoast SEO tells you. Millions of people are already doing this.

Instead, write according to the rules and advice here. And write for PEOPLE, not SEO plugins. You should start seeing better results.

6: User Experience Still Counts

An enjoyable read is a much better experience for your audience than some dry as dirt academic paper.

Likewise, having a page that’s easy to read and understand is crucial, too.

Make your headline big, your sub-headlines clear and easy to understand, and make sure your content is easy to navigate.

Bottom Line: Write with your READER in mind, not the search bots, and you’ll likely do fine (actually, much better).

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This may or may not work for your list, but…

It can be effective for most marketers.

If you’re not getting the open rates you seek, try using a negative headline.

For example, instead of…

You’re going to love this product

This works amazing and even does the dishes

Having an awesome day, here’s why

Try something more like these:

You’re going to hate this product, here why…

This SEO product sucks (it won’t even do the dishes)

She was having a REALLY bad day (and then it got worse)

Of course, they’re going to ‘hate the product’ because it does a lot of the work for them, and now they have nothing to do

The SEO product sucks because ‘it said it does EVERYTHING,’ but all it does is get your site to Page 1.

And she’s having a really bad day, and it’s not even her fault, because… (You fill in the blank.)

Try using a negative headline of your choosing in 10% of your emails, and then compare open rates and click through rates.

You might get some very positive results.

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Blogging is a great way to grow your business and brand. Here’s 7 tips to blog better…

Use images. People are more likely to read your post if there is an eye-catching image to go along with it.

Break your content up. Use a big headline, sub-headlines and short paragraphs to make it easy to read.

Reply to comments. It shows you’re paying attention and you care, which will get more people to comment. Plus, it’s the right thing to do.

Comment on other people’s blogs that are in your niche. This can drive traffic back to your blog.

Use a P.S. as a call to action. Sometimes when you sell within a post, it annoys people. But no one is upset at a P.S. at the end that says, “Hey, go check out my related product here.” In fact, most people appreciate that.

Link to relevant posts. You can do this within your post or at the end. Adding additional value to your blog posts by linking to related and supportive content can make your posts more valuable to others – which is the real goal of blogging.

Share your blog content. Let your list know you just put up a post, and share it with social media, too.

Apply these 7 tips to your blogging to create more value and engagement in every post!

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