Archive | April, 2018

Okay, so I’ve never had a “beef of the month” before, at least not in this newsletter. But I’m fed up, sick and tired of some of the B.S. that I and my fellow marketers are subjected to day after day after day.

Let me give you just two examples I encountered in the last two hours:

First, I received an email proclaiming that I was going to make money in the next 60 minutes, guaranteed.

And you know what? It’s entirely possible to do that. Go post in forums that allow you to use an affiliate link in your sig file and you could make a commission in the next hour. And of course there are other ways, too.

So I thought, “Why not?” and I opened the email and clicked the link.

And what do I find? First, a video telling how awful it is that Internet Marketers are bombarded with “Click this and make money!” kind of nonsense. He’s ranting on about piling one falsehood on top of another to make a buck off of you.

Meanwhile there’s this red banner ticking the time down like some bomb is going to go off if you don’t whip out your wallet and send him your money immediately.

Okay, so far, so tolerated, but just barely. We’re all familiar with the, “Everyone else is trying to stick it to you but I’m the good guy you can trust” routine. It’s old, it’s tired, and I suppose it still works. I’m not even faulting the guy for that, or his ticking time bomb banner.

But then you scroll a little further and what do you see? A headline very similar to the one below (I’m not using the actual headline but this is close.)

New Software “Artificial Intelligence”

Rigs A Certain Website In Your

Favor, Producing

OVER HALF A MILLION DOLLARS

in just 39 Hours

Your Only 2 Options:

1. Be a part of it…
2. Or Eat Our Dust

The real headline had red numbers over an inch tall in place of “Over Half a Million Dollars.”

There’s a good chance you’ve seen a headline like this recently, along with a dozen more that could have been clones.

So here’s what we’ve got: A guy going on and on about how terrible these ridiculous promises are, while he’s making a ridiculous promise.

Who really, truly, honestly believes that…

a) There is a software that tampers with a certain MAJOR website and produces HALF A MILLION DOLLARS for you in 39 hours?

b) If this major website caught someone “rigging” them, they wouldn’t fix the hole and bring a lawsuit faster than you can say “Uh-oh?”

c) If there were such a software, it would be sold out in the open for a lousy 49 bucks?

This is where I normally close the page, and I imagine a LOT of other people close the page because who believes this crap?

But if you let the video play out, or continue reading the sales pages, eventually you come to the point: They’re just poking fun. Really they were hired by a big company whose name they cannot reveal to create a revolutionary software that blah blah blah.

So in other words, while you’re not supposed to believe everyone else’s nonsense, you are supposed to believe theirs.

But hey, let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and go to the Warrior Forum to see what others have to say about their product…

…so I go and check and guess what I find?

Bad BAD reviews from those who either a) purchased and tried to use this product or b) purchased a previous product from the same seller that didn’t come CLOSE to living up to the sales letter.

So what’s my point? Folks, in this business your reputation is EVERYTHING. If you don’t want to get shut down by Paypal or your merchant account, if you want to be in business a year from now (or even a month from now) you’ve got to cut the crap and simply tell it like it is.

Yes, you still sell. But you use the TRUTH to sell. And if you have a great product that people want and a great offer, then you really don’t need to do that much selling anyway.

Every time you’re about to do anything in your business, ask yourself: What will this do to my reputation? Enhance it or hurt it? If it can hurt your reputation in ANY way, then just say NO.

One more example: The other day a marketer (who shall remain nameless) launched a new 20 page triple spaced PDF on how to make quick money online. So far so good, right? (Actually, the report was 29 pages, but the other 9 pages were pleas for testimonials and a sales letter for an upsell. And the sales letter was at the beginning of the report AND at the end of the report.)

This marketer has put out other products and received pretty good feedback. In fact, he’s built something of a reputation for himself, so much so that the moment this special offer launched people on his list were buying it without even reading the sales letter.

But guess what? This offer was a flop – and in fact one of the techniques he recommended would get you BANNED from the forum he suggested if you tried to use it. (He’s since removed that technique.)

The other techniques were about as basic as telling you that if you want to live, you should breathe. I mean it’s stuff that anyone who’s been in Internet Marketing longer than 5 minutes already knows. And one of the techniques isn’t even useful anymore since Google’s latest updates. But hey, who cares, he’s making his money, right?

So what happened? During the first few minutes of his launch one person after another wrote things like, “Whatever this guy puts out is gold – get this!”

Then those who purchased read the report. It only takes about 10 minutes to read because it’s a few pages of big font with widely spaced lines.

So next you see comments like, “I’m really disappointed,” and “Why don’t you give refunds?” and so forth.

He started taking one hit after another, and now his reputation with those buyers is shot.

Think about that – he worked for months to build his reputation, only to have it torn to shreds in one day.

Think before you act. The world really is watching you.

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!

What if you could get 5%, 10% and maybe even 15% conversions with mediocre sales copy? You can, but there’s something you’ve got to do first – you’ve got to build trust, likeability, credibility and loyalty with your prospects.

People buy on emotion. In fact, if you ask someone a day after they read your sales letter what it said, they might have trouble telling you. But if you ask them how it made them FEEL, they’ll have no problem remembering.

When you build a personal connection with your prospects, you’re simultaneously building trust and likeability with them, too.

Imagine someone is standing next to two people; a stranger and a friend. Who are they going to listen to? The friend, of course, because they don’t know this stranger and don’t know if they like them or trust them.

The first thing you want to do is give people room. Imagine they’re physically walking into your website to look around, and you POUNCE on them with your latest, greatest offer.

What are they going to do? Most likely run right back out the door.

But what if you tell them to look around, feel at home and browse at their leisure?

They relax. And they browse.

They read your latest article, and they’re impressed. You know what you’re talking about AND you come across as being friendly, personable and approachable (Hint: Think of those three adjectives next time you write ANYTHING for your readers.)

They go to an article on traffic.

Ah-ha! Now you know they’re interested in traffic.

Why not offer them a report or email series on getting more traffic? It’s free, and it will be a tremendous help to them.

What are you doing here? Building rapport while being helpful. You’re still not selling anything.

You don’t build rapport with someone by bragging about your product the moment you meet them. Instead, you want to focus on making a positive emotional connection or bond with your prospect.

And you can do this by:

• Empathizing with their problem
• Showing you understand their problem or challenge before you ever talk about solutions or product
• Showing some of your own personality
• Validating their thoughts and emotions
• Making a commitment to help them, regardless of whether or not they buy

If your presentation makes your prospects feel good, respected, listened too, validated and intelligent, then they will buy from you.

Heck, you won’t be able to stop them from buying from you.

This is easier done in person than over the internet, but we still have tactics we can use to make people feel understood and right at home.

For example, let’s say you’re on my website. You’ve already read my article on generating traffic, and you gained some good tips and the feeling that I know your frustrations and challenges.

Then you see is this:

“What if I show you exactly how to do double your traffic and triple your sales this month, even if you don’t buy my course today?”

Gee, would you be interested? It’s hard to imagine someone interested in generating traffic and making sales wouldn’t be interested in that offer.

Other things you might say to your prospects to build rapport and build that connection…

• “Wouldn’t it be nice if…” (Insert their dream here. For example, “Wouldn’t it be nice if you could turn on traffic as easily as you turn on the water in your kitchen sink?”)

• “Have you ever dreamed of a world where…” (insert their fantasy here.)

• “Are you tired of false promises? Me too…” (insert personal experience here.)

You can also empathize with them and validate their feelings…

• “If you have trouble with ___, you’re not alone.”

• “If you’ve failed in the past at ___, it’s not your fault.”

• “Are you tired of guys who act like jerks getting all the dates?”

• “Are you tired of people dumber than you, getting richer than you?”

Open ended questions are super powerful at completely bypassing a person’s skepticism.

For example, if we say, “This course shows you how to quadruple your traffic and sales in 30 days,” the prospect is likely to be highly skeptical of that claim.

Wouldn’t you be?

But if you say, “Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a simple way to quadruple your traffic and sales in 30 days?”

Now the prospect is imagining what that would be like, instead of thinking it’s not possible. They are becoming emotionally invested in what you’re saying and in the offer itself.

Another way to connect with your readers is to see how many times you can use the word, “you,” within reason.

Instead of saying, “This keyboard makes typing so much faster and easier,” you might say, “With this keyboard you’ll be typing much faster, with fewer embarrassing mistakes that would otherwise make you look bad to your readers.”

Instead of saying, “With this product, people can achieve this and this benefit,” you’ll say, “With this product, you will be doing __ and you’ll even be enjoying __.”

Look through your text, and anyplace you see words like, “it,” “this” or “the,” try replacing them with words like, “you,” “your” and even “I.”

Yes, it’s okay to talk about yourself.

“The first time I used this product, I immediately saw a big difference in how ladies responded to me, and you will, too. Just imagine when you walk into a bar and every lady there turns to look at you…”

Finally, you can persuade readers simply by restating their own opinions and feelings.

Again, this is easier to do if you’re speaking to someone in person, but it’s still possible to do it online, too.

You simply need to know your customers. Why are they interested in a product like yours? What do they think is important? What are they trying to achieve? How do they feel about this issue? What are their passions? What are their pains? And so forth.

Then echo what you know about them back to them.

By validating your readers’ pet peeves, concerns, challenges, feelings and so forth, you’re creating a strong bond of likeability and trustworthiness that your competition won’t have.

“If you still haven’t lost the weight yet, it’s not your fault. Overworked and chronically tired mother of three discovers the scientific secret to automatically losing a pound a week with no restrictive diet and no stupid exercise regimens.”

The first sentence is validation – of course it’s not their fault, and they’re thrilled you’re saying that. The second sentence is relatable and believable – overworked, tired mother, losing one pound a week, with no stupid dieting or exercise.

No doubt, you can do better.

The point is, rather than slapping your readers upside the head with your latest greatest product – why not build rapport first?

Show them you understand them, you’re on their side, and your motivation is to help them first and make a profit second.

This alone should contribute to a big jump in your conversions.