Archive | May, 2018

You already know that a buyer on your list is worth 10, 20, maybe even 30 freebie seekers and tire kickers, right? After all, someone who has made a purchase from you is far more likely to make more purchases in the future. That’s why some marketers with small lists (less than 2,000 or so) still do quite well.

Think of it this way: Imagine you’ve got a brick and mortar business, and you stand out on the sidewalk asking people to take a sales flier from you. If they take a flier, you add them to your mailing list. But some of these folks, instead of taking your flier and walking away, actually go into your store and make a purchase.

Now then, who is more likely to buy from you again, the people who took your flier and kept walking, or the customers who came into your store, got to know your business from the inside, experienced your customer service and enjoyed the benefit of your products? See the difference? It’s not small, it’s a TREMENDOUS difference, and that’s why if you build a list of buyers, you will do far better than if you simply build a list of people shuffling by on the sidewalk.

How do you build a list of buyers? You can of course take the traditional route of spending a few weeks creating a $47 product, recruiting affiliates, creating a tremendous amount of free material to give away to draw attention to yourself and try to promote your product, etc.

But here are two thoughts for you. First, why not go with simple $7 products? That is, a 10 to 20 page report that solves a problem in your niche. Just one problem, one solution. You can bang one of these out in a day, and since you’re only selling it for $7, you won’t need to agonize over the sales letter for days and days either. Just a short, snappy, concise sales letter and you’re ready to roll.

How do you sell your $7 report? By offering the entire commission to your affiliates, paid immediately. There are many affiliate management programs out there these days that can automate this for you. Your affiliates promote, the customer pays the $7 and your affiliate management service pays your affiliates directly so you never have to worry about paying anybody, and the customer downloads the report from you (which is when you capture their information.)

Now then, you’re building a list, and so what do you do? Here’s my second thought: Put out another $7 report. In fact, see if you can’t do this once a week for a year. Always promote it first to your list, and then encourage everyone who purchases to become an affiliate. This way, you can turn happy buyers into evangelists for your product as well!

Once you have several reports done, package them and sell them at a discount. Then offer them as bonuses for other marketers to use when selling their products (again, you’re capturing the customer’s info because the report is downloaded from your website.)

Do you see how this can snowball? Each report can make you some quick $7 commissions (for the ones you sell directly) while going viral and bringing you evenb more buyers. Then you can package several together to make a new product, and let other marketers use them as bonuses when selling their products, again bringing you more customers.

Plus you can package several together and offer them as an OTO (one time offer) when new customers purchase a $7 report, and so forth – the possibilities are limitless.

What I love about this is that it takes so little time to create each product. You’re providing a real, viable solution to a problem your prospects are experiencing, so you’re providing real value. You’re building your list of buyers and your list of affiliates and you’re building your reputation. See how well this can work for you?

And best of all, after creating one new report each week for one year, you will have approx 520 to 1,000 pages of valuable information that you can then package into a mega-product, or pick out the best reports and create a book you can sell on Amazon. (Actually, if you have 1,000 pages, you can create 3 or 4 books!)

And the credibility you receive from having your own book on Amazon cannot be beat.

So there you have it – crazy idea or genius plan, you decide.

One last thought: If you’re the kind of person who groans at the prospect of writing a 200 page ebook (and that would be most people, btw) then this method gives you another benefit: Quick payback. You don’t have to slave over your computer for weeks before you start seeing a return on your time. Think of it as the instant gratification plan for marketers. You write a report today, write the sales letter tomorrow, and you’re making money and building your list the next day.

Now how great is that?!

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 into 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.

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 see 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.