Archive | February, 2022

How many people sitting in coach on an airplane wish they were in first class? Odds are, most if not all of them.

First class flyers get fancy lounges in the airport, preferential boarding, comfortable and roomy seats, their own special first class flight attendants, real food and drinks, blankets, pillows… just about whatever they want within reason.

The first time I flew first class, it was on a complimentary upgrade for having made me miss my connection due to an airline delay. (Those were the days when airlines thought of you as a valued customer instead of cattle.)

I was shocked at how well they treated the first class passengers, even bringing hot moist towels so we could wash our hands, free drinks, completely edible food, a soft pillow… I never wanted the flight to end.

And I was hooked, too. Who wants to go back to coach after flying first class? Not me!

Which makes me think – what if we offered our best customers a complimentary upgrade?

Think of it this way: You’ve got prospects, you’ve got customers, and then you’ve got SPECIAL customers who spend lots of money with you.

So what do you do?

You create special perks just for these customers.

For example, maybe you give them:

• Their own member’s area full of fun and useful stuff
• Discounts on all of your products
• First dibs on new products – they get to buy your new stuff before anyone else
• Discounts you’ve negotiated on other people’s products
• Special videos you made just for them
• Insider’s info on your niche
• And whatever else you can think of that they would love

There are two different routes to take in creating your preferred customer program.

Either you charge customers to be a preferred customer. This might be an annual fee that gets them in the door and gives them all the perks of being a preferred customer.

Or perhaps they have to EARN preferred status through the purchases they make from you.

For example, you could require that they make a certain number of purchases or they spend a certain amount of money with you in a time frame you choose.

In the first case, anyone can become a preferred customer. In the second case, as long as they continue to make the necessary number of purchases, they get to retain their status.

So why would you bother to create a preferred customer program?

Your preferred customers feel special. They get better treatment and get fussed over and pampered, and who doesn’t like that?

Your preferred customers will become your best advocates on social media. One happy preferred customer has the power to tell many, many others.

Your preferred customers will look to YOU, first. Whether it’s to buy something, get advice or whatever, you will be the person they turn to in your niche – which is exactly what you want.

You will set yourself apart from everyone else in your niche. When you offer the premier preferred customer program everyone talks about, you become an instant authority in your niche, which helps to bring in even more customers.

Your preferred customers will sell products for you, as well as preferred memberships. Simply by doing what’s natural – bragging about the great deals and treatment they get – you will likely get new customers coming to you through social media with no extra effort on your part.

You’ll get feedback to grow bigger, better and faster – a team of your best customers who will give you feedback on how to improve your products, as well as telling you what they would like to see next.

Any way you slice it, a preferred customer program is a great thing for both your customers and your bottom line.

Suppose you could give away free access to a course to anyone and everyone.

And further suppose that by giving away the course, you could make $10,000 a month.

Interested? Here’s how one guy (we’ll call him Jim) is doing exactly that:

Jim created a large, comprehensive course aimed at newbies who want to start an online business.

Mind you, he didn’t create it from scratch. Rather, he took the best PLR he could find and repurposed it into a massive course that teaches people all of the main methods of online marketing, such as PPC, affiliate marketing, list building, flipping websites, Amazon, selling software, creating info products, blogging and so forth.

In the course, he includes the basics of each method and encourages his students to choose a method and get busy building their business.

Then for each method, he promotes an affiliate link for the ‘best’ in-depth course in each category.

Now pay attention to this next bit – he only promotes recurring courses. That is, membership type courses and sites that bill month after month.

So when he makes a sale, he’s going to continue to get paid on it for as long as that person remains a member.

It gets even better, because he also promotes related products such as web hosting, autoresponders and so forth. Anything that makes sense, works and bills monthly is a product he’s likely to promote.

And he doesn’t even stop there. He is also creating his own recurring courses on each topic. Once he finishes a course, he puts it online and then changes the corresponding affiliate links to his own course.

He likes to make each course a set length of time such as six to eight months, because he’s found the students tend to stay longer and pay more when there is an ‘end’ in sight.

And of course inside each of his own courses, he promotes corresponding products that help his students build their businesses faster and easier.

He does all of this by first building trust with his list, showing that he knows what he is talking about, and being the reader’s advocate and teacher.

Creating the trust is crucial, and it’s pretty darn easy, too. When you tell your readers the good and the bad of any money making method, they start to trust you. Remember, most marketing emails for online business type products are only telling the subscribers how great something is. They don’t tell what’s not so great. But he always gives his opinion, both good and bad, and because of that people love him, trust him and pretty much do whatever he says to do.

So by the time he gets around to promoting affiliate links, his readers are taking his suggestions without a second thought.

I know he’s earning at least $10,000 a month with this method, and frankly he’s not working all that hard, either. The main thing he focuses on is continuing to bring new people into his free course, knowing that eventually he will make one or more sales to many of them. And when he does, those sales will be recurring.

It’s a great business model and one that almost anyone can duplicate. Remember that your target market is newbies and folks who haven’t seen much success yet in their online business.

And you can monetize this even further if you like, by promoting special deals to your readers who have been with you long enough to trust you, as well as selling solo mailings to other marketers.

One thing – if you decide to sell solo ads, I’d advise you generally only send the ads to those subscribers who have not purchased from you. It’s a way to monetize your non-buyers, without annoying or losing any of your customers.

Now you might be wondering – how do you give away your course? The fastest way to do it without relying on other list owners is to set up a funnel in which you drive paid traffic (ie. using Facebook or Google). Ideally the funnel is self-liquidating, so that it pays for itself. And you can do this by advertising your free course, and then having a backend product that allows you to break even.

There you have it… A blueprint to earning $10,000 or more per month… So what are you gonna do with it?

Well over a decade ago I bought and devoured an expensive course called “Hypnotic Writing” from Joe Vitale. If I remember correctly, it cost $1,000 and arrived in a heavy box with tons of CD’s and two thick manuals. And it was perhaps one of the best investments I ever made in learning not just good, but great copywriting that converts like crazy.

This morning I was cleaning out some old files, and ran across my handwritten notes from the course. In the notes I discovered a list of “The 7 Secret Principles of Hypnotic Writing.” They still stand the test of time today, so I thought I would share them with you here.

Please keep in mind, these aren’t so much a primer as a list of clues as to what Vitale’s “Hypnotic Writing” is. But from these clues you can discern enough valuable information to almost instantly improve your own writing, whether it’s blog posts, sales letters, emails or anything else.

1: Make it Personal

Hypnotic writing speaks to YOU, the reader. You’ll find words such as you, me, I, yours, etc. All of this makes you feel like the writing is speaking to you personally. In fact, it is. The more personal, the more hypnotic.

2: Keep it Active

Hypnotic writing is active. You’ll find lots of verbs. You’ll find little passive writing. It’s the difference between saying, “The writing was hypnotic,” and saying, “Joe weaves hypnotic writing.” The first is passive, the second is active.

3: Get Emotional

Hypnotic writing taps your emotions. You may find it doing so in a story format or in a direct narrative. Either way, the writing will pull at your heart strings. One of Joe’s most famous letters began, “I was nearly in tears…” That line engaged the emotions of readers. You had to read the letter to discover what the tears were for.

4: Be Sensual

Writing hypnotically involves your senses. You’ll find descriptions of feeling, tasting, seeing, smelling and hearing. All of this will help you become involved with the writing and therefore susceptible to what it commands.

5: Be Commanding

Hypnotic writing commands the reader to do something. As the reader, you might not detect the command as it may be embedded. But there will always be one. Ask yourself, “What do I want to do after reading this?” What you do next may be a result of the hypnotic command.

6: Curiosity

Hypnotic writing plays on your curiosity. You may find it beginning a story – but not ending it until the end of the article. You may find it promising to tell you how to do something, but it will only give you limited details, thereby urging you to order the product it’s promoting to get more information.

7: Hypnotic Writing is Hidden

You won’t find any obvious clues that signal, “Warning, hypnotic writing at work.” The writing will instead be smooth and personal, and the hypnotic aspect will sneak in below conscious awareness.

Now imagine if you actually had the power to influence your prospect’s subconscious mind.

Imagine if you could do it by using simple trigger words that activate involuntary reactions in their brains.

And imagine you can do it in writing and in speech.

You might not believe you can do this. But I’m going to tell you that you can, because over time we are all subtly hypnotized to accept certain suggestions. This process started when we were babies and has never stopped.

You wouldn’t even suspect these simple words of holding any special power. But when you use them correctly, they can dramatically improve your power of persuasion.

Yes, I’ve just given you a sample of ‘hypnotic writing.’ If you re-read the previous 5 paragraphs, and if you study it very carefully, you will notice I used three little words to great effect – “Imagine, you and because.”

If all you do is begin using these three words more often in your copy, you will experience an increase in the persuasiveness of your writing.

Imagine if you could persuade anyone of anything, because when you do, you’ll hold the power to make a fortune. Try it out next time your write, and see what happens. 😉