Author Archive | Andrew Soon-Foong

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 your 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. 😉

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?

If you’re an experienced online marketer, you may never have considered working with brick and mortar type businesses, but after reading this you might rethink your position.

First, it’s great money.

Second, it’s great money FAST.

Third, you don’t actually need to do any of the work yourself, since you can outsource everything.

The hard part? Getting clients. At least, it tends to be hard for most marketers trying to run a marketing business for offline clients.

But I’m going to show you how to get all the clients you want, using three easy techniques.

All three of the techniques center on one thing – offering a FREE 20 minute consultation about why their website isn’t getting them enough customers, and how to fix it.

Think about it – how many business want more customers? Nearly all of them.

How many businesses would like those customers to find them on the internet and then walk in the door, ready to buy? Nearly all of them.

And how many businesses would like someone to tell them why their website is doing such a lousy job of getting new customers, and how they can fix it?

Just about all of them.

So your offer is going to be a free 20 minute consultation on why their website isn’t getting them business and how it can be fixed. Totally free, no obligation, no nothing beyond you honestly and earnestly helping them.

There are two keys to your offer – first, it’s only 20 minutes. Most business owners are happy to find 20 minutes to have an expert look over their site and give them some helpful advice.

Second, you are going in without expectation of self-profit. Your entire motive is to help them. And when you think like this, it will show. They’ll let their guard down and have a real conversation with you.

And more often than not, they’ll also hire you to do the work for them.

The three methods you’ll use to get these appointments are:

• Posting on Craigslist or a comparable website if you’re outside of the U.S. Of the three methods, this one tends to get the lowest response. Yet the appointments you do get – perhaps 1 to 2 per week – will very often result in a sale. However, if you scale this up and post in numerous cities, this method alone can be enough to keep you busy. You’ll just have to conduct your appointments via Skype or phone. Be sure to find ways to post that don’t conflict with Craigslist rules, since they can sometimes get a little cranky if you post the same ad in multiple cities.
• Create cards that you leave in strategic places. First, create your cards. They could be brochures, or they can be oversized business cards. Spend plenty of time getting your wording just right. Next, scout your locations. You want to find places where business owners have down time – for example, accountants, suppliers, repair shops, computer shops, etc. Mark each card with a code so you can give a commission to the business where your new customer found your card. Done correctly, this will yield several appointments per week.
• Email business owners directly. You can generally find their email address on their website, or you’ll find a ‘contact me’ form. Either way, let them know you’ve been studying their website. You’ve discovered 3 things they could be doing to bring in a whole lot more customers, and you’d be happy to stop by and show them what those things are.

And finally, because you go in with no expectation of self-profit, business owners will feel completely confident in recommending you to other business owners.

This will be a natural outcome of your business model, but it’s not the one to rely on. Some months you’ll get several referrals, and other months you might not get any.

So when they come, be thankful, be happy, and by all means go out of your way to show appreciation to the person who referred the new business owner to you.

Start offering free consultations, and deliver great value to everyone you meet with! Before long, you’ll have more people wanting to do business with you than you can handle by yourself. In fact, the next skill you’ll need for growing your business after implementing the action plan above is learning how to outsource or hire effectively! 😉