Author Archive | Lawrence

You’ve heard that adage before, haven’t you? It’s akin to walking over to someone, standing beside them, making them feel very comfortable with you, and then gently, subtly, asking them to walk with you.

They’ll go along with you quietly and in agreement almost every time.

Contrast that with standing far away from someone and shouting to them that they need to come stand where you’re standing or else… Or else they’re stupid, or else they’re missing out, or else they’re making a mistake, etc.

This is the point where most prospects dig their heels in and say, “Oh yeah? I don’t think so!”

Can you blame them?

This is why you want to start where they are. What do they already think or know about your niche, about your product or service, or about you?

If prospects routinely believe your offer is too good to be true, lead with that. “I know what you’re thinking… this is simply too good to be true. I thought the exact same thing myself, but then I discovered that…”

They might think this isn’t the right solution to their particular problem. “You might feel that in your case, our product won’t make the difference you need and want. I felt the exact same way when I had this problem, but what I found was this product not only ____ and ____, it also ___…”

You might start with the problem itself. Your prospect is in financial difficulty, so talk about what that feels like, how it affects them, how it makes life difficult, etc.

And here’s an entirely different way to start where they are in their minds, and that’s to begin with whatever it is that everyone is talking about right now.

For example, let’s say you’re sending out an email and the big story today is the revolution in another country, or new photos from space, or some crazy thing the government is doing. Whatever it is, the story is plastered all over the news. You can lead with that and gracefully tie it in with your marketing message.

Celebrities are fantastic for this. People love celebrities: Movie stars, rock stars, sports stars, etc. Start out talking about the latest celebrity news and tie it into what you want to say.

For some inexplicable reason, celebrity is frequently confused with credibility. Thus when you tie a celebrity in with your product, even when it’s perfectly clear that they are not actually related in any way, it elevates the status of your product in the customers’ eyes. Strange but true.

Using the news or celebrities necessitates creativity on your part. Make sure it’s in good taste, and that it makes sense. Also, when possible, make it entertaining. In fact, always strive to be interesting and entertaining – your customers will love you for it.

One last thing – if you don’t know what’s going on in your prospect’s minds, it’s time to find out. Hit up social media to find out what’s being talked about, or go to the forums to see what problems people are having. You’ll discover enough in 15 minutes of research to craft a half dozen marketing messages that all begin with you entering the conversation in your prospect’s head.

A hundred years ago a shop might have tried to be many things to most people. In fact, big box stores still do that today, with good success. Walmart is everything and all things to those looking for the cheapest price. But even they repel customers – namely those people who value service and quality over price.

These days it pays to specialize. Rather than trying to be most things to most people, you want to do one thing and do it really, really well. If you teach gardening techniques, rather than teaching everything to every gardener, pick a focus such as organic vegetable gardening. If you teach marketing, teach it to a very specific audiences, such as chiropractors or coffee shops or contractors.

Yes, you’ll be repelling the vast majority of customers, but you’ll also be attracting the exact prospects you can help the most. And in so doing, you can also charge accordingly.

After all, who commands the highest price – the person who teaches generic marketing techniques to anyone and everyone? Or the specialist who teaches plumbers to build their businesses to seven figures? Every time, it will be the specialist. If you don’t believe it, look at the health care industry, one of the biggest businesses of all. Who makes more – a general practitioner or a heart surgeon? Specializing pays, and it pays big.

One more benefit of specializing and perhaps the most important of all is this: You become the ONLY choice. When a dentist wants advice on building his practice and he’s faced with 10 choices – 9 of whom do marketing for any kind of business and 1 who works exclusively with dentists, there simply is no competition. Even if your prices are double or triple of your so called competitors, because you are the specialist you will win the business nearly every time.

Bottom line: Know exactly who your target audience is, become their ONLY choice, and repel everyone else who is not a good fit. You’ll attract better customers who appreciate you more and are happy to pay for your specialized service and products.

As you already know, a popular business model for breaking into any niche is to conduct interviews with the movers and shakers of your niche. In this manner you are creating great content, making potentially profitable connections and making yourself an expert by association. But do you know what’s even better than conducting an interview by phone or Skype? Doing it in PERSON. Here’s why:

First, the vast majority of communication isn’t what a person says, but rather the person’s facial expressions, gestures, body language and so forth. For this reason your interviews are going to be better when you can do them in person. By watching your subject, you’ll be able to draw out more information and revelations than you possibly could over the phone.

Second, you can develop a much stronger connection with your subject in person. No matter how much time you spend on the phone or even on Skype, you’re still miles apart and have never actually met the person. You’re much easier to forget this way. But in person, you can make a much stronger impression and create a deeper connection with your subject that allows you to become much closer.

Third, you can prolong the initial connection by inviting them out to coffee or lunch before or after the interview. This makes for a great bonding experience and again increases the odds of your relationship building beyond simply the interviewer and interviewee.

Fourth, you’ve got a great photo opportunity in person. Get your photo taken with this expert – who is probably something of a minor celebrity in your niche – and then use that photo for marketing purposes.

For example, you can add the photo to your website. Use ALT tags to describe the image with something like, “Joe Smith of the podcast Super Abundance with renowned financial expert Warren Buffet.” When people search for Warren Buffet, they could find your photo.

Use the photo on social media. Again, it makes you an authority by association in your niche.

Use the photo in promotions you might be doing, both online and offline. This increases your credibility and elevates you in the eyes of your readers and potential customers.

Naturally there will be many times when an in person interview simply isn’t possible. But when you’re going to another city, check to see who you might set up interviews with while you are there. Watch to see who comes to your city. And when you go to events, set up interviews in advance whenever possible. Also, be ready to do interviews on the fly at conferences – you never know who you might get your next interview and photo with.

If you’re currently working at something other than publishing – affiliate or CPA marketing, perhaps – then you might wonder why you would want to bother publishing your own content. Publishing isn’t for everyone, but there are several very good reasons why you might want to consider it.

You can be the good guy. People are looking for answers, for help and for solutions to their problems. You and your content can make a real difference in their lives. And by making that difference, you become….

The expert. The go-to person. The Big Kahuna that people respect. You’re the trusted authority and now opportunities are coming to you in the form of free advertising on social media, affiliates, joint venture proposals and so forth. Which brings us to…

A greater income and additional income sources. You’re now monetizing your expertise by selling products and courses.

So what kinds of content can you create and publish?

Blog Posts
Websites
Short Reports
eCourses
eBooks
eMails
Kindle Books
Actual Books
Workbooks
Resources Lists
Infographics
eNewsletters
Print Newsletters
Magazines
Interviews
Frequently Asked Questions
Webinars
Podcasts
Slide Shows
Video Courses
Audio Courses
Home Study Courses
Step-by-step Tutorials
Templates
Presentations
Screencasts
Cheat Sheets
Buyers Guides
Membership Sites
Member Forums
Top Lists
Stories
Mindmaps
Live Events
Apps
Software

More ideas…

You can publish content everywhere – your site, your blog, your member’s area, your newsletter, etc.

You can give away content – such as an ebook or ecourse – to build your email list.

You can record audio and/or video versions of your book and sell it.

You can hold live webinars or in person workshops, then sell the recordings.

You can build traffic by sharing great content such as infographics and top lists on social media.

You can create video courses to sell and promote your video courses by giving away snippets of the course, or a ‘lighter’ version.

You can interview experts and use the interviews and the transcripts as products or giveaways or as content on a paid membership site.

You can combine your articles and blog posts into eBooks and print books!

If you’re not yet creating and publishing content, you might be missing out on a world of opportunities. And if you are, you might want to consider adding new types of content to further expand your reach, your business and your bottom line.

Site Seals are those graphics you see on places like shopping carts that try to convey your information is safe. For example, the yellow circle with a black check mark that says, “Norton SECURED, powered by VeriSign.” The purpose of the seals is naturally to increase conversions, but not all seals are alike. And some placements can actually hurt your conversions rather than help.

Baymard conducted a study to see which seals people trusted the most, and you can see the results here:

http://baymard.com/blog/site-seal-trust

The Norton Secured and McAfee Secure were the clear winners.

You might think that using as many seals as possible would make the prospect feel the most secure, and thus increase conversions. But it’s also possible that populating your page with trust seals will only add to their anxiety and in the end, hurt your conversions.

Be careful to avoid using trust seals on your squeeze pages, as this telegraphs you’re going to be looking for a monetary transaction. When all you want is their email address, it’s generally best to avoid trust seals and save them for the payment page.

Two out-of-the-ordinary places to test placing trust seals is in your header and your footer. When Petco added McAfee’s security seal to their footer, conversions increased 1.76%. And when they placed the same seal in the top left area of the header, conversions increased a surprising 8.83%.

Bottom line, test everything. You never know for sure until you run an AB test.

Staying focused is quickly becoming one of the greatest challenges online marketers face today. For example, you sit down to write an article and end up surfing the net for the rest of the morning… Or you’ve got an information product that you need to finish, but you check your email which leads to a news site, a sports site, a few entertainment sites, some social media sites and before you know it, it’s already 3 hours later and you’ve accomplished nothing except making yourself feel guilty. Does this sound familiar?

According to Dr. B. J. Fogg, Director of Stanford Persuasive Lab, “There’s just one way to radically change your behavior, and that’s to radically change your environment.”

Students who transfer to a new university are much more likely to change their habits than students who remain at the same university. This is true for workers as well. People who change jobs or change job locations are much more likely to also change their habits.

It makes sense. Let’s say that at your previous job you were in the habit of going to a fast food restaurant with your coworkers for lunch. At your new job, your coworkers eat lunch at a healthy restaurant and invite you along. Soon you are eating healthy lunches every day, even on those days when you don’t go to that restaurant, because you’re now in the habit of eating healthful lunches. Enough time goes by, and fast food can even become repulsive to you.

So what happened? Your environment changed and so did the triggers. This made it easy to effect a change.

People who have trouble falling asleep are told to only use their bed for sleeping and for nothing else. If they lay down but they can’t fall asleep, they’re supposed to get up and go to another room. After treating their bed as only a sleep location (and not a reading location, a daydreaming location, etc.) for several weeks, they are generally able to fall asleep within minutes of their head hitting the pillow.

The bed is now a trigger for just one thing – sleeping.

This is why having one location to just work and another location to play is important. If you are mixing your ‘play’ time with your work time in the same home office, you’re asking to get constantly distracted.

If you use a laptop or a tablet for work, this is easily remedied. Simply designate one place in your home where you will do nothing but work – no exceptions.

If you work on a desktop computer, you might consider getting a laptop or tablet for your Internet ‘play’ time.

Another technique is to designate certain times of the day when you are working, no exceptions. This will get you in the habit of always doing work during those times, and it will make it much more difficult to get distracted. Your work times then become routine, eliminating the need to decide each time if you’re going to work. And when you automatically go to work instead of ‘deciding’ to go to work, you eliminate the possibility that you will decide NOT to work.

A third technique is to use triggers. For example, if you always start work right after finishing breakfast, it will become a habit to eat and go to work. You don’t have to think about it, you just do it.

In one study, knowing exactly when and where participants were going to exercise caused them to follow through a whopping 91% of the time. Those who simply exercised when they felt motivated to do so exercised 35% of the time.

Bottom line: If you’re having trouble staying focused, designate an area where you will do nothing but work, combine it with a strict schedule, and you should experience a dramatic increase in your productivity.

When you get more done with less distractions, you’ll not only accomplish your goals faster – researchers tell us you’ll also enjoy increased self-esteem, greater happiness and larger over-all satisfaction with your life.

These are all super quick and fairly easy. In fact, there’s not a tactic here that will take more than an hour, and some can be done in just a few minutes. Some can get you traffic pretty quickly and others take time. My suggestion: Do one a day every day until you’ve done all the ones that interest you. Some you will continue to do daily, such as using Twitter, but of course you can also use automation to lighten the work load a bit…

Do product reviews. For driving traffic? You bet. Product reviews are easy to get ranked, especially if you do them in video. Here’s the trick: Don’t make it like every other product review out there. Instead, be real. Use your personality. Have fun with it. And ask the reader/viewer to subscribe to get more product reviews.

One more thing: TELL THE TRUTH about what you think of the product. I once landed on a product review that said, quite frankly, the product wasn’t worth the money. I didn’t buy that product, but I subscribed to the author’s list and have since purchased several hundred dollars of products from him because he earned my trust.

Create a keyword list. Then use it to write your articles and blog posts. It’s fine to write about whatever you want, but it’s even better to write about what people are actually searching for. By using a keyword list, you not only get new ideas, you are also better tuned into the market and what might get your articles ranked on Google. Once you write a new article, promote it on social media.

Find questions on forums and answer them in articles. If someone is asking something on a forum, there’s a good chance others are asking the same question. Go ahead and write an article, post it, then post your article link on the forum “for more information” after your answer.

Blogger.com is a high authority site, owned by Google (hint, hint). When you join, find the “about me” section and add your website URL along with your keywords in the anchor text which will contribute to better SEO for your primary website. Do the same with other popular sites online that allow you to create your own profile and backlink to your website.

Register with forums in your niche. Fill out the details on your profile, including your name and website. If the forum allows it, add your website or blog to your signature. Make several useful posts in each forum. What you’re shooting for here is quality backlinks, but if you find you enjoy posting to forums, keep at it. Your posts can drive traffic back to your site for years to come.

Join Twitter. Use Twitter. Seriously. Make several tweets, find people to follow in your niche, and each time you write an article, tweet about it. It’s amazing to me how many marketers still aren’t fully utilizing Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Set up an account at HubPages.com. This is another high authority site which can help with your rankings. Plus the content you post here can also rank high for your keywords. Remember to update your account with new content from time to time. And be sure to include a bio of what you do along with your URL.

All of these are pretty simple and can help to drive traffic to your website. So next time you’ve got a few extra minutes, pick one and get busy. It will be time well invested.

You’ve written a truly terrific blog post. In fact, you’ve written dozens of them – yet your traffic still looks more like a ghost town than the bustling metropolis you were hoping for. Here are 15 ways to drive traffic to your blog posts without monetary cost.

1. Add social sharing buttons to your posts. The easier it is for your readers to share your posts, the more likely they will do so.

2. ASK your readers to share your content. At the end of your post, you might write something simple like, “If you found this helpful, please share.”

3. Build up your own contacts. Make list building a priority so you can capture as many visitors as possible. Encourage people to join your list, follow you on social media, etc. Use bribes and offer great info to get them on board, then take good care of them to ensure they stay with you. When you write a new post, ask them to not only read it, but share it liberally with their own networks.

4. Email your list each time you post great content. This one seems too obvious, but it’s surprising how many bloggers don’t do it. Make sure your email is optimized for all size of screens. And rethink the timing of your email. It used to be that first thing in the morning was best, but now that people are deluged with marketing emails, later in the day when they’re not so rushed might be better.

5. Build up your V.I.P. Contact list. Make friends with those in your niche. Promote their blog posts and their work. Build relationships. When you write posts, they’ll want to reciprocate and promote you as well.

6. Link to websites, blogs and authors who have large social media followings. In your blog post, find ways to mention these folks in a positive way. Maybe you reference one of their posts, or a technique they’re using. When your blog post goes live, send them a message letting them know you mentioned them. Often they will tell their followers and you could get a nice flood of traffic along with a new contact.

7. Do a case study on someone successful. This could be one of those bloggers in your niche with a large following. Analyze what makes them so successful, do an interview with them, get quotes from their followers, etc. Again, you’ll get a big surge of traffic when they promote your post to their followers, plus you’ll have a new friend.

8. Target a specific blogger. In this case, you’re choosing a topic that you know is near and dear to a particular blogger. Perhaps the easiest way to do this is to look at their recent posts, find one that was emotionally driven, and write your own post about the topic. You might point out in your post how this blogger was right about the topic, but use a slightly different angle on the story. You’re not copying what they did, you’re taking it up a notch or moving it in a different direction.

9. Get influential opinions. When you’re writing a post, email a pertinent question to several influential people and ask their opinion. Everyone loves to give an opinion, and unlike a full-fledged interview, it only takes a couple of minutes to answer. Then quote these people in your post and let them know when you post it. Odds are they’ll share it with others. Added bonus: Placing movers and shakers in your posts also increases the chances of your post being shared by readers.

10. Use quotes from personalities in your niche. This one is really easy to do and it doesn’t even have to affect the flow of your post. Simply find appropriate quotes from leaders and shakers in your niche and insert them between sections of your post where appropriate. It’s a great way to visually break up the copy and you can link the quotes back to the original author. Be sure to let the authors know you quoted them.

11. Write lists. You might list the “10 most influential people in your niche,” for example, and link to all ten influencers. Posts like these tend to get shared a great deal.

12. Use infographics in your posts. Yes, it takes extra effort and / or money to generate an infographic, but the results can be powerful. People love infographics and are more likely to share them with others. And if you’re on Pinterest, you’ve already seen how viral infographics can be.

13. Go negative. Write a blogpost on the things you’re doing or have done wrong, or the mistakes people are making. Fear of loss is greater than desire for gain. People are more likely to read and share “10 things you’re doing wrong” than “10 things you’re doing right.” Just don’t go too negative or you’ll turn people off.

14. Be contrarian. If everyone else thinks one way, make an argument the other way. Be polite, be nice, but clearly state your case, your evidence, and why you think the way you do. If it’s a topic people care about, your post is very likely to go viral. Be ready for a major traffic surge as well as many heated comments on both sides of the issue.

15. Present one post in several different ways via social media. Let’s say you have a post on how to raise pigs. Different sections of the post might include: Choosing the piglets (or birthing the piglets, if you own the sow) feeding them when they’re young, housing, feeding when they’re older, exercise, training, things to watch out for, health issues, etc. Each of these topics can be individually highlighted in social media, so that you have several different ways to promote your post instead of just one.

If you spend as much time promoting your post as you took writing it, you should see a dramatic upturn in your traffic. One good rule is to do 5 things every day that promotes a post on your blog. Make this a habit and traffic will never again be an issue for you.

This might at first sound counter-intuitive – paying to reach customers you already reach – but stay with me for a moment.

Let’s say you’ve got an email list. You email them regularly, but for most of the people on your list, that’s your only method of contact.

Remember the adage, it takes 7 contacts to make a sale? That’s not necessarily 7 emails. As you know, you can send your list 100 emails and unless it’s a special list, the majority of people on the list will still not have made a purchase.

This is exactly why it’s a good idea to contact these people through another medium such as Facebook. Using custom audiences, you can create a group of Facebook users based upon their email address. Or for that matter, you can use phone numbers, addresses or Facebook user ID’s. You can also create a group for people who have visited your website recently.

Back to the people on your list – by adding them to your group, you now have another way to reach them and interact with them. They’re already on your “warm” list, and getting them onto Facebook makes that list even warmer.

To set up a Facebook Custom Audience, simply log in to the Facebook Power Editor, click on “audiences” and select “custom audience” and follow the instructions provided.

Are your email lists segmented? For example, do you have a list of buyers and a list of prospects who haven’t yet purchased? Then you can target them individually for a better response. People who purchased your $17 traffic product are good candidates for your $97 traffic product, while those who haven’t made a purchase yet might be interested in a trial $7 product.

Do you have a list that’s ‘dead?’ That is, a list of subscribers who no longer open your emails? Using Custom Audiences, you might be able to reactive them with a “We’ve missed you” type of campaign.

Lastly, you can build a lookalike audience to reach Facebook users similar to your Custom Audiences. These are folks who have similar interests, have liked the same pages and so forth as your Custom Audience. Facebook will scan its membership to find these folks and you can then market to them.

Using these techniques, you can reach people who’ve already said they’re interested in you and your products, in addition to finding new prospects likely to be interested as well.

Well over 5.5 million gigabites of content is currently being shared daily through social media and email. Want to grab a piece of that viral pie? Here are 5 tips to help get your content moving into new hands and seen by many new people every day.

Use Great Headlines. This one’s a no brainer, yet it’s the biggest mistake marketers tend to make. Your headline should be short enough to be readable, long enough to be interesting, interesting enough to instantly grab attention, and the more curiosity it provokes, the better.

Use a Story. “Buy this great product” is never going to get shared as often as, “The Customer Service Nightmare on Elm Street” or “Redhead Finds Bliss in a Bottle.”

Use Visuals. Relevant, interesting visuals grab attention, heighten interest, tell a story, make content stand out in social media… do I need to go on?

Use Humor. Nothing gets shared as much as something that makes people chuckle – or better yet – laugh out loud. Find ways to insert humor into your content, both in the words and the visuals, and your shares will immediately go up.

Make It Easy to Share. Add buttons for each of the main social networks. The idea here is to keep the sharing process as easy and simple as possible. Even one extra click can result in no shares.