Tag: online sales

How to Write Your First Kindle Book in 30 Days or Less | And Make Instant Profits

Everyone’s got a book inside of them, just waiting to get out. And some people have dozens of books that can each be earning them a monthly income… if only they could just get started.

Kindle books can mean true passive income. You write each book once and Amazon sells it for years. Completely unknown aspiring authors have gone on to write dozens of Kindle books and earn themselves a monthly income that rivals most people’s annual income. Those same people can then take months and even years off from writing and simply watch the money flow in.

Others write just one or two books, not because they’re after passive income, but to show their authority in their niche. For example, someone who runs his own agency helping local businesses with their marketing writes ‘the’ book on small business marketing.

He sends this book to each new business he would like to work with, much like sending a calling card. When he shows up for the meeting, the business owner is not only friendly, open and receptive to hear what the author has to say – the owner is also ready to say yes to getting help from this expert.

Or maybe you’d like to be a coach. I know of one aspiring personal life coach who struggled to get $100 a month clients. Then she wrote a book, and now clients come to her and gladly pay not $100 a month for her help, but $1,000 a month.

No matter what your business or area of expertise, odds are writing and publishing at least one Kindle book will help you tremendously.

And yet, if you’re like 99% of most people who want to write a book, you still haven’t done it.

Today all that changes because we’re going to overcome every excuse you have for not getting started with your Kindle publishing.

And in fact, I’m going to show you how to write your own Kindle book in just 30 days. Set aside an hour or two per day, follow these steps and in a month you’ll have a bare minimum of a first draft ready for the editor, or even a finished book ready to be published.

Choosing your topic

Even if you already have a topic in mind, it’s still a good idea to do some brainstorming using one of these methods to determine if you have the BEST topic.

Brain dumping – empty your mind of all your ideas by setting a timer and then writing non-stop until the timer goes off. Try doing this for three 10 minute intervals spaced out over the course of a day or two. Write down EVERYTHING you can think of, regardless of what it might be.

Topic grouping – look at what you’ve written in the brain dump, and then group like topics together to see what naturally fits. For example, group all of your weight loss ideas together, group your make money ideas together and so forth. If you find you have several groups, choose the five groups that resonate with you.

Rating each idea group – rate your idea groups based upon how much passion you have for each group, how much experience and knowledge you have on that topic and how much you would enjoy researching the topic further. Which idea group comes to the top?

Repurposing – the Ultimate Shortcut

Maybe you’d like a fast shortcut to this entire system, so here it is: If you already have a lot of content you’ve personally written on a subject, then that might be the best idea for your new book. For example, maybe you have a year’s worth of blogposts about dog training – you can repurpose those posts into your first book.

Places you can find content for repurposing might include:

• Your blog as well as guest blog posts you’ve made
• Your podcast transcripts
• Articles you’ve written for magazines, newspapers, etc.
• Power Point presentations, tele-seminar transcripts, webinar transcripts
• Interviews, including interviewing others as well as being interviewed yourself
• Emails you’ve written. Did you answer people’s question in depth? Did you provide instruction or other useful content via email? Some marketers can practically copy and paste the contents of their autoresponder into book form because they do a great job of sharing useful info with their subscribers.
• Blog and social media comments. These can sometimes be an outstanding jumping off point for a book, especially if they were highly engaging.

Series? Or Not?

The time to decide if you want to write a series rather than just one book is before you start on the first book. The advantages of writing a series are clear: You have more books to sell, thus creating more profit potential. Each book can act as a sales agent for your other books. And when someone reads one of your books and likes it, you’ll have more books they can buy.

Your series title is going to be different than your book title. Think of the series title as an umbrella, with all of the books falling underneath this umbrella.

For example, your series could be about maximizing health after the age of 50, and your individual books could be on nutrition, exercise, weight loss, stress, diabetes, heart health and so forth.

When choosing a series title, keep in mind that while you cannot copyright a series or book title, you can trademark the series title. That’s why you can’t write a book “For Dummies” or use “The Everything Guide”. If you see a trademark symbol next to a series name, then you know you can’t use it.

If you think your series could be super profitable, it might be worth it to get your own series name trademarked. Avoid anything that sounds too generic and choose something memorable or that speaks to your audience.

Book Title

Keep your book title short. You want your book title to be readable when your cover is just a thumbnail. The same goes for sub-titles. If your subtitle is longer than 12 words, see if you can shorten it.

Use the title and subtitle to make it crystal clear what your book can do for the reader. This isn’t the time to be vague or mysterious.

Spend some time on the best seller lists looking at titles. At this point you want to have a working title, but you might find an even better option comes to light as you’re putting your book together.

Organizing Your Ideas

Mind mapping is a great tool for organizing ideas around your central topic. Write your topic or your title in the center of the page and then brainstorm ideas for the book’s content.

Ideally you want to have 5 to 10 chapters. Since this is a Kindle book, you don’t need to add filler to make it 200 pages. You do need, however, to provide great content that delivers on the promise of your title and subtitle.

Kindle’s minimum word count for a book is just 2500 words, which is the length of 5 short articles or one in-depth article. That’s right – you can publish a book with just 2500 words. Odds are once you get started you’ll realize your book will be longer than the minimum, but it’s good to know you don’t have to write an encyclopedia-length book to be published.

The sweet spot for Kindle books is 6,000 to 10,000 words. This is enough to give readers what they need and have them coming back for more… hence the idea of doing a series of books in your niche.

Once you have a rough idea of what your chapter topics will be, do a mind map for each topic for the content of each chapter.

Then organize your chapter titles and content of each chapter into an outline.

Be sure to write in the style your ideal reader is accustomed to. If you’re writing a book for mechanical engineers, it’s going to read differently than a book on how to bake the perfect flourless desserts or how to meditate like a master in only 5 minutes a day.

Creating Content Without Typing

Not everyone likes to sit at a keyboard and bang out their next book. Fortunately, you don’t have to.

You can record yourself talking your book, hire a transcription service and edit the transcription into your book.

You can also have someone interview you if you find that method to be easier, and again get it transcribed.

Or you can use software to type as you speak. Dragon Naturally Speaking software is perhaps the best option for this.

Perhaps you would like others to create your content for you. You might get 10 different experts to each write a chapter on one aspect of your topic, giving them full credit and a link back to their website so they can capture leads.

You can even ask bloggers if you can use one of their posts, again giving them credit. You compile these posts, making sure they are on target to your topic, and write an introduction. Using this method, you could easily produce a book per week if you’re motivated.

Productivity Tools

Regardless of which word processing program you’re using, you may find it easier to write and stay on track if you use one or more of the following productivity tools:

CalmlyWriter.com – this is an add-on for Google Chrome. It opens a new tab in your browser with a plain white background with no buttons or distractions.

FocusWriter.com – timers and alarms that force you to write during the allotted time, with optional daily word count goals. When you’re finished, copy and paste your text into your book writing program.

Ilys.com – this lets you set a word count goal for yourself each time you write to help propel you forward. You can also set it to ‘ninja mode’ which hides your words as you type, forcing you to move forward with your writing rather than going back to edit.

KeepWriting.boxjar.com – helps you to break the habit of editing as you write by not allowing you to delete or correct mistakes.

V2WriteOrDie.com – this software is pretty wild. It’s designed for people who overthink rather than write. You can set your own goals, and if you sit too long without typing the program will literally scream at you, drop spiders all over your page or do something else to interrupt your pattern and shock your brain back into writing.

WriteBoxApps.com – syncs all of your devices together so that you can seamlessly switch from working on your computer at home to working on your phone or device at the coffee shop or while waiting for appointments.

Tips for Writing More in Less Time

Turn off spell check. Editing while writing is a distraction that will only slow you down and make it more difficult to slog your way through your writing. If you can stop editing as you write, you’ll find your writing flows more easily and you get more done in less time with less effort.

Close your door and turn off your phone. Eliminate as many distractions as possible. Tell others you’re not to be disturbed during your writing time.

Schedule your writing time for when you’re at your best. For some people this is first thing in the morning, while others do their best writing in the afternoon or possibly the evening. Find the time when writing works for you, and then make that time a habit.

Change your work environment when possible. Sitting in the same place can put you in a rut. If possible, work outside when weather permits. Set up an outdoor office on your deck, use a picnic table in the park or find a coffee shop with outdoor seating. If the world is no longer in pandemic mode when you read this, restaurants and the inside of coffee shops can work well, too.

Use your outline but don’t marry it. Do you want to start with the second section of chapter 3? Go for it. There’s nothing that says you have to write your book in order. If you decide later that chapter 5 would work better as chapter 1, then make the change.

Place your outline on your wall where you can see it. Every day, write one section of a chapter. For example, if you have 7 chapters and each chapter has 3 sections, that’s 21 elements to write plus your introduction and conclusion, making 23. When you finish the first draft of a section, cross it off your outline. It can be incredibly motivating to see your progress in this way, plus it reminds you of what is left to write.

Before you go to bed, decide which section you will write tomorrow and then let it go. You might be surprised by what your subconscious does with this information overnight.

Every time you finish one section of the book, write a few paragraphs for the next section. This could be as little as 100 words. The idea here is to simply get a small start on it, but sometimes you will surprise yourself and finish that section as well.

Organizing Your Book

Here’s how you will typically organize your non-fiction Kindle book:

• Title page
• Copyright page
• Dedication (optional)
• Acknowledgements, but only if they boost your credibility. For example, if a well-known expert helped you in any way, here’s where you’ll thank them. Otherwise, place the acknowledgements at the back of the book.
• Table of contents
• Free opt-in. This is the invitation to readers to join your list and get your freebie. Yes, you should always be building your list through your books. Perhaps the best freebie to offer is a free copy of your next book before it’s published. This is also an awesome way to garner reviews.
• Introduction. This shouldn’t be just any old introduction. When a potential buyer is using the ‘see inside’ feature on Amazon, they will see this introduction before the first chapter. This is an excellent opportunity to state the benefits of reading your book and make them salivate in anticipation of the contents.
• The main body of the book. The first pages of your first chapter should again grab their attention and make them want to keep reading more.

Optional:

• Thank you page
• Resources list
• Glossary of terms
• Legalities and permissions
• About the author page. Don’t take yourself too seriously on this page. Feel free to talk about your credentials and experience, but also insert some humor and a personal glimpse of who you are.
• Other books by… This is where you remind them that you have other books for them to buy.

What To Include On Your Copyright Page:

• © Year and your name (© 2020 Jane Jones)
• Publishing company name, address, website and email. If you’re self-publishing, then this is your company. You must have an email address in case media wants to contact you to quote your book or interview you.
• Any disclaimers (especially for financial, medical or legal niches)
• Cover design credit, photo credits and illustration credits (if applicable). Don’t skip this. It is standard practice and copyright law to give credit to your graphic artist and illustrator.
• An ‘All Rights Reserved’ clause

Making Your Book Super ‘Sticky’

Think back to the last time you read something dry, dull and boring. What did you do? You stopped reading, of course. No one – NO ONE – wants be bored.

Some writers and would-be publishers might think, “So what? They’ve already purchased my book, so if they don’t like it, what does it matter?”

That’s short-sighted thinking and will ensure the author stays broke for a couple of reasons.

First, if your book is boring then you’re going to get poor reviews. Even if the content is good or great, your reviews will still be less than stellar because readers won’t be able to finish something that works better than a sleeping pill.

Second, your customers will not be back. They won’t be back to buy more books, or products and services, or even to read your blog or follow you on social media. You will have blown your one chance to make a great impression.

But take heart because keeping a reader engaged isn’t all the difficult.

Talk Over Coffee. Don’t write like you’re trying to impress your writing professor. Your goal isn’t to be a modern day Shakespeare; it’s to communicate in a friendly voice, much like how you talk to a good friend.

Do research. Read reviews of similar books. If they are less than 5 star, what are the reviews complaining about? Find the gaps and fill them.

Use stories. When possible, use case studies, examples, stories and so forth to engage and liven up your writing.

Keep it personal. You’re not talking to ‘them’, you’re speaking to one reader. Instead of writing, “When they do this, they find they are much more likely to…” go ahead and say, “When you do this, you’ll find you’re much more likely to…”

If possible, engage the senses. Talk about feel, touch, sounds, smells, sights and scents. Imagine how you’ll feel when you’ve got a steady 5 figure income just from your books. Can’t you just see the look on admirers’ faces when they realize you are a best-selling author? The sweet perfume of success will permeate everything you do, and so forth.

Make your book evergreen. It’s great to have a book that is a hot best seller today because it’s timely, but it really hurts when your fad is yesterday’s news and your book plummets to the bottom basement of Amazon. Not to mention the fact that by the time you get a faddish type of book on the market, the trend may have already passed you by.

The exception to this rule is if the trend is big enough and you can get your book written and published fast enough to make it pay. It’s a calculated risk but it does sometimes pay off in a big way.

However, the safest bet is to create content that will be as relevant in 5 years as it is today. You may need to occasionally update it to keep current with new trends and research, but that will be an excellent excuse to ‘relaunch’ the book with each update, thereby creating even more sales.

Keep your content concise. I once knew a guy who would restate the same point half a dozen different ways which is exactly why I started ducking his calls and avoiding him at every turn.

Make your chapter titles enticing. The worst thing you can do is get lazy and not name your chapters or name them in a dry manner. I’ve seen authors do this and it drives me crazy.

Your table of contents is prime real estate in the ‘search inside’ feature on Amazon. Each title should make the potential reader curious to know more. Do some research on Amazon by clicking on the “see inside” feature of books and reading the table of contents.

More short chapters are better than fewer long chapters.
Short chapters are easier to read. They give the reader a greater sense of accomplishment because they can read the chapters faster.

It’s easier for your readers to master your topic when it’s broken up into bite sized pieces. It makes for a larger, more interesting table of contents, making your book look more comprehensive.

And since each chapter title is a teaser for the content to come, it does a better job of selling your book. And yes, it’s perfectly okay to have a table of contents that takes up more than one page.

Editing Your Book

This is the part where I will lose a lot of you.

Yes, editing can be pure drudgery. Many writers hate editing as much as they love writing, but it’s a necessary part of the process that must be done.

Here’s my number one suggestion for editing: Get someone else to do it for you.

If you can afford it, hire a professional editor to go over your book with a fine tooth comb. They can spot areas that need work, things that are out of order, places where you dropped the ball and forgot something and so forth. They can point these out to you for you to fix, or you can pay them to do it for you.

They can also fix your typos and your word choices.

But you might be thinking… why do you even need to edit? A few typos are no big deal, right?

First, it’s not just about typos. You live in your brain but your readers don’t. Just because you know what you intended to say doesn’t mean your readers understand it. Bad writing can kill your book faster than anything else.

And yes, typos are a problem, too. It’s jarring for the reader to suddenly be confronted with a typo, especially if it changes the meaning. Some readers become upset when they find typos and they aren’t afraid to give negative reviews for those typos, even when they liked the content.

Here’s a little trick I learned about typos when you’re not using a professional editor: In the beginning of your book before the first chapter, mention that you have tried your darndest to find every typo, but you may have missed a few. If someone is the first to email you and tell you exactly where they found a typo, you will gladly send them a thank you gift for their efforts.

This appeases the ‘typo police’ and puts them on your side. They find a typo, they tell you, you thank them for their good work and you fix the mistake. Now you’ve got your entire readership helping you with your editing. Please note, this is NOT a substitute for doing your own editing. Before you place your book on Kindle it needs to be as good as you can possibly make it without trying to achieve perfection.

Remember, your reputation is at stake. You want to put out the very best version of your book you can without spending the rest of your life trying to get it perfect. That’s why hiring someone to act as your editor can be so helpful. They can look at your work with fresh eyes and see the things you are blind to.

And while you might feel you are handing over total control to your editor, you are not. If they use MS Word’s Track Changes, you can easily see all of the changes they made. If you don’t like a change, you can simply change it back.

Here’s how to get your editing done for the lowest rate possible:

First, do your own editing. Refine your voice, double check your facts, make sure everything is readable, plausible and flows. Eliminate every typo you find.

Second, give your manuscript to a couple of beta testers and get their input. Use their feedback to improve it. Don’t get freaked out when they say a section is unclear or you forgot something. They aren’t attacking you, they are simply helping to make your book as good as possible.

Finally, hire an editor to check grammar, spelling and punctuation and to point out any areas that are lacking, repetitive or need work. Fix those areas yourself and then pass it back to the editor for one last read through.

It’s also possible to get a free editor. For example, college students will sometimes do book editing for resume experience. Or maybe you can barter a service of your own in exchange for editing, such as coaching. Perhaps you have a friend or family member who is qualified to help you edit your manuscript. A local high school teacher might have free time in the summer and want to support local talent.

Beta readers or book reviewers can be found on social media within your niche.

Local writers’ groups are a good place to find other writers who can act as editors. You might edit each other’s books, for example.

Whoever helps you in any manner with your editing, be sure to thank them by name inside your book.

If you want to hire a professional editor, you might go to any one these sites to find them:

• BiblioCrunch.com
• BookEditorsAlliance.com
• Edit911.com
• The-EFA.org
• UpWork.com

Working with your editor will improve not just your current book, but also make you a better writer for your next book, too.

If you keep writing books, then by the time you get to book #5 or #6 your writing will have improved to the point where you might be a little horrified by the job you did in Book 1. That’s okay. It doesn’t mean that your first book was bad. It simply means you’ve improved greatly.

Writing Your Book in 30 Days

It’s time now to stop reading this and get busy. Put in the time each day and in a month or less you will have your very first book.

Next month we’ll cover publishing and marketing your first non-fiction book, so stay tuned!

Irving

How to Increase Conversions by Subliminally Reassuring Your Customers

You’re driving through strange new lands to a destination you’ve never seen. Sometimes you go for miles without seeing anything that indicates you’re even on the right road. Then finally a sign appears, telling you that your destination is up ahead. If you’re like most people, when you see this sign you immediately relax. You feel better because you’ve been reassured that you’re traveling in the right direction and your reward is close.

If you think of the internet as a system of highways and roads, and your prospects as people in their cars trying to navigate to your product download page, then it’s easy to see we need to place signs along the way that reassure them they’re headed in the right direction.

It’s all about flow. Maintaining this flow throughout your entire sales funnel will increase your conversions by reassuring your prospects they are on the right path.

Think of the last time you read an email that offered a free gift you really wanted, only to click over to the squeeze page and find an entirely different headline. Disconcerting, right? You don’t even know if you’re in the right place.

Or you read an article talking about the great benefit of having a particular product, only to click over to the sales page and find an entirely different benefit being extolled in the headline. Is this the same product? Are you even on the right page?

When the next step in the funnel – whatever that step might be – seems to have no connection whatsoever with what you were promised on the previous page, it stops you dead in your tracks. You think twice before continuing forward, and more often than not you close the page rather than try to figure out what the heck is going on.

It’s not the customer’s job to be a detective and investigate if the product on the page they’re on does what the last page said it would.

I know affiliates mean well when they make this mistake. They think that digging deep into a product to find another big benefit that isn’t advertised on the sales page will cause more people to buy the product. But instead, it just confuses the heck out of them.

Here’s how to never confuse your prospects: Copy and paste the actual headline from the sales page into your email, your blog post, or ad or whatever you’re using to drive people to the sales page.

Make sure you include that line in every message your prospect sees until they reach the sales page.

It doesn’t have to be the main headline on your pages, but it does need to be there and it should be highly visible to everyone. For example, if the product’s headline is, “How to Build a List of 2,000 in 48 Hours” and you want to send an email talking about how this system drives super targeted traffic, you might write…

My Eureka Moment: This Will Drive Massive Traffic My Website

I just bought John Smith’s new product, “How to Build a List of 2,000 in 48 Hours,” and halfway in I realized this method can be used to drive targeted traffic to ANY page you choose, not just a squeeze page. That’s right – you can send traffic straight to your sales page, your Facebook Group Page or anyplace you like and then do a lead capture on exit for those who don’t sign up or purchase right away.

Talk more about it, then remind them to… Check out “How to Build a List of 2,000 in 48 Hours.”

You’ve talked about your favorite benefit, but you’ve also made it super clear what they should expect to see when they hit the sales page, thereby reassuring them they are in the right place.

Irving

How School Could Have Ruined You for Business

In a traditional education you are taught there is ONE right answer.

Remember multiple choice tests? You were told that “C” was the right answer and “A” “B” and “D” were wrong.

But what if there is a “E”, an “F” or even several hundred different possibilities?

Nope. According to school, there is always ONE right answer.

It makes grading tests a lot easier, plus it trains people to follow orders from bosses who always know the one right answer.

And it’s all bull****.

In business there can be MANY right answers. But since we are trained to think there is only one, we stop looking when we find the first answer that can work.

Never mind that there are another hundred solutions out there, and more than half of them are far better than the first one we found.

Just because you think you have the right answer doesn’t make it the best solution. Keep looking. KEEP LOOKING. Be open to solutions that are even better than the first one you discovered, because they are out there.

You use the same membership software that 80% of other marketers use. You stop looking for membership software because you already have the solution.

But another gal keeps looking for something better, and she finds a membership software that works twice as good at retaining subscribers. Not content to simply use it, she buys the fledgling little company for peanuts, teams up with a programmer and relaunches the software under their new name, making a fortune.

You’ve been told that emailing your list too often is bad and pisses people off and makes them unsubscribe. So you email once a week and you earn an okay living, never questioning if there is a better solution.

Some young kid hears the ‘rules’ about emailing too often but he wants money to come to him faster. He wants a better solution. So he sends out an email every six hours, 7 days per week. That’s 28 emails per week. 20% of his subscribers get mad and leave. 70% buy something every once in a while. And 10% buy every single thing he promotes because they love him and trust him. In three years he’s made enough money to buy a castle in Scotland. He found a better solution.

Business is ambiguous and even illogical. Rules aren’t just made to be broke; oftentimes they don’t even apply.

For example, you follow all the ‘rules’ to create a viral campaign that costs you a small fortune and it fails miserably. Someone else creates a stupid 20-second video that follows no rules of marketing or business, and they get a million hits in two days and sell $100,000 in product.

Here’s something they don’t teach you in school: Rules don’t apply to everyone. In fact, they only apply to those who choose
to follow them.

When you think in a certain way or when you grab the first solution you find, you are putting constraints on yourself that don’t need to be there.

If you have a hard time with the concept that there are no rules (we’re not talking laws here – that’s something else) then try this:

Rules are MEANT to be broken.

Read a handbook on how to do anything. Realize that the person who wrote it is giving you the rules they followed, the rules that worked for THEM. These rules may or may not work for you. You are a different person, likely in a different niche, having a different set of priorities and ideas and products and customers.

Their rules might be helpful but they are not gospel.

Rules are meant to be broken. I’m going to keep telling you that until it starts to sink in, because I realize I’m going against everything your teachers taught you.

Even your rules are mean to be broken. Your own rules, including ones you’re not even aware of, are a weird mash of your own experiences and beliefs. They come from your schooling, your parents, your friends, your beliefs and your experiences.

Break your own rules and see what happens. Contrary to what Sunday school teachers told you, the world will not stop spinning and the earth won’t swallow you in a fiery pit of sulfur.

You’ve been holding yourself back your entire life and it’s time to just STOP it. Question everything. Question why you do what you do, question your choices, question your methods, question your beliefs.

It’s a major shift in thinking that can take you from mediocre to massive success in a very short time.

And at the very least, it’s a lot more fun when you remove the constraints and start acting like rules are merely suggestions and not law.

Remember this and even tattoo it on the back of your hand: First solutions are seldom best solutions and rules are meant to be broken.

Irving

4 Difficult Discussions that Increase Conversions | Try Out Yourself

As marketers we like to talk about all the good stuff while hoping prospects don’t think about or see the ‘bad’ stuff.

You know… things like cost, problems, competition and lousy reviews.

And yet, if we get up the guts to have these conversations with our prospects, we get to take control of the situation and more often than not we can make sales that otherwise never would have happened.

Lousy Reviews: Let’s say your prospect is on the verge of buying but still has a little bit of hesitation. They decide to check your reviews, and lo and behold there’s a negative one left by a hideous troll intent on ruining your business.

Okay, maybe the troll was sincere in what they said, which of course is even worse.

Your ‘almost customer’ reads the review and marvels at how close they came to making a mistake by buying your product, and you’re out a sale.

But what if you had done two things prior to this point in the sales process? What if you had taken care of that upset customer, made whatever was wrong, right again, and turned them into one of your best advocates? If an angry customer is sincere in their disgruntlement and not just playing you, then this is your chance to go above and beyond and turn them into your best friend, or at least someone who removes negative reviews and brags about your stellar customer service.

Once you’ve accomplished that, here’s what you do next: Write about it. From start to finish, from bad to good, tell the story of what happened that made the customer unhappy and how you fixed it. Yes, this is uncomfortable, but it also shows prospects that when something goes wrong, you make it right.

That prospect who would otherwise have found the negative review now finds a review extolling how you fix problems or she reads your post on what happened. Either way, you’ve saved an untold number of future sales.

Cost: Your product costs twice as much as anything else on the market. As soon as prospects comparison shop, you’re dead in the water unless you take action before this happens.

The best option is to position your product in such a way that you have NO competition. You are in a class of your very own and there is nothing else out there that compares.

If you can’t do this, then at least write a post or two on why your product is light years better than anything else.

The point is to deal with the price issue head on. Do not hope upon hope that your prospects will never look around to see what other options they might have. If you stick your head in the sand on the price issue, you will miss out of sales.

Competition: Setting price aside, there’s also the comparison of your product versus your competitor’s product. Instinct might tell you to either NEVER talk about the competition, or to trash them if you do. Both options are wrong and will cost you sales.

Instead, praise your competition whenever possible while making it clear that as good as they are – and they are good – you and your product are even better for ‘X’ number of reasons. A great way to illustrate this is a chart showing everything that you provide versus what the competition provides.

If you can’t make a chart that shows how you provide far more value than anything else on the market, it might be time to rethink your product. If you can’t add features and benefits, maybe you can focus on targeting one certain market and doing it incredibly well. For example, your competition helps small business owners with marketing. You, on the other hand, are THE expert on flooding restaurants with new and repeat business. They’re the ‘every business’ guy, and you’re the restaurant guy. Who is a restaurant owner going to trust more? And for that matter, who will the restaurant owner pay more for their services, the restaurant expert or the jack of all businesses?

Problems: I guarantee there are not just problems you solve, but also problems you create.

I’m sure you’re already talking about the customer’s problems and how your product solves those problems. That’s marketing 101. But you also need to address the problems of your product as well.

Let’s say you’ve got a terrific software program that does everything the customer could want, but the interface looks completely outdated and clunky. Yes, that is the next thing on your list to update, but you’re afraid that if you show prospects a demo of your software, they will think your entire system is outdated based on appearance.

This is something you need to talk about right up front. Go ahead and tell them that yours is the best software out there with the ugliest interface because you have spent all your time and resources where it counts and not on window dressing.

Let them know you’ll be jazzing up the interface in the next quarter, and once you do, new subscribers will be paying more for it. But when they subscribe to the software now they get the BEST solution to fix their problems at a discount just because it hasn’t gone through its beautification cycle yet.

Not covering these uncomfortable topics can erode trust and bite into your sales. But speaking openly and upfront about things like price, competition, poor reviews and challenges can save your sales and make you the provider people like and trust.

Irving

Internet Marketing Shorties | Keeping Up To date On the Latest News

 

3 Step Profits: Watch News – Deploy Report – Make Money

Here is a simple little case study that you can employ in almost any niche.

This gal I know writes simple little reports that are evergreen. Example topics might be:

• How to build a sales funnel using other people’s products
• How to build a Facebook Group of 3,000 in 60 days and earn $10,000 a month
• How to build a simple membership site and get 25 new members every month, regardless of price

You get the picture, but again, this could work in almost any niche. The reports are purposely generic when she writes them and the content is evergreen, meaning it does not need a lot of updating in months and years to come.

Then she watches to see what is happening in the news. Maybe Google has an SEO update, or there is a huge launch for a list building product, or it’s reported that Facebook fan pages aren’t working as well as they used to… it doesn’t really matter.

When she sees a news item she wants to capitalize on, she pulls out the appropriate report and customizes it to the situation. For example, it’s reported that Facebook advertising is becoming more difficult or expensive, so she updates her report on Bing advertising. Some big name is launching a $1000 product on building funnels, so she gets out her funnel report and so forth.

She changes the title to suit the situation. Google is acting up and marketers are afraid their incomes are in jeopardy? She will re title her traffic report to something like, “How to Dump Google and Build a Steady Stream of Buyers from Instagram.” Then she will tailor the report to sell a $500 Instagram marketing course. She will sell the report or give it away, depending on her goal.

Often the reports are relaunched to go with a major product launch, and other times it’s to help people with a change in marketing.

In some cases, she is deployed essentially the same reports a half dozen times with different headlines and different end goals.

Sometimes she is just list building, sometimes promoting a specific product (and list building) and sometimes she is simply selling the report (and list building.)

I could try to make this sound more complicated, but that’s really all there is to it. The key is to watch the news and figure out how you want to monetize whatever change or ‘crisis’ is in the air. Speed is paramount, and since 95% of the writing is already done, she can see the first report of some new development on Monday evening and have the new report out Tuesday morning.

All you need is a stack of generic reports that can be tweaked and adapted to generate income on the back of the latest hot topic or industry change.

An Underhanded but Highly Profitable Method

I’m not endorsing what I’m about to reveal.

But I’m also not going to judge (much). Instead, I’ll simply report on this method and let you decide for yourself.

For all I know there are hundreds of marketers doing this, but I only know of one person and frankly I got this info second hand from someone who used to help him do this, so take that into consideration.

This is clever. Maybe a bit diabolical. And not necessarily an entirely bad thing for all involved.

There’s this bloke who buys extensive PLR material. We’re talking entire courses with a dozen PDF s and another dozen videos and so forth for several hours of material. If there are videos, then he gets those transcribed so he has written copy.

You can think of plenty of topics in online marketing that have PLR courses as well as other niches, too.

Then he records himself ‘teaching’ these products over many sessions. As I understand it, he is basically reading the material with his own adlibbing thrown in for good measure.

So far that’s not too dodgy. You can usually re purpose PLR as you see fit without breaking any rules.

But here’s where it gets sketchy: He pretends he is doing a LIVE group coaching call for each of these sessions. He starts out with, “Welcome to the call” and other stuff to make it sound like this was a live call with real coaching clients listening in for high paid group sessions.

Once he’s got all these ‘calls’ recorded, he sells the entire product as a course with a high price tag that is justified because the people who were originally on the call paid hundreds or maybe thousands of dollars to be there.

Then he releases the recordings at a ‘bargain price’ which is still much higher than the price of a regular course.

The teaching itself might be great – I don’t know. But you have to admit, claiming these were live group coaching calls people paid top dollar for is… highly questionable.

If he were to justify what he’s doing, I’m sure he would say that the more people pay, the more likely they are to use the info. Hopefully he’s a good teacher and his students are profiting from this. Personally, I think its fine to record PLR and I suppose it’s okay to call it your own if you bought the right to it. But I’m not at all crazy about claiming people paid big bucks to be on these live calls when it’s pure malarky.

Anyway, I just thought you should know.

How One Little Notebook Can Double Your Income

Anytime and every time you do anything in your business, write it down.

Found a new resource? A new shortcut? A new market? Had a brilliant idea? Or even a crazy idea? Write it all down.

If you try something and it works, write it down. If it didn’t work, write that down, too.

It doesn’t matter what your niche is. The point is to keep track of everything you do in your business.

Then when something pays off big, you have three options:

1: Follow the steps in your notebook to duplicate your success over and over again.

2: Hire an outsourcer to follow the steps to duplicate your success for you while you focus on building even more income streams.

3: Use your notes to create teachings (books, courses, membership sites, etc.) to duplicate your success. This is an entirely new income stream to go with the other income you’re making.

If you’re teaching others how to duplicate your success, be sure to also tell them what didn’t work so they can learn from your mistakes instead of making their own.

Do you already have a solid method that’s working for you, but you didn’t take notes? You can still go back and do some investigation to recreate what you did that’s working so well.

Your payment processor records your income. Cross check that with emails you’ve sent out and campaigns you’ve run to see what worked best.

Check the Wayback Machine to find out what copy you were using on which site on any particular date. Check your Clickbank, JVZoo and other accounts to see when things were working well and investigate to find out what you were doing.

It’s like being your own Big Brother, only this way you get to profit yet again by duplicating your successes and teaching others to do the same.

9 Stats to Remind You Why Content Marketing WORKS

Paid advertising is great because once you’ve got ads and a funnel that works, you can turn on the switch anytime you’re willing to spend money to make money.

But content marketing is still important, and some would argue that in the long run it’s far more valuable than paid advertising.

1. When you compare content marketing with paid search, content marketing gets three times the leads per dollar spent. This is huge, but remember to factor in your time when creating content.

2. Effective content marketing generates over three times as many leads as outbound marketing and yet it costs 62% less. Of course, a proven outbound campaign is generally easier and less work intensive to run, so you’ve got to weigh your options.

3. In 1984, a person saw an average 2,000 ads/day. By 2014, they saw around 5,000. Which means they pay attention to very few ads, thanks to ad overload. Content marketing is the ultimate work-around, coming in under their radar and building trust in a way that no advertising can.

4. Almost half of 18- to 49-year-old people get their news and information online – and those numbers are growing. People 50 and older are no slouches when it comes to the internet, either. Think of how many people you know who aren’t online. Personally, I know of one. Just ONE. And her husband is online, so even she is reachable if you can get his attention.

5. Small businesses with blogs get 126% more lead growth than small businesses without. You can teach businesses how to blog, or even set up a blogging service for them.

6. After reading recommendations on a blog, 61% of U.S. online consumers made a purchase. Have you got a blog yet?

7. Content marketing rakes in conversion rates six times higher than other methods. SIX times. That’s hard to even fathom.

8. The most effective SEO technique? Content creation. This is real content that helps people. “Have you got a leaky roof? Here are 10 reasons your roof might be leaking and 5 ways to repair a leaky roof yourself. Would you like help to find the leak? Call us for a free inspection because we’re here to help.” It’s no wonder why content like that will be more effective than an ad screaming, “BUY YOUR NEXT ROOF FROM US!”

9. Businesses publishing 16-plus posts a month get almost 3.5 times more traffic than businesses publishing zero to four articles. Publish or perish, they say, and it’s true.

Paid advertising has its place. But if you also have a continuous stream of quality content to share with your audience, you’ll build trust and gain business that simply cannot be achieved in any other manner.

How a Simple “Thank You” Payed $30,000 in one Afternoon

I have a coaching client who has done fairly well building his online business. He’s got a funnel set up that is totally automated and makes a decent income, and it works like this:

He runs ads to send traffic to a squeeze page where visitors opt in to get a freebie. Then the autoresponder sequence kicks in and sends people to various sales pages where he makes money.

The whole thing is automated so that he never has to personally contact a customer.

And because of that, he was losing a ton of money. In fact, I just about had to wrestle him to the floor to convince him to take the next step…

…personal contact. I instructed him to personally contact each person who purchased any product over $95 and thank them.

He was to also casually mention his coaching program, too. Actually, he didn’t yet have a coaching program, so I first had to convince him to add a coaching program and then convince him to contact customers to say thank you.

I instructed him to be super nice and not at all salesy on the phone. He was to thank them profusely for their purchase, let them know how important they are and gently inquire about their goals. And he was to tell them about his coaching course just so they were aware of it for a later date when they were ready to move to the next level.

I told him to be warm and kind, to be genuine and to not sell.

The entire idea was to make his customers feel valued and to offer personal help should they need it.

The first time he finally did this and much to his total and complete shock, he signed up 5 coaching clients the same day at $1,000 apiece.

That was almost a year ago. Today he called and said he was doing his weekly ‘thank you’s’ to his best customers and he signed up 6 clients to his coaching program.

By the way, did I mention that he now charges $5,000 for the program? Yup, that’s right – $30,000 in one afternoon just for saying “thank you.”

So You DON’T Want Me to Read Your Page??

Today when I visited a website for the first time, a pop-up offered me a cool freebie. Once I entered my email address, the page rolled over to an offer for a $7 product.

Pretty normal funnel so far, right?

But here’s the thing – the sales page for the $7 offer consisted of white text on a hideous, eye-injuring yellow background.

They did an EXCELLENT job of ensuring I would click away from the page as fast as possible.

And I bet they wonder why their conversions are so lousy.

Have you taken a look at your pages from your visitor’s point of view? If they’re not pleasing to the eye and super easy to read, then it’s time to make some changes.

I see artsy-fartsy looking sites all the time. Medium gray font on a light gray background because someone said it’s in style. Light gray font on a white background. Tiny font that makes me squint. Blaring colors and little videos that follow me around the page and won’t let me focus on the content. Pop-ups with no clear way to get rid of them. Social media buttons that cover the first inch of text on the left margin. Headers that take up half the page.

I could understand if these mistakes were being made in 1995, but we’ve now had over two decades to get these things right.

Any time you have to decide between being artsy and making your site easy for your visitor to navigate and engage, I suggest you error on the side of the visitor.

How to Lose a Customer Forever

I bought something this week from an Ebay style of website called Mercari. I expected to get what I saw in the photos of the listing – pretty reasonable expectation, right?

It was supposed to be 3 identical items, which was exactly what I wanted and needed. Yet when I received them, there was one of the items I ordered and two that were similar but different. I was not pleased.

I left a review gently pointing out this discrepancy and stating that maybe the seller simply made a mistake. Certainly, it wasn’t intentional, right? I errored on the side of being nice and understanding.

That was a mistake.

The seller promptly sent me a scathing message letting me know that it was MY FAULT that I did not ASK them ahead of time if they were going to do something devious like switch out 2 of the 3 products.

Yup. You read that right. According to them it was my job to interrogate them on their intentions prior to buying, rather than assume they were upstanding business people who would do the right thing.

I found a couple of lessons here that I can use, and maybe you’ll find them helpful, too.

First, is there something I should be telling my prospects before they buy? Since I never want my customers to have a bad experience, what else do I need to tell them so that they’re not blindsided?

Second, how I respond to a customer’s complaint is everything. Had this person simply acknowledged they screwed up and apologized, I would still have felt fine about it. Stuff happens.

But to turn around and say it’s the customer’s fault for not catching them in a lie prior to the transaction, well…

Needless to say I have blacklisted them forever.

Irving

Up to Date Internet marketing News | At Your Fingertips

Mailchimp Adds New Marketing Automation Platform

If you’re not using Mailchimp, you might be surprised at just how much it can do for a small business.

While Mailchimp began as just another email marketing service and platform for businesses, it has now expanded into the marketing automation space.

In the last few years, Mailchimp has added a website builder, basic online store function, digital ad support, and analytics tools, in its attempt to become a one-stop-shop for small businesses and entrepreneurs with digital marketing.

Because of these changes, Mailchimp now gives small businesses the power to compete with more sophisticated (but potentially cost-prohibitive) marketing automation solutions.

And now Mailchimp announces a new line of tools that are artificial intelligence (AI)-based to further help small business owners become better marketers.

The new AI tools include:

• Personalized product recommendations for shoppers
• Forecasting tools for behavioral targeting (to see which users are most likely to buy something)
• AI-backed tool to help businesses design their own visual assets
• A tool to help businesses write better email subject lines
• A tool that helps businesses improve their email campaign performance

https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/22/mailchimp-launches-new-ai-tools-as-it-continues-its-transformation-to-marketing-platform/

Facebook Kills ‘<20% text in image’ Rule

Facebook has removed the 20% text limit on ad images.

The long-standing rule had been shifted to less stringent over the years, with this week marking their complete abandonment of the 20% text rule. Media buyers in Facebook’s platform began to notice recently a big change: their images were no longer being disapproved for a lot of text.

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/facebook-removes-the-20-text-limit-on-ad-images/

Ryan Reynolds has 7 Marketing Lessons for You. Seriously.

Ryan Reynolds, the famous actor and creative guy behind some of the most memorable ads in the past couple of years, shares some of his insights with Adweek’s creativity and innovation editor David Griner during their Brandweek digital event.

The 7 lessons, summarized, are:

• Less bureaucracy allows for more creativity.
• To be a good marketer, be a consumer first.
• Authenticity always triumphs.
• Speed is good, too.
• Accountability matters.
• Celebrity status isn’t everything.
• Consumers are tiring of endorsers.

https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/ryan-reynolds-marketing-lessons-brandweek-aviation-gin-mint-mobile/

Infographic from AdSense Answers Your Questions

Are you using AdSense? Or just thinking about it? Google has released this infographic to answer your most pressing questions, such as how you can stay on their good side and what to do if (Uh-oh!) you receive a policy violation notice.

https://blog.google/products/adsense/guide-common-adsense-policy-questions/

Reddit Launches Ad Inventory Types to Give Advertisers More Control

Reddit is working to earn your advertising dollars, launching three new tiered ad inventory options.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/reddit-launches-ad-inventory-types-to-give-advertisers-more-control-over-th/585855/

Facebook Launches ‘Facebook Business Suite’

This is an all-in-one Facebook and Instagram management tool, focused on making it easier for you to manage your Facebook and Instagram presences from a single platform.

https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/facebook-launches-facebook-business-suite-an-all-in-one-management-tool/585445/

Searching for Usable Images on Google Just Got Tricky

Google quietly removed the “labeled for reuse” and “labeled for reuse with modifications” options from Image Search. While the filter options and subsequent images are now gone from search, Google has added a Creative Commons license option.

As a reminder, Creative Commons images are free to use, provided that you credit the user and link back to them — a change from “labeled for reuse” licenses which could be used without attribution.

Many digital marketers relied on that little tag to find images eligible for legal use in marketing content efficiently. Now, we have to go through more effort to properly find and source images for our content. On top of that, you may see some fluctuations in your rankings as this new change goes into effect.

https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/google-image-labeled-for-reuse-stock-photos

Google Update: Your Visitors Can Now See if Your Forms Aren’t Secure

Are your website forms secure? If you don’t immediately know the answer to that question for your company website, consider this big news from Google a wake-up call.

https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/google-chrome-form-security-website-warning-https

Google Ads Update Now Hiding Data

Google Ads has quietly started removing data from the search terms report. Although this may not sound like a huge deal for digital marketers, it has the potential to cause trouble when it comes to reporting of clicks, return on ad spend and more.

The update was released via a notification in your Ads account, that can easily go unnoticed.

https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2472708

Microsoft Launches 2 Screen Phone

Microsoft is back in the smartphone business with its new Duo. Now your customers can watch your YouTube video while visiting your squeeze page, visit your website while on your webinar and pretty much do any two things at once.

While the price tag is currently high, if this catches on we can expect other companies to follow suit, thereby lowering the price in a year or two.

This can take mobile marketing to an entirely new level as marketers discover ways to make it work for their businesses.

My only question is why didn’t someone invent this sooner?

https://apnews.com/article/smartphones-technology-financial-markets-business-satya-nadella-37019b509699cdc877bcf6b701e3d69e

Innovation in a Crisis: Why it is More Critical than Ever

Despite the pandemic’s economic consequences, McKinsey & Co. research suggests that most leaders think this time of change and reinvention can be a boon to their businesses. More than three-quarters of business owners told the research giant the crisis will create “significant” new opportunities for growth. Revealing that blessing in disguise boils down to meeting the market’s changing needs.

https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/innovation-in-a-crisis-why-it-is-more-critical-than-ever#

Irving

Relationship Recurring Billing Programs on Clickbank | Best Programs for Recurring Income

Don’t you just love programs where you make the sale once and get paid over and over again?

These are the highest paying recurring billing affiliate programs on Clickbank in the relationship niche. Even during a pandemic, relationship info is HOT and people will pay top money to discover the secrets to having and keeping a relationship. The ‘average re bill’ amounts you see below are straight from Clickbank, and I have to admit the first one knocked my socks off. $2500? WOW! Even just a couple of these a month would be an awesome second income.

Just a note: I am in no way endorsing any of these programs, so please do your own research and only recommend programs you trust. That said, in my opinion there are at least several programs here that are totally awesome and well worth promoting to start earning yourself some long-term residual income.

• Men’s Confidence Project

Average Rebill Amount: $2512.69

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• Text That Girl

Average Rebill Amount: $1018.84

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• The Women Men Adore

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• Healthy You Healthy Love

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• Never Lose Him

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• The T8 System

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• Secrets Men Don’t Want Women To Know

Average Rebill Amount: $355.50

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• How Do I Get Him Back

Average Rebill Amount: $354.84

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• Save The Marriage System

Average Rebill Amount: $342.16

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• Save My Marriage Today

Average Rebill Amount: $302.38

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• BJ Power Play

Average Rebill Amount: $274.42

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• Wrap Him Around Your Finger

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Average Rebill Amount: $246.05

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• The Bonding Stages

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Average Rebill Amount: $205.71

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• Modern Love

Average Rebill Amount: $202.24

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• Wing Girl Secrets

Average Rebill Amount: $189.29

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• How To Kiss A Man

Average Rebill Amount: $189.29

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• Mend The Marriage

Average Rebill Amount: $151.39

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• Text Chemistry

Average Rebill Amount: $150.47

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• That’s Not How Men Work

Average Rebill Amount: $146.34

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• Sex Escalation Secrets

Average Rebill Amount: $136.15

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• Effortless Conversational System

Average Rebill Amount: $131.36

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• Cosmic Compatibility Profile

Average Rebill Amount: $123.21

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• Pheromone Spray For Men

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• Make Him A Monogamy Junkie

Average Rebill Amount: $115.63

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• Majestic Messaging

Average Rebill Amount: $100.18

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• Addict Him

Average Rebill Amount: $99.18

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• Attract And Keep Her

Average Rebill Amount: $94.78

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• Speak To Spark Arousal

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• Domination Principle

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• Revive Her Drive

Average Rebill Amount: $85.55

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• He’s Not That Complicated

Average Rebill Amount: $82.13

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• Feminine Enchantment

Average Rebill Amount: $73.70

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• Rise Of The Phoenix

Average Rebill Amount: $72.60

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• Respark The Romance

Average Rebill Amount: $71.18

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Irving

5 Reasons Why Your Site isn’t Ranking in Google

Sometimes even small changes can make a big difference in getting traffic through the SERPS.

1: Your content doesn’t connect with visitors

Buyers want to be heard, understood and helped. Most of all, they need to feel they can trust the content on your website or they will leave.

If your content is nothing but, “We are the BEST! Buy from US!” Then why would anyone trust it?

If the end goal of your site is to make sales, start by writing about these topics in an informative, helpful, non-salesly manner:

Pricing and comparisons – be the source that gives them the prices and specs on not only your product, but your competitors, too, and you might just keep them from leaving your site to make their decision.

Their problems
– your product is the solution to their problem, right? Let them know that their unusually high-water bill can be solved with your free plumbing and leak detection inspection.

Your problems
– your product is not a one-size fits all. Let them know this and you’ll build instant trust. For example, if you install wooden fencing, let them know when wood is not the best solution and chain link is better.

‘Best of’ lists
– write articles that show the best of products in your category, the best services, the best whatever is relevant. When people are ready to buy they often search for, “Best plumbers in Cincinnati”. If you can get them on your site, you have a good chance of making the sale. You can also write about the best practices, the best new methods, best examples, etc.

Reviews and case studies – before people make a purchase, they want to know that others have had success with your solution. Give them the reviews and case studies that ease their worries and build trust.

2: Your content isn’t targeting the right keywords

Search engines need to know what questions you are trying to answer with your content.

Start with keyword research and identify the keywords that will drive actual results for your business and not just general traffic. Find out how prospects talk about your product or service, and then create content that uses the keywords naturally.

For example, your customers might be searching for, “Best chiropractor Tampa Florida”. You might write an article titled, “The 5 Best Chiropractors in Tampa, Florida.”

3: Your site speed is too slooooow

Typical mobile sites take 5 or 6 seconds to load. But typical mobile users will only wait 3 seconds.

Houston, we have a problem with these numbers.

Google looks at your engagement numbers. And if people aren’t sticking around long enough for your site to load, those bounces are going to hurt your rankings.

4: You don’t publish often enough

For best results, publish at least 2 or 3 new pieces of content each week. This will please both the search engines and your prospects.

Have you ever visited a site that hasn’t published anything new in six months? Did you wonder if they were still in business or able to take care of your needs?

Publish keyword targeted, relevant content on a regular basis.

5: You’re not optimizing older posts

If you’ve got content that you published years ago that isn’t ranking, it’s time to update that content.

Find the articles with high bounce rates as well as the ones ranking on page 2 or 3 of Google. Also, look for articles that receive a significant number of impressions in search engines but not a lot of clicks through to your site.

Update those articles by removing anything that is out-of-date and adding anything that is new and relevant. Make sure each article is targeted to a specific keyword and formatted in an easy to read style.

Update the title and meta description to better align with what searchers are looking for. Don’t change the publish date unless you update a significant portion of the content.

Remember that any content that is outdated, inaccurate or missing information needs to be updated as soon as possible.

How to NEVER Feel Slimy When Selling

On or off the internet, you are always selling something to someone.

Maybe you’re selling your parents on why they should pay for your college.

Or you’re selling your spouse on why they should let you take that trip with your friends.

Or you’re selling your boss on what a great employee you are, and how you should get a BIG raise starting NOW.

We even sell little things, like getting our kids to go to bed, getting the newspaper carrier to deliver our paper where the sprinklers won’t get it wet, and selling the new cashier on bagging our cans at the bottom of the bag instead of on top of the bread.

“But these types of selling are different,” we tell ourselves. This isn’t selling someone on something they don’t need or want (it might be) This isn’t taking advantage of someone (depends on the point of view) or ripping them off (I hope not).

We’ve learned to equate day to day selling of our friends and relatives on agreeing to our point of view or requests as something other than selling.

And we’ve also been conditioned to think that OTHER kind of selling – the one where you take money in exchange for something – is sleazy, slimy and something no good person should ever do to someone else.

You and I know people don’t like to be sold but they love to buy. And people are afraid – really afraid – of being taken advantage of by a scam.

Yet our job as online marketers is to SELL something. Maybe we’re selling ideas, products, services or whatever. But we are most definitely selling. Even if all you do is blog, you are still selling your visitors on reading your stuff and your advertisers on buying ads from you.

Even social media mavens without a business are selling others on ‘liking’ their posts so they can get the momentary thrill of feeling, “They Like Me!”

How are we supposed to go against years – decades – of being brainwashed to think there is something painfully sleazy about selling?

How do we get up in the morning EAGER to sell something to someone?

The answer is so simple, and yet so profound, that I’m going to bet you already heard it but forgot it…

Do not, ever, ever sell anything you don’t believe in, aren’t excited about or goes against your moral compass. And never, ever make claims that aren’t 100% authentically true.

When you create a product or service with the intention of helping people, you will never feel bad about selling what you have. You will be able to speak of the value and importance of your product without an ounce of shame.

When you are being totally true to your goal of helping others, it will never even occur to you that you are somehow being a pushy salesperson. Rather, you’ll be able to passionately talk and write about how great your product or service truly is.

In fact – and here’s the amazing part – if you do this right, you won’t even feel like you are selling at all.

And this gets even better. Remember when we said that people hate to be sold to, but they love to buy?

When you’re passionately honest about helping others with your product or service, the person being sold to won’t feel like they’re being sold to. That’s because when you’re offering them the thing they want – or more specifically, the benefit they seek – they’re not being sold. Instead, they’re BUYING.

Everyone thinks that advertising doesn’t work on them. “I don’t fall for that malarkey,” they’ll say. But in reality, when someone responds to advertising, they’re not making the connection that they’re being sold to. They were LOOKING for that thing (that benefit) and then they make a rational, educated decision to buy it after reading or hearing about the benefits and features.

So the simplest way to not feel like a slimeball sales person is to only sell things you believe in to people who actually WANT what you’re selling.

Don’t sell hamburgers to vegans.

And don’t sell hamburgers if you are a vegan.

If you’re a vegan, then offer the best vegan burgers possible to vegans, and you will never feel like you are selling a day in your life.

Renovating Your Lousy Out-of-Date 404 Error Pages

A 404 Error Page is what a visitor sees (or should see) when they land on a page that is no longer there. Some links go bad over time because products get removed or content gets deleted. Or maybe there are changes in the permalink structure, or gremlins ate the page. It can happen. It DOES happen.

And there was a time when your 404 Error page could say anything or nothing at all.

But it’s time to wake up because 1995 is long gone.

If you’re still using bland, boring, dead-end 404 Error pages, then you’re losing readers.

That’s right – if someone lands on your 404 and it’s a dead end, you may as well put up a sign that says, “Go away, we don’t want you here!”

I’m not saying you have to get all creative and artsy-fartsy unless you want to. I love it when I see creativity and humor on a 404. But there are 3 things your 404 page MUST do, regardless of whether it induces a smile or even a laugh.

1: This one is so basic I can’t believe I have to state it, but here goes: HAVE A 404 PAGE. Please.

Don’t redirect to a category page or homepage or a whatever page. It’s so darn confusing for a visitor to think they’re going one place and end up someplace else.

If Bob think’s he’s going to the page with the article about his favorite sports icon and he winds up back at the homepage, he’s not going to be happy.

It’s like opening the door marked “Men’s Bathroom” in a restaurant and finding yourself back at the front entrance. What the heck just happened? You don’t know, but you’re pretty sure you don’t like it and you’re going to find a restaurant that doesn’t play weird tricks on you.

2: Your website’s navigation MUST be available on your 404.

This is not negotiable. While you want to have a message that indicts the person is in the wrong place, lost or simply took a wrong turn, you also want to give them options for getting the heck out of there.

Go to nytimes.com/qwerty and you’ll get a page that says, “Page Not Found. We’re sorry, we seem to have lost this page, but we don’t want to lose you.” This is followed by a search bar (Search NYTimes.com) and several choices for Most Emailed stories and Top News.

I really like how they take credit for losing the page, even though it’s not their fault I typed in a bogus link. And I love how they say they, ‘don’t want to lose you’.

3: Make it abundantly clear that this is a 404 error page. Have you ever stumbled on a 404 error page that was trying to HIDE the fact that it’s a 404? There’s a menu, navigation or some other content that you didn’t expect to see, and then in tiny writing near the bottom you see, “Page Not Found.”

Oh, well, thank you very much for FINALLY letting me know! It’s like driving the wrong way down a one-way street and wondering why All the cars are going the other way and honking furiously at you. Maybe they should put up a SIGN you can SEE that says you’re going the wrong way.

Duh.

Okay, here’s my BEST 404 Error Page tip – are you ready?

Easter Egg it!

That’s right, turn your 404 Error Page into the ultimate Easter Egg for your lucky visitors.

You might say something like, “Uh-oh, this page was not found but guess what? You’ve stumbled upon our most secret of treasures. This (whatever it is… lead magnet, video, report, etc.) is so special, we do NOT allow just anybody to have it. In fact, before today ONLY 12 people have ever been lucky enough to discover this top secret stash, making you the 13th person on the planet to get access!”

Change the wording to fit your brand. The idea is since they landed on a 404, which generally is not a good place to land, you are going to turn the experience into something great for them. Yes, you can ask their email in exchange for it. How else will you send it to them, right?

Or have a crazy, fun 30 second video. Or do something wild. Consider your niche, be consistent with your branding and then come up with something off the wall but appropriate.

And yes, don’t be surprised if your 404 goes viral when you do this. Just make sure that whatever the Easter Egg is, it’s absolutely FANTASTIC.

Irving

7 Dangers of Selling Products on Amazon | One by One

While this list is by no means comprehensive, here are 7 dirty tricks to watch out for if you’re selling products on Amazon:

1: Other Amazon sellers copying your products

Let’s say you have an online store and/or you have your products on Amazon.

Anyone can copy your photos and product descriptions and place them on Amazon under their own account.

Worse yet, when you contact Amazon to file a complaint, they will require proof and documentation for every single product in dispute. You will have to prove the products are yours before Amazon will take them down.

Your best bet: Contact the pirate seller and politely ask them to remove them. Let them know your next step is contacting Amazon and your lawyer.

2: Copycats who piggy-back

Having your products copied and stolen isn’t all that common. But piggy backing on listings happens all the time, and it works like this:

You sell your own private labeled product under your brand and Amazon product number. Someone else piggy backs your listing by undercutting you on price and shipping a counterfeit item.

This hurts your brand three times over.

First, you’ve lost a sale that should have been yours.

Second, because their knock-off product is likely of lower quality than yours, your brand’s reputation takes a hit. The unhappy customer might leave negative feedback for your product even though they received a counterfeit product from someone else.

Third, if you get enough negative reviews, your product can drop into oblivion in Amazon’s search results.

To fight back, pose as a customer and purchase the product yourself. Then you can file a complaint against the fraudulent seller. Just know that Amazon moves slowly and this resolution process takes time.

3: Buying you out

You get an order for ALL of your inventory of a particular item. Someone else then gets the buy box because you have no inventory. A few weeks later, this mystery buyer returns the big purchase they made. You’ve lost sales for those weeks that you had no inventory, plus you made no money on that big sale.

Here’s what to do: If you get a large order, use extreme caution. If you’re fulfilling orders yourself, check up and see if this order appears genuine.

Contest any large return complaints with Amazon.

Realize that Chinese sellers are using automated software that keeps buying your stock and then cancelling the orders in bulk. You go out of stock in no time and your listing is basically destroyed. Don’t get complacent: Keep an eye on your listings at all times.

4: Switching out your photo(s)

If you haven’t registered your brand with Amazon (which requires a trademark) then be careful of other sellers changing out the photos in your listing.

Another seller might switch your picture to a completely different product. Then when customers buy from you, they complain that the product they received does not match the photo.

What to know: Amazon does NOT send you a notification when pictures are changed, so you’ll have to keep a close eye on your listings.

5: Leaving false negative feedback on your products

Just as there are people who will leave positive feedback for a fee, there are also people who get paid to leave negative feedback. And while Amazon is getting better at detecting false feedback, it still happens with alarming frequency.

The hardest false feedback to detect are reviews left by actual buyers. That’s why a competitor will pay people to buy your product first and then leave a negative review. These false reviews often claim that your product is a counterfeit or fake, two things that real reviews almost never say.

When Amazon’s bots detect these trigger words of ‘bootleg,’ ‘counterfeit’ and ‘fake,’ they immediately ding your account which hurts your product’s visibility.

If you receive negative feedback of any sort, address it immediately. Be extremely professional and polite, and show that you will do anything and everything to make the problem right.

Amazon records all conversations and this will help you tremendously should your ever get suspended.

6: Leaving false positive reviews on your products

Only a crook or evil genius would think to hurt their competitors by leaving positive reviews.

Amazon has been doing a better job of cracking down on sellers who buy positive reviews. They even have algorithms in place that detect unusual spikes in positive reviews and will instantly suspend an account if they think the reviews are fake.

Enter your competitor who hires a service to leave 50 five-star reviews for you overnight. The next morning you get up to find your Amazon account is suspended for suspicious activity while you had absolutely nothing to do with it.

This one is difficult to overcome because how do you prove that you weren’t the one instigating the sudden influx of positive reviews?

7: Sellers trademarking your Amazon account name

Most full-time sellers on Amazon trademark their brand name so they can enroll in Amazon’s brand registry.

But many sellers don’t take this step, preferring to avoid the hassle of trademarking.

For example, maybe your Amazon account is called Big Dog Enterprises. And under Big Dog you sell 2 different brands, Blue Dog and Pink Dog. Most sellers will trademark Blue Dog and Pink Dog, but they don’t bother trademarking Big Dog.

This leaves the door open for a malicious seller to trademark Big Dog and then completely take over Pink Dog and Blue Dog.

And when this person has trademarked your account name and registered it with Amazon, he can kick you off your own listing and take full control of your account.

I hope I haven’t scared you completely away from selling on Amazon. It can still he incredibly lucrative, but you do have to use utmost caution not to get scammed as a seller. Do your research, take extra precautions when necessary, and do everything you can to bullet proof your business from unscrupulous sellers.

Most of all, never put all of your eggs in the Amazon basket. You don’t own Amazon and you can be banned at any time for doing absolutely nothing wrong.

Spend a portion of your time building your own platform and store. Steer clear of super competitive products because they tend to attract the worst of the diabolical Amazon sellers. Build your own brand. And as always, build your own audience of subscribers and customers.

Irving