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Years ago, I had a golden retriever named Louie who loved pillaging trash cans. I tried yelling at him whenever he stuck his nose in the can. I tried different models of trash cans with hard-to-open lids. I tried putting the trash can inside a cabinet. But it didn’t matter. Louie was a trash can fiend, and he wouldn’t be denied. It got to be such a problem that I eventually called a dog trainer friend for advice. She told me to put mousetraps in the trash cans. After she reassured me that her method wasn’t going to harm Louie, I put a mousetrap in every trash can in the house. Then I forgot about it. I was working in my office when I heard a SNAP in the other room, followed by the sounds of scampering toenails. Seconds later, Louie came slinking into my office, his tail between his legs, and a betrayed look on his face. He never touched a trash can again. The point of the story? A few weeks ago, I gave you 10 of my best tips for getting inspired to write . They’re good ideas, ones that have worked for me in the past, and I think they’ll help you. But sometimes 10 isn’t enough. Sometimes, you have an unruly muse who, like my golden retriever, refuses to be good, and you have no other choice but to call a knowledgeable friend and ask for more ideas. Fortunately, I have another 10 ideas ready and waiting. One of these might just be the mousetrap that finally gets your muse to behave. 1. Browse concept photos Ever browsed through a stock photography site like iStockphoto, looking for the perfect picture, but you just couldn’t find anything that . . . you know . . . grabbed you? Well, try doing the opposite. Look at concept photos before you write the post, and then let the photo inspire you. On iStock, you can type “concept” or “[your subject] concept” into the search box, and it’ll give you a selection of photos that represent different ideas. This is exactly how I came up with the idea for my The Courage to Be Wrong post. 2. Write a letter to your internal editor I got this one from one of my college professors, and it sounds really weird, but here’s the idea. As writers, we all have a voice inside our head telling us our work sucks. Normally, it’s just a nuisance, but sometimes the voice is so loud that it overpowers your creative flow, making it impossible for you to write. In those cases, here’s what to do: instead of trying to ignore it, confront it. Write a letter to your internal editor and tell him (or her) how irritated you are, how he’s ruining your career, and to shut the hell up. Really let him have it. Oftentimes, it’ll shock the little bastard into silence, and you can get back to work. 3. Use a pattern interrupt I once met a painter who said that, whenever he is feeling bored with his art, he pulls out a peacock feather, sticks it in his pants like a tail, and goes back to work. It’s so strange, so wrong , that it always gives him a fresh perspective on the painting. Before you go looking for feathers though, let me tell you the secret: it’s a principle from neurolinguistic programming called a pattern interrupt. Whenever a thought process isn’t working for you, one of the best ways to get unstuck is to do something really strange. Throw water in your face, scream at the top of your lungs, dance around naked. People might think you’re crazy, but hey, you’re a writer. You’re supposed to be crazy. 4. Take a hit of caffeine I know, it’s bad for you. Over the long run, it also robs you of more energy than it gives you. But if you’re propping your eyes open with toothpicks, and you have to get a post done or else, I’m the last person to condemn you for needing a little pick me up. All of my best posts here at Copyblogger were conceived under the influence of Mountain Dew, and I’m convinced it’s eloquence in a bottle. If you need it, I say drink it. Caffeine may be bad, but it’s far, far better than your best ideas dying inside of you because you couldn’t stay awake in your chair. Just my opinion. 5. Get off your butt Whenever you’re feeling stuck, the worst thing you can do is sit at the computer and try to grind it out. You’re far, far better off getting up and walking around. Movement creates a sense of energy, and it can help you get your creative wheels turning when you just can’t figure out how you want to approach a post. Personally, I find pacing in circles to be the most helpful because it requires no conscious thought, and I can concentrate on the problem at hand. Taking a walk can also work, especially if it’s a path you know well. 6. Unlock your unconscious mind The longer I write, the more I realize it’s largely an unconscious process. You could be taking a shower, washing the dishes, sleeping — regardless of what it is, your mind is ticking away in the background, figuring out what to say and how to say it. Sometimes though, our minds are so cluttered that we can’t hear our intuition, and when that happens, writing is a struggle. The only way I know to solve it is to sit still and meditate, deliberately quieting your mind and doing your best to listen instead of think. Many times, a fully developed idea will just pop into your head, and you’ll know exactly what to write and why. 7. Browse the archives The next time you’re struggling for post ideas, try browsing through your blog archives for a few minutes, rereading old posts. If you’re anything like me, you’ll always have a different perspective now than you did then, and the old posts will bug you because they are a little outdated. You’ll see points you should have made, metaphors you should’ve used, nuances you should have noticed. All of which make great fodder for follow-up posts. 8. Lecture an idiot Sometimes, the best way to get inspired is to write a good, old-fashioned rant. In your mind, conjure an image of someone who said, did, or believes something idiotic, and then start writing what you would like to say to them. Sure, it’ll be angry and condescending. Sure, you’ll probably go a little too far. Sure, you’ll need to edit it before publishing it to the world. But who cares? Writing great prose has a lot less to do with mechanics than it does with figuring out how to get your blood boiling and then having the courage to put your passion into words. If writing a rant helps you do that, go for it. 9. Let other artists charge you up Creativity is contagious. Whenever you feel like your batteries are drained, find another artist doing their thing and just watch them for a while. If they’re good, something about it will charge you up, and you’ll want to get to work. Personally, I like to watch reruns of Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance . The show has nothing to do with writing, but the dedication of the dancers, the beauty of the choreography, and the emotion of the moment are so inspiring that I can’t help wanting to emulate it in my work. For you, it may be something else. Whatever it is, find it, and set aside the time to let it inspire you. 10. Look within Let’s get down to the real answer, shall we? If you’re really serious about writing, if you want to make a career out of it, if you want to be so good that people talk about and remember you, then the secret to inspiration isn’t getting inspired. It’s being inspired. It’s about loving what you do. It’s about loving who you are. It’s about loving your life . I’ve never heard of anyone who worked a boring job, came home to a boring family, watched three hours of boring television, and then proceeded to write something of spellbinding greatness. It just doesn’t happen. Here’s why: your writing is an extension of who you are . If your life is a soul-sucking heap of mediocrity, then your writing will be a soul-sucking heap of mediocrity. Similarly, if your life is an adventure that brings you such joy you want to weep, then that joy will seep into your words, and anyone who reads them will begin to smile. The difference between a legendary writer and a merely good one isn’t mechanics. It’s intensity. Train yourself to find that intensity, and you’ll never lack for inspiration again. About the Author: Jon Morrow is Associate Editor of Copyblogger. Get more from Jon on twitter .

0a1b49a182golden.jpg 134x150 10 New Ideas for Getting Inspired to Write

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10 New Ideas for Getting Inspired to Write

This is the second and final installment of The Secret Life of Testimonials . Most of us ask for testimonials. And if we follow up and pester our customers enough, we get testimonials. There’s only one problem. Our testimonials have no power. Testimonials are stories. And stories have power and grace, flow and rhythm. Look around you and you’ll see none of that in most testimonials. Limp testimonials are a fact of life, because clients don’t know how to give testimonials. But more importantly, because we don’t have a clue about how to ask for testimonials. As I mentioned last week, the way to ask for testimonials is to use six key questions. The six questions you need to ask to get a powerful testimonial are: What was the obstacle that would have prevented you from buying this product? What did you find as a result of buying this product? What specific feature did you like most about this product? What would be three other benefits about this product? Would you recommend this product? If so, why? Is there anything you’d like to add? Some folks may use slightly different terms for #1, like “What was your main concern about buying this product?” You can slightly amend this question, but don’t stray too much away from it, because it’s critical to bringing out the objection and the reason why this customer (and others) may have been hesitating to buy. A more detailed explanation of each of the six questions: 1) What was the obstacle in your mind that would have prevented you from buying this product? We ask this question because the customer always has a perception of an obstacle. No matter how ready the customer is to buy, there’s always a hitch. The hitch could be money, or time, or availability, or relevance — or a whole bunch of issues. When you ask this question, it brings out those issues. And it does something more. It gives you an insight into issues you may not have considered, because the client is now reaching into their memory to see what could have been the deal-breaker. There’s always an obstacle, and it’s often something you may not have thought of. So when the customer brings up this obstacle, it presents an angle that’s unique, personal, and dramatic. 2) What did you find as a result of buying this product? This question is important, because it defuses that obstacle. When a client answers this question, they talk about why the purchase was worth it, despite the obvious obstacles. 3) What specific feature did you like most about this product? Now you’re digging deeper. If you ask the customer to focus on the entire product, the answer gets “waffly.” That’s why you want to focus on a single feature or benefit that the customer liked most. This brings out that one feature in explicit richness and detail. 4) What would be three other benefits of this product? Having already got one big feature, you can now go a little wide and see what else the customer found useful. You can substitute the number “three” with “two.” You could even remove the number completely. But the number does make it easier for your customer to address the question. It lets her focus on a limited number of things and give you the ones that were most useful to her. 5) Would you recommend this product? If so, why? You may not think this is an important question, but psychologically it’s very important. When a customer recommends something, there’s more than your product at stake. The customer’s integrity is at stake too. Unless the customer feels strongly about the product, they won’t be keen to recommend it. And when they do recommend it, they’re saying to prospective buyers: “Hey, I recommend it, and here are the reasons!” 6) Is there anything you’d like to add? By this point, the customer has often said all she has to say. But there’s never any harm in asking this question. The questions before this one tend to “warm up” the customer, and sometimes you get the most amazing parting statements that you could never have imagined. Using testimonials to find and address objections This detailed method of constructing testimonials brings us to a very interesting observation: the testimonial is the flip side of the objection. Notice the first question we asked the customer? What was the obstacle in your mind that would have prevented you from buying this product? That “obstacle” the customer is talking about is really their biggest objection. So what does this tell us about how we should plan our testimonials? We should plan our testimonials to directly defuse each objection Let’s say you’re keen to sell a trip to the wildlife on the Galápagos Islands. Obviously, the trip is an exciting idea for travelers seeking to explore the wildlife on the islands. But even thrill seekers will most certainly have their objections. So if you did your homework and interviewed the potential customer you’d get objections such as: It’s too expensive It’s too far to travel There are no comfortable accommodations Now let’s assume these are the three main objections What are the testimonials going to say? I thought it was too expensive, but (here’s what I found) I thought it was too far to travel, but (here’s what I found) I thought we’d have to rough it out, but (here’s what I found) Each testimonial is a mirror image of the objection Sure you have already addressed objections earlier in your sales copy, but this defusing is now being done by the customer, who is a third party. And you know what that means, right? A third party is always far more believable to your prospective customers. And because each testimonial is specifically linked to an objection, it systematically reduces the risk not once, but twice. But how do you go about controlling the angle of the testimonial? You may want the customer to talk about expense, or distance travelled, or relevance. But the customer may want to talk about her fear of seasickness, or dangerous animals. So how do you control the angle? You don’t. You’re in the business of helping to construct the testimonial. This means you’re asking questions that give the testimonial structure. You don’t need to control the situation. But that doesn’t mean you can’t influence things. Here’s how you go about attempting to get the angle you desire. Start with the key objections you need to address Call up the customer. Ask the customer if expense, or distance, or comfort was one of their big issues. If they say yes, continue down that track, and they’ll give you the specifics of why expense or distance or comfortable accommodation was an issue. But if they disagree, and come up with a completely different issue, for example they say, “I thought the bad weather was going to be a dampener,” then hey, keep following that customer’s train of thought. Because that train of thought is now revealing an objection you hadn’t considered. And it may be a valid objection that just hasn’t come to your attention yet. However, you may decide that the stray objection isn’t worth pursuing. And that you can’t use the objection and corresponding testimonial. Well, no problem. If you decide you can’t use the testimonial, you can always call other clients to get the angle you’re looking for. Sooner rather than later, you’re going to get the exact objections, and the exact testimonials, that help to defuse those key objections. Which means that the testimonial isn’t something we just throw into our marketing. It means the testimonial is doing some real grunt-work in overcoming objections. The factor that makes the testimonial so much more powerful is that it’s doing so from a “third party” perspective, and doing it in a way that you as the seller could never do. You could never bring out the detailed specifics that a client brings out You could never paint the imagery and the emotion. And even if you could, it would sound like a whole lot of puffery. But when the client comes up with all that detail and emotion, the testimonial becomes rich, complex, and yet believable. And that’s the main job of the testimonial. Please try the six questions out for yourself! And let us know how you do with them in the comments. By the way, if you missed the first post on testimonials, you can find it here: The Secret Life of Testimonials About the Author: Sean D’Souza offers a free report on ‘Why Headlines Fail’ when you subscribe to his Psychotactics Newsletter . Be sure to check out his blog , too. An editorial P.S. Hi all, this is Sonia , intruding on Sean’s post for a moment if I may. When Sean sent me this pair of posts, he was also kind enough to include a review copy of his new product, The Secret Life of Testimonials . This pair of posts in and of themselves will get you remarkable testimonials. So the first thing I’d like to suggest is that you contact some happy customers today and use the techniques he’s taught you to boost the power of your testimonials. I think you’re going to be impressed with the results. But if you want to make your testimonials even more effective, I can wholeheartedly recommend The Secret Life of Testimonials . That’s an affiliate link, so if you decide to invest in his program, we’ll earn a few dollars. But I’m quite confident that you’ll make much more than that by putting Sean’s teaching into place. It’s really unlike anything I’ve ever seen, and I’m not easily impressed. Testimonials are both one of the most important pieces of your marketing message and one of the biggest stumbling blocks for many of us. Having a well-thought-out system can make all the difference for you. I hope you’ll at least go check out the details for yourself .

two masks Six Questions to Ask for Powerful Testimonials

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Six Questions to Ask for Powerful Testimonials