Life Say Articles » time

Blogging with a Learner’s Mind

Fri, 08 Oct 2010 18:39:00 +0000

“¿Qué quiere para su desayuno?” she asked, inches from my face. I thought as quickly as I could, and managed to haltingly request a piece of toast. “Pan tostado, por favor.” It was the only breakfast food that I could remember from Spanish class. It ended up being all I ate for breakfast for the next week. Clearly, I hadn’t yet found my learner’s mind. Each of the first few nights I spent in Bogotá I curled beneath the covers with a pounding headache. Trying to think and speak in another language was physically painful. Of the six Americans going through exchange student orientation that year, my Spanish was the worst of the bunch. Those first weeks I spoke like a four-year-old. It was excruciating, especially for someone who took pride in her communication skills. Despite the painful beginning, I learned a valuable lesson that year. It didn’t have anything to do with the Spanish language. It had to do with losing my fear of looking like a fool . Public humiliation If you’ve ever tried to make yourself understood in a language you’re just learning, you’ll know what I mean. You’re proficient in your native language, but to learn a new one you need to start from the beginning. You have to be willing to speak like a toddler for a while. Once you’ve learned some basic vocabulary, you might begin to speak like a young child. All the while, you mangle words and raise eyebrows and send people into fits of laughter several times a day. It’s the public humiliation aspect to learning a new language that no one ever mentions. You’ve mastered your own language, but to master a new one you have to be willing to look like a fool for a while. A fool with a tool Fast forward … let’s say “many years.” As a blogger, I find it’s great to feel comfortable making a fool of myself. Blogging is a decidedly public venue to make beginner’s mistakes in, but the only way to become an experienced blogger is to be a beginning blogger for a while. You publish a draft post by mistake. You send out a link that doesn’t work. You discover — too late — that you’ve left out a crucial piece of information. The only way to get past blogging mistakes is to make them in the first place. When it comes to developing products to sell, we go through the same thing. Our first sales pages suck. The first products we develop may not sell . We cast about, trying to get a bite on our lines. Often we head home empty-handed. And it all happens in public. But each failure gets us closer to success, even if the only thing we learn is what doesn’t work. Baby chicks are easy to spot Twitter is another space where it’s easy to see who the beginners are. I know, because I was one of them not long ago. People start out talking about their breakfast. They check into Foursquare incessantly. They try to direct message someone, but post it publicly instead. After a while though, they observe how the power users make the most of Twitter . They figure out a way to fit it into their workflow so it doesn’t consume all their time. They master the language. Here’s the thing: if you want to master a new skill, you have to start somewhere. As uncomfortable as it is, you have to submit yourself to looking like a fool while you master the tool. There’s no use standing on the sidelines analyzing . You can’t study your way through the beginner’s phase. You can’t strategize yourself into mastery of a new skill. At some point, you have to dive in, make your mistakes, get them out of the way and move on from them. That’s where having a learner’s mind will help. A learner’s mind is fearless Children are wired to learn, which is why they make such huge developmental strides in their first years of life. In the space of a year, they go from unable to hold themselves upright to running; from crying to expressing their needs quite clearly. They fall, shed a few tears, pick themselves up, and keep going. They don’t worry about what people will think: they don’t give it a thought. All the while, they’re learning and making great progress. We can apply this attitude to the new skills we’re learning, too. We can expect mistakes and embrace them when they happen. We can pick ourselves up, brush ourselves off, put our chins up and keep going. Plan to fall Blogging, Internet marketing, Twitter and all the rest of these newer technologies present great opportunities. You can learn a lot by studying them before you start to use them. You might be able to avoid some mistakes by doing that. But you can’t vault yourself from beginner to expert just by reading about it. You have to take the first steps, and prepare for the inevitable bumps and bruises that come with making real progress. It’s the only way to learn, really. And it’s the only way to get past plain toast for breakfast every day. Worth it, though, don’t you think? About the Author: Pamela Wilson helps small businesses grow with great design and marketing tips. Learn the basics with her free Design 101 e-course at Big Brand System.

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Blogging with a Learner’s Mind

Captivate Your Readers with a Marketing Story that Sells

BlogPostman — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 19:25:00 +0000

I’ve never appreciated classic literature. I read Hawthorne and I get bored. I read Austen and I fall asleep. My wife likes Dickens, but I can’t stand it. Ask me who Tiny Tim is, and nine times out of ten I’ll refer you to the obsessive-compulsive ukulele player from the 60s. Literature snobs think I’m low-brow, and that my modern reading material is hollow. I disagree. A good story is a good story. Any good story can move you … but before it can do that, it has to grab you. It has to pull you into its world, to make you feel at home. (I just don’t feel at home in a Dickens story. They talk funny.) Different people have different taste in books. But we all like stories that we can imagine ourselves being part of. And we like characters we can relate to. What that means varies from person to person, but it’s almost always true — relatable stories sell . Your clients and customers feel the same way. If what you write doesn’t pull them into your story, they’ll run away like they’re escaping a high school summer reading list. In Latin. Writing copy with character I ran a post on my blog a few weeks ago on what I call Storyselling , or what sales copy can learn from fiction. It was all about pulling people into your world by telling (true) stories. See, stories are great marketing devices. They blur the line between entertainment and persuasion. They let readers relate to you and your business on a story level first — and then to see that your products and services are a good match for their needs. You’re able to show your reader why they should buy instead of telling them. You convey information by allegory , the way humans have done since they had stories to tell. Stories have a plot, a theme, maybe a dash of symbolism, and all that other good English class stuff. But what really makes a story sing are great, multi-dimensional characters. Most of all, a compelling story needs a compelling protagonist, or lead character — someone people want to follow and learn more about. And most of the time, dear online entrepreneur, that protagonist is you . Five elements of great characters So let’s get one thing out of the way: None of what follows is about fabricating tales or pretending to be something you’re not. The usual rules still apply in Storyselling. You need to be authentic, you need to be trustworthy , you need to keep your commitments. Also, your product or service should probably be excellent. But while you’re at it, go ahead and be authentically trustworthy and reliable the way your best inner protagonist would. As you read through the following, don’t think, “How can I pretend to be this?” Instead, ask, “How am I this, and how can I bring it out in my writing?” Got it? Good. Let’s talk about what makes great characters great. 1. Great characters cannot be defined in one sentence I challenge you to go out and find me someone who can be accurately and completely be described as “the hooker with the heart of gold” or “the all-American hero.” Real people don’t have only one or two attributes that define them. That gold-hearted hooker? She also plays the guitar like Stevie Ray Vaughan with a seizure disorder. That all-American is into amateur boxing. Both like ER reruns. Both are insecure from time to time. Thrillers are often filled with paper-thin, one-sentence characters (“the ex-FBI agent bent on revenge”), and they can sometimes get away with it because the plot is compelling enough on its own. But unless your business is as riveting as a Dan Brown novel, stop being “the SEO specialist” or “the consultant for ex-accountants.” Yes, you can be those things, but don’t end the story there . It’s great to have a USP … but don’t let your USP be all you are. Do you have a dog? Do you like sports? Do you get inspiration from your kids? Don’t blab on and on endlessly about tangential stuff … but don’t hide it, either. 2. Great characters cause the reader to reflect A character will only hold your attention for so long if all you read is exposition about their life and events. When a character is really great, it’s because the issues they weigh and the decisions they face make you think about the issues and decisions that you, the reader, face in your own life. When you’re telling stories in your copy, don’t do it diary-fashion, like “Here’s what I did today.” Instead, write about the reasons you did things and the choices you had to make. Include revelations and discoveries that reflect revelations and discoveries that others are likely to encounter. You want your reader nodding, thinking, “Yeah, I’m like this person. Maybe what he’s done would be good for me, too.” 3. Great characters are optimistic I run across what I think of as “wallowing copy” online all the time — stories of people in bummer situations who essentially use their platform to complain into the void. It reminds me of when I used to work for my mom and something would get messed up. I’d tell her, “Such and such situation went wrong,” and then expect her to take it and solve it for me. But she didn’t do that. Instead, she’d say, “Don’t just tell me what’s wrong. What are your ideas to fix it?” A great character never sits with a problem for too long. He eventually comes up with a way to solve it. And for sales copy, a product or service is usually a good way to solve that problem. 4. Great characters aspire We all enjoy reading about people who want to be bigger, better, stronger, faster. We like the story of the weak kid who wants to wrestle, or the old baseball player who wants to stage a comeback. We like stories of people believing they can do more than anyone would expect of them , and then finding a way to make it happen. As you write the story of your business or product, always be aspiring. Always demonstrate a desire to get better at what you do and to become more. (If you do this one right, you’ll become a leader that people will want to follow, because you’re showing them how to be better, too.) 5. Great characters aren’t always great One of my favorite TV shows over the past few years was the newer version of Battlestar Galactica , and it’s because the characters are so impossible to pigeonhole. Repeatedly, the “good” characters make morally and ethically wrong choices, while the villains do the right thing. The heroes are sometimes overly bold, or arrogant, or stupid. Now don’t get me wrong — over the course of the long story arc, certain characters are always more noble than ignoble and more selfless than selfish, but it’s never black or white. Remember tip #1 above? A lot of the same rules apply. Real people are conflicted, and real people are flawed. Characters who aren’t always perfect are usually much more relatable and likable. Most people try to only present perfection in their copy. My product idea was always perfect. I sold a zillion units the first time I tried. Everybody who’s used the product has done well with it, and nobody really seems to have failed. Every email goes out on time, my shopping cart never breaks, and I have never in my life looked stupid or been laughed at. Stop doing this. No, don’t paint yourself as an unredeemable screwup when you tell your story, but don’t feel you need to be perfect, either. Flaws (redeemable ones) make you believable and relatable, because your readers and customers aren’t perfect either. Storyselling takes some practice just like writing fiction does, but it can be very effective once you get the hang of it. People aren’t always interested in reading marketing copy, but most of those same people are a sucker for a good story. If your current copy isn’t engaging anyone, telling tales just might. You’ve got a story, even if you don’t think you do. Have a go at telling it sometime, and then let me know what happens. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. About the Author: Johnny B. Truant writes at JohnnyBTruant.com and is the creator of Storyselling 101 .

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Captivate Your Readers with a Marketing Story that Sells

The Simple Tricks Experts Use to Always Get Paid For Their Time

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 19:20:00 +0000

When I think about it, I still get that feeling in the pit of my stomach. I was chatting with a woman with an interior design business about the changes she needed to make in her website. The conversation was going well — she loved all my ideas and was ready to rebuild her site. I started getting excited, thinking I had found my next project. I was already putting together her proposal in my head. Then she uttered those dreaded words … “I’d love to take you to lunch and pick your brain sometime.” I didn’t know what to say or do. I felt my face turning red and I stammered out an excuse about getting back to her when I checked my calendar. Requests for “brain-picking” are rampant in any business, and they’re never fun if you’re the one whose brain is being picked. It used to happen to me so much that I found myself becoming resentful. Every time I spoke with someone new I heard a little voice in the back of my head saying “Ugh, I bet they’ll never hire you, they just want a bunch of help for free”. That little voice was not very helpful for landing clients If you’ve ever been in this situation, there is a way to turn this around. There is a way to handle these situations with grace and without frustration. There’s even a way to make those freebie requests go away — or, even better, turn into paying clients. It is your job, and your job alone, to set appropriate boundaries and clear up what you’re happy to give for free and what you charge for. That might be hard to hear. But if you want to move through these situations with grace (and encounter them less often) you have to stop placing blame — and start making it a policy to get paid for your time. Sound impossible? It’s not. Here’s how: 1. Take full responsibility The most important thing you can do is stop being angry at the prospect for asking. Put yourself in their shoes for a moment. If you were given the choice between getting a new computer for free or paying for the same computer, you’d pick free every time — and you’d never think about the company who doesn’t get paid for the sale. Why would you? I know free is my favorite price for everything. It is your prospect’s prerogative to ask for your time for free. Let me say that again — it is their prerogative to ask . In fact, they’d be missing a golden opportunity if they paid for something when they didn’t have to. You can’t blame the prospect for taking the smart route. You’re also missing the subtle compliment that goes with being asked for advice. When someone asks you for your time for free, be grateful that they view you as someone who can offer valuable advice . Gary Vaynerchuk constantly says how grateful he is to get thousands of emails a day — he doesn’t take it for granted that every one of those people thinks that he is worth taking time out of their life to write to him. Everyone asking for your time is already “sold” on you to a degree — they must be or they wouldn’t be asking you for more! Instead of viewing them as a dead-end cheapskate, see them as someone who is so invested in you that they’ll either be a potential client or a source of referrals. 2. Clearly establish your service offerings Sometimes people ask you to work for free because you haven’t given them anything to buy. When I offered web design I didn’t have any packages for ongoing support. I charged clients a per-project fee, and considered the project done when the client signed off on the design. Invariably, people would contact me after the project was officially “over” with some tiny request — things that literally took 5-10 minutes of my time. Crafting a new invoice for this small request seemed silly, yet all of these requests were starting to seriously eat up my time. I started to feel like I had to provide free service for life for each one-time purchase, and I felt like people were taking advantage of me when they asked for these small favors. Looking back, I can see that they weren’t taking advantage of me. The issue was mine. I should have had a clearly-defined ongoing support package to offer in response to those requests. That would have made things clear — either you had purchased my ongoing support or you hadn’t. As it stood, everyone was in the grey zone. If you don’t like people asking for your time for free, but also don’t have any sort of well-defined offer in place to charge them for that time, the blame falls squarely on you. 3. Decide what you’ll give away … What are you willing to give out for free? This is where content marketing is your friend, because you offer plenty of valuable free resources like your blog or newsletter. It also may be appropriate to do brief introductory phone calls, or host one group in-person session per month for people who are interested in working with you. Whatever it is for your business, get clear. For the record, you do not have to offer any time for free. It is possible to get hired without any kind of free consult beforehand if you do a great job building the relationship ahead of time with your content marketing . In my business people sign $5,000 contracts with me without any kind of free introductory consult. 4. … but don’t assume that free advice is all they want We often make the mistake of assuming that someone isn’t willing to pay just because they ask to “pick our brain.” Again, they’re asking because we all love free. That doesn’t mean they’re unwilling to pay, it means they’re hoping they won’t have to. They’ve expressed interest in learning more from you, which means they are a potential client and should be treated as such. Remember that you are in business here, which means that you exchange value for money. Don’t let “free” become your default mode. It is your job to take the lead. If you lead them down the free path that’s exactly where they’ll go. Lead them down the customer path instead. 5. Respond with confidence Here’s a script for how to handle someone asking you for coffee or lunch to “pick your brain”: I’m glad to hear you’re interested in getting deeper into this. The next step is my one-hour consultation. Would you like me to tell you how that works? Notice that you’re asking permission and putting the prospect in the driver’s seat. You’re also using the clear service offering that you established in step two. You’re not explaining why you’re charging, because there’s no need: your time is valuable . That’s a given. Even if you’re not used to thinking of it that way yet, get used to responding to these queries as though you are. If they want to hear more about your consult, that’s great! You have the green light to sign a new client. Some people will backpedal and start saying they’re tight on money. Here’s another script you can use in that scenario: I completely understand, you have my card so just get in touch with me when you’re ready. You can also take a look at the articles on my blog if you’d like some more general advice that can tide you over until you’re ready to embark on this project. What you don’t want to do is hedge, waver or discount. Stand firm with full respect for your business and you’ll find that the prospect will share that respect. Hold firm and freebie requests will fall off You’ll notice that the people at the very top seem to struggle with this topic less, even though they get the most requests. Why? When you’re clear and confident in what you offer, paying for your time becomes the natural progression. Get clear, get confident and start being honored by those “freebie” requests. That’s how you become an expert that always gets paid for their time. If getting all of those requests because you’re the top expert in your field is a problem you would like to have, check out my course Creating Fame . It’s a step-by-step guide to making you and your business famous using social media. Enrollment opens for a limited time on Thursday, October 7th. About the Author: Laura Roeder is a social media marketing expert who teaches small businesses how to create their own fame and claim their brand online. She lives in Venice Beach, California, where she video blogs, makes frequent trips to the library, and volunteers with local middle schoolers.

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The Simple Tricks Experts Use to Always Get Paid For Their Time

Effortless LeadGen

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 17:56:50 +0000

Feature Product Review:There are many ways to get email addresses of webmasters and build an email opt lists, but those methods are not easy. Why? Because those techniques involve a lot of hard work and a lot of the time, those who try these email marketing techniques fail a lot. However, there are a few

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Effortless LeadGen

Discover Your Strengths and Supercharge Your Business

BlogPostman — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 19:18:00 +0000

Have you ever been kept awake until 2 in the morning having an imaginary conversation with one of your blog readers who thinks you’re great and left a long comment telling you so? Or spent hours obsessively trying to figure out how to do better work, spurred by a fan letter from a customer about the terrific job you did? Or is it maybe more likely that your late-night solo conversations and obsessive problem-solving go to the trolls , the complainers, and the folks who just plain can’t stand you? Don’t worry. If you give an undue amount of attention to negative comments and feedback, to the extent of almost ignoring the good stuff altogether, it doesn’t mean you’re neurotic. It means you’re exactly like the rest of us. Chip Heath and Dan Heath in their marvelous book Switch make this observation: Imagine a world in which you experienced a rush of gratitude every single time you flipped a light switch and the room lit up. Imagine a world in which after a husband forgot his wife’s birthday, she gave him a big kiss and said, “For thirteen of the last fourteen years you remembered my birthday! That’s wonderful!” This is not our world. But in times of change, it needs to be. Play to your strengths I’ve long been fascinated by the advice to those who tell us to focus on our strengths, not our weaknesses, in order to create breakthrough success. It’s so appealing. You mean I don’t have to learn to cold call, balance my checkbook, or know how my RSS feed works? Sign me up. But it seems like it might be contradicted by another idea that’s gained a lot of attention recently: there’s not really any such thing as talent. Researchers like Carol Dweck and brilliant nonfiction writers like Malcolm Gladwell tell us that what we call “talent” is really the result of a heck of a lot of hard work. What are strengths, anyway? Until recently, I never realized this was a trick question. I thought that your strengths were things you were good at, and your weaknesses were things you sucked at. But Marcus Buckingham, who’s made a career out of writing about strengths, put it this way: A strength is “an activity that makes you feel strong.” It is an activity where the doing of it invigorates you. Before you do it, you find yourself instinctively looking forward to it. While you are doing it you don’t struggle to concentrate, but instead you become so immersed that time speeds up and you lose yourself in the present moment. And after you are finished doing it, you feel authentic, connected to the best parts of who you really are. Your strengths are the activities that give you the juice to put your 10,000 hours in. They’re the work you love enough to become the best in the world at. I’ll give you an example I recently heard Yo-Yo Ma giving an interview about how he got started as a cellist. As it happens, Yo-Yo’s parents are both musicians, and had high musical expectations for their little son. So when Yo-Yo was three, they gave the boy a violin. And Yo-Yo hated it. Wouldn’t practice. Wouldn’t focus. Didn’t have any zest for it. His frustrated parents finally gave up in disgust. And then little Yo-Yo saw and heard something amazing, something that surprised and delighted him. Something that he knew was exactly what he wanted to play. It was a double bass — the violin’s really, really big brother. Now that was more like it. He and his parents split the size difference, and Ma began to study first the viola and then settled (at four years old) on the cello. By seven he was a recognized prodigy, performing for Eisenhower and JFK, and by eight he played on national television, conducted by Leonard Bernstein. To have become so skilled between the ages of four and seven, he must have put in untold hours of practice. But they were hours spent on something he adored. One thing that interests me about Ma is that he isn’t just a brilliant cellist. He isn’t just world-famous and in-demand and a name brand. He also seems to be a remarkably happy and kind human being. He loves working with children. He’s been married a long time to the same person. He radiates kindness and a certain goofy charm. He’s got a great sense of humor, referring to himself at times as an “itinerant musician.” And he’s known for boundless energy. If I’m going to be a nationally-famous virtuoso, that’s the kind I want to be. Build your business like Yo-Yo When you see someone busting her tail to build a business, writing tons of great content, reaching out to potential customers, speaking and podcasting and doing everything we’re supposed to do to build a terrific content-based marketing program , it’s easy to ask: How does anyone find the time to do all that? The truth is, it’s not a time management problem — it’s an energy management one. When you focus on your strengths, you do the work that gives you energy. You do the work that drives you, that makes you giggle, that keeps you up late because you’re just having too much fun to stop. When you’re starting out, you do everything. You build the blog site and write all the content and do the bookkeeping and answer the support emails. Some of those things build you up and some wear you down. Pay attention to which is which. As soon as you can (it could be today), find partners who are energized by the tasks that exhaust and deplete you. If you can’t find the right partner, outsource the aspects of your business that make you want to crawl back into bed. And put your time and attention on what the Heath brothers call the “bright spots” – on what’s really working today. Put your time on the work that gives you juice. Do more of what’s working well. Do more of what energizes and strengthens you. Do more of what your readers and customers adore. Do more of what you can do better than anyone on earth. I know it sounds too simple to be real. But it’s how every genuinely great business — of any size — is built. About the Author : Sonia Simone is Senior Editor of Copyblogger, CMO of Copyblogger Media, and founder of Remarkable Communication . Share your bright spots with her on twitter .

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Discover Your Strengths and Supercharge Your Business

How to Build Credibility with Your Sales Copy

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 19:00:00 +0000

When visitors are making a decision about whether or not to buy, their “shields are up.” They’re watching carefully for any sign you might be a jerk, a crook, or just not able to deliver on your promises. They need you to soothe their unspoken anxieties and objections . This doesn’t have to be a daunting task. In fact, a powerful way to make this happen is something you’re probably already doing on your blog. The key is to show your prospect the person (or people) standing behind the offer. Put a human face and some credibility-based context on that sales message. Readers want to know who they’re dealing with — and why they should trust that person. It’s up to you to communicate it in an effective and engaging way. Let’s talk about three strategies for building sales-driving credibility into your copy. 1. The “about me” approach This is probably the most recognizable credibility-building tool, because you see it everywhere. Blogs have an “About” page, and many sales pages have some variation of the Who Am I And Why Should You Listen To Me? theme. But you can also use a little more subtlety when introducing yourself to your buyers. Using a “Why I created this product” approach, you can weave your own story into your sales material, by combining details about your experience and credentials with benefit-driven copy that reduces your readers’ resistance to buying. Explain what you’re doing for clients, how your approach addresses the results you deliver to those clients, and then segue into your sales message. For example, a copywriting course sales page could build credibility like this: After spending a decade building a reputation for writing high-conversion copy for clients like (name) and (name), I decided to start teaching my evergreen copywriting strategies to others so they could grow their own businesses … You’d then lead into a brief story about how you have effectively served your copywriting customers. You can see how the credibility factors (10 years of experience, name dropping of high-profile clients) merge with the desired outcomes (evergreen strategies, high conversion), and let you build trust without feeling like a hype machine. By involving the reader in a bit of history (or even what’s happening with present customers), you can satisfy the “about me” section by wrapping it in details that are really about them and the outcome they’re looking for. It seems like they’re getting a story about you. But what they’re really getting is confirmation that you can meet their needs. 2. The “reluctant hero” approach Another strategy is the story of the “unintentional product.” This works by setting up a backstory where the product producer starts gaining a reputation for creating results … and then other people begin clamoring to know how to make it happen for themselves. The reluctant hero is a storytelling archetype, and you may think that makes this approach formulaic or contrived. But assuming your story is both compelling and true (yes, it needs to be both), the reluctant hero story is an extremely effective credibility generator. Here’s an example from my own past: I started out as a personal development coach who began learning how to create and launch my own information products, Third-Tribe style before there was a name for that way of doing things. After a while, my blogging friends began asking me how I was making such strong sales with my products. As I showed them, they started telling people about it. Word got around, and I started getting more calls and emails about launching products than I did about personal development. I decided to create a training manual on how to write and sell ebooks … and the rest is history. The “reluctant hero” approach lets you humanize your accomplishments, weave a story that creates a connection with your audience, and gets readers to see you as a natural fit for what they need. 3. The customer-as-proof approach A third (and highly effective) strategy is to make successful customers the focus of your credibility-building story. After all, why talk about yourself when you can talk about the stunning results your customers have created … and generate credibility by association? You see this all the time when people say things like “using this system, my client generated $5 million in sales in a down economy.” By pointing to the successful results other people have experienced, the product (as well as the creator) gains instant credibility without having to overtly claim “I’m qualified.” When example is stacked upon example, the sense of credibility is continually heightened. Every time you receive a results-based testimonial, consider weaving it into your sales message as more than just a yellow box with a picture in it. Make it part of the story around what your product can truly do. The more examples you have for your reader to see your product’s results, the less “selling” you’ll have to do, because each story reinforces your credibility. And you take advantage of another copywriting cornerstone — making it easy for your prospect to visualize herself as a customer. What’s your favorite credibility builder? These aren’t the only ways to establish credibility in a sales page, but for the aspiring copywriter, they’re a great start. If you’ve got another strategy that’s a personal favorite, please share it in the comments below and let us get to know a little more about you and your story. About the Author : Dave Navarro is a product launch manager who can’t wait for you to join the 7,000+ people using his free workbooks in the Launch Coach Library (a crowd favorite in the Third Tribe forums).

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How to Build Credibility with Your Sales Copy

Google Instant Indexing

BlogPostman — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 01:49:51 +0000

I heard an interesting quote from Sergey Brin today during the Google Press conference for their Google Instant search innovation. I included Brin’s quote – “We want to make Google the third half of your brain” in a blog post and shortly after publishing it searched Google to see how many news sites had picked up the same quote. To my surprise, my blog post along with posts from the Wall Street Journal and CNET was indexed almost simultaneously upon publication. Instant Indexing The same can not be said about my blog posts in Yahoo / Bing search results. Yahoo Indefinite Indexing Yahoo / Bing’s “8″ results came a full hour after posting to my blog, while Google’s 173 results were available at the time of my initial post. If in search size does matter, Bing search still obviously has its work cut out for it.

Why This Blog Covers Everything Yet Says Nothing

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 04:07:18 +0000

Sounds kind of ridiculous doesn’t it? Why spend the time writing a blog while saying little to nothing new? Why spend the time writing a blog to not sell something? Good question! After posting here everyday for a year during 2010 – with the exception of one day; a day where I got distracted and thought I had pressed publish when I had not – my answer has been – to see what comes of it. To my surprise, there are actually subscribers to this blog. When I first started writing this blog it was supposed to be more personal in nature. However, I soon realized a blog wasn’t the best channel for expressing myself. Anyway – back to the subject: Why this blog covers everything yet says nothing. Its because maintaining two blogs each and everyday provided the degrees of focus and discipline I knew were required for my staying current in the businesses covered here – the media, internet / web and search businesses. The latter are by definition the fastest moving businesses on the planet and missing a day or two can mean missing both minor and major developments – news I have drawn from to develop my understanding of communications. So while I was covering everything media, internet / web or search whether here, on my main blog SearchMarketingCommunications.com or through my Twitter account, my primary objective was to pass along the news but retain the information was relevant for filling in the hole in the knowledge base I have built. I haven’t published those findings because those findings – the knowledge gleaned – is what I will be selling in my book For Sale by Google. If I had put my knowledge on the web it would have been stolen, repackaged and redistributed like everything else is on the web. As I have said in the past, the internet is the world’s first perpetual motion copying machine. I know better not to stick anything I don’t want copied into it.

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Why This Blog Covers Everything Yet Says Nothing

How to NOT Get Paid to Write Online (And Make Money Doing It)

BlogPostman — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 19:47:19 +0000

Fresh out of college, I landed a job writing one-page sell sheets for a marketing company for $50 each. On a rare excellent day, I might do as many as two of these. Soon after, I found a freelance gig that would pay me $300 per article I wrote for an inter-organizational newsletter. I got to interview people for that one. It was more work, but better money. Eventually, I hooked up with a pretty big industry magazine and was being paid $1300 for 2000-word feature articles. That was the big money. Magazine pay doesn’t go much higher until you get into the really big-name publications. I could often get two of those assignments at a time, but I needed to coordinate and interview around ten people for each article, so doing two in a month was a hell of a task. Today, I’m doing much better in my writing career. Since I started blogging, I’ve written hundreds of posts, both for myself and for other blogs. I don’t have to interview people anymore, so it goes much faster and I can write much more. The combined total I’ve been paid for all of those posts (including what I’ve been paid for writing sales copy, promotional emails, and so on) is zero dollars. And really, it pays the bills better than my magazine writing ever did. How to make “not getting paid” pay off I just recorded a call with Copyblogger Associate Editor Jon Morrow entitled “How We Make $2000 per Guest Post,” and the funny thing about that call was that I’d had the idea to write the post you’re currently reading before Jon came up with the hook for the call. I guess great minds think alike. See, newbie online entrepreneurs often want to “make money blogging,” and seasoned writers often come to the internet to expand their freelance businesses by doing online what they do offline: selling words for dollars. Both of those approaches assume a straight line between composing paragraphs and getting a check, but that straight line hasn’t reflected my experience in the blogosphere (and I’m in good company ). To put it succinctly, I don’t make money writing. I make money through a business, and that business does its marketing almost exclusively through writing. Writing for me is a means to an end. It’s a way to gain exposure, gain popularity and authority, and build trust. Once you have enough exposure, trust, and authority with your audience, they’ll consider buying products and services from you if what you offer them is good. The cool part? It almost doesn’t matter which category or niche those products or services fall into. It works like this: Writing -> Readers -> Exposure, popularity, authority, and trust -> The ability to sell stuff. Need a fancy term to make it legit? Call it content marketing . Notice that I’ve used the very specific noun “stuff” to describe what you’re able to sell to a well-matched, receptive audience with enough of those preceding magic ingredients. Information products? Yep. Software and services of all kinds? Yep. Hats? Maybe. Want to sell hats? Then write enough, in places where people who like hats congregate, to become a popular and trustworthy personality who happens to sell hats. Or makes hats. Or wears interesting hats. Or at least likes hats, and talks about hats a lot. Your audience has to be willing to pay for hats, but if they are, they’re going to buy from someone. If your writing has put you in front of them, and made you popular and trustworthy, they’ll buy from you. It works for just about anything. This is all about thinking outside of the nine dots. I came to the blogosphere as a humorist, but what I found was that people wouldn’t pay for humor. So what could I do with my funny writing? Why, sell consulting and website services, of course. I remember asking my readers at the time, “Can I be the funny guy who writes about business, and also build websites somehow?” Give what attracts, sell what people want to buy And the answer was apparently that yes, I could write humorously about business — and tattoos, and unschooling, and The Matrix — and build a large readership who seemed to like and trust me. And at that point, I could offer websites. And consulting. And info products. And likely waffles. If those folks needed a site and/or were hungry, they’d work with me rather than finding their website guy or waffle house on Google. When Jon and I did that call about making $2000 per guest post, what we meant was that guest posting is our primary (almost our exclusive) marketing strategy, and that on average, each post — each performance in front of a blog audience to build trust and exposure — resulted in around $2000 of income. That’s income that was created through writing, but wasn’t income we received for completing a writing assignment. You want to be a writer? Well, don’t confine your thinking to the obvious example of putting words together for pay. There’s a whole world of ways out there to make money as a writer… and the interesting part is that most of them mean you’ll be writing for free. About the Author: Johnny B. Truant is apparently a writer or something and is one of the two guys behind The Charlie and Johnny Jam Sessions . If you’d like personal help on getting paid to write for free, he’s got you covered .

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How to NOT Get Paid to Write Online (And Make Money Doing It)

How to Use Emotional Copywriting to Kick-Start Your Sales

BlogPostman — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:12:38 +0000

Writing with emotion can be hard. Really hard. Especially when it’s on a subject that’s technical. I’m speaking from experience. You see, I recently launched an ebook about keeping WordPress sites more secure, and I asked my friend James Chartrand of Men with Pens if I might be able to write a guest post to try and spread the word. If you’ve been following James’ blog for awhile, you know she doesn’t publish many guest posts, and when she does, her standards are high. The reply to the first article I submitted was, “I’d prefer one that’s less technical and more emotional.” “Um, it’s WordPress security enhancements.” I think I may have said that out loud. Now how the heck am I supposed to tell an emotional story about setting up a WordPress Firewall? I’ll tell you though, it can be done. The story just needs to be told in the right way. It can’t only focus on implementation. After all, the implementation and the “how to” are covered in the ebook. To write with emotion about WordPress security, I had to get to the Why . And whys can be very emotional. I’m not a copywriter, nor am I the world’s greatest storyteller. I’m just a guy who knows a thing or two about how to keep your blog safe at night while you sleep. I know what it’s like to wake up one morning with a nightmare you never knew you had. Telling the “why” from your heart My wife and I had that nightmare once. Our dream was taken from us by someone we never met, someone who could care less that the website they ruined for us helped put food in our kids’ mouths. I tried to describe what happened to us, in hopes it might convince others to take action so it wouldn’t happen to them. My goal in writing the post for James was to convince her readers that the threat of someone breaking into your blog and destroying what you’ve worked so hard at building is real . In fact, it happens all the time . And it’s getting more and more common. When I told the “why,” the “how” became easy to sell. How I learned to become a copywriter (sort of) The truth is, I’ll never be a great copywriter. I’m just a guy who wants to help people, and to sell some copies of my ebook. But my understanding of marketing changed when I understood why emotion matters. When you’re getting out there and trying to sell your product or service, you’ve got to connect on a deeper level. We all hear how you should mention your product’s features, but you really need to glorify the benefits. Features, Advantages, Benefits (FAB). Okay great, got that. But if that’s all you’re looking at, there’s one more piece of the puzzle missing. You need connection You can glorify the benefits of your product to customers all day long. And yeah, that might be good enough. But they also need to connect with you . If you can not only convey the benefits of your product or service, but also the passion you have to help your customers, especially if you tie that into your own personal story, then you’re that much closer to retiring to Hawaii. Since I know my limitations, I asked James to tell my story for me . Reading how James rewrote my own words made me realize just how complex attractive sales copywriting can be. It’s not only about conveying benefits. Nor is it about simply sparking an emotional response. In fact, it’s not “simply” anything. To me it’s almost like a mathematical formula (sorry, I have a minor in mathematics). Attractive sales copywriting is about making connections . Connecting features with benefits. Connecting your “why” story with their problem. Connecting desire to action. Since Copyblogger readers are some of the best copywriters around, I’d love to hear your thoughts. What other connections do you think are critical when we’re writing to persuade customers to buy? And how have you used emotion and storytelling to create a stronger message? Let us know in the comments. About the Author: John Hoff isn’t a copywriter, but he does blog for a hosting company, WP Blog Host and has created a free video mini course on how to secure WordPress from unwanted intruders. He really, really, really hates hackers.

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How to Use Emotional Copywriting to Kick-Start Your Sales