The One Skill that Makes an Online Entrepreneur Unstoppable

Posted on 29. Feb, 2012 by in Blog, Blog Psychology, Entrepreneurship, Featured, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing

image of woodworking tools

Pop quiz, hotshot: What’s the most important skill you must have in order to be successful as an entrepreneur, especially in an online business? 

Is it salesmanship? Is it social media savvy, or SEO knowledge? 

Is it writing and content marketing? (Because I know a great blog about that.) 

Or is it tech stuff, like the ability to set up and manage a functional website, capture leads, manage an email list, and so on? 

If you answered any of these, important as they might be, sorry, you’re wrong. 

You don’t need to possess any of those skills, because you can outsource them, or you can go out and learn them anytime you want.

You can learn anything nowadays, usually for free. Want to learn how to field-strip an obscure Russian firearm that hasn’t been manufactured since 1927? I’ll bet someone has made a YouTube video showing you how. 

All the knowledge in the world is literally at our fingertips. Yet only a handful of people break through from wanna-be-successes to true successes. So what’s missing? 

What entrepreneurs need most isn’t knowledge. What they need is the ability to evolve.

You must analyze and adapt

There’s a lot of talk in branding circles about how if you don’t keep doing what people have come to expect from you, you’re just confusing your audience. You’ve got to have a niche, and that niche has high, unclimbable walls around it. If you do something odd and out of character, or not in your currently accepted area of expertise, people won’t know what you stand for and hence won’t buy anything from you. 

What terrible advice. 

Even big companies that become dogmatic get slaughtered nowadays. Look at the music and film industries, and the crap they tried to hand us to protect themselves while their inflexible bulks drowned. 

Now, look at the success stories.

  • While Borders bookstores were dying, Amazon led the e-book revolution with Kindle. They also went from selling books to selling everything under the sun, and started providing tech services like Amazon S3 media hosting.
  • Google entered a market that already had dominant search engines, like Yahoo and Lycos, but then branched from search into apps, smartphone operating systems, voice communications, mapping and navigation, commerce services, and just about everything else. And now who’s the household name?
  • Copyblogger started as a blog about copywriting. Then it became more about internet marketing and small business. Then it began creating products and merging with partners, now selling premium WordPress themes, content optimization, and landing page software.

At no point did Brian Clark say, “Woah, wait a minute… a blog that sells WordPress themes? That’ll confuse everyone” and ditch the whole thing to go back to only publishing posts about writing. 

Mindlessly sticking to what used to work is overrated.

The evolution of a lovable jackass

If you’re thinking that you’re no Amazon, Google, or Copyblogger, then let me tell you my story as a one-person business that’s doing pretty well these days. 

Nobody knows how to describe me. This includes myself. People ask me what I do, and I never know what to tell them.

Sonia Simone called me (in public, in a Blogworld keynote, thanks Sonia) a “lovable jackass.” It was amusing to me at the time, but now I realize that it’s flat-out apt. It should be my tagline, because it’s just about all you can pin on me. 

Here’s a brief outline of my journey so far:

  • Three years ago, I wrote a humor blog.
  • Two and a half years ago, I did a ton of technology services, like blog setups.
  • Two years ago, I did even more and expanded tech services, but also had begun coaching. I wrote about business a lot.
  • A year ago, I still did some tech work, but was teaching and coaching more. I’d co-created Question the Rules (which is re-launching in a 2.0 version right now, by the way) and a few other courses. I’d tell you that what I blogged about was “personal development for entrepreneurs.”
  • Six months ago, after having been goaded into “leveling up” my blogging, I wrote more “epic” posts, coached, and sold information products. I was also in charge of the Virtual Ticket program for Blogworld, including acting as its host and MC.
  • Now, as of two weeks ago, I’m a novelist. I’d describe my blog as being about human potential and personal development. I do almost no technology work and not a lot of coaching.
  • In the next few months, I’m going to start a podcast, work on a new novel, write more of those epic blog posts, talk a bit about DIY digital publishing, and host Blogworld’s event again.

That’s a lot of change in three years, but I can tell you one thing for certain: if at any point in that chain I’d stuck to my guns and said, “I’m a humor blogger,” or “I’m a tech guy” or “I’m a marketer” and refused to evolve, I’d be out of business today.

Change your mind. Right now.

Sometimes people ask me why I talk so much about stuff that’s intangible, stuff that you might describe as “upping your mental game.” The reason is because it’s the only thing that makes a difference. 

Meaning: You don’t need more knowledge, because you have access to more knowledge than you can handle.

What you need is the mindset to actually go out and use what you know.

You don’t need skills. You need meta-skills.

  • You’ve got to learn to be uncertain and take risks. If you stay within what’s known and safe, you will never be truly successful. Doing what’s uncertain and risky isn’t easy, and that’s why the people who dare to do it are rewarded.
  • You’ve got to learn to lead, which simply means going out and doing things. If you do things instead of always thinking and talking about doing things, then congratulations, you’re a leader. Others will follow.
  • You’ve got to learn to solve problems. I unschool my kids because I believe that children don’t need to memorize facts — especially in a world that changes this rapidly. They need to learn how to look at a situation, determine which resources they need, and then go find those resources in order to solve the problem. We must all learn to fish instead of relying on others giving us fish.
  • You’ve got to start believing you can do it. That sounds rah-rah, but it’s very important. We train ourselves into believing that we can do some things and can’t do others. Think you can’t do calculus? Wrong. You can’t levitate on Earth without assistance or superpowers. There’s a huge difference between those “can’ts.” (Other manifestations of this: “I’m not that kind of person,” “I wasn’t raised that way,” and “What will my parents/friends/neighbors/Twilight fan club think?”)

You’ve been a little bit brainwashed by the circumstances you’ve lived through. It’s okay, because we all have. But what you need to understand is that that cultural brainwashing puts you at a disadvantage as an entrepreneur. 

It may sound trite to talk about upping your mental game … but if you don’t do exactly that, you’ll be stuck forever.

How to up your mental game

I wrote a post here last week about how damaging “blind obedience to rules” can be to an entrepreneurial business.

This post is pretty much saying the same thing, except that it’s about how damaging it can be to blindly obey the bogus rules you’ve established inside your own mind. 

My solution to addressing both kinds of rules is the same. 

I’m hosting a webinar this Friday that’s all about developing the mind-changing attributes that are necessary for success (and survival) as an entrepreneur. It’s called, Breaking Rules for Fun and Profit: 21 Lies About Business, Money, and Life That You Don’t Even Realize Are Holding You Back, and What To Do About Them. 

Can’t make yourself do what needs to be done in your business? Are you afraid? Are you uncertain? Do you get stuck? Do you know everything you need to know — and know exactly what you need to do — but just … can’t … seem to … do it? 

That happens because you’re believing lies that you’ve been told or have learned, and have internalized those lies as rules and limitations. But they’re not true.

They are not true. 

This webinar is free. If you want to up your mental game and learn how to get over the hump, signing up for it would be a great start. 

You can sign up for Friday’s webinar here. I hope you can join us. 

In the meantime, how are you struggling in your mental game? Let me know in the comments …

About the Author: Johnny B. Truant just released his novel The Bialy Pimps despite the fact that it’s totally ridiculous for a business and human potential blogger to write a novel about fame and bagels. He is also attributing the testimonial “This book takes ‘lovable jackass’ to a whole new level” to Sonia Simone, even though she didn’t technically say it.

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3 Psychological Triggers that Can Move Your Audience from Indifference to Desire

Posted on 28. Feb, 2012 by in Blog, Blog Psychology, Copywriting, Featured, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing

image of vintage 3 key

I’d like to tell you about a powerful but elusive emotion that you can trigger to increase traffic, click-throughs, and conversions.

Used properly, it can entice your reader to give you their full attention and follow your call to action.

But there’s a catch.

Despite its intensity, this emotion is fickle. And it’s often mishandled in copywriting. Make a mistake and your reader’s interest can disappear with the smallest of distractions.

So what’s this powerful but tricky emotional state?

Curiosity.

Even if you’re familiar with using curiosity to attract readers to your content, if you’re not following these 3 rules, you might be losing more potential customers than you can imagine.

Why curiosity is so hard to get right

Stemming from our need to gather information to make sense of the world, curiosity can have us glued to puzzles and games for hours, finish books we don’t enjoy, or bounce from article to article in Wikipedia resulting in a completely lost afternoon.

More constructively, curiosity has been the driver behind the greatest discoveries in science, medicine, and technology.

And yet, the sudden curiosity to read the latest celebrity scandal — caused by seeing magazines at the store counter — can disappear as soon as you finish paying.

So how can you trigger curiosity and turn it into action such as clicking a link on Twitter, signing up for your newsletter, or downloading your free report?

Psychology and economics professor George Loewenstein conducted an in-depth study and discovered that the peak combination for triggering a high level of curiosity included:

  1. Violating the right expectations
  2. Tickling the “information gap”
  3. Knowing when to stop

Let’s take a look at each of Professor Loewenstein’s three triggers, and how you can use them to turn curiosity into conversion …

Violate the right expectations

You’re probably already familiar that most curiosity is triggered by challenging common beliefs.

For example, a headline which reads:

Increase Sales By Making More Sales Calls Than Other People

Doesn’t really turn our world upside down. The headline makes sense and leaves nothing to the imagination. Instead:

How To Increase Sales 50% In Just 15 Minutes A Day

Violates expectations by suggesting something small can create dramatic results.

You’ll often see Copyblogger violating expectations in their headlines. For example:

There is No ROI in Social Media Marketing

In both headlines there is something readers may not expect. As a result, disorder is created, which requires investigation to restore sense and meaning.

Curiosity headlines are some of the hardest to write, because simply turning something on its head usually isn’t enough to encourage your reader to take action.

To create a real desire for your reader to click, read, or sign up, you have to violate the right expectations.

Loewenstein discovered that curiosity increased when you highlighted a gap in someone’s knowledge, particularly when it related to a topic that interested them.

For example, Copyblogger readers are interested in becoming better writers so they can attract more traffic, links, subscribers, and profits. So if Copyblogger ran a headline like:

How Your Writing Is Like A 7-Foot Banana

It might violate expectations BUT most readers probably feel they can live without this knowledge.

However a headline such as:

Why Bad Writers Are Eating Your Lunch And What To Do About It

Is more effective because:

  • It violates the expectation that bad writers can be successful
  • It suggests that writers worse than you know something that you don’t, which may hamper your own success
  • It promises the benefit of solving this problem for you

Tease … just a little

Even if you violate the right expectations, curiosity is a fickle mistress.

It’s not enough to create disorder. You have to stop your reader from thinking, “Oh, that’s probably going to be about X, Y and Z — I bet I already know that.”

To sustain curiosity, Loewenstein suggests using feedback to quash this thought before it arises.

Tests revealed that most people assume they know more than they actually do, so you definitely want to make sure you’re not losing readers who “think” they know what you’re going to tell them.

For example, a Copyblogger reader who sees this headline:

5 Marketing Lessons You Can Learn

Might assume she already knows those 5 marketing lessons. As a result, she doesn’t feel compelled to read the article.

That’s why:

5 Marketing Lessons You Can Learn From A Weird “Real World” Business

Is going to work much better for the Copyblogger audience. For one, there’s the curious mention of “weird,” so we’re already thinking this will violate expectations.

In addition, you have “real world” business, indicating again, that this advice may be new or unexpected to an online audience.

Ultimately, you’re directly poking at their area of expertise and saying, “I know you know a lot, but you don’t know this.” And this really encourages the curiosity gremlin to wreak havoc.

Know when to stop

Loewenstein discovered that curiosity doesn’t intensify indefinitely, rather it peaks and declines if left unsatisfied for too long.

A common problem in sales copy is overdoing curiosity, believing the reader will stay interested forever.

It’s true that your headline is important in getting the attention of your reader. But it doesn’t guarantee continued interest.

The headline gets them to read the first line of your copy, and the first line gets them to read the second line and so on until the end.

For example, when you start a sales page, landing page, or blog post, your opening paragraph needs to acknowledge the curiosity you highlighted in your headline. Don’t introduce something new and unrelated, hoping that your reader’s curiosity will cause them to power on through your copy looking for the answer that was promised to them.

You don’t have to reveal everything straight away. Telling them to read the article to the end to discover what they want to know can nudge them sufficiently into the body of your copy.

From there you can start relying less on curiosity and more on compelling benefits, rich imagery, and strong storytelling to keep their attention and encourage them to take action.

What makes you curious?

What about you? What is a sure fire way to trigger your curiosity? Are there headlines that you’ve clicked on only to be disappointed? Have you used similar methods with success?

Let us know in the comments below.

About the Author: Amy Harrison is a copywriter for entrepreneurs over at Harrisonamy.com. Check out her recent free report on how to write sales copy when your personality is part of your business.

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Why Blind Obedience is Killing Your Business

Posted on 22. Feb, 2012 by in Blog, Blog Psychology, Entrepreneurship, Featured, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing

image of a hedge maze

Picture three men racing through a tall hedge maze.

The first man runs off and begins following paths randomly, hoping to stumble upon the exit.

The second man is more methodical. He puts one hand on a wall of the maze and resolves to keep moving forward slowly, never taking his hand off the wall. Eventually, thanks to the rules of topology, he knows he’ll find the outside.

The third man pushes and shoves directly through the hedges in a straight line, finishing in thirty seconds flat and declaring himself the winner.

Did the third man cheat?

Maybe. But he also won.

How to cheat in business

If you’ve read everything in the world about how to make your business better and it’s still not better, I bet I know what the problem is.

If you’re doing everything right, but find yourself unable to stand out from your competitors and are barely able to keep your head above water, I can guess what’s missing.

The problem is that you’re listening too closely. You’re implementing too literally. You’re following too many conventions, societal norms, expectations of friends, “the way things have always been done,” and best practices.

To stand out, you need to think outside the box. You need to play by fewer rules.

Am I really going to advocate cheating here? Well, sort of.

And also, not really.

See, if the hedge maze race I’ve described above was a formally sanctioned Hedge Maze Runners of Northern Michigan competition with a prize purse at stake, and contest rules clearly stating that no contestant may run directly through the walls of the maze, then we can safely call our third man a dirty cheater and say he’s a miserable human being, and so on and so forth.

But what if the three men were racing out of the maze because a child was drowning in the lake outside? Do we call the third man a cheater now? Or do we call him smart and probably even a hero, because he thought of a lightning-fast solution that didn’t occur to the others?

There are two important points I’m trying to make here with my silly maze metaphor:

  1. Whether or not “defying the normal way of doing things” is brilliant or a travesty is a matter of circumstance, and a matter of opinion. Breaking rules isn’t right and it isn’t wrong. It just is.
  2. We are all, right now, in a maze of our own. Some of the rules of the maze called “life” serve us and protect us, but some are forcing us to plod along with one hand on the wall, making our way slowly to the finish, while the kid drowns in the lake.

The rules you’ve been following have nudged you into a box. And if that box is serving you and everything is perfect, then great.

But if life could be better — if you don’t have all that you’d really like in your business, your life, your relationships, your family, and everything else — then it might be time to take a close look at those rules and see which ones you can start to disobey.

How to be crazy in business

If anyone thinks I’m going to suggest cutting out the middlemen in the wealth-acquisition chain by robbing a bank, relax. I don’t want anyone to do anything stupid.

Quite the contrary. I want people to stop doing stupid things, like taking the long route instead of the shortcut simply because the map says they should.

I recently heard from a man who had a job in the city.

He hated his job, but he had to have the job so that he could afford his house. He didn’t like his house much either, but it was all he could find that was close to the city. And he had to be near the city to keep the job he hated, so that he could afford the house that he didn’t like but had to keep because it allowed him to keep the job he hated.

So he quit the job and moved to the country, where the land was cheap, and became a freelancer, working remotely for a lot less money. His old job was an impressive, professional job that he had worked hard to get, and everyone thought he was crazy for throwing it all away, going independent.

But he didn’t think he was crazy.

He was making less money, but because of his new, lower cost of living, he was netting much more. He’d found a way to make less money and have more money, which is just about the easiest way ever to get a raise.

All of the most successful people do things that others call crazy, because innovation always comes before genius, and innovation is — by definition — always new. If you’re the first person in your group of peers to do the most brilliant thing in the world, your peers will still think you’re crazy because you’re breaking out of step. But that’s exactly what’s required to be successful.

Look at Steve Jobs.

Look at wacky old Albert Einstein.

I even know this lawyer dude who gave it all up to start a blog, and people thought he was crazy, too. (Only, he really is crazy. Seems to work for him, though.)

Want to really make a change? Then you need to look at what you’ve always done and what most people do and ask if there’s a better way. You need to ask if you want to keep playing by the rules that don’t serve you. You need to be willing to be called “crazy.”

A primer in entrepreneurial disobedience

I’m hosting a webinar on March 2nd that’s all about learning to identify, question, and (if necessary) break the rules that are stopping you.

It’s called Breaking Rules for Fun and Profit: 21 Lies About Business, Money, and Life That You Don’t Even Realize Are Holding You Back, and What To Do About Them, and you really should attend.

Here are a few of the 21 lies I’m going to talk about:

  • You need money to start a business (including big ones, like restaurants).
  • You need to have a product in order to sell a product.
  • You have to have a niche.
  • You are unable to do X, Y, or Z skill (for 99% of all letters of the alphabet).
  • You need to have a plan, goals, or an idea where your business is going.
  • You need a lot of money to live on a yacht, live in an island paradise, or travel the world.
  • You don’t have any connections or know any of the right people.

None of the above is true. If you’ve been mistaking lies for the truth, you’re cutting off vast areas of possibility.

Be sure to sign up, and try to be there early because it’s first-come, first-served.

You can sign up for the March 2nd webinar here.

But don’t go signing up just because I said you should. That would be entirely too obedient of you.

About the Author: Johnny B. Truant just released his novel The Bialy Pimps despite the fact that it’s totally crazy for a business and human potential blogger to write a novel about fame and bagels.

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Introducing The Lede: A Copywriting and Online Marketing Sheet

Posted on 29. Oct, 2011 by in Blog, Blog Psychology, content marketing, conversion, Copywriting, Email Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Headlines, Keyword Research, Landing Pages, List Building, Metrics, persuasion, productivity, selling, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social media marketing, Traditional Media, Traffic

The Lede | copyblogger.com

Welcome to The Lede.

Every week I’ll be digging up and linking to stories, news, and opinion relevant to online marketing and copywriting.

Email, social media, innovation, SEO, productivity, mobile, conversion, publishing, and everything in between.

No commentary, just a fast, single page of headlines that you can grab, scan, and squeeze for all they may (or may not) be worth.

All right then, on with it …

The ROI of Email Marketing

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“The easiest thing in the world for a reader to do is stop reading”

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Steve Jobs’ “Seven Rules of Success” Applied to Email Marketing

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Twitter looking for full-time Copywriter

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How the Kindle Transforms the Marketplace

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Is Mobile SEO a Myth?

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How to Write a Popular Blog Post

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The 6 + 1 Copywriting Formula

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The Ultimate Measure of Marketing Success

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The Strange Art of Achieving More by Doing Less

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Better Marketing Through Social Media Optimization

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5 Advanced Keyword Research Tips

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Copywriting as Online Reputation Management

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Great Content Needs to Transcend Platforms

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“‘Social sharing buttons’ are one of the least

effective tactics you can use to build your list …”

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Finding the Value of Email Marketing Through Metrics

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Building a Landing Page Using “The Backward” Tactic

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Is Rational or Emotional Copy Better for the Bottom Line?

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The Art of the Simple Content Strategy

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Marketing Advice for #occupywallstreet

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An Email Marketing Cheat Sheet

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6 Steps to Selling More

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Mobile Marketing Industry Sets Privacy Guidelines

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Why You No Longer Need a Blog

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5 Mobile Marketing Mistakes

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An SEO Copywriting Cheat Sheet

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How to Diagnose and Heal a Sick Landing Page

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Even Hollywood Needs Good Landing Pages

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It’s About What They Do, Not What They Say

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An SEO Copywriter Walks into a Bar …

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Is the New Facebook Design Killing Your Traffic?

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In Praise of Slow Copywriting

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What Movies and Comic Books Can

Teach You About Writing Powerful Scenes

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The Importance of Daring

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What SEOs Must Learn From Adwords Pros

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65 Ways to Get Traffic to Your Blog

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Why Social Media Research is so Valuable

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3 Big Email Marketing Myths

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How Apple Changed the World

About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media’s copywriter and resident recluse.

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The Art of Finding Ideas

Posted on 18. Oct, 2011 by in Blog, Blog Psychology, Collaboration, content marketing, Copywriting, editing, Email Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Headlines, Landing Pages, persuasion, productivity, selling, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social media marketing

image of humphrey bogart and maltese falcon

Every writer who has ever lived has lusted after ideas.

Where are they, how do I get them, and how do I keep them coming?

If you’ve been writing long enough, you know that — like Solomon — there is nothing new under the sun.

Try as you might to sweat them out of your head or pull them gently from the stars above, there are no new ideas.

So, relax.

But that page is not going to write itself, is it? Where then do we turn for ideas that work, ideas that move, ideas that persuade?

In short, we steal them.

The moment you free yourself from The Cult of Originality, you realize that “original” ideas do not come from within.

They are given to us, from without.

A writer should not look inside, but outside, at external sources, stories, events, and emotions.

If you’re offended that I’d suggest you “steal” ideas, please get over it. You’re already a thief, you just don’t know it yet.

Here are two of the most significant idea repositories on earth …

1. The modern media is a torrent of ideas

In this information age, you have absolutely no reason to “draw a blank”.

Ever.

What took our writing ancestors days and weeks to research and learn, takes us mere moments.

In fact, the only problem we have now is one of finding trusted curators. We need to develop self-discipline and discernment in seeking out correct information from reliable sources.

There is no drought of ideas.

Brian Clark recently wrote:

You have more computing power in your pocket than it took to send men to the moon. What are you doing with it?

Indeed.

Are you wasting it or harnessing it? You don’t need to go to moon, the crossroads will do just fine for our purposes.

Research. Read. Steal.

Product manuals, literature, interviews, talk radio, magazines, newspapers, televsion, Twitter, Google Trends, movies, Wikipedia, and on and on and on …

It’s all there, right in your pocket.

And it’s actually more than you’ll ever need.

So use it. Don’t let it use you.

2. People will give you exactly what you’re looking for

Ideas are walking around everywhere out there.

Eugene Schwartz once told a story about a copywriting job he had.

He met with the client and asked him to start talking about the product. They ended up sitting together for four hours — the client talking, and Schwartz simply listening and taking notes.

Later that night, while he was waiting for his wife to get ready for a night out on Manhattan, Schwartz wrote the ad.

The entire ad.

He said about 70% of the finished copy was comprised of his client’s own words.

The headline itself was a phrase the client had hit on, word for word.

He waited two weeks, mailed the ad to the client, and they both made a lot of money.

You might think this was some kind of dirty trick on Schwartz’ part, but you’d be wrong.

Schwartz knew how to write a powerful direct response ad. The client didn’t.

Schwartz was smart enough to know that the client knew (in this case) his own product better than he ever could, and simply translated that knowledge and passion onto paper.

The ideas were sitting in the client’s head and Schwartz knew exactly what to do with them.

It goes further …

For better or worse, a writer is working all the time.

Phone calls with friends, the plumber, your spouse, your child, your boss, your client, your neighbor — they are all constantly giving you ideas.

They are all constantly telling you what they — and the entire world — truly want.

It is all grist for the mill.

All you need to do is … listen.

Steal this post

Eugene Schwartz summed this up for me perfectly:

You don’t have to have great ideas if you can hear great ideas.

I stole this post from him, and he stole it from many others.

Listen more. Talk less.

Read less. Read better.

Steal.

The Art of Finding Ideas is then … to go out and find ideas.

Originality? That’ll come from using your own voice, and your voice develops from only one thing — writing more. And more. And more.

Where have you been getting your ideas?

About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media’s copywriter and resident recluse.

The Art of Finding Ideas

Posted on 18. Oct, 2011 by in Blog, Blog Psychology, Collaboration, content marketing, Copywriting, editing, Email Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Featured, Headlines, Landing Pages, persuasion, productivity, selling, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social media marketing

image of humphrey bogart and maltese falcon

Every writer who has ever lived has lusted after ideas.

Where are they, how do I get them, and how do I keep them coming?

If you’ve been writing long enough, you know that — like Solomon — there is nothing new under the sun.

Try as you might to sweat them out of your head or pull them gently from the stars above, there are no new ideas.

So, relax.

But the page is not going to write itself, is it? Where then do we turn for ideas that work, ideas that move, ideas that persuade?

In short, we steal them.

The moment you free yourself from The Cult of Originality, you realize that “original” ideas do not come from within.

They are given to us, from without.

A writer should not look inside, but outside, at external sources, stories, events, and emotions.

If you’re offended that I’d suggest you “steal” ideas, please get over it. You’re already a thief, you just don’t know it yet.

Here are two of the most significant idea repositories on earth …

1. The modern media is a torrent of ideas

In this information age, you have absolutely no reason to “draw a blank”.

Ever.

What took our writing ancestors days and weeks to research and learn, takes us mere moments.

In fact, the only problem we have now is one of finding trusted curators. We need to develop self-discipline and discernment in seeking out correct information from reliable sources.

There is no drought of ideas.

Brian Clark recently wrote:

You have more computing power in your pocket than it took to send men to the moon. What are you doing with it?

Indeed.

Are you wasting it or harnessing it? You don’t need to go to the moon, the crossroads will do just fine for our purposes.

Research. Read. Steal.

Product manuals, literature, interviews, talk radio, magazines, newspapers, television, Twitter, Google Trends, movies, Wikipedia, and on and on and on …

It’s all there, right in your pocket.

And it’s actually more than you’ll ever need.

So use it. Don’t let it use you.

2. People will give you exactly what you’re looking for

Ideas are walking around everywhere out there.

Eugene Schwartz once told a story about a copywriting job he had.

He met with the client and asked him to start talking about the product. They ended up sitting together for four hours — the client talking, and Schwartz simply listening and taking notes.

Later that night, while he was waiting for his wife to get ready for a night out on Manhattan, Schwartz wrote the ad.

The entire ad.

He said about 70% of the finished copy was composed of his client’s own words.

The headline itself was a phrase the client had hit on, word for word.

He waited two weeks, mailed the ad to the client, and they both made a lot of money.

You might think this was some kind of dirty trick on Schwartz’ part, but you’d be wrong.

Schwartz knew how to write a powerful direct response ad. The client didn’t.

Schwartz was smart enough to know that the client knew (in this case) his own product better than he ever could, and simply translated that knowledge and passion onto paper.

The ideas were sitting in the client’s head and Schwartz knew exactly what to do with them.

It goes further …

For better or worse, a writer is working all the time.

Phone calls with friends, the plumber, your spouse, your child, your boss, your client, your neighbor — they are all constantly giving you ideas.

They are all constantly telling you what they — and the entire world — truly want.

It is all grist for the mill.

All you need to do is … listen.

Steal this post

Eugene Schwartz summed this up for me perfectly:

You don’t have to have great ideas if you can hear great ideas.

I stole this post from him, and he stole it from many others.

Listen more. Talk less.

Read less. Read better.

Steal.

The Art of Finding Ideas is then … to go out and find ideas.

Originality? That’ll come from using your own voice, and your voice develops from only one thing — writing more. And more. And more.

Where have you been getting your ideas?

About the Author: Robert Bruce is Copyblogger Media’s copywriter and resident recluse.

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What Bestselling Fiction Can Teach You About Writing Better Landing Pages

Posted on 26. Sep, 2011 by in Blog, Blog Psychology, content marketing, conversion, Copywriting, Email Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Headlines, Landing Pages, persuasion, productivity, RSS Marketing, selling, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social media marketing, Traffic

image of spy with gun

Imagine you’re having a discussion with a talkative, hyperactive teenager.

The conversation goes something like this …

We went to the mall, and like, there was this fire in the mall. And we went from there to the movies, but we didn’t have any money and anyway the popcorn machine was broken, and so we didn’t really want to go to the movies without popcorn. But right after that we went to have some pizza and there was this creepy guy outside the store. But listen to this — because that’s not the best part. The best part is that Sylvie dumped Josh, and like, they ran into each other in the street …

Annoying right? Then why do we so often write our web copy just like that teenager talks?

Is there a better way to write a landing page?

When we write copy for our website, we sound a lot like that teenager

We tend to move all over the place with our copy.

First, we’ll try to stuff five different concepts into the headline.

Then we’ll try and fill in too many sub-heads that we want to drive home.

And then our first paragraph attempts to cover all the possible points.

And — like that teenager above — we have the entire story in our heads, but nothing quite gets across to the client.

We’re trying to cover way too many points, way too quickly.

And, as you’ve worked out for yourself, this bouncing and jumping around is exhausting for your reader.

How this mistake unfolds in an actual piece of copy

Let’s take a look at our “teenage talk” problem using a real-life example:

Headline:

Are You Fed Up With Unprofessional Contractors?

Body text:

  • Contractors that don’t call you back or even show up?
  • Are you done with contractors that lack the ability to communicate in a timely manner?
  • How about contractors that run away from problems that crop up during and after a project?
  • Are you completely over dealing with the hacks of the world?
  • Have you had enough of sitting at home, babysitting the people you’re paying?

So what’s wrong with that sequence?

It gets off to a good start. The headline gets my attention without too much of a fuss, particularly if I’m having this problem right now.

But then I start reading and I get between three and five main plots and no sub-plots at all.

How do we know they’re main plots? Because we can list them out and see for ourselves. They all want to take center stage.

  • Main plot 1: Contractors don’t call you back or even show up
  • Main plot 2: They lack the ability to communicate in a timely manner
  • Main plot 3: They run away from problems that crop up during and after a project
  • Main plot 4: The so-called professional is nothing but a hack
  • Main plot 5: You are tired of having to babysit these people

Just like that teenager’s story, it’s possible for us to jump from one to the other, without so much as pausing for a single breath.

So now that we know we’re creating bounce, how do we get rid of it? And how do we still use all the persuasive points we want to cover on our landing page?

How to say exactly what you’re trying to say

Just like an exciting movie or a bestselling novel, your article needs a single main plot. One primary storyline that the reader or viewer is most interested in.

You can also have sub-plots — additional points that make the story more complex and interesting, and continue to hook that reader.

So how do you know which point is your main plot? It’s the client’s most pressing problem.

That’s obvious, isn’t it? You want to get the client’s attention by driving home the biggest, scariest, buggiest problem.

Here’s how we go about it:

Headline:

Write your headline. It should only cover one big, buggy, nasty problem

Body text:

  • Body text 1: Drive home the problems involved with that one point
  • Body text 2: Drive home the consequences of that one point
  • Body text 3: Drive home the solution to that one problem

Move to the next point.

So how does the teenager’s story look in this format?

Headline:

We went to the mall and there was a fire.

  • Body text 1: What happened next at the mall?
  • Body text 2: Then what were the consequences?
  • Body text 3: How did we escape the fire?

With the teenager, she’d complete one story, and move to the next.

And the next …

But you may have made your point with a single story.

So what do you do with the rest of the stuff that you so badly want to get across? You bring it up later.

Let’s see how. But first let’s get back to squaring this in our original example.

Headline:

Are You Fed Up With Unprofessional Contractors …

  • Body text: … That don’t call you back or even show up?
  • Body text 1: Talk in detail about the problems created when the contractor doesn’t call back or show up.
  • Body text 2: What are the consequences? Describe the emotions that the client feels — again, in detail.
  • Body text 3: What’s the best way to avoid this wretched scenario?

And then you present your service:

  • Body text 4: Presenting XYZ contracting company.
  • Body text 5: Drive home the point of how you handle calling your customers back. Describe in detail how you do it — when you show up and how you follow up.

Notice we haven’t gone to Point 2 yet. And yes, I know, you’re itching to drive home that point.

But first, do you notice something?

The customer doesn’t care about your itch. They’re locked in to what you’re saying.

You’re the first person they’ve met who isn’t like that teenager, jumping from story to story.

The customer’s biggest problem is ‘unprofessional contractors that don’t call back or show up’ and you’re talking about exactly that. The customer wants to know more about that story in detail, before they’re ready to move to the next story.

So after you present your company and how it brings that one solution to their problem, you can move on to the next “subplot,” the secondary stories in your copywriting plot.

Roll out the remaining subplots in slightly less detail, in a feature/benefit format that looks like this:

Feature 1: Benefit 1. Describe the benefits of Feature 1 in strong, vivid terms.

Feature 2: Benefit 1. Now write more copy vividly describing the benefits of Feature 2.

And so on with Features 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 — adding benefits, of course, to every one of those features.

You can have as many as 8-10 paragraphs rich with details of the problem and the solutions you bring to the customer.

Having locked into the main problem and seeing how you bring that solution, the customer will happily trundle through the rest of the points, and become more convinced by the word about your ability to solve their problem.

In short, you must have a main plot, then drive it home

Later, pull in the sub-plots, but without the same level of intensity as the main.

Just remember to pick the point your customer cares most about as your main plot. ‘Sylvie dumping Josh’ has more drama than ‘no popcorn at the cinema.’

From there, you’re simply re-telling your story on the landing page.

One plot at a time ;)

About the Author: Sean D’Souza offers a great free report on ‘Why Headlines Fail’ when you subscribe to his Psychotactics Newsletter. Be sure to check out his blog, too.

You Already Know How to Write an Ebook … So What’s Stopping You?

Posted on 01. Sep, 2011 by in Blog, Blog Psychology, Collaboration, content marketing, Copywriting, editing, Entrepreneurship, personal branding, productivity, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing

image of bookstore sign

There are plenty of great reasons to write an ebook.

A short, free ebook could be precisely the cookie you need in order for your email list to grow beyond a handful of members.

A big, paid-for ebook could be an important part of your revenue stream — and the first product in your sales funnel.

Being able to say, “I’m an author.” could give your credibility a massive boost.

So what’s stopping you? I think I know …

Maybe you think you don’t know how. Sure, you’re comfortable with writing blog posts, but an ebook is a totally different animal.

Or is it?

Everything you know about blogging applies to ebooks too

Think of your ebook as a series of blog posts.

Content-rich, in-depth posts that readers can’t wait to read and share.

When you look at it that way, your ebook suddenly seems less … daunting.

You already know how to write an ebook. Everything you’ve learned from blogging still applies. Just think of your ebook as a series, and each post as a chapter within that series.

That way:

  • Your ebook won’t become a bloated, “everything I’ve ever learned” guide to your whole field. It won’t sell — and you won’t have any room for your second ebook. Pick one topic, just as you would for a post series
  • Your writing style can stay friendly, informal and engaging. You don’t have to come across all stilted and academic just because it’s an ebook. Your readers will want to hear your voice, just like they do on your blog
  • Your chapters can be concise and information-packed — just like your blog posts. You don’t need to waffle on and on to fill the pages. After all, what would your readers prefer: straight-up information or a ton of padding?
  • Your content-creation routine doesn’t have to change drastically. You don’t need to lock yourself away for two weeks in order to finish your ebook. You can just write a couple of short chapters each week — in the same way that you write blog posts on a regular basis

You can use your current blog content too

If you’ve been blogging for a while, you could repurpose some of your existing content for the ebook.

For lots more on this, see Carol Tice’s excellent post, 12 Ways to Turn Your Old, Dusty Blog Archive into Cold, Hard Cash.

For instance:

  • You might use one of your popular posts as the introduction for the ebook
  • You could turn a “how to” post into a worksheet
  • A case study post could become a vivid example
  • Your readers’ comments might inspire new chapters or a Q&A section

Formatting matters just as much in ebooks as in blog posts

Some bloggers seem to ignore formatting completely when it comes to ebooks.

They’ll produce dull, grey documents densely packed with text … and they’ll wonder why no-one’s interested.

If your ebook is going to be a pdf (and most info-products are), then you can use all the same formatting features that you’d use in blogging:

  • Add images to grab attention, break up the text and show concepts that are hard to describe in words.
  • Include subheadings to help signpost the way through the text
  • Add hyperlinks so that readers can jump straight to the chapters that they need
  • Use bullet-pointed lists to display information more clearly
  • Create a style for block quotes so that these stand out from the text

You already know how to do all of this

You know how to write regularly.

You know how to make your style engaging.

You know how to use formatting to hold the reader’s attention.

So let me ask you again: what’s stopping you from writing your ebook?

About the Author: Ali Luke is a blogger, writer and writing coach. She’s just released a brand new ebook in her popular Blogger’s Guide series: The Blogger’s Guide to Irresistible Ebooks. If you’d like to write an ebook that your readers can’t wait to snap up, click here and check it out today.

6 Design Tips That Will Have Your Audience Licking Their Screens

Posted on 30. Aug, 2011 by in Blog, Blog Psychology, content marketing, conversion, Copywriting, Email Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Headlines, Online Product Launches, personal branding, persuasion, selling, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social media marketing, Traffic

image of dog licking chops

We made the buttons on the screen look so good you’ll want to lick them.

~ Steve Jobs

You’re creating great content to attract an audience. A loyal audience that comes to know, like and trust you.

But what if you never get the attention of that audience in the first place?

What if your blog visitors take one look at your well-written words and move right along because your page looks bland, boring, and amateurish?

You lose them at hello. Your words never had a chance to take root.

That’s where design can help.

Design creates a welcoming first impression.

It engages your site visitors and draws them in so they’ll actually spend time with your information.

It’s the difference between throwing some fast food on the table in front of your guests, and presenting a meal that’s carefully prepared, beautifully plated, and smells delicious.

Want to build up an appetite for your content?

Today’s post shares 6 tips to make your blog so luscious looking, you’ll need to warn people not to lick their screens.

1. Think about your guests

Delicious design starts with an understanding of who you’re cooking it up for.

Knowing your target market and what they’ll respond to is crucial if you want to pick typefaces, colors and images that will resonate with them.

What do you need to know about them?

Ideally, you have a grasp of their age group, predominant gender and education level.

Bonus points if you are aware of psychographic details like what motivates them, what their beliefs are, and what other companies they’re attracted to and buying from.

And just like you’d want to know about food allergies before you prepared a meal, it’s important to be aware of what your target market finds unpleasant or repulsive so you can avoid it on your pages.

2. Speak their language with typography

Custom typography allows you to break out of the Helvetica-Times Roman-Georgia-Verdana fonts our sites marched in lockstep to just a few years ago.

You can express your brand or your blog’s personality through your typefaces’ personalities.

Serif typefaces — the ones with little “feet” — are classic and traditional.

Sans-serif typefaces — those with streamlined letters — are contemporary and modern.

There are exceptions within these major categories, so trust your eyes to tell you what your typeface choices are saying.

It’s easy to use custom typefaces on our blogs now. There are several good commercial offerings that will “serve up” unique fonts to your site. The Google Font API will even do it for free.

It’s an extra step, but will make your content stand out, and give your words personality.

Here’s more on choosing and combining typefaces.

3. Use colors that make sense to your market

If you’ve carefully researched your target market as outlined in step one, you may already have an idea of what colors will work for them.

To start, I recommend you choose two main colors to represent your brand.

For you, two colors are simplest to work with — you’ll have a short list to choose from every time you need to make a color choice.

For your audience, two predominant colors will make it easier to recognize and remember your brand.

How can you pick just two colors from the millions available?

Start by looking at the consumer goods your target market already buys. What colors already appeal to them?

You don’t need to walk around your local shopping mall with a swatch book, but keep your eyes open to color combinations that sell to your particular market. Take inspiration from what’s already working.

4. Tell your story with enticing images

I’ll be the first to admit it: finding a good image to work with your posts is a huge pain.

It adds to the time it takes to finish your piece, and — because you typically look for an image after you’ve finished writing — it feels like just One More Thing To Do.

But, it’s worth it.

As wonderful as your carefully-crafted words may be, they’ll sit there limp and lonely on the page if you don’t pair them up with a compelling image.

A great image is like the cover of a dinner party invitation.

It gives people an easy “in” to start engaging with your writing. Images are processed quickly, and if you’ve picked one that’s attractive and creates just a little bit of curiosity, it will draw readers into your headline and the first paragraph of your post.

5. Order your information hierarchically

Visual hierarchy helps your visitor navigate through your page and absorb your information in the order you prefer.

Sounds confusing, doesn’t it? Here’s how to make it work …

Look at the information on any given page of your blog. What do you want your site visitors to notice first? It’s probably your site name.

Then what do you want them to see? It might be your headline, or the image you’ve used with your first post.

Once they’ve taken in the name of your site and you’ve drawn them into your content, then where do you want them to look?

Visual hierarchy directs the viewer’s eyes through your information by giving it an order of importance by where it’s positioned, how bold or bright it is, and how much white space it has around it.

The most important information? Make it larger, bolder, and brighter. Give it some breathing room, too: white space draws eyeballs.

The next-most-important information? Make it a bit smaller, less bold, and not as bright.

As you move down the ladder of visual hierarchy, remember: the less important the information, the less visual “weight” it should carry.

6. Keep it together with a style guide

OK, you’ve used color, typography, gorgeous images and visual hierarchy to create lickable, luscious pages.

Now what?

Keep up the good work!

Maintain consistency with a simple style guide. It doesn’t have to be a complex 20-page document.

Try this:

  • Open any word processor, and note your official colors
  • Log your typefaces, and which font you use where
  • List the file name for your official logo or header artwork, and where it can be found
  • Note any resources for photography so you know where to find more of a style you’ve used in the past
  • Continue to add to this document as you make design decisions about your site

Once you’ve created an attractive blog, keep people coming back to it by serving up beautifully-presented content consistently over time.

Make good design decisions, then continue applying them using your style guide notes as a reference.

And don’t forget the “please don’t lick your screen sign.” You’re going to need it!

About the Author: Pamela Wilson teaches small businesses to grow using great design and marketing at Big Brand System. Get her free Marketing Toolkit and follow her on Twitter.

23 Reasons Your Blog Isn’t Making Any Money (And What To Do About It!)

Posted on 29. Aug, 2011 by in Blog, Blog Psychology, content marketing, conversion, Copywriting, Headlines, Keyword Research, Landing Pages, List Building, Online Product Launches, persuasion, selling, Small Business Internet Marketing, Small Business Marketing, social media marketing, Traffic

image of broke man

Sure, you want comments.

And subscribers, and shares, and likes.

But you don’t really care about any of these things. You want what they will eventually lead to …

Money.

Yes, traffic is good, and so is reader engagement. But if you’re reading this, chances are you’re running a blog with the intention of marketing a business and making some money.

Now, that could be a bit distressing, because most bloggers are broke.

Some bloggers don’t have traffic or reader engagement, and some bloggers have lots of both. But most bloggers aren’t making any money.

Here’s why …

The chain of conversion is everything

We tend to think of conversion as a single event, but it’s really more like a chain of events.

If you market a business online, several conversions need to take place:

  • A stranger has to convert into a lead by being exposed to your message for the first time (in the online world, we call this traffic)
  • A lead has to convert into a prospect by liking what you have to say (this is often done by opting in to your email subscriber list)
  • A prospect has to convert into a customer by buying something from you
  • A customer has to convert into a repeat customer by turning a single purchase into an ongoing buying relationship

This entire process is called the chain of conversion.

Does that sound like a tall order?

It should, because it is — for your blog to make money, you need not one, but many people to smoothly move through this entire process.

And if your blog is like most, then that probably isn’t happening.

Let’s explore all the reasons why that might be, and what you can do to fix it.

Problem #1: You’re a billboard in the desert

The most common problem that bloggers face is that strangers aren’t converting into leads.

In other words, there’s no traffic.

And if there’s no traffic, then it doesn’t matter how well-optimized the rest of your funnel is, because nobody is feeding through it.

So the first order of business is to get traffic flowing to your site. Here are some of the reasons why that might not be happening, and how you can fix it:

  1. Build it and they will come. Yes, content is king, but without an army of marketers, the king can get pretty lonely! The truth is that while epic content is critical, it won’t go viral all by itself without an existing audience to start the ball rolling by seeing and sharing. If you don’t have traffic, you have to go and get the word out about your content.
  2. You just tweet to your followers. If you’re Guy Kawasaki, then your marketing can consist of tweeting to your followers, and calling it a day. But for the rest of us (who don’t have 400,000 followers), you’ve got to get out there and promote. Build relationships with other bloggers, write guest posts, put viral campaigns together, and apply any other strategy for blog growth that you can think of — just get out there and do something!
  3. Marketing in the wrong place. We love to fall for the promises of magic strategies that will get us tons of traffic — the kind that showcase the success that somebody else had. The problem is that you aren’t going after their audience, and your audience may not hang out where theirs does. If you’re marketing in the wrong place, then your audience will never find you! Of course, to market in the right place, you have to know who your audience is …
  4. No clearly defined audience. Obviously, you can’t market to your audience if you don’t know who your audience is. It isn’t enough for you to have a general idea that you’re marketing to “bloggers” or “writers” or “stay at home moms” — you’ve got to get way more specific, to the point that you’ve created a profile of the ONE person that you’re targeting.
  5. Asking for the wrong action. If they haven’t heard of you, then don’t start by asking them to buy — it isn’t likely to happen. Remember that your goal with each piece of messaging is to get the audience to take the single next action. When you’re talking to strangers, the goal is for them to become leads (visit your site) and then prospects (opt in to your list). So don’t even mention whatever it is that you’ve got for sale.
  6. You don’t hook their interest. Yes, I’m talking about headlines. For your blog posts, for your ads, and for the teaser links to your content. They all need to hook your audience’s interest. And you happen to be reading the world’s best blog about copywriting. So go read all about headlines!

Problem #2: Selling ice to Inuits

The second problem is that you get traffic, but they all bounce — no subscribers, no customers, and you’re on a constant treadmill to generate more traffic.

In other words, leads aren’t converting into prospects.

Here’s why that might be happening, and what you can do about it:

  1. It’s all about you. Yes, that’s right — all of your posts are about your news, your products, your company. And you wonder why nobody signs up for more? Forget about your subject area, and think about your customers. What are their problems? What matters to them? That’s what you need to be writing about.
  2. Your content is “me too” content. If you’re just writing generic, bland content of the “6 tips everyone already knows about productivity” variety, or (gasp!) going so far as to actually spin articles, then the truth is that there’s no reason for people to come back to your site, because you haven’t impressed them yet. So pull out the stops and write some truly compelling content!
  3. You don’t draw them in. You get them to start reading your stuff, but their attention wanders, and pretty soon they’re gone forever. You need to draw them in and keep them going, section to section, until they reach the action that you want them to: subscribing!
  4. You don’t make it explicit. Yes, that’s right. If you want your visitors to opt in to your mailing list, then you have to say so, in so many words: “Sign up for my list to get all sorts of goodies. Do it now. Click here.” Put those words, or words like them, near your opt-in box, and make sure to include a call to action in your posts, too.
  5. You don’t optimize. No matter how good you are, and how well you’ve done everything else, there’s always room for improvement — and improvement is had by split-testing, split-testing, and then split-testing some more.

Problem #3: “Just the free sample, thanks”

Sometimes you’ve got traffic, and you’ve got subscribers — but you still aren’t making any money.

In chain of conversion terminology, prospects aren’t converting into customers.

This might not sound so bad (“at least they have the traffic and subscribers”), but without the money, you’re just sinking more and more work into what might be a dead-end project.

The good news is that when you’ve got an audience, you can usually find a way to make some money — let’s explore why they might not be buying, and what we can do to fix it:

  1. You’re selling what they need instead of what they want. As an expert in your field, you know exactly what the customer’s problem is. I don’t mean the symptoms, or the issue that they want to fix right now — I mean the real problem that lies deep down at the root of it all. The trouble is that they don’t know that, and so they aren’t looking for that solution. Start by selling what they want, and then you can deliver what they need along with it.
  2. It’s in the wrong format. Maybe they love what you’re offering, but they just don’t like the format. I mean, really, how many more e-books can someone buy? Try a different format — like audio, video, a virtual conference, live workshops, infographics — or something else entirely.
  3. The price isn’t right. Maybe your product is great, but the price doesn’t fit. You could be asking for way too much money, or you could be asking for way too little. Remember that not only does the price have to fit with the buyer’s budget, but it also has to communicate the right thing about how valuable your offering really is. So test different prices, and find the price that works best.
  4. You don’t ask for the sale. Yes, this comes back to being explicit. Don’t just have an “Add to Cart” link on your site — you’ve also got to tell people that you want them to buy your stuff. Tell them why they should do it, and what they’re going to get. And tell them when they should do it (right now!), which leads us to the matter of urgency …
  5. There’s no urgency. Why buy today when I can buy tomorrow, right? You need to give your audience a reason to take action now. Make sure the constraint is real — maybe you’re raising the price after a certain date. Maybe the first 50 people to sign up get a special bonus. Or maybe you’re closing your program on September 1 (hypothetically speaking, of course …).
  6. No social proof. Nobody wants to be the first one to arrive at a party — you want to know that other people are there, and having a good time. So who’s already bought your product or service? What was their experience like? Were they happy? Were they a lot like the person who is thinking about buying today?
  7. No guarantee. There’s something comforting about a money-back guarantee. It provides a safety net, and shows how much confidence the seller has in whatever is being offered. Most companies offer guarantees, to the point that it looks sketchy if you don’t. So you have to offer a guarantee. But don’t just offer a simple “if you’re not satisfied we’ll give you your money back” guarantee — go over the top. Give them 110% of their money back. Donate $100 to charity. Set it up so that it’s not just about satisfaction, but about results (we guarantee that you’ll add $1,000 to your bottom line in six months, or your money back).
  8. You don’t optimize (again). Yes, it applies here, too. If you want to make more sales, then there are a lot of things for you to split-test: your headlines, the placement, text and colors of your opt-in boxes, the style of your introduction, your product imagery, your trust seals and their placement on the site … and the list goes on.

Problem #4: Once is (apparently) enough

Okay, if you’ve made it to this point in the chain, then you’re probably doing all right — you’ve got traffic, you’ve got subscribers, and you’re even making sales.

But customers aren’t converting into repeat customers.

Which means that you’re always scrambling to find new customers, and to keep that wheel in motion. Wouldn’t you rather have the wheel sustain itself?

Here’s why your customers may not be buying from you again, and what you can do to change that:

  1. You don’t deliver. This is a HUGE problem; if you promise something, your customers sign up, and then you don’t deliver, then you are doing irreparable damage to your reputation and business. In the words of my marketing professor, “marketing is a promise that the organization has to keep” — and you should never, ever break a promise. This probably doesn’t apply to you, but if it does, stop reading this article, and fix it immediately!
  2. There’s nothing else to sell. This is a more common problem: you’ve worked so hard to build and sell your product, that by the time they’ve bought it, there’s nothing left to sell. This is worth taking the time to fix; think about what else they might benefit from — an easy add-on is some consulting to help them get the most out of what they’ve already bought. Remember that a customer who’s already spent money with you is 8 times more likely to buy from you again, and you’ve already spent the time and money to convert them the first time!
  3. You don’t communicate. This is sad to see, but easy to fix; you’ve got happy customers and more great stuff to sell to them, but you don’t communicate with them after that first purchase. This is terrible — you should be communicating with your customers on a regular basis, both to collect feedback about their experience, and to keep the lines of communication open so that you can sell to them again. An easy way to do this is to build follow-up directly into your product, for example with automated follow-up emails and surveys.
  4. You don’t ask for the sale (again). Yes, you’ve got to ask for the repeat sale, too — periodically reach out to your existing customers to see if there’s more that you can do for them, and have a specific offer ready if they do have a need.

Fixing your blog, one link at a time

Every blog has holes in its chain of conversion — and most have lots of them!

So where should you start making repairs?

The answer depends on whether you’ve already got a functioning funnel:

If you’ve already got traffic, opt-ins, and customers: Start at the end, and work your way backwards. First get more customers to buy again, then get more subscribers to buy from you, then get more website visitors to subscribe, and only then get more people to visit your website.

If you don’t have any of that stuff: Then start at the beginning — start by getting traffic to your site, and once you have traffic, work on getting them to opt-in, and then buy from you, and then buy from you again.

Now, a question: how long are you willing to wait before your blog starts delivering dollars to your bank account?

Having realistic expectations is important. If you try to run a marathon as though it were a sprint, you’ll end up exhausted on the side of the road. And if you try to run a sprint as though it were a marathon, you’ll finish dead last.

So what kind of race do you want your blog to be running?

If you’re willing for it to take 2-3 years to get your blog to where you want it to be, then a good strategy is to read business books for bloggers, along with the best blogs in the industry.

But if you want to see results sooner, then get some help. For example, you could click the link in my bio and read about our marketing training program, that just happens to be closing to the public on September 1. ;)

About the Author: Danny Iny is an author, strategist, serial entrepreneur, and proud co-founder of Firepole Marketing, the program that teaches non-marketers to fix their chain of conversion like expert marketers. Get his free video course on how to get more money out of your business, website or blog, or follow him on Twitter @DannyIny.


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