Archive | January, 2023

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is easily remedied if you use a laptop or tablet for work. Designate one place in your home where you will make nothing but work – no exceptions.

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

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

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

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

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

When you get more done with fewer distractions, you’ll accomplish your goals faster – researchers tell us you’ll also enjoy increased self-esteem, greater happiness, and overall satisfaction with your life.

These are all super quick and relatively easy. No tactic here will take more than an hour, and some can be done in just a few minutes. Some can get you traffic pretty quickly, and others take time. My suggestion: Do one daily until you’ve done all the ones that interest you. Some you will continue to do every day, such as using Twitter, but of course, you can also use automation to lighten the workload a bit…

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

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

Create a keyword list. Then use it to write your articles and blog posts. Writing about whatever you want is OK, but it’s even better to write about what people are searching for. Using a keyword list, you get new ideas and are better tuned into the market and what might get your articles ranked on Google. Once you write a recent report, promote it on social media.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Personal question: Is it possible that you already know everything you need to know to be successful online – but something other than knowledge is holding you back?

If it’s as simple as the mechanics of online marketing – setting up websites and so forth – you can always hire someone to do that for you.

But if it’s a lack of confidence or fear of failing that’s holding you back – then it’s up to you to squash that particular bug or quarantine it to the furthest corner of your house.

And if the thought of failing is enough to keep you from starting your online empire, welcome to the club. Fear of failure is one of the most giant stumbling blocks to success. Fear of failing is so oppressive and destructive that it can cause you to set aside your dreams – forever willingly.

So why do we fear failure so much? It goes back to life experiences that inadvertently taught us it’s better not to risk than to risk and lose. When you fail at something, it’s natural to worry about what other people will think about you and if they will lose interest in you. You worry about how smart and capable you are and whether you can effectively pursue future endeavors. When you fear failure, you’re worried about many possible outcomes, most of which will never come to pass, no matter how many times you fail.

But the mind isn’t rational, and simply talking yourself out of fear doesn’t work better than trying to manifest an iron will.

The secret to overcoming the fear of failure? There are several, but I’ll give you one you can use immediately.

Experiments in the 1970s showed that there are two distinct groups of children when it comes to learning new skills. There are the “ego-oriented” children whose primary concern is not losing face in front of their friends. Some of these children fear failure so much they invent ways to get out of the activity, do the training so that they cannot fail, or make it impossible to succeed so that failing doesn’t hold a stigma.

The second group of children is what they term “mastery-oriented.” These kids don’t care as much about losing face as they do about acquiring a new skill. They realize that initially, failing is simply a part of the learning process and take it in stride. These kids are happier and succeed much faster than those who fear failing.

Thus, if you can change your focus to acquiring a new skill and decide that no matter what happens along the way, you will enjoy the process – you are on the way to overcoming your fear of failure.

Gradually Overcoming Your Fear of Failure

You might start small with something that doesn’t hold much significance, such as learning a new game. Let’s say you’ll take up billiards for the first time. Your focus would be learning how to hold and shoot the cue, the angles to use, the rules of the game, and so forth. When you miss a shot or scratch, it’s no big deal because you know that’s part of the process and you’re just learning.

You might be astonished at the difference it makes. You’ll be happier, have less stress, and learn your new skill faster.

You might stretch yourself further from here by doing things that scare you. For example, if you’re shy, you might ask 15 strangers a simple question (“Do you have the time?”) in 30 minutes. Note how you feel after the exercise. Odds are you’ll not only have conquered a fear of talking to strangers, but you’ll also get a boost of confidence, which leads us to our next point…

Are You Lacking in Confidence?

You have an excellent idea for a new business but don’t have the guts to go for it. Or maybe you decide to go ahead with your opinion, but then someone says it’ll never work, and you chuck the whole thing. Why? Low self-confidence. This goes hand in hand with the fear of failure.

So why doesn’t someone have enough confidence in themselves? Usually, they judge themselves unworthy or see a significant disconnect between what they think they’re capable of and what they’re doing.

Growing Unshakable Self-Confidence, Step by Step

The good news is that confidence can be raised with every new challenge met, no matter how small. Remember the exercise to talk to 15 strangers? I can almost guarantee your self-confidence to speak with strangers will be significantly raised after you do this.

If you make it a habit to do one thing every single day that is out of your current comfort zone, you will find that your confidence improves immensely within just a few short weeks.

Make yourself a list of all things you’d like to do that you’re not doing. Maybe you’ve wanted to join a group, take up a new hobby, try a different sport, or go to a fancy nightclub. Perhaps you want to improve at talking with the opposite sex, making friends, or making online contacts. Maybe you’ve wished you could get 5 minutes with the big guns in your niche or regularly post to forums and blogs.

Whatever it is that you’ve been wanting to do but haven’t, put it on the list. Even small stuff like walking around your neighborhood and ringing the doorbells of neighbors you haven’t yet met can go on the list, as well as chatting up that stud or beautiful woman who works in the supermarket. Write down everything you can think of that you’ve been holding back on. Add in skydiving if you’re inspired to do that kind of thing, and keep adding to this list daily as you think of new things.

Now that you’ve got your list pick one thing and do it right now. That’s right – do it now, or at least before you go to bed tonight.

Notice a difference in how you feel about yourself? You should.

When we don’t do the things, we wish we would do – for whatever reason – we lose self-esteem. But when we finally do those things, we become more self-confident and find we’re happier, more fulfilled, and more ready to take on even more significant challenges.

You’ll notice that most examples I’ve given haven’t been IM-related. That’s because raising your confidence in any one area can also help you in all other areas. When you have success learning tennis, you can use that boost in confidence to tackle website building or product creation. And when you overcome your fear of talking to strangers, it gets easier to network on Facebook with people you don’t know.

One last thing – it’s far better to take multiple baby steps than try to overcome the world in a day. Making slow, steady progress anchors your triumphs and makes achieving a little more tomorrow much easier.

You know it’s clever marketing to place a signature file in your emails, in forum posts (where allowed), t the end of guest blog posts, etc. But what is your sig file saying about you? That you’re boring? That you and your business look like every one of your competitor’s businesses? Or does it stand out and grab attention? If getting more clicks and visitors to your offer is what you want, you must have a compelling signature…

Here’s an example of boring:

“For The World’s Best e-Course on Driving Traffic to Your Website, Go to: sameoldsameold.com/wake-me-when-its-over

Sure, you’ll get a trickle of traffic. Maybe.

Instead, let’s apply some imagination and make a signature file that creates burning curiosity.

If your website is about weight loss, you might use the following:

“Click here to see a picture of my wife’s abs.”

“See a photo of my ex when he saw me in my new bikini.”

In these examples, we say to “click here to see a photo.” This phrase works well at attracting clicks.

If your website is about building muscle, you might use the following:

“Click here to see me try to bench press, my girlfriend.”

“Click here to see me try to bounce a brick off my abs.”

“Click here to see my wife try to beat a loud-mouth male body-builder in a push-up contest.”

Notice all of these use the word “try.” That’s because we’re building suspense – Did I manage to bench press my girlfriend? The reader has to click to find out.

Maybe your website is on dog training:

“Click here to see my dog chasing the mailman.”

“Click here to see my dog greeting guests with a cold beer and a bag of chips.”

“Click here to see my dog herding chickens into the living room.”

Notice all of the verbs in these examples end in ing, as though the action is happening now, not in the past.

Using these techniques, it would be best to get more people to click the link in your signature line. Your job is to fulfill your promise on the landing page, building rapport and credibility. Once this is accomplished, you entice them further into subscribing to your list to get your awesome freebie.

Blogging is a proven way to stay in contact with customers, get new buyers, get traffic and backlinks and significantly boost your credit rating. But all of that blogging takes time. Here are seven tips to make content creation and blogging go much faster.

1. Keep a list of your brilliant ideas. Okay, so they won’t all be brilliant, but some will be. And if you don’t write them down, you’ll lose them. Each time you get a new idea for a blog post, write it down. This simple act frees your mind to give you even more ideas and to improve the ideas you’ve already had.

2. When you’ve got a good idea, list what you’d like to add. For example, your idea might be “10 Ways to Inject $10,000 into Your Business.” As you think of each method, please write it down.

3. Do your research. While you might know some points you want to make, you can deepen and enrich your post by gathering information from outside sources.

4. Eliminate the least. In our example of “10 Ways to Inject $10,000,” you might come up with 15 ideas or more. Discard the less appealing points so you can focus on only the strongest ones. You might also find that your post will be better served by focusing on seven methods rather than 10. This is editing before you write and can save you a tremendous amount of time. Imagine if you wrote your post with your initial 15 ideas and later decided to use just 7 – you would have written twice as much as needed.

5. Create an outline. This step alone can cut your writing time in half.

6. Prepare your work area. Before you begin writing, eliminate all distractions. Close email and social networks and turn off your phone. Set a timer and try to beat it. And then write. Don’t edit. Don’t worry about spelling, grammar, etc. Just write.

7. Edit tomorrow. As good as your editing today might be, tomorrow will be even better as you read your post with fresh eyes.

In addition to saving time, you’ll also notice that the faster you write blog posts, the less you mind writing them. Your post-a-week schedule might soon turn into 3 or 4 new posts each week. And the more you blog, the more attention you can command!

Have you ever noticed how many IM products are sold under the premise of revealing THE BIG SECRET? Newsflash – please don’t hate me for telling you this, but…

…There aren’t any real secrets.

There’s simple stuff you know and things you don’t know yet.

And that’s about it.

If there is a secret, it’s as plain as day and hidden right underneath your nose.

You’ve seen it a hundred times or more.

Maybe even a thousand times.

It’s the “secret” to BIG BIG BIG money.

But as I said, it’s not a secret.

Can you guess what it is?

Build a tribe.

That’s it.

Build a following, a tribe of people who like and trust you.

Contact them on social media, your blog, and your list.

Be their advocate. Their champion. And also their guy or gal next door.

Find out what they want. Be one of them. Like them and love them. And sometimes send them dynamite offers that make you big bucks.

Next, create your products. Your brand. Your everything.

Build your empire.

Have a fleet of products and a name people know and love.

But start it all by deciding exactly who your tribe is, and then focus focus focus on finding and growing your tribe.

Don’t get distracted.
Don’t get distracted.
Don’t get distracted.

Focus on building your tribe and being their “go-to” person with all the great info and insight, the guy next door who is just like them.

This is the “secret” to becoming a smashing success online.

I hope you’re not disappointed. You should be ecstatic.

Because anyone – ANYONE – can do this.

At the risk of stating the ridiculously obvious, Internet Marketing is changing. Just because you’re making money today won’t guarantee you’ll still be making money tomorrow. There are prominent examples: Possum, Penguin, Fred, and whatnot. But then there are new regulations, new technologies, changing interests and priorities of consumers, more competition (sometimes imperfect, sometimes good), and so forth.

Without a doubt, the money is still there to be made – but you might have to get creative and expand your horizons to find it. And when you do find it, don’t rest on your laurels. Don’t think you can set a funnel up and ignore it; it will continue to deliver forever. If you do, you might wake up in a month or two and be shocked to find your account balance hovering near zero.

That’s why you’ve got to always be on the lookout for great and even mediocre ideas that are profitable. Make it a daily practice to write down at least 3 or 4 new ideas for making money and growing your business.

What happens if you don’t walk for a week? Your legs atrophy. And your brain works the same way. Either work your brain relentlessly, and it will get stronger, or don’t use it, and it’ll harden into something useless.

The economy has been having its challenges for years, and while it’s better now for many people, millions still are out of work or not making the money they used to make. So what are they doing? Many are turning to Internet Marketing. You might think this is bad because of increased competition, and it can be. But what will you discover if you make a list of ideas on how to capitalize on this?

First, these people will need training on how to do online marketing. That covers an entire realm of possibilities, including step-by-step courses and coaching.

Next, these folks will need help. They won’t be experts at everything from building websites, creating products, getting backlinks, and designing product covers. So if you’re willing to perform services, their money can be made.

Remember the TV detective Columbo? He would ask the suspect questions, always very polite and friendly, acting like he needed help figuring out what happened. Only he was brilliant – he was playing the suspect right until the end. My favorite part is when he would leave the room, and the suspect would breathe a sigh of relief. ‘Whew! Dodged that bullet,’ the suspect is thinking. But then Columbo pauses at the door, or even walks out the door, and then comes back in, and he puts his hand to his head like he just remembered something and says, “Oh, you know, I almost forgot one more thing…” And then he’d nail the suspect with the real question, which the suspect didn’t have a good answer for.

This should be you. You’re a detective, always on the lookout for that “one more thing” that will make your campaign more profitable, increase your subscriber rate, double your conversions, and so forth. Always search for your prospects’ questions that lead to a breakthrough product. Always be asking, asking, asking, “What do people want? What problem is keeping them up at night? What would they pay to fix, improve or eliminate?”

Get in the mindset of a detective, and you’ll view the world differently. You’ll see things you missed a hundred times before. People will start to think you’re psychic or something. You’re not. You’re just asking questions and paying very close attention to the answers. And you’re using your brain – something many people are too lazy to do.

Bottom line: Things are changing, and they will change a lot more. Fall asleep at the wheel, and your business will crash. Rely on what worked before, and you will go broke. Continue providing the same old products and solutions, and you’ll find yourself standing still in a high-speed race.

Be a detective like Columbo, and you’ll always get your paydays.

By now, you know that social media is excellent for building your lists and promoting your products. A recent study discovered that salespeople who use social media for their jobs outperform their non-social media peers by 73%. But have you thought of using social media for these purposes?

Fundraising. Let’s say you’re using Kickstarter to raise funds for your new project. The pThe problem is that no one knows you, trusts you, and no one is telling anyone else about you.

Solution? Get busy on social media before your launch. Establish a solid social presence and build your credibility. Once you’ve got a strong following who believes in what you’re doing, that’s the time to start your fundraising campaign.

Referrals. Sure, you’re already hoping your content gets shared on social media, but that’s not enough.

Always give excellent value and service to ensure your customers have plenty of positive things to say about you. Then run contests, and offer prizes and discounts to encourage your customers to share their positive experiences with their networks.

Status. You can look like a big dog and boost your credibility by sharing content from the big names in your industry. It doesn’t matter if these influencers are aware of you – simply associating your name with their name by quoting them will make you look like an influencer and boost your credibility.

Ice-breaking. Let’s say you want to make contact with an industry leader. The problem is, so do thousands of others. What can you do? Try following this leader on social media and look for points of common interest.

Maybe she has a dog – what kind is it? Is she passionate about that breed? If so, you might put that in the subject line: “Phyllis, did you see a Yorkie won best of the show at Westminster?” This is a much better icebreaker than, “Hey, I’m just one more guy who wants to JV with you.”

Kevin Bacon. It’s said that you can link any Hollywood actor to Kevin Bacon within 6 degrees. So what about the guy you’re trying to get a meeting with? If you can use social media to find standard connections and get an introduction from someone he trusts, you’ll have one foot in the door.

Super Hero. You see a tweet from someone complaining about your competitor’s service. Or someone else is talking about a problem your business can solve. Why not don the cape and jump in to save their day? If you do it in the spirit of helping rather than selling, you’ll almost certainly gain a new customer.

Storytelling. Telling your brand’s story is a great way to captivate potential customers. But knowing how to say to the report can be challenging. So why not practice on social media? Give out pieces of the story, or many small stories, to build your brand image. Monitor the likes and shares to see which stories win the most social love, and work these into your marketing.

Help. Do you have a pressing problem? Reach out and ask your social network for use. One couple lost their wedding venue and a $7,000 deposit six weeks before their wedding. Thanks to reaching out for help on social media, they received everything from jewelry to a wedding cake to a new event planner.

Anticipation. Build anticipation for your following content – whether a blog post or a book – by posting about your progress in a play-by-play fashion. This keeps you in touch with your community, gives insight into your work, and provides an eager audience when your content is finished.

Accountability. If you have trouble completing your to-do list, consider posting what you will accomplish in the morning and then reporting whether you achieved it in the evening and how it all turned out. There’s nothing like knowing your entire social network is paying attention to whether or not you do what you say you will do to keep you on track.

Currency. Marc Jacobs opened a pop-up store for the New York fashion week where the only currency that could be used was posted to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. That’s right – they didn’t accept money, only social media posts using the hashtag #MJDaisyChain. This is a great way to gather social media momentum, new clients, and terrific testimonials.

Pay it Forward. Find something nice to say about someone on social media daily, offer to help someone, or maybe even send out a call to help anyone who asks. You will build positive brownie karma points and attract attention from potential customers, and best of all; you’ll feel great about yourself and your business.

These are just 12 examples of thinking beyond the social media box. If you watch how others use social media, you’re bound to find even more business-building ideas.

It’s important to realize that you are selling something in nearly every video you make, except for creating a video purely for entertainment purposes (cute kitten videos fall into this category) or to inform.

Often you’re selling a click. You want them to click a link in or below the video that takes them to where you want them to go, whether it’s a squeeze page, a sales page, a blog, or whatever.

Sometimes you’re selling them on picking up the phone. Sometimes you’re selling your product on that same page where the video appears. The point is you’re selling something, which is the common point for all videos and the basis of the video script I’m about to share with you.

NOTE: Even if you are making a purely informational video, I suggest you use at least a portion of this script because YOU ARE STILL SELLING. Now then, I can hear your thoughts:

“I’m not selling; I’m only making a video to convey info.”

But if you think about why you are creating a video ‘for info only,’ odds are one reason is that you want to appear as the trusted authority you are. Thus you are selling your viewers on YOU.

You’re also selling them on the material you are presenting. After all, what good does it do to teach something or demonstrate something if no one uses the information you’re offering or even believes it’s true?

Thus when you are making videos, you are almost always selling something.

With that said, here are the nine steps to make a video that SELLS LIKE CRAZY…

Your first step is easy – decide what you want your viewer to DO. Do you want them to click an affiliate link? Go to a squeeze page? Make a phone call? Buy a product? Everything else is built on this, so if you’re unclear on what you want them to do, get clear.

The second step to creating your video is to know WHO you are making the video FOR. Let’s say your video promotes an affiliate product, and you want them to click a link to the sales page. (Not recommended – You should try to capture their email address first and then show them the sales page on the exit regardless of whether they give you their email address.)

But in our example, you want them to click your affiliate link. Ask yourself: WHO ARE THEY? Are they 40-year-old woman who needs to lose weight? A 65-year-old man concerned about his health? A 22-year-old college grad looking for a job? Figure out who it is that you’re targeting and get detailed. You might even create an avatar of this person, with age, gender, income, location, fears, desires, etc. The better you know your prospect, the better you can tailor your video to them.

Here’s where I see people go wrong: “I’m targeting all parents of all children.” That’s not targeting; trying to throw a net over 3/4’s the entire planet doesn’t work well. Instead, target species, such as young middle-class parents of preschool children. Your video will be better for it, and parents of older children will respond BETTER than if you tried to target every parent on the planet.

This has been proven to work. Narrow down your niche and TARGET. Write down who your viewer is, and then every step of the way, imagine you are targeting this video for that person because you are.

Third step: Research your visitor. Let’s say you’re targeting new parents – go to forums and find out what they’re saying, what they’re asking, and how they’re asking it. Please copy and paste some of their best quotes. Now go to Amazon and read the reviews of products similar to the one you’re promoting, and again copy the best quotes. If you clean these up and use them in your video script, you will sound like you know and understand their biggest concerns, worries, fears, dreams, and desires.

And everyone wants to feel as though they’re understood. It would be best for someone like them because people TRUST those with much in common. Don’t believe me? If someone is a Republican, who will they trust – a Republican or a Democrat? The more you can sound like they think, the more influence you will have on them.

Fourth step: Make the promise complete with a hook. You want them to watch your video, but they won’t do it for charity. You’ve got to make them a significant promise in the beginning that will entice them into watching.

Let’s say you’re promoting a weight loss product – you might grab their attention by revealing the 4 So-Called ‘Healthy’ Foods That Are Secretly Making Them Fat or the 1 Weird Exercise Trick That Burns 3 Times As Many Calories.

If you’re doing a product review, it’s not enough to say, “Here I Give My Honest Review of ABC Products.” Everyone does that, which is precisely why you SHOULDN’T do it. Instead, reveal “The diabolical technique on page 42 of the product that should be illegal.”

Which video would you watch – another boring review or one that reveals something you don’t know?

Mind you; if you use this technique instead of a typical review, you won’t reveal all of the product’s contents. But you can let a detail or two slip out, especially if you tell them WHAT to do and not HOW to do it.

This tells your viewer that you’ve looked at the product and have inside information about what’s inside. And it’s a great way to wet their whistle and get them wanting to know more.

So whether you’re selling a click or a product, lead with a significant promise containing a hook. What’s a theme? “22 Ways to Improve Your Golf Score” is a considerable promise, and “22 Ways to Improve Your Golf Score Using Chicken Eggs Dramatically” is a promise with a hook. The hook, in this case, is the chicken eggs – who wouldn’t be curious to know how the eggs come into play in improving golf scores? Even I want to know that, and I don’t play golf.

What if your video is selling a product? Then you still want a significant promise with a hook to get them to watch. You can’t tell people, “Hey, watch my sales video!” because no one wants to be sold. But you can say, “Hey, here’s my video on the seven foods that make you lose weight faster than a snowman in Florida.” I’d watch that video, and I bet you would, too.

Fifth step: Lead with a story. You’ve made your significant promise with a hook and targeted it to the person you want to reach. Before you reveal your great info, it’s time to tell your story. Maybe you’re promoting a program on how to raise amazing kids. Your account could be how terrified you were that you would thoroughly screw up your kids. Use quotes you found from the forums and Amazon reviews to help you write this.

Your story might be: “I researched and struggled and tried to find the answers, but everyone just told me, “Hey, do the best you can.” And it was hard because I couldn’t get through to my son, and he was driving me crazy. But then I made a discovery, and that’s when everything changed, and now I get comments all the time on what a terrific, confident parent I’ve become. Now my son listens to me, and our relationship is amazing, and I want to share what I’ve discovered with you because I know it’ll help you, too.”

Sixth step: Next, you tell them the secrets you promised in the significant promise. But also tell them that those secrets are just the tip of the iceberg, and all the best stuff is found in the course you’re promoting or selling or the free report you’re giving away.

See how easy that is? If you’re thinking, “Hey, this is a lot of work,” let me clue you in – the entire process can be done in an hour or two if you know your market. And what you’ll end up with is an impressive video that CONVERTS. So hang in there – we’re not entirely done yet.

Seventh step: Educate – this one I covered briefly in step 6 – fulfill your significant promise. If you said you would show them three ways to increase their bowling score by 20 points, do it. But here’s the thing – as much as possible, tell them WHAT to do and not HOW to do it. You’re walking a line here, revealing some, but not too much. You want to get them interested and excited to know MORE but not satiated. You’re building a hunger in them that can’t be satisfied until they take action and get whatever product you’re promoting.

An example: Your significant promise is three ordinary spices that speed up weight loss. In this case, you tell them the spices, but you let them know they must be combined in such a way and at a particular time of day to be truly effective.

Or maybe you’re promoting a physical product, and your significant promise is to add points to their bowling game. You tell them they can instantly do this by simply wearing a unique wrist cuff, but of course, they have to buy it for it to work.

Eighth step: Proof. The best way to use proof is to weave it throughout your presentation when possible. “Emma Jones of New Jersey has been an avid bowler for 14 years and was certain this gizmo couldn’t improve her score. But ever since the day she put on the Wonder Wrist Band, her average has improved by 19 points, and she refuses to bowl without it.” “Bill Heisenburg reports he was a total skeptic until he used just the technique on page 142 to get a date with three gorgeous women in one night.”

Ninth step: Call to action. This one’s easy – tell them or suggest what to do. I don’t know how many times I see people forget to do this in their videos. It’s simple: “Click the link to discover how to ___” Whatever you want them to do, ask them to do it. It’s best not to get too pushy on this, by the way. Calls to action like, “If you want to know how a one-legged golfer cut his golf score in half in two weeks, click here” tend to work well because you’re not telling; you’re enticing.

That’s the recipe to make a compelling video that converts like gangbusters. Of course, you’ve got to add your special sauce, whether it’s your personality, your fun, quirky nature, or whatever makes your videos unique.

Use this script in good health; it’ll make you plenty of money.

It’s a mantra you’ve heard repeatedly – write great, interesting, exciting, sharable content. But what if you’re in a boring niche? Or working for a boring client in a boring place? How do you excite readers about mundane topics like locksmiths, plumbing, or even icky issues like personal injury lawyers or rash creams?

Here are ten tips to help you create exciting content ideas for even the most boring niches.

1. First, change your perspective before you write anything. If you think it’s boring, your readers will, too. Everything is interesting if presented interestingly. It’s simply a matter of finding the right angles to submit your content. And the first step is to get fascinated by your topic so your enthusiasm will show in your writing.

2. Find the golden number nuggets. Dig out the industry statistics and find the fascinating bits that pull people into your story. Do you sell nails? How many pins go into building the typical house? Is your niche floor coverings? If you took all the carpet made in one month, how big of a city/state would it cover? Numbers fascinate when used in a way people can quickly grasp and share with others.

3. Use stories and anecdotes. Let’s say you sell instructions on how to refinish furniture. “14-year-old Annie was always shy, afraid to speak up, and withdrawn, lacking the confidence to do even the simplest things. Then she got our beginner’s instructions for refinishing simple antique chairs. Within a month, she’d finished her first project, and now a year later, she’s refinished over a dozen pieces, resold 9 for substantial profit that she’s put away for college, and kept or given away the rest of the pieces. Most importantly, she’s gained a new sense of accomplishment and confidence, which has spilled over into other areas of her life.” Wow, that’s pretty exciting!

4. Do a daily question and answer. Each day creates an “ask an expert” blog post or video in which you answer one question. Create interaction, likes, and shares by getting real people to ask questions through social media such as Facebook.

5. Talk about what’s wrong in your niche. Maybe legislation is pending that could hurt your industry, or someone in your place is ripping people off. Be the leader and speak up about it. You’ll capture your readers’ attention and likely get links from other sites as people join the conversation.

6. Promote a cause. Sometimes when you run out of things to say about your business and your niche, it’s time to look outside your business and find a reason to make your own. For example, a personal injury lawyer helping homeless puppies and kittens find new homes – that’s not only unexpected but also even warm and fuzzy – literally. And if your business is strictly virtual, you can still choose a cause and make it your own. Put real faces on it – furry or human – and tell why you and your business strongly support this cause. If you can choose a reason aligned with your business, so much the better. For example, a food niche might choose a program to feed the hungry, while a remodeling/building/decorating business might select something like Habitat for Humanity.

7. Hold content contests. Get your readers to create content based on your chosen keywords. The better the prize, the more entries you’re likely to get. Pick the top entries and then get them to get their friends to vote for the best one with retweets and Facebook shares. Publicize the contest to get more access, press, and backlinks.

8. Become a hub for industry content. Who says you need to write all of your website’s content yourself? Ask other industry leaders to contribute if they like.

9. Use images. I’ve said it before and will repeat it – people stay on your blog or website longer when you use interesting, compelling, and relevant photos.

10. Stretch. Okay, so your niche is car accessories – why not do an article on the top most fantastic cars in movies? Or maybe your niche is math tutoring – again, find a film that uses math and talk about it. It’s an excellent way for your audience to relate to your products.

Even the most mundane topics can become interesting – you must find the right angle to write about.