Archive | February, 2023

If you’re currently working at something other than publishing – affiliate or CPA marketing – you might wonder why you would want to bother posting your content. Publishing isn’t for everyone, but there are several excellent reasons why you might want to consider it.

You can be the good guy. People are looking for answers, help, and solutions to their problems. You and your content can make a real difference in their lives. And by making that difference, you become.

The expert. The go-to person. The Big Kahuna that people respect. You’re the trusted authority, and new opportunities are coming to you through free advertising on social media, affiliates, joint venture proposals, etc. It brings us to recognition.

Additional income sources are significant if you’re now monetizing your expertise by selling products and courses.

So what kinds of content can you create and publish?

Blog Posts
Websites
Short Reports
eCourses
eBooks
eMails
Kindle Books
Actual Books
Workbooks
Resources Lists
Infographics
E-newsletters
Print Newsletters
Magazines
Interviews
Frequently Asked Questions
Webinars
Podcasts
Slide Shows
Video Courses
Audio Courses
Home Study Courses
Step-by-step Tutorials
Templates
Presentations
Screencasts
Cheat Sheets
Buyers Guides
Membership Sites
Member Forums
Top Lists
Stories
Mindmaps
Live Events
Apps
Software
More ideas.

You can publish content everywhere – your site, blog, member’s area, newsletter, etc.

To build your email list, you can give away content like an ebook or course.

You can record audio or video versions of your book and sell it.

You can hold live webinars or in-person workshops, then sell the recordings.

You can build traffic by sharing great content, such as infographics and top lists on social media.

You can create video courses to market and promote your video courses by giving away snippets of the system or a ‘lighter’ version.

You can interview experts and use the interviews and transcripts as products, giveaways, or content on a paid membership site.

You can combine your articles and blog posts into eBooks and print books!

You might miss opportunities if you’re not yet creating and publishing content. And if you are, you might want to consider adding new types of content to expand further your reach, your business, and your bottom line.

Weird but true. In the early 20th century, there was a massive campaign in the U.S. to abolish alcohol. Weirder still, this campaign won the day, and Prohibition became the 18th amendment. They made the U.S. a dry country in 1920 until an amendment rightfully abolished it in 1933.

So how does a movement influence people to take away one of their rights?

To do clever marketing:

First, in their campaign rhetoric, the Anti-Saloon League made the issue an either/or choice.

Either you’re for children, or you’re for alcohol.

Either you’re for our brave boys fighting the war, or you’re for alcohol.

One advertisement featuring a picture of Whistler’s Mother read: “Which Gets Your Vote: Mother or The Saloon? Vote Dry.”

That’s right – either you’re for mothers or alcohol.

No middle ground. You don’t want to abolish alcohol? Then you hate your children, your boys overseas, and your mother.

A campaign like that wouldn’t fly today, would it?

😉

Today you either use the advertiser’s product, or you’re not sexy, worthy, relevant, necessary, etc.

If you don’t believe me, watch a few TV commercials and see for yourself.

Of course, you’ll want to be much more subtle when using this tactic in your campaigns, but it works as well as ever.

The second thing they did in their campaign was to eradicate the competition.

You’re a state congress member and don’t want to abolish alcohol? Then we’ll run a smear campaign on you and elect someone else to vote our way.

No competition means an easy victory.

Translate that to today’s marketing, and we don’t mean you should photoshop pictures of your competition doing evil deeds and post them on the front page.

Instead, you eliminate all competition by inventing your class.

For example, instead of being one of 100,000 weight loss coaches, you become the only sexy shape expert.

Third, they enlisted their competition in their crusade, working side-by-side with politicians who drank as long as those same politicians would vote against drinking.

In online marketing, this translates into working with your nearest competitors as long as it increases sales.

It might be in the form of joint ventures, interviews, affiliate sales, etc. No marketer is an island; even those who appear to be directly competing with your interests can often help you in your quest.

Fourth, they didn’t try to convince the masses because they didn’t need to. They had to switch enough voters to their side to gain 51% and win the day.

In online marketing, you don’t need to win every customer, nor should you try. Some customers will buy from you no matter what, and you should reward them, but you don’t need to convince them. Some will never buy from you, and there’s no need to waste time on those folks.

You want to focus your efforts on the ones in the middle to convert them to customers.

Fifth, they employed a new device that showed, not told, of the ‘horrors’ of alcohol. For a nickel, viewers could see something new in the world – a motion picture version of the play, “Ten Nights in a Bar Room.” In this movie, a drunken husband squanders his pay on drink; his daughter gets injured while trying to bring him home, the man dies of drinking, and the wife despairs her lost family.

What a great piece of propaganda for the anti-booze movement, which helped to reinforce the belief that even one drop of alcohol could destroy not just individuals but entire families.

Pretty crazy, right? But again, there’s a lesson t learn here: Show, don’t tell. In just a few minutes of showing how ‘evil’ alcohol was, the movement gained tremendous ground in convincing and converting voters.

YouTube, anyone? 🙂

Bottom Line: The techniques influencing people don’t change; they become more sophisticated with time. What influenced people a hundred years ago can still be translated into today’s terms to increase your conversions.

First of all, let me clarify that introverts aren’t necessarily shy. They are, however, quieter than extroverts. Introverts talk plenty when they have something important to say, but they stay calm when the topic is small talk. Why? Because small talk isn’t necessary for them. Let’s say you have two salespeople – an extrovert and an introvert.

The extrovert is likely to talk – and talk – which is precisely what you expect from a salesperson. And amid all this talking, the socialite will make sales.

But the introvert will do something the extrovert commonly fails to do – the introvert will ask questions and LISTEN to the answers.

I don’t mean they wait for the prospect to stop talking so they can begin extolling all the product’s many benefits. I mean, they LISTEN. They want to know what’s keeping the prospect awake at night about the problem the product solves. They want to see the prospect’s fears, desires, dreams, etc. They want to know what’s worked for the opportunity, what’s failed for the chance, and what that prospect truly wants so they can help this prospect get it.

And this same salesperson will continue to use questions as they present their product or service, which direct the prospect to the desired conclusion – that this product is what they want and need.

Everything else is equal: nine times out of 10, the introvert salesperson will outsell the extrovert because they asked questions and listened closely to the answers.

Introverted marketers have the same advantage as timid salespeople. They dig to discover what it is their prospects genuinely want. They ask questions in person, over Skype, in forums, via email, etc. And they pay close attention to the answers.

These same marketers spend time researching what successful marketers are doing. They don’t assume they already have the answers – instead, they look to those who’ve succeeded and ask how it was done and how it can be duplicated.

Now mind you, extroverts can master the skills of asking questions and listening to the answers as well as any introvert if they try. It doesn’t come naturally for them, but it will come with practice.

And if you look at the most successful people in the world, you will find that they stand on the shoulders of those who came before. They asked questions, got the answers, and used this knowledge to carve their place in the world.

Try it. Next time someone asks you for advice, ask them questions first. Next time someone asks about your product, ask them about their needs. Next time someone is on a forum looking for help, ask them for more information. And then pay close attention to what they say before you reply.

It’s an almost unknown fact that asking the right questions and listening to the answers can be one of the highest-paying skills in the world.

Since you’re making videos anyway, why not shoot for the zenith of online video marketing and go viral? While you can never totally predict what will go viral and what won’t, there are some tricks to make it much more likely your video is the one your viewers will forward to others. Here are 15 proven tips to make your next video go viral:

Don’t use a sad ending, even if it’s true. This reminds me of a time a video was shot of a firefighter resuscitating an unconscious kitten that had been trapped in a smoky home. Viral magic, right? Absolutely. This video went viral for every outlet that left out critical information – despite being renewed, the kitten later died of smoke inhalation. Neetzan Zimmerman, the editor at Gawker, was told by his editor to include the epilogue. Result – “That video did tremendously well for practically everyone who posted it, except Gawker.”

Don’t evoke any sadness if sadness is the only emotion. Videos that inspire sadness are far less likely to get shared than videos that evoke almost any other emotion. However, a video can be sad and uplifting: For example, a heroic person who fought a disease lost but left a great legacy. Sadly, they died, but it’s uplifting that they tried so hard and left a positive mark on the world.

Do use other emotions in your video. The emotions most likely to elicit that coveted share? Surprise, anticipation, joy, anger, awe, anxiety, happiness, and humor. The stronger the feeling evoked, the better. Just think of what you like to share with others – odds are, it’s videos that surprise and delight or inspire anger against a common enemy. We don’t share videos that might make others sad, unhappy, or depressed.

Make the sharer look smart. Surprisingly, data compiled by Chartbeat – a company measuring online traffic – demonstrates that people forward things they haven’t read or watched. This is ego-driven sharing, trying to look smart by sharing bright material. So, for example, if your video teaches cutting-edge techniques, it’s likely to be shared by many who want to look wise to their friends. Of course, whether or not anyone will watch it could be another matter.

Make it practical. Helpful content is highly viral because people love to share “news you can use” for two reasons: It helps others and makes them look good.

Tell a story. They probably are, even when you think levels don’t apply to your topic. Stories are universal in that they can teach anything, and people are hard-wired to listen to them. Tell the story well enough, and it will be passed along.

Be outrageous. Do you remember WePay’s stunt of leaving a 600-pound block of ice at the front entrance to a PayPal conference? PayPal had been freezing people out of their accounts, so WePay froze the words “PayPal Freezes Your Accounts,” along with cash inside the giant ice block. The incredible stunt got a lot of press, but WePay blew it – they didn’t film the delivery of the ice block or people’s reaction to it. If they had, there’s no doubt their video would have gone viral.

Be controversial. Is everyone in your field saying one thing? Then perhaps you might want to tell the opposite, especially if you believe it’s true. For example, in Internet Marketing, everyone says, “the money is in the list,” yet an excellent case can be made for other forms of IM that don’t involve list building. The key here is to debate issues that don’t hurt feelings. For example, a ‘chunky vs. smooth peanut butter debate or a ‘cats vs. dogs’ debate won’t ruffle anyone’s feathers, yet they can inspire much interest and interaction.

Be surprising. We alluded to this earlier – surprises get passed along and talked about more than almost anything else. Remember that video of a serene, tranquil scene that suddenly turned into a screaming demon? That wasn’t just surprising; it was shocking. You don’t have to go that far – hiding ‘easter eggs’ in your videos can make them viral. For example, a hidden URL that takes the viewer to something special, or what appears to be a naked person walking past in the background, or anything unexpected and fun.

Another kind of surprise is the “Cracker Jack Box surprise,” a toy hidden inside every box. Unsurprisingly, there’s a toy in there – they tell you that on every package. What is surprising is what the toy is. If you make a lot of videos, you might plant a ‘surprise’ in everyone – it could be a bit of eye candy or a link to download something useful.

Make it an “experience.” This takes some planning, but the potential upside is monumental. Remember the Blair Witch project? The movie promos made the movie ‘real’ to the viewers, and the viewers then became a part of the movie, getting pulled in as though it were an actual life event. Some people thought it was.

Make it interactive. Remember the Subservient Chicken from Burger King? Millions of people made that chicken dance. Or how about Office Max’s viral phenomenon, Elf Yourself? Upload photos of you and your family, and you’re suddenly in your dancing elf holiday video.

Be funny. Or cute. Or both. If you can work footage of your kitten doing something hilarious into your video, go for it. People never get enough funny or cute enough. Then there’s just plain silly – like the Old Spice commercials. Short, fun, and full of surprises, these go viral every time.

Capture the attention of a tastemaker. Remember the video of Yosemite Bear Mountain saying, “oh my god, oh my god,” about the double rainbow? That video was online for six months before it took off and eventually got tens of millions of views. So what happened that finally started the flood of traffic? Jimmy Kimmel tweeted about the video, and after that, it was a viral phenomenon.

How do you get a tastemaker to share your video? First, go after small tastemakers within your niche. Second, make the video with them in mind. What do they love? What do they share? Incorporate that element into your video, and your odds increase dramatically that they’ll share it. Third, ask them to share it. It never hurts to ask.

Add a trigger. In the video “Friday,” the motivation is “Friday,” While the video was popular, it was shared and watched far more on Fridays than any other day. Remember Alice Cooper’s song; School’s Out? That song was released decades ago, yet it’s still played every late May and early June on thousands of radio stations.

Capture the attention of a particular community. This can be as simple as opening your video with something like, “This video is for avid gardeners only.” Or “This video is for avid Red Sox fans only.” Then at the end of the video, ask them to share the video with fellow avid gardeners or die-hard Red Sox fans. If you’ve incorporated other viral elements, this simple step can give your video the added push it needs to begin its viral journey.

Next time someone forwards you a video, ask yourself why they did that. What was it about that video that made them want to share it? You can learn a lot simply by watching viral videos and asking yourself, “how can I apply this to my videos?”

These days everyone’s inbox is flooded with emails, and it’s harder and harder to get noticed, much less contact opened. I’ve been testing what works and what doesn’t and thought you might like to see the results.

Optimize your “sender” or “from” field. Using a business name does not seem to work as well as using a personal name, probably because people want to read messages from people, not businesses. However, combining the business name with the unique name seems to work well, especially if the business name is either well recognized or implies a benefit. For example, ‘Joe Smith, ProBlogger’ would likely work well, as would ‘Jane Smith, Traffic Tips.’

Further, optimize your “sender” field. I’ve experimented with using symbols before and after my name in the ‘from’ area to make my emails stand out, and it does seem to make a slight difference. For example, ~Joe Smith~ tends to be open more often than Joe Smith.

Use a great subject line. Exclusive products have been written on this topic alone, but here are some tips:

Use a number: “3 Ways to Get Bigger Muscles in 7 Days”

Use curiosity: “The Fried Banana method to Younger Skin.”

Write as if you’re addressing a friend: “Hey” “What do you think?”, “Okay?”, “I told you he’s crackers,” “Last Sunday,” “See You Tues,” “Got it?” etc.

State a significant benefit: “Look 10 Years Younger and Feel 20 Years Smarter.”

Personalize the subject line. Everything else being the same, personalizing the subject line can increase your click-through rate. Just don’t overdo it.

Avoid spam words. You know the ones: Cash, payment, money, credit, quote, etc. These words will land you in the spam folder, and you won’t likely get many opens.

Optimize the preview text. Remember, the sender can often see the first line or two of text, so make it interesting, relevant, and preferably curiosity-provoking.

Please make it a habit of being entertaining. The more fun and engaging your emails are, the more likely your recipients will continue to open them.

Send twice. 8-12 hours after you send an email, send the email again to those who didn’t open your first email.

Last tip: Email often. Once a day is excellent. If you only send an email occasionally, recipients will forget who you are. By being in the inbox daily, I’ve found they are more likely to recognize you and open your emails.