I see new marketers all the time freeze up with fear. They often have an excellent idea for their business and start to act on it, all excited. Then something happens that plants the seed of doubt, and they immediately ask, Who am I to be doing this?

Maybe they have something great to teach that would help others, or they have a different way of doing things that would solve people’s problems. Whatever their idea or their business, that seed of doubt takes root. They get scared. They become self-conscious. And they doubt themselves and their abilities.

It’s when I tell them, “It’s not about you; it’s about your customers. It’s about the people you’re going to help.”

Imagine you’re about to go on stage to present information that will change the lives of your audience. But you’re nervous. You think you’re not a good presenter. You focused on how you’ll look and sound and what the audience will think about you.

It’s the wrong focus.

If you focus instead on helping those people and on THEM and not YOU, you will find it easy to give your message.

I’ll give you an example: Just as you’re going on stage to make your presentation, someone whispers in your ear, “The building is on fire; we’ve got to evacuate these people NOW!”

Do you hesitate? Do you wonder what you’ll say in the microphone? Do you worry about how you’ll look and sound? NO! You rush onto the stage and immediately start directing people to find the nearest exit and go to it now. You tell them to stay calm, move swiftly, and leave no one behind. You direct people to the front if you see smoke coming from the back. You say and do whatever it takes to get those people out.

And lo and behold, not ONCE did you think about YOURSELF during that process.

Magic indeed.

If you have doubt – If you’re worried – If you’re scared – Then you’re thinking about yourself and not your customer.

Remember, it’s not about you – it’s about them.

Whatever it is that you want to do – begin. Don’t think about doing the whole thing because you don’t have to do the entire something. You only need to take the first step.

Most people don’t start because they’re thinking about the whole thing. It’s too big. There are too many obstacles. They don’t know how they’ll do it all.

The thought of the whole project is overwhelming and paralyzing. It’s easier to put it off.

“I’ll start it later when I have time. When I finish this and that. When the kids are gone and When I retire. When life isn’t so hectic.”

Life is always hectic. It’s busy. It’s a whirlwind. But we decide what we do with each moment. So start. Just begin.

You want to exercise, but you don’t have time? Just do 10 minutes a day, every day. Just start. Don’t worry about running marathons. Just do 10 minutes today. Then tomorrow, do 10 minutes more.

Do you want to write a book? No one can write an entire book. But anyone can start. Just register for 10 minutes, that’s all. Easy, right? Look at the clock. An hour has passed, and you’re still writing.

The challenge is good. Little challenges. Lots of them. Just begin. Don’t climb Everest. Climb the jungle gym. You can do that. Tomorrow climb the hill behind your house. Lots of little challenges add up.

Do you want to learn to play the piano? Just begin. Imagine if you had started when you were a kid and played for 10 minutes daily. By now, you would impress almost anyone. Now imagine you start today – in 5 years, who knows? You might be entertaining your family and friends during the holidays, but not if you don’t begin.

You want to start a business. Ooooh, scary. So many things you’ll have to learn. Better to wait. No. Just begin. Just start.

Everything conspires to keep you from the beginning. But there is power and magic in taking that first step because the first step leads to the second and the second to the third.

If you never begin, you will have only regret. By starting, you can create your future.

All you need to do is begin.

You can have all the traffic in the world, but you’re not making money if it’s not converting. That’s why the crucial key to making money online is conversions.

How compelling is your presentation? How many prospects out of 100 BUY your product today and during your follow-up sequence? Conversions are where you make real money today and in the future. Affiliates won’t promote you if your offer isn’t converting. But if you have a high-converting request, affiliates will send you as much traffic as you can handle and sometimes more.

So how compelling is your sales letter? How branded are you? People buy from those they perceive to have the answers. People buy from those they admire and trust to have the solutions to their desires.

There are many conversion techniques, but the big 3 to focus your efforts on are:

– Social proof factors like testimonials
– Claims backed by proof
– Scarcity

Suppose you focused all your efforts on the first two – proof – your offer would convert. Add in scarcity, and you can’t miss.

I will say something almost sacrilegious to many marketers: Forget traffic. Traffic is simply a byproduct of conversions. If your offer converts, you’ll have affiliates wanting to promote it. Get three companions, and those affiliates will tell their affiliate friends how great your product is converting.

But if you can’t convert, then you can’t get affiliates. And if your offer isn’t converting, you won’t spend time or money on traffic because it will be a waste. Think about this: When you restore and convert well, you can BUY all your desired traffic. You don’t even need affiliates. You’re in business if you can spend $100 to make $110. Increase your conversions and make $150 or $200 or more for every $100 you spend, and lounging on that beach can finally become a reality.

But you probably won’t want to get lazy on a beach because when you can convert, this business becomes addictive. You suddenly find you can make a LOT of money and want to see that money continue to pour in.

Traffic is not money – CONVERSIONS are money. Yet I see marketers focused on getting traffic. They think they’ll make money if they can get MORE traffic. But if the traffic they’re getting isn’t converting, how will more traffic help?

Sadly, most people in this market don’t know a thing about conversions. They’re newbies, and they ignore the one thing that is the most critical, crucial, and vital to making money in this business. It’s the one place you find the money – conversions.

Yet everyone stays away from studying and learning conversions. If they focus on getting their offers to convert, they’d have tremendous results, more than they could even anticipate.

When you start focusing on conversions, the money will come.

So what should you study to convert better? What should you test? I’ve covered many conversion techniques, but here’s a short list to get you started.

Study copywriting. Copywriting tends to be something most marketers gloss over as though it’s the least important element. It’s not. If you have a great offer but do a lousy job of selling that offer to the prospect, you won’t convert. It’s that simple. Changes in your sales letter, or even new sales letters or videos, can make all the difference. You’ve got to study what works and practice, practice, practice.

Social proof is massive. The prospect wants to know for a FACT that your product will do what you say it will do. They want to know that others have tried it and gotten the results you promise. They even want to know that your product is selling and selling well. Don’t just dump a few testimonials at the end of your sales presentation – weave them throughout. Make them the foundation upon which you build your sales letters and videos. And make them real, from real people who had doubts until they experienced your product.

Another conversion element online marketers ignore is branding – especially branding yourself. Make a name for yourself in your industry or niche. Become the go-to expert, the answer guy or girl people turn to for solutions. When you’ve built yourself a name, your name alone will make sales from your most loyal fans. They will see you’ve got a new product, so scroll down and hit the buy button. But building your brand and reputation takes time and effort, and most marketers aren’t willing to do what it takes.

Decide what you and your brand stand for. You can’t be everything to everyone, so choose who you want to be and become that expert. Build relationships with people in your niche, especially potential JV partners who will mail your offers. Put a great deal of thought into how you present your products, what you put into your email sequences, what your graphics look like, and so forth. It’s a BUSINESS, not a magic button.

Branding and being a celebrity is the highest form of conversions because you build a reputation for knowing your niche. You’ve talked about it, and people know you only put out real value, and they buy based on your name alone. You’re an expert, an authority figure. When Stephen King puts out a new book, do you think he needs to ‘sell’ it to his readers? No. They buy it because HE wrote it and knows they will like it.

Give yourself a title. Who said, “I’m the greatest.”? Mohammed Ali and everyone else took up the cry. Who said, “I’m the hardest working man in show business.”? James Brown and that became his title.

Gary Halbert said, “I am the world’s greatest copywriter, and if you don’t believe me, you can go to my website. It says it there.” And the branding caught on, and people called him the world’s most excellent copywriter.

So please don’t wait for someone else to give you a title; give it yourself. Repeat it often enough, and it will, in fact, stick, and after a while, few people will even know or remember that you gave yourself the title.

Bottom Line: The answers start appearing when you focus on something (like conversions). When you study emails and sales letters, ask yourself what the technique is and what the person is doing that makes it successful. Read between the lines. Make ‘conversions’ your mantra, and you cannot go wrong in this business.

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.

If you want proper financial security, it’s not enough anymore to be a millionaire – you’ve got to be a multimillionaire. So how do you join the ranks of the 1%?

Make a firm decision to be a multimillionaire. Your first step is making that firm decision and then reaffirming that decision several times a day. See yourself rich, feel yourself rich, and be rich in your heart and mind. This is where it starts and is the first step to realizing your dream.

It would be best if you lost the poverty thinking. No matter what you were taught about money being evil or scarce, you’ve got to let go of those beliefs once and for all. Abundance is all around you when you open yourself to it. Like attracts like, so if you’re thinking poverty, you’ll get more poverty.

Continuously think of your multimillionaire status as accurate. Since you can’t hold two opposing thoughts simultaneously, if you’re thinking about how little money you have, you’re not thinking about getting rich. You’ve got to feel abundance throughout your entire body, and meditation combined with visualization is a great way to achieve this state.

Stepping stones are okay. They’re great. One of the biggest obstacles new marketers face is that $ 10,000-a-month wall. They think they should make this money from day one, but you must start somewhere. So be it if that means getting your first $10 day and working up. Most self-made millionaires began with a tiny step on their journey and then never stopped growing and moving ahead.

It’s not just money; it’s also something else. This might be making a difference, proving yourself, living up to your potential, improving the world, or leaving a legacy. If your sole focus is money, you’ll find that all the money in the world won’t make you happy. But wealth can make you happy if you have other goals beyond cash.

Get yourself some millionaires. They say you are the average of the people you hang out with, including your income. So find wealthy people, whether you know them personally or read their blogs and books.

Buy time. Rich people buy time, while poor people sell time. Nothing is more valuable than time, and this includes money. So anything you can outsource to someone else, whether work-related or home-related, should be outsourced when you can afford it.

Forget spending – invest instead. Do you know that new car you want to buy? What would happen if you took that $30,000 instead of buying a car, you invested it for 20 years at 7% interest compounded monthly? You’d have $121,162. If you purchased the car in 20 years, you would have nothing of that money.

Millionaires-in-the-making invests when they can, whether in their business, education, or portfolio. Instead of buying a house, they purchase an apartment building that produces cash flow and tax write-offs. Instead of buying a car outright, they buy cars for their company and then deduct them because they’re used during work, and so forth.

Create multiple sources of income. The more revenue streams you have, the more money you can potentially make, and the more secure you are should one of your streams dry up. This is why marketers go into multiple niches, create more than one product, and look to earn money in various ways. Remember when Google made junk Adsense sites obsolete? Those with many different income streams were the least affected, while those who depended solely on Adsense were devastated.

Take advantage of trends. Right now, one of the hot trends is finding inexpensive products and selling them at huge markups on Amazon. Eventually, the competition will be severe, and something else will be hot. That’s okay. If you stay flexible and closely monitor the marketplace, you’re ready to take advantage of trends while building a solid, reliable business you can count on.

One last note: Self-made multimillionaires are confused by people who aren’t rich. They don’t understand why you can’t do the same things they do – and they’re right – you can.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to creating great wealth is the mindset. You’ll never get rich if you believe that money is limited or evil or that rich people are wrong.

But if you can focus on abundance, create a clear picture of where you’re going, and feel satisfied with what you have right here and now, you can achieve wealth.

Lack leads to lack. Worrying and stressing about your lack is only going to produce more lack. By all means, get fired up and excited about what’s coming, but while making it happen, let abundance flood your very being.

People are nothing, if not predictable. For example, saying to someone, “You’ve got a great job.” They will invariably tell you why it’s NOT great. But if you tell them, “You’ve got a lousy job.” They’ll let you know why it’s an excellent job.

Knowing the triggers, you can use to activate certain behaviors in prospects can help tremendously increase your conversions and bottom line.

That’s why I’ve compiled ten slightly sneaky methods to get your audience to do your bidding – or stated another way, here are ten strategies to get the public to buy your product and share your message with the world.

People crave entertainment like they crave air and always need more of it. A good analogy is a caffeine – in the beginning, the smallest amount of caffeine can give you a nice little buzz. But the more caffeine you use, the more you need to achieve that same buzz level.

Entertainment is no different. The movies of the 40s weren’t fast-paced enough for people of the 60s. The music of the seventies can’t compete with the theme of the 80s. The comedy of the 90s seems tame compared to the humor of now. Why is that? Because entertainment constantly has to turn up the intensity to get the same reactions from the audience. People want more exciting stuff, and if you can build excitement and entertainment into your product, you’ve got a hit.

Speaking of entertainment, people LOVE controversy. Build a controversial website, blog, forum, product line, podcast, YouTube channel, etc., and watch people flock to it. You’ll get free publicity everywhere as people promote or flog you on social media, forums, and other blogs.

And as a marketer, you could capitalize on both sides simultaneously if you wanted to be sneaky about it. For example, you might build two websites – one on each far, far end of the political spectrum – and let them slug it out online. Anything that has what is perceived to be a polar opposite could work, such as God-fearing vs. Atheist, protecting wildlife from loggers and miners, etc.

Or build controversy into your product from the start. “How To Use Tax Loopholes, So You Don’t Pay Your Fair Share Of Taxes.” Is it legal? Yes. Is it fair? No. Or how about toy guns for children? Some parents love them, many hate them, and all will have something to say about it, which drives more traffic to you.

This one’s sneaky – carry on a conversation between two people about how great a product is. This could be in a forum, posts on a blog, or even if it were to “come up” during an interview about something else. The point, of course, is not to appear as though it’s a promotion. Yeah, I know; pretty sneaky.

People like to follow, as in “follow the leader.” What happens when one cow walks away from the herd? They’ll follow if the other cows suspect this cow knows something they don’t. It doesn’t matter WHAT this cow might know, only that they have information that might be useful. Is the grass greener over there? Is there a secret stash of alfalfa or a salt lick over there? Let’s follow her and see!

It might seem callous to compare people to cows, but the herd mentality applies to many species, including people. If someone is seen as a leader and that leader uses ABC products, then it will be easy to get the followers to use ABC products as well.

As a marketer, you can use this in one of two ways – either become a leader yourself or get your product into the hands of leaders and make sure people find out about it.

Speaking of following, people follow the confident person. They’re attracted to confidence like bees to honey. If you don’t have faith, get it. Depending on your niche, arrogance might work as well.

Take it away. Whatever your product is, please find a way to take it away from the potential buyer. Maybe they have to qualify, and not everyone can. Or there’s a limited number. Or the offer is ending soon. Or perhaps they’re just not supposed to have it, so you tell them NOT to buy the book but drop hints of how powerful it is.

People do not like to be left out. This works well in the Internet Marketing niche and even better in any non-marketing savvy place.

People work harder to get something for nothing. Weird but true. What else explains someone who masters a gambling system or studies racehorses just to bet? If your product promises enormous returns for a small effort, it will sell. Unfortunately, most products like this can’t deliver. But you can ethically use the something-for-nothing technique – referrals. That is, get people to promote you through social media in exchange for something free.

Another way to ethically use something-for-nothing is to make it appear that purchasing your product is a giant leap towards attaining their goal. You’re being honest that there is work involved, but you make the first step seem so enticing they feel they’ve practically achieved their dream simply by buying the product.

People get seduced by stories. BIG TIME. Think of the man sitting cross-legged, playing the flute while a cobra sways hypnotically to the music. This can be you hypnotizing your audience through written and verbal storytelling.

Entire courses have been written about using storytelling in marketing. A good story creates thoughts and images in your prospect’s head that originate from the opportunity, not from you. And a great story causes the audience to feel emotions and desires that come from these thoughts and images. Bottom line, get good at storytelling and use your skill to weave mesmerizing stories throughout your marketing.

People buy dreams, not just once, but over and over again. Why is it a camper will buy every camping gadget out there? Why will a golfer purchase every golfing book written in the past 20 years? Why do Internet marketers buy online marketing products sometimes at the rate of 3 or 4 a day?

This is why a list of actual buyers is so hot – if these people buy once, they would likely purchase again and again. You can continue to create products and promote products to this list, and as long as their dream remains alive, they will continue to buy. Perhaps it’s the act of purchasing that makes them feel they are one step closer to realizing their dream. Thus five purchases put them five steps closer, and ten investments put them…

You can get sneaky with this one as well. Create several somewhat similar products and then let them compete with each other. It can be surprising how many customers purchase two or more.

People WANT to believe. So make it real. Make it believable. Help them along. Show some negative with the positive. Did you know testimonials are far more effective if they mention something NEGATIVE? For example: “I wasn’t crazy about the title of this course and thought it was going to be just a rehash, but it turns out it was exactly what I needed. Using this information, I’ve ___ and ___ and achieve ___.” Make it believable.

And remember, please use these methods only for good and never for evil.