Yes, people come for the content, but first, you’ve got to attract them with the image. After all, images are the first thing people notice about your page or post.

 

The right image can grab attention and create intrigue, mystery, curiosity, and other emotions that wrap their tendrils around your visitor and glue them to your writing. As an added benefit, the better your image captures attention, the less critical your headline becomes. A great idea with a mediocre headline will almost always lure visitors into reading your content, while a subpar headline seldom will.

What can you do to maximize the effect images have on your visitor? Here are ten keys:

1. Use at least one image per post. Every post should have an idea of its own above the fold. And if your post is long, consider adding images into the middle to break up your position. These will provide welcome breaks to your readers and entice scanners to stop and read your content.

2. Look for images that work on a gut level. If your post is about preventing a house fire, you might be tempted to post a picture of a building on fire. But how much more captivating would it be to imagine someone experiencing loss – even without a single charred remain in the background? Look for pictures that reflect emotions rather than illustrate your story.

3. Use faces. Studies show that readers pause longer on an image that shows at least one face. If you don’t use faces, look for something provocative or downright spectacular – something that makes the viewer stop and wants to know more.

4. Use images in your RSS feed. Like blog posts, an image can distinguish between your writing being read or ignored. Think of the idea combined with the headline as your book cover and your post as the contents. People judge books by their covers and do the same when looking through their feeds.

5. Take the time to get it right. Grabbing the first exciting image you see is seldom a recipe for stopping Internet traffic. If you need to spend as much time sourcing an idea as you write the post, then do it. It’s worth the extra effort.

Consider purchasing your images. You can almost always find far better ideas when you’re willing to pay a little bit to use them, and the selection is far more vast and exciting. Remember that a bland-as-toast image could hurt your chance of reading your post. Spend a buck or two and get something that leaps off the page and into your reader’s imagination.

If money is tight, there is a third option. You are using creative commons photos. They’re free to use, but you MUST give the proper attribution to the photographer. For example, you can start a search for creative commons images here: https://search.creativecommons.org……….

6. do it. Adding images might sound too simple, but the fact is that it will almost certainly increase the time visitors spend on your site.

7. Consider taking and using your photos. If you’re a shutterbug, by all means, get busy. Using your images will personalize your website and build a connection with your audience.

8. Build an entire post around pictures. With the advent of social media, you can now get traffic simply for having fantastic images. So why not try a position that’s image dense, such as the most romantic places in your country or the funniest photos ever, etc.?

9. Don’t forget to add alt tags to your images. This can help you to rank higher in the search engines, bringing you more traffic.

10. Have fun. Not only is reading an article that contains images more interesting for the reader – it’s also more fun for the author to put together.

You’ve got a new product or website but are stuck for a tagline.

Should you spend a lot of time thinking up the best possibility? Surprisingly, no. There is a simple shortcut to writing the perfect tagline that will grab people’s attention and let them know immediately that your product is right for them.

So what’s the shortcut? Believe it or not, it’s letting your customer write your tagline FOR YOU.

First, here are a few things you should know about the perfect tagline:

1. It needs to articulate accurately what it is that you are offering, and it needs to position you positively with your target market.

2. It’s got to be original. Whatever you’re selling, odds are plenty of others are selling something similar, and being authentic means standing apart from the crowd to get noticed and remembered.

3. It’s got to be concise and precise. Memories are exceedingly short, and the competition to be heard gets more challenging daily.

Considering those three points, what do your clients tell you about your product or service? Better still, what do they tell you about the problem your product or service fixes? For example, career coach Julie Jansen helps people to find their ideal work. What do her clients frequently tell her when they’re in her office? “I don’t know what I want, but I know it’s not this.” That became the title of her book.

Another career coach kept hearing, “I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up!” She resisted using the phrase at first because her clients WERE grown up, and she thought it might offend them. However, once she added it to the top of her website, she immediately experienced a dramatic increase in inquiries.

Two young software designers were showing a venture capitalist how their software worked. The investor suddenly exclaimed, “That’s so simple; my mother could do it!” Bingo! Their tagline was born.

An author wanted to write and speak about male-female communications. With the room full of people, she laid out a scenario in which they were all trying to communicate with the opposite sex but having difficulties. One gentleman yelled, “Can’t she see I’m watching the game?” And her tagline was born.

If your tagline captures exactly how your ideal customer feels, you’ve got it right. As you can see, you don’t need to pressure yourself to find the perfect tagline – instead, listen to your customers.

To learn more, read the book: “POP! Create the Perfect Pitch, Title, and Tagline” by Sam Horn. Then go, improve the tagline for your product so you can sell more and serve more.

There may be no faster way to create a great product than by interviewing an expert in your niche. You set a time for the interview, prepare a few questions, record it, and possibly get it transcribed. Total time? Maybe 2 hours, tops.

But what do you, as the interviewer, need to do to make the interview great?
To put it another way, how do you ensure your listeners will stay riveted by the interview and be thrilled that they took the time to listen?

Here are 17 essential tips for conducting a memorable podcast interview:

1. Have fun with it. It won’t turn out well if you’re stressed about doing this interview. You’ve got to relax and have a good time. Laugh. Joke a little. Smile. Did you know people can HEAR if you’re smiling? It’s true. And the more at ease you are, the more comfortable your guest will be, too.

2. Do some research. Know the person you’re interviewing, and by all means, know something about the topic.

3. Confirm the details with the person you’re interviewing. This includes time and date, length of the interview, and how they will communicate (phone, skype, etc.)

4. Forget the umms, errs, and ahhs. Please. So be it if it takes you a second to think of the word you want. Don’t fill that time with incoherent sounds.

5. Do use the highest quality equipment possible. You can have an excellent interview, but no one will listen if the sound quality is terrible.

6. Don’t ask yes or no questions. “Do you like to play tennis?” “Yes.” Have you been playing for a long? “Yes.” Do you win every tournament?” “No.” How dull can you get? Always ask open-ended questions that cannot be answered with simple yeses and nos.

7. Listen. I mean, LISTEN to the answers your expert is giving you. Your audience can tell if you’re playing along rather than fully engaged. So engage. Be prepared to ask random questions based on what you’re hearing. The best interviewers aren’t afraid to pursue new avenues and unearth discoveries.

8. Don’t just ask “what,” but also ask “why” and “how.” Learn everything you can from the person you’re interviewing. Go in-depth and find out the reasons behind the reasons.

9. Remember that you are the interviewer. Don’t try to steal the show or talk over your guest. You are there to elicit information; they are there to share their expertise. Don’t try to fill both roles yourself. If you do, you’ll annoy your guest and irritate your audience.

10. Don’t ask more than one question at a time. “How do you propose to do project A, and while you’re doing it, do you also run the XYZ program, and how do the two integrate into your discombobulation?” Sheesh. Think of your poor interview subject and ask one question at a time.

11. Don’t say anything like, “I wanted to ask you…” or “My next question is…” Or even, “How are you?” Get to the topic at hand and keep the interview moving. Please.

12. Prepare your questions ahead of time. This will ensure you don’t get stuck for something to ask. Prepares the follow-up questions for each question. Or if the purpose of the interview is to teach a task, you and your guest might prepare an outline of the steps you’ll cover. In either case, this is a guide to help you along, not something written in stone. Be flexible.

13. Don’t keep your guest in the dark. Let them know beforehand what to expect and any pertinent details they should know. Offer to send them the questions you plan on asking. Thank them for participating. It would be best if you thanked them when they agreed to the interview and again in any conversations or correspondence you have both before the discussion and after the interview.

14. Show your enthusiasm for both your topic and your expert guest. Enthusiasm is contagious, so share yours liberally. Your guest will appreciate your confidence, and your audience will be more engaged.

15. Remember who your real VIP is – it’s not your guest, and it’s not you; it’s your audience. You are doing this interview for them, so your priority is to get your audience the great content they want or need.

16. Relax. It’s not Mars-landing science; it’s just an interview. Don’t get stressed – think of it as an adventure.

17. Make mistakes. You’reyou’re to make them regardless, so why not put them on this list? You’llYou’reover your tongue, forget what you were about to say, or mispronounce a word you use all the time. It’s okay. Fix Its mistake; smile, laugh, and move on. Your audience will love you MORE for the mistakes you make.

Or the life of someone you love.

85% of people suffer from low self-esteem, lack of confidence, or a general feeling of not being “good enough.” That’s 17 out of 20 people with enough self-doubt to make success difficult and life hard.

It starts in childhood: Something is said that makes you feel inferior, or you interpret something to mean that you are somehow “less than others.” You replay it in your mind until it becomes a fixed grove winding deeply through everything you think and everything you do.

Low self-esteem and lack of confidence affect your life on every level. But so does finally learning – deep down inside where it counts – to honestly love yourself. It’s transformative. It’s simple. But it takes lots and lots of practice to overwrite all of that bad programming you’ve endured.

I recently discovered a Kindle book that can change how a person thinks about themself. The author hit rock bottom. He was sick of the misery and the pain.

So he got out of bed, staggered to the desk, and wrote the following in his notebook:

“This day, I vow to myself to love myself, to treat myself as someone I love truly and deeply – in my thoughts, actions, choices, and experiences I have, each moment I am conscious, I make the decision I love myself.”

After that moment, he told himself, “I love myself.” He said it when he woke up, throughout his day, and when he went to bed. He said it like a mantra in his head, over and over again.

Things gradually changed for him. His body healed. His life got better. Fantastic things started to happen to him. And through it all, he kept repeating to himself, “I love myself, I love myself, I love myself, I love myself.”

If you don’t think this will benefit you, please try it anyway.

You don’t have to believe it; you must repeatedly say it to yourself. It’s a practice. You won’t see a miracle on the first day, but you will begin to notice subtle changes in how you feel and your business, connections, and life.

Despite being a quick read, “Love Yourself As Your Life Depends On It” by Kamal Ravikant has much more to offer than I can write here. I highly encourage you to get it, read it, and let it be a reminder to love yourself and those around you more daily.

I got out my trusty calculator and did a little math. Assuming you make your information products, what would it take to earn $100,000 annually if you work with affiliates and pay them 50% commission?

$47 Ebooks: You’d need to sell 355 of these monthly, or 12 per day.

$97 Teleseminars and Webinars: You’ll be selling 172 seats a month, or 5.7 per day. Think no one would pay that kind of money for a teleseminar? They’ll line up for your information if it is timely and valuable. For example, stock market and forex trading advice would fit this category.

$197 Audio Courses: You only need to sell 85 a month, or 2.9 per day. Now, who’s going to pay $197 for an audio course? A lot of people. The trick is to make a significant promise, record it on a library of CDs, and ensure you fulfill it. Example titles might be; 7 Days To Speaking Confidence or perhaps Improve Your SAT Scores by 33% In Two Weeks or even How To Become A Master Pick Up Artist Practically Overnight.

$497 Video Courses: I know what you’re thinking – who will pay $497 for a video course? The truth is many people have paid TWICE that amount. Sample title? How about… How to Generate a Six-Figure Income in 90 Days. Oh yes, and to earn $100,000 a year using affiliates at 50% commission, you’d only need to sell 33.5 a month. That’s practically one per day.

Would you instead make 12 sales a day or one deal a day? Are you ready to step up and start selling big-ticket products?

And by the way, other products you can sell for $497 and MORE are…

– Home Study Courses (video, audio, and written material)
– Online Study Courses (video, audio, and written material, plus it’s more interactive and more likely to be used by the buyers.)
– Seminars and Workshops
– Group Coaching

So let me ask you a question: What if you put on a killer online study course and charged $997 – how many sales would you need to reach that $100,000 mark (assuming all sales were made through affiliates?) Just 16.7 per month.

Or what if you charge $2,000 for your seminar – you’d only need 100 attendees to make a $100,000 payday?

Or if you charge $300 a month for group coaching – you’d need just 55 members.

And in any of the above scenarios, what if you didn’t use affiliates? What if you made all the sales yourself? Then, of course, you’d only need half as many sales to make just as much money. So in the $997 product example, you’d only need 8 or 9 sales a month to generate a $100,000 income.

If you’ve been paying attention here, you might have noticed I left out one significant possibility. Do you know what it is?

Recurring subscriptions or membership sites. Three hundred fifty-five members paying $47 a month yields $200,000 – half for you and half for your affiliates. Can you retain 355 for the full 12 months? You’ll have to offer killer content and incentives to come close.

One more thought – what if you do a combination of the above? Perhaps you choose two things, or three or four. Then instead of earning $100,000, you’re making $200,000 or more.

I’ll tell you a secret: We tend to get so bogged down in day-to-day thinking that we forget to look back at the big picture. And so is it any wonder that we believe small instead of thinking in numbers like these? You can indeed attain these marks and more, but the first step is to consider the thoughts, and the second is to believe you can do it.

And you already know the third step – take action on a massive scale and don’t stop until you reach your goal.

Social media sites provide an unprecedented opportunity to network and grow your business online. Don’t throw away this golden ticket by making these 12 costly mistakes!

1. Posting long, messy, nasty URLs. Use a URL shortener like bit.ly.

2. Posting too often. Rein this by posting only when you have something significant to say.

3. Not spacing your posts. Sending 20 bases in 10 minutes and then not posting the rest of the day is – well – dumb.

4. It does not make sense. Posting “ARGGHHH” with no other information annoys people. Post complete thoughts that mean something.

5. Too much personal stuff. You’re doing social media to promote your business or service. Then keep it 90%+ business and less than 10% unique.

6. Being boring. Posting that chocolate tastes good (No! Really??) or that you had cold cereal for breakfast is so……..
~ yawn ~
………………. Excuse me; I fell asleep for a second.
See what I mean?

7. No picture. Yes, it would be best if you had a profile picture. And yes, it should be a good one. Pay to get your portrait taken if need be – it’s worth it.

8. Wrong picture. Your profile picture needs to be of YOU, not a puppy or a cheerleader (unless the puppy or cheerleader is you.)

9. Not giving credit or attributing the wrong source. Give credit where credit is properly due. Always.

10. Being wrong. Again, check your facts if you’re unsure.

11. Being a jerk. No matter how much you disagree, the other person is never an idiot, a moron, or a jack***. Remember, once you put it on the net, you can NEVER take it back.

12. Getting political. You’re entitled to your politics, but they have no business mixing with your business. Keep them 100% separate at all times.

13. Using TrueTwit. Someone wants to follow you, so you punish them by making them click a link and enter the CAPTCHA code? What a great way to frustrate new followers and lose them in the process.

14. Ignoring shares and RTs. Someone retweets or shares something of yours; what do you do? If the answer is nothing, you lose. Instead, THANK them for sharing your content and starting a conversation.

15. Spamming. Think about community, relationships, and building trust as your priorities. Yes, you can send out an affiliate link now and then, but most of the time, you should be sending content or having a conversation.

Most marketers using social media make at least 3 of these mistakes regularly… But not you. You’re smart. You read this article and will use social media wisely and profitably from now on!

What’s the easiest way to make money online without creating a product or a sales page? Affiliate marketing, of course. 🙂

So, why do most affiliate marketers never make nearly what they could? Anyone has the potential to make HUGE money in affiliate marketing, yet 90% or more of affiliates make a pittance (I’ll wager the number is closer to 98%, in fact.)

Think about this: If you earn an average of $50 on each sale in a sales funnel you promote, and you make six sales, you’ve made $300. Sounds good, right?

But guaranteed, someone else made 600 sales and walked away with $30,000.

Why did they make 600 sales when you made just 6?

There are reasons why a handful of affiliate marketers do amazingly well, and everyone else barely makes a profit.

And marketers who understand this will always have a tremendous advantage over marketers who don’t.

1: Build a Relationship

I know you’ve heard it before, but are you doing it? People buy people, not products.

If you want them to open your email and click your link or visit your Facebook Group and click a link, you’ve got to have a RELATIONSHIP with your people.

This is so simple to do, yet few marketers take the time.

Start with a blog post about you, and then send new opt-ins to the center so they can get to know you. Make the post silly, funny, and, most of all, REAL. Talk about the stupid stuff you’ve done, your mistakes, where you live, etc.

Do you have a strange hobby or unusual taste in food? Include that. Do you have 17 pets? Talk about them. Do you work until 3 in the morning and sleep until noon? Mention that.

Reveal the real you. Not the details people don’t want, but the ones that amuse and interest. You’re looking to make a real connection, not give a resume.

And above all else, don’t make your life seem like a series of magnificent accomplishments. No one will relate to someone who turns everything they touch into gold.

But they will relate to the time you bought Bitcoin when it was worthless and sold it just before it took off or the time you thought you could fly and jumped off your uncle’s barn into the manure pile.

And don’t stop with your ‘about me’ page, either. Use this relationship-building in your lead magnet, emails, other blog posts, etc.

Always inject a little bit about yourself. Not so much that you bore people, of course, or make everything seem about you. But just enough to keep it accurate.

Think about relating an event to a friend. Aren’t you going to give your perceptions of what happened and describe how you got out of your car and stepped in the mud puddle just before your big presentation?

Use this same personal, one-on-one friend communication method with your readers.

Please post on your blog as often as possible, and we will talk every day or two. Encourage your list to subscribe to Feedburner or the equivalent, so they know when you add a new post.

Your readers will realize you’re a natural person who isn’t out to pitch them a new product every 5 minutes. And they’ll gladly read your sales emails much more readily when they know a live human is sending them these messages.

2: Use Your Voice

How many emails do you receive that says, “Buy this product – This product is the greatest product ever – you will be sorry if you miss this – so rush right over and buy it now.”

Yeah. Same old stuff, over and over again.

There is a marketer (or maybe several, but I’m thinking of one in particular) who sells MASSIVE quantities of this exact type of email as a swipe file to new marketers.

A brand-new marketer couldn’t write their 25-word email saying, “GO BUY THIS NOW!”

People are TIRED of getting these emails. You’re tired of getting these emails. I’m tired of getting these emails.

Exact phrases, same message, same B.S.

If you don’t stand apart from the crowd, you must share the same crumbs they’re getting.

Instead, take 30 minutes and write your promotional email in your voice.

Forget hype. Be sincere. Be honest. “Hey, this product isn’t for everyone. I don’t even know if it’s for you. But if you have this problem, then maybe this is your solution. Check it out and decide if it’s right for you because I know it’s worked like crazy for some people. And it’s on sale right now, too.”

I’ve written emails telling people not to buy something unless they want it or need it. “Don’t buy this if you already know how to do XYZ.” “Don’t buy this if you’re not going to be doing this type of marketing.” This is only for people who want (fill in the blank.) It’s like I’m trying to talk them out of it, which paradoxically often results in more sales, not fewer.

But the point isn’t tricking them into buying; it’s, to be honest. Because you know what? That latest, most excellent product you’re promoting ISN’T what everyone on your list needs. Some of them, sure. The rest of them, no.

Do you know how refreshing it is to open an email that says, “Here’s a new product; I thought you might want to know, but please don’t buy it if you’re not going to use it?”

The first time I got an email like that, I bought the product without reading the sales letter. True story. I was so happy that someone wasn’t ramming a sale down my throat that I jumped to buy it.

Weird but true.

My point is, be you. Be honest. Talk to your readers as though they are your best friends, and you don’t want to lose them by acting like a carnival barker who is here today and pulled up stakes (vanished) tomorrow with their money.

3: Email a LOT

This is where people like to argue with me, and I understand that.

You’ve heard repeatedly that you shouldn’t email too often, or you’ll upset your subscribers, right?

After all, every time you email, there is the potential that a subscriber will hit the unsubscribe button.

Do you know what the potential is when you DON’T email? Nothing. No opens, clicks, sales… not even any relationship building.

Do you want people to open and read your emails? Then send out those emails EVERY DAY.

Here’s why:

First, almost no one will see every email you send out. Let’s say you’ve got a sale on one of your products. Don’t you think your readers might like to know about it? But if they miss the only email you send that lets them know, they’ve missed out on the discount, and you LOST a sale.

Second, send emails at different times. I opened someone’s email just yesterday, decided I was VERY interested in the new membership he was selling, clicked the link, and discovered it was no longer available.

What happened? This particular marketer only sends out emails at 1:00 a.m. my time, so I don’t even see most of his emails in the avalanche of mail I get before I wake up.

Third, if you send emails once a week or once a month, your readers forget who you are. And when you finally send an email, they think it’s spam.

Fourth, if you mail more often, you will make more money. Please don’t take my word on this; do it for one month. Send out one email per day, every day, for 30 days. Put a promotion in each one. See if you haven’t made more – a LOT more – money during that period than during the previous month.

And by the way, I’m not saying send out a promotion in each email. Ensure you have some content in there, even if it’s just an amusing anecdote.

4: Think of affiliate marketing as a BUSINESS

This isn’t a hobby nor an add-on for an additional income stream.

Even if you go on vacation, be prepared to email every day. Schedule them in advance or write them on vacation. Either way, affiliate marketing to your list is a business you can’t just jump into when you need cash and forget about the rest of the time.

Since the product owners handle this, you don’t have many support issues. You don’t have to worry about creating products, sales pages, etc. You don’t have to drive traffic unless it’s to build your list bigger.

With so much you don’t have to do, there’s no reason not to focus your time and energy on building relationships with your list and promoting to them daily.

Affiliate marketing can be some of the most accessible money you’ve ever made if you put in the time and effort to make it a real business.