If you want true 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, be rich in your heart and mind. This is where it starts and this is the first step to realizing your dream.
You must lose 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 just get more poverty.
Continuously think of your multimillionaire status as real. Since you can’t hold two opposing thoughts at the same time, if you’re thinking about how little money you have then 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. In fact, they’re great. One of the biggest obstacles new marketers face is that $10,000 a month wall. They think they should be making this amount of money from day one, but the fact is you have to start somewhere. If that means getting your first $10 day and working up, so be it. Most self-made millionaires began with one small step on their journey and then simply 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, making the world a better place or leaving a legacy. If your sole focus is the money, you’ll find that all the money in the world won’t make you happy. But if you have other goals beyond the money, being rich can make you happy indeed.
Get yourself some millionaires. They say you are the average of the people you hang out with, and that includes 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 it’s work related or home related, should be outsourced the moment you can afford it.
Forget spending – invest instead. You know that new car you want to buy? What would happen if you took that $30,000 and instead of buying a car, you invested it for 20 years at 7% interest compounded monthly? You’d have $121,162. If you bought the car, in 20 years you would have nothing of that money.
Millionaires-in-the-making invest when they can, whether it’s in their business, their education or in their 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 more than one niche, create more than one product and look to earn money in multiple ways. Remember when Google made junk Adsense sites obsolete? Those with many different streams of income 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 mark-ups on Amazon. Eventually the competition will be severe and something else will be hot. That’s okay. If you stay flexible and keep a close eye on the marketplace, you’re ready to take advantage of trends as they happen while also 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 very same things they do – and they’re right – you can.
Perhaps the biggest obstacle to creating great wealth is the mindset. If you believe that money is limited, or evil, or that rich people are bad, then you’ll never get rich yourself.
But if you can focus on abundance, if you can create a clear picture of where you’re going, and if you can feel satisfied with what you have right here and right now, then 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 you’re making it happen, let abundance flood your very being.
People are nothing if not predictable. Let me give you an example: If you say to someone, “You’ve got a great job.” They will invariably tell you why it’s NOT great. But if you say to them, “You’ve got a lousy job.” They’ll tell you why it’s actually a very good job.
Knowing the triggers you can use to activate certain behaviors in prospects can help tremendously to increase your conversions and your bottom line.
That’s why I’ve compiled 10 slightly sneaky methods to get your audience to do your bidding – or stated another way, here are 10 methods to get the public to buy your product and share your message with the world.
People crave entertainment like they crave air, and they always need more of it. A good analogy is 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 40’s weren’t fast paced enough for people of the 60’s. The music of the seventies can’t compete with the music of the 80’s. The comedy of the 90’s seems tame compared to the comedy of now. Why is that? Because entertainment is constantly having to turn up the intensity to get the same reactions from the audience. People want more and more exciting stuff, and if you can build excitement and entertainment right 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 either promote you or flog you in social media, forums and other blogs across the net.
And as a marketer, you could capitalize on both sides at the same time 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 really 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 to not 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? If the other cows suspect this cow knows something they don’t, they’ll follow. It doesn’t matter WHAT this cow might know, only that they have information that might be of use. 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 product, then it’s going to be easy to get the followers to use ABC product 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 confidence, get it. Depending on your niche, arrogance might work as well.
Take it away. Whatever your product is, 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 maybe they’re just plain NOT supposed to have it, so you tell them NOT to buy the book but you drop hints of just how powerful it is.
People do not like to be left out. This works well in the Internet Marketing niche and it works even better in any non-marketing savvy niche.
People work harder to get something for nothing. Weird but true. What else explains someone who masters a gambling system or studies race horses just to bet? If your product promises huge returns for small effort, it will sell. Unfortunately, most products like this can’t deliver. But you can use the something-for-nothing technique in a way that is totally ethical – 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 as though the very act of 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 a flute while a cobra sways hypnotically to the music. This can be you hypnotizing your audience through storytelling, both written and verbal.
Entire courses have been written about using storytelling in marketing. A good story creates thoughts and images in your prospect’s head that seem to originate from the prospect, not from you. And a really great story causes the audience to feel emotions and desires that come from these thoughts and images. Bottom line, get good at storytelling and then 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 and 4 a day?
This is why a list of actual buyers is so hot – if these people bought once, they will very likely buy 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 5 purchases puts them 5 steps closer, and 10 purchases 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 actually WANT to believe. So make it real. Make it believable. Help them along. Show some negative with the positive. Did you know that 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 been able to ___ and ___ and achieve ___.” Make it believable.
And remember, please use these methods only for good and never for evil.
Something I come back to time and again is the importance of generating ideas, having ideas and then putting the best of those ideas to work. Every business you see and every invention you marvel at was at first someone’s idea. Every great blog post, piece of new content, information product, etc., all started as a tiny little seed inside someone’s brain…
Without the idea, nothing else flows. With the idea, anything is possible.
So how do you get great ideas? By training your brain to find them for you. Every day write down 10 new ideas. If you can’t think of 10, then write 20.
“But if I can’t come up with 10, how am I going to think of 20?”
By relaxing and having fun.
The reason 10 ideas a day is hard is because you think every idea has to be good. No. Even most of the ideas you first think are good won’t actually be… That’s okay. Just train your brain that you want 10 (or 20) new ideas every single day, and your brain will deliver. It’ll be slow at first, but it’s like a muscle – the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets.
Write down your ideas. ALWAYS write down your ideas. Even the hair-brained ones. This teaches your mind to keep finding new ones.
How Do I Know It’s a Good Idea?
Short answer – you don’t. It might sound, look, feel, taste and smell like a good idea, but until you test it out, you just don’t know.
So if you think it might be a winner, take fast action and see what happens. If it fails, you haven’t wasted much time or many resources.
New Projects are Like a Road Trip
You know that ancient saying, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step.” Imagine this:
You’re starting out on a road trip. Maybe it’s your first road trip, so you’re going to make it easy – 150 miles – or kilometers – it doesn’t matter.
You’re in your car pulling onto the road, headed in the right direction.
Now quick: Tell me every curve of the road ahead, every car or truck you’re going to meet, every stop you’re going to make along the way.
What? You don’t know? You can’t see 50 miles ahead? 100 miles ahead?
Of course not.
Then why is it that when most people start a new project, they think they have to know every step they’ll take before they ever start?
You don’t. You only have to know two things: Your destination, and the first step in the right direction. That’s all you need to get started. And just as the road keeps appearing as you continue to move forward, the next step will become obvious as you complete the present step.
So start exercising your idea generating muscle, implement new ideas quickly and leverage the ones that gain traction to create your next business and life success. Then wash, rinse and repeat…
Here’s how a typical Internet business works – you pick a niche, create a product and then find the audience to sell that product to. If it doesn’t sell, you do it all over again. If it does sell, you make more products to sell to those same people. Sounds logical, right?…
Maybe not. Suppose – just suppose – you decide to sell NOTHING for the first two to three months of your business. Not a gosh darn thing.
Instead, what you do is focus on building and nurturing your audience. Once they know you and are confident you know what you’re talking about, then and only then do you sell them something.
“But I need to make money NOW!”
Okay, what if you had started the entire process 3 months ago? They say the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, and the second best time is today. So bear with me for a moment while we plant a tree in your mind right now…
Let’s say you’ve taken up a new hobby. Maybe it’s golf. You’re cruising the Internet when you find this offer for a free golf book for newbies, “10 Ways to Take 10 Points Off Your Game Today.” You enter your email address and get the book.
And next thing you know, this author is sending you golfing offers on a daily basis. “BUY THIS!” “BUY THAT!” And on and on. What do you do? Maybe you buy something, maybe you don’t. But do you lose faith and trust in the person? Yes. This is just some guy who used a bait and switch on you. “Get my free book!” turns out to really mean “Let me sell you a whole lot of stuff so I can make money!”
This is how Internet marketing typically works, and the days of it being a magic bullet are long gone. Sure, the money is in the list, but if you are continually going for the sales before you even establish the relationship, you’re doing it backwards.
I say it’s time to adjust.
Second scenario: You sign up to get the free ebook, and here’s an email introducing the author. The next day, s/he sends you a great golfing tip. And the next day, and the next. Maybe the author throws in some personal golfing stories, a few golfing jokes, some golf news, etc.
Now this author feels more like your email golfing buddy and golf expert than a sales person. In fact, in 2 whole months s/he hasn’t tried to sell you a single thing. But maybe they have sent you a few videos with cool tips, so you can get to ‘know’ and like them even better. In fact, you trust this person and feel they have your best interests at heart.
They’ve built a REAL relationship with you.
Now then, what do you think is going to happen when this author starts sending you the occasional offer? Odds are you’re going to take a very serious look at buying it, because your new golfing friend/expert is recommending it. And if they’re recommending it, you know it must be really GOOD!
And as long as this author continues to send you only the best advice and best offers, you’re likely to continue buying, too.
So is it worth it to invest 2-3 months to build relationships that create super high conversions and subscribers that are loyal to you for a long, long time? Is it worth it to build such a tight bond, they never unsubscribe? Do you want to be their go-to person, the one they know and trust for advice, tips and recommendations? Or do you want to be just another sales person pitching the latest product until your subscribers flee your list?
“But 2-3 months before I make a sale??!”
Yes. I know. It takes a real commitment and investment of your time.
But let’s try putting it into perspective: Let’s say you want to open a business in your town. You scout a location, make the deal to rent the building, get your business licenses, get the equipment you need, order the inventory, hire staff, get insurance, etc. How long would it take? And how much would it cost? And how much would you clear after all of your expenses?
What I’m talking about here is a viable way to build a six figure business in less than 12 months, with almost no out of pocket expense. To begin with, all you need is a good autoresponder. You don’t even have to put up your blog right away, because in the beginning you can do everything via email.
This is a business model you can start today. It helps if you have expertise in your subject – if not, you’ll want to start reading and learning immediately. Your topic should be one you’ve got a measure of passion for, because you’ll be writing and talking about it a great deal. You’ll need 10 or more hours a week to devote to this.
And you’ve got to be ready to sacrifice a small amount of short term income for an abundance of long term income. Long term beginning in about 2-3 months, and the potential to grow fairly large around the 6-8 month mark.
This is all about your audience. It’s all about what they want. And here’s the kicker – you know how experts tell you to research what people want before you create a product? In this case, you’re going to be so in touch with your audience, you will know exactly what they want before you ever offer it.
You’ll have people standing in line to buy your products before you even produce them. Think about that – you’ll know IN ADVANCE that your products will sell and sell well, because your audience trusts you enough to tell you what they want. Maybe it’s not in so many words, like, “Could you sell me a product about this or that,” but rather, “How do I _____?” When you keep getting the same questions, you know there is a market for a product that solves that need.
To sum up – old school method: Spend weeks creating a product nobody buys. Then do it again. Or build a list and then fry it to death.
New school method: Spend 2-3 months building an audience that LOVES you and trusts you, then create products and make recommendations based upon what they want.
Times have changed. If we, as marketers, don’t change with the times, our customers are going to leave us behind.
Blogging is a proven way to stay in contact with customers, get new buyers, get traffic and backlinks and especially boost your own credibility rating. But all of that blogging takes time. Here are 7 tips to make your content creation, and blogging go a lot 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, start making a list of what you’d like to add to it. For example, your idea might be “10 Ways to Inject $10,000 into Your Business.” As you think of each method, write it down.
3. Do your research. While you might know some of the points you want to make, you can deepen and enrich your post by also gathering information from outside sources.
4. Eliminate the least. In our example of “10 Ways to Inject $10,000,” you might actually come up with 15 ideas or more. Discard the less appealing points so you can focus on only the strongest ones. At this time you might also find that your post will be better served by focusing on just 7 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 it 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. Pretty soon your post-a-week schedule might even 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 – and please try not to hate me for telling you this, but…
…There aren’t any real secrets.
There’s simply stuff you know and stuff 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.
In fact, you’ve seen it a hundred times or more.
Maybe even a thousand times.
It’s the “secret” to BIG BIG BIG money.
But like 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 you and trust you.
Contact them in social media, on your blog and through 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 own products. Your own brand. Your own 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. Really, you should be ecstatic.
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 the obvious examples: Possum, Penguin, Fred and what not. But then there’s new regulations, new technologies, changing interests and priorities of consumers, more competition (sometimes bad, 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 our laurels. Don’t think you can set a funnel up and just ignore it and it will continue to deliver forever. You might wake up in a month or two and be shocked to find your account balance hovering near zero if you do.
That’s why you’ve got to always be on the lookout for great ideas, 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 it’s own set of challenges for years and while it’s better now for many people, there are still millions of people who 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 if you make a list of ideas on how you can capitalize on this, what will you discover?
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’re not going to be experts at everything from building websites to creating products to getting backlinks to designing product covers. So if you’re willing to perform services, there’s money to be made.
Remember the TV detective Columbo? He would be asking the suspect questions, always very polite, very nice, acting like he needed help in figuring out what happened. Only he was smart – he was playing the suspect right until the end. My favorite part is when he would be leaving the room, and the suspect would be breathing 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 he says, “Oh, you know, I almost forgot, one more thing…” And then he’d nail the suspect with the real question, the one the suspect just 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, that will increase your subscriber rate, that will double your conversions and so forth. Always be searching for the questions your prospects ask 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 a lot of people are too lazy to do.
Bottom line: Things are changing and they’re going to change a whole lot more. Fall asleep at the wheel and your business will crash. Rely on what worked before and you will go broke. Continue to provide the same old products and the same old solutions and you’ll find yourself standing still in the middle of a very fast race.
Be a detective like Columbo and you’ll always get your paydays.
By now you know that social media is great for building your lists and promoting your products. A recent study discovered that sales people 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. Problem is, no one knows you, no one trusts you, and no one is telling anyone else about you.
Solution? Get busy on social media prior to your launch. Establish a strong social presence and build your credibility. Once you’ve got a strong following who believe 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.
Be sure to always give great value and service to ensure your customers have plenty of positive things to say about you. Then run contests, 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 own credibility by sharing content from the big names in your industry. It doesn’t even matter if these influencers are aware of you – simply by associating your name with their name by quoting them will make you look like an influencer yourself and boost your own credibility.
Ice-breaking. Let’s say you want to make contact with an industry leader. 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, that’s something you might put in the subject line: “Phyllis, did you see a Yorkie won best of 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 common 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 tell the story 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 help. One couple lost their wedding venue and $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 next content – whether it’s a blog post or a book – by posting about your progress in 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’re going to accomplish in the morning, and then reporting back in the evening whether you accomplished it 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 were posts 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 some social media momentum, new clients and terrific testimonials.
Pay it Forward. Find something really nice to say about someone on social media every day, or offer to help someone, or maybe even send out a call to help anyone who asks. Not only will you build positive brownie karma points – you’ll also 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 keep an eye out for how others are using social media, you’re bound to find even more business building ideas.
It’s important to realize that with the exception of creating a video purely for entertainment purposes (cute kitten videos fall into this category) or simply to inform, in nearly every video you make, you are selling something.
Oftentimes 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 actually selling your product on that very page where the video appears. The point is, you’re selling something, and this 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 making a video to convey info only.”
But if you think about why you are creating a video ‘for info only,’ odds are one reason is because 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 presenting, or even believes that it’s true?
Thus when you are making videos, you are almost always selling something.
With that said, here’s the 9 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 not clear on what you want them to do, get clear.
The second step to creating your video is to know WHO you are creating the video FOR. Let’s say your video is promoting an affiliate product, and you want them to click a link that takes them to the sales page. (Not really 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 a 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, that’s trying to throw a net over 3/4’s of the entire planet and it doesn’t work very well. Instead, choose to target specifically, such as young middle class parents of preschool children. Your video will be better for it, and parents of older children will actually 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 exact 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. 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 actual video script, you will sound as though you know and understand their biggest concerns, worries, fears, dreams and desires.
And everyone wants to feel as though they’re understood. In fact, it’s crucial that you come across as someone who is very much like them, because people TRUST those who have a lot in common with them. Don’t believe me? If someone is a Republican, who are they going to trust – a Republican or a Democrat? The more you can sound just 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’re not going to do it out of charity. You’ve got to make them a big 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 Product.” Everyone does that, which is exactly 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 a video that actually reveals something you don’t know?
Mind you, if you use this technique in lieu of a typical review, you’re not going to reveal all of the contents of the product. But you can let a detail or two slip out, especially if you’re telling them WHAT to do and not HOW to do it.
This tells your viewer that you’ve actually looked at the product and you have inside information as to what’s inside. And it’s a great way to wet their whistle and get them wanting to know more.
So regardless of whether you’re selling a click or a product, lead with a big promise that contains a hook. What’s a hook? “22 Ways to Improve Your Golf Score” is a big promise, and “22 Ways to Dramatically Improve Your Golf Score Using Chicken Eggs” 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 with improving golf scores? Even I want to know that, and I don’t golf.
What if your video is actually selling a product? Then you still want a big promise with a hook to get them to watch. You can’t really tell people, “Hey, go watch my sales video!” because no one wants to be sold. But you can certainly say, “Hey, here’s my video on the 7 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 big promise with a hook, and you’ve targeted it to the exact person you want to reach. Now 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 story could be how terrified you were that you were going to thoroughly screw up your own 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 seem to 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 big 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,” then 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 quite done yet.
Seventh step: Educate – this one I actually covered briefly in step 6 – fulfill your big promise. If you said you would show them 3 ways to increase their bowling score by 20 points, then 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 info but not too much info. 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 the action and get whatever product you’re promoting.
An example: Your big promise is 3 ordinary spices that speed up weight loss. In this case, you tell them the spices, but you let them know they have to be combined in such a way and at a certain time of day to be truly effective.
Or maybe you’re promoting a physical product and your big promise is to add points to their bowling game. You tell them they can instantly do this by simply wearing a special wrist cuff, but of course they have to buy the cuff 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 possibly 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 3 gorgeous women in one night.”
Ninth step: Call to action. This one’s easy – tell them or suggest to them 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 it is 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 actually telling, you’re enticing.
That’s it – the recipe to make an effective video that converts like gangbusters. Of course you’ve got to add your own special sauce, whether it’s your personality, your fun quirky nature, or whatever it is that makes your videos unique.
Use this script in good health, and it’ll make you plenty of money.
It’s a mantra you’ve heard time and time again – write great, interesting, exciting, sharable content. But what if you’re in a boring niche? Or working for a boring client in a boring niche? How do you get readers excited about mundane topics like locksmiths or plumbing, or even icky topics like personal injury lawyers or rash creams?
Here are 10 tips to help you create interesting content ideas for even the most boring of 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 in an interesting manner. It’s simply a matter of finding the right angles to present your content. And the first step is to get fascinated in 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 nails 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 easily 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 the shy type, afraid to speak up and withdrawn, lacking confidence to do even the simplest of 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 of them for substantial profit that she’s put away for college, and kept or given away the rest of the pieces. Most important of all, 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 create 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 niche is ripping people off. Be the leader and speak up about it. You’ll not only capture the attention of your readers – you’ll 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 of your business and find a cause to make your own. For example, a personal injury lawyer who’s helping homeless puppies and kittens to find new homes – that’s not only unexpected, it’s 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 cause 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 choose something like Habitat for Humanity.
7. Hold content contests. Get your readers to create content for you, based around the keywords you choose. 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 entries, more press and more 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 I’ll say it again – people stay on your blog or website longer when you use interesting, compelling and relevant images.
10. Stretch. Okay, so your niche is car accessories – why not do an article on the top coolest cars in movies? Or maybe your niche is math tutoring – again, find the movies that use math and talk about those. It’s a great way to get your audience to relate to your products.
Even the most mundane of topics can become interesting – you’ve just got to find the right angle to write about.
