Author Archive | Hassan Ko

Someone asked me what I would do if I had to start my business over from scratch in 3 months. And that got me thinking – if I could take the experience I have and use it to start over from scratch, how would I do it?

Mind you, I wouldn’t have my mailing list. I wouldn’t have traffic, a following, name recognition – none of that. Just my experience as to what works and what doesn’t.

And let’s say that my life depends on me having a full time income at the end of those 3 months. No pressure there, right? But a lot of people find themselves in a very similar situation – make money or else. Or else they’re in trouble, or else the bills go unpaid, or else they’re facing losing their home, or… worse.

So with that in mind, here’s what I would do:

– I would stop looking for magic ‘make money online’ products and ideas. There is no secret combo of tricks and buttons to make money. It’s not a printing press. It’s a free market. And in that free market the way to make money is to stop focusing on the money, and simply make yourself indispensable to people who need your solution to their problem. Do that and the money follows.

When you’re focused on providing solutions, you no longer get distracted by all those shiny programs that steal your time and your money. I’m not saying all programs are bad. In fact, many of the “how-to” and “step-by-step” are useful as small pieces to the large puzzle. But that’s what they are – puzzle pieces – not full blown businesses.

– I would start with the outcome first. What is my market? My product or service? My goal? What is the solution I can provide that people will gladly pay for? What is THE ONE BIG BENEFIT I can provide to my customers? This is the starting point of everything that will come next.

– Next I would build my website. Odds are it’s going to be a blog. I’m not going to spend a world of time on setting this up because I only have 3 months. I’ll spend an hour maximum choosing the URL, I’ll get the hosting, I’ll choose a simple, streamlined theme, I’ll get the autoresponder and I’ll be ready to get started.

Yes, it takes money to get started. Not a lot, but some. You’re making an investment into your future. And if you think spending a couple of hundred dollars to set up your internet business is somehow a lot of money, consider the alternative: Spending at least that much each month just to drive to and from a job, or spending thousands for a brick and mortar business.

– Time to create content for that blog. But this isn’t about running a blog, it’s about running a business. The blog is just the tool to get the business done. So here’s what I would do: Look at the big benefit I deliver, and then write down all the stumbling blocks people encounter trying to get that big benefit. Then pick out 3 of these and write stellar posts on how to overcome those barriers. Then repurpose those posts into videos and podcasts, as well as an incentive to get people to join my list.

Notice I’m only creating 3 pieces of great content, not 300. And I’m repurposing those. Some folks spend years trying to get everything just right, but I’ve only got 3 months, so forget perfect and just get it done.

– Next, I would offer a service or coaching. Do you know why? Because it’s the quickest way to make real money. Offering products is great, but it takes time to create the products and more time to build the lists to promote the product to. When your list is small, it’s best to focus on services or coaching because it’s the fastest way to profit.

The blog posts should be highly focused on getting my prospects to take the next step, which is likely going to be a free consultation. It’s not easy to sell a $300 a month coaching program or a $1,000 website optimization package online. But it can be if you get them on the phone first.

– Now I’d focus on getting as many people on the phone as I can, because I know two things: The more prospects I get on the phone, the more likely it is some of them will say yes. Plus, I’ll get better and better at finding out their needs and selling them on the solutions.

– With my first customers or clients I would deliver like a madman (or mad woman.) I’d blow them away and earn myself raving testimonials which I would then use to earn more clients.

I’d also be Mr. or Ms. Communication, with both my clients and everyone else on my list and in social media. If someone writes to me, I answer quickly. If they mention me in social media, I am thanking them the same day and so forth. This is a people business and my goal is to please the people and thus build my name and my reputation.

– As I’m servicing my clients, I’m learning what they need and want. And I’m using that information to create my first product which I will then sell to my list, and hopefully through affiliates for a long time to come.

Selling time for money is a great way to get started, but as soon as possible you want to be creating assets that you use to systematize your sales funnel and your income.

– Time to focus on traffic and more traffic. Social media, guest blog posting and paying for advertising are methods that can be used long term to drive people to your site and onto your lists. Each one has a learning curve, but as you improve you’ll see quick returns for your time and monetary investments.

And I’d build relationships with other marketers in my niche. Almost nothing drives good quality traffic faster than an expert in your niche telling their list about you or your offer.

– Lastly, I would continually strive to improve the benefits I deliver to my customers. Great today is only good tomorrow and not good enough the day after. I know I have to stay on top of my market and provide my customers with what they need and want even before they know they need and want it.

Bottom Line: By delivering the solutions people seek, I can build a fully functioning business in a short amount of time. And yes, by diligently following these steps, you too might be earning a full-time income in 3 months.

…yet it’s a technique most marketers aren’t even aware of yet. And it’s as easy as turning video PLR snippets into lists and cash. Here’s how it works…

Find some good, solid PLR videos that instruct on how to do something. They should cover the step-by-step method to achieve a goal. They don’t need to be fancy, but they do need good information that people want.

Once you’ve got your videos, watch them to find the “good” parts. These are the little 2-3 minute segments that teach something especially useful most people don’t know. Really you only need one of these segments, but if you find several, that’s even better.

Copy that segment into a file of its own. You can use most any video program to do this. Basically you make a copy of that video, then cut out everything you don’t want, leaving that 2-3 minute segment.

Place that video segment on its own page on your website. Once you’ve gotten this far, you’ve got choices on what to do next – LOTS of choices. You can…

1. Add a lead capture form to build your list. “To get the entire 30 minute video series for free, just let us know where to send it.” Drive traffic to your lead capture page from social media, guest blogging, paid traffic and so forth.

Visitors watch the 2-3 minute segment and quickly learn something valuable. You’ve now earned a level of trust. And they are impressed and curious enough to give their email address in return for the rest of the video series.

Taking this a step further, you can monetize your lead capture page by adding an upsell to the sequence. Once they subscribe, you offer them another, related product. Done right this will make your list building profitable enough to pay for advertising.

And with a self-liquidating offer, you can build your list as fast as you like.

2. Promote your membership site. “This entire video series is just one of many in my XYZ membership. Click here to get more info / sign up.”

You’ll find it’s much easier to drive traffic to your membership sales page by promoting your free video clip. And you can add this into your autoresponder sequence to make more sales of your membership as well.

3. You can sell the actual PLR series. Placing a clip on a stand-alone page is a great way to promote your product. Be sure to rename the video series and give it an entirely different look with a new cover as well.

Visitors watch the clip, like it, and click the link to get the rest of the video series. This takes them to a short sales page with an attractive price tag.

Guaranteed, you will make more sales using this method than if you simply send them straight to the sales page without letting them view the segment.

4. Give the video series away when they purchase an affiliate product. “Would you like to get this entire video series for free? Simply click this link, purchase ABC product and the video series is yours.

They are then taken to the sales page for ABC product. Of course this works best when the affiliate product is directly related to the video series you’re giving away.

5. Give the video series away when they buy your product. “This entire video series is just one of the bonuses you get when you purchase my product.”

Again, letting them preview the video series greatly increases the perceived value and heightens their desire to see the rest of the video series. Thus it’s a much better enticement to get them to buy your product.

BIG BONUS TIP: This tip alone can put thousands of dollars in your pocket, and it’s super simple. Ready?

For options 2-5, you can add them into your autoresponder sequences to make additional sales on autopilot.

And you can repeat this with as many PLR video products as you like, too.

Just show a teaser video and then offer the full course when they join your list, join your membership, buy your product, etc. It’s such a simple technique, yet very few marketers have caught on to this yet so it’s still wide open. Go for it!

Ready to avoid a big mistake and increase your bottom line? Do you have download pages? You know, pages where people pick up their product after buying it from you? …

If so, have you TESTED those download pages? Odds are it never even occurred to you. But why not? You test everything else, so why not test your download pages, too?“Wait, I don’t sell anything on my download page, so why would I test it?”

Oh-oh, let’s back up.

Any virtual real estate you have – including download pages – can be selling something for you. In fact, download pages can be the PERFECT place for promotion because your customer just made a purchase. This means they’re already in a buying mood. And who buys products? BUYERS do. If you’re not promoting something on your download pages, you are missing out on what might be thousands of dollars of revenue a month, depending on how much traffic those pages get.

So how do you best promote a product on your download page? Forget flashy banners and things that look like ads. Simple is better, which is why adding a link to your list of download links will usually give you the best results. For example, if your download page has a list of videos, at the end of the list you will place a link in the same font and the same color offering them their customer discount on the product you’re promoting.

But don’t take my word for it – test it out for yourself.

When they click this link they are led to a slightly altered version of your regular sales page. At the top of the page is a line or two letting them know that because of their purchase, they are entitled to a special discount on this product today.

Of course, you’ll want to remember to give them that discount, too.

So what should you test on your download page? The links you use, the placement of links and the pages you send them to. Remember to promote a product that is in some way directly related to the one they bought for best results.

Making this one simple change can potentially add thousands of dollars to your bottom line each and every year. Now that’s a great return on the investment of your time.

Let’s say you run across an affiliate program for a product with recurring payments, such as a membership site or software. Because it’s recurring payments, you sell it once and you get paid over and over again, for months or possibly even years. Everything else being equal, these are always the best types of products to promote because the income just keeps coming and coming.

Naturally you want to make as many sales of these as possible, so the question becomes: Other than your usual methods of promotion, how can you get more subscribers to this affiliate program?

Try an old school method that still works – creating a viral report.

In the report, teach how to do whatever it is that the product does. Teach the method in detail, step-by-step. Leave nothing out. Then at the end, let the reader know that they don’t have to do any of what you just said. Instead, they can get the same results a whole lot faster and easier by subscribing to the affiliate program.

Simple, right? First you show how complicated it is to do it by hand. Then you give them an easy way to get the same result – by subscribing. And you give your affiliate link.

And by the way, this is the ONLY affiliate link you put in the entire report.

Now then, here are few tips to make this work:

– Create a report good enough to sell. This should be high quality.

– Make the report short enough that readers can easily finish it in one sitting. You want every reader to reach the end so they see the affiliate link.

– Whenever possible, focus on telling your reader what to do, but not how to do it. This way they’re more likely to take the easy way out and subscribe to your affiliate program, rather than figure out details for themselves.

– Give your report an absolutely KILLER title that makes people want to read it and share it.

– Leave your name off of your report. This will encourage others to share it with their lists.

– Give anyone and everyone who has the report the right to distribute the report exactly as it is with no alterations. They can use it as a bonus, as a list building incentive and so forth.

– If you’ve written a sales page for the report, let others use the sales page and put their own name on it. Yes, they can absolutely charge for the report if they like, so long as they leave your affiliate link in place.

The idea is to get as many people as possible sharing your report. The more your report is distributed around the net, the more chances you have to make sales.

This is a very old school method that can still be quite effective if you follow these steps. And of course you can repeat this method as many times as you like.

Imagine if you have a dozen of these reports, each with an affiliate link to a recurring payment program. You let other marketers give your reports away as bonuses and whatnot. And you let marketers sell them and keep all the profits.

Thousands upon thousands of copies can be distributed using these methods. And even if only 1 out of 100 who get the report subscribe for a few months to your programs, you’ll still make out like a bandit.

Long story short – people buy based on the benefits, and then they justify their decision based on the features. That’s why you need both to sell.

No one buys a lawn mower because it has a big engine – he buys it because he can cut his lawn in half the time and spend twice as much time golfing. He buys it because he can cut even the tallest grass without stalling out and making himself look like an idiot for not cutting his grass sooner. And he buys it because something this big and powerful can only make him look bigger and more powerful to his neighbors and his wife (or so he hopes).

But when he’s bragging about his new mower to their next door neighbor, he’s talking about how much horsepower that baby has, how it’s made out of the same metal as the space shuttle, and how a team of 4 inspectors go over the entire mower three times before it leaves the factory.

These features are his justification, and they’re nearly as important as the original benefits that made him buy in the first place. They’re the reason he can justify the thousand dollar purchase to himself and to his wife, and justify why he doesn’t return it for something smaller and cheaper they can actually afford.

Now let’s put this whole features and benefits thing on steroids…

Features are useful, but by themselves they won’t sell a thing. Benefits are terrific, and by themselves they will sell stuff. But without the features, you’ll get a lot of buyer’s remorse and refunds.

BUT… if you add EMOTION to the equation, you put your entire selling process on steroids. That’s because while people think in terms of logic (or to be more accurate, they believe they are thinking in terms of logic) it’s their emotions that weigh in most when it’s time to make a decision.

Emotion SELLS.

Thus, the more you can tap into your prospects’ emotional wants, the more they will respond to your offers.

And the best way to get at their emotions is to go all the way.
Don’t stop with just the obvious stuff, dig deeper.

Let’s use an example: You’re selling a weight loss product. You could say, “Take this pill, lose weight.” Losing the weight is the direct benefit of taking the pills. But that’s what everyone in the marketplace is saying. Plus, you’re not tapping into your prospect’s emotions, are you?

Instead, dig deeper and find the indirect benefits. What happens when they lose weight?

• They have more energy
• Stamina increases
• Higher self esteem
• More confidence
• Better dates with sexier people
• More outgoing and social
• Looks better
• Feels better
• Stronger
• Better able to take on life’s challenges
• Less jealous of others (now they’re jealous of YOU)
• Happier
• Healthier
• Live longer
• And so forth.

NOW you’re tapping into the REAL emotions behind losing weight.

Take it one step further, and put them directly into the picture. Don’t tell them they’ll have more confidence. Instead, ask him to imagine what it will be like when his confidence is so high, he can walk into a room of beautiful women and ask the most gorgeous one on a date, and she’ll say YES.

Or ask her what it will feel like when every eye in the room turns towards her – knowing all the men want her, and all the women wish they were her.

Now THAT’s tapping into emotion.

And that will get you the sale every time.

First, the bad news: If you’re telling customers that you’re only selling “X” number of your digital product, they’re going to think you’re a scammer.

Think about it. Back in 2000, you could tell people you’re only selling 1,000 copies and they would believe you. But it’s 2024, and people have seen this tactic so many times, they not only don’t believe you – it makes them question everything else you say.

Plus, how shortsighted can you be to limit how much money you make? Let’s say you put out a truly great product, but to create scarcity and make sales you decide to limit either the number of products sold, or the time during which you will sell them.

You make the sales, you pull the product, and your income goes to zero. That could be a big long-term loss for you.

Or worse yet, you claim you will pull the product but you don’t. Or you say you “may” stop selling, but you don’t. Or you stop selling for 2 days or 2 weeks or 2 months, and then you open it up again.

And your credibility goes out the door.

So how do you create scarcity of digital products without losing sales and credibility?

You need to have a legitimate reason for creating the scarcity. For example, if you’re selling PLR, then obviously you can’t flood the market with thousands of copies or the PLR will lose its value.

But most products can be sold forever without causing the buyers a problem. So in that case, what do you do to create scarcity? You use the second method, which is…

… Bonus packages. And the good news: It’s easy, it’s highly effective, and done correctly it can create sales for you for a long time to come.

Here’s how it works:

Go to other marketers who sell products that compliment yours. These should be products that have only been sold and have never been given away. Otherwise they lose their value.

Ask these marketers if you can do a deal: You get to give away their product to your next 50 / 500 / 1,000 customers or all of your customers during the next week / two weeks / month. In return they get a percentage of your profits, along with the email addresses of all the buyers.

Not many marketers will say no to this offer. They get paid for sales they’re expending no effort to make. PLUS they get the email address of every buyer so they can sell them more products later.

And the best part is, you can repeat this as many times as you like, always offering new products as your limited bonuses. Maybe you offer the “XYZ” product to early bird buyers during the first 10 days only. Then during the next month you offer the “ABC” product, and the month after that, the “DEF” product and so forth.

True, in theory you could offer this bonus forever, except that in reality the owner of the product you’re giving away has the final say on how many copies you can give out. And as you tell your customers, you have to follow their rules or you can’t give away any of their products.

See how this works?

Added bonus for you: You’re creating alliances with these product owners. If you treat them right you’ll be able to do more deals with them in the future as well.

Bottom Line: By using REAL scarcity in this manner, you can continue to sell your product for a long time to come. And your customers will respect you for it, too.

Let’s say you have a product for brick-and-mortar businesses on how to get more customers. If you take the exact same information that is in your product, but customize it for a specific niche, you can charge more AND make more sales.

For example, you customize the info for chiropractors and market it exclusively to chiropractors. Sales will actually be easier to make for a couple of reasons.

First, it’s easier to reach your audience when you are being specific. Second, chiropractors will see the info is just for them, and be far more likely to buy than if it was generic. So it’s easier to reach your audience, and easier to sell to them when you find them.

But perhaps the biggest benefit of all is that you can sell your product for more money because it is geared specifically towards chiropractors. And you can do this in multiple niches: Contractors, lawyers, accountants, dentists, etc.

Let’s use another niche – weight loss. You have a generic product on how to lose weight, which means you are competing against every other weight loss product out there. But if you focus your product just for men over 60, or just for college women, or just for people in cold climates who can’t get outside to exercise, you’ve created more opportunities to target and sell your information. And you can continue to customize your info as many times as you can find markets. If you can reach your specific audience, you can do this.

This could be a business all on its own. You can go to any product owner and strike a deal where you take their info and customize it and then sell it. If you do, be sure you negotiate for a high percentage of the profits, since you will be doing the customizing and the work.

Or better yet simply buy rights to the information and then you can keep all the profits for yourself.

These are super easy to pull off, yet so effective you’ll be kicking yourself for not using them sooner…

LinkedIn: See Restricted LinkedIn Search Results

When you search for people on LinkedIn, you might not see the search results you’re looking for. This is because results can be restricted based on your membership level.

But there is a way around this…

The majority of LinkedIn profiles are indexed on Google.

Thus all you have to do is search Google to find what you’re looking for, like this:

Site:linkedin.com “name of person”

And let’s say you’re looking for social media managers in New York. Type this into Google:

Site:linkedin.com//pub “social media manager” New York

Now you can find the information LinkedIn is hiding from you.

Sweet!

Twitter: Send Tweets Longer Than 140 Characters

No, I don’t mean send readers to another site to see what you have to say. We’re going to keep our readers right there on Twitter by doing this:

Send out your tweet just like normal, ending it with a (…) or a cliffhanger.

For example,

“Did you know you can send out a Tweet that’s longer than 140 characters? First you tweet like usual. Then…”

Reply to your own tweet from your own stream. Seriously. Remove your @name so you don’t look like you’re talking to yourself (which would be weird!) Like this:

“…you reply to your own tweet in your Twitter stream. Remove the mention of your name and finish your tweet.”

Visitors see either tweet in your stream, click on ‘view conversation’ and see the full length tweet.

Facebook: Reduce Attack Posts and Salty Comments

The Internet can be a rowdy place, especially in social media. But if you go to the Page Moderation section of Page Settings, you’ll get some relief.

Simply enter common inflammatory words such as “unlike,” “clickbait,” “idiot” and so forth. Then when a banned word is used, the comment will be hidden from the general public.

The comment still appears to the person who left it who is none the wiser. And their friends will be able to see it as well, but no one else.

You can also hide comments from trolls after they’re posted. The troll will still see the comment, so unless he compares his account with someone else’s he’ll never know the comment is hidden.

And it’s better than deleting the comment and banning the troll, since they’ll then email you and complain you’re stepping on their freedom of speech.

YouTube: Research What Viewers Want

It can be difficult to move viewers off of YouTube and onto your website. But now you can use YouTube cards to poll your audience and find out what they really love.

Ask the right questions and you’ll discover what will make them go to your website and opt-in to your mailing list. Then simply present them with the strong call to action they need, and they’re yours.

Any Social Media Platform: Vastly Increase Your Social Media Followers

Share for Share or Shoutout for Shoutout (S4S) is basically forming mutually beneficial partnerships with other people in your niche.

You post each other’s content with a reference back to them. Sort of like emailing your list to tell them about another email marketer (also called a solo ad) only it’s done reciprocally on social media. And it costs nothing because you are doing it for each other.

But what if you’re new to the platform? If you have social clout on other platforms, you might do a cross promotion in which you promote them on your established platform and they promote you on your new platform. And the best thing about this technique is it works on any social media platform, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and so forth.

There you have it – 5 genuine social media hacks that can make a real difference in your marketing. Pick your favorite and start using today.

I started to compile a bunch of stats to show you how popular video marketing is becoming. And then I realized – the last thing you need are more stats about how video is taking over the internet.

The fact is, if you’re not using video yet, you’re losing customers, clients and revenue.

Consumers love video. They watch video. They ENJOY video.

They even enjoy video when the video is selling something, as long as the video still entertains and informs.

So how can you use more video in your business?

And how can you make those videos perform as well as possible in getting your viewers to take action?

Here are ten tips to get you started in the right direction:

1: Make your video is about the story, not about the sale.

Anyone can slap up a sales video and put it on YouTube. “Buy my product!” But will it get views? Not likely.

Instead, tell stories and deliver value. Let’s say you’re selling a course on how to do marketing for chiropractic offices.

It’s tempting to tell the viewer why your course rocks, why it’s exactly what they need, and how it’s only available for a limited time.

But what if you make a series of short videos, with each video providing one powerful marketing tip just for chiropractors?

I guarantee those videos will be watched and shared among the chiropractic community.

You’ll establish massive credibility. And of course you can politely refer them to your website at the end of each video.

These videos won’t sell your course for you.

But what they will do is make it far easier to get the sale.

Think of it as romancing the client…

First you take them out on a date or two or three…

And THEN you close the sale.

Your success rate will be much higher than if you try to close the sale while the two of you are still strangers.

2: Make the first 10 seconds the BEST 10 seconds ever.

One stat says that 20% of viewers will click away from a video within the first 10 seconds.

Now you’ve got to ask yourself – why would they do that?

They came to watch something, yet they leave almost immediately.

There could be a few reasons:

• Your video doesn’t appear to be what they expected. If they are coming from a link that says, “Free iPad!” and your video is about growing organic veggies, you’re going to lose them. Continuity is key here.
• You have a long, boring, “Look at me!” intro. You’ve seen those intros where it’s 30 seconds of how great the company, video creator, brand or whatever is. The problem is, no one cares but the person who made the video. Lose the long intro.
• You dilly dally around. Taking the first minute of the video to finish setting up your recording equipment is a major no-no.
• You don’t start out with a bang. You want to get right to the meat of the subject by quickly introducing what’s happening and then making it happen.

Think about movies back in the 50’s, 60’s and even 70’s – they all had long boring intros filled with lots of credits and no action.

Now think about todays’ movies – from the first moment there is action; something that captures your attention and makes you want to stay tuned to find out what’s happening, why it’s happening and what’s going to happen next.

When it comes to writing fiction, teachers often tell their students to lop off the first page or two, because they’re usually full of long, boring intro stuff to set up the first scene. But when you lop that off and start with the action, BOOM – the reader is captivated.

Videos are the same way. Start with the good stuff and let it just get better from there.

3: Don’t be so serious.

Your video might be to inform and instruct, but that doesn’t mean you have to sound like a boring, stuffy college professor.

Find ways to inject fun and humor into your presentations. This doesn’t mean to inject knock-knock jokes that have nothing to do with the topic at hand. Instead, find the humor in what you’re teaching or talking about. It’s always there, you just have to look for it.

Now I know that when you get in front of a camera, if you’re like most people you get nervous. And when you get nervous, you might not be able to find the humor in anything, except perhaps your own nervousness.

Three things I can tell you – if you practice beforehand in front of a friend, you’ll be surprised at the funny things that come to mind. Go ahead and try your humor on your friend and listen to their feedback. They’ll tell you which ones work and which to leave out.

Second, when you’re filming, continue to think of the camera as your friend. You’re just having a friendly conversation, regardless of whether it’s you on camera or you’re using slides.

Third, have fun. If you’re having fun then the viewer will likely have fun as well.

4: It’s good to be human.

No one really likes someone who is perfect, or even someone who comes across as perfect. That’s why it’s okay to make mistakes on camera.

If you are nervous or if you do something wrong, just acknowledge it and move on. For example, you drop something you were showing the viewer. Laugh, pick it up, make a joke about your nerves or your butterfingers or whatever, and move on.

It’s a funny thing when we admit to the audience that we’re human and we can laugh at our own foibles – the audience begins to like us more, and they root for us, too.

I even know people who purposely make a mistake or do something clumsy, just so they can get the audience on their side.

It’s a truly effective technique when done right.

5: Tell embarrassing stories about yourself.

As an extension of the last point, use yourself as an example of what not to do. Let’s say you’re teaching dating tips. You want to tell the viewers what not to do. Instead of saying, “You should never, ever do this or that because it just annoys the other person,” say this:

“I was once on a date and I made the dumbest mistake possible. What happened was…”

And then go on to tell a story about yourself doing something stupid or wrong or whatever.

Notice that now instead of lecturing the viewer, you are sharing a valuable story about how you goofed up.

This does a couple of things…

It teaches the viewer in a way they will remember, because people remember stories much better than lessons.

And it’s yet another opportunity to show just how human you are, and make the audience like you even more.

But what if you never made that mistake yourself?

It’s up to you, but I see no harm in telling the story from your point of view anyway. Again, it’s a highly effective teaching method, and everyone loves somebody who can laugh at themselves.

Just look at comedians – they are continually telling audiences about the stuff they’ve done that wasn’t too bright. And audiences love them for it.

6: Optimize your videos for search.

Here are a few tips for doing just that:

If you can, host your video to your own domain first, before uploading it to sharing sites. This has the potential to get people to link back to your own domain, which will also help your overall SEO efforts.

Enable embedding on your video to increase the likelihood of receiving inbound links.

Add your videos to your sitemap to give Google information about your video. This gives Google useful metadata that can improve Google’s ability to include your video in search results.

Use tags for the relevant keywords. Write full descriptions and add a unique title.

And remember this: If it has a box, Google needs you to fill it out in order to help you rank.

7: Educate your audience.

Some of the best videos you’ll ever make, that your prospects and clients will love, are videos that teach your viewers something useful.

Whether it’s to get a result they want, show them how to best use your product, or provide useful tips, people enjoy short ‘how to’ videos that teach them what they want to know, when they want to know it.

Which of course means you need to be found when they are looking. To do that, go back to #6 and make sure your video shows up in the appropriate SEO searches.

8: Let your customers speak for you.

Social proof is best done by your customers on your behalf. For example, you can ask customers to film themselves talking about how they use and love your product.

Case studies are an excellent way to showcase your product while teaching your audience how to achieve the result they desire.

Your customer might talk about their buying decision, what might have stopped them from buying, and why they went ahead and got the product.

Next they might talk about their results of using the product, what specific features they like, and the biggest benefits of using the product.

A good customer testimonial or case study can be worth an entire sales letter when it comes to converting new prospects into customers.

9: Add a call to action

Whatever kind of video you’re making, don’t forget to add a call to action at the end. It might be to visit your website, go to a landing page to grab a free report, check out a sales page or whatever.

Just remember that your videos should be 90-95% great content and just 5-10% sales.

10: Add a video to your landing pages to increase conversions.

Naturally you’ll want to test this out, but odds are you’ll see a nice bump in your conversions on your landing page if you add a short video.

The video should quickly introduce yourself and let them know what they’re getting when they subscribe. Make it friendly and fun for the viewer, and try to inject a little humor.

Most of all, give one very clear and immediate benefit of subscribing to your list and grabbing your free offer.

I know a marketer who never sells anything on his videos. All he does is provide helpful tips, tell silly stories about his industry and act as a helpful friend to his viewers.

And his sales are through the roof. Why? Because people love him and trust him.

Video isn’t hard. What’s difficult sometimes is relaxing enough to simply be ourselves and lend a helping hand or tip to the viewer.

Half of Facebook’s more than 2.2 BILLION active users are on Facebook in any 24-hour period. In addition, the average U.S. Facebook user spends nearly 6 hours a month browsing this social network.

In other words, if your business isn’t on Facebook yet, maybe it should be. And one of the first questions I invariably receive from newcomers concerning Facebook is, “What should I post to get people interested in my business?” Here are some ideas:

Showcase your customers. If you’ve got photos, videos or emails from happy customers using your products, go ahead and show them. Just remember, you’re not bragging about your product, you’re showing what your customers are doing with your product. Keep the difference in mind when choosing and framing content and you can’t go wrong.

Instead of showing a testimonial from Jimmy telling how great your product is, show Jimmy using or enjoying your product, or show the direct results Jimmy achieved with your product. For example, if you teach your customers how to restore classic cars, show Jimmy with before and after shots of his car.

Use humor. Don’t make yourself or your business overly serious on Facebook. Instead, use light-hearted humor whenever possible. This isn’t necessarily telling jokes – most times it’s simply taking a poke at yourself or your day, showing something in a humorous light, being witty or simply sharing that silly thing that happened to you a few minutes ago.

Post funny videos, especially if they’re relevant to your business. And don’t just grab videos from YouTube – make your own quick videos when you feel inspired.

Give them content. Facebook isn’t necessarily the place to offer long winded diatribes about anything. But it is a great place to share cool content – especially the “How-to” variety and the entertainment variety. And it doesn’t all need to originate with you – use curated content to round out your own and keep people engaged.

Let them inside. That is, show off your staff (if you have one) or your family or the inner workings of your business. Engage them by pulling back the curtain and showing what they normally wouldn’t get to see. For example, if you’re a one person business working out of your home, show them your office, your view, and your little dog that keeps you company. If your business has oodles of employees, post pictures of your in-office celebrations such as birthdays, as well as the antics that go on and so forth. By giving them a peak behind the curtain, your friends and fans feel very much included and part of the group. You’re no longer just a business, you’re part of their circle.

Ask questions. Nothing engages other people like asking them their opinion on something, even if it’s as silly as, “What’s better: Baseball or Football, and why?” Posts with questions get the conversation rolling, especially when it’s an easy question to answer. And be sure to respond to the answers you receive.

Use these Facebook “attention getters” to quickly begin bringing more people your way.