If you’re a success at almost anything, sooner or later someone is going to ask you, “Can I take you to lunch and pick your brain?” And interestingly enough, if you’re a successful marketer you’re going to get his question a LOT. So how do you answer?
It’s up to you of course. Do you want to give your information away for free? Over and over? If you’re selling “how to market” type information, it’s perfectly reasonable for you to not give away services you normally charge for. After all, no one is asking doctors, “If I take you out to lunch will you look at my mole?”
Sere’s how you can answer that question…
Let’s say you teach Internet marketing, and you’ve got both free information that you give away and also paid products. Maybe you even do marketing consulting work. Someone asks you the take-you-out-to-lunch question, and you say, “I’d be happy to set up a consulting session with you next week, I’ll email you the details.”
Then you email them a link to your free information, along with the details of your paid product or service. Then they can choose if they want to move forward or not. It’s a nice way of letting them know that you don’t give away your best work for free.
Do you want to close more sales on your website? Then you need to answer more objections. If you were selling vacuum cleaners door to door, you’d find that prospects have questions they need answered before they will buy. Those questions are actually objections, and a skilled salesman will welcome them and answer them in such as way that the customer is more than satisfied with the answers.
Of course, on a website we don’t have a star salesperson closing prospects, so we’ve got to rely on content to do it for us. Usually this is in the form of a sales letter, but the typical sales letter is rather lengthy. This is good, in that they cover the main objections and do a good job of explaining the benefits. But if a customer has a particular question, making them scroll through this long sales letter to find the answer may actually lose you the sale.
Imagine a customer on the brink of making the purchase. They just have one question, something that will be the deciding factor on whether they whip out the credit card or close the page. They’re busy, and they want the answer now. And no, they don’t want to scroll all the way through your sales letter 2 or 3 times searching for the information.
Solution? A Frequently Asked Questions section. That’s right. Adding an F.A.Q. to your sales process can increase your sales – sometimes dramatically. And it doesn’t have to be on your sales page. Installing a prominent F.A.Q. link to the top and bottom of the page is effective. So is having a F.A.Q. section either within the sales letter itself or off to the side of the page.
What should be in your F.A.Q.? Two things: First, all of the information a typical customer needs to make a decision. This includes what’s included in the offer, the major benefits, the price and guarantee, what they can expect, time frame to get results, etc.
Second, your F.A.Q. should include all of the questions you repeatedly get from prospects. These might be things you wouldn’t think they would ask, but they do, such as, “Does this work outside of the U.S.? Do I need to purchase anything else to make this work?” Etc.
Think of your F.A.Q. as a living, growing thing. Any time you think of a question that should be added, do it. Any time someone asks you a good question, add it. Typically, the better your F.A.Q., the more sales you will make.
There’s always going to be a small percentage of your customers who are more than happy to pay more to get things done faster and better.
Case in point: If you’re not familiar with it, there is a giant Ferris wheel in London that is absolutely huge and offers spectacular views. It was built for the Y2K celebrations. Ironically, it didn’t open in time for Y2K, but that’s another story (perhaps about planning your business and hitting deadlines.)
To ride this Ferris wheel, known as the London Eye, you’ve got to pay something like 20 pounds and stand in a que for about an hour and a half. For you Yanks, a que is a line. 😉
But if you’re willing to pay more – a good deal more – you will only have to wait about 15 minutes. That’s because they also offer something called the Fast Track, also known as the short line for rich people.
Now then, where in your business can you offer a “short line for rich customers?” That is, how can you upgrade your products or services for those customers who are more than happy to pay for better/faster service? Because these are the customers you need to spoil rotten. These are the customers who will make your business a pleasure to run, and who will be the reason why you like getting up in the morning and you have a new car in the garage. Frankly, these are the customers who, when you get enough of them, will allow you focus exclusively on them if you choose.
Think of it this way – would you rather service 100 rich customers who pay whatever you charge without so much as a flinch, or 1,000 customers all moaning about your latest $2 price increase? To be frank, you can earn far more by catering to your best customers than you can by trying to sell cheap stuff to cheap people. And yes, I realize it might not be politically correct for me to be saying this, but I bet you can already see the truth in it.
So, it’s your decision – continue to focus only on selling to the masses or begin locating those customers and clients who will gladly pay you top dollar for your extraordinary services without batting an eye.
I received an email the other day from a young man who has created six different products in four different niches – and sold a total of 37 copies. Not 37 copies of each – 37 copies all together. One of his products didn’t sell a single copy.
Should he quit? Most people would say he’s obviously in the wrong line of work and should do something else. I say that’s incorrect, and here’s why:
Anyone with the perseverance to continue creating products even though he’s not making sales is going to eventually be successful. Obviously he’s not afraid of failure – if he were, he would have stopped after the first product. And he’s got the drive and determination to keep going, even when everyone around him tells him to quit. Heck, even his sales are telling him to quit, yet when he emailed me he said he was working on his seventh product, and by the sound of it I think he’s got a winner this time.
There was another fellow by the name of Eddie who wanted to be a jockey something fierce. When he was 15 years old he traveled to Kentucky and went to work at galloping horses for $15 a week. But his boss told him that he was not good enough to ever be a jockey, so Eddie hid his tears, told his boss goodbye, and headed to California.
There he found a job with horse trainer Clarence Davison, who let Eddie ride in a race. Result? Eddie lost. He lost his next race, too. And his next.
In fact Eddie kept racing and losing for eight straight months, and after every race Clarence would sit down with Eddie and go over every mistake. Eddie kept persevering until two hundred and fifty losses later, he quit. That is, Eddie quit losing. A month before his sixteenth birthday, Eddie won his first race.
He steadily improved under Clarence’s guidance, but then two years later he cracked his skull, fractured two ribs and punctured his lung after falling off a horse in Chicago. Time to quit, right?
Not Eddie. Four years later he captured his first Kentucky Derby win. Then ten years after he was told he would never be good enough to become a jockey, he captured the U.S. Triple Crown. He went on to become the only jockey to win the U.S. Triple Crown more than once, and during his racing career he rode in 24,092 races, won 4,779 victories and placed in the top three 11,888 times. Not bad for someone “not good enough.”
Eddie Arcaco was known as the “Master” by his peers. Is it any wonder? Yet he could very easily have quit anytime during those first 250 losses and we never would have heard of him.
You have to remember that about 70 percent of the horses running don’t want to win. Horses are like people. Everybody doesn’t have the aggressiveness or ambition to knock himself out to become a success. -Eddie Arcaca
Do you have the ambition and perseverance to be a success? I think you do.
With these tips you can get more accomplished and grow your online business faster without spending a fortune.
Mind you – some may seem too simple. But years of trial and error have taught me that these methods flat out work at bringing about extraordinary results.
1. Have a Plan – So many new online marketers simply start working on something without knowing where they’re going or what they hope to achieve (other than making money.) I think this is why Internet Marketers tend to hop from one thing to the next and have trouble settling down. But if you simply take the time to write out your plan of action (what you’re going to do and how you’ll do it) in a step-by-step fashion, then you’ll have a guide that you can follow. It will save you so much time and money in the long run, and make things that much easier as well.
2. Narrow Your Niche – One of the biggest mistakes is trying to make everyone your customer. By targeting a niche, it makes it easier for you to find your customers and easier for them to say yes to your offers. One example I like to use is the IM niche itself. If you’re marketing to ALL online marketers, you’ve got a HUGE niche with a lot of competition. But if you focus on teaching chiropractors how to market their businesses online, you’ve now got a tightly focused niche. Rule of thumb: The more focused the niche, the more you can charge for your products and services. Paradoxically your click through and conversion rates will be higher as well; thus you can earn more with fewer customers.
3. Fine Tune Your Slogan – Sure, you’ve picked a great name for your business (I hope) but what about your slogan? This is the sentence or sentence fragment found on your header, and it’s also what you tell people when they ask what you do. It needs to be short, clear and compelling. “Teaching Chiropractors how to optimize their online efforts resulting in a more diversified clientele and enhanced revenue” is NOT a good slogan. “Helping Chiropractors get more clients through simple marketing methods” is much better. It’s clear, it’s direct, the benefit is unmistakable, and it’s how people naturally speak.
4. Reach Out – Find the movers and shakers in your niche and reach out to them. Blog about them, buy their products, get on their mailing lists, and yes, email them. The more people you know in your niche, the better. You can ask them questions, become their affiliate, and eventually ask them to promote your products, but only when you’ve built the relationship.
5. Network at Live Events – Sometimes working online isolates us so much, we forget that there are real live PEOPLE out there who want to meet us. That’s why it’s good to go to as many live events as you can afford, not just for the training that might be offered, but for the networking opportunities. Take a stack of your cards and try to meet as many people as possible. Get their cards, or write down their info if they don’t have a card. One note: Do not try to sell anybody on anything at these events. Your job here is to make contacts – setting up JV’s and such comes later when they know, like and trust you.
6. Follow-up – You know all those business cards you collected at the event? Follow up with each one within seven days to continue building the relationship. Follow up by phone or email, or both. Remind them of your conversation and pick up where you left off.
7. Use Both Sides Of Your Business Card – You’re at events, handing them out anyway – why not use BOTH sides of the card? On the second side you can add a testimonial, a link to a free report, and invitation for a free consultation, etc.
8. Crank Up Your Signature – Use your email signature to promote your business. Name and contact info are a great start, but you need more. For example, add a link to your webpage with an offer for an excellent freebie. And use the offer in your signature line on forums, too, where it’s allowed.
9. Billboard Your Vehicle – If appropriate to your business, get inexpensive vinyl signs for your vehicle’s doors and rear to bring in new customers. Or if it’s in your budget, spring for the full coverage auto graphics that are so eye-catching, like ones you find at adsonwheels.com
10. Focus On The List – Really this should be titled: Become Obsessive About Building Your List With The Highest Quality (Best Targeted) Prospects Possible. Your first priority in list building should be QUALITY, not quantity. That said, don’t miss a chance to add to your list if the prospects are a good fit for your business.
11. Work Your List – Send them great info on a very frequent basis (3 to 5 times per week) so that you become the “go-to expert” in their eyes. Once they know you and trust what you say, you can recommend anything and get a great conversion, so be sure to only recommend the very best products that they will truly benefit from.
12. Create Fun Promotions Around Silly Holidays – While most every business is trying to leverage major holidays into sales and events, you can stand totally apart from the crowd (and avoid the competition on the big holidays) by focusing on the lesser known holidays. For example, Opposite Day, National Hugging Day and Do a Grouch a Favor Day. First, you need to find the holidays… Google something like, “strange holidays” or “weird holidays” or even “crazy holidays.” and you’ll find plenty of options to choose from.
Now choose a holiday that’s coming up soon, and think of how you can design a simple, eye-catching promotion around it. It doesn’t have to be anything too creative. For example, on Opposite Day you could send your list a product that they only pay for after they receive it and if they like it. That would certainly stir up some attention, and if you promote it in advance it could also grow your mailing list.
13. Hold Contests – You might give away your new digital product or anything else your prospects might like, in exchange for whatever you choose. It could be a new sign up to your mailing list, a suggestion for a new product, the answer to a trivia question (not found on the Internet), etc. If your prize is big enough and awesome enough, ask your readers to forward your contest to others in exchange for extra entries, and it could go viral, providing you with hundreds or even thousands of new prospects. And certainly it will help you with getting your name out there as well.
14. Volunteer Your Services – If you provide a service such as building websites or writing sales copy, volunteer to do it for a non-profit and grab yourself some great publicity in the process.
15. Stage a Launch – New product? New website? New service? Create a launch to turn it into a real event that gets people talking.
16. Take a Stand – If you want customers to feel strongly about you and your products, you need to take a strong stand that they can relate to. Most marketers are afraid to take a stand because they’re trying to appeal to everyone. The problem is, when you appeal to everyone, you end up appealing to no one. Guaranteed no matter what your niche might be, there are positions and opinions that you hold that you can share with your readers.
Taking a stand will bond you to the readers who agree. Those who don’t agree will also want to take a position, and in so doing they also bring attention to you. Think Rush Limbaugh – his fans are devoted and his enemies provide him with tons of free publicity. However, you always want to remain 100% professional – do not name call or denigrate others under any circumstance because it will only hurt you if you do.
17. Make Podcasts and Videos – Microphones and video cameras are cheap, and the payback can be huge. By dispensing great info via voice or video, you’re creating Internet ‘ambassadors’ that can bring you new prospects from places you never expected. BONUS: Someone who joins your list after listening to your podcast or watching your video is far more likely to open and read your emails in the future.
18. Build an Alliance With Non-Competitors – Look for non-competitors who service the same niche you do. Make contact and see about promoting each others products to your own lists, thereby expanding both your sales and your list of new customers and prospects.
19. Build an Alliance With Your Competitors – This works especially well in service niches because successful people have more business than they handle. Plus one competitor might specialize in a certain size or type of project that you prefer not to handle and vice versa. When you collaborate with your competitors, you can sometimes surprisingly double your business with very little effort.
20. Add Value – Whether you’re offering an affiliate product, your own product or just giving info away to build your list, add value. In the case of an affiliate offer, give away something that enhances the original product. In the case of your own product, give away the first chapter or two as a sample. And if you’re simply giving something away to build your list or as an added benefit to your readers, give them additional resources where they can get even more great information or the tools they need to implement your strategies.
21. Use Testimonials – Not just testimonials for the specific product you’re promoting, but also testimonials for yourself, your business, and even your methods. For example, you might use the left or right column of all your sales pages and web pages for testimonials from happy customers of all your products. And inside of your sales letters, place testimonials from people who back up what you say, such as experts who’ve done research that corroborate what you’re telling people in your sales message.
22. Ask for Referrals – This is one you want to be consistent on. Ask your readers to pass along your emails (make sure there is a link to your sign-up page) ask followers to retweet your messages, and ask fans to “like” your pages and messages. Next, put a referral program in place that rewards your customers for referring new, paying customers. And lastly, simply make it a policy to consistently ask and remind, in a very friendly, gently manner. Remember to always show your immense appreciation for those customers who do refer new business your way.
23. Do Teleseminars or Webinars – Teleseminars and webinars are excellent ways to connect with your customers and build your lists. You might do Q and A sessions or present a certain topic. Be sure to give lots of information, and save any product pitches for the very end. If you’re doing the webinar for a joint venture partner’s list, be respectful of the opportunity and make your partner look great for having invited you to speak to their people. You’ll build tremendous rapport with your listeners, and if you’ve presented them with great info, they won’t mind a little product pitch at the end.
24. Send Out A Newsletter On A Regular Basis – You might have a list and you might send them offers – but do you send them real news and stuff they can use? If not, you might want to start. By sending them great tips they can use, they will be more likely to open and read your future emails, thus increasing your conversion rates on the offers you do send.
25. Take Your Best Shot – A professional photograph of yourself is something you can use everywhere – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, your websites, article directories, business directories, etc. Build recognition by using the same great photo and it will pay off.
26. Blog – If you don’t have a blog yet, start one. Yes, even if you have a website, you should still have a blog because it allows you better connect with your community and create a personal connection. And btw, Google tends to love blogs, so if you set it up correctly you may also find you get some free traffic from your blog efforts.
27. Use Keywords – If you want to get found and ranked by Google, you need to use the keywords that people are looking for and that you have a chance of getting ranked on. It’s not always an easy balance, but investing in a good keyword tool and tutorial can help.
28. Bookmark It – Social bookmarking is a good way to help others find your best articles and blogposts. Join sites such as del.icio.us, reddit, digg and mix, and then bookmark your best stuff as well as other people’s best articles, pins and blog posts.
29. Do Press Releases – Do you have some real news to report? By all means do a press release and publish it on top press release websites.
30. Post in Forums – This comes with one caveat: Monitor the time you spend on forums or it can eat up your entire day. Spending 30 minutes a day posting on the best forums in your niche is a great way to increase your visibility. Add a link to your website in your signature and info about your business in your profile. This way when other forum members find your posts helpful, they’ll have somewhere to go to sign up for your list or just get more information about your business.
31. Capitalize on Social Media – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn are great places to find people in your niche, to network and to build your own list. An entire library can be written about using Social Media in your business, so I’m simply adding this one in as a reminder.
As you can see, there are a multitude of ways to promote your business without spending a fortune. An open mind and a little creativity go a long way towards reaching out towards others, thereby getting the business to come to you.
For some of us the hard part is in finishing what we start, and for others it’s in starting what we want to finish. If you fall into the second category, this is for you.
Now then, you know what you want to do and what you want to accomplish. But for some odd reason you’re finding every excuse not to get started. What’s the problem? If this is a pattern with you, and you find that once you get started you have no problem continuing on, then the solution is a simple one.
The reason you’re not starting is because you have some sort of anxiety or fear about the project. Maybe you secretly think you’re not up to the task, or you can’t meet the expectations of your customers or clients. No matter.
What you’re going to do is to start it badly. That is, you’re not going to worry or even think about quality – you’re simply going to make a lousy start, no matter what that might look like.
For example, if the project you’re putting off is writing an article, you’re going to sit down and begin writing the worst article you can possibly write. Make it a game to see just how bad you really are.
An example: You need to write an article (or a blog post, a report, and ebook, whatever) on driving traffic. You’ve been putting this off for days now, and you just can’t seem to get started. Open your word program, and write anything. I mean ANYTHING that comes to mind about traffic. For example:
“Driving traffic is a pain in the other end and I don’t even want to write this stupid article because I don’t feel like I know enough but what I do know is that when I wrote that 20 page report and then paid affiliates 100% commissions I got all kinds of new list subscribers and then I sent them emails and they came to my website and not only did I get traffic but I got more sales and some of them even linked back to my website and others became affiliates which snowballed the whole effort.”
Do you see what just happened? I really did start out to write a bad article, yet within the third line I began imparting good information that someone could not only use, but would probably thank me for if they didn’t already know it. Yes, it needs rewriting, but what I’ve done here is I’ve STARTED THE PROJECT which was the hurdle I needed to get over.
Do you see how incredibly EASY this technique is? If you’re procrastinating about building your website, start out to build the ugliest website in the world. If you’re putting off making a video, start the camera right now and just begin talking. You get the picture. Worry about getting it right after you start, and you’ll find you no longer put off beginning those tasks you need to get done.
So, you’re going to launch a new product/website/blog/service online – how do you make a big splash that gets people on board and taking action?
While this isn’t meant to be a step-by-step primer, we have put together what we think are the crucial nuts and bolts to any successful launch.
Know what you want. You can launch just about anything with a little creativity. But the first question you should be asking yourself is not what to launch, but what you want to get out of a launch. Do you want sales? Do you want to build a list? Positioning? Speaking engagements? Attracting partners and affiliates? By knowing what you want, you’ll be much more successful in figuring out how to get it.
Forget hype. Create an event. People are over run with hype and hoopla and the latest and greatest everything, which is why you don’t want to add to the noise. Instead, you want to cut through all the hype and turn your launch into an EVENT.
Think about it – despite how busy we all are, we still love holidays and birthdays and graduations and so forth. Why? Because they are events – they’re things to look forward to and celebrate. That’s why when you turn your marketing into an event, you’ll completely bypass all the other marketing that’s happening and you’ll stand head and shoulders above the other distractions competing for your prospects’ attention.
Create urgency. Whatever it is that you want people to do – buy your product, get a freebie for subscribing, join your membership, whatever – give them a deadline or use an element of scarcity. For example, if people purchase during your launch period (typically 2-7 days) then they get a special deal or extra bonuses or a lower price. Or your offer is only available during the event – after that it goes away permanently.
It’s because you’re running this special event that you can add in the scarcity element. Otherwise it’s difficult to do it ethically – for example, those scripts that say the price will increase by midnight of the day the visitor hits the page are not only unethical – they may even be illegal.
And because of the scarcity – the bonuses going away or the price increasing or the actual product no longer being available – you’ll find there is a surge in sales in the hours before the deadline. Scarcity really is a powerful motivator.
Introduce something in the middle of your event to spike sales. Let’s say you’re doing a five day event. On day 1 sales will be high because people are primed to buy. But by day 3 sales will have fallen off dramatically. That’s why you need something to add excitement and make more sales. It might be an additional big bonus, or it could be a payment plan. Whatever it is, introduce it shortly before the halfway point. You should see a sales spike in the hours immediately after your announcement and again on the last day of the event in the final hours before it closes.
Your sales letter is not what you think. Sure, on the day of your big launch you’ve got a sales letter ready to sell your product or sell whatever action you want them to take. But that’s only the END of your sales letter. Really your entire sales letter begins with your first marketing message and continues all the way through the pre-launch phase.
What you’re doing throughout your entire prelaunch phase is introducing yourself to your prospects, letting them know that you suffered from the same problem they have and you’ve found solutions. You’re telling your story, and as you tell your story you also share tidbits of really excellent information that they can use right away.
You’re actually accomplishing two things at the same time – you’re establishing trust by telling your own personal story, and you’re establishing credibility by sharing some of your best material with them for free. Mind you, you’re not giving away the farm or telling them everything you know. Rather, you’re telling them what they need to do to accomplish their goal or solve their problem. You’re just not telling them how to do it, because that is covered in the product.
This way, when you get to the actual product launch day, you’ve got people who don’t even need to read your letter in order to purchase your product – they’re ready to buy. And those who do need a sales letter to make the decision are already warmed up and very interested – you just need to push them over the fence.
Begin your launch just as you would begin a sales letter – with a big headline. You need something to capture people’s attention and get them excited. And each phase of your pre-launch should have another headline, whether it’s a written message or a video. Always be capturing attention and creating curiosity all the way through the process.
Remember, this is an EVENT, so treat it like an event. Rather than using hype, attract people with what’s actually happening and what’s really taking place. Your launch can change people’s lives – if not then maybe you should rethink it. And because it can change lives, you need to clearly convey that message to your prospects. And the best way to do that is by using an attention-grabbing headline each time that sets the tone and then following up with really great information.
Have a great offer. This goes for anything and it’s especially relevant for launches. Just because you’re going to all the trouble of creating an event doesn’t mean you don’t also need a great offer, because you do. I don’t care if you’re a wiz at pre-launches and launches, if your offer stinks then you’re not going to make sales.
So what’s a great offer? It’s something where the customers thinks, “Wow, I can’t believe I’m getting so much value for so little money.” That doesn’t necessarily mean that your offer is cheap – it could be $1,000. But it does mean that you are offering far more in value than the price you are charging.
For example, if you’re showing someone how to set up a business that pays them $1,000 a week, then $1,000 for that information is nothing (it’s peanuts). Or if you’re showing them how to solve a problem that’s been driving them crazy for days or weeks or even years, and you’re doing it for only $47 while they’ve spent hundreds trying to solve it, then it’s a great offer.
Get help with your marketing message. You go through the whole process of prelaunch and launch, only to have a dud. Ouch. You can prevent this and have a strong event by taking a little time to have some conversations with your prospects in advance. For example, float your idea in a blog post and gauge reaction. Are they excited? Do they want to know more? Or is the sound of silence all that you’re receiving?
Talk to your prospects and customers on forums, webinars, via email, teleseminars, etc. Gauge reaction and tailor your sales message accordingly. This can only aid you in having a successful event.
Suss out the marketing objections. You’re having a conversation on your blog or in your forum and you see the same problems coming up, what do you do? If you’re smart, you tackle them head on in your launch. For example, your product is on how to be an amazing baker even if your prospect can’t make a Rice Krispie treat to save their life. (For non-bakers out there, Rice Krispie treats are super easy to make.)
So you keep hearing, “When I make cookies they always get too thin at the edges and that part burns.” So you make a video that shows you had the exact same problem, and it was really embarrassing when someone would comment about your weird cookies, but then you found the secret and here it is and now your cookies are perfect. And Voila! You are now the expert baking problem solver, all because you listened to your market and discovered some of the things that were driving them crazy.
You might be wondering why I call these things objections, and the reason is this: If your prospects feel like they can’t do the simplest of things, then they’re not going to possess the confidence to invest in your program. But if you can show them how rapidly they can make improvements, not only will their confidence in their abilities increase, but so will their confidence in your ability to dramatically help them.
Sequence your launches. You might be thinking that launches are just for huge products and million dollar deals, but that’s just the high profile launches. If you’re smart, and especially if you’re just getting started, you’ll start small and stack your launches. For example, your first launch might be for your blog – to get your first readers and start building your list.
Your second launch might be a small product in which you’re really focused more on getting active affiliates than making sales, because with your third launch you’re going to be going bigger, with a more expensive product. Having those affiliates in place from the last launch will help you tremendously. Maybe when you’re focused on gaining affiliates and building your mailing list, you pay 100% commissions.
Then as you get bigger, you start charging more for your products but paying lower percentages to affiliates (example: 100% the first time, 75% the second, etc.) And you just stack this way, doing one launch after another, sometimes with different goals in mind and always building on what you’ve done previously.
Remember, launches aren’t just for the Internet marketing realm. Because we’re in Internet Marketing, we’re witness to a lot of IM launches. But if you look at other niches, and just about ANY niche, you’ll find that launches are there as well. In fact, they often work even BETTER, because they’re not overcrowded with launches the way that IM can be. So, the tip here is to think outside of IM, to look at any other niches you’re in or you want to be in and think about doing a series of launches in that niche to build your business there.
Six years after starting a blog called the Huffington Post, Arianna Huffington sold the website for 315 million dollars. But 3 years before the deal was done, Arianna shared her secrets to creating a successful blog at the MarketingProfs event. Little did they know at the time just how successful her blog would become!
Here are 3 points she said marketers should keep in mind when creating and growing their own blogs, along with my elaboration:
1. “Make it easy for your contributors to contribute.”
You’ll notice when you visit the Huffington Post there isn’t just one writer, there are hundreds of writers. In fact, any celebrity can share their thoughts in a blog post if they do it “transparently and honestly.” How can you adapt this method to your blog? Allow anyone known (and perhaps even unknown but up and coming) in your industry to make blog posts, and make it easy. If they want to phone it in, email it in or use any other method (snail mail?) then let them. So long as it fits into your blog’s guidelines, publish it.
2. “Have a clear point of view.”
Forget keeping everyone happy by covering every point of view. Instead, choose your angle and stick with it. It’s clear to all where the Huffington Post stands, and it should be just as clear to your readers where your own blog lies in the spectrum of opinion. Find the truth in each story from your point of view and your visitors will have a clear idea of what you stand for.
3. “Provide a safe environment.”
It’s not going to be easy to get new contributors if they’re afraid they’re going to get attacked each time they make a post. That’s why the Huffington Post employs a team of comment “pre-moderators” who approve or reject comments. Thus no personal attacks are allowed, and disagreements are kept on a civil and intelligent level.
If success leaves clues and you consider selling a blog for $315 million to be successful, what can these blogging guidelines do for you? Put them into practice and let’s find out!
You subscribe to a certain marketer’s emails, blog and tweets. He writes a blog post saying he’s headed to the Incredible Fantastic Marketing Symposium tomorrow. The next day you get tweets he sends during his airport time, and a little later he sends you another update telling you he’s arrived and he just met Joe Rich Bucks Guru!
Have you had this experience? Next, he sends you updates via his blog, tweets, Facebook status and emails filling you in on all the details and sharing some of the new ideas he’s picked up. Really, you can’t help but feel like you’re there yourself, and you’re really into it. Near the end, he tells you to watch out for an incredible deal he’s putting together with Guru’s 1, 2 and 3, and when he sends the offer, you can’t help but check it out (and maybe even pounce on it, what the heck!)
So how did he manage to hook you into sharing the whole experience with him, and maybe even making a purchase you hadn’t planned on?
Sharing a live event with your readers isn’t magic, but it does take some skill to pull it off effectively. And this isn’t just for Internet marketers attending conferences – this is for anyone in any niche who is at a live event. Maybe you cover local sports on your blog, or you’re a foodie at a culinary show, or you’re a book reviewer going to a writer’s conference. Whatever the event, if you can effectively share it with your readers, you can amp up your professional credibility by several notches in one weekend while increasing your readership and even your sales.
Here are 9 tips for effectively live blogging an event…
1. Know your purpose. What do you hope to get out of your live blogging? Do you want to better connect with your readers? Educate them? Increase your readership? Sell a product? By knowing your purpose going in, you’ll have a much better idea of how to proceed. For example, if you’re looking for new readers, you’ll be spending more time on Twitter with real time updates. (Don’t forget to ask for the retweets.)
2. Get it right the first time. At a live event you don’t have time for rewrites. That’s why you’ve got to get it right the first time so that you can spend as little time as possible rewriting and correcting mistakes. Speed is paramount – after all, if you have to spend 100% of your time writing, you won’t have time to network or even enjoy what’s happening.
3. Go for quality, not quantity. Maybe you’re at a weekend training and you’ve got six different classes to attend. Go to all six and blog about each one, right? Well, no. It’s better to pick and choose what you’ll be writing about so that you can provide high quality content your readers will enjoy. If you’re trying to cover everything, you won’t cover anything well and you’ll just end up fried because you’re not taking breaks. Not to mention the fact that your readers may not appreciate getting six full blown 300 – 700 word updates in one day.
4. Share golden nuggets, not War and Peace. Let’s say you’ve chosen 3 of those 6 classes to attend. Now then, don’t cover them play by play or word for word. Instead, simply pick out the juiciest bits and share those. And if you’re tweeting, don’t forget to use the hashtag for the event so that people can find your tweets.
5. Make it personal. That is, don’t give a book report. Instead, put your own personal spin on what you’re reporting. Have a point of view and SHARE IT – otherwise your coverage will be no different from anyone else’s.
6. Be a real reporter. Real reporters don’t simply take what is offered – they ask questions, they get interviews, they investigate what’s going on and they even get the pulse of the entire event. Who can you talk to? What can you discover? Find angles of your own and not only will your reporting be more interesting – you’ll also find that because you’re being proactive, you’re enjoying yourself infinitely more then if you were simply a passive observer.
7. Team up. If you’re going with a friend or colleague, you might work together on writing and promoting your content. If not, get someone to help you with promotion so that you can focus exclusively on creating great content. For example, they can submit your posts to Digg and other sites for you, thereby freeing you up to focus solely on content creation.
8. Get questions from your readers answered at the event. Your readers will become even more engaged if you ask them for questions they want answered from someone there at the event. Think of yourself as their representative and take polls on what they want to know. Again, if you have an assistant, they can help you with this.
9. Recap the event. This can be your most popular post, so spend some time on it. Recap the highlights, add in things you didn’t write about previously and highlight the biggest takeaways.
Pssst: This is also a great time to plug the recordings of the event if you are an affiliate
You pour your heart and soul into a blog post and BAM! Someone hits you with a rude, disparaging comment. Should you fire back and show them just how wrong they are?
While it’s tempting to do just that, I advocate you take a breath first. Sit back, relax, go get a cup of coffee, walk around the block or do whatever you need to do to calm down.
Only when you are completely calm and rational should you even think about replying. Now reread the comment and look for something positive. Anything. You might have to look hard, but it’s there.
Maybe they said you don’t know what you’re talking about. Do you? If you did your research, this is your chance to point out the experts who back what you wrote. Perhaps the commenter completely disagrees with your point of view. This gives you a chance to honor the fact that their opinion differs, while calmly and rationally explaining why you hold yours.
The one thing that is paramount to keep in mind is that this is not a fight and should not become a fight. That adrenaline surge you felt when you first read the comment occurred because your primitive brain thought you were under physical attack and needed to defend your life. You do not. This is simply another person on the planet who chooses to view things differently than you do. And that’s ALL it is.
Also keep in mind – as nasty as this person appears to be right now, this is still a living, breathing human being with friends, family, fears, challenges and shortcomings. Don’t escalate the dialogue with confrontation. Instead, allow them to have their opinion. Respect their opinion or at least give the appearance of respecting it (no matter how off-the-wall crazy it might be.)
Answer calmly, rationally and above all NICELY and politely. Often, they will respond to your kindness with kindness of their own and may even offer an apology. If they don’t respond, don’t worry about it. Your goal is not to win them over; it’s to appear as the same rational, intelligent, level-headed expert your readers expect you to be.
That’s why you’ll always keep in mind that your audience is reading this interaction. If you sink to the level of your detractor, you will lose respect and you will lose readers. But if you fail to take the bait and remain the same cool, calm professional you are, your readers will respect you even more.
