Author Archive | Lawrence

One of the biggest secrets to success when it comes to blogging is knowing how to write content that people will want to read.

Note that this isn’t really about the way you write. Or at least that’s only part of the puzzle.

Instead, writing content that people will go out of their way to read is all about choosing exciting topics, giving them great titles and knowing what it is that makes people click.

Clickbait

A good place to look for answers is “clickbait”. Clickbait is any content that is designed to get clicks, even if it isn’t entirely honest in how it goes about it. Normally clickbait titles are purposefully provocative or misleading and this gets people to click on them.

For instance, you’ll see things like:

“10 Tips to Transform Your Body – Number 4 Changed My Life!”

“You’ll Never Believe What Happens to Woman in This Shocking Video!”

“This Marketer Boosted a Facebook Post: What Happens Next is Awful”

For most people the curiosity/promise of the title will elicit a click even if the content doesn’t live up to that promise.

Clickbait does work and can generate a lot of visits to your website. The problem is that it’s also misleading and as such, it can damage your branding.

The trick is to take what works about clickbait and to use it in a more honest manner.

The Right Type of Title

So let’s ask ourselves: what is it about clickbait that makes it so successful?

The answer is that it looks different, it looks interesting and it promises something unique/that you haven’t seen before. It would be fine, if the actual content weren’t lacking or deceptive.

Clickbait is even more successful thanks to the sheer drought of interesting content on the web. How many fitness sites have you been to where all the articles are on “10 ways to get abs” or “how to eat clean to lose weight”. This content is so repetitive, and most people have seen similar renditions of it already.

The key then is to create content that offers something genuinely interesting, that people haven’t seen a thousand times before and that sounds interesting.

For a fitness site, that could look like this:

“How my fitness addiction nearly ruined my relationship”

“Cardio acceleration: a new type of cardio fitness that burns 300%+ more fat”

“Why bodybuilders are stronger than powerlifters”

These titles are engaging and unique but what’s more is that they’re also meaty and give you the opportunity to offer some really great content that truly helps other people. That’s how you get clicks and build fans!

Do you need more targeted traffic fast, but haven’t got a big ad budget to leverage?

I’ve got you covered. 🙂

The method I’m talking about here is guest posts.

Simply put, a guest post is where you arrange to have a unique blog post you create posted on a (preferably) high traffic, authoritative blog in your market.

The blog owner is looking for great content for their readers, and you are in turn looking to get visitors to your site/offer, which is exactly what happens when your great content spurs them to want more, and click the link in your post. It’s a win-win for everyone!

How many visitors can you expect to gain from this method? That’s really a function of how good your guest post is, and how many daily readers the blog you post on has. Focus on creating quality content and strong relationships with authority sites, and this could become the number one source of visitors to your website, and it’s free!

Guest posts can also be a great way to build your email list. An effective strategy is to create a great blog post, and then with your link offer your post readers more (perhaps a free report related to what you wrote about) in order to get them to subscribe to your email list. You’ve now given them two high-quality pieces, and now you’ve also earned the right to email them. More importantly, you’ve built the “know, like and trust” factor through your content that will make these subscribers more responsive to your offers.

So how do you find great places to write guest posts? Simply do a Google blog search using a search string like this:

“guest post” + affiliate marketing

… or whatever your market happens to be. You’ll find a lot of opportunities, and once you’ve sorted through them, you’ll certainly have some great websites to approach.

There you have it… A proven way to get interested visitors to your website, without breaking the bank! I hope this helps you get more traffic for less cost and grow your business faster in the weeks and months ahead.

I’d love to know what you think about this technique, and how it works out for you when you put it into action.

To make more sales, you can send more people to your offers, you can send better qualified people to your offers, or you can convert more of the people you send. Today let’s talk about how to convert more of your traffic into sales by using little copywriting tips and tricks that massively improve your copy’s ability to make those sales for you.

1: Do more research. If you know how to hit your prospect’s hot buttons, your conversion rates will improve. And to know what you’re talking about, you’ve got to do your research.

What other products are on the market? How is yours better? What do your prospects want most? How can you tailor your benefits to what they want? What did the reviewers say?

Sometimes you’ll even discover the perfect headline buried deep inside your research, such as the comment someone made when they tried the product and got spectacular results.

2: Talk to your market. Who is it that you’re targeting with your product? These are the people to talk to. If you don’t fully understand the relationship between your product, your customers and how it improves their lives, then find out. Ask for their experiences and listen carefully for emotions and key phrases that convey both how they felt about the problem and how the product has changed things for them.

Are you just launching and don’t yet have customers? You can still ask about their problem and what it will be like for them when they have the solution. Even going to Amazon and reading the reviews that people leave for products similar to yours can be super helpful. Look for the experiences others can relate to, the ones where someone is talking about how tough it was to have the problem, and how frustrating it is that the product didn’t solve the problem or how their life has changed since it did solve it.

3: Test headlines. Always have several headlines to test, because the one you are certain will be the winner is probably going to be the loser. It’s just a fact that even the most seasoned copywriters often can’t predict which headline will hit it out of the ballpark.

Try not to get attached to a headline prior to testing, either. Give each one a fair test and let the numbers speak for themselves. I’ve seen marketers fall in love with a headline and lose a great deal of sales because they took too long to test others.

4: Use mini-headlines. Those little headlines that break up copy also work like Australian Cattle dogs to herd sheep. When your reader starts to stray, your mini-headline will bring them back into the fold because it’s going to create intrigue, give benefits or simply raise so much curiosity that they MUST read what comes next.

Imagine someone is skimming your sales copy and all they are reading are the mini-headlines. Do they tell a story on their own? Do they create curiosity while also conveying benefits? Would you be drawn into the copy and perhaps even want to buy the product just from reading the mini-headlines? If not, you might want to work on those.

5: Use lots of bullet points. I’ve seen a lot of marketers who seem to think you’re supposed to have one section of bullet points and that’s it. But I’ve also noticed that some of the highest converting sales letters have 2, 3, 4 and even 5 separate sections of bullet points.

Bullets make reading easy. In fact, some of your prospects will read the headline, the bullet points and then maybe the guarantee before making up their minds if they want to go further. To create a bullet point, first write a mini headline and then add a sentence that supports the headline and adds a benefit.

For example:

The #1 Stealth Method of Persuasion (This is the exact covert method the US government used to turn die-hard Russian spies into secret double agents – use this method to get what you want every time.)

6: Add sidebars and boxes. Break up your copy with sidebars and boxes that highlight benefits, showcase testimonials and quote experts. This breaks up your copy, makes the entire letter look interesting and keeps the reader reading.

7: Use an experienced graphic artist. Ideally your designer has experience formatting sales copy within your niche. Take a look at the work they’ve done and see if their style will work for what you have in mind. Jot down ideas and suggestions of your own and then listen to your designer’s ideas, too.

Remember that good copy with great design can sometimes out-convert great copy with lousy design. The look of your page can be just as important as what your page says. If you don’t believe it, think of the last time you arrived at a sales page and clicked away because of what you saw and not what you read. First impressions are made so fast that the reader has often formed an opinion before they’ve even read your headline.

You know those headlines that scream out you can earn XXX amount of dollars by simply “pushing a few buttons” or “sending a few emails” or some such? Well, this case study is actually about someone doing almost no work and yet banking close to $5,000 a month.

In fact, she might be up to that amount now. The $4,400 was how much she earned when we spoke, and she mentioned that her income is increasing every single month. Yet she does almost no work whatsoever.

And by the way, OPA stands for Other People’s Artwork.

Here’s how it works:

I’ll call her Sally because, well, when I talk to her she giggles a lot and sounds kind of silly. Sort of like a high school girl, and yet she’s in her mid-twenties.

Sally has several different identities on Etsy and Ebay. Each identity sells a certain type of artwork. One sells paintings of animals, one sells landscapes, one sells abstract art, one sells hearts (I’m not kidding!) and so forth.

She has a real life assistant (we’ll call him Gorgeous George because as Sally tells it, in addition to working for her George also does some modeling and fitness instruction.) George makes all the listings for the artwork, gets the prints made from the originals, fulfills the orders and handles any customer service requests.

What does Sally do? She outsources work to several artists who do all of her paintings for her. Just like hiring a ghostwriter to write a book which you then sell, Sally is hiring “ghost painters”. She has them sign a non-disclosure agreement that gives her all rights to the paintings. And she never tells her artists what she does with the paintings, either.

If I were doing this business model, I might consider giving the artists a percentage of sales, but Sally likes to simply pay one fee up front to keep things simple.

Sally chooses the styles for the paintings by finding examples and showing them to her artists. She then asks them to replicate the style and not the actual painting. She sells the original paintings for a good price ($300 to $1,000) and sells limited edition prints for a lower price.

Her listings never claim that she or her persona is the artist. She’ll use generic language such as, “This painting was created May of 2021 using pastels on canvas.” She has her artists use several mediums, including acrylic, watercolor, pastels, ink, charcoal and so forth.

She also has a virtual assistant who has one job: Promoting the artwork through various social media channels. This is why her business is growing so fast, because word is getting out via social media. And she’s very good at picking her subjects, too, some of which are extremely timely and most of which prove popular.

As you can see she has expenses: Her real life assistant George, her virtual assistant, the artists and selling fees. But even after all this, she pulled in $4,400 in profit the month she revealed her system to me, and like it said, it’s increasing every month.

The real key here is to choose subjects that will sell. That’s why she likes animals, hearts and landscapes because they always do well. And her paintings aren’t super elaborate, either. An experienced painter can likely create one in a short afternoon.

One of her best-selling stores sells paintings that are somewhat cartoonish, including caricatures of real people as well as animals doing silly things. As mentioned earlier, one sells hearts. I suspect this artist probably does 4 or 5 paintings in a day because they are that simple. But they sell like hotcakes because people love hearts and bright colors.

This business is easy to replicate and if you use assistants, it takes very little time at all.

In the 1970’s there was a ridiculous and somewhat controversial show where performers of questionable talent did strange and bizarre things in the name of entertainment. When their acts became too much to bear, celebrity judges hit a giant gong, sending the performer packing.

This was a precursor to the competitive reality shows of today and at the time many people thought it was in terrible taste. That didn’t stop them from tuning in, though, and if you happened to be stoned when you were watching, well then I hear it was a laugh riot.

The perpetrator and host of this show was a guy named Chuck Barris. To give you a bit of history, Chuck created two smash hit TV shows in the 60’s; The Dating Game and The Newlywed Game. But when Chuck debuted The Gong Show, critics called him, “The Baron of Bad Taste” and “The King of Schlock.”

In response, Barris wrote a book that attempted to set the record straight with some bald-faced lies. Barris claimed he was – now get this – a CIA assassin.

In his book, “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” Barris asserts he worked for the CIA as a hired assassin throughout the 1960s and 70s. The CIA emphatically said this was not true, but what else would the CIA say?

The public always wondered…

Was Barris – the guy who acted like a silly clown on television – really a CIA assassin?

Maybe.

Nah… probably not.

But still… maybe…

Barris was quoted as saying, “Here I was, getting crucified by critics for entertaining people (The Gong Show) and getting medals for killing them. That just didn’t seem logical.”

In 2002 George Clooney created a feature film loosely based on and totally spoofing the book, in which Chuck Barris kills 33 people as a CIA operative.

Back to the two hit shows Barris created in the 60’s:

The Dating Game was simply 3 people competing to get a date with a 4th person by answering his or her questions. That was the entire premise and the show lasted for 15 years.

Then there was the Newlywed Game which was, as Barris described it, “4 couples, 8 questions and a washer-dryer.”

How long did it take Barris to come up with these ‘products’? I suspect the ideas came spontaneously in the shower or while he was falling asleep. Sure, he could have made them more complicated, but why?

Time and again I see marketers overcomplicating their products. “I want to create a product on driving traffic through Facebook Groups” becomes, “I’m creating a 22 volume set of traffic driving techniques for every major social media site as well as 13 other methods and each volume will have 2 hours of video and a 100 page book and…”

STOP!

All you need is 4 couples, 8 questions and a washer-dryer.

Keep it simple.

Simple is easy to create and it’s fast to market. You can find out quickly if your idea is a hit or not. And people are more likely to consume your product, thereby getting value for their money and coming back for MORE of your products.

Keep it simple.

One more thing…

Do your prospects find you boring? Do YOU find you boring?

Then start a rumor.

Maybe don’t start one that says you’re a CIA assassin (unless you really want to). But start a rumor that is fun, interesting and maybe just a tiny bit shocking.

Have a few people spread it on social media. Then deny the heck out of it.

This is the sort of thing that can go viral quite easily. You might even get some free publicity, too.

And who knows… one day George Clooney might make a movie about you, too.

Boys and girls, there was a time when calculators weren’t apps on smartphones – they were actually stand-alone hand-held electronic gizmos that did nothing but calculate numbers. (I’m dating myself…) Some of these calculators were even what you might call “desk sized” because they were so big you had to set them on something to use them.

One day a salesman found himself stuck with a gross of these large desk calculators. Nobody wanted to buy them, so here’s what he did…

He told his customers they were giant “ice scrapers” they could use to scrape ice off of windshields. The customers would object and say, “No, they’re calculators,” and he would reply, “Oh ya, I suppose you could use these as calculators, too, but they’re really great at removing ice!”

People would laugh and then buy one, and within days the calculators sold out.

Do you have a product that’s not selling?

Maybe you can find new positioning for your product, or a new and imaginative way to describe it.

For example, do you have a course on how to drive traffic via social media? Reposition it for one particular niche – dating, health, mmo, chiropractors – you get the idea. Do you sell a course on how to make art? Reposition it as art therapy so that it’s now about the process and not the outcome.

Almost any product can be targeted to a new audience or even rebranded as something entirely different.

Maybe we’re overthinking this whole video thing. It can take days to make a high-quality video, but even then there is no guarantee anyone will watch it. Or you can do what this guy did: Take one photograph, add music and a title and post it.

No script. No voice over. No nothing but a photo and generic elevator music. It’s called, “Gentle Understanding Cat” and as of this writing it has 86,000 views and 303 comments.

Even the creator is surprised, as he writes, “Damn this blew up. Please check out my other content with actual effort put into it.”

I did check them out, and his other videos have just 5 to 46 views each.

Then there’s YouTuber Charlotte Dobre. All she does is play social media posts of Bridezillas, Karen’s and other annoying people. As the clips play, you get to watch her reactions. Whoop-de-doo. It sounds stupid, right?

Nothing against Charlotte, but her videos contain essentially no original content other than her smirky remarks (which generally aren’t witty or funny). Even she appears surprised that so many people are watching her.

Charlotte has 570K subscribers, and here are a few of her viewership numbers:

•    The Fake People of Instagram, Part 2 – 1.1M views
•    Entitled People that are on Another Level – 881K views
•    Entitled People that are on Another Level, Part 3 – 839K views
•    Entitled Brides Getting Called Out on Social Media – 626K views
Essentially, she is earning a full-time income as a YouTube partner through advertising simply by reading OTHER PEOPLE’S social media posts and adding her own reactions to it.

When it comes to your own videos, you might take stock of what you’re trying to achieve with your videos and whether or not you’re on the best path to do that. If you’re making outstanding content that no one is watching, it might be time to recalibrate your video making methods.

If nothing else, here is a trick that works wonders for providing great ‘how-to’ content to viewers and still making the video entertaining and share-worthy on social media:

Use a polar-opposite partner.

For example, if you have strong views on a topic, your partner will play the part of the ‘dummy’ on the other side of the argument. The two of you bickering back and forth with you generally coming out on top while teaching something works wonders.

Your partner could also play the ignorant student who needs the super simple explanation to things. This makes the viewers feel smart and it’s an excellent way to come in under their resistance radar and bring them over to your way of thinking.

Don’t be afraid to be goofy, make mistakes and so forth. Today I discovered an animated series called “Suction Cup Man”.

The creator now sells a plushie Suction Cup Man doll at the end of video 4. To advertise it he uses video clips where the doll isn’t functioning as he wants it to, and it just adds to the appeal because it’s REAL.

You don’t need complicated videos. Simple is usually better. Entertaining is best. Combine the two – make it simple and entertaining, and you’ve got something.

That video you’re about to make outlining the 10 best things to know about your topic? Make it into 10 separate videos and find a way to be entertaining in each one.

The video you’re about to make to recruit affiliates to your launch? Please don’t read a script and try to look all stuffy and business-like. Be yourself. Speak from the heart about why your product rocks and how much you’re going to do for your affiliates. Be real. Make mistakes. Be goofy or silly. Leave your ego at the door, strive for the opposite of perfection and imagine you’re talking to friends… because you are.

Maybe the best analogy for creating videos is the old KISS method: Keep it Simple, Silly.

I couldn’t find the download anywhere. I checked my email, I clicked all the links and went to all the pages, I set up my new, free ‘membership’ and still the download wasn’t there. But they kept telling me to be sure to download it as soon as I watched the video. So I watched the video, but the download still did not appear.

Do you know what DID appear?

An email.

“We noticed you still have not downloaded the XYZ Document. If you need help, just click this button and someone will call you to assist.”

Ah-Ha!

Sneaky clever, don’t you think?

Here’s what they’re doing:

They’ve created an outstanding video that teaches a marketing technique. To get you to watch the video, they promise you a free download of one of their internal documents that’s made them millions.

But you can’t get to the document until you watch the video (it’s a long one) all the way to the end. You watch the video and… WHOOPSIE! Haha!

No download.

Next comes the super nice, super helpful sounding email. This is where they get you on the PHONE and sell you on their expensive program.

It’s a bit diabolical, but still I have to acknowledge their creativity.

What do most people like least about buying tangible goods online? I think it’s the shipping costs. Sure, you’re ready to pony up that $20 for the item you’re dying to have, but do you really want to pay the $7.99 shipping fee? Maybe not.

Then there’s another factor we might want to look at – remorse. Not the remorse that comes from buying something and then regretting it, but the remorse that comes from NOT adding something to your order.

Sure, you got the Super Duper Widget and the Super SUPER Duper Widget Accessory, but darn it, why didn’t you get the Super Duper Case to go with it? Blast it all, now you feel like you blew it. Except…

Except there is a company out there called Zulily that has an innovative solution for both of these obstacles. When you place an order with Zulily, you can order again anytime in the next 2-3 days and pay NO additional shipping costs.

This means you can go back and get the items you wish you’d purchased in the first place, and it won’t cost you a dime in additional shipping.

Zulily also offers to split your payment in half. You pay half now plus shipping and the other half in a month. They have your credit card on file, so the risk to them is extremely low. And I’ll bet the increase in business is substantial.

Is there a way you can apply these super consumer friendly practices to your business, and increase your bottom line in the process?

While appearing on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, super star country singer Trace Atkins tells about the time in his life before he became famous. Trace played in clubs throughout the Southwest for 5 years, moved to Nashville and played in bars for another 3 years before getting his first recording contract.

Trace says, “I always had very happy club owners because I would challenge people to drink as much as I did from the stage. So I sold a lot of liquor, which is really the business that you’re in when you’re playing in beer joints. You’re not in the music business, you’re in the liquor business.”

Craig Ferguson jumped in with his own analogy, explaining that his late night tv show wasn’t about television; it was about selling erectile dysfunction pills to lonely people. Okay, maybe Craig was joking (and maybe he wasn’t) but the point is this: You’re not always in the business you think you’re in.

Trace knew that if he wanted to stay booked in the local pubs, he needed to make the bar owners happy. And what did the bar owners really want? It wasn’t to pack their venues with people who liked to listen to country music – it was to sell drinks. It wouldn’t matter how many people showed up for the music if no one was drinking and Trace knew that. That’s why he made it his business to sell alcohol, making the bar owners happy and ensuring he continued to work.

Trace’s number one customers weren’t the fans, they were the bar owners. And later, his number one customer would be the record label. Whatever you sell, it might not be what you think it is and your customer might not be who you think it is, either.

If you’re in the business of helping small businesses with their marketing, who is your customer? The business owner, of course. And yet there is often someone who it is even MORE important to impress than the business owner, and that’s the gatekeeper. It might be an assistant, a secretary, a spouse or the manager. This is the person who is the KEY to getting to the guy or gal who makes the money decisions. If you don’t make it a priority to sell the gatekeeper first, they are going to sabotage you and you’ll never get the client.

Let’s say you’re in the weight loss industry. Are you really selling yet another method to lose weight? Or are you selling people on the hope they can feel sexy again, fit into their clothes again, live longer, overcome their crippling health challenges and so forth? If you’re a minister or a teacher, your clients aren’t your congregation or students – it’s the board that determines if you get to stay or go.

Let’s face it: If it weren’t for all the issues that being overweight brings with it – if people were just as healthy and sexy and confident with that extra weight – then you would be out of a job. You’re not selling a skinnier body, you’re selling a better quality of life, and that’s a huge distinction.

The romance niche isn’t about finding someone to move in, pay half the mortgage and make you less lonely – any decent roommate can do that. It’s about sharing life experiences with the one person who truly knows you, being yourself in front of this person and being able to completely open up and let someone else know the real you, expanding your world to encompass another and so forth.

You might think you’re a musician, a marketer, a product creator and so forth, and maybe you are. But you’re also a version of Trace’s alcohol salesperson, or whatever it takes to connect with your customer and make the sales.