Archive | February, 2021

Imagine that you’re making a video about how to declutter a closet. In the video you show the closet beforehand, you explain what you’re going to do and how you’ll do it, and then you have a montage of video clips of you working while music plays. Finally, you come back on screen and give a few parting thoughts. Not bad, right?

Except here’s the problem I see happening over and over again…

That video montage is there to show a long process condensed into a short amount of time. You could narrate over that section, but most video makers prefer to use music.

But… because it’s just music, the video makers are worried that it somehow won’t be enough and so they crank up the volume up to twice what it was. Now the viewer is reflexively jumping to turn that volume down – sometimes WAY down. In my case, I’ll usually just mute it.

And when the person comes back on video to talk to the camera and uses a regular speaking voice at regular volume, the viewer can’t hear it unless they turn the volume back up. This means that if the viewer is even still paying attention, they will need to decide if they should turn up the volume or just close the video and go on to something else. Why would anyone put their viewer in that position?

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been distracted when the volume was on mute. I never did see the end of those videos, so if they had a call to action… well, I never heard it. And it’s annoying having to reach for the volume button because music is suddenly blasting forth. It’s like if someone came up from behind you with a bullhorn and you’ve got to find the volume button to make them stop.

I know it might seem ‘artistic’ to blast music like it’s a movie scene, but do you really want to alienate your viewers? Probably not.

Plenty of bloggers like to write about their thoughts, their day or the crazy thing that happened to them on the way to the zoo. But this type of blogging is generally more for fun than for profit. To make significant money with your blog, you’ll want to focus on keyword phrases and questions your target audience is actively searching for at this time.

When you help people solve problems through free and valuable content that is relevant to your business, you reach larger audiences and build trust. The best part is you get the opportunity to show people how your products and services can help them solve their problems and fulfill their desires and needs.

Let’s say that you’re a real estate agent. Your potential clients aren’t looking for your recipe for apple pie, the award you won last week or even the number of houses you sold this month. What they do want is their questions answered:

→ “How do you buy a house?”
→ “What credit score is needed to get financing for a house?”
→ “What is the best way to invest in real estate with 10% down?”
→ “How do I know I’m buying in a good neighborhood?”
→ “What are the easiest ways to increase the selling price of my home?”

Find out what real estate prospects want to know, and then use those exact questions for your titles. Give helpful info in the blog posts and then refer them to your squeeze page to get your lead magnet, or suggest they give you a call to further answer their questions.

These types of posts can rank high in search engines without tricks because they are exactly what searchers are looking for. And once you rank, you’ll be getting free, consistent traffic from Google.

This works in just about any and every niche you can think of and it’s an easy way to demonstrate your authority while building an audience that is super receptive to your offers and services.

Here’s how you can take this knowledge and double the impact: Use the same approach for your YouTube videos. YouTube is simply a search engine for videos, which is why ranking on YouTube is similar to ranking on Google.

Choose keyword phrases and questions that match what people are looking for on YouTube. Create videos with those titles that are packed with great info. And invite your viewers to visit your website, subscribe to your list or take the action you seek.

Using this method and being consistent will yield powerful results: Free targeted traffic, building your authority with your new viewers and readers, along with gaining a steady stream of new subscribers and customers.

In the online marketing world, programs typically are promoted hard for a few days or weeks once they launch. After that, marketers and affiliates alike tend to move on to the next hot thing. This opens up a huge opportunity for anyone willing to do a little leg work. And this can work in multiple niches – not just online marketing.

One gal I know (I’ll call her Betsy for our purposes) watches her favorite marketers to see what products they create. She knows the products are high quality because she knows these particular product creators and is familiar with their work.

Once a product seller is no longer actively promoting a product – which can generally take 1 to 6 months – Betsy contacts them and asks if they can do a deal. Sometimes she buys the rights to the product and thus gets to sell it for any price she chooses and keep 100% of her sales.

Other times she negotiates a deal for her customers – a steep discount they can only get by purchasing through her.

And third, Betsy will sometimes put together a package deal of 2 or more products, either from the same or different product creators, and these package deals tend to do really well.

She builds her list by advertising that she offers steep discounts on popular programs as well as many freebies, too.

And that’s a good point… she is highly generous with ‘one problem – one solution reports’, generating about one per week and giving them away to her list. Of course, each report also promotes a discounted program, so there is a method to her generosity. I don’t know how much she’s earning doing this, but I suspect it is far, far in excess of the $5,000 a month I mentioned above.

This model could also work with anything that can be discounted, including services, tangible products and so forth. It’s a nice little business and I’d estimate she only spends about 2 hours a day on it. I think anyone can use this income strategy. How about you?

Let me ask you a question… “As an online marketer, how much should you earn?” It’s like asking how long a piece of string is. But here’s the rub: When I asked that question, I’ll bet you had an answer. And I’ll also bet that answer isn’t all that far away from what you’re used to making.

We get a job, go to work and earn $40,000. That means on some level we perceive that we are worth $40,000 a year. Your colleagues also make about $40,000 which is further ‘evidence’ that this amount is what you ‘should’ be getting paid.

How then, are you going to shift your mindset to earning $40,000 a MONTH?

Imagine going to work tomorrow and your coworker says they just got a raise from $40,000 a year to $40,000 a month. Your mind would be blown, right?

But in online marketing there are no rules for what you can and cannot earn. The only limits to how successful you can become are the ones you impose on yourself, and a surprisingly big factor is how much you think you are worth.

If you’ve earned a small sum of money all your life and now you intend to earn a big sum, you’re going to have to change your thinking and decide that you are indeed WORTH that larger sum of money.

You hold your own income potential in your hands, and it doesn’t matter what ANY other marketer is earning.

A friend of mine who does quite well (high six figures) in online marketing took a newcomer to lunch one day to give him a few tips. Three years later that newcomer was out-earning my friend by 10:1.

Somehow you’ve got to get your mind around the fact that there is no one in the same position as you in online marketing. There is no pay scale or ladder to climb. You don’t need to get seniority or even master the intricacies (you can use outsourcers for that).

Anything is possible. You can write your own paycheck by using smarter thinking and doing the work necessary.

Find that little voice in your head that says you’re not worth $X amount of dollars and tell that little guy or gal to shut up.

You decide what you’re worth and what you are capable of. Because in online marketing, anything is possible.

Here’s a quick case study that could potentially double your email profits. This marketer sends out an email to his list 5 or 6 days a week. These emails have news, information and one offer. But on the seventh day, he does something completely different, and this one simple change is doubling his income every week. I’ll bet this can work for you too!

So how does it work… Well, he calls it his “Weekly Roundup” and in it he lists all the hottest selling affiliate products offered that week. Each one gets a short section of its own with a title, description and his affiliate link.

He says that most weeks he makes as much from that one email as he does from all of his other emails combined.

I asked him if he didn’t get more unsubscribes from that email, since it looks so different from his others, but he says he makes it look and feel different on purpose. It’s his way of letting his audience know it’s the one-time weekly email, and the rest of the week they’d be getting good content and not just a sales pitch.

He also titles it, “Weekly Roundup” and uses a date such as, “January 1-7, 2021” to indicate this email will only show up once a week.

Yes, it’s simple, and often the best marketing strategies are. Implement this into your own email marketing plan and you can potentially 2x+ your income with a single weekly email.

If you already have an email list of customers, here’s an easy way to increase your profits.

One day each month, look at what your customers have purchased. If Joe bought a $10 ebook, a corresponding $47 software and a $297 course, then he might be ready for some one-on-one coaching. Email him a note reminding him of what he’s purchased and make your offer.
Or maybe Anita is purchasing $297 per month coaching from you and she’s loving the results she’s getting. Offer her an entire year of coaching for $2,500, saving her a thousand dollars and earning you a big up front payday.
What if you only sell affiliate products? If Robert purchased three different products from you and they’re all on traffic generation, do you think you can find a $497 traffic course that might be exactly what he’s ready for?
This is all about making personalized offers to some of your best customers. Some will say no, but if the offers are properly tailored, some will also say yes. And that can spell an extra four or five figures for you each month for only a day’s work.

If you’re new to marketing or don’t yet have a large following, starting your own podcast can be an uphill slog that takes months of work before you start to build real traction.

But being a guest speaker on established podcasts – what I call reverse podcasting – can immediately establish your credibility and send hot prospects to your website.

It doesn’t matter if you have a track record online because your offline experience can work just as well for getting interviewed. Remember that podcasters are always looking for interesting people to interview who bring value to their listeners.

To find out which podcasts might be a good fit for you, choose someone well-known in your niche and then discover what podcasts have had them as a guest. These are the podcasts you want to approach.

Typically, podcasters will want to know what you can offer their listeners in terms of great info. They will also link to your website in their podcast description (great for not just traffic, but also SEO) and place your name in the podcast’s title.

Once you’ve been a guest on numerous podcasts, then it might be time to consider starting your own podcast. And your first guests can be the podcasters who interviewed you since you’ve already established a relationship with them.

A good ‘About Me’ Page doesn’t have to be fancy or complicated. In fact, it just needs to communicate a few key things. And yet people keep making these same 7 mistakes over and over again on their About Pages.

1: Surprise! Your ‘About Me’ Page isn’t about you.

Nope. It’s about the person who visits the page. This is where you tell that person why they should bother with you, or products or your site.

Talk about their problems which you solve. Talk about how you can help them to achieve their goals. Let them know what’s in it for them. And only talk about yourself in the context of how you help your readers.

2: You’re talking too much.

Your About Me Page should be interesting, not mundane; just long enough, but no longer. Write your rough draft for your About Page. Set it aside for a day or two. Come back and remove everything that doesn’t move your prospect closer to knowing you, liking you and trusting you. Then have a friend read it and tell them to point out all the parts where they were losing interest, and either fix or remove those.

3: Your writing is boring.

Borrrrrringgggg. Snooze… Write in your own voice, lose the hype and the jargon, be a little funny and most of all, be your real self and not some drone.

4: You’re using only video.

Sure, video is great for establishing rapport… with those people who like video. But you’ll have visitors who don’t want to have audio blasting for everyone around them to hear, and you’ll have other visitors who don’t want to sit through a 5-minute video.

If you do use video, keep it short and be sure to include text, too.

5: Your picture is AWOL.

Okay, having your photo on your About Page is optional. I know some people like to keep their face on the down-low because, well… trolls. But if you don’t mind having your photo online, then by all means put it on your About Page to give people a better sense of who you are. It will also help them to remember you, too.

6: Your name is missing.

Have you ever been on a website with awesome writing and you wanted to know who is writing this stuff, but the About Page just has some corporate mumbo-jumbo and nobody’s NAME? I have. You need a first name and a last name, so don’t just say, “Bob” because I want to know, Bob WHO?

If your name is too generic, such as John Smith, you might add a middle name to everything you do online to make it easier to find you in the search engines, such as John Vincent Smith. If you don’t want to use your REAL name, that’s okay, too. Many people work under professional pseudonyms. Also, remember to add any professional, relevant credentials you might have.

7: You don’t have an About Page.

If you’ve read this far, then I’m guessing you understand the importance of an About Page, even if you don’t have one yet. If you’re hoping no one has noticed that you don’t have one, well… we have.

And if you’ve given it some totally clever name like, “Guess What?” “The Deets” or “Check This Out” then it would be a great idea to rename it to “About” or “About Me.” Why? Because if I’m looking for the “About Me” page then I’m going to pass right over all those ‘clever’ names and assume you didn’t bother to create an About page.

Million dollar business ideas are everywhere and they don’t even need to be original. If you’ve ever been on Ebay, then you know that once you click on one item, another dozen items will be suggested. And while most are targeted towards you and what you’ve searched for, now and then something odd will pop up. Like Cat Butt Push Pins.

I’m not making this up… It’s a real thing. Intrigued, I clicked on it and found that for about $15 you can buy six plastic push pins (like for a cork board) that are in the shape of six different cat butts; Calico, tabby, black, etc.

Thinking the price was an anomaly, I searched on Ebay and found only one other listing, and that one cost $20. Then I went to Amazon and found I could get their very last set of cat butt push pins sent to me for $17.99.

Walmart, on the other hand, would be glad to sell me a set for just $49. That’s right… $49 for six plastic push pins in the shape of cat’s butts.

I might be in the wrong business…

This isn’t the point of this article but as an aside, here’s a business idea for you: Hire an artist to design 8 cat butt push pins for you, being sure to NOT copy the ones already out there. Find a company – likely in China – who can cheaply manufacture push pins and get an initial run of these made. You don’t even need fancy packaging yet.

Sell them on Ebay, Amazon, Etsy, Mecari and any other website you can think of. Find your best price point where they sell quickly and yet you are making as much profit as possible (Hint: It will be lower than $49 and likely lower than $17.99).

Use your profits to design clever packaging and now get them into stores as well as continuing to sell on Amazon. Okay, that’s one business idea, but it’s not even my point.

Here’s my point – or rather, my two points.

First of all, there are great ideas everywhere, and you don’t even need to be all that original. Clearly there is a market for clever push pins that isn’t being fully satisfied. Who knew? Push pins are the sort of thing we take for granted, but one enterprising person said, “What if? What if I design these in the shape of cats’ butts?”

While his friends were falling on the floor laughing at him, he made a go of it. And without competition, he’s selling these things for a ridiculous price, too. There is room for improvement here in quality, in appearance and in price. Three opportunities in one.

What products do you take for granted that can be improved? If you have no desire to get into physical products, that’s okay. What virtual products need improving, revamping or even inventing?

During the pandemic sites like Zoom and Skype went crazy. But what about people who want to talk online and don’t want to have to think about their appearance or the state of disarray their room might be in? Bingo! Clubhouse was invented – audio chat rooms, no video and no recordings.

Second, when you have a rabid, hungry market, you can sell them the darndest things. People are PASSIONATE about cats and they will literally pay $17.99 for 6 push pins if they are in the shape of cats’ butts.

To put this into perspective, a non-cat-butt-shaped push pin costs a few cents at most, while these cost $3 apiece when bought in a set of 6. That’s not just insane… it’s also a great example of how passions override common sense in purchasing and how you can take advantage of that in the market.

It might seem strange to think of icons as helping with your email marketing efforts. After all, it’s the message that’s important, right? But anything that can help you to better convey your message is something worth looking into.

Icons can highlight your company’s benefits and show the positive effects of your offer. They can demonstrate particular features or characteristics of your product or service. And they can be used to split email blocks, making the message easier to read.

What else can icons do for your emails?

1. Icons help organize the content.

No doubt you’ve seen this on webpages but perhaps not as often in emails. Imagine if your email has three options:

→ Ask a Question
→ Share Feedback
→ Get More Information

Each of these can have an appropriate icon that helps to organize and clarify the options. “Ask a Question” can be a question mark; “Share Feedback” might be a talk balloon and “Get More Information” could be a video icon, a book icon, a person icon or whatever, depending on the format of the information.

2. Icons help express ideas.

There are times when an icon can be used either in place of – or in conjunction with – a keyword to clarify the meaning in a more straightforward manner. For example, a play button icon is so universally understood, it makes more sense to use that than to use the word, “Play.”

3. Icons can replace heavy images.

Images in emails are great… until they aren’t. Images need to be downloaded, they can be blocked by email clients and unfortunately their appearance changes in different apps. While icons are less expressive, there are times when they are a better choice than stock photography.

4. Icons support your brand identity.

If you are using a particular set of icons on your website and advertising, it pays to use them in your emails as well to maintain your overall design and brand strategy.

I’ll bet there are certain businesses that you recognize by icons (for example, social media sites). If you received an email from them that did not contain those icons, it wouldn’t look authentic. In fact you might even suspect it was a phishing email to steal your info.

5. Icons reinforce interactive elements.

When it comes to things like call-to-action buttons, icons can reinforce the action you want taken by the reader. And they can also be animated to draw attention to something important, like the “Check it out” or “Grab your copy” button.

If you’re just getting started in email marketing, give icons a pass until you master the basics. But if you’re looking for a way to increase your email readability and conversion rates then I highly suggest you spend the next week observing how others are using icons in their emails while you devise your own strategy.

It’s surprising what a few little icons can do for your business!