Barry Dunlop – How To Make Money Online

Nate Rifkin | How To Write Better Copy and Make More Sales

Barry Dunlop — Thu, 01 Feb 2018 21:00:10 +0000

Nate Rifkin is one of the most prolific and successful young Copywriters of his generation.

His clients include publishing behemoth Agora, as well as starting his own nutritional supplement company.

But, unless you have a large budget it is almost impossible to hire him!

So we are very fortunate that Nate agreed to do a Skype Interview for us.

In this interview, Nate reveals his…

# 5-step Formula For Writing Sales Copy.

# How he researches a product,

# How he makes sure he is speaking his customers language

# Why sometimes too much knowledge can be a hindrance.

Enjoy!

Barry Dunlop

PS: We are including a very detailed edited transcript which we recommend you print off and read. There is also an audio recording for those that prefer to listen. This was a Skype Interview so in places the quality of recording is a little crackly – but this should not distract from your enjoyment too much;

Nate Rifkin Copywriter | Secrets To Writing Better Copy and Making More Sales

We started our interview by asking Nate how he got involved in being a copywriter?

Nate Rifkin: 5 Step Formula For Writing Sales Copy

1) Who should get this product? In one sentence, tell me who they are and what their problem is.

2) What’s the story behind your product or service?

3) What problems does it solve? Big and small, tell me all of them.

4) What’s your offer? What are you charging, why is it a bargain, and why should I buy it right now?

5) In one, short sentence, tell me what’s so great about this product.

Edited Transcription – Nate Rifkin Interview

We started our interview by asking Nate how he got involved in being a copywriter?

Nate Rifkin: …when I was around college age, in fact just entering my first year, I’d be surfing the Web. I’d find these odd, really long letters. They were sales letters. I didn’t know what they were.They just read like these letters where someone who had just written a book or put together a DVD course, let’s say it was on fitness or health or something, they would describe this amazing story of the struggles they went through, what they did to overcome them, all the things they learned, and talked about this product that they self-published and that they’re offering.

I would buy these courses. They were pretty cool. That’s when I start to actually discover this is a whole business. It was a way of bypassing a traditional publishing house or even just lucking out and getting involved with a massive business that creates products and being your own business owner and creating your own products.

I always loved writing, so I decided I was going to scour the Internet and search around, and study, and buy everything I could on how to write these kinds of letters, because I wanted to be in business for myself, and I was just some little guy. I didn’t have any connections.

I figured this was the best, and maybe the only way someone like me could do that. That was about 12 years ago, and I’ve been obsessed with it ever since.

Barry Dunlop: Thanks, Nate. The most important thing, probably, is the last thing you said. You’ve “been obsessed with it ever since.”

You mentioned you bought some books or you read something? Was there any particular mentor you wanted to give a shout out to? Is there anybody’s writing who, in particular, influenced you?

Nate Rifkin: Yeah. There’s a big one. The one that changed my life, that one is Gary Halbert. He’s pretty easy to find online. Unfortunately, he’s passed away now, but he did leave behind a legacy called the “Gary Halbert Letter. This is someone who got started in direct mail.

Gary Halbert is someone who generated millions and millions of dollars in a plethora of different businesses, who in time went on to teach how he did it. The Gary Halbert Letter is essential reading for anyone serious about about becoming a copywriter.

Barry: It’s remarkable how many people tell me Gary Halbert was the big influence. As you say, he’s no longer with us, but his influence lives on.

Nate, your 5-Question Formula For Writing Copy is a huge help for any copywriter, but are there any specific steps you may suggest for a first time copywriter?

Nate: One of the biggest problems I hear is overwhelm.

There are a million different ways to talk about something that you want to sell.

# Before you write any copy you need to know exactly where your audience is at in terms of the problem they’re facing?

# Do they know what options / solutions they have available?

# What solutions have they already tried?

For example, let’s say your potential customer has heart disease.

In addition, perhaps they have high blood pressure.

And they have already been to see their doctor.

Before you write any copy you must do your research.

If available, survey existing customers – what issues did they experience? What persuaded them to buy your product?

Another place to look is on social media sites – they are particularly good for identifying the PAIN your prospect has.

It is this PAIN you address in your sales copy!

I also recommend Amazon.com for doing research – reading the reviews is another great place to identify pain.

The best copywriters are human data-gathering machines

Coming back to a prospect who has heart disease…

Are they aware of the various prescription options?

Have they considered natural health supplements?

What have they tried, and what are they trying right now?

Then – and this is personal to everyone – you have to take stock of your solution and figure out if they’re even aware of its existence, if they’ve tried it before, and if they were satisfied (or not) with it the first go around.

Barry: That is very interesting Nate:

You need to know what they’ve used already and what happened when they used this previous solution.

Nate Rifkin: Yes, either way, you have to know.

I prefer ‘speaking’ to audiences that already have tried some standard solutions that didn’t work out. That’s when copywriting can be at its most powerful!

At its best, copywriting is education-based marketing.

However there can be some pitfalls…

Let’s say you’re offering a solution for heart health that has to do with lowering levels of homocysteine.

You could write a headline being like:

“New breakthrough solution cuts your levels of homocysteine in half. Read all about it,”

But there is a problem…

Hardly anyone knows about homocysteine!

Barry: I don’t know what it is, Nate.

Nate: Exactly. I have failed to research the awareness of my audience, and as a result, everyone will ignore my message.

On the other hand, contrast that with say blood pressure, where I write a headline saying,

“Amazing natural breakthrough lowers your systolic blood pressure 20 points overnight.”

Someone who has just been to their doctor, and discovered they have an issue with high blood pressure will want to read more.

Indeed, anyone with high blood pressure will want to read more!

You must speak your prospect’s language – no matter what the product or service. This is why the research is so important.

Imagine that instead of saying the above I had said…

“New threat to heart health that has to do with the pressure to your veins and your arteries”

It would have nowhere near the same impact!

People understand blood pressure – Like I said, you must speak your prospects language.

What’s funny about all this is I haven’t even really talked about writing yet.

The phrase is copywriting, but all I’m talking about it getting familiar with your audience and knowing where they’re at.

From there on, your sales message continues in the form of education.

You figure out where they’re at. You figure out what they know, what they’ve already tried, and then you educate them on what the pitfalls were and what they should do next.

For instance, in the blood pressure example, they already know about it, so you basically educate them on why other solutions are not as good. You may say, “You’ve probably heard of these prescription drugs. Sure, they might lower your blood pressure, but here is the problems with the side effects,” and then you continue from there.

In the case with, like you said, you’ve never heard of homocysteine. Right off the bat, even before I mentioned the term, if I’m writing to prospects interested in heart health, I would describe how there is a certain threat to your heart that you have not heard of, and here’s why you haven’t heard of it.

“Let me tell you the story. Let me tell you about this threat and what the science is behind it,” and then I would say, “OK, it’s called homocysteine,” and then — and only then — will I get to the part of the formula where I actually describe the solution, because I can’t describe the solution unless people know what the issue is.

Barry: That sounds amazing. I think actually the key takeaway for me is “education-based marketing.”

Nate: Yeah, but I do need to give credit. This is commonly referred to as “the state of awareness of the market”, and it was the book “Breakthrough Advertising” by Eugene M. Schwartz , who really broke this down.

That book is out of print, decades old. You can find copies on Amazon selling for over 350 bucks per copy, but the secret juice of that book is pretty much what I just revealed, knowing where the state of your market is.

Barry: That’s a good way of putting it, again, “the state of your market,”

Nate: I think that’s good for now, because the rest will be revealed as we go along. That’s kind of what I really wanted to hammer home, that first part of the state of awareness, so please fire away with what else you’ve got.

Barry: You’ve semi-answered some of this question already, but just for clarification, what do you do first when you are asked to write copy about a product or service you have no personal experience off?

Nate: The first thing I do is I stay away from that blank page, and I stay away from any heavy writing.

As in the example above I dive deep into researching the background of the product, researching how it works, researching the problem it addresses, and researching the folks who are most in need of the product, because they’re the ones experiencing the problem.

The market, the problem, and the solution, I research all that stuff.

I’m looking for how does it work, and what is the news story I can tell in my education-based marketing?

I’m learning about the folks who need it, because I want to make sure that I don’t, basically, say something stupid that they’re just reading it and going, “What? You obviously don’t know me. This obviously doesn’t apply to me, and it’s kind of a turn off.”

I’m also researching the problem itself, because I want to make sure that I understand it properly, for basically the same reason I understand the market. I want to make sure everything matches and aligned.

I guess I might as well go with the same example.

I will research what high blood pressure actually is, the science behind it, why it’s a problem, and in doing so I will find out some interesting things that I can reference in my education-based marketing.

For instance, with High Blood Pressure I’m going to look pretty terrible if I wrote a piece of copy that says…

“Have you felt the strain of high blood pressure when you suddenly get up, and it really hurts?”

You see that is not how high blood pressure manifests itself and I will almost certainly break rapport with my audience, because they see that I don’t know what I am talking about.

However, if on the other hand I said:

You may feel fine right now, and not know you have a serious blood pressure issue.

Then that is more likely to grab attention.

Then I want to research the mechanism behind the product, what makes it work, because I want to find out what makes it superior. I’m going to find out if there’s an herbal solution for blood pressure, I’m going to find out it actually brings levels, keeps it to the normal range, keeps them in the normal range, and it does this without any side effects.

I need to know all these facts because people are so jaded today.

You can’t just scream bigger and bigger benefits at them.

In copywriting you have to address customer skepticism and given them a reason why something is going to work.

I have to do my research, because if I don’t know my stuff, I’m going to be a terrible educator and then the entire sales message becomes a deck of cards and someone kicked at it like it’s a soccer ball. It’s all going to fall apart.

That is the first thing I do. If I’m entering a new market with a new product, it’s even more important than ever.

Someone asked me recently, how much of what you do is research compared to actual writing? Unless I know my stuff, it’s going to be like 80 percent research.

Barry: 80% research! That is remarkable.

Another big takeaway here is saying something that’s not correct.

I mean, if that’s not what they’re experiencing, they’re catch you out and say, “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” and close the page, and go somewhere else.

Nate: That’s crucial, and it’s very tricky, because kind of by definition it’s not something you can 100 percent watch out for, yourself.

You may be working the project alone locked up in your room, but eventually, this is going to go out to other people and they are different people from you. It’s very helpful if you have someone you can share your writing with and get feedback. Someone who perhaps knows the product and industry better than you.

You are not requesting a marketing opinion – rather you want to know:

“Am I addressing you properly? Am I speaking to you, what your experiences are?”

And most importantly, “Am I saying something where you’re like, ‘No, that’s not how I feel. That’s not something I’m going through'”? That one little extra step can kind of save you from tripping over yourself with your words.

Barry: Excellent, I like that a lot.

I have been told that when writing copy, the headline’s the most important thing, and if you don’t get that right, you might as well not write at all. Do you have any particular hacks or secrets for coming up with great headlines? What is a good headline?

Nate: I agree with what you say, because a headline…just think of it this way, it’s like a first impression when someone walks up to you and shakes your hand. In that five seconds, there is a lot going on. There is a lot of impressions being made, and a lot of them will never be unmade, even if you hang around that person for the next year. It’s kind of similar with headlines, even more so because if your headline isn’t going to grab the reader’s attention, they’re not going to hang around at all, much less for a year.

When you’re aware of your audience’s awareness, when you know what they know, and you know where they’re at, you can craft a great headline that speaks to them exactly where they are, and introduces them to a new idea.

Your headline’s job is simple. You want to grab their attention in a way that’s relevant to the issue they’ve got, and then presents them with kind of an inkling, a curiosity, where they realize, “You know, I gotta pay attention to this.”

Just as important as what a headline does is what it does not have to do. I didn’t say you had to sell your product. I didn’t say you had to get them to bust out the credit card and buy anything, or even believe you, or even necessarily trust you, not yet.

You just want to get them to say, “OK, I’m gonna check this out.” That’s it.

It’s kind of like a newspaper. People are aware of a current event going on. That newspaper headline grabs their attention because it speaks to what they already know, that something’s going on. It’s sort of an implied promise that they’re going to learn more information that’s very valuable to them.

Barry: That’s perfect. I like that a lot.

Do you have a best-ever headline that you’re particularly proud of, that you’d like to share with us? And if you have one, why did it work so well for you?

Nate: Let me think. There is one that, not only, it’s very successful and I think could be a great example, here.

The headline is:

“Toss Your Alkaline Water Down the Drain.”

Barry: Nice.

Nate: There’s a number of reasons why it works pretty well.

The audience that sees that headline is an audience that is interested in their health.

If you walk into a Whole Foods, or a store like that, there are rows and rows of these premium-priced waters boasting of their alkalinity, so it’s on people’s minds.

They’ve seen it. It’s something they can reference and it’s something they traditionally view as healthy, or positive, or certainly socially acceptable.

A headline saying toss it down the drain, it’s going to make them go, “What?

Why would I want to do that? As far as I know it’s good for me.

Is it dangerous? Is it bad? Is it just stupid? Why?

Is it wrong in some way that I should be even keeping this alkaline water in my home?”

There’s only one answer and that is to keep reading to discover this reason why.

Barry Dunlop: You’re really on fire, my friend. I appreciate your time.

I was wondering do you have and ideas or thoughts on creating lead magnets or offers that gets people to opt into your sales funnel?

Nate Rifkin: Sure. I’m not as involved in that as I am in the longer copy that sells the actual product, so I’ll be quick about it. I do have my ear to the floor of what’s working very well.

Answering one bit of curiosity is always what works best with lead magnets.

Just today, I saw a headline for a lead magnet that read:

“What oatmeal does to your body”

That got my curiosity. Made me ask:

Is oatmeal good for me? Or is it bad for me?

Naturally I want a copy of the report so I can discover whether or not oatmeal is good for me.

One little thing is all it takes.

One is infinitely better than two, three, four, five, or six.

When creating a Lead Magnet pick one thing that sparks folks so much they just need to know the answer to it.

Barry Dunlop: Yeah, that’s great. Now that all makes sense, my friend.

You’ve been a copywriter for a little while now and things change. Is there anything in particular that used to work and doesn’t work now, or vice versa, for example? What’s working right now that people really should know about that is relatively new on your scene?

Nate Rifkin: There’s two things that come to mind:

First is what’s not working well.

In terms of the state of awareness of the market people have increasingly already tried a lot of different solutions for their problem and have not been satisfied with those solutions. This is quite a different scenario from say a few decades ago.

People and prospects generally are a lot more jaded these days.

When you’re writing an ad and you’re not addressing the facts that people have tried other things and they did not work, you’re going to have a real tough time selling them.

You need to address their previous disappointments in your sales copy. (Again all part of your detailed research)

I mean, how are they not to know that what you offer them will not FAIL them also?

The second thing I would mention is that your marketing should match the media that the buyer is consuming on a regular basis.

Let me break that down.

30 + years ago, when Gary Halbert was in direct mail, he would send out sales letters that looked like letters because that’s what the person wants to read, a letter. It didn’t need to be a fancy catalog with amazing graphics.

However, when Gary ran ads in magazines, he made sure to format them like magazine articles because that’s just the easiest, most convenient thing for people to consume. Their defenses are down and they’re open to your message.

It’s the same thing with television when infomercials came out, they would often be in a format of news programs and interviews. That is what I mean by matching your message / sales copy with the media format that your buyer is used to watching / reading.

Then this funny thing called the Internet came along and marketers for a while struggled like, “What are people wanting to see on the Internet, and how do we align our sales messages with that? What’s the format?”

Today we’ve kind of figured that out in terms of presenting things with video, and also presenting things with pages that have pretty nice graphics that make it look like a nice WordPress blog.

Those are the two things — making sure that you’re up-to-date with just how many solutions your audience has tried and failed with, and also making sure that your sales message matches what people are used to seeing on the Internet.

By the way, an easy hack for that is to just look at the most popular media blogs and publications and social media sites. If you can mimic the look and feel and experience of them, you’re going to be delivering your content in a way that your audience will appreciate and consume better.

Barry Dunlop: That’s a very strong tip, Nate.

Do you have anything else you’d like to share with us that you feel would be valuable to our audience?

Nate Rifkin: Sure. My last little warning to entrepreneurs and would-be copywriters is a simple one:

Beware of the curse of knowledge.

It’s an advantage that you know your stuff, you have your product line, and you have your facts down cold. The curse of knowledge is you might be speaking to your audience in a way that’s a little bit too in-depth or fast for them.

My words of wisdom would be, take a step back. Make sure, even before you’re selling or asking for an order, make sure your audience gets it. Make sure you understand where they’re at.

Make sure that they get why your solution is better.

If you can show them that you know where they’re at and why your solution is better, they’ll credit you with knowing your stuff and more importantly, buy from you!

Provided the above is applied then the selling part will be a very easy, natural, and mutually-beneficial process from all!

Barry: Thanks Nate, that is an awesome summary. A great deal of value for here, for both the apprentice copywriter and the seasoned pro!

=> Nate Rifkin is one of the busiest and most in demand copywriters on the planet. Contact Nate via his website at NateRifkin.com

Nate Rifkin – 5-step Formula For Writing Sales Copy

Copywriting Related Posts On IncomeDiary:

Ted Nicholas Interview – Master Copywriter Reveals His Billion Dollar Secrets, Creating Killer Copy That Sells

Ray Edwards Copywriter – Interview

The post Nate Rifkin | How To Write Better Copy and Make More Sales appeared first on How To Make Money Online.

Top 30 Website Sales Of All Time

Barry Dunlop — Mon, 23 Oct 2017 10:00:59 +0000

A lot has changed since we first published Top 30 Website Sales Of All Time back in March 2009.

In this, our 2017 update we feature some brand new websites such as JET.com and Lynda.com.

All 30 website sales have been at valuations of over 1 Billion USD and the largest grossing exit was for 26.2 Billion!

Truly starting a website is still one of the best routes to riches!

If you are planning to sell your website one day then there can be no better advice than to start with the end in mind or as Ryan Allis succinctly puts it:

“You have to work with the end in mind and every day make sure your working towards it”

That last bit is particularly important:

Ask yourself daily – are you working towards your goals?

The entrepreneurs who founded the businesses below are outstanding examples of starting with the end in mind and working towards your goals.

I am inspired, I hope you are too!

Special Notes:

a) We are focused on successful Website Sales by founding entrepreneurs. We have not included businesses that went public (eg Facebook and Twitter) – However an number of the successful Website Sales have been as a result of the business being bought by Public Companies.

b) Not all Website Sales worked out well for the purchaser. An example of that was Microsoft paying over 6 Billion in cash for online display advertising company aQuantive in 2007 (No 2 in our list)

Top 30 Website Sales Of All Time

Rank	Website	Acquired By	Price	Acquisition Date
1	LinkedIn	Microsoft	$26.2 B	Dec 8, 2016
2	Aquantive	Microsoft	$6.33 B	Aug 10, 2007
3	Yahoo	Verizon	$4.5 B	Jun 13, 2017
4	Geocities	Yahoo	$3.6 B	May 28, 1999
5	Chewy	PetSmart	$3.35 B	Apr 18, 2017
6	Allegro	Permira	$3.3 B	14 Oct, 2016
7	WebEx	Cisco	$3.2 B	Mar 15, 2007
8	DoubleClick	Google	$3.1 B	Apr 14, 2007
9	Jet.com	Walmart	$3 B	Aug 7, 2016
10	OpenTable	Priceline Group	$2.6 B	Nov 7, 2016
11	Zulily	Liberty Interactive	$2.4 B	Aug 17, 2015
12	GSI Commerce	eBay	$2.4 B	Mar 28, 2011
13	TRADEX	SAP Ariba	$1.86 B	Mar 10, 2000
14	KAYAK	Priceline Group	$1.8 B	Nov 8, 2012
15	YouTube	Google	$1.65 B	Oct 9, 2006
16	Overture Services	Yahoo	$1.63 B	Jun 14, 2003
17	Lynda.com	LinkedIn	$1.5 B	Apr 9, 2015
18	PayPal	eBay	$1.5 B	Jul 8, 2002
19	eBay India	Flipkart	$1.4 B	Apr 10, 2017
20	Avito	Naspers	$1.2 B	Oct 23, 2015
21	Billmelater	eBay	$1.2 B	Oct 6, 2008
22	Yammer	Microsoft	$1.2 B	Jul 19, 2012
23	Zappos	Amazon	$1.2 B	Jul 22, 2009
24	Tumblr	Yahoo	$1.1 B	May 17, 2013
25	MapQuest	AOL	$1.1 B	Dec 22, 1999
26	Art Technology Group	Oracle	$1 B	Nov 2, 2010
27	Dollar Shave Club	Unilever	$1 B	Jul 19, 2016
28	Ebates	Rakuten	$1 B	Sep 9, 2014
29	Instagram	Facebook	$1 B	Apr 9, 2012
30	Lazada Group	Alibaba	$1 B	Apr 12, 2016

Final thoughts on Website Sales:

=> Every website I create is a asset I will sell one day.

=> My websites don’t just earn me money every day – they are my retirement fund!

Are you considering selling your online business?

=> Claim Your Free Website Valuation & Exit Strategy Today

Save

The post Top 30 Website Sales Of All Time appeared first on How To Make Money Online.

21 Smart Ways To Increase Website Value

Barry Dunlop — Mon, 02 Oct 2017 19:56:30 +0000

The subject of website value – attracts a lot of conflicting opinions!

Worse still, there is a multitude of so-called online “website value” calculators that claim to tell you how much your website is worth! Think about it – how can any website claim to give you a website valuation, without knowing your revenues, your profit?

No wonder website owners get confused!

If you own a blog, an eCommerce site, an Amazon FBA site, a lead generation site or any type of website here are:

21 Smart Ways To Increase Website Value

Special Note: No matter if you intend to sell your website now, or indeed never sell, there is much information here that will help you build a better website business.

#1 To Increase Your Website Value, Start With the End In Mind

It was Stephen R. Covey in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, who in habit #2 introduced us to “starting with the end in mind’.

This one ‘simple strategy’ makes the difference when it comes to building website value – but it is often overlooked!

Fact is – you are never going to build website value and worth without first acknowledging it and stating it as a GOAL.

So let us start with this thought…

What is your exit plan?

Who will buy your website business?

Why will they buy your business and for how much?

A wise friend once said:

The Biggest Mistake A Small Business Can Make Is Thinking Like A Small Business

If your goal is a successful exit with a life-changing sum of money in the bank, then thinking and acting like a small business is one of the first things you will need to stop doing!

Millions of dollars (or Pounds, or Euros or whatever your currency) does not fall into your lap by accident.

There is lots more we could add here – but perhaps the most important thing is knowing who your potential buyers are.

Even if it may be many years in the future, now is the time to appear on that buyers radar, to make connections with them, to network with them.

Knowing the largest players in your market and understanding their intentions is invaluable when it comes to finding buyers for your website..

Do You Buy Websites?

Join Our Website Buyers List – subscribe below:

Subscribe to Website Buyers

#2 Use Diversified Traffic Sources

Bloggers and online business owners boost about getting huge amounts of business from SEO, or Facebook or whatever the latest Hot Traffic method is.

But what if Google no longer likes your site or suddenly advertising on Facebook doubles in cost – where are you then?

Experienced buyers of websites and online investors will down value your website business if most of your income/traffic comes from one source.

Having most of your traffic coming from a single source leaves you vulnerable to future changes in search engine algorithms, increased competition, and other factors.

Diversity in traffic is also a factor that search engine algorithms increasingly consider more and more.

You should try to get traffic from a multitude of the following sources:

Search (Google, Bing, Yahoo!, etc.)
Social Media (Facebook, Reddit, Twitter, YouTube, etc.)
Direct
RSS Feeds
Partner Websites
Other Industry Specific Blogs
Industry Specific Forums
PPC Ads

#3 Create Unique Evergreen Content

Over the past few years, online marketing has shifted from ‘outbound’ to ‘inbound’ marketing. For you, this means that you must educate your customer, not just sell to him or her.

Unique content is one of the best ways to provide educational material about your industry, which informs the client and explores his needs and concerns. In addition, through such content, you can position yourself as an authority in your industry. Having a blog is one of the best ways to present your own content.

When possible, your content should also be “evergreen” – meaning it should preferably be on topics that are unlikely to change significantly in the future. Evergreen content will keep attracting visitors even in the long-term future and will keep generating new clients.

You can find many content writers for your business through freelance platforms such as:

For an example of evergreen content check out this IncomeDiary post from 2012 – Thoughts On Success

Over 5 years later this one post still brings this website traffic every day!

#4 Secure Domain variations | Major Social Media Extensions

With so many domain extensions available today it is difficult, not to mention impractical and costly to secure every domain extension.

Our advice – focus on securing at least the .com plus your local domain extension [e.g .co.uk and .com.au]

Then if you are serious about your brand also secure .net and .org

Website buyers are impressed and reassured if you own all the major domain extensions for your brand.

If you are a Startup, a great place to check both Domain Name combinations and social media username availability is NAMECHECKR

In test search below, you will see that the .com plus Twitter handle is not available – while the .net, FACEBOOK and YouTube extensions are.

Website buyers like to see that you have secured your [brand name] in all the major social media channels.

Having a different username on Facebook compared to say Twitter or YouTube is not ideal.

Again being on every social media channel is impractical – focus on the BIG ones like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest and Linkedin. In short, establish yourself on the social media channels that your customers frequent most often.

A lot of social media can be automated – but we discourage anything spammy or BOTS crawling across the Internet auto liking certain hashtags!

Suddenly losing your Facebook or Twitter accounts because of spammy practices is a way to decrease website value!

A great way to automate your social media is to use IFTTT

For example, with IFTTT you can easily set INSTAGRAM up so that every time you do a post it also posts to Twitter, your Facebook page, and Pinterest account.

By automating your social media marketing and presence, you increase your website value faster.

#5 Increase Website Worth Through Testimonials and Star Ratings

Social proof is an essential persuasion tactic.

It creates trust with your customers, making it more likely that they will commit to making a purchase. It will also make the information you provide appear more reliable.

And there’s no better way to give social proof than by using testimonials and Star Ratings.

By placing testimonials on your website, you significantly increase your website value.

Customers relate to your brand more easily when they see active engagement coming from others like them.

Today’s evolved entrepreneur doesn’t just deliver a product – they deliver an experience!

How will buying from you differ from buying from a competitor?

It is that difference that will create the biggest increase in website value!

Scott Cook, co-founder of Intuit put it brilliantly:

“A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is – it is what consumers tell each other it is.”

This is why testimonials and endorsements are essential when building website value.

How Do You Get Testimonials?

In short – ask for them!

Follow up with customer satisfaction surveys that ask questions like:

What, specifically, was your favorite part of my product, and why?

If you were to recommend my product to your best friend, what would you say?

Of course, some customers will give you testimonials without asking – but the best policy is to ask.

You can add a link on your website where customers can provide their testimonial.

See the Expert Photography Submit Testimonial Page

Star Ratings are a slightly different subject and one that worries some entrepreneurs.

What if your competitor or a disgruntled ex-business partner decides to give you a nasty review?

Yes, that could happen – but most Star Rating services give you the opportunity to respond.

A website with thousands of 4 and 5-star reviews you will have a lot more website value than one without any star review scheme.

Accept it entrepreneur – transparency is essential in the modern business.

Businesses such as Amazon and Tripadvisor would not be the massive sites they are today without a Review Scheme.

TrustPilot and YELP are two of the biggest review sites.

Also, check out: 19 Online Review Sites for Collecting Business & Product Reviews

Want even more proof?

Check out useproof.com

This website helps deliver higher conversion rates on your website by displaying recent sales and opt-ins.

#6 Get A Premium Domain Name

Premium domain names are short, memorable, easy-to-spell names that end in popular extensions like .com. They cost more than normal domains (often a lot more) – because they are more likely to drive traffic to a website.

Also, when it comes to branding and authority – owning the generic keyword domain name (especially the .com) adds a lot of value to a business. You can use these Premium Domains to point at your main website or develop new websites on them that compliment your business. See also #8 below – Turn Your Website Into a Hub

My Own Experience:

Back in the early 2000’s, I was running a portfolio of successful lead generation sites in the home improvement niche. As that business became successful we invested in a number of generic keyword domains that added to the authority and reputation of our business. This strategy paid off handsomely when we eventually sold the business.

And it doesn’t even have to be an obvious strong generic term – check out this example:

SumoMe pays $1.5 million for Sumo.com domain name

Getting a premium domain that relates to your industry or products can give you a significant and lasting competitive advantage.

Quality domain names can also help your website achieve higher rankings in search engine results, giving you greater visibility and increasing your website value.

To purchase premium domain names, you can visit any of the following markets and search for key terms in your industry:

Of all the suggestions we are making for increasing website value this one has one of the highest cost implications – but if you have a successful business and are serious about building a valuable brand this is still one of the best things you can do.

#7 Inbound Link-building (Backlinks)

Getting back-links from reputable, high authority websites is a great way to build value. Overall, it helps you achieve two things.

First, getting back-links from highly reputable and authoritative websites makes your own domain more authoritative. Higher authority means you to rank higher in Search Engine results resulting in more traffic and greater revenue.

Second, back-links increase the diversity of your traffic sources directly by adding referral traffic.

That’s two benefits into one!

A good way to start link-building is to join the conversation on other blogs in your industry, provide valuable content to other websites in your industry through guest posts, and get links from partner sites. [ see #13 Guest Posts]

#8 For Maximum Website Value Turn Your Website Into a Hub

A good copywriter friend of mine once told me that as soon as he discovered a winning product or offer he would ‘knock himself off”.

Success breeds copycats – and my friend’s strategy was that in this instance, he may as well “compete with yourself” by creating a related but not identical product. (It could be a superior product with better features and more expensive or even an inferior product with fewer features and cheaper)

A hub is the center of activity. If you can turn your website into the center for your industry, it will become a strategic asset. You can achieve this by providing access to vital resources about your industry through your site or a series of related sites.

In point 6 above – we emphasize the advantages of buying Premium Domains.

For example, if they are 6 main keywords that describe your product offering and you own most or all of them as .com’s you will be default be creating a HUB and recognized as the premier authority.

Education of the customer is essential.

Customer education can come in the form of your own content, links to other highly authoritative industry leaders, as well as a place where customers can come and discuss.

So long as customers can navigate to everything they would need from your website, you are achieving this goal.

Reality is there will always be those who will try to emulate you – and unless you have a patent-able concept it will be difficult to protect yourself from them. The successful entrepreneur knows this and will of course also do all they can to protect their Intellectual Property (IP)

Indeed another way to add website value is to create IP (Courses, software, systems) related to your websites. If you can show that you are doing this and successfully protecting yourself, buyers will be encouraged and more likely to make you a substantial offer.

Talking of copycats here is a brilliant 2.15 min video that is too good not to share.

#9 Keep Good Records

Prepare for your buyers’ due diligence – in particular financial, legal and website due diligence.

If you run your website keeping in mind you plan to sell it one day, this kind of information will be at your fingertips.

Keeping financial records for a website is relatively straightforward – just make sure that if for example, you have more than one website that all income attributable to each website is clearly defined in your accounting. Likewise with costs. This is essential if you only plan on selling some of your websites and not all of them.

Likewise keeping track of traffic and sources of traffic is pretty straightforward with Google Analytics.

Again, make sure if you have multiple websites that you can show each website’s traffic individually.

Are there any skeletons in the closet?

Disagreements with former business partners, disputes with suppliers? unpaid bills? unhappy customers?

Don’t be naive and think the due diligence process will not discover these ‘issues’.

Indeed nothing puts off a buyer more than that feeling you are trying to hide something.

A sensible buyer will require you to sign a disclosure making you liable for any undisclosed issues that come up after the sale is concluded. All the more reason to disclose everything remotely legal or negative – even if you think it is not that important.

In fact, disclosing issues is more likely to make a potential buyer feel confident in purchasing your website business.

#10 Make Sure To Optimize Your Website For Mobile Access

OK, this should be obvious but it is remarkable how many ‘old websites’ with good evergreen content have never been updated to mobile friendly. Of course, this represents an opportunity for the entrepreneur who can pick them up cheaply and convert them to mobile-friendly.

The ever helpful Google have a mobile friendly test

Without a well optimized mobile experience, you’re likely to lose a lot of traffic, and with it significant revenue.

Not to mention that given how fast the mobile age is developing, you’re liable to fall behind the competition. If you want to increase the value of your website, it’s a must to ensure that it is mobile-optimized.

You can use an online tool, such as HubSpot’s Website Grader, to check how well your site is doing in terms of mobile optimization amongst other things.

#11 Use Great Copywriting

Effective copywriting is key to communicating your brand’s message to the consumer. It’s also the key to more sales. With well-written copy, you can tap into your buyers’ psychology, and start getting the results you’ve always wanted.

In this manner, you can increase customer engagement, click-through rate, conversions, and purchases. Great copywriting will make your online real estate more attractive and more valuable – and this is true regardless of your monetization method.

Related: How to Create a Killer Offer

#12 Use Multiple Monetization Channels

Buyers like websites that have multiple sources of income.

For example, if you are a blogger you can make income from selling your own informational products, creating a mastermind group, run your own events (seminar/conferences), run Google Adsense, website sponsorship and as an affiliate.

If you have an eCommerce store, you can also add Google Adsense to your site or launch your own affiliate program.

If you train your mind to look out for opportunities for additional revenue streams they will appear.

One store we know was selling herbal teas – but then discovered there was a huge demand for the tea caddies the teas got shipped in. (all because one customer emailed to ask if they could buy the empty tea caddies)

Whatever the case, multiple sources of revenue make your business stronger.

#13 Guest Posts | Write For Authority Websites

Quality guest content is a great way to form relationships across your industry. You can invite other authorities from your industry to post articles on your blog. And you can also get your content on other valuable sites as a guest writer.

Note the word Quality here!

IncomeDiary gets a huge number of guest posting requests but publishes very few.

The reason is simple.

Most of the so-called guest bloggers are more interested in getting a quality link back than they are in delivering quality content!

If you are going to write for an authority website take the time to produce something of real value, something that adds value to the readers’ life, something that makes the reader appreciate the website more.

Writing a load of average commentary that could be found on just about any average website is a waste of your time and the authority websites time!

IncomeDiary guidelines for writers include:

=> Your post must be original — NO SPUN CONTENT;

=> You agree you will not publish the content anywhere else (i.e., in your own blog or as a guest post in other blogs);

=> Author bios/bylines which are displayed on the post page can include one link (no keyword stuffing);

=> Articles can include non-self-serving useful and relevant links, none in the first paragraph (spammy and self-serving links will cause the article to be rejected);

=> Great grammar and spelling required — US or UK English and

=> Guest posts need to be no less than 1,500 words. (ideally in excess of 2000 words)

Guest posts are a wonderful way to generate high-quality back-links, get referral traffic and increase your brand awareness.

Creating quality guest posts is also one of the best ways to increase your site’s rank in Google search results. An incredible asset to have, which will certainly increase your value.

#14 Create A Sales Funnel

Not every website is a Sales Funnel.

Many websites are just information sites – where the visitor leaves and buys elsewhere!

A Sales Funnel, on the other hand, collects your information (usually with a lead magnet or offer) and SELLS you something.

Or as a friend of mine likes to put it:

“Give me your information, let me sell you something”

Without a properly thought out Sales Funnel your website will not be able to convert adequately.

A sales funnel involves integrating all elements of your website such that everything works together to drive sales.

From building customer awareness to gathering leads, to finally monetizing them, a sales funnel helps you bring everything together.

It also helps you clarify your strategy, and understand where future growth may come from. Such understanding can help you extract a higher value from your existing customer base.

Being able to demonstrate a sales funnel that works is one of the best ways to add value to a website.

#15 To Add Website Value – Build An Email List!

If you have been following IncomeDiary for any time, you will know the importance we attach to email marketing.

An email list of clients is precious since it provides access to a particular, targeted group of people. And you already know that your services and products interest your subscribers.

Putting out future offers to your list of subscribers is likely to give off much better conversions than cold emails. Not to mention that if you ever decide to sell your business, this will be a precious asset. A list of customers is one of the key assets buyers are looking for and without question a sure fire way to add website value.

#16 Make Use Of Original Image & Video Content

The use of image & video content is one of the best ways to drive user engagement.

Having a multitude of ways to present content, marketing material and products increases conversions and customer enthusiasm.

Video content, especially when hosted on YouTube, can also help improve search rankings. It will also improve user engagement and will increase share frequency on social media.

Visual content is also essential to create a clear brand image. With original pictures and video, you can increase the value of your online real estate.

Well produced videos are a great way to add value to not only an article but your website.

For example 21 life Lessons from Steve Jobs

#17 Deliver Your Content Through a CDN

A CDN, or Content Delivery Network, is a series of cache servers that store your online content and provide it to users from the closest server. Nowadays, CDNs deliver more than half of all traffic over the web.

A CDN adds value to your website for the following reasons:

Faster page loading speed.
Can handle high levels of traffic.
Blocks spamming bots.
Increases security against DDoS attacks.

The speed benefit is the most important. Delays in page loading time cause significant drops in conversion rates. You can check your current page loading speed here. You should preferably aim for pages that load under 3 seconds.

There are both free and paid CDNs. From the free CDNs, two excellent choices that integrate well with WordPress websites are Cloudflare & Incapsula. From the paid options KeyCDN, MaxCDN and Amazon’s CloudFront are all good options.

For more on CDN and ways to increase y0ur website speed see click here.

Also, 18 Things making your website slow.

#18 Use an SSL Certificate (HTTPS)

Acquiring an SSL certificate is essential to assure your customers that their connection to your website is secure. Its presence significantly increases customer trust, as well as the value of your online property.

Among the many other benefits, SSL encrypts data your clients send to the server. The certificate ensures that the data can only be read by the intended parties.

Other advantages include:

Protects against phishing.
Required for Payment Card Industry (PIC) compliance.
Provides certification that the website is yours and not a carbon copy.
Increases customer trust and conversions.

Despite the cost of acquiring an SSL, the benefits it provides are well worth it!

#19 Use Personalized Content

Many successful websites today make use of personalized content. Such content is most effective in eCommerce businesses, but it can work with other monetization methods as well.

Personalized content allows you to target the products/information shown to users based on personal data. This data includes:

Geographical Location.
The device used to access the website.
Search terms used.
Local time.
Referring URL.
Visit frequency.
Client behavior on the page and viewing history.

With personalized content, you can increase conversions, improve lead nurturing, and be more customer friendly. Besides, you can also target your customers with more specific marketing material.

This is why having personalized content can have a significant boost in your website’s value.

#20 Build A Network of Internal Links

The following is especially important for BLOGs.

It is a fact that every time IncomeDiary publishes an article it appears on other websites (scrapped) often within minutes.

The worse culprits get a cease and desist – but even those who get past our radar will find that this article they have ‘published’ will have lots of links embedded within it linking to our content. This article alone has 14 links to other related articles within the site.

A website without a proper system of internal links is very difficult to navigate.

Isolated, un-linked content is also more easily stolen by competitors or internet bots.

If you publish an article with many links to other pages of your website, it’s easier for users to navigate to resources they may be interested in.

In addition, it’s harder to copy your content since internal links will still redirect to your domain.

Such links also help you build the relevance of individual pages with regards to search engines.

Of course there is content (such as in a Sales Funnel) where you would not wish to cross-link or take the visitor away from the task at hand, but generally speaking, that is not the kind of content that gets stolen.

#21 Ensure You Have High-Quality UI/UX Design

Get a professional design for your site’s user interface and user experience. It will help you build a stronger brand image and will increase your website’s conversions as well.

Having a professional image that customers can relate to is one of the main ways to increase the value of your website. You can contract professional designers through crowd-sourced design competitions on the following sites:

Alternatively, you could also use the freelance platforms previously mentioned especially if you’re looking to work primarily with only one designer.

Implementing a high-quality design plus the other 20 steps is essential if you want to sell your website at the highest price as quickly as possible.

Final Thoughts!

To create a truly valuable website business you should:

a) Systematize and automate as many procedures as possible.

With the technology available it has never been easier to automate tasks. If you can show to potential buyers that you have been reinvesting profits in making your website more efficient and that they can reap the benefits when they buy your website, they will pay more for your website.

b) Remove Yourself

For a successful exit, you should be able to demonstrate that the business can operate without you.

A business that relies on an owner to succeed is going to sell for less than one that can operate without the owner.

You know you have a successful business when you can remove yourself and the business operates perfectly well without you.

Looking for a Website Broker?

Our grateful thanks to Logan Chierotti and the team at BizSold.com^SM for their assistance with creating this article.

BizSold are masters at extracting website value with over 500 successful sales and 10 years of website broker experience.

Have Logan and the BizSold team provide you with a Free Website Appraisal & Exit Strategy

Name*
First Last
Best Email*
Your Main Website Address:*
Telephone Number:*
Please provide the best numbers to contact you on. (include area code and country)
Turnover / Revenue*
Details of your recent annual turnover (at least last 12 months, ideally longer)
Tell us about your business
When did you start? Who else is involved? Major achievements?

Author Bio:
Barry Dunlop is a lifelong entrepreneur, Mastermind Facilitator and sales coach who launched his first Internet Business in 1998. He invests in renewable energy technology, Domain Names, and Website Flipping.

Save

The post 21 Smart Ways To Increase Website Value appeared first on How To Make Money Online.

Ray Edwards Copywriter – How to Write Copy That Sells

Barry Dunlop — Sun, 19 Mar 2017 07:58:13 +0000

The Step-By-Step System for More Sales, To More Customers, More Often

When asked who impresses me most in selling and persuasion…

I don’t mention a great statesman or politician or business leader or even a top sale closer…

No, for me, the greatest salespeople are the writers of persuasive sales copy!

One such person is Ray Edwards.

Lets face it, sales often gets a bad name – but not with Ray Edwards.

He is a master at taking the sleaze out of sales.

Earlier this month I was fortunate to have some time with Ray and interview him for our new series of Podcasts.

Two things in particular stood out for me…

The P.A.S.T.O.R Formula (a very easy to understand way to write persuasive sales copy)
Plus Ray has some very wise words about SEO Copywriting – top advice for all serious bloggers (19.55 min)

=> Listen to this Podcast several times. It really is that GOOD!

Free Ebook Reveals… The $2 BILLION Sales Letter You’ve Never Heard Of…
PLUS
A Free Copywriting Course

Ray Edwards – 5 Recommended Books on Writing and Copywriting

=> How to Write Copy that Sells By Ray Edwards (Get it!)

=> The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday. (fantastic book)

=> Deep Work by Cal Newport. (highly recommended)

=> Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott,

=> On Writing by Stephen King

Ray Edwards Podcast Transcript…

Barry Dunlop: First things first, Ray, and the most importantly, how did you get started as a copywriter?

Ray Edwards: It’s an interesting question to me, because I didn’t know that I was getting started.I was about eight or nine years old. I used to go to my grandparents’ house on the weekends, and they had this newspaper that they got every week.

It had the most fascinating articles in it, the most fantastic articles about how you could use certain pressure points on your body to relieve pain, and how you could absorb books in just a few minutes that other people spent weeks reading.

Only later did I discover, Barry, that these were not articles. These were long-form, direct-response copy advertisements, and they were written by Eugene Schwartz, the great copywriter from the ’50s and ’60s.

The newspaper was the “Weekly World News.” It was a tabloid, kind of fantastical, the newspaper that had stories about UFOs, the boy who eats his own head, and stuff like that.

Barry: [laughs] We had them in Ireland as well, by the way.

Ray: People love that kind of stuff. That’s why it’s at the checkout stand in the US at the grocery stores, because people buy them on impulse.Later, I got into the radio broadcasting business, and I began studying copywriting to help small business owners that we were working with — they were our clients — to help them bring dollars in the door.

Those kind of business people did not care about building their image or building a brand. What they cared about was getting the cash registers to ring so they could pay the bills every month. That was really the beginning of it for me.

Barry: Got you. I like it, actually, because if I look at my own life, quite often people ask me how I did this. I often answer, “Well, it was really an accident.”I’m sure that it isn’t really an accident, but you didn’t know you were becoming a copywriter then – but you where.

Possibly maybe the question I should have started off with then is, “How do you define copywriting? What is copywriting, and why is it so important to us entrepreneurs and small business people?”

Ray: That’s such a good question, because usually with half the people I talk to, I have to clear up the confusion about the word copywriting. Most people, many people, think that it refers to that little symbol after the title of a book, a piece of music, or a work of art that protects your intellectual property.

That’s not the kind of copywrite that we’re talking about. We’re talking about writing the words that sell products or services or ideas. That is writing copy.

It is really salesmanship or persuasion in print.

Barry: : I like that. “Salemanship or persuasion in print.”I always prided myself in being very good at face-to-face selling, and over the years, I always said to people who might congratulate me on my sales ability, that “The salespeople I really admire are the salespeople who can move you from far, far away by something they’ve written.”

Those are always the most impressive sales people to me.

In your book, “How to Write Copy that Sells,” which is a great book, you refer to the magic building blocks of sales copy. Would you mind giving a little bit of information on what are those blocks and how we use them?

Ray: Sure, I’d be happy to walk through the basics of that.What I discovered pretty early on is that there is an underlying formula to how to construct a persuasive sales message. The building blocks of a sales letter, the perfect sales letter…I’ll give you the basic outline of the sales letter. It starts…

Actually, with your permission, I’d like to back up. I think there’s a better place for us to go with this.

The building blocks are a little lengthy to describe, but there’s something I can give your listeners that I think they could start using five minutes from now to be more persuasive, not just in their sales copy, but in their emails and their conversations with people. Do you think that would useful?

Barry: That would be spot on. We’d absolutely love it. That’s what we like at IncomeSup, real actionable stuff we can take away today.

Ray: Good, because this formula that I’m about to give you, this framework, is really the foundation of the building blocks. If people want more information about the building blocks, they can refer to my book, which I think they can get on Amazon for eight bucks or something like that. Obviously, I’m going to get rich if I sell enough of those books.

[laughter]

Ray: Here’s the foundation. I call it the PASTOR framework. People look at me sometimes with the raised eyebrow when I say, “I’m going to give you the sales copy.” They’re like, “Do you want me to be a preacher? “My answer is, “No, this is about you thinking of yourself in the original meaning, context, of that word, which was to shepherd. The shepherd is in charge of caring for the flock, protecting them, feeding them, making sure they have water, keeping the predators away.”

I tell people, “If you will take that approach, if you will think of yourself as a shepherd to your customers, then you will never come across as pushy or salesy, because you’ll always be working in their best interests, to protect them.”

That’s the attitude that the word pastor is designed to invoke. The letters of the word pastor, P-A-S-T-O-R, actually stand for the outline of any persuasive messaging.

It starts like this.

The P stands for the person, the problem, and the pain.

You need to identify the person you’re writing to, the problem that your product or service is intended to solve, and you need to be able to express very clearly the pain that your person is experiencing, and you need to be able to express it in their terms, not in your terms.

What I mean by that — just a quick example — someone who is struggling to get into physical condition, into physical shape. Maybe they’re overweight, and they want to lose some pounds.

You might see their problem in the pain that they’re experiencing in terms of their cardiovascular health, the risk of diabetes, and so forth. You may see those as the big reasons they need to make this change.

They, on the other hand, don’t perceive that pain. That’s not what’s most real to them most of the time. What’s most real to them is the way they look, the way they feel about the way they look.

You need to talk about the pain the way it’s meaningful to your person. It’s a case of that old adage, that is, we sell people what they want, but we have to make sure we give them what they need.

Barry: Got you. That’s great.

Ray: The A of pastor stands for amplify, and this is where you stress the consequences of what will happen if they don’t solve the problem.

Barry, we are great creatures of denial. We are able to deny so many things.

I was a smoker for quite some time. I smoked a lot of cigarettes, about two packs a day, I was able to deny that that was really bad for me. That was creating a terrible risk for my heart. It was creating a terrible risk of cancer.

As I saw more and more people fall victim to those problems, I realized, “I need to stop this,” because the consequences of not stopping that behavior became more real to me.

That’s part of our job in the sales copy , to amplify the cost of not solving the problem.

The S in pastor stands for story and solution.

This is where you tell the story of someone who has solved that same problem using your solution, or even a solution like yours.

The T stands for transformation and testimony.

This is where you articulate the results that your product or service will bring, and you provide real, live testimonials to strengthen your case.

It’s really important to understand here that you need to talk about the transformation and not about the methodology.

The example I often like to give is if people buy the P90x weight loss and exercise fitness program, they are not buying the box of DVDs, the wall chart, and chin-up bar. That’s not what they’re buying.

What they’re buying is the six-pack abs, the muscular physique, the great-looking body that they really feel like they should have, the great-looking body that most people feel like they have, until they look in the mirror, and then they realize, “Oh, I look like that?”

They’re looking for that transformation. That’s also what you need to talk about in the offer, which is the next part of the framework.

The O is the offer.

This is where you describe exactly what you’re offering for sale. 80 percent of your offer talk, where you say, “Here’s exactly what you get,” 80 percent of what you say there is also about the transformation. This is where I see people mess this up a lot of time.

They talk about the methodology, the DVDs, the 800 pages of coursework, or the three-day seminar. That stuff, the deliverables, the vehicle that gets people to the transformation, should only be about 20 percent of your offer talk.

Finally, the R stands for response, and that just means you ask for one.

You ask for the sale.

Using those letters of the word pastor to build out the framework of your persuasive message works with any kind of messaging that you’re doing, including an interview like the one we’re doing right now.

Barry: I was almost going to say at the beginning, “Do you have a formula?” and here you give us one. I didn’t even ask you did you have a formula, and you’ve come right out with it. So many people try to make out that somehow you have to be some sort of special clever, if you like, or something like this. When you lay it out like this, it gives people like myself who, obviously, I’m fairly confident as a salesperson, but was never very confident as a copywriter. I think, “OK, well, I can follow a formula like that. That’s really quite straightforward.”

I know our audience would love that, Ray, and it’s really good.

If I may, I keep coming back to your book, How to Write Copy that Sells, but there’s something in particular that got my attention, which I think I know where it goes with this, but I wanted to get your clarification on it.

You mentioned in the book the secrets of writing blockbuster copy by watching movies. Can you elaborate? Can you go a little further into that? How in the world can I write really great copy by watching movies?

Ray: This is like the best news ever, right? You’re like this too good to be true.[laughter]

Barry: Something like that.

Ray: “I can watch “The Avengers,” and I can learn how to write copy?”

Barry: Yes.

Ray: There’s a Native American proverb that says,

“Those who tell the stories rule the world.”

I’ve written some blockbuster promotions. Some of my sales letters have brought in multimillion-dollar paydays for my clients and for me. Something that I recognized early on is that as I compared the successful pieces of copy that I had created, I began to identify the single biggest difference between copy that rocks, that really gets the job done and sells stuff like nobody’s business, is stories.

The way I came across this idea — which I’m not the first person to come across this, but I think my particular view of it is a little bit different.

I figured it out watching moves, and more specifically, watching movie trailers. You know, when you go to the theater, and they show the coming attraction previews, they have these super compelling preview reels that often more compelling than the actual movie itself?

Barry: I know I’ve gone to the movie and been disappointed. [laughs]

Ray: Yes, you walk out of the movie and say to yourself, “They put all the best stuff in the trailer.”

Barry: Sometimes. Not always, but sometimes.

Ray: Yes. I think that the secret of great movie trailers, and of great sales copy is something that I call the dominant story idea, or I call it the DSI for short. The formula — I’m into breaking things down into processes and formulae, and the formula that I see happening with the best, most successful movie trailers is they do three things without fail. There are other elements they may bring into it, but they do these three things without fail.

Number one, they give you the dominant story idea.

Number two a sample of the feelings you will get from the movie itself.

Number three, they provide proof that the movie delivers . I’ve selected a couple. In the book, I give a couple of examples. They’re older examples, and I do that because most people will recognize these films. If they don’t immediately recognize them, they were made so long ago that nobody will get mad at me for giving away the spoilers.

The first example I love to share is the movie “21,” which starred Kevin Spacey. The dominant story idea of this movie was a college math whiz professor uses his skills to beat the Vegas casinos, gets seduced by the dark side, and gets in trouble with some very, very bad guys.

The sample feelings are we see Ben Campbell and his innocent face. We see him start winning. We see him getting seduced by money, power, and very hot women, and then we see him getting into some really scary situations.

We’re already kind of tense, and thinking, “I want this guy to win, I don’t want bad things to happen to him.” The proof that the movie works is really social proof, because we see Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, and Laurence Fishburne.

These are proven actors that we love, and some very compelling scenes. They’re tightly edited, only the best parts are shown, and in the background, we’re anchored to the sound of The Doors playing “Break on Through to the Other Side.”

We get all these feelings delivered to us, proof that the movie works, and we instantly get the dominant story idea. We could walk out of the theater and say, “Well, I’ll tell you what that movie is about. It’s about this guy who learned how to beat the casinos, and then they start chasing him down.

“He’s in trouble with the mob.” It’s very easy to describe the dominant story idea. When we’re writing our copy, we need to first of all, showcase our dominant story idea, “What’s the big idea of our copy?”

Number two, give sample feelings. If we look at movie trailer examples, in your copy, you need to show some scenes that will help the reader feel the feelings they want to get from your product .

To go back to the P90x DVD product, if you watch their ads on television, their infomercials, what you see is transformation after transformation after transformation. You see people who look maybe like you do now, and then you see those people transformed into what you want to look like in the near future.

That’s not an accident. If you look at those commercials very carefully, Barry, you will see that the Beach Body people have selected an assortment of individuals who pretty much look like anybody.

Anybody in the audience who’s watching this is going to find somebody that looks sort of like them. That’s not an accident. Then proof the product works are the before and after shots.

That’s an example of how to use this framework that movie producers use to pull people in and get their attention, and get them interested in the story.

Barry: Wonderful. This is absolute gold dust, this is. Assuming that I’m a rookie copywriter, or I’m a business owner, which is most of our audience, who might be writing a sales letter or a sales copy for the first time in their life, in your experience, what’s the biggest mistake people make when they first start writing copy?

Ray: There’s absolutely one biggest mistake that wrecks and destroys most copy, and that is writing the copy for the benefit of the marketer instead of writing it for the benefit of the customer. We have such a hard time getting out of our own heads, and into the heads of the people we’re selling to. This is almost impossible to do without interacting with customers in some way.

Maybe it’s reading emails from customers. Maybe it’s reading your customer support desk tickets. The best way is to do it through talking with actual customers and listening to their language, the way they describe their problems, their situation, their life, and writing from their perspective.

One way to gauge this is to go through your copy and see how much of the time you spend focused on you, your awesomeness, your good product, your good reputation, your good track record.

These are all things that are important for people to know, but really, 80 percent of the copy should be about the problem that your customer has, how you’re going to help them solve it, and the pain that they experience.

Jay Abraham is the one who made the observation that if you can describe your customer’s problem in so much detail that you can describe it better than they can, they automatically assume you know how to fix the problem.

Barry: That’s wonderful. I get that, that’s clever.

Something that’s always fascinated me, Ray, about copy, and you will know the stats a whole lot better than me, is the difference between writing copy and also the headline.

In your experience, which comes first, the headline or the copy, or is there no right or wrong way for doing it?

Ray: Well, it’s like any art form, and copy is part science and part art. Sometimes the headline comes to me first, but usually that’s not how it works. I’d say 90 percent of the time I write the copy first, and the headline emerges. My experience is that the more time you spend in research, preparation, and writing drafts, the more discovery you do about the right language to use to express your main idea.

You need to have a big idea.

A corollary to not writing from the perspective of the consumer is not having a big idea that you can quickly sum up for people.

P90x, I don’t know that they would approve of how I’m going to describe their big idea, but I think their big idea is, “Spend 90 days working out so hard you will puke in a bucket, and you’ll look great.”

[laughter]

Ray: The unique thing about them is they were the pioneers of going the opposite direction of the whole market, which was to say, “This device, this exercise machine, this diet program is easy. It makes you burn pounds while you sleep.” The P90x people made their mark by saying, “This is really hard, but it’s worth it.”To get back to your question about which comes first, the headline or the copy, I think most of the time it’s writing the copy first, and the headline emerges, but as I said, sometimes it works the other way around.

I think every person has to find their own process, but that’s my process.

Barry: That’s very interesting, because a lot of our audience is bloggers. Generally speaking — this is not always the case — but bloggers quite often are into SEO, so quite often, they’ll write a title first, because they’ll have to include whatever term they’re going after for search engine optimization. They work backwards, which I know…It’s interesting, that your way seems much more genuine and sincere. It seems the right way. That’s why the question came up, because I wondered if there was a right or wrong.

What you’re really saying is there is no right or wrong, but you personally start with the copy, and then you go to the headline.

Ray: Yes.

Barry: Talking of the headline…Go on. Sorry, Ray.

Ray: I’m going to jump in for just a moment, because you just brought up something that I’m a little bothered by, that is this idea of SEO copywriting. I understand how important it is, but I believe that you have to focus on good writing first and SEO second. If you start by focusing on SEO, and you build your writing based on that, I think you end up with a lesser quality piece of writing.

It may not be true in every case, so I don’t want anybody to get angry with me, but I think if you start from figuring out, “What’s the message that I’m trying to deliver? What’s the change that I want to make with people?”

I have a concept I call your unique core thesis. I think for every piece of writing that you’re creating you need a unique core thesis. One way of describing it would be it’s the one idea that you want people to walk away from your presentation with. If they don’t buy anything, if they don’t remember anything else you said, this is the one thing you want them to take away.

If you can figure out what that thing is, it will shape the rest of your writing. After you do that, you can figure out the SEO part based on what you wrote. You’ll attract the people you actually are writing it for, which may be a different group than you started out thinking about.

Barry: That is brilliant, Ray. That is exactly the kind of information we need. You’ve put it better than I could have ever imagined putting it, so thank you for that. It really is good.You might well be able to get a theme here coming up, because I’ve got a bit of a fascination with headlines. [laughs] Maybe I should see a doctor about it.

Do you want to give us some ideas? Do you have any particular headlines that work really well for you, and maybe can you explain why they work so well? Why did you think they worked so well?

Ray: I said earlier this is part art and part science. The science part is learning from things that have worked in the past and being able to use those forms to guide your creation process, especially early in the game when you’re just getting started, either when you’re just getting started with copywriting in general, or maybe when you’re just starting on a project.You need to have a little bit of a kickstart. The headline is a really important piece of copy, because its job is to get people to stop and then read what comes next. That’s the job of the headline.

John Caples, who’s a legendary copywriter said:

“If you can come up with a good headline and lead” — the lead is the first part of the ad — “you’re almost sure to have a good ad. But even the greatest copywriter cannot save an ad without a good headline.”

I think the qualities that you are looking for in a good headline, there are five of them.

Number one, it grabs attention. It needs to make people stop and think. Here’s a couple of classic headlines that worked really well on this score, on the grabbing attention idea.

“Can you really be younger next year?” That’s a great headline for the people that it would appeal to. If you’re a 20-year-old, you’re probably not going to be interested in that, but if you’re of a certain age you might be interested in that headline.

“Which of these five mistakes do you make in English?” That’s another famous headline that was a real attention-getter and made a lot of money for the company that hired John Caples to write it.

The second quality of a headline that works is it screens and qualifies your readers. The third quality is it draws readers into the body copy. The fourth is it communicates the big idea, which we were just talking about a little bit earlier. The fifth is it establishes credibility.

You can’t always get a headline to meet all five of those criteria, but I usually try. I shoot for at least three.

You asked me, though, for some examples of headlines that work really well. I’m going to give you a couple that people can start with, and they can use them today.

The first one is the how-to headline. The key to making this particular headline work is you need to tie it to a benefit your reader cares about. You’ve seen these so often you may dismiss them, but they really work extremely well.

“How to write a blog post every day.”

That’s one of the best testing headlines that I’ve personally used myself.

“How to land more clients as a freelancer.”

You can see that those are directly tied to benefits that readers are going to care about. That’s the key to making that headline work.

I’ll give you three.

The second form of headline I would give you that would work really well is what I call the transactional headline. This is all about making a promise of a trade.

You say something like,

“Give me 30 minutes, and I’ll give you more blog traffic.”

You’re asking them for something, but you’re giving them something that is much more valuable.

“Try these five tactics for a week and be twice as productive.”

That’s a transactional headline.

Barry: Interestingly, when you’re coming with those headlines — again, maybe it’s because I’m focused on blogging — those are great, also, for SEO, actually. Those are terms that people might use or want to use when searching for the information that you’re providing. It’s actually brilliant. I have, obviously, got a big fascination with headlines. We’re going to change the subjects, just for a little bit, because I do know that you personally do a lot of, have in the past, done a lot of writing for print.

Would you say there’s a big difference between writing for a printed material rather than the Web, or is there no difference between the two? What would you say the difference was?

Ray: There is some difference, but I think there’s less than most people believe. The main difference is you can click on things on the web and go somewhere else and explore further.If you’ve been using a tablet or a touch device long enough, you’ll find yourself in a restaurant trying to tap things on the menu and realize, “Oh, that doesn’t work on a paper menu.”

That’s the biggest difference, is the clickability, and the fact that you can incorporate videos and things like that into your copy.

The actual writing of the text is not all that different, especially when you consider that I believe one of the main principles we need to remember is we need to think about, “What’s the context in which people are coming to our copy?”

If people are coming to the copy that represents your product, your company, or your service, and they’re coming to it online after having read an ad, say on Facebook, that’s much different than people coming to your copy because a friend of theirs sent them an email and said, “Hey, you’ve got to go check this site out.”

They have a whole different attitude , or they have a whole different set of desires, and so, you have to think about, “How are most people coming to my copy online?” and having to write in a way that responds to that context.

If you think about it, the same is true of something in print. If you’re sending a letter in the mail, you know certain things about what’s going to happen. They’re going to get the letter out of the mailbox, out of the post. They’re going to open it, or maybe they’re going to throw it away.

What makes them throw it away? You need to think about what the envelope looks like. It comes down — again, I know I sound like a broken record, if anybody remembers what those are, but…

Barry: I do. [laughs]

Ray: Thank you. Bless you, my friend. It comes back to understanding the life, the worldview, the context of the people you’re writing to, and delivering content to them in a way that’s relevant to them and their situation.

Barry: Got you. We’re going to go slightly off at a tangent now, just because the question’s come into my head. There’s a question which I ask a lot of entrepreneurs when I meet them, so I don’t see why I can’t ask it of a copywriter, as well. If it doesn’t stack up and doesn’t make sense, obviously, you’ll tell me so.

But if you could go get in a time machine, and you could go back in time 5 years, 10 years, 20 years — it doesn’t matter how far you go back, is there anything you personally…This is a very personal question.

Is there anything, not necessarily that you would do personally differently, but anything that you think, “We should have done this,” or maybe, “This would have been something to have done then.” Is there anything that you would like to add there?

Ray: In the context of my business, I would have started much earlier building an email list that I sent email to regularly. A lot of people will say, “The money’s in the list.” No, it’s not.

The money is in the relationship you have to the list. You can have an email subscriber base of 100,000 subscribers, but if none of them open your emails, guess how much that list is worth?

Barry: Nothing.

Ray: Exactly. Then again, you could have a list of 1,000 subscribers, and if all of them are rabidly waiting and paying attention for your next email, that is an extraordinarily valuable asset, so I wish, a lot earlier.

Barry: You seem to have done very well with the catching up, put it that way, Ray. I’ve been aware of you for quite some time. One thing I’ve been primarily aware of about is your very good reputation, because you know that we’re in a world today where bad reputations get around really fast. Your integrity and your honorability is something that most…

They’ll say, “Ray, a good guy. A good guy.” I congratulate you on that, because that’s the kind of thing that I’d like to think most people would say about me. Whether they do or not, I don’t know. I think I would like to acknowledge that, Ray, because I think it’s very important.

Also, and this is where we’re going to come back to something you and I are involved in in a moment, is product launches. People have different opinions about it.

Actually, can I just make a recommendation to everybody here? I think most of the IncomeDiary people will have heard of you now.

If you’ve not heard of Ray, I would seriously suggest you get on his list. Go to his blog. It doesn’t even matter if you get a link from IncomeDiary telling you about Ray, just make sure you’re getting email from Ray Edwards, because it’s an education. It really is.

Today I had an email from you. I want to pick this one up in particular, Ray, because I thought it was great. It relates to a product launch. It’s a launch for your product, The Copywriting Academy Online Coaching Program. Your subject line for it was, “My Clever Scam.”

It related to me, because quite often, doing what I do in business and did all my life, you quite often find somebody who tries to see the worst in you, and tries to assume that you’re a nasty person. Maybe you’re just there to take money off people, and maybe not even deliver any value.

I know that’s not the case for you, and hopefully people know that’s not the case with me. I loved your email, and how you went about it.

How do you handle, may I ask ? I’m sure you don’t get a lot of it, but you get the odd negative person. Does it ever get to you? Does it get you down? How do you handle it? Do you let it go in one ear, out the other?

Ray: Obviously, I would be lying if I said it didn’t get to me. It bothers me, because none of us likes to hear that people don’t like us for whatever reason. In this case, I think it was for no real good reason at all.My wife sometimes will say to me, “Honey, don’t burn down their newspaper stand.” What she’s referring to is there was a television show in America called “Frasier.” I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it.

Barry: Oh, indeed, yes.

Ray: There’s an episode in Frasier where — for those who don’t know, in the series he had a radio show. They were doing a focus group where they brought in all these listeners to talk about what they liked about the Frasier show, and what they didn’t.Everybody loved his show except this one guy, who just didn’t like it, and Frasier became obsessed with making that guy like him.

He started following him around and stalking him, and in the end of this comedic sketch, Frasier ends up accidentally setting fire to the guy’s newspaper stand. That’s what my wife is referring. She’s basically saying, “Let go.”

Barry: I’ll use that next time, because that’s a good explanation, actually. I’ve seen this a lot in life. You could have a hundred really happy customers, one customer who really doesn’t have anything to be unhappy about, but just is a miserable person, if you like, and you worry about them. Terrific. Thank you, Ray. That’s a great answer.

Coming back to the product launches, I think most people now are familiar with what I would call a product launch formula, if you like, of how they work. In your opinion, do these still work, or if they don’t, what needs to be done to them these days to adapt them to work in 2017? What’s your view currently?

Ray: They still work. They work better than ever, in fact, when you do them correctly. I think the problem that happens is people have seen product launches from the outside, and they think they know how to do one, and what’s involved.What they’re missing is the fact they’re looking at the tip of the iceberg, and underneath the water, there’s much more substance than there is above the water line. They don’t really see the internal workings.

Often, they’re watching a person do a product launch who copied what they’re doing from a person who copied what they were doing from another person, who copied it from another person.

None of them actually went to the source, who is Jeff Walker, who created a thing called Product Launch Formula. He’s the guy who really has the latest data, because he’s at the center of this particular form of marketing.

The short answer is, I think you need to do product launches with intelligence, with grace, and for those who don’t know, it’s simply a matter of releasing a sequence of free, useful material that people can use and benefit from, whether they ever buy anything from you or not.

For me this is modern marketing.

You need to make your marketing valuable in and of itself, whether people buy from you or not.

I have a philosophy that if people don’t get something from my marketing that they can use, that benefits them, if they walk away from it saying, “Well, that was a waste of time,” then I haven’t done my job, because I believe that marketing is something we do for people, not something we do to them.

Barry: I love that. I think that’s the point, which I emphasize to people. In fact, I’ve said it to many people, because occasionally people will say to me — I actually would get emails, because people often just reply to the list email when we send it out, and say, “What’s he selling, and how much does it cost?” I would say, “Obviously, eventually Mr. X or whoever is going to probably try to sell you something, and that’s wonderful. However, that’s not what you need to worry about right now. Right now, he’s giving you a 30 minute video. There is a price to the 30 minute video.

“It’s 30 minutes of your time to watch it. It isn’t entirely free if you look at it that way. From the point of view that you’re going to have 30 minutes, and if you get some value out of it, it’ll be worth your 30 minutes investment.”

That’s what I like about product launches. In fact, I actually tell everybody to get on as many lists as possible, certainly of all the high quality guys, because there’s so much wonderful information that they’ll give away at no cost to you, except investing your time to watch it, or listen to it.

That’s something that I have really got from you, Ray. Sometimes, I look at what — and don’t take this the wrong way — at what you’re giving away, and I think, “Is the man really thinking right? [laughs] It’s almost too much.”

Like earlier on, you’ve given us this PASTOR formula, which is an amazing formula. If nobody does anything but just implement that PASTOR formula, they’re going to make money from it. They’re going to have value from it. All they’ve done is listen to two guys talking on a Skype call across the world, and they’ve got phenomenal value out of it.

I’m really grateful for you making the time to do this for the IncomeDiary audience, Ray. It’s really kind of you.

Ray: It’s my pleasure. If I may take just a moment, I want to button up this topic a little bit, because I think it’s important to understand that everything that happens to you in your business is an opportunity, if you’ll take the time to see it that way. The email that you referred to, the opportunity arose with me being really, honestly, Barry, I was upset with this person who made these comments about me online. Then I took a moment to calm down, and think about my spiritual practices, and thinking, “Well, this is not really the right way to respond to this. What’s the opportunity in this?”

I didn’t name this person by name, and I didn’t point out anything that would make them feel belittled. They’re not reading my email, because I made sure they were unsubscribed from my list.

I titled it My Clever Scam, and then I said in the email, “Every time we open the doors for the Copy Writing Academy, this happens. It’s just like it’s a full moon. The crazies come out.”

Then I said, “We had thousands of people go through my all-new free training. 99.9 percent of the people loved it, but there’s always a few jokers who just don’t get it, or maybe they do, they just like stirring things up, like the guy who posted, “Very clever scam, teasing before selling us something.”

Then he wrote in all caps, “SCAMMER.” I wrote — and I did get a little sarcastic here — I said, “How doth cluelessness show itself? Let me count the ways.

“Number one, if you think selling something is evil, then why are you watching a video about how to sell stuff?

Number two, did you not read the thousands of messages from other people who got great value from the series?

“Number three, well, you figured out my clever scam, which is to give away free stuff that’s so good, people want to buy my paid training.”

My message was, to my subscribers, if you become successful at all, you’re going to have these people show up.

These trolls are going to show up. I made the observation, “It doesn’t matter how good you are. I bet even Mr. Rogers had trolls. Take it as a sign that you’re on the track.”

Barry: That’s very good. I always say that to people as well. If you don’t occasionally sort of — I hate to use the word — “upset” somebody, or somebody says something negative to you, you’re really not trying hard enough. You’ve nailed it there. I, obviously, like everybody, see a lot of email, but I printed this one off.

Actually, I realized I only printed off the first page of it. I’m pretty sure you had a very clever PS on it. Did you have a clever PS, something about commies, or something like that in it?

Ray: I said, “I suppose I should be flattered to have a troll or two. This will happen to you. Want to see the free training that has Tommy Troll so upset? Go grab it soon. We’ll be taking it down in a few days.”

The PS said, “Yes, I might eventually sell you something, so if you hate capitalism, bunnies, and babies, you won’t be interested in this.” I made “be interested in this” into a link.

Barry: Indeed. That was actually, to me, the best part of the email.

As I said earlier, people, get on Ray’s list. If you don’t…Listen, you can hear the guy’s as genuine as he ever could be.

Look, the man’s saying, “Look, you don’t even have to buy.” He’s going to try reasonably hard to sell you something, but he hasn’t yet worked out a way to get the credit card out of your pocket and make it work.

Ray: If I could work that out, I wouldn’t do it, because that’s not a good thing to do.

Barry: Indeed, that’s not a good thing to do.

Many, many years ago, I remember a story I was told by somebody when I was starting out. Believe it or not, my entrepreneurial career started out as an Amway distributor. I remember my upline gave me this advice.

I had somebody, a family member, that was really laughing at me, and saying I was being silly to do this AMWAY thing”

My up-line explained, “These are the people you’re going to succeed in spite of.”

I found it a way to great way to turn it around. It was in spite of that person writing that really nasty email, or that person saying that nasty comment on Facebook. “You’re going to succeed anyway.”

They’re always going to live the life that they’re going to live, but the life they’re living isn’t going to impact on your life. Whatever they say, you’ve always got the opportunity to turn it around, and make it into something positive.

Ray: I love that. There’s a book I would recommend that talks about this, not just about emails or online trolls, but it’s about any obstacle that you run into in your life. The book is called “The Obstacle is the Way.” It’s by Ryan Holiday. It’s a fantastic book.

Barry: We will put a link to that in the show notes. That’s really, really good. In fact, actually, you raced ahead again there, Ray. I was going to ask you, apart from your own fantastic books, and I know you’ve got a number, is there a particular business book that you would say right now, “This is a book I’ve read recently. I really like it,” or even one maybe 20 years ago. Would you want to recommend a book?

Ray: I’m going to give you the one that is having the most impact on my life and my business right now. I’ve read this book three times, and I’m getting ready to do a fourth read through. It’s called “Deep Work,” and it’s by Cal Newport. The subtitle is “Rules For Focused Success in a Distracted World.”

Barry: Wow. Is it a big book, a small book? Is it a scientific book, or is it more of a…?

Ray: It’s not a boring academic book, but it is not small. It’s about 250 pages or so.

Barry: I think most of us can cope with that, just about.

Ray: In the notes to his book, he says, “One of the most valuable skills in our economy is becoming increasingly rare. If you master this skill, you’ll achieve extraordinary results. Deep work is the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task.“Now, first of all, that’s great copy. Secondly, I think this is an important book for us, just as people, because the world is full of so many distractions these days, I think it would be easy for most of us to miss our real calling in life.

Your calling, it may be to be an Amway distributor. Whatever it is, if you get distracted by too many video games, too much Candy Crush, too much Facebook, whatever the case may be, you may miss what you’re really put here to do.

This book is really powerful. It’s had a big impact on my business. Many of my colleagues and friends whose names most people would know who are listening to this, they’re all loving this book. It’s something we’re all sharing with one another. I would really recommend this book.

Barry: Thank you. I’ll be on Amazon as soon as this call’s over and ordering it. I look forward to reading it. I really appreciate the recommendation. Ray, just a summary, actually, I was going to ask you. You’ve given us so much, I’m thinking, “How do I describe this particular interview? [laughs]

Some closing thoughts, if you like. Thinking again, our audience, a lot of bloggers, a lot of small business people, a lot of people who, or want to be, I would actually say they’re wannabe copy writers. What’s your pieces of advice you would possibly give us, if you like, as your parting thoughts?

Ray: I’ll give you a couple of things. For those who want to write, or want to be copy writers, Stephen King in his book, “On Writing,” which is another book I highly recommend — even though it’s about writing fiction, it’s still a wonderful instructional guide for how to write anything really successfully. He says, ” to write good stuff, you have to write a lot of bad stuff,” and that the one thing writers who become good have in common is they write a lot, so I would encourage you to write a lot.

The second piece of advice I would give you comes from Anne Lamott, who wrote a book called “Bird by Bird,” another strong recommendation for reading. This is kind of colorful language, so I have to clean this up a little bit. She says,

“Give yourself permission to write crappy first drafts.”

When you do that, when you tell yourself, “OK, this is my first draft, and it’s going to be horrible, and I’m OK with that.” It relieves so much pressure that you can pour out the creativity that’s inside of you, knowing, “I’m going to edit this later. I’m not going to edit it right now.”

Then the final thought that I would offer is something that is a powerful, formative belief that I picked up from a legend in the field of motivational speaking. He’s really the guy who invented, I believe, motivational speaking, Earl Nightingale.

Earl Nightingale said something that I heard him say when I was probably 19 years old, and it’s had a huge influence on the rest of my life. He said, “The best definition of success I have ever encountered is this.

Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.”

If you think about that sentence, it means that you can become successful today if you made a little progress toward a worthy ideal today.

=> Check out Rays website

The post Ray Edwards Copywriter – How to Write Copy That Sells appeared first on How To Make Money Online.

What The Best Sales Closers Taught Me About Selling Online

Barry Dunlop — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 19:34:34 +0000

I started my entrepreneurial career in the Summer of 1982, selling door to door.

Some would call it ‘hard selling’.

But, the master sales closers I met, made it look easy.

Prospects fell in love with them.

They never had to close anyone hard.

Truth be known, I wanted to be like them.

I learned a lot from these sales mentors.

Strategies and techniques that have made me a lot of money.

You see, being a commission only sales person is not that different from being an Internet Marketer.

They both get paid by results!

To succeed in sales…

You have to convince your prospect you care…

Selling is not a battle with a winner and a loser, it is an encounter with either two winners or two losers.

This is an essential clarification.

One that is often missed by people who do not understand the true ethos of selling and persuasion.

The most successful salespeople really care about their customers and this comes across in everything they say and do.

Selling is not about tricking anyone, it is about helping people own products that make their life better.

Persuasion is not manipulation…

Persuasion is not manipulation – manipulation is coercion through force to get someone to do something that is not in their best interest.

Persuasion on the other hand is the art of getting people to make decisions that are in their best interest.

This clarification is essential because without it you will become nothing more than a Conman or woman!

Finally, in this introduction, I should also tell you about the salespeople I admire most…

They are called COPYWRITERS or as Ray Edwards calls them: Cash Flow Engineers!

To succeed in face to face selling is great but my ultimate admiration goes to those Master Sales Closers who master the art of selling from a web page, email or in PRINT!

15 Things The Best Sales Closers Taught Me About Selling Online

#1 Prospects rarely buy the first time you ask.

One of my early sales mentors explained that all the best relationships start with a No. (His wife had refused to marry him a number of times before eventually saying yes)

And so it is with selling, you will hear No more often than Yes.

How does this apply to making money online?

Consider an email sequence for a typical product launch…

a) a launch email… telling you about the product. Explaining how it solves a particular problem or pain. Normally, there will be scarcity, limited numbers of memberships etc available. This will be your first opportunity to buy.

b) a followup email telling you of a success story related to using the product and a reminder of everything that is included. Another opportunity to buy.

c) an FAQ type email, listing questions people are asking followed by answers. Another opportunity to buy.

That’s only three emails, most product launches consist of 5 – 6 emails.

And most of the sales come in the last few hours of a promo!

It is human nature to procrastinate.

It was that way for me as a rookie salesman back in 1982 and it is still the same today.

In a recent affiliate promotion, I was party to, 12.5 % of the sales came with the first email, a further 25% on the second email and a whopping 62.5% of sales on the 3rd email.

Imagine how things would be if the affiliate had only sent one email? And imagine what may have happened if the affiliate had emailed 4 times or even 5.

I do not advocate pressure selling.

However, if you believe your subscriber or prospect will benefit from your product and it is in their best interest to own it, you should take the time to explain your offering in detail and why it is in their best interest to own.

In any case, if your subscriber does not like your offering or is put off my your emails, they can unsubscribe.

The best internet marketers actively encourage subscribers to unsubscribe if they are not a buyer.

If your products help people save money, make money, lose weight, live longer or enhance their life in any way, customers will thank you for helping them to buy!

The best sales closer believes they are doing a disservice if they do not close the sale and the prospect has to buy elsewhere.

The top sales closers are almost evangelical in their belief in their product.

#2 Top Sales Closers, use Questions to Sell

I remember it like it was yesterday, the first time a sales mentor told me selling is asking, not telling.

He was quite clear – telling was a waste of time!

Asking was where the money is!

As soon as I started applying it my sales skyrocketed!

Example Questions:

What concerns do you have? [What is the pain? Why are you looking for a new car today? a new home? ]

What’s the most important priority to you with this purchase? [The No 1 thing they want to fix/solve]

What prompted you to look into this?

If you are selling offline and responding to an Internet inquiry ask:

How did you find our website?

9 times out of 10 the answer will be via GOOGLE.

You then ask, what search term did you use to find us?

The answers you get, allows you to adapt your sales presentation to the prospect rather than reciting some ‘canned sales pitch’

Above all, asking questions removes pressure in face to face selling.

How does this apply to selling online?

Clever copywriters ask questions in sales copy. However, there is one important distinction…

Only ever ask questions that prompt your prospect to give the answer you want.

In sales copy, the answer should never be ‘I don’t know’.

Here is one particular style of questioning you will often come across…

It is the open-ended question: “Who else wants __________________?”

This type of question works because it implies lots of people are already getting X result.

e.g.

“Who else wants to learn these secret copy-writing strategies?”

“Who else wants to learn a second language in 30 days?”

Questions need not be exclusively about making sales.

Many Internet Marketers use surveys to research buyers motivations prior to creating a product.

Tools that allow you to do this include Survey Monkey – but there are others.

#3 Top Sales Closers Know Facts Tell but Stories Sell

The best salespeople LOVE to tell stories … and they are great at telling them.

People remember well-told stories and in a competitive sales situation, the best storyteller wins!

Telling stories sets you apart from your competition and make you stand out.

Better still combine that story with the benefits of your product and you will create a memorable and positive association with your product in the customers head.

All the most successful companies have a great story (or two)

A great place to start is with a Founders story…

How the founder came to create the product.

Richard Branson is a great example of this.

Stories create curiosity.

Stories allow your prospect to experience ownership of your product or service in the present moment.

Stories give you license to say things to your prospects that might otherwise be risky or too personal that in turn trigger powerful emotions that motivate your prospect to buy.

and above all…

Stories allow you to make a personal connection with your potential buyers.

How does this apply to Internet Marketing?

Every great Internet Marketer has their own unique Founders Story.

What is yours?

Why did you create your product? What is the pain are you are fixing?

Tell your story!

#4 The Best Sales Closers are Great Listeners

“We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.” – Epictetus

If you stop and really listen the prospect will tell you why they should own your product. Especially so if you guide them with the right kind of questions. Importantly, the less you talk and the more you listen, the less pressurized the sales environment will be.

#5 A confused mind says NO!

The top sales closer is clear and concise in their communication.

The best sales closer talks low and slow.

They are not the fast-talking salesperson that popular culture would suggest.

Talking calmly and slowly makes it easier for your prospect to listen and believe you.

If you talk too fast and in a high pitched voice, you will come across as pushy and not trustworthy.

The top sales closer takes the time to explain everything in detail and clearly before asking for the order.

They use questions to discover what the prospect already knows and tailor their presentation to the prospects particular need.

If they use an acronym the top sales closer makes sure to explain what it stands for.

Above all, the top sales closer knows their product back to front and enjoy talking about it.

They know their subject so well that they could explain it to a child.

If you can explain yourself effectively to someone who has no background on the subject, then you will certainly be able to make a persuasive case with someone who does have some background.

How does this apply to Internet Marketing?

When you send out an email or write a blog post it is important to not assume anything.

Every email or sales page should explain why your subscriber should read it.

What did you promise them in the subject line? Are you delivering?

Tell them something cool. (Stories are good)

Above all:

o Explain the value of your offer
o Remind the reader what they’ll get out of taking action (remove the pain)
o Use bullet points to highlight the important parts of your offer.
o Make your content easy to scan

#6 The best sales closers know their stats!

The best sales closers know their stats!

At least weekly and often daily they will be comparing their closing rates and commissions earned.

As a 21-year-old Rookie, my first sales manager introduced me to CAPS.

Contacts | Appointments | Presentations | Sales

I knew that for approx every 20 cold calls (doors knocked) I would get one person to agree to an appointment.

Of those potential ‘appointments’ a certain number would fall to the wayside – typically 3 appointments would result in one presentation to a qualified prospect.

My closing rate of appointments to sales averaged out at around 2 sales for every 3 presentations, but even if it was only one sale per 3 presentations and the average commission per sales was $600, that meant I earned $3.33 per cold call.

(180 cold contacts | 9 “appointments’ | 3 Presentations | 1 sale for $600 commission)

600 / 180 = $3.33 per cold call

Not bad for a penniless 21-year-old back in 1982

How does this apply to Internet Marketing?

One of the most frequently used is EPC – earnings per click, but there are many more. Check out this link.

Knowing your EPC is particularly important if you do any pay per click advertising.

Additionally, you should know how many visitors to a web page it takes to get a subscriber and then in turn you should know what that subscriber is worth to you.

Or another measurement one blogger I know uses is ‘earnings per visitor’.

In this case, he earns 7 cents per visitor. Now when you have 400000 visitors per month that starts to add up! ($28,000 per month)

Smart marketers are more likely to focus on the lifetime value of a customer – some will even be prepared to lose money on their first transaction, but that is not something I recommend to you.

#7 Cover the objection before the customer does

Selling is about handling objections – covering of the reasons not to buy before the customer even thinks about them.

Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust. – Zig Ziglar

Average salespeople think that Objections are a bad thing which indicates that their customer is not going to buy.

But the truth is that Objections are in fact Buying Signals.

I mean, if you had no interest, you would not even bother to object!

The top sales closer sees objections as buying signals.

#8 Always remain positive – especially with nasty customers

Someone years ago said the customer is always right. I don’t 100% agree but in the main, it has been my policy to give the customer the benefit of the doubt.

Of course, customers can be scammers but my experience is that it a small percentage and it is best to “allow” for these occasional scanners as a cost of doing business.

In any case…

Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business. – Zig Ziglar

You never really know the true character of a business or an individual until something goes wrong. It is how you handle these issues that define you.

Handled correctly, the angriest customer can turn into your greatest cheerleader.

Remain polite and considerate – it pays handsome dividends in the end.

#9 Twist my arm but don’t break it

The best sales closers and copywriters use humor to sell

When faced by a customer wanting an extra discount old sales closer I knew would say:

“Twist my arm but don’t break it”

It got a smile just about every time and more often than not, the sale.

When you make people smile, they relax and often forget their objections.

Of course, there are plenty of other ways to handle price ‘objections’ – using humor is just one.

With the possible exception of the funeral business, humor sells!

Another example of humor, this time used in negotiation, is the I’ll throw in a pet frog technique.

Of course, you don’t have to throw in a pet frog, it can be any semi-ridiculous offer as long as it makes the prospect smile / relax.

If you can get a prospect to laugh, then you can get him to buy.

Humor does not have to apply exclusively to the closing process, it can be used in your marketing and lead generation as well.

For examples of how you may use it online, our friend Neil Patel article has a great article on using humor in your content marketing you should check out.

As Victor Borge said: Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.

#10 Connect at a Heart Level

When you are in the company of a master sales closer it is as though you have known each other all your life.

The master sales closer knows how to build rapport and create trust.

My friend and mentor Craig Ballantyne is a master at connecting with his audience and building rapport.

To demonstrate, below is a paragraph from a recent email promoting Craigs ETR Product Launch Course.

“The ETR Product Launch Blueprint isn’t like any other course out there. You see, Craig describes his students as his family. They don’t just give you a bunch of information and then let you sink or swim. Instead, they guarantee your success.”

The best sales closers make you feel like family – you want to spend time with them and you want to buy from them.

#11 Timid salesmen have skinny kids

Timid salesmen have skinny kids is a 1978 book by Judge Ziglar.

It is also one of my favorite sales quotes!

To succeed in selling you have to be brave.

Overcoming fear of rejection is perhaps the greatest obstacle for any salesperson.

Most people will have heard of Napoleon Hill and his book Think and Grow Rich

Less well known but highly recommended is his book “How to Sell Your Way Through Life” from which the following quote is taken:

Fear is man’s worst enemy. Like a demon of hell, it sits upon one’s shoulders and whispers, “You can’t write that. It will hurt your business; it will deprive you of an income. You can’t write this or do that because of public opinion. You must not express new ideas nor advocate new ways of doing business because people will laugh at you.

The top sales closers interpret No and rejection differently — they appreciate every no is one closer to a yes

They are not afraid to pick up the phone to call a ‘cold’ prospect. They have confidence in their ability, confident that whatever the prospect responds with they can handle it.

#12 The Top Sales Closer Has A Plan

One thing that sets the average salesperson apart from the top sales closer is how they plan their day.

Plans will change and delays will happen but whatever happens, the top sales closer will make the best of it.

Above all, the top sales closer does not confuse being busy with being productive.

For example, if an appointment gets canceled or changed around, the average salesperson will have a coffee or catch up on gossip, but the top sales closer, on the other hand, would use that time to prospect or follow up with an existing customer.

Time is your most valuable asset. Don’t waste it!

Discover How To Create And Live Your Perfect Day

#13 Scarcity Sells

This is a subject that divides opinion.

Using scarcity implies ‘pressure selling’, but is it?

In my experience when people really want to do something (this applies to relationships, everything) they will use any ‘excuse’ to justify it.

The salesperson/entrepreneur just has to provide the reason.

Let me give an example…

Some friends of mine recently released a new Plugin for WordPress. (a relatively expensive plugin)

From memory, they sold this Plugin on the basis that the first 125 copies were one price, up to 250 copies was another price and thereafter up to 500 copies was another price. After 500 copies, everything was full price.

Clearly, I was not as good a friend as I thought I was, as all 125 copies of the lowest priced option had gone by the time I knew about it.

I inquired would it be possible to but at the 125 copy price? But the response was clear, all copies had gone. (I bought at the 250 price)

There was a reason why my friends offered this special pricing. They had invested a significant amount in development and wanted to recover some of that cash ASAP – hence the special initial pricing.

There has to be a reason why the prospect must take action sooner, rather than later!

Another example…

Have you ever bought a Limited Edition?

We have limited editions of coins, cars, trainers, art print, watches and just about everything you can imagine.

This is an everyday example of scarcity selling!

A wise old closer told me to think abundance – but sell scarcity.

Wise words to remember in business and in life!

Very important – once an offer expires, it has expired! If I had been able to buy at the 125 copy example above that would have been False Scarcity – and that is wrong!

More copywriting gems!

It has been my privilege to hang out with some of the best sales copywriters on the planet.

There is never a dull moment.

In their writing they always…

Inject scarcity – Find a way to deliver this…via increased price, limited time, etc. [special price today only]

Give a guarantee to remove/reverse all risk. [I have a consulting friend who charges a yearly 6 figure sum – his offer is that if he can’t demonstrate how his services will generate at least 10 times ROI on his fee at year end, then he will return the fee]

Call to action – Be specific and tell the reader what they need to do right now

Give a warning that if they don’t buy, this is what will happen [i.e. the pain will still be there]

Still struggling with the ethics of scarcity selling?

Check out: Ethical Use of Scarcity to Light a Fire Under Your Prospects

It is unwise to pay too much, but it is worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money … that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the things it was bought to do.

The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot … it cannot be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run. And if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better. ~ John Ruskin

#14 Sum Tertius

Sum Tertius is Latin for I am third.

One of my all-time favorite books on selling is The Closers.

It is not a politically correct book!

But if you are serious about understanding selling face to face, it is essential reading.

It was this book that introduced me to the concept of I AM THIRD.

In “The Closers” the author tells the story of an old sales closer called Sam Johnson and his mentorship of a young rookie salesman.

Sam wore a gold ring with the inscription “sum tertius”.

Sam’s explained that Master Closers put God first in their life, the other guy second and themselves always third.

For the non-believers, I have seen some variations of I AM THIRD, such as Putting Family first, the other guy second and yourself third.

Something Important…

Putting yourself third is actually how you become No 1 in sales and business.

It is a strategy I have used throughout my business career.

#15 Be honorable.

Don’t let greed for a sales commission get in the way of success.

What does that mean to a sales closer?

Well, this may surprise you, but sometimes it includes knowing when not to sell something.

I mean, if something is not in a customer’s best interest or the solution you offer is not the best option available you should have the integrity to let the customer know that.

Trust is a hard-won thing, it is precious, not something to sacrifice for a quick profit.

As my sales career progressed I became the master sales closer that prospects fell in love with.

But with that comes responsibility – a responsibility to always do the right thing and not abuse that trust.

I have always believed first and foremost that selling is about SERVICE and this quote by Zig Ziglar, in particular, resonates with me…

How does this apply to Internet Marketing?

For starters only ever promote products you believe in and have used yourself.

When you build a large list online, you could be tempted to promote all sorts of dubious offers just for the commission.

Don’t do that.

Your reputation and integrity are more important than any quick commission.

The Master Sales Closer knows that and you should too.

Be honorable, not selfish.

Commit to making the world and society a better place.

In the end, your opinions and what you think, count for nothing.

In life, you are measured only by what you do.

“Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not.” – Oprah Winfrey

Author Bio:
Barry Dunlop is a lifelong entrepreneur, Mastermind Facilitator and sales coach who launched his first Internet Business in 1998. He also invests in renewable energy technology, Domain Names and Website Flipping. You can follow / message Barry on Twitter

I have never worked a day in my life without selling. If I believe in something, I sell it, and I sell it hard.” – Estée Lauder

Save

The post What The Best Sales Closers Taught Me About Selling Online appeared first on How To Make Money Online.

17 Writing Tips For Bloggers Who Think They Can’t Write!

Barry Dunlop — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 09:07:17 +0000

Writing tips for the writer who thinks they can’t write.

Writing Tips For Bloggers

First a question…

Are you a better speaker or a better writer?

Personally, I’m a much better speaker than I am a writer.

I can speak confidently in public, but with writing, it is a different story.

I am not unique – For some of us it is more natural to speak and for others it is more natural to write.

Of course there are some who are blessed with both skills but anecdotal research suggests they are a minority.

I ask this question because my first suggestion is:

1) Record Your Article / Blog Post

If I plan a long article (2000 words plus) I find it easier to first record what I plan to say and then get it transcribed. If you do not wish to transcribe yourself, then my transcription service of choice is CastingWords.

You must have an outline of what you plan to say before you start.

Keep focused on your outline and topic as you speak. If you do not, then you risk ending up a recording that covers two or even three blog posts!

Consider your audio transcript a mannequin on which to hang your article. The transcript will not be perfect but with some editing and additions the whole process of creating a post has become much easier.

Make a good enough recording and you have a Podcast.

2) Use a pen and paper!

Write longhand!

With technology as it is – longhand writing is almost a lost art.

Your brain thinks differently when you use longhand. For me, the ideas flow faster in longhand. With typing the magic thought often has disappeared before I get a chance to type it. (But as a 1960 baby, this may be a generational thing!)

Here is my original very rough longhand draft for this post!

Don’t know what to write about?

Take it a step further and just write about anything and everything that comes into your head for 5 or 10 minutes.

I call this free-writing.

You will be surprised how often a credible idea comes out of that ‘garbage’ you just wrote down!

3) Be personal – but don’t let the Ego take over

Craig Ballantyne is a great example on a writer I have learned a lot from.

In this very personal post: 3 Big Life Lessons From a Dog Craig really lays it on the line professionally and personally.

Everyone who follows Craig will know how important his dog Bally is to him.

Bally even fills in for Craig and ‘sends’ out his email on occasion. The emails from Bally often get some of the best open rates and responses! See a fun example here.

Injecting personality into your writing will warm your readership to you.

Do not however become vain and egocentric – that is boring!

4) The shorter the sentence, the better.

If the sentence is longer than it would be comfortable for you to speak, then it’s probably too long.

Two sentences is almost always better than one long sentence.

5) Use “Cheat Sheets” to may you look like a writing pro.

Most writers have external methods of getting inspiration (Swipe Files etc) – and do not rely on brainpower alone!

As an example – the chart below is a great way to find alternative words – courtesy of iwastesomuchtime.

6) Use Quotations!

Don’t over do it – unless you plan on doing a post that includes lots of quotations

Using an appropriate quotation by A N Other is a great way ‘lift’ a blog post and inspire yourself!

And the quotation does not have to be from someone famous – it could be one by a favorite uncle or your Irish Grandmother.

As long as it is pertinent, even a quote from your friend Ben or Mary will do!

Better still if you can weave the ‘quote’ into a related story!

7) Get to the point

Do not make people wade through seven paragraphs of unrelated anecdotes before you get to what you’re really trying to say!

Sometimes as writers we are so impressed with our own writing we go of at tangents.

We live in a world of information overload.

Bore people and you lose them.

The point of your article and what it promises to deliver, should be clear from the first paragraph.

A business writing coach once told me that your first 50 words are the most important.

If it is not clear what your intent is in those first 50 words, chances are high you will lose the reader.

Readers will scan – trying to work out if it will be worth their while to go deeper into your masterpiece!

8) Write Often

Writing well is habit! Write every day.

The more you write, the better you get!

In these days of Instant Messaging and email it is ‘easy’ to abbreviate when writing.

However, the best writers always write well – even in emails and Instant Messaging.

Sure, it may be a chore to use proper grammar but the more often your write properly, the better your writing becomes. FACT!

With SMS / Text there may be good reasons to use the abbreviations and I use them – but that is the only exception!

9) Master the Art of Concise Writing (AKA Edit Ruthlessly)

I am working on this!

Good reference article: concise writing cheat sheet

Example:

Only repeat a word if it is necessary for clarity or emphasis.

Original: My brother Chris, who is my only brother, graduated from the University of Houston with a degree in English.
Edited: Chris, my only brother, earned an English Degree from the University of Houston.

Check out:

Cut Out Weasel Words

10) Change your reading habits

Read a book that you would not normally do.

Do something you would not normally do. If you normally read non-fiction then read fiction and vice-versa.

Be contrarian in your blog posts! Challenge the Norm!

Imagine how you would feel if you decided something you really believed was true – was not?

Read Newspaper ads, posters, billboards, store signs etc

Credit: 10 things to do when you can’t think of anything to write

11) Change the scenery

If you normally write in your office, move somewhere else.

Go to a different room, go outside, in the garden or visit a coffee shop!

For me, a walk works wonders!

12) History Lessons

Is there something in history that you can relate to your topic? An event or person in history that you can use to make a point in your article?

When you are stuck for inspiration “This day in history” is always a good place to start in an article. Works equally well when making a speech.

13) Find and follow people who write well

When you find writing you enjoy, examine the structure and the words.

How does the writer craft sentences, use punctuation etc.

How can you use the writers strategy in your own writing?

Seeking out and following good writers is perhaps the best advice I can give any writer who finds writing a challenge.

14) Read out loud what you write!

In short, if your writing is hard to speak, what makes you think it’s going to be easy to read?

Reading out loud is a great way to discover mistakes and make further improvements.

If it doesn’t sound natural when you speak out loud, it is simple – rewrite it!

15) Talk directly to the reader

Use words such as “you,” “we,” and “I” to make it clear that you are talking to the reader.

Readers will be more attentive when you’re talking directly to them about their issues.

Remember, if it is boring for you, it will be boring for your reader!

16) Edit it again!

I am not a naturally talented writer.

Writing is getting easier, but it is still hard work.

It is not usual to write one day, edit it on the second day and then further edit it on the third day.

With each edit I remove words, sometimes even entire paragraphs!

The point of every edit is to make it easier for your reader to understand.

Not every writer needs to edit this much – some get it right on the first attempt!

I am not yet one of those writers!

Recommended Reading: Slacker Words and Phrases

17) Writing Tips For Bloggers – Use Lists and Graphics

IncomeDiary is famous for lists

When all else fails there is always lists to fall back on.

Lists like…

Top 30 Most Influential People In _____ (Blogging, Web Design, Photography, Golf, Gaming etc)

10 Reasons Why It Rocks To Be a _____ (Blogger, Web Designer, Photographer, Golfer, Gamer etc)

10 Christmas Gifts For _____ (Bloggers, Web Designers, Photographers, Golfers, Gamers etc)

20 Websites To Visit If You Want To Be a Better _____ (Blogger, Web Designer, Photographer, Golfer, Gamer etc

Just pick your topic and insert it above!

Writing Tips For Bloggers – More links and Inspiration

=> From IncomeDiary contributor Lesley J. Vos – 20 Things That Can Help You Find Inspiration for Writing

=> 15 Editing & Proofreading Tips Every Blogger Should Know

And a brilliant quote about writing from Anne Lamott – the author of: Bird by Bird: Instructions on Writing and Life

Author Bio:

Barry Dunlop is a lifelong entrepreneur who launched his first Internet Business in 1998. He also invests in renewable energy technology, Domain Names and Selling Websites. You can follow / message Barry on Twitter

“Your beliefs become your thoughts, Your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, your values become your destiny.”

– Mahatma Gandhi

The post 17 Writing Tips For Bloggers Who Think They Can’t Write! appeared first on How To Make Money Online.

21 Ways Successful Entrepreneurs Think Differently

Barry Dunlop — Tue, 27 Sep 2016 16:10:31 +0000

Successful entrepreneurs think differently!

They approach problems, fear and failure differently to the ‘normal’ person.

Successful entrepreneurs know that the impossible is not a fact, it is an opinion!

Above all, the successful entrepreneur has an optimism and a zest for life that transforms everything they do.

21 Ways Successful Entrepreneurs Think Differently about Life, Fear, Failure and Success

#1 Failure is only failure if you believe it is

Hands up! Who knows a successful entrepreneur who has not experienced failure?

Take Jeff Bezos for example – founder and CEO of Amazon.com. Amazon was not always the huge success it is today and a long the way Amazon made some ‘wrong turns’ and ‘learning experiences’ as I call them. Examples include Amazon Auctions, Amazon zShops and more recently the Fire Phone.

But Jeff Bezos did not let those ‘failures’ define him. In referring to failed projects Bezos told the Business Insider Ignition conference in December 2014 that “I’ve made billions of dollars of failures at Amazon.com. Literally billions.”

He also told the conference that dwelling on the failures would be akin to having “a root canal with no anesthesia”.

Even the Big Internet Gurus will tell you they failed before they succeeded!

No great Entrepreneur has achieved much without first overcoming the Fear of Failure.

Failure does not define you.

The entrepreneurial journey will have many twists and tunes – sometimes you will be cash positive, sometimes you will be cash negative. It is how you handle these twists and turns that defines you!

The Top Entrepreneur makes Fear their Slave, not their Master!

“If you‘re not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you‘re not doing anything very innovative.” – Woody Allen

Recommended Reading: Failing Forward: How to Make the Most of Your Mistakes

#2 The meaning you attach to events determines your attitude and response

Your interpretation of events is what really matters!

For example, successful entrepreneurs ‘give up’ all the time. Except they don’t call it giving up!

I mean, if something is not working, what is the point in repeating it endlessly?

No entrepreneur gets every decision correct – Even the best sometimes hire the wrong staff or misjudge the market. (Think Jeff Bezos again)

Yet, so many people just can’t let go, even when it is obvious something is not working. They are too focused on the time and money they have invested, imagining that somehow investing even more time and money would fix it!

Above all, successful entrepreneurs have great business judgement – they know when to cut their losses and move on!

As Albert Einstein said:

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Of course this does not mean you should give up easily – we still need to work and apply ourselves but as one of my mentors said to me many years ago: “He always reserved the right to change his mind about anything in the light of new information…”

I have always thought that a good strategy to live by.

In any case, no time is ever wasted if you learned something new or grow as a result!

#3 Successful Entrepreneurs take responsibility.

Successful people don’t blame others, they take responsibility for their outcomes.

Losers on the other hand make others responsible for their failure.

Doe Zantamata, the creator of the Happiness in Your Life book series has something very powerful to say about responsibility and blaming others…

“If a person doesn’t want to take responsibility for their actions, they may try to blame others. Don’t accept blame or try to fix things when you’ve done nothing wrong. They need to learn that if they want different outcomes, they will have to make different choices. If you fix things for them, it deprives them from learning to take responsibility and their actions will repeat with different circumstances. You’ll then be the first they’ll blame or try to have fix things for them because you did before. That can lead to a very destructive cycle which will only stop when you do.”

#4 Successful Entrepreneurs ask better questions

Successful entrepreneurs know that the questions they ask yourself determine their feelings.

We have conversations that are going on in our head all the time. These ‘conversations’ determine our feelings!

Ask yourself poor questions, get poor answers.

Common conversations entrepreneurs have include:

What if this doesn’t work out?

What if I can’t make payroll this month?

On the other hand, successful entrepreneurs ask creative and inspiring questions like:

What is the problem I’m looking to solve?

Who is going to buy and why?

How will my idea benefit my customers and society?

Recommended Reading: 5 questions entrepreneurs should ask themselves

I like this question in particular…

Are you learning from the mistakes you’ve made?

You are in charge of your feelings.

#5 Money is merely a form of energy

For many entrepreneurs, their biggest worry is debt / money.

Be an entrepreneur long enough and the chances are high that you will have face bankruptcy or having to make arrangements with our creditors.

When you’re in debt, you’re controlled.

But what if you looked at it differently?

There’s an old banking proverb: “If you owe the bank thousands (a small amount), then you have a problem. If you owe the bank millions (a large amount), then the bank has a problem.”

Or to put it another way: “If you owe the bank thousands (a small amount), then the bank owns you. If you owe the bank millions (a large amount), then you own the bank.”

Many years ago, a mentor of mine called Stuart Wilde gave me an education about debt.

Stuart pointed out, that when you’re in the business of lending money, you actually allow for some people not paying you back.

In fact, he said, “Barry, if a certain percentage of borrowers did not repay occasionally it would upset the whole apple cart!”

I mean, they had factored in risk and bad debt and it would be a shame to disappoint them!

OK, tongue in cheek, but hopefully you get the point.

Of course, if you borrow money you should use your best endeavors to repay – but never let that debt own you or destroy you!

In his book, The Trick To Money Is Having Some, Stuart Wilde shows you that money is merely a form of energy, and that the difference between having it and not having it is merely a small but subtle shift in consciousness.

One final thought here…

Average people think MONEY is the root of all evil. Rich people believe POVERTY is the root of all evil.

#6 Successful Entrepreneurs focus on the opportunities

A successful entrepreneur is always on the look out for new profitable opportunities that fit in with their personal objectives and long term vision.

The average entrepreneur on the other hand is more likely to focus on the obstacles, what can go wrong and the risk.

The successful entrepreneur is comfortable with calculated risk!

#7 Every no is one closer to a yes

Long before I even knew what an entrepreneur was, I worked as a direct sales person. (commission only).

This involved knocking on a lot of doors – and I experienced a lot of rejection.

To start with, hearing NO got me down.

But I was fortunate in having a sales manager who helped me reinterpret NO in a more positive way.

He would say:

“Barry, every NO means you’re one closer to the YES.”

Maybe I was a little more ‘innocent’ than the average person – but that made sense to me!

(We even worked back from my commissions what each No was worth! A massive $4 a rejection – and that was back in 1982!)

As you can imagine, when I started to interpret every No and slammed door as being worth $4, I felt entirely different about the process!

Now, of course, you should not go off and fail and fail and fail indefinitely. If something is not working, you should determine why and one great way to do that is to hire a Mentor (like my sales manager) or join a Mastermind Group.

The greatest entrepreneurs have heard the most no’s! Have failed the most!

Remember, as Zig Ziglar said:

“Each failure brings you one step closer to success.”

#8 This is NOT how the story is going to END

Every entrepreneur has challenges to overcome – and the most successful entrepreneurs often have had the most challenges to overcome.

They don’t dwell on the bad times – they know the final outcome is in their hands.

Remember:

“At any given moment, you have the power to say that this is NOT how the story is going to END”

Christine Mason Miller

Recommended Reading: The Perfect Day Formula

#9 Successful entrepreneurs are not afraid of failure.

A relatively new term in entrepreneurial jargon is the term “fail forward.”

I’m not sure if everybody understands it. You see, many of us feel that we succeed forward.

But it doesn’t work that way. We fail forward.

Again, ask yourselves the questions every time you fail, “What’s good about this? What have I learned? How can I reinterpret this in a positive way?”

When I ask people, What is they are fearful of?

I get replies like: “Well, I’m afraid I’ll look like a fool” or “I’m afraid that people will realize I’m not as successful as I thought I was, or I pretend to be, or whatever.”

I like to talk about what I call the worst case scenario.

What’s good about failure?

Say that to most people and they will say nothing!

But again it is a matter of interpretation.

How about turning it around and saying instead:

‘You have just learned something that doesn’t work” or “How not to do something’

Can you see that that’s a better way of interpreting failure than just saying:

“I failed! It’s the end of the world!”

My friend Craig Ballantyne signed of an email recently saying:

Be prepared to stumble.

He went on to say:

“Fail forward. Learn your lessons. Move on. Never stop. Keep growing. Act in the face of fear and build extreme self-confidence. Bring the Energy & Enthusiasm. Celebrate each victory and build on your momentum.”

These are the qualities of every successful entrepreneur!

#10 An successful entrepreneur knows there is no such thing as luck.

I’ve always worked very, very hard, and the harder I worked, the luckier I got. – Alan Bond

#11 Laugh, even on your darkest days!

There will be challenging days, but in the end how you handle those challenges determines your eventual success.

Count your blessings every day. There is always something to be happy about if you ask yourself the correct questions.

I’m a big fan of Rudyard Kipling’s Poem: If

These lines in particular I have always felt related well to entrepreneurs….

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same…

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it…

#12 Successful entrepreneurs do not moan, bitch or complain!

A successful entrepreneur know that they have the power to create the life of their dreams.

They know that the outcome is always down to them – they are responsible for their business, wealth, relationships and health.

Successful entrepreneurs do not moan, bitch or complain!

#13 Successful entrepreneurs know that time is more important than money

A successful entrepreneur never trades time for money.

#14 The best entrepreneurs are great listeners

Remember we have two ears and one mouth, use them proportionally.

The more you listen, they more you discover.

I remember as a young sales person being told that telling is not selling and if I wanted to succeed in selling I needed to ask questions.

When you ask questions, you have to listen.

More importantly the other party (buyer) feels they are part of the process. They are buying, rather than being sold!

Great entrepreneurs use smart questioning to build their businesses.

#15 Truth Matters!

Successful entrepreneurs don’t fool (BS) themselves. When business is good they celebrate and see how it can be even better, but when they have challenges, they are honest about it, they don’t pretend.

They are positive realists who understand risk and appreciate that whatever their financial position, they are in control of it.

“Truth shakes out when ideas and perspectives are banged against each other” – Jeff Bezos

Truth really matters – beware of Fake Gurus.

#16 Successful Entrepreneurs have Great Vision

Successful entrepreneurs never stop aspiring to even greater success.

They know that what you focus on is what you get!

A strong desire to achieve something great is the secret sauce of all great entrepreneurs.

As Real Estate Entrepreneur and Bestselling Author Frank McKinney puts it:

“Motivation washes off and goes down the drain with the soap at night, inspiration lasts about as long as a bad sunburn, but aspiration can alter your DNA and forever change your life, and in turn, the lives of those you love.”

See yourself as the success you really are, driving the car you wish, taking the vacations you wish and living in the home you wish.

#17 Stay Away From Negative People – They Have A Problem For Every Solution

A successful entrepreneur knows that – Impossible is not a fact, it’s an opinion.

“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”

Muhammad Ali

#18 Successful Entrepreneurs have no tolerance for drama and fake people

Top entrepreneurs are very selective in their friendships and relationships.

Social Media can give the impression that the modern entrepreneur is a very social being – and often they are. But anyone ever involved in a Start Up will tell you that the life of an entrepreneur is lonely. Long hours, ‘worry’ and pressure are common and we all handle that differently.

One thing for sure, is you have to be selective in your friends and the ‘distractions’ you allow. Reaching your goals take grit and determination and you really don’t want anyone in your life who distracts you or adds to that pressure!

Some of the most successful entrepreneurs are actually quite anti-social. They recognize they have no time to waste. They have no time for gossip.

Sometimes those who don’t socialize much aren’t actually anti-social, they just have no tolerance for drama and fake people

#19 It is not what happens that matters…

“Man is Affected not by events, but by the view he takes of them” – Epictetus

#20 Contribution is your legacy

Successful entrepreneurs are driven by contribution. Sure, they may have been motivated by making money and success but ultimately it is the difference that we make in the lives of others and society that gives us our greatest satisfaction.

And I am not just talking about how entrepreneurs stimulate the economy, in terms of employment, investment and contribution to the GDP.

#21 Successful Entrepreneurs believe in Self-education

Formal education will make you a living. Self-education will make you a fortune. – Jim Rohn

Personally, I’m a great believer in things such as masterminds and groups of people collaborating together and sharing what they know. Mastermind Groups are a great way to create deep and lasting connections with some incredible people and today some of my closest friendships started in a Mastermind Group.

Masterminds are about sharing what is working – but also they can on occasion be about sharing about what is not working!

Don’t make friends who are comfortable to be with. Make friends who will force you to lever yourself up

– Thomas J. Watson

Seek out others that challenge your thinking.The reality is that many times the greatest support and inspiration for an entrepreneur does not come from family or friends, but rather from fellow entrepreneurs – especially the ones who practice: Tough Love!

Successful people are always learning, while poor people feel they have learned enough already.

Recommended Inspiration: The Richest Man in Town: The Twelve Commandments of Wealth

Final Thoughts on Life, Love, Everything!

# Remember it is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver

The capacity to recover and heal is natures greatest gift. I have not always made the best decisions with regards to my health and fitness (That breakthrough is a more recent event) but the amazing thing is that despite on occasion treating my body very badly it has always fought back and I have recovered – from deaths door on at least one occasion.

Now of course we should treat our bodies better, watch what we eat and exercise regularly. As Mahatma Gandhi said:

“It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.”

# It is human nature to be kind, helpful and generous

OK, some will not agree – but it is my experience that it is human nature to be helpful and generous and that includes your customers and even your competitors.

It is amazing how helpful people will be if you give them a chance. Even unhappy customers whom you may have let down will help you and work with you if you give them a chance.

Always approach conflict positively and with a kind heart. It makes a difference.

# Successful entrepreneurs make every second count

Author Bio: Barry Dunlop is a lifelong entrepreneur, Mastermind Facilitator and sales coach who launched his first Internet Business in 1998. He also invests in renewable energy technology and Domain Names. You can follow / message Barry on LinkedIn or Twitter

The post 21 Ways Successful Entrepreneurs Think Differently appeared first on How To Make Money Online.

Barry Dunlop – How To Make Money Online

Nate Rifkin | How To Write Better Copy and Make More Sales

Nate Rifkin: 5 Step Formula For Writing Sales Copy

** Edited Transcription – Nate Rifkin Interview **

The best copywriters are human data-gathering machines

You figure out where they’re at. You figure out what they know, what they’ve already tried, and then you educate them on what the pitfalls were and what they should do next.

In copywriting you have to address customer skepticism and given them a reason why something is going to work.

When you’re aware of your audience’s awareness, when you know what they know, and you know where they’re at, you can craft a great headline that speaks to them exactly where they are, and introduces them to a new idea.

When creating a Lead Magnet pick one thing that sparks folks so much they just need to know the answer to it.

Nate Rifkin – 5-step Formula For Writing Sales Copy

Top 30 Website Sales Of All Time

“You have to work with the end in mind and every day make sure your working towards it”

Top 30 Website Sales Of All Time

Final thoughts on Website Sales:

Are you considering selling your online business?

21 Smart Ways To Increase Website Value

21 Smart Ways To Increase Website Value

#1 To Increase Your Website Value, Start With the End In Mind

The Biggest Mistake A Small Business Can Make Is Thinking Like A Small Business

Do You Buy Websites?

Subscribe to Website Buyers

#2 Use Diversified Traffic Sources

#3 Create Unique Evergreen Content

#4 Secure Domain variations | Major Social Media Extensions

#5 Increase Website Worth Through Testimonials and Star Ratings

“A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is – it is what consumers tell each other it is.”

How Do You Get Testimonials?

#6 Get A Premium Domain Name

#7 Inbound Link-building (Backlinks)

#8 For Maximum Website Value Turn Your Website Into a Hub

#9 Keep Good Records

#10 Make Sure To Optimize Your Website For Mobile Access

#11 Use Great Copywriting

#12 Use Multiple Monetization Channels

#13 Guest Posts | Write For Authority Websites

#14 Create A Sales Funnel

#15 To Add Website Value – Build An Email List!

#16 Make Use Of Original Image & Video Content

#17 Deliver Your Content Through a CDN

#18 Use an SSL Certificate (HTTPS)

#19 Use Personalized Content

#20 Build A Network of Internal Links

#21 Ensure You Have High-Quality UI/UX Design

Final Thoughts!

Top 10 Content Creation Steps For Bloggers

The 10 Most Important Steps For Successful Content Creation

1. Choose a Topic To Write About

How does your blog post benefit the reader?

2. Deciding On What The Goal Of Your Blog Post Is

3. Research Keywords For Blog Post

4. Creating Your Blog Post

5. How to Display Content For Readability

6. Adding Images To Your Blog Post

7. Optimize Text For SEO

8. Optimize Images For SEO

9. Add Internal And External Links

10. Marketing Blog Post For SEO and Social Media

Final Thoughts on Content Creation…

Ray Edwards Copywriter – How to Write Copy That Sells

The Step-By-Step System for More Sales, To More Customers, More Often

Free Ebook Reveals… The $2 BILLION Sales Letter You’ve Never Heard Of… PLUS A Free Copywriting Course

Ray Edwards Podcast Transcript…

It’s really important to understand here that you need to talk about the transformation and not about the methodology.

“Those who tell the stories rule the world.”

“If you can come up with a good headline and lead” — the lead is the first part of the ad — “you’re almost sure to have a good ad. But even the greatest copywriter cannot save an ad without a good headline.”

“Give me 30 minutes, and I’ll give you more blog traffic.”

“Try these five tactics for a week and be twice as productive.”

The money is in the relationship you have to the list. You can have an email subscriber base of 100,000 subscribers, but if none of them open your emails, guess how much that list is worth?

You need to make your marketing valuable in and of itself, whether people buy from you or not.

“Give yourself permission to write crappy first drafts.”

Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal.”

What The Best Sales Closers Taught Me About Selling Online

15 Things The Best Sales Closers Taught Me About Selling Online

#1 Prospects rarely buy the first time you ask.

#2 Top Sales Closers, use Questions to Sell

#3 Top Sales Closers Know Facts Tell but Stories Sell

#4 The Best Sales Closers are Great Listeners

#5 A confused mind says NO!

#6 The best sales closers know their stats!

#7 Cover the objection before the customer does

Edited Transcription – Nate Rifkin Interview

Free Ebook Reveals… The $2 BILLION Sales Letter You’ve Never Heard Of…
PLUS
A Free Copywriting Course