Free reports are the best follow-ups invented by the affiliate marketing world. Rare are the instances wherein you get to establish a sale just by a few convincing words on your pre-seller site, and so follow-ups are crucial. Some prospects need a little more courting before they finally make a decision of buying your product, and this is where free reports come in.

Free reports can contain everything and anything under the sun about your products, however, doing just that might spoil your chances of ever closing sales with your ever choosy prospects. In order for your free reports to bring you the results you want, and that is to increase your sales, you must focus on highlights instead of on complete information regarding the products your prospects might either already know or aren’t interested to know. Highlighting the right things will eventually make your prospects say “yes” to your products.

We like to buy products that are beneficial to us, therefore, you should HIGHLIGHT THE BENEFITS YOUR PRODUCT OFFERS in your free reports. The chances that your prospects already know of the advantages of buying your product are high. It is more likely that these benefits are the reason behind their subscribing to your free reports.

But it wouldn’t hurt to constantly remind them of what they are missing out on, and what they can gain if they buy your product. Just remember to repackage the benefits you highlight once in a while, for no one likes reading the same things over and over again. Lastly, remember that although more benefits mean increased sales, don’t overdo and exaggerate.

Next, you might want to INCLUDE TESTIMONIALS in your free reports. Your prospects need to be reminded that your products can make real people happy, and that it can make them happy, too. Highlight testimonials you feel your prospects can relate most to. Again, no one likes to read the same things over and over again, and so vary the testimonials you place on your free reports. Another mistake affiliate marketers do with their free reports is that they bombard it with too many testimonials, especially if the product is worth testifying for. Highlighting 3-5 testimonials per free report is good enough.

Prospects sign up for free reports because they want to know more about the product, so HIGHLIGHT ANY DEVELOPMENTS ON YOUR PRODUCT in your free reports. Highlight any upgrades your products might have recently experienced, recent findings regarding the features and benefits of the products, and reviews reputable people, groups, and organizations have made on your product. Again, be varied. You’ll never know what developments will catch the eye of your prospects, and bring you the increase in sales you have always wanted.

However, knowing what to put in your free reports is not enough. Your reports should contain certain characteristics that would turn your prospective buyers into buyers. If you want more sales than just a meager month’s worth of groceries and bills, then you should also take note of the following characteristics your reports should have in order to optimize sales.

USE AN ACTIVE VOICE. Tell your prospects what to do, not what they can do. Instead of saying “If you buy this product now, (benefits here),” say “Buy this product now and (benefits here).” This little change can make a lot of difference in your sales. Just make sure you place your commands at the right places.

ADD A LITTLE “SPUNK.” Make your prospects love the things you put in your free reports. Make them laugh, cry, or think. A lot of the right attitude can go a long way, and your prospects are smart enough to determine attitude, even if it’s written. If you make them feel good enough about reading about your product, you might finally get that increased sales you have been longing for.

BE FOCUSED. Do not write about search-engine optimization when you are promoting your products. That also goes for writing about multiple products in one report. Focus on one product only, and make your free reports in such a way that would make your prospects focus on buying your product.

Free reports, again, are one of the best ways to increase your sales, that is, if done correctly. Remember that the goal of free reports is to convince your prospects that your products are what they need or want. If you have to, put yourself in your prospects’ shoes, and focus on what they might like to see in the free reports. Combine that with the tips named in this article, and voila! You have your own recipe for increased sales through free reports.

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Not really. A number of affiliate marketers do not witness success (or any sales at all) because of the part where they “write away.” Writing for your affiliate marketing site does not require the skills of a Pulitzer Prize winner, but those of a smart affiliate marketer. Your articles need to have certain qualities that would utilize online resources best, and, of course, turn prospects into closed sales. This article brings you five types of articles your affiliate marketing site should have, if you want to increase your sales (which I am sure you do!).

REVIEWS

People desire information. Small is the probability of having a person enter your site and establishing a sale the first time around. They probably didn’t even notice the “sales pitches” you have placed all over your site in the first place—the main thing that must have been going through their minds is that they need the product, and fast! Generally, people hate hard core sales pitches.

They want to know more about the product. So give your prospects what they want. Give them honest and sincere information on your affiliate marketing site in the form of reviews. Be honest with your reviews. Place any cons that might come in buying the product. And since this is an affiliate marketing program, market your product as well. Do so in a way that “promotes” the product and not “sell” it.

BENEFITS

Prospects want to know the features of a product the first time they get around to wanting to buy it. If the features of your products are to their liking, they would want to know more about the products. Let them know more of the benefits, that come in buying your product. Your product is not the only one in the market, and it probably has other competition out there that have as good, or even better, features than the one you’re selling. But if you can provide your prospects with more benefits than your competition can, the more likely will you guarantee a sales increase.

COMPARE

If you are very confident of your product’s ability to sell in the market, do product comparisons. Also, do so in the fairest way possible. Do not highlight all the cons of the competition while highlighting your own product’s benefits. Highlight the benefits of the other product, then compare in such a way that your product comes out on top. Be smart in selecting which benefits of the competitor’s product you are going to highlight.

If your competitor’s product has qualities that yours can’t beat, then opt to ‘overlook’ that quality, and focus instead on the other product’s benefits which your product can beat. Make sure sales come your way, and not the competitor’s.

TESTIMONIALS

Your prospects need to know that real people are using your products. Find people who can attest to the benefits of your products in the real word. You might want to keep the contact information from previous sales. It would be good if your previous customers can provide you with photos of themselves, alongside the products if possible. Once you can convince your prospects that your products are good enough for real people, your sales have nothing else to do but increase.

NEWS BRIEFS

Keep your affiliate marketing site fresh with news briefs. You might want to include promos, developments, and previously unknown information regarding the product (such as “studies show that this product (benefits of the product)” or “Top Marketing groups regard this product as one of the most revolutionary products of the 21st century”). Keep your news brief concise—do not bombard it with too much information. If you happen to have a dozen new sources for information regarding your product, post them on your affiliate marketing site as a week’s worth of news briefs.

These types of articles can be used all at once, or in a combination. Choose what works best for your affiliate marketing program, or product, and you will be on your way to sales commissions that just keep on increasing.

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Affiliate Marketing has become a relatively easy and convenient way of earning money, thus, attracting quite a number of followers. For those who are new to the business, they have quite a lot to learn before they get to reap the bigger fruits of affiliate marketing. In fact, there’s so much to learn, it is quite difficult to focus on where and how to start on your own affiliate marketing venture.

The focal point of affiliate marketing, or of any business enterprise for that matter, is the product. No exchange ever happens if there is no product involved. For those who are new to affiliate marketing, choosing a product to promote might make their head spin like crazy.

The following tips regarding what kinds of products an affiliate marketer should promote are perfect for beginners. For those who are more experience in affiliate marketing, however, do not fret. You might also get a few tips from this article (or this article might just confirm what you already know, which isn’t all that bad, either).

The first step in choosing a product to promote using affiliate marketing is not being too specific just yet. Focus on a certain group of products you might find interesting enough to sell, and soon, we’ll get to the part where you choose the specifics of what you’ll be promoting.

For starters, CHOOSE A TYPE OF PRODUCT YOU BELIEVE IN. Promoting in itself is a great task, perhaps, the main focus of all your affiliate marketing activities. For those who aren’t exactly experts at promoting just yet, you might have to rely on your belief of the product above anything else—the more you believe in the benefits your products have to offer, the easier it would be to promote them. Anyway, if you, a real human being, find your product good enough, you might discover that other human beings find it good enough, too.

For those who are simply starting out, you might find it easier to PROMOTE A PRODUCT THAT IS ALREADY POPULAR. Promote those with brand names that stand out. Competition might be fierce, but since your product has already been able to establish a name on the market, it would be much easier to sell. A few newbie affiliate marketers think that promoting lesser known products would be easier due to the smaller competition.

They can’t be any more wrong. The fact that they are newbies promoting unknown products makes for the worst combination of all. Yes, competition might be fierce, but if you are just as fierce with your marketing strategies and promotions, you will eventually find yourself earning just as well as more experienced counterparts.

DO A “MARKET RESEARCH.” It sounds like an expensive activity to undertake, but it isn’t. All you have to do is be observant. Try to observe people around you: family members, friends, strangers passing you by on the streets, and people you ride with on the public transit. What products are they using?

Put yourself in their shoes and try to think what kinds of products they might like to purchase. Ask them, if you have to. Try to observe how they react to certain product names, and how they do not when it comes to others. You might find yourself flashing a light bulb once in a while. Take advantage of what you have learned. They might come in handy as soon as you gain the information, or at a much later time.

Once you know what kinds of products you would want to promote, it is time to narrow down the list. This might be, initially, a tad confusing, but once you have established the categories of products you would like to promote, this part becomes much easier to undertake.

If you were lucky enough to know the specific product to promote given the tips above, then you might want to try SEARCHING FOR YOUR PRODUCT THROUGH YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SEARCH ENGINES. If you have already set your heart and mind on promoting a certain product, look for it, and try to find out whether the product can be promoted through affiliate marketing.

However, if you are like the rest of affiliate marketers just starting out, and, well, still confused on the specifics of the product you would promote, you might want to JOIN AFFILIATE MARKETING NETWORKS. In this case, search engines are as much your friends as the first case. Find marketing networks that have large product databases, and preferably, do not have any membership fees.

Once you know what products to promote, there should be no turning back. Everything else will fall into place. Though the next steps to finalizing your affiliate marketing venture aren’t exactly walks in a park, at least they are now focused towards a single goal, and that it to successfully promote the products you have just chosen.

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The reason why article marketing is so important is that it will not only enhance your website with information but it will also make it go up the ranks of major search engines which all boils down to quality traffic.

This means that chances of people buying your items via the web are much higher and some of these customers might even come from out of state or from a different country.

A. You can make this happen simply by choosing the right keywords which the search engines will pick up when someone decides to look for it.

B. Another option is to send your articles only to those that cater to it. This can be done by uploading the article to your favorite online network. There are also popular article submission sites also known as directories as well as article search engines which you can submit to free of charge.

C. You can also get help from friends who also have websites and also post your articles there. The more sites you are able to advertise in the better so you get to reach a larger audience.

D. If you have written a lot of articles already, it is time to put these into categories. You can also put these all together in the form of an e-Book and give this away fro free.

E. The articles may also be submitted to ezine sites.

Article marketing is just one of the tools in promoting your site via the web. There are also meta-tags and pop up tags which happen to be very popular. The only difference is that you have to spend a few dollars in order for these to be posted in other sites.

So is article marketing important? The answer is yes because with 300 to 500 words, you are able to talk to the reader in a more personal level better than what a banner can do. Most people don’t even pay attention to a banner and just close it because many feel that it is a waste of time just entertaining it.

Perhaps the best part is that you don’t have to be an expert writer to tell the reader what your product is all about. The main thing is that you are able to say it simply so this will be easy for just about anyone to understand.

If you are having a hard time putting the words together, do some drafts, proofread it before submitting this online. For those who don’t write very well, maybe you should hire someone to do that for you by simply giving them certain guidelines about the message you are trying to convey.

People who want to search for something using the web have to type in certain keywords in one of the major search engines. If you want people to find your site, you have to put yourself in their shoes and then put in factual information so you can be trusted. This is the essence of what makes article marketing is all about and why it is so important for anyone who wants to do business online

Article Marketing Tips

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It absolutely terrifies most people and that’s why many of them will never get anywhere in business or in life. No matter what you do you run the risk of being criticized or rejected by other people.

Every single time you create an article, newsletter, eCourse or report you put yourself in a position for someone to criticize you. That one fact alone stops most people in their tracks before they can even start because everybody (on some level) wants to be accepted.

Not everyone is going to like what you put out there so you need to come to terms with that right now and understand that you’re not alone. Even the gurus get a little nervous when they release something to the masses. You just have to be willing to push through that fear.

You’ll soon start to realize (as I did) that the majority of people will appreciate your efforts and look to encourage you on to bigger and better things. Forget the losers who have nothing better to do than to tear someone else down so they can feel taller.

Success comes to those who plan for it and are bold enough to go after it no matter who stands in their way. Plan for success then boldly move forward with your plan no matter what.

I’m not the greatest writer in the world but at the same time, I don’t ask anyone for permission to write and be successful at it.

Don’t ask for permission to succeed and don’t worry about how people will react to your work. As long as you take the time to make sure you do your best, you have reason to be proud of yourself.

Everyone had to start somewhere and the people who would criticize you the harshest only want to keep you down so you don’t ever develop the skills needed to compete with them. Ignore them and keep moving forward towards your goals.

Never let anyone take your accomplishments (big or
small) away from you. Just keep moving forward.

The Power Of Perception Is A Powerful Tool. It’s Your Responsibility To Use It Wisely

You’ve probably heard the saying… “You never get a second chance to make a good first impression” and it’s very true.

The first contact you have with someone is sometimes your only chance to get them to see you as you want to be seen so it’s critically important that you put some thought into that first contact.

What people believe is true is the truth as far as they’re concerned. That being the case, your job is to influence (right from the start) what people think the truth is.

Some of the people I’ve shared this view with say it’s unethical to try and make people believe something that isn’t necessarily true and I agree because that’s not what I’m asking you to do.

I’m asking you to actually have honest intentions with people and take measured steps to make them see those intentions where they would normally assume something bad. Never let people assume something about you. Let them know what you want them to know upfront so it’s easier for them to let their guard down around you.

Just think about it.

How many promotional emails have you gotten this week about some new product? How many of those publishers routinely send you helpful information without trying to make a sales pitch?

Not many.

Whenever you see who some emails are from you automatically know it’s a sales pitch and your guard goes up. You aren’t likely to buy from that person when this happens.

That’s why I stress the need to send your readers more than a flood of affiliate links. That’s a big key to getting more people to buy from you right there. If you write a report about doing something specific and get people excited about it, they’ll want to buy a product that helps them do what you just got them excited about doing.

Anything you can do to distance yourself from competitors like that can only help you make more money. Your readers expect you to be like everyone else. Don’t be.

You have no excuse for continuing to do what you’ve always done and getting yourself lumped into a pile with the rest of your competitors. You know better. You know what steps to take. All that’s left is for you to make a decision right now to take action on them.

To your success!

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Are you willing to put what you want to the side and focus on giving others what they want without thinking so much about how much you’re going to get paid from your efforts?

That’s a tricky question because even if you answer yes, that’s not enough. Saying what you’re willing to do and being willing to do what you say are two completely different things.

Your major competitors are seen as people who have products that are superior to just about anything you produce. Why? Because nearly all of them understand everything I’ve told you up to this point.

Respect the time other people are willing to share with you by giving them the best information you possibly can. Forget about competition and that if you give away or sell some of your best information that it’s going to hurt you and your business.

That’s crazy because most of the people you share your information with won’t do a damn thing with it. Out of every 100 people you could probably expect 5 people or less to go through all of it and put together a plan they will actually execute.

But here’s the thing.

For every 100 people who buy your products only a small percentage of them will do enough to compete with you on any level whatsoever. So about 95 people out of the 100 who gave you their money won’t do anything at all to put a dent in your business.

People get addicted to stuff that makes them feel good. When you produce quality information that’s geared towards actually helping people, many of them will get a wishful thinking high. What I mean by that is they’ll sit there with your materials and daydream about your information helping them to do something but they won’t actually put any of your information to good use.

Just having a great product in their possession is enough for them.

These types of people like to create ideal outcomes in their heads and scare themselves out of taking action because if they took action, they would be accountable/responsible for their own future.

I’m not sure where it comes from but people love to blame others for their past, current and future states. People don’t take responsibility for their actions anymore. At least, they don’t want to. As long as that mindset exists, you can produce highly valuable products and sell them to a lot of people knowing that you are not creating a large number of competitors.

With that being said, there’s no reason for you to hold back the quality of anything you produce. Most people will say a lot of things but they aren’t willing to do a lot of the things they say. They talk about taking action on good information but they won’t.

So sell thousands of high quality products and count your money. Holding back on the quality of your information ultimately limits the number of repeat customers you’ll have and takes money out of your pockets so don’t hold back. Give people the mental high they want and deposit the money you get into your bank account.

You’re not responsible for anyone else’s success. If they don’t want to do what it takes to be successful, that’s completely on them, but do give them quality products that work if they work them.

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If not, you’ll get lumped into the same pile most of your competitors get tossed in and that’s not where you want to be.

Is it dishonest to make it seem like you care?

No.

Here’s why…

The person you are right now is a sum total of every action and decision you’ve made up to this point of your life and since you can’t travel back in time, you can’t change who you are.

But, through your future decisions and actions you can change who you will be. By consistently taking the action of writing to people in a way that makes it seem like you care, you are changing yourself into a person that actually does care about helping your readers.

When people read what you write, they should easily come to the conclusion that the only reason you wrote to them was because you wanted to help them do something they couldn’t do before or to share something about your personal experiences so they can learn without having to make their own mistakes.

Remember, people connect with others who seem to offer them the best chance to achieve their goals or at least other people who seem to want to help them reach their goals the most.

And the thing is, you never really have to write about anything that spectacular. Sharing what has worked for you, your opinions, your ideas or anything you believe would benefit someone reading your material is infinitely better than mindless hype you can’t back up.

The goal of any information you put out there to get people’s attention isn’t to try and sell them something.

The #1 goal of anything you write and send out to other people is to give them the impression that you are someone who is worth buying from by either truly caring whether or not your information helps them or at the very least putting forth the effort to make it seem that way.

Again, whether you care about other people, want to help them out, value their time, or not, when you write to others it has to seem like you care, want to help them out and value their time. You can’t assume people will automatically know what kind of person you are and that you’re in business to help them.

Consciously do things to make them see the kind of person they would want to do business with.

People draw conclusions because the mind is always trying to fill in the gaps between what is explicitly known and what can only be guessed at. If you’re trying hard to help people with your free information, they assume (their mind guesses) that you try just as hard or harder with the products and services you sell or recommend to them.

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Remember: People care about themselves first, then anyone else who seems to care about them too. So when you do things for the people who are giving you their time, (reading what you write) they learn to value what you say and do things to benefit you so that you feel like continuing to do things for them. It’s not about you at all.
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What usually gets you in trouble is the fact that you’re thinking about yourself and what you’re trying to accomplish. That keeps you from seeing the fact that if you want other people to give you what you want, you have to give them what they want first.

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When you desperately want something another person can give you (no matter what it is) you attach an extreme amount of value to that thing and it makes them not want to let it go because whatever you’re asking for now has more value than they thought.

People hold onto things of value.

I’ll give you an example.

Have you ever offered someone something you personally didn’t see much value in and they got a little too excited about it? Didn’t it make you reconsider giving it away?

That’s because that thing you were just about to casually give away apparently has more value than you thought.

As soon as people sense they have something you desperately want, they either won’t give it to you or they’ll make you work too hard to get it. Just from my own personal observations I’ve found that people like to hold onto things that other people find valuable even if those things have no real value to them.

You have to detach yourself from the outcome of what you’re doing.
When you write to people, write because you want to and because you want to help them. In other words, you should try to never tip your hand and show how much you really want something they have if you expect any fair chance of getting it.

Of course you want to present your product offers but when you present an offer without putting all kinds of crazy expectations in your head about how much money you’re going to make, you won’t come off like you desperately need people to buy from you.

People always want to feel like they’re doing something for their reasons and not because you “forced” them into a decision.

Your main focus should be on writing something helpful even when you’re making a product offer. Give people some information they can use even if they don’t buy from you.

Think about that the next time you write. When you write with the idea in your head that it doesn’t really matter if people order or not because you’re writing to help them, the action you want them to take won’t have a feeling of desperation (or added value) attached to it.

I guarantee that when you create a newsletter, special report, or anything else for that matter with the mindset of helping people and not on selling a million copies that people will in turn not only buy from you but praise your efforts and tell other people about your work.

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Trust is a result of people seeing you as a real person willing to share of yourself and not just a automated cloned robot pushing out recycled articles and ads just like everyone else seems to do.

Part of that has to do with the way you write to your readers. You have to write in a way that it looks personal. Like an actual person sat down and took the time to communicate with them. Every single one of your readers knows you have many hundreds or thousands of subscribers but that doesn’t mean that you can’t write like only one person is reading. In fact, that’s what you have to do.

One of the easiest ways I’ve found to learn how to do this is to look at your database of subscribers and pick one to write your letter to. Just one. Then compose your emails in your email client that’s addressed to just that one subscriber.

It’s a little intimidating, but you can also just imagine that you’re writing to one of your bigger competitors which forces you to put some real effort into the information you present. It kind of forces you to raise your game a bit.

No matter how many people you write to, only one person is reading your email at a time so it’s important that it “sounds” like you’re writing to that one person.

Personal stories help as well because they help solidify that fact that you are a real person. There’s too much use of the word “we” online. If you’re the only person running your business then who is “we”? Carefully remove the stick and relax.

If it’s just you, say I or me when you write.

There’s nothing wrong with that because again, anything that allows people to picture you having a one on one conversation with them goes a long way towards helping you build a relationship with them.

Now here’s the thing…

I have to clear this up because I know it’s something that may confuse you. When I say write personal stories I don’t mean you have to talk about personal things. It’s not necessary to do that. What I mean is talk about something that isn’t about your online business or if it is about your business, do it with your own words and personality.

I’ll give you an example…

I’m subscribed to a newsletter that has nothing to do with Internet Marketing or marketing at all for that matter and one of the guys who writes it routinely starts out by telling me something completely unrelated to the subject of his newsletter.

One issue he started off by saying…

———

Not too long ago, in a fit of exasperation over the lack of
American entertainment available here in Spain, I picked up
the Miami Vice box set.

So next thing you know, I’m rolling through the clubs in
Barcelona with my boy (Name Omitted), and we’re introducing
ourselves as “Sonny” and “Tubbs.” Nobody has any idea what
the hell we’re talking about, but as you’re probably aware
by now, I like to amuse myself.

I’ve even started rolling up the sleeves on my blazer.

Just kidding.

———

Has nothing to do with his newsletter but it’s funny and it makes me feel like I know the guy a little because he does something like that in every issue. You could tell people you like the color green and they feel like they know you better. What you tell them doesn’t matter so much as the fact that you should tell them something.

The more personal you can get your newsletter to look, the more your readers will start to respond to you. You see, you’ve been told to build your list and send out a newsletter and of course you should, but why should you? Do you know why? Has anyone ever told you why?

The #1 goal is to build a relationship with like-minded people who seek guidance on the way to their goals. Your job is to help them get to wherever they want to go. All people care about is where they want to go and if you can help them get there.

Your job is not to send out a bunch of recycled articles and ads. People don’t want that and the thing is, many of them won’t unsubscribe when you send them junk. They will just stop listening to you.

So, even though you may appear to have thousands of subscribers, you actually don’t because many of them have quit reading. You have to ask yourself, why should anyone care about you or what you have to say or even relate to you and your business?

Do you give them a reason to? If you don’t, start.

People don’t care about or relate robots.

They care about and relate to other real people.

I remember a few years ago I wrote an email course and wanted an outside opinion on the content so I sent an email to Terry Dean. If you don’t know who Terry is he owned BizPromo.com but made enough money to retire from Internet Marketing altogether and turned his business over to one of his partners.

Anyway, here’s what Terry told me …

———

Hi,

The only thing I didn’t like in your series was the beginning
of each email. The way you did it tells right up front that it’s
not a personal email…and that it’s probably selling something.

I would keep your subject lines, but I would change the way you
start each letter.  Instead of doing the “graphics” I would do
a first paragraph from you similar to what I now do in Web Gold.

The reason I switched was that the current format of Web Gold (with around 3 or 4 paragraphs from me at the beginning of each issue) doubled my response rates.

It was more personal, got to the point of building the relationship
(the #1 goal), and makes more money.

So I would definitely recommend you changing out the very beginning
to look more like personal emails from you.  You can use the lines
and stuff after you do that.

This would apply to all the emails.

By the way, I do think you did a good job on the emails…giving
good information and keeping them short.

Terry

———

You have to realize that Terry at one point was getting up to 1,000 orders or more every time he sent out an offer to his list. That’s not bad if you ask me and that’s what allowed him to retire. The only two things he did in his newsletters were …

Make the first part of it personal. He didn’t usually write too much about himself because he felt like that wasn’t the important part. What was important was writing anything from him (in his own words) to me as a subscriber so that I could feel like I was connecting with him on some level.

He would write his own articles. Mostly. From time to time he included articles from other people but for the most part he mainly shared his own experience. Couple that with the fact that you (over time) felt like you knew the guy from the personal touch he added to the beginning of each email and you could see why people ordered by the hundreds or thousands whenever he promoted a product or service.

Terry understands the art of perception. Whether I actually knew anything about him or not is debatable but Terry made me feel like I did. That’s all that really counts when you’re talking about building relationships online. When you can get people to feel like they know you (or at least know more about you than the average guy just sending them recycled articles and ads) you stand out.

Standing out online is a good thing. You need to rise above the crowd and show people why they should be dealing with you over someone else. If you don’t, your competitors will be on equal ground with you and you don’t want that. You want a person to see you as having no competition because they feel like they know you and that you are someone who wants to help them achieve their goals.

Terry wrote an article about this and I’ll include it here because I think it’s extremely important that you make the message he shares part of your whole newsletter publishing philosophy.

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The ‘Secret’ To A Successful Free Newsletter!

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There are currently over 300,000 ezines on the Internet. The
number is growing every single day.

Most of these ezine publishers never earn any real money (over
$1,000 a month). They work their butts off week after week to
produce good content and then only receive a very minor income
from selling ads or linking to affiliate programs.

You may have found yourself in this very same position.

The first thing you need to understand is that a big ezine/newsletter is not the goal you are reaching for. It is a means to the goal. Your business goal probably isn’t really to build a 100,000 person ezine list. Your goal is to make money online. Building the list is just the vehicle
which will take you there.

This isn’t just semantics. Having the right focus and position for
your ezine is all important online. If you don’t understand why you
are running an ezine, then I guarantee you won’t get maximum
value out of it.

I have been teaching home businesses about the importance of email follow-up, multi-responders, and ezines for almost 3 years now… and I see many people have fallen into some major misconceptions on this subject. Say this out loud with me…

“The goal of my ezine is to build relationships with prospects
and turn them into customers.” You probably didn’t get it the first
time, so please say the sentence out loud once again…

“The goal of my ezine is to build relationships with prospects and turn them into customers.” If you are building a large ezine list just to sell advertising, then you are missing out on the primary income stream it can provide you with. Your ezine is the gateway into
selling more of your products and services.

If you are the member of an affiliate program, then your ezine is the gateway into selling more of their products and earning higher commissions. Your ezine should become the source of multiple streams of income from selling both your products and the products of those you affiliate with.

One of the biggest mistakes I see being made from ezine owners is not inserting your own personality into your ezine.

Part of the advantage to having a small business is you are a real person they can contact, agree with, disagree with, etc.

Don’t just publish other people’s articles and call that an ezine. Sure, you can use some articles from other people. Even all of your articles could be from other people. What you need to do is add in a few paragraphs you wrote yourself to the top of the ezine. Do an editorial section just like in magazines.

Don’t just run ad copy from an affiliate program. Tell your readers how you feel about the product. What did you gain from it? How did you learn from it? What don’t you like about it? You may be so afraid of making mistakes in this area that you don’t do anything. So, make some mistakes. We all do. It is part of being human.

What you say may offend some people and they may unsubscribe from your ezine. So what? They weren’t planning on buying from you anyway! I’m not telling you to purposely offend anyone…just letting you know it’s going to happen. Use spell checkers and have some one edit your writing for you, but guess what? There are still going to be mistakes people will let you know about.

People always ask me how I have gotten my name published all over the web. Here’s the secret…

“Be a real person.”

It’s not what you were expecting, is it? It’s not exciting or highly technical. It’s just the truth. People online are looking for people who are real, who have opinions, and who make mistakes.

One of my most popular articles being published around the web mentions a cow named “Oscar” who lives next door. Some people won’t like you mentioning daily life such as this. Let them unsubscribe. The ones who stay on your list will buy more once they know you.

“Personality” is one of the most under used tools in the ezine publisher’s arsenal. Right alongside personality is good content.
You need to balance the one with the other. You won’t be able to produce a growing ezine without good quality content.

If you don’t feel you can write good content for your newsletter, then
use other people’s articles. Just keep in mind your primary goal -
“to build relationships with prospects and turn them into customers.”

——-

There’s a very important point to be stressed here.

Even though that article is freely available for anyone to see online, I can still use it here without lowering the value of this manual because there’s enough of my own original information around it. That article is only used to support my own words and my own opinions.

You can use other people’s articles when you write but surround those articles with enough of your own information to get people to feel like they are connecting with you on some level. Most publishers don’t take the time to do this, which is why you have to.

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Ask questions and do things that require some sort of interaction from your readers. It doesn’t really matter what you ask. You can ask questions that are completely unrelated to what your newsletter is about so long as you get people to respond.

When you get them used to doing things you ask them to do, no matter what it is, it’s easy for them to keep doing things you ask them to do like buy the products you recommend.

The more you can get your readers to communicate with you, the more they will feel like they know and can trust you.

A relationship (as far as an online newsletter or email course goes) is nothing more than two people (you and each individual subscriber) knowing what their place is in relation to each other.

You are the provider of helpful information and someone who wants to help your reader succeed at something. You must get that across.

Your reader is someone who will learn to trust your advice and listen to your recommendations because you have built up a history of doing things that seem to benefit them more than they seem to benefit you. That doesn’t necessarily have to be true, as long as it seems like it’s the truth to your readers.

Remember, perception (or what people believe) is the only truth that really matters as far as they’re concerned.

The Internet is a cold and distant place.

That’s actually to your advantage because if you can consistently get across to your readers that you are a real person with real concerns (just like them) and you know what it’s like for them to be in the situation they’re in because you’ve been there, you won’t have any trouble getting people to warm up to you.

People in general tend to like others who look out for them because people (again, in general) think about themselves first. If it seems like another person is looking out for them first then that person will automatically take a high position in their eyes.

In other words, when you’re writing, not every link in it has to be an affiliate link for a product you’ll get paid from.

Understand this…

Your readers are buying products and services all the time that aren’t putting money in your pockets so it doesn’t hurt you at all to tell them about a product or service that you won’t make money from.

This sets you up to make money when you do have something to recommend that will put a commission check in your pockets.

To set yourself up to make money you have to give, give, give and then give some more. Now it’s important to note that I’m not saying that you have to give everything away.

Giving (as I’m using the term) means to give of yourself. Share stories with your readers, point them to helpful resources and let them know about things they probably haven’t found on their own.

In other words, offer your guidance. That’s what they signed up to your mailing list for. Not for a bunch of ads they can find on their own.

There’s no point in building a list if your readers don’t think you care about them. You should. Otherwise you don’t deserve to have them as subscribers. When you give to your list, you always get back much more in return so you’re actually being selfish by being unselfish. Knowing that you will get back more than you give ahead of time allows you to focus on giving.

There are some publishers I listen to above all others and when I took the time to try and figure out why, it hit me. They all do one thing that now seems so obvious.

Something you may feel compelled NOT to do. They all give me valuable information many times without promoting any products in some of the emails they send me.

They give me pages and pages of content I can actually do something with. When they do have an affiliate link in an email I don’t even care they’ll be getting a commission from my purchase because of all the great content surrounding that affiliate link.

Am I saying give away your commissions?

No.

I’m simply trying to get the point across that you don’t need to be an affiliate for every product or website you happen to mention to your readers under the guise of trying to help them.

It’s really not necessary anyway.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t promote products to your readers. You should. Just don’t club them over the head with your offers before they’ve gotten a chance to get a feel for you and if you’re someone who’s looking out for their interests or just your own.

Some of the publishers I pay attention to are ones who from time to time will pass on resources to me just because they think those resources would be of interest to me and my goals. When someone does something for you just because, without appearing to gain anything financially from it, especially online, you take notice.

Perception is about appearances. You have to present yourself as you would like others to see you. If you want others to see you as someone who is giving and truly interested in them and what they want to accomplish then you have to do things that make you look that way.

When you pass on helpful information to your readers because you feel like that information will help them without necessarily promoting a product it accomplishes two things.

Passing on resources to your subscribers without always worrying about your commissions builds trust because they start to think that you want to help them and not just get money from them. This makes them more willing to give you money when you ask for it. That’s just the way it works.

Prompting your subscribers to send you feedback on the resource(s) you tell them about is what helps to make your list responsive to your future offers. Get your readers used to interacting with you. Get them used to doing what you ask. In order to do that, you have to keep asking them to do stuff.

When you find anything you think is useful and think your subscribers will find useful as well, pass it on to them even if you don’t get a commission from a product they buy.

You don’t have to do that every single time you write something but do it and ask them for their opinions on what you wrote. Writing to your readers without caring about getting commissions for every single product you mention is a small price to pay in the long run for the level of trust you inspire.

That trust (built on the fact that you have shown your readers they are more than just a dollar sign) is what will set you apart from 99.9% of the other publishers out there.

Let’s be real. I publish to profit. Period.

If my subscribers don’t buy from me I stop publishing because at that point it becomes a burden on my time. I am in business to make money and so are you. My readers understand that and so do yours.

What does this mean to your bottom line?

The more you give to your readers without asking for a lot in return the more they’ll feel like the NEED to give back to you. That’s the law of reciprocation at work. Most of us were taught to give back what we get from people. That being the case, be careful about what you give because what you give is what you can expect to get back. That’s a scary thought huh?

Like I said just a minute ago your subscribers understand that you are in business to make money. If you don’t make money, you go out of business. The issue a lot of the time with publishers is that if you haven’t been giving your readers information they actually value, they won’t care if you stay in business or not which means they won’t bother buying the products you recommend.

I buy products from publishers who do their best to give me value because I want them to stick around. The only way I know how to keep them around is to buy from them.

Give your readers some credit. They know that to keep you in business they have to buy what you recommend. The only real question is do you give them enough value in the form of quality information for them to care if you stay in business or not?

The bottom line is you are a person and your subscribers are people. The Internet for all its wonders lacks what many people crave the most, which is to connection with another human being. The Internet is faceless and impersonal. Use that to your advantage.

Be a real person to your readers. Whenever you create an information product (an article or even just a simple report) do so with the intention of putting together something that will actually help people do something specific. Help people achieve a goal.

Don’t worry so much about your commission checks. Those will be there if your readers feel like you’ve earned them.

You earn them by not making them your focus. Focus on giving value to the people who keep you in business. You can’t afford to be one of the many publishers who forget that.

People want to interact with other people online. Especially those who share valuable information. Give your readers those two things (interaction and valuable information) and you’ll quickly discover as I have that you magically have more active readers instead of just subscribers.

Something that may help …

Do what I do.

Write as much as you can without using any affiliate links at all. Focus on the content without distracting yourself with how you will get paid from what you write. After you have the content nailed down you can always go back and add an affiliate link to a good product (you have used) that supports what you’ve written.

When you become known as someone who gives value, you will be perceived as someone who also promotes valuable products. If people feel that the information you give away is bad then they assume that anything you promote is bad as well.

It’s all about perception.

Remember that.

Project the image of yourself that you want your readers to see. Want them to see you as someone who cares about them? Then do the things you would do if you did care about them like give them information you KNOW will help them even if you don’t get a check from it.

You should care about your readers but at the very least you should always try to make it seem like you do. Now you may not like the fact that I say you should try to make it seem like you care about your subscribers even if you don’t but you’re missing the point entirely.

Our actions dictate who we are and who people see us to be.

If you do something long enough it will become a habit that’s a part of who you are. Even if at first you have to try to make it seem like you care about your readers more than you actually do, eventually you’ll notice that you’re not faking anymore.

It can be hard to really care about someone who doesn’t do things for you (like buy your products) but by focusing on your subscribers’ wants and needs they will start to put money in your pockets and I guarantee you’ll start to love them then.

And remember … always do what you do for a specific reason.

You’re not giving to your subscribers just for the heck of it. This is your purposeful attempt to show them that you value them and see them as more than just a dollar sign.

Doing that allows you (over time) to convert more subscribers into customers because they will WANT to buy from/through you to make sure that you stay in business. If you don’t provide your readers with valuable content, they won’t care if you stay in business or not so you can kiss your commission checks and main income goodbye.

Give, give, give and then give some more.

Your readers should be so wrapped up in the idea that you are one of the few people online who genuinely cares about them and their business that they will jump at anything you say is worth their time and their money because they have learned that you only tell them about things that you believe will benefit them.

When you can get your readers to believe that (through your past actions) you have their best interests in mind whenever you tell them about a product or point them to a resource, they will learn to listen to and trust what you say.

But Doesn’t Giving Your Readers Free Information Only Train Them To Expect More Free Information From You And Not Buy?

Not really. For two reasons…

Your readers know that if they want you to keep producing quality free information for them that they have to buy your products or the products you recommend. It doesn’t hurt when you remind them on occasion that your time is valuable and that you’ll keep publishing only if it’s in your best interest to do so. Kind of like what I did throughout this report.

I publish for profit. As soon as it’s no longer profitable for me to produce information like this, I’ll stop and you can be 100% sure that I’m not kidding.

People online don’t know who you are. You have to demonstrate that you have some knowledge about your supposed area of expertise before they can believe that you know enough to give them recommendations on products that will help them.

If you’re just the average publisher who pushes a bunch of recycled articles surrounded by ads, how is that any different from what they do? If you can’t offer them any more than they can offer themselves, you become unnecessary.

The main thing people are looking for is guidance from others who seem to know something more than they know. The only way people will see you as that person is for you to show them. If you don’t know anything then go out and learn something. Then show others what you’ve learned. That’s all any good teacher does. They are constantly learning something new.

Really what it comes down to is you understanding what people think. People expect you to go after their wallet without proving yourself first. People expect your newsletter to be full of “junk” and ads. People expect you to look out for your needs first.

Surprise them.

Almost Forgot This: When you start asking your subscribers for feedback you need to keep in mind that most of them won’t respond, but some will. Maybe a lot of them will. That’s a good sign, but it may not seem that way when you start thinking about how you’re going to respond to everyone who emails you.

Here’s what to do in that situation…

Instead of doing what a lot of people do which is to answer emails for hours at a time, set aside 10-15 minutes and go through all your email 2-4 times a day. It’s easier to knock all your email out in blocks than it is to try and handle it in bits and pieces throughout the day.

Set up specific times for getting to your emails and for the most part, stick to that schedule.

The most important part about asking your readers for questions is responding to those questions within a reasonable amount of time. I’ve had problems with that in the past and it was partly due to me not setting a schedule for checking my email. When you have a schedule, it’s easier to have the right mindset to answer the questions you get.

Am I saying that you can’t check your email sporadically during the day? No. Sure you can; as long as you mainly stick to whatever schedule you’ve set for yourself. Any extra time you spend going through your email is entirely up to you.

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Important: You might think some of the questions you get from your readers are of little value and you may even think some of them are a waste of your time to answer. However, you should always try to keep in mind the fact that any question someone asks is important to him or her so those questions must become important to you.
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Think about it. Even though email is easy to send, it still requires some effort to compose an email and send it out. When you send email to someone, you expect a timely response because your question or concern is important to you.

Right?

Your readers are no different.

Here’s the bottom line…

How do you feel about people who do things for you? Aren’t you more willing to do things for people who have already done things to benefit you? Of course you are and if you honestly ask yourself why you’ll come to the conclusion that it’s because you want those people or that person to continue to want to do things for you in the future.

That’s how newsletter publishing works.

It’s a measured give and take.

When you give you to subscribers they will give to you if only to keep you in the mood to keep giving to them. If all you do is try to take from your subscribers you’ll start breed resentment at your attempt to snatch their hard earned money at every chance you get.

Your subscribers buying from you is a direct result of your efforts to make them want to keep you in business so you can continue to do things that benefit them. That’s basically it. People care about their needs above and beyond yours so take care of theirs first.

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