Nobody likes rejection or criticism.

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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I’ve given you a lot of insight into my thought process when I approach a writing project but none of what I shared with you will help you at all if you can’t honestly answer this question…

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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Writing in a way that gets people to buy from you boils down to one thing really. Write in a way that makes it seem like you care. If you really do care that’s even better but at the very least you should always make a conscious effort to make it look like you do.

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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A lot of the email I get is from people who are trying way too hard to sell me something. In other words, they really want my money and it shows. I can almost smell the desperation in their email and being desperate to get something from people is a surefire way to make them not want to give it to you.

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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This last rule requires you to be bold. It requires you to expect and accept the fact that some people are going to flat out reject you. If you can’t deal with rejection, learn to deal with it.

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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One of the easiest to implement yet most overlooked ways to get people to warm up to you and feel like you value them and want to help them is to ask them simple questions. Everybody’s favorite subject is himself or herself so why not show some interest?

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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When people sign up to your newsletter, the first letter they get should be a personal message from you to them telling them what they can expect as a subscriber and why it’s a good idea to stay subscribed and read every single email you send them.

Almost no one does this.

Your first message sets the tone for everything you do later. If you don’t set the right tone up front, it’s going to take you a lot longer to “warm up” your readers before they’ll buy something from you.

When you make your first few emails about them and their needs, they’ll start to wonder if you have something for them to buy. That’s a good position to be in because it puts your readers in a more receptive mood when you actually do present them with a direct offer.

Put your own agenda on hold for a minute.

Remember this… Perception is reality. In other words, whatever someone believes to be the truth is the truth to him or her.

With that in mind, isn’t it in your best interest to “control” (as much as possible) what your readers believe to be the truth? You can control (to a great extent) how people perceive and react to you by carefully presenting yourself the way you want them to see you.

If you want your readers to respond to you in a positive way, you have to give them a solid reason to by giving them what they want before expecting to get what you want. This will become a lot clearer as you read on. Remember, people care about themselves first.

I’ll give you a non-Internet related example…

To a certain extent, many people will have an idea in their head of what I’m supposed to be like just by looking at me, but since I believe that the opinion I have of myself is the only relevant one, people tend to see me as I purposely present myself to them.

To give you an idea of what I mean… one night (about 2:00 am) I was on my way home from a friend’s house and I stopped to get some gas. Turns out, the gas station I went to wasn’t accepting gas cards that night so I wanted to use the ATM inside.

I walked up to the window, introduced myself to the attendant on duty and then asked the 5’ 5” or so guy behind the counter if I could come in and use the ATM because my card wasn’t working (pointing out my car) and I needed some cash to buy gas.

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Side Note: Knowing that people care about themselves and what they need before even thinking about you and what you need, I gave the guy what he wanted before expecting what I wanted.

I wanted inside the store and he wanted to know that anyone he let in wouldn’t be a physical threat to him. So I purposely presented myself in a way that allowed him to see me as someone who not only would not hurt him but as someone who he could trust enough to let his guard down with.

Whether that was true or not, that is the person I purposely presented for him to see and I was completely congruent with that.

By congruent I simply mean that nothing about my behavior or the look in my eyes betrayed the image I purposely put in front of this person. Everything I said and did agreed with the idea I wanted the attendant to have of me.

If you don’t completely understand what I just said, keep reading it until you do. Yes, it’s that important.
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I already had enough money to get some gas (more than enough to get home) but I saw this as an opportunity to see if I could get into the locked gas station based on my attitude and my words.

If the guy didn’t let me in I just would have gone to another station so he wouldn’t see that I already had some money.

Now think about this…

I asked a guy smaller than myself who was protected by a locked door and bulletproof glass if he would let me (a man he didn’t know) into the store around 2:00 in the morning.

Now, I would have completely understood if he didn’t open the door but he did and on my way in he said two things…

“Well, I guess it’s ok because you don’t look like you’re going to rob me.” I ask you, what did he have to base that on? Only on the way that I carry and perceive myself. I know I wasn’t a threat to him and was able to project that by making my intentions clear to him before asking for what I wanted.

The second thing he said was to another guy behind me that tried to walk into the store… “Get back or I’ll call the cops. You can’t come in!” Again, why would the attendant let me in but not the other guy behind me? We were both to 6’+ 200+ men trying to get into the store and I got let in while the other guy had to leave under the threat of arrest.

Just to make my point; the gas station attendant had nothing to base his belief that I wasn’t going to rob him on other than my belief that I wasn’t going to rob him and my ability to get that across to him.

What does any of that have to do with creating the type of relationship with your readers that allows you to get them to buy basically anything you choose to promote?

Think about it…

People have nothing to base their opinions of you on other than the person/image you purposely or accidentally present for them to judge. As soon as you do the same things most of your competitors do, you get labeled as on of them even if you’re not.

That’s why it’s so important to make your intentions crystal clear right from the start. Do something that your competition hasn’t thought of doing because they’re only thinking of themselves and what they want. Not what their readers need from them first.

Believe it or not, people can pick up on your intentions.

If they can’t (because you haven’t made your intentions clearly known) they’ll just guess at what your intentions are and for whatever reason, whenever someone has to guess at what your intentions are, they will almost never think of anything positive.

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Side Note: Did you notice how many times I’ve used the word because so far? Some of that is natural conversation but a lot of it was purposely put there to (shut your brain off) get you to automatically accept what I said before it. I’m purposely leading the way and not giving your brain a chance to question me.

In other words, I was filling in the gaps between what I said and what I wanted you to hear so that you wouldn’t consciously think about or guess about certain things. I told you A is true because of B instead of just saying A is true. If I had just said A is true then you would have tried to figure out on your own if it was but when I say A is true because of whatever, people generally accept whatever answer you give them even if it doesn’t really make sense.

Whenever you leave gaps in what you say, people will try to connect the dots on their own. That’s what the brain does. It fills in the gaps between what you say and what you don’t say with the most logical (and most often the worst) explanation of what you mean.
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Your intentions (or at least what you can get others to believe your intentions are) have the power to move them to do things for you they wouldn’t dream of doing for anyone else.

To borrow from my earlier example, I made it clear to the attendant what my intentions were while the other guy wanting to get into the store simply tried to walk in behind me.

He just wanted to get into the store and he wasn’t thinking about the feeling of security the attendant needed. That led the attendant to automatically assume that he was up to no good.

The only thing that separated me from the other guy was the fact that I introduced myself, carefully stated my intentions and asked the attendant if he would help me out and gave him a “because” reason.

That applies everywhere.

Are you just trying to quietly slip into people’s email inbox or are you introducing yourself and clearly stating your intentions for being there so they can feel comfortable about letting you into their space?

Unfortunately, people have been conditioned not to expect much from free information so clearly stating your intentions is an absolute must. If you don’t, people will automatically assume that you only write to them so you can send them advertising.

That may be true but you don’t want people to believe that.

Too many people are teaching you to build your list without teaching you what to do with your list as you build it.

Just about everyone who joins your list will at least read the first message you send to them and make up their minds about you based on that first email. Knowing this, doesn’t it now seem obvious that your first email is the most important and that you should do everything in your power to make sure people have the right “picture” of you and your intentions in their heads so they don’t draw their own conclusions about you?

Letting people draw their own conclusions is almost never good.

Don’t leave it up to your readers to figure out why you have a newsletter because they won’t come up with a good reason. Tell them why. Tell them why they should want to be a subscriber/stay subscribed and why they should listen to what you have to say.

Practice making that extra effort to positively influence the way you are “coming across”. Practice is the only way you’re going to learn how to do this. You will start to understand (just like I now do) that you can make people see you any way you want them to.

How else could I be escorted inside of a closed gas station by an attendant who told someone else directly behind me (who looked like me) to leave or the cops would be called out to arrest him?

The only major difference between me and the other guy who had to leave under the threat of arrest was the way that I came across to the attendant. I came across exactly like I purposely wanted to.

It was a calculated effort on my part to project myself as being someone who the person on duty could feel comfortable about coming from behind bulletproof glass and unlocking the door for.

If I could do that, what could you do if you made the effort to change how people perceive you?

And that isn’t the only time I’ve been escorted inside of a locked gas station late at night. I tried six more times (just to prove the first time wasn’t a fluke) and got let in four times again where the attendant quickly locked the door behind me. The other two guys just wouldn’t go for it but hey, you can’t get your way with everyone.

There are three things you can do right now to change the way people see you. How people see you mainly has to do with the type of person you purposely or accidentally present for them to see.

With that in mind …

Evaluate your current image. Are your readers doing what you want them to do? Are they buying from you? Are they at least taking the time to look at the products you recommend to them? If not, take an honest look at yourself and ask yourself if you’re presenting a person that is worth (or appears to be worth) listening to and buying from.

If not, take steps to make yourself be or at least appear to be that type of person. Use the next two steps I’m giving you to portray the image of someone who your readers can see themselves looking to for answers, guidance and support on the way to achieving their goals. All people really care about is their goals and anyone who seems to want to help them reach those goals.

People will evaluate you based on how much they think you can help or hurt them on the way to what they want. That’s why it’s so vitally important that you give the best information you can.

Take a good look at your surroundings. Generally you want to do the opposite of what the majority of other people do because being a part of the “herd” will get you what the “herd” gets. A small share of whatever they’re fighting over. You have to remove yourself from the group and do what it takes to show your readers that you are different from the average free information publishing, commission-hungry, only care about themselves marketers out there.

Only people who do what others aren’t doing get noticed. Period. If you’re doing the same thing everyone else is doing then why would potential buyers pay any attention to you at all? You cannot have a “me too” business. Take some time to figure out what others in your market (your competitors) are doing so you can see how to consciously make yourself look better than they do.

It’s as simple as that. What you want to do is put yourself in a position where your readers see that you are making an effort to connect with them while the majority of the other newsletters and email courses they’re subscribed to are full of ads, recycled junk written by someone who’s desperate for a commission check.

Figure out what your readers want and give it to them without thinking so much about what’s in it for you. I know that doesn’t sound right but what you have to understand is that people are loyal to other people who are loyal to them. You can’t expect your readers to do something for you when you aren’t willing to do something for them first so you have to be willing to be the one to initiate the relationship. Extend your hand and invite your readers to accept your invitation.

Your main job is to serve your readers. Not to get them to buy from you. They will buy, but only when they feel like you’ve done a good enough job of catering to their needs first.

Why Do You Publish A Newsletter Or Email Course?

Is it so that you can send out ads for whatever products you happen to be promoting at the moment? That’s why many publishers send out free information and I can’t really fault them for that because that’s just what they were taught to do.

You’ve been told that building a list with thousands of subscribers on it is the way to make money online. While partly true, the other part of the equation has to do with how many people on your list value your opinion enough to go out and buy something you’re promoting.

So again, I ask you… “Why do you publish free information?”

Your first answer should be to SERVE the needs of the people who have taken the time to join your list.

They didn’t have to join.

No one forced them to.

Only by taking an active interest in the needs of your readers will they in turn take an active interest in your needs. Sounds simple but it’s easy to get blinded by the dollar sign and forget that actual people are subscribed to your list. Not mindless robots with money.

When you can figure out what the needs of your readers are and strive to fill those needs, you won’t have any problems making as much money as you want with your list.

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The money is in the list.

You’ve probably heard that before right?

Well, that’s not exactly true. Not the whole truth anyway.

The biggest obstacle you face and have to overcome when you publish a newsletter or put any free or paid information out there is the fact that people have gotten used to getting junk (from your competitors) disguised as helpful free or paid information.

Many writers put out sub standard information simply because they’re writing from a mentality of “I gotta get paid” and when you do that, you completely forget about the people you’re writing to and start to concentrate on you and what you want.

That’s a surefire recipe for disaster.

“Whenever you write anything for your subscribers, website visitors and customers don’t write with the sole intention of getting a check.

Getting checks is nice but your business lives or dies based on how many people believe you genuinely want to help them achieve their goals.”

Without an effort from you to show your readers that you value them enough to part with real information and that you see them as more than just a dollar sign, you’re going to be lumped in a group with all the rest of your competitors with a big sign on your forehead marked “Will Do Anything For Commissions”.

Responsive readers are born from conscious efforts to build a solid relationship with them. People connect with other people. Not mindless robots that only want commission checks.

Now don’t get me wrong.

I’d love for you to buy the products I recommend, but I’m not going to force that on you. When I do enough of the right things in your eyes, I will have earned the right to ask you for your money in the form of commission checks from other products and services.

The big thing is that I have to earn that right by giving up good information that is of actual use to you. When you write anything you expect other people to read, the same thing applies to you.

If you’re going to create information full of affiliate links then you’re completely missing the point of what it takes to get people to value what you have to say.

I’ve done that in the past and it is nowhere near as effective as what I’m about to show you. If you want people to eagerly anticipate your next email with every intention of jumping on any products or services you recommend, you should follow the three rules I’m about to lay down for you because that’s entirely possible to accomplish.

Evergreen Strategies You Can Take To The Bank
Before I get into the heart of this report I want to make sure you completely understand the direction I’m taking.
I have nothing against giving you specific techniques and strategies because they are important but they are never more important than the thought process that went into creating them.
Throughout this report I’ve done my best to give you the overall thought process I have when I sit down to write. By doing that, you will be able to learn how to come up with your own specific ideas based on the concepts I’ll show you.
Evergreen marketing refers to the fact that I’m giving you proven concepts (that never stop working) based on the nature of the people you sell to. People can change a lot of things about themselves but their nature isn’t usually one of them. People can go against their nature (for short periods of time) but rarely can they change it.
In the future you should make a conscious effort to try and understand why something is done instead of just copying what you see someone else successfully doing. There’s always something more beneath the surface that you can study and learn from.

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Marketing Strategies - Part #30

1. The “To The Point” Strategy

The “I’m going to get right to the point…” strategy tells your prospects you are simply going to tell them what your product is and how it works without all the hype. They will assume you won’t be using any pressure tactics and you’ll allow them to come to their own conclusion about how your product can improve their life.

2. The “Paragraph Branding” Strategy

The “remember what I said a few paragraphs ago?….” strategy tells your prospects to read one of your product’s benefits again. When people read something over and over it gets programmed in their brain and will influence them to buy. It’s like you are branding your product again and again within your ad copy.

3. The “Stacks Up Well” Strategy

The “as you can see (your product’s name) stacks up well against the competition… ” strategy tells and shows your prospects a comparison chart of your product up against your competition’s product. It lets them take a more detailed look at some of the benefits and features of your product and similar products.

4. The “Instant Split” Strategy

The “you’ll get paid instantly to your (account name) account…” strategy tells your prospects that your affiliate program offers instant split payments. They will like the fact that they will be rewarded immediately for every sale they refer. They will also be motivated to keep promoting your product.

5. The “One Shot” Strategy

The “you only get one shot to (your product’s or bonuses’ benefit)…” strategy tells your prospects they will have only one chance to purchase your product or bonuses and then it will be gone forever. You could sell that particular version of your product package for a limited time and limit the number of copies you will sell.

6. The “Eavesdrop On Me” Strategy

The “eavesdrop on my secret conversations with top (types of experts)…” strategy tells your prospects they can call in and hear you and other experts if they register for your teleseminar. People will assume they will hear some free strategies that could improve their life. You could of course promote your product at the end of the call. Just make sure your conversations back up your product benefits.

7. The “Un-Everything” Strategy

The “it’s unscripted, unedited, uncut, uncensored, unrecorded, unrehearsed…” strategy tells your prospects that your audio or video product is live or was recorded live and will be presented without editing. People will be interested because they may hear some information that should be off-the-record. It may give them an advantage for reaching their desired goals.

8. The “Give Up” Strategy

The “I was ready to give up for good until something changed my life forever…” strategy tells your prospects that if they are ready to throw in the towel on gaining their desired benefit, your product could be the answer. They will assume since you were ready to give up, you totally understand their situation and would steer them in the right direction.

9. The “Gift Giving” Strategy

The “you also can send this gift to (no.) of your friends or family members…” strategy tells your prospects that you care about their friends and family too. People like to give gifts to people they love and care about. Of course, you should include your product ad somewhere on the freebie. It will send your advertising all over the Internet using a ‘tell a friend’ script.

10. The “Vacation” Strategy

The “see a picture of me while I was on my vacation…” strategy tells and shows your prospects personal pictures of you and the benefits they could enjoy as a result of owning your product. A vacation photo could be used for money-making products, losing weight products, cosmetic products and anything else related to a taking a vacation.

11. The “Don’t Get Confused” Strategy

The “don’t confuse this with (your competition’s product or a type of product)…” strategy tells your prospects that your product isn’t what they assume. They will want to read your sales letter to know exactly why. For example, don’t confuse this with MLM, don’t confuse this with the imitations, etc.

12. The “Trick Or Treat” Strategy

The “this is not some trick…” strategy tells your prospects that you aren’t going to con them into ordering something they don’t want by giving them a freebie. Most people in the past have signed up for free “how to” information that doesn’t give all the promised benefits without them having to buy something else, like an up-sell offer.

13. The “Time Limited Recording” Strategy

The “we have received many messages from people that weren’t able to make the call so…” strategy tells your prospects that you recorded the call so they could listen to it at their leisure. You could also tell them it will be up for only a few days to create more urgency for them to listen to it sooner and possibly purchase your back-end product.

14. The “Keep Dreaming” Strategy

The “just keep daydreaming that you’ll (your product’s benefit), which won’t happen unless you take action…” strategy tells your prospects that the only way they’ll gain their desired benefit is do something about it. Tell them how easily they can make their dreams come true if they just order your product.

15. The “You’re Privileged” Strategy

The “this is for (owner’s name) prospects only…” strategy tells your prospects that they have privileges that other people don’t have because they were smart enough to be the owner’s prospect. The target offer could be for a discounted price, a freebie, extra bonuses, etc.

16. The “Ship Or Sink” Strategy

The “get free shipping on all orders placed by (date)…” strategy tells your prospects if they are remotely interested in your product, they should buy now to save money on shipping costs. Another idea is to offer free, faster shipping times to people that spend over a certain dollar amount.

17. The “It Starts Low” Strategy

The “the price starts low at ($) and goes up (no.) cents every (no.)(minutes/hours)…” strategy tells your prospects that they have very little time to order before the price goes up. This type of sale creates more urgency than sales that are for a few days or weeks.

18. The “More Sold, More Gold” Strategy

The “first (no.) packages are ($), the second (no.) packages are ($), etc…” strategy tells your prospects that if they order sooner, they will save money. You could even have a live countdown on your web site of how many packages are left till the price goes up.

19. The “Everyone, Anyone” Strategy

The “we have customers from all walks of life, and from over (no.) countries worldwide…” strategy tells your prospects it doesn’t matter who they are or where they’re from. People sometimes stop themselves from purchasing certain products because of the situation they are in or because they have limiting beliefs.

20. The “Idiot” Strategy

The “even a complete idiot could (your product’s desired benefit)…” strategy tells your prospects that they don’t have to be smart or intelligent to use your product. People will assume they will get even more benefits out of your product because they likely won’t consider themselves to be a complete idiot. For example, ‘If a complete idiot can do it, I surely could.’

21. The “No One’s Left Out” Strategy

The “we have a newbie quick start guide and instructions…” strategy tells your prospects even though your product was made for experts or professionals, you have information that even beginners can understand. You’ll be able to sell to both kinds of people, which increases your market share.

22. The “End Of An Era” Strategy

The “the days of (a negative action) are over, (your product’s name) will do (no.) percent of the work for you…” strategy tells your prospects that your product will relieve them of doing a frustrating maneuver. The higher your percentage, the higher the chance they will likely purchase your product.

23. The “We Listen To You” Strategy

The “major update: backed by popular demand we just upgraded (your product’s name) with (a certain feature/benefit)…” strategy tells your prospects that you just improved your product. People will assume you took the advice of your current customers. They will like the fact that you listen to your customers’ requests.

24. The “Categorization” Strategy

The “do you fit any of these categories (a list of your prospect’s known problems)?…” strategy tells and reminds your prospects of all the possible negative situations they have in their life without your product. You just need to prove that your product will lift the weight off their shoulders.

25. The “You Only Live Once” Strategy

The “well, how much is this going to cost me? Look, if you have to ask that then you are not that serious about improving your life…” strategy tells your prospects that they shouldn’t let price get in the way of them reaching their goals. Tell them they can always make more money but they only live once.

26. The “Argue And Fight” Strategy

The “(another expert) and I got into a huge argument the other day about (something related to your product)…” strategy tells your prospects that there is a major fight brewing that could affect their desired benefits. People are attracted to controversy and want to hear about the drama and results of it.

27. The “In A Hurry?” Strategy

The “if you are in a rush, click here now (your web site address)…” strategy tells your prospects if they are busy or in a hurry, they don’t have to read your message but can just go straight to the web site. Some people don’t have time to read all the hype and rather just read all the details at once on your web site.

28. The “Fill-The-Blank” Strategy

The “discover how to ____ in ____ days…” strategy tell your prospects the basics of one of your product benefits and makes them curious as to what should be filled in the blanks. They will likely want to visit your web site or purchase your product to find out.

29. The “Your Last Warning” Strategy

The “you can’t complain about the fact that you didn’t have a chance to buy because this is your (no.) warning…” strategy tells your prospects there isn’t much time left to purchase the limited supply of your products. People will register the thought about missing out on a past product they didn’t buy and kick themselves for it. Just that memory alone could persuade them to buy.

30. The “Don’t Trust Me” Strategy

The “then don’t ever trust me again…” strategy tells your prospects you must be telling the truth about your product because you are laying your honesty on the line. You could tell them if your product doesn’t help them gain their desired benefit, they never have to visit your web site again or read your messages.

31. The “Bought Everything?” Strategy

The “have you searched high and low for (your product’s benefit) and gone into debt buying every new product that comes out, only to find that all of them failed?…” strategy tells your prospects to read on if they mentally answered yes. You will need to present strong evidence that your product is the solution and won’t be like all the others they’ve bought in the past.

32. The “Do Something About It” Strategy

The “don’t sit around waiting for someone to solve your problems, do something about it…” strategy tells your prospects that your product will help them solve their problems without other people’s help. You can tell them you’ve done all the work for them, they just need to invest a little money.

33. The “Bandwidth Limit” Strategy

The “sorry the server crashed, here it is the web site again…” strategy tells your prospects that tons of people are interested in your offer and the web site exceeded its bandwidth. You can apologize and give them another chance to view your offer. You can tell them they won’t be wasting their time because you switched to a different server.

34. The “A Tiny Percent” Strategy

The “(no.)% of all the work has already been done, just finish the remaining (no.)% by just following these easy steps…” strategy tells your prospects that they should purchase your product, follow the directions and experience the rewards. People will realize that getting the remaining percent isn’t that difficult to gain their desired benefits.

35. The “They Charge More” Strategy

The “just imagine how much a (type of professional) would charge you…” strategy tells your prospects that your lower priced product will eliminate the need for a trained expert. For example, your cheaper product could save them money on hiring a repair man, lawyer, consultant, electrician, mechanic, ghost writer, etc.

36. The “Negative Or Positive” Strategy

The “would you like to go through all the (negative effects) or enjoy all the (positive effects)?…” strategy tells your prospects to make a choice between a good or bad experience. Of course you would persuade them that your product will give them the positive effects. It could be saving them from moving, saving time, being successful, etc.

37. The “Ticked Off” Strategy

The “I just ticked off a bunch of (type of experts/competition in your niche)…” strategy tells your prospects to wonder why all these other professionals would be so mad at you. Of course it would be because your product is so much better than theirs. You can tell them you revealed their closely guarded secrets and they are boycotting your web site, bad mouthing you, sending you threatening letters, etc. You will really get your prospects’ attention.

38. The “In The Long Run” Strategy

The “you can’t afford not to own (your product’s name)…” strategy tells your prospects the more time they wait to purchase your product, the more it will cost them in the long run. You could even tell them the exact negative effects that will cost them more money. For example, health problems, water damage, gas mileage, etc.

39. The “Sorry, No Bonuses” Strategy

The “where are the bonuses? I’m not going to offer you a single bonus because…” strategy tells your prospects that your product is valuable enough to stand on its own. You can tell them that you are not going to try to bribe them with a bunch of cheap reports or e-books that have some made up, high priced retail value. Many people will like the fact that you are not trying to insult their intelligence.

40. The “Out Of The Loop” Strategy

The “I had originally sold this privately to only my existing customers…” strategy tells your prospects that they were left out of the loop before because they weren’t an existing customer. Most people will want to purchase your product so they don’t miss out on any more of your private, customer-only sales. That way they will have one of the first opportunities to benefit in the future.

41. The “Sold Per Day” Strategy

The “(no.) have been pre-sold. Day 1 (no.) left, Day 2 (no.) left, Day 3 (no.) Today (no.) left…” strategy tells your prospects the rate per day which your limited supply of products are selling at. It will show a clearer picture of just how fast your products are selling and how many remain.

42. The “My Ranking” Strategy

The “my traffic ranking is (no.) out of millions of web sites and improving every day…” strategy tells your prospects that your product must do what you say it does or you wouldn’t be getting all those hits. You could also list how many sites link to you, your PR ranking, how many pages mention your web site, etc.

43. The “Find It Cheaper?” Strategy

The “if you find a cheaper (your type of product) I’ll give you mine for free…” strategy tells your prospects that with that kind of offer, you must have the lowest costing one. Most people wouldn’t waste their precious time searching for a cheaper priced product unless yours was a high ticket item.

44. The “Even Cheaper” Strategy

The “if you find a cheaper product I will sell you ours for an even lower price…” strategy tells your prospects that you are confident that you can beat any of your competition’s prices. People like to buy from confident, highly competitive businesses because it keeps the costs down.

45. The “Funny Story” Strategy

The “this story is funny as…” strategy tells your prospects they are about to laugh and be entertained. If you can think of a hilarious story to relate to your product, it can be a goldmine. Most people want to give something back to you for the comical, rewarding story and experience. Most people can be persuaded easier if they are in a giving kind of mood.

46. The “Childish Challenge” Strategy

The “my friends (no.) year old kid (your product’s benefit in (no.) (minutes/hours/days)…” strategy tells and persuades your prospects that if a child could gain their desired benefit, how could they possibly fail. It will remove all the doubts about your product and your prospect’s limiting beliefs. Maybe you could even get permission to use the kid’s testimonial with a picture.

47. The “Sick Of Them” Strategy

The “I’m so sick of my competition whining and crying to me about…” strategy tells your prospects that your competition is complaining about something you are doing. If you get those types of letters or phone calls from your competition, then tell your prospects and customers about it. It will make them look bad and you’ll look like you know what you are doing. They could be complaining about your low prices, your marketing tactics, your product ads, etc.

48. The “Open The Flood Gates” Strategy

The “people have been begging me to open the doors again and I have…” strategy tells your prospects that they can get access to your popular membership web site or product. People will assume if people have been asking you for months to reopen it, it must be a good. You can also tell them how many spots you have open so it creates urgency.

49. The “Push To Improve” Strategy

The “you may be wondering why I’m so heavily promoting (your product name)…” strategy tells your prospects the reason why you are pushing or marketing your product to them so much. You can tell them that you want to improve as many people’s lives as you can and eliminate the targeted problems they have.

50. The “Measly” Strategy

The “what can a measly ($) get you?…” strategy tell your prospects that they can get something so cheap that could improve their lifestyle. Some people consider low priced products as junk so you’ll need some convincing evidence that your product works like you says it does.

Marketing Strategies

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Marketing Strategies - Part #29

1. The “Comprehend This” Strategy

The “discover the power of this little understood…” strategy tells your prospects that many people do not comprehend a certain beneficial feature of your product. People like to learn about things they don’t know about if it will benefit them in some way.

2. The “They’re Successful” Strategy

The “ever wonder why (a famous person’s name) is so successful…” strategy tells your prospects that your product helped the experts or celebrities gain a targeted benefit. People will assume if they purchase your product, they could be famous or successful at something too.

3. The “One Time Instructions” Strategy

The “you only need to go through the instructions once and it will become second nature to you…” strategy tells your prospects they will be an expert after using your product for the first time. People don’t like to read a set of instructions many times over in order to gain their desired benefit.

4. The “Rare Company” Strategy

The “only (no.) in (large no.) people know this…” strategy tells your prospects a very small percentage know about a beneficial aspect or a piece of important information of your product. People will realize if they purchase it, they will be in rare company.

5. The “Don’t Read” Strategy

The “if you’re not interested in (your product’s benefit) please don’t read this…” strategy tells your prospects that they will feel ignorant for not reading your sales letter if they are in the least bit intrigued by it. You could also feature benefits like deep discounts, free shipping, friendly customer service, etc., instead.

6. The “Experts Don’t Know” Strategy

The “discover the myth about (something that will support your product), even most experts don’t know about it…” strategy tells your prospects that there is a myth that could be stopping them from improving their life. You also won’t make them feel bad about knowing it because even the most authoritative figures don’t know about it either.

7. The “You Think You Do” Strategy

The “learn the most important (piece of info) and it has nothing to do with (something they would assume)…” strategy tells your prospects they may think they know about your product’s benefits but they really don’t. Of course you would need to list the most common thing your prospects would assume about your statement.

8. The “Reverse Guarantee” Strategy

The “if you keep trying to (one your product’s benefit) without knowing this, I guarantee you’ll (a negative effect)…” strategy tells your prospects this is something important they need to know in order to gain their desired benefit. You are also promising they won’t gain it without purchasing your product. It’s like a reverse guarantee.

9. The “Magic Wand” Strategy

The “just (take a specific action) and hey presto…you’ll (your product’s benefit)…” strategy tells your prospects your product will literally work instantly, like magic. Most people wish they could just wave a magic wand to improve their life.

10. The “Pennies” Strategy

The “what if (no.) cents a day was all that was holding you back from (your product’s benefit)…” strategy tells your prospects that only pennies are keeping them from reaching their goals. You would just have to divide up your product’s cost over a week, month or year. You could also compare the amount to how much they would spend on ordinary things each day, like soda pop, coffee, newspaper, etc.

11. The “It’s Not Easy” Strategy

The “it’s not as easy as it seems, but the payoff is huge…” strategy tells your prospects that gaining their desired benefit isn’t easy but your product will not make it quite so hard on them. It shows you are being up front and honest with them (ex. most people know that losing weight is hard). You just need to keep stressing the positive outcome they will get from using your product.

12. The “Don’t Copy Them” Strategy

The “most (type of people) fail at (your product’s benefit), please don’t make the same mistake…” strategy tells your prospects that doing the same things as other people keeps them from reaching their goals. They will realize what they are doing wrong and want to do something about it so they are not like the others.

13. The “This Steps Important” Strategy

The “(no.) easy steps to (your product’s benefits), leave step (no.) out and you could (a negative effect)….” strategy tells your prospects that they will get step-by-step instructions with your product to gain their desired benefit. But they are warned that if they leave out a critical step it could make their life worse. It warns them not to try to gain the desired benefit without purchasing your product or by going with someone else.

14. The “1,2,3″ Strategy

The “it’s as easy as 1, 2, 3 (or A, B, C)…” strategy tells your prospects that you are comparing gaining their desired benefit with your product to something really easy like counting. You could even list some easy little steps beside each number or letter. (ex. 1. (do this), 2. (do this,) 3. (do this), etc.)

15. The “Don’t Overuse It” Strategy

The “yes, it works like crazy but just don’t overuse it…” strategy tells your prospects that your product works so well that it’s addictive and they could possibly abuse it. You could use a little reverse psychology and tell them to purchase it at their own risk.

16. The “Funny But True” Strategy

The “(your product’s unbelievable benefit), don’t laugh, it really is true…” strategy tells your prospects you expect them not to believe your product claims. They will know that you know they may not believe your offer. They will assume what you’re saying is true because you wouldn’t want to reveal that you know your product results are far-fetched.

17. The “Family Testimonial” Strategy

The “my husband finally has (your product’s benefit), thank you (your business name)…” strategy tells your prospects that an actual family member or friend of one of your customers gave you a testimonial for your product. They will actually start to imagine the benefits that their own family members or friends will receive from them purchasing your product.

18. The “Tiny But Huge” Strategy

The “learn why such a seemingly insignificant thing can make a huge difference…” strategy tells your prospects that taking your product for granted or ignoring your sales letter could be a big mistake. They will be curious to know how your insignificant product or information could improve your life.

19. The “Empty-Handed” Strategy

The “please don’t leave empty-handed…” strategy tells your prospects that you have another offer for them in case they decide not to purchase your main product. You could place the ad at the