Jason's Tips

Jason’s Tips

How To Get An Army Of Affiliates PAYING You To BUILD Your List Of Buyers

Yes, you read that headline right. In fact, you might even want to read it again.

You can totally get affiliates to PAY YOU for the right to send you buyers.

I ran across this a couple of years ago, and I have to say I was impressed. In fact, I just about joined this myself, and I’m a seasoned pro. This was done by a group of seasoned marketers, but there’s no reason why a new marketer or marketers couldn’t do it, too.

Last time I checked, this funnel I’m about to describe is still up and running and going strong. I don’t want anyone to actually steal their exact system, sales copy and funnel, so I’m going to just give you the highlights and you can fill in the rest.

Build A Basic Sales Funnel

First you start with a sales funnel. You’ve got a squeeze page offering a terrific little “how to do marketing” type of lead magnet. Once visitors grab the lead magnet, or even if they try to click away without picking up the lead magnet, they are then directed to a sales page for an online marketing membership site.

The membership site has several levels, with the lowest level being free to join. Of course, they highlight the free level in the headline to keep people on the page, and then they extoll the virtues of the other levels. Each level has more and better content, better support and so forth.

The free level is fairly basic but does give enough info for a newbie to make a start in making money online.

And of course, each level is more expensive than the previous level, with the prices skewed a bit to encourage visitors to choose the highest level.

I’ll give you an example of that pricing to give you an idea of what I’m talking about:

Level 1: Free

Level 2: $29 per month

Level 3: $44 per month

Level 4: $49 per month

These aren’t the exact price points they used, but you get the idea. You see there is very little difference between level 3 and 4 in terms of price, but in terms of content there is a big difference.

This is a great psychological ploy, because it gets the prospect to study the differences between levels 3 and 4 while forgetting all about level 2.

And of course if they’re going to get a paid membership, they’re most likely to choose level 4.

The content is drip fed each week…

…and if you’ve been paying close attention, you’ve realized I haven’t really shown you anything new yet.

Offer Affiliate Programs!

Here it comes, so hang on to your seat, because THIS is how you get affiliates to PAY you to send you a list of BUYERS:

(I love this bit!)

All of the levels offer a built-in affiliate program that sets the affiliates up to sell their own memberships for all of the levels they qualify for.

This means if they are a level 2 member, they can give away level 1 and sell level 2. If they happen to sell level 3 or 4, they still get paid, but not as much.

But if they are a level 4 member, they get to sell all four levels and KEEP ALL the money.

That’s right – they get to keep 100% of what they sell if they are level 4.

I hope this is making sense. It sounds complicated at first, but it’s actually fairly simple once you understand the concept.

Thus you’ve got affiliates paying (in our example above) $49 a month for the privilege of selling memberships and keeping all the money.

That’s a great deal for the affiliates, right? Absolutely. You can see why I almost jumped on it.

The affiliates don’t have to worry about hosting, fulfilment or any of that stuff, because the membership takes care of all of that.

The affiliate gets a unique sales page URL, squeeze page URL and membership area.

The content is automatically drip fed into that member’s area. The subscriptions are managed for them, the levels are managed for them… all they have to do is make sales by promoting their squeeze page URL.

The affiliate gets to build a list of prospects and buyers simply by promoting the URL, and of course they are earning residual monthly income, too.

The list of prospects and customers stays in the system and cannot be exported. Affiliates can only email their lists from inside the system. So if they drop out and stop paying their monthly fee, they lose their lists.

This can make for some very sticky affiliates who never leave.

Clarify Your Terms And Conditions

Now for the icing… in the terms and conditions, it is made explicitly clear that the membership site operator(s) have access to all of the prospects and customers who sign up.

This means they can email prospects and customers any time they like, making any offer they like. PLUS, the site owners can also place offers in the membership area as well.

Now think about what I just said… affiliates are paying you $49 a month (or whatever price point you choose) to be able to build you a list of prospects and customers.

And the affiliates are getting a terrific deal, too, getting 100% monthly commissions and the ability to email their customers and prospects from within your website.

It’s a true win / win for everyone involved, and done correctly it can yield a tremendous amount of prospects and buyers for you, as well as excellent monthly income to pay for a very nice membership site and have money left over.

When I heard about this, they were making five figures a month from the membership site fees alone. This doesn’t include what they were earning from mailing to their ever-growing email lists, or from the special promotions they continually placed in the members’ area.

Imagine if you were earning 5 figures from your membership site AND having a team of affiliates working hard to build your list of prospects and buyers. Sweet.

I wish I had started my first site this way – I’d probably be retired today.

6 Copywriting Techniques That Will Boost Your Conversions

If you’re wondering why your landing pages aren’t making you as much money as you had hoped for, you might be using common landing page copywriting techniques the wrong way.

While the six copywriting techniques we’re about to cover have been proven to work, too many marketers use them in a way that cancels out their otherwise potent conversion power.

This really is too bad because your landing page could be raking in larger profits if you only paid closer attention to how you implement these proven techniques.

The good news is that once you become aware of how badly you may be implementing these techniques, you can quickly fix them.

The key is to become aware that you’re using them the wrong way in the first place.

1: Tell A Story To Personalize Your Landing Page’s Value

Storytelling is one of the most powerful landing page copywriting techniques you can use. Not only do you pull your reader into the scenario your offer addresses, you also create emotional urgency with your offer.

Once emotionally engaged, chances are much higher that your viewer would enter his or her email address or make a purchase.

Awesome, right?

Well, sadly, too many marketers tell stories that are simply worthless.

They are duds.

They seem too good to be true. They show extreme conditions. They simply fail to convert.

What went wrong?

The stories most marketers tell in their landing pages fail to focus on putting a human face on the problem the reader is facing.

Instead, these low converting landing pages tend to present almost ‘too good to be true’ situations.

If you want your landing page stories to convert, take the most probable circumstances faced by your target audience members and base your stories on these.

These realistic stories are more believable because more of your audience members can relate to them.

By the way, if you are serious and want to avoid the most serious mistakes that novice copywriters make, then make sure you download this free report called Copywriting Blunders. This is a premium free report that takes you through each and every one of the worst mistakes a copywriter can make and you can find it here.

2: Use A Question As A Header Title For Your Landing Page

Questions are very powerful ‘centering’ devices because they draw your prospects attention to one central concept or a small set of concepts. Questions help narrow and define the problems and situations your offer addresses.

If a question is well-defined, it is easier to present your solution and it is easier for the prospect to see the value in your solution.

Sadly, too many marketers use a header question that has little to do with the questions their target audience members care about the most. For example, the question focuses on cost when most users are actually interested in saving time.

To fix this problem, figure out the primary concern of your target audience members and pose relevant header questions.

3: Change Up Your Font To Emphasize Key Points Of Your Pitch

When you’re talking to somebody, you normally change your tone of voice when you are trying to emphasize certain things. By the same token, text in bold or italics or larger, ‘special’ fonts tend to be noticed more.

The problem here is that too many marketers overuse these font changes. They use them so much that the reader is confused or reads the text like the formatting isn’t even there.

To maximize the impact of special fonts when emphasizing key points in your landing page text, make sure you use them SPARINGLY.

Keep special fonts to a minimum so when you do emphasize certain words, they truly STAND OUT.

4: Use testimonials from happy customers

One of the most powerful selling tools you can use is social proof. People are more likely to buy whatever you are offering if they see that other people have had positive experiences with what you’re selling.

Pretty simple, right?

In fact, this is so simple that you’d think this would be hard to screw up.

Wrong. Marketers actually blow this all the time.

The key problem is RESTRAINT.

Steer clear of using overly positive testimonials that may look fake. People are very suspicious of overly positive testimonials. ‘Over the top’ recommendations make them skeptical.

Make sure you only use REAL testimonials on your landing page.

Real testimonials are grounded in reality. This means there’s a mix of both positive and not-so-positive elements in the testimonials.

Above all else, use testimonials from happy customers who got results that are not outliers.

Otherwise, your testimonials might seem too good to be true and won’t carry much weight with people you’re trying to convince.

5: List Out The Benefits Of What You’re Promoting

One of the most common, yet powerful, copywriting tips you’ll ever come across is to write out benefits of your product, not features.

People buy based on benefits not features. Benefits solve their problems. Benefits are easier to understand. Features, on the other hand, tend to degenerate into so much sales talk and technical jargon.

Sadly, too many marketers list SO MANY BENEFITS, they flood their prospects with information. This data overflow leads to, you guessed it, lower conversions.

Your landing page shouldn’t read like a laundry list or check list. Instead it should be focused on a very small set of benefits which were strategically selected to appeal to your target readers. To figure out which benefits to focus on, ask your target audience members.

Of course, you need to cross reference this information with the landing pages of your competitors to make sure you’re operating in the right ballpark.

6: Link Your Call To Action With The End Result Your Target Customers Want

One of the most useful copywriting conversion tricks you could ever learn involves pairing a call to action to a specific benefit the reader wants.

For example, instead of relying on the tired and weak “Click Here” try using “To finally get rid of the high costs and headaches of random outsourcing, enter your email here to take your labor sourcing results to the next level!” See the difference?

People buy because they are looking for solutions. By pairing the action you want people to take with the benefit they are looking for, you increase the likelihood they will take that action. Clear, right?

Well, marketers tend to blow this technique when they end up listing a ton of benefits with the call to action. Not only does this result in horrible run on sentences, this dilutes the conversion power of your call to action.

The reader is simply too confused to take any action at this point.

The solution?

Focus on one central benefit and pair that with the conversion action.

This is quite risky because your target audience might be looking for a number of benefits instead of just one.

This is where split testing comes in. Test different landing pages with different action-tied benefits and see which pages produce the best results with your traffic.

Don’t Be A Victim Of ‘Proven’ Landing Copywriting Techniques

Make no mistake about it, the landing page copywriting techniques we’ve just covered can turn your landing pages into quick winners.

However, you have to use them the right way. Avoid the common implementation pitfalls outlined and truly take your landing page conversion rates to the next level!

How To Make The Most Of Your Traffic And Monetize It

If you are a marketer of any description you will know that traffic is the lifeblood of any business.

Simply put: No traffic, no business!

A lot of marketers get so caught up in tracking their traffic stats that they forget to make the most of that traffic. Tell you what, traffic is worthless if your visitors aren’t buying what you’re selling, joining your list, or taking some other important action.

So how do you make the most of your traffic and monetize it?

First off, make sure you are indeed bringing targeted traffic to your site. You don’t want just anybody visiting your website or hitting your sales/squeeze pages. Do this and you’ll wonder why you’re getting a lot of visitors but no sign-ups or sales!

Does this sound familiar? Yes, traffic is a numbers game, but you need the right high-quality targeted traffic or you won’t make any progress and you won’t make any money!

So, whatever methods you are using to drive traffic to your website, make sure you have your targeting dialled in and you know your ideal customer is to make the most out of your website traffic.

And secondly, use this little “traffic checklist” to monetize that traffic…

Determine Your Primary Goal

The first thing you need to do is figure out the primary goal for EACH page of your website. Depending on the page, this primary goal (and monetization strategy) might involve getting your visitor to:

Make a purchase
Take advantage of an upsell offer
Join your list.
Call you.
Fill out a form.
Share content/tell their friends.
Enter a contest.
Click on a link.
Clicking on ads, including affiliate offers and AdSense ads.
Complete a CPA (cost per acquisition) offer, such as filling out a credit card application.
Read or watch content.
Visit you offline (if you run a brick and mortar store).
Ask for a free consultation.
Register for an event, such as a webinar or contest.

And so on. Be sure your primary goal is the one that will make the most of your traffic in terms of monetization.

Here are two best practices when it comes to monetizing traffic:

Be sure to pick just ONE primary goal for each web page (and, overall, one primary goal for your website as a whole). Because if you create a page with multiple goals, your prospect may get confused and not take any action at all.
Focus on your own products first. There are plenty of ways to monetize traffic as mentioned above, including putting offers from third parties in front of your visitors. Be sure to focus on promoting your OWN offers first, as this will always be more profitable (because you get both the profits and the list).

Next…

Design Your Site Around Your Primary Goal

Now you need to design each page of your website around your primary goal.

For example:

If you’re designing a lead page with the goal of growing your list, then remove all other content and extraneous links, so that the page is focused on getting people to join your list.
If your goal is directly sell a product, then create a high-response sales letter and plug up sales leaks such as external links.
If your goal is to get people to click on AdSense ads, then create highly engaging content and embed those ads within the content.

The key here is to try to remove all superfluous distractions that may stop your visitors from taking the action you want them to. Remember, less is more.

Next…

Create An Exit Traffic System

Despite your best efforts, people are going to hit the back button on your site and bail out without joining your list, without buying a product, and without clicking on any ads.

That doesn’t mean that they’re poor-quality visitors who’ll never buy anything from you. Instead, it could mean they just didn’t see the right offer, or they’re in a hurry, or you didn’t sufficiently persuade them to take action.

The problem is that if they leave, they’ll probably be gone for good. They’ll forget about you. So that’s why you need to stop them when they’re going out the door and put an irresistible offer in front of them.

For example, redirect your exit traffic to a highly enticing lead magnet so that you can get people on your list before they leave your site. For best results, create multiple lead magnets so that you can offer the lead magnet that is directly related to the page the visitor was viewing before they tried to leave the site.

For instance, if your visitor was reading a blog article about how to set up a Facebook ad campaign, then offer them a lead magnet (such as a report) that gives in-depth instruction and “done for you” ad templates.

TIP: Don’t know how to redirect exit traffic to another page or create an exit pop? No problem. You can search for “exit traffic scripts” in your favorite search engine, or you can use a service such as Thrive Leads or Conversion Gorilla.

Many folks will say that they don’t like exit pops or redirects, especially marketers, but the simple fact is, they work but use them sparingly.

And finally…

Test And Tweak Everything

One of the best ways to monetize your traffic is to test and track all parts of the process to find out what really works.

Specifically:

Test offers to see which ones appeal the most to your visitors.
Test ad and link placements, including in the header, footer, sidebar, and directly embedded in content.
Test your headlines, benefits and calls to action to see which improve conversions.
Test your upsells to increase your per-transaction value.
Test the design of your pages to improve overall response.

Let’s wrap things up…

Conclusion

So there you have it – a quick and effective checklist for making the most money with your traffic.

To recap:

Pick one primary monetization goal.
Design your web pages around this primary goal.
Test and track everything to optimize response.

As you can see, this “traffic checklist” is pretty simple, but very effective! So put this plan to work for you today to start making more money from all your traffic.

7 Morning Routines For Peak Performance

If you are like the vast majority of people, I am sure that you will want to be more productive and be able to work at your peak more frequently and for longer.

Working at peak performance will allow you to get more done in a shorter time and you are much more likely to achieve your goals when working in a peak state.

This acts as a positive reinforcement loop and you will get even more done so it is a key skill to develop if you want to get the best out of life and be a success in whatever you set your mind on.

Peak performance and how to achieve it is not a secret. You just need to follow and model how the super peak performers, achieve the success that you also desire.

This means sacrifice and being more than willing to step up and do things you never thought possible.

When you mention “sacrifice” people shudder and puts many off before they even give it a real shot, but nothing worth achieving is going to be easy.

Peak performers have a certain mindset, and you will need to develop this if you want to work at your peak.

They will also have certain habits and daily routines that they will use to help to put them into a peak state first thing in the morning and to stay there throughout the day.

If peak performers are using habits to start their day in a peak state, don’t you think that it would be worth developing some habits and morning routines that will help you in this way? Of course, you do!

These routines aren’t rocket science or weird; they are just simple things that can help you to start the day in a positive state and to help you make the most of the day ahead.

OK, here are 7 morning routines that you can use to develop peak performance from the minute you get up! Don’t be fooled by their simplicity, but give them a try and see what kind of difference they can make to your day and you performance and productivity.

Take A Cold Shower First Thing In The Morning

This will definitely shake the cobwebs out of your head. Besides the alertness factor, you will be boosting your metabolism.

If you lack energy, then having a cold shower first thing in the morning will fix that.

Start with luke warm water and gradually head to a full cold shower. You should build up this practice by slowly increasing the time under the cold spray.

Perhaps start at 2 minutes the first day and go to 3 minutes the second day. Work on your tolerance at your pace rather than someone else’s.

Note: If you have health issues such as high blood pressure, check with your GP first to make sure cold showers aren’t going to affect you adversely.

Get Some Exercise

Exercise right after your cold shower. If you are in the martial arts, chances are you already do the cold showers and know how it improves your performance. Pick an exercise that makes you sweat. You want to work on your heart rate, flexibility and strength.

This means having some equipment at home or doing bodyweight exercises.

You can also hit the gym if you don’t mind the fees and other issues.

Doing exercise before you start the workday, helps with your energy levels, avoiding procrastination on work and elevating your mood.

When you get your exercise done first thing in the morning, you get a “happy,” blast of feel good natural chemicals coursing through your veins. People who suffer from depression or low moods, can use exercise to change how they feel.

Getting a good dose of oxygen from vigorous exercise works marvels for your mental health and ability to perform at peak levels.

Write It Down

Write in your journal, while you relax for a bit after a workout.

Write down how you are feeling at the moment and what you may need to do in order to keep your brain activated for peak performance.

Journaling helps you to sort out your thoughts into a logical order instead of a jumble in your head and can give you clarity and focus which are critical for peak performance.

Practice Meditation

Once you have written in your journal, why not meditate about what you have written today for 5 to 10 minutes? Just be calm and let your mind flow. Inner calmness is what makes peak performers great.

As high performers get hit with adversity during the day, it flows off them and they do not allow it to affect how they feel or perform.

Meditation and mindfulness really do help you to cope with any unforeseen obstacles and can keep you focused on the task(s) at hand.

Practice Gratitude

State what you are grateful for today. You should be grateful every day you wake up and have a new chance to make it happen.

Start by being grateful for the breakfast you are about to eat for nourishment and work your way through everything else.

Be grateful for the people in your life and the ability to perform and contribute to others.

You can also ask yourself questions that can make you feel grateful and really lift your mood. Try questions like these:

“What am I really grateful for in my life right now?”

“What about that makes me feel grateful?”

“How does that make me feel?”

If you are a Christian or have a spiritual belief then you can do the same thing with prayer, giving thanks to God.

This is completely different from the questions most people ask themselves in the morning, such as “Why do I have to get up so early in the morning?”

Those types of questions make you feel lousy and will put you in a poor state for the whole day if you aren’t careful, so be very mindful of the questions you are asking yourself, especially those when you first wake up as they will impact the rest of your day!

Review Your Goals Daily

Those goals must be firmly implanted in your mind.

With the daily review, your subconscious mind will get involved and work to make things happen. Your subconscious mind will be driven to help you succeed and become a peak performer.

Remember the saying, “You are, what you think about all day long.”

And don’t forget to enjoy the journey as well as the destination (goal). If you want to learn how to focus on enjoying the journey too, take a look at this training called Enjoy The Journey.

Practice Visualization

Visualizing achieving those goals is another way of firmly implanting what you desire and then allowing the universe to completely understand how much you want to succeed.

When you have goals centered on peak performance, visualizing them helps to make them real.

This can take some practice, but visualization is a really powerful skill to develop so take some time to do so and you will reap the benefits.

OK, there are 7 morning routines that you can use to supercharge your day and to put you in a peak performance state so that you can be super productive and achieve anything.

7 Ways To Persuade Customers To Buy Your Upsells

If you want to make more money with your business, one good place to start is on your order forms.

Think about it…

You have a prospect with a credit card already in their hand. They’re in a buying mood.

So there’s a good chance that if you put a related offer in front of them (the proverbial, “you want fries with that?”), they’ll take it. And that means you’ll make more money with every customer who walks through your door.

So how do you create a backend or upsell offer that gets your prospects clicking the “Yes” button? Like this…

1. Make Sure The Upsell Enhances The Main Offer

The very first thing you need to do is make sure any upsell offer is tightly related to the main offer. In fact, not only should it be tightly related, ideally your upsell should enhance the use or enjoyment of your main offer.

Take the classic example at a fast food restaurant. I guarantee that if you walked into McDonalds and ordered a hamburger, any well-trained clerk would ask if you wanted fries and/or a drink with that. And a lot of people say yes to this offer, because fries and/or a drink enhances the enjoyment of the burger.

Now you can do the same thing, no matter what you’re selling. For example:

You’re selling a meal-planning app. Offer a low-fat cookbook as an order form upsell.
The main offer is a copywriting course. You can offer personal copy critiques on the backend.
Your main product is all about setting up and running a successful blog. You can offer tools on the backend, such as a package of useful WordPress plugins and professional themes.
Your main product is a “how to get out of debt” course. You can offer an upsell that includes items such as a debt-management workbook and personalized debt-management counseling.
You main product is a set of kettlebell training videos. You can offer the kettlebells themselves as an upsell.

In other words, don’t just toss any ol’ offer in front of your prospects. Be sure your upsell and main offer go together like… well, like hamburgers and fries. J

Next up…

2. Offer An Irresistible Deal

Dropping a related offer in front of your prospect is great. But turning that offer into an irresistible deal is even better.

Take the fast food example again. If you order a burger with a small fries and drink, the clerk will ask you if you want to “biggy size” the order for just a small extra charge. The deal is irresistible. You get a LOT more food for just a tiny bit more money.

No matter what you’re selling, you can do the same thing.

For example:

“I usually charge $997 per month for this sort of coaching. But as a valued member of my new copywriting club, you’ll get a special price of just $497 per month for this same high-quality coaching…”

Next…

3. Use Short-Form Copy

You’ve got an eager prospect sitting in front of your order form with their credit card in hand. Now is not the time to put another long sales letter in front of them. They’re eager to buy. Putting another wall of text in front of them might just have them hitting the back button and abandoning the order form!

You see, you’ve already done the hard work of getting them into the necessary emotional state needed to make a purchase. You’ve already built your credibility. You’ve already established trust. You don’t need to do these things again.

So what you need to do now is simply focus on the benefits of the upsell offer. In fact, your upsell may be nothing more than a benefit-driven headline, a list of benefits, and a call to action.

TIP: As always, test to find out for sure what your audience responds to the best. Test different headlines. Test your bulleted list of benefits. You might even test short-form copy against a short sales video.

Next…

4. Frame The Price

The next thing for you to remember is that you’ve already sold your prospect on purchasing the main offer. They’ve already agreed to whatever price you’re charging.

So when you extend the upsell offer, you’ll want to frame the price so that it focuses on the upsell only.

Let me give you an example…

Let’s suppose you’re selling a home study course for $99, with an upsell offer for $25 for an app:

When it comes time to ask for the order, do NOT do this: “Would you like to add this offer to your order for a total of $125 for the course and app?”

Suddenly that sounds like a lot. The prospect is going to start second-guessing their purchase. And you could lose the entire sale.

Instead, focus on the upsell price only: “Would you like to add this app to your order for just $24 more?”

Ahhhh… that’s better. That sounds doable. And since the prospect is already planning on spending $99, that extra $24 doesn’t sound like any big deal.

It’s all in how you frame it. 🙂

Next…

5. Create A Sense Of Urgency

Nothing gets people clicking the order button like a real sense of urgency. And one great way to create this sense of urgency is by making your upsell offer scarce.

For example, you might create a one-time offer. This is an offer that’s only available right now. If the prospect doesn’t grab it, they won’t be able to get it later. Or if the product is available elsewhere, the prospect will need to pay full price.

A good example of this is when you go shopping on a site like Omaha Steaks. If you spend a certain amount, such as $50, you’ll get a list of “add on specials.”

These are tremendous deals that you can ONLY take advantage of while you’re on the order form. You can still buy the steaks themselves later, but you’ll pay through the nose to do it.

That creates scarcity and a sense of urgency that gets people agreeing to order your upsell.

For example:

“Special one-time offer: add this meal-planning app to your order right now, and you’ll get it for 50% off the regular price! If you leave this page, this offer disappears for good… so click here now to grab your discount before it’s gone!”

Next…

6. Use A Strong Call To Action

The good copywriting rules apply to your upsell just as they do to your main offer. And that means you can’t just drop the order link in front of your prospects and expect them to click it. Instead, you need to provide a strong call to action. This means you tell prospects what to do next, and give them a good reason to do it.

For example:

Click here to add this app to your order – and remember, this special offer disappears when you leave this page, so order now!

Generally, your upsell page is going to have two options. One option is “Yes, add this to my order.” The other option is, “No thank you, I don’t want this.”

Those should be the only two options on the page. Prospects will either add to their order and continue making the purchase, or they’ll skip your offer and just stick with their original order.

Now here’s a little trick you might consider testing and using…

Phrase your “yes” and “no” options in a way that helps persuade people to click the “yes” options.

For example, let’s suppose you’re selling some sort of weight-loss information. Your option buttons might look like this:

“Yes, I want to get ready for the beach!”

“No, I don’t want to get rid of my love handles. J”

See how that works?

The “yes” option is positive and provides a benefit. The “no” option forces the prospect to agree with something that they probably don’t really agree with. That’s going to make them stop and reconsider your offer.

Here’s another example:

“Yes, I want to save money on heating and cooling bills!”

“No, I don’t want to save money.”

Another:

“Yes, I want to boost my conversion rates and make more money!”

“No, I don’t want to make more money.”

One more…

“Yes, I want to run a new marathon PR!”

“No, I don’t mind running as slow as a turtle. J”

And finally…

7. Make It Easy

If you followed all the tips above, then you have a prospect who’s as ready as she’ll ever be to place her order. At this point, your goal is to make it as easy as possible for her to place that order and grab the upsell.

Don’t make your prospects jump through hoops. Don’t slip unnecessary steps between them and their order. Don’t put obstacles in the way. Because if you do any of this, the prospect is likely to lose their enthusiasm and abandon their shopping cart.

Here are the dos and don’ts to follow:

Do make it one-click easy. If you’re presenting an upsell right after the customer has already filled in the order form, then make it as easy to buy the upsell as clicking a button. In other words, do NOT make your prospect fill out the order form or their credit card all over again.
Don’t make them go through a gauntlet of upsells. Sometimes marketers throw three, four, five or more upsells in front of the prospect. They can’t get to the order form without accepting or declining these offers. Or, worse yet, they can’t get to their purchase without seeing all these offers.
Don’t do that to your customer! Instead, put one or at most two well-placed offers in front of them. But if they decline, send them straight to the order form. Don’t make them go through a gauntlet of offers, which will make them feel like carnival workers are barking at them.
Don’t make them “register” before ordering. If you need your customers to create an account, then have this account co-created during the purchasing process. Even if the amount of “work” for the customer is the same, framing is the key here. If a customer is suddenly forced to “create an account” before they can place an order, they may just dump their cart.

Now let’s wrap things up…

Conclusion

You’ve heard the saying, “strike while the iron is hot.” When it comes to sales, the iron is about as hot as can be when you have a prospect filling out an order form. That’s why it’s a great time to “strike” by offering an upsell offer they can’t refuse. So boost your sales by inserting upsells on your order forms today – and boost your conversions using the seven surefire tips you just discovered!

Developing Yourself To Take Action

Have you ever spent any time studying very successful people? Do they seem to you to have something in common? There seems to be something about them, but it’s somewhat elusive, not easy to define.

Maybe you think it’s all due to lucky breaks….?

But have you ever heard the expression, “I find that the harder I work, the luckier I get.”? Something to think about, and, of course, it’s not just working hard, it’s also about working smart.

The most successful people share certain secrets. Any idea what they are? Call them ideas or call them traits, people with power or success or money seem to have these things in common:

The power of persistence
The power of passion
The power of self-control
The power decision and action
The power of creativity

So, let’s have a look at them and see what these superpowers can do for your life.

The Power Of Persistence

We all know and admire people who have failed and gone on to great success. Before he invented the electric light bulb, Thomas Edison failed more than 1000 times. He never saw it as a failure; he saw it as one more step towards succeeding.

Henry Ford is another example. He came from a poor background with no education, but he looked at the horse and buggy, and saw the amazing cars we drive today.

Abraham Lincoln failed in business and in running for government several times, but we all know how he ended up.

Persistence will carry you when intelligence and luck do not. Many of us give up too soon. Winston Churchill, a hero in horrible times, is well known for this phrase,” Never, never, never, never give up.”

Call it persistence, perseverance or grit; do you have it? And if not, can you develop and nurture it because it will definitely help you when the going gets tough (and we know life has a tendency to put obstacles in our way from time to time).

The Power Of Passion

You’ve probably heard the expression, “if you can believe it, you can achieve it.” That’s telling us that a good idea alone is not enough. You have to believe in it. I’ll bet you know people who are very intelligent but have never risen very high in life.

And I’ll bet you know other people who haven’t had much going for them but have succeeded despite obstacles. It’s very likely due to their determination to achieve their goals despite anything that comes against them. To the extent that you can acquire this attitude, you will succeed.

It’s pretty obvious that if you don’t enjoy what you are doing then you are much more likely to give it up because it doesn’t light a fire inside you.

Can you develop a passion for something? Of course you can, but you need to stick with it long enough for that passion to develop and this is where the point above about persistence will help.

The Power Of Self-Control

As you probably know, entrepreneurs have a lot of power over their jobs and careers, but if it’s used incorrectly, it can lead to failure. The power of self-control in business is really about the way you handle your thoughts and your emotions.

As you start to take action instead of procrastinating to manage any drivers that keep you stuck, and to focus, you will increase your ability to succeed.

The way you think can have a huge effect on the way you act and being able to exhibit self-control is an incredibly valuable superpower to develop and nurture.

The Power Of Decision And Action

Studies have shown that one of the greatest causes of failure is lack of decision. Along with that, procrastination is the most common thing that holds people back from achieving their full potential.

Studies have also shown that millionaires make a habit of making decisions promptly and then only changing them when necessary.

Decision-making is not just about the ability to do it promptly; it’s also about having the correct information on which to base the decision.

You may need to rely on others for help or information but base your decision on the most accurate facts possible. Once you feel you have those, take action.

If you don’t take action, then any amount of planning and preparation is completely useless, and you will never reach your goals.

Action creates traction and is absolutely crucial to any type of success in life whether that be health, wealth, relationships etc.

You must be decisive and take action as quickly as you can and don’t be afraid to “fail forward” because this way you will at least be making some progress and you will be constantly learning what does and doesn’t work.

The Power Of Creativity

This quality know as creativity, is seriously underrated. No doubt about it. Creativity does not just apply to writing a novel or painting a portrait; it applies to the life you create for yourself and the business you create for yourself in all their aspects.

And so much of your success will depend on how creative your solutions are.

Have you noticed? Almost every great success story in business begins with one good idea.

If you can’t think for yourself and imagine possibilities, you must depend only on what others before you have done. That might not be right for you. That might not be your best.

At its best, your plan of action will combine all these “success” qualities or traits to create a completely rewarding plan for yourself.

And when you develop these superpowers you are much more likely to create a plan of action and more importantly, to take action!

And don’t forget to enjoy the journey along the way. So many of us are totally fixated on the end result that we forget to enjoy the personal growth and achievement that happens along the way.

If that’s you then please check out this training that will encourage you to embrace the process and enjoy the journey so you can feel fulfilled before you even reach your goals which is a real win-win situation 😊

How Often Should You Email Your List?

Is there a right or wrong way on how often should you email your list? We all know that your list should be treated as if it is a goldmine. Think about it. How would you react if you were bombarded with emails that provided no real value with the sole purpose of getting you to buy something?

Would you say that once a week or month is enough. You certainly do not want to inundate your subscribers with too much information, but at the same time you do not want them to forget about you either.

Why It is So Important To Frequently Send Emails

If you get it wrong when sending your emails, you could border on being annoying, in which case your subscribers will unsubscribe from your list. On the other hand, if you communicate often enough at just the right times and frequency, you have a better chance of making more money than the average marketer.

Some marketers recommend that you stay in touch by sending your list a weekly newsletter. While others say twice a week is not a bad idea as an absolute minimum.

When would it be considered as wrong to send out scheduled emails? Randomly sending out emails is not such a good idea. Say, you send emails 3 times per day over a 4 day period, then you decide to send out 2 per day for a week.

The problem with this is that your mails would not be expected, and would most likely be ignored as a result. This is not the way to do it. You do not want to annoy your list to the point where they unsubscribe from you.

If you carefully consider what is needed to foster a positive relationship between you and your subscribers, once a day would be regarded as a good start. Provided you share very useful information in the form of free videos, mini reports or something that has real meaning in their lives. It must be new, exciting and content that has not been shared previously.

When you establish frequent contact you will start accomplishing some important factors that are needed to grow your business, such as:

Strengthen your authority in the Niche that you are in
Establish credibility and trust with your readers
Demonstrate that you are here to stay
Increase your chances of being foremost in the mind of your subscribers when it comes to purchasing your offer
Fully showcase the benefits of making use of your products or services

Most importantly, when looking for an answer on how often should you email your list, you should bear in mind that your subscribers should be treated like family. This can be done by sending them an email where you simply state how much you appreciate them, then give them valuable information that will make a difference to their lives. All this without any strings attached.

Things To Avoid When Sending Emails

Do not shove all kinds of marketing messages in the face of your subscribers to try and twist their arms into buying this or the other from you. Unless, of course, you do it in a tasteful manner where they get to realize the value in owning a particular product you have.

You should rather concentrate on getting your subscribers to trust and value your opinion. Doing so will ensure they stay engaged and ready to respond to any future offers coming their way.

Some marketers go all out to promote anything and everything for the sake of making money. Avoid doing this. Send emails that focus on useful information and list sources that will add value to the life of your subscribers. Never think that you are bothering your readers if you have something of value to share with them.

Should You Broadcast Messages Or Send Autoresponders?

If you intend making a special announcement, then a broadcast message as a one off email would be ideal. On the other hand autoresponders make the lives of internet marketers so much easier.

All they need to do is set up their series of messages upon which subscribers will be informed on a regular basis about news and events that is of importance, or any other informative material.

Which one of the two would be better to use?

There is no right or wrong answer in this regard. Below are a couple of guidelines to help you along:

Broadcast messages – If you are a very organized individual who are able to send broadcast messages consistently on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, then this would the way to go.

Autoresponders – Most people and business owners already live a very hectic life, and would therefore prefer making use of autoresponders. This way you can keep in touch with your prospects for months if not years. All this without even being there. All that is required of you is to do the work once, then set and forget about it.

The only problem is that too much automation can become impersonal to the point where people do not feel valued. It won’t be a bad idea to relate a story to your subscribers every now and again. You should mix it up a little. Make use of an autoresponder, but also broadcast something of importance every now and again.

For instance, on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday you could set your autoresponder to do its thing. Make a point of personalizing your messages on all the other days, which would include making use of broadcast messages.

Your subscribers will see you as a real person and not think they are dealing with a robot. This is the kind of approach that is highly recommended.

Back to how often should you email your list? The fact of the matter is that this question is answered differently by every business. You should email as frequently as you possibly can without annoying your subscribers.

Test it by taking a closer look at how often your mails get opened, etc. If you experience too many unsubscribes, then it is a sure indication that you are overdoing it. Close monitoring is the key to your success.

7 Tips For Choosing A Profitable Niche

There are thousands and thousands of niches out there and picking one to blog about can be overwhelming to a beginner.

Do you choose a niche you’re passionate about?
What if you’re passionate about minimalism? How will you sell anything?
How can I be sure my niche is profitable?

These are just some of the many questions that many beginners have. Choosing a niche is not rocket science. There are just a few simple criteria to meet and you’ll be able to spot a good niche within 15 minutes or so.

By the way, if you are serious and want to take your blogging to the next level, check out the Rapid Blogging Blueprint. This is a premium level training that takes you through each and every step of setting up your own highly profitable blog and profiting from it. You can check it out here.

It’s imperative that you pick a niche that’s profitable if you want your blog to make money. You can’t turn a donkey into a racehorse… and you can’t turn a losing niche into a winner.

1. Is There Money Being Made In Your Niche?

This is the first and most important point to consider. For example, if you’re planning to blog about model airplanes, your first step will be to do a Google search for your main keywords and see if there are other bloggers in the niche and if they’re selling/promoting products. If you see competition, that’s a good sign.

Secondly, you’ll need to check if there are products to sell in your niche. In this case, it may be model airplane sets, magazines, acrylic paints, etc. The more products you have to sell, the better – and the more variations the product has, the higher the chances it’s a profitable niche.

Thirdly, you should analyze if the products in the niche are actually selling well. There are several niches with products that don’t sell well. Visit Amazon.com and do a search for the popular products in your niche.

Look at the number of reviews and you’ll get an idea of the quantity of merchandise being sold, and you can ascertain the profitability and viability of the niche.

2. Do The Niche/Products Solve A Problem?

Generally, if the niche revolves around solving a pressing problem, you can bet that it will be profitable. The ‘make money online’ niche and sub-niches are highly profitable because millions of people have a NEED for more money in their life.

The ‘get your ex back’ niche is very popular because jilted lovers are in pain and will do anything to salve their broken heart.

The same applies to the health niche. In fact, the health niche is the most popular niche of the lot, because when one is in discomfort, they’ll willingly pay to end their pain/discomfort. Weight loss, migraines, back pain, teeth whitening, etc. are very profitable niches because people have problems that need solving.

3. Is The Niche A Sub-Niche Of A Bigger Market?

Ideally, you should pick a niche that’s a sub-niche of a huge market. For example, picking a niche such as ‘keto diet for weight loss’ will allow you to niche down and dominate the niche… and after that, you still have room to grow.

You can promote fitness programs such as yoga courses, resistance training programs, etc. The people who want to lose weight with keto will be interested in exercise too.

So, your blog has room to grow in future. A micro-niche might be easy to dominate but will not have potential for growth.

4. Pricing

The price of the products you’ll be promoting and selling will indicate potential profitability.

The higher the prices of the products in your niche, the more money you’ll make from sales and commissions.

Many people tend to be afraid of pricing products too high, but you don’t want to undervalue your products so don’t be afraid to experiment at different price points; you may be pleasantly surprised at the results.

5. Keyword Competition

When choosing a niche, it’s a good idea to do some keyword research and analyze the competition.

Using a keyword tool such as Ahrefs will give you an understanding of the lay of the land and whether you can beat the competitors.

If there are lots of keyword opportunities and the criteria mentioned in the earlier points are met, this could be a profitable niche.

If authority sites are dominating the search rankings, you might want to niche down further or just find another niche.

6. Trends

It would be a good idea to check on the trends of the niche. Some niches are flash in the pan trends that crash fast once the fad dies. Think Pokemon Go and fidget spinners. There was massive demand for a while… and now, it’s crickets.

Choose a niche that’s stable, evergreen and if possible, trending upwards.

Anything to do with wealth, health and attracting the opposite sex are good places to start as they are always popular and trending in the news, social media etc.

7. Can You Drive Traffic?

Last but not least, are you able to locate your target audience? This is very important because you’ll need to drive traffic to your blog. If you can’t find your audience or they don’t hang out online, you’ll have a major problem here.

Check if there are other websites, forums, Facebook groups, Pinterest boards, Instagram accounts, YouTube channels, etc. dedicated to your niche. These are all possible avenues for you to siphon traffic from in future.

Are there others advertising in your niche?

If you see other companies advertising for products in your niche, that’s a sign that you can reach an audience. Just pay attention to the longevity of the ad. Some ads are here today and gone tomorrow because the advertisers lost money. So, you’ll want to look for winning ads that stand the test of time.

These 7 criteria are easy enough to check for and will give you an excellent idea if the niche you’re looking at is worth getting into. Once you’ve determined the profitability of the niche, you’ll just need to get started and keep going. Don’t hesitate and brainstorm for too long. Action is the key to success.

“If you want to learn to swim, jump into the water.” – Bruce Lee

7 Email Subject Lines To Increase Your Open Rates

Your email’s subject line is the gatekeeper of your email campaign. When you invest hours of work into getting the segmentation right and nailing the email copy, you absolutely want your email to get read!

The average person gets dozens of emails every day – and this may include coupons, newsletters, social media notifications, password resets, lead nurturing emails, invitation to parties, and so on. It’s a lot of material to sift through, never mind open, and most people open the emails based on how effective the subject line is.

Granted, there are a few more elements of an email that determine whether or not you’ll open it; for instance a familiar sender name, but for the most part, the subject line determines whether or not you’ll pay attention to the email.

People’s inboxes are always full of messages so it’s all too easy for them to hit Delete without a second thought; yet email can be a powerful tool when used to market your business. Subject lines that convey a sense of urgency tend to have higher open rates than say, those that offer freebies, and the use of first names has been found to increase the open rate by a small margin.

But there’s a lot more to subject lines than first names, and knowing which factors affect open rates can help you draft effective emails. Here’s a quick guide to get you started:

1. Localize And Personalize

You’ve probably come across basic personalization in email marketing- “Hey John, would you like..” It’s pretty common nowadays and perhaps a little overused but that does not mean you shouldn’t personalize your subject lines. You get a better effect when you use customer attributes and actions to tailor your emails. Remember the following:

Use first and last name
Modify the subject line based on the recipient’s location
Mention their actions on the website- favorite features, what they’ve been up to, etc
Clothing stores are very specific to gender when highlighting products

2. Be Very Specific

Whether you’re sending notifications or direct updates, you need to be clear about each campaign and your objectives. However, being upfront doesn’t necessarily mean revealing everything the email is about, but assuming you’re targeting specific segments, then you need to point that out in the subject line.

Cold emails are the most challenging because you have to explain how you got the recipient’s contact information, win them over and then present your sales pitch.

It might sound counter-productive to let people know why you’re sending them emails but it’s actually the best way to get their attention and get click-throughs.

3. Take Time To Build Momentum

Auto-responders are very effective at sustaining a life-cycle email marketing campaign. The series makes it easier for you to present yourself to the recipients and allow you to build momentum, because you shouldn’t just email people out of nowhere.

Informative subject lines can be used in a series to build momentum and increase your email conversions but unfortunately most businesses send less emails than they could for fear of annoying their recipients. If the emails are relevant and helpful, you shouldn’t worry about annoying the readers.

4. Test Everything!

You may have read that short subject lines are more effective at boosting opens: it’s one of the many marketing quotes thrown around but the truth is you can never be sure how true that is for your own audience. Subject lines are relative to your audience and there really isn’t any hard rule when it comes to length.

The best approach here is testing. Draft the best subject lines you can and play around with long and short lines, capitalization, funny characters, etc. Testing is important in every aspect of marketing so apply it to your subject lines to get a clear picture of what works.

To give you a better picture of what works in subject lines, here is a compilation of 7 email subject lines people went crazy about:

1. ” Hey”

When handling inbound marketing, simple subject lines have the best results. This particular example is not about a smart or short subject line, but rather the effective combination of casual personalization and the sender name paring- for instance if you received an email from the president with this subject line, you’d be curious to find out what he has to say.

Pairing unlikely subject lines and sender names is very effective at getting people to read the email.

You may also try paring a goofy mascot with a serious subject line.

2. “As You Wish”

Learn what makes your audience tick and employ a few psych principles to get their complete attention. For instance, this subject line was taken from a movie, The Princess Bride, and UncommonGoods used it on their buyers for a more personalized effect.

The company knows their buyer persona very well and they knew that referencing that particular movie would get their subscribers’ attention.

3. “Where to Drink Beer Right Now”

Okay, so not everybody loves beer, but imagine receiving this in your inbox at 18:45 on a Wednesday night? I mean, think about it: you’ve been holding it together since Monday and now you need to decompress with a few of your buddies before the weekend gets here; and then you get a notification just as you’re about to head out and it says “Where to Drink Beer Right Now”.

The timing alone makes this subject line a winner.

4. “Not Cool, Guys”

We’re not all equipped to be snarky writers but you can play around with the subject line and find a way to make it stand out.

Most email platforms make it easy for you to edit the preview text so utilize that extra space to win over more subscribers and boost your email stats.

5. “You’re Missing out”

You may have heard about FOMO, an acronym for fear of missing out; which is actually a big deal now in our interconnected society. Naturally, people don’t like to miss out on things, and a smart marketer will exploit this vanity by initiating an effective marketing campaign.

6. “DO NOT Commit These Facebook Atrocities”

No matter how reserved or down-to-earth you are, nobody likes to do things wrong.

Why not work on that simple and natural human tendency on your email subject line? Learn to dramatize your words for effect.

This line spells out “DO NOT” using full caps for effect, so that way readers will notice the message in their inbox.

7. “What Can You Afford?”

This is an interesting and somewhat encouraging angle; showing your audience a bunch of products that are RIGHT on their budget. Its also kind of competitive, your audience pitting cash against what’s available on the market.

You have to play off emotions to get people to read your emails.

You needn’t be a psychologist to play this game; just pay attention and you’ll see a number of opportunities. Remember principles such as scarcity, urgency and social proof, and see how they boost your conversion rates.

5 Quick Productivity Tips For Online Marketers

If you’re a beginner or even an intermediate online marketer, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work you need to do. There’s the tendency to become discombobulated and discouraged thinking about all the tasks that need your attention – not to mention the courses you’ve bought but have not started on.

To make matters worse, you’ve heard all the quotes on being productive instead of being busy. You’ve even bought a few books on the topic – which of course, you haven’t had the time to read yet.

You want to be productive, but you don’t know where to start. The good news is that this article will give you 5 tips which will increase your productivity and your sanity too – if applied.

Put It ALL On Paper

The first step to becoming productive is to make a list of ALL the things you need to do/complete. Write it all down. It doesn’t matter how menial the task is or how difficult it appears to be.

Pending tasks, courses to complete, websites that need building, content that needs to be written, etc. It all goes down on paper.

Once you’re done, you now have everything in black and white right in front of you. You no longer have to use up mental energy constantly thinking about these commitments. All you need to do is refer to the paper… which brings us to the next step…

Prioritizing

After studying the list of tasks you have in front of you, it’s time for prioritization. Let’s follow the Eisenhower Matrix..

All ‘important AND urgent tasks’ will need to be done FIRST
All ‘important BUT not urgent tasks’ will be done SECOND
All ‘not-important BUT urgent tasks’ will be DELEGATED
All ‘not-important AND not urgent’ tasks will be ELIMINATED

By categorizing your list of tasks, you’ll know exactly what needs to be completed first and so on. And that means…

Following A Daily Routine

You MUST have a daily routine that is productive and focused. Thousands of beginner marketers try to wing it and decide on a daily basis what they will do. This haphazard approach does not bode well for business success.

You’ll need a to-do list daily, and this list of tasks should come from what you wrote on the paper earlier. You do not need to do it all at once, but your daily work must make a dent in your big list. If not, you’ll always be behind the 8-ball struggling to catch up.

Having a to-do list alone is not enough. You must ‘Eat That Frog’. Wait, what?

In his book, “Eat That Frog”, author Brian Tracy, emphasizes doing the most difficult and unpleasant task of the day FIRST.

This point has been reiterated in another quote by Dale Carnegie, “Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.”

Very often, the tasks you do not want to do and constantly keep thinking of procrastinating are the ones you MUST do. These are the tasks that matter. They may seem distasteful or unpleasant, but you’ll need to summon up the discipline to do them anyway.

This is what separates winners from losers. Being able to step out of your comfort zone will help you reach success in business and in life. The kite always rises against the wind.

Timeboxing

Timeboxing is a term used to describe a technique where a specific slot of time is set aside to complete a specific task/s. This method will help you stay organized while keeping the main thing the main thing.

For example, if you’re a writer and most of your working hours is spent on research and writing, you may timebox 30 minutes at the end of the day to check your emails.

Assuming you timebox (4 – 4.30 PM) to check emails, that is EXACTLY what you’ll do during this time. You’ll not need to check your emails during your deep work sessions where you’re writing your best content.

At the same time, your email inbox will not become a mess because you’re spending 30 minutes daily keeping it in order. This is how timeboxing keeps your daily schedule AND your business organized.

Timebox any tasks that are important in the day to day running of your business, but not so important that they take priority over work that actually BUILDS your business.

Delegation And Automation

Automate whatever you can. This could mean the emails to your list, or using apps like Tailwind to post on your Pinterest board, or scheduling posts to your Facebook group one week ahead.

Batching your tasks and automating them will save you a lot of time. Once you’re making money online, set aside some of your budget to outsource the mind-numbing tasks you’re currently doing.

These could be answering support emails, or posting content on your social media properties, or proofreading, etc.

Delegating the burdensome and repetitive tasks to others is worth every cent you pay. You’ll not only conserve your energy for work that matters, but you’ll get more done and have more free time.

Apply these 5 productivity tips in your business as soon as you can and you’ll discover how fast your life and work gets easier and better.

“It’s not always that we need to do more but rather that we need to focus on less.” – Nathan W. Morris