When we are confronted with situations in our lives, one of the easiest ways to handle it is to give up. It’s too hard; we tell ourselves.
It’s easy to get to a point where it seems as though all that time you’ve invested in a dream or goal and the time till its fruition can be very daunting and even unobtainable.
There will be times of excitement, enthusiasm, creativity, but they can quickly be followed by despair, discouragement, and the desire to quit.
The trouble is, those situations often get worse because we choose not to confront them. They may take some time and especially perseverance. That is the main reason why we choose not to deal with them.
It’s just simpler to bury your head in the sand, but you’ll never grow if you keep doing this and you won’t have the kind of life that you truly want and deserve.
In all honesty, I think that us humans are just simply wired to want to give up; sad, I know, but it appears to be true nonetheless!
This stems from the fact that we crave instant gratification and if you are striving towards a distant goal, the brain doesn’t like delayed gratification; it wants results and rewards NOW!
So, basically we’re born to look for instant gratification. And this could be for good reason in the past as we may have needed immediate benefits to ensure our survival. But do we need that instinct now in the modern day world? Not really.
We are very much present-oriented, and so when we’re not getting what we want immediately, we get anxious and want to give up.
Maybe you’re disappointed or tired because you haven’t succeeded yet after lots of trials and attempts with nothing to show for it.
Believe me, you are not alone. I can pretty much guarantee that everyone has experienced this in their lifetime.
But, if you found ways to persevere, those situations would go away before they got out of hand.
If your situation is a financial one where you don’t have the necessary funds, you may need to seek other ways to make money.
Of course, it’s bad enough having to work one job as many people are not happy with their jobs. Adding yet another job into the mix can be a hard pill to swallow.
However, if you focus on the goal of taking care of the situation, this can get you through it. You may only need to work that other job for a temporary amount of time.
Life can get even more difficult for many people as they get older.
When you get past a certain age, you are not as easily employable as you were when you were younger. If you are having trouble finding work after being let go, will you keep going until you find something? There are a fair number of people who will simply give up.
Perhaps you have thought about starting your own business. It’s certainly much easier to do that with the internet these days. This too, takes a lot of work, especially since it is getting more competitive all the time. But, those who put in the time tend to make it happen.
Others, simply quit. It’s interesting to note that people who quit, often do so right before the time where they would start seeing some successes in their business.
We tend to have more medical issues when we are older as well. Taking better care of ourselves requires perseverance and habit changes. Many people will simply throw in the towel and take their chances with their health as they age.
Whatever situation you find yourself facing, giving up seems to be the easiest option.
It’s not usually the correct choice, however. It can take a commitment both in time and attitude (preparing yourself to be ready) but it can be well worth the effort of knowing that you won’t have to handle worse conditions later.
The thing about instant gratification is that it is a mirage, an illusion.
When you look at successful people, many think of them as overnight successes but actually NOTHING could be further from the truth!
Most successful people have failed and suffered rejection many times. Did you know that Sylvester Stallone was rejected over 1500 times when he first approached Hollywood with the script for Rocky?
And to make it worse, they offered to make the film for him, but only if he didn’t star in it!! But he stuck to his guns and it worked out for him eventually when Rocky and Stallone became an “overnight success!”
So, bear this in mind when you feel low and want to throw in the towel. Don’t suffer for mediocre and live a life of regret. Persevere and do what your future self will thank you for.
If you really feel like giving up remember these 7 points to hopefully keep you on track:
Life can be tough sometimes and it is very easy to give up and live a less than fulfilled life, but you really owe it to yourself to become more resilient and to persevere whenever you encounter any obstacles you meet.
Everyone deserves to have a rich, meaningful life full of happiness and success but it takes work and you must be willing to do whatever to takes to overcome life’s challenges.
As mentioned in the bullet points above, gratitude plays a huge part in how you approach life and if you want to learn more about gratitude, there are some more posts here and here.
Good luck and NEVER give up 💪
Chances are, you’ve already heard about the importance of building a trusted and unique brand.
Words like “brand awareness” and “brand recognition” are often tossed around, and are synonymous with achieving success and gaining a strong foothold in your market, especially when there are thousands of other businesses competing for your customer’s attention.
That’s what this little post is all about.
When it comes to maximizing your income, and establishing a strong foothold within your market, you absolutely need to build a unique and recognized brand that aligns with a clear and direct brand message.
Your brand message explains to potential customers what you have to offer, and how committed you are to providing quality and value.
But here’s the thing: you aren’t the one who defines your brand message – your customers do!
It’s your job to lay the groundwork as to what you want people to know about your business and then work towards supporting that identity through demonstrating knowledge, skills and capabilities to deliver what was promised.
However, your customers will be the ones who decide what your overall brand image is based on their interactions with your business.
A well-defined, strategic brand message can build instant credibility in your niche, while helping you gain authority in your market and shape how customers perceive your business. It’s quite often the key difference between a well-structured online presence, and a faltering business that is struggling to connect with its audience.
So, how can you build a recognized brand that provides a clear message that resonates with your market?
Start by thinking about your target audience and what is most important to them. Once you’ve evaluated your niche, you will be able to position yourself so that you are directly addressing their most burning questions, concerns and needs.
To do this, you need to gather as much intelligence on your market as possible, which you can do easily just by looking at the competition.
What are other business owners and product developers offering your audience? What kind of products and services are they successfully selling?
Take things to social media and begin by evaluating social signals – which are clear indicators as to what is currently in demand, popular and selling well. The higher level of interaction, the more advertising dollars spent, and the more engagement; the better.
Knowing how to develop a strategic brand message begins by recognizing what is already successful and improving on it within your own business.
You want to become the go-to person in your niche market, the obvious choice when customers are considering who to turn to when making their purchasing decisions.
When you work towards building an unwavering presence in your market, starting with a strong foundation of trust, you’ll immediately eliminate the barriers standing in the way of you connecting with your target audience.
To do that, you need to learn as much about them as possible so that you can build a brand around what is most likely to capture their attention.
And how do you do begin? It starts with what is called a U.S.P.
Let me get right down to it. USP stands for unique selling proposition (or unique selling point), and it is critical that you establish what yours will be right from the start.
Sure, those are components of your overall brand that help people identify your products and recognize you, however, a USP is far more important than that when it comes to building your customer base, and breaking through the barriers of resistance that most businesses experience when they first appear in their market.
A USP is what truly tells potential customers how you are different from the competition. It helps to align your goals with your customer’s. Your USP tells them that you can be trusted, that you have their best interests at heart, and that you fulfill all promises. And most importantly, a USP ensures you aren’t a faceless brand.
This would include key factors that differentiate a product or service from its competition, such as the lowest price, an extended, no-risk guarantee, a unique or exclusive product or offer not found anywhere else, or the first-ever product of its kind.
To start, think about what your product or service has that the competition doesn’t.
Consider ways you can highlight those differences and emphasize the benefits. Paint a clear picture as to why a prospect is making a wiser, sound decision to purchase your product instead of someone else’s.
Your USP is the driving force behind clearly illustrating value and giving potential customers a reason to purchase from you rather than the competition. That’s its one and only job.
OK, that’s it for now but if you want an expanded version of this post covering other points such as creating a powerful brand, the 4 essential elements of a killer brand, plus a handy check list, then click here and you can download a handy pdf to read whenever is convenient.
And if you want to learn more about how businesses use branding then check out this great course called B.R.A.N.D. here.
If you are new to online marketing, you may not know what a lead magnet is so let’s start there.
The idea is that once they have opted into your email list, you can then send them regular emails with tips and tricks and the occasional offer. You can read more about using autoresponders to send automated emails here and you can read this post about finding great lead magnet ideas.
So, how do you create a desirable lead magnet that your visitors will be unable to resist?
Well, follow these 5 quick steps and you’ll have a great lead magnet put together in no time at all.
This is by far the most critical part of creating anything for your prospective visitors and buyers. You must know the audience you are trying to attract, and you must know them on a deep level.
A lead magnet is a highly targeted gift that solves one problem for your readers. Remember, less is more.
Your niche may have a number of sub-niches and you can create different lead magnets for each different sub-niche.
For example, you may be in the Internet Marketing / Online Business niche and you could develop a separate lead magnet for those interested in using blogging, Amazon Kindle, Ecommerce etc.
These are all types of online business but vary dramatically in what the audience needs.
You can create a generic lead magnet for “Online Business” but it won’t be nearly as successful as more specific, targeted lead magnets.
If you already have a website, listen to your readers. If you allow comments on your posts, what are they saying? Any questions you see are potential lead magnets.
Browse forum boards in your niche to see the kinds of questions people are asking for more insights into the problems your readers are encountering.
OK, so you know your audience and what their problem is. Onto step 2.
Now you have an idea as to what problem your lead magnet is going to solve, it’s time to get creative.
DO a brain dump and get everything out of your head. Nothing is off limits at this point as you will go through everything later and discard what you don’t need.
The important thing here is to always have in mind the research you carried out in step 1.
It can be very easy to go down the wrong route and to start creating a lead magnet that you think your readers want.
If you find yourself doing this; STOP.
You already know what your readers want so just give it to them.
Go through your brain dump, get rid of what you don’t want, and then start to think about what type of lead magnet you want to create which moves onto the next step.
OK, you’re really moving now!
You’ve done your research and got a seed of an idea for your gift which will be irresistible to your visitors.
Are you creating a “how-to” type gift? If so, this may work well as a quick tutorial type video, unless your niche tends to dislike video (although this is rare nowadays)
Are you creating a checklist, tool list or resource guide? If so, then a simple pdf report may be best.
Are you creating a motivational type of gift? Then perhaps an audio would work best.
Once you have decided on the format, now you can move onto the next step and actually start creating it.
OK, now it’s time to put everything together and create your amazing free gift.
Research the topic fully and make your explanation as to how your readers can overcome the problem as simple as possible.
If you are writing a report, make sure it is easy to read with good use of headings, paragraphs, bullet points, graphics etc.
You can create great reports in MS Word or Pages and convert them to pdf’s, but if you want to take your reports up a notch, then consider looking into either Designrr or Sqribble to create eye-catching pdf reports.
If you are recording a video, you can use free or cheap screen recorders such as Screencast-o-matic and if you want to edit it, you can use something more powerful such as Camtasia.
If you want to record and edit audio, you can use a free tool called Audacity.
Once you have created your lead magnet, the final step is to get it live on the internet, so onto the final step.
So, you now have your sexy new lead magnet. That’s great, but now you need to get it online so people can find it, opt-in and then download it.
Firstly, you’ll need to sign up to an autoresponder service such as Active Campaign or Aweber. You will use these to generate some code for an opt-in form, and, more importantly, to send automated emails to people who sign up for your free gift.
Once you have signed up to an autoresponder, go and create a form that people can fill in. This will then generate some code that you will need in a minute.
You may also want to create an email sequence to welcome your new subscribers.
Now you have your opt-in form code, you need to create a web page for people to visit to read about your free gift and to opt-in. This is normally called a squeeze page or landing page
There are many page builders out there, but I prefer Convertri or OptimizePress.
Choose a template and create your squeeze page. Keep it simple, perhaps an image of your gift and a few bullet points explaining what they’ll get.
Once you have designed it, you need to add the form code from your autoresponder to the page so there will actually be a form that they fill in with their details to get their gift.
The final part is to upload your free gift so they can download it after signing up.
You can upload it to your own website or use something like Amazon S3 which is incredibly cheap; in fact, you get the first year free.
Once you have uploaded your gift, you can add the link to it in your welcome email.
OK, there are the 5 steps you need to create a desirable lead magnet.
I know there are a number of technical moving parts involved in doing this, and if you have any questions feel free to contact me.
And here is a handy infographic that you can use as a reminder of the steps to follow.
If you’ve been around internet marketing for any length of time, I’m sure that you’ve heard the phrase “The money is in the list.” You might get weary of hearing it, but it’s smacking you in the face for a reason – it’s the truth! Actually the phrase should really be “The money is in the buyers list.”
First of all, let’s answer the question, “What is a list?”
A list in internet marketing terms is a database of contact information for your prospects. So if you have a product or promote products about gardening and I sign up for your list, I’m a prospect that you can market to repeatedly until I unsubscribe.
So why is building a list so important? Let’s say you start off as an affiliate marketer. You find a niche you truly enjoy and you start working what you’ve learned into some traffic for your affiliate links.
Over a period of 30 days, you funnel 5,000 prospects from the World Wide Web who are interested in your niche straight through your affiliate link to the product owner’s site.
They even buy – yea! You’ve made a 50% commission with a 2% conversion rate. That means 2 out of every 100 people you sent bought the product, and your share was $26.00 (as an example). You earned a cool $2,600 this month – good for you!
But you’re leaving money on the table. Those 100 people who bought from your 5,000 clicks? They’re now on the product owner’s list, not yours. So what they’re going to do is send them more offers over the coming weeks.
After all, they are proven buyers. Over the next 30 days, those buyers fork over some more money for products that complement the original one they bought. That money goes to the product owner, not you – because you passed on building a list the first time around.
Why should the product owner get to cash in on that person again and again when you’re the one who brought them the customer in the first place? Stake claim to each prospect and leverage your relationship with them for future sales and commissions.
You can have unlimited lists for different niches and send automated emails using a simple tool called an autoresponder, examples of which are Active Campaign or Aweber. Every day you can log in and see how many people have signed up, and you can create automated messages to send out to help convert your list into more sales.
If you want to learn more about autoresponders, you can read this article.
If you are serious about growing a successful online business, then you must make list building your main priority.
Even if you are an affiliate marketer like in the example mentioned above, there are ways to capture the prospects email address before sending them to the sales page.
You can do this by creating a free gift that the prospect opts-in (i.e. give up their email address) to receive. The trick here is to make the gift highly relevant to the affiliate offer.
Checklists, workbooks, case studies are such examples of good gifts, or “lead magnets” as they tend to be called.
Once you have your gift, you can create something called a squeeze page (sometimes called a bridge page in affiliate marketing) using your page builder of choice. If you use WordPress, I highly suggest OptimizePress and if you don’t use WordPress I would suggest Convertri.
When you are ready, you send your traffic to the squeeze page, the prospect opts in and is then sent to the affiliate offer.
This is a real win-win because you are building your list and you may also get some affiliate commissions if they decide to buy 👌
When you are a little more confident, you can try your hand at creating your own products and having affiliates send traffic to your offers. How amazing is that?
But whatever you do, you must ensure that you are actively list building all the time.
You also need to manage your lists proactively, and learn how to write compelling emails to get readers to open them and to take action on the contents.
Don’t just bombard your new subscribers with offer after offer. It is important to nurture your list and give huge amounts of value and helpful advice before asking them to buy even more stuff from you.
This is a major mistake that a lot of marketers make, especially in the internet marketing/make money online niches.
So, as you can see, list building is critical for the success and longevity of an online business. But it is also incredibly important that you nurture and manage your list once they have subscribed as it is much easier to convince a customer to buy from you again.
Write emails that help your subscribers and don’t be afraid to get a little personal and reveal things about yourself as this will only make them connect with you more, as you are not just another marketer, but a real person.
And remember that your email list is a source of free traffic, so look after it and it will be a source of income for you for years to come.
Your subscribers will expect you to sell to them so that isn’t a big issue, but don’t go for a hard sell every email. Always have their best interests in mind, rather than making a quick buck and they will reward you with their loyalty and custom.
And don’t email them too often! Some marketers email daily, others a few times per week or once a week. There is no right or wrong but you do need to email them regularly; once a week minimum or they may forget about you.
Some marketers can be very pushy and email multiple times per day, especially if they are promoting a product launch, but I personally think that is too much and too aggressive.
As I said earlier, you need to be managing your list and this includes removing people from your list who aren’t opening your emails as this can affect your delivery rates. And as long as you are continually trying to build your list, this shouldn’t be a big issue for you.
Just remember that your subscribers are real people with real problems that hopefully you can help them solve and you will do well.
So, go out and start building and nurturing your list today. 👍
The best outcome of your first online marketing campaign is a big response. The worst outcome is being overwhelmed by thousands of responses awaiting your response. Online buyers expect instant response to their information requests. Time is money, patience is thin!
So if you aren’t able to respond quickly, not only will you frustrate your potential clients, but you’ll wear yourself out trying to handle this alone.
That’s where you hire the inexhaustible personal email assistant, the autoresponder. Just set up your autoresponder to perform all of the tasks you need, and then you’re free to move on to the next campaign.
The autoresponder catches those email requests and in a split second sends information back. You can set the autoresponder to actually sound personal by sending the friendly, welcoming note that you wrote.
The autoresponder also captures the email information of prospects or buyers. That’s absolute gold for building your email list. Smart Internet marketers use this list to stay in touch on a regular basis.
The saying is that the money is in the list and this is true, although it is really in the buyer list.
Now you don’t have to irritate with daily emails. Many marketers email daily (and sometimes multiple times per day but this is inadvisable) and can be very aggressive so you need to strike a balance between offering good advice and going for the sale. A 3:1 ratio is a good balance, so for every email that is just going for the sale, provide 3 valuable emails offering good advice and tips to help the reader.
Of course, email marketing is a great way to give them a “sneak preview” and as a pre-sale buying opportunity for your new product along with many free tips.
Another great use of the autoresponder is to send regular newsletters.
Offering a free niche market newsletter helps you get those valuable email opt-ins. Some prospects want to learn more about your product before buying. The newsletter is a tool for developing trust with potential buyers.
The fact is that buyers would rather choose products from trusted sources than take a chance on the unknown, so keep the relationship solid with regular, meaningful communication. Your autoresponder can handle multiple lists and different messages. That gives you a way to tailor the email to prospects for each product.
One of the biggest mistakes that marketers make is failing to target the message for each product prospect. They get lazy, write one message and one thank you note and then move on.
And this is such a common mistake that 90% of marketers make, including those who know better and even teach segmentation techniques to their buyers and readers!!! This undoubtedly brings their integrity into question in the minds of their subscribers, so always practice what you preach!
The autoresponder is capable of so much more work for you. Give each list a distinct name that relates to the product so that you can easily identify the list.If the autoresponder tool seems daunting, take time to view the tutorials.
Even if you have an active list under management, scan the tutorials to see if there are new tricks you can learn for maximizing the effectiveness of your autoresponder emails. Keep your electronic personal assistant busy and you’ll make more money online with less effort.
There are many autoresponder companies out there to suit all types of business needs. The good thing about them is that they will grow with you; as your list grows your cost will increase, but if you are using the tool correctly, you should be making more than you are paying i.e. it is an investment rather than an expense.
There are free autoresponders out there but they are limited with what they can do so it is always best to sign up to a paid service. Prices range from around $9-$19 per month for a list of up to 500 subscribers and the most popular all have free trials so you can try them out to see which one works best for you.
As a marketer I would personally recommend either Active Campaign or Aweber.
I use Active Campaign as it is more powerful and versatile than Aweber, although it has got better over the last couple of years.
Although the primary purpose of an autoresponder is to automate the email sending process, it is also important to send regular broadcast emails to your subscribers, especially if there are any trending topics in the news relating to your niche, and also to tell them more about you and what you are up to.
This creates a more personal connection with you and builds more trust and likeability.
And this leads me nicely onto my next point…
As already discussed, the technical options that you have make it possible to send personalized emails from your autoresponder that can seem like the real thing.
Not every buyer knows about autoresponders, so it gives them the sense that you created an email individually for each reader i.e. just for them.
When you write an email, start with the name of a trusted friend in mind and write as if the message was just for that friend. Then edit out the friend’s name and set up the message so that your autoresponder takes over and inserts the prospect’s name.
Personalization isn’t just for emails – use it as an intro to your ezine, too: “Hi, Susan, here’s some great new ideas for using the XZY Information system that I know you’ll appreciate.” Use the name that the prospect gives in the information gathering form.
Add the name naturally as it would occur in conversation. Internet marketers can make the mistake of over-using the name just because it’s easy to insert electronically. Read the message aloud.
Would you use the name that many times or does it sound phony? Yes, people love the sound of their own names, but when it’s over used, the reaction is that you’re being a fake and that send the buyer fleeing.
Don’t let spell check defeat you. First, be extremely careful when you type a name into the autoresponder list. If the name was automatically added to a list, don’t change it. Some names are spelled differently on purpose.
There is an ongoing dispute between Teresa and Theresa as to which is the accurate spelling of the name. Answer: the way she wants it! Also, be careful that the name isn’t changed in the final spell check.
Avoid the marital status question. Don’t add Ms, Miss or Mrs to any correspondence. For one thing, email isn’t that formal. You don’t need to guess on this one or you’ll surely be wrong more often than right.
While the generic “Dear Friend” or “Dear Internet Marketing Colleague” seems impersonal, at least it doesn’t make obvious mistakes that are humorous to some people and blatantly offensive to others.
Use the name when you ask for the order. Remember to be personal when you make the final pitch.
What’s more appealing to you: “Everyone needs this marketing package to increase sales” or “ I want to see you enjoy the kind of success I’ve had with this product – so, Stan, are you ready to make serious money online? If you are then click here. . . .but wait, Stan, I’ve got one more bonus that’s just what you need!”
That’s a personal close using the name and showing interest in the prospect’s success. So keep it real, keep it personal and keep making contact with your list so that the first sale isn’t the last one.
OK, so there are a few things to bear in mind when using an autoresponder and writing emails for your email marketing campaigns.
Email is a very powerful tool if used correctly and can be very profitable, but always put your prospects needs before your own and you will surely be successful.
