Mindset
Overcome Self Sabotage: Become the Person You’ve Always Wanted To Be & Get Back to What Really Matters in Life
Have you at some point felt (even for a little while) like you were...
- being pulled in different directions?
- that there's just no point in continuing your online business?
- that there's way too much noise, fog, and confusion, so you don't know what to do next?
- that if you only had a better outlook about your daily life, things would be better?
- taking SOME action (like buying a new product, or writing half a blog post) but as soon as you didn't "something" ... you slowed down?
- losing all momentum after hitting just one simple roadblock such as what price to charge, what to name your product or what time of the day to mail?
- making too many mistakes to continue on this course?
You're in luck, because if you've ever felt like you were in any one of these situations, if you've given up all hope and you needed a little bit of a boost, I think this will help you.
The reason why most of us internet marketers fail, and keep having to get back on course, is this thing called self-sabotage. If you found it easy to make $500 per month online, but $1000 seems like a lot of work, that's self-sabotage and you don't even know it. If you get more uncomfortable the more money you make, that's self-sabotage!
To fix it, I'm not going to give you some cheesy motivational quotes like...
"I haven't failed.
I've just found 10,000 ways to make a light bulb that don't work."
-- Thomas Edison
Or tell you silly story after story about how most things were discovered accidentally... (microwave ovens, velcro, corn flakes, penicillin, all on accident).
I'm also not going to blame you or try to tell you it's all your fault and you "should just snap out of it" because that's not the advice you need to get you to where you need to go. What will get you past it? Breaking down the problem so you can identify what "type" of self-sabotage you are experiencing and fix it.
Chances are you experience more than one of these types, but for now let's fix JUST ONE! It's not your fault. You just need to discover which of your sabotaging activities need a little ADJUSTING.
Self-Sabotage Explained
Here's the thing. Your ancestors were trained to live life carefully. Think about it. If a caveman 100,000 years ago had a fear of heights, he probably stayed away from cliffs and lived to procreate.
Fear of snakes, fear of dogs, wolves, bears, fear of enclosed spaces, fear of the dark... all PROTECTION mechanisms. Back in Neanderthal Times, if you found a tribe, made friends, blended in, and didn't cause too much trouble, you were far safer than trying to survive on your own.
If things in life weren't quite right, it was "better" to try to adjust to a life of unhappiness, rather than changing your situation... that might get you killed.
Fast forward to the present day where over 99% of the population made up of clock-punching, cubicle-dwelling zombies, which is a "safe" place to be, until you're trying to make a living online, and then it's time to fight those survival instincts and take a little bit of a risk.
It's easier to focus on negative things as a way of NOT taking action and playing it safe, but with these new rules, you're trying to solve your existing problems and in turn you're CAUSING new problems. You're trying to motivate yourself, start a business, make new contacts, create products, and build a list... all which goes AGAINST your "playing it safe" instincts!
Here are the four forms of self-sabotage that keep you poor. Remember, these aren't just four scenarios I made up... I've compiled the responses from surveys I've run over the past several years and from other surveys and I've grouped them together into parts that make sense...
- Type #1: Priorities (procrastination, reacting, delusions)
- Type #2: Habits (drama, slippery slope thinking, debbie downer attitude, cognitive dissonance)
- Type #3: Emotions (stress, overwhelm, boredom)
- Type #4: Meaning (victim thinking, embarrassment, living vicariously)
You'll understand this setup in a minute. Basically, your priorities and your systems are what LEAD you into self-sabotage, your habits cause you to REPEAT that self-sabotage, your negative emotions are the BI-PRODUCT of this sabotage, and the meaning is what you use to JUSTIFY your behavior over and over again.
Change just one of these factors... you change your thinking and your actions. Identify which of these is your WORST problem and now you're moving towards a positive change.
Priorities
Delusion: You have skewed views of the world, end goals, and you're clinging to unrealistic expectations and lies. You either exaggerate or downplay problems with your business, money, self, relationships, or your health.
Procrastination: You let "little everyday tasks" get in the way of what really matters. Maybe you said, I can't do "this" until I have "that" and "that." You waited until the last minute (or even worse, too late) to start, to make any decision, and you didn't think long term.
Reacting: You act impulsively. One crisis starts up and you quickly change your entire business, without thinking about the real consequences.
Habits
Cognitive Dissonance: Have you ever thought one thing, but said another? This is called lying, acting, and uncertainty. If you've started on a path that you now regret, and you want to change but can't, you might have thought it was easier to "pretend" or continue doing what you're doing... until you've decided... I've had enough, I'm not doing, thinking, or saying what I want to do and say!
Debbie Downer: Misery loves company! If your current life situation sucks, it is easier to do the right thing and correct it? Or... is it more tempting to do the "lazy" thing and focus on everything negative? To tear others down and pull them down to YOUR level, instead of helping?
To criticize, judge, and even become jealous of everything "good" in the world. In a way, you're training yourself to become "happy" when everyone (including you) is angry and sad!
Drama: You're addicted to the "struggle" and feel the need to be in constant chaos in order to be alive, awake, and have something to do. Either you're the person who starts up drama, or instigate it from others, this is your form of sabotage!
Your need to create drama leads to you going down one "slippery slope" after another. If one little thing doesn't go your way, then everything is in shambles. Let's say you were on a very careful diet, and on top of that you woke up early and made sure to visit the gym one hour every day. But wait! One day, you simply don't have time to go to the gym. Now, what's the point of anything? You cancel your gym membership, eat a gallon of ice cream and throw away your alarm clock.
Emotions
Stress: You worry too much, and in fact, you've created problems out of events that haven't happened yet. You overestimated the risk of something simple like sending an email, or making a forum or blog post. Did you waste an entire week "mulling over" a purchase or waste a month "thinking about" taking that trip? Even after you made that decision, you kept obsessing over it... not just wasting your own time but getting yourself worked up in the process.
Overwhelm: Isn't it possible that you've let stress get in your way (under-confidence), but in yet other situations, the LACK of stress (over-confidence) has hurt you? You started too many projects, didn't keep deadlines, had no consistent routine, and you might have let others distract you from your target goal. Which THEN led to stress, procrastination, and bad habits in the future.
Boredom: Also tying back in with cognitive dissonance AND building on procrastination, let's say you started a project 6 months ago and you weren't able to finish what you started. All that time wasted! Plus, it's easier for you to give up on your next project. And the next, and the next! Then it becomes easier to give up, lose focus, and get distracted by other bright shiny objects.
Meaning
Victim Thinking: Here's a weird one. You were taught even as a little kid to be selfless and put others before you, right? But what if took it to the extreme and put EVERYONE before you, even when it hurt you and your business? You always put yourself last, which conveniently meant you didn't have to take any action for yourself. Think about it... it's "easier" to spend all day helping others for free, or being a busybody on a public forum, than taking of your OWN action, right? That's scary!
Unfortunately, that's not sustainable. You've always put yourself last so NOW it feels like you're always last, everyone is better than you, you've given yourself an inferiority complex.
Embarrassment: You didn't ask for help along the way. You'd "heard" of that before. How hard could it be? You didn't assert yourself, you didn't admit you needed help, and you didn't assert your needs and desires!
Living Vicariously: This is dangerous! Isn't it true that you can watch a TV show or a movie, or even hear about stories from a friend, and feel almost as if you've experienced those things? It's dangerous because it allows others to live your life for you. You don't have to take risks, you don't have to take action, just hear stories and your thirst is quenched, right?
Until... you start comparing yourself to others. You think, that person just turned 21 years of age. What was I doing when I was 21? They're finishing college, what was I doing then? They just hit the 100k per year mark, they just had their first kid, where was I at that point?
I know I promised no cheesy quotes, but this one applies perfectly:
"Don't compare yourself to anyone in this world.
If you do so, you are insulting yourself."
-- Bill Gates
Here is self-sabotage explained in a table:
| INTERNAL | EXTERNAL | SOCIAL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| PRIORITIES | Delusion | Procrastination | Reacting |
| HABITS | Cognitive Dissonance | Debbie Downer | Drama |
| EMOTIONS | Stress | Overwhelm | Boredom |
| MEANING | Victim Thinking | Embarrassment | Living Vicariously |
Laying it out on this table helps ME just as much as it helps YOU. Why? Because when it comes to self-improvement, there is no such thing as "permanently" fixing any of your problems. It's far too easy to regress back into old habits and forget what tools you used to use to make you into a successful person. You'd be surprised at how many successful people, including me, including Lance, still need to listen to tapes or still need to talk to people when we're having a down day or a down week.
How to Overcome Your Problems!
The first thing you need to do is realize where you need the most help. If you try to go out and "stop self-sabotage" ... you aren't going to get anywhere. It's like fighting the "war on drugs" ... impossible on its own but it is possible to attack one person or attack one area.
Let's say you take one look at that table and you think, my problem is that I'm being a Debbie Downer. That's a habit that affects others so how about, just for today only, I make it a point to not say anything negative? Or if you're constantly overwhelmed, you need to realize why that is and change the actions that lead to that point, such as over-commitment.
If you need to solve one of your bad habits:
- Take a vacation. Take weekends off, go somewhere out of the house, out of town, outside your usual environment, to clear your head
- Attend an event or a seminar. This also gets you out of your usual space, allows you to think and see things differently, and get you around better role models
- Replace new habits with the ones you're deleting
- Fix just one thing in your life for now, don't try to drastically change everything, because that won't stick!
To fix your priorities:
- Get a better support system. Trusted people like your friends, family, mentor and mastermind
- Get out more. Find a better mentor if your current one isn't suiting you, listen to self-improvement or training audios every now and then, and buy an hour of coaching if you are stuck and need help
- Break your problems apart into manageable pieces
- Make decisions quickly but change decisions slowly
To take better care of your emotions:
- Limit the amount of "toxic thoughts" you have including being jealous of people or "trash talking" others
- Leave your comfort zone whenever you want to make a real change and reach the next milestone in your business and your life
- Remove anything in your life that you feel is dragging you down or holding you back
- Push yourself to get outside your "money zone" ... the point where you earn more money than you normally would and your subconscious tries to put the brakes on your effort and your income
To change the meaning of your life:
- Find a great Reason-Why. I've had plenty of mentors who went from being lazy, to taking real action once they finally had a great reason to build a real business and take life seriously. Events like divorce, children, financial hardship, age... sprung these people into action. When it hurts enough, you'll make a change!
- Consider the bigger picture, pick your battles and think about the point of view of others
- Combine pleasurable and non-pleasurable activities (I like do the dishes while playing music)
- Clean out the clutter
I hope that helps you to get out of your own way and get everything you've ever wanted.
Where are you experiencing self-sabotage with yourself and with your own business? You don't have to be too specific if you don't want to, but this is your chance to complain... as long as you tell me what you're going to do to fix it! Please comment below.
Six Life Lessons from an Ex Computer Programmer Internet Marketing Geek
As this year is winding down and another one is about to start up, everyone I know and see (including me) is wondering: what worked this year? I'll give you a hint: the same things that always worked like building a list, optimizing paid traffic, buildling relationships and following up with your subscribers, training those subscribers, being in-tune with what your market wants and presenting your irresistible offer in a new and exciting way that gives them what they want and sneaks in what they need!
That's why I want to share what I think are the six most valuable lessons (in both your marketing and your mindset) that have stuck with me over the years that I think will carry you into the next 12 months and then some:
Life Lesson #1: Strategies vs. Tactics. You need to know the difference between strategies (things that always work) and tactics (little tricks you have in your back pocket to use every now and then). How many times have you heard of a business that relied on one single website, or one single Google loophole, and then one day, poof, it was gone? How many times have you seen a marketer get desperate and discount the price of a product just to pay the bills? And then they were lost on how to pay the bills next month!
Life Lesson #2: Decisions. Every decision you make either changes your actions or changes your mindset. Getting angry, becoming a victim, "bitching and moaning" are natural ways you're trying to change your mindset but unfortunately that will lead you down the path of more destructive actions. Instead, turn should-to's into have-to's into want-to's.
Life Lesson #3: Self-Awareness. You really don't work as "hard" or as "fast" as you think you do, and you need downtime. You're not an employee in your own business. It's not about running out the clock the same way it is when someone else is paying you for your time. Alcoholics Anonymous has the term, "Progress not perfection." If you want to get paid as little as an hourly employee then act like one, but if you want to be a productive business owner who works smart (not hard) and leverages their time, then do what other successful people do.
Life Lesson #4: Pick Your Battles. You need the ability to fall on my own sword (a little bit). Apologize when it's necessary and move on when it means you're making progress instead of being weak and surrendering. Bite your tongue and let the other person win if it means more money or more happiness.
Life Lesson #5: Hope for the Best and Plan for the Worst. You really need to AUTOMATICALLY backup everything (your desktop and your website), in multiple locations and in multiple ways. So many things aren't valuable, or aren't important, until they're gone, and now you'd pay $10,000 for that one missing file that you could have saved by spending 2 minutes clicking a button. You'll get old someday. You'll die someday. Others around you will die someday. Don't get bogged down by that thought, use it as a tool to focus and get where you need to go.
Life Lesson #6: Life is too Short, So You Need to Be Everywhere. You're probably thinking too small. You need 100+ articles on the internet. You need a blog, a podcast, a Kindle and CreateSpace book, a product for sale, a Facebook account, a fanpage, a Twitter account, a forum username on at least a few popular discussion boards in your niche. You need an email newsletter, multiple optin pages, and all these things need to lead right back to YOU.
Thanks again for being such a loyal reader of my blog. Please comment below and sure, in one sentence or so, share was what your biggest insight of 2012?
I Lost My Internet Connection! (What To Do When Everything Goes Wrong)
Chances are you've heard of at least one of the following things...
- Murphy's Law: anything that could possibly go wrong, at the worst possible moment, will probably happen
- Hope for the best and plan for the worst
- There are some things you can control, and other things you can't, so you need to be smart enough to know the difference
I've run plenty of live webinars where the internet connection died part-way through. Pitches where the website simply wasn't working. Software demonstrations where the software simply didn't work in front of a crowd of hundreds of people.
What if you woke up one day and your PayPal or merchant account was shut down, and all the money you had inside was frozen? What if one day your website was down? Or your computer didn't start up and everything on the hard drive was lost?
Internet Connection = DOWN!
I was in trouble. I was set to run a 1-hour pitch webinar the next day (to an audience of hundreds of attendees) and my internet connection died. It wasn't the first time. There were about 2 drops of rain and my cable internet provider (Charter) lost its connection for a few hours at around 7pm one evening. No big deal.
I spoke with one of their operators, they told me there was an outage in my area and to wait for it to be fixed. I went to sleep, woke up, still no internet. Some digging on Twitter revealed a cable had been cut, many people in California from Redding to Los Angeles were without internet.
What was I going to do? Cancel the event? Have Lance fill in for me? Park my car in the McDonald's parking lot and use their free wifi to run a pitch webinar from my laptop in the car?
I posted this problem on Facebook with hours to spare. Different people had different ideas(things like "use an iPad to host the webinar" which didn't work) and the idea of buying a 4G hotspot came up a few times, but I didn't want to reset my data plan or get stuck paying an extra monthly bill.
Solution = 4G Hotspot
Finally, my friend Chris Garrett had a real answer... some providers (such as Virgin Mobile) sold 4G hotspots with no contracts. I drove to my local Target, they had phones only. I visited Walmart, and there I found a Verizon "Mifi" card.
I quickly checked their website, typed in my address and realized I had 4G LTE coverage (basically, broadband speed cellular coverage) in my house. You could buy these with no contract and no monthly fee for about $200 and pay as you go.
Two hundred dollars later and about 2 hours to spare, I bought this little black box, drove it home, plugged it into the power outlet, slid the SIM card in, called an 800 number, typed in the SIM card and I was ready to wirelessly connect to the internet...
Here's how the hotspot works, if you don't know. This little box acts as its own wifi network. You connect your computer, smartphones, iPad to it, and then it talks to these cellular carriers. I connected my computer to this wireless network, it had me add a credit card (so they could bill me) and in a few minutes, I was online.
Results & Total Cost
The webinar went great. The speed was about the same as my cable internet. It cost $60 for 3 gigabytes of usage (I used about all 3 gigs), no one noticed any difference in speed. A few hours after I finished the webinar, my cable internet access returned and I tucked the "mifi card" into my desk drawer.
At any point in the future, if I want to run a webinar and there's no internet, I can pull that out and I'll be back online instantly.
The real point is, there's always a way around any problem. I would have presented that webinar at a friend's house if I really had to. What's your excuse for not running a webinar? I only had to solve the problem that one time! If the issue came up ever again, I now know exactly what to do. I hope you now know as well.
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I Missed My Flight (3 Ways You’ll Make Money As a Result)
I'm supposed to be on a plane right now over the Pacific Ocean, but I'm not.
Why? What other reason is there? I was late to the airport! I'm "used" to arriving at an airport for a domestic flight two hours early -- 90 minutes if there's traffic. Never had a problem before.
But this time... I didn't realize that I had to arrive three hours early for international flights (this is only my third time leaving the country). The airport is a two hour drive away. I planned on leaving the house four hours before my flight. I was a little late getting going... a train crossed the tracks adding a delay, there was construction and traffic all up the freeway to the airport. I didn't factor the 15 minute shuttle ride from parking to the terminal since this isn't the airport I usually fly out of.
I was at that ticket counter 90 minutes before the flight. I was the last passenger to check in. By the time the ticket agent created a visa for me to travel, looked up my information, tried to figure out the computer to add me to the flight, I had an hour till takeoff. Too late.
No available flights to Australia tomorrow. I'd have to wait two days. That means my trip had been cut from four days in Australia into two days. I'm going to spend the same amount of time on the plane and at the airport, as I will be on the ground in Australia!
No way to cancel the flight and rebook with a different airline, no easy way to extend my trip either, especially since I have lots of things scheduled for when I get back.
I'm sure you've been in a similar situation at one point, so what can we learn from this?
Habit #1: "Paranoid" Scheduling
First of all, you better believe that I'm showing up at the airport very very early from now on. As in, even earlier than 2 hours for a domestic flight, even earlier than 3 hours for international.
Think about it... how many times have you stressed out about being late, how many times have you showed up somewhere 5 minutes late and felt bad... how many times have you missed out on something special just because you missed a different deadline?
Imagine how different your life would be if you rolled out of bed one hour earlier and jogged on the treadmill at the gym, or took a walk around your neighborhood, took a drive around town or went for a swim just to wake yourself up.
How different would things be if you had everything ready to go for your next product launch long before you needed it, before you even announced it, in fact?
Habit #2: Launch Scarcity
Speaking of product launches, Lance and I recently relaunched "Membership Cube 2.0." Here's what we did:
- We presented a "VIP webinar" to students who had completed the 1.0 course (some of them several years ago), already owned the membership license, and probably had a membership site, and sold many many people $197 for this updated training, until 11:59pm Eastern time that night
- For the next 24 hours, the price to upgrade for alumni students only was $297
- Then $397 for the next 24 hours
- Then $497 for the next 24 hours
- The following week, we opened up the brand new course to the public to join at $697, once again, only until 11:59pm Eastern time
- The next day, the price was $997 to join
- The day after that, we offered a 5-payment plan so people could choose to join either by paying the $997 in full, or subscribing to 5 payments of $225 (one every 30 days for 5 total payments)
- The day after that, we offered a choice between paying $997 upfront or choosing a 3-payment option (3 payments of $375)
- On the final day the price was simply $997, and can I tell you a secret?
We sold seats into Membership Cube 2.0 every single day of that launch, at every single price point above. What's also interesting is that the majority of our sales occurred within 1 hour of every deadline. In other words, if we announced the price was increasing from $697 to $997 at 11:59pm Eastern that night, a bulk of our sales came in between 11:00pm and 11:59pm Eastern.
But it makes sense, after all... how many times did you wait until the very very last minute in high school and college? When you had a boss? In your business now?
It's just human nature to wait until the pain is so great (I'm about to miss my flight or the product is about to become more expensive) to actually take some kind of action (something you take for granted like being able to travel to the opposite end of the world in a day or creating a website that takes payments).
Habit #3: Training Your List
I'm not saying that having scarcity will make or break your product launch, but if you have something good to sell, it's an easy tool to pull out of your arsenal to give you a nice little boost in your sales.
We used to cap the number of seats in a class. Only 30 available! What's the problem there? If we say 30 are available, 25 are remaining, it looks like no one wants the product. No social proof. If we sell all 30 seats in a day, we think... maybe we should have opened 50 or 60 slots?
The price increase strategy works great because the potential income is unlimited but it really pays off when we TRAIN OUR LIST.
Here's what I mean. Many, many people contacted us -- sometimes an hour after the price increased -- saying that the price was $997 but can I join at $497 or even $197?
Our response was "no" and the reason was usually because someone had already bought at $697 or $997 at that point. Why should we let someone else pay full price when you contacted us and asked for a favor?
I'm sorry if that sounds harsh. But in the same way I'll be sure not to miss another flight, I don't want you to miss another launch or a price increase!
At the end of the day, there's no point in getting angry or upset about paying more today simply because you don't have to buy. You missed a sale, and that's it.
Normally (what you see in the retail world) is something like this: this computer normally costs $1000, today only it's $500. If someone bought that computer for $1000 yesterday, they're screwed. If you miss today's sale at $500, you have to pay $1000 tomorrow.
It might feel weird for you to turn away customers, or be strict about your deadlines, but the way I see it, you have two choices:
Either train your list that your sales, deadlines, and scarcity means nothing, and that anyone can get around it with a quick email...
Or that you're serious about your business and your customers should be too. 11:59pm means 11:59pm and $997 means $997.
You can train your subscribers to have a sense of entitlement (they should get everything under the sun for 10 bucks) or that buying is a choice and that the price they pay is STILL much lower than the value they get.
And, whether you're a buyer or a seller, or both, the best thing to do is to make the best out of any situation.
- I missed my flight, is there anything I can do to change that? No, it's done.
- Did this event possibly prevent me from being late or making other mistakes in the future? Probably!
- Am I going to be a victim, feel sorry for myself, and mope around until my flight in two days? I think you know the answer to that question... time to get some coding done and get to the airport early tomorrow so I'm not in a rush
That's how you can profit from my mistake: change your habits to that you're early to everything. Product launches. Webinars. Meetings. Personal life events. Freelance jobs. Underpromise and overdeliver.
The next time you're launching a product or getting paid to provide a done-for-you service, think about what kind of scarcity you can add in to improve an already great offer and make that event "special."
And finally, keep in mind that you're always training your list. You're training your list to get used to how often you send emails, what price you charge (they get accustomed to high or low for sure), what kind of offers, whether you send out videos or perform live webinars... so what kind of subscribers do you want? It's up to you.
Go ahead in the comment box below and tell me what you think.
Productivity Booster: Decide to Have Fun Doing It & Enjoy Taking Any Action
It's funny, every time I ask my subscribers questions like: "Where are you stuck right now?" "How could things be better?" "If I could wave a magic wand and fix one thing about you to improve your live, what would it be?"
A very very very small percentage of people tell me things like: I need to improve this conversion rate by 1%... or I need to finish this product...
Most of the people who respond to me tell me they have a deeper problem: lack of focus, not being organized, time management, overwhelm, lack of creativity, or lack of productivity...
Why You Are Where You Are
The good news is these problems are easy to solve. Then why doesn't every one solve them? A few reasons...
First, it takes a lot of existing time and energy to break your existing habits. You'll actually put more work and effort into staying the way you are, even if it's "easier" to act a different way -- more on that in a minute.
Second, it's even easier to regress into your previous self. Think about "that one time" you took a morning run, "that one time" you went to the gym after a New Year's Resolution and then never went back, "that one time" you paid for advertising? Being a productive person is a continuous process, not a one time event!
Third, you self-sabotage yourself every step of the way. Don't feel bad, we all do it. I can't go drive to that place because I can't find my phone. I can't lift weights at the gym because I brought the wrong color shorts. I'm going to cut my run short because the battery in my iPod died. I can't run a webinar because that would mean I actually FINISHED something!
Are we agreed then? We all have a focus/productivity problem, we need to make a PERMANENT change and in a way "outsmart" ourselves to be better... BUT at the same time, we can't "just snap out of it" or "force ourselves to do it" because we won't repeat the process. Here's what you need to do instead...
How to Change Your Own Mind
Let me ask you something, do you enjoy every day going to the dentist, mowing the lawn, and doing the dishes? PROBABLY NOT!
I ask because this last week, I visited a dentist for the first time in 8 years. Don't worry, nothing was hurting, and it turns out I had no cavities. Why did I go? Because it was the right thing to do.
I thought to myself, if they find anything wrong... the damage has already been done, at least they caught it before it got any worse, I can stop worrying about it and I'm better than most people because I'm going to have a good attitude about thing this easy step.
This month, I also fired my landscaper and hired a new one. I've been meaning to get rid of this guy for a while. He stopped pulling the weeds, let the bushes grow into the walkways, began mowing the grass very unevenly, and somehow managed to break most of the sprinklers with his lawnmower.
It's something I've been meaning to do for a while... until one day, I looked out at that misshapen brown lawn and thought, I'm embarrassed to live here. One phone call, hi I'd like to terminate service, do I owe you anything, thanks bye... a second phone call, are you taking on new customers, here's the services I need, what day can you do it, here's my payment information, done.
There are two ways of looking at that. One way, "I have to get rid of this stupid idiot who can't mow my lawn." "Why does my yard suck so much." "I have to make these stupid phone calls." "I have to shell out even more money."
Or, how about this? Everything's been running on autopilot for a while, but it's no longer working out. The landscaper has other business, he has no problem with being fired. Things are a little bit broken, but I'll make two quick phone calls to fix it. And imagine how neat, clean, crisp, trimmed and green the yard will look once this new guy comes in and fixes things.
How This Affects You
You know that optin page you just can't get yourself to finish installing? That Kindle book you can't finish writing? Autoresponder broadcast email you can't seem to write and send?
Here's what WON'Tget you to do it:
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Here's what WILLget you to do it:
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And if you still doubt me... have you ever found yourself cleaning your apartment because you had an important term paper due? Because one was more "fun" and pleasurable than the other.
Have you ever washed your car or cleaned the dishes because you were delaying making some important phone call? Exactly.
Look... you can let this behavior guide you in one of two ways: self sabotage & procrastination (feeling that your unimportant tasks are more "fun" than the important ones)...
Or, focused action & productivity. First figure out what important task you need to do, then justify with it logic. And finally rationalize the following things:
- How taking action on that task will give you more pleasure than pain
- How NOT taking that action will give you more pain than pleasure
- How to enjoy taking that simple action, and have fun doing it, so you'll do it now, you'll do it quickly, and you'll do it over and over again
Question: What's something you've been delaying that you know you should be doing? It's ok if it's something simple, please don't include details if you are too embarrassed ... and what would get you to do it right away?
Overcome Your Limiting Beliefs, Fail Forward & Multiply Your Productivity by Hitting the Reset Button on Your Attitude
I want to help you get more out of the training courses you buy, the products you create, and the things you do every day...
And I would say the #1 ongoing problem that I have (I keep it under control but I'm very mindful of this problem), and that other marketers I come across with have, is the thing called...
LIMITING BELIEFS!
It's because of "limiting beliefs" that you stop your car at a red light: you believe that if you run that light, you might get killed, kill someone, or at least get an expensive ticket from a traffic camera. You don't commit murder, you don't steal or hurt others for thousands of reasons.
BUT having limiting beliefs in the wrong place means you don't always achieve your peak potential, you hold yourself back, and you don't get what you want or deserve.
Anchoring, Conflict, Sabotage
It's a way more serious issue than you've been led to believe. Here's how it happens:
Step #1: Your "bad behavior" (procrastinating, not finishing what you start, not making progress) gets anchored. How?
When you hang around the wrong people, their own destructive behavior rubs off on you. Haven't you ever dealt with a friend, or maybe a family member, who always seemed to be miserable? Who seemed to complain about everything? Complaining about the world made that person feel smart and relevant, and bringing others down to their level made them feel significant.
I don't want to get too personal, but during my teenage years and early twenties I have dealt with people who (unknowingly) punished me for success and rewarded me for failure. This is exactly why that saying "your income is the average income of your 5 closest friends" exists.
Step #2: Now, you start to experience "inner conflict" -- the nerdy term for this is cognitive dissonance. This is where you hold multiple beliefs that contradict each other. The easy one for most of us to point out is…
"I want to make lots of money, but I also feel like making lots of money is a bad thing"
Step #3: And the result of that is "self sabotage" -- some people label this as driving with one foot on the gas and one foot on the brake.
You create a product, setup a website, send emails, pay for traffic, begin a launch sequence… but when it comes time to make some sales… you drop it and you've moved onto the next thing.
You launch a brand new live class, and at the last second when it's time to open the doors, you chicken out and price it at $17 dollars instead of $997 or higher… worrying about being yelled at, people refunding, or not delivering on your claims… when in fact, none of that has happened yet!
If I wanted to, I could tell you stories about refunds I received on my birthday, on the day I quit my job, on Christmas morning BUT I choose not to worry about 1% of returned DIGITAL sales -- it's just as silly as not getting a cat because it will die in 20 years, not getting married because you might get divorced, not having a kid because it might grow up to hate you, not going to school because you might flunk out, not taking a job because you might get fired from it, not buying a house because someone might break into it, not buying a new car because someone might steal it!
Let's break down the three types of limiting beliefs: hopelessness (global beliefs), helplessness (personal beliefs), and worthlessness (future beliefs)…
Limiting Belief #1:
"Hopelessness"
This is where authority figures tell you something is impossible. Growing up it might have been a parent or mentor, nowadays it might be the news or a friend.
I like to keep in touch with my subscribers and every now and then I hear the excuse that "no one is making money during this economic downtime" (which I read from my iPhone, sitting in my Ford Mustang, in line at a Del Taco drive thru, surrounded by brand new cars). I hear that "internet marketing doesn't work" and yet everyone is buying more books, movies, plane tickets, and music online than ever before.
It makes it very tempting, easy and REWARDING to not take any action! There's no point in me learning, doing, or perfecting my internet business because it's all a big lie, right?
Limiting Belief #2:
"Helplessness"
This is where you might see that something is possible, but it's just not something you can do. During my early years in college, I had a middle-aged mentor from England who kept telling me about his $1,000 and $2,000 days… almost every day.
He kept giving me these numbers, and I was happy for him, but it made me think why I wasn't making that kind of money at the time. Then I'd try to justify it in any way possible!
Once again, a less than 1% refund rate but I've had refunds for the same product because it was "too complicated" for one person, and "too simple" for another. One person refunded "WordPress Drip" because they didn't realize it a WordPress plugin, "Newbie Crusher" because they didn't know it was for newbies, and "PHP Start Pack" because they didn't know it was for PHP. These are very rare events, but I find them very funny!
In reality, if you're looking for a "cop out" reason to not take action… you'll find it.
Here's the thing. If you take anyone's course and have the "wrong" attitude going in, you're never going to get the results you want. I remember in an earlier stage in my life, if I'd read an article or a book, and if I didn't already know or agree with what was said, I thought it was a waste of time! How silly. Likewise, in a different stage of my life, if I wasn't blown away by tons and tons of new material, I'd think the product was a waste of time.
One Piece of Information...
But now, if I attend an offline event, join a membership, or even attend a webinar or teleseminar… and even if it's a bad one… if I can get one takeaway piece of information, it's worthwhile.
People with the "helpless" limiting belief tend to take some action, but there's no follow through. I can't tell you how many students we've had who came to us with the "same" story of spending 40 thousand, 60 thousand, 100 thousand dollars on other peoples' courses. And in a couple weeks we got them to setup their business and many times make their first sale. And then, they're gone… dropped off the face of the earth and I never hear from these people again because their limiting beliefs kept them from actually making some money online.
Limiting Belief #3:
"Worthlessness"
You might not believe you deserve to make a million dollars, or $10,000 a month, or to pay off your house, whether you admit it or not OR whether you even realize it or not.
They might have launched a product or two, and earned $1000 or $5000, but kept quiet about the results, didn't repeat the process, and didn't improve. These are the people who tell themselves they're "happy" making $500 a month online while still working at their day job that they hate, because it's easier.
They won't re-market an old product to their existing list of subscribers because some of them already own it. They worry about which blog theme to install this week, what's the best time of day to email, and what to price their product… when none of these things matter! Taking action and following through does.
Maybe I'm talking about you and you don't even realize it! I don't know. But I do know that if someone came to you and asked what your plan is to make $10k this month, or $100k this month (or whatever your next milestone is) and you're instantly angry, frustrated, and self-defeating… you've got a serious problem and you can either let it own you, or you can get it out of the way and move past it.
Now, how do you overcome your limiting beliefs and achieve your peak potential?
Solution #1:
"Ask Better Empowering Questions"
The first thing I want you to do is be very aware of the words you use over and over to describe yourself as a person, where you are in life, others around you, and how you deal with adversity.
Here's what I mean. If you're the kind of person who constantly asks themselves, "Why does this always happen to me?" Or, "Why am I such a screw up?" Or, "Why is everyone out to get me?" Then you're setting yourself up for failure.
On the other hand, if you ask yourself…
- What are at least three things that will make me feel better today?
- What am I excited about today?
- How can I learn from this problem?
- What isn't perfect yet and how can I move at least one step in that direction?
- How can I enjoy the things I'm going to do today?
- What parts of my life do I enjoy the most and how do those things make me a better person?
- What will I lose (or miss out on) if I don't take action right now?
- What is the next step I need to take today?
- What's one thing I was going to do later, but will instead do right now?
Tony Robbins made this "empowering question" technique famous although I was using this before I'd heard of Robbins. I actually learned this from a course about "how to write a bestselling book" a decade ago which told me to phrase book chapter titles as questions. The truth is, when a question is asked, your subconscious has to answer it, whether you realize it or not… so why not apply it to real life instead of just writing?
Garbage in, garbage out! Ask negative questions and you get negative answers. Ask BETTER questions and you'll get better answers.
Solution #2:
"Model Successful People"
Now that you've asked yourself better questions, or even if you're having trouble thinking of better questions, use your imagination to have someone ask it for you.
- What would Will Smith think about your current problem and how to fix it?
- If Michelle Obama launched a membership site and it didn't make a bunch of sales right away, what her next step be?
- How about George Clooney, Betty White, Michael J. Fox, Sandra Bullock? Would they think twice about mailing their list, contacting a joint venture partner, or setting up a new landing page?
Armand Morin calls this "Success Leaves Traces", Christians call this, "What Would Jesus Do" and NLP calls this "Modeling." It means, find a mentor who is where you want to be, look at what they do, find out what they did to get there, and follow their system. Tom Cruise wouldn't be afraid of running a 1-hour webinar, so why are you?
Solution #3:
"Just Do It"
This sounds like the cheesiest statement ever, but as soon as you stop "trying" to market your product and just market your product, you'll actually make sales.
Stop thinking about it so much and just "fail forward." Steve Jobs never intended to make movies, but after being kicked out of Apple, losing half his life savings on NeXT, and losing even more money on Pixar, he finally stumbled on creating movies -- $7 billion from 12 movies.
There's no way I would have begun putting out copywriting products, selling web templates, webinar classes, or even WordPress plugins if I hadn't "failed" through a bunch of mediocre launches for PHP products.
Solution #4:
"Have a Goal and Put a Value on Your Outcome"
Every month where I've set a clear goal about how many sales of a specific product I want to make, or how much money I want to make that month, I've made more money. Funny how that works.
Can I tell you something else? Within a 1 year period, I went from being single, with a day job, "stuck" at the 10K per month range, to attending my first few internet marketing seminars, buying my dream car in cash at age 22, buying my first home at age 23, getting a long-term girlfriend (who I'm now living with 5 years later), and having several months with over $30,000 in income. I quit my day job permanently a few months after that.
Why did all this happen? I wrote down all the things I wanted to have. (This is what books like "Think and Grow Rich" are all about.) Next, I figured out what it would take to make those things happen… making more deals, launching more products, marketing more aggressively to my list, getting more traffic, building a bigger list, charging more money, writing better sales copy, the usual stuff!
Now that I knew what my goal was, and what actions I needed to take to achieve those goals, I could compare the pleasure versus the pain. Pain being time, effort, possibility of failure, moving out of my comfort zone, social awkwardness, putting myself out there. And pleasure being money, happiness, a relationship, comfort, security, peace of mind… all that good stuff.
And now I was aligned just right… moving AWAY from the pain and TOWARDS the pleasure, instead of self-sabotage.
Solution #5:
"Objection-Based Thinking"
Think in terms of small roadblocks (and little objections) instead of impassive barriers. The reason you don't have what you want, and the reason why you're not taking the actions you should, a real reason or just an excuse?
If there was just one thing holding you back from choosing your niche, what would it be? What about what's holding you back from creating a membership site? Is it something as simple as not knowing what software? Let's say you could only choose one thing.
I know I just threw a lot at you, but I think it's going to help. Tell me below, what's your current limiting belief and how is it holding you back? Or, what's a limiting belief you used to have and how did you overcome it? Please tell me below right now.
Scientific Advertising: Find Out Where the “Problem” Area Is (and Claim the Profits You’ve Been Missing All Along)
Here is what you need to make the "most" amount of money online...
1. An offer with a $1 EPC (Earnings Per Click or visitor value) -- for example, a $47 product that converts at 2% so that "on average" you make $1.00 every time someone lands on your web page
2. A responsive subscriber list with a 2% clickthrough rate -- this means when you send out an email, 2% of all your subscribers click over to your web page. If you have a 1000 person list, expect 20 clicks per day from those subscribers
3. An upsell offer (a 2nd product to buy immediately after they join) set at roughly double the frontend product price with a 33% take rate -- meaning if you make 10 sales at $47, 3 out of those 10 people will buy the additional product at $97
Adding this upsell increases your EPC from $1 to $1.66. 20 clicks per day = $33.20/day = about $1000 per month from a list of 1000.
What Does This All Mean?
1. You need to place Google Analytics on your web page to find out how well it's converting... is your frontend at $1 EPC yet? If you have a $97 product there, does it convert at 1%? Does your $47 product convert at 2%? Does your $17 product convert at 6%?
If not, setup Google Website Optimizer and run an A/B split test to increase your conversions.
2. You need to track your links either using your autoresponder's built in tracking (which is what I do) or use Linktrackr... you NEED to know how many clicks a typical email gets you.
If you're getting lower than a 2% clickthrough rate then you need to either increase your email deliverability, send more emails or improve your email marketing.
3. If you don't have an upsell yet, add that offer to your download page and track that using a separate Google Analytics campaign as well -- and even split test two different upsells using Google Website Optimizer until you get it to 33%.
If you don't have a list, if you're not promoting to that list and you're not earning $1 per subscriber per month from that list, then you're doing something wrong.
Now Here's Something Cool...
Let's say you had a subscriber list of 10,000 subscribers -- or were able to get 10 affiliates to promote who each had a 1,000 subscriber list. In any case, you have access to 10,000 people to tell about this webinar.
10,000 subscribers and you want 250 attendees to show up live on a webinar. (By the way, present a webinar the correct way and you can hit $10-$20 Earnings per Attendee on a webinar but that's another story.) Now I can work backwards and figure out how big of a list you'd need...
I know that when it comes to a webinar, I get 50% of all visitors to optin and 33% to show up live. That number never changes, even when I ask other people for their numbers.
- 10,000 subscribers means an email gets 200 clicks per email
- 250 live attendees means 750 people need to register
- 750 people registered means I need to send 1500 clicks
- You'll need to hit those 10,000 subscribers 8 times before the webinar -- easy to do with a few quick update spread out along 5 days
Lance and I go through a very similar thought process every time we plan a new class, offer, or promotion. You basically need to ask yourself these questions:
1. What's the minimum amount of money I'd be happy with in the next 30 days?
2. Based on your subscribers (if you have a list of your own, great -- if not you'll need affiliates) what price point will they buy at? Now you know how many copies you need to sell
3. Assuming $1 per click with no upsell and $2 per click with an upsell, how you know how many clicks you need
4. Now that you know the required number of clicks, you know how many people need to see your offer to click and buy
That Might Be a Little Too Much Math For Now,
But The Point Is...
If you setup your sales letter and didn't make sales, was it because no one saw your web page? That means you need a bigger list and affiliates. If you see 100 clicks coming in every day and you're not making 1-2 sales a day, then you need to convert better! Add a split test and a follow sequence. It doesn't have to be complicated.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, break down the numbers so you can improve. Break them down so that if everything doesn't go "perfectly" ... it's not your fault, there's just one little thing you need to improve.
Does that make sense? What are your thoughts?
Just Upload It: The Real Secret to Jumping Through Hoops & Getting All Your Micro-Tasks Done
I can't begin to calculate how much money I lost for years just because I didn't put a single optin page online.
Email Optin Page
Simple "piece of paper" web page, headline describing what my free gift was, three bullet points going into very QUICK detail of each one, call to action telling people to fill in the form below, and an email optin web form.
Set it to redirect to a page offering a free gift. Easy way to offer a free gift? Go to EzineArticles, search your niche, grab 3 articles that look good, copy them out leaving names and resource boxes intact, add the link to your website. Paste into Microsoft Word and save as a PDF file.
- Do you have articles or blog posts of your own? Even better. Put 3 of your own articles into that PDF.
- Do you already have an information product? Pull out one of the bonuses or one chapter and that's your free gift.
- Do you run free 1-hour pitch webinars? Take your most recent one and put the video behind that optin page.
I don't know why, but I used to think it was "a lot of work" setting up a simple optin page using this exact process. It's not work! You're sitting in a chair, not even really thinking too much, taking 5 minutes on this total.
Webinar Optin Page
For some reason I fell into the same pattern when it came to running webinars. You might have noticed that early on, many of our webinars had a "fancy" optin page. Meaning, when you signed up for one of our webinars, it wasn't the usual ugly GoToWebinar screen.
It used our template. We could embed an autoplay audio or video on the signup form. Even auto-signup any of our subscribers with one click. (This is all possible using our "Webinar Optin" plugin.)
But you know what happened for years? I was lazy. I right click and copied the webinar link and sent it to my list that way. I still do many times.
Login to GoToWebinar, find upcoming webinar, right click webinar link and "Copy Link Location" ... go to template, paste in webinar link, change headline and bullet points... save and email. Once again, 5 minutes tops.
Affiliate Optin Page
Here's a technique Lance and I have been using for years. An affiliate wants to promote us, we setup an optin page just for them, once again using Webinar Optin. We setup an optin page just for the affiliate, which tags any subscribers they send into our affiliate program.We setup a page for them such as www.example.com/lance. The page registers that subscriber to our pre-sell list for that product, and registers them for the webinar.
I record the webinar as we run it, where we have some teaching and pitch the offer at the end. I save and produce the recording in Camtasia, and throw it online behind the optin page. That affiliate can still send traffic, get tagged, show people the replay, and there's now a button under the replay for people to buy.
Why did I used to think this was "a lot of work?" And it's all possible using ONE simple piece of free software...
The Secret: EditPlus
I've used the same text editor for over 12 years now and it's called EditPlus. I started using it back in high school when I became tired of... downloading a file from my web server, editing that file, then uploading it back up and checking to see what changes had occured on the website.
EditPlus has a built-in FTP client. Which means you can login to FTP and access your files right within the program, open a file, edit it, hit the save button... and it "magically" saves it without you having to do any extra uploading and downloading.
Here's where it saves me tons of time setting up optin pages, webinar pages, and affiliate pages. I just find one of my optin pages laying around, open it in EditPlus... and just re-save the template with the new changes in the new location.
What It All Means
The next time you're putting off setting up an optin page, signing up to an affiliate system like Clickbank, throwing some solo ads onto an "affiliate toolbox" page for your affiliates, heck, even sending out a quick email to your list... just ask yourself, why? It's won't even take 5 minutes.
And if you just re-use the last template you used, and use EditPlus to quickly open and re-save... you can do it even faster.
Here's something else to think about: If you really can't bring yourself to do it, could you record your screen using Camtasia Recorder and record yourself doing it, so that you HAVE to do it?
And what about this: Could you find a way to provide this as a service, and get paid to setup an optin page? Get paid to setup an affiliate program? Get paid to setup a 1-click webinar optin page... for people who don't want to do it?
What Makes Money: List, Traffic, and Offers
Strategy: Do you want to know what you need when you're building a real business and making real money online?
A. Create an information product and a download area for people to get it after they buy
B. Make a sales letter that explains why it's so great
C. Get traffic to it and build a list of prospects and buyers
That's it. List, traffic, and offers -- this was true back in 1997 when all you needed was a website to get traffic, in 1999 when all you needed was an affiliate program to get traffic, in 2002 when all you needed was search engine listings to get traffic, in 2005 when all you needed was a list to get traffic, and even in 2007 and beyond when all you need are joint venture partners to get massive traffic.
Tactics: Do you want to know what doesn't work?
- Free for all link pages
- Doorway pages & search engine cloaking
- Safelists
- Email co-registration
- Traffic exchanges
- Paid leads
- Guaranteed optins
- Tell-a-friend
- JV giveaways
- Ad swaps
- Warrior special offers
- Auto-bloggers
- Traffic loopholes
- Social media
- "Traffic getting" software
What's funny is that even if you haven't heard of every single one of these so-called "business models" -- they're the same traffic technique (which doesn't work, or only works for a couple months) -- then a year later it comes back under a different name...
Funny, right?
I know it's easy to get distracted by all these fancy terms and techniques but this is what you REALLY need to do:
A. Make a Product & Put It In a Membership Site
- Run a 4-week webinar class (using GoToWebinar) solving a problem in your niche
- Put those recording into a membership site (using Wishlist Member) and get them transcribed into reports
- Create a piece of software (using WP Notepad) or buy resale rights (Master-Resale-Rights.com) that solves your problem in a "push button" way and add it to that site
B. Build a List & Send Them to Your Sales Letter
- Capture the buyers of your membership site into a mailing list using Aweber
- Pull out ONE module or ONE bonus of your paid course, give it away for free and create a landing page where people can sign up and upgrade to the paid version
- Email your list every day
C. Drive Traffic to Increase Your List Size
- Setup an affiliate program and link to it in your product and in your membership site to recruit your buyers into affiliates
- Make at least 1 forum post every day and post at least 1 article every day until you have 100 articles and 1,000 forum posts
- Pay for at least 1 source of paid advertising even if it's just an email solo ad or a banner ad on a blog
That's what works for me, now YOU tell me... what works for you? What was your biggest breakthrough when it came to making a product, building a list, getting traffic, and making money? Go ahead and tell me in the comments below.
How to Make Your Words Sell: Attention, Interest, Desire, Action
Is it okay if I share with you the ONE formula that appears everywhere, again and again... and if you keep it in your back pocket every time you assemble a sales letter, create a blog post, make a product, send an email, and even deal with everyday relationships, you'll always win?
If I share this formula with you, will you check and make sure your web pages pass the test so you can convert as many people as possible?
I hope you've heard of this formula, and it's this: attention, interest, desire, action...
Every time you put out any piece of writing, video, or even live presentation -- run it through this filter. Here's what I mean...
- Get someone's attention using a shocking statement or headline
- Build interest by agitating your problem or setting up a question
- Setup the desire for your solution by revealing it and explaining it
- Tell people what to do now by telling them to take action
If you've even given (or read) a course, presentation, sales letter, or any other message that was missing an opening, seemed to "linger" too much on a problem, jump into a solution without addressing it, or had everything right except the end -- it was probably neglecting one or all of the above steps.
And I want to multiply your conversion rates by making sure you follow these simple rules. You can get as creative as you want as long as you follow this four step formula. Check it out...
ATTENTION:
Sales Letter Headline or Blog Post Title
When I write blog posts, I like to split the title into two parts: what I'm talking about (the feature), and the result of it (the benefit)... just look at my last few blog post titles here:
- Specialized Knowledge: How to Make $50 (or More) Every 5 Minutes, All Day Long, By Clicking a Few Buttons (Just Like I Did at Age 17)
- Speed Copywriting Explained (Assemble a Web Page That Gets People to Buy From You In the Next Few Minutes)
- It's Simple, So It Must Not Work: How You Too Can Make Several Thousand Dollars in a Weekend
- Website Backup: Keep Your Site Safe, Instantly Clone Your Blog, and Get Things Done Anywhere
- The Accordion Method (And Now You Never Run Out of Content Ever Again)
Now I have blog post titles that are both short, and long!
With sales letters, it's even simpler. The headline isn't necessarily the title of the web page we're on, it's just the HEADER that gets us to continue reading...
Think about the first thing you want to say to your visitor to keep them alert, on your web page, and hungry for more. Whatever you say should answer "most" of these questions:
- What's in it for me? (promises a clear benefit)
- What's my problem or solution? (without giving away your product yet)
- Why should I even listen to you? (get attention either with a question, challenge, or shocking statement)
- Is this newsworthy? (something new and unique that's worth reading about)
- Do I have a reason to continue reading? (does it lead to another thought?)
Yes, I'm saying that your headline should contain all of these items...
More often than not I'll have that headline big, red, centered, bolded, and in quotes at the top of that web page, but what's more important than the formatting is that the WORDS are impossible to ignore. For example:
- "How I Made an Extra $101,934.10 In 80 Days From 4 Low Ticket Products (With Zero Traffic and a Tiny List) Using One Very Special Piece of Affiliate Software..."
- Backup, Clone, Protect... WordPress Plugin Makes It Simple For You To Backup, Restore And Protect Your WordPress Blogs And Sites Anytime You Want With Just A Few Easy Clicks...
- "How Would You Like My Instant Formula For Creating High-Impact, Persuasive, Converting Sales Letters in the Next Few Minutes?"
- "If You're Feeling Completely Overloaded, Unorganized and Feel Like You're Always Running Out of Time..." You Need to Get a Grip on (and Control of) Your Time Management Skills!
And I'll usually add a subheadline that COMPLETES the thought that the headline first created. Why? Because it gets people reading further down, and then further, until the next thing you know, they've read the whole sales letter all the way down to the buy button.
INTEREST:
Problem or Big Picture
You've got my attention, but I'm not ready to buy your product yet. And even if I was, I need to know you can actually UNDERSTAND and SOLVE my problem... which is why you need to tell me what problem I'm having and how can you really help me solve it...
I need to stress here that we're not introducing your product yet. I see too many sales letters start off with, "I want you to buy my product right now." You're jumping the gun.
This is the STORYTELLING section. Introduce the problem so that I have to find out how it ends -- with the introduction of your product.
You should probably answer these questions:
- Who are you and why are you qualified to help me?
- What exactly is my problem and what's the "difficult" solution?
- What do I need to know and what issues did I not even consider yet?
- Why are you better than anyone else?
Check out the deck copy for "Membership Cube" to see what I mean...
For the last several years internet marketers have told you how easy it is to setup your membership site and get a flood of people paying you every month for your services, your expertise, and your information. But there are just a few problems...
It's Not As Easy As "They" Say It Is...
These Are The Same People That Told You
"All You Need Is a Website"
- Where will you get the content for this membership site?
- How will you get people into it, and keep them from dropping out?
- What software will you use for the membership, and what plugins?
- What the heck will you do next?
How Did That Work Out For You?
I Can Tell You From My Own Personal Experience:
Membership Sites Are The Best Thing
To Ever Happen To Me!It IS possible to profit from a membership site as long as you make the right decisions. But don't worry, we've already made the tough decisions for you in our simple step by step system.
I'm confident in those steps because these are the same steps Lance and I have implemented to create 20 membership sites -- 19 of those sites were created in the past 12 months. And guess what, they've all made money: some as little as $2,000 and some well over $100,000.
Do you see what we're doing? We're educating our prospect about why membership sites are so valuable and differentiating from the competition (especially membership software that doesn't come without training) and saying, you need to listen to us.
One reason I really like telling a story in copy is that it doesn't feel like an ad. But far too many copywriters get stuck on the story, the whole sales letter is one long story, and people still don't know what they're buying. That's why you need to get to the third stage WELL BEFORE the halfway point in your copy...
DESIRE:
Solution or Exact Offer
At this point, you'll reveal YOUR product in that sales letter, meaning a huge headline with the name of the course or item, and a graphical representation, it's just that simple. If I can't easily tell that you're selling an ebook, or video course, or membership site, or physical seminar, or physical item -- in under a minute just by scrolling through -- then you need to make it clearer.
In the "interest" stage you've already done the clever storytelling... now you need to tell me what it is you want me to buy:
- What's the exact name of your product and what's in it?
- What's in each module, why is each module important and why is it given in the order you show it?
- What bonuses are you giving me?
- What is each component worth on its own? (dollar value)
- What is the total value of this product you're about to give me? (total up the dollar values)
- What actual price is it going to cost today? (much lower than the total value)
You'll want to end the "desire" stage by listing everything people get in a two-column table... first column, the name of the module they're getting; second column, the price tag on it.
It may seem tedious to total up each $197 or $297 price tag on your individual modules to get a total of $2,217.00, but believe me, it'll look way more impressive when you then DROP the price to $97 or $47 or $27. Very few people do this on sales letters, but they need to!!!
It's super important that you lay out the ENTIRE offer in the "desire" section. Yes, even the bonuses. Lay out the ENTIRE offer before you ask for the sale, including bonuses.
Have you ever noticed that on some sales letters, you scroll to the bottom, then scroll back up to look at something, then back down? That's not good and when I do that, I notice it's usually because someone got my attention, laid out the story, the entire offer, even showed the guarantee and asked for the sale -- and THEN introduced bonuses! Big mistake.
Now people know we relate to their problem and have the credibility to solve it, we've revealed that product and explained our offer -- and at the end, listed everything in the package and revealed the price... what's left? People will know to order on their own, right?
Wrong! Every time I specifically tell people reading a blog post, sales letter, or email optin form -- to fill out the form, conversion rates go up. We can never make it OBVIOUS enough...
ACTION:
Why To Buy (or Comment) Now
This is probably the most cookie-cutter part of any sales letter, but it's still important. You need to tell me:
- What's your guarantee? (30 days or 60 days? Can I get my money back for any reason?)
- What price are you charging? (state it again, make it as simple and clear as possible)
- How do I order? (i.e., "click on the button and pay $97 to JumpX LLC")
- What are the technical requirements to run your product? (i.e., Adobe Reader, Windows Media Player, WordPress)
- How soon until I receive your product after downloading? (i.e., instant delivery)
In an optin form we're asking for their name and email address, in a blog post we're asking for a comment (easy to get if you ask a question at the end of your blog post), and on a sales letter we're asking for people to buy.
The Entire Formula Revealed
I know that was a lot to take in, but here's the whole AIDA formula laid out for you:
- A1: What's in it for me? (promises a clear benefit)
- A2: What's my problem or solution? (without giving away your product yet)
- A3: Why should I even listen to you? (get attention either with a question, challenge, or shocking statement)
- A4: Is this newsworthy? (something new and unique that's worth reading about)
- A5: Do I have a reason to continue reading? (does it lead to another thought?)
- I1: Who are you and why are you qualified to help me?
- I2: What exactly is my problem and what's the "difficult" solution?
- I3: What do I need to know and what issues did I not even consider yet?
- I4: Why are you better than anyone else?
- D1: What's the exact name of your product and what's in it?
- D2: What's in each module, why is each module important and why is it given in the order you show it?
- D3: What bonuses are you giving me?
- D4: What is each component worth on its own? (dollar value)
- D5: What is the total value of this product you're about to give me? (total up the dollar values)
- D6: What actual price is it going to cost today? (much lower than the total value)
- A1: What's your guarantee? (30 days or 60 days? Can I get my money back for any reason?)
- A2: What price are you charging? (state it again, make it as simple and clear as possible)
- A3: How do I order? (i.e., "click on the button and pay $97 to JumpX LLC")
- A4: What are the technical requirements to run your product? (i.e., Adobe Reader, Windows Media Player, WordPress)
- A5: How soon until I receive your product after downloading? (i.e., instant delivery)
I hope that pushes you in the right direction with your...
- Sales Letters: Attention-grabbing headline, interesting story, desirable offer, and order button as the call-to-action
- Webinar Pitches: Start with a big promise (attention), demonstrate something live on the call (interest), explain your offer (desire), and tell them where to buy (action)
- Email Marketing: Send an "attention" email hinting at a problem, an "interest" email agitating that problem, a "desire" email introducing your solution and URL, an "action" email with just your URL... and repeat the process
- Information Products: Start each chapter of your report with a bold claim (attention), give them the big picture (interest), explain the step by step process (desire), and end with an assignment (action)
So what's the verdict, does your sales letter pass this 20-point checklist? (It's okay if it doesn't yet.) What's the URL to it? Go ahead and respond with your answer below.
