Archive for Podcast
Most of us work too hard to really get anything done.
There are many studies that demonstrate that multimillion dollar CEOs spend less than 30 minutes per day doing the work they’re actually paid to do.
Why is this?
It’s because the higher we go in our levels of responsibility (and this is especially salient for entrepreneurs) the more likely it is we will be interrupted throughout the day by concerns, people, and tasks that are urgent (needs attention from someone immediately) but not necessarily important (needs high-level attention from the entrepreneur, CEO, or manager).
This applies even if you are a freelance worker (or perhaps you started your own online business in your “spare time”).
The key to success on a massive scale is to focus on revenue-generating activities as much as possible.
Here’s how you do that…
Funny story.
Back in my radio days, one of the shows I was in charge of was a morning radio team.
And this particular morning team had a regular feature where a couple of psychotherapists woud come on each week.
When I say a “couple”, I mean it. They were actually a COUPLE, and they were both actually THERAPISTS (can you imagine the dinner table conversations?).
Anyhow, I knew this couple only as characters on this particular morning show. “Judith and Jim” was how I knew them. And I knew only their voices.
Fast forward a few years later.
I had left the radio business, and was at an Internet Marketing seminar.
During one of the presentations, I noticed this couple sitting near the front, and I noticed they were asking lots of questions. And their voices sounded familiar. And their names were… Judith and Jim.
We connected for the first time in person, and we’ve been friends ever since. (Okay, so it was “funny” as in “coincidence” and not funny as in “LOL”).
To continue my story…
Read more…
In the Internet Marketing world, a 10% conversion rate is often considered outstanding.
But is it?
Not really.
Online retailers do much better.
Check out Futurenow’s posting on “the top 10 converting websites for December 2008“.
Here are the top five:
1. ProFlowers 31.1%
2. LL Bean 25.7%
3. Amazon 23.7%
4. VitaCost 23.0%
5. Coldwater Creek 22.4%
Hmmm.
What do they know that you don’t? Something to think about.
If you’re not already getting at least 10% conversions, I suggest reading this site.
The Question: Do I really need a guarantee on my website?
The Answer: Yes. This is the only way to remove the biggest objection your prospects have to buying from you.
Three Things To Consider When Creating Your Guarantee:
1. The length of the guarantee (the longer you can make it, the more credible your offer).
2. How you word your guarantee matters. If you can denominate your guarantee in a fresh way, it will be more effective.
3. Check with your merchant provider about the length of guarantee you’re allowed to offer!
Click for the Podcast Audio:
Should You Have A Guarantee
The Story: It’s a shame that so many copywriters struggle to get business, when it’s so easy to do. (Not to mention the fact that it’s not a great advertisement for your skill level. Would you go to a fat doctor for weight loss advice? Get your hair styled by a bald barber? Take financial advice from a broke person?)
The Point: Don’t make getting clients harder than it is. Physician, heal thyself!
The Resource:
5 Ways To Get More Clients Now:
1. Send an email.
2. Call people on the phone.
3. Go fishing in the forums.
4. Release a white paper.
5. Do a teleseminar.
Click for the Podcast Audio:
Click Here
The Question: How do I take online payments?
The Answer: There are lots of options, including a very simple way to take online payments.
Three Ways To Take Online Payments:
1. Use Clickbank (for digital products).
2. Paypal works for physical products.
3. For full-fledged merchant accounts, use iPowerPay.
Click for the Podcast Audio:
How To Take Online Payments
The Question: How do I test my copy?
The Answer: It’s not that difficult – don’t over-complicate things.
How To Improve Your Sales With Better Copy:
1. Model successful copy of companies whose ads you know are working (don’t steal – model!).
2. Use multi-variate testing. Yep, sounds complicated. But when you use software, it’s pretty easy.
3. Use software like Split Test Accelerator to do your testing. (NOTE: Multi-Track Generator is now off the market…sorry!)
Click for the Podcast Audio:
Get Started Testing Your Copy
The Question: What do I do if I have all the pieces in place, but I’m not making sales with my website?
The Answer: Improve the architecture of persuasion on your website: change the words!
How To Improve Your Sales With Better Copy:
1. Have your copy reviewed by a professional (NOTE: I no longer offer free consultations at this time – sorry!).
2. Make changes and measure the results.
3. Next step: start a rigorous testing regimen (more on how to do this next time!).
Click for the Podcast Audio:
When Marketing Doesn’t Work
The Question: What’s a good shorctut for writing good headlines?
The Answer: Avoid hype and use proven structure.
How To Improve Your Headlines:
1. Strip the headline of any adjectives and adverbs.
2. Think about what the PRIMARY BENEFIT of your product is and let the reader experience that emotion in the headline.
3. Avoid superlatives in your headline.
Click for the Podcast Audio:
Headline Writing Shortcuts
This begins a series where you ask your top questions about copywriting and online marketing… and I answer via audio podcasts.
Don’t worry about the podcast thing. If you don’t have an iPod, it still works with any MP3 player. And if you just don’t understand what “podcasting” is all about, simply download the audios from right here on the website.
First Question: “What are the basics of getting started online?”
This is a great question because there are plenty of people willing to sell you stuff in order to get your online business up and running.
First you need a domain name. You need to register a domain name. A place where your website “lives”. This is your address — which might be something like YourName.com.
For instance, RayEdwards.com is a domain that I own.
The second thing you need is a hosting account. This is an account that allows you to put your website up on the Internet for other people to see.
You can get a good hosting account at HostorixOnline.com.
The third thing you need is either web-design software or a web designer / webmaster… because somebody is going to need to be able to put together the web page that you put onto your hosting account. If you want to do it yourself you’ll need some basic software to get the job done. If you’re going to have someone else do it, that means you’ll need a designer and/or webmaster to put that all together for you.
The fourth thing you’ll need is a graphic artist or some graphics to put on your website. Now, for a lot of reasons we won’t go into on today’s training I recommend not using a lot of graphics. But you do need a professional look and feel for your website so you may need some graphic elements — and you’re either going to have to create them yourself, buy the right to use certain graphic elements, or have a graphic artist to put that all together for you.
The next thing I would recommend you get is an autoresponder account, which is an account that allows you to build a mailing list so that you can mail to your customers or prospects. It can also do this for you on an automated sequential basis, so once someone signs up for instance they get an email from you once a week for the next seven weeks or something of that nature. I use aWeber.com for my autoresponder and email management.
Then finally you’re going to need shopping cart software or an account with a shopping cart company and that’s what allows you to take payments online when people buy your product or service. The company I use is NewMarketingAutomation.com.
Now each of these are somewhat complex discussions that we could probably spend a one-hour teleseminar talking about each of them. We may do that later on in the series — or I may create some videos that allow you to watch over my shoulder as I go through the process of each of these steps.
Let me know your preferred deliver method for this kind of material — do you prefer audio, text, video, or static screen shots?
I’d love to hear from you. Just leave your comments below.
Click for the Podcast Audio:
Click Here
Comments
By Ray Edwards | June 4, 2009 
