Why Some People Succeed and Others Don’t

Have you ever wondered why someone who has all the talent or skills in the world isn’t as successful as you would expect? What about the person who is not very talented or skilled yet is successful way beyond what you would expect?

The truth is that no matter what your talent or skill is, there will always be someone who’s better at it than you. In fact, talent and skill isn’t everything; they just give you a jump start.

What really matters is what you do with your talent or skill…Action.

Action will determine the result.

The person who gets results or is more successful is the one who takes action. This is the person who works hard and continues to grow and get better. This is the person who preserves through the difficult times. This is the person who fails more often. This is the person who will ultimately succeed.

The same principle applies to building a business. The person who does the work, who persists, who continuously learns and applies what he or she learns is the one who is going to succeed.

Taking action isn’t always easy. I deal with this all the time. I have many things competing for my attention. I struggle with getting it all done and things always take longer than I expect.

I end up not getting done or delaying the things that are important to me because of more urgent matters.  I find myself getting frustrated and annoyed and wanting to blame something or someone. I then start to question myself and my abilities. I start questioning if I really want to succeed. I start getting stressed out. Have you ever found yourself in this place?

These are the times when I need to get focused…not always easy to do when you’re in the midst of something. I need to take responsibility and assess my actions and make improvements.

And in the midst of this struggle I’ve come realized is that if building a business were easy, then everyone would be doing it…but not everyone does. So I’ve made the decision to persist and I’ve made the decision to keep pressing forward

I may not move as fast as I like, but as long as I don’t quit and persist, my action will take me to success.  When you find yourself in a similar struggle, remember that you’re doing something that not everyone can or will do. So consider yourself special. Smile and press onward. Success is just down the road.

Yoli

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Get Rid of Impossible

I had the opportunity to hear Robert Schuller the other day. He was in San Antonio for the Get Motivated Seminar. Dr Schuller is the founder of the Crystal Cathedral in California and is known for Possibility Thinking. He has written numerous books on this topic.

The point of Dr Schuller’s message was to take out the word “impossible” from your vocabulary.

According to Schuller, the word impossible is not intelligent, it’s emotional and stupid.  The only reason impossible exists is because we teach ourselves it does.

Life is full of “impossibilities” that turned out to be possible:

  • Robert Banister, who ran the mile is less than 4 minutes when everyone said it was impossible,
  • Dr George Dantzig, who solved 2 famous unsolvable statistics problems for homework,
  • The Titanic, the ship that couldn’t sink but did,
  • Putting a man on the moon when everyone thought it wasn’t doable, and
  • Numerous predictions from experts about the future that were wrong…computers in homes, the role of women, being able to fax, the Beatles, the role of cigarettes in lung cancer, etc.

When you’re facing an obstacle in your business that seems insurmountable, change your thinking.

Don’t think it’s impossible. And don’t let so called expert tell you otherwise…

Think of it as a challenge, a challenge YOU can find a solution for and overcome.

All it takes is a can do attitude (an attitude all successful people have) and a decision to solve it.

Yoli

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Post 22: Notes from The Copywriter’s Handbook , a.k.a., My “Learning How To Copy Write” Journey

This is the last post for this series.  Yeah!!  Our topic is writing an ezine.

An ezine is an effective method of building an opt-in list. Most ezines are offered as a free subscription. An ezine is like a newsletter that is distributed online. Once you have a list, you can send promotions to your list.

You can use various methods of driving traffic to a website where people can opt-in to subscribe to your ezine.

The best ezines, ones that get opened and read, offer how-to-tips in small chunks that are practical and easy to implement.  Ezine should include helpful articles and links to worthy news. Try relating your articles to current events which will improve readership.

Here are some things that make an article ideal for an ezine. These tips come from Bly’s colleague, Ilise Benun of www.artofselfpromotion.com.

1. Pass on useful information.

2. Pay attention to questions, problems, and ideas that come up as you interact with your customers.

3. Capture any lessons into a quick tip that you can share in email, conversations, or in your ezine.

4. Use the problem or situation as an introduction to your tip.

5. Give the solution in action oriented steps.

6. Describe the result or benefit of the tips; give URLs for helpful tools.

7. Provide tips readers can use without having to do any work. For example, phrases they can use as it, boilerplate templates, checklist, etc.

8. List web sites and other resources readers can use. Include the links.

9. Put your best tip first. Some people won’t read the whole article.

Remember that your subscribers includes people who have opted into you ezine but have not purchased anything, and people who get your ezine because they have bought something from you. You have to keep in mind the needs and perspective of each group even if you use the same ezine.

For readers who are not customers yet, make sure the ezine has good content, include an ad in each issue for your product (Bly recommends a minimum of 100 words), and send a solo email ad to this list for your product.

Give your customers news updates, recommendations, and ideas for using your product. You can also highlight product upgrades, accessories, or other related items. And you can give discounts on other purchases.

The bottom line is to make sure you are providing valuable content.

Finally! We are at the end of this copywriting journey! I encourage you to continue your own copywriting journey. There is tons more to know. Some other resources you may want to check out are:

- Hypnotic Writing by Joe Vitale. I’ve already read this book and actually like it more than The Copywriter’s Handbook.  In my opinion, The Handbook is more “technical” or “science” and Hypnotic Writing is more about the “art.” You need both the art and the science. Hypnotic Writing also has a great list of other copywriting resources.

- The Copywriters Adweek Handbook by Joe Sugarman. He wrote the famous sun blocker direct response mail campaign. This book is next on my list of copywriting books to read.

- The Robert Collier Letter by Robert Collier. I haven’t read this one yet either. But from what I understand, this is an advanced resource. Although it was printed in 1930, it’s still very valuable. You might want to save this one for last.

If interested, the rest of The Copywriter’s Handbook talks about getting a job as a copywriter, which wasn’t the intent of this blog series. But check out the book if you want to know more.

I hope you have learned a lot and that you now have a good foundation for developing your copywriting skills.

We’ll see again on some other posts.

Yoli

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Post 21: Notes from The Copywriter’s Handbook , a.k.a., My “Learning How To Copy Write” Journey

Today we’re talking about online conversions and the email series to convert readers into buyers.

A series of emails to get your reader to buy from you is called online conversion, at least Bly calls it.  The basic formula is:

1. Create some free content.

2. Offer people the free content online.

3. When they accept, sell them products and services they have to pay for.

Your free content could be a repackaging of some of your existing content. The content doesn’t have to be long.  You can repurpose your articles or write some special reports. The content can be available as a PDF file, as a multi-page HTML document, or a set of emails.

When people accept your free offer, you collect their name and email and create your list. Use an autoresponder to capture the email addresses.

Then you follow up with a series of emails designed to convert your reader to a buyer. A conversion will usually take about 7 emails to occur. There is a debate about when you should attempt to make a sale. Some marketers like to include a sell offer in every email. Some like to wait until the third or fourth email, where the first few email are “goodwill” or “free touch” emails. The emails that ask for the sale are called conversion emails.

When the reader clicks on the “buy” link in the email, they go to a landing page or a transaction page. A landing page includes descriptive copy and sells your product. A transactions page is essentially an online order form.

A typical series of emails is:

Day 1: Email 1. Free touch. Thanks the subscriber for requesting your information and stress the value.

Day 2: Email 2. Free touch. Encourage your subscriber to read your free information

Day 4: Email 3. Ask for the sale.

Day 7: Email 4. Ask for the sale. Remind your subscriber of the benefit.

Day 14: Email 5. Ask for the sale. Tell your subscriber the offer won’t last forever.

Follow the same copywriting principles you follow with other promotions, but always tell your subscriber that they requested the information and you are following up with them.

Make sure your free information provided valuable content. Your subscriber will be more likely to trust that what you’re selling is even more valuable.

That’s it for this very short post on email marketing. You can learn much more by searching on email marketing on Google or even studying the email marketing you get in your inbox.

Okay. Only one more post left. The topic is ezines…until then.

Yoli

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Post 20: Notes from The Copywriter’s Handbook , a.k.a., My “Learning How To Copy Write” Journey

Today’s post is about email marketing.  As we discussed in post 18, email marketing is advertising via email.  There are two types of email marketing, solo ads and ezines which are online “magazines.” A strategy many marketers use is to build a list of prospects by offering something, such as an ezine, and then marketing to that list via email.

Bly offers these tips for effective email marketing.

  • Include a “from” and “subject” line at the beginning of your email. The subject should be short and attention grabbing (remember what we wrote about headlines?). The “from” line is important because it lets the reader know who the email is coming from. It can be from you (your list) or from the list provider from who you “rented” the list.
  • Don’t use the word Free in the subject line. Why? Many spam filters will turn away these emails. Marketers who do use free will sometimes add an extra character to get past the filters. For example, “fr.ee”
  • Start off your message with a great headline or very strong lead paragraph. Start with a benefit up front.  Your first paragraph should be a mini version of your message. This is great for readers who want to get to the point quickly.
  • The following paragraphs expand on the first, giving more details for those who like detail.
  • The offer should be repeated in the email (at the beginning and end at least). You should probably put in 3 links to your offer.
  • Use wide margins because you copy could show up weird on your reader’s computer.  Limit your lines to 55-60 characters. This ensures your entire line is displayed on the screen correctly.
  • Don’t use all CAPS. They’re difficult to read and give the impression you’re shouting. Use all CAPS sparing and strategically.
  • Shorter is better in emails.
  • Get the important points across quickly. If needed, consider attaching a document with more detailed information.  The key benefits and offer go up front.
  • Write in a friendly, helpful tone. Be informative and educational, not promotional. Don’t hard sell. Provide valuable content.
  • Always include an opt-out statement so people don’t feel like they’re being spammed. If you use an autoresponder to capture contact information and to send your emails, an opt-out statement is automatically included.

Although email marketing is considered  the most effective and powerful form of Internet marketing, there are some downsides, mainly making sure your emails gets delivered to your list and is read.

“Delivery begins when a recipient grants permission to receive your messages. You’ll need to let your users know to “whitelist” you, by telling their ISP to allow your emails through.”

Bly goes through a number of ways to help ensure your email gets delivered which I’m not going to cover here. But I will say that a reputable autoresponder will work to ensure your emails get delivered.

You will run into the debate of long vs short copy in email marketing. Offline or online, persuasion copy is what sells. But offline, long copy tends to work better and short copy works better online, especially in email.  This is a judgment call you’ll have to make.

In email, short copy is considered 3-4 paragraphs. Also, with email, your message comes in two parts, the front end (email itself), and the backend (the link to the page with your offer or more information). How you approach the front end and backend is really determined by your intent and where you are sending your reader (to a landing page or a microsite). The four choices are:

1. Short email, landing page. Similar to a traditional one-page sales letter and business reply card used in for lead generation.

2. Long email, landing page. The email is longer than half a page. Similar to a direct mail package with a 4 page letter and simple order card.

3. Long email, microsite. Long email and long landing page. The microsite is usually has a custom URL for the specific offer. Similar to  12-24 page long copy self mailers.

4. Short email, microsite. Good for offers that need long copy but readers prefer short emails.

Well I thought this was going to be the last post, but Bly covers two other topics that I think are worth including, writing an email series (to convert prospects into buyers) and writing marketing ezine.

So until next time, which might be the last post or might not be. But we are definitely close to the end.

Yoli

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Post 19: Notes from The Copywriter’s Handbook , a.k.a., My “Learning How To Copy Write” Journey

Today’s post is about blogging. Bly only spends 1 ½ pages on blogging. So this may be a short post. You can find plenty of info on blogging by searching on Google.

Blogging is basically journaling online. There are tons of blogs about many, many topics online. Blogging gives anyone the opportunity to share their thoughts and opinions.

Blogging can be a great addition to your internet marketing strategy and can increase traffic to your website. Bly mentions General Motors vice chairman Bob Lutz, who started a blog about GM cars. “Once readers realized it really was him [Lutz], and not an advertising ploy, they quickly warmed up to the idea that he was talking candidly about GM and its competition.”

Blogs are great sources of content, which search engines love. If you consistently add content to your blog, your website rankings will go up.

The beauty of blogs is that they help you build a relationship with your prospects, a two-way relationship. Your prospects also get a chance to voice their opinions. One of the things I’ve learned is that people just want to be heard. Blogging in general and allowing people to comment on your blog lets you and them be heard. Bly likens blogs to a combination of emails and a bulletin board.

Blogs can also be used for research. You can post something about a topic you’re interested in and test it by seeing if you get a response, i.e., comments, from your reader. The comments will give you an idea if the subject is worth researching more. You can also use your blog and the comments you receive as a basis for articles or books.

Here are some tips for blogging.

  • Your blog should stand on its own with its own unique URL
  • Blogs are two-way communication. Ask readers to comment or to give their opinion on a post.
  • Hyperlink to anything you reference in your post, like an article.
  • Put a link to your website on your blog.
  • Your blog should be written just by you. Don’t confuse your readers by adding another “voice.”
  • Build readership by mutually sharing hyperlinks with other blogs, big and small.

Joel Heffner, a communications consultant, likes to “ping” his blog entries. Pinging is a way to tell the search engines that you’ve added new content, and they’ll come and take a look at it.

Another thing I’ve learned about blogging is that it takes time. So don’t get discouraged. Just keep at it.

The next post will be on email marketing…

Talk to you soon,

Yoli

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Post 18: Notes from The Copywriter’s Handbook , a.k.a., My “Learning How To Copy Write” Journey

The last post talked about search engine optimization (SEO) which is about driving search engine traffic to your website. Today we’ll cover some other ways to drive traffic that involve writing.

Pay Per Click (PPC). The most well known and most competitive PPC is Google Adwords. PPC is a form of advertising (ads on website) where you pay when someone clicks on your ad. PPC is the Ferrari of online advertising, but it’s important to educate yourself first. Otherwise you could end up losing more than your shirt. This is no mercy for bad PPC ads.

Co-Registration (this is one I haven’t heard of before). The idea is someone comes to your website and a window pops up with an offer, such as a free ezine. This sounds similar to opt-in forms, but you partner with a company. You capture a person’s information when they accept the offer. I don’t know what the advantage is by partnering with a company, so I would do more research on this if you’re interested. (maybe the reason I haven’t heard of it is because there’s no advantage over just having your own opt-in).

Banner Ads. A banner ad is a clickable image that is an ad. You pay a website for a certain number impressions (when your ad is actually presented, i.e., shows up, on the website), for example xx number of impressions for $xx.  Banners should be tested cautiously because you could end up paying lots of money for nothing.

Email Marketing. Email marketing is advertising via email.  You can send a solo ad (the email is only about your offer) or be part of several ads in one email. You basically “rent” a list to send your ad to.

Online Ads. This is where is you advertise in an ezine (like an ad in a magazine) or on classified ads sites.

Viral Marketing.  Viral marketing is like word-of-mouth marketing. You ask your prospect to forward your offer to someone else. Viral marketing is usually done through email.

There are other ways to drive traffic to your website that Bly doesn’t talk about.

Article Marketing. Article marketing is considered by many to be one of the best free ways to drive traffic to your site. You essentially write an article about your area, providing valuable content. You drive traffic by including your website in your resource box, which is like an “about the author” section that goes at the bottom of our article. You then post your article in directories. You usually don’t sell in articles because the idea is to establish yourself as an expert and build credibility and trust.  There are times when you can sell, for example, if you’re doing affiliate marketing.

You want your article to center around a keyword, and if possible, include the keyword in your headline. Try addressing a problem or concern your market has and provide a solution.

The beauty of articles is that they stick around for a long time. The more articles you write and published on directories the more traffic you’ll drive.

Press Releases.  Press releases are ways to announce an “event.” Press releases are different that articles in that you write the release as if you are a reporter. Press releases take a little more thought because they should center around an event that is newsworthy. An event doesn’t have to be something that would make the night time news. It could something as simple as announcing the start of your business or that you’re attending a marketing event. You can also try tying your press release to a current event.

Video Marketing. Even though videos are not “writing,” you still have to think about your script, which you write, so I’ve included videos in the list. Videos are another great way to drive traffic for free. Videos stick around, just like articles do. The basic premise is the same for articles. Provide valuable content.  Videos are not “clickable” (at least I haven’t seen any that are), so you have to tell your prospects where to go to get more information.

I hope you found this list helpful. You can find more information on these methods by searching on Google. I’ve also written an article or two on article marketing.

The next post is about blogging, another medium based on writing to drive traffic to your website.

Until the next post,

Yoli

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Post 17: Notes from The Copywriter’s Handbook , a.k.a., My “Learning How To Copy Write” Journey

Today’s post is about search engine optimization (SEO) copywriting. Bly is not an expert in this area, so he relies on comments from other to explore this topic.

I’m not an SEO expert either (in fact my primary company is teaching SEO because it’s important to incorporate SEO into your websites, especially with Google high expectations), so I’ll just include some key points from the experts Bly talks about.

SEO is about driving traffic, specifically search engine traffic. The idea is to optimize your website (and other content) so search engines rank it highly and show your site to people who are searching for information related to the keywords you’ve optimized for.

Search engines use software called “spiders” that will review your site and determine what it’s all about. Poor advice that’s been floating around is putting your keywords into your content as much as possible. This is called keyword stuffing and is a bad idea. Many spiders will ignore your site or penalize it when they see keyword stuffing. And your readers will find it awkward to read. According to Sean Woodruff, “Stuffing keywords is a gimmick that is focused on tricking the search engines.”

Having a good website with good content is more important. The search engines will find you without have to stuff keywords. Use keywords naturally in your content.  Susan Getgood says, “I expect that keywords appear an appropriate amount in good selling copy versus some artificial stuffing exercise which doesn’t fool the search engines and likely damages your overall communications effort.”

Apryl Parcher, a writer, says, “it is more important to put keywords in meta-tags and descriptions that are only seen by spiders and not seen by the average person reading your page, and also give your page titles in HTML that truly reflect the page’s content.” (This is getting more into the technical details of your website).

Rich Scheffren, a well know internet marketing expert has the following tips for raising your website ranking:

  1. Feature preferably just one, and at most two, unique keywords per page.
  2. The title page should start with your keyword.
  3. The first sentence of the first paragraph should start with your keyword.
  4. Mention your keyword 3 times in the next 3 sentences.
  5. Out of every 100 words of text, 3 to 11 of those words should be the keyword (3%-11% keyword density).

The point is to make sure the words are in your content, not to stuff them, according to Richard Leader.

People will come to your website from various sources, not just search engines. So don’t alter your copy to optimize just for search engines. Your website needs to be optimized for your reader not the search engines or any other traffic source. After all, search engines don’t buy. Granted you need to use keywords that target your market, but you want to make sure you provide valuable information and content to your prospects.

The next post will cover some other ideas for driving traffic to your website.  See you then.

Yoli

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Post 16: Notes from The Copywriter’s Handbook , a.k.a., My “Learning How To Copy Write” Journey

Okay, here is the post on writing long-copy. I didn’t get it out as soon as I wanted, but better later than never. Hopefully the next few posts won’t be long in coming. Let’s get started…

As mentioned in the previous post, a long-copy web site is equivalent to a 4-8 page sales letter. The page can just be one long page, or you can break it up into several pages. However, you run the risk of readers leaving when you break the “letter” into several pages. But I figure your reader can leave a long page too if it’s not what they’re looking for or you’re not conveying your message with effective copy. The choice is yours.

As with any copy, the headline must promise a benefit and the rest of the copy must also provide the promise of future benefit. For example, offer a 100% risk-free trial. You have to repeat the offer throughout the sales page, though, and explain it in the closing text or order page. In fact, whatever you offer on the sales page should be repeated and explained on the order page.

You also want to get the readers’ contact information (name and email), even if they don’t order. You do this with an optin on your sales page or as a pop-up window asking for their information in exchange for a free report, email training series, newsletter, or whatever you come up with.

There is a debate on whether you should include a link to the order page early or latter in the sales page. If early you run the risk of not getting the opportunity to sell before your reader buys, so you may end up with fewer sales. But the other thought is that putting the order link in early actually increases conversions. This is something you’ll have to test. There are probably a lot of variables that go into which approach works better and I imagine each sales page is different.

You have to consider the objective of your website when designing the page. Depending on who your market is, you may want a lot of traffic or little traffic. In either case, your website should provide information about your service or product which helps cut down mailing expenses. This is what Bly uses his website www.bly.com for. He’s only focused on higher-end clientele, so he doesn’t want a ton of traffic to his site, so his website is not designed for traffic. When someone calls asking for information on his services, he can direct them to the website to download the information, saving the costs of mailing.

There are 2 components your website should have according to the book Roger C. Parker’s Guide to Web Content and Design. Both are about the needs of the prospect.

1. Information your prospect needs to know to buy

2. Information you know will convince prospects to buy

Bly does the first with an overview of his services, an online portfolio of his work, pages on each service offered, his credentials, and client testimonials.

He does the second with descriptions of books he’s written, samples of how-to articles, and a list of recommended vendors (people he has connections to).

By including the articles and vendors, he doesn’t exclude clients who don’t match is clientele, but he still provides some valuable information.

That’s all for writing long copy. The next post will be about search engine optimization (SEO) copywriting. Bly actually gets advice from other experts on this topic. Se we’ll be covering those.

Talk to you soon,

Yoli

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Post 15: Notes from The Copywriter’s Handbook , a.k.a., My “Learning How To Copy Write” Journey

Finally, today we’re covering writing for the web. The purpose of writing on the web is to drive traffic to a website or to write copy for web pages or creating a new website.

A standard and effective online marketing strategy is called the “organic model” or the “Agora model.” This strategy is essentially email marketing, which is building a list of prospects by collecting their email addresses and sending them marketing information. First you build a website with valuable content. (Bly recommends you include a page of articles you’ve written that can be read and downloaded for free.) Second you drive traffic to your websites using various methods. Third you offer a free report, book, newsletter, or other product in exchange for a name and email address. Then you send emails to your list promoting products or giving valuable information.

Bly covers 9 types of web copy.

  • Long Copy Landing Page (Microsite): Designed to sell a product or service on the spot. The length is equivalent to a 4 to 8 page sales letter
  • Short Copy Landing Page: A simpler landing page also designed to sell a product or service. Equivalent to a magazine ad.
  • Transaction Page: Online form to order a product or request more information.
  • Long Copy Email: Sells a product directly by sending the reader to a short copy landing page or transaction page. Equivalent to a 2-3 page sales letter.
  • Teaser Email: A short email that drives the reader to a long copy landing page.  Equivalent to a  ½ to 2 page sales letter.
  • Lead Generation Email: An email that sends the reader to a landing page where they can request a free product or information.
  • Online Email Conversion Series: Emails designed for follow up and usually sent through an autoresponder (see my article on what an autoresponder is if you don’t know.)
  • Online Ad: An ad you place in online classified ad sites or in ezines (online newsletters or magazines). They send the reader to a landing page.  A banner ad, a type of online ad, is an add written in HTML and placed on a website.
  • Pop-Under (or Pop-Up): A window that “pops up” on the website. Makes a special offer in exchange for a name and email address. Also used when a visitor takes an action, such as leaving the site, giving them a second chance to stay.

There are also two types of websites Bly talks about, catalog and waterfront.

A catalog website is designed to sell various products. Bly likes bluenile.com, a jewelry site, as a great example of a catalog website. It’s simple, clean, and easy to navigate. It’s not what you would expect jewelry website to be. It offers valuable content and some customization by giving consumers the option of designing their own jewelry.

The waterfront model is designed to engage you. The home page is like a “tabloid,” offering lots of information and tips coupled with an offer that solves a problem with a “start here” button. The reader is then taken through an evaluation or questionnaire and offered a customized solution, which costs something. The two aspects Bly likes about this website is the clear call to action “start here” and the interactive nature of the evaluation. The example Bly uses is deniseaustin.com.

The next post will be about writing long-copy. See you then.

Yoli

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