Previously, we discussed why you must create a Unique Selling Proposition.

Over the years I have had many customers tell me they are afraid to market online because so much information is available for free.

Remember, people buy for their reasons, not ours.

First, nothing EVER sells itself. Just because you have something on your shelf, doesn’t mean customers will be beating down your door to buy it. THERE HAS TO BE A REASON FOR THEM TO BUY IT FROM YOU.

Second, you better give your prospects EVERY REASON you can think of to buy your product. List as many benefits to your product as you can imagine. People buy because of how it will benefit them, and impact their life.

Third, NOTHING is really “FREE”, except maybe the air we breathe.

It is true that there is a lot of FREE information on the Internet. But, is it really FREE? Of course not.

In some cases it’s already been paid for through advertising dollars. In other cases it will still cost you TIME to search for the information.

Time is more valuable than money, because you can always make more money, but you can’t buy more time. Ask any billionaire who has fallen terminally ill.

People are willing to pay for information and save their time if it is:

1. Delivered promptly; 2. Formatted; and 3. Organized.

Some people like information delivered by ink on newsprint.

Some people like information delivered by sound waves from a radio. Still others like to read information in magazines or books or listen to information on audio tapes or on web pages.

People like information delivered, formatted and organized in many different ways, not just one or two.

The question you should be asking yourself is: “Why should people buy my information on the Internet, over all the other available ways it’s currently being delivered, formatted and organized?”

Competition (even from those who ‘give it away’) is NOT the problem. The problem is creativity in a way the translates it into a benefit for your buyers and profits for yourself.

One of the most fascinating marketing books ever written is by Lorin Deland, “Imagination In Business”. It was published in 1909, and even today it is pure genius.

It is believed that he was the first one to ask the question “Why should anyone do business with you over your competition?”.

Deland was a ‘business consultant’ who specialized in sales and marketing at the turn of the century, yet the book reads like it was written just yesterday.

In his book he explains how a retailer came to him for advice. The retailer was on a busy street, and had 4 main competitors on the same block.

He asked Deland how he could garner more business with so much competition.

All of the retail stores were fairly close to each other and all were selling the similar merchandise.

Deland stated that the retailer was really only entitled to one-fifth of the business on the block, as there where in fact 5 stores. He then explained that for every dollar above that amount the retailer wanted to make, there must be a reason why he deserved a bigger share of the marketplace. And he had to create that reason, if he was going to get any more of the business!

Deland also said that if he discovers he’s getting more than his share of the business, he should discover what that reason is, “some customers travel on the line of least resistance, you must make that line of least resistance lead directly to your store”, Deland said.

Deland continued, “Again and again you must ask yourself, ‘Why in the world should these people pass four other stores and come into this one?’”

There has got to be a reason for people to do business with you over your competition. What is your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) that sets you apart from your competition?

Is it a better product? Better service?

You must discover your USP and then show your prospects why they should do business with you, and not your competition.

We discussed “personalization” - an incredibly powerful tool to help us market better with email in the last lesson.

People in general repond in a more postive way when they see their name scattered throughout the message and letters they read.

Today let’s take a closer look at how we can prospect for new customers.

The question marketer’s have been asking for decades is: “Who is my customer?”

Then came, “Where can I find my customer?”

Finally, “What characteristics, habits, and hobbies do my customers have?”

To find out who, where and what your future customers are… you should be mining the data in your current customer list. You where smart enough to compile one, weren’t you?

Now you can put a profile together of your past customers which will help target your future customers and prospects.

Even doing this work and finding common characteristics of your past customers is not good enough.

Often we will completely miss the opportunity to market our products and services to a new market. Since the ‘market’ is not always staring us right in the face. we should not only look at *common* characteristics of our existing customers, we should be looking for those customer that are at the **fringes** (’fringe’ customers are those that don’t match ANY of the common characteristics of our current customers).

What made them buy our product?

What did they use it for?

The answers to these questions may be more profitable - in the long run. Because these ‘fringe’ buyers do not match the *common* characteristics of our current average customer, they may be representative of entirely NEW markets that are not so obvious, but could be highly profitable.

Remember, people buy our products and services for their reasons, not ours. There may be markets out there that want our products, but we haven’t been able to identify them. Ask your ‘fringe’ customer why they bought, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find that there may be several thousand NEW prospects out there for you to contact and sell!

Many of my customers ask me what the most powerful form of online advertising is, and I always respond with the same answer, personalized email advertising (you must build a list to truly succeed online).

Email advertising allows you to personalize, respond automatically and provides a gateway for instant feedback.

In fact, it’s extremely easy to set up if you are using the proper software or service to manage your list. If you’re getting thousands of subscribers a month, you’ll be able to ’subscribe and un-subscribe’ your opt-in’s automatically.

Why is it good to personalize your emails?

You can gather thousands of prospects interested in your niche, and using the proper approach begin prospecting for business with email without getting complaints or being accused of ’spam’.

The key is that with the personalization functions offered by many services and email software programs you can highly personalize your emails in a way that, at least appears, like you have personally visited or know a great deal of information about your prospect - that you know them personally.

When you use someone’s name they tend to trust you more, than if you where calling them ‘friend’ or ‘dear subscriber’.

Keep this in mind when choosing your list host.

Whether you call it ‘your gut’ or ’subconscious’ or whatever term you use …you must learn to trust yourself, and see that your decisions can pay off for you.

In order to trust yourself you need to start getting into the habit of trusting yourself with small decisions, and slowly your confidence in yourself will grow substantially.

Just like meeting someone for the first time, you have your guard up to a certain degree. When is the last time you build a trustful relationship with someone you only met for a few minutes? Only after several times of being around this person and learning about them, do you begin to trust them. And then only if they actually prove themselves to be trustworthy.

Sometimes it can take years to develop trust in other people, but hopefully it should take much less time to begin really trusting yourself. if you can’t trust yourself, who can you trust?

Sadly, many people do not trust themselves to start their own business.

Simply stated, we (as a society) have become so accustomed to relying on ‘experts’ in every walk of life that we can barely think for ourselves anymore. We rely on ‘experts’ to think for us, we listen to the ‘news’ we read journals and magazines. There is a lot of advice we are given on a daily basis about how we should be running our personal lives and our businesses.

We have become a programmed society - not fully trusting our own judgment.

I’m NOT saying we shouldn’t listen to anyone anymore, but BEFORE taking action…on what may affect our business, our fortune…we should ask ourselves what is the most profitable and opportune course for us to take, and then TRUST the answer we receive.

I guarantee you that TRUSTING YOURSELF and LISTENING TO YOUR GUT, is the fastest and easiest way to a successful business and a fortune … and the best part is, you already have this ability! You don’t have to spend years to acquire it!

Start listening to yourself and trust yourself……you will surely find the answer.

I’m going to share with you a way to MAKE YOUR THOUGHTS become real, faster.

Everything that now exists, exists because someone first thought to create it.

This person’s thought became real, because they took action.

A simple example would be the thoughts of an artist coming to life in a painting or sculpture.

Think of your favorite song - this was once a musicians thoughts, that he or she brought to life.

Take a look around the room you are now sitting in. Every book, piece of furniture, even your computer was FIRST a THOUGHT.

Everything that now exists, exists because someone first thought to create it.

So why can’t you do the same thing when it comes to running your business?

If you want more money, then THINK about how you can get it. Now get a number inside your head, is it $1,000, $5,000, $100,000 or more?

All you have to do is have a THOUGHT with a clear picture of what you want…including the final exact results of your actions.

For example. Say you need $10,000 to pay off some credit card debt.

Now what if you could simply ask yourself how you can acquire this money? You can.

Ask yourself the question, “How can I make $10,000 in less than 30 days from now?”, and EXPECT an answer!

Don’t THINK constantly or worriedly. Try to quiet your thoughts after asking yourself a question like this and WAIT for an answer.

The time to ask is just before nodding off to sleep for the night. It seems that our conscious mind is constantly fighting to control us, so it’s best to ask for things when it’s not at full power.

When you receive an answer (I said “when” not “if”) get up immediately and write it down. If the answer comes when you’re waking in the morning, write it down before you lose it. It will invariably be the ‘right’ answer for you.

Try it tonight on some perplexing business or personal problem that you haven’t found an answer for. Just as an artist will listen to himself or herself from within and create the perfect work of art from the answers they get, you can too!

Some people say they have a ‘gut feeling’ about something. What does that mean, ‘gut feeling’?

It means that something inside of them is giving them an answer to a particular situation.

Have you ever had a ‘gut feeling’ about something?

Something that you should have avoided? Something you should have taken advantage of, like a new business opportunity?

What happened when you didn’t follow your ‘gut’?

Whether you call it ‘gut’ or ’subconscious’ or psycho-cybernetics, or whatever …it PAYS to listen to yourself and to TRUST yourself.

Today we’re going to discuss how you can achieve the benchmark of most online marketers - making a million dollars a year.

Does that sound like alot hype? Well, it is.

You see hundreds of ads online promising to help you make thousands every month…

Can they really deliver on that promise?

Perhaps. The point is that there is something in the promise that is enticing to you.

The expectation that you can go from zero to a million dollar a year income is what the promises in those headlines are based on.

Now let me say that you and I know that, unless you win the lottery, the chances of that happening are slim to none.

Do you really want to make a million dollars a year? You can you know. For anyone who is making $800,000 each year in gross sales should be able to devise a plan to increase revenues 20% over the coming year.

That’s’ all you have to do to make a million dollars a year. The question is, how do you get to $800,000 a year in revenue?

Make $700,000 in the previous year…and so on and so on.

You must have realistic expectations for sales.

If your earning $50,000 a year now, aim towards $65,000 or even $75,000 the next year.

If you’re earning $150,000 a year income, shoot for $200,000 to $225,000. Do you see what I’m driving at?

Wealth is not accumulated by hope or empty promises.

Wealth is accumulated by increasing your revenues and decreasing or stabilizing your expenses.

Reaching your goals is a process that can only be achieved by sticking to your plan and making gradual improvements, month after month, year after year.

Now that I have explained why it is important to be a leader when marketing online, let’s take a closer look at what that means when you’re communicating to your prospects and customers.

Studies have shown that magazine ads lose their effectiveness after 90 days and the average person forgets almost 80 percent of what they’ve read or seen within 30 minutes!

So it is with great urgency that you urge every prospect who reads your ads to take action immediately - or they most likely will forget about you.

You must grab them by the throat (figuratively!) and shake them up a bit! Instill in them a sense of urgency and a sense of loss if they don’t respond right away.

You can do this with the power of words.

Don’t believe in the power of mere words?

Haven’t you ever heard the saying that it is better to read a novel than to see the movie? Why? because you create the images in your mind, you don’t have them created for you by someone else.

Read the following and monitor your emotions as you read them:

1. I hate you, you dirty lowlife!

2. The country side is beautiful this time of year.

Words carry with them ideas - your thoughts and ideas. Pictures do too, but words replayed in your mind create a picture of your own making- not someone else’s. That why words are more powerful than pictures.

You want to create a picture in your customer’s mind that will be a thousand times more compelling than the one they will see in your ad.

You can use pictures to support your copy. But imagine what would happen if you simply put a nice picture in your ad, without using any words! The prospect would have no idea what message you intended to get across.

You might say, “Well who would be stupid enough to do that?” Take a look at the majority of ads by large, national corporations. You can measure the space devoted to a picture VS the amount of space to copy. Typically it’s 60% to 90% picture and just a small space devoted to copy. And then the copy is usually ineffective.

When selling anything, remember to paint a picture of the benefits and use of your product WITH powerful and persuasive WORDS.

Lead your customers to your door with the right words that convey ideas that appeal to them!

In the last post we talked briefly about how we can use a positive attitude to influence our customers.

Pay careful attention to this point:

To be successful online you must lead your customers to make a buying decision.

You must become a leader and use your influence to convince your customers that your product or service is the solution to their problem.

When most people think about leadership, they rarely think that marketing is a form of it.

But it is one of the most important aspects of it.

If you want to be a millionaire, you must lead your customers…. take them by the hand and lead them in the direction you want them to go.

Show them with confidence and poise that you are the solution to their problems.

DO NOT expect your customers to choose to do business with you just because you’re nice or are well dressed, or you give away free coffee. You must be a leader of your customers and with firmness, empathy and gentle prodding get them to open their wallets.

You must do this each and every day if you want long term and lasting success online.

For most of us, coming up with a creative idea can be grueling.

I generally get my best ideas while doing something completely unrelated to my business such as running, watching TV, or relaxing.

The ability to think creatively and in original ways can be done by everyone.

A wise man once told me that, “Originality is simply having a pair of fresh eyes.”

We can nurture the habit of looking at the same old things in new ways- as though we have never seen them before.

Here is one way to “get a pair of fresh eyes” and look at your world as if it was brand new:

= Ask Your Customers for Their Ideas =

In emails to my customers I will ask them for their opinion on projects I’m considering.

You and I tend to look at things the way we always have…but ask a stranger for their perspective and you’ll see what you’ve been missing.

If you’re trying to choose between several projects and aren’t sure which one you should pursue, simply send your ideas to your email list and ask them for their opinions. For responding, you could offer them a discount on the product or a free gift.

This ’system’ works for products your developing yourself or for products you might be interested in distributing or representing.

You have the power to make a difference in someone else’s life. Your words, actions and attitude affect people around you.

If you have ever spent any amount of time with a a young child the affect you can have on them is dramatic.

Frown and they will frown. Act happy and excited and they will follow suit.. They will follow your lead in whatever you do.

This phenomenon doesn’t get that much different when we become adults.

You can have the same affect on your customers. If you’re happy about what you’re selling, they will be happy to buy from you. You can affect your customers in positive ways and they will respond by doing more business with you.

“It Won’t Happen To Me”

Actually, it almost certainly will and it probably has, even if you didn’t think of it this way before.
Losing data is a part of reality in our computer-oriented world.

How many times have you spent time working on a document, only to have something happen that makes the document vaporize? Or an FTP upload that dies as soon as you walk away from your monitor?

These may not be “disasters” but they indicate the basic frailty of digital data. The machinery on which that data runs and is stored is also at risk — and probably much greater risk than you’ve thought about before.

The good news is, as in many things an “ounce” of prevention beats a pound of cure.

Today’s data risks are higher than ever, especially for those of us who rely on digital media for our livelihood, but the solutions are also easier and frequently less expensive than ever before.

By the time you’re done reading my book, you’ll know everything you need to about how to keep your valuable data and systems humming along, so your cash register can keep ringing.

What’s A “Disaster”?

A disaster in digital media is anything that either costs you unplanned money or unplanned time or both — things like:

· Hard drive crashes
· Power interruptions and power surges
· Broadband or other connectivity interruptions
· System failure
· Fires and overheating
· Earthquakes…

There can be other disasters too, like when your top programmer quits without notice and doesn’t leave any notes on how to update her databases. But for our purposes we’re focusing on hardware maintenance related issues, software security and environmental impacts.

There are some things you can avoid, and some things you can only hope to minimize in their impact without being able to avoid.