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Archive for October, 2009

Just very recently, I had a caricature of myself done:

Compare the caricature with a real picture of me:

What do you think? Looks A LOT like me huh?

Anyway, let’s continue with today’s post about repurposing content. I just thought I’d share something personal and funny with you, that is why we have the caricature introduction there…

Have you ever heard of the term “recycled content”?

Recycled content, as the phrase implies, means that you can repurpose the same content in different ways.

Why would you want to do that?

The answer is: to save time, money, and effort trying to come up with new content.

Don’t get me wrong. You still need new content, it’s just that by recycling content you’ll be able to leverage on the work you’ve already done, thereby saving you tons of time and effort.

There are 2 ways content can be recycled:

1. Repurpose It In Different FORMATS

Let’s say you create an ebook or report. The same content within the ebook can be repurposed in an audio mp3 format by doing a voice-over of the ebook simply by reading aloud word-for-word and then recording what is being read.

If you’re not comfortable doing this yourself, you can hire a professional to do it for you at an affordable price.

The audio format has a higher perceived value and is thus valued higher. If you’re giving this away to collect leads, then people are more willing to give up their email addresses to get your audio course (rather than just another ebook). If you plan to sell this, then you can attach a higher price tag to the audio course as well.

Or you can repurpose the ebook content and turn it into a video course. Video has the highest perceived value compared to ebook or audio format, and will thus sell at a higher price.

Even when a customer buys an ebook and you upsell him the mp3 or video version of the same ebook, he WILL buy it. Okay, not everyone will, but there are bound to be some people who will take you up on your offer.

People have different preferred learning formats; and if you can provide your content in all 3 different formats - text, audio, and video - then you will no doubt grow your audience.

2. Repurpose It In Different OCCASIONS

You write a blog post today. Tomorrow, a month later, 2 months later, you can use the SAME blog post to attract DIFFERENT people to your blog.

How do you do that?

You do that by harnessing the power of autroresponders.

Every time you write a blog post, you tell your subscribers via your autoresponder broadcast feature that you have a cool, new, informative post on your blog.

You can even make this ALMOST totally AUTOMATED by setting follow up messages in your autroresponder to direct them to the many blog posts that you’ve done in the past. Of course, to be able to do this, your blog must have a substantial amount of blog posts so that you can provide “new” content to your subscribers on a consistent basis.

I put quotes around the word “new” because to your subscribers it seems as though they’re getting new content, when in fact your content is already a few weeks or months old. However, old content does not mean it’s useless. In fact, a lot of content is long-lasting.

However, as you’ve most likely already heard everywhere, perceived is a lot times better than reality. When your subscribers think that you’re creating fantastic new content all the time and letting them know that they can consume it at your blog (thereby making them “think” that you’re a good guy looking after their best interests), then they’re going to be very responsive towards you and what you’re offering to them in the future.

It is said that consistency and repetitiveness are very good catalysts in building trust and mutually beneficial relationships with your subscribers, so if you have enough blog posts on your blog and you follow up with your subscribers via your autoresponder by giving them AWESOME content on your existing blog posts on a CONSISTENT basis, then chances are they’re going to be “WOW”ed and blown away by you.

You can also copy your blog posts (if they are text in nature) and paste them into the email body so that subscribers will receive the content directly in their emails. However, I highly suggest that you refer them to your posts on your blog so that they’ll be exposed to offers on your blogs, thereby giving you additional opportunities to make more money at the same time building relationships with them.

You hit two birds with one stone. Cool?

In addition, by referring them to your blog posts, they can also leave their comments and feedback on the blog, thus increasing communication between you and them, which will further strengthen your bond with them.

Recap

So to recap what I’ve just talked about today, remember that content can be repurposed in different formats and occasions. The same ebook can be turned into an audio mp3 or video course, hence increasing its perceived value and thus the price you charge. Blog posts that you have done previously can also be used over and over again as great content that you can give to your subscribers via your autoresponder follow up messages.

The point is, don’t waste good content that you’ve created. We all should work smart in this day and age to leverage the work we’ve done.

What do you have to say about repurposing content that already exist? Tell me in a comment below…

(If you want to tell me how COOL I looked in my caricature, of course you’re welcome to do that as well …)

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More often than not, FREE is not really FREE. Especially when it (the word “FREE”) is used in marketing messages. In the Internet marketing (IM) world, the usage of “FREE” is even more commonplace.

Everyone and his dog is offering FREE ebook, mp3, or video downloads of the best guide or course on how to make money online, on how to lose weight fast, on how to get the perfect lady/man, etc.

But to get the “FREE” downloads, you have to “give up” your name and email address.

So in this case, is FREE really FREE?

Different Opinions About The Word “FREE”

Some people believe that when something is Free for grabs, it should mean just that - Free unconditionally. They don’t have to enter their name and email addresses just to be able to get the Free stuff.

Others (especially marketers), on the other hand, think that getting something for Free BUT with certain terms and conditions, is perfectly fine.

Do you want to know what I think? Honestly?

As you’ve probably already have guessed, being the marketer that I am, I think the same way as other marketers do - Free can be Free only when certain terms and conditions are met. In my case, since I’m running an Internet business, the Free stuff I give away would have to exchanged with the email address of the person requesting the Free stuff.

It’s All About Leverage

As competition gets tougher in every market everywhere, offering something for Free in exchange for an email address is “almost” required. We’ve all spent so much time, effort, and money to bring visitors to our sites, and if we simply let them download the good Free stuff without getting their email addresses, then we’re NOT leveraging our work.

Every time we want to get new visitors, we have to do all the hard and tedious work all over again. Think article marketing, forum marketing, blog commenting, etc.

Spend 40 hours driving traffic = 100 visitors = 1 sale

To get 10 sales, you have to spend 400 boring hours to drive traffic!

But if you collect visitors’ email addresses, then you can LEVERAGE the work that you do today for the future. You have the power to send visitors to any web page you please since you have their email addresses.

This is exactly the reason why every marketer is trying to bribe you with “FREE” ebooks, audios, or videos in exchange for your email.

(…by the way, if you want to know how to build your list fast, I reveal 2 proven ways in this article – and this time it’s REALLY Free without any terms and conditions. I promise! )

But is it ethical to do so? To say that it’s FREE when in fact you have to “pay” for it using your email address?

This is very subjective and there are always two sides to every coin.

Visitors, if given a choice, would almost always prefer getting the Free downloads for Free WITHOUT any buts or ifs.

Marketers (the website owners), always prefer visitors “pay” with their email addresses in order to get the Free downloads.

So Where Do You Draw The Line?

In my opinion (and YES I’m a marketer and I’m PROUD to be one), as long as you DON’T abuse visitors’ email addresses by sending them sales pitch emails every day or sending them emails that are totally unrelated to the Freebie they downloaded in the first place, it’s okay and fine.

What I’m saying is: if your Free download is about how to get the perfect dating partner, then you DO NOT send them emails about making money online, and vice-versa.

Some people (visitors and marketers alike) would argue that you should provide the Free downloads TOTALLY free without any conditions at all, including NOT requesting visitors’ email addresses. They say that if your Freebie is REALLY THAT GREAT, then people would subscribe to your list VOLUNTARILY without you “forcing” them to give up their email addresses just to be able to download your Freebie.

That makes a lot of sense doesn’t it?

If they like your Free report, surely they want to get into your list even without you “begging” for their email addresses.

I’ve tried this method before, but I find that “forcing” visitors’ to leave their email addresses in order to get my Freebie works better for me.

It Is Human Tendency To Forget

I think part of the reason is because all of us are busy. Even when John gets so excited and impressed by our freebie, and he says to himself that he’s going to get into our list to receive further related information, he might not REMEMBER to take the necessary action to subscribe to our list.

John wants to subscribe but he forgets. And with people living busier lives than ever before, people get more forgetful.

By getting John’s email in the first place when he requested for the Free report, even when John forgets a day or two later that he has already downloaded the report, we can send him an email reminding him to consume the report and follow up with him again in the very near future to build good relationships with him.

Good relationships = easier to sell products/services = more $$$

Your Thoughts?

I’d LOVE to hear your thoughts about this. What do you think have to say about ethical Internet marketing? Do you think FREE should really mean TOTALLY FREE without any terms and conditions? Or do you think it’s alright to “force” people to give you their email addresses VOLUNTARILY in order to get your Freebie?

Let me know your thoughts in a comment below…

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I’m sure almost everyone will agree with me when I say there is always not enough time to do what we want to do. We all want to have more time. 24 hours is simply not enough.

Since we can’t fit more than 24 hours in a day, what can we do about it?

The solution is to learn how to improve time management.

Below I’d like to share with you 3 GOLDEN principles that are BOUND to help you manage your time A LOT better so that you can finish what you want to do in MUCH LESS time than what it would take you if you weren’t applying these principles.

Last month I’ve just finished reading the famous book “The 4-Hour Work Week” (I know I know! I should’ve read that ages ago…)

Like many people, I’m very impressed by the book and the concepts and ideas taught within. So I decided to immediately implement a few of the strategies in my business as they really made sense to me.

After all, there is no point in spending your precious time reading a book when you don’t actually implement what it taught but only saying to yourself “ohhh… so this is how it’s done. I see…”

There are 3 key concepts from the book that I’ve implemented:

1. The 80/20 Rule

2. Parkinson’s Law

3. The Email Rule

I’m actually already aware of some of the principles above even before reading the 4-Hour Work Week, however like I’ve said above, simply knowing and not implementing will not help your business at all. As the saying goes “to know and not yet to do is not yet to know”.

1. The 80/20 Rule (Pareto Principle)

This rule states that 20% of our actions will determine 80% of our results. I’m sure that you’ve heard it umpteen times and have long known about it.

But my question is: Have you implemented it?

I’ve spent some time thinking hard what are the VERY FEW UTMOST IMPORTANT activities (the 20%) in my business that I know if I did will directly result in 80% of the revenue.

(… well it may not necessarily be 80% - but you get the idea)

The 80/20 rule not only applies to the business activities or priorities you have in your business. When it comes to customers, this principle holds true as well.

You should FOCUS servicing the 20% of your customers that bring in 80% of the revenue.

What about the remaining 80% of customers? Well you can still do business with them, however don’t spend too much effort and time as they only contribute to only a small fraction of your revenue.

Let me ask you a question: which would you rather be doing business with? 5 customers that contribute to your organization’s 80% or 100 customers that only contributes to the 20%?

I’d take the former any day.

Speaking of customers, there are also customers that are worth FIRING. Usually they belong to the 80% that contributes only the 20%. These people spend very little money on our business yet they demand and complain A LOT. They EXPECT to be treated like kings.

I say FIRE them! I’ve done the same in my business and you should too. I can guarantee that you’ll free up a lot of time and headaches and your business will soar to new heights now that you can concentrate on servicing the20% of your customers BETTER.

I have now identified the 20% that I should focus most of my time and effort on. Let’s wait and see how much things are going to take off in my business.

I also talk about the Pareto Principle in an earlier post: 5 Reasons Why Most People Fail To Earn Money Online

2. Parkinson’s Law

Taken from Wikipedia, Parkinson’s Law means:

“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”

In simpler words, the more time you allocate to getting a specific task done, the more “perceived” work you have to do.

I say “perceived” because often the case, you can complete the same quality (sometimes even better) work within a shorter period of time, when the time allocated to getting the task done shrinks.

Why does this happen?

One answer: Because of GREATER FOCUS.

Think about it: when you’re assigned to complete a project and you’re given 3 months to do it, how much time would you take to complete it?

Answer: 3 months, right until the last minute.

If I point a gun at your head and demanded that you complete the same task in 1 month, do you think you can do it?

Absolutely! And the final output would be of equal or higher quality, all because of GREATER FOCUS.

Use Parkinson’s Law in your business to shorten work time to getting only the VERY IMPORTANT things done.

3. The Email Rule

Do you check email first thing in the morning before doing anything else? Or do you check your email every 5 minutes?

For most people, the answer is Yes.

If so, you must STOP this bad habit now as this is ruining your business!

Checking your email first thing in the morning before doing anything else is not effective. Instead of completing the most important tasks for that day first, you aimlessly wander around reading emails after emails.

Most of them are useless and time-wasters anyway. Countless news gossips and forwarded humor messages that do not add any value to your business but only drain your time and energy away.

By the time you’re done checking your email and forwarding useless messages, you’ve wasted precious time already.

This becomes worse when you turn on automatic send/receive within your Outlook. Every 5 minutes you’re interrupted by new email messages (that most likely are personal time fillers instead of work-related).

You should never begin the day by checking your email first. Instead you ought to get the most important things done first (the 20%).

How do you know which are the 20% that need to be completed first?

You do that by having a pre-written task list the night before of what you want to accomplish the next day. Never, ever begin the day without having a list of what you want to accomplish. Always have one made the night before. Doing this will DRAMATICALLY improve your productivity.

Tim (the author of The 4-Hour Work Week) recommends checking your email at most twice daily, which is what I’m currently doing. Seemingly “urgent” matters are seldom urgent, and people are poor judgments of that.

Conclusion

There are a lot more strategies and tactics covered in the book, you can get yourself a copy of the book at Amazon or your local bookstore.

I highly recommend you read it as I believe you’ll benefit a lot from it, just as I’ve benefited. Remember though, simply reading and knowing won’t do you any good if you don’t put it into practice.

To achieve maximum productivity in your business, use the 80/20 rule in conjunction with Parkinson’s Law:

1. Identify the 20% tasks that lead to 80% revenue (80/20 rule)

2. Assign very short datelines to get the 20% tasks done (Parkinson’s Law)

What are your thoughts about how to improve time management? Please post them in a comment below…

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Whatever business you’re in, there are bound to be customer complaints. You simply can’t please everybody. Even if you’ve provided world class customer service and done your absolute best to deliver your promise to customers, complaints are inevitable.

In this article, I’d like to discuss the issue of customer complaints. This will be divided into 3 parts:

1. WHY customers complain

2. WHAT to do about it

3. HOW to handle complaints

It is important to first and foremost understand WHY customers complain. Only after comprehending the reasons behind their complaints can we think of a plan on WHAT to do about it. Then again, simply knowing what to do about it is not enough, which is why we need to learn HOW to handle their complaints.

WHY Customers Complain

Customers buy your products and services because they want to solve problems and are looking for solutions to overcome these problems.

When they buy your dating e-course, they want to get dating partners fast.

When they buy your software, it’s because they want to save time and effort by NOT doing the same repetitive tasks manually.

When they buy a Nintendo Wii, it’s because they want to give it to their children as presents so that they’re regarded as “good parents” or so that the children want to do their schoolwork as part of an agreement, or they simply love playing games (for a whole bunch of different reasons).

So in a nutshell they buy because they’re looking for solutions to solve their problems.

Now, when they’re unable to solve their problems after buying your products or services, some will complain, REGARDLESS of whether your product doesn’t deliver on its promises or because it’s their fault for not following the instructions and guide that came with your product.

In any case, they complain.

WHAT To Do About It

When a customer complains about your product or service, it’s human tendency to be very EMOTINAL about it. By this I mean our emotional instincts take over and completely block out how we think LOGICALLY.

For the past few years, we’ve often heard that we need to be more emotionally intelligent if we want to be successful. It simply isn’t enough to just have a very high IQ but on the other hand possess a poor EQ (emotional quotient).

As far as that might sound to be true, when are talking about customer complaints, we want to think as logically as we possibly can. We need to think about the long term effects these complaints will have on our business.

What we should do is ACKNOWLEDGE their complaints - to do this we need to be thinking very logically instead of emotionally.

When we think logically we can analyze the situation based on what “good” or “benefits” will come out of it.

If we were to think emotionally, we tend to be VERY DEFENSIVE about our products and DO NOT want to acknowledge their complaints and instead defend our products…

Take a look at the following scenario:

================================================================

Customer:

I want a refund ASAP. You liar! Your product sucks and doesn’t deliver on its promises! You’re wasting my precious time and if you don’t honor my refund request, I’m going to bad-mouth you to ever person I encounter!

You:

You claimed that my product sucks. Which part of it? My product is one of the best of its kind, and if you think it sucks, it’s because you don’t know how to use it! As stated in the guarantee, I only honor refunds if you can prove to me that you’ve been using my product exactly as stated in the guide. If not, there is no refund!

Customer:

You stupid jerk! Bla bla bla…

================================================================

I’m pretty sure the above scenario would continue in a heated argument. Customer and you (the product owner) will even be A LOT angrier and more pissed off than ever.

The argument never ends, and the problem is not solved.

End Result: Customer never buys anything from you ever again, and he bad-mouths you everywhere he goes. You saved a little money by not honoring his refund, but you LOSE A LOT MORE in the long term as your image and brand gets tarnished.

Conclusion: It’s a lose-lose situation for both parties.

HOW To Handle Complaints

Instead of getting into a heated debate of who’s right and who’s wrong, you should instead think about the long term effects this customer complaint will have on your business.

Still the same scenario, but take a look at how you can address the complaint in a much more EFFECTIVE manner:

================================================================

Customer:

I want a refund ASAP. You liar! Your product sucks and doesn’t deliver on its promises! You’re wasting my precious time and if you don’t honor my refund request, I’m going to bad-mouth you to ever person I encounter!

You:

Thank you for your complaint. We’d certainly be glad to honor your refund. Not a problem at all. Just for our feedback, may I know which part of the product did not deliver to its promises? This would certainly help us pinpoint where we need more improvements so that we can deliver more value to our customers like yourself.

Customer:

Your product did not do X Y Z as claimed bla bla bla

================================================================

Now what do you think will happen if you were to handle a customer complaint like that?

End Result: Customer goes home happy and *maybe* feel a little bad about requesting a refund. You might lose a little money by honoring his refund, but at least he doesn’t go everywhere and bad-mouths your product.

Even more valuable than this is the fact that you get valuable customer feedback about your product. This will enable you to improve your current product and thus make it more powerful and complete than before.

Lessons To Be Learned

I hope you can see and understand the importance of effectively handling customer complaints. There are basically 3 parts to it:

1. ACKNOWLEDGE customers’ complaints about your product.

2. Make it up to them as much as you possibly can (gladly honor a refund if they ask for it; if they didn’t ask for a refund, you can also refund their money to “surprise” and “wow” them). Saying “sorry” is NOT enough. To see a REAL case study of how I did this in my business, click here.

3. Ask for their feedback which part of your product does not deliver, and strive to improve your product.

How do you handle customer complaints? I’d love to hear your thoughts about your view of world class customer service, so please leave them in a comment below…

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