TRUE Results To REPLACE YOUR JOB

Archive for the ‘Branding’ Category

Sometimes when I browse around the net and I come across INTERESTING and USEFUL blogs (not necessarily blogs in the Internet marketing area), I’d like to find out who the creator of the blog is. However, not all blogs have an “About Me” page. Even when they have that page (meaning it’s clickable), some of them are empty. This is a HUGE Internet marketing basics mistake.

Kick Yourself…

If you’re in the Internet business or Internet marketing niche and you have an empty or no “About Me” page on your blog, then you should really kick yourself.

We (as Internet marketers) should know better than everybody else in the world that we ought to have an “About Me” page on our blog so that visitors, prospects, subscribers, and customers can get to know us better.

After all, people buy from those they KNOW and TRUST.

Other people NOT in the Internet marketing niche might not know about this very IMPORTANT principle, but you and I should.

TRUST is the number 1 sales force on the planet!

If you do NOT trust marketer A, you’re NOT going to buy his product even though it’s the greatest product out there in the market.

If you trust marketer B, you might BUY his product even without looking at the sales letter. You just trust him so much that you believe anything he says.

If you don’t have an “About Me” page on your blog, how do you expect your visitors to get to know who you are and what you do?

Sure, you can tell your subscribers and customers later on in your autoresponder emails. But why wait to tell them later when you can do it now?

In addition, what happens to blog visitors who haven’t opted-in to your list? If you tell your story in your autoresponder emails, then they won’t know who you are FOREVER.

Make yourself known in your marketplace.

In fact, I encourage you to be a CELEBRITY in your marketplace.

Whenever anyone thinks about “how to REPLACE THEIR JOB on the Internet“, I want them to think about Welly Mulia.

Whenever anyone thinks about “where can I have a CHEAP yet PROFESSIONAL minisite design done”, I want them to think about WOW Minisites.

Do you get the drift here?

When you become a celebrity in your marketplace, people will regard you as their go-to guy and their trusted advisor. When this happens it’s a lot EASIER to make the sale.

So what should you write in the “About Me” page on your blog?

Be honest and authentic. Don’t try to make up stories that don’t exist just for the sake of looking cool. Your audience will see through that.

You can also share your PERSONAL story that is totally not related to your niche or market. Be personal so that they feel that they know you better than your competitors, who are always ONLY talking about stuff related to your industry.

Make friends with them and ask them to become your subscribers and customers.

Don’t be afraid to tell your EMBARASSING stories too. When you do that, you STAND OUT from the crowd.

How so?

You see, most of the time experts only talk about how great and cool they are TODAY, without telling their other side of the story - which is the PAIN, HARD WORK, and COUNTLESS FAILURES it took them to get to where they are now. They are EMBARASSED by this FACT.

(I say FACT because ALMOST ALL people who succeed at whatever they’re doing encounter and suffer from failures A LOT of times BEFORE they finally learn the correct way to do things and eventually find the success they’ve been looking for…)

Arrogant Creatures

You’ve probably seen a lot of times websites that boast how great and cool they are, complete with pictures showing them driving their Ferrari and enjoying themselves in a Bahamas beach, while all this time money keep pouring into their bank account.

If you can do the EXACT OPPOSITE and instead tell your EMBARASSING and FAILURE story BEFORE you tell your successful story, then there is a higher chance that your audience will relate to you BETTER and like you more.

You become a LIKEABLE person…

I don’t like an arrogant person who always boasts about how much money he’s making and showing off his Ferrari or mansion or whatever. And I believe you don’t like such a person either. This kind of person is NOT likeable.

Be a LIKEABLE person. Get your audience to like, know, and trust you.

Tell them how you first got started in this industry. What was your first attempt trying to make things work like? Tell about your painful experience when you’re just starting out. The shift to how you finally succeed.

Do you have an “About Me” page on your blog? If not, you better starting creating one TODAY so that you can build DEEPER and BETTER relationships with your audience.  Stop making this huge Internet marketing basics mistake.

In the next post, I’m going to cover how you can become a likable person. In the meantime, let me know your thoughts in a comment below…

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Just a few days ago, I changed something important on my blog.

Can you spot what change I made to my blog?

If you are a loyal reader, yep, you’ll no doubt have noticed that I changed the business tag line to this blog.

Previously, the tag line was: “Make Money On The Internet With Welly Mulia”.

Now, the new tag line is: “TRUE Results To REPLACE YOUR JOB”.

What do you think? Which is better?

I chose the new tag line because I felt my previous tag line was rather vague. Yes, it was pretty obvious that any visitor who landed on my blog knew that it was an “Internet business” or “make money from the Internet” site, but it just lacked that differentiation from the rest of the competition where all of them say exactly the same thing, which is “how to make money online”.

There are already TONS (read: thousands and tens of thousands) of blogs/sites about “making money online” and “Internet business” and my blog is just another blog lost in a sea of sites.

I wanted my blog to be different (and shine through) from the rest of the sites, and I wanted to cater to a more specific segment of my audience, which is why I’ve changed the tag line.

The new business tag line “TRUE Results To REPLACE YOUR JOB” is A LOT more targeted because just by this phrase alone, people can guest that this a blog catered towards beginners trying to learn how to build an online business so that they can replace their job.

While my posts may sometimes cover some intermediate and advanced strategies, the main focus is covering material catered to the average beginner who is just getting started.

By targeting a SPECIFIC segment of my audience and EXCLUDING others, I’m LASER FOCUSING my time and efforts. This means my REAL prospects and customers are going to feel that I’m talking DIRECTLY to them.

When this happens, it’s a lot easier to close the sale.

Don’t believe me?

If you’ve been following me for some time now, you should already have known that I have a STEP-BY-STEP coaching program where I teach people how to build a CONSISTENT four figure per month online business FAST.

(the tag line ‘How To Build A CONSISTENT Four Figure Per Month Online Business FAST’ is also going to be changed real soon by the way to something even more specific…)

When someone sees this tag line, they almost immediately know that this a program for beginners since it says “four figure per month” instead of “five or six figure per month”.

By doing so, I’m ELIMINATING those intermediate and advanced marketers and I’m projecting my message only to beginners.

Beginners who see this will think to themselves:

“Now this is EXACTLY the program I’ve been searching for all this while. A program EXACTLY for a beginner like me. All the other sites talk about earning a five or six figure fast EASILY. This site talks about making a four figure per month, and it doesn’t say it’s easy. Let’s try it out and see what happens…”

You might say that by excluding people from my audience, I’m actually leaving money on the table.

But the truth is, those people who are not your REAL audience (intermediate and advanced marketers in this case) will NOT join my program anyway. Even if they did join and later found out that the material covered in the program is too basic for them, they’ll leave and request for a refund anyway. So it’s better to not have them in the first place.

(ohhh and there’s also another IMPORTANT benefit…)

By stating on the sales page that “my program is for beginners” and telling those who are NOT my real audience that “my program is NOT for them”, what do you think will happen to my credibility?

YES, my credibility will increase in the eyes of both my target audience and those who are not my target audience.

End Result = I make more sales.

After all, how many marketers/sellers out there are willing to say “No this program is not for you, so please don’t buy…”

What do think about my new business tag line? I’d love to hear your thoughts, so let me know in a comment below…

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I’ve always believed in investing in high quality graphics when it comes to selling products or services, both online and offline. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words and having high quality graphics will “WOW” your prospects at the first point of contact, thereby leave a lasting, great impression.

Let’s take a look at the offline business. Product manufacturers couldn’t simply just sell their products and services without some form of accompanying graphics. They could, but it just wouldn’t convert that well.

Can you imagine going to the local grocery store and buying a bottle of milk that simply has an ugly “Fresh MILK” label on it without any kind of graphic ornaments on it? Would you buy this bottle of milk or would you buy the bottle beside it that is professionally packaged with its colorful and attractive graphic elements?

High Quality Graphics In Action

The automotive industry, food industry, telecommunications industry, and all other industries - they all have great quality graphics attached to their products. It makes perfect sense actually.

These huge companies with huge budget set aside a certain amount of money for graphic design purposes to “beautify” (so to speak) their products and services so that they attract more buyers.

You might argue that big name manufacturers don’t need to have those fancy-looking graphics because their brands are already famous and people will buy regardless of how ugly the graphics are. That may be true in certain cases; but the FACT is, there is not a single product and service out there by a big company that actually use poorly designed graphics - at least not that I know of.

Automotive industry - take a look at the high quality brochures car manufacturers have.

Food industry - those food pictures attached to the packaging of the product that are so “REAL” and juicy that make our mouth salivates uncontrollably.

I could go on and on…  but you get my point.

The power of these high quality graphics and the impact they have on your business is even more obvious when it comes to selling products and services on the Internet.

As we all know, anyone can sell on the Internet. And we also know that everyone is “hiding” behind a computer when they’re selling online.

Please note that the term “hiding” is not meant to discredit people selling online (Hey I sell products and services online too).

Think about when a prospect comes across your product/service when shopping online. Think about their thoughts and emotions just when they’re about to decide if they want to buy from you or not.

Since they don’t know who you are and they have no previous experience buying from you, they’re definitely afraid of being cheated of their money.

Scams are becoming more and more commonplace nowadays. Thus they have every right to be wary, especially when shopping online, since like I’ve said above everyone is literally “hiding” behind a computer.

The Disadvantage Of Running An Online Business

A lot of online marketers talk about how great it is to run an Internet business where you can profit almost 100% when selling digital goods. Very few of them, though, talk about the disadvantages of running an online business.

Everything else being equal, it is harder to convince a person to place their trust on you when it comes to buying online than offline since when buying online, they can’t see the real person behind that website and they perceive it would be harder for them to settle any dispute should there be any in the future. They perceive that the website owner can simply “run away” and not respond to emails, etc.

Another important point to note - unless you or your Internet business are already well-established and people have had a positive buying experience from you before, then convincing them to trust you when it comes to buying online is also going to be harder.

How To Lower The Barrier

For us Internet marketers, one very good way to alleviate this problem so that people trust us more and want to buy from us online is through the use of high quality graphics to demonstrate our products and services.

Why is this effective?

Because with high quality graphics on our products and services:

- You increase your credibility

- You are perceived as being serious in your business (a professional) as you wouldn’t have taken the trouble to have those high quality graphics designed if you weren’t serious about your business. People want to buy from professionals.

The above two points lower your prospects’ resistance to buy from you, which means higher conversions.

In short if you have any kind of product or service that you want to sell, especially if you want to sell online, then you really need to attach high quality, attention-grabbing, professional graphics to your products and services.

New Minisite Design Service For Internet Marketers

I bet you didn’t see this coming, but in conjunction with this, I want to make an announcement. Me and my partner, Adi Djohari, have just started a minisite and eCover design service specifically catered towards Internet marketers who sell their products and services online.

Our minisite design service is called WOW Minisites, and we’ll custom-design your minisite and eCover based on what YOU want (NOT what we want). Since we’re also Internet marketers who’re heavily involved in the IM niche, we really do know what YOU want from an Internet marketer’s perspective.

In the interest of full disclosure, I don’t design the minisites and eCover design. Adi along with our team do the design.

You may be wondering why I don’t take part in designing minisites?

Well it’s because I don’t know a thing about graphic design. Seriously. I’d be a lot of better off focusing on my strengths, which is marketing on the Internet.

If you’re currently about to release your product or service, do seriously consider getting a professional minisite design done.

If you’re currently already selling a product or service but you don’t have great quality graphics to accompany it, also consider getting a professional minisite designed for you.

You don’t have to use my professional minisite design service if you don’t want to (though I highly recommend it because I’m sure you’ll be VERY satisfied with our top-notch quality design at a price much less than what other minisite design services are charging).

Whatever you decide, just get a professional minisite designed for your product or service okay?

In summing up, high quality, professional graphics that accompany your product or service will increase your credibility and lower your prospects’ resistance to buy, thereby increasing your conversion rate and and bring you more profits.

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In today’s world where everyone and his company are trying to sell you something, people are getting more wary about being sold to these products and services.

According to CBS News, the average person is exposed to up to 5,000 ads per day. And that figure is in 2006. In 2008, you can expect that number to be even higher.

Wow! Can you imagine that? 5,000 ads per day?

This explains why as time progresses, more and more people are becoming more immune to these ads or marketing messages.

For example, if you are watching a TV program and the commercial comes in, what do you typically do? Switch to other channels or go to the bathroom or do something else, of course!

How many people do you think actually sit down and watch the commercials? Granted, there are people who do that, but I strongly believe that number is very insignificant.

“Now what has this got to do with us Internet Marketers?” you might ask.

Well of course it has everything to do with us, especially if we make money by selling products and services to people.

It doesn’t matter if its Internet marketing or offline marketing, as long as you sell products and services to people, this has everything to do with you.

If you just follow along with what everyone is doing or has already done, then you will not stand out from the crowd and nobody is going to notice you, unless you have already established a brand of your own in your niche.

If you are unique and stand out from the crowd in a positive way, people will notice and recognize you. This, in turn, will make it easier for you to sell your products and services to them.

So how can you be unique and stand out from the crowd? Well, here are 2 ways:

1. Give value first, receive second

This is one of the best advices I can give to any marketer out there. Like I said before, this does not apply only to online businesses; it very well also applies to offline businesses as well.

When everyone is doing their sales pitches to prospective customers, you give value to them without expecting anything in return.

Well, actually you are expecting something in return, and that is to hope that they find value in what you have given them so that they trust you and eventually buy from you.

But my advice is you should really expect nothing in return, and just give value to them first, regardless of whether they will buy your products or not.

Have you heard of the saying “Give and you shall receive”?

Well this couldn’t be truer!

Once again, just concentrate on striving to give value first to your prospective customers, and they will buy from you eventually.

2. Provide excellent customer service

Most business owners and marketers fail to realize the importance of providing great customer service to their clients.

Sadly, once their customers have bought something from them, they neglect their customers by providing poor customer service or no customer service at all.

After customers hand in their money, these marketers say “goodbye” to them.

These business owners and marketers are only concerned in making new sales every day, which means they have to find new customers every single day.

They fail to understand that to get a happy, existing customer to buy again is much easier and cheaper than acquiring new customers.

This is because to get new customers, you first need to convince them that you are the authority in your field and you also need to convince them to trust you. This requires effort and time.

Compare this with a customer who has previously bought from you and are satisfied with your product and the great customer service you have provided.

Which one do you think is easier to convince to buy your just-released product?

There is probably, another method for us Internet Marketers that we can use to stand out from the crowd of all other Internet Marketers in your niche.

Now for the sake of beginners, let me just explain what an opt-in form is. Intermediate and advanced marketers, please bear with me a little okay?

If you take a look at the upper right area of this blog where it says “Free Internet Marketing Scoop”, you will notice that there are two fields where you can enter your first name and email.

This is known as an opt-in form. The purpose of this opt-in form is to collect the data (first name and email) of this blog’s readers, so that I build a list of prospective customers on a consistent basis so that I can contact them later on.

If you have been marketing online for a while now, you should know that most marketers ask for your name and email when you opt-in to become their subscribers.

Now, just a few days ago, Ryan Deiss explained a trick that you can try to increase your opt-in rate. The trick is to ditch the name field so that people only need to enter their emails in order to opt-in. There is no need to enter the first name.

For his case, he managed to increase his opt-in rate by 5-8%. Of course this figure may not apply to you because different niches respond differently.

As for myself, I have not tested removing the name field yet because of other more important tasks at hand that I need to complete.

But it never hurts to try! So if you have the time, go ahead and test it out for yourself. Me and my blog readers would appreciate you sharing your results here, so if you do try it out, please let us know your results okay?

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