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How To Be A LIKEABLE Person
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
In the last post, I mentioned that you should become a likeable person so that your audience like, know, and trust you - and the end result is that they’d want to buy from you. In this post I want to share 5 ways on how to be a likeable person.
1. Admit Your FEARS And WEAKNESSES
2. Admit Your Mistakes
3. Empathize With Your Audience
4. Stop Boasting About How Great You Are
5. Entertain And Educate
1. Admit your FEARS and WEAKNESSES
Too many people don’t want to admit their fears and weaknesses. I’m NOT talking only about gurus and experts. Everybody (even those who are not gurus and experts in their respective industries) does NOT want to admit his or her fears and weaknesses.
To admit and actually acknowledge to OURSELVES that we possess fears and weaknesses is already not easy, let alone admitting to OTHER PEOPLE (ESPECIALLY our audience to whom we must look “cool” and “be the know-it-all” guy).
Most people (and marketers) do NOT want to admit their fears and weaknesses.
This is a FACT.
Look around you. How many times do you actually have someone confess their fears and weaknesses to you?
Especially if you’re a well-known guru in your marketplace - do you want to admit your fears and weaknesses to your audience?
Of course not!
Even your family members and close friends sometimes do not really want to admit their DEEPEST fears to you unless you really drill them down.
By admitting your fears and weaknesses, your audience will feel that you are like them; and people like those people who are like them.
2. Admit your mistakes
Similar to admitting your fears and weaknesses, most people do NOT want to admit their mistakes to themselves and to others. You don’t want to admit your mistake and so do I.
Let’s talk about admitting mistakes to OURSELVES first.
When something goes wrong because of a mistake we committed, don’t you think it’s better (even though it’s hard for us to take deep down in our hearts) to admit and acknowledge that we’ve made a mistake, learn from it and get better, so that we don’t make the SAME mistake again in the future?
After all, we humans LEARN from mistakes. It’s not like we’re foolish enough to commit the same mistakes over and over again. This is especially true if the mistake we made causes SEVERE pain and discomfort. We definitely don’t want to make the same mistake again.
Now let’s talk about admitting mistakes to OTHER PEOPLE (including your audience).
Most of the time your audience (at least your TARGETED audience anyway) are NORMAL, AVERAGE people who are going to make the SAME mistakes (related to your niche) that you’ve made in the past.
If you tell them HONESTLY and DIRECTLY about this - that you’re just another normal person like them and that you’ve made the same mistakes in the past - and then you provide them with tips and solutions on how to overcome these mistakes, then they’re going to CONNECT with you.
And when you CONNECT with them, it’s SO MUCH EASIER to sell to them.
3. Empathize with your audience
When I FAIL to achieve what I wanted to achieve (not just in my online business), I feel down and depressed, like the whole world is going to come down on me.
Till this day, I still “fail” from time to time.
Okay, maybe “fail” is not an appropriate word to use in this case. A more accurate word to use is: till this day, I still do things wrongly from time to time.
Let me be honest with you…
NO expert or guru knows EVERYTHING about their field! If they claim they do, it’s because they’re embarrassed and they want to look cool in front of you.
Instead of becoming the “you-know-it-all-guy” like all your competitors, why not do the EXACT OPPOSITE and empathize with your audience and tell them that you also face the same problems when you’re starting out. Tell them you understand where they’re coming from. EMPATHIZE with them to CONNECT with them.
STOP telling them how cool you are and that you know everything!
4. Stop boasting about how great you are
I’ve said before in my last post that you need to STOP boasting how great you are.
Though it’s important that you need to stamp your authority as an expert in your marketplace, the way to do it is NOT to BOAST about how great a person you are.
To stamp your authority, you let your audience know what you’re doing - how you failed when you first got started, and then move on to how you eventually found solutions to overcome the problems, and how they can do the same.
Stamp your authority in a way that lets them know that you’ve been where they are now, that you have the skills and expertise necessary to help them overcome their problems.
Boasting about your Ferrari, million dollar yacht, and how you go the playboy mansion is not the way to do it. People don’t like arrogant creatures.
If I get into a conversation with someone who keeps boasting to me ALL THE TIME how cool he is with his Ferrari and big mansion, I FEEL like punching him in the face.
Don’t you?
5. Entertain and educate
While most marketers talk about the importance of educating your audience with useful tips and tricks that they can use, there is another important “aspect” that is even of an equal or higher importance.
And that is - Entertaining your audience.
No matter who you are, no matter what your background is, and no matter what business you’re in, you LIKE and LOVE to be entertained.
This is why entertainers get paid a lot of money for what they do. Look at singers, actors, actresses, comedians, and TV reality shows. These people earn insane money.
Compare them with educators (teachers and professors).
I’m not saying that you want to entertain your audience all the time. After all, we’re in the business of teaching and selling information products.
What I’m implying is that you should ENTARTAIN AND EDUCATE instead of just educating all the time. Mix in your PERSONAL stories (even those that are not related to your industry) so that people can get to know you better.
Stories are very POWERFUL elements that you can and should use in your business to attract your audience’s attention and build a CONNECTION with them.
I’ve shared 5 ways on how you can become a LIKEABLE person in the eyes of your audience. Remember to apply them in your business and in your personal life so that you become likeable.
When you’ve learned how to be a likeable person, you can sell your products and services MUCH EASIER. I’d like to hear your thoughts about what other LIKEABLE characteristics that one should possess (that I haven’t covered above). Do leave them in a comment below…
Popularity: 4% [?]
Email List Building Is Wrong
Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
… if you build the wrong list!
Almost every Internet marketer who knows what they’re doing is engaging in email list building activities.
As the famous saying goes “The money is in the list”…
(…by the way if you want to learn 2 proven ways to build your list fast, click here)
A Requirement
And no doubt about it, having a list to really make BIG money online is a requirement. You can argue that you make money via Adsense and as such you don’t need to build a list.
Well let me tell you that if you focus your time and effort instead on building your own list, building TRUSTING and MUTUALLY BENEFICAL relationships with this list, and presenting them offers that they’re interested in, you’ll earn SO MUCH MORE than just Adsense alone.
But making big money online, or should I say building a real Internet business, is not just about building ANY kind of list.
This is one of the biggest mistakes I see beginner and intermediate marketers alike make when they build their lists. I’m guilty of this mistake too (yes even to this present date I sometimes get sidetracked as well).
The BIG Mistake
The mistake I’m talking about is focusing on building a FREEBIE list.
What do I mean by that?
A Freebie list is a group of people who do NOT buy your products and services. And by FOCUSING your time and efforts on building this kind of list, you profits will be very INSIGNIFICANT.
You should instead FOCUS on building a BUYER list.
I’m not saying that you shouldn’t build a freebie list. You should and must, because in order to build a buyer list, you first need to build a freebie list.
You build a FREEBIE list - you build relationships with this list so that your subscribers know, like, and trust you - you present them with low cost offers to get them to your BUYER list - you offer more value with your higher-priced products and services (backend).
This is where the real money is made - via the buyer list and NOT the freebie list.
Convert Freebie Seekers Into Buyers
Again, my point here is once you have a DECENT lead-generation system in place to pour in leads into your sales funnel on a consistent daily basis, you should think about converting as much of these freebie leads into your buyer list.
Do NOT wait until you have the perfect lead generation system before you convert them. Notice I use the word “DECENT lead-generation system” and not “SUPER lead-generation system” above? By decent, I mean it doesn’t have to be super powerful like generating 50 fresh leads per day. Even 20 or 30 leads per day are good enough (at least for the time being).
If you wait until you have a super powerful lead generation system before you start converting your freebie list into your buyer list, then you’ll be missing out on a lot of profits.
Want me to give you another strong reason why you should convert them as soon as possible?
People’s Interests Change All The Time
Well, people’s interest or “hotness towards a particular topic” change around a lot very quickly. For example, today I might be interested in learning how to play golf. Next week, I’m no longer interested in golf but instead interested in fishing.
Do you see where I’m going with this?
Since people’s interest change around a lot quickly, you want to make sure that you convert as much people in your freebie list into your buyer list as soon as you can. Because if you wait around too long, your subscribers may no longer be interested in your subject.
To build your own BUYER list, you need to have your own product. But don’t cringe at the thought of this yet, because creating your own information product can be done in 1 day or less.
How To Create Your Own Product In 1 Day Or Less
You simply interview an expert in your marketplace over Skype and record the interview and you have an audio product ready. If you want to learn more about how to create your own high quality information product in 1 day or less, go take a look at my Instant Product System guide.
Another tip for you: you can make money from your freebie list even before you have your own product and before you build your buyer list. The way to do this is to promote an affiliate product that is closely related to what your topic is about. For example, if you’re building an audience who are golf beginners who want to learn how to play golf well, then offer an affiliate product about learning how to play golf for beginners.
Never, ever wait until you have the perfect, super-duper lead generation system before you convert your freebie list into your buyer list. Because it will never be perfect. No system in the world is perfect.
Now that you understand the importance of a buyer list, go build one today. Leave your comments and thoughts below about email list building, as I’d LOVE to hear them…
Popularity: 12% [?]
What Graphics Can Do To Your Business
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
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.
Popularity: 20% [?]
Get Traffic Now? All That Traffic Is Useless…
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
I’ve noticed a lot of people, or more specifically Internet marketers, talk a lot about things like SEO (Search Engine Optimization) as if it is THE MOST important thing in the world. I know they want to get traffic now, but is it just a matter of traffic all the time?
Read on…
Now if you don’t know what SEO is, SEO is simply the process of optimizing your website so that it ranks on the first page of Google or any other search engines for a particular set of keywords.
So let’s say that you have a website about selling anti-virus software. Essentially, what you want to achieve by doing SEO work is to get your website showing up on the first page of Google when someone types in “buy anti-virus software” (without quotes) in Google.
You might think that this is a fantastic way to get visitors to your site.
And it is. No contest about that.
Getting visitors when they have voluntarily typed in a keyword phrase related to our website is of course good news for us as website owners, since they are seeking what we have to offer.
They’re already interested in the subject of “anti virus software” and they’re looking to buy it with their wallet in their hands. That means you don’t have to educate them about the importance of having an anti-virus software and why they should buy one.
The education part is already done for you there.
How do you know?
Because of the fact that they typed in the phrase “buy anti virus software”. Notice the word “buy” there? They won’t want to buy it if they weren’t sure of what “anti virus software” is all about, wouldn’t they?
While you may have achieved number 1 ranking for this keyword phrase, what good is number 1 ranking if you can’t convert your visitors? 
There is simply no point in having a huge influx of visitors if you can’t make them do what you want them to do.
In other words, you have to know and be VERY sure what your goals are. What do you want these visitors to do once they’re on your site?
Do you want them to click on your Adsense ads? Or do you want them to click on your affiliate link which leads to a leading anti-virus software company? Or maybe you want them to subscribe your anti virus newsletter that delivers tips and the latest updates related to combating computer virus?
Whatever your goals/objectives are, you need to define them first before you do all the hard SEO work (or any traffic generation work) that is going to bring all that Google traffic to your site. Otherwise all that traffic will go down to waste as you don’t even know what your goals are.
Make sense?
Now at the start of this article I mentioned that a lot of marketers are so “addicted” to SEO as if it is the most important thing/skill in the world (I may be a little exaggerating here… but I’m sure you get my point).
But achieving that all important 1st position in Google for your targeted keywords really won’t do you any good if you don’t know how to utilize your traffic well.
You have to start thinking about the bigger picture like this: “Okay once visitors land on my site, what do I want them to do? What is my ultimate goal?”
Take this blog for instance. At the time of this writing, this blog is ranked number 1 for the keywords “Internet business make money online”, which also happens to be one of the keywords I’m targeting.
When visitors come to my blog, my goal right then and there is to convert them to subscribers.
I have 3 mechanisms in place to do this:
1. There is an obvious opt-in box to the top right of this blog (on the sidebar) enhanced by a glaring red rectangle surrounding the submit button to make it stand out.
2. A slide-up opt-in box (aff) appears from the bottom of the blog. If you’re a returning visitor, you’ll see this in action for every 3rd revisit. (By the way, this slide-up box has increased the subscription rate of one of my sites by 78.43%).
3. There is the “What would Seth Godin do WordPress plugin” which displays a message box to new visitors and ask them to get my FREE report “How To Earn Your First 100 Dollars Online” (which also pulls them into my list). Visitors returning to this blog after the 5th time would not see this.
But is this my really, really ultimate goal?
Of course not! What good is there to have subscribers if you can’t convert them into… errr….well… money?
But at least my goal when new visitors reach my blog is to ask them to enter their name and email address so that I can follow up with them on a consistent basis to build beneficial and trusting relationships, as well as to sell them products and services related to Internet marketing or Internet business.
Since I know that most people will not buy my products when they’ve just landed on my site because they don’t who I am, my realistic goal is just to have them subscribe to my newsletter, and then sell to them later on.
So in essence, when a new guy lands on my blog and he subscribes to my newsletter, I have achieved my goal (at least at that level).
The ultimate goal is to sell related products and services to my subscribers, be it my own products or affiliate products which I believe will help them.
The end result?
I make Moolah (Money) of course 
Now that I’ve made clear that you need to set what your goals and objectives are for your site before you go out there and get traffic now, the next thing you need to do is to PREPARE before you go out there and try to drive visitors to your site.
After all, simply by knowing your goals is not enough, you need to PREPARE on how to achieve your goals.
And we will take a look at the preparation phase in part 2 of this article, so stay tuned…
I sincerely invite you to give my GOLD Coaching a RISK-FREE 14-day trial.
(you get to receive $488 REAL value of Internet marketing gifts for FREE too…)
Popularity: 19% [?]
HTML Or Text Links?
Thursday, December 4th, 2008
In my last post, I talked about how email marketing can make or break your business, depending on how you use utilize it.
If you keep sending promo emails after promo emails to your list, your subscribers will soon get tired of it and they will eventually unsubscribe from your list.
Today I’m going to show you a neat little technique you can apply to your email marketing messages so that more subscribers click on the link contained in your emails.
So what is this technique? 
Though nothing revolutionary, this technique, when implemented correctly, can boost the click through rate (CTR) of your links contained within your email messages by 22% (in my case).
If you don’t know what CTR is, CTR simply means how often a link or set of links are clicked.
If 100 people opened your email, and 30 people clicked the link contained within that email, this means you have a CTR of 30%.
Of course, the higher the CTR the better. 
Now, the technique I’m about to show you is to use persuasive words as links within the email.
What do I mean by that?
Suppose I want my subscribers to click on my site Beginners Blog Profits. Instead of writing:
=============================================================
Hit the link below to see how any beginner can earn real decent money online:
==> http://BeginnersBlogProfits.com
=============================================================
I would write:
=============================================================
Hit the link below to see how any beginner can earn real decent money online:
==> Discover The Secrets Of Making Money Online As A Beginner
=============================================================
Can you spot the difference?
In the first scenario, I use http://BeginnersBlogProfits.com as a link to my site.
In the second scenario, I use the words “Discover The Secrets Of Making Money Online As A Beginner” as a link to my site.
The second scenario would yield better CTR because it persuasively urges the reader to take action by using the words “Discover The Secrets Of Making Money Online As A Beginner“.
http://BeginnersBlogProfits.com, on the other hand, does not really urge the reader to take action.
Put yourself in their shoes, would you be thinking along the lines of “Beginners Blog Profits eh? So what?”
I bet your answer to the above question is a resounding “Yes”.
However, there is one thing you need to keep in mind in order to properly implement this “using persuasive words as links” technique - in order for this to work, your subscribers must be able to receive your email in HTML format.
Otherwise it won’t work.
Most autoresponder services allow you to send two kinds of messages, one in plain text and the other in HTML format.
So what you can do is you can send your email in both formats, and if your subscriber can read HTML emails, then he or she is going to receive it in HTML format. If not, then he or she is going to receive it in plain text, in which case you can’t implement the “using persuasive words as links” technique.
But hey, implementing this “using persuasive words as links” technique to some subscribers is still better than not implementing at all! 
Don’t you agree? As always, I’d like to hear your thoughts, so please share them in a comment below…
Popularity: 15% [?]
