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23Aug

Why Your Blog Doesn’t Make Money

Blogging, Entrepreneurship, Internet Marketing No Comments
- Darren Rowse doesn’t make his money from Problogger.
- Brian Clark doesn’t make his money from Copyblogger.
- Chris Brogan doesn’t make his money from his blog, either.
- Neither does Sonia Simone.
Not a single founding member of Third Tribe earns the bulk of their income from the blogs that are practically (or in Brogan’s case, literally) synonymous with their names.

Yes, they make some money directly from those blogs. But revenue directly from the blog doesn’t represent the bulk of their income. Not by a long shot.

So why do so many bloggers equate blog success with financial success?

Many, if not most, of the bloggers I see are hoping that their blogs will make them popular. They are also hoping their blogs will make them money. This isn’t exactly surprising. Fame and riches are supposed to go hand in hand, after all.

But when you need a new stream of income tomorrow, you don’t write ten more blog posts.

You create a new product. You launch an email campaign. You make a special offer. You network. You find a great new JV partner. You ask for referrals and check in with your current clients.

Similarly, when you want to get more subscribers for your blog tomorrow, you don’t launch a product.

You write better content. You get more active on social media. You guest post on other people’s blogs. You link to other good articles. You improve your SEO.

Building a profitable business and creating a popular blog are two different things

Related, yes. But different.

The most popular blogs you know do not make most of their money simply by racking up the subscriber numbers. They make their money with products, consulting, services, and advertising.

They make their money by running a successful business. The fact that they run a popular blog facilitates that business.

If Brian wants to launch a product tomorrow, he has a big, engaged audience to whom he can launch it.

Having a huge audience who will listen when you launch a product isn’t the profitable part, though.

The profitable part is that Brian will create a product that his audience wants and needs. He’ll run an informative and compelling launch. He’ll have an affiliate program that works and a sales sequence that converts prospects into buyers.

Does the large subscriber base help with that product launch? Absolutely. But the blog itself is not the thing that’s making money.

If Copyblogger, with its magnificently large platform, were to launch a terrible product with a really weak campaign and only promoted it with a few blog posts to this vast audience of readers, they wouldn’t make enough money to pay my grocery bill.

Having a popular blog is not enough. You still have to build the business.

No, of course you shouldn’t neglect your blog

There are many, many virtues to a popular blog: social proof, credibility, enhanced visibility. They’re good for forging new business contacts and partnerships. They’re good for attracting potential customers for the products you’ll make or services you’ll provide.

They’re brilliant for creating relationships. I don’t know my dentist as well as I know some bloggers. And I trust my dentist with my teeth even though he comes at them with a variety of pointy things with hooks on their ends. Blogs help us make those trusting, potentially valuable connections, and for that reason alone, they’re worth pouring time and energy into.

But no matter how hard you try, your subscriber numbers are never going to magically transform themselves into your bank balance.

When it comes to making money, simply having a blog isn’t enough. Now you have to take all the things the blog has given you — visibility, authority, a reputation for knowing your industry, social proof — and put them to work building you a profitable business.

Because it won’t happen on its own.

If you want to use your blog as a jumping-off place for that business, though, Third Tribe has got you covered.

The seminar you’ll want to listen to is the 4-part series on Building a Business Around a Blog, which features interviews with Sonia Simone, Darren Rowse, Chris Brogan, Brian Clark, and Leo Babauta of Zen Habits. They cover a lot of ground, including:
- The three factors your blog must have if you want to make serious money with advertising
- Brogan’s two favorite ways to start bringing in revenue by using a blog
- The specifics about where the bulk of their income really comes from (you may be surprised)
- Why “blogging about blogging” isn’t the way to go
- How Darren uses surveys to build his business (and why Brian doesn’t)
- A quick creativity technique to develop the next killer idea for your business
- How to handle pushback if your customers respond negatively to your products
I listened to all four of these interviews. And not once, in hours of discussing techniques, business-building ideas, and marketing strategy, did any of these bloggers say that the best way to make money was to get more subscribers.

They’ve got a few ideas for how to do that too, though. Because blogs are valuable — just not in the way you think.

You can get instant access to all four seminars (and a dozen more), as well as Q&A sessions and the web’s best networking forum for internet businesspeople, by joining the Third Tribe today.

About the Author: Taylor Lindstrom is a freelance copywriter and Assistant Editor of Copyblogger. She’s taking lots of notes about how to turn sharp copywriting into a profitable business.
07Jul

Get More Great Content from @copyblogger on Twitter

Content Marketing, Copywriting, Internet Marketing, Social Media Marketing No Comments

Since we’re taking it a bit easy this summer by dropping from six posts a week to three, you might find yourself going through withdrawal. Not to fear.

We share additional content related to copywriting, content, social media, SEO and online marketing from many sources across the web @copyblogger on Twitter.

So join us on Twitter!
27Apr

The Copyblogger Guide to Zombie-Free Product Launches

Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Internet Marketing, Selling No Comments
These days, a lot of online product launches are like zombie attacks.

One day, everything is fine. The next day, there’s a legion of crazy people banging on your virtual doors and windows, wanting to feed on you.

Who the hell are these zombies and how did they get my address? Time to break out the shotgun, or in this case, the Delete All button.

And it gets worse. That group of friends you hang out with from time to time? Yeah . . . they’re zombies too.

“Wait dude, I thought we were cool . . . why are you . . . Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

You can always tell when the first wave approaches, because your inbox will suddenly fill up with variants of the same message. And the guy who hasn’t talked to you since his last launch is suddenly your best friend again.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m the last person to hate on someone for trying to make a buck. But let’s face it, some of these guys are doing their reputations an injustice by treating their customers this way. Product quality aside, in some markets we’ve become so immune to these tactics that zombie leaders are forced to gather new streams of recruits each and every time they launch an invasion.

So what’s my point?

Instead of forcing yourself to do the hard work of constantly capturing fresh flesh to ~~lunch on~~ launch to, why not implement a strategy that takes the best parts of the product launch model and combines them with high-quality content marketing?

That way, you not only build trust and authority with your readers, but you also keep them ready and eager to listen to you. (In other words, you make yourself zombie-proof.)

That’s what they do here at Copyblogger, and it’s why so many other bloggers have been able to form six-figure businesses without having giant lists and hundreds of superaffiliates.

It works like this:

You let your content do the talking and you build your lists the old-fashioned way.

That means building an effective blog, providing value, and following up to help your readers be successful in their own right. You take your time to show off some of your best stuff before you ask for any cash.

When it’s time to launch your product, you will have already built trust and authority with your readers, so they won’t be wondering why you are emailing them out of the blue. And although you might use a big tribe of affiliates, a long-form sales letter, and a variety of techniques to build excitement about the launch, your audience isn’t turned off by what you have to offer. In fact, they can’t wait to come along for the ride.

What makes the difference?

Well for starters, your audience knows you already, because they’ve been reading your blog for months before the launch. They probably got your name from another satisfied reader, a retweet, or a link from a blogger they trust. So you start out with a good shot of social proof.

Second, unlike certain clumsy marketers, you don’t abuse that trust. You treat people as friends, not food.

And finally, when you’ve closed the sale and converted your readers into buyers, you follow through on your promises by (over)delivering what you promised. Not only that, but you stay in touch.

You aren’t the hit and run marketer that we’re used to

The funny thing is, the original Product Launch Formula created by Jeff Walker is totally in sync with this approach.

That’s probably why Brian Clark found PLF so useful several years ago when he used Jeff’s ideas to start building Copyblogger into a powerhouse business, not just a powerhouse blog.

In fact, lots of Third Tribe-style marketers use the strategies outlined in PLF. Because they work. But we’re using them to build businesses, not just one-shot ~~brain buffets~~ launches.

Need some examples?
- Teaching Sells quickly sells out, launch after launch. (Its most recent launch sold out within a day.)
- Naomi Dunford creates five-figure paydays without damaging her relationship with her list of fanatically loyal fans.
- Dave Navarro sold 500 copies of his remarkable product without resembling anyone from the film Shaun of the Dead.
As a marketer, consider building an army of fans rather than traveling from town to town in search of fresh victims. The difference might be small, but over time, the benefits are tremendous.

Alternately, you can build your own legion of zombies and consume everyone on your list. I don’t know about you, but to me, that sounds like a lot of work.

Besides, something tells me that brains don’t actually taste very good.

About the Author: Nathan Hangen teaches people how to build digital empires, helps them rock through their workday, and works with small businesses to implement digital marketing campaigns.
19Apr

4 Things an Ethical Internet Marketer Can Learn from Spammers

Email Marketing, Internet Marketing No Comments
First things first: We hate spam. And we hate spammers. Maybe even more than you do.

So this article isn’t about endorsing spam in any way, or suggesting that you do anything unethical.

But as much as we hate spam and wish it didn’t exist, we can’t deny one fact.

Spammers make a killing online.

Just to give you an idea, last year a Russian investigation found a network of spammers selling fake goods and fake pills online. Each spammer was making, on average, $4,600 per day.

Sure, the spammers use the “law of large numbers” to achieve these results. But you also need marketing savvy to make more than $1.5 million a year selling fake stuff to people who would rather shoot themselves in the left foot than listen to you.

When I started looking more closely at their tactics, I found some valuable lessons any marketer should know.

1. Go where the fish are

What is the most important factor you need to have if you want to go fishing?

Most people will say the fishing rod. Others will say the bait, or a boat. Interestingly enough, they are all wrong.

The most important element of the equation is the presence of lots of fish.

If you have a lake full of fish but don’t have a fishing rod or bait, you can probably still improvise something that would let you enjoy a fish dinner tonight.

But no matter how great your bait or how cutting-edge your equipment, if there aren’t any fish, there’s no fish dinner.

Spammers know this, and they always focus their efforts on the niches with the largest number of fish. That means they always target known customers willing to spend money. Examples include health-related niches, luxury goods, anti-virus software, and, of course, men who want access to certain prescription medicines without getting into embarrassing conversations with their doctors.

Lesson learned: If you target a niche that’s too obscure, you’ll have a hard time making money even if your product and marketing are outstanding. If you target a large and profitable market, of course you’ll face more competition. But it’s a lot easier to improve your product and marketing than it is to manufacture buying customers out of thin air.

2. The money is in the list

Email is the most direct type of communication we have. That’s why spammers love it so much. It allows them to display their messages right in the face of their victims.

Now, if creepy, bottom-dwelling spammers get a conversion rate high enough to keep them in business, imagine what kind of results you can get with:
- A legitimate, permission-based list of people who want to hear from you,
- Terrific content that benefits the reader, and
- Smart, respectful promotion of excellent products and services?
Lesson learned: If you are not building your email list, you are almost certainly leaving a lot of money on the table. Blogs, social networking, and various kinds of advertising are all useful tools. But email is still the “killer app” for building relationships with your prospects and clients.

3. Copywriting, copywriting, copywriting

Ever wondered how scammers manage to convince people to buy fake products?

It comes down to one word: copywriting.

Spammers may not always write the most poetic English. But they do use solid, time-tested copywriting techniques. If you master the essentials of copywriting yourself, you’d be able to sell crappy products to a fair number of people. (Not that we recommend that.)

But because you have a quality product or service and a great reputation, you’ll be able to sell it to lots and lots of people. Who will, in turn, tell their friends about how terrific you are.

There are lots of places you can get solid copywriting advice, including:
- The Copywriting 101 series on Copyblogger (free)
- Copyblogger’s Internet Marketing for Smart People newsletter (free)
- Read classic books on copywriting (inexpensive)
- Take a paid copywriting course — one that focuses on persuasive writing that sells rather than beautiful or “creative” writing (can be expensive, but if you’re a serious marketer, it’s worth it)
Lesson learned: Copywriting matters just as much as having a quality product or service. In some situations it matters even more. Never shortchange the attention and care you give to your copywriting.

4. Scale matters

Do you know how many emails a spammer needs to send out to get one sale? More than a million.

That’s right, their conversion rates are usually lower than 0.0001%.

So how can they make those thousands of dollars per day in profits? By sending out millions and millions of messages.

Obviously we are not saying you should start spamming people like there is no tomorrow. What you need to keep in mind, however, is that even great conversion rates are still pretty low in the scheme of things.

If you were able to convert 5 or 6% of your list to becoming paying customers, you’d be doing a fantastic job. Which means 95% of your list won’t ever spend a dime with you.

In fact, for many marketers, a conversion rate of 1% is doing quite well. That means if you have 1,000 subscribers on your email list and you send them an email talking about your latest product, you’re doing well if 10 people buy it.

Lesson learned: Numbers aren’t the only thing, but they do matter. If your main income source is your website, learn how to get as much traffic as possible. If your main income source is your email list, learn how to get as many subscribers as possible.

How to do that? Keep following blogs like this one and putting their advice into action.

About the Author: Daniel Scocco is the owner of Daily Blog Tips. He is also the author of the “Make Money Blogging” ebook, which you can download for free by signing up for his newsletter here.
19Apr

4 Things an Ethical Internet Marketer Can Learn from Spammers

Email Marketing, Internet Marketing No Comments
First things first: We hate spam. And we hate spammers. Maybe even more than you do.

So this article isn’t about endorsing spam in any way, or suggesting that you do anything unethical.

But as much as we hate spam and wish it didn’t exist, we can’t deny one fact.

Spammers make a killing online.

Just to give you an idea, last year a Russian investigation found a network of spammers selling fake goods and fake pills online. Each spammer was making, on average, $4,600 per day.

Sure, the spammers use the “law of large numbers” to achieve these results. But you also need marketing savvy to make more than $1.5 million a year selling fake stuff to people who would rather shoot themselves in the left foot than listen to you.

When I started looking more closely at their tactics, I found some valuable lessons any marketer should know.

1. Go where the fish are

What is the most important factor you need to have if you want to go fishing?

Most people will say the fishing rod. Others will say the bait, or a boat. Interestingly enough, they are all wrong.

The most important element of the equation is the presence of lots of fish.

If you have a lake full of fish but don’t have a fishing rod or bait, you can probably still improvise something that would let you enjoy a fish dinner tonight.

But no matter how great your bait or how cutting-edge your equipment, if there aren’t any fish, there’s no fish dinner.

Spammers know this, and they always focus their efforts on the niches with the largest number of fish. That means they always target known customers willing to spend money. Examples include health-related niches, luxury goods, anti-virus software, and, of course, men who want access to certain prescription medicines without getting into embarrassing conversations with their doctors.

Lesson learned: If you target a niche that’s too obscure, you’ll have a hard time making money even if your product and marketing are outstanding. If you target a large and profitable market, of course you’ll face more competition. But it’s a lot easier to improve your product and marketing than it is to manufacture buying customers out of thin air.

2. The money is in the list

Email is the most direct type of communication we have. That’s why spammers love it so much. It allows them to display their messages right in the face of their victims.

Now, if creepy, bottom-dwelling spammers get a conversion rate high enough to keep them in business, imagine what kind of results you can get with:
- A legitimate, permission-based list of people who want to hear from you,
- Terrific content that benefits the reader, and
- Smart, respectful promotion of excellent products and services?
Lesson learned: If you are not building your email list, you are almost certainly leaving a lot of money on the table. Blogs, social networking, and various kinds of advertising are all useful tools. But email is still the “killer app” for building relationships with your prospects and clients.

3. Copywriting, copywriting, copywriting

Ever wondered how scammers manage to convince people to buy fake products?

It comes down to one word: copywriting.

Spammers may not always write the most poetic English. But they do use solid, time-tested copywriting techniques. If you master the essentials of copywriting yourself, you’d be able to sell crappy products to a fair number of people. (Not that we recommend that.)

But because you have a quality product or service and a great reputation, you’ll be able to sell it to lots and lots of people. Who will, in turn, tell their friends about how terrific you are.

There are lots of places you can get solid copywriting advice, including:
- The Copywriting 101 series on Copyblogger (free)
- Copyblogger’s Internet Marketing for Smart People newsletter (free)
- Read classic books on copywriting (inexpensive)
- Take a paid copywriting course — one that focuses on persuasive writing that sells rather than beautiful or “creative” writing (can be expensive, but if you’re a serious marketer, it’s worth it)
Lesson learned: Copywriting matters just as much as having a quality product or service. In some situations it matters even more. Never shortchange the attention and care you give to your copywriting.

4. Scale matters

Do you know how many emails a spammer needs to send out to get one sale? More than a million.

That’s right, their conversion rates are usually lower than 0.0001%.

So how can they make those thousands of dollars per day in profits? By sending out millions and millions of messages.

Obviously we are not saying you should start spamming people like there is no tomorrow. What you need to keep in mind, however, is that even great conversion rates are still pretty low in the scheme of things.

If you were able to convert 5 or 6% of your list to becoming paying customers, you’d be doing a fantastic job. Which means 95% of your list won’t ever spend a dime with you.

In fact, for many marketers, a conversion rate of 1% is doing quite well. That means if you have 1,000 subscribers on your email list and you send them an email talking about your latest product, you’re doing well if 10 people buy it.

Lesson learned: Numbers aren’t the only thing, but they do matter. If your main income source is your website, learn how to get as much traffic as possible. If your main income source is your email list, learn how to get as many subscribers as possible.

How to do that? Keep following blogs like this one and putting their advice into action.

About the Author: Daniel Scocco is the owner of Daily Blog Tips. He is also the author of the “Make Money Blogging” ebook, which you can download for free by signing up for his newsletter here.
12Apr

The Mercenary’s Guide to Building Your Internet Marketing Empire

Internet Marketing No Comments
I don’t kill people for money (I do that for free).

I’m not wanted in 17 countries.

And I don’t ride on a steel horse.

But by many standards, I’m somewhat of a mercenary.

It started a few years ago, when I cut my teeth online by playing around in the internet marketing game.

Before I’d heard of Brian Clark, Chris Brogan, Darren Rowse, or Sonia Simone . . . I’d heard of Frank Kern, Mike Filsaime, and Jason Moffatt.

My first masters — the pure marketers

I spent a lot of time hanging out on the Warrior Forum. Not with Kern and Filsaime and Moffatt, but with a bunch of their customers. We talked about how to sell dating guides and dog training ebooks, and told each other that the customer didn’t matter as long as we were making money.

Although I was doing everything they said I should, something didn’t feel right . . . especially that hole in my wallet.

I made a few dollars, but it was by creating sites I wasn’t proud of. Spamming the net with silo sites and working in niches that I had no interest in. It all started to wear on my soul.

So I started talking about what I thought was wrong with that style of Internet marketing, and was laughed out of the virtual building.

No problem, I didn’t like those guys anyway.

My second masters — the affiliate ninjas

I was on my way out the door when I bought an ebook that was described as the “best Twitter guide on the forum.” I thought it was terrible.

Considering I’d started hanging out in the social media scene and had been using Twitter for almost a year, I started thinking, “I could make something much better than that!”

So I did. And Twitter Rockstar was born.

In a matter of weeks, I sold a few thousand dollars’ worth of that course. And oddly enough, I found that if you create something that’s actually useful and as good as you can make it . . . people are more than willing to pay for it.

Huh.

So I kept searching for the next “guru.” I found guys like Ed Dale and John Chow, both a little closer to what felt right for me, but not perfect.

Still, knowing good marketing when I see it, I tried to learn everything they had to say. This time, on the affiliate marketing front.

I started blogging a bit and working the affiliate scene in a different way. I still wasn’t crushing it, but I knew I was getting closer.

My third masters — the Third Tribers

Eventually, I stumbled on to guys like Brian Clark, David Risley, Chris Guillebeau, Gary Vaynerchuk, Naomi Dunford, Sonia Simone, and Jonathan Fields.

Dudes and dudettes who were killing it not just online, but in the real world. It was at this point it really started to sink in. I could make money doing something other than selling World of Warcraft leveling guides and dieting ebooks.

What a relief.

You mean I could actually make a living online, selling real products that people wanted, and would also be fun to create? Whoa! (Keanu Reeves or Joey Lawrence impression, take your pick).

So naturally, I absorbed as much as I could. I started buying stuff, reading their blogs, and studying their marketing (I always try to do what they do, not just what they say).

Great stuff . . . but I wanted more.

Becoming my own master

So here I was, a product of three masters, but a servant of none. Remember, I’m a mercenary. A heartless profiteer. And I wanted my own empire, so I set out to build one.

My thoughts went like this:

Instead of sticking to a single way of thought, why not take the best of each and make it my own? Sounds a little Third Tribe, I know. But this is a tribe of one.

For the most part, I’m anti kumbaya. I don’t blog for free (if I can help it), and I think that most bloggers are underpaid . . . so I opted to change that.

Instead of calling myself a blogger, I started calling myself a platformer. Instead of working my butt off to build a platform that I gave away for free, I worked doubly hard to build a variety of products that are worth charging for. Instead of spending all of my time with freeloaders, I started spending most of my time with customers.

What I’ve found during this process:
- Without some of those “pushy” marketing tactics that traditional internet marketers use so well, I’d be blogging for free.
- Without a little kumbaya, I’d be following the dollar instead of my passion.
- And without those Third Tribe “best of both worlds” techniques, I’d have no place to call home when I needed one. Even a mercenary likes a hot lunch and a soft pillow sometimes.
The point I’m trying to make is that there isn’t any single “right” way to do things, and that if you want to build your own digital empire, then you need to learn how to become your own master.

You need to study the good, the bad, and the ugly.

You need to get as comfortable telling people to buy your stuff as you are asking them to retweet it.

You need to be confident enough to price your products high enough to make a profit.

And you need to be brave enough to ride on your own when the mission calls for it.

I don’t claim to have all of the answers, but I know enough to say that when it comes to the success of your business, you’re the one in charge. Learn the skills you need to know, and don’t be afraid to use them.

Don’t get tied to ideas, labels, or systems. Get tied to what works for you.

The way of the mercenary is a matter of survival, and in business, nothing else will do.

About the Author: Nathan Hangen teaches people how to build digital empires, helps them rock through their workday, and works with small businesses to implement digital marketing campaigns.
07Apr

Thesis Makes WordPress Way Better (Again)

Blogging, Content Marketing, Internet Marketing, SEO Copywriting, Social Media Marketing, Traffic No Comments
There’s a new version of Thesis out, and this is one of the best updates in quite a while. And yet there are a lot of new Copyblogger subscribers who might use WordPress, but might not really “get” what this Thesis thing is all about.

So in this post I’ll share with you why Thesis makes WordPress way better, and then let you know what’s brand new in Thesis 1.7. Ready?

The lowdown on the Thesis Theme for WordPress

First of all, Thesis is the flagship product of DIY Themes, a company I own together with Chris Pearson. He’s the design and code genius, I’m the rapper.

Thesis powers Copyblogger and many other high-traffic sites, but it’s more accurate to call it a code and design framework rather than a theme. Basically, Thesis is software that delivers rock-solid SEO website code, plus unprecedented design flexibility for WordPress — without requiring the novice user to code anything.

For sophisticated users, Thesis is a search-optimized development framework that allows designers and web developers to build sites better and faster than ever before. Let’s take a look at the three elements that have made Thesis the leading choice among online publishers and designers.

* SEO

Search legend Danny Sullivan, Google’s Matt Cutts, and Microsoft search engineer Jeremiah Andrick all use Thesis for their sites. So does search and affiliate marketing entrepreneur Rae Hoffman, SEO guru Michael Gray, and online conversion experts Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg. Let’s not forget top bloggers Chris Brogan and Robert Scoble, web-hosting entrepreneur Scott Beale, adorable-image destination Cute Overload, and thousands of others.

To find out why the Thesis approach to site code results in maximum search engine crawlibility, watch this quick video I put together or check out this page for general information about Thesis.

* Design Flexibility

With most WordPress themes, you’re stuck with the basic look and feel that the theme designer decided on. With Thesis, you can:
- choose between 1, 2, or 3 column layouts
- select the size of each column
- alter font types and sizes
- produce a magazine-style layout
- display rotating multimedia, thumbnails images, and teasers
- change colors throughout the theme without code
- create killer navigation menus
. . . and lots more. And no matter how you configure it, Thesis has some of the best typography you’ve seen.

Again, watch this video for an overview, and then dive into the four demo videos listed below the general video to see what Thesis can do, or check out this page for general information about Thesis.

* Support

Even with everything Thesis makes easier, we know people don’t want to be hung out to dry. Our support forums have evolved into a truly supportive community of over 21,000 of your fellow webmasters and bloggers. You’ll have help from DIY Themes support professionals, Thesis Certified Designers, and tons of your peers who simply enjoy lending a helping hand.

Plus, we’ve just added step-by-step installation and upgrade videos. Now it’s quicker and easier than ever to get started with Thesis 1.7.

What’s new in Thesis 1.7?

For all the sparkly new features added in Thesis 1.7, click here. And we’re not done yet . . . upcoming releases will change the face of the WordPress theme market once again.

But don’t think you have to wait. Our current pricing provides all Thesis customers with every future update and unlimited access to support . . . so you can get started with Thesis today and never miss out on what’s coming next.

Check out Thesis from top to bottom:
About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and wants you to know that Thesis + Scribe = SEO Made Simple. Get more from Brian on Twitter.
11Mar

How to Win in Las Vegas, And in Online Business

Entrepreneurship, Internet Marketing No Comments
I’ve written a few contrarian things lately.

Specifically, I ranted a bit about why I think the most common “make money online” technique doesn’t work for most people, and about how, really, the most important ingredients of success are persistence and grit.

Then, on my own blog, I ranted about why “systems” for achieving specific results don’t work.

I got a lot of comments, emails, and tweets agreeing — too many people are looking for a quick fix, and we need to remember the basics: hard work, and good old-fashioned stick-to-it-iveness.

But believe it or not, there’s actually a problem with taking that train of thought too far.

Yes, a lot of the marketing for how-to-start-your-business products preys on the naive and is motivated by greed. But that doesn’t mean that there isn’t good information out there — information that could help you move forward, remove roadblocks, and arm you with new skills.

No, there is no magic bullet

But that doesn’t mean that you should become a business isolationist, figuring everything out solely on your own, wary of anyone, anywhere, who sells information.

The most sensible approach — as is usually the case — is somewhere in the middle.

Spending money on a fool’s dream is akin to gambling, hoping that some “system” will pay off big. By contrast, spending wisely — with a decent chance of a solid return — is more like an investment.

Obviously, the best way for me to explain the difference is by talking about my grandparents.

Gambling vs. investment

My grandparents used to go to Las Vegas a few times every year to play the slots. Every once in a while, they’d win, and come back with a few thousand dollars more than they left with.

More often, they’d come home having lost some or all of what they’d budgeted as their “fun money.” No matter what happened, they always returned happy, with new stories to tell, and couldn’t wait to go again.

So the question is: Were they gambling while they were in Vegas?

And the knee-jerk reaction is, “Of course they were. What kind of dumb question is that, Truant?”

Well, I don’t know. I’d define gambling as risking an asset that you can’t afford to (or don’t want to) lose because you’re hoping it will multiply. Investment, on the other hand, is spending an asset for a defined purpose to receive a return that you have good reason to believe you will get.

If my grandparents went to Vegas, plunked down their pension checks, and then hoped like hell to hit a jackpot so that they could at least recoup the money they put in, I’d say they were gambling.

But that’s not what they did. They set a budget. They “spent” that budget on the slots. If money came back? Aces. But if not, they wrote it off as part of the trip cost and still came home happy.

They went in with a defined goal: Have a fun trip pulling levers and watching things spin and light up. That’s what they got. They were investing in their entertainment, and in their own enjoyment.

Similarly, I’d argue that what makes a business expense gambling versus an investment is the intention you have when you make it.

How to invest in your business

Are you gambling on schemes, or are you investing in information you can use? The line can seem fuzzy, but I’ll bet it’s obvious once you start looking for it.

Ask yourself what you hope to get out of a purchase. You can buy the craziest, most harebrained get-rich-quick course out there, but you’re investing if you have a realistic outcome you want to see from that purchase. (I’ll talk later about some ways that could happen.)

Or, you can buy the most conservative, reputable, boring instructional course in existence and be gambling, if you spent your rent money on it because you hoped that it would revolutionize who you are and what you do, and fix all of the problems in your life.

If you find yourself thinking things like, “Maybe this course will work,” you’re gambling.

Because courses don’t work; students do. No one course or product will “do it” for you.

If you don’t know anything about a topic, yet think that buying one product will make you a ninja master at it, you’re gambling.

If you have a deadline in mind for how fast a course’s content “must work, or else,” you’re gambling.

If you’re spending money that you cannot afford to lose on the hope that you’ll quickly earn it back, you’re gambling.

Investing in information, on the other hand, is slower-paced and more laid back. An “investment” goal should feel reasonable. It shouldn’t make you overly nervous. It should be something you could tell your mother about without her suspecting that you’re one of P.T. Barnum’s famous suckers.

And the interesting thing? There are a bunch of ways to invest, and a bunch of desired outcomes. It’s not always about a cash return.
- Some people will invest in a course specifically to see how the creator put the course together, and how he is able to justify the cost.
- Some people will invest in a product simply to get on the radar of the seller, to set up a connection that they might later be able to turn into a working relationship. (This wasn’t my intention when I bought Naomi Dunford’s Online Business School, but that’s what happened. How much did I get from the course? Who knows? But how much did I gain from meeting Naomi? Um, a whole lot.)
- Some people will buy a product with the intention of learning only ONE tiny tip from the whole thing, and then applying that one tip to make back the price of the course. It might be a quick return, but it might also be over a long time.
- I even heard a story once about a person who bought a very expensive product so that once inside the circle, she could have prospecting access to . . . well, to the kind of people who could afford to buy a very expensive product.
Still not sure? Here are my three big rules for the “right” way to invest in an information product, a course, coaching, or a service:

1. Know your intended outcome

Even the most expensive, overhyped purchase isn’t a gamble if you enter into it knowing what you can reasonably expect to get out of it.

It almost doesn’t matter what that outcome is, as long as you know it in advance.

Maybe you want to make your money back over either a short or a long time.

Maybe you simply want to see the seller’s marketing sleight of hand.

Even if you say, “I’m pretty sure I already know most of this information, but spending $2k on it will force me to use it,” you’re going into the game with your eyes open.

Obviously, if you buy better stuff, it’s easier to go in with reasonable expectations of what you’ll get out of it.

2. Buy on value, not price

Dave Navarro took some flack in certain circles over his product How to Launch the **** Out of Your E-Book. The program cost $97, and people were outraged that a PDF could be so expensive. After all, you could go down to the local Barnes & Noble and get an actual paper book for $20!

That’s looking at price, rather than the value of the information being sold.

(And by contrast, because an information product consists of slick-looking MP4s with better special effects than Avatar doesn’t make it worth a dime.)

Don’t look at a file or a stack of CDs and ask, “Is this collection of pixels or bytes, in and of itself, worth X dollars?”

Instead, ask how much having this new information will, over time, allow you to earn. (And I can tell you without a doubt that if you read How to Launch and you actually take the advice he gives, you’re going to learn something that can improve your sales by a lot more than $97.)

3. Take responsibility

The hallmark of gambling may be high risk, but investment has risk, too. Even the soundest purchases can bomb on you.

When you decide to make any investment, own up to that risk. Be willing to lose what you spend.

Not everyone agrees, but my own philosophy is, I don’t hedge my bets going in, saying that if it doesn’t work out, I’ll ask for my money back.

I know, I know . . . this is heresy, but think about what the unconditional guarantee mindset says. It says that you’re putting the onus on the product to work for you, rather than on yourself to implement what’s in it. You’re saying to yourself, “I’ll give it a shot, but no promises.”

I always thought that it would be really annoying to own a restaurant, and have someone send a $30 steak back because they didn’t like it. Was it burned? No. Tough? No. So what was wrong? The customer just decided he wasn’t that hungry. Well, if the problem is on the customer’s end, then why should the restaurant have to eat the cost?

I’ve paid for products, coaching, and services that didn’t work for me, or that I just plain didn’t like. Unless a provider has deliberately lied or unless it’s obviously, demonstrably terrible, I don’t ask for my money back. I’m looking at one such product right now, on my shelf. It cost $1500, and had an unconditional money-back guarantee. I won’t ask for my money back, though, because there’s nothing wrong with the course. The problem is on my end, in lack of implementation.

You take a risk when you invest in anything (or, for that matter, when you eat at a restaurant). If you want to be 100% sure about everything, then honestly, you really shouldn’t be in business.

I don’t want to understate this: Investment is really important. You need helpers and partners if you want to be efficient and effective. You need information on topics that you don’t already know well. You need advice in order to grow.

And let’s not forget that the mere act of putting your money where your mouth is tells your brain that what you’re doing is a livelihood, not a hobby. Investment is a way of pushing yourself to take your business seriously.

Just know what you want to get out of a purchase before pulling the lever on the metaphorical slot machine.

P.S.

Nobody point out that my slot machine metaphor for business is flawed. Of course it is; I’m just being colorful. How exciting would it have been for me to tell the tale of when my grandparents went to Duluth to put a hundred dollars into a low-yield federal bond?

About the Author: Johnny B. Truant drives a flying saucer and invests in low-yield federal bonds. If you dig his mojo, you should join the Charlie and Johnny Jam Sessions for more monthly mojo than you can handle.
12Feb

Is Your Business Getting Enough Love?

Creativity, Internet Marketing No Comments
Like everyone else on the social web, I just read Seth Godin’s new book Linchpin. It’s a big book, not so much in number of pages, but in number of ideas.

One core theme is the idea of emotional labor — bringing more human feeling and connection to your work, some essential part of yourself that can’t be automated or outsourced.

It strikes me that this gets to one of the key distinctions between different models for doing business online.

No matter how you approach business, you’ve got to decide on a topic, and probably niche that down to a viable sub-topic.

So you might be in the fitness business or the beauty business or the writing business or the business business.

One approach has us doing some keyword research within our topic, creating enough good content to rank for those keyword phrases, and then applying a revenue strategy — maybe advertising, maybe an affiliate offer, maybe an ebook.

Simple enough.

The other approach has us creating a blog on the topic, doing a lot of soul searching to figure out our USP and/or our sub-topic, finding some readers who particularly resonate with our approach, understanding who we connect with (and being willing to scare off everyone else), and then making an offer (or series of offers) that bring in money.

The biggest difference isn’t how the revenue comes in, how our site is set up, how we approach SEO, or just where on the “long tail” our keywords are.

And contrary to what you might think, the difference isn’t in how much work we put in. Both approaches take a lot of work.

The difference is emotional labor.

The problem with paint-by-numbers

When you’re starting out, it’s tempting to look for a paint-by-numbers solution.

Something that tells you exactly where to start, what to do, and how to do it. Something that works a lot like a franchise, with a three-ring binder that explains what buttons to push.

The problem with push-button systems is that you can train a robot, or an ultra low-wage worker offshore, to push that button for you.

If the business’s genius resides in the system and not in you, what happens when someone comes along who can push the button 104% more efficiently than you can? Or who can push it at 97% of your cost?

My problem with paint-by-numbers systems isn’t that they lack creativity. My problem is that they’re risky. When you make yourself into a cog, by definition you make yourself replaceable.

Don’t be afraid to bring your best game

Emotional labor is about the part that’s outside the system.

It’s about the part that you can’t train a chimp to do. It’s about the part that wants your creativity, your strange ideas, your ADHD, your intersection of interests, your passion, your giving a damn, your hard thinking.

Simply put, it’s the love that you put into it.

You might pour a lot of emotional labor into maintaining a fantastic relationship with your readers and customers. Or you might pour that energy into making something that’s more useful, more user-friendly. Or you might pour it into developing a market position that no one’s seen before, that fills an old need in a new way.

You might pour it into “all of the above.”

Even if you’re following a system (and I think systems are tremendously useful), it’s when you get outside the system that you start to find real success.

By “success” I mean money, sure. But also satisfaction. The thrill (and terror) of saying, “Actually, I’m much too interesting and complex to be a cog. I’m a human being. Here’s how I help other human beings get what they want.”

Money can’t buy love, but can love buy money?

My favorite technique for competing in a hyper crowded niche?

Make yourself more useful or better-loved. Ideally, both.

Now you don’t have to put your personal life into your blog or business. Some people just aren’t comfortable doing that. They may want to protect their privacy, or it just may feel too awkward and embarrassing.

You get to decide. That’s why you started a business in the first place.

But if you think you might be comfortable putting a little more you into your brand, it can, frankly, be the shortest path between you and success. You don’t have to share every detail of your personal life (and please don’t tweet about the sandwich you’re having for lunch), but it’s very helpful to be a complex and individual human being.

Make a stronger connection. Care more. About your readers, about your customers, and about your own business. I don’t care if you have a four-hour work week or a hundred-hour one. I care about how much love you bring to the work when you get there.

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!

About the Author: Sonia Simone is Senior Editor of Copyblogger and a co-founder of Inside the Third Tribe.
11Feb

14 Lessons Learned from One of the World’s Highest-Paid Copywriters

Copywriting, Internet Marketing No Comments
This is part one of a three-part series on how to profitably translate advice from old-school marketing guru Dan Kennedy to a new online environment.

Dan Kennedy is the Sovereign of Sales Letters. (Or maybe that’s the Duke of Direct Response.) He knows exactly how to deliver a marketing message with maximum clarity and zero confusion. As he’ll readily tell you, he’s one of the world’s highest-paid copywriters. His classic book The Ultimate Marketing Plan promises low-cost ideas and high-profit results.

This book delivers on both counts, and it’s well worth the read. But it was written in 1991, and at first seems like it’s more relevant to a restaurant or dry cleaner than it is to a web-based entrepreneur.

If you have a hard time translating bricks-and-mortar advice to your internet business, well, just be glad we’ve got Copyblogger.

The Ultimate Marketing Plan walks you through the 14 steps Kennedy considers necessary to build a bulletproof marketing plan that can help you to explode your business.

And this post will tell you how to translate those to what you’ve been up to.

Dan Kennedy’s 14 Steps to the Ultimate Marketing Plan

1) Putting together the right message

This is your business’s Unique Selling Proposition, boys and girls.

The principles behind the USP have been talked to death. You can call it the Purple Cow, your market position, your winning difference, or just the answer to Why Should Anyone Read Your Blog?

The reason the USP has been talked to death is that this core idea is essential to effective marketing.

Even though defining your USP is one of the best places to start when you’re building a solid marketing plan, it also seems to be one of the easiest places for people to get lost.

Kennedy defines the USP this way:

When you set out to attract a new, prospective customer to your business for the first time, there is one, paramount question you must answer:

“Why should I choose your business/product/service versus any/every other competitive option available to me?”

Kennedy, in his characteristically cranky style, has also been known to call this “justifying your reason to exist.”

You must know the facts, features, benefits, and promises that your business makes — inside-out, upside-down, backwards, forwards, and sideways. Because if you can’t clearly articulate what makes your business unique, how can you expect anyone else to care?

You will need to crow about your business if you expect it to expand, but it’s pivotal that you are trumpeting the right things.

The right USP coupled with the right offer, especially at the right time and place, is important for any business. For a business fighting for attention with millions of other blogs all over the world, it’s essential.

2) Presenting your message

Regardless of where you choose to market your product or service, there is a right and a wrong way to deliver your message.

According to Kennedy, the customer has five mental steps to take between first contact and completing the sale.
- Awareness of a need or desire
- Picking the thing that will satisfy that desire
- Picking the source for that thing
- Accepting the price/value argument
- Finding reasons to act immediately
Let’s say your particular product is a vacation package that includes a seven-day cruise.

Pictures of an island paradise might spark initial desire, while shots of a cruise ship will put a finer point on the new longing. Information about what makes your company’s cruises different will let the prospect know that you’re the right source to satisfy their craving.

Copy that paints a picture of all the fun to be had as well as the tremendous value of the package, backed by proof (user testimonials and pictures both work great), will serve to convince your prospect that his money will be well spent.

Finally, a special, a limited time offer, or perhaps a coupon or room upgrade, will help to get the deal done today rather than . . . never.

Whether you’re online or off, it’s your job to lead the prospect through these five points. Without clear road signs, your prospect will get lost.

3) Choosing the right audience

Who you don’t serve is every bit as important as who you do. It is always okay to trim the tribe.

Let’s say you’re planning to open a steakhouse. What do you think is most important to a spectacular opening day?
- Elegant decor?
- A well-trained staff?
- Ample parking?
- A robust menu?
- Reasonable prices?
- Delicious food?
The answer: None of the above.

The best thing you could possibly have when cutting the ribbon at your new steakhouse is a starving, steak-hungry crowd with a growl in their collective belly.

Which means you don’t want to send your marketing message to vegetarians or calorie counters.

When it comes to reaching your audience online, you’ve got to find the equivalent of those hungry carnivores.

A blog that tries to speak to everyone will find few, if any, readers. It’s always smart to choose a general topic that’s got wide appeal. But within that topic, the tighter your focus, the easier it will be to grow an enthusiastic base of readers, then customers.

4) Proving your case

It seems every decade makes us more jaded. The Internet has only accelerated the process. Your marketing messages needs to survive a lot of cold, hard skepticism.

Some people might argue that you should never put negative thoughts into your customer’s head.

You won’t be.

You’re simply addressing what’s already there.

You cannot ignore this step. Proving your case will get you a lot farther along on your way to making the sale.

Address objections. Your prospect may desperately want your fantastic online cooking course, but she’s got a list of objections holding her back. Fortunately, we’re no longer in Kennedy’s 1991, where you had to use a photocopied 16-page letter to tackle each objection. These days you can do it in blog posts, email autoresponder sequences, and with virtually any form of social media.

Social proof is key. You’ll notice up there in the left-hand corner, that Copyblogger proudly advertises its 100,000-plus subscribers. That’s not bragging. It’s a decisive emotional trigger. Nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd.

Gather testimonials. Happy, satisfied customers can be a magnet for more. What others say about you will always carry a much higher impact than what you say about yourself. While it’s a great idea to put customer testimonials on your own site, you also want to always be aware of what people are saying about you off your site.

Pictures tell a story. Before-and-after, shots of the product in use, or bright smiles on the faces of satisfied customers. Seeing is believing. If you can prove your point with pictures, you’ll go a long way toward silencing the skeptic. Images can also set a powerful mood, which gives your copy an instant emotional charge.

5) Putting your best foot forward

Like it or not, first impressions matter.

If you run a brick-and-mortar business, make sure your store is squeaky clean. Freshly washed windows and a floor you could eat off of will help to create an environment that’s conducive to sales.

Believe it or not, the same holds true online.

If you’re using WordPress for your business, make sure you’ve got a great-looking theme that’s well optimized for SEO. (As you might guess, we’re rather partial to Thesis.) Even if you’re on a budget, you will still be able to do some basic customization.

Make sure your layout is simple and clean. Emphasize your USP with a strong tagline. Be sure your page instantly conveys how you can benefit your reader and potential customer.

When you can afford it, have someone customize your site in a way that’s unique to you and your business.

Either way, if your website is your business, it should look its absolute best. Fortunately, for a tiny fraction of what bricks-and-mortar businesses pay in rent, you can have a “storefront” that shows you’re serious, professional, and worthy of your customers’ business.

(In case you think I’m not too good at counting, the other 9 lessons gleaned from The Ultimate Marketing Plan will come in two future posts. The links to the book are Amazon affiliate links, which means if you buy it, I’ll be able to buy a pack of gum! Put any of this advice into action and you should get quite a lot more out of the deal.)

About the Author: Sean Platt writes direct response copy, as well as helping authors write, publish and promote their book. Follow him on Twitter.