The Buyers’ Mentality
July 16, 2008 | 2 Comments
Today I read a post from a friend, Corinne Edwards that really make you laugh.
She brought up the issue of chain emails that we receive almost everyday. Whenever we received such emails, often people pay attention to it and more often, believe in it as well.
If you read the readers’ comments of that post, you can see that “fear” is the driving force of people believing what may be hoax. Readers will want to be careful or take precaution, just in case. The “fear” is to avoid pain or suffering.
Now you know a bit of the human psychology of avoiding pain or suffering, you can apply this in your internet marketing campaign.
What is a bigger driving force for people to buy? To avoid suffering or to enjoy pleasure. The majority is avoid suffering.
In your internet marketing campaigns, when you point out a problem or problems, link it to the suffering that the person may be facing now. Eg, feeling humiliated because of ugly acne, or feeling lonely because unable to get a date. Humiliation and loneliness are a form of suffering.
In your salescopy or headlines, link your highlighted problem or problems AND associate it with sufferings. Then link your product or service to solving the buyers’ sufferings. This way, your product or service is so much more enticing to your buyers. Remember, people want to avoid sufferings.
Try this and you can see your online sales improving.
How To Find Hot Selling Products That Really Sells?
July 10, 2008 | 3 Comments
Finding hot selling products on various popular affiliate programs is not difficult. Most of the popular affiliate programs have a ranking system to indicate the salability of the products. But there is a lot of market research to do to find out if these hot selling products are indeed selling. These research are not difficult to do…just that it is tedious.
There are 3 things that you need to do to before you really pick a product to sell:-
1. Does the product satisfy a Want, Need or Problem?
The main reason why people buy is because they want it, they need it or they they have a problem. So the minimum requirement to make a sale is the product must satisfy a Want, Need or Problem. If you don’t understand the product or how it can help the potential customer to satisfy such basic requirements, then you should avoid the product.
Don’t pick a product out of a blue.
2. What is the competition level?
The competition level may indicate the profitability of the market segment or how big is the market. When assessing the competition, make sure that you can sell the product as an authority in it or an expert in it. You should be able satisfy your customers’ wants and needs, fighting competitors and stay in profit. The more “expert” or authoritative you are in the market segment, the bigger market share you can dominate.
3. What is the general demand level of the product?
 Photo by david.orban |
Knowing about the demand level of your market segment is important. This is because it helps to put the competition in perspective. Is the market too saturated with competitors based on the demand level? Or the pie is so big that you can carve a piece out for yourself easily. In putting the numbers and results together, some of the things you need to consider are:- |
- High competition or low competition. Large number of competitors may indicate big market but also mean more intense competition and harder to sell your product. Low competition may mean smaller market or maybe the product has just launched but you can dominate easier.
- In low demand, you may not have enough sales to sustain. High demand may mean more potential sales but competition will increase as well.
Finding the right balance of product offering, market competition and general interest level in the product is more of an art. You have to base on continual testing and past experienced. This is how you build your business acumen. As you do more and more research and put up your product for sale, you will slowly build up a “gut feel” whether the product can sell in particular market segment with certain level of competition and customer demand.
The Importance of Landing Pages
July 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment
You have found your product and are ready to start marketing it. You have all the marketing tools ready email, banners and text ads. Now the last question to ask is where are all your potential customers being directed to?
Are your potential customers being directed to your company’s homepage, your blog or your product page?
Where your potential customer is being directed to will determine your conversion.
 Photo by cambodia4kidsorg |
If you have done your keyword research right, your keywords should be drawing in potential customers who are ready to buy your product. Since their mentality is ready to buy, then their expectation when they click on your link is to get the information or product. Imagine the potential customers expecting some information or solution to their problems but when they visit you, its about your company. The ads and the resulting page does not jive. Or, you advertise for a product to |
solve some problem and yet when they are ready to buy, you lead them to your blog. Now why are you making it so difficult for potential customers to buy from you?
Don’t lead your potential customers in a circle when they are ready to buy. They will lose interest fast and just leave your site.
This is where land pages are useful. Landing pages have many uses that help you to convert your potential customers. Here are some benefits:
1. Landing Pages Help You To Presell Your Product
When potential customers click on your link, they are going to buy IF you really deliver your promise. Landing page is a continuation of your ads, email or banners. This is where you continue your marketing from where you left in the email, ads or banner. If people are willing to click on your link, then there is some interest in your product or services.
| Show them that they really benefit in buying the product. This is where you convince your potential customers that your product or services is what they are looking for. This page is the deciding factor of whether they want to buy or not. The landing page is where those undecided customers get to be convinced that they really want to buy your stuff. With this in mind, you need to have a great landing page. Remember, a good landing page will further emphasize on the customer’s needs and benefits to them. Your ads, email or banner space is limited. They are only used to filter out the masses and attract the attention of people looking for your product or services as a solution. |
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Use your landing page to focus on the specfics of the customer’s needs and benefits which they will enjoy. Once they are convinced, you can lead them to your payment gateway to process their purchase. From your landing page, don’t lead them to other places and get distracted from buying your product or services.
At your landing page, your potential customer should have only 2 options, click to buy or just click to close. So make sure all the relevant information is provided in your landing page.
2. Landing Pages Help You To Compete With Other Affiliates
Many successful affiliate marketers have their own landing page for each of their product or services. Many good merchants provide you with a general salescopy which all the affiliates can use. How do you compete with much experienced marketers?
Photo by Randy Son Of Robert
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You need to build your own compelling landing page. Think about your product, understand the benefits it provides. Analyse which niche can the product be sold. Don’t just sell the product generally. Don’t sell to the market that the merchant advises. Everyone is jumping into that market already. Try to focus on a different niche that the product can sell.
Then you create your own landing page and sell the product to a different niche. You lessen your competitors by focusing on a different niche that other affiliates are not concentrating on.
Now in a different niche, you cannot use the general salecopy that your merchant provides. Use your own landing page and only send them to your merchant’s payment gateway to process your customer’s payment. This way, your potential customers will not be confused with what you promise and what the merchant is offering.
Landing pages are important to your internet marketing. Landing pages are very specific, laser pointed marketing to your potential customers. Do it right and you can see your conversion improve which ultimately lead to improve business.
5 Writing Tips To Be A More Productive Writer
June 27, 2008 | Leave a Comment
The majority of us are not proficient in writing. I remember in my younger days, I hated composition in English as well as in Mandarin. The reason being, I have to write on something that I’m not interested in and have to hit a minimum word count.
In my university days, I hated large reports especially those 3,000 or 5,000 word report that will decide my fate whether I pass or fail certain papers.
 Photo by mezone
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I have been growing up associating negative stuff such as “difficult”, “boring” and “torturous” to writing. This is made worse by all the past teachers’ and lecturers’ ridicule and negative comments on my writing.
Moving forward, I am now blogging and publishing articles to market my sites. I have reached one full circle of hating writing to having to do it for my work. The law of attraction really works. What you don’t like, you’ll attract it! Anyway, that is a different topic altogether…
Now how do I get over my dislikes and difficulties in writing?
First, you need to get rid of your old thinking. It is not as fearful or difficult as you think. Your mind will try and protest and tell you it is difficult because your mind is comfortable with not writing!
Whenever you think it is difficult, say out loudly or shout “STOP!” and say loudly “I can write!”.
Don’t ever think that you can’t write, remove that thinking from your mind and thoughts.
How about language? Well, the good thing is We Are Not In School anymore. The beauty of internet marketing is nobody cares about your grammar in what you publish. As long as it can be understood by a 12 year old, then you are fine. In fact, your grammar deficiencies, if any, brings life into your work. People will find it more believable that it is written by you.
So be confident because nobody is going to point out your grammar mistakes when you publish your blog or articles. Just make sure simple things such as spelling mistakes are corrected. Spelling mistakes is a sign of sloppiness. Any current wordprocessor have a spell check, so use it before you publish.
Now, what are the 5 writing tips that can make you a more productive writer?
1. Discipline
If you are blogging or doing article marketing, writing is your marketing effort, thus, it is your business. You need to discipline yourself to allocate a fixed time everyday to write something. You may or may not finish your writing in a day, that is ok.
 Photo by sa_ku_ra |
You need to discipline yourself because your mind will find you all kinds of minute excuses to do something else. You need to discipline your mind. Tell it, you are the boss and you want to write. Find yourself a quiet spot that you won’t be distracted or alternatively switch off everything and try to concentrate on writing about your topic or your niche. |
Some professional writers even go to the extend of working in an isolated room with no sound or light from outside.
You need to find a working spot at home that you can be left in private to work. If you have an office, then either use the Do Not Disturb sign or close the door.
Allocate the same time each day for your writing. This is to train your mind set to get into the mood of writing whenever the allocated time draws near.
Unless you are a natural writer, I find discipline very important.
2. Identify Your Productive Time Zone
Remember when you work, there are certain time in the day that you are exceptionally alert and your productivity is high? That is your productivity time zone. I find that I work best after breakfast at home and also from 5pm to dinner time. Early afternoon I have problems in concentrating and do things more slowly.
So what is your productive zone?
I used to try a habit of writing my blog post or articles in the afternoon, but I can’t get things done until 5+ when suddenly I hit a turbo button and I could write fast.
Now I write mostly in the morning after breakfast at home. I realised that in the morning I can concentrated easily and get into the writing mood fast and get the work done at shorter time. So that is my habit nowadays. To produce a blog post or article in the morning after breakfast.
You need to try out yourself when is the time that you can concentrate and get into the writing mood fast. Then allocate that time each day as your writing time. This way, you don’t have to waste time making yourself to get into the writing mood.
3. Allocate Reasonable Amount of Time
| In your writing time slot, allocate a reasonable amount of time of 1 to 2 hours. Don’t allocate too little or else you run out of time before you start writing seriously. Writing is like driving a car, when you start with 1st gear, you start from stationary and your speed is slow. As you build momentum, you move up your gears. As you gain more and more momentum and speed, you change gears all the way to 5th gear when you are moving at top speed. |
 Photo by fdecomite |
Likewise, writing you start slow and slowly build up your speed as you write more. So if your time is too short, before you hit 5th gear, you run out of time.
4. Write free flow
As you sit down to start writing, you can start with a simple structure of your post or article. Then you write free flow, ie, just write everything on the topic right off your head. Don’t attempt to disrupt the ideas and points coming out from your mind by proof reading it. Just write everything down, connect your thoughts directly to your pen, pencil or keyboard.
Leave the formatting, paragraphing, commas, fullstop, spelling and grammar for later.
 Photo by angela7dreams |
After you have exhausted all your ideas and thoughts, and are satisfied that you have finished writing, you do your proof reading. This is when you make sure ideas flow from point to point. You will need to reformat your sentences and paragraphs. Rewrite some sentences to change the structure, commas and fullstop to make it more readable. Checking your spelling mistakes or even some grammar mistakes is also done during proof reading. This is the only time that you make your posts and articles readable and presentable. |
If its a blog post or article post, then you may want to search for photos to attach in your post or article.
If you are going to submit your articles to e-zine and newsletter publishers or article directories you can ignore the photos. I would also suggest that you leave your final piece of work alone and re-read it again the next day. This will help you fine tune your articles and pick out mistakes you left out earlier in your proof reading.
You don’t want to let the world see silly mistakes that you missed out doing proof reading, do you?
5. Reward Yourself
After completing your post or articles, remember to reward yourself. We need to re-train our mind that writing is good. In rewarding yourself, you attach a positive association to writing. This will slowly remove the past negative association we have build around writing.
Treat yourself with ice cream, take a nice stroll and enjoy the scenery, have a good meal, or even just a feel good pat on your back. Vary your reward and love yourself for the work you have done.
 Photo by zerojay
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What Indiana Jones Can Teach Us
June 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I just watched the Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It was an great show because for one reason, I’m an Indiana Jones fan. Watching the movie now wasn’t like how I used to watch it for fun when I was much younger. Of course the movie is still fun and entertaining but along the way, there are things which I think people can learn from Indy.
1. When you hit a dead end, look for solution in most unlikely places
In many scenes, not only the latest instalment, when Indy is stuck in a dead end or trap, he will search for a way out or to continue with his quest. He look for clues and search all the unlikely places to find the key to open the dead end or stop the trap. Most of the time, if not all, the key or solution is not in plain sight and requires some thought, analysis and courage to find the hiding place of the key or solution. Normally the solution is very simple BUT he still need to think through it.
In our internet home based business, we often face with a dead end and we don’t get results. What do we do? We keep repeating and repeating the same thing until we give up in frustration. No, the key to your solution is not in plain sight. You need to think through what you had done and analyse it. If what you have been doing doesn’t bring results, either re-think a new way or search for another way. Once you got the way, take courage and use it. Don’t let the previous experience of falling into a trap stop you from using the key you found. This is how Indiana Jones always get out of a dead end or traps. He just get going and don’t count the number of times he fell for the trap!
2. How much of human life is lost in waiting?
This is the quote from prof Oxley while he was witnessing Indiana Jones’ church wedding. If you remember the first Indiana Jones movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark, you will remember Marion’s character. She was jilted by Indy when they are young. Also they were suppose to be married but some how Indiana Jones just left her. We can only guess why.
In the end of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the circle completes with Indiana Jones finally married his love after many decades later. This happy couple could have gotten married when they were younger and enjoyed a more fulfilling life. This was why prof Oxley muttered “How much of human life is lost in waiting?” because so much time had been wasted to do something which you eventually have to do.
In our internet home based business, we get to learn and get exposed to many opportunities to make money online. Granted some are scams but there are also reputable and good teachers out there. Do we hold ourselves back in fear of being scammed? Then you won’t be able to get out of your dead end or trap.
Research and learn from teachers, gurus or experts who have “been there and done that”. They know the way to a successful home based business. They know where are all the traps and dead end and how to avoid them. Learn from them and follow the treasure map they lay out in front of you. They are your prof Oxley to guide you to your Kingdom of Crystal Skull. Don’t wait, just do it. Its just as simple as that.
Remember, you are Indiana Jones in your own life. You discover your own life and treasures along the way while solving your own dead ends and traps. Learn from Indiana Jones and succeed in your internet home based business now!
How To Make Your Internet Marketing Business Stand Out?
June 16, 2008 | 2 Comments
I had just went shopping for new clothes in MetroJaya with my girlfriend. This was not a planned event as we only saw the big sale while we were walking past the entrance of the store.
Since I was looking for a pair of cotton trousers, we decided to walk in and try our luck.
We browsed and tried several pair of trousers and the shopping experience led from buying pants to shirts.
At the end of the tiring but fruitful day, I only managed to get a couple of shirts which my girlfriend was convinced that its a good buy.
We paid at the cashier and left. On our way out, my girlfriend was telling me that the sales staff we met everywhere and the cashier were very polite and accommodating. She said that all the while, the staff there were rude and unhelpful. She said probably the company had finally gave the staff some customer relation training to improve their service.
This got me thinking, hmm yeah the staff were helpful and were friendly and that actually made my shopping experience a pleasant one. I would have left early if I can’t find any trousers while meeting unhelpful or rude sales people. After all, why stay in a place where you don’t feel welcomed.
In all business whether its small, medium or large, customer interaction is the first and only point of contact which will result in a satisfied or unhappy customer. There is truth in people saying that one unhappy customer is worse than having 10 satisfied customers.
How To Post On Your Blog Everyday (Final Part)
June 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Welcome back to my final instalment on how to consistently make a post on your blog everyday. I promised to share with you what is my favourite way of getting ideas for my blog. My favourite way is to “Keep Your Eyes & Ears Open“.
To maintain a blog, you need to also develop a journalistic streak. If you keep a lookout on your daily life, sometimes small things that happened to you or your surroundings can be related back to your topic. This is one my my favourite way of getting original ideas to post in my blogs. Some time, just talking to your friends casually can give you an idea for a topic. You just need to keep thinking how can I relate this to my interest. Believe me…”Like Attract Like”, so even a casual chat with your friends can give you ideas. After all, to be your friend, there must be some common interest.
Carry along a digital camera wherever you go. Sometimes you will see something that catches your fancy. Just take a good shot of it. You can worry about how to put it in your blog later. Its better to collect lots of ideas then sort them out later. As you develop a habit of looking things through the eyes of your topic, you will be able to spot opportunities for you take a photo of something that interest you. If it is interesting to you, then it is related to your passion.
Using photos in your blog can help your readers visualise what you are trying to say. It also adds colour and breaks the monotony of reading blocks and blocks of words.
You can also carry a small notepad to take down certain ideas during the day when you are doing something else. Noting down a brainwave immediately will ensure that you won’t get frustrated at the end of the day trying to remember what you thought about earlier. You can also use your cellular or hand phone with a personal organiser to take the ideas down into your phone instead of using a notepad.
Once you do this as a habit, your daily life will be much interesting because you will be more mindful of what is happening around you and you will get lots of ideas from catching up with your friends, while doing the laundry, grocery shopping, reading a book or even having lunch with your colleagues!
This is more difficult habit to cultivate in the beginning, but once you are used to it, you’ll be able to spot so many things to blog about.
How To Post On Your Blog Everyday (Part 2)
June 11, 2008 | 2 Comments
I’m back to continue on what I left off the last post. Welcome back to learn more on how to post your blog consistently everyday.
3. Search For Forums
This is the same as searching for blogs with similar topic with your own blog. You can search for forums that discusses about problems, issues or just to share and update each other on current issues. Forum is a great place to get an idea of what difficulties people face. It is also a source of discussion on how to resolve the problems raised by members or to get a deeper understanding of the topics involved.
Learning the problems and getting the solution to those problems is a good post for your blog. People are always searching for solutions to their problems. Once you understand the underlying problems or issues and have a workable solution to it, you can even do a 2 post series. The first post to highlight the problems or issues. The 2nd post provide the solution. This way, you also create suspense and readers’ anticipation for more information.
Reading forums is also a good way to build your knowledge on your interest or passion. You will be able to learn more when you participant and ask questions or discuss with other members.
Take some time to read the forums first, and assess if the topics raised are inline with your interest. Once you are comfortable with the forum, you can join as a member and slowly participate in the discussion and also help out those who have problems. This is again making friends through the forum. Having friends in forums can also help you to attract traffic to your blog to increase your readership.
4. Read Magazines and Newspapers
Magazines and newspapers are a good source of current issues. You can subscribe to a specialised magazine that is inline with what you love, eg a car enthusiast will subscribe to a few car magazine to read up on what’s hot now or to learn more technical stuff.
How To Post On Your Blog Everyday
June 10, 2008 | 3 Comments
Every blogger will face a challenge to blog everyday. Some bloggers will have a ton of info and have to sort out the better ones to post. Some may not have as much info and will struggle to keep posting everyday. Then they space out the time between posts and as each time frame between each post increases, they will finally give up blogging.
So how do you keep writing and posting everyday?
There are many ways to researching for content for your blog. But before we proceed, the first and most crucial step is to understand yourself. Take some time and think about what is your interest. What do you have passion for? It may be buried deep inside you laying dormant because of all the stress and workload at your office has caused you to give up or forget about your interest and passion when you were young. So take a weekend off your daily routine, let your mind be free and explore the inner child in you again.
Once you have discovered your long lost interest or passion, you have automatically defined your blog theme. Why is it so important to blog about your interest or passion? Your passion or interest is the undying flame within you that will keep you going, even though the going gets tough. There will be times when you will hit dry spell of words or content, but those are just temporary dry spots which will not extinguish the spark within you.
Because you are blogging about something that you love, you will enjoy researching more or learning more about your niche. You will gain more experience in it. We will pursue to deepen our knowledge in what we enjoy even though there is no monetary rewards. Take artists as an example. Many artist draw because they love to draw. and if you sit them down, they can go on and on about their experience etc.
If you really don’t have any info, experience to share in your blog, then you can do the following to research for info:
Fabian Lim’s World Internet Academy
June 6, 2008 | 5 Comments
This weekend I’m starting my training to be a certified mentor for Fabian Lim’s World Internet Academy. World Internet Academy is an multilingual internet marketing training portal which teaches people how to create and sustain online business.
World Internet Academy training will cover 6 modules namely Market Research, Website Creation, Traffic Generation, Website Conversion, Create Affiliate Programs & Joint Ventures, and Automation & Tracking. Any student armed with this training will have the know-how to start a home based business on the internet successfully.
Being a certified mentor for this program I’ll be able to assist students both online and offline to progress on their internet marketing business.
Stay tuned for more updates on this exciting portal.
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