Posted by:
Julie McManus
May 25, 2007
Issue #134
We Interrupt This
Regularly Scheduled Program
for a Shameless Plug of The Total Package
Affiliate Program …
Dear Business Builder,
Happy Friday! Frankly it never ceases to amaze me the shear amount of opportunities there are to make money on the net. Everyday, I see new and different ways regular folks (like you and me) are quietly earning fantastic fortunes online.
But the truth is many of them are still making a healthy living through affiliate marketing.
And the beauty of marketing affiliate products, is you can do it full time or part time; you can earn a little extra spending money or amass great wealth … it’s entirely up to you.
Plus, here’s a little secret … you don’t even have to have a website. But, if you do have a website and are selling your own products or services, affiliate products are a fantastic way to boost your income.
No matter your passion, expertise or hobby there’s an affiliate program out there to match … and if that passion happens to be copywriting and direct response marketing, boy have I got you covered!
Consider Yourself Personally Invited to Join
The Profit Center™ Affiliate Team and
Start Earning Cash Immediately!
As a Profit Center™ Affiliate Team Member, you can start offering your website visitors the most effective response-boosting and business-building tools available online – all developed or endorsed by Clayton Makepeace. Frankly, Clayton is a certifiable content freak! He created The Total Package to provide the very best small-business marketing tools available anywhere.
Our mission is to offer high quality marketing products packed with tips, tricks and techniques that boost response in the real world – and that will help you and your website visitor’s get bigger winners more often. And, every member of The Profit Center™ team is honored to be your partner in innovating powerful ways to attract new customers … in boosting sales to each customer … in creating quantum growth for you … and in multiplying your profits.
As a Profit Center™ Affiliate Team Member, you’ll earn 25 – 50% on each and every Profit Center sale you make. Plus, when you recommend The Total Package e-zine, each and every person that opts in to receive the newsletter is flagged with your personal affiliate information – that means no matter when your referred subscriber buys a product, you’ll earn the commission. And because of our unlimited cookies, you’ll also earn the same commissions on each subsequent sale made to your original customer.
We are dedicated to your success, that’s why The Profit Center™ Affiliate Program goes way beyond our generous commissions …
(more…)
Posted by:
Carline Anglade-Cole
May 24, 2007
Issue #133
(How to overcome negative emotions
and write copy that sizzles!)
So you just landed that cushy copywriting assignment.
Still can’t believe it, but you actually convinced the client you’re the best writer for the job. They bought your sales pitch – hook, line and sinker …
… Sent you a check for 50% of the advance (which you already spent) …
… And now UPS just delivered your copywriter research kit.
Now, what do you do?
Well, if you’re like me, you start to develop a knot in the pit of your stomach …
… Then more knots – big, heavy, METAL ones – start growing … and growing in your chest. And it gets harder to breathe. Your chest hurts so bad, you can only take short breaths — anything deeper would probably kill you …
… So you head for the kitchen cabinet searching for your emergency stash of brown paper bags ‘cause you’re starting to hyperventilate …
… And as you sit on the cold, tile floor … breathing in and out of the bag … that little cassette (or CD if you’re under 30) in your head starts to play that familiar song …
(more…)
Posted by:
Daniel Levis
May 23, 2007
Issue #132
In this issue:
- Why conventional copywriting wisdom is wrong when it comes to putting your prospect in pain and then coming to the rescue…
- What turns your target buyer on most when they read your copy — more than benefits, more than promises?
- The secret to making the information you’re selling almost irresistible to your best prospects…
- Why great products alone don’t assure repeat business, and how to keep customers for life…
- Plus more!
Dear Business Builder,
Last week, I told you that sometimes it was necessary to focus people on their failings, insecurities and dissatisfactions in your copy and marketing… even twisting the knife a little to create as much contrast as possible between the promise of your product and your prospect’s current situation.
The ancient selling axiom — no problem, no sale — is absolutely true. There are a great many selling situations where you should not be shy about agitating your prospect’s fears and frustrations before inspiring their dreams.
But there is a potential pitfall you need to be aware of …
Info-marketing Success Key #6 –
Indirection and Soft Suggestion
It’s human nature to revolt against criticism. We don’t generally like to be reminded of our fears, faults and failings. Often, we put up walls against those who try to point them out to us.
You, as an information marketer, may not wish to put yourself in such a position. You may want to build a bridge of rapport, not a wall of alienation. Fortunately, there is a proven formula that allows you to slip in under the radar and accomplish both goals.
Ironically, this method flies in the face of what you may have been led to believe…
One of the first things you learn in copywriting 101 is to write predominantly in the second person. The great copywriter Ted Nicholas has a little litmus test that goes something like this: Go through your copy and count the number of times you see the word “you” and derivatives thereof, and compare that with the number of times you see the word “I” and derivatives thereof, and then eliminate as many of the latter as you possibly can.
The thinking behind this little exercise is sound, at least in theory. It is based on the truth that we are all self-absorbed creatures who love to read about ourselves.
And of course, the word “you” and its derivatives satisfy that need quite nicely. But in practice, writing in the second person can backfire when you’re trying to intensify your prospect’s awareness of a problem.
Suppose you want to open a wound and twist the knife a little in order to focus your prospect on an emotional void in her life that she desperately wants filled. Is it wise to say, “Feel like you’re ready to break down and cry, because no matter how hard you try you just can’t seem to keep the weight off?”
Or would it be better to tell a story about yourself and how you overcame the same struggle?
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Posted by:
Troy White
May 22, 2007
Issue #131
In this issue:
- How to create numerous highly targeted product or service offerings with a simple realtor example
- Small Business Mastery readers speak out!
- Boosting the bottom line fast
- Making more money with fewer clients
- And Much More!
Fellow business builder,
We definitely hit a hot spot! Thank you for your excellent response to the last two weeks articles “How To Write Lead Generation Display Ads” and the "Turning Your Leads Into Buyer" article.
I wanted to address a few of the comments that were left by you, because the readers of this newsletter are what make it tick!
Helen wrote: “Great information. How do you feel about realtors' personal branding in the same context? The herd mentality demands a headshot and blah, blah, blah about service or "free home evaluation."
Hi Helen! If you are a realtor, please don't hold what I am about to say against me :o) Realtors make me laugh. Most – not all. There is a definite ‘can it and clone it' approach to getting your realtors license.
They all do the same kind of websites… the same kind of business cards… the same kind of note pads… the same postcards… the same newsletters… the same kind of this… the same kind of that… and so on.
I have spoken with many realtors over the years about this – and they seem to just glaze over and completely ignore anyone else's advice.
Why? I have no idea.
But there are a few that I have worked with that actually listened and tried something new (a novel concept actually trying to be different).
One lady advertises herself as "The Pet Lovers' Realtor"
In a city of well over a million people she is the ONLY one doing this. Hmmmmm… ya think there might be a few pet lovers looking to move homes? Of course there are.
And she can target them like a LASER with this kind of niche marketing.
Which she does.
She puts photos of her with her own pets in the newspapers, on bus stops, PET MAGAZINES! and classifieds for pets. She “gets it” – the other 4,000 realtors in my city don't. They come up with these lame excuses – “well I don't want to just focus in on pet owners – maybe my next million dollar commission deal will come from someone who hates animals (that kind of silly excuse).
I repeat: she is the ONLY ONE in a city of a million people and 4,000 competitors that does this! Enough said. No wonder she's been running ads with the same title for many years now. No wonder she is still in business as a realtor when 80% of them flop big time every year. No wonder that the realtors whining about not niching themselves are always whining about something to do with “not enough quality leads”.
(more…)
Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
May 21, 2007
Issue #130
- The power-packed USP every promotion should share – and yet almost everybody overlooks it …
- Four steps that will double any company’s revenues in 12 months …
- The two critical objectives every customer promotion must accomplish …
- Why contacting your customers more often can actually boost your response …
- Four simple rules that send customer loyalty, response and lifetime value through the roof
- And much, MUCH MORE!
Dear Business Builder,
My name is Clayton Makepeace and as I’ve confessed before, I’m a Googleholic.
Sometimes I Google myself two, even three times a week. Searching for myself on the Web helps me see how The Total Package is being received around the world.
But last week, it really did turn out to be an exercise in self-abuse.
Up comes an entry on my buddy Michel Fortin’s Copywriters Board entitled “Breaking the Spell.”
Evidently, the lady who started the thread – we’ll call her “Anita Chill” – objects to the way I write my Total Package articles.
A short excerpt …
“ … Clayton Makepeace …really exasperates me. In his newsletter, he too often puts his ego on display.
“Here's an example. In the latest issue of his newsletter, he describes five writing problems that hold back his copy cubs.
First comes Fred's problem: He can't get started. Next comes Wilma's problem, over thinking. Next comes Barney's issue: "me too" headlines. Next, Betty buries the lead. Finally comes Dino…
“Well, maybe I'm slow, but at that point I realized that he was using the characters' names from "The Flintstones," and what happened because of him being unable to resist the urge to be smart was something that fiction teachers and critics call ‘breaking the spell.’
“Instead of the copy having me following along in a trance with the content of what Makepeace was saying (which is normally what a copywriter or any other kind of writer wants to be happening), this technique broke the spell and Makepeace himself, the person, jumped off the page and yelled, ‘See how clever I am!’”
“Uh-oh,” thinks I to myself, “Fiction teachers and critics say I goofed in that article. Those are some pretty formidable authorities!”
“After all – fiction teachers and critics must make – what? Forty, maybe even fifty thousand a year? Heck. I betcha fiction teachers and critics at Harvard must make a hundred grand a year!
“Plus, I’m just a high school dropout and they have college degrees! Maybe I should change my whole approach to writing. Or better yet, stop sharing my ideas in The Total Package. Or maybe retire altogether!”
And so, with my ego shriveling like a (pick your body part) in a pair of cold Speedos, I scrolled down to read the comments that followed.
And sure ‘nuff, that first post was just the beginning of the insults to come …
Next thing you know, another writer is shouting “Amen!” Says he’s annoyed that my personality shines through in these articles …and that he cancelled his Total Package subscription as a result.
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