Robert Plank

My question to you today is: What's your goal for next month, as in how much money do you plan on making?

Is it consistent with your previous months?

In 2008 I logged several $10,000 months and several $15,000 months. But I've only broken above the $20K per month glass ceiling once or twice... so when we were in Hawaii, I said to Jason, "Let's make sure that in February 2009, we both make at least $30,000 profit that month."

Do you think I'll fail or do you think I'll succeed?

I don't want to reveal too much, but here's what my personal plan is:

• Co-host two e-classes, one at the beginning and one at the end of that month.
• Launch one new product per week.
• Launch one new resale rights offer per week.
• Re-launch one existing product per week.

I've never been that great at pay-per-click, joint ventures, recruiting affiliates or any of that good stuff, so the above plan will have to do.

I already have product #1 for the month finished, now I'm busting my butt to get a bunch of trivial stuff out of the way, so it dosen't take up my time during the $30K Month.  Here's what I have to get out of the way in the next 48 hours:

• Record the rest of my weekly Daily Seminar videos... through the end of December 2009.  (I only have content scheduled up to September 2009).
• Solve all the issues people are having with Action PopUp conflicting with other plugins. (Don't want to be overwhelmed with customer support next month.)
• Get Daily Seminar listed for sale on SitePoint. (I don't want to have to wait until March to put it up for sale.)

So, will I meet my goal?  $30k per month is just $1071 per day.  What is your goal for next month?  Comment below and please be honest.  No one will make fun of you if it's only $3k or $1k or $300...

Whatever you do, don't read this blog post.

While you're at it, do your best NOT to think about a giant, fuzzy polar bear.  Standing on a tiny little iceberg.  Floating in the ocean.  Drinking a bottle of Coke.

You can't do it?  (At least most of you can't.)  Most of  you probably pictured a polar bear... and even if you couldn't you thought about what that polar bear, standing on the iceberg, drinking a Coke, would look like.

Your subconscious cannot process negatives.  If you have a sales letter with phrases like, "Don't delay" ... guess what... people are going to think about delaying BEFORE they can think about what the opposite of that means.

Jason and I are both marketing nerds but he is definitely way more of a copywriting nerd than I am.  When the four of us were in Hawaii having dinner, he blurted out, "By now, you must be wondering..."

Great copywriting phrase.  Not only does it make people think "by now" ... it makes sure they read the copy before that sentence.  It focuses the selling on "them" and reminds your prospect that you are thinking of them.

In that same conversation we also nailed the fact that the subconscious can't process negatives.  So, something you can do today in 5 minutes or less is: open up the sales letter for your most popular product... search for negative words like not, don't, can't, cannot, couldn't, wouldn't, shouldn't, stop... and rewrite them quickly.

I'm definitely not over agonizing over sales copy, but this is a quick way to increase conversions.

The other day somebody bought one of my high ticket ($97) and we talked a little bit back at forth over e-mail.  His signature link led to a killer non Internet Marketing niche squeeze page with a walk-on video, great headlines, perfect heatmap positioning... all the right stuff.

The walk-on video did a very good job of convincing me to opt-in and I was about to, just out of curiosity.  But one of the very last sentences in the video was: "There's no reason you shouldn't sign up."

Oops... I processed the phrase, "You shouldn't sign up" ... didn't feel quite right, and left the page seconds later.

Want to know something funny?  In my Fast Food Copywriting sales letter, I used to have the word "not" in the copy 14 times, "don't" 7 times, and "can't" 3 times.  I just spent 60 seconds editing them all out.  I never said I was perfect, just that I can write average sales copy very quickly.

Can you take a second to check your own sales copy, and see how many "nots" "don'ts" ... "nevers"... and other negative words you have in your sales copy?  (A quick way is to paste your sales copy into a text file and replace the word " not " (not including the quotes but including the spaces) with nothingness just to see how many results show up.

You're probably too embarrassed by that number to post below, aren't you?

Keep reading for a 10 second exercise that will boost your productivity...

I bought a laptop before the Hawaii trip, because I've been on planes before to go to seminars and hate the waiting on the plane, where you're not able to move around much.  I'd have so many ideas for articles, but all I could do was write down the chapter titles on a piece of paper.  I definitely wasn't going to write out articles by hand and retype them... total waste of time and easy way to get bored.

So, I bought a laptop for the flight.

If you've met me at seminars you've probably never seen me with a laptop.  That's because for me, seminars were my only downtime from computer.  I don't take nights and weekends off, I sure as heck wasn't going to do MORE marketing during my only vacation.  I'd queue up lots autoresponders and e-mails before the trip so my business wouldn't take a hit.

I like to sit down at my computer, get my marketing work done, then get off the computer.

So why did I buy a laptop?  Wouldn't that wreck that system?

Nope... because I'm making an effort to exert some self control.  I set a simple rule in my head that I'm only going to use the laptop in 14 minute spurts, to either write articles or whip up PowerPoint presentations for videos.  No browsing forums or checking e-mails.

How do YOU get self control?

It's simple.  Pick a task that takes up most of your time and kills your productivity:

1. Checking e-mails, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc.
2. Reading forums.
3. Watching TV or playing computer games.
4. Leaving the computer too much.
5. Incoming phone calls.

Then choose one thing you wish you did more every day:

1. Write one blog post or article.
2. Write one chapter of an e-book.
3. Write one sales letter.
4. Write autoresponder e-mails.
5. Send a joint venture proposal.

Now you're not allowed to do that one habitual productivity-killing task at ALL (the number you chose), until you do the thing on your wishlist (the letter you chose).

If you chose "1" and "A" then your 1A productivity task is to write one blog post before you even check e-mails.  You turn your compulsion into an advantage... uh oh, someone might have e-mailed me something important.  There might be a pressing customer service issue waiting... better write up a blog post and PUBLISH or SCHEDULE IT (important... finish what you start) before you can check that e-mail.

Sure, you tell yourself you're only going to check for new e-mails, but you'll start deleting and archiving some, replying to others, and the next thing you know it, 30 minutes have been wasted and you still don't have that article.

Or if your big habit is checking the forums, and you have a sales letter to write, then you need to be on a 2C schedule today.  Finish that sales letter and have it live on the page with the order button, or submitted to your client (whichever applies) before you check the forums.

Multi-tasking is a productivity killer.  Switching gears is a productivity killer.  Be aware of this, like I was when I bought my first ever laptop.

Finally, in 2008, I decided to quit my day job.  I haven't quit yet because there are a few things I need to do, but I answered Eric Holmlund's day job quitting questionaire, and in the Daily Seminar I've already scheduled a video explaining the way I determined scientifically when I should quit my job.

Now on to the questions... you should answer these questions too, if you need to know if it's time to quit yet!

1) Is your job hurting you?
No, actually it includes a training budget which has beefed up my resume and is giving me the initial 3-5 years of experience I'll need if I fail and need to get another job.

2) Do you have a vision and a solid plan for your business?
Definitely.  I won't go into detail but I have a few high ticket items and webinars mapped out.

3) Do you already have a written goal for quitting your job?
Yes.  I'll be out after March 2009, but before the end of June 2009.  I want to have $60K in savings by then but even $30K will work.

4) Are you committed to the business? (Required)
The past five years would say so!  I have been working on my business during my lunch break at work, after work, and every day on weekends.  My girlfriend helps motivate me, and my accountability partner motivates me.

5) What do you have to lose? (If you have little or nothing to lose, it’s a good time to quit)
Not much to lose.  It might be tough to get re-hired somewhere else.  I could lose my house but I have savings. Worst case scenario, I could sell off some resale rights.  Worst-worst-case scenario, I could freelance to get some quick money.

6) How long will your savings last?
With my current lifestyle: 6 months.  If I cut everything down to the bone, 8 months.  So right now I could last till June 2009 or August 2009... just that fact alone makes it seem STUPID to keep working.

7) How much income is your business bringing in?
Last year, just over $100,000.  My monthly expenses are under $4000, so I am making more than double what I need every month.

*Quit your job and go full time at the point where your business is bringing in the minimum that you need to make ends meet.

What are you willing to sacrifice?
I have no problem cutting back on the seminar travel or not going out as often.  I

9) Do you trust your gut? (And is it usually right?)
I trust it, and it's almost always right.

10) Will you dare to do what others only dream of?
Yes.  My day job makes me feel extremely isolated.  I want to hang out with friends more often, I want to get a laptop and hang out with my nephew before he grows up.

Can you do me a favor and answer any of these questions for yourself?  You don't need to answer every single question, just the one that's most important to you.

A while ago I dealt with a guy on a public message board (not the one I usually frequent) who said something along the lines of this:

I've never seen a sales letter actually implement any of this JavaScript or PHP interactive sales letter stuff.

Every time I see one of these sales pages, I check out the site for every person leaving a testimonial.  The truth is that nobody is actually using this stuff... is it a case where the emperor has no clothes?

What a dumbass question!

What proceeded was, several of us replied to him but he seemed to be off in his own little world.

Guess what, if you go to the Clickbank marketplace and choose the top sellers in ANY niche... most of them use some sort of pop-up, lead capture, survey, peel away ad, walk on video, or chat agent setup.

Most of what goes on is invisible to you because they'll use all kinds of personalization, landing pages, dynamic autoresponder follow-ups, sublisting, and all that.

If you are trying to tell me that adding PHP has no affect on your sales, or hurts them?  Gimmie a break!

You can still sell a product with good copy and no PHP and JavaScript tactics.  But good copy plus PHP scripts?  Unstoppable!

You could add an exit pop-up to turn lost sales into opt-ins.  Or simply add a countdown timer or interactive sales letter... it's up to you.