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Strategy vs. Tactics: How to Give Yourself an Instant Pay Raise By Getting to the Root of Your Marketing Problems WITHOUT Resorting to Cheap Gimmicks!
I thought I was so clever. Back when I was a teenager, I had what I thought was a great idea... write an e-book teaching how to program PHP scripts for web pages, load a bunch of tools onto a "three inch CD" for 20 bucks and sell a million copies.
Have you seen those 3-inch CD's? Basically, when you load a CD disc onto the CD tray, there's a smaller "indent" where a smaller sized CD fits. Here's where I thought had hit the jackpot: a three inch CD would fit into a standard sized envelope and would mail with just one stamp.
There's only a few gaping flaws with that line of thinking and that's...
- People weren't going to buy my product "just" because it's on a CD
- That time I "might" have spent burning CD's and mailing them would be better spent: improving the product, the copy, the advertising, even making more products
- Delivering a "real" product, digitally, with an instant download, would take up zero time, with zero cost, and customers would get the product instantly after buying
My mentor at the time (Teresa King) told me to test the product online first. If it sold well and people were actually ASKING for a physical version, and were willing to pay more to justify the cost, then it would be a hit...
What's the moral of the story? Mailing a product on a disc isn't a business model, and it's probably the LAST thing you should think about... only after a product is already selling, and even then, that's one of those little "gimmicks" you add to get a 1% or 2% boost to your profits. It's a TACTIC, not a STRATEGY.
Be very very careful about relying on too many tactics to make money. You'll market yourself into a corner and wonder where it all went wrong, and here's why...
Superstitious Marketing!
Has anyone given you "weird" marketing advice like this?
- Always price your products ending in "7"... like 27, 49, 97!
- Always put the text "Add to Cart" on your order buttons
- Always have an orange order button and nothing else
- Only email your list once per week
- Run a "dime sale"
- Don't ever launch a product unless you have testimonials
Here's what happened: someone had a successful sales letter and a winning product, so they decided to run some split tests... send half their traffic to the $17 price, half to the $19.95 price. Half of their traffic to the blue order button, half to the orange order button.
These gurus have given you a list of "best practices" to put onto your website so that you don't have to start from scratch. Have this white background. Use that red headline. Place your testimonials in little blue boxes.
What's the problem? Poor misguided newbies (and not-so-newbies) see this list of best practices and think... if I make sure my video autoplays on this web page, if I have a 30-day guarantee... then I can put any old piece of crap on the market, and it will sell!
Can I told you what I did years ago to dramatically boost my product sales?
- I limited the number of digital copies of my product I was selling... and it worked ONCE!
- I warned about (and then increased) the price of my product... and it worked ONCE!
- I increased the price with every sale... and it worked ONCE!
- I added a countdown timer... and it worked ONCE!
These tactics boosted sales, but they weren't the ONLY reason I made sales. It enhanced something that was already selling (mostly by making it novel and newsworthy) . If you put out a bad product that doesn't work, or no one wants it, or no one needs it, then these gimmicks won't help you. And even if they do, they only work once or twice before your audience gets used to it and you have to think of a new gimmick.
Could your webinar convert better? Is your sales letter not selling? Here's an idea... learn selling. THE FUNDAMENTALS.
Why Your Sales Letter Isn't Selling
I can look at most sales letters and in seconds, notice at least 10 BASIC things that hurt sales. Fix them and you'll notice an improvement, keep those things in mind for your next launch and it'll pay off again and again...
- Is your headline interesting enough to pull me in and get me to keep reading your web page?
- Do you identify the serious problem that brought me to your web page, align with my values and then transition into the solution, your product?
- Do you CLEARLY introduce your product and only ask for the sale once you've explained what it is? (once you're "earned the right to sell to me")
- Can you find large chunks of text that you need to break up into smaller paragraphs, add bullet points, headlines, and graphics to make it easier to read?
- Is your copy "story heavy" (too much story before introducing the offer) or "offer heavy"? (explaining the offer without building its importance up first)
- Do you have multiple links and buttons on the page that your visitors can click – that drops them down into your order form area?
- Do you have an offer stack where you list all the components of your course in one single place, building up the total value and then revealing the low price?
- Do you clearly explain what price people will pay? (don't make them click through to find out, just freaking tell them)
Do you see what I mean? Very basic things that will help you much more than running an automated webinar, adding a countdown timer, ending your price in $9.99. You'll actually make improvements to your web page that make sense.
If you want to add your picture to that sales letter or not, up to you. If you want to add a logo, I would, and it's increased conversions, but it's up to you. Giant red headline with quotes around it? Be my guest.
An autoplay audio button has always given me a tiny conversion boost. A graphical representation like a 3D cover or 3D box would be awesome... but a polished turd is still a turd!
It's not just sales letters. I once attended a webinar where the presenter was inexperienced, nervous, afraid to sell at the end, messed everything up by offering a Q&A session at the end, and lasting for 3 hours when 1 hour would have done the job.
You could tell by his energy level on the call, and by his email follow-up sequence afterwards, that the webinar didn't sell. Instead of figuring out WHY it didn't sell (strategy), he resorted to the gimmicks (tactics) and spent a week editing the recording to remove all the "umm's", discounted the price, made every mistake and still wondered why it didn't sell.
Real Live Case Studies to Back It Up
I can think back to story after story where... we were selling a 4-module course on WordPress that wasn't selling, I recorded a 12-minute video in the middle of the night showing one single plugin that was part of the course, and woke up to over $16,000 in PayPal the next morning... because I discovered what the marketplace was demanding, and adjusted my marketing so that it made it clear that I was the one to give it to them...
Years ago, Lance and I launched a course on membership sites that we thought wouldn't sell. We were hoping for ten to twenty thousand dollars in sales over a 2 week period. The marketplace wanted a "drip content" plugin at the time, that was our positioning, and BOOM! Over $35,000 in sales in the first 5 hours...
And another time, we launched our outsourcing course explaining how at the time, I'd had over 1.3 million words (something like 150 hours) of audio turned into articles, reports, products, and books. The problem? No one cares about YOUR 1.3 million words, and no one is ASKING to have 1.3 million words transcribed. Instead, we switched it to a short PowerPoint video demonstrating how if anyone had just 3 minutes, they could create an article, chapter, or blog post. Finally, something people needed, wanted, were asking for, willing to pay money for, that was powerful, easy, and fast, that we could provide.
Would we have turned any of those launches around by adding a "FAQ section" or a countdown timer? Without actually fixing the REAL problem? I doubt it.
Just something to think about.
016: Use Video with Camtasia, FreeMind, PowerPoint, and YouTube to Make Money Online
Go ahead right now and check out the reason why I was able to quit my job, create a full time income and shortcut months into minutes by clicking the record button, showing a few things on my screen, clicking the "Save" button and turning it into money.
"How to Use Video to Make Money Online" FREE Report
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Topics covered...
- How to create a video sales letter (plus the 3 things most video sales letters leave out)
- Technical details (the software and hardware I use for everything from small tutorials to full blown products)
- How to even turn scary things like "presenting webinars" into a total breeze and repeat the formula over and over again
- How to personally connect with your best customers, clients, prospects, mentors, joint venture partners, and more!
Listen right now and leave a quick comment letting me know what you thought of this week's show. Comments will be closed after 50 comments, the transcript will be posted after 10 comments (although it may take a few days for the transcriber to deliver it for me).
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Fixed-Term Payment-Plan Membership Sites: Why No One Wants Your $9.95/Month Interview Site (and How to Make “Retirement Money” from One Site)
It really chaps my hide. When I see someone taking forever to write a long book, instead of writing an "e-book" that doesn't help anyone and only makes you $10 per sale... instead of trading your time for money with a 1-on-1 coaching program... my answer is to create a membership site. But what chaps my hide is that the number one reason people hesitate or avoid membership sites altogether is because they think a membership site means MONTHLY CONTENT!
"Writing" or "recording" consistent monthly content, or creating a "constant stream of products" is probably the worst way to make money. You might as well be writing articles for $5 per hour, coaching on the phone all day for $10 per hour or setting up hundreds of Made-For-AdSense sites that only generate $1 per year in income.
The Problem Is: There's No Room to Grow
(But I Have the Solution For You)
When you create monthly content, you're constantly struggling and working just to MAINTAIN the same level of income. That's no good. You stop and the money stops. Wouldn't it be better for the money to keep flowing in, and you only put in extra time when you want to INCREASE that level of income?
Everyone brand new to making money online tells me their goal is $10,000 a month. $10K monthly is more money than they know what to do with. It would pay off a mortgage, debt, travel, family, and make for a very comfortable full time income anywhere in the world.
The logical conclusion is... if I want $10,000 every month, I "only" need to get 1,000 people to pay me $9.95 per month. Simple, right?
This is backwards thinking. Your only idea so far is a number (the price). Then you think... I'll choose a niche like dog training, I'll create about a year's worth of videos, articles, tips, audios, resources and drip it out. And THEN... I'll schedule thought leaders in my niche (other dog trainers) and record another interview every month. That way I won't have to do any work creating the content month after month.
- People will join and never cancel... right?
- I can hide and they'll automatically pay month after month... right?
- Anyone has 10 dollars every month to spare, so I can add whatever I want in the site... right?
Unless your site delivers a service that peoples' businesses absolutely depend on (like web hosting, webinar service, an email autoresponder, payment processor) then your interview site is a LUXURY site, and it's the first thing they'll cancel!
By the way, you don't want to provide a mass-market monthly service (like an autoresponder) for several reasons. First, it's very competitive and hard to compare/differentiate/beat multi-million dollar companies like Amazon.com, Aweber, GetResponse, InfusionSoft, and more. Second, there are just too many expenses involved and it's tough to make a profit. Third, you become a commodity! If your web host is down for 1 hour in a month, people quit. If you charge $9/month and someone else charges $8/month, and it's easy for people to switch, they quit!
A monthly service won't cut it, an interview or "tips" site won't cut it, so what will? A fixed term membership site that solves peoples' problems! More on that in a minute.
Here's why "monthly forever" (continuity) sites also don't make sense from a marketing and copywriting perspective: what about Month Five?
Tell me about your monthly dog training interview site. You have two choices. Either you can leave the details out and say... just pay me monthly for this site, it's just 30 cents a day. Or, you tell me about your upcoming training... which is great for the first month...
But what happens when you'll be able to stop your dog from pooping on the carpet by the end of the fifth month. Really? I have to wait 150 days, 20 weeks, for that?
You're either trying to solve a non-urgent problem (something where I can wait two months), or you are solving an urgent problem but you're taking too long to get to it.
You can make money from a never-ending monthly interview site, but the reason people buy (and stay) is because they're buying based either your personality (they buy everything you release anyway) or they buy for LUXURY of getting new ideas and distractions. These are only the top 1% of your subscribers, so most of them aren't buying (no matter what you do), and you're giving your best stuff away for 10 bucks!
This is the solution:
Step #1: Choose the End Result
Know your marketplace well enough to uncover how to make ALL THEIR DREAMS come true within a VERY FOCUSED SUB-TOPIC within 21 days.
The key here is to deliver TANGIBLE results but also deliver something people want. For example, in 21 days from now, you can have an affiliate program completely setup including tools, traffic, and automatic marketing.
Step #2: Outline the Course
Break that 20 day plan into four milestones, one every 7 days, including TODAY! Each milestone is about 1-2 hours of training. Not five minutes, not all day, just 1-2 hours. That means I can show you...
- Milestone 1 (how to get the affiliate program online) the day you get it, on day 1
- Milestone 2 (connect the affiliate program to a membership site) comes on day 7
- Milestone 3 (setup on multiple affiliate marketplaces) on day 14
- Milestone 4 (re-launch your affiliate program) on day 21
I show you how to create a podcast (internet radio show). Module 1, setup and submit to iTunes. Module 2, create longer podcasts with music and graphics. Module 3, market the podcast on social media and special directories. Module 4, how to make money with that podcast.
These are almost always screen capture videos (show your screen and speak out your voice) where you ACTUALLY SHOW yourself going through the steps. Setting all these things up, not just discussing or lecturing.
Every module along the way gets you one step closer to that end goal of having an affiliate program with all the bells and whistles, a podcast that makes money, a sales letter that converts. Every module or milestone comes with a built-in DELIVERABLE. Go through this module and you'll have this result.
They are clearly separated BUT they're all important and they're not just meandering from one topic to another. Each one builds on the previous.
Step #3: Transform it into a Magic Offer
Package it all together into a magical, sexy, unbeatable, irresistible, juicy offer. Everyone else tries to compete by:
- Loading in 50+ videos (I think you mean OVERLOAD 50+ videos)
- Reducing the price down to $9.95 (how many copies will you have to sell)
- Promising bonus after bonus (now the offer is just confusing)
- Adding numbers and numbers, X number of minutes and pages (too much work as a buyer)
Sure, you can get your videos transcribed, add screenshots and package them into reports, organize that membership site with tables and pages. I guess you could add a FAQ or Q&A session or two, which makes me think your core training isn't helpful enough.
BUT what if that podcasting course included (in addition to the 4 how-to screen capture videos in a membership site with transcribed and screenshotted reports)...
- An easy to follow checklist to reference again and again anytime you want to publish a new podcast episode
- A built-in community (usually just comments within the site) to ask questions
- A built-in traffic exchange where you can submit your podcast and get a jumpstart on your number of listeners and sales
Basically, everything you need to make it almost IMPOSSIBLE to be without a podcast of your own this week or this month... without piling on bonus after bonus (which just confuses your offer). And, if copycats come along and create their own knockoff course... just ABSORB THE CHANGES!
Either that "other guy's" bonus doesn't matter, or it's something you can duplicate in your own way and make better.
Step #4: Assemble Your Sales Letter
Create one single web page (with nothing to click on other than your a buy button )so people actually know what they're buying. But when I tell you to "write a sales letter", you get scared...
Sales letters have gone through several cycles. First, people wrote big long direct response style letters where you couldn't really tell if you were buying a book, video course, software, membership site... or even what was in it. Or even what the price was!
Then people moved on to video sales letters. Same idea, just as long and boring – if not even WORSE because you had to sit through 90 minutes of PowerPoint slides.
And finally, WordPress-based graphics heavy multi-column sales letters... basically 5-10 bullet points listing a few sections, and that's it! A site that looks pretty but doesn't convert well because it's so generic.
Do you see the common problem with sales letters? Whether they're long, short, video, or WordPress-based... the problem is CONFUSION!
That's why the most important thing in your sales letter (second only to the buy button) is what I call a "1-sheet." List every all four modules of your course, plus the exact bonuses, checklists, and software. WARNING: you might actually have assign INTERESTING names to your modules and checklists to pay people to pay attention.
For bonus points, make it a stack table... meaning, assign a dollar value next to each module (what it's worth), total up all the value, and then drop it down to the actual price.
A sales letter only needs to do four things but it NEEDS to do these four things, and in this order:
- Attention: Identify their problem and WHY they ended up on your site
- Interest: Agitate the problem and explain WHAT they've tried that didn't work
- Desire: Clearly and dramatically introduce your solution including each HOW-TO step of it
- Action: Tell them to buy right now instead of later, get them excited about the WHAT-IF they buy
That's as simple as I can make it. Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. Why, What, How-To, What-If. If your sales letter is story-heavy, offer-heavy, price-heavy or guarantee-heavy... it needs re-adjusting. If you are missing pieces or they are in the wrong order, tweak it.
If you wanted to be really lazy, title your headline as, "Who Else Wants to (blank), (blank) and (blank)" and list each bullet point as: "How to (blank)," "How to (blank)" and, "How to (blank)."
(To really crush it, model the sales letter into about 20 PowerPoint slides and present it on a live 1-hour webinar telling people to buy at the end.)
Step #5: Create the Content of Your Fixed-Term Membership Site as Live Webinar Sessions
Schedule each module as a 90-minute live training session.
Create a FEW PowerPoint slides just to announce and then later recap your how-to training. Explain EVERY click and actually do it. Present with GoToWebinar and record with Camtasia. After just four 90-minute sessions spread out over three weeks (day 1, day, 7, day 14, day 21) you're done.
Setup WordPress and place the videos inside a Wishlist Member site and then sell the recordings – but call it "training" and not "replays" or "recordings."
"But What About My $10,000 per Month Recurring Income?"
I don't know what your personal situation is, but I'm convinced that most people want a $9.95/month membership site because they want a site that's an easy sell (who wouldn't want it?) BUT they also want to stop building a list once they hit 1,000 subscribers.
You heard right. The $9.95/month wanna-be's want a $9.95 per month site, with 100% a retention rate (exising members staying in) and a 100% conversion rate (new members joining) and 1,000 email subscribers. (In reality you would need 100,000 targeted subscribers.)
I don't want 5,000 subscribers because what if I make a typo in my email, and lots of people see? Or if 1% report my emails as spam, that's 500 spam complaints. My autoresponder will cost me $30/month instead of $10/month, I'm not sure if I can afford that even at $10,000 per month profit.
Not you, of course!
Here's the reality. Not only do I believe it's tougher to sell $9.95 per month forever than $99 one time, you'll get massive cancellations month after month.
You might have heard people like Jimmy D. Brown claim that the "average membership site retains members for three months" and I've seen many, many, many people worry about retaining members (even they don't have a membership site) along with what price to charge (even if they don't have a membership site).
Look...
- Make your membership site a how-to course (instead of tips and interviews) and you'll increase retention
- Make your membership site single-payment or fixed-term (with an end date) and you'll keep the average person in for longer than they'd stay in a "monthly forever" site
- Add assignments (challenges) to your membership site so people can clearly measure their results and you'll increase retention
- Add a tool or software inside your membership site that they'll lose if they cancel and you'll increase retention
Honestly, as soon as I shifted my thinking from: dripping, dishing out content in little bitty pieces, adding filler content, worrying about "how much content per week" is enough... and into: getting people from point A to point B, I created sites faster and made more money with them.
I have plenty of membership sites where the content is all delivered upfront, and people continue to make payments for months to come. Our "Make a Product" system allows anyone to dictate out articles and a book. It's $197 when paid upfront or $39.95 spaced 31 days apart for five total payments.
No Drip Content with Zero Percent Financing
If they stop payments they lose access to our tools that make article and book dictation possible.
We make more sales because of the payment plan. About half of people take the payment plan. Way more than half of the people completed all five payments. It's as simple as can be!
We do this with Newbie Crusher which is $97 (or two payments of $49.95 spaced 31 days apart), Speed Copy ($497 or five payments of $99.95 spaced 31 days apart). Note: Speed Copy drips out a little bit (one module every 30 days with bonus reports and videos in-between) but the content finishes before the payments do and people don't cancel... because they COME BACK AND RE-USE the tools and the training even after they've completed the course.
If you're THAT worried that people will join and then cancel, JUST TRY THE PAYMENT PLAN OPTION! You can always remove that button later, and if people cancel partway through, they lose access. It doesn't cost you any extra money or take any extra time and it'll make you more money.
I can't estimate your own numbers, but you can expect HALF of your buyers to pay full price, HALF of them to take the payment plan. HALF of those will complete all payments, and the other HALF of payment plan buyers about HALFWAY through. It's spooky how dead-on the numbers are for me.
Now all you have left is to...
- Step #1: Choose the End Result
- Step #2: Outline the Course
- Step #3: Transform it into a Magic Offer
- Step #4: Assemble Your Sales Letter
- Step #5: Create the Content of Your Fixed-Term Membership Site as Live Webinar Sessions
So go ahead right now and stop worrying about pricing, retention, or content -- launch your membership site that solves peoples' problems.
015: Run a Webinar Class to Create Instant Products and Make Recurring Money Online Using GoToWebinar, Camtasia, and PowerPoint
If you want to make a nice bundle of money online in a short amount of time, without doing a lot of work, and help the largest number of your customers at the same time, then you need to run a webinar class. I started doing this in 2008 (the same year I bought my house), more than doubled my online income the following year AND quit my job just a few shorts months after I started doing webinars...
"How to Run a Webinar Class" FREE Report
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Do you like the sound of getting paid for a product before you create it? What about making $497 or $997 per sale instead of a measly $5, $10, or $20? Today we're going to cover how you can use this thing called a live webinar to create information products that make you money before you create them, as you create them, after you create them, and over and over again.
As someone who wants to make money from the information you have, this is the best, the fastest and the most profit-producing way to make money from your knowledge and create these things called information products. Topics covered:
- The exact steps you need to take today to go from idea to a real life rapid product launch
- The secret to modularizing your upcoming course (that way it's easy, fast, and fun for you to create -- PLUS your customers get quick and massive results from your training -- so they'll buy from you over and over again)
- My personal secret to customer engagement, retention, and results that most product creators miss -- but now you have the secret weapon
- How to run a webinar business so it doesn't take up any longer than 1-hour per week
Check it out right now! This is a "normal-length" episode so you can listen to it even if you're a hurry, this is perfect timing for you if you're sitting on the fence about joining our upcoming Webinar Crusher class and need one last thing to push you over the edge...
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014: Generate Unlimited Content, Blog Posts, Articles, Sales Letters, Books, Reports and More, That Make You Money Forever
If you've ever had "writer's block", struggled to create that quick 3-minute video, 400-word article, or even a sales letter, print book, or quick email, then you need to tune into today's podcast where I reveal my BEST content creation formulas -- many of them only available (up till now) in my paid products!
"How to Generate Unlimited Content" FREE Report
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Topics covered:
- How to go into a content creation frenzy any time you want and never deal with "writer's block" ever again
- How to generate a flood of good ideas, unlock your creativity, and create a store (or "pool") of renewable content anytime you need it
- How to achieve absolute focus and crank out as much content as you want, as quickly as you want
- My exact content creation formulas for book chapters (W.W.H.W.), email marketing (P.A.I.N.T.), blogging (R.A.T.G.U.M.), and sales letters (A.I.D.A.)
- Finding your hook (this is the most important part of content creation that most people overlook)
- And SO much more that you're going to want to stop everything you're doing and listen in right away!
Important: Once this post gets 10 comments, I'll post the transcript for this episode. Once we get 50 comments, you will no longer be able to post so hurry up and leave your comments right now!
Hint: I recommend listening to the podcast in your iPhone or iTunes app, or clicking the "Play in a New Window" link and listening in a new browser tab, that way you can comment here while you're still listening.
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Four Daily Tasks: Focus Yourself, Defeat Overwhelm, and Enjoy Peak Productivity Using a Solution That’s Far Easier Than Time Management
If you've ever found yourself unfocused, unmotivated, unable to get "in the zone" ... you can't break free of procrastination, confusion, overwhelm... there's no time to get anything done... then you have TIME MANAGEMENT issues!
Look, you can either continue what you've been doing (and get the same results you've been getting), or drastically change everything in your life (which we both know won't last for longer than a couple of days) OR you can...
Admit you want to change
Decide what to change, and...
Make SMALL but LASTING improvements
to your everyday life...
To solve the problem, you might have heard advice like this:
- Create a long to-do list (now you have 100+ items you'll never complete)
- Say "no" to everything (now I'm bored within my own business)
- Schedule all activities, including bathroom breaks and free time, into a calendar (but what if I fall behind?)
- "Learn" about the 80/20 rule, Inbox Zero, Parkinson's Law (cute but how does that help me? And now I'm checking my email every 5 minutes to keep it at Inbox Zero)
- Delegate, outsource, lifehack
- Chunk down large tasks
- Organize your to-do list into A-B-C-D, or "Urgent But Not Important" (now I've spent all week organizing my to-do list or to-do lists)
- Just get started (gee, why didn't I think of that?)
- Write everything down on a whiteboard or on hundreds of post-it notes (how will you keep it all organized?)
I believe that you ignore most problems until they become so bad that you NEED to make a change NOW... so you take too-drastic measures, and now the solution is worse than the problem.
The Brutal Truth...
Example: You're 10-15 pounds overweight. Unhappy but comfortable. Not disturbed enough to make any real change. But suddenly, your high school reunion is a month away, or you realize you somehow became 30 pounds overweight without noticing, or you can't fit into that pair of pants...
You vow to stop eating fast food forever, wake up at 5AM every morning and hit the gym for a one hour run every morning.
What happens? You do it for one day, maybe two, until you realize HOW miserable you are. HOW much of a pain it is to wake up so early. Can't you just sleep in this one time? You're so hungry for a Quarter Pounder now... why not just quit?
Now, if your reunion was six months away, and you could REALISTICALLY lose the weight in time... you'd create a clear weight loss goal. Count your calories using an app to track your progress. Limit your portions, substitute one meal per day, swim or walk for a short time every day, get a partner to exercise with you and make yourself accountable to someone who ISN'T participating with you. That sounds to me like better planning.
7 Ways the "Regular" Approach Fails...
The same is true with your business. Most entrepreneurs that fail...
- they don't have a clear goal
- they don't have a good reason to reach that goal
- theydon't have a clear plan to make consistent progress
- they have no way to measure their progress towards that goal
- they undertake activities that aren't easy and fun (i.e. creating videos and outsource the boring activities like writing)
- they have no business partner (or team) to help
- they have no accountability partner to report back to (this is a DIFFERENT PERSON than the partner mentioned above)
The time management and productivity systems you've heard of have so many rules, and are so complicated, that the SOLUTION is less fun and more "work" than your old habits. Your old procrastinating ways. You'd rather be comfortable and slightly unhappy, than in unfamiliar territory trying to make some confusing time management system behave the way you want.
You know the type... set that timer and "work" 15 minutes, then take a 5 minute break, then "work" for 20 minutes, and break for 30 minutes... or something like that?
Or... list everything you have to do in a notebook in multiple columns and give yourself a "point" system.
Or... one of the worst, list 100 tasks and then pick the 10 that are the easiest to cross off your list today. Great, now you're just finishing the easy unimportant tasks every day.
The "Real" Easy Answer You're Looking For
Or, how about this? Follow a VERY SIMPLE system so that you don't have to throw your entire way of life out the window and make a few SMALL changes in your everyday lifestyle to point yourself in the right direction...
Here's what will help:
- 4DT: Complete just four small tasks everyday (three 45-minute tasks and one 10-minute task) and nothing else
- Calendar: Use Gmail instead of a desktop email program (it's the best solution for labeling, filtering, archiving, and searching for emails), and Google Calendar (to keep track of meetings, product launches, and other "milestone" activities)
- Accountability: Create your four tasks in the morning (or the night before) and list these to someone who is not a part of your business, but wants you to succeed, like a friend or a spouse. Don't go into detail about what they are, but meet with them at the end of the day so you can explain that you finish each task, or, if you left some unfinished, what was your excuse?
I go into each of these three building blocks in more detail in my new book, "Four Daily Tasks" which you should check out right away. The fact is that this is all you need, and you SHOULDN'T take drastic measures throwing out all the usual rules.
The Most Important Tasks
When you limit yourself to four tasks per day (not 10 or 20) they'll be the most important tasks. Here's what I mean. Let's say this was your task list on Monday night:
- Send broadcast message to email list and to Facebook: 10 minutes (DONE!)
- Record video seven of new product: 45 minutes. (DONE!)
- Contact three new joint venture partners: 45 minutes. (DONE!)
- Setup Facebook ads: 45 minutes. (didn't do it, ran out of time)
Then this was Tuesday night:
- Send broadcast email and schedule one followup email: 10 minutes. (DONE!)
- Record new podcast episode: 45 minutes. (DONE!)
- Dictate five new articles: 45 minutes. (DONE!)
- Setup Facebook ads: 45 minutes. (didn't do it, ran out of time)
Do you see what happened? Two days in a row, I didn't setup those Facebook ads like I planned. Here's what will happen on Wednesday: I'll either schedule it AGAIN, and not finish it AGAIN, and have to report back to my accountability partner once AGAIN that I didn't finish this task.
Maybe you ran out of time because the other tasks ran longer and you need to either budget your time better, take on smaller tasks, or just get those darned Facebook ads out of the way first thing on Wednesday, to save yourself the embarrassment and disappointment of reporting that, once again, you didn't do it.
OR! You might even leave those Facebook ads OFF the list for Wednesday, because they weren't important in the first place.
Self-Calibration
The more you use the "Four Daily Tasks" system, the better you'll be focused because your easy task HAS to be done in 10 minutes, and your medium tasks HAVE to be done in 45 minutes.
You'll also find yourself completing more tasks in bulk. Instead of putting out twenty 5-minute fires here and there... like, check Facebook, respond to blog comments, check YouTube, check Twitter... you're doing all those 5-minute tasks back to back so there is no break time, no procrastinating, no switching gears, just finishing everything.
Over time you'll get a good idea of what tasks really do take 45 minutes. You'll have one day after another where you will get all four tasks done, get all four tasks done, get all four tasks done, then look back and notice how many accomplishments that added up to. As opposed to having a 20-item "marathon day" and then taking the rest of the month off.
Because you built up this momentum, it's now hard to stop! Because you're moving in the direction you want, there's less overwhelm, less indecision, you'll get good at making snap decisions and you'll have renewed drive and focus like never before.
I need to stress that these must be four tasks in your BUSINESS, not in your personal or home life. They need to have DELIVERABLES, such as, write chapter 7 of book, and not "degrees of doneness" such as, "write 90% of book" or "edit web page." These need to be accomplishments that you can literally PROVE if you had to.
I've tried all the other "extreme" time management systems. They didn't last for me, and they didn't last for most people. I ended up spending my time on non-money-making tasks, I'd have trouble finishing tasks, trouble starting tasks, or accomplishing goals here and there but not actually PROGRESSING in the direction I wanted, if that makes sense.
Everything Changed When I Simplified It!
And if you find yourself completing four tasks every single weekday (or every day you choose to build your business), you've organized your life in Gmail and a Google Calendar, and you've created a private Team Site to share tasks with an accountability partner, there are a few more milestones you can use to inch yourself even closer to Peak Productivity:
- Countdown Timer: use a program like Cool Timer to countdown the amount of time you have left to make sure you stay on task and finish on time
- Unplug Days (for family): decide in advance which days of the week will be 100% dedicated to yourself or your family. This means no checking email, Facebook, or even cell phones
- Hotseat Computer (with no TV next to it): speaking of taking breaks, LEAVE the computer, leave your office and possibly go outside between tasks. That way, when you return to your computer, you can sit down, knock out the next task for today, and then leave the computer again before you have time to distract yourself with email or social media
- Camtasia Babysitter: if you're really trying to overcome a focus problem, use a tool like Camtasia Recorder to literally record yourself completing a task. You'd be surprised at how well this gets you in gear!
- Clean Desk: don't spend too much time on this, but clear out all the papers, clutter, and notes on your desk and at least store them away in a drawer or file cabinet so you aren't distracted and can dedicate yourself to the task at hand
- Cautious Outsourcing: hire someone to manage the parts of your business that you don't enjoy, or can't do, like customer support, traffic, copywriting, graphics, or email marketing
- Self-Awareness (turn "needs" into "wants"): the bottom line is that you aren't going to make any lasting change on yourself unless you gain pleasure from it and you enjoy it, so don't "force" yourself to take any action and if you find yourself stressed, confused, or just not having fun, then find out why you're not getting closer to your goal and what you can do in order to look forward to the day and eagerly knock out the tasks you have in front of you
That's the simple Four Daily Tasks approach that took me from a lazy, bored, unproductive person into someone who makes a lot more money, puts in a lot less hours, and has a lot more fun building my business.
Which of these components will you use, or have you already used, in your everyday life to achieve your goals and get to where you want to be?
013: Create and Sell Software on the Internet
If you've ever thought about creating and selling software in your niche but don't know a single line of code... or, if you've been wondering how to gain an advantage over your competitors (authors, speakers, coaches, and information marketer) then look no further to creating your own simple software.
"How to Create and Sell Software" FREE Report
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It's a lot easier, faster, and cheaper than you might think, and I want to tell you all about it in today's EXTENDED LENGTH edition of the Robert Plank Show. Topics covered:
- The secrets of creating a "simpleware" 1-button solution to vaccinate your sales against your competition
- Why you'll sell a lot more copies of your software product (hint: this works in any niche) compared to selling information (it's all about the live demo)
- The four types of software ideas including: a better solution to an existing problem (webinar service that uses S3, Twilio transcription service), simplify an existing process (WordPress screen capture plugin), combine multiple solutions (WP Security plus, podcast creation app, Kindle/CreateSpace/Kunaki cover generator), add-on to your existing product (Setup a Fan Page fangate & artwork creator, WordPress desktop installer, content feed service)
- How you too can create and sell your own software even if you can't code, no matter niche you're in... for example: real estate (mortgage calculator, listings tracker, geotargeted landing pages), weight loss (30 day meal plan, calorie counter, juicing log), self help (time management clock, mad libs productivity hypnosis)
- How to create a software spec -- no matter what kind of software you're creating -- that forces you to make "tough" decisions early (in plain English), decide what platform (i.e. web-based membership site, WordPress plugin, Adobe Air, iPhone app), data structure, user stories, and limits your initial features (in a good way)
- How to hire the right person to create your software including interview questions, the "whittling down" method, mini-projects, along with the exact "avatar" you'd want to hire in your business
- How to launch your software product in a marketplace such as the Apple App Store Android Store, Clickbank, Download.com, etc.
- And more!
Please listen and leave a comment below.
P.S. Any "unhelpful" comments about the length of the podcast, whether you do or don't like music in the podcast, whether you prefer PDF reports to podcasts, will be deleted. However, any positive OR NEGATIVE comments will be left here as long as they helpfully contribute to the conversation.
P.P.S. Once I get 10 comments on this post, I'll attach the PDF transcript for your personal reference.
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Overcome Self Sabotage: Become the Person You’ve Always Wanted To Be & Get Back to What Really Matters in Life
Have you at some point felt (even for a little while) like you were...
- being pulled in different directions?
- that there's just no point in continuing your online business?
- that there's way too much noise, fog, and confusion, so you don't know what to do next?
- that if you only had a better outlook about your daily life, things would be better?
- taking SOME action (like buying a new product, or writing half a blog post) but as soon as you didn't "something" ... you slowed down?
- losing all momentum after hitting just one simple roadblock such as what price to charge, what to name your product or what time of the day to mail?
- making too many mistakes to continue on this course?
You're in luck, because if you've ever felt like you were in any one of these situations, if you've given up all hope and you needed a little bit of a boost, I think this will help you.
The reason why most of us internet marketers fail, and keep having to get back on course, is this thing called self-sabotage. If you found it easy to make $500 per month online, but $1000 seems like a lot of work, that's self-sabotage and you don't even know it. If you get more uncomfortable the more money you make, that's self-sabotage!
To fix it, I'm not going to give you some cheesy motivational quotes like...
"I haven't failed.
I've just found 10,000 ways to make a light bulb that don't work."
-- Thomas Edison
Or tell you silly story after story about how most things were discovered accidentally... (microwave ovens, velcro, corn flakes, penicillin, all on accident).
I'm also not going to blame you or try to tell you it's all your fault and you "should just snap out of it" because that's not the advice you need to get you to where you need to go. What will get you past it? Breaking down the problem so you can identify what "type" of self-sabotage you are experiencing and fix it.
Chances are you experience more than one of these types, but for now let's fix JUST ONE! It's not your fault. You just need to discover which of your sabotaging activities need a little ADJUSTING.
Self-Sabotage Explained
Here's the thing. Your ancestors were trained to live life carefully. Think about it. If a caveman 100,000 years ago had a fear of heights, he probably stayed away from cliffs and lived to procreate.
Fear of snakes, fear of dogs, wolves, bears, fear of enclosed spaces, fear of the dark... all PROTECTION mechanisms. Back in Neanderthal Times, if you found a tribe, made friends, blended in, and didn't cause too much trouble, you were far safer than trying to survive on your own.
If things in life weren't quite right, it was "better" to try to adjust to a life of unhappiness, rather than changing your situation... that might get you killed.
Fast forward to the present day where over 99% of the population made up of clock-punching, cubicle-dwelling zombies, which is a "safe" place to be, until you're trying to make a living online, and then it's time to fight those survival instincts and take a little bit of a risk.
It's easier to focus on negative things as a way of NOT taking action and playing it safe, but with these new rules, you're trying to solve your existing problems and in turn you're CAUSING new problems. You're trying to motivate yourself, start a business, make new contacts, create products, and build a list... all which goes AGAINST your "playing it safe" instincts!
Here are the four forms of self-sabotage that keep you poor. Remember, these aren't just four scenarios I made up... I've compiled the responses from surveys I've run over the past several years and from other surveys and I've grouped them together into parts that make sense...
- Type #1: Priorities (procrastination, reacting, delusions)
- Type #2: Habits (drama, slippery slope thinking, debbie downer attitude, cognitive dissonance)
- Type #3: Emotions (stress, overwhelm, boredom)
- Type #4: Meaning (victim thinking, embarrassment, living vicariously)
You'll understand this setup in a minute. Basically, your priorities and your systems are what LEAD you into self-sabotage, your habits cause you to REPEAT that self-sabotage, your negative emotions are the BI-PRODUCT of this sabotage, and the meaning is what you use to JUSTIFY your behavior over and over again.
Change just one of these factors... you change your thinking and your actions. Identify which of these is your WORST problem and now you're moving towards a positive change.
Priorities
Delusion: You have skewed views of the world, end goals, and you're clinging to unrealistic expectations and lies. You either exaggerate or downplay problems with your business, money, self, relationships, or your health.
Procrastination: You let "little everyday tasks" get in the way of what really matters. Maybe you said, I can't do "this" until I have "that" and "that." You waited until the last minute (or even worse, too late) to start, to make any decision, and you didn't think long term.
Reacting: You act impulsively. One crisis starts up and you quickly change your entire business, without thinking about the real consequences.
Habits
Cognitive Dissonance: Have you ever thought one thing, but said another? This is called lying, acting, and uncertainty. If you've started on a path that you now regret, and you want to change but can't, you might have thought it was easier to "pretend" or continue doing what you're doing... until you've decided... I've had enough, I'm not doing, thinking, or saying what I want to do and say!
Debbie Downer: Misery loves company! If your current life situation sucks, it is easier to do the right thing and correct it? Or... is it more tempting to do the "lazy" thing and focus on everything negative? To tear others down and pull them down to YOUR level, instead of helping?
To criticize, judge, and even become jealous of everything "good" in the world. In a way, you're training yourself to become "happy" when everyone (including you) is angry and sad!
Drama: You're addicted to the "struggle" and feel the need to be in constant chaos in order to be alive, awake, and have something to do. Either you're the person who starts up drama, or instigate it from others, this is your form of sabotage!
Your need to create drama leads to you going down one "slippery slope" after another. If one little thing doesn't go your way, then everything is in shambles. Let's say you were on a very careful diet, and on top of that you woke up early and made sure to visit the gym one hour every day. But wait! One day, you simply don't have time to go to the gym. Now, what's the point of anything? You cancel your gym membership, eat a gallon of ice cream and throw away your alarm clock.
Emotions
Stress: You worry too much, and in fact, you've created problems out of events that haven't happened yet. You overestimated the risk of something simple like sending an email, or making a forum or blog post. Did you waste an entire week "mulling over" a purchase or waste a month "thinking about" taking that trip? Even after you made that decision, you kept obsessing over it... not just wasting your own time but getting yourself worked up in the process.
Overwhelm: Isn't it possible that you've let stress get in your way (under-confidence), but in yet other situations, the LACK of stress (over-confidence) has hurt you? You started too many projects, didn't keep deadlines, had no consistent routine, and you might have let others distract you from your target goal. Which THEN led to stress, procrastination, and bad habits in the future.
Boredom: Also tying back in with cognitive dissonance AND building on procrastination, let's say you started a project 6 months ago and you weren't able to finish what you started. All that time wasted! Plus, it's easier for you to give up on your next project. And the next, and the next! Then it becomes easier to give up, lose focus, and get distracted by other bright shiny objects.
Meaning
Victim Thinking: Here's a weird one. You were taught even as a little kid to be selfless and put others before you, right? But what if took it to the extreme and put EVERYONE before you, even when it hurt you and your business? You always put yourself last, which conveniently meant you didn't have to take any action for yourself. Think about it... it's "easier" to spend all day helping others for free, or being a busybody on a public forum, than taking of your OWN action, right? That's scary!
Unfortunately, that's not sustainable. You've always put yourself last so NOW it feels like you're always last, everyone is better than you, you've given yourself an inferiority complex.
Embarrassment: You didn't ask for help along the way. You'd "heard" of that before. How hard could it be? You didn't assert yourself, you didn't admit you needed help, and you didn't assert your needs and desires!
Living Vicariously: This is dangerous! Isn't it true that you can watch a TV show or a movie, or even hear about stories from a friend, and feel almost as if you've experienced those things? It's dangerous because it allows others to live your life for you. You don't have to take risks, you don't have to take action, just hear stories and your thirst is quenched, right?
Until... you start comparing yourself to others. You think, that person just turned 21 years of age. What was I doing when I was 21? They're finishing college, what was I doing then? They just hit the 100k per year mark, they just had their first kid, where was I at that point?
I know I promised no cheesy quotes, but this one applies perfectly:
"Don't compare yourself to anyone in this world.
If you do so, you are insulting yourself."
-- Bill Gates
Here is self-sabotage explained in a table:
| INTERNAL | EXTERNAL | SOCIAL | |
|---|---|---|---|
| PRIORITIES | Delusion | Procrastination | Reacting |
| HABITS | Cognitive Dissonance | Debbie Downer | Drama |
| EMOTIONS | Stress | Overwhelm | Boredom |
| MEANING | Victim Thinking | Embarrassment | Living Vicariously |
Laying it out on this table helps ME just as much as it helps YOU. Why? Because when it comes to self-improvement, there is no such thing as "permanently" fixing any of your problems. It's far too easy to regress back into old habits and forget what tools you used to use to make you into a successful person. You'd be surprised at how many successful people, including me, including Lance, still need to listen to tapes or still need to talk to people when we're having a down day or a down week.
How to Overcome Your Problems!
The first thing you need to do is realize where you need the most help. If you try to go out and "stop self-sabotage" ... you aren't going to get anywhere. It's like fighting the "war on drugs" ... impossible on its own but it is possible to attack one person or attack one area.
Let's say you take one look at that table and you think, my problem is that I'm being a Debbie Downer. That's a habit that affects others so how about, just for today only, I make it a point to not say anything negative? Or if you're constantly overwhelmed, you need to realize why that is and change the actions that lead to that point, such as over-commitment.
If you need to solve one of your bad habits:
- Take a vacation. Take weekends off, go somewhere out of the house, out of town, outside your usual environment, to clear your head
- Attend an event or a seminar. This also gets you out of your usual space, allows you to think and see things differently, and get you around better role models
- Replace new habits with the ones you're deleting
- Fix just one thing in your life for now, don't try to drastically change everything, because that won't stick!
To fix your priorities:
- Get a better support system. Trusted people like your friends, family, mentor and mastermind
- Get out more. Find a better mentor if your current one isn't suiting you, listen to self-improvement or training audios every now and then, and buy an hour of coaching if you are stuck and need help
- Break your problems apart into manageable pieces
- Make decisions quickly but change decisions slowly
To take better care of your emotions:
- Limit the amount of "toxic thoughts" you have including being jealous of people or "trash talking" others
- Leave your comfort zone whenever you want to make a real change and reach the next milestone in your business and your life
- Remove anything in your life that you feel is dragging you down or holding you back
- Push yourself to get outside your "money zone" ... the point where you earn more money than you normally would and your subconscious tries to put the brakes on your effort and your income
To change the meaning of your life:
- Find a great Reason-Why. I've had plenty of mentors who went from being lazy, to taking real action once they finally had a great reason to build a real business and take life seriously. Events like divorce, children, financial hardship, age... sprung these people into action. When it hurts enough, you'll make a change!
- Consider the bigger picture, pick your battles and think about the point of view of others
- Combine pleasurable and non-pleasurable activities (I like do the dishes while playing music)
- Clean out the clutter
I hope that helps you to get out of your own way and get everything you've ever wanted.
Where are you experiencing self-sabotage with yourself and with your own business? You don't have to be too specific if you don't want to, but this is your chance to complain... as long as you tell me what you're going to do to fix it! Please comment below.
012: Setup an Affiliate Program with Clickbank, Rapid Action Profits, WarriorPlus, and JVZoo
If you like massive viral traffic, building a huge following that you can't turn off or slow down even if you wanted to, multiply your sales and build your list faster than you ever thought possible, then you need to check out the easy steps involved with setting up an affiliate program in today's podcast.
"How to Setup an Affiliate Program" FREE Report
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Topics include...
- The easiest way to get your affiliate program without a monthly or yearly fee
- How to give away 100% of your product sales and still make money
- How to sell your products on multiple storefronts
- Making your affiliate go viral in just a few words
- How to take your business to the next level and change it forever using a secret strategy almost no one else uses
Check out the button below to listen to the podcast now, and you know the deal... if you can leave at least 10 comments under this blog post, I'll also post the transcript! Leave 50 comments and the comments will be closed, so hurry up and add your two cents below right away!
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