I just got back from a live event in Las Vegas where Mark Hoverson shared his secrets to successful direct response (email) marketing.  Since all this is fresh in my mind, I’m revealing the essentials in a series of videos and blog posts.   In case you are unfamiliar with Mark’s work, he is a master at creating a “buyers rush” for his trainings and products.  A “buyers rush” is a frenzy of respondants eager to buy what you are promoting.

Direct Response Email

The video below walks you through one of Mark’s direct response emails.  This email was sent to Ann Sieg’s customer list.  It was part of a 1 week promotion that led up to the Las Vegas event I just attended.  During this event, Hoverson interviewed both Ann Sieg and Mike Klingler as we mentioned in the previous post.

In the video, I take you through each paragraph and explain why Mark wrote it the way he did.   After watching this video, you should be able to construct a similar direct response email yourself.  Here’s the video.

Tony Passera Reveals Secrets Of Mark Hoverson’s Emails from Tony Passera on Vimeo.

Triggers

You may have noticed that I talk about “triggers” a lot during the video.  The idea of psychological triggers comes from Joe Sugarman’s book, “Triggers.”   During the trainings, Hoverson mentioned that he learned most of what he knows about writing for direct response from this book.  If you enter your information in the box below, I’ll email a copy of the book to you (in pdf format) absolutely free.  You can also download the book from various sources on the web, if you prefer.

I just got back from a live training in Las Vegas with Mark Hoverson, Ann Sieg, Mike Klingler and other successful internet marketers. During the event, Hoverson interviewed Ann Sieg. In the interview, Ann shared who some of her trainers were, and who she follows. The list is below. Notice that the same names keep coming up when you ask successful marketers who they learned from. The top trainers in this business are not hard to find. All the top marketers studied with them. And it’s not that big a group. Isn’t it a good idea to know who they are?

What’s The Big Deal About Ann Sieg’s Trainers?

Plenty. Ann Sieg is one of the most successful internet marketers today. Do you also want to be successful on the web? Do you want your business to pull in tens, hundreds or even thousands of leads daily? Do you want sales coming in automatically, flowing like water? Well, the secret to accomplishing all these things is this. Learn what she learned. Master what she mastered. Take the same or similar trainings.

Read The Good Stuff

Some of you may say, “Read? Oh no not that!” But Ann Sieg and Mark Hoverson both LOVE TO READ. No accident here. Read what they read and you’ll crack the code to internet wealth. And reading is cheap. Paperbacks are way less expensive than spending thousands of dollars on trainings. Trainings work, but reading does too. It’s a matter of preference.

Fun Is Fundamental

But don’t force yourself. Read what you enjoy. If the book in your hands is putting you to sleep, put it down. Find another book that excites you. You’ll make much better progress if you’re having fun.

The Important Point

Where am I going with this? Here is one of the most important things I’ve learned in my first year as a marketer. Keep absorbing whatever you can. Whether it’s through webinars, live trainings, reading, video or audio trainings. Whatever you like. But keep at it. At some point you’ll say, “Oh my god! I get it! I see how it’s done! It’s really simple! I can do this!” The point is, YOU WILL GET THERE. When you’ve absorbed enough stuff, the whole thing will suddenly make sense to you. You’ll crack the code.

Equally important is to keep a balance between training and taking action. While you’re training, start a blog, get a twitter account, write some articles, do some pay-per-click, try selling something on clickbank. But remember this. And it’s a little paradoxical. Taking action is important because it gives you experience. But your actions will be most effective when they follow good training.

As Mike Klingler says, “Too much action without enough training leads to frustration. Too much training without action gives no results.”

Recommended Trainers and Authors

Here’s Ann’s trainers and coaches.

• Dan S. Kennedy

  Right off the bat, Ann mentioned Dan Kennedy. Kennedy also has a subscription site at www.dankennedy.com. Here are some of his best known books.

  • “The Ultimate Sales Letter. Attract New Customers. Boost Your Sales.”
  • “No B.S. Business Success.”
  • “No B.S. Sales Success in the New Economy”
  • “No B.S. Business Success in the New Economy”
  • “No B.S. Marketing to the Affluent: The No Holds Barred, Kick Butt,
    Take No Prisoners Guide to Getting Really Rich”
  • “No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs”
  • “No B.S. Wealth Attraction for Entrepreneurs”
• Frank Kern
  Ann and some of the other Renegade trainers were themselves trained by Frank Kern. Kern has retired from teaching and now only accepts private clients and platinum members ($300/month). Fortunately, there’s a lot of good, free information on his blog at www.masscontrolsite.com/blog/. I highly recommend spending some time on Kern’s site. He is an incredible teacher. He simplifies everything. He takes all the magic out of the internet. Best of all, you’ll laugh while you read. Mark and Ann are both platinum members, of course.

  Incidently, Frank Kern praises several other internet marketing gurus in one of his videos: Eben Pagan, Jeff Walker, and John Reese. Always good to know who the real gurus are…

• Brendon Burchard
  Both Ann Sieg and Mark Hoverson said they follow Brendon Burchard. His website is www.BrendonBurchard.com. He is author of “Life’s Golden Ticket” and “The Student Leadership Guide.” On his site he offers a free coaching course and newsletter. Like Tony Robbins, his stories are deeply moving, inspiring and important for all of us to hear. He shares several amazing stories in videos on his site.
• Eben Pagan
  Eben Pagan is the trainers’ trainer. When I ask top marketers who their trainers are, his name comes up more than any other. Mark Hoverson mentioned that he and Ann Sieg attended the same Eben Pagan seminar. One of his sites, www.GuruMasterMindVideoBlog.com, contains a ton of valuable information in the free videos. Well worth watching. Also check out www.AltitudeBlog.com, which is the info page for his $10,000 altitude training.
• Rich Schefren
  Rich’s focus is on showing you how to build businesses that grow with or without you. He means it. In the following video, he talks about the things that most of us do wrong that result in little or no growth. Rich Schefren’s Internet Building Process. Then he shows you (and me) how to set up the business so that it gives long term growth and significant profits. As he puts it, “it’s about getting the maximum amount of pleasure and profits in your online business.”

  Here’s another video you may find interesting. Rich Schefren: What Do You Really Know About Business?

  There’s lots more to explore on Schefren’s blog, at www.strategicprofits.com If you are having problems with being overwhelmed with too much to do, watch the first video. It will save your life and your business.

• Andy Jenkins
  Andy Jenkins teaches online business. He is a master at simplifying complex topics. He happens to have gone to NYU’s film school. Needless to say, he also teaches a lot about producing high quality videos cheaply and easily. His two blogs are www.AndyJenkinsBlog.com and www.VideoMarketingBoss.com. There are more of his videos on youtube than you can shake a stick at. Just do a search on the keywords ‘andy jenkins video boss’ and you’ll find a bunch of them.
• John Engle
  John Engle is a coach who specializes in helping organizations not only function better but thrive. John facilitates group processes using something called Open Space Technology. You can learn more about this on either of his sites, www.JohnEngle.net and www.BeyondBorders.net.
• Perry Marshall
  Perry Marshall is THE pay-per-click guru. His latest book is entitled, “Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords: How to Access 100 Million People in 10 Minutes.” He is not only a Google Adwords expert, but he is also an excellent teacher. His book does an exceptional job of simplifying and clarifying what it takes to master internet marketing and do it quickly with Adwords. Here’s a link to his blog, which is consistently informative and in a timely way. www.PerryMarshall.com.
• David Garfinkel
  If you doubt that developing your copywriting skills is the single most important thing you can do for your business (and maybe your life), please listen to this interview of David Garfinkel by Ann Sieg. David Garfinkel is perhaps the leading copywriting coach and teacher. In 2008 Ann hired David to train herself and several members of her team. In 2009 the launch of the Renegade Professional trainings generated over $1.1 million in sales in 72 hours. Ann attributes this success to Garfinkel’s coaching.
  Ann Sieg interviews David Garfinkel
• Michel and Sylvie Fortin
  Expert copywriters Michel and Sylvie Fortin, www.michelfortin.com, offer an extraordinary wealth of material on their blog. They are also trainers focused on internet businesses. Their blog contains, “Hundreds of step-by-step video tutorials and tools show you how to find profitable markets, get product ideas, source the best products to sell, build profitable websites easily, and drive qualified traffic. Plus, discover how to outsource it all.”

  Most exciting is that Michel and Sylvie Fortin have a new training site at www.SuccessChef.com. This new site addresses many of the problems with existing trainings that ultimately result in most students failing to create a profitable business. If you’ve had trainings that didn’t get you to the level you expected, give SuccessChef a look. There’s a lot of wisdom in their approach. I love their attitude toward teaching: “When our students fail, we, as teachers, have failed.”

• Clayton Makepeace
  Clayton Makepeace is another top copywriter. His site is www.MakepeaceTotalPackage.com. What makes the Makepeace Total Package amazing is the incredible number of quality articles that are offered at no cost. It is free to join, giving you immediate access to hundreds of articles, mostly written by Clayton Makepeace. His wisdom and wit make each article a treasure. I have not once been able to put an article down without finishing it. I’m usually compelled to read several at a time, because he makes learning so much fun. Plus, you benefit from his years of experience as a copywriter. He also promotes his books and trainings on the site.
• John Carlton
  
  John Carlton is another top copywriter and teacher. His blog can be found at www.John-Carlton.com. As with Makepeace, there’s a wealth of first rate copywriting tips on Carlton’s blog. Free. Carlton also offers several products for mastering copywriting. One is a self-study course based on 20 years of teaching. Another more drastic approach involves direct tutoring from Carlton (at a 5 figure price). Incidently, Perry Marshall trained with John Carlton as well as Eben Pagan, Rich Schefren and Frank Kern. Quite an impressive list!
• Gary Halbert
  A billion dollar copywriter and direct response giant. His copywriting course is still available. GaryHalbertCopywriting.com.
• Claude Hopkins
  Claude Hopkins is known for his book “Scientific Advertising,” which was written in the early 1900’s. He was the earliest advocate of split testing and other scientific methods in advertising. His book should be part of everyone’s marketing library.

I just attended a webinar series given by a direct response marketing expert, Mark Hoverson.  Toward the end of the series, Hoverson said that his goal for this series had been to do an industry wide training.  He accomplished this goal by hooking up with Ann Sieg and Mike Dillard, and offering the webinar series to both of their customer “LISTS”.  Since I was on both of their lists myself, I got his email and succumbed.

To get the attention of Sieg and Dillard, you’d have to be a rising star.  My 10 months in internet marketing taught me that the best way to become a rising star yourself, is to hook up with one and learn what you can from him or her.   And not just learn.  As much as possible, you want to do what he (or she) did.  Or at least adapt it to your context. This is often referred to as ‘duplication.’

Duplication

The first step in “doing what he did” is to study what he studied.  Hoverson is completely open about how he got where he is.  He mentioned that he did a lot of study BEFORE he began his direct response campaigns.  As a result, he claims that nearly all of his campaigns have been successful, creating what he calls a “buyers’ rush.”

As an aside, it should be mentioned that direct response marketing, Hoverson style, involves emailing marketing and sales letters to everyone on a list of prospects and customers.  What is being sold, in this case, is either his MLM opportunity (with Global Resorts) or his training webinars.

First Step: Master What He Mastered

Getting back to the topic.. What I’d like to share with you today are some of the mentors he worked with or whose books he studied.  This list is invaluable to anyone who intends to master internet marketing.  Mark’s particular talent is writing compelling and persuasive sales letters.  I.e. Copywriting.  Hoverson’s letters and videos are so compelling, in fact, that he routinely creates “buyer’s rush”, which is a frenzy of repondants scrambling to buy what he’s selling.

Recommended Trainers and Authors

Here’s the list of Hoverson’s trainers and recommended authors that I jotted down during his webinars.

• Timothy Ferriss

  The first book Hoverson recommended was Tim Ferriss’ NY Times bestseller “The 4 Hour Workweek: Escape 95, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich.” The title says it all. However, there are a lot of ideas in this book on how to work efficiently and really leverage as many resources as possible. Most importantly, though, is that the book advocates a particular kind of lifestyle. And this is the lifestyle that Hoverson is depicting (and ultimately selling) in his direct response emails.

• Dan S. Kennedy

  On numerous occasions during the webinars, Mark mentioned that he’s read (and rereads) everything that Dan Kennedy wrote. Kennedy also has a subscription site at www.dankennedy.com. Here are some of his best known books.

  • “The Ultimate Sales Letter. Attract New Customers. Boost Your Sales.”
  • “No B.S. Business Success.”
  • “No B.S. Sales Success in the New Economy”
  • “No B.S. Business Success in the New Economy”
  • “No B.S. Marketing to the Affluent: The No Holds Barred, Kick Butt,
    Take No Prisoners Guide to Getting Really Rich”
  • “No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs”
  • “No B.S. Wealth Attraction for Entrepreneurs”
• Jim Rohn

  Jim Rohn is another individual, who Mark considers a primary mentor. He’s read every one of his books and continues to re-read them and listen to the CD’s. Here’s a few of Rohn’s books.

  • “7 Strategies for Wealth & Happiness: Power Ideas from America’s Foremost
    Business Philosopher.”
  • “5 Major Pieces to the Life Puzzle”
  • “The Art of Exceptional Living”
  • “Lessons on Life: How to Live a Successful Life”
  • “Building Your Network Marketing Business” Audio CD
• Joe Sugarman

  Hoverson flat out said that Joe Sugarman is the secret behind his ad copy. That’s a strong recommendation. In particular, he recommends Sugarman’s book “Triggers “, which can be downloaded free (search for ‘Joe Sugarman Triggers). Mark reminded us to download and read “Triggers” several times during the course. He also recommends that you discover additional triggers by observing when you get excited about something in your daily life. Note what it was that triggered your excitement. For example, things like getting a package in the mail, or tropical adventure vacations are among his personal triggers. It’s very important to think about your AVATAR and what his or her triggers would be. You’ll write better sales letters.

  Mark is an advocate of giving your prospects click-by-click instructions on how to buy. He indicated that this idea came from Joe Sugarman.

• Joe Vitale

  Another book that Mark referred to frequently was Joe Vitale’s “Hypnotic Writing: How to Seduce and Persuade Customers with Only Your Words.” Mark indicated that he’s read this book 3 times. Three’s a charm.

• Frank Kerns

  Frank Kerns’ “Mass Control” newsletter (at $299/month) is highly recommended. He is a launch and buying frenzy expert. It’s not difficult to guess where Hoverson acquired this skill.

• Brian Tracy

  Mark H. specifically recommended that we read “Eat That Frog.” Some of Tracy’s other books are listed here.

  • “The Art of Closing the Sale: The Key to Making More Money Faster in the World of Professional Selling”
  • “Speak to Win: How to Present with Power in Any Situation”
  • “Reinvention: How to Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life”
  • “Flight Plan: The Real Secret of Success; How to Achieve More Faster Than You Ever Thought Possible”
  • “The Power of Charm: How to Win Anyone Over in Any Situation”
• Alex Mandosian

  Mark took an information marketing course from Mandosian. He’s one of Mark’s “absolute heros.” In one of the webinars, Mark discusses why some artists are able to sell their art and others are not. He learned this from Mandosian. Artists make the most money when they are at a live show and they unpack and describe the story (inspiration) behind the painting. This gives depth and allows people to actually see the painting for what it really is, instead of just a dollar sign. “The difference between a millionaire and someone who is trying is a matter of deep distinctions.” Alex Mandosian is also recommended by Mike Dillard, particularly for his video interviews.

• Eben Pagan

  Mark mentions studying with Eben Pagan on numerous occasions.
  His “Guru Mastermind Complete Marketing Course” is reasonably priced and highly recommended.

• Jeffrey Combs

  Mark mentioned Jeffrey Combs as one of his mentors in passing. No specifics.

• Tony Robbins

  Mark also mentioned Tony Robbins on a few occasions, but didn’t provide any details. Here are a few references.

  • “Awaken the Giant Within: How to Take Control of Your Mental,
    Emotional, Physical and Financial Destiny”
  • “Get the Edge: A 7-Day Program to Transform Your Life”
  • “Unlimited Power: The New Science of Personal Achievement”
  • “Relationship Breakthrough: How to Create Outstanding Relationships
    in Every Area of Your Life (with Cloe Mandanes).
• Zig Ziglar

  Mentioned in passing as a mentor. Here are a few of his books.

  • “Zig Ziglar’s Secrets of Closing the Sale”
  • “Selling 101: What Every Successful Sales Professional Needs to Knwo”
  • “See You at the Top”
  • “How to Get What You Want”
  • “Embrace the Struggle: Living Life on Life’s Terms”
  • “Better Than Good: Creating a Life You Can’t Wait to Live”
• Dani Johnson

  Mentioned Dani twice as a mentor. Here are two relevant titles.

  • “Grooming the Next Generation for Success”
  • “Spirit Driven Success”
• Daegan Smith
  Daegan was mentioned once as a mentor, especially with regard to PPC (pay-per-click) marketing.

Avoiding Overwhelm

I don’t know about you, but I’m both eager to read these books and a little intimidated. It’s a long list. Exciting and inspiring, yes. But they are going to take some time. A good way to avoid overwhelm is to pick a few that you need to master the most and give yourself a fixed amount of time each day to read (an hour, say). That way, you’ll make steady progress.

After hearing about some wonderful successes with affiliate marketing, I decided it was time to give it a try.  This post is about the very first step after opening an account with Clickbank (or any similar product directory).  It is about how to pick a product or service that you can market and sell profitably.

Product Directories

In case you’re new to affiliate marketing, Clickbank is a web resource that connects manufacturers with people who want to market and sell the manufacturers’ products. Such people are known as ‘affiliate marketers’ or just ‘affiliates.’  Resources like Clickbank are sometimes referred to as product directories.  Most affiliate marketers set up sales pages or websites to attract customers on the internet.  However, it is perfectly reasonable to sell affiliate products through more traditional channels, if that’s your preference.

Clickbank has a nice assortment of software, memberships and other products suitable for internet marketing.  What the affiliate has to do is to set up a “virtual store front” (i.e. a website or a sales page) for the product.  Clickbank handles all payments and the manufacturer handles the delivery of the product. In other words, all the affiliate needs to do is to attract customers to buy the product on his or her website.  Everything else is taken care of by Clickbank and the manufacturer.  Clickbank sends you a commission check when customers buy through your site.

It’s free to set up an affiliate account on Clickbank and peruse their lists of products.  Some of their top level product categories are: business to business,  health and fitness, home and family, computers and internet, money and employment, marketing and ads, fun and entertainment, sports and recreation, and society and culture.

What Do I Sell?

But how do you pick a product that you’re likely to be able to make money from?

Follow Your Interests

My first recommendation is to pick something you’re already interested in.  There are many reasons for this.  First, you’ll be in a good position to distinguish good products from mediocre products and good deals from not so good deals.  This already gives you a competitive edge.  In addition, you’ll be able to write reviews and create informative sales pages and ads without a lot of additional research.  Most importantly however, you’ll BE in your target market.  The most important component to successful marketing is getting inside the heads of people in your target market.  This can take months of research. You’ve got a head start that even professional copywriters don’t often have,  if you’re in the target market.

Avoid the Top 10

I’d also recommend that you stay away from ClickBank’s (or anybody’s) top 10.   These are the products or services on the first page or so when you sort by popularity. There’s going to be so much competition for these products, that it’s not a good idea for your first campaign.  The cost of advertising will be high for highly competitive products.  You’ll either pay too much for each click (as with Google Adwords) or you’ll need a very well developed website to attract customers away from the already established (and numerous) sites.

‘Gravity’ and Commission

So picking something a bit less competitive is a good place to start.  However, you do want a ‘gravity’ (ClickBank’s proprietary measure of popularity) of at least 20 for the product you pick.  You want there to be a substantial market, even if not a killer market.

You also want a commission rate of 50% or better.  It’s more difficult to become profitable with lower commission rates when you factor in your advertising costs.  It takes time to learn how to create ‘attractive’ ads and irresistable sales pages.  So, while you’re learning the ropes, your chances of reaching profitability are more likely at 50%.

Just One Product to Start

It’s also a good idea to start with just one product.  This is especially true if you plan to attract people to your site with a ‘pay per click’ service, such as Google Adwords.  You’ll want to experiment with different ads and sales pages until you find an ad and sales page that reliably attract and land customers.  This takes some time and effort, even for a single product. Once you’ve mastered the marketing skills to become profitable with one product, then it will be a lot easier to take on more.

The Niche is Nice

Finally, and most importantly, the best product choice for you may be something that you find extremely valuable — something you can’t resist buying yourself.  As you peruse the product directory, do you sometimes find products that are so compelling, you want to buy them?  These may be the hidden gems for you, particularly if they appeal to a specific (i.e. niche) market.  Finding a good niche product actually makes profitable marketing easier.  Maybe aquarium products are your niche?  If so, then it will likely be easier for you to achieve profitability because there won’t be as many competitors as with a mass market item, such as satellite TV services.  With a niche product, your advertising costs will be lower.  This is especially true for pay-per-click ads, whose cost is determined by the highest bidders.   Also with a niche product, it will be easier for you to attract visitors to your website.  There aren’t as many websites devoted to aquarium products as there are devoted to satellite TV.  So it’s easier to stand out in the niche market.  But the product has still got to be something you’re enthusiastic about, and that many others will become enthusiastic about.

The Pot of Gold

Often the best situations are with new and unusual products.  New products appear on Clickbank from time to time.  If you find one that you find irresistable, and you can make it seem irresistable to others, then you’ve got gold.  You may want to subscribe to multiple product directories and watch for these.

John Reese, the creator of the Traffic Secrets training course, is reputed to be the first person to use internet marketing to make a million dollars in less than a day.  In an interview with Tony Robbins, Reese describes what he considers the most important contributing factors to his success.

No Belief, No Follow Through

Early in the interview, Robbins observed that “many people want to change their lives. They have a vision of what they want to do, and they believe it, sort of, but they never follow through.”   I think the problem for most people is in the sort of.   Most folks aren’t really certain that they can create the change they want.  If their belief were truly strong enough, they would follow through.  On some level,  most of us doubt ourselves.  We believe in our limitations more than our capacity to create.

Beliefs Can Be Changed

Years ago, I was trained in Ericksonian hypnosis and NLP.  The way I learned to help people create change for themselves was to help them change their beliefs about what is possible INCREMENTALLY.  Don’t believe you can run a 4 minute mile? Try running an 6 minute mile.  When you can do that, work on a 5.5 minute mile, etc.

How John Reese Did It

John Reese did exactly this as he worked his way up to his million dollar day.   He started with goals of small sums, working his way up to $500 in a day.  Each time he achieved a goal, he solidified his new belief (in what he could create) at a very deep level.  He always set specific goals such as earning $40k per year, having a $4500 day, having a $40k week.  Eventually he reached a $100k day before finally hitting a million in one day with a product roll out.

How You Can Do It

Reese teaches his students to do the same.  He starts by giving them the goal of making $1 worth of sales.  Though some might scoff at this, he reminds us that “any progress at all is worth gold compared with no progress.  So focus on that first dollar. … You have to take that first increment, no matter how small.  Otherwise, you haven’t made the inner shift in your thinking.”  In fact, he sees 90% of the (internal) battle as achieving this first goal.   After that, reaching the next goal is often just doing more of the same.

Robbins puts it in even stronger terms. “One thing equals happiness and that’s progress.”  He emphasizes three ingredients for success:  having a clear vision of achieving your goal, taking (appropriate) action, and having grace (some call it luck).

Six Steps to Success

Let me break Tony Robbins’ ingredients down into a more detailed list.

1. Be very specific in choosing a goal.  Saying, “I want to make as much as possible” doesn’t work.  There’s no such amount.  Saying, “I want to make 20 sales of $50 each by the end of next week” is more like it.  You may end up making more.
2. Be certain that you’re going to find a way to make it happen.  Even though you may have doubts, it’s important to limit the “negative self talk” as much as you can.  If the doubt is too big, then maybe you need a smaller goal increment. The doubt will be released as subgoals are achieved and you make (even small) progress.
3. Visualize the goal clearly.  You should visualize in as much detail as possible what it will be like for you when the goal is achieved.   See what you would see, hear what you would hear, feel it, smell it.  Create as vivid a picture as you can in  your imagination,  using multiple senses.  You’ll get better at visualizing with practise.
4. Execute your plan to achieve this goal.  Some call this “taking massive action.”  In other words, act as if you fully believe you can do this.  Put your energy into it as if certain of success.
5. Persistence is critical.  Just plain don’t give up.  Here too, smaller increments help give you continual rewards that make it easier for you to keep going.
6. Be grateful for grace when the unexpected goes your way.

Conclusion

Now you know the important ingredients for making a million dollars in a day, or anything else you’d like to achieve.  It may not be easy, but it’s definitely doable.

Click here to listen to the interview.

We’re going to make it easy for you to make your first Wordpress post. We’ll do this by walking you through the exact steps you need to get some text up on your blog. We’re assuming that someone has already installed and configured a Wordpress blog for you.  You will also need to know your username and password specific to your Wordpress account.

Step 1: Login

Suppose your website is located at www.lovetoblog.com (wish i had grabbed that domain name). To log in to your Wordpress account, you would go to a browser and enter the following address (url).

www.lovetoblog.com/wp-admin

After you hit the carriage return, the Wordpress login screen should come up. It should look like this, except that the username and password boxes will be empty.

Wordpress Login Screen

Type in your Wordpress username, where I’ve typed ‘YourUserName’ (your box will be empty). Then type in your password in the box provided. I’ve already typed one in so there’s a row of dots in the screen shot above.  Click the ‘Login’ button and you should see the Wordpress dashboard as pictured below (your screen will not be greyed-out).

Step 2: Navigate to the Post Editor

Wordpress Dashboard

The first time you see it, the Wordpress dashboard can look pretty intimidating. You can ignore most of it today. You only need a little bit of it for making posts. Don’t worry if your dashboard doesn’t look exactly like mine. The appearance of the dashboard changes slightly with each new version of Wordpress.  In addition, the dashboard often gets additional menu items when you install a plug-in. Since you may have different plug-ins installed than I have, your menus may look different from mine. The basics will be the same however.

I’ve greyed-out most of the dashboard, except for the Posts button.  If you click on the Posts button, you should see a drop-down menu with the items, Edit, Add New, Post Tags, etc.   Your menu may be slightly different, but it will have the Add New button, which is highlighted in the (greyed-out) picture below.

Wordpress Posts Menu

Clicking on the Add New button will activate the Wordpress post editor.

Step 3: Enter the Title

Now you’re in the Wordpress post editor which has two edit windows: one for the title and one for the body of the post. In the picture below, I’ve highlighted the box where you can type in a title. I’ve already typed in “Ad Position Does Not Affect The Sale”, which was one of my titles. Your box will be empty. Left click in the box and you will be able to type in the text of your title. By default, Wordpress makes the title the highest level heading (specifically H1).

Type in the Title of Your Post

Step 4: Enter the Post

Next click in the box beneath the tool bar(s). If you only see one toolbar, don’t worry. I’ll show you how to get the second toolbar in a moment. For now, just type some text in the box to get your post started. I’ve highlighted the area and entered some unformatted text in the picture below.

Type or Paste in the Text for Your Post

Once you’ve entered some text, you may want to explore the Wordpress toolbars. I’ve highlighted them in the next picture.

Please note the two tabs just above the toolbar(s) and to the right: Visual and HTML. These refer to the two major modes of the editor. In Visual mode, you see the post as it will look when published. That is, what you see is what you get (WYSIWYG). In HTML mode, you see that actual formatting commands as they are embedded in your text. Unless you’ve programmed in HTML, you’ll want to remain in Visual mode. So make sure the Visual tag is highlighted.

Wordpress Editor Toolbars

Clicking on the Kitchen Sink button toggles the bottom toolbar on and off. The kitchen sink button is on the right side of the top toolbar and looks like this.

KitchenSink

In Visual mode, most of the toolbar commands work on selected/highlighted text. For example, to make a word appear in boldface, you select the word by clicking and holding the (left) mouse button down and dragging the mouse across the word, just as you would in any text editor. Wordpress highlights by making the background of the selected characters blue. Click on the b button in the upper toolbar to make the selection bold. Clicking again, undoes the bold command.

Hovering the mouse over a toolbar button without clicking tells you what the buttons do.  We’ll describe the toolbar operations (including inserting pictures and video) in more detail in another post.  For now, this will get you started.

There’s one more very important button you should know about, the Save Draft button.  The Save Draft button is to the right of the edit window in a box labeled Publish.  As the name implies, Save Draft backs up your work.  It’s a way to save your work without making it live on your blog.  Click it often and it can save your life, or at least your computer’s life.    I have seen Wordpress occasionally crash and exit to the login screen.  That is, it logs you out!  When this happens, everything you entered since the last Save Draft will likely be lost.  So just like with any editor, save often.

Step 5: Publish!

The picture below shows my final draft just before publishing. When you’re ready to go live, click on the Publish button. It may take a few moments to process your post, but you can see how it looks by clicking on the View Post or Visit Site buttons. The View Post button is right above the blog title. The Visit Site button is somewhat above that at the top of the window. DANGER: don’t click either of these buttons unless you’ve clicked on Save Draft or Publish first, since you’ll be abandoning any edits since your last save.  I’ve done that too a few times.

Click the 'Publish' button to put your post on your blog.

Here’s what my published post looks like. Note that publishing need not be the end of your changes. The Publish button turns into an Update Post button after it is clicked. So you can change nearly everything about your post after you’ve published it.

How the Post Looks on the Blog

Categories and Tags

This is a topic for another blog, but you will want to create a list of categories of things you plan to write about. You’ll want to assign one or more of these categories to each post. You can assign categories after you publish, so you haven’t lost anything by publishing. Having a rich set of categories will allow your readers to find all the posts about a particular category, like Wordpress, from the hundreds of posts you will have made a year from now.

Tags can also be assigned later. That’s a bigger topic since tags are part of how people will find your posts when they’re searching for a topic you’ve written about. We’ll save this discussion too for another post.

Ann Sieg is sponsoring David Garfinkel, who is giving a 6 week webinar in copywriting. This webinar is for folks who have little or no experience in copywriting, but would like to get up to speed fast. The course is designed to make you an effective copywriter as quickly as possible. It is probably not going to make you an expert, but it will make you effective enough to significantly improve your conversion rates. David Garfinkel is well known as a leading coach and teacher of copywriting. He has developed a template method that gives you a good starting place for different kinds of copy as well as a lot of confidence.

Free Sample Interview with David Garfinkel

If you would like to listen to an interview with David Garfinkel, to get a sense of how he is as a teacher, click here.

Initial Session and Sign Up for Course

If you would like more information about the copywriting crash course, or if you would like to sign up, click here. The first live session of the course will be Wednesday, August 19 at 9pm est. So, signing up as early as possible is a good thing. The sessions will be recorded and available for anyone who misses them.

My Notes on an Interview with David Garfinkel

I have an earlier post with a brief summary of the Garfinkel interview here.

This promises to be a terrific course. I’m certainly going to be there..

“Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success.”

This was the ad that Ernest Shackleton posted in The Times of London in 1913. He was recruiting for an expedition to cross the Antarctic continent from sea to sea via the south pole. He received about 5000 immediate responses.

Truth in Advertising

The ad is remarkable in its honesty. There’s nothing sugar-coated about “Safe return doubtful.” Shackleton could have left that sentence out. Yet he chose to include it. As a result, you trust that you’re getting the whole truth. You either want to go on the expedition or you don’t. Either way, you trust Shackleton.

How often do you see ads on the internet for business opportunities that you completely trust? Not many I’m sure.  Every day, I see ads claiming 5 figure monthly incomes for very little work. All you have to do is buy their report and all secrets will be revealed to you. Right?

Reveal vs. Conceal

So what can we do differently to make the internet work for us? Taking a hint from Shackleton, be completely straight with your prospects. This means taking a more revealing approach than the concealing approach so common today.

When there’s an absence of information, when we sense that something is being concealed, we instinctively lose trust. On the other hand, when something is being revealed to us, particularly if it takes courage to reveal it, we instinctively trust.

A Concealing Ad

For example, here’s a an ad that conceals most of the information you need to make an intelligent choice. I made this ad up, though many current ads give you about as much information before they ask for your credit card.

“Riches Overnight: The Lazy Man’s Guide to Internet Wealth. I’ll tell you how I made $100k in two weeks using Twitter. Click here to buy my report.”

A Revealing Ad

Compare that to a more revealing ad. I made this one up too.

“Want More Customers? The secret to success on the internet is writing compelling ad copy. Discover how the copywriting masters of our time made their fortunes. With our training program, you will need 4 months of study and practice to master the skill. You’ll read hundreds of pages of copy and listen to hours of videos by the masters. You’ll work hard, writing dozens of ads and articles yourself. But in that 4 months you will produce a credible on-line presence. Click here to sample our unique training program for 2 weeks, absolutely free and with no obligation. Or click here to enroll in our copywriting masterclass.”

Comparison

Even if the first ad were legitimate, who would trust it? It’s asking you to take all the risk, without offering anything for that risk. It has given you no reason to believe that it can deliver what it promises.

The second ad reveals the level of effort needed to be successful: 4 months. That’s taking a risk. The Lazy Man is outta there. The ad takes even more of a risk by giving you access to the training program. You could learn a lot about copywriting without paying a penny. That’s putting skin in the game. Wouldn’t you be more likely to believe that the second could deliver on its promises?

Conclusion

So when you’re promoting your business, consider taking the risk of revealing more to your prospects. Be straight with them. It will give you an edge that your competitors will miss.

And when you’re looking at training or opportunities, this is a good way to separate the trustworthy ones from the ones to avoid. If they reveal a lot, and you feel good about what you’re reading, go for it. Otherwise, let it go.

Incidently, here’s the post on Lawrence Bernstein’s blog that provoked me to make this post.

P.S. Everyone on Shackleton’s expedition survived. Shackleton tells the amazing story of his journey in “South: The Last Antarctic Expedition of Shackleton and the Endurance.”

I found out about David Garfinkel’s article in a newsletter from Ann Sieg.  I’m including her news letter below because it’s an instructive piece of marketing in its own right.  Notice how she lures you in with questions she knows you want answered, and little bits of bait along the way.

Here’s what Ann Sieg wrote.

“Are your prospects reading your emails?
If you’re like a lot of marketers, you’re lucky if
ONE out of every TEN of your emails even gets
opened.

What if you could increase this number to two or three
out of every ten by simply rearranging the words in your
subject lines?

That doesn’t sound too hard does it?
By doing so, you can very realistically double or triple
the amount of sales you’re currently generating.
Today I have a very special guest on my blog who’s going
to show you 5 different ways to get more attention with
your subject lines and headlines.

His name’s David Garfinkel and he’s considered by many
people to be the best copywriting coach in the world.
He helped me generate over 4,500 new customers in one
month this year… and I know he’ll be able to help you
pocket a few additional sales as well.

Find out how a few well-chosen words can do magic for
your business here:

http://www.renegadeproblog.com/19/

To Your Success,

Ann Sieg”

Left Brain Approach

Appealing to the left brain means appealing to reason. In other words, you are providing the rational reasons, or benefits, for buying a product. An appeal to the left brain would involve the following steps when writing the ad copy.

• List the benefits of having the product.
• Use the most powerful of these benefits to craft a Unique Selling Proposition (USP).
• Establish the USP right up front and repeat throughout your copy.
• Fully develop every “Reason Why” your prospects should buy.

Right Brain Approach

Appealing to the right brain means appealing to the prospect’s emotions. These are the emotions in areas that the product addresses. For example, if your product is health related, the emotions you might address could be the fear of being sick if you don’t use the product, or the positive feeling of well being if you do use the product. To elicit these emotions you paint the appropriate picture for you target market (best done by telling a story).

Mix Right Brain with Left

In the article, Clayton presents us with the question, “What could possibly be better than leading with a tangible benefit?” His answer is to mix the left brain with the right, leading with the right.  In other words, sell with emotion (and relevant imagery) and justify with reason (benefits).   This involves the following steps, as presented by Clayton.

• Figure out what the prospect’s resident emotions are regarding areas the product addresses.
• Figure out which of those resident emotions are the strongest, most compelling, most “dominant” in his or her life.
• Identify the benefits the product offers that will most effectively enhance his strongest positive emotions and/or resolve his negative ones.
• Address those benefits in ways that keep the prospect’s dominant emotions working with you, and never against you.
• As you review and edit your sales copy, keep making this kind of emotional connection at every opportunity.

Conclusion

While these notes are here to summarize the key points of the article, you really should read it. Education should always be this much fun!

Click here to read Clayton’s article.