Entries from January 2008 ↓

In these sometimes confusing days of doing business online, I must advise you to please ignore Armand Morin. The man clearly knows what he’s talking about, which makes him more dangerous still. He might actually inspire you to implement strategies and techniques that work. And that would be dangerous to your comfort as well as your bank account.

Armand claims his business now generates over eight figures a year. In case you don’t know what eight figures looks like, it looks like this: $10,000,000. Ten million is the lowest eight-figure number. Armand’s business makes more than this in a single year. Few online business owners have achieved similar numbers.

But let me tell you something. Whatever Armand says, it’s a load of C.R.A.P. You’d be well advised to keep your distance. Otherwise, you may start putting the C.R.A.P. to work yourself. And there’s enough crap out there as it is.

There are hundreds of voices on the Internet. Who will you listen to? Whose advice will you follow? Whose advice will you implement? No matter how you answer that question, please ignore Armand Morin.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. If this post sounds unusual and unreasonably harsh, then you’ll want to read my previous post about the sensitivity of language. It will also help to read this.

Popularity: 19% [?]

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In business, there are three basic ways for you to make money, each with its own level of value and complexity. The business model you choose largely determines your earning potential. Here they are in order of their value…

1. You can sell advertising space.
2. You can sell other people’s products for a commission.
3. You can sell your own products or services.

The first level is selling advertising space. It is the easiest way to start making money in business. You simply create content or collect, sort, and organize it such that people will have an interest in reading it. After you attract a readership, you now have the foundations in place to sell advertising space.

How much you make will be determined by the number of readers you have. This is why newspapers will often charge you more if you want only the Sunday newspaper and less if you take the paper seven days a week. If you only get Sunday’s paper, their readership numbers drop, which negatively impacts their advertising rates during the week. But if they can get you to subscribe for every single day, their readership numbers go up, which allows them to increase advertising rates.

While selling advertising space may be a relatively simple business model, it is usually not as profitable as other models (Google Adwords being the major exception).

The next business model is selling other people’s products for a commission. This is called affiliate marketing in the online world. In this case, you must still attract the audience. But instead of selling ad space for other companies to promote their products and services, you promote those same products and services for a commission. Each person who purchases through your recommendation generates a commission for you.

The strength of this model (compared to selling ad space) is that you are paid based on results. If you are skilled at selling, then you stand to make a lot more money from promoting products yourself. This is different than selling ad space where you make your money even if the ads are ineffective at generating sales.

The downside to this model is that you are at the mercy of the tracking mechanisms and the companies that allow you to promote their products. If the tracking mechanism doesn’t function properly, then you may lose commissions that are rightfully yours. And if the company is dishonest or disorganized, you may not receive all the commissions you’ve earned.

The final business model, like the prior two models, still require you to attract an audience. But this time you don’t sell ad space and you don’t promote other people’s products and services. You promote your own products and services. Whether you source the products or create them yourself is irrelevant. Whatever product you have, you then sell directly to your audience.

Selling products or services directly is often the most profitable business model. You are in control of every aspect of the sale. You attract the audience; you sell the product; you collect the money. It is also the most complicated model, which is why fewer people go this high up on the “food chain.”

So now that we’ve examined each of the three major business models, all of this begs the question… Which business model are you involved in? Which business model should you be in?

-Ryan M. Healy

Popularity: 19% [?]

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Just the other day, my two-year-old son walked up to me and said, “I don’t have a poopie diaper.” I’ve learned that unsolicited feedback like this often means the exact opposite of what my son says. He was actually telling me he did have a poopie diaper… he just didn’t want me to know about it.

Why do I share this with you?

Because adults are not that much different than toddlers. We often say the opposite of what we really mean. And we often do the opposite of what we are told to do.

Example 1: If I say, “Don’t click on this link,” what will you likely want to do? You will want to click the link.

Example 2: If, in a sales letter, you see a bunch of testimonials followed by a disclaimer that says, “I don’t say this to brag, only to prove that I’m qualified to grow your business,” what is the person really saying?

Read between the lines. The person who writes this has already engaged in an internal dialog that looks something like this: “I am bragging, but I’m uncomfortable bragging, so I’ll just say I’m not bragging and hope my readers believe me. At least I’ll sound humble… hopefully.”

Example 3: Let’s say you’re negotiating to purchase something and the salesperson says, “Honestly, this is the best I can do.” What is he really saying? The word “honestly” implies he’s being dishonest. Otherwise, why would he have need of telling you he’s being honest? What the salesperson is really saying is that he will do better if you ask… he just hopes you’ll take his statement at face value.

Example 4: Do you have young children? If you do, you know how difficult it can be to persuade a toddler to do what you want him or her to do. Imagine this. You’re sitting at the dinner table and your child is refusing to eat dinner. What do you do? You say this: “I wouldn’t eat that if I were you.” You may need to say this in more than one way, or put some emotion into it, but chances are your kid will start gobbling up dinner like there’s no tomorrow.

Example 5: You’re reading a sales letter for a seminar and you read this: “There are only 110 seats available. Once they are gone, they’re gone. No exceptions.”

The person who says this is trying to establish urgency while showing you every card in his hand. It’s almost as if the person is trying to convince himself that he will stick to his limits. But what he really means to say is, “There are exceptions, but you should register now because I need at least 110 people to be there.”

My point: Language is a sensitive thing. If you take the time to study language patterns, you will become aware of the difference between what people say and what they actually mean. This is helpful not only in discerning the truth of a matter (as in the case of my son’s poopie diaper), but also in crafting your own sales messages.

-Ryan M. Healy

Popularity: 28% [?]

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JP Maroney just published a new episode of his Mr. Monetizer podcast. He included a segment of an interview I did with him last year. In that segment, I talk about how to write a successful business flyer. My segment starts at about the 10-minute mark and lasts for five minutes. (The whole podcast is only 17 minutes long.) If you’re interested, here is the link (no opt-in required)…

==> Tips for Writing Business Flyers

-Ryan M. Healy

Popularity: 19% [?]

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There are only a three real ways to grow a business.

1. Get more customers.
2. Get your customers to spend more each time they buy.
3. Get your customers to buy more frequently.

Of course, these are all principles of business growth. It’s not like you can say, “Okay, I want more customers. Now I’m going to go get them.” You’re lacking the “how”–the real strategies or tactics you will use to actually get more customers.

The beauty of principles like these are that they are timeless. You can always come back to them when you’re getting bogged down in information clutter. Principles stand like monuments amongst the wreckage of worn-out techniques.

On the other hand, principles don’t give you anything immediate to act on. You have to figure out the “how to” part on your own or from somebody else.

With the three business growth principles I’ve listed above, the last two are often the easiest to implement. If you already sell products or services, it takes very little effort to increase your prices. You can increase them a lot or a little, doesn’t matter. You will soon notice that you’re making more money and more profit.

Getting customers to buy more frequently is more difficult. It requires you to communicate with your customers more frequently. And it requires you to have multiple products for your customers to buy. Obviously, you cannot get your customers to buy more frequently if you’ve only got one product.

The first strategy, get more customers, is where you’ll get the most explosive long-term growth. Because once you have more customers, you can still implement the second and third strategies.

How do you get more customers fast?

One way is to do something remarkable… something that has never been done before. Take Crocs, for instance. They created a type of shoe that was completely unique. As a result, people talked about them. The press ran hundreds of stories about the shoes and the company behind them. Crocs got people “buzzing.”

Of course, Crocs didn’t invent shoes. They merely created a new kind of shoe. They adapted an idea and made it their own.

I could give more examples of how to get customers, but sometimes it’s better if you challenge yourself. Ask yourself the question, “How can I get more customers?” Then sit down with a pen and sheet of paper and start writing down your ideas. I bet you’ll find you already know how to get more customers; you simply need to take action and do it.

-Ryan M. Healy

Popularity: 19% [?]

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Among bloggers who write about business and online marketing, the “usual suspects” get most of the attention. But I’ve discovered three excellent blogs over the past six months that have some great content, even though they don’t post every day (or even every week). Here they are…

Ricky Breslin - Ricky is an extremely successful businessman. He writes about business, marketing, and how to achieve greater independence. Look to Ricky not only for inspiration, but also practical advice that he has personally tested himself.

Nick Dalton - Nick is soft-spoken, but he is brilliant. Before he launched his own Internet business, he was the Chief Technical Architect for super-sites like Toyota.com. Lately, he’s been writing about how to rank well in the search engines, and how to interpret the data generated by James Brausch’s RaSof program.

Ophir Prusak - Ophir once called me about the possibility of writing copy for the company he works for. It never panned out, but I discovered his blog in the process. Ophir does a lot of work with Google Website Optimizer, and he has posted a lot of helpful information about how to use it. If you do split-testing with GWO, you’ll want to check out his blog.

Like you, I have my favorite blogs that I read regularly. But I find it’s good to mix up my blog reading every now and again. If you’re looking for some excellent blogs that haven’t been talked about much, then take a moment to see what each of these has to offer.

-Ryan M. Healy

Popularity: 14% [?]

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Last week I got a letter in the mail from Jay Abraham. On the outside of the envelope, the teaser copy reads, “Led Zeppelin Concert Gives Me a Great Idea.”

On the inside, the headline is really the letterhead itself; “Jay L. Abraham” is in large blue type, centered at the top of the page. Underneath that, in normal type, it says, “Reunion, Reunion: Led Zeppelin Concert Gives Me a Great Idea.” And then the letter starts…

At first, I wondered what Jay Abraham (a business consultant) and Led Zeppelin (a rock band) had to do with each other. They seem so unrelated. Curiosity drew me into the letter.

Overall, the letter is deceptively simple. It is only four pages long and asks for no money, only an “expression of interest.” But the concept driving the letter is brilliant.

The letter begins by talking about Jay’s recent experience watching Led Zeppelin perform in London at the band’s 29-year reunion concert. By the fourth paragraph, an astute reader may already begin to see what Jay is doing. By the fifth paragraph, the hook is sunk…

Over 20,000,000 people tried to get tickets to their concert. 19,980,000 failed to do so.

Notice the scarcity build is already happening… but Jay hasn’t even told you why he’s writing yet!

Finally, at the top of the second page, the reader discovers that Jay is planning a reunion style event for past customers and seminar attendees. He’s not even sure if he’s going to do it or not… he merely wants to gauge interest in such an event.

But to build the value, Jay compares (indirectly) the excitement of a Led Zeppelin reunion concert to the excitement a business person might feel at this reunion event. And he compares the scarcity of concert tickets to the scarcity of seats that will be available.

Now, instead of the reader thinking that this business event will be “more of the same,” he’s thinking it will be thrilling, exciting, and unusually memorable–a much better emotional state for a prospect to be in if you want him to express interest in attending.

How well is Jay’s “Reunion, Reunion” letter doing? Honestly, I don’t know. But I would be surprised if it’s not doing well.

This concept of comparison is called simile or metaphor. (In the example above, it’s really an extended metaphor; it extends throughout the letter.)

Similes and metaphors, when used well, can be quite persuasive. Rather than describing a product, it can be much faster and often more effective to compare it to something bigger or better. For instance, when I was writing the sales letter to sell seats in Alex Mandossian’s Virtual Seminar Week, we included this paragraph…

Let me explain: Just as Steve Case changed the Internet with AOL in 1999, and as Pierre Omidyar revolutionized online auctions with eBay in 1995, and as Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe created a personal information-sharing phenomenon with MySpace… my partner Rick Raddatz and I have high hopes we can totally transform three of the world’s most important “distance learning” communities.

In this case, we could have said, “Virtual Seminar Week will transform how people learn,” which is pretty flat. But instead, we compared Virtual Seminar Week to other online services that had already transformed the Internet.

Do you see how powerful this is?

In another letter promoting an Apprentice program, I wrote this…

Can my Apprentice Program make that much of a difference? You betcha! It’s literally the difference between walking to your destination… and driving a supercharged sports car. Which would you choose?

I actually got the idea for this metaphor from Steven K. Scott while listening to his audio program “Mentored by a Millionaire.”

One last real-life example. When I was investigating Glyphius over a year ago, I first read the sales page. Then I read the testimonials. One testimonial in particular sold me. It was written by Brian Keith Voiles, and he said (and I’m quoting from memory), “Glyphius is as addictive as a video game.”

By making this comparison, Brian implied that you “play” Glyphius just like you might “play” a video game. Deeper still, Brian implied that the software is fun, and that it takes the work out of writing copy. Of course, he didn’t directly say any of this. It was all embedded in an eight-word simile.

So… how can you use this technique when writing copy for your own products and services? Well, you could attempt an extended metaphor like what Jay Abraham has done in the example above. Or you can start off with a simpler approach. Here’s how it works…

First, define what your product actually is. Is it a software program? A home study course? A seminar or workshop? This should take you two seconds. Then, take your answer and plug it into this formula…

It’s not just a ________, it’s a ________.

In the first blank, enter what your product is. In the second blank, write in the thing you’re comparing your product to. For instance, if I wanted to create a metaphor for my blog, I might say, “It’s not just a blog, it’s a community of savvy business owners and copywriters.” In this case, I would be comparing my blog to a community.

At first, this exercise may be difficult. Your metaphors may have comparisons that are too similar (Example: “It’s not just a blog, it’s a news source”). Or your metaphors may be too cliché. But with some practice, you’ll get the hang of it. Ultimately, your sales copy will be stronger for it

Heck, if it’s good enough for Jay Abraham, it’s good enough for just about anybody.

-Ryan M. Healy

Popularity: 26% [?]

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You’ve heard it said that to achieve success in any area, all you must do is find somebody who has already achieved success and follow the proven path they’ve taken. I believe this is, for the most part, true. Naturally, achieving anything in life will be easier with somebody to guide you who has already done what you’d like to do.

But following a proven path is one thing. Copying somebody is another.

When sitting down to write a sales letter, many people will borrow concepts and ideas from sales letters that have been proven to work in the past. For lack of a better word, this is called “swiping.”

Swiping is perfectly acceptable so long as it doesn’t become plagiarism. Plagiarism is copying verbatim. It is taking another person’s words and calling them your own. According to some definitions, plagiarism also includes the use of another person’s ideas without giving credit to the author of those ideas.

While plagiarism may be a faster way to “success,” it will only hurt you in the long run. For one, you will look like a copycat. When you are seen this way, it will be that much harder to achieve lasting success. Secondly, the person who is innovating will always out-maneuver the person who is merely copying. The innovator will always be one or two steps ahead.

So how does this apply to you?

When you want to find success in a new area (for instance, building a business), study what successful people have done. But don’t copy them outright. Rather, adapt their ideas for your own use. Take what successful people have done and put your own spin on it.

After all, you cannot be somebody else. You are you. So become good at being you.

Take this blog, for instance. As you might already know, I am one of James Brausch’s Magic Email students. He has succeeded in an area I would like to succeed in. That’s why I chose him to mentor me.

You’ll notice some aspects of this blog are similar to James’s blog. But I’ve put my own spin on what he has done. I did not use the same Wordpress theme. I spent some time investigating and found a theme I liked that I have not seen anybody else use. This is different from what other people have done. Have you noticed how many of James’s students use the Very Plain Text theme? A lot of them do.

Here’s the problem: Anything that becomes ubiquitous will eventually become ordinary and lose its impact.

(This is why I believe there is more money to be made in keeping secrets than sharing them. Share too many secrets and they aren’t secrets anymore. Worse, they can become commonplace.)

By adapting proven ideas, concepts, and methods, you benefit yourself and others. You strengthen your own position while differentiating yourself in the market. This is what you want. You want a proven path (because it is faster and there is less risk), but you also want to add the one unique element nobody else can copy: you.

-Ryan M. Healy

Popularity: 22% [?]

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THIS OFFER IS SOLD OUT! But in case you haven’t read it yet, you need to go to Eric Graham’s blog right now and read his study of Glyphius based on 181 test rounds.

******

As you may already know, I use Glyphius to help strengthen the copy I write. I also split-test Glyphius copy against non-Glyphius copy. Usually, Glyphius wins. In fact, in a recent test, I discovered one word in Glyphius that more than doubled the conversion rate of one page.

I’m serious. Just one word more than doubled the response of the letter. While I’m not ready to share some of the details of these tests broadly, I have shared them with my mentoring students.

The reason I’m writing this is because January 3, 2008, was the last day you could buy Glyphius from James Brausch, the man who created the software. He has chosen to stop competing with his resellers so they can have more success selling the software themselves.

Over the summer, I decided to become a reseller and bought a set of 10 to offer my readers. I also received 10 copies of Muvar from James, a gift for participating in one of his contests. Muvar is his multivariate testing software. Then, I received another copy of each program when I joined James Brausch’s Magic Email program.

Long story short, I had 11 copies of Glyphius and 11 copies of Muvar. Since I originally offered them, six people have taken me up on my offer, which means 5 copies of each program are left.

The last offer I had posted on my old blog was one copy of Glyphius plus a copy of Muvar for only $300. I will still honor that offer. If you’d like a copy of each, PayPal $300 to rhealy@gmail.com.

If you’d rather just have one program or the other, you can have it for $200. When you send the money, put “Glyphius” in the subject line or “Muvar,” depending on the program you want.

So, to recap, I have 0 copies of each software program: 0 of Glyphius and 0 of Muvar. You can have both programs for $300 or just one of the programs for $200. If you’re interested, send your payment to rhealy@gmail.com.

-Ryan M. Healy

Popularity: 18% [?]

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Yesterday, I made a major announcement that I would no longer be blogging at my old blog hosted by Typepad. Already my most loyal readers have updated their links and their RSS feeds. Terry Dean is one of those who has done this.

In fact, Terry just wrote an interesting post about which blogs he actually reads based on usage statistics inside his Google feed reader interface. The results are fascinating. And I’m honored that I’m counted among the top 10 blogs he reads on a regular basis.

It also confirms the 80/20 Rule, or at least the principle of it. Terry says he has 31 feeds in his reader. Of those, only 10 receive his readership at least 50% of the time. That is less than a third. What’s more, only two blogs get his readership 100% of the time. That means only 6% of the total number of feeds he has subscribed to are getting 100% of his attention!

This illustrates a couple key points.

1. Just because someone has subscribed to your feed does not mean you have earned his or her readership. It only means you have the opportunity to earn that readership. You must always write clear, compelling, and useful content to achieve this.

2. Everybody is short on time. And nobody has time to read all the things they’ve expressed an interest in reading. You must work hard to get and keep the attention of your readers. At no point can you slack off and assume that your readers will read whatever you write just because you’ve written it.

That said, I welcome the opportunity to earn your readership. If you haven’t subscribed to my blog, I invite you to do so by clicking this RSS feed link and adding my feed to your RSS reader.

-Ryan M. Healy

Popularity: 11% [?]

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