Group: http://groups.google.com/group/publish-these-articles/topics
- How Different Logo Design Styles Can Affect Your Small Business Or Home Business [1 Update]
- Home Security Systems Monitoring [1 Update]
- Kindle Ebook Cover Tips: Avoid Five Common Blunders That Turn Off Buyers [1 Update]
- Kindle Publishers and Self-Published Authors: Don't Overlook the Profits in Audiobooks! [1 Update]
- Teleseminar Marketing Funnel #1: Free Q&A Teleseminar to Paid Class [1 Update]
- How Information Products Help Your Customers [1 Update]
- Kindle Publishing: How to Commission a Cover That Helps Sell Your Ebook [1 Update]
- Teleseminar Marketing Funnel #2: Free Telesummit to Paid Class With Upsell to Private Coaching [1 Update]
- Teleseminar Marketing Funnel #3: Free Multi-Expert Telesummit With Upsell to Premium Versions [1 Update]
- Hate Conventional Marketing? The Shy Person's Guide to Successful One-on-One Marketing [1 Update]
- Mind Your Marketing: No Matter What Your Specialization or Niche, Show Why You Care [1 Update]
- Eleven Unusual Cures For Writer's Block That Actually Worked [1 Update]
- Introvert Marketing: Lessons From Diana Nyad on How to Sell Selflessly [1 Update]
- Got Expertise? Get a Hollywood Gig as a Technical Screen Consultant [1 Update]
- Sparking Demand: Seven Ways to Perk Up a Dull Offer [1 Update]
- Self-Promotion Tools: Three Types of Sound Bites For Business Owners [1 Update]
- Three Unfortunate Misconceptions About Kindle Ebook Publishing [1 Update]
- Copywriting Challenge: Smart Ways to Tout an Innovative Product [1 Update]
- Five Myths About Writing That Can Destroy Your Productivity (and Sanity) [1 Update]
- Can You Learn Copywriting From Books, or Do You Need a Copywriting Coach or Mentor? [1 Update]
- Why All Copywriters Can and Should Develop Information Products [1 Update]
- The Top Two Mistakes of First-Time Information Product Developers [1 Update]
- The Money is in the List: 16 Ways to Build a List From Scratch [1 Update]
- What is Introvert-Friendly Learning? Reflections For Coaches, Conference Organizers and Seminar Leaders [1 Update]
- The Mind Music of Meter: Creating Catchier Tag Lines and Slogans [1 Update]
- "Max Pain" <submissions@isnare.net> Apr 24 09:20AM +0800
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Article Title: How Different Logo Design Styles Can Affect Your Small Business Or Home Business
Author: Max Pain
Word Count: 906
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I've talked to you about not getting too personally attached to your logo design process, and how strong of an impact a good logo can have. I believe that in most cases a clean, simple, unique logo is the way to go for longevity and success in marketing your image. That being said, there are multiple other types of logos that can, and have, helped many business reach the next level of success. Choosing which style of logo would best fit your company is an extremely important decision, and one that you and your designer should decide.
I came across the following article when I was researching for material to put into this column, and realized that everything I was reading was exactly what I had hoped to put into this. So without further adieu, I give you some excerpts from an article written by Kelly Dailey that I think explain very well the different types of logos you may want to use for your organization:
Wordmark or Logotype Logos and Your Small Business
The most widely used of all logo types, the workmark focuses on text and typeface but can incorporate other elements as well. A wordmark may be best suited for companies whose name effectively describes what they do (Office Max, Home Depot) without graphical elements to convey that message, a literal interpretation of the words is often necessary. (For example, we know that Gilmore and Rey are accountants because the logo literally tells us so.) A wordmark is often text only with unique typographical treatments ( Microsoft, Sears, Yahoo, Google ). Most often however, the company name is incorporated together with simple graphic elements to create a clean, simple identity. The representation of the word essentially becomes a symbol of the companies' name.
Here are some instances for choosing a Wordmark or Logotype;
- Communication funds are limited and should be focused on name recognition.
- Your name is reasonably distinctive but not (yet) a household word.
- You want to associate products or subsidiaries with the parent company more clearly and directly than a symbol permits.
Lettermark Logo
Similar to a wordmark, a lettermark is a wholly typographic mark, usually involving initials or abbreviations. Monograms and anamgrams are lettermarks. The representation of the letter(s) essentially become a symbol of the companies name.
Here are some instances for choosing a Lettermark;
- Your initials translate graphically better than your actual name.
- You need to link subsidiaries to the patent and can't easily use the name.
- You can afford to teach the public what the lettermark means.
Brandmark Symbol
- A simple but strong graphic symbol, often abstract, that complements an aspect of a business or service and represents a company by association. (NIKE or Apple Computers)
Here are some instances for choosing a symbol;
- You need an emblem on a product.
- Your name is too long, too generic, doesn't translate well globally and/or has no personality.
- You need to link subsidiaries to the patent and can't easily use the name.
- You can't afford to teach the public what the symbol means.
Iconic Logotype
Iconic logotypes are also referred to as combination marks, An iconic logotype generally combines a brandmark symbol with the wordmark. The combination can be loose or integrated with a loose combination, the elements can be used together or separately. A well designed iconic logotype can effectively communicate what a company does as well as reflect what the companies personality is.
- Here are some instances for choosing an Iconic Logotype;
- You are a startup enterprise or small business with limited funds.
- Your name is reasonably distinctive but not (yet) a household word.
- You need an emblem on a product, but want more than just a symbol.
Since Iconic Logotypes communicate more readily than other logotypes, less marketing is required for the logo to be effective. Therefore, iconic logotypes are the most cost effective type of logo design available and are ideal for startups or small businesses with limited marketing budgets."
I would like to add one more category that Kelly didn't address.
Illustrative Logos
Illustrative logos usually include a graphically represented scene or image. Since these type of logos are derived from an actual image or scene, and the intent is to portray that in a graphical manner, this type of logo is more involved to produce, and likewise more costly to create, and later more costly to reproduce and market. This seems to be the type of logo that most startup businesses think they want. The problem is, this is the last one they should choose. The logo may have the most color, and imagery, but it is definitely not the most recognizable or memorable.
Remember, an effective large or small business or home business logo should portray to the viewer, who you are, and what you do, in less than 5 seconds. ( The average time a viewer will actually look at it.) If it is used wisely, a successful logo will be able to do just that.
About The Author: David Dresen, Director of Design, Logoworks. Visit to learn more at http://smallbusiness.logoworks.com services
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Article Title: Home Security Systems Monitoring
Author: Max Pain
Word Count: 446
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To deliver the best possible protection for your home and family, it is vitally important to have advanced home security system monitoring. A security system without monitoring is like an automobile without gasoline. In the same way, if your security system is not properly monitored, then there is no way for emergency personnel to be notified to respond when there is an intrusion, fire or other threat to your home and family.
Due to the unique protection afforded by a monitored alarm system, it is not surprising that FBI statistics reveal that a home without a monitored security system is 3 times more likely to be burglarized, and that the average loss for a residential burglary is $1607. A business without a monitored security system is 4.5 times more likely to be burglarized.
When the security system is tripped the main control panel will notify the alarm monitoring company that a breach has occurred. The information received is then interpreted by the monitoring professionals who promptly notify the appropriate authorities.
When your security system depends upon traditional telephone lines, your system is only as good as your telephone lines. If your telephone lines go down, your security system is worthless. Telephone lines can go down for a variety of reasons including but certainly not limited to having the phone cables cut by an intruder.
To enable your alarm system to work independently of your telephone lines, a cellular backup for your alarm system is indispensable. If the landlines are cut for any reason, your security system will still transmit an alarm to the appropriate authorities. Cellular backup transmits on a secure wireless phone network, which is completely separate and distinct from your traditional telephone lines. With the benefits of cellular backup, you will have a reliable system immune from the obstacles presented by systems dependent upon traditional telephone lines.
A wireless home security is superior to a wired version because: no unsightly wires draped throughout your home; the system can be installed quickly; the system components can be reconfigured easily without re-wiring, and most importantly the security system can't be compromised by cut wires. It's important that your security system have the ability to be armed and disarmed from anywhere, conveniently over the phone.
When reviewing security monitoring companies make sure the company is Underwriters Laboratories (UL) listed. They should also meet the National Fire Protection Association standards.
In summary, your home security system is only truly effective when connected to a 24/7 monitoring center. A wireless system is easier to configure and update and make sure the company's monitoring center is UL listed.
About The Author: Allen Sorensen offers advice regarding all aspects of home security systems. Visit his site http://www.securitysystemsreview.com for more helpful information. For info about burglar alarms and other security visit systems http://www.securitysystemsreview.com/info/info.php
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- "Marcia Yudkin" <submissions@isnare.net> Apr 24 07:40AM +0800
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Article Title: Kindle Ebook Cover Tips: Avoid Five Common Blunders That Turn Off Buyers
Author: Marcia Yudkin
Word Count: 580
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In a 2010 survey of avid fiction readers by The Book Smugglers, 79 percent said that cover design plays a decisive role in whether or not they purchase a particular book. I suspect the findings would be similar for nonfiction. The cover of a book can inspire curiosity, confidence and desire - or it can spark the quiet little rejection, "No, not this one." The importance of covers applies even if the book in question is digital and the cover isn't something that can be picked up and contemplated in one's hands.
A great Kindle cover doesn't really cost more than a mediocre or lousy one. As someone who keeps a keen eye on Kindle marketing for a course I teach, I've observed several common mistakes in Kindle covers that you can avoid through the instructions and feedback you provide to your cover designer. Ensure an effective cover for your ebook by heeding the following warnings and guidelines.
1. Include a byline. Covers with no author name violate readers' expectations and create discomfort in their minds. Any book worth reading was written by an individual (or by a group of them under the leadership of an editor). Their name or names belong on the cover.
2. Avoid the simplistic use of stock photos. One cover designer I worked with looked up the main theme of my book on iStockphoto, selected a visually interesting image and combined it with the words for my title, subtitle and byline. That's it. This approach can yield a nice-looking cover, but at the risk that many, many others are using the very same image for the central theme on their web sites, brochures, magazine ads, etc. For me, it's unacceptable to be so unoriginal. Tell your designer you expect something that people interested in your topic haven't seen before.
3. For a book series, create a family of covers. Whether it's nonfiction or fiction, someone shopping for books should be able to spot the resemblance instantly when they see two covers in the same series on the same page. Establish the pattern through color, a distinctive font, type of image, shapes, layout or some combination of these elements.
4. Go flat, not 3-D. Amazon, Nook, the iBookstore and other ebook marketplaces do not want three-dimensional covers that show a spine for the book and the edges of the pages it contains. They want a flat image with no depth and no other parts of the book showing besides the front.
5. Match the cover with the audience. The frou-frou style used on many "chick-lit" novels would be completely wrong for a business book that needs to be taken seriously, just as a dark, menacing look that signals a thriller or science-fiction title won't work for a cookbook. Communication with the designer about the target readers, genre of the book and the desired emotional tone for the cover should avoid this pitfall.
If you ask friends and colleagues for feedback on cover designs, don't ask which ones they like. Ask, "Does this make you think of a ___ [the type of book it is]?" "Which cover makes you want to know more about the book?" Simulate a shopping situation by placing your top cover candidate alongside the covers of published books it will be competing with. If it can hold its own in that situation, you may have a winner.
About The Author: Marcia Yudkin has also been selling ebooks on Kindle since 2011. Her Kindle ebooks include Kindle originals like Marketing for Introverts and digital versions of her paperback books. Check out her course for first-time Kindle authors of quality ebooks at http://www.yudkin.com/kindle.htm
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Article Title: Kindle Publishers and Self-Published Authors: Don't Overlook the Profits in Audiobooks!
Author: Marcia Yudkin
Word Count: 721
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With the recent explosion in self-publishing, both in paperback and for Kindle and other ebook reading devices, one important content delivery medium rarely gets mentioned: audiobooks. This is a serious oversight. According to the Association of American Publishers, audiobook sales were up 33 percent in the first quarter of 2012 over the same period in the previous year. By comparison, ebook sales (including Kindle) rose only 28 percent in the same time interval.
Audiobook sales are rising because there are so many more ways to listen to audiobooks now. You can download them to your smartphone, iPad, Kindle, Nook or MP3 player in addition to listening to CDs that you purchased or borrowed from the library in your car. Sales are sure to keep going up, given the growth in sales of such devices and Audible's new Whisper-Sync option, where you can purchase both Kindle and audiobook versions of the same book and easily go back and forth, either listening or reading.
In mid-2012, I was startled at the size of my first royalty check for my audiobook versions of five paperback books that are available through Audible.com and several other online audiobook marketplaces. In numbers of sales, I was selling as many or more of the audiobook versions than the Kindle versions. With all the hoopla in the Internet marketing community over Kindle publishing, this surprised me.
What's important to realize is that traditional publishers normally reserve audiobook publishing for their titles that they expect to sell in high volumes. Many steadily selling nonfiction books, even those that remain in print for 10 or 20 years, never have audiobook versions. This creates a huge market gap for audiobook content that independent publishers can profitably fill.
For example, a well-known colleague of mine has published 70 books on copywriting, marketing and business communication from well-established publishers like Wiley, Alpha and Amacom. Guess how many of those 70 books have audiobook versions? Zero. None at all! I discovered much the same when I looked up several standard self-help topics like divorce, stepfamilies, forgiveness and conflict resolution: I found very few unabridged book-length audiobooks.
If you have a pleasant speaking voice and have basic audio editing skills, you can record your own audiobooks. I use a Plantronics headset microphone that attaches to my computer and free WavePad software for recording in my study at home. It takes me about three hours to finish recording each audiobook hour and edit it to mistake-free status.
If you have to hire voice talent to read your audiobook, it can run into quite an expense because of the lengthy reading time involved. I've seen rates for audiobook narrators ranging from $80 to $250 per finished hour. For a 70,000-word book, which runs around 7.5 hours when read out loud, that would cost you from $600 to $1875. Some experienced audiobook narrators are willing to invest their time in exchange for 50 percent of the income from the audiobook, which I believe is a very fair deal.
You may be thinking that you can eliminate the need to hire voice talent by using a computerized robot reading voice. Because such programmed voices are hard to listen to at length and often misread proper names or other specialized words, audiobook listeners almost universally reject that solution, so you'd better give up on that idea.
You would probably also need to pay a graphic artist or your original cover designer to convert your rectangular book cover to the square CD-style image required by audiobook marketplaces.
As for distribution, it's easiest to work with a so-called aggregator, a company that ensures that your audiobook files, cover and content description meet the needs of Audible.com and the other online marketplaces that they distribute to. They charge a minimal or no upfront fee and a percentage of your royalties in exchange for their service. Two such audiobook aggregator companies are eBookIt and Big Happy Family Audio.
You'll need patience as you wait to enjoy the financial fruits of your efforts, since it takes a while for new titles to get set up and another while for quarterly royalties from consumer purchases of your audiobooks to flow. But once they start, you can expect them to continue for years.
About The Author: Author of 16 books and nine multimedia home study courses, Marcia Yudkin has also been selling ebooks on Kindle since the summer of 2011. Check out her three-week teleseminar course for first-time Kindle authors working on high-quality ebooks at http://www.yudkin.com/kindle.htm .
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Article Title: Teleseminar Marketing Funnel #1: Free Q&A Teleseminar to Paid Class
Author: Marcia Yudkin
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If you can speak well over the telephone, you can use teleseminars (topical, prearranged conference calls) to give people interested in your topic a sample of what you know and teach. Then you invite them to sign up for a paid telecourse or other kind of teaching program.
This is a teleseminar marketing funnel I have successfully used numerous times. If you have your own list, this model doesn't require you to give away any commissions on the paid program. If you don't have your own list, you can publicize the free teleseminar through online event listings, free announcements in forums and email lists, press releases and ads.
Here are the steps to follow.
Step 1: Announce a free one-hour teleclass in which you'll answer questions about your topic. On the signup form for the class, include a box where people can type in their biggest question about the topic. When people sign up, they should receive an automated email informing them of the phone number and access code to use for the free teleclass, as well as the date and time of the call. Send a reminder email, containing the same information, to all the participants an hour or two before the call is scheduled to begin.
Step 2: Hold the free teleclass. Keep the group muted during the first half, when you answer the best pre-submitted questions in an organized fashion. You can also answer relevant questions that no one actually submitted. Then unmute the line for live questions and comments. Make sure you provide real value in your answers rather than come-ons for the upcoming paid program. Begin and end on time.
Step 3: Email those who signed up for the free teleclass (and who may or may not actually have attended) and let them know about the upcoming paid class. Provide a link to the web site that explains it in depth. Send one or more reminder emails about the upcoming paid class to this list.
Optional: Record your free Q&A call and make the recording available to those who didn't sign up for the Q&A session. Have automatic followups in place pitching the paid class to those who request the recording.
Variation: Ask colleagues to host a free Q&A teleclass with you. Pitch the paid class both at the end of their Q&A class and in automated followup emails. Use an affiliate program so you can reward your colleagues with a commission for every person who signs up for the paid class through their link.
If you repeat your paid program, you can either repeat the whole process above or just offer the free recording of your Q&A teleclass, with automated followups in place that pitch the upcoming paid program.
If you turn your paid class into a home-study program, you can keep your offer of the free teleclass recording up indefinitely on the web, with its automated followup emails. You can then drive traffic to that opt-in through pay-per-click ads, blog posts or keyword SEO.
I credit this model with tens of thousands of dollars in income, and I look forward to hearing how it has worked for you!
About The Author: Veteran teleseminar presenter Marcia Yudkin provides hundreds more tips and how-to's in her "Teleteach for Profit" course (http://www.yudkin.com/teleteach.htm). Learn how to plan, promote and deliver profitable teleseminars, whether you're an entrepreneur, business owner, nonprofit or health professional.
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Article Title: How Information Products Help Your Customers
Author: Marcia Yudkin
Word Count: 614
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By not having an information product to sell, are you letting down your followers?
A few weeks ago, I read an article about money management in a business journal that made more sense to me than anything else I'd run across on the topic. I visited the author's web site and liked the additional articles I read there. Next I clicked on the author's "Products" link, but at that point frustration set in.
Aside from two little ebooks, whose topics didn't fit my interests, there was nothing I could buy to get a deeper understanding of this expert's perspective. Nothing that connected the dots of his tantalizing comments. Nothing that helped me go from a feeble grasp of certain important issues in my life to a firmer, more confident way of sorting out my thoughts.
I wanted to learn and was prepared to buy, but I found a void instead of product choices. Most of the time we hear about information products as beneficial to a business owner, but in this instance, I probably feel the loss from their non-existence more keenly than the expert does.
So let's take a look at the advantages that information products have for customers.
1)As in the example above, they enable interested people to benefit relatively systematically from what's in your head. Without the money coach's course, I am not sure what questions to ask, which priorities to put first and whose guidelines to trust. After buying and studying his course, I'd be better oriented in his sphere of knowledge.
2)With downloadable products, people can learn what you know immediately, without having to set up an appointment and wait for it. If they're worried about a problem in the middle of the night, they can buy a downloadable product with answers that allow them to calm down and sleep.
3)People can learn from you in private, which may be especially important for introverts or for anyone where a sensitive topic is involved. Years ago a local TV anchor attended an adult education class I taught in Boston. She sat in the back row, slouched with a hat partly over her face, and when we went around the room at the start of the class, introduced herself with just her first name and that she worked "in the media business." I'm sure she would have preferred buying the home-study version of my course, had it been available then, to avoid this exposure to the curiosity of others.
4)Information products eliminate the impact of time zones and distance. From the US East Coast to Western Australia, for example, it can be difficult for expert and learner to find a time to consult on the phone or participate in a teleclass.
5)People can follow the steps you lay out in the learning mode that works best for them. Those who learn best by watching buy videos; those who learn best by listening prefer audios; those who learn best by reading purchase PDFs.
6)Infoproducts offer a lower-cost, lower-risk way to learn from you than by signing up for one-on-one coaching or consulting. The money coach who frustrated me offered coaching for $895 an hour. Perhaps I'd end up working with him on that basis, but logically, learning from his products made sense first.
Don't make prospective customers find someone else with information products when they'd rather buy your perspectives and guidance. Instead, learn how to create a systematic plan for products and services at a range of price points, thus helping both your customers and yourself.
About The Author: The author of 16 books and nine multimedia home study courses, Marcia Yudkin has been selling information since 1981. Download her free recording of answers to the most commonly asked questions about information marketing at http://www.yudkin.com/infomarketing.htm .
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Article Title: Kindle Publishing: How to Commission a Cover That Helps Sell Your Ebook
Author: Marcia Yudkin
Word Count: 886
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I'm a "word person," not skilled with images. That's great for writing, but it's a bit of a handicap when it comes to creating covers for my Kindle ebooks. Nevertheless, through trial and error, as well as observations of people I've watched go through the process, I have quite a bit of advice to offer when it comes to commissioning a cover that sells your ebook.
Work with someone who has already designed covers for other Kindle authors, whose style you like and who has excellent customer reviews. Don't hire someone who has top-notch artistic skills but hasn't done ebook covers before, as they would be learning on your dime and might very well make a blunder you don't catch.
For example, did you know that including the word "by" before the author's name on a cover screams "amateur"? If you don't know things like that, and your designer doesn't know, either, then you end up with a cover that looks somehow off to book buyers, although they might not be able to say why.
Research covers of successful books in your niche so you can give examples to your designer of what you want to look like or different from. For instance, for my latest business title, I noticed a trend from the big publishers of a lot of empty space on the cover and a central image. I gave four examples of that general trend to my designer, saying I wanted to look like I belonged in their company. Yet I also saw that on my exact topic, most of the covers were black and gloomy, and I said I wanted something sunnier and upbeat.
If you can come up with a concept or an image for the cover, that gives extremely useful direction to the designer, enabling him or her to concentrate their efforts on making it look artful and appealing. For example, for an ebook on marketing to introverts I told my designer I envisioned a New England-style stone wall with a section of the stones fallen out and sunlight pouring through the gap. She made that image look even better than my mental image of it. For an ebook on top ten tips on a certain topic, I asked for a cover with no image but an emphasis on the numeral "10." That also worked out great.
Warn your designer about any clichés you would like the cover to stay away from. For instance, on the topic of creativity I instructed the designer, "No light bulbs, please!"
Finalize the title and subtitle for your book before giving the assignment to your designer and don't allow the designer to change their wording. The designer's job is getting the look right, not the text. Make sure the designer understands that the cover must include the title, the subtitle and the author's name, either along with an image or just making the most graphically of the other elements.
For ebooks, which don't get picked up and flipped through in a bookshop before purchase, it's crucial that the main title and author's name be readable at the small size of the thumbnails on online bookstores. It's also essential that the design make sense on the thumbnail, so the viewer isn't thinking, now is that a beehive or a car transmission? If the subtitle doesn't show up clearly at that reduced size, that's okay.
When you are creating an ebook series, plan how you are going to signify the resemblances for the series, which could be through the same general layout and color scheme or through a pattern of certain visual elements that stay the same with different colors and images. When a book shopper sees several of your series covers and other authors' covers together on their monitor, they should be able to recognize instantly which books belong to the series and which don't.
Ask for written evidence from your designer that any images used in the cover were properly licensed. Some of the biggest photo banks in the world now have Internet search programs where they find their unauthorized images and sue the users. Even if it was the designer who stole intellectual property without your knowledge or direction, you could be financially responsible in such a situation.
When you see what the designer has come up with, evaluate it with these questions:
1. Does it convey the emotional feeling this type of book should have?
2. Will the intended readers understand at a glance that this is the type of book they will want to buy and enjoy?
3. Can you read the title and author's name clearly at thumbnail size as well as in the larger view?
4. Are there any aspects or details on the cover that create the wrong impression, such as an outdated hairstyle or signage in an unfamiliar language?
Remember that the ultimate test for the cover is not whether you like it, but whether the readers you created the book for are intrigued and get motivated to buy it!
About The Author: Author of 16 books and nine multimedia home study courses, Marcia Yudkin has also been selling ebooks on Kindle since the summer of 2011. Check out her three-week teleseminar course for first-time Kindle authors at http://www.yudkin.com/kindle.htm .
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Article Title: Teleseminar Marketing Funnel #2: Free Telesummit to Paid Class With Upsell to Private Coaching
Author: Marcia Yudkin
Word Count: 537
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If you have a keen following for your blog, newsletter, tweets or forum posts, here's a way to channel that following into lucrative teaching and coaching services. It involves the use of multiple teleseminars, which are free or paid topical conference calls, as well as the leveraging of other people's expertise and followers.
You might well wonder why experts agree to participate in such teleseminars without getting paid for their presentations. The answer is that experts know that a well-promoted and well-executed telesummit exposes them in depth to people who haven't heard of them yet, who then can opt in to their marketing list, buy their books and other products and become their new avid followers.
Here are the steps to follow for this teleseminar marketing model.
Step 1: Set up and moderate a free teleseminar series, or telesummit, with 6-12 relatively well-known experts related to a theme on which you work. Usually the telesummit sessions take place within a concentrated one-week or two-week time span. Each session consists of a one-hour interview where you ask questions of one of the well-known experts.
You'll need a web site or web page that pitches your telesummit theme and provides photos and bios of the presenters and descriptions of their sessions. The well-known experts are expected to announce the free series to their lists, and you make that as easy as possible for them by providing them with email messages they can quickly customize and send out to their followers.
Your experts receive commissions on any upsell sales from those who sign up through their link. They also get the opportunity to make a brief sales pitch at the end of their interview.
Encourage attendance at the free telesummit sessions by sending reminder emails prior to each session. You may want to provide links to the recordings for these sessions for those who missed one or more of the calls.
Step 2: As the telesummit draws to a close, pitch all the teleseminar series participants on a paid class with you that's related to the telesummit theme but delves into one topic area in more depth. If all has gone as planned, you have a list of involved and motivated participants, both from your own list and those of the experts who spoke in the telesummit sessions. Those on this list know you and trust you because you moderated all the expert interviews. Send repeated pitches for the paid class to the telesummit participants until the class fills.
Step 3: When people sign up for the paid class, they are also pitched on expensive private coaching with you on the same topic. Be sure to limit the number of private coaching slots, so this comes across as a rare and valuable opportunity for in-depth learning and personal development. After the paid class ends, send additional pitches for the private coaching option.
Someone I observed repeatedly using this marketing funnel charged $197 for a six-session paid telecourse following the free telesummit and $1997 for the private coaching upsell. It was very profitable for her and it could well be for you, too!
About The Author: Veteran teleseminar presenter Marcia Yudkin provides hundreds more tips and how-to's in her "Teleteach for Profit" course (http://www.yudkin.com/teleteach.htm). Learn how to plan, promote and deliver profitable teleseminars, whether you're an entrepreneur, business owner, nonprofit or health professional.
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Article Title: Teleseminar Marketing Funnel #3: Free Multi-Expert Telesummit With Upsell to Premium Versions
Author: Marcia Yudkin
Word Count: 529
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Here is a way to use teleseminars to make money even if you have no list of your own, no reputation and no following. You put in the effort to organize a free multi-day telesummit on a catchy topic of interest to a definable group, such as women over 50, pet-shop owners or aspiring marathon runners. The telesummit consists of multiple one-hour telephone conference-call sessions. In each of those, you interview an expert on a topic related to the overall telesummit theme. Although the basic telesummit has no entry fee, you offer an option that costs enough money to provide a healthy profit for you.
Experts readily agree to participate in such telesummits because they understand that the publicity gets them known to people who hadn't yet heard of them. The experts also earn commissions on sales from those people who signed up from their list, and they have an opportunity to invite other participants to sign up for their marketing list. You ask the experts to promote the telesummit to their lists, which they generally do in order to receive the commissions and new opt-ins.
Here's how to plan and run this kind of profitable telesummit.
Step 1: Define the theme for your free multi-day telesummit. Invite 5-20 big-name experts to participate. Each session is a one-hour interview of one big-name expert by you. Create a web page or site containing descriptions of the experts and their sessions, the dates and how to sign up. Also create emails for the experts to send out about the telesummit to their lists.
Step 2: When participants sign up for the telesummit at your web page, give them two options: Sign up for free, which gains them access to all the live sessions, or sign up for $197 (or some other price), which gets them access to all the live sessions plus recordings and transcripts for each session. Sometimes there is a third, more expensive option, which provides additional privileges and goodies related to the telesummit topic.
Step 3: During each live session, you briefly remind participants that they can sign up for the premium option and receive all the recordings and transcripts. In addition, each expert has a giveaway offer that they describe at the end of their interview, which interested listeners receive after signing up for that expert's list. After the last live session, email again all of those who signed up for the series, describing the highlights of the sessions and inviting them to invest in the recordings and transcripts for their permanent library. A good rule of thumb is that at least 10 percent of participants normally go for the paid upsell.
Should this telesummit consist of a free webinar series instead of free teleseminars? Normally, no. The logistical complications for both you and the presenters increase greatly with webinars, as compared with teleseminars. Remember that people can call into a teleseminar and listen while they are driving, exercising or preparing dinner, but that's not true for webinars. On the other hand, if your telesummit topic requires visuals, you may be better off with the webinar format.
About The Author: Veteran teleseminar presenter Marcia Yudkin provides hundreds more tips and how-to's in her "Teleteach for Profit" course (http://www.yudkin.com/teleteach.htm). Learn how to plan, promote and deliver profitable teleseminars, whether you're an entrepreneur, business owner, nonprofit or health professional.
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Article Title: Hate Conventional Marketing? The Shy Person's Guide to Successful One-on-One Marketing
Author: Marcia Yudkin
Word Count: 590
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Marketing is a numbers game, some people claim. In this way of thinking, you put disembodied messages out into the world. A certain number of them hit the spot and provoke purchases. Your goal in marketing is to tweak your message and your target market until the conversion rate makes you the kind of money you want to earn.
I'd like to propose another way of thinking about getting business. If that paradigm feels disembodied, alienating and scary to you, you may feel more comfortable understanding marketing as a way of making genuine connections with people so that they are inspired to become your customer or client.
Recently I had a consultation with an alternative health care practitioner who has a lot of trepidation about marketing as it is usually presented to her. However, she said she is at her best face-to-face, one-on-one with prospective clients. In that situation, she easily and naturally demonstrates what she can do for the other person and gives them an experience that leads them to want more.
I invited her to think about marketing as the task of setting up situations precisely like that, where she could have a human connection with likely clients, one at a time. Then, if the need was there and the connection was right, both parties would want to turn that experience into a client-practitioner relationship. She loved this idea!
Together we brainstormed ways that she could arrange unintimidating situations where she could get face to face with potential clients. These included:
* At a wellness conference, wearing a lapel button offering a free session of her specialty
* With the facility's permission, providing a free session at a health club, beauty salon or yoga center
* Being available for free trial appointments at a medical clinic one day a month
* Having a regular free drop-in time slot at her office every week or month
* Running a bring-a-friend special for existing clients where the friend would get a free session and the client would receive a gift for bringing the friend
All of these situations felt doable and even exciting to my client, and she couldn't wait to get them going.
So what would the equivalent human-contact experience be for you?
Not long ago I heard a business consultant describe the one-on-one marketing he did while attending a large conference, and afterwards. During the conference he had many chats with other attendees, one at a time. He would simply smile at someone standing alone and say, "Hi, what do you do? How's business?" Then, based on what the other person said, he would give them some business advice. He added, "There's probably more than we can go over later. Would you like to have a 20-minute conversation with me once the conference is over?" Back home, he followed up with that conversation and signed many of those contacts as clients.
That sequence fits the alternate paradigm of marketing I described above: Face to face, make a genuine human connection. Provide an experience of what you have to offer. Let them get to know both you and your expertise. Those you talk to are people, not numbers. You are not a cog in some impersonal machine. You have a chance to show what you do best and those who appreciate that have the opportunity to step up to a client/practitioner relationship.
About The Author: A bookworm as a child, Marcia Yudkin is now author of more than a dozen books, including 6 Steps to Free Publicity and Persuading People to Buy. She mentors introverts so they discover their uniquely powerful branding and most comfortable marketing strategies: http://www.yudkin.com/introverts.htm
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Article Title: Mind Your Marketing: No Matter What Your Specialization or Niche, Show Why You Care
Author: Marcia Yudkin
Word Count: 575
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One September, if you counted all the number of political signs all around my neighborhood, you would have concluded that the hot upcoming election was not a race for the President, the House or the Senate but for Register of Deeds. I am not kidding!
Our county's current Register of Deeds was retiring after 23 years in the office. The four candidates vying to replace her debated one another, and the local paper published profiles of them. All this made me curious, because in my mind, Register of Deeds is the ultimate nerdy elected job. What in the world was there to care about, much less debate?
The candidates differed, I learned, when it came to what the Register of Deeds could do about so-called "robo-signed" documents, which played a role in many fraudulent foreclosures. One of the candidates had a vision of what could be done to make land records more usable by genealogy researchers.
Another explained that as Register of Deeds, she would help protect the typical family's largest investment, their home. She also pointed out that old land records are often crucial in determining which roads in the county are public and which private.
This little exploration into something I'd never thought about before hammered home a few general marketing lessons.
1. No matter how nerdy your specialty, there are probably numerous possible ways to explain why it's important and why you care about it. Why is this service important for the person being served? How is it relevant for others in society? What values are promoted by the work you do?
2. See if you can connect your specialization to a controversy, an event or an achievement that the average person probably has heard about. This adds to the perceived value of your work contribution.
3. Explain your ideas about getting the job done well. Had I been present at the Register of Deeds debate, I'm sure I would have gotten a clear sense of particular priorities emphasized by each of the candidates more than the others. Without realizing it, you can likewise come across differently from competitors just by the way you describe this factor.
Let's suppose now that you're a nutritional labeling specialist. For packaged foods clients, you analyze food products to determine compliance with all the federal regulations on printed food labels. Instead of simply describing in a technical fashion which kinds of labeling information you provide, you could stand out vis-a-vis competitors with the kind of elaboration described above. Remind potential food entrepreneur clients that correctly analyzing the nutritional content of foods helps consumers obtain all the nutrients they need, comply with medically necessary diet restrictions and avoid triggering life-threatening allergic reactions. Proper food labeling saves lives, in addition to complying with the law.
Don't take for granted that the person in a position to buy your product or service understands what's at stake. Probably they do not. By spelling out the factors identified above, you make "votes" – purchases – for what you sell much more likely.
A bookworm as a child, Marcia Yudkin grew up to discover she had a surprising talent for creative marketing. She's the author of more than a dozen books, including 6 Steps to Free Publicity, and she mentors introverts so they discover their most comfortable marketing strategies.
http://www.yudkin.com/introverts.htm
About The Author: A bookworm as a child, Marcia Yudkin grew up to discover she had a talent for creative marketing. She's the author of more than a dozen books, including 6 Steps to Free Publicity, and she mentors introverts so they discover comfortable marketing strategies: http://www.yudkin.com/introverts.htm.
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Article Title: Eleven Unusual Cures For Writer's Block That Actually Worked
Author: Marcia Yudkin
Word Count: 752
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Chewing a pencil. Flipping channels aimlessly on TV. Checking email for the zillionth time. These are all proven remedies for writer's block that do not work. Take a cue from famous and uncelebrated writers alike in adopting one of these unusual cures for writer's block that do (or at least did for the writer in question) actually work.
1. Naked need. Victor Hugo had his manservant take away his clothes and leave him in a room with only paper, pen and ink. There was nothing to do there but write, and escape was impractical. A set number of hours later, the manservant would return with his clothes.
2. Acting it out. Carolyn Chute, author of The Beans of Egypt, Maine and other novels, also needs the door to her writing studio locked, but for a different reason. She needs to walk around the room acting all the parts out loud.
3. Rotten Luck. Friedrich Schiller needed a particular smell to get into the mood for writing. He kept rotten apples in a drawer in his desk.
4. Rain on the Brain. Maxwell Anderson, a playwright, wrote best when it was raining. Even in foggy San Francisco, where he was living, it doesn't rain all the time, so he installed a sprinkler system on the roof of his writing studio to keep inspiration coming.
5. Four score. A woman attending one of my writing workshops told me that when she was stumped about what to write next, she would sit down at the keyboard and begin typing the Gettysburg Address, which she had once committed to memory. Invariably somewhere around sentence four or five, she would segue into what she actually wanted to be writing.
6. The Monet method. A man in one of my workshops took his cue from Monet, who would set up half a dozen canvases in front of Rouen cathedral or elsewhere, working on first one or the other as the light changed. My student bought ten notebooks, which he arrayed on a bench, and started a story in each of them. The odds now were that at any given time, he'd feel inspired to continue writing at least one of them.
7. Strict limit. Psychologist Neil Fiore, author of The Now Habit, spent several years working with graduate students who were not able to get any writing done on their dissertations. He asked them to promise not to spend more than two hours on any day. Bewildered because they were not writing at all, they would agree. After just a few days, the ban got them not only itching to write, but itching to write more than the two-hour limit.
8. The no-brainer start. Ernest Hemingway always stopped writing for the day in the middle of a sentence so that when he arrived at his desk the next morning he would always be able to get started by finishing that sentence. The momentum that created was usually enough to keep him writing on smoothly.
9. Letter perfect. Tom Wolfe accidentally started a stylistic trend when he couldn't figure out how to start an article he was assigned for Esquire magazine. His editor suggested he instead write a letter saying what he would write if he could write the article. The editor took off the "Dear Byron" salutation, and the New Journalism was born.
10. Random page. An author whose name I've forgotten likewise didn't have a clue how to start his novel. Instead, he rolled a piece of paper into his typewriter and labeled it page 57. He wrote a scene and sent it to his friends as a sample of his work in progress. They liked it and he repeated the process with a random page labeled page 73. That earned the same enthusiastic response. He soon was deep into his plot and characters and no longer needed the random device that got him started.
11. Catastrophize. One of the exercises I've taught for writer's block that students enjoyed most is the instruction to write the worst possible version of the thing you're stuck on writing - something so bad you'd be embarrassed to have it be published. Not only does this get keyboards and pens going right away, a few people seem to find that their worst effort turns out to be not bad at all.
Which of these methods works best for you?
About The Author: Marcia Yudkin is the author of the ebook No More Writer's Block, available for Kindle or Nook, as well as 16 traditionally published paperback books. Buy it on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006F5K9M8/.
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Article Title: Introvert Marketing: Lessons From Diana Nyad on How to Sell Selflessly
Author: Marcia Yudkin
Word Count: 683
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In August 2012, a news report inspired me to find out more about long-distance swimming star Diana Nyad's attempt to swim 103 miles from Cuba to Key West without a shark cage. At Nyad's site, I clicked on one update after another about her effort in progress and returned the next day to see how she was holding up.
The more I read her news snippets and watched video taken by members of her support crew, the more excited I became.
Apart from the Olympics, I hardly ever follow sports, so I have no idea whether what I was picking up was unusual or the norm. To attempt a feat of endurance like the one she was in the midst of clearly requires near-superhuman determination. However, the web site portrayed her undertaking as an unegoistic venture.
She was confronting exhaustion, treacherous currents, vicious jellyfish and the danger of sharks not for personal glory but to show what someone could do at her age (she was about to turn 63). Indeed, by doing what no one at any age had done before, she would nudge back the boundaries of the possible for everyone. Just as important, her swim would spread awareness of the efforts of her sponsor organization to clean up the oceans and make them healthier environments for all living things.
That the environmental message was not just a PR spin became clear when a pod of dolphins joined her, leaping in synchrony with each other alongside her and lifting the spirits of Diana and the whole crew.
"If there was ever a moment during the Nyad swim when Diana was grateful to the NRDC and all organizations that support pristine waters," said her blog, "the best one came at 6:30 pm today (Monday) when she was visited by dolphins! There were scores of them; around our boat alone one team member counted 50 playing in the wake, while another looked up to see dozens more leaping above the water. We could even hear them breathing all around us... Swim hats off to all those who work for the preservation of where beauty lives—and even visits us!—in the form of these intelligent beings."
Upon reading that, I donated to her cause.
All this came back to me the other day as I was pondering the dread of marketing I encounter in so many of the introverts I work with. It's "Who, me?" It's a fear of being in the spotlight. It's disgust at the showboating they watch some extroverts indulge in.
Those are egoistical concerns, however, and I've seen a complete switch in attitude when marketing gets reframed as something benefiting those being marketed to, or indeed the world at large.
Taking a cue from Diana Nyad's presentation of her expedition, is there a way of thinking about what you do as much larger than little ol' you? The old story about dedicated workers in the Middle Ages comes to mind. They were not piling brick upon brick upon brick; they were building a cathedral.
Does your work confirm values you passionately care about? Can you see your work as contributing to a cause?
Make a list of all the ways in which clients are better off, happier and more content because of the work you do. In that light, marketing is not about you. It's about bringing those benefits to those who do business with you. If you craft resumes, clients more easily find jobs, easing the stress on their entire family. If you teach yoga, you bring greater physical vibrancy and spiritual peace to those in your classes.
Marketing doesn't have to be about shining the spotlight on yourself, pumping up your importance in the eyes of others. A powerful switch happens when it's about offering something you deeply care about to those who have richer lives as a result. With that mindset, it becomes so much easier and more comfortable to reach out to your ideal clients.
About The Author: A bookworm as a child, Marcia Yudkin grew up to discover she had a talent for creative marketing. The author of 16 books, she mentors introverts so they discover their uniquely powerful branding and most comfortable marketing strategies. Learn more at http://www.yudkin.com/introverts.htm
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Article Title: Got Expertise? Get a Hollywood Gig as a Technical Screen Consultant
Author: Marcia Yudkin
Word Count: 524
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Lights. Camera. Action! If you're a quiet, bookish sort of person who looks enviously at the glamour of Hollywood, there's a little-known way you can participate in the excitement of a big-budget documentary, feature film or TV series: serving as a behind-the-scenes, off-camera technical script consultant.
Even when movies and TV shows take place in the realm of fantasy, they usually strive for some degree of authenticity and grounding in reality, and that is where they hire (and pay) authors, experts, professors and practitioners possessing unusual skills or backgrounds.
One Northwestern University professor who specializes in robotics and artificial intelligence, for example, served as a script consultant for a series on the Syfy channel about battling robots. He brainstormed plot concepts with the show's writers, tweaked dialogue and suggested corrections for technical accuracy.
A Mount Holyoke College history professor got tapped as a resource for the BBC America series "Copper," which dramatizes incidents involving the New York City police department during the Civil War. Producers even flew him to Toronto, where they shot the whole series, so he could continue to help make the characters, stories and action as realistic as possible.
A neurosurgeon who teaches at the University of Arizona offers medical ideas to "Grey's Anatomy" and helps fine-tune the show for plausibility. He tells the writers whether a character should say "Give me the forceps" or "Give me the Number 10 Scalpel Blade."
You don't have to be a college professor or published author to quality for this kind of work, however. A guy I know teaches outdoor survival skills in the woods of Maine. Because he used to live in Alaska, he had the opportunity to advise a Discovery Channel outdoor adventure show on how the hero could make his way from the wilderness back to civilization without food, water or tools.
A practicing attorney in Los Angeles has script consulting credits for four TV shows: LA Law, The Practice, Boston Legal and The Paper Chase. As you can tell from the other examples above, though, you do not have to live in California or near Hollywood to become eligible for technical script consulting work.
If you're interested in experiencing and contributing your expertise to these kinds of entertainment productions, look for movie and TV industry directories where you can list your qualifications. There are dozens of them. In addition, you can attract attention from the right kinds of people by blogging from your expert point of view about inaccuracies you see and story themes you appreciate in movies and TV shows. Do so respectfully, of course, rather than scoffing at the bonehead stupidity and ignorance of the writers and producers.
And while you will probably enjoy your brush with glamour, don't make any prima donna demands yourself. Those you are working for expect a cooperative, go-with-the flow attitude from you. Tim Smith, the survival skills expert I know, told me, "Remember that it's all about the show, not about you. They need you to be a team player."
About The Author: The author of 16 books, Marcia Yudkin (http://www.yudkin.com) is an expert at turning knowledge into money. Discover 124 additional ways to earn income from what you know in her ebook, Advanced Guide to Information Marketing, available for Amazon's Kindle, Barnes & Noble's Nook and the iBookstore.
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Article Title: Sparking Demand: Seven Ways to Perk Up a Dull Offer
Author: Marcia Yudkin
Word Count: 685
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So you launched your product with a lot of fanfare and hardly anyone bought? If you're convinced the product fulfills a marketplace need and your description of it was compelling and clear, the problem probably lay in your offer. Use these seven techniques to awaken potential customers from their indifference, overcome their reluctance to make a commitment and inspire them to buy.
1. Scarcity. As long as you can provide a credible reason for limiting the number of sales of your item, interested people respond now to scarcity because they don't want to be locked out. Of course it's easier to explain why supplies of tangible items are limited or why you have a limit for events, where only a certain number of people can be seated or served. Still, you can justify a cut-off point for sales of a digital item so that the information retains value for those who purchased or because of a promise to some third party.
2. Payment plan. Often people want to buy but hold back because of cost. That's why dividing the cost of a comparatively expensive item into multiple installments encourages sales. Enrollment in my marketing seminars rose dramatically when I presented the fee as four installments of $299 or three installments of $333 instead of $995 all at once. One of my colleagues says that payment plans even for a program in the range of $95 - $150 work well for her in encouraging folks on the fence to sign up.
3. Discount for first customers. Here you cut the price for the first X buyers, which motivates people to step up to the plate and make a commitment. Note that this offer works best when customers trust you to carry on exactly as you've described, rather than end the discount early, lie about how many people have bought or keep the offer running indefinitely.
4. Emphasize the defects. Normally you want to describe your offerings in the best possible light. However, advertising experts can cite many instances where they took an item no one wanted, explained what was wrong with it and began racking up sales at the very same price as before. For instance, motorists didn't rush to buy little Volkswagen Beetles when they were first introduced. A series of ads making light of the car's tiny size turned that around - such as the ad with the headline, "And if you run out of gas, they're easy to push."
5. Free preview. Perhaps customers weren't buying because they didn't get a clear enough sense of the value of what you're selling. Then think of a way to provide a no-cost preview of what they get when they buy. For software or a gym membership, that's usually a trial period. For a book or report, it's the ability to take a look at several chapters without charge. For something that gets mailed to customers, the preview might consist of being able to try out the item at home for 30 days before the credit card charge kicks in.
6. Choose a bonus. Internet marketers often get into the habit of piling on so many bonuses for each purchase that the bonuses overshadow the value of the main item being sold. Instead, try letting the customer choose one of two to four bonus options. Often this promotes involvement that sends a customer across the decision line.
7. Backout option. Are people leery of getting into something that's not for them? Does the fear of buyer's remorse keep customers from saying "yes"? Then encourage prospects to sign up and pay, but with the proviso that for a certain period of time they may change their minds. This is a type of guarantee, one that emphasizes the tastes and satisfaction of the purchaser rather than the possibility of there being something wrong with what was purchased.
Offers make a huge difference in purchase rates. Change your offer, and you may thereby enjoy a drastic improvement in your cash flow.
About The Author: Veteran copywriter and marketing consultant Marcia Yudkin is the author of Persuading People to Buy, Meatier Marketing Copy, 6 Steps to Free Publicity and 13 other books. She runs a one-on-one mentoring program that trains copywriters and marketing consultants: http://www.yudkin.com/become.htm
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Article Title: Self-Promotion Tools: Three Types of Sound Bites For Business Owners
Author: Marcia Yudkin
Word Count: 709
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A sound bite is a word morsel, a phrase that offers pleasure and surprise as it expands in the listener's ear or the reader's mind. To help promote your business, create sound bites to use during media interviews, in your blog, newsletter and press releases, as well as in media ads and customer emails.
Any dictionary of quotations contains well-worn but still effective sound bites from authors of the past, such as "Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in," from Robert Frost or "It is never too late to be what you might have been," from George Eliot. Here are three easy ways to create something quotable that your fans, followers and media friends will want to help you pass around - and that may even outlive you.
1. Slogan or motto
Is there something original you are fond of saying? If it's pithy, ironic, humorous or surprising, turn it into your slogan or motto, like Red Smith's "Writing is easy. You just open a vein and bleed" or Helen Keller's "Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing." Use it as a tag line on your web site or blog. Place it in the signature section of your daily emails. Include it on your About page and mention it whenever you are interviewed.
Before adopting a motto, make sure it is as concise as it can be and has an appealing rhythm when said out loud. As in both the Smith and the Keller sayings that I quoted, place the kicker word or idea at the end rather than at the beginning.
2. Moniker
A moniker is a nickname or showy stage name for you, like "Dr. Niche" for Lynda Falkenstein, "The Happy Guy" for David Leonhardt or "The Dean of Destiny" for Patrick Snow. Even better than one you make up for yourself is something that a reporter or book reviewer bestowed on you. Dr. Doris Jeanette lets people know, for example, that the Philadelphia Inquirer called her "The Siren of Spontaneity." Incorporate your moniker into your bio and use it as often as you can in other publicity materials.
You might think it goes without saying that any moniker you embrace should have a positive impact. But I have just encountered someone calling himself "The Freddy Krueger of Blogging," as if that is a point of pride. Freddy Krueger is a horror movie character who looks repulsive and kills people. The positive spin that the blogger gives for this moniker cannot overshadow the abhorrent associations many people have with this character. If you notice people using your moniker apologetically instead of enthusiastically, you need to send it back for a rewrite.
3. Mnemonic
With a mnemonic you focus on your subject matter and summarize three, four or five important points in a memorable formula that uses the first letter of each point. For instance, Judy Dunn gives us the three Es of blogging: "Helping bloggers educate, engage and entertain."
Don't strain so hard to come up with catchy initials that you provide a formula that in turn needs explaining. One organization tells us, for example, that "RARE stands for Random Acts of Requisite Education." However, "requisite" is an unusual word whose meaning many people won't recall. Moreover, even though I do know very well what that word means, its presence in "Random Acts of Requisite Education" makes little or no sense to me.
These three types of sound bites don't begin to exhaust the possible ways of attracting attention with words, but they give you a great start in creating associations that will stick in the minds of folks finding out and talking about you and your business.
Marcia Yudkin is the author of the ebook The Sound Bite Workbook, available for Kindle or Nook, as well as 16 traditionally published paperback books. She teaches introverts how to create magnetic branding in tune with their personality. Learn about introvert-friendly publicity strategies in her free Marketing for Introverts audio manifesto: http://www.yudkin.com/introverts.htm
About The Author: Marcia Yudkin is the author of The Sound Bite Workbook, available for Kindle or Nook, and 16 traditionally published paperback books. She teaches introverts to create magnetic branding in tune with their personality. Download her free Marketing for Introverts: http://www.yudkin.com/introverts.htm
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Article Title: Three Unfortunate Misconceptions About Kindle Ebook Publishing
Author: Marcia Yudkin
Word Count: 542
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Take a look around you the next time you visit a quiet beach, and I'm sure you'll see that besides the men and women who have plopped themselves down with a paperback novel under the shade of an umbrella, numerous others are reading material on their Kindle. Amazon has sold millions of these devices in the last few years, to the point that mainstream consumers who aren't particularly gadget lovers are using them.
In many cases, those Kindle users are reading books that also are on sale in bookstores and available for borrowing in libraries. But did you know that thousands of authors and entrepreneurs are now earning extra money and in a few cases a very good living writing content specifically to be sold for Kindle?
I've identified three misconceptions that keep some writers and experts from pursuing this exciting new entrepreneurial opportunity.
Misconception #1: You need a Kindle ereader to get involved in publishing for Kindle.
In fact, you don't need a Kindle device either to read works published for Kindle or to publish them. Amazon provides free tools for reading Kindle ebooks on your PC, Mac, iPad, iPhone or other smartphone. Amazon also provides everything you need for publishing your works for Kindle without owning a Kindle yourself.
I don't own a Kindle. I much prefer reading traditional books. However, I have painlessly published 19 ebooks for Kindle. You can, too.
Misconception #2: You need to write a full-length book to get involved in Kindle publishing.
This is also not true. Although six of my Kindle ebooks are digital versions of previously published paperback books, the other 13 are Kindle originals and only a fraction of their length. The shortest is just a little over 5,000 words. It prints out off my computer at 17 pages.
As long as you alert potential buyers to the shorter length of your compact ebook and price it accordingly, you can earn money from selling short reports on Kindle.
Misconception #3: You need to be a technical whiz to format a manuscript for publication on Kindle.
This used to be difficult. Amazon has now simplified the process by allowing properly formatted "doc" files to be uploaded for conversion to Kindle format. Amazon performs the conversion, and you can check in their online previewer to see if the Kindle version looks the way you intended it.
Now, if you can manage formatting a Word file according to easy-to-follow instructions, you can upload your work to the Kindle store without struggling with software or paying for technical help. Smashwords offers an excellent free style guide to preparing your manuscript for uploading to Amazon. Look for it in the left column of their home page.
If you enjoy writing, if you have files and files of useful content, if you have reports that are no longer selling from your website but could be easily updated, if you gave up on finding a traditional publisher for a manuscript you still love - these are all great reasons to look into Kindle publishing now. Chances are, any excuses you still have not to do it also involve misconceptions!
About The Author: The author of 16 books and nine multimedia home study courses, Marcia Yudkin has been selling information since 1981. Download a free recording of her answers to commonly asked questions about information marketing at http://www.yudkin.com/infomarketing.htm .
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Article Title: Copywriting Challenge: Smart Ways to Tout an Innovative Product
Author: Marcia Yudkin
Word Count: 785
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A client asked me, "How do I describe something people aren't looking for, because they don't know that it exists? It's different from every other product on the market."
I love challenges like this because they give me a chance to do some mental jiu-jitsu, conceptual calisthenics and verbal acrobatics.
First, you jump onto the ceiling and look down at the product instead of standing close up to it, as the product creator does. From high up, you can see that however innovative a product, it's not actually completely novel. What does the product do for its user? Find a general category that it belongs in.
You may remember the buildup to the introduction of the Segway in 2001. It was called "The It" – the ultimate non-informative label. Yes, it was something we truly hadn't seen before, but even so, we have a general category into which we can put it. It gets you from one place to another place without expending your energy on walking. We now call it a "personal transporter."
My client's product was an audio product that helped people struggling with everyday personal issues. What was innovative about it was the way they worked, something that had to be carefully explained. However, to start off, the product line could be accurately described as self-improvement audio products that help the average person overcome everyday problems like low self-esteem, communication difficulties, stress, out-of-control anger and so on in just seven minutes a day.
Second, you compare your product to alternatives. For the Segway, we can compare it to other forms of transportation, like walking, bicycling and driving a car. The audio products could be compared to other forms of coping such as talk therapy, trying to understand the roots of the problem, taking medication and continuing to suffer by doing nothing. My client created a chart contrasting the safety, ease, effectiveness and cost of his self-improvement materials to traditional office therapy, self-help products by qualified professionals, self-help products by unqualified gurus and psychiatric drugs.
Third, you make a bold claim and then back it up. I found the "seven minutes a day" a pretty bold claim. My client, a licensed marriage and family therapist, was able to explain its foundation in psychological research. Other ways to support a claim like this might be that the product worked for X number of people, the process was based on theories that have been proven in other areas, the product passed a clinical study, it was acclaimed by respected people or it was featured in the media. Even simply explaining why seven minutes a day is enough for personal change helps. Sometimes there's an origin story that helps make the innovation credible. Or a guarantee.
It may be helpful to add a reference section documenting in greater detail how and why the product achieves its results. Let's imagine a financial service whose bold claim was keeping retirement savings safe against economic collapse. The reference material - tucked away somewhere for optional reading - would spin out scenarios that showed how the service protected someone's life savings. For the self-improvement audio products, I advised my client to make available an explanation why the method works, first in layperson's terms and second at a more advanced level for people who had more background in psychology.
Fourth, you talk about successes. This is where the Segway fell down. They had President George Bush (the first one) try one. However, President Bush fell off the Segway, which detracted from its safety image. The company also got a lot of negative coverage because of cities outlawing their use on sidewalks, so they didn't have a lot of successes to talk about. My client was in better shape on this score, because he had a boatload of letters from happy customers who had achieved the results they hoped for. Testimonials and success stories round out the picture that consumers are building in their minds about the innovative product.
It's vital to accomplish all of the above in ordinary language, without mind-numbing jargon. Once the Segway was unveiled, people who saw video footage of it understood instantly how it transported people. For more abstract innovations, however, it's hard to find the picture that equals a thousand words. Instead, deploy metaphors that give people a mental picture of the distinctive benefits of the product. For example, the financial service described above "provides a kryptonite vault for your savings." Or talk about the "triple shield" precautions taken by the company for customers' peace of mind.
About The Author: Veteran copywriter and marketing consultant Marcia Yudkin is the author of Persuading People to Buy, Meatier Marketing Copy and 14 other books. She runs a one-on-one mentoring program that trains copywriters to improve their no-hype writing skills and business savvy: http://www.yudkin.com/become.htm
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Article Title: Five Myths About Writing That Can Destroy Your Productivity (and Sanity)
Author: Marcia Yudkin
Word Count: 1033
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Gustave Flaubert, author of Madame Bovary, once wrote a letter to a friend describing the progress he had made on a particular chapter that day. "In the morning I put a comma in," he wrote, "and in the afternoon, I took it out."
This is only one of countless stories describing the suffering of writers.
Many of us go so far as to glorify writers who suffered to the ultimate extent and committed suicide – such as Sylvia Plath, Ernest Hemingway and John Kennedy Toole, who was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for A Confederacy of Dunces 12 years after he committed suicide, despondent because publishers were not interested in his novel.
Wikipedia has a list of more than 200 writers from around the world who killed themselves. There isn't a list of famous redheaded writers, so it's safe to assume this list shows considerable public interest in the fact that many writers were so tortured that they committed suicide.
Well, if you want to suffer and have a dark, unhappy life as a writer, you certainly can. But you don't have to. Writing does not have to be a painful experience. On the contrary, after you liberate yourself from a host of common myths and musts about writing, it can become easy, natural and enjoyable.
Five Destructive Myths About Writing
Myth #1 I've already mentioned, that writing should be painful, or that it's normal for it to cause suffering. One best-selling business author talks about having been under the spell of this myth to the extent that he was homeless, miserable and seriously considering doing away with himself. Then one day, fortunately, he realized that an idea had gotten him to that low place, and what would happen if he changed his belief to the idea that writing could be joyful and a road to prosperity? That was the point at which his life turned around.
Likewise, try suspending the belief that writers should be poor and in pain for the rest of today at least. Open up to the possibility that methods you haven't yet tried might be enjoyable, easy and exhilarating for you. You still have the option of going back to the Writing Is Suffering point of view.
Myth #2 is that writing ability is a gift; either you have it or you don't. Some people do seem to have an inborn knack for expressing themselves in words, but just about everyone else improves through practice, feedback and instruction.
Back in the 1980s I taught English 101 – English Composition – at various colleges around the Boston area. From the first writing sample that people turned in at the beginning of the course, I was never able to predict the quality and accomplishment, readability and level of effective communication of the work the same people turned in at the end of the course. Occasionally, people who started off the course seeming to have writing talent made no progress or improvement at all during the course because they believed they were already writing at genius level, but they weren't.
In the long run, openness to better ideas and willingness to try various techniques – and even just dogged determination – are much more important than any native talent.
Myth #3 is that your writing should come out right the first time. And if it doesn't come out right the first time, you're not cut out to be a writer.
I once heard about a writing instructor at Harvard who started off the semester by bringing the class to the part of the library where they had manuscripts by well-known writers from past centuries in glass display cases. And in just about every case, there were cross-outs, arrows and corrections all over the place, as well as first versions that were dreadful compared to the final versions that were now well-known and admired.
Most writing teachers will tell you that writing is actually rewriting, that the best way to end up with something worth reading is to get down something, anything, that you can work with and improve. You may be stuck because you're trying to write perfect opening sentences at first try, and you just keep falling short. If so, you're holding yourself to a nearly impossible standard. Most people can't meet it. You'll get much more writing done with less pain if you write something terrible and then make it better and better.
Myth #4 is that writing is something performed sitting down. From what I've seen, this myth is responsible for more people getting needlessly hung up when trying to write than anything else.
If you have diagnosed yourself with persistent writer's block, consider the possibility that you are a kinesthetic person whose brain shuts down when you sit down. Your brain thinks only when your body is moving. There are lots more ways to write besides sitting down. You can walk around your study and dictate. You can take a long walk outside and write when you come back. You can write while walking on a slow-moving treadmill with your laptop on a standup desk.
In Myth #5, writing is something that you must do alone. For me, writing sitting side by side with someone else doesn't work. However, everyone is wired differently, and I've had many people in my workshops whose creative successes and most comfortable method of creation always occurred in a group with one, two or three other people.
Many comedy writers, songwriters and playwrights compose together with other people and there's no reason whatsoever why you can't too, regardless of whether you're writing fiction, business reports or a how-to book.
Whatever works for you, don't fight it. Use it.
Combat these myths and you'll start to wonder why so many people put "suffering" together with "writing" in the same sentence. For you, writing will have become as pleasurable and natural as breathing or eating.
About The Author: Veteran magazine writing coach Marcia Yudkin is the author of Freelance Writing for Magazines & Newspapers from HarperCollins, a Book of the Month Club Selection, and 15 other books. Learn about her home-study courses on writing for magazines: http://www.yudkin.com/breakingintoprint.htm .
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Article Title: Can You Learn Copywriting From Books, or Do You Need a Copywriting Coach or Mentor?
Author: Marcia Yudkin
Word Count: 533
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Unlike doctors, lawyers, accountants and cosmetologists, most successful copywriters did not learn their profession from formal classes in school. Indeed, since there's no standard, set, easy-to-find route to getting started in copywriting, many novices flounder for years, unsure about their skills and how to improve.
Both classic and newer books on copywriting set out the fundamental principles of the craft and should be studied in depth. You should know concepts like "call to action," "features versus benefits," "elements of proof," and many others.
However, books can take you only so far. Books do not tell you whether or not you are applying the fundamental concepts intelligently and masterfully finessing the finer points. They don't reveal the weaknesses or blind spots in your writing. A copywriting course or private coaching can provide crucial guidance that nudges you away from bad habits, boosts your confidence and quickens your mastery of writing copy.
Here are ways in which you may profit by going beyond what you can pull out of books.
1. Feedback on assignments from an expert instructor. Some copywriting courses include this, while others don't. When feedback on your work is included, it's worth every penny. I can't tell you how many times I've seen very smart people read how-to material, then miss the important points completely when they tried to apply what they read. A teacher/mentor/coach/instructor can show you where you are going wrong – and going right – in your application.
2. A framework for study. All the masters on people's reading lists don't completely agree with each other. Confusion results. A teacher/guide gives you a single framework for understanding what you're learning and relating the various points to each other. Such consistency takes you faster to a level where you are in turn able to form your own confident opinions on the issues under dispute.
3. Discipline. If it's a course with scheduled meetings, you're more likely to keep up with assignments than when you are slogging along on your own. The same goes for a structured coaching program with a mentor.
4. Answers to questions. There are sure to be some points you don't understand, or something you're trying to achieve that has you stumped. A mentor/coach/teacher/expert provides answers and explanations.
If you want the above advantages, save up for a copywriting course or coaching program that includes interaction with someone who knows what they're doing and enjoys passing that along to others. Look for the following qualifications in your instructor or guide:
* at least 10 years of copywriting experience, whether on the job or as an independent professional
* experience in teaching or coaching
* a writing style that you respect and like
* a supportive, rather than bullying or dictatorial, style of interaction
* good rapport with you
* agreement with your preferences and goals
You'll learn best when your mentor respects your goals, listens as well as he or she talks, has a wealth of professional experiences to share and takes pleasure in watching you and other struggling copywriters gain confidence and grow.
About The Author: Veteran copywriter Marcia Yudkin is the author of Meatier Marketing Copy, Persuading on Paper and 14 other books. She mentors both beginning and experienced but frustrated copywriters in a one-on-one program described at http://www.yudkin.com/become.htm
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Article Title: Why All Copywriters Can and Should Develop Information Products
Author: Marcia Yudkin
Word Count: 896
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If you earn good money as a successful copywriter, should you bother to carve out time from working for clients to create your own information products for sale?
I say yes. Here's why.
Reason #1: It's a great way to get potential clients over the trust hump to hire you. Think of how the ice cream store gives you that little spoonful of an unfamiliar flavor so you can find out whether or not you like the taste before you commit to a full ice cream cone or dish of it. Likewise, your infoproduct provides a sampling of your intellect, talent, knowledge and writing flair. When you have a potential client, it's certainly less time consuming for you when they read or listen to your infoproduct and sell themselves on your expertise than if you gave a free introductory consultation.
Indeed, one copywriter active on the Warrior Forum,says that his copywriting career was going nowhere until he developed a few infoproducts. Then instead of chasing down clients (unsuccessfully), they came after him and said, "Hey, your copy is pretty good. What would you charge for a sales letter? I'd like to hire you."
Similarly, just last week a guy in England was thinking of hiring me to create a tag line, which is one of my specialties. He was wavering, because it's not cheap, and I saw that he ordered a little $29.95 report I wrote. Then about 40 minutes later, his tag line order came through. That report gave him enough confidence to hire me.
Reason #2: You'll have something to sell to do-it-yourselfers who'd rather save money or think they can't afford you. If you don't have an infoproduct for them, they'll go away and buy one from someone else.
Interestingly, they think they are buying a report or a home-study course to save money and learn how to do something themselves. But what I've watched happen time and time again is that they learn what's involved and they sort of understand it, but they don't have the time to do it, or they're concerned they'll mess it up. Besides, you know so much more than they do (they've just seen the proof), and they end up hiring you to do it.
Reason #3: Infoproducts increase your perceived expertise. In 2006, the company Rain Today released the results of a survey of 200 authors of business books, and here's what they said:
The median direct income from their book was $34,000; the median indirect income
from more speaking engagements, ability to generate more leads, charge higher fees, close more deals, etc. - was $100,000
84% of authors reported a strong or very strong influence on their ability to stand out against competitors
63% of authors reported a strong or very strong influence on generating new clients
96% of authors said publishing a business book affected their professional practice either positively or extremely positively
Although I don't know of a comparable survey of people who have published non-book infoproducts, I interviewed several of my infomarketing proteges on this question. Two told me they knew from client comments that their non-book information products definitely made them an expert in the eyes of their clients.
It just stands to reason that if a potential client is trying to decide between a copywriter who has an infoproduct and one who only has clients, the one with the infoproduct comes across as more of an expert.
Reason #4: Infoproducts provide additional income. One copywriter said in a recent newsletter that she's made more than $100,000 from her various infoproducts. Another says his infoproducts, promoted in his newsletter and on the web, are bringing him an average of $500 a week.
Reason #5: Infoproducts enable you to earn while on vacation or in retirement. This factor was the real motivator when I decided to develop a more extensive (and expensive) line of infoproducts. In 2006, my most expensive product was $95. In 2007, my husband and I were able to take almost three months off to drive to Alaska and back – from Massachusetts – and finance the trip by sales of infoproducts while we were off having fun. I did not do any client work at all during that trip, and yet the money kept flowing into my bank account.
Reason #6: Infoproducts make it easier for you to make it through slow times. When you have family issues to take care of, when you want to switch niches, they give you breathing space when you need it. Whenever things slow down, you simply step up promotion of your infoproduct or create a new one.
Reason #7: Developing infoproducts helps you understand your topic better. I'm not sure whether creating infoproducts will make you a better copywriter, but it will definitely enable you to explain points better to your clients when they have a question.
Your first information product doesn't have to take that much time to create. Friends of mine have created their first PDF report, audio interview or teleclass in just a couple of day (including their thinking and organizing time). Why not jot down some topic possibilities for yourself right now?
About The Author: The author of 16 books and nine multimedia home study courses, veteran copywriter Marcia Yudkin has been selling information since 1981. Download a free recording of her answers to the most commonly asked questions about information marketing: http://www.yudkin.com/infomarketing.htm
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Article Title: The Top Two Mistakes of First-Time Information Product Developers
Author: Marcia Yudkin
Word Count: 617
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So you're ready to pursue passive income, the type of money that comes in while you are sleeping, working on other things or out having fun. I applaud your initiative! Just make sure you don't fall victim to the top two pitfalls I observe in action again and again.
The biggest mistake I see others making is starting off too big. Many think the smart move is starting out with a book, or something equally ambitious. They outline and go to work on their book or complicated home-study course that would have to take years to finish, given their overall plan.
One product developer, for example, asked to interview me as one of 12 experts in a big home-study course and promised to send me the whole package when it was done. Every couple of months I would email her to ask if she could please send me a copy of the product. However, it still wasn't done yet. It took her almost two years to finish creating that course! And when I did finally get a copy of it, I could see half a dozen ways that she had made her project much harder and more complicated than it needed to be. Worst of all, some of the information from the experts in the course was already out of date.
Both books and big, complicated infoproducts each have their place. Just don't start with one. Start with an easy project that you can start and finish in a week or less. Then set it up to start earning from it. Then you're ready to tackle a bigger project.
The second most common deadly mistake of first-time information marketers is creating a product focused on what people should want to know, what's good for them to know, not what they actually want to know.
For example, a psychotherapist I know believes that unacknowledged shame is the root cause of many people's unhappiness. She may be correct about this. However, unless people are very knowledgeable about psychology or have been in therapy for a while, they won't identify shame as their core issue. And in that case, they're not going to buy a report or course about getting over their shame.
Similarly, maybe you are a copywriter and have a terrific workbook on how to translate features into benefits. This would be extremely beneficial to anyone who wants to find more customers or clients. You hope to sell this to owners of small and medium-sized businesses. However, the average business owner is not aware of features and benefits, so this is not going to be a big seller to the business community.
For one more example of this, imagine that you're a financial planner and see over and over again families coming to grief because they've neglected to create a rainy day fund of emergency cash. You might then decide to create an audio course teaching families how to do that. It certainly would be good for them to have this information. But since they aren't already seeking out this information in droves, you have a hard sell ahead of you.
As an information product developer, you must always separate the solutions or insights people deliberately look for from those they don't realize would be good for them. Concentrate on the former and you'll have the greatest chances of a first-time infoproduct success. Later on, when you have a customer list and a reputation, you can sneak in the "good to know" stuff, and fans may snatch it up.
About The Author: The author of 16 books and nine multimedia home study courses, Marcia Yudkin has been selling information since 1981. Download her free recording of answers to the most commonly asked questions about information marketing at http://www.yudkin.com/infomarketing.htm .
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Article Title: The Money is in the List: 16 Ways to Build a List From Scratch
Author: Marcia Yudkin
Word Count: 1036
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You've started a new business or you have an existing one that you would like to be selling products to regularly. Either way, let's suppose you have no customer list, no group of interested people who have asked you to stay in touch. According to most marketing experts, you'll be struggling to sell much of anything until you build a list and begin contacting that list regularly with information and offers.
Where to start? Make sure your web site has a prominent signup box on every page. Then use at least six or seven of these 16 methods to build that crucial list.
1. Bait piece. Create a free item that will tempt your ideal client to click to your site and request it. Whether that's an audio, a written report, a video or something else, within the item make sure there's a brief description of what you do and what you sell. People need to provide their email address and join your list to receive the giveaway item.
2. Online article distribution. Write useful, informative articles that are 400-600 words long and that have titles using keywords that the kind of people you want to sell to are looking for. End the article with a biographical paragraph that describes who you are and offers your free item. Post these articles at article distribution sites, many of which cost nothing to use.
3. Squeeze page and pay-per-click. Post a web page describing your giveaway item and inviting people to opt in to receive it. What makes this a "squeeze page" is that it contains no general information about your business and no links to other pages for your business. Then send traffic there using pay-per-click ads.
4. Press releases. Write press releases about the launch of your business, the availability of your giveaway item, useful tips and tie-ins with trends or breaking news. Distribute these through press release distribution services and email them to your local media as well as specialty magazines related to your industry. Getting coverage in newspapers, magazines and online news sites brings traffic to your site and should increase the size of your list.
5. Guest blog posts. Contact bloggers in your subject area, offering to write a blog post on a controversy or a set of useful guidelines. You'll get a valuable link back to your site with each post along with coming to the attention of the bloggers' established audiences.
6. Online videos. Create one or more funny, opinionated or practical short videos, up to three minutes long, and post them at YouTube and elsewhere. At the end of the video, show your URL on screen. Be sure to tell friends and colleagues about the video, too, to get word-of-mouth publicity going.
7. Survey. Ask members of your target market for their opinions or experiences, using an online poll or a paper-and-pen survey sheet where you have a large group in one room. Tabulate and publicize the results with a press release and by contacting bloggers about the survey results. This positions you as someone who is contributing to your industry, in addition to generating curiosity that will get prospects checking you out online.
8. Free teleclass. Announce a free teleclass on a popular topic using the other methods in this list. Let everyone know that when they sign up for the teleclass, they'll also be added to your list (but can unsubscribe at any time). This is especially good for someone trying to grow a reputation as an expert. A teleclass also enables people to get to know and trust you in a way other methods don't.
9. Online forums and discussion groups. Find gathering places where people interested in your topic area communicate on message boards or email lists. Join these groups and participate in discussions when you have something relevant to add. This is free, but requires a time commitment and good communication skills.
10. Postcards. If you know exactly who your best prospects are and can obtain a low-cost list of them, postcards may be a great way to contact them. Invite them to visit your site and request your free bait piece.
11. Ezine ads. If companies or individuals have an email newsletter or marketing list that reaches those you hope to sell to, buy ads there. Repeated ads work better than single-shot ones.
12. Your own blog. Start this only if you're disciplined, enjoy writing and have a lot to say. Pay attention to the keywords in your blog post headlines, which gets you traffic through online search engines.
13. Content-rich web site. Post resources, original articles, tools and other items people in your target market will search for, link to and recommend. This traffic-building method works slowly and gradually over time.
14. Radio ads. It may sound crazy to advertise on the radio for Internet visitors, but I have one client who did this successfully. He ran repeated ads during commuting hours that invited listeners to download his free report, which had a very controversial title. He had carefully researched the audience of the radio station he chose and reached a group that was otherwise difficult to pinpoint.
15. Public speaking. When you're on the podium giving a talk to a local or industry group, you have great credibility. People who have seen or met you in person are more likely to remain on your list long-term. You can insert a list signup invitation on a handout for your talk, pass around a signup sheet or collect business cards from those who want to be on your list.
16. Networking. Use your business card as a signup tool when you hand it out at trade shows or conferences. This works best when you don't simply list your web site on the card but specifically say something like, "Go to www.someplace.com to receive a free whatever."
Which of the methods above best fit your personal preferences and are easiest to implement? Get started today on the all-important task of building your list.
About The Author: The author of 16 books and nine multimedia home study courses, Marcia Yudkin has been selling information in one form or another since 1981. Download a free recording of her answers to the most commonly asked questions about information marketing at http://www.yudkin.com/infomarketing.htm
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Article Title: What is Introvert-Friendly Learning? Reflections For Coaches, Conference Organizers and Seminar Leaders
Author: Marcia Yudkin
Word Count: 806
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Recently on the ABC TV show "Shark Tank," on which entrepreneurs pitch their businesses to a panel of multi-million-dollar investors, there was a scene of gratuitous cruelty that lived up to the "shark" metaphor in the show's title.
(If you're British or Australian, you may be familiar with the show "Dragon's Den" on which the American show was modeled.)
A woman whose pitch did not fly with the investors and who was visibly upset about having failed offered a strained smile and said "Thank you" before turning to take her leave.
"Don't say 'Thank you,'" admonished one of the investors, a man whose motto is that nothing counts except money. He argued that she certainly didn't feel grateful and shouldn't say it. Two of the other panelists stuck up for the woman as being appropriately polite, but the man insisted that thanking the ones who had all turned her down was wrong.
The contestant couldn't manage any words in reply. It seemed to me that she found his attitude revolting, but she was much too well brought up to disagree with him or insult him back. And in the man's expression I saw self-righteousness, superiority and an egotistical pleasure in seeing her squirm. I know he felt he was teaching her a lesson, but it was vicious and power-hungry of him to use that tone in that moment.
Introverts are especially sensitive about being put down in public, and particularly so when the criticism has nothing to do with the official purpose of the occasion. Losing is not fun for anyone, but to have to deal with mockery of one's appearance or background or manners on top of that is unbearable to an introvert, because we need time to process an attack that comes out of left field. Only much later can we think of an eloquent retort that would have exposed the attacker as being in the wrong.
This incident got me thinking about learning environments that are not safe or productive for introverts. More than 30 years ago, I experienced humiliation like the Shark Tank contestant's at a prestigious writer's conference. In front of 100 other writers, an award-winning nonfiction writer asked me to come up front and read the first page of my novel-in-progress. After I did so, he belittled my writing skill, disparaged the intent of my story and told all the others in the room that he saw no redeeming qualities in what I had done.
Years later, when I was able to look back at this incident apart from the torrent of tears it brought on, I concluded that no valid educational points were made to me and no learning about writing took place in me or anybody else that day. As with the Shark Tank exchange, the so-called expert and some listeners in the room expressed superiority, but not in terms that showed me how to improve.
There's an echo of this atmosphere in the "hot seats" at some marketing conferences, where an aspiring entrepreneur describes what he or she wants to achieve and what he or she has done to try to get there. The reigning experts then comment. When the experts play to the peanut gallery, show off their knowledge or shake their heads disparagingly without explaining the principles underlying their scorn, they are not helping the one in the hot seat to learn.
What kind of seminar or conference is conducive to learning for introverts, then?
* It's small – 15 people or fewer. If it's larger, criticism is delivered one-on-one rather than in front of everyone.
* It's confidential. Interchanges where participants talk about themselves, share their work or make themselves vulnerable are not preserved for posterity.
* Steps have been taken to make the setting less intimidating for participants. For example, the expert sits or walks around at the same level as participants, rather than on stage or in a director's chair.
* Someone who doesn't feel comfortable sharing or participating can take a pass.
* Criticism is couched not in absolute, take-it-or-leave-it pronouncements but in terms of options, experiences and "If you want to do X, then Y is a good way to get there."
* The discussion stays on topic.
* Instead of simply shoving ideas at participants, the learning structure provides an opportunity for introverts to absorb and integrate the information so it relates to their aims.
Use these guidelines to design a learning environment that's comfortable for introverts, and chances are, extroverts will appreciate it also. Your reward: long-term allegiance from those who thrive with your instruction and guidance!
About The Author: A bookworm as a child, Marcia Yudkin grew up to discover she had a surprising talent for creative marketing. She mentors introverts so they discover their uniquely powerful branding and marketing strategies. Download her free Marketing for Introverts manifesto: http://www.yudkin.com/introverts.htm
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Article Title: The Mind Music of Meter: Creating Catchier Tag Lines and Slogans
Author: Marcia Yudkin
Word Count: 628
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Ever look at a company's tag line and wish it were punchier or perkier? I sure have.
For example, here are three slogans pulled from Memoryhooks.com that have a lot going for them:
Growing profits, reducing taxes.
For employees a cut above the rest, call us and we will send the very best.
The Mortgage Broker with the 'Can-Do' Attitude!
In each case, their core idea is creative and appealing. Say them out loud, however. The rhythm clunks. The words need to be tightened up and rearranged so that the slogan has a regular, musical rhythm. Since there's no melody – we're not proposing to turn them into radio jingles – the pattern of emphasis and de-emphasis we're looking for is what English scholars call "meter."
There's no need to bore you with a list of the various types of meters, because most people can instinctively perceive the difference between a line with meter and one without (or one whose meter is flawed). All you have to do is listen carefully as you say the words aloud, and transform the line into a series of downbeats and offbeats. For instance, "Growing profits, reducing taxes" becomes "DUM de DUM de, de DUM de DUM de." Now you can see why it didn't feel quite right: The second phrase in the slogan has an extra syllable at the start that prevents it from being regular and balanced.
Readers and listeners don't count or analyze syllables and stresses, of course, but the mind unthinkingly registers these patterns as well-ordered or jumbled, the same way we recognize when someone has hit a dissonant, wrong key on the piano in a series of notes.
To make it catchier, you need to fiddle with the wording so the slogan has the rhythm, "DUM de DUM de, DUM de DUM de" or some other arrangement with the same pattern on both sides of the divide. The possibilities for the first example include:
Growing profits, cutting taxes.
Grow your profits, cut your taxes.
Higher profits, lower taxes.
Earn more profits, pay less taxes.
In the second example, "For employees a cut above the rest, call us and we will send the very best," it's difficult to find a meter because there is way too much word clutter. To improve this tag line, identify the crucial words – employees, rest, send, best, perhaps – and try to get the idea across with a tighter rhythm and as few additional words as possible. A first attempt:
Employees a cut above the rest. We only send the very best.
That's better, but it still stumbles at the beginning. Consider instead:
Staff a cut above the rest. We only send the very best.
DUM de DUM de DUM de DUM. de DUM de DUM de DUM de DUM.
A huge improvement, don't you agree?
Now let's consider "The Mortgage Broker with the 'Can-Do' Attitude!" Analyzing the rhythm, it comes out as somewhat of a mess: "de DUM de DUM de de de DUM de DUM de de." Again, identify the fundamental words in the slogan, discard the clutter and rebuild it with a regular pattern of emphasis:
The "Can-Do" Mortgage Broker
de DUM de DUM de DUM de
Although these examples rely on what we could call a double rhythm – DUM de or de DUM – triple rhythms certainly make for catchy tag lines and slogans, too – DUM de de or de de DUM.
Elegance in a slogan comes from getting the meter right.
About The Author: Marcia Yudkin is Head Stork of Named At Last, which brainstorms catchy tag lines, company names and product names for clients. Download a free copy of her guidebook, "19 Steps to the Perfect Company Name, Product Name or Tag Line" at http://www.namedatlast.com/19steps.htm .
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