How to get your creative juices flowing

December 26th, 2009 by Wayne Davies No comments »

Stuck in a rut? Need to come up with new ideas, but can’t? Maybe you simply need a break? Perhaps you need to introduce your mind to new things?

Whatever the cause of your rut, here are nine things you can do to get your creative juices flowing…

  1. Take a break
  2. Do something different
  3. Sleep on it
  4. Go for a walk (take a notebook)
  5. Read a random article on Wikipedia
  6. Tell a friend all about it
  7. Play the Creativity Challenge game
  8. Random word process
  9. Get a coffee and listen to Bach

Take a break

Sometimes I find I get more done in the 20 minutes following a break, than I achieved in the previous hour while hard at work.

Maybe your next creative block can be solved simply by taking a break?

Do something different

More serious creative blocks can be broken by introducing new things to your environment.

Do you always come home the same way? Then find a different route home. Do you always have the same thing for lunch? Try something different. And by different, I mean something you’ve never had before.

Introducing something new to your life not only boosts your creativity, it adds a little spice too.

Sleep on it

Your subconscious can be a powerful ally when it comes to creative breakthroughs. It’s not uncommon to go to bed completely flummoxed by a problem, only to wake up with the solution.

If you’ve been struggling with a new idea (or even the solution to a problem), put it aside and tell yourself you’ll have the solution by tomorrow.

You may wake up with the answer.

Go for a walk (take a notebook)

Take yourself right out of your workplace, and head outside for a nice long work. Assuming you’re healthy enough, plan to be away for at least 45 minutes.

Walk at your own pace, and have no particular agenda in mind. Let your mind wander where it will.

Oh yes, and take a notebook. It’s amazing how often an idea will pop into my mind while I’m out and about. And when it does, I immediately jot it down in a notebook, because I’ll have forgotten all about it by the time I get back to the office.

It’s useful to walk down streets you’ve never seen before, and to really explore your neighborhood. Naturally, you should stick to places (and times of day) where you feel safe.

Read a random article in Wikipedia

Are you stuck for ideas? Are you ready for a challenge? Then head over to Wikipedia and click the random article link.

No matter what the article it comes up with is about, set yourself the challenge of applying what you learn to your current problem. It doesn’t matter how silly the resulting ideas are. What matters is that you’re forcing your brain to think laterally.

Give yourself at least 15 minutes at this challenge, and then marvel at just how creative you are.

Even if you don’t come up with anything usable, your subconscious may well stumble onto something later in the day. The point is, you’re exercising your mind. You’re teaching it to step outside of it’s normal boundaries.

Tell a friend all about it

Stuck on something? Looking for an idea out of left-field, but find your brain is unwilling to help? Then maybe the answer lies in somebody else’s head.

But please take note. There are some people who, when you tell them you’re looking for ideas and can’t seem to come up with anything, will start empathizing with you. You’re not looking for emotional support here! You’re looking to tap into the creative power of their mind (two heads being better than one).

If the person you’re talking to is empathizing, rather than helping, let them know you admire their abilities in this area, and would appreciate their help to find a solution.

Then shut up (something I find difficult), and let them talk. Give only positive feedback. If you don’t like an idea, tell them you’re really interested in it. And ask them to elaborate on it. The more you hate the idea, the more important it is that you do this.

This technique is especially useful, because it forces you to open your mind. Remember, you’re the one who is stuck for ideas here! That means you should regard yourself as unfit to judge an idea (yes, I know…easier said than done because you and I are the only people who have good ideas).

But if you do master the art of accepting any idea as valid, and show interest even in ideas you think are silly, it lets your friend know it’s safe to get really creative.

The other possibility is that your friend’s idea only seems ’silly’ because you don’t fully understand it. That’s why paying special attention to ‘bad’ ideas is such a good idea! You might uncover pure gold if you ask your friend to elaborate.

I can almost guarantee that in those situations where you simply can’t come up with an idea, the answer will lie in an area that you personally don’t like on first hearing about it.

Instead of shutting down this avenue of exploration, give your friend permission to explore it fully and see what happens.

Play the Creativity Challenge game

The Creativity Challenge website offers hundreds of different challenges designed to expand your creative ability.

Use it.

Random word process

Are you stuck for an idea? Do you have a dictionary? Then you have a potential solution.

Close your eyes, open the dictionary, and place your finger on a word at random.

Give yourself 15 minutes, and find different ways to apply the word to the situation. Don’t judge any idea or solution you come up with. Simply let your mind go free, and explore.

Get a coffee and listen to Bach

Maybe you do simply need a break, but aren’t willing to admit it.

In that case, make yourself a cup of coffee and listen to Bach. Or Mozart.

Music by either of these composers is thought to help improve creativity. And even if they don’t, you give your mind a welcome break and feed it some inspiring music.

If you don’t normally listen to classical music, then you should do this (introducing new things improves creativity). If you can’t stand classical music, then you should definitely do this.

Remember, the key to creativity is introducing your mind to new things.

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Say what you mean

December 24th, 2009 by Wayne Davies No comments »

I’m a fan of unintentional humor. I’ve previously listed a number of genuine road signs that demonstrated how easy it is to get things very wrong.

This article follows on from that one, with more unintentional humor and suggestions on how to avoid making the same mistake in your ad.

In two minds

Consider this sign, seen in tailors…

We do not tear your clothing with machinery. We do it carefully by hand.

Yes, it’s funny. But this type of mistake is all too easy to make. The problem is, the author knows exactly what he or she means to say, and doesn’t take the time to consider other possible meanings for the sentence.

You really do need to be in two minds when you’re writing, and then proofing your ad. One mind should focus on what you’re saying, while the other concentrates on what your words actually mean.

Here’s another example to illustrate the point…

No matter what your topcoat is made of, this miracle spray will make it really repellent.

Typos

Take a careful look at this exultation…

Save regularly in our bank. You’ll never reget it.

Did you spot the typo? You’ll never “re get” your money. This is probably not the kind of message a bank wants to send to its customers!

Yet such a typo is incredibly hard to spot. How easily did you find it? How much harder would it have been if you’d written that sentence, given that your mind will automatically take in groups of words and correct them on a subconscious level.

This is why it pays to get someone else to proof-read your ad. Here’s another example, just because…

This is the model home for your future. It was panned by Better Homes and Gardens.

Thinking things through

Thinking things through before you actually sit down and write an ad is a good idea. Here’s what happens when a person doesn’t bother…

Stock up and save! Limit: one

I suspect this advertiser is working his or her way through a list of “power” phrases, and giving little thought to what the words in those phrases actually mean.

Take it from me, an ad isn’t powerful simply because it contains “power” words. An ad is only powerful when it clearly communicates the benefit on offer.

Red face, anybody

Some people find themselves insulted and outraged over things I find amusing, and vice versa. It’s in our nature to make a virtue out of anything we love, and a sin out of the things we don’t.

That’s why it pays to keep a special look out for a double entendre. Here’s an example…

Modular Sofas. Only $299 for rest or fore play.

What would you pay to erase that unintentional “e,” had this been your ad in a highly conservative part of the world?

Mind you, sometimes you have to ask yourself whether or not the humor really was unintended…

Mixing bowl set designed to please a cook with round bottom for efficient beating.

And that’s the problem you face. Your reader doesn’t know whether or not you intended to be humorous. If your unintended humor causes offense, you may well lose several sales.

Going out with a bang

Here are a several more examples of unintended humor for your enjoyment.

Sheer stockings. Designed for fancy dress, but so serviceable that lots of women wear nothing else.

Used Cars: Why go elsewhere to be cheated? Come here first!

Our bikinis are exciting. They are simply the tops!

Tired of cleaning yourself? Let me do it.

Auto Repair Service. Free pickup and delivery. Try us once, you’ll never go anywhere again.

Ladies and gentlemen, now you can have a bikini for a ridiculous figure.

For Rent: 6-room hated apartment.

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Pssst….want to make more sales?

December 24th, 2009 by Wayne Davies No comments »

Getting somebody to buy your product is a challenge. And when your sales medium is nothing more than words on a web page, it’s even harder still.

When you ask somebody to buy, you’re asking him or her to…

  • Believe the claims you make for your product
  • Hand over money to a complete stranger
  • Trust that you’ll deliver the product

As you might expect, most people are a little reluctant to do that right off the bat. Every one of us has been in this situation, haven’t we. We like the product, but we’re afraid to buy because we still have unanswered doubts.

In this article, you’ll find out how to combat doubt and discover new ways to boost your sales.

Familiarity

They say “familiarity breeds contempt.” Not in sales, it doesn’t. At least, not if you’re an honest trader.

The better you get to know somebody, the less doubt you experience. Of course, you may discover a person is untrustworthy, and so avoid them. For the purposes of this article, we’re talking about your sales page, so it’s safe to assume that finding ways to give your prospects more contact with you is a good thing.

Your goal must be to give people a reason to return to your site often. There are two reasons for this…

  1. You want them to get used to dealing with you (reduce doubt)
  2. You want more chances to make a sale

The question is, how do you get people to return often? Here are some ideas for you to consider…

  • Start an ezine and give-away free subscriptions
  • Start a members-only area
  • Start a Blog and publish original content daily
  • Compile a weekly Digest of your Blog and invite readers to subscribe
  • Publish plenty of useful content on your website

Start an ezine

Your ezine should pick a subject, and specialize in it. If your site covers several different topics, create an ezine for each one. That way, you pick up highly focused subscribers. This will be invaluable to you when…

  • You need to advertise a product to your subscribers
  • You want to sell advertising to others

The main advantage of your ezine (from your perspective), is that you now have a way of attracting your subscribers back to your site.

TIP #1: Publish your ezine weekly, and mail the subscriber list at the same time on the same day each week.

TIP #2: Publish your ezine articles on your website. The ezine should simply describe the article in a paragraph, and link back to it on your site. This achieves two aims…

  1. It gets people back to your site
  2. It increases the amount of actual content on your site. If you link to these articles from within the site itself, your search engine ranking will start to improve

Don’t load up your ezine with ads. Your subscribers want content, so give it to them. This will ultimately deliver many more sales than a mailing that contains nothing but ads.

Start a members-only area

Do you have certain content that you don’t want to simply give away to anyone that visits your site? Then why not start a members-only area?

In other words, get visitors to register with you before they get access to the members-only part of your site. Make this registration free, and require that the person verify their email address. This is a great way to build a mailing list.

You should then mail all your members once per week, with a summary of everything you’ve added to the members-only area over the last week. Link to each new item in your email.

Start a Blog

A Blog can take many different forms. For example…

  • A forum for publishing information
  • A personal record
  • A way for a group of people to publish information

This Blog (the one you’re reading right now) allows anybody to submit articles, but doesn’t guarantee publication. Other Blogs will publish every submission.

How you run your own Blog comes down to what you want to achieve. If you’re interested in building a large amount of information quickly, then you might want to open it up to everybody.

If you’re more interested in quality (a good idea), it’s best to first read a submission and reserve the right to edit it to suit your format.

Publish plenty of useful content

The web is awash with sites that do nothing more than link to other sites. Human beings don’t tend to find these sites all that interesting.

Neither do the major search-engines, which typically assign a low ranking to link-sites.

If your goal is to get people coming back to your site, you’re going to want to find a way to publish new content.

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Sweeping out your storefront

December 24th, 2009 by Wayne Davies No comments »

When you’re shopping, do you notice if the store is messy? Do you avoid stores that aren’t clean? Or are cluttered with mess?

Chances are, you do notice a messy storefront, and this affects the likelihood that you’ll buy something from them.

A tidy site

As in the physical world, so it is on the net. Your customers are looking at your website, the exact same way you might view a storefront.

If it’s messy, your clients are less likely to call in. And far less likely to buy.

Keeping a tidy site is important. By tidy, I mean an uncluttered site that is easy to look at, up-to-date, loads quickly, and has a consistent interface.

Easy to look at

Here are my tips for ensuring your page is easy to look at…

  • Go for a conservative look and feel. Funky may be fun, but not if it’s hard to read
  • Limit your use of colors. Choose a color-scheme of 3-4 colors, and stick to it.
  • Limit your use of fonts. Choose a font-scheme of 1-2 fonts, and stick to it. Use bold-face, underline and italics to convey something specific, rather than willy-nilly (e.g. italics for the name of a publication).
  • Use your color-scheme and fonts consistently, so visitors learn to associate particular fonts and colors with particular functions (e.g. blue is always a link)
  • Use tables or style-sheets to create a design template for your site. Each page will conform to this template, making it easier for people to find their way around
  • Use the same navigation bar on each page, so people always know where to look to visit another page on your site
  • Use Google’s free site search utility. This gives visitors a way to find things on your site using a state-of-the-art search tool
  • Keep graphics small, and optimize them for web display. Limit the number of graphics to reduce download time
  • Limit the number of animated graphics and Flash objects on any page that contains a lot of content (unless the animation is the content). Animation is distracting, so should be avoided on pages you want people to read

keep it up-to-date

Remove links to old pages that no longer exist, and pages with information that no longer applies. Update old pages that contain out-of-date information.

Add new content from time-to-time. I suggest you add at least one new page per week, and put a link to that new page on your homepage.

This makes the site more interesting to both human visitors, and search-engine spiders.

Make sure it loads quickly

These days, most people have fast Internet connections. This means we don’t have to be as concerned about download times as we used to.

Even so, any page that attempts to make a sale should download immediately. Some factors that affect download speeds are outside of your control, but the page content isn’t.

Remove as many graphics and Flash objects as you can from your sales page. Keep the design of the page simple, and remove anything not specifically required to make the sale.

If you’re using HTML tables, and have a lot of information on your sales page, make sure the first few paragraphs appear in their own table. This will ensure the first few paragraphs appear instantly, and your visitor can start reading.

Consistent interface

Every website has an interface, which consists of those parts of the site that help a visitor find their way around.

The best favor you can do for your visitors, is to have a consistent interface.

Ideally, your interface will be exactly the same on every page.

It will look the same. It will have the same options. And it will work in the exact same way.

Your visitors will work out how to use the interface far more quickly, if it’s the same on every page. And they’ll always be able to find their way back to your home page.

Sweeping out your website

Keeping your website clean and tidy is an easy thing to do. I personally like to tweak my site every day. I invest a few minutes in cleaning up, and keeping things fresh.

These few minutes cost me nothing, but contribute greatly to my site.

I recommend you do the same.

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Ownership: Your access to power

December 16th, 2009 by Wayne Davies No comments »

As soon as you take full ownership of the problems in your life, you become a powerful man or woman. Full ownership means you accept responsibility for everything that happens to you, whether it’s your fault or not.

I’m not saying that you accept the blame for something you didn’t do. I’m saying that, to become powerful, you must accept responsibility as if you were the cause.

Victim culture

This is a hard concept to grasp, because we’re raised to think of ourselves as victims.

It’s in the interests of government agencies, and law firms, to encourage this mentality. The victim mentality is even taught in school! Unfortunately, several generations of Americans (as well as citizens of many other countries) have been rendered almost helpless.

The victim culture is, I believe, designed to keep us helpless. Its function is to make us increasingly dependent on government agencies. In such a society, the individual slowly becomes less and less able to act powerfully in his or her own best interests.

In the context of The Online Marketing Blog, victim thinking keeps us unsuccessful. It leaves us unable to act in the face of problems that crop up everyday in a business situation. The victim mentality is incompatible with your success in business on the Internet. Here’s an example of how this kind of thinking makes it impossible for a person to succeed…

It’s not my fault I’m fat

An excellent example of the victim culture can be seen in the actions of a New Yorker who took legal action against four popular fast-food restaurants. He says they mislead him about the nutritional quality of the food they serve.

As a result of what he describes as ‘their negligence,’ he has suffered several heart attacks, has diabetes, and other weight related health problems.

The man in question is grossly overweight, and may die years earlier than would otherwise be the case. In my opinion, it’s entirely his own fault. The decision to eat more food than his body needed was entirely his own. Nobody forced him to eat the majority of his meals at fast food restaurants.

Yet this man is not willing to accept responsibility for his own actions, even though he may soon die as a result of his own choices. This man will not admit that the problem lies with him, and as a result his quality of life has suffered terribly.

His inability to take responsibility for the predicament he finds himself in is the reason why this man is not able to make the life changes he needs to make to survive. He needs to wake up, and fast! This man is facing the ultimate fact of life—that it ends. Even in the face of death, this man is unwilling to accept the blame for his own actions.

This man is not unique in America today. Even corporations have gotten in on the act (and it is an act). Consider the despicable actions of the companies that whined and complained about Microsoft, running off to tell tales to the Department of Justice. They’re like a bunch of little kids, throwing a tantrum just as soon as reality doesn’t immediately deliver whatever it is they want this minute.

No responsibility = no power

Personal power is the natural result of a willingness to take responsibility for one’s own life. Without a willingness to fully own one’s circumstances, and to be responsible for them, a person cannot be powerful in their own life.

The man I mentioned above has blamed four corporations for his obesity and lack of health. He admits no culpability of his own. As a result, he is powerless to do anything about his obesity.

He is powerless, because he must rely on disinterested 3rd parties to do the work for him. But it’s not possible to force a person to lose weight and eat a balanced diet.

The man is a fool. His sniveling approach to life, and the blame he readily assigns to others for his poor state of health, are beneath contempt. He is like a spoiled child, quick to blame everyone but himself for the inevitable result of the eating choices he made. Unfortunately, this spoiled child has an equally disgusting lawyer who was all too ready to suck undeserved funds out of 4 successful corporations.

With great responsibility comes…

Imagine how different this man’s life would be if he woke up to himself, admitted that it was his own choice to eat too much fast-food, and so decided to stop doing so. He would lose weight, and the health problems that go with it. In around 10 months, this man would have completely revolutionized his life.

His lack of power in this problem comes directly from his own unwillingness to recognize that he is the source of his problem. Until he does so, a solution to his problem will elude him. In fact, his current approach requires that he remain overweight and unhealthy. The basis of his legal action requires that he continue to endanger his life.

Isn’t that crazy?

There’s an old cliche that states ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’ This saying works in reverse too. With great responsibility comes great power.

The more ownership you take over the events in your life, the more power you’ll wield over the circumstances in which you find yourself. There’s little point trying to ascribe blame, even if you’re justified in doing so. Blaming some 3rd party won’t solve the problem. The solution lies in the actions you take. It lies in your ownership of the problem.

NOTE: I’m not saying that you shouldn’t initiate legal action if it’s required to resolve a matter that can’t be resolved some other way. For example, a neighbor who damages your property, but won’t pay for the repairs, has forced your hand. You’re going to have to initiate legal action to get your money back.

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Success Tips from History’s Greatest

December 8th, 2009 by Wayne Davies No comments »

Success in business requires training and discipline and hard work. If you’re not frightened by these things, the opportunities are just as great today as they ever were. David Rockefeller

A man is only as happy as he makes up his mind to be. Abraham Lincoln

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. Thomas A. Edison

People fail forward to success. Mary Kay Ash

Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value. Albert Einstein

You always pass failure on the way to success. Mickey Rooney

To follow, without halt, one aim: There’s the secret of success. Anna Pavlova

The person who makes a success of living is the one who sees his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly. That is dedication. Cecil B. DeMille

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing. Abraham Lincoln

Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it. Henry David Thoreau

There is only one success – to be able to spend your life in your own way. Christopher Morley

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm. Sir Winston Churchill

I can’t give you a sure-fire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time. Herbert Bayard Swope

Eighty percent of success is showing up. Woody Allen

Success isn’t permanent, and failure isn’t fatal. Mike Ditka

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Why do they buy? (part 2 of 2)

December 7th, 2009 by Wayne Davies No comments »

NOTE: This is part 2 of a two-part series. Please read part 1 before starting part 2.

In the first installment, we looked at the number one killer of sales — doubt. In this article, we’ll look at what you need to do to overcome doubt and encourage people to buy.

Desire

There’s only one reason why a person buys a product or service. They want it. This sounds simple enough, but there’s more to it than first meets they eye. The would-be buyer has to want the product more than the money it costs. It’s up to you to bring the prospective buyer around to that conclusion.

Most advertising generates some degree of desire, but not enough to overcome natural human inertia. This article looks at how to generate desire through your advertising, and use it to get people to take the risk involved in making a purchase.

Doubt

In part one, we looked at the way doubt kills sales. Doubt has the ability to overcome desire. It acts as a warning bell, leaving the potential buyer with the feeling that taking no action is less risky than buying your product.

If doubt kills desire, what kills doubt?

Paradoxically, you can counter doubt with desire. Let me explain…

Desire is an emotion, and human beings are emotional creatures. We are driven to act on emotional impulses. The emotions that spur us to act are…

  • Fear
  • Greed
  • Need

Here are some examples of these three emotions to illustrate the point…

A man with a broken leg is in the path of a charging bull. His fear compels him to act in spite of his pain.

A woman with large debts is offered the chance to place her last $500 on a horse paying 100 to 1. She places the bet in the vein hope that a win might solve her financial problems.

A socially immature man joins a club he has little interest in because his need for approval overrides his desire to occupy his time with activities that interest him.

A woman with poor self esteem, and little money, spends $2,500 on a designer dress that she will wear only once. She believes the dress will compensate for her feelings of inadequacy.

A man borrows heavily to buy an expensive sports car. The car is impractical for his needs, but he believes his friends will admire the car, and that this admiration will extend to him.

In each case, a person was driven to act by an underlying emotion.

If you were to ask, these people wouldn’t consider their actions to be irrational. In fact, they’d give you seemingly rational reasons for acting the way they did. From their own point of view, they had a genuine need to take the action they did. In each case, the motivation to act was driven by desire, not need.

Fear of loss

Fear of loss is another powerful motivator. Some say the fear of loss is actually more powerful than the desire for gain.

You can combine desire with the fear of loss to create a powerful sales tool that inspires immediate action from potential clients. We’ll look at how to do that in an online ad later in this article.

When doubt is stopping someone from making that final commitment for something they desire, the fear of losing it is a useful countermeasure.

Greed

Greed is a powerful desire built into all of us. Greed is not so much a sin, as a powerful survival tool in a world where resources are scarce.

Our species has evolved in a world of scarce resources, and we’ve learned to horde things as a result. You can see this even in our body chemistry, which has us overeat when food is abundant so the excess can be stored as fat.

This natural greed extends to all areas of our lives, and can be used as a tool to sell products that promise to multiply any particular thing people might wish to horde.

A more “evolved” form of greed is exclusivity. Any product that generates an aura of exclusivity, instantly becomes more desirable. Modern art is an excellent example of this. Blotches of paint splashed on paper by a five year old, are worthless. Blotches of paint splashed on canvas by an Internationally recognized artist can command a small fortune.

Exclusivity is an extension of the principle of scarcity. As a general rule, an object is seen as more valuable if it’s desired by more than one person, it’s not easily duplicated, and there isn’t enough of them for everybody. How much would you pay for a glass of water right now? How much would you pay if you were lost in the desert, and hadn’t had a drink in 2 days? How much would you pay if two of you were lost in the desert, hadn’t had a drink in 2 days, and there was a single glass of water?

Guilt

Guilt is a by-product of our overdeveloped brains.

Certain types of product lend themselves to guilt, such as charity appeals. Guilt is paired with a need for approval, which is to say the need to feel good about ourselves. There is a certain satisfaction that comes with giving something away, and this may simply be the removal of guilt!

The need for approval runs through all of us, and is almost certainly related to our social evolution as a species. We developed abstract language as a tool to help us survive the predatory activities of creatures far more powerful and better equipped than we are. Our advantage requires that we cooperate, and it’s likely that our need for approval finds its source in this aspect of our species.

This need for approval can be used to generate desire for certain products. Overpriced automobiles, clothing, art, and jewelry spring to mind.

Buyer’s don’t believe they act on emotion

If you’re finding this article to be rather cynical about human beings, it may be due to this next point. People are generally not conscious of the emotions that underpin the actions they take. This applies as much to our buying decisions, as to any other area of human activity.

An excellent example of this can be seen in a colleague of mine, who once swore black and blue that every buying decision he made was based totally on logic, and was the result of painstaking research over several months. He believed that all his buying decisions were entirely rational.

My colleague failed to grasp two points…

  1. The way he went about purchasing is a separate step from taking the decision to purchase
  2. His desire to get the lowest price was still based on an emotional need

Yes, the person I have in mind does not strike you as one given to high emotion. Yet he buys things that he does not need to survive. Why does he do so?

For example, he already had a very expensive SLR camera. He didn’t need a digital camera. It will take around 10 years to recover the cost of not having to develop an entire film just to get the few photos he wants to keep. He’ll almost certainly have upgraded to another digital camera by then! More to the point, why does he want to take and keep photos anyway?

The plain fact is, despite his painstaking research to find the very best camera, and all the haggling to get the lowest possible price, his underlying motivation was emotional. Nobody needs a camera, but plenty of us desire the photos that result. They’re memories of good times, and rekindle the emotions that accompanied those events.

His desire to get the best price is not based on logic either. He enjoys the process of getting the lowest price on Earth for anything he buys. How do I know this? Because every time he buys something new, the first thing he tells me is how much he saved. The next thing he tells me is how he managed to save so much.

The point is, buying decisions are emotional acts. A person buys something to fulfill an emotional need. You will make more sales if you find a way to speak to that need.

Forcing the issue

Generating desire for a product or service isn’t difficult. Desire is easily aroused in people, simply by clearly communicating the manner in which a product or service meets one or more basic human needs.

Unfortunately for us, desire alone isn’t enough! People are reluctant to act. This tendency is seen during the sales process. A person may well make a decision to buy, yet doesn’t actually do so.

For whatever reason, he or she decides to delay the act of purchasing until some later date. All kinds of reasons may be given for the delay, and most will sound totally convincing. None of these reasons matter. The simple fact of the matter is, it’s usually safer to do nothing.

In a sense, your job as a writer of ads, is to make it safer to act now.

This is especially important on the Internet, because you’re relying on words and phrases to secure the sale. And you have little hope of ever seeing that person again if they don’t buy now.

You need to force the issue.

Use scarcity to force the issue

The way to force the issue is to use the law of scarcity. This law speaks to the fear of loss that resides in all of us, and has its basis in a fundamental understanding of economics that we all share.

Most of us know there is a limited amount of any given item, so it’s usually better to grab something while it’s available.

Capitalism has lessened the impact of this truth in all western nations. It’s very unusual for something to be scarce in a free market. Competing businesses will always outperform a monopoly. That’s especially true of a government-run monopoly.

The lack of scarcity that we all enjoy in the western world, has lessened the impact of scarcity as a selling tool. This is especially true for digital products, where the cost of manufacture is zero. Despite this, you can still use scarcity by imposing a time limit on a special offer.

The special offer

A special offer increases the desirability of any item that a person wants to buy. For example, if you’ve already been sold on a particular brand of car, the ability to get it with $3,000 worth of factory options at no extra cost increases the desirability of that particular car.

If you’re interested in several different models, the special offer is likely to affect your buying decision in favor of the car that includes the extras.

Of course, a special offer won’t get a person to act in and of itself. Why should someone act today, when they can still get the special offer tomorrow? Or next week? Or next month?

For a special offer to invoke action, it needs a time a limit.

The time limit

Consider the above special offer. You get your car at the agreed price, and then the dealer includes $3,000 worth of factory options.

This would certainly cause you to think about this model of car. But in an of itself, that’s all it does.

What if the dealer then told you that the special offer expired tomorrow?

This forces you to think a lot more seriously about the car. If you’re going to buy that model…if you’re really serious about it, you’re going to be better off if you act immediately.

If the special offer is desirable, and the time-limit reasonably strict, it’s safer to act now. It’s more risky to delay. The advertiser has successfully reversed the normal circumstances in which a buyer finds him or herself!

The time limit forces a person to make a real decision, rather than a theoretical one. And it helps get the buyer over the hurdle of risk, by rewarding him/her for taking the next step.

When to disclose the special offer

Time limited special offers are an excellent way to get people to act. But they only work if a person has already decided to buy.

You must first sell the person on buying your product or service. A person must first make a theoretical decision to buy. Once a person has decided to buy, in principle, you can then clinch the deal buy making it safer to act immediately.

Recap

Why does a person buy your product? Because they want the benefits that come with owning and using it.

What are the benefits of owning and using your product? If you don’t know, you’d better find out, because you can’t write a powerful sales ad until you know.

By clearly explaining the benefits of that come with using your product, you build desire for it. But desire usually isn’t enough to secure the sale. You’ll get more sales if you use a time-limited special offer, and make it more beneficial to act now.

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The source of greatness

December 7th, 2009 by Wayne Davies No comments »

I touched on goal setting in an earlier article published in this blog: Reality bites. In the article I described the importance of creating goals grounded in reality, and explained how to use objective measures as a way of monitoring your progress.

The reality-based approach to goal setting described in the above article is vital to the success of any goal you set out to achieve, and introduces some of the concepts I expand on here.

The standard approach delivers standard results

The standard approach to goal setting is to set goals that are “realistic”, but that you still consider to be a stretch. That is, to set a challenging goal that you know you can achieve. Here’s an example of this, taken from a goal-setting website…

It’s important to set goals that you can achieve. You may be naive in setting very high goals. You might not appreciate either the obstacles in the way, or understand quite how many skills you must master to achieve a particular level of performance.

In my opinion, this is bad advice.

The unspoken assumption here is that you know what you’re capable of achieving in advance of trying. The question I have is, how do you know this? And what if you’re wrong?

Cutting yourself off at the knees

The standard approach to goal setting is fatally flawed. It has you place a limit on what’s possible by insisting that you rely only on what you already know. The result will be a goal that only delivers more of what you already have.

The standard approach doesn’t give you the chance to discover new ideas or ways of doing things. It doesn’t force you to sit down and think. It asks nothing of you, other than activity.

The standard approach doesn’t give you access to the greatness that exists within. If your desire is to perform at an above average level, you need to abandon the standard approach to goal setting. There’s a much better way to set goals. This new approach is designed to deliver results way beyond average.

The source of greatness

The source of greatness is great goals. History’s great men and women are ordinary people who set “impossible” goals, and went on the achieve them.

In this article, I recommend that you set a goal for yourself that you have no idea how to achieve. A goal that has other people shaking their heads in disbelief when you tell them about it. A goal that makes you weak at the knees when you contemplate it.

A goal so tough, you’re going to want to cross the street if you see it coming your way!

But won’t it all end in tears?

The immediate objection to this type of goal setting is that the goal-setter is highly likely to fail. The bigger the goal, the worse the failure will be. Professional goal-setters would prefer that you experienced the joy of success rather than the pain of failure. They want to protect you from the inevitable disappointment of failure, in case it puts you off setting any more goals.

As you’re reading Online Success Magazine, I assume you’re interested in achieving results well above average. I assume that you’re not interested in living the dull gray life that most people seem content to put up with.

This article isn’t about being average. This article is about the source of greatness, which has its origin in the goals you set for yourself.

Take any great person from history, and imagine he or she had set the kind of safe goals recommended by professional goal-setters. If some great historical figure had played safe in this way, he or she wouldn’t be a great historical figure from history. And you’d be thinking about someone else right now!

Any great goal brings with it the possibility of two extreme outcomes: spectacular success, or dismal failure. The possibility exists that it could all end in tears. You may not achieve your goal.

The question you need to ask yourself is: Does it matter?

Does it matter that you set a goal to earn $1 million in 30 days, and didn’t achieve it? Will you feel sad? Perhaps. Will you be emotionally crushed? Maybe. Will you feel foolish? Possibly. Will others think you foolish? Probably.

The original question is still valid: Does it matter?

The emotions we all experience during failure are nothing more than an attempt by our brains to give a contextual meaning to the chemical reactions going on in our body.

The point is, you don’t have to be a slave to your emotions. You can act in spite of them. It’s possible you’ll end up looking and feeling foolish. This needn’t stop you from setting impossible goals, and acting on them.

Do I really mean impossible?

No, not impossible in a ‘breaking the laws of physics’ kind of way. Some things are absolutely impossible. Other things only seem impossible, but can be achieved.

It’s impossible to walk through a solid concrete wall without breaking it. If your goal is to do so, you’re not going to achieve it. To do so requires that well established scientific theories about the nature of matter be completely and utterly wrong (they’re not).

It’s not easy for most people to earn 10 times the national income in 30 days, but it can be done. And you don’t have the break the laws of physics to do so.

When I say that it’s OK to set impossible goals, what I’m really saying is that it’s OK to set very difficult goals. I’m not advocating that you try to do things that are actually impossible.

Why set difficult goals?

I assume that you want to achieve great things with your Internet business. If you’re going to do so, you’ll need to set difficult goals for yourself. But there’s another reason why setting difficult goals works so well…

It forces you to get creative.

The following example helps illustrate what I mean. Imagine that two people have the same vague desire to make a lot of money in business on the Internet. Both are currently earning $500/month from their Internet business. Both set themselves an income goal.

Bob’s goal is to earn $1,000 per month within 5 months. He needs to increase his sales by $100/month to achieve his goal.

Brenda’s goal is to earn $5,000 per month within 5 months. She needs to increase her sales by $900/month to achieve her goal.

Bob realizes that he will reach his goal by increasing his advertising by $20 each month. He can easily fund this extra expense from the extra money he will make. It’s a stretch, and involves some risk, but it’s not too difficult for him to imagine how me might achieve it.

Brenda has no idea how she’s going to reach her goal. It’s more than a stretch…it seems impossible! But she knows that it’s not impossible because lots of people earn $5,000/month on the Internet. Brenda is forced to think a lot harder than Bob if she’s going to achieve her goal.

Brenda probably doesn’t know enough to achieve her goal. The fact is, she’s almost certainly going to have to get ideas from somewhere. If she’s smart, she’ll visit online marketing forums, marketing websites, brainstorm ideas, talk to other webmasters, and look for books on marketing. She’ll exploit every resource available to her. If she’s going to reach her goal, she’ll have no choice but to do this.

What Brenda is forced to do will have her become more successful than Bob, even if she fails to achieve her goal.

Bob is playing safe, slowly growing his business using the same old techniques. Eventually, those techniques will no longer deliver any more growth. They’ll no longer be an effective way for Bob to grow his business, and he’ll be stuck in a rut with no way out.

Brenda will also find that her ideas only work for a period of time. Eventually, she’ll find it harder to grow her business using her existing ideas. The difference is, Brenda is used to thinking creatively. She forced herself to be creative from the start. She knows what needs to be done to get herself out of any rut she finds herself in.

Assuming Brenda keeps at this long enough, eventually she’ll have a breakthrough and come up with something totally revolutionary. A revolutionary breakthrough may well deliver her goal in a few short weeks!

Dealing with failure

Anyone who sets big goals can expect failure. It’s happens to everyone, no matter how experienced they are. I’m not saying you should waste your valuable time dwelling on it. I’m saying you shouldn’t be surprised when it happens.

Don’t let it upset you. If that’s not possible, then don’t let it stop you. Keep on setting difficult goals.

I suggest you treat goal setting as a game. If you lose at Monopoly, do you deem yourself a failure and refuse to play another game because the defeat is too humiliating to bear? I hope not!

Achieving your goal should be important to you, but not all consuming. Don’t take it as some kind of personal indictment against you if you don’t achieve it. A goal is nothing more than a statement of intent. If you don’t get there, so what? You’re no different to other great people of history, setting out to achieve something great, and enduring many failures along the way.

Failure comes with the territory. It’s the cost of greatness. It’s the price you pay, and will soon be forgotten as you refocus your efforts on your next goal.

One man’s failure…

Failure to reach a goal can look like spectacular success to an objective third party.

Bob and Brenda are actually real people (names and goals changed of course). They did set income goals. Bob succeed beyond his wildest dreams, and easily achieved his goal. Brenda failed miserably and only got half-way to her target.

In other words, after 5 months Bob was making $1,000/month and Brenda was earning $2,500/month.

In terms of their goals, Bob succeeded and Brenda failed. But if I hadn’t told you what their goals were, who would you think the most successful?

This is another reason for setting a wildly unachievable goal. If you miss it, even by a large amount, you’re still going to be better off than if you achieve a safe goal.

Ask yourself, would you prefer to succeed in achieving 100% of a goal of $30,000/year? Or fail by achieving only 10% of a goal of $1 million/year? Personally, I’d rather be a failure earning $100,000/year than a success earning $30,000!

Set a massive and uncomfortable goal

Set yourself a massive and uncomfortable goal. Force yourself to think way outside the box, and to use all the resources at your disposal.

Force yourself to ask other people how you might achieve your goal. Seek out people who have already achieved similar goals, and ask them how they did it.

Anything that doesn’t involve breaking the laws of physics is possible. Don’t be stopped simply because you think it impossible.

The source of your own greatness is in the goals you set for yourself. It’s as simple as that.

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Why don’t they buy? (part 1 of 2)

December 7th, 2009 by Wayne Davies No comments »

What is it that stops people from clicking the ‘buy now’ button, and entering their credit card details in your sales form?

The 6 reasons

There are 6 basic reasons why a person won’t buy a product or service. Each individual may refuse to buy for one or more of the following reasons…

  1. The benefits aren’t clear
  2. They have no need for the product
  3. They can’t afford it
  4. They’re not asked to buy
  5. They don’t believe the product can deliver on the benefits promised in the advertising
  6. They don’t trust seller

Benefits aren’t clear

A benefit is an emotional reward that the owner gets when he or she uses the product. For example, a man who buys a custom-tailored suit enjoys the pleasure that comes from looking as good as he can possibly look.

Most Internet advertising incorrectly focuses on describing the product itself, rather than the benefits of owning and using the product.

This is a mistake, because a person doesn’t set out to buy a collection of components. He or she is interested in what the product will do for them.

Every product has particular features, and they do need to be included in the ad. But a feature should only be included to support the benefit of using the product. It’s a product’s benefits that matter.

No need

Nobody voluntarily buys a product for which he or she has no need. It’s impossible to sell a person anything until he or she has decided they want what the product offers more than the amount of money required to obtain it.

Having said that, it isn’t necessarily true that a person has no need for a product. It may be that the person hasn’t understood what they’ll get if they buy the product. People don’t buy products. They buy the thing that the product promises to deliver.

For example, people don’t buy cars. They buy transportation, and/or status, and/or convenience, and/or thrills.

It’s highly likely that a sales page that doesn’t get many sales isn’t communicating what the product delivers. As a result, potential buyers don’t understand why they might need the product on offer.

Can’t afford it

Sometimes, a person really can’t afford to buy. In this situation, the solution is to find ways to help a buyer fund the purchase.

It’s more likely that the buyer can afford to buy, but has decided it’s not worth more to him or her than the money it costs. In this situation, the advertiser is almost certainly failing to describe the benefits of using the product in a way that excites the potential client.

For example, a Porsche 911 has several benefits. It will get you from point A to point B. It looks fantastic, with sensual lines and has the appearance of moving even when it’s standing still. It’s a very fast car, with superb handling and a solid reputation for bullet-proof construction. It’s also a very expensive automobile, and few people would pay the asking price if the company focused only on the ‘point A to point B’ benefit.

The phrase ‘can’t afford it’ may, or may not be true. If your product is expensive relative to the market, or involves a non-trivial amount of money, you need to focus on the more exciting things your product will do for its owner.

Not asked to buy

It’s such a simple thing, you’d think every advertiser on the planet would ask people to buy. In fact, amateurs seldom ask people to buy.

It’s more likely that an ad will end weakly, with the advertiser taking a ’softly-softly’ approach in case the prospective client feels pressured to buy.

This is a mistake. Anyone who reads your ad through to the end is interested in your product, but hasn’t made a definite decision to buy at this point. Why not? Because most people try to avoid making decisions. Decisions involve commitment. Most people tend to avoid making commitments.

Likewise, most people tend to avoid taking action. When it comes to money, most of us have learned the hard way that it’s usually safer not to buy. Inaction is the natural state of your average human being!

An ordinary person, having read your ad, will not buy if you don’t ask him or her to do so. Advertising that doesn’t force the issue will end in failure. People will simply finish reading the ad and move on.

After asking a person to buy, you must now tell him or her what they need to do to physically make the purchase.

Don’t believe product will deliver benefits

An ad may well disclose all the benefits that come from owning and using a particular product, but if the potential client doesn’t believe the product can do all those things…the sale won’t happen.

Any advertiser that makes claims for a particular product must be able to back those claims up with credible evidence.

What constitutes evidence depends on the target market for a product. For example, an unsophisticated market will be happy to believe testimonial evidence. Such a person may accept that a health-product produced the results claimed for it by users of the product. A more sophisticated audience will understand the weakness inherent in such a claim and demand stronger evidence. A health product may have to show the results of peer-reviewed double-blind scientific testing.

You need to assess the requirements of your particular market, and provide supporting evidence that speaks directly to the expectations and experience of your target audience.

It may also be that the claims being made for a product are perfectly true, but the product is so far ahead of the rest of the market, the claims are totally unbelievable.

If you’re in this situation, you’re going to have work even harder to demonstrate the truth behind your claims.

Don’t trust seller

The 6th reason why people don’t buy is they simply don’t trust the seller. Some markets are less trusting than others, and you need to adapt your approach for the market you’re selling to.

You can increase your trustworthiness in a variety of ways…

  • Build a relationship over time
  • Join an industry body
  • Obtain certification for your product
  • Use a secure server with an up-to-date certificate
  • Use a trusted 3rd party to process credit cards. This gives the client an independent way to get their money back
  • Use a certified delivery service that allows people to track their order
  • Publish client testimonials with contact details (having obtained the necessary permissions)

In my opinion, it’s the first of these that has the most impact. If you can begin the relationship with something that requires a low level of commitment from a future client (i.e. something free), you give him or her the chance to get to know you.

Whatever you do during this process, it should involve enough client contact for the person to get used to dealing with you. He or she should come to trust you enough that you answer the question ‘can I trust you?’ and remove it from his mind.

Then 6 became one

All the reasons why they don’t buy come down to one thing — doubt.

Doubt is the #1 sales killer, because it dampens excitement and enthusiasm. If you can overcome doubt, you make it possible for today’s jaded consumer to get excited about your product.

And once they’re excited, the sale is in the bag.

If you remove doubt that a potential buyer wants your product, you’ve taken a giant step closer to the sale. If you remove doubt about what the person needs to do to place an order, you’re one step closer to the sale.

If you remove doubt that the product can do what you claim it can do, you’re one step closer to the sale. If you remove doubt about the trustworthiness of your business, you’re one step closer to the sale.

If you remove all doubt…you’ll get the sale! But how do you remove all doubt? That’s the subject of part two.

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Want to Succeed? First you need to know how the world works

December 3rd, 2009 by Wayne Davies No comments »

The concept of causality, is essentially that nothing happens in an of itself. There is always a cause, and it always occurs before the effect.

If the cause takes place, the effect will too.

It all seems so obviously true and unimportant. You don’t get rain without water vapor and condensation. Despite this almost universal acceptance and understanding, there’s more to cause and effect than first meets the eye. Our cause and effect universe has profound implications when it comes to your ability to succeed in business.

I am what I am

“I yam what I yam,” says the world’s most famous sailer man. And many other people do to, without any thought to what it implies.

The declaration “I am what I am” implies a person has little or no control over the way they are. It’s as if God made them that way, and there’s nothing they can do about it.

The declaration implies the causes that lead them to this point in their life (the effect), were outside of their control. By implication, this doesn’t bode well for the future. If the causes that lead to their present state were outside of their control, then so are the causes that will lead to their future self.

Such a person has no sense of control. His or her life turns out the way it will turn out, and there’s nothing they can do about it.

Such a person is a victim of fate. Or God. Or whatever object he or she considers to be in control of the causes that impact on his or her life.

We can cause effects

It’s demonstrably true that we can impact other people, and we can do this by choice. For example, a person might choose to sleep with another person’s spouse. This may be the cause of a divorce (the effect).

If we can be the cause of an effect with another person, then by implication, we can also be the cause in our own life. What’s more, it’s in our best interests to do so, because nobody is as concerned with our well-being as we are!

A universe of cause and effect, that allows us to play an active roll in being a cause, grants us a wonderful gift. It allows us to take some degree of control over our future.

Each of us is able to play a part in shaping who we are, what we’re capable of, and what we achieve.

Don’t settle

Are you unhappy with the way things are in your life (i.e. some particular effect)? You don’t have to be. You can take any one aspect of your life (an effect), and change it.

You change it by making a conscious decision to change the cause of that effect.

Such changes don’t happen over night. If it has taken years to produce the effect, it may take years to put things right. The point is, you can do it. Any given effect has a cause. As long as you know what the cause is, you can replace it with some other cause designed to produce an effect you’d rather have. For example…

A lonely person recognizes that his shyness is the cause. Shyness causes him to do the things that make a person lonely, such as avoiding contact with others. He decides to change the cause, and instead starts doing the things that bring a person friends.

Of course, it sounds much easier than it really is. We all grow familiar (comfortable) with the way we act. We might not like the effect, but it can be hard to change the cause, because we associate it with ourselves being “that way.”

A shy person may regard themselves as actually being “shy,” as if the human body had a shy gland that prevents gregarious behavior. This is why it can take years to change an effect.

How to be successful

My point isn’t that this is easy to do. My point is that each of us has the power to change things about ourselves we don’t like. This includes the things that hold you back, and get in the way of your success in business.

Whatever it is you want for your business, you can achieve it. You need only work out exactly what that thing is, and then decide what the activities are that will deliver it to you.

If any of those activities seem like things you can’t do, then you need to go to work on the cause that has lead you to this effect. Change the cause, and you change the effect. You are then free to do the things you need to do to succeed.

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