Some time ago, I received an email from an IM who said they were having trouble breaking into print. The...entire...email...was...written...exactly...like...this...
Can...you...imagine...reading...this...email...? Reading this aloud, I sounded like a low-budget version of Sylvester Stallone. I hope their pitches to editors weren't written like that. If so, it would explain a lot...
That's a mild offense compared to an ebook I read that was written completely omitting commas some periods syntax and basic structure had missssspellings und was ver dffcut to red. I had no idea where one thought ended and another began.
Are your eyes sore yet? That nagging little editor in me wants to lash out at someone!
My concern is this: are these "average Joe" writers having a negative impact on the ebook movement? I read a blog post that said, "most ebooks are crap." I don't know if they were talking about ebook content or ebook writers specifically. Since I'm in the process of finishing my ebook, this concerned me.
The sad truth is this: not every person is a writer. Sounds rather uncomplicated, right? It seems that people who long to communicate their thoughts also long to communicate via the written word. This is understandable, but can be an ugly situation.
You don't have to be the Shakespeare of the Internet. I'm only saying that a little high school English review goes a long way. Being conversational is fine; being grammatically lazy is not fine.
Monday
Ezine Articles Resource Boxes
What makes for a killer resource box when article marketing? I've always either been too PBS-news-report-y or too traveling-sales-woman-y. Striking a balance is incredibly difficult for me. Because of this, I've been using the Aunt A.I.D.A. technique.
Attention
Interest
Desire
Action
First, I try to really grab their attention. This is really hard because my readers are usually in a complete trance after reading my articles. What can I say? I'm just that good...hehehe.
Next, I pique their interest. I normally use a question for this, but I want to test some other ways to go about it.
If they're still reading, I've got to hit this one outta the ball park. Really knock their socks off and make them almost salivate over and desire what you're offering. Rough example: a beginner golfer may not be interested in advanced techniques that will rev up their game in less than 24 hours, but a frequent golfer who's sick of losing to his/her buddies might be.
Hopefully, you were able to see where I was trying to go with that example. Throughout the preceding sentences, you'd really target that person, your target market.
Note: The above example may sound a bit too much like a sales letter, but the objective and general means are the same. You want the prospect to click your link for more information, so you use descriptive language. Easy-breezy formula, right?
Which leads me to the final ingredient (can ya smell what I'm cookin'?), action. If the prospect has kept reading through the previous sentences of your resource box, tell 'em what to do next. Er, I mean suggest what they should do next.
For example, in our golfer scenario, we might write something like, "If this sounds good to you, and you know it does, head over to My Golf Stroke Sucks to check out even more free information to get you swingin'." Sorry, I couldn't help myself. It may seem crude, but my CTR is about 50% using this simple strategy. Be sure to use anchor text (a.k.a. your target keyword) and not just the name of your website like I did.
There are A LOT of people doing much better than me in that respect, but if you're struggling with your CTR, give it a try and build on it.
Attention
Interest
Desire
Action
First, I try to really grab their attention. This is really hard because my readers are usually in a complete trance after reading my articles. What can I say? I'm just that good...hehehe.
Next, I pique their interest. I normally use a question for this, but I want to test some other ways to go about it.
If they're still reading, I've got to hit this one outta the ball park. Really knock their socks off and make them almost salivate over and desire what you're offering. Rough example: a beginner golfer may not be interested in advanced techniques that will rev up their game in less than 24 hours, but a frequent golfer who's sick of losing to his/her buddies might be.
Hopefully, you were able to see where I was trying to go with that example. Throughout the preceding sentences, you'd really target that person, your target market.
Note: The above example may sound a bit too much like a sales letter, but the objective and general means are the same. You want the prospect to click your link for more information, so you use descriptive language. Easy-breezy formula, right?
Which leads me to the final ingredient (can ya smell what I'm cookin'?), action. If the prospect has kept reading through the previous sentences of your resource box, tell 'em what to do next. Er, I mean suggest what they should do next.
For example, in our golfer scenario, we might write something like, "If this sounds good to you, and you know it does, head over to My Golf Stroke Sucks to check out even more free information to get you swingin'." Sorry, I couldn't help myself. It may seem crude, but my CTR is about 50% using this simple strategy. Be sure to use anchor text (a.k.a. your target keyword) and not just the name of your website like I did.
There are A LOT of people doing much better than me in that respect, but if you're struggling with your CTR, give it a try and build on it.
One More Page Before Ebook is Complete
I've gone and done it. Created an ebook, that is. This is my second day of actually writing it, and I have one more page to go until it's complete. Hopefully, I will have the ebook up for sale by Wednesday or Thursday.
I'm not going to market this ebook in the traditional way. At least not until I try my own approach first. There will be no corny 60 page sales letters filled with hype and false promises. I don't know if I'll create a content site surrounding the product, or a simple order page. We shall see...
I don't have the capital to use PPC right now, but I'm considering giving it a try if my free marketing techniques bring a favorable return. The only resource that I really have right now is TIME. But who ever really has enough of that?
Regardless, I've been clocking in 14 to 18 hour days. Did I make every hour count? Not at all. Although I'm happy to say that my blog-browsing has been considerably reduced;)
Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's back to work I go...
I'm not going to market this ebook in the traditional way. At least not until I try my own approach first. There will be no corny 60 page sales letters filled with hype and false promises. I don't know if I'll create a content site surrounding the product, or a simple order page. We shall see...
I don't have the capital to use PPC right now, but I'm considering giving it a try if my free marketing techniques bring a favorable return. The only resource that I really have right now is TIME. But who ever really has enough of that?
Regardless, I've been clocking in 14 to 18 hour days. Did I make every hour count? Not at all. Although I'm happy to say that my blog-browsing has been considerably reduced;)
Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's back to work I go...
Friday
Die, Sales Letter, Die!!!
If I see another 30 page sales letter, I just might freak. What's with them, anyways? Does anyone actually read every word of the letter? I'd venture to say no.
Yes, selling your product is important. I only ask that my eyes not be sacrificed for your sales tactic. What many Internet marketers don't realize is that writing for the web is different that writing for print. Sounds simple enough, right? Apparently, the line isn't so obvious in the IM field.
I've always said that you can see a sales letter a mile away. You know, the white background and yellow highlights that make you want to grab a pair of sunglasses. Let's not forget the ever-popular, "Dear Friend," or "From the desk of."
I'm a huge Ingrid Michaelson fan. Her song lyrics are simple and concise. When asked about her song writing style, she said that she likes to get her point across in as few words as possible. The little light bulb in my head flashed when she said this. Web readers don't want to spend hours reading my pitch.
My point is this: if you're truly targeting the right audience, you don't have to give them a hard sell. If your target audience is hungry enough, they won't require much bait (certainly not 10-50 pages of bait). Quickly, and clearly, outline why and how your product fulfills a need. Use bullet points and bold font where appropriate.
Besides, sitting there for 45 minutes reading why I should buy your product is kind of ruining that whole "instant gratification" thing.
Yes, selling your product is important. I only ask that my eyes not be sacrificed for your sales tactic. What many Internet marketers don't realize is that writing for the web is different that writing for print. Sounds simple enough, right? Apparently, the line isn't so obvious in the IM field.
I've always said that you can see a sales letter a mile away. You know, the white background and yellow highlights that make you want to grab a pair of sunglasses. Let's not forget the ever-popular, "Dear Friend," or "From the desk of."
I'm a huge Ingrid Michaelson fan. Her song lyrics are simple and concise. When asked about her song writing style, she said that she likes to get her point across in as few words as possible. The little light bulb in my head flashed when she said this. Web readers don't want to spend hours reading my pitch.
My point is this: if you're truly targeting the right audience, you don't have to give them a hard sell. If your target audience is hungry enough, they won't require much bait (certainly not 10-50 pages of bait). Quickly, and clearly, outline why and how your product fulfills a need. Use bullet points and bold font where appropriate.
Besides, sitting there for 45 minutes reading why I should buy your product is kind of ruining that whole "instant gratification" thing.
January Round-up
JANUARY 2008
Freelance Writing: $0.00 (not writing for clients for a few months)
Associated Content: $ Who really knows?
Cashcrate: $ 10.85
Gangster Greed: $ 2.03
Internet Marketing: $145.67
Ebooks/Reports: $0.00
Residual Income(aka. revenue sharing): $ 1.45
Adsense: $8.26
Overall, this has been a lousy month. The blame is absolutely all mine. A lot of time was spent researching, analyzing, and perfecting my internet marketing technique. I expect things to look up after I've completed my digital report. Keeping my fingers crossed....
Freelance Writing: $0.00 (not writing for clients for a few months)
Associated Content: $ Who really knows?
Cashcrate: $ 10.85
Gangster Greed: $ 2.03
Internet Marketing: $145.67
Ebooks/Reports: $0.00
Residual Income(aka. revenue sharing): $ 1.45
Adsense: $8.26
Overall, this has been a lousy month. The blame is absolutely all mine. A lot of time was spent researching, analyzing, and perfecting my internet marketing technique. I expect things to look up after I've completed my digital report. Keeping my fingers crossed....
Wednesday
Affiliate Marketing Experiment...The Jury's Still Out
I dove into the jungles and murky waters of affiliate marketing a couple of months ago. After surviving a severe case of "Analysis Paralysis" and "Procrastination Probation," I tried my hand at putting together an article marketing campaign. Could I possibly find myself earning the infamous $200+ per day that internet marketing gurus promise/claim/advertise? Let's see...
First, I went to Clickbank and searched for a product that had a gravity between 20 and 50. Using my own personal version of logic, I figured that a product with a gravity above 50 may prove to be too saturated for the purpose of my experiment. I also deduced that products with a gravity below 20 may not have enough traffic to garner any results within my 14 day timeframe. Note: I no longer use this criteria due to lack of variety.
After choosing a product that fit the above criteria, while still managing to be interesting, I went in search of keywords relevant to the product. What words and phrases would people use to find "my" product? This process isn't always what it appears. Sure, you could type a main product keyword into any free keyword search tool and come up with some viable options.
What about using keywords that would inadvertantly lead visitors right to your product or landing page? We've all gone in search of information on the internet, only to find ourselves miles from where we first started searching. Let that information marinate...
Keywords in hand, I created blogs that targetted one main keyword. The title and address of the blog were given keyword-rich names. For example, if your keyword is "dog training," the address of your blog would be "dogtraining.xxxx.com" or "dog-training.xxxx.com." Your blog's name would also be Dog Training or similar. It's search engine ranking. I mainly focus on ranking for the search term on Google, with the hopes of other search engines picking me up later.
I didn't want to overly invest myself since I had no guarantee anything would actually pan out. I've seen people go at article marketing hard. I didn't really want to work hard for this experiment. I wanted to work smart.
I wrote two blog posts for my affiliate blog and one article went to an article directory (Note to self: Place articles in article directories that have a high PR next time). All articles focused on specific keywords. I only use one keyword per article. Keyword density is about 1-3%.
In hindsight, I should have written about ten articles and divided them between the two sites. It took the article directory about a day or two to accept my article.
I social bookmarked my blog post and crossed my fingers.
THE RESULTS
I never got a high ranking on Google for my selected search term. SEO can be funny that way. My blog never received more than 35 uniques per day. As of this posting, my total volume of visitors, according to Google Analytics, is a little less than 600. My one article at the article directory gained over 400 views and 89 clickthroughs, giving me about a 21% CTR. I earned a total of about $103.00 through six sales, four of which came through my affiliate blog.
I've tweaked some of my affiliate marketing steps, but I'm thinking of returning to my original model. One article that nets you $73.60 isn't too shabby.
First, I went to Clickbank and searched for a product that had a gravity between 20 and 50. Using my own personal version of logic, I figured that a product with a gravity above 50 may prove to be too saturated for the purpose of my experiment. I also deduced that products with a gravity below 20 may not have enough traffic to garner any results within my 14 day timeframe. Note: I no longer use this criteria due to lack of variety.
After choosing a product that fit the above criteria, while still managing to be interesting, I went in search of keywords relevant to the product. What words and phrases would people use to find "my" product? This process isn't always what it appears. Sure, you could type a main product keyword into any free keyword search tool and come up with some viable options.
What about using keywords that would inadvertantly lead visitors right to your product or landing page? We've all gone in search of information on the internet, only to find ourselves miles from where we first started searching. Let that information marinate...
Keywords in hand, I created blogs that targetted one main keyword. The title and address of the blog were given keyword-rich names. For example, if your keyword is "dog training," the address of your blog would be "dogtraining.xxxx.com" or "dog-training.xxxx.com." Your blog's name would also be Dog Training or similar. It's search engine ranking. I mainly focus on ranking for the search term on Google, with the hopes of other search engines picking me up later.
I didn't want to overly invest myself since I had no guarantee anything would actually pan out. I've seen people go at article marketing hard. I didn't really want to work hard for this experiment. I wanted to work smart.
I wrote two blog posts for my affiliate blog and one article went to an article directory (Note to self: Place articles in article directories that have a high PR next time). All articles focused on specific keywords. I only use one keyword per article. Keyword density is about 1-3%.
In hindsight, I should have written about ten articles and divided them between the two sites. It took the article directory about a day or two to accept my article.
I social bookmarked my blog post and crossed my fingers.
THE RESULTS
I never got a high ranking on Google for my selected search term. SEO can be funny that way. My blog never received more than 35 uniques per day. As of this posting, my total volume of visitors, according to Google Analytics, is a little less than 600. My one article at the article directory gained over 400 views and 89 clickthroughs, giving me about a 21% CTR. I earned a total of about $103.00 through six sales, four of which came through my affiliate blog.
I've tweaked some of my affiliate marketing steps, but I'm thinking of returning to my original model. One article that nets you $73.60 isn't too shabby.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
