Author Archive | Dwaine Taylor

The Good, The Bad and the Super Profitable

Believe it or not, in online marketing the pros (and we’re defining “pro” as six figures of annual income) use PLR all the time. They just don’t advertise it. (Would you?)

Private Label Rights (PLR) is content you can use as you own. You can use it just as it is or modify it. And you get to claim authorship – hence, the name ‘private’ label rights.

You’re already familiar with the “bad,” and that refers to the quality of some PLR. Obviously, it pays to buy well researched, well written PLR products. If you have to completely re-write the content, then you might as well have created it from scratch.

The good news is, most PLR these days is a higher quality than what we saw in the past. We can thank low sales of lousy PLR for this. Makers of PLR want to make sales, and they realize that the junk just wasn’t selling well – or worse yet, it sold well and then refunded like crazy.

Which brings up a good point – always check to see if there is a guarantee on PLR before you buy it. If the quality turns out to be lousy, you should be able to get a refund.

If there is no guarantee, then ask to see a sample before you purchase. If it’s good quality, they won’t mind showing you a few pages.

Now then, you already know you can repurpose PLR most any way you want (check your license) but what are some specific ideas for using PLR to grow your business and make money without a lot of hassle?

1: Create a PLR Folder

Designate a special place, such as a folder or even an external drive, to hold all of your PLR. This way, when you need content in a hurry, you know exactly where to find it. This tip alone has saved me countless times and kept me from wasting my PLR.

Before I had a PLR folder, I would buy PLR, forget about it for a few days or weeks, and then when I wanted to use it, I would spend time hunting for it. Or I would completely forget about it until months later, when I would run across it and wonder what it was.

It also eliminates confusion and a possible lawsuit. Let’s say you buy PLR and you buy products to use yourself. If you get confused and accidently use a product as your own – thinking it’s PLR when it’s not – you could get a very nasty cease and desist letter or possibly even a lawsuit.

Bottom line: Keep ALL of your PLR in its own folder or drive.

2: Take Inventory, Sort and Use

When you get a PLR package, take stock of what’s inside. Decide how you will use each package or each piece inside a package.

You are basically sorting your PLR into the following groups:

A: Premium – this is the PLR you’re going to sell. For example, you might sell an ebook as an initial offer, and the audio version as an upsell.

B: Lead Generation – as the name implies, this is content you use to generate leads.

For example, you have an article on traffic generation on your blog. Alongside that article, you place an offer for a free ebook on your best traffic generation tips in exchange for their email address. This lead magnet / freebie / free report is actually created from PLR, saving you time.

Imagine if you make a custom lead magnet for each blog post or article you place on your site. If they’re made from PLR, it won’t take you much time.

What’s the benefit to having all these different offers? Higher conversion rates.

If you offer every visitor the exact same lead magnet for joining your list, only those interested in that one particular topic will join your list. But if you offer a wide variety of lead magnets – each one tailored to the blog post the visitor is reading – your email sign-up rate will improve dramatically.

You’re no longer offering “one size fits all.” Instead, you’re custom tailoring your lead magnets to your readers, based on their interest.

Obviously, if you did all of this by hand, it would take a great deal of time. But if you make your lead magnets from PLR, it won’t take much time at all and you’ll grow your email list that much faster.

C: Web Content – To get your name out there, you need to publish daily to Facebook, Instagram, your blog, Youtube and so forth. This is a lot of content to create.

But if you can use PLR for at least some of it, you’ll save a great deal of time and effort.

D: Bonuses – If you’re selling products – your own products or affiliate products – you might use PLR to create bonuses to make more sales.

And if you’re a coach, you might offer products made from PLR as bonuses or auxiliary material to your coaching services.

3: Add Pictures

This is so easy, yet most marketers never think to do it. Let’s say you purchase a license to a 5,000 word ebook. It might be about 25-30 pages long, give or take.

Let’s say you add one to two pictures per page – you’ve likely doubled the size of your book.

But more than that, you’ve made it into a much more entertaining read. Assuming you chose your pictures carefully to go with the accompanying text, readers are now much more likely to read the entire book. The pictures help to move them from one page to the next… plus each page has far less text, making it an easier read.

Yes, I know it’s the same amount of words, but breaking the content up with great pictures or graphics really does make it more interesting and fun for the consumer.

Why is this important? You want your prospects and customers to CONSUME your information. When they actually USE it, three things happen:

They remember you, making it much more likely they will buy again in the future.

They learn from the information, enabling them to put what they’ve learned to use and make a difference in their lives. This makes it (again) more likely they will continue to be your customer in the future.

They are less likely to refund. Because they are enjoying your content MORE and actually USING it and hopefully benefiting from it, they are less likely to ask for a refund.

And you get all of these benefits simply from adding some well-chosen pictures.

4: Record the Information

If you’ve purchased rights to written content, consider making an audio recording of the content. This way you can offer the audio version as a product upsell.

Some people like to read, but others like to listen to things as they drive to and from work, exercise and so forth. By offering an audio version, you’re making your customers happy and making more money, too.

You can record this audio version yourself or hire someone to make the recording for you. Of course, if your PLR comes with an audio version already, it is perfectly fine to offer that version as your upsell.

Some marketers think they have to rerecord it in their own voice, but that’s not true. Your customers generally won’t care that it’s not you doing the recording.

If you’re worried about it, tell them that a friend recorded for you, or that you hired a professional to do the audio.

5: Blog Posting with Far Less Work

Use PLR to add new posts to your blog. Ideally, you’d write your own posts. But if you don’t have the time, it’s far better to use PLR than to have a blog that looks dead.

Here’s a tip for using PLR in your blogs: Add your own introduction to each blog post, to make it more your own. While it might have taken you 1 to 3 hours to research and write a blog post from scratch, simply writing your own introduction will likely take just a few minutes.

At a loss for what to write in your intro? Simply tell your own personal (and related) story that introduces the post. Everyone loves a good story, and people are much more likely to read your post if it begins with an engaging tale.

Also, you can schedule your blog posts ahead of time, scheduling them to appear each day or each week. In fact, your virtual assistant can do this for you.

6: Add Modules Within Larger Training Courses

Are you building higher ticket courses, live events and so forth? Or do you do coaching? You might want to use PLR to build certain chapters, modules or aspects of your course.

For example, if you have 10 modules to your course, some of those modules might be done with PLR.

A friend of mine is creating a course as I write this. One of his modules is on how to use AdWords, but he’s not an AdWords expert. So, what he did was search for the best and most up to date PLR course available that covered AdWords, and he bought the rights to give it to his students.

And he didn’t even pass it off as his own. Instead, he’s telling his students that he’s not an expert, which is why he bought the rights for them to be able to have the course.

I think his students are going to love this, since it’s a much more thorough training than he could give on the topic.

7: Creating and Updating Membership Sites

Would you like to make a sale once and get paid over and over again?

Start a membership site, and then keep your members happy with plenty of valuable, usable content.

The problem with this model, of course, is the continual need for more content.

But if you’re using high quality PLR, the problem practically takes care of itself.

You can even schedule content ahead of time and let it drip feed on a daily or weekly basis.

8: Establish Trust with Easy Videos

You’ve heard that people do business with people they know, like and trust. But how do you establish trust with your subscribers?

One way is to create short, simple videos they can watch online. Take a PLR article that contains some great info – for example, “3 easy ways to do ___”

Extract some bullet points or phrases from the article and make them into a slide deck.

Make a video reading the article and showing the appropriate slides as you go through.

For example, your slides might be:

• Title
• Tip #1
• Tip #2
• Tip #3
• Conclusion

When you’re introducing the article, you show the “title” slide. When you’re talking about the first tip, you show that slide and so forth.

Once you’ve done this, create a short introductory type of video using your smartphone for “personal branding.” Simply introduce what the video is about and the benefit the viewer gets from watching. Add this intro to the beginning of your video.

Why go to the trouble of doing all this? Because then people get to SEE you. They get to HEAR you. And you’re delivering great content – content they can USE to get a RESULT.

If you do this correctly, they’re thinking… “If this is what s/he gives away for FREE, what’s in their paid products? They must be fantastic!”

They’re also getting to know you, at least a little bit. And you become memorable to them.

Imagine 10 different marketers are vying for the attention of the same customers through email.

ONE of those 10 marketers shows up in videos a couple of times a week with really helpful information. The subscribers get to see and hear this person.

The other 9 just send emails.

Who becomes the memorable, trusted authority? The one making and sharing the videos, of course.

And whose emails get opened and read the most often? Again, the one who’s making the videos.

You can publish these videos on your blog, Youtube, Facebook, Instagram and so forth. People are going to associate your name and face with this great information, yet it only took you a few minutes to do this, thanks to using PLR.

This builds trust with prospects, regardless of whether you are selling products or services. For example, imagine if you’re selling coaching. Maybe this coaching costs $200 a month, or maybe it costs $2,000 a month. In either case you need to establish trust before you can make the sale.

So, here’s Mary, and Mary doesn’t know you at all. When you try to sell her on your $2,000 coaching, do you think Mary will jump at the chance to give you her money? Not likely.

But what if Mary had seen a couple dozen of your videos? What if something on 3 or 4 of those videos really struck her and stuck with her – things she could apply in her life?

You get on an introductory call with her, and she says, “I feel like I already know you, because I’ve watched so many of your videos.”

Do you think you can sell some coaching to Mary now? You bet you can.

9: Create Authority Posts

Most blog posts tend to be fairly short, such as “3 Tips to Accomplish XYZ.”

But sometimes, you find a blog post that is so in-depth and comprehensive, it takes you by surprise and makes you wonder how it can even be free. That’s what you’re going for here, by creating an authority blog post.

Typically, writing an authority post can take days of research, writing and editing. But if you use PLR, you can do it in less than an hour. Here’s how:

Start with a core theme that includes multiple topics, and use PLR articles or ebooks to cover the content.

For example, if your core theme is how to drive traffic, then you might gather together every piece of PLR you can find on all the various methods of driving traffic and consolidate it into one big post.

Then create multiple content formats – adding audio and even video. Try to cover every facet of your topic.

If you’re using articles, you’ll need to write transitions and do some light editing to make it all flow into one big blog post.

Or you can simply have your authority post divided into sections, with each section being another facet of your main topic, and also another PLR article.

10: Make Your Subscribers Intensely Loyal

Imagine if your subscribers are LOOKING for YOUR emails – and if they don’t receive an email, or they fall off your list, they are emailing YOU to get back on your list.

Here’s how to do it:

Create a page each week where you give away something for free. It needs to be directly related to your niche, of course. And it needs to have some value. It could be a tip sheet, some insider information, a PDF, etc. It’s really going to depend on your niche.

Each week that you do this, create a new URL for the page. This way people MUST be subscribed to your list to find the page, and they must open your email every week to get the link.

Never use the same URL twice. And only leave each freebie up for 7 days before taking it down. This way someone can’t subscribe and then decide to pick up all the freebies two months down the road. They must open your emails to get the link.

To get your subscribers opening most every email you send to them, send out the freebie email on different days of the week so they never know which email it is.

This way they have to open and read them all to find the freebie.

Yes, it’s sneaky, and you may or may not want to do this. But if you use humor and let them know exactly why they never know which day it’s going to arrive, your subscribers will go along with the game. In fact, this game of hide and seek or find the Easter egg can make your subscribers’ day.

You can also ‘hide’ the links deep inside your emails, such as in the middle, near the end or in the P.S. Again, change it up so they never know.

This is one of the most effective ways I’ve seen to get people opening and reading your emails. It’s like a treasure hunt, and everyone can win once a week – or more often, if you sometimes post freebies twice a week.

It probably goes without saying but use PLR to create your freebies. After all, who has time to create them by hand?

11: Sell More Affiliate Products

This one is so simple, and yet it can be crazy effective. When you’re promoting an affiliate product, put together some bonuses created from PLR for everyone who purchases from your affiliate link.

This can not only help you make more sales, but also help you to win affiliate contests, too.

And you can use bonuses made from PLR to promote your own products, too.

12: Make an Autoresponder Series

You should be emailing your list either every day, or at least 5 to 6 days a week. But who has time to write 300+ emails every year?

Thank goodness for PLR. You pull out some great articles, news and so forth and you fashion the material into an autoresponder series. Or you choose an ebook and break it down into bite-sized pieces.

At the end of each email, make a product recommendation that makes sense for the email’s content. For example, you’re doing a series on marketing with social media, and you recommend a product on – you guessed it – marketing with social media.

Or you’re doing a series on how to be more confident and assertive, and you offer a product that teaches the same thing, only more in-depth.

Your emails don’t need to be long, they just need to deliver value. That value could be a piece of news, a method for getting a result, or even something that entertains.

Just make sure it’s on topics your readers want to hear about, and don’t forget to throw in your product recommendations.

Using PLR, you can create 365 autoresponder emails in just a few days and then be done with it.

12.5: Create Your Own Free or Paid Newsletter

I know plenty of people who earn a recurring income with a small monthly newsletter. And some of these folks don’t even write their own newsletters – they use PLR.

Imagine having a few hundred subscribers each paying you $10 a month for an electronically delivered newsletter that you can put together in one afternoon. Not a bad deal at all.

You choose the PLR content you want in your newsletter. Maybe change headlines, write short introductions or personalize it as you see fit.

Get a graphic artist (Fiverr is a great place to find one) who can turn your content into a colorful PDF with pictures, graphics and a great cover.

Offer subscribers a free version, upsell them to the paid version, and then rinse and repeat. Each month you get new subscribers and you put out a new newsletter. If you price your newsletter competitively and you provide great information, people will stick with you for months.

There’s something about a low price point that makes people not bother to unsubscribe, even if they forget to read your newsletter.

I once promoted a newsletter for a fairly famous marketer. It was only $10 a month, and I made a bunch of sales. The weird thing was, he stopped writing the newsletter, but he kept on billing people.

I expected to see everyone cancel, but some of them hung on for months before they finally did. I don’t know if that would happen today, but the point is that if you’re not charging a fortune, people will stick with you for months.

And if they love your stuff, they’ll stick with you for years. I’ve subscribed to the same newsletter for about 10 years now. It’s priced at $9.99 a month, and it’s about 8 pages of great content.

And that’s key – choose your best PLR for all of your paid content, whether it’s products or newsletters or whatever. Your customers will never know you didn’t write it yourself.

Hopefully you found some PLR ideas here that you hadn’t seen before.

There is some fantastic PLR being offered these days.

And when you know what you’re doing, you can use it to gain subscribers and make money quickly and easily, with very little work.

…even if you’re the world’s worst procrastinator.

I’ve used this technique to create all sorts of things, from a free bonus I put together and gave away for an affiliate product, all the way up to $1,000 training programs.

Creating content and products is a huge obstacle for most marketers because it takes so much time and effort.

But what if you had a way to create products – such as expensive training programs – that you could finish in a week?

And better still, what if you got paid for them before they were even done?

The first key you need is a big, fat, public DEADLINE.

If your deadline is public, then you will move heaven and earth to get it done – or at least I hope you will.

If you don’t, you’re in for some major public ridicule and embarrassment, not to mention the fact that you are letting people down.

The second key here – and this goes hand in hand with the first – is you’re going to sell what you’re selling BEFORE it’s created.

You tell people what you’re creating, you tell them when it’s going to be done, and you sell it before you ever make it.

And in the case of a training program, you’re going to create your product LIVE and then continue to sell the recordings as a product after the event.

So, in a nutshell – decide what you’re selling. Tell the world what you’re selling and when it will take place, and take orders. Hold the live event, create the product and continue to sell it.

Here are the details:

This works best if you are already good at something. This way, you know the material and don’t need to do any research. If you need research, then you might need to add a day or two to this process or use this shortcut – bring in an expert.

If you’re using experts, then you can cover any topic. Or every topic. Because no matter what your topic is, there is someone out there that can do the actual teaching for you – you just split the profits with them.

For the rest of this article, we’ll assume you’re the one with the information.

Set a deadline, because with a deadline and a hundred or so people depending on you to get your work done, you will get the work done. It’s that simple. They’ve put their money on you, and they believe in you.

You will not let them down, which ensures the training course you’re making – which would normally be finished in a month or two – is completed in a week’s time.

Deadlines are magic this way, regardless of whether or not you naturally procrastinate. Without a deadline, your work expands to fill the time. This doesn’t necessarily mean a better product – it just means it takes longer to make.

You can be surprisingly nimble with this method, getting products out fast on hot topics and things people want right now.

Figure out what the big 5 to 7 things are that you want to cover. What are the big ideas? What are the giant take-aways?

Instead of writing a sales letter, write bullet points. Remember, you’re doing this FAST. Don’t write a giant sales letter, write the high points. Tell them what they’re going to discover and how it’s going to benefit them through bullet points. Use curiosity, too.

You’re going to do a webinar. Create a Powerpoint with an intro and all of the major points. Let people ask questions at the end, because some of your very best material will come from the questions, things you didn’t even think of.

Cut up your recording into parts and sell it as a course. You’ll have an intro, and each of the major points. You might also want to get it transcribed and then edit the transcription to give your customers a written copy, too.

Selling your course BEFORE you make it gives you a DEADLINE. You’re telling people when the live event will happen. You’re giving them a deadline, too, because they have to sign up before the deadline or they will miss the class. 

Once you hold the class, upload the webinar into the members area and give access to everyone who bought. Some people will make it to the live event, some won’t, but they all get access to the recordings.

If there is something you feel you can do better, go ahead and record it again. Make a new recording of that section and replace it in the member’s section.

That’s the beauty of this system – you get it done fast, but it doesn’t have to be perfect. If you feel like it, you can go back and improve on it. And if you omitted something, make a new recording for that, too.

And what if you create a flop? That’s not even possible with this system. If you promote a product you’re going to create and no one buys, then you know not to waste your time making it.

Using this simple system, you get paid before you ever create your products, and you can crank products out faster than ever before. Plus, you can sell the recordings for a long time to come.

Just imagine if you create a new product every two weeks. In a year’s time you’ll have 26 new products you can continue to sell, repurpose, use as bonuses, sell the rights to and so forth. 26 new launches, 26 new products and 26 new revenue generators.

The kid who got straight A’s in school is probably the most successful person from that class, right? Actually, no. While good grades and a high I.Q. can be helpful, they not only don’t guarantee success – they sometimes hamper success.

After all, life is not school. And the skills it takes to get great grades don’t always transfer over into running a successful online business. Heck, I know people who struggled in high school and never made it to college who are pulling down 6 and 7 figure incomes online. How do they do it? By possessing the following traits…

They have the drive to succeed. How you define success will determine exactly what this means to you. Success for you might be making as much money as possible, it might be furthering a cause of yours, or it might be one of a hundred other things. Whatever it is, you’ve got to have a need to reach this success that you can feel in your bones. It should be your total focus so that your mind is constantly at work finding ways to make it happen.

They’re good at networking. Even online, or perhaps especially online, it’s important that you build relationships with your fellow marketers and your customers. And even if you’re not a born schmoozer, don’t worry – networking is a skill like any other that can be learned. Work on building yourself a large network of people you can turn to for advice, assistance and so forth, and always focus on what you can do for them.

They stay focused. Imagine you’re driving your car and you decide to go 5 different directions – at once. How far will you get? Or imagine chasing 5 different rabbits all at the same time – how many will you catch? Business is no different. Decide what you’re going to do and then do it, rather than falling for the flavor-of-the-week business idea.

They’re persistent. You’re not going to build a super-profitable business overnight. And if you’re looking at others thinking they became successful in a flash, know that in reality their success probably took years. Remember, nothing worth having comes easy, and persistence does conquer all.

They stand on their own two feet. I’ve seen people purchase a course on how to do something online, such as build a website or get more traffic. Then they bombard the author with a hundred different questions rather than figure anything out for themselves. Are they ever successful? I doubt it. Being an online marketer, or any type of entrepreneur, carries with it a certain autonomy. So don’t expect others to hold your hand.

They work first, they work hard and they play later. Sometimes MUCH later. You know those stories of working 2 hours a day and then laying on the beach? That’s for AFTER you make it big and you can hire somebody to oversee things for you. Maybe. Or even when you do make it big in online marketing, you may find that you still work hard. But either way, in the beginning you’ll be working long hours to get your business up and running. And yes, work does come before play if you want to be successful. If you want to play first, you might as well ditch the idea of being an online marketer and stick with a job.

Learn to outsource. There is only so much you can accomplish by yourself, even when you are working long hours. So yes, you’ve got to outsource. The first thing to outsource is anything you’re not good at, whether that’s website building, product creation, or whatever. Because if you’re not good at something, it makes more sense to bring in an expert than to spend weeks trying to master it yourself. Then as you begin earning more and more, you can also outsource more and more.

To be an online marketer, you don’t need to be the next Einstein. Your grades in school don’t matter a hill of beans. What DOES matter is what you do here and now. Adopt the above 7 traits and you are already halfway to growing an online business that can take care of you for the rest of your life.

If you’re not repurposing your content, you’re losing traffic.

Repurposing is a technique to change either the format of your content or change its target audience.

For example, you might convert a blogpost into a video and publish it on YouTube. Or you might turn that blogpost into a series of emails, a podcast or even an infographic.

A blogpost on your website will only attract people who are interested in reading content. But when you repurpose it, you reach a new target audience on different channels.

Imagine converting your blogpost into a Slideshare presentation, and then getting 50,000 views. It’s entirely possible to do this. And further imagine that at the end of your Slideshare, you had an appropriate and highly relevant offer to join your list.

Even if a tiny fraction of people who viewed your presentation joined your list, it could still be 1,000 or more new subscribers for you.

You can convert your existing content into:

• Social Media Snippets
• Infographics
• Videos
• Slideshows
• Ebooks
• Pdfs
• Case Studies
• Lead Magnets
• Email Courses
• Images
• Podcasts

And more…

I’d recommend starting off with videos on YouTube, republishing on Medium, pulling out social media snippets, and creating a slideshow on SlideShare.

These are some of the best and proven ways to repurpose content that will send heaps of traffic your way.

I like to write. Heck, to be honest I LOVE to write. Yet sometimes I hate it as well – like when I HAVE to write another newsletter and I’m thinking I just don’t know what to say.

That’s why I like to find ideas that jog me into writing, and I share them with you here. Because I know if I sometimes have trouble writing, then those who aren’t that fond of putting words to paper must sometimes prefer to get a root canal than write another article or blog post. So take heart, here are 8 suggestions that should get your typing fingers flying and your blog readers happy they stopped by your site.

Be impulsive. If you write on a frequent basis, then there should be a part of your brain that’s always on the lookout for ideas, rants, complaints, laughs, etc. When inspiration strikes, WRITE. Yes, right then and there. If you can’t, then at least make lots of notes for later, and at the first available chance sit down and type it out. You can always polish it up later.

Some of my best writing has been where I feel possessed of spirit and the words simply fly into my head of their own accord. It’s almost like magic, but if I don’t immediately type them out then I lose both the spirit and the enthusiasm, and usually the post or article never does get written.

So be impulsive and write the moment the spirit strikes. You may not even know at first where it’s going, but that’s okay. Odds are you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Question everything. Question authority, rules, the way things are and the way things are done. Always be asking yourself “Why?” Why are things this way? Why do we do it this way? Is there a better way? And so forth. Even if you don’t have the answer, sometimes simply asking the questions can make for a terrific post.

Break rules. Above, we’re questioning rules, and this goes one step further. Is your blog about weight loss? We all know there’s a rule that you be kind to everyone, regardless. But sometimes people need tough love, and maybe your next post should be how grossly obese people need to sit down and write their obituaries because odds are really good that they’re not going to live all that long.

And before you send me an email telling me that I should not have said what I just did, I recently read a news story in which a doctor, a DOCTOR, told his patient to write his obituary and it was exactly what the guy needed to lose 376 pounds. So yes, sometimes it’s more than okay to break the rules.

Combine unlikely things. This is the peanut butter and chocolate trick, or the apple pie and cheese trick. Take two ideas, concepts, or whatever that normally do NOT go together, combine them and see what happens.

For example, if your website is all about how to raise money for non-profits, find out what the greediest people in the world do to acquire their fortunes, and then see how that knowledge might be appropriately used to raise funds.

Just write. I know I’ve mentioned this one before, but it’s so good I’ve got to say it again – just sit down and start writing, even if you don’t have a single solitary clue what you’re going to write about. Odds are the first few paragraphs will throw away nonsense, but soon something will emerge from your subconscious that’s been dying to get out. I’ve used this technique many times, and it seldom fails me.

Make an outline. If you’ve got your topic and you have an idea of what you’re going to say, then by all means make an outline. Once you’ve got it, just fill it in. And no, you don’t have to write it in order – pick a section of the outline, write that section, pick another section and so forth. Making the outline first is a dynamite way to then write quickly and nearly effortlessly. Plus you’ll get to see early if your idea is worth writing about or not.

Be crazy. Okay, so this crazy idea popped into your head, and you just KNOW that it’s silly, but what if? That is, what if it’s not so silly after all? We tend to dismiss our crazy ideas too quickly sometimes rather than see them through. And here’s something worth remembering – every great achievement started out as someone’s “crazy idea.” So go ahead, follow through and see what happens.

Chunk it. Write non-stop for a certain length of time, such as 20 minutes or 30 minutes, and then take a 5 minute break. Knowing that you cannot stop writing for that period of time makes you focus and get to work, and knowing you have a break coming up soon makes it all tolerable, even on days when you especially don’t feel like writing.

There you have it… 8 ways to beat writer’s/blogger’s block. Now get to writing, will ya! 🙂

…that you can’t achieve in a year.

What happens when you give yourself a goal to do something in the next year?

You procrastinate. “A year? Heck, I think I’ll take a vacation first. I can work on that tomorrow – next week – next month.”

You put it off. And put it off. And a year later… you are still exactly where you are right now, today.

But if you only give yourself 90 days, you’ve got to take action NOW. Not tomorrow. Not later today. But right now.

5 year plans? Work for almost no one. Things change during a year’s time – what about during 5 years? Everything can change.

People function in 90 day chunks. You can’t plan to lose 50 pounds in a year because you’re continually eating the wrong things. Why? Because you think you can always eat right later and exercise later.

But you can lose 25 pounds in 90 days. Now you’ve got a deadline that is close, and you’ve got to get busy now.

And once you’ve lost those 25 pounds in 90 days, you can lose 25 more in the 90 days after that.

Let’s talk about your online business. Can you ramp it up in a year? Probably not, because again, the deadline is too far out. You’ll do everything BUT work on your business.

But in 90 days? You can build a website, build a list, create your first three products, recruit a couple dozen affiliates and do a joint venture or two.

And that’s just the start.

Once you’ve laid the groundwork in the first 90 days, you can level up and leverage what you’re already done.

Maybe you make an average of $2,000 a month during your first 90 days.

But now you have products, affiliates, a growing list, a growing reputation, a name for yourself and people who trust you and want to do deals with you. Do you think you can earn a whole lot more in your second 90 day period?

You bet you can.

Decide what you want and then focus on just doing that thing. Don’t get distracted. Don’t buy stuff you don’t need or spend time on things that don’t take you to where you’re going.

Break your 90 day goal up into 30 day increments. Where do you need to be 30 days from now to achieve your goal? Where do you need to be 60 days from now?

You’re looking at one big goal with two checkpoints along the way to make sure you’re on track.

Focus on this goal for 90 days. Will you do that for yourself? For your family? For your future?

The takeaway:

Ask yourself – where do you want to be in 90 days?

What do you have to do to get there?

And are you willing to do it?

Decide what you want.

Write it down.

Make a plan to accomplish it in 90 days.

And then just do it – in 90 days.

I’ll wager that 9 out of 10 people who read this won’t get it.

Not really.

They’ll say, “Yeah, that’s probably right,” and then they’ll blow it off like they never read it.

But the fact is, I’m nearly certain that’s why some people crush it online and others never make more than a few hundred bucks here and there.

For example, imagine you’ve got some individual who maybe isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. But he doesn’t know that. He thinks he’s unbelievably smart. He thinks his products are radically awesome. He thinks he’s king of the internet and master of his niche.

And even though his products are average and ordinary, and even though he’s not all that bright and certainly not clued in on what’s happening, he still does really, really well.

Then you’ve got this other person who is smart as can be.

She really cares about her customers and wants to help everybody and anybody she can.

She tries her very best to put out products that can revolutionize lives, but she wonders if she isn’t falling short.

Maybe she needs to work harder, or find more answers to give in her products, or just be an even better person.

And she’s failing miserably.

The first guy KNOWS for a FACT that his products ROCK (as he would say) and that he’s “THE MAN.”

And this comes across in everything he does.

His emails, his videos, his website – they all exude a crazy amount of confidence, and customers pick up on that and are drawn to it.

But on her site, and in her emails and videos, she hesitates.

She’s a little bit unsure.

She wants only the best for her customers, so she holds back, just in case her latest recommendation isn’t good enough.

And customers pick up on her lack of confidence and don’t buy.

Simple, right?

Now the question: Are you going to think about this and find a way to use this in your business?

Or… are you going to dismiss it?

“Because I really do think – or at least I believe – that I’m on to something here.”

“In fact, I KNOW I am.”

Take a look at those last two sentences and notice the contrast.

Which one makes you sit up and take notice?

Which one makes YOU confident that I know what I’m talking about?

See what I mean?

You don’t need to be a jerk about it, but confidence and belief in your products will go a heck of a long way towards making you sales and customers who become raving fans.

Try it.

Regardless of what you’re writing – a blog post, an article, a sales message, etc. – your copy should sound personal and relevant to the person reading it. You don’t want to sound like you’re writing a textbook to a class of students or a news article to the masses. Instead, your tone should be similar to a one on one conversation with a friend.

So how can you achieve this? With a little research and a healthy dose of imagination. This is one of those tricks that natural writers do without thinking about, and the rest of us can learn with just a little practice. What you’re going to do is create a “persona” of your ideal reader. For example, if you’re writing a sales letter, your persona is the customer. Hopefully you have a good idea of who your customers are, and if not you might want to engage in some research to find out.

Choose one customer: Someone who has purchased your products in the past and reads all your stuff. This person might be real or imaginary, it doesn’t really matter. Now write a bio for your customer, answering these questions: Male or female? Age? Where does s/he live? Occupation? Likes? Dislikes? Desires? Goals? You get the idea – you’re creating this person just as if they were real and sitting there in the room with you. Picture them in your mind, or choose a photo from the Internet.

Now for the fun part: Make friends with this customer. Imagine having a face to face chat about your latest product or the blogpost you’re about to write. What do you tell him or her? What questions do they have? Do they understand what you’re saying, or do they need clarification?

If you’re thinking you can’t do this, it simply means you’re out of practice. All children have imaginary conversations in their heads, and you did as well. This is your chance to let your subconscious mind go to work, filling in the words your persona would say to you in a conversation. You’ll be surprised by what you discover because you’re opening the door to knowledge you didn’t even know you had.

Now then, once you’ve got a good sense of who your persona is, go ahead and write that blog post or article or sales message directly to your persona, just as you would write a personal letter. Be sure to connect with them on an emotional as well as intellectual level. Your persona is the only one that matters when you are writing because it is just the two of you having an intimate conversation.

And if all of this sounds terribly silly, don’t worry. Just try it. You’ll be pleasantly surprised by how much better your writing can become when you’re writing to that one specific persona.

BONUS: As you get to know your persona better and better, you might try asking him or her questions and quietly listening for the answers. Your persona can tell you why your marketing is falling short, how to market your product for more sales, and even what product to create.

Once you’re well acquainted with your first persona, consider getting a second one that is quite different from the first. For example, if your niche is Internet marketing and your persona is a 50 year old male looking to make extra money to sock away for retirement, your second persona might be a 22 year old looking to earn a full time living online as fast as possible, or perhaps a newly divorced 35 year old mother of 3 trying to make ends meet.

These personas will make your writing come alive, as well as accessing useful and sometimes brilliant information and insights that take you by complete surprise and significantly add to your bottom line.

“I want to start an online business but I don’t know how.”

“I want to start my own blog and list build but I don’t know how.”

“I want to create a product but I don’t know how.”

I want to [insert whatever it is you want to do] but I don’t know how.”

Well guess what… neither did every single person who did it for the first time.

But you’re got to take the leap anyway, and take it on faith that you will land on your feet.

Figuring things out on the fly is a learned skill.

And the more often you take the leap – any leap – without knowing exactly where you’re going to land, the better you get at it. Plus, each time makes you better equipped to leap again and again and again.

Learning to operate at a high level within unknown scenarios is more valuable than learning a specific set of skills for a specific situation.

Prepare yourself mentally for being unprepared. 

You can never anticipate the exact skills you will need until you need them. In fact, you don’t know what you don’t know until you find out you don’t know it.

You’re going to hit roadblocks. Expect them. And expect to crash through those roadblock to the other side, too.

Expect challenges. Expect setbacks.

They are coming for you, so be prepared mentally.

Go in fighting, not retreating. 

Keep your eye on the goal and nothing will stop you…

…but if you look only at the obstacles, you will never get far.

Think about this – your entire life you have been flying by the seat of your pants in one fashion or another.

Don’t stop now.

When they tell you to seize the day, they don’t mean tomorrow – they mean TODAY.

Take the leap, because you got this!

Regardless of what niche you are in, there is no doubt that building a list of prospects and customers who know you, like you and trust you is your most powerful business marketing strategy.

So what’s the second most powerful business marketing strategy? It’s up for debate, but I’d like to suggest the following:

Writing a book in your niche to give away to your prospective customers.

And no, I don’t mean a 20 page report, although that’s far better than nothing. Nor am I suggesting you write a “book” that’s nothing more than a cleverly disguised sales letter, although those can be useful as well.

Let’s stand in our prospect’s shoes for just a moment. Let’s say you live in Chicago and you’re looking to invest a substantial amount of money in marketing your brick and mortar business online. Obviously you don’t want to hand the work over to just anyone – you want someone who clearly knows exactly what they’re doing and can deliver the results you seek. Someone who will get customers streaming through the door and the cash register ringing non-stop. Bottom Line: Someone who won’t waste your time and money.

A fellow drops by out of the clear blue and offers to do your marketing. You’ve never heard of this guy and you’re cautious. You do some research, ask your fellow business people, and locate 3 more small business marketing types who all say they’re experts at marketing small businesses online. They even have references. Still, you’re cautious.

Then one day you’re at a friend’s place of business when you spot a book on his desk. The title immediately grabs your attention: Effective Online Marketing For Small Businesses In The Chicago Area.

It’s not a snappy title by any means, but you don’t care. You’re riveted. You want to know everything in the book and you especially want to know who the author is and can you hire him.

And all you’ve seen so far is a book title. So why are you so interested in hiring THIS guy? Why does he stand head and shoulders above all the other small business online marketers you’ve already spoken to?

First, he’s an author. And like it or not, author’s carry a mystique and an air of credibility virtually untouchable by any peers who haven’t authored a book.

Second, not only did he write a book on marketing your small business online – he wrote about marketing your small business online in the area in which you live.

It’s akin to having the name Abdul Anderson and finding a book titled: What Abdul Anderson Should Do Right Now to Solve His Problems. Tell me you wouldn’t pick that book up in a heartbeat if your name was Abdul Anderson!

Okay, you’ve got the point. When you write a book, you’ve got instant star attraction and a ton of perceived credibility. People are no longer asking, “Can I see 5 references?” They’re not asking, “What if you can’t do what you say you will do?” They’re not asking about your guarantee, how long you’ve been in business, and all those other questions.

Instead, they’re asking how much you charge and when can you start.

And this isn’t just for marketers working with offline businesses – this is for almost anyone offering a service or even a product.

Imagine someone comes to your website – has never heard of you before or been to your website before – and there on the home page sees the book that you’ve written. Do you think you’ve just scored some serious credibility with that new visitor? Absolutely.

Or what if you’re sending traffic to a squeeze page to capture their email address. Do you think offering them the e-version of a REAL book that is currently being sold on Amazon will increase your conversion rate? You bet!

Back to marketing to offline businesses – if you hand a prospect a copy of your book, do you think you’ve increased the odds you’ll close them on a $5,000 marketing package? Of course.

Your book should contain tons of dynamite information and no sales pitch. Yes, it’s fine to refer them to your website, but the main focus should be on educating your reader. The more you tell, the more of an instant expert you become in your reader’s mind.

Make the book comprehensive, covering a great deal about your particular niche. Don’t be afraid of telling too much – generally when a prospect realizes how complex your service is, if they can afford you then they will hire you rather than attempt it themselves.

Include your contact information, including phone number, address and of course your website. Realize that people hang onto books, and even if they don’t need your service right now, they might refer back to it in a year or even in 5 years, so don’t change your contact information unless you absolutely have to. The book you give to someone today could result in a $20,000 sale 5 years from now, but only IF they can easily find you.

Make it easy to read. Just like a sales letter, you don’t want page after page of fat paragraphs. Use plenty of headings, bullet points and space to break it up.

And by all means edit it. Get someone else to read it over and tell you if there are any errors or places where it’s difficult to follow. You want it to read as professionally as possible because it is a direct reflection of you and your business.

If you are giving away the e-version of your book on your squeeze page or website, by all means either give them a link or a screenshot that shows your book on Amazon. Anyone can SAY they are giving away a $19.95 ebook, but when they see that you really do charge that much on Amazon, your free gift suddenly becomes much more valuable in their eyes, increasing the likelihood that they will opt into your list AND read your book.

Do encourage your readers to review your book on Amazon. The more reviews you get and the better reviews you get, the more credibility you build up. After all, if you see a book on Amazon with 1 or 2 reviews, and another with 50 reviews, which seems to be the more popular? People tend to be followers, not leaders. That’s why they look for social affirmation that others are reading and liking your book. You might even offer a free gift for every unbiased review you receive. Just be sure not to offer a free gift for every POSITIVE review you receive, or you will lose much of the credibility you’ve worked to achieve.

Is writing a book hard? Yes and no. For some people it’s extremely difficult, not because they’re not intelligent, but because their intelligence lies elsewhere. We all have particular skills we’re good at and others that we really should leave to the “experts.” So if you don’t like to write, consider hiring a ghostwriter to write your book.

If you’re going to write it yourself, set a deadline by which you’ll have it finished, and then decide to write 2 to 5 pages a day, every day. If you’re writing a 200 page book at 2 pages per day, you’ll be finished in 100 days. At 5 pages per day, you’ll be done in just 40 days. See? It doesn’t take long if you stay consistent.

The secret to writing a book? Write your table of contents first. This will become your outline, and it’ll break the book up into manageable pieces. It seems like a daunting task to write 200 pages about your subject, but 10 pages about one particular facet of your niche is a breeze.

For your book cover design, I recommend hiring a professional. People really, truly do judge your book by its cover. Sure, you can create your own, and if you’re a graphic artist then maybe that’s the way to go. For the rest of us, we put too much time and effort into our book to make do with our own amateurish cover. So do some research and find a professional book cover designer with a portfolio you like, and spend the extra money to get it done correctly.

Once you get your book finished, I believe you’ll find it’s the second most important tool in your marketing arsenal, right behind your list of customers and prospects. Your book has the potential to generate more business for you than perhaps a dozen full time sales people, and through the power of the Internet it can be working for you 24/7, making you an instant expert and the go-to person in the eyes of your prospects.