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I feel almost silly writing an article on this topic, because I can sum it up in one sentence:

Write about your own personal experiences in story form.

That’s it! People love stories – especially true ones – that show you overcame an obstacle, solved a problem, created something positive and so forth.

So if you’re writing a blog post about how to increase traffic, use your own examples of what you did, how you did it, and the results. If you can flavor it with storytelling skills that keep your reader riveted, so much the better.

And who better to show you how to tell a story than professional stand up comics? These guys and gals live and die by the story – they either get it right or they’re booed off the stage, and being booed is not funny or fun.

The steps to great storytelling according to comedians?

1. Be Brief (don’t ramble – get to the point)
2. Give Details (the useful ones – don’t bog the story down with useless stuff)
3. Use Story Twists (surprise is a wonderful thing)
4. Work the Crowd (or in this case, your readers)
5. Act Out The Characters (difficult to do in a blog, but I’ve always thought lending your own personality or character to your writing is extremely important)
6. Practice (write often – the more you write, the better you’ll get)
7. End on the Biggest Laugh (or point if you’re a blogger)

Get the details on how comedians tell great stories here:

http://www.askmen.com/money/how_to_400/443_how_to.html

Implement these storytelling tips into your blog posts, and you’ll engage your audience on a deeper level, and keep them hooked on your content.

If you decide you’re going to do something, do it.

They’ve done dozens of studies over the years and they’ve found there is one major difference between successful people and unsuccessful people:

Successful people launch.

They get started.

They get on with it.

They just do it.

Unsuccessful people get the same ideas and the same information, but they’ve always got an excuse for not starting.

Let’s be candid – You can discover these outsourcing secrets the easy way or the hard way, but you’re going to find this out sooner or later.

The hard way is the way most marketers do it. They make mistakes when outsourcing, lose time and/or money, and then learn from their mistakes.

I propose we cut out all that nonsense and I’ll just tell you what you need to know here and now. Ready?

1: Outsource customer service as soon as humanly possible.

Reason why: If you don’t, you’ll waste half of each day doing things like answering support tickets, changing email addresses for members who changed their email address (yes, that is a thing) issuing refunds, answering questions and so forth.

That is time you could spend doing something else like… let’s see… wait, I know – MAKING MONEY.

Your focus should be on building your business, not answering support tickets (“When I log in, I see a funny thing at the top that says I’m logged in… is that what it’s supposed to say?”) I’m not kidding, that is a real support ticket I once received.

Another reason why: Your virtual assistant who is handling your support can shield you from the negative ninnies. What’s a “negative ninny,” you ask? It’s that person who buys your product and then rants on for 6 pages on how awful your product is, how awful you are and so forth. You don’t need to hear that stuff. Just tell your V.A. to handle it for you without ever telling you about it. (In this case, refunding the person and removing them from every list is all that’s required.)

And by the way, if you’re thinking that your products will be so great, everyone will love them, well then I know you haven’t created any products yet.

I don’t care if you invent the method for turning pixels into gold, someone will hate it. And that’s okay, as long as you don’t have to hear about it.

2: Outsource the things that bring you profit FIRST.

So let’s say you want to outsource website building, content creation, product creation, sales writing, software creation and so forth.

Ask yourself this question: What’s going to bring me the fastest return on my money?

That’s the project to outsource first.

Maybe you pay someone to create a product for you, and then you turn around and sell that product to hundreds of buyers. BOOM! You’ve just made your money back and much more.

But what if you don’t have any customers yet? And no list? Then maybe you need to outsource the building of your squeeze page so you can start list building so you can start selling stuff to your list.

Whatever will put you in profit first is the thing you need to outsource first. This way you are not coming out of pocket by thousands and thousands of dollars without a return.

3: Pay outsources based on the JOB, not by an hourly rate.

You want to know going in what it’s going to cost you to get a specific job done. And a true professional will be able to tell you exactly what it will cost.

A lot of marketers make the mistake of paying by the hour to get a job done. So not only don’t they know exactly what the job will cost – they also don’t know if the outsourcer is dragging the job out longer to make it pay more. Yes, it’s been known to happen.

The exception to the non-hourly rule?

Your virtual assistant or customer service person. Because of the nature of their work, in most cases paying them by the hour is the way to go.

4: Outsource work you’re putting off.

Did you create a new product, but you haven’t edited yet? Or maybe you haven’t built the website or made the sales letter.

All the time you invested in creating that product is going to waste. Outsource someone to do what you haven’t done, so you can get it online and start making sales ASAP.

5: Outsource what you’re not good at, and what you don’t like doing.

Sure, you love building websites, but let’s face it: You haven’t updated your website skills since 2007. Or you know how to write sales copy, but you HATE doing it.

Those are things you should be outsourcing. By focusing on your strengths as well as strategically planning your business, and letting other experts handle the rest of the work, you’ll make more money faster than if you try to do everything yourself.

6: Outsource the instrument playing while you conduct the orchestra.

There may come a time very soon when you have a system in place for making money. It could be as simple as creating a product in your niche, write several pieces of content preparing people for the product, record several videos leading up to the launch, and then launching.

Yet all of that is a lot of work. You’ve got sales copy to write, JV’s to contact, swipe emails to write, etc.

If you can afford it, outsource everything you can so that you can focus on working ON your business instead of IN your business.

People who focus on working on their business while outsourcing a lion’s share of the work tend to make 5 to 10 times as much money as those who work in their business.

Sort of a no-brainer, don’t you think?

7: If you haven’t yet outsourced something – what are you waiting for?

If you already have an online business, or you’re in the process of building one and you haven’t yet outsourced something, odds are it’s simply because fear is holding you back.

Go to Fiverr, Upwork, Craigslist or Warrior and outsource a small job, just to see how it works. I promise, you’ll be hooked and your business will grow twice as fast.

There is not a seven-figure internet marketer out there who doesn’t outsource. So isn’t it about time you did, too?

You read a book and a week later you hardly remember a thing.

You watch a video and a day later it’s lost from your memory…

The fix? Always write down your three biggest takeaways from anything nonfiction that you read or watch.

Keep a notebook or file just for this purpose. Review it often. And put those three things to work in your life as soon as you possibly can.

The world’s wisdom and secrets is at your fingertips inside books old and new. Many of the world’s greatest teachers and successful people share their secrets and strategies inside the pages of a book.

When you read for learning, you are only moments away from discovering some new information that can change the course of your life in new and better directions.

But you must take action.

And you must REMEMBER the insights that really matter.

Read to learn and grow, and remember to write down your three biggest takeaways from each session, and then take action on what you are learning so that it becomes internalized wisdom.

Start doing this, and every day can be a better day as you absorb the knowledge of the happiest, healthiest and wealthiest people in the world, and incorporate it into your life so that you can be one of them too! Then write your own book for other people to remember! 🙂

Work expands to fill the time allotted – and even more time beyond that – if you don’t have a hard deadline. Thus, if you make it a goal to finish your new ebook in 3 months, at the 3 month mark you’ll either just be finishing, or worse yet you’ll realize you’re only halfway done. If, however, you had a hard launch date, then you’ll have the book ready. Deadlines are a magnificent thing – they give you permission to ignore the email, ignore Facebook, turn the phone off, tear yourself away from the video games and television and actually get your work done.

So how can you create a product in a short amount of time? By doing two things:

First, set a deadline that is almost impossibly close, such as 10 days from right now.

Second, hold yourself accountable on a massive scale. That is, call up your best marketing buddy and schedule a live webinar with him or her to sell your new product. Now promote the webinar heavily.

Guess what? For the next 10 days you’re going to move heaven and earth to get your product finished for that webinar, and on Day 11 you are going to party!

First, you’re going to be celebrating the sales you made on the webinar.

Second, you’re going to be looking forward to all the sales you will make in the future with your new product. In fact, you’re going to take the momentum that webinar created and use it to contact other marketers and set up more live webinars for their lists.

Third, you are going to feel fantastic. That new product that you thought would take 3 months of your life only took 10 days!

Fourth, you’ve now got a system for not only getting products done fast, but also getting your first sales the moment the product is completed for an immediate payoff.

How great is that?!

Short and sweet: If you’re making good money coaching others to do or accomplish something, then you can probably double the money you make without much effort.

It’s sort of a recycle and reuse kind of thing, where nothing in your business goes to waste.

Let’s say you spend time coaching people on how to start their own businesses. You show them the sequence, how to get things done, how to outsource, the shortcuts, the little things they need to know and so forth.

But consider this: There are other marketers who want to get paid for coaching, too. Except they don’t know where to start or what to do.

So you also coach other marketers on how to do coaching.

You let them in on all your secrets of how to get clients, how to work with clients, how the whole process works and so forth.

I suppose you could even let them listen in on your coaching calls. If you do, you need to let your students know someone else is on the line.

And whatever you’re charging your regular coaching clients, you can probably about double for your new students who are learning how to become coaches. Again, it’s up to you.

You’ve got a skill – coaching – that others want to have. So why not become a coach’s coach?

You can give your future coaches templates for their sales pages, techniques for getting their first clients and ongoing support. And for this you can easily charge $5,000.

Even if you just take on two new students a month who are learning to be coaches, that’s an extra $120,000 a year.

I mentioned this to a friend, and he’s a bit snarky. He wanted to know, “If you’re coaching students, and you’re coaching coaches on how to coach students, couldn’t you also coach people on how to train new coaches that teach coaching?”

Actually, yes. But that might be taking things a bit far. 😉

You already know all about scarcity. The scarcer something is, the more people want it.

That’s why we use deadlines to entice customers to buy. Without the deadlines, people would put it off and then forget about it.

For decades savvy store owners have used this trick. By limiting the number of items a person can purchase, they increase the number of items sold.

But I wonder – are we using this to maximum advantage online? Yes, we sometimes limit the number of copies sold. Yes, we use deadlines and then promise not to sell any more after that deadline.

But what if we used it in a slightly different way…

Imagine you have different levels of participation in a product launch.

For example: You will sell only 10 copies at $2,500 each that includes actual coaching and one-on-one time with you for 12 weeks.

You’ll sell only 100 copies at $1,000 that includes group coaching for 12 weeks.

You’ll sell 200 copies at $500 that includes the “done for you option,” which is also included in the higher levels, too. But there is no coaching at this level.

And you’ll sell 1,000 copies that don’t include coaching or the done for you option.

Then you place counters on your site that tell how many copies of each have sold.

Yes, this will take some guts. After all, what if something doesn’t sell? But that’s also the fascination factor, too.

People will continue to revisit the page just to see what’s selling.

And what happens when there are only 6 or 5 or 4 copies left of the highest option? Suddenly they’ll start selling FASTER.

The last copy or two will likely FLY off the shelf.

You’re adding a new brand of scarcity, a higher level of fascination and interest and accommodating people’s needs.

You might think of this as a new way of upselling, or a more transparent method than using one time offers. It’s up front, honest, and lets people decide ahead of time what they want.

And if they don’t act fast enough, they will miss out, too.

You’ve just finished writing the sales copy for your new product. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to test your copy BEFORE you actually send prospects to it?

Because think about this – if you send 1,000 people to your sales letter and NOBODY buys, you’ve just wasted all that traffic. And if you spent money to get that traffic, you’re out that investment.

Even if it was free traffic, you’ve still burned your chance to sell them on your product. Odds are, even if you do rewrite the copy, they’re not going to go back a second time and read it again. (Unless you offer some kind of incentive, in which case you might be able to bribe them into taking a second look.)

If only there were a way to know ahead of time whether your copy is good or not… Wait, there is!

Here’s what to do – turn off the phone, sever your Internet connection and refuse to be distracted for the next hour.

Now then, imagine you are the prospect. You are thinking like the prospect, feeling like the prospect, experiencing the same issues, same problems, same questions as you prospect, etc.

Put yourself in their shoes and reread your letter from start to finish. Do not spend time making corrections or anything else – simply read the letter as though you are a prospect considering buying this product.

Finished?

Now rate how well your copy accomplishes the following, assigning a number 1 – 5 to each element.

1 means “Practically non-existent”
2 is “Room for serious improvement”
3 means “Not horrible, but could be better”
4 is “Strong”
And a 5 indicates “You positively NAILED it.”

Ready? Here we go…

Does the headline instantly grab your attention? _____

Does the lead-in compel you to read further? _____

Are the headline and lead-in completely believable? _____

Is the headline and lead-in combo likely to resonate powerfully with a significant number of your prospects? _____

Does the headline and lead-in combo offer powerful benefits? _____

Does the spokesperson establish his/her qualifications beyond doubt? _____

Do the emotions you experience while reading the first few paragraphs compel you to want to read further? _____

Is the prospect given a reason why he or she must read this, and must read this now? _____

Does the copy read like a conversation between two friends? _____

Is it clear that the spokesperson truly has the best interests of the prospect at heart? _____

Are the product’s benefits fully explored? _____

Are the emotional reasons for purchasing fully developed? _____

Does the letter entertain and inform as well as sell? _____

Is the price fully justified? _____

Is the guarantee prominent and does it restate the benefits? _____

Is there a compelling reason why the prospect should immediately make the purchase? _____

Is there a sense of urgency? _____

Do you feel yourself getting more and more excited as you move through the letter? _____

Is the call to action compelling enough that you would feel silly for not ordering immediately? _____

Is the prospect told exactly what to do next, how to order and how s/he will receive their product? _____

If you were a prospect, would you make the purchase? _____

Scoring

21- 50: Stop right there. Do NOT use this copy until you make significant changes.

51 – 65: Not good, but at least you’ve made a start. Now go back and make the adjustments your letter needs.

66 – 80: Not bad for a draft, but not good enough to use unless you just don’t have the time to fix it, OR your offer is so compelling ($100 cars, for example) that it doesn’t need a strong letter.

81 – 95: Looking good. A little tweaking here and there can still improve your conversions.

96 – 105: Congratulations! Maybe you should be writing copy for a living!

Blogging can be a great way to position yourself as an authority and create customer loyalty – if you’re willing to devote the time necessary.

Follow these 9 Tips for Better Business Blogging and you’ll be more successful!

1. Forgo the advertorial dribble. Decades ago some bright entrepreneur realized that if he wrote his sales copy to look like an editorial, he’d get more readers and more sales. Thus we entered into the age of the “advertorial,” and it still works in print publications. Where it does NOT work well is on your blog.

Yes, by all means advertise your products and services on your website, but don’t be devious about it. Don’t make it look like an article when it’s really a self-promotion – it annoys your readers and makes them feel let down when you’ve got them thinking they’re going to learn something new, only to discover they’ve got to pay to get it.

Thus, do not title your blog post, “Revealed: 35 Ways to Drive Traffic” and then reveal nothing about driving traffic except the order link to your new product. Instead, title your blog post, “Revealed: 5 Ways to Drive Traffic,” and then GIVE them the 5 ways. At the end, let them know that if they’re interested, you reveal 30 additional methods inside your product and give them the link. They’ll respect you for this, and because you’ve given them good information and demonstrated that you know what you’re talking about, it will actually INCREASE your sales.

2. Be the authority. This goes along with Tip #1, because when you’re dishing about all the latest updates in your industry rather than spending all your time promoting yourself, you become the expert in your prospects’ eyes. And who do people want to do business with? The expert. Who can charge more for their products and services? Again, the expert. Offer up the latest news along with plenty of how-to articles and your readers will come to like and trust you, and thus want to do business with you.

3. Educate, inform and inspire. Whenever possible, use real life stories to inspire your readers. Nothing sells like success, and people love to read how others have overcome the same challenges they’re having. Whenever you’re stuck for a blog post idea, just think, “What do my readers want to know? How can I help my readers and give them value?” Watch the forums for questions that pop up – this is an excellent source for ideas.

4. Show your personality. Building reader loyalty takes time and more than just great information – it also takes personality. Let your own unique style shine through in your posts, and don’t be afraid to reveal insights about yourself, and to even be controversial when it’s called for. Nothing rallies readers like a good controversy, and nothing makes readers more loyal than if they know you well enough to think of you as a friend.

5. Promote your blog. It would be great if you could write it and people would come, but it’s seldom that easy. Use your own network to promote your blog by letting them know each time you’ve made a new post. Guest write for other blogs to promote your own blog. And always ask people to share your blog with others.

6. Ask readers to reply. The more active your blog is, the more appealing it is to new and old readers alike. Always ask your readers to leave their comments on each of your blog posts. You might even consider running a contest to see who can write the best response, and give a prize to the winner.

Whatever it takes to increase comments is something you should consider. Not only does it make your blog appear that much more active and universally liked – it also provides a sense of ownership to each person who takes the time to leave a comment. The more they comment, the more likely they are to tell others about your blog and to return to your blog in the future. And be sure to respond to your reader’s comments so they know they’re being heard and appreciated.

7. Don’t blog unless you really want to. Blogging is a commitment, and while it might seem exciting and fun in the beginning, writing a new blog post every day or two can get old, especially after the first couple of weeks when you feel like nobody’s been reading it. If you’re not sure you can keep a blog rolling, consider writing guest posts for other blogs, websites and email newsletters. Every publisher is looking for new material, and being the guest blogger or writer puts you in front of an entirely new audience of prospects each time.

8. If you’re guest blogging, write a GREAT resource box. Offer them something intriguing with tremendous value for going to your site, and then deliver above and beyond their expectations. This is an excellent method of increasing your list of prospects and becoming well known in your niche.

9. Interview the big dogs. Interviewing others in your niche not only produces great content – it also provides you with powerful contacts and access to their readers when they mention the interview to their own people. So go ahead and ask others in your niche for interviews – the worst they can do is say no, and you’ll be surprised how many quickly say yes. Remember, they want to increase their own readership as well, and it’s a tremendous ego boost to be sought out and interviewed as an expert in their industry.

If there is a Tip #10, it is this: Have fun. Whatever it takes to make your blog writing fun is what you should do, since your enjoyment and passion for your topic will shine through in your posts. The more fun you’re having writing your blog, the more enjoyable it will be for readers to visit and linger.

So yes, have a blast, add humor, don’t be afraid to hold yourself up as an example to your readers, (both good and bad,) put your heart and soul into it, and go for it!

You already know how important content is for communicating your message, getting traffic and making sales. But you might be overlooking a few things that make your content truly great…

Write for your readers, NOT for the search engines. Sometimes we get so caught up in optimizing our content for SEO that we forget we’re really writing for our readers and not Google. Create content that is useful for people, that helps them, educates them and entertains them. Make SEO your second priority in writing your content, not your first. Otherwise your traffic isn’t going to get past your second paragraph before they’re closing your site and moving on to someone else’s.

Write for your readers, NOT for a certain platform. Today all we hear about is social media and everyone wants to know what to put on Facebook, or what to Tweet and so forth to make money. Again, this is the wrong approach and if taken it will cost you. Instead, identify what your users want, and THEN consider which platforms are best for delivering your content. It’s not about Facebook, YouTube, your blog and etc., it’s about giving people what they want.

Don’t be a control freak. It’s easy to fall into the mindset that all of your content must be published on your website so you can stay in control of it, but that thinking will only limit the number of people you reach. Instead, build your content to travel so that it can be downloaded, embedded or shared – thus capturing many more eyeballs and driving those eyeballs back to your site. Think of your content as ambassadors traveling the world to tell others about you, and sending those people to your site. The more your content travels, the more people it will reach, and the more traffic it can then send back to you.

Be fruitful. Are you writing one article or one blogpost a week? Try stepping it up to one a day, or even more. Release as much great content as you can, and don’t get stuck in one rigid rut, either. Develop a range of different content and see what garners both the most eyeballs and the most response. Pay attention to user feedback – they’ll tell you what’s working, what they love, and what they want more of.

Be open. So you planned a series of videos on topic A, and during the second video you mentioned topic B, and people went nuts asking for more information. What to do? Simple – give them what they want. You can finish your series later if you like, but right now you’ve struck gold and you need to mine it for all it’s worth. Give them great content on Topic B, interview an expert or two on that topic, offer them affiliate products on that topic, and so forth. Sometimes we hit pay dirt when we least expect it, and the most foolish thing you can do is NOT jump on it immediately. Money loves speed, and customers love to have their desires satisfied NOW.

Don’t create your content and run. When you make a blog post, go back and ANSWER the replies you get. When you Tweet, stay on Twitter to respond to the responses you get, and so forth. Your follow-up interaction says as much about you as your content, and if you do it right, it says that you’re not just looking to make a fast buck and you DO care about your readers. Which is not only the classy thing to do – it’s also the most profitable in the end.