Month: July 2008

Making PLR Pay

Just how hard is it to turn PLR into PLR (private label rights into “producing lotta riches”)?

Well, if you’ve never done it you might be forgiven for thinking that it can be very hard. After all, you have to be a bit of a writer – don’t you?

No, I don’t think so. I think it’s perfectly possible to do it well if you can speak normally. You can speak normally, can’t you? You really *don’t* need to be a good writer.

Here’s the thing: Private Label Rights materials pay off, because they do what most of us are not good at doing. They get us started. It’s a big task to start with a blank page and try to think of things to say. That’s a big task even for professional writers! They have a fancy name for when they can’t do it – “writer’s block”.

The fact is that most people find it easier to look at what’s wrong with something that already exists. Then they can change it, bit by bit. Finally, they have a complete article, or product, ready to sell. Let me give you a little test, to prove it to you.

I want you to read the next few lines and *in your head* work out how you could say it better. Actually say it to yourself in your head – or even out loud if you prefer.

“When time comes to making a whole bunch of money but you cannot think what it is you should do to do it, you should spend some time on your own to think about what it is you should do and then you’ll come up with a plan to do it.”

Go ahead – fix that in your head. You don’t have to type anything.

Did you actually try that little exercise? Did your version sound better than mine? It should – mine was awful. Deliberately awful, but still awful.

So, what’s the point I’m making?

*You* just edited and fixed an entire paragraph.

How many paragraphs do you think you have to edit and fix to get a full article all spruced up? It could be as few as 8 or 10.

It’s really not as hard as you think, is it? Here’s where human nature comes into play. If I tell you to edit 600 words that sounds like a lot. If I tell you to edit 10,000 words your brain will flip! 10,000 is a *lot* of words. But the reality is that you don’t edit 10,000 words. You edit a few at a time. So instead of thinking about editing a full article, or ebook, think about editing just 1 sentence.

Honestly, doesn’t that sound a lot better? A lot easier, too?

You see when you’re faced with a big task, you really can’t do it all at once. But for so many of us our brain thinks that we *have* to do it all in one go. But because we get to make the rules, we can take 2 goes – or 50 if you want.

Will it take longer doing it that way? Well, not really, because if you get overwhelmed by the full job you’ll never do it – so it will take forever. And just the fact you won’t feel stressed out should help you work faster too.

If you have some plr articles sitting around, gathering dust, here’s a suggestion for you.

1) Commit to editing 1 article.

2) Allow yourself the luxury of editing *only* 1 sentence a day. This is a strict rule! Do not do 2 sentences, even if you feel like doing it. Do 1 sentence and then save your article, ready for tomorrow. Strictly 1 sentence a day – no cheating!

3) Each day, open your article and continue where you left off. Edit another sentence. On some days it might take you literally 15 seconds to make the changes. Nobody on this planet is so short of time that they can’t find 15 seconds.

4) As you continue, remind yourself that you have less to do now than you did yesterday. Each day you have even less to do than the day before. The job is getting smaller every day and you still only have to edit 1 sentence today.

5) When you reach the final sentence, edit it and save your article. Then, look back over the full article and see just how much you’ve edited – more than you thought you could do when you began. And you did it all 1 sentence at a time.

For fun, compare the original article and your edited article. Take some pride in the fact you did it. You edited an article.

6) Submit your article to at least one of the many article directories.

Congratulations!

But let’s also be realistic here. You wouldn’t want to work at that speed if you had 100 articles to edit. But always, always, start with 1 article and 1 sentence.

My guess is that somewhere along the way you couldn’t help yourself and you edited more than 1 sentence. By telling yourself you were only ‘allowed’ 1 sentence, you made it irresistible to do more. That’s just human nature. So always tell yourself you’ll edit 1 sentence. When you do more – and you will – you can reward yourself for doing better than you committed to.

That’s just a little trick that makes it easier to do the work without freaking out. Here’s another one that might work for you. Let me explain it with a story.

I hate swimming. I mean the mind-numbing up and down, boring repetition. But I love the feeling I get afterwards. So for me I set my target of say 50 laps. Then I count down from 50. In other words every lap I do I have a reducing balance. So in my head I see ahead of me 50,49,48,47,46…

If I count up, it takes ages before I seem to have done any significant numbers. So counting up goes 1,2,3,4,5. Doesn’t feel like much progress, but counting down I know it just keeps getting easier. It’s easier to do 40 laps than it is 42 laps – that’s a given. So my routine just keeps getting easier to achieve. That works for me – try it and might work for you. If you have 12 paragraphs to edit just count down after each one. 12,11,10,9,8 and so on. If it doesn’t work for you just stick with the 1 sentence at a time tactic.

If you’re writing material from scratch it’s really just the same. Commit to write say 1 paragraph and when you’ve done that, stop for the day. I guarantee you that you won’t be able to stop after 1 paragraph most of the time. But the fact you have given yourself permission to do so takes all the pressure off your brain.

To show you exactly what I mean I’ve created a video showing how I edit a plr article live, following these rules. You can view it at

http://www.sublime-products.com/articles/edit-plr/

-Amin Motin

Posted by Frank Haywood in Guest Posts, internet business

80% Of What You Do Doesn’t Make Any Difference

This is a reference to Pareto’s rule which says something like 20% of this gives you 80% of that.  It’s otherwise known as the 80/20 rule.

When I worked at Land Rover, our logistics department used it all the time to make stock decisions.

Here’s an example.

20% of your customers will bring you 80% of your business.  (eBay know that, and we’ve seen them acting on removing some of the unwanted 80% recently.)

Conversely, 80% of your customers will bring you only 20% of your business.

So where would you spend your time?  Working with the 80% or the 20% of your customers?

And… 20% of your customers will gripe all the time.  80% won’t.  😉

So the title of this post is a bit of a mind shock if you’ve never come across Pareto before.

80% of what you do won’t make any difference to your internet business.  In actual fact, it’s probably closer to 95% or more.

So how do you know which is the best bit?  Which is the bit you should be doing more of to get the best results?

I think the best answer to that question is “experience”.  It’s only by doing everything to begin with do you learn how to sort the vital from the dead wood.

Once you begin to get a feel for it all and you start to see the light, it becomes easier to see how to improve things.  I’ve had people write to me and tell me how important this or that is, when I already know for a fact it makes very little difference.

It might be important to them, but it’s not important to the bulk of other people.

But of course, you can only get to that stage if you DO things first.  Planning and thinking is all well and good, but getting stuck in is where the money is.

Have you actually done anything today?  The sooner you do, then the sooner you can sort out the 20 from the 80.  Or the 5 from the 95.  Or even the 1 from the 99.

-Frank Haywood

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business

The Brand New Instant Survey Script Out Today – Pre-launch

I know there’s a lot of people waiting for this, and there’s not long to go now.

I feel this is one of the best scripts I’ve released so far, and David (the developer) is I think quietly very pleased with it too. More than he’s letting on. 😉

Well, we’ve been busy talking about the next product in development, so we’ve not had too much time to linger over this one. And you know what? We wouldn’t have known to even discuss this next product for months if I hadn’t done a survey last week.

I’m still a little shocked by the results. Who would have thought that testing and tracking would come out as more important than list building? But then I think that’s a further indication of the marketing ability and maturity of the people who read this blog.

That’s no idle comment, and I’ll adjust my style to reflect what I think you want from what you’re telling me.

Please forgive me if I run a few more surveys to further hone in on what I’m beginning to realise is my real readership.

I’ll be using ISS of course…

So 3.00pm today (GMT) the nickel sale goes live and as a subscriber to this blog you’ll get to buy it for a fraction of the final price – just $7.02 if you’re first.

-Frank Haywood

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business

Nickel Sale For The Instant Survey Script Tomorrow

Okay, it finally looks like it’s all set.  The nickel sale for the Instant Survey Script will go live tomorrow at 3.00pm GMT (10.00am EST) if all goes well.

Yes, I have had problems before, but hopefully not tomorrow…

I’ll shortly answer those people who have raised a ticket for their free copy as I offered yesterday, making that SIX scripts for the price of one, so well done to those that grabbed that bargain when it happened.  I would have done it sooner, but I’ve had a few things to sort out, so my apologies for keeping you waiting.

For every one else.  Don’t miss this.  This is a cracking piece of software it really is, and this is your chance to get it for a few dollars (under $10 if you’re quick) instead of the launch price of $47.

You know why the price is so low, I want testimonials and feedback before the official launch.

The Instant Survey Script will give your internet business a boost by allowing you to ask your site visitors exactly what it is they’re looking for.  They tell you, you supply it, they buy it.

How simple a principle is that?  Your market tells you what it wants and then buys it from you when you have it ready.

Phew.

Isn’t that just beautiful?

Watch this space tomorrow for an announcement, and be the first to get it for $7.02.

-Frank Haywood.

Posted by Frank Haywood in internet business