Month: November 2009

Nov

2009

Pump Me For 8 Weeks

This is a follow on from yesterday.

A couple of weeks ago I was chatting to a new friend on Skype, and I slowly realised he was pumping me for information. I’m 99% sure it wasn’t intentional. 😉

After an hour or so, he said “Oh, I wish I’d recorded all this!”

“But you’ve been taking notes, right?”

“Yes.”

That was when I had this urge I felt a couple of years ago. At the time I said I’d probably never do it again as it’s so time consuming, but here we are again.

That urge is to help people directly and personally.

So what I’ve decided to do is to put aside January and February and make myself available for you. You can call me almost any time you like (as long as I’m not asleep) on Skype.

You can then ask me any questions you like about Internet Marketing, Product Creation, Autoresponders – anything that will get you to the point where you create and launch your first product if you haven’t already done so.

I’ll tell you now (believe me or not) YOU can create a brand new product in a couple of days, even in just a few hours, and have the web site up and ready for sales within a week EASILY once you know what you’re doing.

To put this into perspective, a couple of years ago, I did an exercise called “Seven Products In Seven Days”. I failed as I only got four products created (including web sites, sales pages, autoresponder, etc), but I still saw it as a huge success. At the end of it I was shattered – but I proved to myself and to everybody else how quickly you can get things done when you really try.

And of course I had four new products, two of which I sold, and gave the others away as list builders. I’ve since decommissioned or reworked them into other products as bonuses.

You can do this kind of thing too. Yes you need a few technical skills, but it’s nothing that isn’t learnable by most people. Like the saying goes “If you can program a VCR, you can do this.” (Yes, I know VCRs have been replaced by DVRs and that they’re a lot easier to use, but you get my drift.)

The technical stuff is NOT that hard, and you can always outsource it if necessary.

But what IS hard is the marketing bit, the grabbing of people’s attention, the build up of excitement, the ability to get people to do what you ask them to do. Of course there are ways of dealing with everything, but if you don’t know where to start, you never will.

What I did was I bought my way in. I paid some experienced marketers to help me through the beginning. In fact I’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars in learning since I got started four years ago.

Don’t worry, I’m not asking you for tens of thousands of dollars, or even the couple of grand one of my friends suggested to me, or even the grand he then backed off to.

You can afford this, I’ve priced it VERY low.

The “catch” (if you can call it that) is I’m only going to take a few people. Obviously I can’t take on 500 people and talk to each of them whenever they need, but I can take on you and 9 other people without breaking a sweat.

I want to make something clear though. This is NOT coaching. This is more like consultancy, where you ask me and I’ll tell you.

Much better really when you stop to think about it.

However, having said that… If you were to ask me what the first steps you needed to take were, I’d tell you. And if you then asked me to give you some tasks and instruction to get you going, I’d do that too. 😉

The focus of this consultancy is on product creation, list building, copywriting, how to approach potential JV partners, autoresponders and so on, which is where I have my skill set. For instance it’s no use asking me about CPA or Forex as I have no experience in those areas.

If you want in, then it’s first come first served. Remember I’m putting aside two whole months of my time just to speak to you personally. Yes, I’ll give you tasks if that’s what you need of me, and I can also provide learning or at least point you in the right direction.

As if that wasn’t enough, I’ve put together a very special bonus. I’ve made arrangements that the first 10 people will get 12 months access to a brand new and excellent autoresponder service – 10,000 leads per month. (I’ll be flipping all my mailing lists to this new service in the new year.)

The value of this alone is $180.

And as if that wasn’t enough, I’m also throwing in all my products released so far and up to 28th February 2010. The value of that bonus is worth more than $300.

In all that’s a REAL $480 worth of bonuses at least, that’s not some figure based on products that aren’t being sold – we’ve all seen that going on, right?

If you want all of this, then the first 10 people can get my personal attention for 8 weeks from January 4 through February 28, 2010 for a mind-bogglingly low price of… [EDIT]

I’ll tell you tomorrow at 3.00pm GMT (10.00am EST).

-Frank Haywood

Nov

2009

Work With Me For 2 Months

Would you like to work with me for 2 months? With direct access to me when you need it, via Skype? Then read on.

When I first started down this business path a few years ago, I realised fairly quickly that I couldn’t do it all on my own. There was too much to learn and I floundered.

I quickly realised I needed help and so I went to a couple of seminars, signed up to a coaching programme and formed a mastermind group.

That realisation that I was stuck and then having the guts to admit it to myself was one of the cleverer things I’ve done. (I’ve done some pretty stupid stuff, but you live and learn.)

I think that the one thing that I can attribute most of my success to was the coaching programme, but also being able to talk to other people in the mastermind group was good too. The group lasted about 4 months before we all went off to do our own thing, but I made some good friends, and still talk to some of them fairly regularly on Skype.

It’s been good. I wouldn’t be where I am today without that – I’m fairly certain I’d be all washed up by now, dreams shattered.

Instead I have quite a few products out there, several good working relationships and some solid plans for 2010.

It doesn’t all happen at once. It takes time. But looking back I now know that if I’d had someone knowledgable I could have turned to when I needed it, even for a short space of time, it would have made all the difference, and I’d be a lot further down the road than I am now.

In fact, I didn’t really need the coaching, I just needed to able to talk to someone who’d been there before me so I could ask what to do next. Yeah I know that sounds a bit like coaching, but there’s a subtle difference, believe me. The coaching programme I was on was in a set format, very rigid – weekly webinars followed by a mass Q&A session once a month, where we all had to sit in a queue to ask questions. Not great.

What I needed was someone I could turn to regularly, someone who I could ask questions of, as and when I needed to, and not have to wait a month for the next chance.

It would have made all the difference early on.

Now… I’ve always wanted to help other people, and over the past few years I’ve quietly helped a few people here and there where I could. I knew it wasn’t always enough, and really wasn’t that good because I’ve been too busy to do it properly.

So this is what I’ve decided to do for you if you’ve read this far.

I’m putting aside the whole of January and February so you can tap me up on Skype and ask me anything you want about Internet Marketing related stuff like product creation, list building, copywriting, how to approach potential JV partners, autoresponders and so on.

Effectively you’ll be working with me for 2 months, and will have the same kind of access to me that my existing JV partners and friends have.

At this point I reckon you’ll be thinking “How much is this going to cost me?”

Well, I told one of my friends what I wanted to do and he said “How many people you going to do this for bud?” I replied “10, but from experience I could probably take up to 15.”

“Two grand a head.”

“Nope,” I said “that’s more than I want to charge.”

“Well I’d charge at least a thousand, but that’s the least I’d do what you’re talking about, it’s crazy to do it for any less, it will take up virtually all your time. Think about people calling you all hours of the day.”

Hmm…

Well I don’t want to charge that much, but I can see his point. So I’ve had a think and I reckon I’ve come up with a good compromise that will keep the price low enough to be affordable to you.

I’m still mulling it over in my head, and please just bear in mind that I can only do this for a few people. I know that if you’re one of the lucky ones, you’ll see it as one of the best decisions you ever made, and from my perspective I’d love you to come join me.

I’ll tell you more about it tomorrow.

-Frank Haywood

Nov

2009

Short Formula For Copywriting

Okay this is more of a check list than an exact guide, but you should make sure it’s done in this order.

#1 – Give an example that graphically demonstrates the idea behind the product that you’re trying to sell.

#2 – Tell your reader what you want them to do. Not just “buy it”, but something like “use this to…”

#3 – Give them the reason to do it. Tell them it will improve this, that or the other.

Now that is as simple as I can possibly break copywriting down into, but that is absolutely the essence of it. Let’s just take a look at the 3 steps.

The first one engages their emotions and imagination. This is vital. People buy (or do) things because they want to, not because they need to. The only things that people need to do are drink, eat, sleep etc. Everything else is driven by longings from the emotional soul of their body – their wants. So activate their interest with a good example – stories are important.

While they’re still in this imaginative state of mind – some refer to it as a hypnotic daydream – steer them in the direction of what you want them to do. You will often have to be careful about it and plant the idea in their mind by suggesting it to them rather than telling them outright. Sometimes you can tell them exactly what to do, but it depends on the circumstances.

Finally, give them the reason to take the course of action you’ve suggested to them. If you get it right, you’ve completed the rationalisation process for them which is the third and final stage.

The whole concept behind this three stage process is we do things because we want to do them – we are all creatures driven by our emotions but don’t often admit it even to ourselves. After we’ve decided to do something, then we look for ways to rationalise the decision to ourselves. Not the other way round.

The three stages get the reader into a receptive frame of mind, suggest a course of action (which engages the “want”), and then finally offers the rationalisation we all need before we do anything.

Mind blowing isn’t it?

Example. Instruction. Reason.

As long as you get these three stages into your copy, in that order, everything else is cake.

If you appreciate this post, then I would appreciate a link back to it from one of your blogs or other web sites. You doing that for me keeps me motivated to write more stuff like this. Thank you.

-Frank Haywood

Nov

2009

Product Creation Golden Tip

Here’s a little tip that I’ve found works wonders for me, and I was talking about it to a friend the other night. In fact it works so well I could probably pad it out and sell it as a product in its own right and people would be glad to pay for it.

It’s really mind bogglingly simple, and is extremely effective. It came about almost by accident, and this is GOLDEN. You’ll have one of those “Aha!” moments when it sinks in. It’s one of those things that most people leave until last, when it should be done before most everything else.

Are you ready?

Once you know what your product is going to be, and it’s all taking shape in your mind… here it is…

Write the sales copy FIRST.

“WTH?” I can hear you say. “But the product isn’t ready, why would I write the sales copy if I don’t even have a product?”

Three golden reasons, and when you’ve done this once you’ll realise how strong they are.

#1 – It clarifies exactly what the product is going to be. You’ll find yourself coming up with additional ideas and bulleting them in.

#2 – It absolutely COMMITS you to a course of action because you’ve done what would for many people be the last thing first, and no-one likes to think they’ve wasted their time. You’ve made an investment. It motivates you (trust me on this) because you want to join all the dots and get to the end point you’ve already put in place.

#3 – Probably the hardest job to have to do is writing the sales copy – it can be a real struggle and is one of the reasons so many people outsource it. When you’ve done everything else and you’re as good as ready to launch your product, then if you’re anything like me, by that time you’re running out of steam. There is NOTHING so hard to face in the product creation process that is so difficult as having to write up the sales copy when you have no enthusiasm for it.

Think about that last sentence. At the beginning of a project, your enthusiasm is on a high, you feel very motivated, and it’s easier to write your sales copy because your mind is buzzing with ideas.

Four years ago when I started on all this, my first product was SmartDD. It had been completed, the sales script was in place, and everything was done apart from the sales copy itself. It took me nearly two months to write before I even had the guts to launch it.

I found myself going round in circles, removing bits, adding new stuff, removing it again, and generally putting it off. I procrastinated a lot. I finally decided it was ready when somebody told me I was being a jerk and just to “Get the damn thing out there!” but I wasn’t happy with the copy until months afterwards, and I still tweak it here and there even now.

Nowadays I move a lot faster simply because I do the sales copy FIRST. And I don’t agonise over it either. I make it good enough and tweak it later.

Everything else is a lot easier to do once the sales copy is done.

Try it, you’ll be amazed.

-Frank Haywood

Nov

2009

Windows Notepad Replacement

This is part of a new category here on this site dedicated to Cool Software. Some of them are installable desktop tools, some are web applications, and some are services. These are tools I use myself day to day, many of them are free.

These tools are the result of many hours of careful search, stumbling around, word of mouth and dumb luck. I thought it might be a good idea to share these tools as this will almost certainly help you.

First up are a couple of free text editors.

One of the problems I regularly see is when people use the built in Notepad editor in Windows – it doesn’t work the way you would expect it to. Crazy I know, but Notepad will embed hidden characters and sometimes apply some strange formatting and justification if you’re not careful. I see this happening when comments are left on my blog posts, and also on forum posts.

I know what’s going on because I’ve done this myself and learned the hard way.

This is what happens. You decide to leave a comment or a forum post, write a few sentences or a couple of paragraphs and the phone goes, or someone comes to the door or whatever – you get distracted.

Thirty minutes later, you go back to your writing, gather your thoughts and finish what you were doing. You press the submit button, and you find you’ve been timed out or you’ve lost your network connection, and you get an error message.

You press the back button, but it’s no good, you’ve lost everything you’ve typed in.

Aaagghhh!

Now you’ve learned a valuable lesson, and you decide that from now on you’ll type it all locally into a text editor and save it regularly instead of typing it into an online form. When you’ve finished and it all looks good, you copy and paste it into the text box on the blog or forum. It’s a good habit to have.

The problem is, if you’ve used Windows Notepad, it will sometimes format the text for you, inserting line breaks at the end of each line. It looks okay, but when you copy and paste it into the web form, all the formatting breaks.

So that’s one good reason not to use Windows Notepad, and here’s another – it’s just not very good. Here are two MUCH better ones.

Notepad 2

This first Notepad replacement is ideal for carrying around with you on a USB stick as it doesn’t require installation, doesn’t create any registry entries, and all you need do is double click the executable. (Why oh why – sorry – did Microsoft ever introduce the registry? It’s caused us all no ends of problems with having to re-install applications every time we move PCs or have to re-install Windows. In the good old days, all you had to do was copy the files back to the PC and run them. It was easy. I’m always delighted when I find an app that doesn’t require installation.)

You can get Notepad 2 from here:-

http://www.flos-freeware.ch/notepad2.html

Notepad++

This is a little more feature rich than Notepad2, and adds a menu item to the Windows shell, so when you right click on a text file or HTML or whatever, one of the options you see is “Open in Notepad++” – VERY useful.

You can see the full feature set and download it from here:-

http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm

Enjoy.

-Frank Haywood

Update: Tom Brownsword left a comment saying that there’s a portable version of NotePad++ that you can use on a USB stick, along with a load of other apps on the same site that will all fit on a 512MB USB stick. Cool!