YOU DON’T DESERVE TO BE HAPPY

How much control do you really have over your happiness, and how effectively are you pursuing it? American Enterprise Institute President Arthur Brooks distills 40 years of social science research into a surprising set of answers.

You can improve the quality of your life…

This past weekend I was camping, hiking and biking out in the West Virgina boondocks.  The pic above sums up how I was feeling about retirement and improving the quality of my life.

So what are the factors that affect our quality of life?  An article in Pitlane Magazine (2018) described the following as having the potential to improve the quality of your life:

1.  Your environment and income –  Money isn’t everything, but it really gives you more choices in life;
2.  Health – Good nutrition and daily physical activity almost always result in a better quality of life;
3.  Social life – Active people are healthier, and
4.  Attitude – Optimistic people have a positive outlook on life and experience a better quality of life.

So, a good quality of life comes down to attitude, environment, income and health.  Change the things that are within your control for the better and will more than likely improve your quality of life.

Are your dreams on sale…..

Many of us tend to put off the hard and important things because our brains are actually programmed to procrastinate. They love to process concrete rather the abstract things.  And guess what, the immediate things we need to deal with are tangible compared to the unknown or future benefits.

As humans, we also tend to value immediate rewards or instant gratification rather than the long-term benefits of doing something.  We naturally procrastinate and seek that good feeling of getting something done, like reading email or chatting on messenger, rather than working on something that will improve our lives or help us be successful in our business.  So, we all have the best of intentions, but our brains are working against us.

So what can we do to overcome all this that is working against us?

• Have a vision of your future, i.e., imagine what it would look like when you meet your future goals. Make the outcome of your future goals become your present outcome.
• Commit to taking action publically with your peers, with your partners, or an accountability group. It matters greatly whether we are respected by people we know or even by strangers.
• Consider the pros and cons of not doing anything. Think about the outcome of putting an important task off and the outcome of doing that important task now. Just using this process will kick you into action.
• Work on the baby steps to getting a larger more important task completed. When you get that small task completed you feel more motivated to get the next task completed working toward the larger goal.
• Mix a small reward with a task you would usually put off. Build that sales funnel in your favorite coffee shop and trick your brain’s perception of having to do “a not so much fun task”.
• You can remove what is stopping you from taking action by asking yourself WHY and bring the issue out in the open so you can deal with it.

Don’t feel overwhelmed by those larger, more important tasks. Try helping your brain out a little by using at least one of the above techniques.  You’ll be glad you took action.

Become a part of my team.  Learn to live free.

References:

Most of the above information was paraphrased from James Clear’s Blog on Procrastination.

Successful entrepreneurs meet obstacles head on…

6 Simple Tips for Increasing Customer Engagement

Entrepreneurs often make the mistake of ignoring their customers. They believe that if sales are good and they offer a quality product or service that their customers will continue to make purchases. This isn’t always the case.

If you want to boost sales and build trust with your customers, you need to focus on CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT.

Do you listen to what your customers are saying? Do you regularly respond to their comments? If you said no to either question, it’s time to improve the way you interact with your customers.

Here are 6 simple tips that you can use for increasing customer engagement.

Pay Attention to Customer Feedback

The first tip is to start paying attention to customer feedback. Across all platforms, you should be monitoring what people are saying about your products or services. This includes comments on your blog posts and on social media.

Keep track of what your customers are saying. Make a list of the most common comments. You can use this info to develop products or services that meet the needs of your customers.

Ask Questions on Social Media

Before sending out a new post on Facebook or a new tweet on Twitter, consider phrasing your post in the form of a comment. If you’re discussing a new product, service, or feature, you should turn the conversation around on your customers. Ask for their input.

Respond to Comments on Your Blog Posts

You should always respond to comments on your blog posts. This encourages customers to continue to come back.

If they leave a comment and never get a response, they’re unlikely to come back to your site. It makes it appear that you don’t regularly check or update your site.

Try to respond to comments within 24 hours. If possible, earlier is better. If you can respond to the comment within one or two hours, your customers will greatly appreciate your effort.

Learn How to Deal with Negative Comments

As you start responding to comments, you may occasionally come across a negative comment. You should always take a breath before responding to negative comments. You should be careful when dealing with angry or upset customers.

You should first send them a direct message. You don’t want your entire conversation to be public. From there, apologize for the inconvenience. You shouldn’t try to defend yourself. Remain calm and try your best to come up with a solution that pleases the customer.

Send Follow Up Emails After Each Purchase

Instead of sending a standard confirmation email after a customer completes a purchase, you should create a template for a more informal confirmation email.

Ask your customers if they’re happy with their purchase, mention any features that you want them to pay close attention to, and provide a few tips for making better use of your product or service.

This simple change in your confirmation emails can go a long way towards improving customer engagement. They’ll feel that you actually care about their opinions.

Be More Personable with Your Emails and Messages

Whether you’re responding to a comment or sending out a mass email, you should keep your correspondence personable. Write your content as if you’re speaking to a friend. If possible, begin your emails or responses by mentioning the customer’s name.

All of these steps are easy to implement into your existing marketing strategy. Simply change the way you respond to your customers. Ask more questions, be personable, and be prompt with your responses.

Put these tips into practice starting today. Along with these easy to follow suggestions, you’ll also benefit from conversion-ready internet marketing prospects and make more money now.

Click here to learn about my done-for-you system.

Become part of my team and learn to live free.

Making Genuine, Long-Lasting Connections with Your Customers: A Primer

One of the hardest parts of running your own online marketing business is making genuine connections with your customers. Once you can build trust, you can develop a list of loyal customers who will buy from you again and again.

You can outsource your list building by hiring an inexpensive telemarketing service or by hiring a virtual assistant at one of the freelance hiring websites, such as ODesk, Guru or Elance.

Here you can find lots of skilled, talented people who are willing to do the grunt work of finding leads for you organically for very little money. The best part is you can set a budget for the job you want done and then let prospective contractors bid on the job.

Then you can simply hire the person, give them the parameters of the job you want done, set a deadline and let them go to work. Usually, the freelance hiring site will take care of all the administrative tasks for you, like supervising their work and making sure you get what you paid for.

Where to Buy Leads Safely

If you are going to buy leads, just about the only safe places to buy lists from are reputable solo ad providers.

Buying solo ads is the best way to get around the risks associated with buying lists. That’s because when you buy a list form solo ad from a provider, you already know that the people on that list want to hear about the types of offer you are promoting.

They already know the provider and have agreed to receive their emails, so they aren’t going to mark your emails as spam, in all likelihood. They also probably aren’t going to delete your email out of hand.

Benefits of Ad Swaps

Ad swaps are another legitimate way to accomplish the same objective that you are attempting to achieve with buying lists … namely, getting your sales message in front of an entirely new group of prospective customers who are open to the types of products you are promoting.

Except with solo ad and ad swaps you don’t have to worry about the dark downside that comes with buying lists.

Think about it. Let’s say you have purchased products from an Internet marketer in the past and look forward to receiving emails from that person because they consistently provide you with things you can use … either free information you can use or offers that of are interest to you.

That marketer sells a solo ad to another marketer, so you get an email from them that says, “Hey, check out this internet marketer. They have great products and offers and I highly recommend them.”

The email comes with a link to your squeeze page or an opt-in box right there on the email. Either way, you probably are going to opt-in to that marketer and be open to receiving emails from them. You probably are going to pay attention to their offer and, hopefully, act on it and get something of value.

Contrast that with getting an email from that very same marketer who has purchased our email address from a list clearinghouse. It could be exactly the same offer that you received via the solo ad route … same subject line, same text, same everything.

But in all likelihood you are going to delete that message without reading it simply because it was unsolicited.

Getting People to Trust You

People aren’t going to open your unsolicited emails because there’s just too much risk with computer viruses and other malware these days to open emails from people you don’t know. The last thing anybody wants is for their hard drive to crash.

So instead of buying lists from companies you don’t know, the better option is to buy solo ads from people you trust and who can put you in touch directly with the types of customers who already are going to be open to buying the types of products you are promoting.

Building genuine loyalty bonds with your customers is essential to your long-term success.

If you’d like to have access to even more powerful marketing tips, as well as a way to generate conversion-ready internet marketing prospects each month, and make more money, click here to learn about my done-for-you system.

Become a part of my team and learn to live free.

How to Establish Trust with Your Target Demographic

Trust is generally low among consumers. In fact, about 32% of consumers have trust for businesses and only about 13% trust advertising. So, if people don’t trust advertisements who do they trust? Their family, friends, and co-workers.

You can take advantage of this trust. By establishing trust with your target demographic and making it a priority, you can dramatically increase referrals and word of mouth advertising.

Why should prioritize customer trust? Because it’s key to repeat business. This is one of the top factors that lead customers to either stay or leave a business.

Make Sure That You’ve Got a Quality Product or Service

Customers want quality. If you’re purchasing a pair of pants and find that they’re uncomfortable, you probably wouldn’t purchase the same brand in the future. This applies to your products or services.

It’s hard to be impartial about the quality of your own products or services. The best way to find out if they’re living up to the expectations of your customers is to get their feedback. When you send a “thank you” email following a purchase, include a link to a simple online survey.

Keep track of the input that you get from customers. When it comes time to revise or update your products or services or release a new item, you can use this feedback to improve the quality. You may even find additional features that your customers want that you wouldn’t have considered.

Don’t Use Misleading Claims in Your Sales Copy

Your sales copy impacts your conversions. But, it also impacts customer trust. Don’t use misleading claims or promises that you can’t deliver in your sales copy. If you expect customers to trust you, you need to be truthful.

Truthful sales copy is beneficial for both you and your customer. By giving honest claims, stats, and figures, you’re setting realistic expectations for your products or services.

Solve Customer Complaints As Soon As Possible

When a customer has a problem with a purchase, you should resolve the issue as soon as possible. This helps you establish a positive relationship with a customer that may otherwise take their business elsewhere and damage your online reputation.

Contact the customer as soon as you discover their complaint. Respond promptly. Use their first name, if possible. Don’t make excuses and don’t try to pass the blame onto the customer. You simply need to fix the problem in any way possible—even if this means giving a refund.

Don’t Bad Mouth Your Competition

If you’re discussing your competition, either directly to a customer or in your sales copy, don’t be disrespectful. Customers are smart. They see trash-talking as a method to make your products look better than the competition.

Instead of focusing on your competition, you should focus on your own qualities. If you can highlight the strengths of your products or services, there’s no reason to bad mouth your competition.

Always Stick to Your Promises

The final suggestion for establishing trust is to always stick to your promises. When you make a guarantee, you need to stand by it. The same is true of any claims that you include in your sales copy, promises that you use in marketing and personal guarantees that give to customers.

When you say that your product or service can deliver a specific result, you need to ensure that you can keep that promise.

Establishing trust with your customers doesn’t need to be difficult. Keep these tips in mind.

If you want access to more powerful marketing tips, as well as a way to generate conversion-ready marketing prospects every month, and you want to make more money, then click here to learn about my done-for-you system.

Become a part of my team.  Learn to live free.

Rough Road Ahead…

Do you have a rough road to travel to make ends meet and enjoy life?

– Bills larger than your income…
– Raises not keeping up with the cost of living…
– Not enough money to retire on…

5 Ways to Find Content to Share on Social Media

If you want to succeed with internet marketing, you need to make the most of the social media landscape. This means attracting more followers with the help of shared content.

Curated content, or found content, should comprise the majority of your social media posts. The profiles that only put out promotional posts never gain traction.

At the same time, you should try to post at least once per day, during the weekdays. This means that you need at least 5 posts per week. It can be hard to find enough relevant content to keep up this schedule, especially if you choose to post several times per day.

But, there are ways to find content and simplify this process.

#1 Search for Content on Twitter

The first place to look for content is Twitter. Simply scrolling through your Twitter feed and seeing what people have shared recently could give you a few ideas. You might find at least one article that you could share with your followers.

When you do find an article worth sharing, visit the actual article and retweet the initial tweet. Then, share the article with your other social media profiles, such as Facebook or Instagram.

#2 Personalize Your News Feed

The next solution for finding content is to personalize your news feed. Google and other news aggregators make it easy to add categories for specific terms. You can include a category for your niche market.

For example, if you’re involved in internet marketing, you can add an “internet marketing” category in your news feed. The news aggregator should then grab the latest news headlines related to internet marketing each day.

#3 Search a Sub-Reddit for Content

Reddit is a great source of content. There is a subreddit for everything. Find the subreddit related to your niche and scroll through the latest entries.

#4 Check Facebook for Content

Of course, Facebook is also a good place to look for content. It’s the most used social media network, with over a billion users.

Look for unconventional sources of news and content. Don’t rely on the businesses and brands that you follow. There’s a good chance that some of your followers will follow these same accounts. You don’t want to just repeat the same content to the same people.

You can use the search feature on Facebook to browse niche categories. If possible, look for content hosted on a website, instead of an individual Facebook post. Then, visit the link and share the article from the original source.

#5 Use Buzzsumo to Search for Trending Topics

The final solution for finding content is to use Buzzsumo. You can test it out for free, but it requires a monthly fee after 14 days. Though, you’ll have quick access to the most shared content related to any topic.

All you need to do is enter a keyword or topic in the search bar. Buzzsumo will present you with a list of search results. They are listed in order of total shares. But, you can adjust the search criteria to fit your needs. You can limit the results to posts within the past day, past month, or longer.

The bottom line is that you need content to share with your followers. You can’t just rely on your own content unless you have the time or money to generate new content on a daily basis. Use these solutions to quickly find content and stick to your social media posting schedule.

Make social media a priority, if you want to grow your sales potential. For even more marketing tips to help you succeed, along with a proven system for generating conversion-ready traffic each month, and of course, a proven opportunity to make money now and have amazing freedom now in your life, click here to learn about our done-for-you system.

Essential Elements of Email Swipes and How to Put Them to Work for You

When you promote affiliate products, in many cases the person actually selling the product is going to provide you with the text you can simply copy and paste into your email. But sooner or later you probably are going to have to create some emails yourself. And even if you don’t, it’s important that you understand why the emails you send out are structured the way they are.

As an affiliate marketer, you are sending an email to the people on your list because you want them to do something: In most cases, purchase your products.

Given the quantity of emails most people receive, it is unlikely that your recipients are going to be willing to spend much time reading all the way to the end of your email. In fact, in most cases you will be lucky if they open it at all.

Getting to the Point

In a sales letter, for example, you have the luxury of several pages to build excitement for your product.

In contrast, with a print ad you have only a moment to use images and tag lines to grab your viewer’s attention. A marketing email falls somewhere in between.

Like a sales letter, the purpose of your marketing email is to drive your reader toward a Call to Action … or the CTA. In other words what it is you want them to do. Unlike a sales letter, you don’t have much time to get them there before their attention wanes. As a result, in many ways a marketing email is like an abbreviated sales letter.

Elements of an Email Swipe

The elements of a sales letter and marketing email are the same:

• Greeting
• Presenting a Problem
• Offering Your Product as a Solution
• Listing Your Product’s Benefits
• Special Offers and Bonuses
• Call to Action
• Link to Product Web Page

The greeting should be simple and straight-forward. If your target audience is a specific group, feel free to reference the group in your greeting:

Dear Internet Marketer:

Your autoresponder program will let you automatically include your recipient’s first name in the greeting, such as:

To: Alice Walker

or

Dear Alice,

If your autoresponder offers this option, use it because it makes the email more personal.

Keep It Simple

You also want to always make sure the content of your email is interesting and on point. Don’t digress or swerve off onto other subjects. Remember that your recipient is receiving dozens, even hundreds of emails per day and they probably are only going to send a few moments on yours, if they open it at all.

Grab their attention early … starting with the subject line … then set up the problem that is relevant to your affiliate product niche and keep the email moving briskly toward the CTA. Your goal is to grab their attention and hold onto it throughout the body of the email so they will keep reading.

In most cases, the email should be no more than one page or a page and a half at most. Try to limit your content to less than a dozen paragraphs, if possible.

So know you know how to create an effective promotional email that is going to convert your customers to buy the affiliate products you are promoting.

Knowing how to effectively use email swipes to keep pushing your customers past the buying point is critical to your success. If you’d like to have access to even more powerful marketing tips, as well as a way to generate conversion-ready Internet marketing prospects each month, and a way to make money online, click here to join my team and learn about our done-for-you system.